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Asteriacites

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Asteriacites lumbricalis, a trace fossil of an ophiuroid echinoderm; Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic), near Gunlock, Utah; scale bar is 10 mm.

Asteriacites is the name given to five-rayed trace fossils found in marine sedimentary rocks (Mángano et al., 1999; Wilson and Rigby, 2000). They record the burrows of ophiuroid and asteroid sea stars on the sea floor. Asteriacites are found in European and American rocks, from the Ordovician period onwards, and are especially numerous in the Jurassic system.

Asteriacites from the Devonian of northeastern Ohio.
Bedding plane view of Asteriacites from the Snapper Point Formation (Permian), New South Wales.

References

  • Mángano, M.G.; Buatois, L.A.; West, R.R.; Maples, C.G. (1999). "The origin and paleoecologic significance of the trace fossil Asteriacites in the Pennsylvanian of Kansas and Missouri". Lethaia. 32: 17–30.
  • Wilson, M.A.; Rigby, J.K. (2000). "Asteriacites lumbricalis von Schlotheim 1820: ophiuroid trace fossils from the Lower Triassic Thaynes Formation, central Utah". Ichnos. 7: 43–49.
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