Actuopaleoichnology of a modern Bay of Fundy macro-tidal flat: analogy with a Mississippian tidal flat deposit (Hartselle Sandstone) from Alabama.

ABSTRACT: Trace fossil zonation in the Hartselle Sandstone of Mississippian age (Chesterian: Visean-Serpukhovian) exposed on Fielder Ridge, Alabama is compared with modern macro-tidal flat ichnocoenoses on the Bay of Fundy at Lubec, Maine, and demonstrated to be analogous by sedimentologic and ichnotaxonomic criteria. The modern flat has minimal influence from either waves or freshwater influx, and can be divided into five distinct ichnocoenoses, characterized by surface traces (epichnia) and four sedimentologic facies defined by gross grain texture or hydrodynamic characteristics, but lacking significant surface traces. Several characteristics of tidal flat deposits in a fetch-limited, marine (i.e., non-estuarine), meso- to macro-tidal regime can be used to recognize similar environments as old as

SUBMITTER: Zachos LG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6534113 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature