Description
Metulatheca starki
Late Miocene (Mohnian)
Aguajito Shale Member, Monterey Fm.
Carmel, CA, USA
Excellent 42mm on 64mm 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. It has a unique lifestyle in that it pulls tiny shells from the sediment around itself to make an armored tube. These California specimens use the shells of tiny foraminifera to build their tube.
This is actually one of those kinds of trace fossils that is known from only a few sites (e.g. Sakhalin Island) worldwide.
This is a weird and affordable piece for the collector looking for Cenozoic fossils of softbodied animals to display with the more ancient forms.
