Teredolites Leymerie in the Lower Greensand Group (Cretaceous) of the Isle of Wight and the problematic ichnology of reworked clasts

Nineteenth-century references to clavate borings in woody substrates in the Lower Greensand of the Isle of Wight used a variety of names, but Teredo (a wood-boring bivalve, not a boring), Teredolithes (a junior synonym of Teredolites) and Gastrochaena (a bivalve borer of rock and shelly substrates, not a boring in wood) are all nomenclatorially incorrect. Borings in a beach clast derived from the Lower Greensand Group and recently collected from Sandown Bay, Isle of Wight, are referred to Teredolites isp. cf. T. longissimus Kelly and Bromley. This specimen confirms the presence of Teredolites in the Lower Greensand Group and demonstrates a common ichnological problem of beach clasts; borings, either fossil or modern, are incompletely preserved, making confident classification below the level of ichnogenus problematic.