Deep-sea ichnology: The relationships between depositional environment and endobenthic organism

Trace fossils and bioturbational structures are import ant component of deep-sea sediment fabric. Various ecological factors controlling distribution of their producers can be recognized Therefore, they curry important data on palaeoenvironmental parameters, such as mode of deposition, oxygenation, trophic level, bathymetry, rate of sedimentation, substrate consistency, direction of current flow and others. Trace fossils in turbiditic environment can be grouped in the pre- and post-depositional forms. They belong to the Zoophycos and Nereites ichnofacies. Within the latter, roughly, the Ophiomorpha rudis–Paleodictyon–Nereites ichnosubfacies may express a bathymetric trend from inner to outer deep-sea fan.Trace fossils were subjected to evolutionary processes influencing their producers. This is reflected in composition of trace fossil assemblages, overall changes in diversity and environmental shift of some individual ichnotaxa.