Sulculites bellus Vialov and Nessov, 1974

Hedeny, Magdy El, Mohesn, Sara, Tantawy, Abdel-aziz, El-Sabbagh, Ahmed, AbdelGawad, Mohamed & El-Kheir, Gebely Abu, 2023, Bioerosion traces on the Campanian turtle remains: New data from the lagoonal deposits of the Quseir Formation, Kharga Oasis, Egypt, Palaeontologia Electronica (a 40) 26 (3), pp. 1-21 : 11

Sulculites bellus Vialov and Nessov, 1974

( Figure 4G )

Material. Many narrow grooves on three carapace remains (NVP027‒029).

Description. Smooth, slender, narrow, non-branched straight to curved grooves in the surface of bones. They occur solitarily or in clusters, sometimes crossing each other. Width ranges from 0.25–0.6 mm

Discussion. The specimens described show most of the morphological characters of the holotype of S. bellus as described and illustrated by Vialov and Nessov (1974, p. 101, figures 1‒4).

Producer. Sulculites most likely belongs to the category fodinichnia (Zonneveld, personal comm.). According to Vialov and Nessov (1974), worms are suggested to be the main producer of this trace fossil.

Stratigraphic and geographic distribution. Campanian of the Qarn Ganah, Kharga Oasis (this study). Sulculites bellus is firstly recorded from the Albian of Eastern Uzbekistan ( Vialov and Nessov, 1974). This determination extends the stratigraphic range of the taxon up into the Campanian.

Ichnogenus Machichnus Mikuláš et al.,2006

Type ichnospecies. Machichnus regularis Mikuláš et al., 2006

Diagnosis. Shallow serial parallel or subparallel grooves in turtle bone. The groove surface is smooth or longitudinally striated. Each series consists usually of dozens of grooves, which are typically uniform in shape and dimensions. The grooves are oriented perpendicular to substrate edge ( Mikuláš et al., 2006).

Figures

FIGURE 4. (A, B) Osteocallis mandibulus. (A) Small randomly oriented surface borings. (B) Close up view of A, showing small randomly oriented surface borings. (C, D) Radulichnus inopinatus, parallel to sub-parallel arcuate bundles closely spaced in groups. (E) Osteichnus ossiobontum, parallel borings with fused U-notches, inclined to the bone surface. (F) Osedacoides jurassicus, small simple borings in bone (yellow arrows) penetrating into the turtle bone. Note the occurrence of some Cubiculum isp. traces (red arrows). (G) Sulculites bellus, smooth, slender narrow, nonbranched straight to curved grooves. (H) Machichnus?bohemicus, shallow serial parallel or subparallel grooves (arrows) in carapace peripheral. Scale bars equal 1.0 cm, except for B, D, and E, which are 0.5 cm.