Genus

Alcyonidiopsis Massalongo, 1856

Taxon description

Uchman et al., 2005b

Alcyonidiopsis is interpreted as a feeding burrow of polychaetes, and is known from the Ordovician to the Miocene (Chamberlain, 1977; Uchman, 1995).

Pickerill & Narbonne, 1995

Horizontal, unbranched pellet-filled burrows with sharply defined regular boundaries or, alternatively but less commonly, with walls comprised of elliptical fecal pellets (=Tomaculum). Burrow fill comprises dense assemblages of elliptical fecal pellets (=Tomaculum) similar in coloration to the burrow matrix but different from the surrounding host. Pellets are of variable orientation within an individual burrow; in several specimens, long axes are dominantly longitudinally aligned where burrows are straight (Fig. 4G) but are more typically perpendicular to the burrow axis where curved (Fig. 4H). Burrow course straight, curved to slightly irregular; width (post compactional) up to 13 mm, length (commonly incomplete) up to 300 mm.

Uchman, 2001

Description. Stright, strongly flattened endichnial cylinder, 8-11 mm wide. filled with muddy, pelletal sediment. pellets are elliptical, 1,5-2,0 mm long, and locally part of indistinct menisci.

Selection of related publications
Uchman, A., Hanken, N.-M., Binns, R. 2005. Ordovician Bathyal Trace Fossils From Metasiliciclastics in Central Norway and Their Sedimentological and Paleogeographical Implications. Ichnos 12, 2, 105-133. DOI:10.1080/10420940590914534