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'''Trichophycus pedum''' (or '''Treptichnus pedum'''; formerly '''Phycodes pedum''') is regarded as the earliest wide-spread complex trace fossil. Its earliest appearance, which was contemporaneous with the last of the Ediacaran biota, is used to define the dividing line between the Ediacaran and Cambrian Periods.^[1]
However, it has since been discovered below the originally defined GSSP^[2].
''Trichophycus'' produced a fairly complicated and distinctive burrow pattern: along with a central, sometimes sinuous or looping burrow. It made successive probes upward through the sediment in search of nutrients, generating a trace pattern reminiscent of a fan or twisted rope.^[3] It is considered more complex than earlier Ediacaran fauna; and its trace fossils, which occur worldwide, are usually found in strata above them.^[4]
Since it lacked any hard anatomical features, such as shells or bones, no fossilized remains of ''Trichophycus'' (besides its burrows) have been found. Its morphology and relationship to modern animals is therefore unknown, and some dispute even its inclusion into the animal kingdom.^[5]

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References

References

1. Subcommission on Neoproterozoic Stratigraphy - URL retrieved November 27, 2006
2.
3. The Emergence of Animals, , Mark A., McMenamin, Columbia University Press, , ISBN 0-231-06647-3
4. Life in the Cambrian
5. Precambrian Sedimentary Environments, , Wladyslaw, Altermann, Blackwell Publishing, , ISBN 0-632-06415-3