Species

Osspecus eunicefooteae Jamison-Todd, Witts, Jones, Tangunan, Chandler, Bown et Twitchett, 2025

Type specimen data
holotype: Natural History Museum London ; NHMUK PX TF 309; Round Down tunnel, Kent; Cenomanian
Reference:
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. pp. e0320945. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0320945
Taxon description

Jamison-Todd et al., 2025c

Emended diagnosis of Osspecus eunicefooteae In addition to the previously identified and described features of this ichnospecies, such as long, undulating branches emanating radially from a central hemispherical chamber that sits near the bone surface [12,13], the new examples presented here sometimes have distinctly long, straight, streamerlike branches emanating from the central chamber down into the bone.

Jamison-Todd et al., 2025a

Diagnosis. Boring with chamber diameters of 1.8–2.7mm and total depths of 1.2–1.9mm. Apertures are wide relative to other boring types. Borings are shallow, the main chamber sitting just below the surface of the bone, with a short aperture neck. The centre of radial symmetry sits at the top of the chamber. Branches are wavy, thin, and long relative to the chamber, though they can be of irregular length. Overall chamber shape is approximately hemispherical, with an arc length generally close to 180 degrees.

Synonymy list
2025     Osspecus eunicefootaea nom corrected — Jamison-Todd, Witts, Jones, Tangunan, Chandler, Bown & Twitchett , pp. 2, fig. 3:A, B
2025     Osspecus eunicefootia isp. nov. — Jamison-Todd, Witts, Jones, Tangunan, Chandler, Bown & Twitchett , pp. 9, fig. 3:A, B
2025     Osspecus eunicefootea — Jamison-Todd, Mannion & Upchurch , pp. 9, fig. 2D
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