Reply to comment on “Ichnological analysis of contourites: Past, present and future” by Francisco J. Rodríguez-Tovar and F. Javier Hernández-Molina [Earth-Science Reviews, 182 (2018), 28-41]

The comments of G. Shanmugam concerning the paper “Ichnological analysis of contourites: Past, present and future”, by Rodríguez-Tovar and Hernández-Molina (2018), imply that this study has tried to definitively resolve the issues of distinguishing contourites and differentiating them from other kinds of deposits. In reality, however, most of this reviewer's comments refer to issues that lie beyond of the scope of that contribution and therefore are not relevant to the paper. The criticisms of our work appear to be aimed at concepts and ideas from other authors.