Three substrate-controlled ichnofacies have been established (Ekdale et al., 1984): Glossifungites (firmground), Trypanites (hardground), and Teredolites (woodground).
The Glossifungites ichnofacies
The Glossifungites ichnofacies is environmentally wide ranging, but only develops in firm, unlithified substrates such as dewatered muds. In clastic settings dewatering results from burial and the substrates are made available to tracemakers if exhumed by later erosion (Pemberton and Frey, 1985). Exhumation can occur in terrestrial environments, as a result of channel meandering or valley incision, in shallow-water environments as a result of meandering tidal channels, coastal erosion, erosive shoreface retreat, or as a result of submarine channels cutting through previously deposited sediments. Such horizons commonly form at bounding discontinuities and may be critical in the evolving concept of sequence stratigraphy (Pemberton et al., 1992; Pemberton and MacEachern, 1995).
The Glossifungites...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Bromley, R.G., 1975. Trace fossils at omission surfaces. In Frey, R.W. (ed.), The Study of Trace Fossils. Springer Verlag, pp. 399–428.
Bromley, R.G., and Asgaard, U., 1993. Two bioerosion ichnofacies produced by early and late burial associated with sea level change. Geologische Rundschau, 82: 276–280.
Bromley, R.G., Pemberton, S.G., and Rahmani, R.A., 1984. A Cretaceous woodground: the Teredolites ichnofacies. Journal of Paleontology, 58: 488–498.
De Gilbert, J.M., Martinell, J., and Domenech, R., 1998. Entobia ichnofacies in fossil rocky shores, lower Pliocene, northwestern mediterranean. Palaios, 13: 476–487.
Ekdale, A.A., Bromley, R.E., and Pemberkon, S.E., 1984. Ichnology: The Use of Trace Fossil in Sedimentology and Stratigraphy. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Short Course Notes 15.
Fürsich, F.R., and Mayr, H., 1981. Non-marine Rhizocorallium (trace fossils) from the Upper Freshwater molasse (Upper Miocene) of southern Germany. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Palaontologie, Monatshefte, 6: 321–333.
Pemberton, S.G., and Frey, R.W., 1985. The Glossifungites ichnofacies: modern examples from the Georgia coast, USA. In Curran, H.A. (ed.), Biogenic Structures: Their Use in Interpreting Depositional Environments. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Special Publication, 35, pp. 237–259.
Pemberton, S.G., and MacEachern, J.A., 1995. The sequence stratigraphic significance of trace fossils: examples from the cretaceous foreland basin of Alberta, Canada. In Van Wagoner, J.C., and Bertram, G. (eds.), Sequence Stratigraphy of Foreland Basin Deposits-Outcrop and Subsurface Examples from the Cretaceous of North America. Tulsa: American Association Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 64, pp. 429–475.
Pemberton, S.G., MacEachern, J.A., and Frey, R.W., 1992. Trace fossil facies models: environmental and allostratigraphic significance. In Walker, R.G., and James, N. (eds.), Facies Models: Response to Sea Level Change. Geological Association of Canada, pp. 47–72.
Savrda, C.E., 1991. Teredolites, wood substrates, and sea-level dynamics. Geology, 19: 905–908.
Savrda, C.E., Ozalas, K., Demko, T.H., Hutchinson, R.A., and Scheiwe, T.D., 1993. Log grounds and the ichnofossil Teredolites in transgressive deposits of the clayton formation (Lower Paleocene), western Alabama. Palaios, 8: 311–324.
Cross-references
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1978 Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Inc.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Pemberton, S.G. (1978). Substrate-controlled ichnofacies. In: Middleton, G.V., Church, M.J., Coniglio, M., Hardie, L.A., Longstaffe, F.J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3609-5_227
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3609-5_227
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-0872-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-3609-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive