A History of Ideas in Ichnology - Trace Fossils as Indicators of Sedimentary Environments - page 29

as Nara, Naruse, and Nifuku continued to actively develop paleoichnology,
greatly improving the knowledge of the Japanese ichnological heritage (Supple-
mentary Material: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780444538130 ).
At the end of the 1970s, science and technology in China became an integral
part of the socio-economic development of the country. At the same time, the
concepts and methods of trace-fossil analysis were introduced from abroad, being
formalized in textbooks such as Introduction to Ichnology ( Wu, 1986 ). This led to
a period of intense ichnological research, characterized by systematic studies.
Chinese sedimentary units yield great abundance of both shallow-marine and
deep-sea trace fossils, including excellent trace-fossil assemblages at the Precam-
brian/Cambrian boundary. Marine trace fossils were studied by, among others,
Yang Shi-pu, Yang-Zun-yi, Gong Yi-ming, Wang Yue, Hu Bin, Jin Hui-juan,
and Li Yu-ci ( Yang et al., 2004 ). Since the late 1980s, scientists such as Wu
Xian-tao, Hu Bin, and Shi Zhen-sheng studied continental trace fossils. At this
stage, ichnological analysis aimed at both paleoecological reconstruction and
applied investigations (i.e., energy exploration; Hu et al., 1997 ) while ichnofabric
analysis started by the end of the 1990s (Supplementary Material: http://booksite.
elsevier.com/9780444538130 ) .
Over the course of the Modern Era, ichnological investigations rapidly diver-
sified in India. The study of Phanerozoic trace fossils started at the end of the
1960s, stimulated by the rich ichnological heritage of the Cretaceous units of
central-western India. In particular, Chiplonkar and Badve initiated a series of
influential studies on the Bagh Beds, which successively attracted a vast number
of researchers (i.e., Verma, Ghare, Sanganwar, Kundal, Kumar; Supplementary
Material: http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780444538130 ) . By the same years, the
first reports of Neoproterozoic burrows (Among others Misra and Awasthi,
1962 ) raised a “trace-fossil rush” in the Vindhya Mountains. As a consequence,
Proterozoic trace fossils were abundantly explored by ichnologists such as Sarkar,
Maithy, Singh, and Chakraborti, just to cite some (see Maithy, 1990 ,foracom-
prehensive reference list). Despite the bewildering diversity of tracemaking
invertebrate communities and depositional environments, neoichnology is the
most recent step in Indian ichnology. Since 1980, the Sundarban Delta Complex,
hosting the world's largest mangrove forest, has been studied by Bakshi,
Chakrabarti, Chattopadhyay, and De, among others.
Following a slow start, the development of ichnology into an established
subdiscipline of geology in southern Africa only occurred in the early 1970s
and 1980s (Modern Era of Ichnology). This period is marked by the publication
of the first detailed trace-fossil descriptions, ichnotaxonomic treatments, and
ichnologically based biostratigraphic and paleoecological reconstructions. This
golden era of southern African ichnology is most of all featured in contributions
of international importance by Ann Anderson (Paleozoic invertebrate trace
fossils, South Africa), Paul Ellenberger (Mesozoic vertebrate tracks, Lesotho),
and Gerald Germs (Precambrian and Cambrian invertebrate trace fossils,
Namibia and South Africa; Supplementary Material). These active years also