Field Excursions in the Carolinas: Guides for the 2019 GSA Southeastern Section Meeting
This guidebook provides detailed itineraries of three field trips associated with the 2019 GSA Southeastern Section Meeting in Charleston, South Carolina. The first chapter outlines the fossiliferous deposits near Charleston historically referred to as the “Ashley Phosphate Beds,” which include sharks, rays, sea turtles, whales, and other Oligocene to Pleistocene fossils. The second chapter explores how hydrology has shaped Charleston and how engineers, public officials, and citizens incorporate new technologies in design to increase community resiliency. The third chapter describes the variety of modern traces that can be observed in the coastal setting of Edisto Island near Charleston. These include burrows, tracks, borings, and other signs of terrestrial and marginal-marine invertebrates and vertebrates in sediments, shells, and wood.
Neoichnology of Edisto Island, South Carolina: Eat, prey, love, burrow
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Published:March 21, 2019
ABSTRACT
Edisto Island, South Carolina, offers a wide range of coastal environments, including maritime forests, back-dune meadows, primary dunes, berms, intertidal beaches, salt marshes, tidal creeks, and storm-washover fans. Each environment is characterized by a different suite of invertebrate and vertebrate traces. Trace assemblages also differ among undeveloped, moderately developed, and overdeveloped shorelines. Field-trip participants will observe tracks, burrows, borings, predation traces, and other traces in sediments, shells, and wood, and learn how modern traces can inform interpretations of trace fossils. We will also consider how ongoing anthropogenic change may limit applications of neoichnology to trace fossils by affecting trace distribution, diversity, and abundance.