A glimpse of a fish face — An exceptional fish feeding trace fossil from the Lower Devonian of the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland

Abstract

An exceptionally well-preserved assemblage of numerous invertebrate and vertebrate trace fossils is described from the Lower Devonian of the Holy Cross Mountains, southern Poland. Two trace-bearing horizons occur in the shallow-marine sequence that is exposed in a small outcrop near Ujazd village. One of the trace fossils is preserved as a bilobate, generally elliptical, epichnial pit is described as Osculichnus tarnowskae isp. nov. and interpreted as a unique example of praedichnia. Neoichnologic experiments and observations indicate that the ichnogenus Osculichnus was produced by feeding fish. The fish producing O. tarnowskae probably hunted bivalves, polychaetes and arthropods, which are represented by invertebrate trace fossils in the same horizons. The overall shape and morphological details of O. tarnowskae suggest that it was made by a lungfish broadly similar to Dipnorhynchus. The trace provides the first direct evidence for Devonian lungfish feeding behaviour, as well as the first record of three-dimensional soft-tissue morphology of the snout area of an Emsian representative of this group. The trace fossils from Ujazd provide new insight into the palaeoecology and taphonomy of the Lower Devonian of the Holy Cross Mountains.