An occurrence of the tube fossil Torlessia mackayi Bather, 1906 from southwest Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract

An outcrop of Upper Triassic Torlesse strata containing a spectacular occurrence of Torlessia mackayi Bather is documented from near Sinclair Head, southwest Wellington. Hundreds of well‐preserved specimens of this fossil, many of them large and complete, occur on some 10 m2 of a single bedding plane. Complete specimens range 30–70 mm in length, have medium to strong curvature, and are now flattened, although reconstructions suggest that the original form was tubular with diameters of 1.0–1.3 mm. The tube surface is ornamented with longitudinal striae. Some areas of the outcrop show prominent ripple marks, and the tubes of T. mackayi are aligned subparallel to the ripple crests, indicating postmortem transport from a nearby dense grouping of the organisms. © 1995 The Royal Society of New Zealand.