Behavioural and Environmental Significance of the Rosetted trace Fossil Dactyloidites ottoi (Geinitz, 1849) from the Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) of Kachchh, Western India

For decades, naming the rosetted trace fossil species of Dactyloidites ottoi or Haentzschelinia ottoi has been a matter of discussion. The phobotactic behaviour of the trace makers reflecting systematic mining to form branched radial elements converging at the central vertical shafts in both the ichnogenera are similar and foreknown. Berriasian marine deltaic deposits of the Jhuran Formation, India, contain several such endichnial mid-tier traces of Dactyloidites ottoi (Geinitz, 1849), at six different levels in a highly bioturbated subarkosic bedded sandstone. Its occurrence is associated with Arenicolites, Ophiomorpha, Planolites and Rhizocorallium. The analysis of the trace fossils from the archives reveals the mining strategy resulting in Cambrian to Holocene Dactyloidites and Haentzschelinia traces. The present specimens of D. ottoi and the morphological variants within the traces also indicate an effect of the variations in palaeobiological and palaeoenvironmental aspects.