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A reassessment of the ichnofossil Chubutolithes gaimanensis Bown and Ratcliffe

BOWN AND RATCLIFFE (1988) recently published a convincing reassessment of the affinities of the Paleogene ichnotaxon Chubutolithes Ihering, known only from the type species C gaimanensis Bown and Ratcliffe from the Chubut Province of Ar­ gentina. Previous authors had regarded this distinctive trace fossil as a possible mammalian coprolite, or as a mold or some form of trace formed by a cnidarian or a tunicate. Bown and Ratcliffe have demonstrated that these enigmatic fossils are un­ doubtedly the aggregated cells of mud-daubing wasps. We agree with this general assessment and salute Bown and Ratcliffe for succeeding in such a tricky piece of paleontological detective work. However, we also feel that two conclusions of Bown and Ratcliffe's paper deserve further discussion, namely the affinities of the wasps that built these cells and their mode of preservation. We present our own interpretations of these features below. Figured specimens belong to the collections of the U.S. Geo­ logical Survey (USGS) and the Department of Entomology of the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH).