Pallichnus

This ichnogenus is assigned to casts of near-spherical chambers attributed to burrowing beetles. The name is derived from Greek words for palla (ball) and ichnos (track).

Reference: Retallack, Gregory. (1984). Trace fossils burrowing beetles and bees in an Oligocene paleosol, Badlands National Park, South Dakota... Journal of Paleontology. 58. 

Morphology: 
Spherical

Dung Beetle Balls

Here we have two ancient Egyptian scarabs admiring the casts of beetle brooding balls left by distant relatives some 30 million years ago. So what do these have to do with coprolites? I'm glad you asked! You see, modern dung beetles roll balls of dung collected from poo piles (usually from herbivores) into their burrows. They then lay an egg in each dung ball, which the beetle larva (grub) feeds on once it hatches (YUM-my).

Subscribe to RSS - Pallichnus