Abstract

Crayfish burrows exhibiting simple to moderately complex architecture occur in alluvial deposits of the Paleocene-Eocene Claron Formation on the Markagunt and Paunsagunt Plateaus in southwestern Utah, USA. Crayfish burrows in the red member of the Claron Formation are quasi-vertical in orientation, range from 25 mm to 110 mm in diameter, and are between 1000 mm to over 3000 mm in length. The upper portions of the burrows exhibit a single opening and the base either ends in a chamber or leads into lateral corridors. The surficial burrow morphology exhibits a combination of scrape marks, scratch marks, knobby and hummocky textures, and mud-liners. These burrows are assigned to the ichnogenus Camborygma eumekenomos (Type IIIb) (Hasiotis and Mitchell 1993). In the upper white member of the Claron, the burrows are much shorter, 400 mm to 900 mm in length, and appear to contain two branches to the main shaft. These burrows are assigned to the ichnogenus C. litonomos (Type IIIa) (Hasiotis and Mitchell 1993). Identification of these crayfish burrows improve paleoenvironmental and paleohydrologic interpretations of the red and white members of the Claron Formation. The burrows show relatively deep water tables in floodplains of alluvial systems and marginal-lacustrine systems. The previous interpretation of these burrows suggested that they were vertic soil features created by water table fluctuations in a wholly lacustrine system.

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