Species

Osspecus tuscia Higgs, Little, Glover, Dahlgren, Smith et Dominici, 2012

Type specimen data
holotype: Museo di Storia Naturale, Sezione diGeologia e Paleontologia, Florence, Italy ; IGF 1134T
Reference:
Higgs, N. D., Little, C. T., Glover, A. G., Dahlgren, T. G., Smith, C. R., Dominici, S. 2012. Evidence of Osedax worm borings in Pliocene (∼3 Ma) whale bone from the Mediterranean. pp. 1-9. DOI:10.1080/08912963.2011.621167
Taxon description

Jamison-Todd et al., 2025b

Emended diagnosis: Boring with chamber diameters of 0.7–2.0mm and total depth of 0.6–2.1mm. The wide aperture leads to a tapering aperture neck that is wider at the base near the top of the chamber. The chamber sits at mid-depth below the surface of the bone. Radial symmetry is centred at the base of the aperture neck, and no secondary symmetry is evident. Branches are of mid-length relative to the chamber and maximum arc length is 180degrees or less, so that the branches generally point outwards or inwards but not up towards the bone surface. Branch shape is lobate and also tapering, with branches having pointed ends and widening into the chamber.

Jamison-Todd et al., 2025a

Emended diagnosis. Boring with chamber diameters of 0.7–2.0mm and total depth of 0.6–2.1mm. The wide aperture leads to a tapering aperture neck that is wider at the base near the top of the chamber. The chamber sits at mid-depth below the surface of the bone. Radial symmetry is centred at the base of the aperture neck, and no secondary symmetry is evident. Branches are of mid-length relative to the chamber and maximum arc length is 180degrees or less, so that the branches generally point outwards or inwards but not up towards the bone surface. Branch shape is lobate and also tapering, with branches having pointed ends and widening into the chamber.

Higgs et al., 2012

Diagnosis: Osspecus boring with sub-millimetre-sized apertures. The base of the apertural canal tapers into a chamber that ispartially flattened in the vertical plane. Short globular exploratorylobes extend from the main body of the chamber.

Synonymy list
2012     Osspecus tuscia isp. nov. — Higgs, Little, Glover, Dahlgren, Smith & Dominici , pp. 277
2025     Osspecus tuscia isp. Higgs et al. 2012 — Jamison-Todd, Witts, Jones, Tangunan, Chandler, Bown & Twitchett , pp. 1
2025     Osspecus tuscia isp. Higgs et al. 2012 — Jamison-Todd, Witts, Jones, Tangunan, Chandler, Bown & Twitchett , pp. 7
2028     Osspecus tuscia — Jamison-Todd, Mannion & Upchurc , pp. 8
Selection of related publications
Jamison-Todd, S., Mannion, P. D., Upchurch, P. 2025. The earliest fossil cetacean with Osedax borings: narrowing the spatiotemporal gap between Cretaceous marine reptiles and late Cenozoic whales. Royal Society Open Science 12, 6, 13 pages. DOI:10.1098/rsos.250446
Jamison-Todd, S., Witts, J. D., Jones, M. E. H., Tangunan, D., Chandler, K., Bown, P., Twitchett, R. J. 2025. The evolution of bone-eating worm diversity in the Upper Cretaceous Chalk Group of the United Kingdom. PLOS ONE 20, 4, e0320945. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0320945
References based on distribution