Quick question for Worm Burrow experts - Zoophycos?

[Kato]

While on a walkabout, I chanced across a lower Mississippian formation called Andrecito having this fossil remnant that I believe is Zoophycos. Would someone who knows please advise if this correct?

 

Thank you, Kato

 

 

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Those are lovely. 

Zoophycos seems good to me! 

[ynot]

Can't help with ID, but that is a nice trace fossil.

@abyssunder 

[gobbler716]

Nice find!!!

[Wrangellian]

Interesting find.. I'm not sure what it is but it does look like the pics of Zoophycos I've seen.

I hope you picked up a bunch of those pieces - If you collect all that are visible in that photo, you might be able to clean and glue them together at home! Might take some doing but you'd have a nice bedding plane of the stuff rather than just a small sample.

[Dave pom Allen]

not like any zoophyco ive seen , looks like some kind of trace fossil

 

[Rockwood]

6 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

you'd have a nice bedding plane of the stuff rather than just a small sample.

I'm not convinced there is a bedding plane for the features to be on, or that they are on at all. They look more in the rock to me, and not really trace fossils at all.

[westcoast]

I would call them zoophycus

[abyssunder]

It's a little hard to see all the features of the traces because of the fractured sediment. Patterns might be in the Zoophycos group (e.g. Zoophycos, Rhizocorallium), but there's not visible the typical lateral burrows with spreite morphology. I see lobes with "J" to "U" shaped spreite, which may occur in lophocteniids, so I propose Lophoctenium Richter, 1850 for the specimens in question, and I think the resemblance might be good if we compare them with the ones from here , supposed to be Lophoctenium.

 

 

[westcoast]

That does look like a better match

[abyssunder]

Another example appears in this document.

 

[Rockwood]

2 hours ago, abyssunder said:

I propose Lophoctenium

I can come back that far.

[abyssunder]

Also, Lophoctenium is reported from the Mississippian Borden Formation, in Ettensohn et al., 2012.

 

F. Ettensohn et al. 2012. The Early-Middle Mississippian Borden–Grainger–Fort Payne delta/basin complex: Field evidence for delta sedimentation, basin starvation, mud-mound genesis, and tectonism during the Neoacadian Orogeny, in M.C. Eppes and M.J. Bartholomew, eds., From the Blue Ridge to the Coastal Plain: Field Excursions in the Southeastern United States: Geological Society of America Field Guide 29: 345–395

 

[Kato]

8 hours ago, abyssunder said:

It's a little hard to see all the features of the traces because of the fractured sediment. Patterns might be in the Zoophycos group (e.g. Zoophycos, Rhizocorallium), but there's not visible the typical lateral burrows with spreite morphology. I see lobes with "J" to "U" shaped spreite, which may occur in lophocteniids, so I propose Lophoctenium Richter, 1850 for the specimens in question, and I think the resemblance might be good if we compare them with the ones from here , supposed to be Lophoctenium.

 

==========

Hi, would you be able to point an arrow at 'lateral burrows' / 'spreite morphology'. I may have some additional pics that would be helpful in nailing it down.

 

Kato

8 hours ago, abyssunder said:

 

 

[Kato]

I was able to find this online but clueless how to translate the 3D image portrayed into ID'ing a spreit in the 2D of the specimens

 

[erose]

 Lophoctenium is new to me but may be a good possibility. All the Zoophycus I have ever seen sweep back upon themselves to the same origin point. 

[abyssunder]

It's exactly what I wanted to upload (I'm referring to the morphology sketch).

The burrow is the marginal tube.

There are many morphotypes of Zoophycos and its considered that was a great evolution in time. Here's an example showing the evolution between Jurassic and Cretaceous.

 

 

[Kato]

11 minutes ago, erose said:

 Lophoctenium is new to me but may be a good possibility. All the Zoophycus I have ever seen sweep back upon themselves to the same origin point. 

Combining erose + abyssunder morphological diagram suggestion, I 'think' I interpret this to mean it would be good to have a specimen that spirals to an origin point (shaft). I believe this pic will show that. It's a view from above that has an obvious peak (where the shaft might be). I could take a side view shot to show this if need be. I did bring home what I thought would be a nice specimen. 

 

 

Does this help or hurt?

[abyssunder]

5 minutes ago, Kato said:

Combining erose + abyssunder morphological diagram suggestion, I 'think' I interpret this to mean it would be good to have a specimen that spirals to an origin point (shaft). I believe this pic will show that. It's a view from above that has an obvious peak (where the shaft might be). I could take a side view shot to show this if need be. I did bring home what I thought would be a nice specimen. 

 

 

Does this help or hurt?

It helps.

[Kato]

23 minutes ago, abyssunder said:

It helps.

Enough to confirm Zoophycos?

[abyssunder]

1 hour ago, Kato said:

Enough to confirm Zoophycos?

Thank you for the picture.
This specimen shows clearly that it is Zoophycos in its earlier morphotype (although it hasn't a comparative scale) when it was smaller than the later ones in the evolution process , similar to the specimens from Zhang et al., 2015.

 

excerpt from L. Zhang et al. 2015. Zoophycos macroevolution since 541 Ma. Scientific Reports, 5: 1-10

 

BTW, Zoophycos and Lophoctenium may coexist.

 

It was a nice thread here and thank you for the topic.