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English reviews contributed to disseminate Richter's work outside from
Germany ( Cad´e and Goldring, 2007 ).
When Richter was designated director of the Senckenberg Museum, Walter
H¨ntzschel became his successor at Wilhelmshaven. Walter H¨ntzschel, who
first worked on trace fossils from the Creatceous of Saxony, led the Sencken-
berg Institution from 1934-1938 before he continued his ichnological work in
Dresden (see Cad´e and Goldring, 2007 ). In the same period, an important con-
tribution originated far from Senckenberg: it was Othenio Abel's Vorzeitliche
Lebenspuren , which became the standard reference book over the next 20 years
( Abel, 1935; Osgood, 1975 ).
In 1938, Wilhelm Sch¨fer succeeded H¨ntzschel at Wilhelmshaven. Sch¨fer
continued to develop the Aktuopala¨ontologie as an important branch of geo-
sciences, with special focus on facies relationships. Unfortunately, the world
was entering a tumultuous period, which culminated in the dramatic events
of World War II. Ichnology suffered heavily from these years: Richter tried
to reduce Nazi influence in Senckenberg, H ¨ ntzschel was drafted in a Russian
prison camp, Sch ¨ fer was in military service, and Senckenberg am Meer was
almost destroyed.
After the war, H ¨ ntzschel worked as a librarian in Hamburg, becoming an
expert in ichnological literature ( Cad´eandGoldring,2007 ). This opened the
doors for his most influential contribution, the ichnological section of the
Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology ( H¨ntzschel, 1975 ). In 1947, Sch¨fer
started to rebuild the Marine Institute and its research facilities. Though
never part of the Wilhelmshaven group, Adolf Seilacher had proficient con-
tacts with Sch¨fer and H¨ntzschel ( Seilacher, 2007 ). This cultural exchange,
together with the studies on the Wadden Sea, formed the base for Seilacher's
seminal papers, which initiated the Modern Era of Ichnology ( Cad´eand
Goldring, 2007 ).
9. MODERN ERA
9.1 The Ethological Revolution
The Seilacherian approach of the early 1950s reshaped ichnology by opening up
new pursuits unexpected in the classical approaches of the previous stages.
Adolf Seilacher ( Fig. 4 A) significantly contributed to the conceptual framework
of modern ichnology, establishing trace fossils as facies indicators. A consid-
erable part of the conceptual innovations introduced by Seilacher evolved
around one concept, viz. that trace fossils are a manifestation of behavior.
On this side, Seilacher (1953) developed an ethological classification, consist-
ing of basic categories named for the prevailing behavioral pattern. For
instance, cubichnia correspond to resting traces. As Cad´e and Goldring
(2007) argued, Seilacher's ethological classification was possibly influenced
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