A lungfish burrow in Late Cretaceous Upper
Capping Sandstone Member of the Wahweap Formation Cockscomb Area, Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah
Orsulak,
Megan,
Simpson,
Edward
L., Wolf,
Hannah L., Simpson, Wendy S., Tindall, Sarah S., Bernard, Jonathan,
and
Jenesky,
Timothy, 2007, A
lungfish
burrow
in
Late Cretaceous Upper Capping Sandstone Member of
the Wahweap Formation Cockscomb Area, Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument, Utah [abs]: Rocky Mountain Section - 59th Annual
Meeting (7–9 May 2007), Geological Society of America Abstracts with
Programs, Vol. 39, No. 5, p. 43.
Possible
lungfish burrows have been reported from Triassic and Jurassic strata
of the Colorado Plateau. Assignment of these burrows to the suspected
burrow maker, a lungfish, has been problematic in these strata. Here we
report on a probable lungfish burrow from the Late Cretaceous capping
sandstone member of the Wahweap Formation in Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument, Utah.
The burrow is composed of a vertical shaft with a widened bulb at the
bottom. The apparent opening is 50 cm across with a neck diameter of 6
cm. The depth of the burrow is 31 cm with a bulb width of 11 cm. In
lateral view the bulb displays an indentation approximately in the
center. The infill shows apparent collapse into the burrow. These
burrow measurements fall in the range of average modern lungfish -
approximately 30 to 35 cm in depth, with a width of about 5 to 10 cm,
and the bulbous bottom measuring roughly 17 cm. Modern lungfish burrow
dimensions such as depths and diameters do vary depending on species,
substrate and other environmental conditions, but aestivation burrows
of lungfish usually attain lengths of 40 to 50 cm and widths of 5 to 15
cm. The indentation in the bulb is interpreted as a mark left by the
turning lungfish. The sedimentologic setting is also consistent with a
periodic wet – dry climate typical of lungfish.
