NATURAL CASTS OF <em>ENTOBIA</em> FROM THE LATE CAENOZOIC OF SICILY

Abstract

As with other ichnofossils, the study of the ichogenus Entobia Bronn, 1837, attributed to the activity of boring sponges, is useful to understand taphonomic processes and reconstruct paleoenvironments. Here we delineate a diverse Entobia assemblage from Sicily, the first described from this Mediterranean island, based on the discovery of well-preserved natural casts. The studied association is represented by seven ichnotaxa, Entobia cateniformis, E. cateniformis form A, E. geometrica, E. laquea, E. ?megastoma, E. ovula, E. ?paradoxa, which come from the late Caenozoic sites of Altavilla Milicia and Sferracavallo, in north-western Sicily. Aragonitic bivalves, mostly veneroids, served as substrate for the boring organisms responsible of producing these ichnotaxa. Entobia was also found associated with natural casts of the boring Caulostrepsis taeniola, produced by polychaetes. Ichnology and shell-bed taphonomy indicates that investigated deposits formed in conditions of low rate of sedimentation; post depositional processes involved chemical conditions favorable to the preservation of calcite shells.

Editorial: Advances in bioerosion in the 21st century: new challenges

“…Research, that crosses many disciplines among the sciences, has explored the mechanisms and effects of bioerosion. Since the term "bioerosion" was established by Neumann already 55 years ago (Neumann, 1966), a wide variety of bioerosion research has been conducted and various papers have been published focusing on topics from micro (e.g., Calcinai et al, 2008;Golubic et al, 2016;Wisshak et al, 2018;Heřmanová et al, 2023) to macro bioerosion organisms (e.g., Santos et al, 2003;Garilli et al, 2022), from many different marine (e.g., Akpan, 1990;Calcinai et al, 2011;Santos et al, 2015) and non-marine environments (e.g., Bolotov et al, 2018;Mayoral et al, 2020;Mikuláš et al, 2020) to different climatic zones (e.g., Aitken and Risk, 1988;Tribollet, 2008;Cerrano et al, 2010;Wisshak et al, 2011;Wizemann et al, 2018;Patterson et al, 2020;Wisshak et al, 2021;Meyer et al, 2022).…”