128 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
ROSETTED TRAILS OF THE PALEOZOIC 
BY JOHN M. CLARKE 
There were boring worms of great size in the Silurian sea 
as indicated by the accompanying illustrations of a specimen 
from the beds of Mont Joli, Gaspe. The figures are in natural 
proportions and essentially accurate though somewhat diagram- 
matic representations of corrugated saucerlike impressions in the 
mud, preserved in relief in the sandy overlying layer. The great 
worm that made them, extending part way out of its vertical tube, 
whipped its protruded body out radially, in one and eventually in all 
directions, each such protrusion being followed by a broad groove 
as the worm drew its body back toward or into its hole. It is 
interesting to note that the laps or throws of the body always. 
reach the same distance from the central tube, thus producing a 
very striking rosettelike depression which is emphasized when 
thrown into relief. We have evidences in plenty of Paleozoic 
worms which had the habit of looping back their extended bodies 
into the central tube catching up windrows of sand and making 
shapes that have frequently been called by the generic names, 
Taonurus and Spirophyton; and of vertical tubes transecting 
successive bedding planes. But the flapping ancestral gephy- 
reans (if such they prove to be) have left few of their traces. 
This seems an appropriate opportunity to take account of cer- 
tain rather impressive rosette or chrysanthemumlike tufted casts 
of which we have brought together a considerable series from 
the upper-Chemung sand-slabs of southwestern New York. These 
have been accumulating for many years and have come to be 
known in the circle that has been interested in them: as fossil 
daisies. They are bodies in high relief, obviously the moulds of 
natural depressions on the sea bottom, I to 2 inches in diameter, 
their cushion-shaped surface divided into two distinct parts, an 
inner, like the disk of a daisy, usually circular in outline but some- 
times apparenty four-divided by cross-lines, the outer or peri- 
pheral part being sharply set off from the rest. The surface of 
both parts is closely covered by sharp close-set and fine thread- 
like radial markings not laid regularly but overlapping and cross- 
ing. ‘There is no continuity in these lines across the two areas 
of the surface and indeed their arrangement on these relief 
mounds suggests the lay of the grass in a haycock. There 1s no 
