Climactichnites
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| Climactichnites Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| The trails Climactichnites wilsoni were produced across the surface of the sediment, Cambrian, Blackberry Hill, Wisconsin. | |
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| The burrows Climactichnites youngi were produced within the sediment, Cambrian, Blackberry Hill, Wisconsin. | |
Trace fossil classification  | |
| Ichnogenus: | Climactichnites Logan, 1860 |
Climactichnites is an enigmatic, Cambrian fossil formed on or within sandy tidal flats around 510 million years ago. It has been interpreted in many different ways in the past, but is now thought to be a trace fossil of a slug-like organism that moved by crawling to on-shore surfaces, or near-shore, or burrowing into the sediment.
There are two species within this ichnogenus, C. wilsoni and C. youngi. C. wilsoni consists of paired lateral ridges between which are undulating bars and furrows oriented at an angle to the direction of travel, whereas C. youngi lacks the paired lateral ridges and consists only of undulating transverse bars and furrows.[1] An additional trace fossil, called Musculopodus, is sometimes found at the beginning of Climactichnites trails and represents the body imprint of the animal while it was stationary.[2] Climactichnites range from 0.8 to 30 cm wide and may exceed ten feet long, making Climactichnites by far the largest Cambrian trace fossil.[2] Based on measured ratios of Musculopodus imprints, the animal itself is estimated to have reached 69 cm long.[2]
Occurrence
Currently, Climactichnites is known only from North America (Missouri, New York, Wisconsin, and Texas in the United States, and Quebec and Ontario in Canada), portions of which were submerged under a shallow equatorial sea during the Cambrian Period.[2] The fossil is found in fine- to coarse-grained sandstones and orthoquartzites which represent sandy, intertidal beach deposits.[2] Microbial mats probably enabled the trace to be preserved.[2]
