AUTHOR=Verde Mariano , Castillo Carolina , Martín-González Esther , Cruzado-Caballero Penélope , Mayoral Eduardo , Santos Ana 

TITLE=A new miocene–pliocene ichnotaxon for vermetid anchoring bioerosion structures

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Earth Science

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/earth-science/articles/10.3389/feart.2022.906493

DOI=10.3389/feart.2022.906493

ISSN=2296-6463

ABSTRACT=<p>A revision of <italic>Renichnus arcuatus</italic> Mayoral, 1987, the vermetid attachment etching trace fossil (fixichnia), is presented here with an emended diagnosis. <italic>Renichnus arcuatus</italic> should be used only for nested reniform depressions arranged in linear series or solitary ones. A new ichnotaxon, <italic>Santichnus mayorali</italic> ichnogen. et ichnosp. nov., is described to name a bioerosion structure that previous authors included under <italic>R</italic>. <italic>arcuatus</italic>. The new trace fossil comes from the Miocene–Pliocene deposits from Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, Canary Islands, and is characterized as a shallow canal, semicircular in cross-section that occurs on the surface of hard substrates. <italic>Santichnus mayorali</italic> follows a logarithmic spiral path that may depart in its outer whorl in a somewhat straight shaft that becomes recurved back toward the spiral. From an actualistic point of view, this new ichnotaxon is interpreted as the anchorage bioerosion structure of vermetid gastropods. Given the close relationship between the two ichnotaxa (<italic>Renichnus</italic> and <italic>Santichnus</italic>) that share vermetid gastropods as their tracemakers, it is proposed that they should be considered as compound trace fossils when they occur interconnected.</p>