The Case for Archetypal Vertebrate Ichnofacies

ABSTRACT

Vertebrate and invertebrate ichnology have different traditions—the ethological and the biotaxonomic—resulting in corresponding ethoichnofacies and biotaxonichnofacies. Archetypal vertebrate ichnofacies are Chelichnus, Grallator, Brontopodus, Batrachichnus, and Characichnos. Ichnofacies are discernable in nonmarine environments. Tetrapod trace fossils can be utilized in the definition of ichnofacies. It is reasonable to use trace fossils of only one phylum (Vertebrata) to define ichnofacies because vertebrate ichnofossils yield biotaxonichnofacies, whereas Seilacherian ichnofacies are ethoichnofacies. Early named vertebrate ichnofacies are ichnocoenoses of limited temporal extent. Archetypal vertebrate ichnofacies are biotaxonomic in nature, so they are neither directly comparable nor subsumable within Seilacherian ethoichnofacies.

KEYWORDS:

• Archetypal vertebrate Ichnofacies
• Tetrapod
• Phanerozoic
• Biotaxonichnofacies
• Ethoichnofacies

Acknowledgments

We thank many colleagues for discussions about ichnofacies including Martin Lockley, Louis Buatois, Nick Minter, and Al Lerner. We are honored to dedicate this article to the late Dolf Seilacher for conceiving of the elegant concept of ichnofacies. We also thank Hendrik Klein and Richard T. McCrea for helpful reviews.