First record of the Permian nonmarine helical trace fossil Augerinoichnus from outside of New Mexico

Abstract

Augerinoichnus refers to successions of horseshoe-shaped structures interpreted as sedimentary remains of horizontal helical burrows of worm-like animals. The monospecific trace fossil was hitherto only known from early Permian intertidal to lowland coastal-plain deposits of New Mexico, U.S.A. Recent discoveries of conspecific material in early Permian nearshore lacustrine deposits of southwestern Germany represent the first record of Augerinoichnus outside of New Mexico and extend the paleogeographic and paleoenvironmental distribution of the ichnotaxon. Augerinoichnus evidentally was made in a wide array of nonmarine settings that ranged from tidal flats to inland floodplains where substrate cohesion and stability as well as stable and predictable food resources allowed the tracemaker to forage in open burrows.