faecal ? By who ?

[fifbrindacier]

Hi everybody. I stumbled upon those photos on another forum and i wondered about what are they, and about how and "who" made those alignaments of aptychi. They've been found in Valanginian marls, Saynoceras verrucosum zone.

Concerning what and how, the authors of that article Double alignments of ammonoid aptychi from the Lower Cretaceous of Southeast France proposed several hypothesis : a possible bottom current ; regurgitalites of an ammonoid eater ; stomachal residues ; cololites. But their best hypothesis is cylindrical coprolites that separated in two parts just after the animal defecated or being close to the sea bottom or in relation to the anatomy of the anus or the cloaca. As to who, the candidates could be teleost fishes,  plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, marine turtles, crocodiles.

I'm very curious about those alignments of aptychi and wondered if one of you has seen something similar to this or could have an idea about the animal that produced them ?

Thank you for your participation.

 

Cheers,

 

Sophie.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

@GeschWhat

 

Coco

[Rockwood]

Most every year, around Thanksgiving, I end up listening to the song Alice's Restaurant. Could this be the floor of the church, the cleaning of which instigated the incident celebrated within ?

In other words, borrow debris ? 

[westcoast]

I have seen this paper before but cannot offer any better suggestions for the strange alignment than the authors.

[fifbrindacier]

10 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Most every year, around Thanksgiving, I end up listening to the song Alice's Restaurant. Could this be the floor of the church, the cleaning of which instigated the incident celebrated within ?

In other words, borrow debris ? 

Do you mean burrow debris ? It might, but, how can those aptychi be so "perfectly" parallel with their convex side up and the convave one down on the matrix, i wonder.

[Rockwood]

2 hours ago, fifbrindacier said:

Do you mean burrow debris ?

Ya, I guess returning them is kind of out of the question. 

I can imagine an octopus tiling the ceiling of its lair with them.

[fifbrindacier]

21 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Ya, I guess returning them is kind of out of the question. 

I can imagine an octopus tiling the ceiling of its lair with them.

I understand what you mean, another hypothesis a forumer proposed is camouflage or a setting made for the growth of algae or something like that to fit the female and protect eggs.

[Rockwood]

1 hour ago, fifbrindacier said:

I understand what you mean, another hypothesis a forumer proposed is camouflage or a setting made for the growth of algae or something like that to fit the female and protect eggs.

I wonder if that could be twisted far enough to encompass the equivalent of a bower birds constructions ? 

[fifbrindacier]

1 hour ago, Rockwood said:

I wonder if that could be twisted far enough to encompass the equivalent of a bower birds constructions ? 

Nesting, yes, but how could those aptychi be so perfectly parallel, that's one of the questions. Whether this is camouflage, tiling a lair or a burrow (besides there is no sign of burrowing activity, just scratches), when the construction disintegrated, the aptychi shouldn't have fall apart like this. They should have look more scattered. One "mistery" thing is that they all show up their convex side and their largest part pointing outwards.

[Rockwood]

2 hours ago, fifbrindacier said:

besides there is no sign of burrowing activity, just scratches), when the construction disintegrated, the aptychi shouldn't have fall apart like this. They should have look more scattered. One "mistery" thing is that they all show up their convex side and their largest part pointing outwards.

My assumption was that the scratches are a preparator removing maybe a couple thousand years of sedimentation to expose a compressed  hole that was there for maybe a month. The pieces being in place, only the layering of sediment being greatly compressed.

[Rockwood]

Perhaps I should mention. Even the attempt to read a paper like that from a screen is pure physical torture for me. I just can't do it.