Arthropleura trackway ( Diplichnites cuithensis ) from the Carboniferous, Serpukhovian, Limestone Coal Formation, Clackmannan Group, Linn Park, Glasgow

Abstract

The arthropleurid trackway Diplichnites cuithensis has previously been described from Scotland from the Upper Carboniferous Serpukhovian Limestone Coal Formation on the Isle of Arran and the Lower Carboniferous Visean Pittenweem and Anstruther Formations on the East Fife coast. Here we describe a new west coast single trackway from the Serpukhovian Limestone Coal Formation of Glasgow's Linn Park. The trackway occurs associated with simple horizontal burrows assignable to Planolites? , vertical openings of Arenicolites , examples of Taenidium barretti (formerly Beaconites barretti ), and irregular large-scale bioturbation or possibly rootlet casts. The trace fossils and sedimentary structures (including trough cross-bedding and flaser bedding) indicate a fluvial sandbar or plain environment, possibly of estuarine origin, locally colonized by plants. Diplichnites cuithensis (and other Diplichnites species) commonly occur associated with the burrow Taenidium barretti . The latter is known to have been widespread globally throughout the Carboniferous, and is a common component of fluviatile sequences within the Lower Carboniferous succession of NW Ireland. This suggests that previously undocumented older Scottish Carboniferous examples of both Diplichnites ichnospecies and Taenidium barretti may also be present, assuming that suitable environments persisted and are currently adequately exposed.