Grateful if anyone can identify the creature that makes these "burrows" along the bedding planes of the shales exposed at low tide in Kimmerdige Bay, Dorset (UK). I guess at some form of polychaete worm but welcome a genus/species - but maybe it's something else... (but not a fossil I'm positive).
Thanks - Happy New Year everyone.
This isnt a fossil? As in it can be wiped away with a finger for instance?
If it is a trace fossil, wait till I get home and tell you far more IF it is modern it woould be quite possible a perwinkle - Littorina sp. - it is common to see them making meandering traces like this on wet sand or very shallow pools where they are living and grazing.
Ok, well these look to be surface grazing traces. IF they were fossils they would be referred to the ichnogenus Nereites. They represent grazing and feeding by either worms or the kinds of small gastropods you find on beaches. If they are modernish they will probably be made by Nereis diversicolor; the ragworm.
Beyond that, unless you see the animal making the trace there is no way of knowing the exact species for each case as different organisms can make similar looking traces.
They might be caused by the polychaete worm Polydora ciliata or a similar species. http://natureinfocus.wordpress.com/tag/polydora-ciliata/ But they look very regular and neat... My best guess I'm afraid...