Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Seilacher, A. Articles by Luginsland, H. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Precambrian "fossil" Vermiforma is a tectograph

¹ Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA
² Institut für Geologie und Paläontologie, Universität Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany

Vermiforma antiqua Cloud 1976, once celebrated as the earliest animal fossil of the United States, is actually a tectonic artifact. The main argument is that the congruence and equal orientation of multiple patterns on the same bedding plane are incompatible with swaying worm bodies or worm burrows. As shown by analog and numerical simulations, these structures can be explained as tracks of particles that broke out from the base of an overlying turbidite and became rolled between beds during bed-to-bed shearing.

Key Words: Precambrian • North Carolina • Vermiforma • tectograph • analog simulation • numerical simulation