Taphonomy of a limpet

Abstract Limpets are a group of gastropods that generate distinctive traces – their homing scars – and whose shells are bored both by predators and invertebrates forming domiciles. A Recent shell of Patella vulgata Linnaeus shows a distinctive and unusual preservation. It was collected from the north (Solent) coast of the Isle of Wight, southern England, from Queen Victoria’s private bathing beach, Osborne House. The specimen preserves only the lower third of the shell, adjacent to the aperture. The surface of breakage is densely infested by the U-shaped boring Caulostrepsis taeniola Clarke, commonly the spoor of spionid polychaetes such as Polydora spp. The inferred taphonomic history is that the lower third of the dead shell was protected by burial in sediment while the apex was destroyed by a dense infestation of boring spionids. Such preservation is highly distinctive and might not be recognized in the fossil record when shells are only seen in two dimensions in a lithified rock surface.