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Trace Fossils in Carbonate Rocks

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The Study of Trace Fossils

Synopsis

Most terrigenous clastic sequences have calcareous equivalents, and trace fossil suites well known from terrigenous clastic sediments have their counterparts in carbonates. Well-studied examples include trace fossils from situations in which carbonate fades predominate: the Bahaman-type shallow-water environment—as represented by European Mesozoic and tropical Pleistocene limestones; and pelagic ooze—as represented by shelf-sea and deep-sea chalks, the latter now available for study as a result of the Deep Sea Drilling Project. In shallow water carbonates, trace fossil associations range from beach-shoal assemblages having Ophiomorpha, to Thalassinoides-Rhizocorallium-Chondrites-dominated intertidal and sub-in deep-sea chalks, a Zoophycos-Teichichnus-Chondrites association dominates.

Special problems associated with carbonates are (1) the influence of penecontemporaneous cementation on trace-producing organisms, (2) hardgrounds, and (3) the role of organisms in the diagenesis of sediment: differential cementation, concretion formation, and aggregation into pelletal limestones.

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  1. Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Oxford, Oxford, England

    W. J. Kennedy

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  1. Department of Geology, University of Georgia, 30602, Athens, Georgia, USA

    Robert W. Frey

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Kennedy, W.J. (1975). Trace Fossils in Carbonate Rocks. In: Frey, R.W. (eds) The Study of Trace Fossils. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65923-2_17

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