ichnofossil
English
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Noun
editichnofossil (plural ichnofossils)
- (paleontology) A trace fossil; a fossil record that preserves some activity of an organism, but no part of the organism itself.
- 2007, Charles E. Savrda, “6: Taphonomy of Trace Fossils”, in William Miller, III, editor, Trace Fossils, Elsevier, page 106:
- Suites of taphonomic factors that influence body fossils and ichnofossils are clearly not identical. Nonetheless, without too much twisting, ichnofossil-lagerstätten can be placed into the same genetic categories.
- 2010, Eduardo S. Bellosi et al., “21: Ichnofacies Examination of the Sarmiento Formation”, in R. H. Madden, A. A. Carlini, M. G. Vucetich, R. F. Kay, editors, The Paleontology of Gran Barranca, Cambridge University Press, page 313:
- The only abundant ichnofossils are large and inclined structures in La Cancha Bed (Profile K), interpreted as mammal burrows.
- 2017 March 22, Elsa Panciroli, “Walking in the footsteps of giants and gerbils: what fossil prints can tell us”, in The Guardian:
- Changes in the preservational environment in the thousands or millions of years between the creation of each set of prints results in these different forms of ichnofossil.
Related terms
editFurther reading
edit- Trace fossil on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Trace fossil classification on Wikipedia.Wikipedia