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Feeding/Farming
Traces
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Trace
Maker
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Most
likely a worm-like creature |
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Trace
Name
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Paleodictyon
sp.
PALE-EE-O-DIK-TEE-ON |
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Age
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Middle
Cambrian Period
(About 520 million years old) |
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Where
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Big
Tancook Island, Nova Scotia |
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Cast
or Mold
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Cast |
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Collector
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Staff
of the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History |
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I know
what you're thinking. This can't possibly be a trace fossil!
But it is. The honeycomb shapes are made by worm-like creatures.
The critter slimes the burrow with a glue-like mucous (snot)
that keeps the burrows hollow. There are hollow "shafts" at
each corner into which prey fall. The critter then goes back
and eats its prey. A pretty fancy farm!
Why such perfect shapes? It seems that the hexagons, or honeycombs,
are the best use of space. The worm-like critter may be using
some sort of chemical-sensing system to tell it when to turn
when it is making the borrow. |
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