Trace fossils in the flysch of the Polish Carpathians

Abstract

The described ichnofauna [invertebrates] of the flysch in the Polish Carpathians consists of 56 ichnogenera and 151 ichnospecies. In this assemblage 6 new ichnogenera and 40 new ichnospecies were described. [The new genera are PARARUSOPHYCUS (Crustacea) from the Middle Eocene; TRAUCUMICHNIS (Echinoidea) from the Senonian (Upper Cretaceous); SABULARIA and NAVICULICHNIUM (Polychaeta) from the Lower Eocene; TUBERCULICHNIS (? Nematoda) from the Lower Eocene; and TUBULICHNIUM (Crustacea) from the Senonian.] The ichnofossils are divided in 10 informal morphological groups. Ethologically most of the Carpathian trace fossils belong to Pascichnia, some to Repichnia and presumably to Fodinichnia, and very few to other ecological groups. The ichnofauna occurs in beds of uppermost Jurassic, Cretaceous and Paleogene age. It attains the maximum development in the Senonian and in the early Paleogene. The vertical and lateral distribution seems to support the assumption that the Carpathian flysch was mostly deposited at bathyal depths.