Abstract

The feeding behavior of the giant ambush-predator “Bobbit worm” (Eunice aphroditois) is spectacular. They hide in their burrows until they explode upwards grabbing unsuspecting prey with a snap of their powerful jaws. The still living prey are then pulled into the sediment for consumption. Although predatory polychaetes have existed since the early Paleozoic, their bodies comprise mainly soft tissue, resulting in a very incomplete fossil record, and virtually nothing is known about their burrows and behavior beneath the seafloor. Here we use morphological, sedimentological, and geochemical data from Miocene strata in northeast Taiwan to erect a new ichnogenus, Pennichnus. This trace fossil consists of an up to 2 m long, 2–3 cm in diameter, L-shaped burrow with distinct feather-like structures around the upper shaft. A comparison of Pennichnus to biological analogs strongly suggests that this new ichnogenus is associated with ambush-predatory worms that lived about 20 million years ago.

Details

Title
The 20-million-year old lair of an ambush-predatory worm preserved in northeast Taiwan
Author
Yu-Yen, Pan 1 ; Nara Masakazu 2 ; Löwemark Ludvig 3 ; Miguez-Salas Olmo 4 ; Gunnarson Björn 5 ; Iizuka Yoshiyuki 6 ; Chen Tzu-Tung 7 ; Dashtgard, Shahin E 8 

 National Taiwan University, Department of Geosciences, Taipei, Taiwan (GRID:grid.19188.39) (ISNI:0000 0004 0546 0241); Simon Fraser University, Department of Earth Sciences, Burnaby, Canada (GRID:grid.61971.38) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7494) 
 Kochi University, Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Kochi, Japan (GRID:grid.278276.e) (ISNI:0000 0001 0659 9825) 
 National Taiwan University, Department of Geosciences, Taipei, Taiwan (GRID:grid.19188.39) (ISNI:0000 0004 0546 0241) 
 University of Granada, Department of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology, Granada, Spain (GRID:grid.4489.1) (ISNI:0000000121678994) 
 Stockholm University, Department of Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology, Stockholm, Sweden (GRID:grid.10548.38) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 9377) 
 Academia Sinica, Institute of Earth Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan (GRID:grid.28665.3f) (ISNI:0000 0001 2287 1366) 
 University of Gothenburg, Department of Earth Sciences, Göteborg, Sweden (GRID:grid.8761.8) (ISNI:0000 0000 9919 9582) 
 Simon Fraser University, Department of Earth Sciences, Burnaby, Canada (GRID:grid.61971.38) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 7494) 
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2479576798
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2021. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.