Wood-borings and wood-boring bivalves from the Late Jurassic of Southern Germany

Wood-borings of the ichnotaxon Teredolites longissimus KELLY & BROMLEY, 1984 are described for the first time from the Late Jurassic of Southern Germany. They occur in sunken driftwood from the Nusplingen Plattenkalk (Late Kimmeridgian, Beckeri Zone). There are no remains of bivalve shells preserved within these borings. In contrast, in a second occurrence, another bed of Early Kimmeridgian age (Lacunosamergel Formation; Hypselocyclum Zone) yielded an assemblage of the wood-boring-bivalve Turnus waldheimii (ORBIGNY, 1845) together with numerous specimens of the inoceramid bivalve Parainoceramus laevigatus (MONSTER in GOLDFUSS, 1835) and diminutive gastropods (Cryptaulax sp.). This is the stratigraphically oldest record of Turnus waldheimii and is the first occurrence recognised outside Russia. Although there were no wood remains preserved we interpret the unique bivalve accumulation as the place where or near where fossil driftwood and its associated fauna sank and were buried. The straight linings of the Early Kimmeridgian Turnus borings are morphologically different from the curved Teredolites ichnofossil and thus we assume that the latter was probably produced by a different wood-boring taxon.