A distinctive bioglyph and its producer: Recent Gastrochaenolites Leymerie in a peat pebble, North Sea Coast of The Netherlands

A pebble of Quaternary peat collected from the Dutch coast north-northeast of Zandvoort, Noord Holland, preserves a recent boring, Gastrochaenolites isp. cf. G. lapidicus. This is geniculated and retains a distinctive, corrugated bioglyph. The probable producing bivalve was the pholad Barnea candida (Linne), known as the white piddock, or Petricola pholadiformis Lamarck, known as the American piddock, identified by beachcombing for boring shells. But these form a minute numerical fraction of a modern shelly death assemblage dominated by burrowing bivalves; an analogous approach with the fossil record is less likely to succeed.