Ichnology of Late Cretaceous echinoids from the Maastrichtian type area (The Netherlands, Belgium) – 3. Podichnus Bromley and Surlyk and a crinoid attachment on the echinoid Echinocorys Leske from the Lixhe area, Belgium

The tests of large Late Cretaceous holasteroid and spatangoid echinoids provided hard substrates that could become infested, both before and after death, by a range of invertebrates. Specimens of Echinocorys gr. conoidea (Goldfuss) from the Lixhe 1 Member (Gulpen Formation) of north-east Belgium are well-known as bored and encrusted benthic islands. A brachiopod pedicle attachment, Podichnus sp. cf. P. centrifugalis Bromley and Surlyk, is located on the apical system of a strongly-infested test; this was the highest point of the echinoid even after death. This would have favoured the brachiopod feeding in clean water. A bourgueticrinid crinoid attachment at mid-height on the test is conical, but lacks encrusting radices. Such a brachiopod-crinoid association is, perhaps, more typical of the Palaeozoic than of the latest Mesozoic (i.e., Maastrichtian).