Trace fossils formed by heart urchins - a study of Scolicia and related traces

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Cretaceous and Tertiary traces belonging to the ichnogenera Scolicia, Subphyllochorda and Taphrhelminthopsis are described and analyzed functionally. Resting traces continuous with Subphyllochorda are described for the 1st time and interpreted as the work of heart urchins. The new ichnogenous CARDIOICHNUS is erected for them. The preservation and complexity of some specimens of these ichnogenera allows for a detailed comparison with heart urchin morphology. Subphyllochorda is interpreted as a burrow produced by heart urchins and Scolicia as either burrows or sea floor furrows. The traces here assigned to Taphrhelminthopsis are probably casts of washed-out Subphyllochorda burrows. Paleozoic traces previously referred to Scolicia s.l. are, in the main, simpler than the Mesozoic and Tertiary traces, and should be transferred to other ichnogenera. [New species described include C. planus (type species) and C. ovalis.].

This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit: