Bioerosion in the middle Eocene larger foraminifer Nummulites in the Fayum depression, Egypt

The present paper focuses for the first time on the trace fossils present in carbonate tests of the famous Egyptian middle Eocene larger foraminifer Nummulites gizehensis group. Bioerosion is represented by a unique diversified assemblage of seven ichnospecies belonging to four ichnogenera. Diagnostic drilling holes of the ichnogenus Oichnus are represented by the three ichnospecies O. simplex, O. paraboloides and O. asperus. Rare spiral galleries of Trypanites helicus and sinuous tunnels of Maeandropolydora sulcans were identified. Simple U-shaped borings of Caulostrepsis taeniola and Caulostrepsis isp. were also recognized within the studied nummulites. The reported drilling holes are attributed essentially to the predation of gastropods, whereas the other recognized galleries are assigned mainly to boring activities of the polychaete worms. Well-preserved tests with rare bioerosion and encrustation indicate deposition under a high rate of sedimentation and no prolonged transportation. Conversely, taphonomic characteristics of the bioeroded and encrusted nummulites can be used as good palaeoecological indictors of a deposition under low to fair rate of sedimentation. Coexistence of non-bioeroded and bioeroded/encrusted tests, common thick-bedded nummulite wackestone and packestone, predominated larger and flat Nummulites spp., and non-preferred imbrications are taken altogether with the reported ichnological assemblage to suggest that the nummulites were accumulated in situ and/or under weak influence of physical processes (storm and waves) in a shallow-marine environment, possibly middle to inner carbonate ramps.