Paleoecology of a large Early Cambrian bioturbator

Abstract

The Lower Cambrian Poleta Formation in the White-Inyo Mountains of eastern California contains well-preserved and laterally extensive exposures of the large looping and meandering trace fossil Taphrhelminthopsis nelsoni n.isp. Such traces are typical features on upper bed surfaces of Lower Cambrian shallow marine sandstones and occur with Ediacaran fossils at other localities. Morphologic, sedimentologic and goniogram analyses suggest that the inferred tracemaker was a large soft-bodied echinozoan- or mollusc-grade animal with a volume greater than 14 cm 3 that actively grazed or ingested sediment at the sediment-water interface. Although portions of these traces appear to reflect relatively ‘complex’ behavior, looping patterns are not periodic as expected for a systematic foraging strategy. T. nelsoni traces are patchy in distribution and commonly associated with suspect-microbial features, suggesting that tracemakers may have been targeting microbial-based or related concentrations of food resources. Such behavioral patterns are typical of shallow late Neoproterozoic-early Cambrian settings, and like suspect-microbial structures are later restricted to deep marine or stressed settings.