Trace fossil classification: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:57, 17 December 2019

Revision as of 08:49, 5 December 2020

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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 Paläontologie: 1. Über die Methoden der Palichnologie |journal=Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie |series=Abhandlungen |volume=96 |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 |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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* ''Volichnia'': traces that show the position a flying organism (usually an insect) landed on a soft sediment.

Fixichnia<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gibert |first=J. M. de |last2=Domènech |first2=R. |last3=Martinell |first3=J. |year=2004 |title=An ethological framework for animal bioerosion trace fossils upon mineral substrates with proposal of new class, fixichnia |journal=Lethaia |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=429–437 |doi=10.1080/00241160410002144 }}</ref> is perhaps the group with the most weight as a candidate for the next accepted ethological class, being not fully described by any of the eleven currently accepted categories. There is also potential for the three plant traces (cecidoichnia, corrosichnia and sphenoichnia) to gain recognition in coming years, with little attention having been paid to them since their proposal.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mikuláš |first=R. |year=1999 |title=Notes on the concept of plant trace fossils related to plant-generated sedimentary structures |journal=Věštník Českého Geologického ústavu |volume=74 |issue=1 |pages=39–42 |doi= }}</ref>

==Toponomic classification==