contentsGlobal Warming Research Funding Urgently Sought
by John Gorter, ENI.
Congratulations if you answered trace fossils, bonus if you identified the substrate as snow! Remember, a trace fossil consists of an imprint of or a mark left by an organism, as opposed to physical remains.
It was so cold during late January 2012 that the interior pond at Eni Office Block 5 in San Donato, Milanese, froze over, much to the surprise of the local ducks. It had been a relatively mild winter until the overnight freeze.
The ducks would fly in, hit the ice, skid, then stand up, somewhat dazed, wander around a bit then, fly away. Their efforts lead to the generation of a distinctive trace fossil assemblage, albeit one that was not preservable in the sedimentary record. The traces belong to Repichnia, defined as locomotory tracks that show evidence of organisms moving from one station to another, usually in a near-straight to slightly curved line (Wikipedia). Three types of trace can be defined:
Two duck-generated skids, upper duck walks away in a daze, lower duck not so adventurous, hangs around the end of the skid. This type of duck landing trace fossils is here defined as Anasichnus confusus.
Duck flies in from top right, hits, skids, bounces possibly twice, lands and then walks away, more or less in a straight line. Defined as Anasichnus simplex.
Duck trails on frozen pond, note lack of skid marks indicating non-airborne approach. This type of duck trace is defined as Anasichnus complexus.
Unfortunately, not enough research was carried out to determine the landing speed, walking speed, length of time taken for the duck to regain flight, genus of duck and sex of duck. Much more money is required to answer these important questions, which of course can be amortised against global warming research. Funding is required immediately because snow and ice are predicted to be phenomena that will be lost in the rapidly warming world of tomorrow.
