“…This ichnofacies is typical of the uppermost 3-7 cm in the modern subseafloor sediment of the South China Sea, where water depths exceed 4000 m (Wetzel, 2002), although after correcting for the expected thermal subsidence we anticipate that these assemblages must have been formed at shallower water depths, albeit ones at least as deep as typical seafloor spreading ridges (~2500 m). Work on deep-sea cores from the Central Pacific suggests that Zoophycos is more common in sediments with slightly higher organic carbon content (Kemp, 1995), and because this particular trace is relatively rare in our cores, we deduce that the organic carbon content is never particularly high, an observation confirmed by shipboard analysis (see Geochemistry). Conversely, we note that vertical burrows such as Skolithos are almost absent from our cores.…”