Clastices

Clastices is a fictional genus created for illustrative purposes in discussions of clastic sedimentology and paleoecology. It is not an actual taxon described in the scientific literature, but is used in teaching materials and hypothetical case studies to demonstrate how fossil assemblages relate to sedimentary environments.

Taxonomy and species (fictional): Domain Eukaryota; Kingdom Animalia; Phylum Chordata; Class Aves; Family Clastornithidae (fictional); Genus Clastices. Recognized species in the example include Clastices littoralis and Clastices maritimus.

Description: Clastices is imagined as a small, shore-adapted bird with a slender, pointed bill and long legs for walking along tidal flats. Plumage is unknown; skeletal features in the scenario emphasize light, robust bones suited to a wading lifestyle.

Discovery and geographic setting: In the hypothetical narrative, Clastices is described from fossil deposits of a Late Eocene coastal lagoon on an unnamed archipelago. The holotype is attributed to a fictitious researcher, Dr. A. Rivera, in a 1989 publication.

Significance and interpretation: The fictional taxon is presented to illustrate how clastic sedimentology influences the preservation of coastal vertebrates, including the role of grain size, sedimentary structures, and taphonomic bias in reconstructing paleoenvironments. It also demonstrates the limitations of inferences drawn from fragmentary material.

See also: Clastic sedimentology, Paleontology, Fossil birds. References: This article concerns a fictional genus used for pedagogical purposes; no actual specimens exist.