Refining the ichnofacies paradigm of eolian environments: comparing units developed in different environments

• Grant number: 23/01470-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2023
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Paleozoology
• Agreement: CNPq
• Principal Investigator: Renato Pirani Ghilardi
• Grantee: Renato Pirani Ghilardi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências (FC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/12409-4 - Paleobiogeography and migratory routes of devonian paleoinvertebrates from Brazilian Intracratonic Basins of Paraná, Parecis, Parnaíba and Alto Tapajós, AP.R
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/11124-7 - Urban geotourism of the fossil record (ichnofossils) of Botucatu Formation preserved in the city of Araraquara (SP), BP.IC; 23/10050-7 - Refining the ichnofacies paradigm of eolian environments: comparing units developed in different environments, BP.JD

Abstract

Eolian deposits are generated when there is a combination of intense winds, sediment availability and impossibility of substrate stabilization. There are emblematic examples in modern deserts, but also in rainy areas with high sediment availability and intense winds. The Octopodichnus-Entradichnus ichnofacies is common to all types of eolian deposits, and it is not clear how the ichnological signature varies according to environmental and climatic parameters. Therefore, we proposed here to analyze trace fossils and modern traces in ancient and modern eolian systems developed under different conditions to test whether these differences influence the trace fossil assemblage. To do this, we propose to analyze trace fossils from the Botucatu Formation, which developed under hyper arid climate during the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous at mid-latitudes; the Corda Formation, also from the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, but developed in the paleo-equator and representing a wet eolian system; and the Piauí Formation, also developed at mid-latitudes, but during the Pennsylvanian. To support paleoenvironmental interpretations, we propose collecting neoichnological data in two active eolian systems: a more humid one (Lençóis Maranhenses) and a more arid one (Namibian Dunes Desert). The combination of studies on ancient and modern wind systems will allow the refinement of the ichnofacies paradigm for this depositional environment, thus empirically subsidizing paleoenvironmental interpretations based on ichnofossils. (AU)