Comparing fossil gastropod trails found at Solnhofen with gastropod trails found on the surface of a recent inter-tidal mudflat in Hong Kong

This post is one in a series of posts which compares the depositional environment of the late Jurassic lithographic limestones at Solnhofen in Germany based on extracts from Solnhofen: A Study in Mesozoic Palaeontology with observations made at a modern inter-tidal mudflat at Ha Pak Nai, Deep Bay, New Territories, Hong Kong and proposes an inter-tidal mudflat origin for the examples cited.

This post compares comments on, and a photograph of trails made by the gastropod Rissoa sp. found at Solnhofen with photographs of foraging gastropods on the surface of the inter-tidal mudflats at Ha Pak Nai, Deep Bay, Hong Kong.

Extract from: Solnhofen: A Study in Mesozoic Palaeontology

“Also known are shorter, irregular trails made by the gastropod Rissoa, which may be very numerous in places, particularly Pfalzpaint, where the trails came from one or two beds. Rissoa may have lived on strands of algae which were also carried into the lagoon marooning their passengers” (Barthel et al - Page 79).

Photographs of gastropods foraging at Ha Pak Nai

(Scale where shown: 30 centimetre/12 inch ruler)

Littorina sp - small size gastropod

Batillaria sp - medium size gastropod

Small and medium size foraging trails together.

(the lower photograph is a close-up of the top photograph)

References

Barthel, K.W., Swinburne, N.H.M., and Conway Morris, S. (1994). Solnhofen: A Study in Mesozoic Palaeontology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.