Ichnogenus Thalassinoides Ehrenberg 1944

Ichnogenus Thalassinoides Ehrenberg, 1944 (Fig. 3) Crustaceans living in the modern deep South China Sea produce Thalassinoides- like burrows that document a sequestrichnial behaviour. Two kinds of burrows were encountered, which contained abundant foraminiferal tests stowed in greenish anoxic sediment. One burrow type contains benthic agglutinated foraminifera tests, which consist mainly of Pinatubo-1991 ash but were stowed below the ash in anoxic sediment (Kaminski & Wetzel 2004). The other kind of Thalassinoides occurs in water depths below the CCD; it exhibits a laminated fill consisting of calcareous planktonic foraminiferal tests that are stowed and preserved in the burrow, whereas they are already dissolved in the overlying hemipelagic sediment from which they originate (Wetzel & Unverricht 2013). The calcareous foraminiferal tests must have been stowed shortly after their deposition; otherwise they would show dissolution features. Partly truncated laminae in the burrow imply later reworking by the producer (Fig. 3).