Zoophycos in the Carlisle Center Formation, of the Devonian of the state of New York, USA.
Zoophycos Massalongo, 1855 is a paragénero of icnofósiles present in sedimentary rocks of superficial marine facies to deep marine, never fluvial, from the Precambrian period to the present.
Zoophycos traces are very complex. They appear as a structure profusely striated by narrow traces of profile in U or J. These traces form numerous lobed planes, irregular and not completely parallel to each other, of helical shape around a central gallery. The result is a spreite-type tabular fossil with fecal pellets appearing on its walls.
The substrate in which they were made is not constant, appearing on sandy, muddy or silty bottoms. It has been related to feeding structures of an annelid or arthropod. This organism would form a vertical gallery corresponding to the axis of the ichnofossil. From this axis the producer would filter the substrate in different planes in search of organic matter leaving behind sand and waste. However, in some specimens it is observed that the material that fills the trace is similar to that of the surface, so it is possible that the organism actually fed outside the gallery and not filtering the sediment.
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