Osprioneides

Osprioneides
Osprioneides
Osprioneides
Temporal range: Silurian
Osprioneides kampto borings in a Sheinwoodian stromatoporoid from Saaremaa, Estonia.
Trace fossil classification e

Osprioneides is an ichnogenus of unbranched, elongate borings (a type of trace fossil) in lithic substrate with oval cross−section, single−entrance and straight, curved or irregular course. Osprioneides kampto Beuck and Wisshak, 2008 is the largest known Palaeozoic boring trace. It occurs in the Silurian (Wenlock) of Baltica. The borings are up to 120 mm long measuring 5–17 mm in diameter (Beuck et al., 2008) . The distribution of Osprioneides is more environmentally limited than that of Trypanites in the Silurian of Saaremaa, Estonia (Baltica). Osprioneides probably occurred only in large hard substrates of relatively deepwater muddy bottom open shelf environments. Osprioneides were relatively rare, as compared to Trypanites-Palaeosabella borings in the Wenlock of Saaremaa (Vinn and Wilson, 2010).

References

  • Beuck, L., Wisshak, M., Munnecke, A., and Freiwald, A. 2008. A giant boring in a Silurian stromatoporoid analyzed by computer tomography. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 53: 149–160.
  • Vinn, O., and Wilson, M.A. 2010. Occurrence of giant borings of Osprioneides kampto in the lower Silurian (Sheinwoodian) stromatoporoids of Saaremaa, Estonia. Ichnos - An International Journal for Plant and Animal Traces 17: 166-171.
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