Trace Fossils from a Permian Shoreface-Foreshore Environment, Eastern Australia

Evidence from sedimentary structures, rock types, body fossil and trace fossil associations is used to define three depositional environments (foreshore, open shoreface and protected shoreface) in the Wasp Head Formation, Sydney Basin, Australia. Common trace fossils include Skolithos, Diplocraterion, Rhizocorallium, Cylindrichnus and Rosselia; less abundant forms are Catenichnus n. ichnogen., Psammichnites, Keckia and Thalassinoides. Trace fossils found in protected soreface sediments are most diverse, and indicate that variables other than depth of water are locally significant for the development of different associations of trace fossils and different styles of bioturbation. A new ichnospecies, Rosselia rotatus, and a new ichnogenus, Catenichnus (C. contentus n. ichnosp.) are described herein. Body fossils are selectively preelectively preserved in bands in typical foreshore sediments; in open shoreface sediments, some were preserved in their life position.