Description
Metulatheca starki
Late Miocene (Mohnian)
Aguajito Shale Member, Monterey Formation.
Carmel, California, USA
Excellent 42mm on 78mm slab.
Pectinariid Worm, soft-bodied. Lagerstatten.
This is a recently-named worm tube assigned to the Family Pectinariidae, a group of polychaete worms dating back perhaps to the Cretaceous and still living today.
This is actually one of those kinds of trace fossils that is known from only a few sites (e.g. Sakhalin Island) worldwide.
Oddball and affordable piece for the collector looking for Cenozoic fossils of softbodied animals to display with the more ancient forms.