First report of the small bird track Koreanaornis from the Cretaceous of North America: implications for avian ichnotaxonomy and paleoecology

Although body fossils of shorebirds and shorebird-like species are extremely rare from the Cretaceous, rapid increase in the discovery of bird footprint sites provides valuable alternate evidence to help fill gaps in the story of the early evolution of shorebird-like species. Newly discovered bird tracks from the Albian-Cenomanian Dakota Formation in northeastern Utah represent the first report of the ichnogenus Koreanaornis from North America and only the second report of bird tracks from this formation. These tracks are not attributable to Aquatilavipes as previously claimed. Three well-preserved trackways are described and provisionally referred to Koreanaornis cf. hamanensis (Kim). However, a review of the ichnotaxonomy of shorebird ichnites reveals that this ichnotaxon also closely resembles the Miocene ichnospecies Avipeda sirin (Vyalov). This latter comparison points to the need for a thorough evaluation of the similarity between Mesozoic and Cenozoic avian ichnotaxa, which may be over-split in some cases and under-differentiated in others.The new material helps distinguish ichnogenus Koreanaornis from the larger bird track Aquatilavipes, which is more abundant and widespread in North America. In some cases Aquatilavipes has been incorrectly used as a catch-all ichnogenus both in North America and Asia. The Dakota Formation stratigraphy at the tracksite indicates that the track makers lived in a marginal marine paleoenvironment. However, despite the widespread distribution of such facies, often replete with dinosaur tracks, the bird track record of the Dakota Formation, and the Cretaceous of the western USA remains relatively sparse in comparison with other areas such as east Asia.     

Spatial Social Network Analysis of Resource Access in Rural South Africa

Communities in the rural developing world often sit at the margin of market, migration, and technology exchanges. They are arguably becoming more interconnected and networked than ever before. This article seeks to expand on an understanding of natural resource access in the rural developing world by combining social network analysis (SNA) data and geographic position data obtained via Global Positioning System (GPS) and participatory mapping in rural South Africa. This work therefore utilizes a sociospatial framework in understanding natural resource use and access in a community-level analysis. Notably, in our study we find very little association among natural resource use, access, and social position with even the most tolerant measure but enough association so as not to dismiss the relationship completely. We believe that our results can inform investigations of both resource access and social network position and conclude that a subsequent possibilist approach to human–environmental interactions would be an ideal framework for this methodology and potentially for sociospatial studies more widely.     

Geology and volcanic stratigraphy of the Canatuan and Malusok volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits,southwestern Mindanao,Philippines

The Canatuan and Malusok massive sulfide deposits are located near Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte, in southwestern Mindanao, Philippines. The Canatuan–Malusok area is underlain by the Jurassic–Cretaceous Tungauan schists, which form much of the Zamboanga Peninsula. The volcanic strata at Canatuan and Malusok can be traced for >7 km along strike and is host to at least three discrete massive sulfide bodies: Canatuan, Malusok and SE Malusok. Basal basaltic andesite volcanic rocks are generally chemically uniform and show only moderate alteration. The massive sulfide deposits occur in overlying rhyolitic to rhyodacitic volcanic rocks that are altered to a schistose assemblage of quartz, sericite, chlorite and pyrite. The alteration is texturally destructive but graded clastic beds are locally observed. Despite tropical saprolitic weathering, four lithogeochemical subunits of the felsic package are identified. Stratigraphic interleaving, however, has made correlation of these units over any significant distance difficult. The sulfide lenses are overlain by a few metres of felsic schists which locally contain manganese-bearing silicates and oxides that serve as a stratigraphic marker. Hangingwall andesitic volcaniclastic rocks are discontinuously preserved, although where present, they consist of regularly bedded mafic volcanic sandstones. The lateral continuity of a manganese-bearing marker and flanking felsic volcaniclastic intervals indicate that locally the volcanic strata form a homoclinal sequence. The Canatuan Au–Ag–Cu–Zn deposit consists of a gossan overlying a massive sulfide lens. The sulfides and gossan are flat lying and hosted within felsic volcanic rocks. The gossan is gold–silver-rich, and was formed by a combination of oxidation and volume collapse of the original sulfide lens. The sulfide minerals present below the current water table, are auriferous massive pyrite with base metal sulfides, with some supergene chalcocite. The transition from gossan to sulfides is very sharp, occurring at the water table. Massive sulfide deposits at Malusok are hosted in the same felsic sequence as Canatuan and they have similar base and precious metal contents. Only limited gossan has been found at Malusok. The bimodal nature of the volcanic rocks at Canatuan, together with their low HFSE contents, near-flat REE patterns and tholeiitic affinities, suggest that they formed in an intra-oceanic arc setting above a depleted mantle source. Mafic and felsic volcanic rocks of similar composition have been recovered from the Tonga-Kermadec and Izu-Bonin-Marianas island-arc systems in the western Pacific. Mafic rocks at Canatuan show no evidence for LILE enrichment that characterizes melts derived from metasomatized mantle under more mature arcs, suggesting that they are the product of a nascent, rather than a mature arc. There is no evidence from the REE, or other incompatible trace elements, that continental crust or evolved arc crust was involved in the generation of the Canatuan-Malusok volcanic rocks. Although it has been proposed that the Zamboanga metamorphic complex comprises microcontinental fragments of Eurasian affinity, our data do not support an evolved crustal setting for the Canatuan-Malusok volcanic rocks, which we suggest were derived from an intra-oceanic arc and subsequently accreted to the eastern Mindanao terrane.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00126-003-0350-7Editorial handling: R.R. Large