Anoigmaichnus | |
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Trace fossil classification | |
Genus: | †Anoigmaichnus Vinn, Wilson, Mõtus and Toom, 2014 |
Type ichnospecies | |
†Anoigmaichnus odinsholmensis Vinn, Wilson, Mõtus and Toom, 2014
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Anoigmaichnus is an ichnogenus of bioclaustrations (a type of trace fossil). Anoigmaichnus includes shafts perpendicular to their hosts' growth surfaces or tilted (up to 45°); conical to cylindrical; circular to oval cross-sections; lacking separate wall. Their apertures are elevated above their hosts' growth surfaces, forming short chimney-like structures. Anoigmaichnus is the world's earliest known macroscopic endobiotic symbiont and it may have been a parasite. It occurs in the Middle Ordovician bryozoans of Osmussaar Island, Estonia.[1]
Wisshak, Knaust and Bertling (2019) state that Anoigmaichnus odinsholmensis resembles Trypanites weisei, which occasionally shows elevated apertures in its type material, and therefore they regard Anoigmaichnus as a junior synonym of Trypanites.[2]