Abstract
Paleosols in an outcrop of fluvial–lacustrine red beds have been recognized in the Upper Cretaceous Yaojia Formation in southern Songliao Basin, Songyuan City, Jilin Province, NE China. They are recognized in the field by pedogenic features, including root traces and burrows, soil horizons and soil structures. Root traces are remnants of small herbaceous plants, elongating and branching downwards in the red paleosols. They are filled by calcite, analcime, and clay minerals in spaces created by the decay of the plant roots. Burrows are found near the root traces with backfilled cells made by soil-dwelling insects. Soil horizons include calcic horizons (Bk horizon) with continuous calcareous layers, argillic horizons (Bt horizon) with clay films and dark brown to black iron-manganese cutans, vertic horizons (Bw horizon) with slickensided claystone, and deformed soil structure and gleyed horizons (Bg horizon) with mottles and reticulate mottles. Soil structures of the paleosols include pseudo-anticlinal structures, subangular blocky structures, and angular blocky structures. The micro-pedogenesis characteristics are also observed, including micrite pedogenic minerals and clay skins. Based on the pedogenic features above, paleosols types including Aridisol, Alfisol, and Vertisol are interpreted in the red beds of the Yaojia Formation. Forming in the Late Cretaceous, the paleosols can provide more details about the seasonal climate conditions and terrestrial sedimentary system in lacustrine basin.
Highlights
Paleosols are products of pedogenesis from sediments and rocks in geological time (Retallack 1997; Therrien 2005; Kraus and Hasiotis 2006; Smith et al 2008a)
This study introduces a newly discovered record of the Late Cretaceous paleosols from the Yaojia Formation of the southern Songliao Basin in Jilin Province, NE China (Fig. 1)
4.1 Root traces and burrows As the most diagnostic evidence of paleosols, the root traces in the Yaojia Formation occur primarily in the red silty mudstone with mud clasts and burrows (Fig. 3a)
Summary
Paleosols are products of pedogenesis from sediments and rocks in geological time (Retallack 1997; Therrien 2005; Kraus and Hasiotis 2006; Smith et al 2008a). They are potentially very powerful tools for research on palaeoclimate, palaeogeomorphology and even the evolution of early life on Earth (Wright 1992; Shao et al 2008; Xue et al 2016; Jones et al 2018; Retallack 2018; Varela et al 2018). Palaeopedology is fundamentally a field science (Retallack 1988), and the newly found red paleosols in the outcrops offer a good analog for the understanding of soil development in the Late Cretaceous terrestrial sedimentary records
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