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Borings in gneiss boulders in the Miocene (Upper Tortonian) of the Sorbas Basin, SE Spain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2014

FRANCISCO J. RODRÍGUEZ-TOVAR ,
ALFRED UCHMAN  and
ÁNGEL PUGA-BERNABÉU
FRANCISCO J. RODRÍGUEZ-TOVAR*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18002 Granada, Spain
ALFRED UCHMAN
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Institute of Geological Sciences, Oleandry Str. 2a, PL-30-063 Kraków, Poland
ÁNGEL PUGA-BERNABÉU
Affiliation:
Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, 18002 Granada, Spain
*
†Author for correspondence: fjrtovar@ugr.es
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Abstract

Marine invertebrate borings are very rare in crystalline rocks, providing evidence of particular strategies producers use to colonise these unfavourable substrates. In the Sorbas Basin (Almería, southern Spain), Upper Miocene transgressive successions contain blocks of metamorphic and igneous rocks of the Nevado–Filabride Complex of the Betic Cordillera. Ichnological analysis of the embedded blocks shows the presence of two types of macroborings located in gneiss boulders, revealed to be an extraordinary case worldwide. The most abundant are regular hemispherical depressions ascribed reservedly to the well-known, mostly bivalve boring Gastrochaenolites. The second one is a pouch-like depression, tapering downward, elliptical in outline, and clearly different to other non-circular-in-outline, pouch-shaped macroborings. Thus, a new ichnogenus and ichnospecies Cuenulites sorbasensis has been defined. According to the overall shape, an endolithic or semi-endolithic bivalve using chemical means to bore is suggested as the tracemaker. Colonisation could be determined by sea-level coastal dynamics, with decreasing energy during advancing transgression allowing boring, which was then stopped due to supply of fine-grained sediment that killed the borers.

Keywords

macroboringsgneissbivalvesMioceneBetic CordilleraAlmeríaSpain
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 152 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 287 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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