Ichnotaxonomy: Finding Patterns in a Welter of Information

Naming trace fossils is necessary if we are to communicate ideas about them. In the absence of DNA-based molecular analysis, ichnologists must rely on morphologic characters to classify trace fossils. Careful observation and description of trace fossils are therefore essential to nomenclature in ichnology. Since 1953, trace fossils have been classified simultaneously according to several systems based on stratinomic, biologic, ethologic, and binominal systematic approaches. Each of these approaches has its uses, for example, the ethologic approach is the basis of the archetypical ichnofacies model, and the systematic (Linnean) approach, with ichnogenera and ichnospecies, is the one that is most commonly used for information retrieval. The best classifications are those that are the most objective and that allow the generation of new hypotheses and predictions, reflecting patterns in the data rather than in the mind of the observer.