Classification of Trace Fossils

Classification is one of the tools of scientific discovery, no less so in the study of trace fossils than in any other science. Many different kinds of classification are possible. Simple descriptive classifications, although better than nothing, are of very limited value. Trace fossils have three distinct and significant aspects, to each of which a unique classification attaches: (1) the preservational (stratinomic), which treats of the origin of the fossil in the rocks, (2) the behavioral (ethological), which treats of the biological function represented in the fossil, and (3) the phylogenetic (taxonomic), which is concerned with the identity of the organism that produced the fossil.

Relationships established in the stratinomic classification are limited in number and are informative mainly about the characteristics of sedimentation when and where fossilization took place. The ethological classification is generally the most appropriate, because it provides insight into the environment at the time of formation. The taxonomic classification is of very limited applicability; phyletic identifications are possible only in a few cases, mainly certain tracks or trails.

Agreed nomenclatural procedures, involving the acceptance of a code for a binomial system of names related to types, are beset with difficulties. But if any nomenclature is devised for international adoption, it should be based on a classification of trace fossils as the product of organic behavioral patterns