''Undichna'' is a
fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
-fin, or fish-swimming
fossil trail left as a
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
impression on a substrate, or the opposite impression on an overlying substrate; this type of fossil is an
ichnofossil, in this case a specific
ichnogenus, ''Undichna''; the term "undichna" is composed of the words: 'und'–'ichna', for "wave-trace".
At present, the oldest known ''Undichna'' were made by
cephalaspids, that only had presumptive motion scenarios, due to the
physiological
Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...
form of the cephalaspids as predating the
teleosts, (bony fishes). The trails are from the border of
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, from 400
mya
Mya may refer to:
Brands and product names
* Mya (program), an intelligent personal assistant created by Motorola
* Mya (TV channel), an Italian Television channel
* Midwest Young Artists, a comprehensive youth music program
Codes
* Burmese ...
, in an ancient riverbed environment.
See also
*
Lateral undulation
Undulatory locomotion is the type of motion characterized by wave-like movement patterns that act to propel an animal forward. Examples of this type of gait include crawling in snakes, or swimming in the lamprey. Although this is typically the ...
, a type of
undulation
Undulation may refer to:
* Lateral undulation, the most primitive of vertebrate locomotor patterns
* Undulation of the geoid, the separation between the geoid and the reference ellipsoid of the Earth
* Undulation point, a point on a curve where th ...
for fish, sea animals, and
snake
Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...
s
*
Trace fossil
*
Fossil trackway
External links
''Undichna'' and the England Cephalaspid trackways
Fish trace fossils
Fossil trackways
Prehistoric fish
{{paleo-fish-stub