Ichnotaxonomy: Finding Patterns in a Welter of Information - Trace Fossils as Indicators of Sedimentary Environments - page 51

TABLE 1 Generalized Morphological Characteristics of Some Ethological

Categories of Trace Fossils. Modified in Part after Frey and Seilacher (1980)

Ethological category Characteristic morphology

Resting traces (cubichnia): traces made as
temporary hiding or resting places, or for
related purposes.

Shallow, trough-like depressions,
recording to some extent the maker's
ventral morphology; traces usually
isolated, but in some cases overlapping or
sequential, or even intergradational with
locomotion or escape traces.

Dwelling traces (domichnia): traces made
as permanent or long-term homes.

Burrows or borings consisting of originally
open hollows, or of a permanent cavity
filled by the tracemaker, reflecting to some
degree the outline of the maker and inmany
cases with sculpture reflecting its
appendages or its method of excavation;
traces simple to U-shaped, Y-shaped, or
complexly branched, typically vertical to
oblique near the surface but commonly
incorporating horizontal elements at depth;
fill usually passive; walls commonly lined.

Locomotion traces (repichnia): traces
made while moving from one place to
another.

Traces generally simple and shallow, either
continuous or discontinuous; may
incorporate resting traces. Trackways
made up of repeated sets of discontinuous
impressions reflecting the maker's
appendages and their motion in the
substrate; trails consisting of continuous
grooves or ridges of sediment with more or
less parallel sides, in some cases meniscate
or annulated.

Grazing traces (pascichnia): traces made
by surface-feeding.

Shallow grooves and pits, either
continuous or discontinuous, generally
reflecting maximum utilization of a
substrate surface, as in meandering, coiled,
or otherwise patterned course.

Feeding traces (fodinichnia): traces of
deposit-feeding within the substrate.

Burrows or borings originally held open
only temporarily; traces simple to
complex; orientation variable; fill
commonly active; complex burrows with
repeatedly branched probes or with
gradually shifting burrows (spreite); pattern
commonly showing avoidance of
reburrowing previously used sediment;
wall usually with minimal or no lining.