Marine organisms have occupied hard substrates since the Archaean. Shells, rocks, wood
and sedimentary hardgrounds offer relatively stable habitats compared to unconsolidated …

A remarkable diversity of bioerosion trace fossils is reflected by the plethora of ichnotaxa that
has been proposed for these structures during the past two centuries. Bioerosion traces …

A uniform approach to ichnotaxonomy has been for the most part positively received by the
scientific community. We carry it further here, presenting a revised treatment of trace fossil …

About 65 ichnogenera and a number of bioerosional trace fossils that are unnamed are
catalogued with respect to their stratigraphic ranges. In most cases, corresponding …

Endosymbionts are organisms that live within the growing skeleton of a live host organism,
producing a cavity called a bioclaustration. The endosymbiont lives inside the …

Parasites are ubiquitous in modern ecosystems, occupy one of the most successful life
modes, promote ecosystem stability, and, despite their typically diminutive size and lack of a …

Attached organisms on hard substrates have been termed sessile, fixed, encrusting,
cemented. These terms reflect the palaeontological aspect of these communities, the …

Many animals and plants that colonize hard surfaces in the sea are sessile and either bore
into, or cement themselves permanently to the substrate surface. Because they retain their …

Thanatofacies and the skeletonized components of the living facies, from which they
originate have been studied from the Santa Maria di Leuca (SML) deep-water coral mound …

The paleontological literature on marine invertebrates is rich in supposed examples of
parasitism and our tabulation shows a nearly even distribution of reported cases through the …