ichnology (noun, “ICK-nawl-uh-jee”)
Ichnology is the branch of science that studies the footprints, burrows, and materials left behind by living things. These clues left behind are called traces.
Ichnology does not study the bodies of living things. Nor do we study fossilized remains of previous lives, such as bones. Instead, ichnology looks at how those living things changed their environments. Such changes may include marks in the mud or holes in the sediment.
Scientists who study traces are called ichnologists. Many ichnologists study fossilized traces. Fossil footprints can tell us about the environment of a particular area when the fossil was formed. Trace fossils may tell us whether the area was once a swamp or a deep-sea basin. That’s because different creatures live in these two places. And they each leave their own clues. These clues can tell us about past water depths, salinity, light levels, and more.
Other ichnologists study modern traces. This information helps scientists better understand the past and present. Here is an example. Marine animals such as bivalves live in burrows dug into the ocean floor. When the environment changes, such as when temperatures drop or food becomes scarce, they may dig deeper holes or move to new locations. We cannot directly measure things like temperature or food availability hundreds of thousands of years ago. But comparing fossilized burrow patterns to today’s clam burrows may provide clues about the environments these ancient animals lived in.
The history of ichnology goes back a long time. Consider ancient humans who hunted by tracking animal tracks. They were already using the science of ichnology.
in one sentence
To understand that duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs lived in groups, scientists turned to the field of ichnology and studied fossilized dinosaur footprints.
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Source: www.snexplores.org
