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The morphology and mode of formation of Neoeione igen. nov. from the Carboniferous of northern England

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Abstract

Samples of the burrows studied herein, originally introduced as Eione moniliformis Tate, have been collected from the heterolithic sandstone and siltstone beds of a coastal outcrop near the town of Howick, Northumberland, UK. These interbedded and hummocky cross-stratified beds, belonging to the Stainmore Formation, are Carboniferous and represent offshore marine sediment deposited between the fair wave base and storm wave base. As the name Eione was used previously to describe a genus of gastropod, Eione Tate is a junior homonym of Eione Rafinesque. Therefore, a new ichnogenus was established, Parataenidium Buckman, to accommodate burrows composed of two distinct levels, which included E. moniliformis. Using three-dimensional morphological modeling techniques, this study aims to: (1) clarify the current taxonomic status of Parataenidium moniliformis; and (2) provide an updated model for its construction. The transfer of E. moniliformis to Parataenidium was problematic, primarily because it is not composed of two distinct levels, but, instead, is composed of backfilled reniform sediment packages. These packages were created through a multistage process whereby the organism maintained a small open cavity from which it fed. Accordingly, a new ichnogenus, Neoeione, is proposed to accommodate the material originally described by Tate.

Kurzfassung

Material der hier untersuchten Grabgänge, ursprünglich eingeführt als Eione moniliformis Tate, wurde aus heterolithischen Sandstein- und Siltstein-Schichten eines küstennahen Aufschlusses nahe der Stadt Howick (Northumberland, UK) geborgen. Diese wechsellagernden (“hummocky cross”)-Schichten gehören zur karbonischen Stainmore-Formation und repräsentieren marine Schelfablagerungen. Da der Name Eione schon früher verwendet worden ist um eine Gastropoden-Gattung zu beschreiben, handelt es sich bei Eione Tate um ein jüngeres Homonym von Eione Rafinesque. Aufgrund dieser Tatsache wurde zuvor eine neue Ichnogattung – Parataenidium Buckman – aufgestellt, die Gänge mit zwei eindeutigen Lagen umfasst und auch E. moniliformis inkludiert. Unter Verwendung von dreidimensionalen morphologischen Modellierungstechniken ist unsere Untersuchung darauf ausgerichtet: (1) den jetzigen taxonomischen Status von Parataenidium moniliformis zu klären, und (2) ein aktualisiertes Modell des Aufbaus zu liefern. Die Zuordnung von Eione moniliformis zu Parataenidium war problematisch; insbesondere aufgrund der Tatsache, dass dieser nicht aus zwei eindeutigen Lagen sondern stattdessen aus verfüllten nierenförmigen Sedimenteinheiten aufgebaut ist. Diese wurden durch einen mehrstufigen Prozess gebildet, wobei der spurenerzeugende Organismus eine kleine offene Höhlung beibehalten hat, durch die Nahrung aufgenommen werden konnte. Dementsprechend wird hier die neue Ichnogattung Neoeione vorgeschlagen, um das ursprünglich von Tate beschriebene Material unterbringen zu können.

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Fig. 1

(Modified from Dean et al. 2011)

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(Redrafted from Buckman 2001)

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant, and a Canada Research Chair awarded to D. McIlroy. M. Garton is thanked for his field assistance with sample collection. J. Howell is thanked for introducing us to the Howick sections. J. Darrell of The Natural History Museum is thanked for her assistance and photographs of specimen BMNH T163. Patrick Orr, Søren Jensen, and Andrew Rindsberg are thanked for their reviews of this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 300 Prince Philip Drive, St. John’s, NL, A1B 3X5, Canada

    Christopher Boyd & Duncan McIlroy

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  1. Christopher Boyd
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  2. Duncan McIlroy
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Correspondence to Duncan McIlroy.

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Boyd, C., McIlroy, D. The morphology and mode of formation of Neoeione igen. nov. from the Carboniferous of northern England. PalZ 92, 179–190 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12542-017-0379-z

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