Ichnofacies
Trace fossil
title: "Ichnofacies" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["trace-fossils"] description: "Trace fossil" topic_path: "general/trace-fossils" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichnofacies" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Trace fossil ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Psilonichnus.png" caption="''Psilonichnus''"] ::
An ichnofacies is an assemblage of trace fossils that provides an indication of the conditions that their formative organisms inhabited.
Concept
Trace fossil assemblages are far from random; the range of fossils recorded in association is constrained by the environment in which the trace-making organisms dwelt. Palaeontologist Adolf Seilacher pioneered the concept of ichnofacies, whereby the state of a sedimentary system at its time of deposition could be deduced by noting the trace fossils in association with one another.{{cite journal | author = Seilacher, A. | year = 1967 | title = Bathymetry of trace fossils | journal = Marine Geology | volume = 5 | issue = 5–6 | doi = 10.1016/0025-3227(67)90051-5 | pages = 413–428
Significance
Ichnofacies can provide information about water depth, salinity, turbidity and energy. In general, traces found in shallower water are vertical, those in deeper water are more horizontal and patterned. This is partly because of the relative abundance of suspended food particles, such as plankton, in the shallower waters of the photic zone, and partly because vertical burrows are more secure in the turbulent conditions of shallow water. In deeper waters, there is a necessary transition to sediment feeding (extracting nutrients from the mud). Food availability, hence trace type, is also controlled by energy: high energy environments keep food particles suspended, whereas in lower energy areas, food settles out evenly, and burrows will tend to spread out to cover as much area as economically as possible.
Ichnofacies have a major advantage over using body fossils to gauge the same factors: body fossils can be transported, but trace fossils are always in situ.
Recognized invertebrate ichnofacies
::data[format=table]
| Marine Invertebrate Ichnofacies{{cite book | Name | Common Ichnogenera | Substrate | Inferred Paleoenvironment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| last1=Benton | first1=M.J. | author-link = Michael Benton | last2=Harper | first2=D.A.T. |
| Scoyenia | Skolithos, Cruziana, Diplichnites, Rusophycus{{cite journal | year = 1990 | title = Trace fossils as paleoenvironmental indicators in the Taylor Group (Devonian) of Antarctica | journal = Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |
| title = The Psilonichnus ichnocoenose, and its relationship to adjacent marine and nonmarine ichnocoenoses along the Georgia coast | last1 = Frey | first1 = Robert W. | date = 1987 | journal = Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology |
| title = Uniformity in marine invertebrate ichnology | last1 = Frey | first1 = R. W. | date = 1980 | journal = Lethaia |
| Teredolites | Teredolites, Thalassinoides | title = Ichnology and sedimentology of shallow to marginal marine systems | last1 = Pemberton | first1 = S. George |
| Glossifungites | title = Ichnology: Organism-Substrate Interactions in Space and Time | last1 = Buatois | first1 = Luis | publisher = Cambridge University Press |
| Skolithos | Skolithos, Ophiomorpha, Arenicolites, Diplocraterion | Unconsolidated littoral sands | Beaches and sandy tidal flats, shallow water, foreshore to upper-shoreface, above wavebase | |
| Cruziana | Arthrophycus, Phycodes, Rhizocorallium, Teichichnus, Arenicolites, Rosselia, Bergaueria, Thalassinoides, Lockeia, Protovirgularia, Curvolithus, Dimorphichnus, Cruziana, Rusophycus | Sand and silt heterolithic successions and organic detritus | Mid to distal continental shelves. Below normal wave base, but not necessarily below storm wave base | |
| Zoophycos | Zoophycos, Phycosiphon, Chondrites | Marine softground, impure sands and silts | Deeper water, bottom of shelf; turbidite facies | |
| Nereites | Nereites, Megagrapton, Protopaleodictyon, Spirophycus, Helminthoraphe, Glockerichnus, Spiroraphe, Cosmoraphe, Urohelminthoida, Desmograpton, Paleodictyon, Scolicia | Fine-grained muds and clays interbedded with turbidite silts | Deep water, pelagic, base-of-slope turbidity systems | |
| :: |
Recognized vertebrate ichnofacies
Charirichnium ::data[format=table]
| Vertebrate Ichnofacies |
|---|
| Name |
| Chelichnus (Laoporus) |
| Grallator |
| Brontopodus |
| Batrachichnus |
| Characichnos |
| :: |
References
References
- "Ichnofacies". UCL.
- (1987). "The Psilonichnus ichnocoenose, and its relationship to adjacent marine and nonmarine ichnocoenoses along the Georgia coast". Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology.
- (1980). "Uniformity in marine invertebrate ichnology". Lethaia.
- "Facies Models".
- (1984). "A Cretaceous woodground: the Teredolites ichnofacies". Journal of Paleontology.
- (2004). "Modern perspectives on the Teredolites ichnofacies: observations from Willapa Bay, Washington". PALAIOS.
- (2001). "Ichnology and sedimentology of shallow to marginal marine systems". Geological Association of Canada Short Course Notes.
- (2011). "Ichnology: Organism-Substrate Interactions in Space and Time". Cambridge University Press.
- Lockley, M.G., Hunt, A.P., and Meyer, C.A., 1994. Vertebrate tracks and the ichnofacies concept: Implications for palaeoecology and palichnostratigraphy. In ''The Palaeobiology of Trace Fossils'', ed. S.K. Donovan, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, p. 241-268.
- (2007). "Tetrapod ichnofacies: a new paradigm". Ichnos.
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