A History of Ideas in Ichnology - Trace Fossils as Indicators of Sedimentary Environments - page 26

the most active researchers in petroleum ichnology and leading numerous work-
shops for petroleum companies around the world.
David Bottjer taught the first ichnological course in North America at the
University of Southern California. He is probably best known for developing
the tiering concept along with William Ausich, among many other accomplish-
ments (Supplementary Material: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780444538130 ) .
His students include many of today's most active ichnologists. The loose associ-
ation of researchers connected with the Gerace Research Station on San Salvador
(Bahamas) should be mentioned as well. Centered on H. Allen Curran of the
Smith College, they include many accomplished researchers. Notably, Curran
(1985) edited the first ichnological book treating all major depositional environ-
ments. Space does not allow a complete listing of every North American ichnol-
ogist here; our intent is to make clear that many of the most influential were
inspired and trained by other ichnologists, and many indeed at a few centers.
9.4 The Eastern Bloc During the Early Modern Era
The social and political consequences of World War II influenced the develop-
ment of ichnology. The rise of English and the decline of German as the inter-
national language of science created new channels for disseminating research at
a global scale. On the geopolitical side, the Soviet Union and the United States
emerged as rival superpowers after the end of the war. The so-called Eastern
Bloc, under direct influence of the Soviet Union, developed an independent
but complementary school of ichnology.
East German paleontologist Arno Herman M¨ller worked, based on his foun-
dations of biostratinomy, on many ichnological issues from the Carboniferous,
Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous of Germany. In his classic textbook Lehrbuch
der Pala¨ozoologie , he dedicated a long appendix on the ichnology of inverte-
brates with focus on facies reconstruction ( M¨ller, 1989 , and references therein).
The Polish geologist Marian Ksi˛˙kiewicz ( Fig. 4 C) occupies a prominent
place in the fields of ichnology and sedimentary geology. At the early begin-
nings of the Modern Era, Ksi˛˙kiewicz (1954) distinguished between pre-
and post-depositional trace fossils; this fundamental idea was developed and
popularized in the successive decade by Seilacher (see Seilacher, 2007 : 206).
Ksi˛˙kiewicz had also a profound impact in ichnotaxonomy; his numerous con-
tributions were summarized in two classical works ( Ksi˛˙kiewicz, 1970, 1977 ),
in which trace fossils are classified in nine morphological groups. During his
career, Ksi˛˙kiewicz formed one of the largest ichnological collections in the
world, which has been studied by later workers, such as Kern and Uchman
(Supplementary Material: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780444538130 ).
Ksi˛˙kiewicz also worked on paleoecology, stratigraphy, taphonomy, and
paleoenvironmental significance of flysch trace fossils, trying to calibrate
bathymetry of trace fossils on the basis of benthic Foraminifera (Supplementary
Material: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780444538130 ).