A record of sequestration of plant material by marine burrowing animals as a new feeding strategy under oligotrophic conditions evidenced by pyrite microtextures

Lepidenteron mantelli is a trace fossil produced by a burrowing marine invertebrate (probably a polychaete) that sequestered plant macroremains in Cenomanian–Coniacian marly calcareous sediments of the Central European Basin during transgression events. For more than a century and half, this trace fossil has been mistaken for a fossil plant. In this paper, L. mantelli is described from upper Turonian marly limestones deposited under offshore, oligotrophic conditions in the Opole Trough, Southern Poland and its taxonomy and occurrences are summarized. Based on detailed studies of pyrite microtexture on wood fragments within the burrow and surrounding sediment, the feeding strategy of the L. mantelli trace maker is interpreted.