Rusophycus carleyi (James, 1885), Trace Fossils from the Lower Ordovician of Southern Morocco, and the Trilobites that Made Them

Abstract

Thin-bedded, pyrite-rich, fine sandstones and mudstones of the Floian-Dapingian Upper Fezouata Formation contain abundant trace fossils Rusophycus carleyi in close association with a species of the asaphid trilobite Asaphellus. The sizes and shapes of this trilobite and the traces match closely. Five specimens have even been found where an articulated specimen of Asaphellus appears to be directly located over a specimen of Rusophycus carleyi within a thin bed of sandstone, suggesting that the trilobite animal may have been trapped on top of a trace that it had just made. Such intimate associations between a putative tracemaker and a trace are rare in the fossil record and particularly rare for Trilobita. The number of coxal impressions that form part of R. carleyi, eleven, matches the number expected for an asaphid trilobite (one for each of eight thoracic segments and one for each of three post-oral cephalic appendages). Impressions of the hypostome, thoracic tip impressions, cephalic margin, and pygidial margin in a few of the traces also match those of this asaphid trilobite. R. carleyi has been found in Ordovician strata of other parts of the world in association with asaphid trilobites.