Benthic aquatic ecosystems across the Permian-Triassic transition: record from biogenic structures in fluvial sandstones, central Transantarctic Mountains

Abstract

The effect of the Permian extinction in communities inhabiting sandy stream bottoms can be evaluated using trace fossils as proxies for body fossils. Permian and Triassic sandstones exposed in the Beardmore and Shackleton Glacier areas (central Transantarctic Mountains) were deposited in sandy braided streams and contain four types of trace fossils (vertical shafts and horizontal, bilobed and chevron traces). These traces were produced by a single type of animal that moved in the top 30 cm of sediment and dominated the benthic community. Evidence for a single producer includes similar size (diameter) of all traces and change within single specimens from one trace type to another. The animal was not affected by the Permian extinction event, as evidenced by its equal abundance within the Permian (Buckley Formation) and Triassic (Fremouw Formation) fluvial sandstones in the Beardmore Glacier area. Based on trace morphology and on domination of modern sandy river ecosystems by insects, the producer most likely was an insect, although its more precise identity is problematic. Although families of insects with modern aquatic burrowers are not known before the Jurassic, these trace fossils may show that these burrowers were present earlier than the insect body-fossil record suggests. Alternatively, archaic insect groups, many of which became extinct at the end-Permian and are known to have been aquatic but not infaunal, may have included some active burrowers that were unscathed by the Permian extinction.