Trypanites
Trypanites borings in an Upper Ordovician hardground from northern Kentucky.
Trypanites borings in an Upper Ordovician hardground from northern Kentucky. The borings are filled with diagenetic dolomite (yellowish). Note that the boring on the far right cuts through a shell in the matrix.
Trypanites is a narrow, cylindrical, unbranched boring which is one of the most common trace fossils in hard substrates such as rocks, carbonate hardgrounds and shells (Bromley, 1972). It appears first in the Lower Cambrian (James et al., 1977), was very prominent in the Ordovician Bioerosion Revolution (Wilson and Palmer, 2006), and is still commonly formed today. Trypanites is almost always found in calcareous substrates, most likely because the excavating organism used an acid or other chemical agent to dissolve the calcium carbonate (Taylor and Wilson, 2003).
References
- Bromley, R.G. (1972). "On some ichnotaxa in hard substrates, with a redefinition of Trypanites Mägdefrau". Paläontologische Zeitschrift 46: 93–98. doi:10.1007/bf02989555.
- Cole, A.R., Palmer, T.J. (1999). "Middle Jurassic worm borings, and a new giant ichnospecies of Trypanites from the Bajocian/Dinantian unconformity, southern England". Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 10 (3): 203–209. doi:10.1016/S0016-7878(99)80070-4.
- James, N.P., Kobluk, D.R., Pemberton, S.G. (1977). "The oldest macroborers: Lower Cambrian of Labrador". Science 197 (4307): 980–983. doi:10.1126/science.197.4307.980-a. PMID 17784131.
- Taylor, P.D., Wilson. M.A. (2003). "Palaeoecology and evolution of marine hard substrate communities". Earth-Science Reviews 62 (1-2): 1–103. doi:10.1016/S0012-8252(02)00131-9.
- Wilson, M.A., Palmer, T.J. (2006). "Patterns and processes in the Ordovician Bioerosion Revolution". Ichnos 13 (3): 109–112. doi:10.1080/10420940600850505.
