Osspecus tuscia Higgs, Little, Glover, Dahlgren, Smith et Dominici, 2012
| ID | 21768 |
|---|---|
| Fossil group | Bioerosional trace fossils |
| Taxon | Osspecus tuscia |
| Author | Higgs, Little, Glover, Dahlgren, Smith et Dominici, 2012 |
| Reference | Higgs et al., 2012 |
| Parent taxon | Osspecus |
| FAD | Upper Cretaceous |
| LAD | Pliocene |
Type specimens
| Type | No | Type locality | Type horizon | Remarks | Reference | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| holotype | Museo di Storia Naturale, Sezione diGeologia e Paleontologia, Florence, Italy | IGF 1134T | Higgs et al., 2012 |
Description(s)
Higgs et al., 2012:
Diagnosis: Osspecus boring with sub-millimetre-sized apertures. The base of the apertural canal tapers into a chamber that ispartially flattened in the vertical plane. Short globular exploratorylobes extend from the main body of the chamber.
Jamison-Todd et al., 2025a:
Emended diagnosis. Boring with chamber diameters of 0.7–2.0mm and total depth of 0.6–2.1mm. The wide aperture leads to a tapering aperture neck that is wider at the base near the top of the chamber. The chamber sits at mid-depth below the surface of the bone. Radial symmetry is centred at the base of the aperture neck, and no secondary symmetry is evident. Branches are of mid-length relative to the chamber and maximum arc length is 180degrees or less, so that the branches generally point outwards or inwards but not up towards the bone surface. Branch shape is lobate and also tapering, with branches having pointed ends and widening into the chamber.
Jamison-Todd et al., 2025c:
Emended diagnosis: Boring with chamber diameters of 0.7–2.0mm and total depth of 0.6–2.1mm. The wide aperture leads to a tapering aperture neck that is wider at the base near the top of the chamber. The chamber sits at mid-depth below the surface of the bone. Radial symmetry is centred at the base of the aperture neck, and no secondary symmetry is evident. Branches are of mid-length relative to the chamber and maximum arc length is 180degrees or less, so that the branches generally point outwards or inwards but not up towards the bone surface. Branch shape is lobate and also tapering, with branches having pointed ends and widening into the chamber.