Trace fossil classification: Difference between revisions

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===The Seilacherian System===

[[File:BoredEncrustedShell.JPG|thumb|Sponge borings (''[[Entobia]]'') and encrusters on a modern bivalve shell, North Carolina; an example of ''Domichnia''.]]

[[Adolf Seilacher]] was the first to propose a broadly accepted [[ethology|ethological]] basis for trace fossil classification.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Seilacher, |first=A. (|year=1953) |title=Studien zur paläontologiePaläontologie: 1. Über die methodenMethoden der palichnologie.Palichnologie |journal=Neues Jahrbuch furfür Geologie und Paläontologie, |series=Abhandlungen |volume=96: 421-452.|pages=421–452 |doi= }}</ref><ref name="Seilacher, A 1964">{{cite journal |last=Seilacher, |first=A. (|year=1964) |title=Sedimentological classification and nomenclature of trace fossils. |journal=Sedimentology |volume=3: 253-256.|issue= |pages=253–256 [[|doi:=10.1111/j.1365-3091.1964.tb00464.x]] }}</ref> He recognized that most trace fossils are created by [[animal]]s in one of five main behavioural activities, and named them accordingly:

* ''Cubichnia'' are the traces of organisms left on the surface of a soft [[sediment]]. This behaviour may simply be resting as in the case of a [[starfish]], but might also evidence the hiding place of [[prey]], or even the ambush position of a [[predator]].

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* ''[[Fodinichnia]]'' are feeding traces which are formed as a result of organisms disturbing the sediment in their search for food. They are normally created by [[deposit feeder]]s as they tunnel through soft sediments, usually producing a 3D structure.

* ''Pascichnia'' are a different type of feeding trace for which the trophic guild responsible are [[grazing|grazer]]s. They create 2D features as they scour the surface of a hard or soft [[Substrate (biology)|substrate]] in order to obtain [[nutriment]].

* ''Repichnia'' are locomotory tracks that show evidence of organisms moving from one station to another, usually in a near-straight to slightly curved line. Most of the very few traces to be verifiably assigned to a specific organism are in this category, such as various [[arthropod]] and [[vertebrate]] trackways.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Seilacher, |first=A. (|year=1967) |title=Bathymetry of trace fossils. |journal=Marine Geology |volume=5: 413-428|issue= |pages=413–428 |doi=10.1016/0025-3227(67)90051-5 }}</ref>

===Other ethological classes===