Research paper
Fossichnus solus and Oichnus simplex, two peculiar ichnospecies in modern benthic foraminifera from a polluted area in SW coast of Sardina, Italy
CARLA BUOSI
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Via Trentino 51, 09127 Cagliari, Italy. cbuosi@unica.it
Corresponding author
ANTONIETTA CHERCHI
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Via Trentino 51, 09127 Cagliari, Italy. acherchi@unica.it
PIERPAOLO ZUDDAS
Institut des Sciences de la Terre de Paris, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris-Sorbonne, place Jussieu 4, 75252 Paris Cédex05, France. pierpaolo.zuddas@upmc.fr
GIOVANNI DE GIUDICI
Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Via Trentino 51, 09127 Cagliari, Italy. gbgiudic@unica.it
ABSTRACT
The modern benthic foraminiferal tests collected from a coastal area of south-western Sardinia (Portoscuso-Portovesme) that is heavily polluted by industrial activity reveal intense and widespread bioerosional structures induced by diversified microborers. A large number of the foraminifera reveals microscopic round holes (1-60 μm in diameter) and roundish concavities (25×40 μm in external diameter) on their surface that belong, respectively, to the ichnospecies Oichnus simplex Bromley, 1981, and Fossichnus solus Nielsen et al., 2003. These traces just occur in the tests of the foraminifera which are heavily infested by microendolithic cyanobacteria, algae and fungi suggests comparable ethological behaviour between the ichnospecies Fossichnus and Oichnus and the microbial euendoliths that are ascribed to individual biological taxa. The greater occurrence of F. solus and O. simplex in the high-Mg foraminiferal porcelanaceous tests than in the low-Mg foraminiferal hyaline tests reveals that the bioerosional processes seem to be related to the Mg/Ca ratio, as well as to morphological structures of the taxa.
Keywords: Microbioerosion traces, benthic foraminifera, environmental control.
How to cite: Buosi, C., Cherchi, A., Zuddas, P. & De Giudici, G. 2014. Fossichnus solus and Oichnus simplex, two peculiar ichnospecies in modern benthic foraminifera from a polluted area in SW coast of Sardinia, Italy. Spanish Journal of Palaeontology, 29 (1), 71-82.
Received 16 May 2013, Accepted 02 August 2013, Published 30 June 2014
https://doi.org/10.7203/sjp.29.1.17490
