Kouphichnium
Temporal range:
Mesolimulus walchi with trackway
Trace fossil classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Chelicerata
Order: Xiphosura
Ichnogenus: †Kouphichnium
Nopcsa, 1923

Kouphichnium is an ichnogenus that has been attributed to limulids (horseshoe crabs). Kouphichnium fossils resemble the footprints of birds, sometimes in conjunction with a medial line,[1] and were initially thought to be bird or pterosaur tracks. The footprints are now believed to be the imprints of specialized limulid appendages, called pushers, terminating in four plates, used to push against the sediment. The medial line is left by the animal's telson. This ichnogenus is registered in the Carboniferous to the Cretaceous, in marine marginal environments in Tennessee, the United States and in Poland, as well as non-marine environments of Argentina and England, among others.[2] The genus contains five species, K. arizonae, K. cordifomnis, K. lithographicum, K. minusculum and K. walchi.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Martin, Anthony J. "Kouphichnium isp". Archived from the original on 2017-10-15.
  2. ↑ Aceñolaza, F. G., & Buatois, L. A. (1991). Trazas fósiles del Paleozoico superior continental argentino. Ameghiniana, 28, 89-108. (in Spanish)


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