Evidence of Bioerosive Structures in Quaternary Glaciomarine Sediments from Southwestern Iceland

ABSTRACT

The Late Weichselian marine and glaciomarine sediments occurring in many places along the coast of Iceland are rich in invertebrate fossils, especially mollusks and barnacles. A diverse ichnofauna, constituted especially by bioerosional traces documenting the activity of predators and animals that use the host shell for attachment or the construction of dwellings, was identified at the localities of Ósmelur, Saurbær, and Brekkubakkar in southwestern Iceland. The ichnotaxa identified include Anellusichnus circularis (Santos, Mayoral, and Muñiz), Caulostrepsis isp., Centrichnus concentricus (Bromley and Martinell), Clionolithes isp., Finichnus peristroma (Taylor, Wilson, and Bromley), Finichnus isp., Sedilichnus asperus (Nielsen and Nielsen), Sedilichnus cf. excavatus (Donovan and Jagt), Sedilichnus gradatus (Nielsen and Nielsen), Sedilichnus smiley isp. nov., Sedilichnus ovalis (Bromley), Sedilichnus paraboloides (Bromley), Sedilichnus simplex (Bromley), and Sedilichnus spongiophilus (Müller).

KEYWORDS:

• Iceland
• bioerosive structures
• Late Weichselian
• Praedichnia
• Fixichnia

Acknowledgments

Authors gratefully acknowledges Leifur A. Símonarson (University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland) for his constructive comments and discussions of the studied localities. Mark A. Wilson (The College of Wooster, USA), Rosa D. Arnal (University of Barcelona, Spain), Allan A. Ekdale (University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA), Radek Mikuláš (Institute of Geology AV CR, Prague, Czech Republic), Ana Santos (University de Huelva, Spain), Maria A. Rosso (University of Catania, Italy), John J. W. M. Jagt (Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht, Netherlands), and C. Furlong (University of Alberta, Canada) are thanked for enthusiastic help with determination of fossil material and also for sharing their inspirational papers. Special thanks to the referees for their thoughtful and thorough reviews.

Funding

The main financial support was provided by the grant of the J. E. Purkyně University Internal Grant Agency FŽP IG 1/2014 Ichnological record in young Cenozoic sediments on Iceland.