Ecological Significances of the Ichnofauna

Trace fossils have proven to be a valuable tool for evaluating the recovery of benthic ecosystems following the Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) mass extinction, as well as other mass extinction events. There are several proxies, such as ichnodiversity, ichnodisparity, complexity, burrow size and tiering level, that have been employed to unravel the processes of biotic recovery. In this chapter, we first describe some of these ichno-ecological proxies such as ichnodiversity and ichnodisparity and also introduce another two relatively new ecological proxies—ecospace utilization and ecosystem engineering—and the analysis of the ichnotaxa from China was undertaken by using these proxies. Secondly, we analyze variations in these proxies across the Permian-Triassic mass extinction interval and the Early Triassic, spanning environments from brackish to carbonate ramp, platform, lower shoreface, and shelf-slope-basin settings. This analysis aims to explore potential environmental influences on the behaviors and ecology of trace-making organisms during the P-Tr mass extinction and its aftermath.