Dictyodora and associated trace fossils from the Palaeozoic of Thuringia

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Abstract
Dictyodora occurs in the Hauptquarzit (Lake Ordovician; D. zimmermanni) and Bordenschiefer (Early Carboniferous, D. liebeana) of Thuringia, East Germany. It is absent in the Early Devonian Nereitenquarzit. Analysis of the trace fossil assemblages points to environmental partitioning within the deep-sea Nereites Association. The Carboniferous Dictyodora was much larger than the Early Paleozoic forms and had a long respiratory (?) wall organ. This may have been an adaptation to feeding deeper in anoxic sediments and the animal developed large parapodia to effect is progression through the sediment.