Jack Milligan recently visited Patagonia to study turtle fossils from the Paleocene Salamanca Formation in Chubut, Argentina, analyzing trace fossils on turtle shells. This study is ongoing, but early observations indicate that the tracemakers behind the trace fossils seen on Chelid and Pan-chelid turtle carapaces and plastrons include alligatoroids, beetles, leeches, and barnacles.
The imageshows an example of a trace fossil left on a turtle fossil by a beetle, the morphologysimilar to Osteocallis isp.
Through this research, the trace fossils can be used to understand the taphonomic pathway of these turtles, and how the trace fossils can be used to inform paleoenvironmental conditions at different stages of taphonomy. In addition to the trace fossils, several paleopathologies were identified, many of which could have resulted from trophic interactions between the turtles and other animals.
Thanks to Dr. Juliana Sterli and Dr. Marcelo Krause for hosting this research at the MEF, this will be a very cool project!
Recently, new research by Gabriela Mángano, Luis Buatois, and coauthors from Stoney Brook University and the MUJA near Colunga, Asturias, Spain, on fecal mounds produced by arenicolid worms from the Upper Jurassic Lastres Formation in Asturias, Spain, has been featured in local news in Asturias. Students who have recently taken the Asturias geology field course offered through the University of Saskatchewan had the opportunity to see these trace fossils in the collections/galleries at the Museo del Jurásico de Asturias (MUJA).
Figure from Mángano et al., 2024 showing the stratigraphy and detailed sedimentologic characteristics of the lowermost Upper Jurassic interval of the Lastres Formation at Arroyo Solero containing one of the surfaces with fecal cast mounds, including a close-up picture of the deposits showing the bedding surface that contains fecal cast mounds in cross-section.
The fecal mounds were given the name Cumulusichnus asturiensis. They are made up of an accumulation of thin sandstone cords roughly 1 to 2.3 mm thick and are preserved on a paleosurface comprised of rippled sandstone formed by wave action. The traces are preferentially located within the depressions located between the crests of the ripples. In the modern, the worms that generate this type of structure are known as Arenicola marina, a benthic polychaete from the family Arenicolidae (also called lugworms) that can be found in estuaries, deltas, tidal flats, and shallow marine settings of Europe. North America and New Zealand. The worm lives upside down inside the sediment inside an L- or J-shaped tube (domichnia) and feeds on bacteria and various microorganisms that live within the substrate. The worm swallows sand, takes in nutrients, and expels the waste, forming small sandy fecal piles on the surface that resemble squiggles or spaghetti.
Figure from Mángano et al., 2024, showing examples of arenicolid fecal mounds from Playa España, Upper Jurassic Lastres Formation of Asturias, Spain. Scale bars are 2 cm long.
You can read the paper in the journal Nature here. You can watch a brief news clip (in Spanish) here (skip to 11 min 40 sec). You can also read an article and watch another video highlighting the discovery here. Once again, congratulations to Gabriela, Luis, and the other researchers involved with this project!
Recently, Ichnoplanet master’s student Kaitlin Lindblad has had her fantastic artistic work featured in the Department of Geology at the University of Saskatchewan, focusing on depicting dinosaurs behaving in ways not commonly seen. Aside from her studies, she is a paleoartist who uses digital painting techniques to bring ancient ecosystems to life for the purposes of entertainment, education and outreach, and scientific communication in the literature.
The pieces she has done for the museum include a Tyrannosaurus rex scratching its back on a tree, and a Triceratops aggressing against two Thescalosaurus. She is hard at work creating more pieces for the museum, and our research group! We’re excited for what awesome piece she’ll come up with next.
Read her story in USask News. Listen to her radio interviews with CBC Regina and CBC Saskatoon. Check out Kailtin’s profile here.
Last week, our own Andrei Ichaso successfully defended his doctoral thesis! His thesis focused on the stratigraphy, sedimentology, and ichnology of the middle Cambrian to Early Ordovician Deadwood Formation in western Canada and the midwestern United States. Congratulations Dr. Ichaso!
Andrei’s doctoral thesis earned him the University of Saskatchewan Graduate Thesis Award in the Physical & Engineering Sciences category from the College of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies at USASK. Congratulations Andrei!
The 2023 Canadian Paleontology Conference was recently held at the University of Toronto Mississauga in Mississauga, Ontario, held by the Geological Association of Canada’s Paleontology Division (GAC PD). Our own Gabriela Mángano was honoured at the conference as the 2023 recipient of the Billings Award! This is an award given to those who have made an outstanding long-term contribution to any aspect of Canadian paleontology or by a Canadian to paleontology.
Gabriela is the first woman paleontologist to win this distinction! You can read more about the Billings Award on the GAC PD website here.
Photo provided by Luis Buatois
Huge congratulations to Gabriela from all of us at Ichnoplanet! You’ve certainly left traces of your wisdom in the substrate of paleontology!
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