Thalassinoides | |
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Thalassinoides, burrows produced by thalassinideans, from the Middle Jurassic, Makhtesh Qatan, southern Israel | |
Trace fossil classification | |
Ichnogenus: | †
Thalassinoides Ehrenberg, 1944 |
Thalassinoides is an ichnogenus of trace fossil ( fossil records of lifeforms' movement, rather than of the lifeforms themselves) used to refer to "dichotomously or T-branched boxworks, mazes and shafts, unlined and unornamented". [1]: 179 Facies of Thalassinoides increased suddenly in abundance at the beginning of the Mesozoic. [1]: 251 Such burrows are made by a number of organisms, including the sea anemone Cerianthus, Balanoglossus and fishes, but are most closely associated with decapod crustaceans of the (former) infraorder Thalassinidea. [2]