Thalassinoides

Thalassinoides
	Thalassinoides, burrows produced by thalassinideans, from the Middle Jurassic, Makhtesh Qatan, southern Israel
Trace fossil classification
Ichnogenus:	†Thalassinoides; Ehrenberg, 1944

Thalassinoides is an ichnogenus of trace fossil (fossil records of lifeforms' movement, rather than of the lifeforms themselves) used to refer to "dichotomously or T-branched boxworks, mazes and shafts, unlined and unornamented".^[1]^: 179 Facies of Thalassinoides increased suddenly in abundance at the beginning of the Mesozoic.^[1]^: 251 Such burrows are made by a number of organisms, including the sea anemone Cerianthus, Balanoglossus and fishes, but are most closely associated with decapod crustaceans of the (former) infraorder Thalassinidea.^[2]

Gallery

Thalassinoides burrow system in the Sherborne Building Stone (Jurassic, Bajocian) of Dorset, England; slab cut parallel to bedding.
Thalassinoides burrow system in the Sherborne Building Stone (Jurassic, Bajocian) of Dorset, England; slab cut perpendicular to bedding.
Thalassinoides burrows give a unique texture to this crest carved from Ordovician Tyndall limestone.

References

^ ^a ^b Richard Granville Bromley (1996). Trace Fossils: Biology, Taphonomy and Applications (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-412-61480-4.
^ Paul M. Myrow (1995). "Thalassinoides and the enigma of Early Paleozoic open-framework burrow systems". PALAIOS. 10 (1): 58–74. Bibcode:1995Palai..10...58M. doi:10.2307/3515007. JSTOR 3515007.

External links

Chuck D. Howell's Ichnogenera Photos

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[Bromley-1] Richard Granville Bromley (1996). Trace Fossils: Biology, Taphonomy and Applications (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-412-61480-4.

[2] Paul M. Myrow (1995). "Thalassinoides and the enigma of Early Paleozoic open-framework burrow systems". PALAIOS. 10 (1): 58–74. Bibcode:1995Palai..10...58M. doi:10.2307/3515007. JSTOR 3515007.

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