Trace fossil · Locomotion / feeding

Cruziana

Elongate, bilobed, roughly bilaterally symmetrical burrows preserved on bedding planes, with repeated scratch marks mostly oblique to the long axis (a herringbone pattern) and a medial ridge. Up to about 15 mm wide and 15 cm long; one end is usually deeper and wider.

Behavior

Locomotion / feeding

Likely maker

Usually associated with trilobites, but other arthropods could make it. Some Cruziana may be feeding traces built from a series of Rusophycus.

Age range

First appears in upper Fortunian (earliest Cambrian) rocks of northern Iran and Norway, and also occurs in Triassic sediments deposited after trilobites went extinct at the end of the Permian.

Setting

Marine and freshwater sediments. Name-bearer of the Cruziana ichnofacies (moderate- to low-energy offshore shelf).

Photos are hosted by their original sites and shown under their open licenses (CC BY, CC BY-SA, public domain or Open Government Licence). Click a photo for its source page.

All trace fossils Ichnofacies