Pliocene body fossils from Santa Maria Island, Azores, have been studied for decades, but only more recently have ichnofossils received their due attention. Calcareous Pliocene deposits from the Baía de Nossa Senhora section contain numerous, diverse, well-preserved natural casts of invertebrate borings. The study of this type of fossils adds to knowledge on the dispersal of benthic faunas across oceans to volcanic oceanic islands. The borings belong to seven ichnogenera and twenty-two ichnotaxa at the ichnospecies level with more than half pertaining to Entobia, which is produced by clionaid sponges. Other borings found were produced by bivalves (Gastrochaenolites), polychaete worms (Caulostrepsis and Maeandropolydora), sipunculid worms (Trypanites), phoronid worms (Talpina) and ctenostome bryozoans (Iramena). The occurrence, ichnogeny, distribution and preservational state of the borings suggest that the bearing bioclasts have been exposed for several years on the sea floor. The borings derive from different bathymetric zones on the shelf, and their formation took place during several bioerosional phases. The association of borings belongs to the Entobia ichnofacies, which is typical of carbonate rocky shores, and shows close similarity to those described from the Paratethys, Mediterranean and partly the eastern Atlantic regions. This fits the idea that most of the Neogene shallow-water marine fauna in the Azores is biogeographically related to the eastern Atlantic shores.

来自亚速尔群岛圣玛丽亚岛的上新世人体化石已被研究了数十年，但直到最近，鱼类化石才受到应有的重视。来自Baíade Nossa Senhora断面的钙质​​上新世沉积物含有大量，保存完好的无脊椎动物钻孔的天然铸件。对这种化石的研究增加了对底栖动物在海洋中扩散到火山岛的认识。这些钻眼在鱼鳞科上属于七个鱼鳞纲和二十二个鱼鳞目，其中一半以上属于恩托比亚，它是由潮型海绵产生的。其它钻孔发现通过双壳类（产生Gastrochaenolites），多毛纲蠕虫（Caulostrepsis和Maeandropolydora），sipunculid蠕虫（Trypanites），帚虫动物门的蠕虫（Talpina）和ctenostome苔藓虫（Iramena）。钻孔的发生，变质作用，分布和保存状态表明，承载生物的破骨细胞已经在海底暴露了好几年。钻孔来自架子上不同的测深区，它们的形成发生在几个生物侵蚀阶段。无聊协会属于恩托比亚岩相是碳酸盐岩多岩石海岸的典型特征，显示出与Paratethys，地中海和部分东部大西洋地区所描述的相近。这符合亚速尔群岛大多数新近纪浅水海洋动物群在生物地理学上都与东大西洋海岸有关的想法。