Submarine enigmatic shelf morphologies:insights from the CORSUB Project

The first time we observed these structures was 2024, during a survey in the area, and we described them as having a beehive-like arrangement. They look like clusters of sub-polygonal cells, and the external boundaries seems more robust than the inner part. They remind to Paleodycton spp., a trace fossil usually interpreted to be a burrow, which occurs from Precambrian/Early Cambrian in the geologic marine record, up to modern, deep oceans. The origin of the trace fossil is still enigmatic, but the scale is completely different. In 2004, only a few grab samples were collected, leading to a preliminary hypothesis of a biogenic origin (Bracchi, The CORSUB project, funded under the Italian PRIN-2022 program, adopts an interdisciplinary approach to explore unknown morphological structures occurring on submerged terraces at ~ 80-100 m of water depth around Punta Licosa (Cilento Peninsula, Tyrrhenian Sea). thesis).