A new etching trace from the Savignone Conglomerate (Oligocene), NW Italy, probably produced by limpet gastropods

Abstract

A new ichnogenus and ichnospecies (Solealites ovalis) of etching trace is preserved on the surfaces of clasts from the Savignone Conglomerate (Oligocene) in the Palaeogene Piemonte Basin in NW Italy. It is a shallow, oval depression with a central elevation, which was produced probably by limpet gastropods and served as their home scar, but other gastropods or even sea anemones are not excluded as the trace makers. The conglomerate is interpreted as a deposit of a fan delta, whose clasts have been bioeroded in an intertidal and shallow subtidal shore zone and redeposited to the deeper sea.