Petroxestes

Petroxestes pera borings in an Upper Ordovician hardground (Waynesville Formation, southern Ohio).

Petroxestes is a shallow, elongate boring (a type of trace fossil) originally found excavated in carbonate skeletons and hardgrounds of the Upper Ordovician of North America (Wilson and Palmer, 1988, 2006). These Ordovician borings were likely made by the mytilacean bivalve Corallidomus as it ground a shallow groove in the substrate to maintain its feeding position (Pojeta and Palmer, 1976). They are thus the earliest known bivalve borings (Taylor and Wilson, 2003). Petroxestes was later described from the Lower Silurian of Anticosti Island (Canada) by Tapanila and Copper (2002) and the Miocene of the Caribbean by Pickerill et al. (2001).

References

• Pickerill, R.D., Donovan, S.K., Portell, R.W. (2001). "The bioerosional ichnofossil Petroxestes pera Wilson and Palmer from the Middle Miocene of Carriacou, Lesser Antilles". Caribbean Journal of Science. 37: 130–131.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Pojeta, J., Jr., Palmer, T.J. (1976). "The origin of rock boring in mytilacean pelecypods". Alcheringa. 1: 167–179. doi:10.1080/03115517608619068.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Tapanila, L., Copper, P. (2002). "Endolithic trace fossils in Ordovician-Silurian corals and stromatoporoids, Anticosti Island, eastern Canada". Acta Geologica Hispanica. 37: 15–20.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Taylor, P.D., Wilson. M.A. (2003). "Palaeoecology and evolution of marine hard substrate communities". Earth-Science Reviews. 62: 1–103. doi:10.1016/S0012-8252(02)00131-9.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Wilson, M.A., Palmer, T.J. (1988). "Nomenclature of a bivalve boring from the Upper Ordovician of the midwestern United States". Journal of Paleontology. 62: 306–308.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Wilson, M.A., Palmer, T.J. (2006). "Patterns and processes in the Ordovician Bioerosion Revolution". Ichnos. 13: 109–112. doi:10.1080/10420940600850505.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)