ichnospecies

English

Etymology

From ichno- (“trace”) +‎ species, suggesting an analogy with the species level of the taxonomy of organisms.

Noun

ichnospecies (plural ichnospecies)

1. (paleontology) A level of taxonomical classification of trace fossils.
   • 2000, Martin Lockley, Christian Meyer, Dinosaur Tracks and Other Fossil Footprints of Europe, Columbia University Press, page 112:

     There is certainly little discussion of distinctive features that warrant the establishment of new ichnospecies. In short, the ichnospecies labels are something of a compromise. By this we mean that the use of familiar ichnogenera (Grallator, Eubrontes, and Batrachopus) acknowledges similarity, whereas the use of new ichnospecies names conveys the suggestion that the track assemblages are distinct in some way.

   • 2016, M. Gabriela Mángano, Luis A. Buatois, “3: The Cambrian Explosion”, in M. Gabriela Mángano, Luis A. Buatois, editors, The Trace-Fossil Record of Major Evolutionary Events: Volume 1, Springer, page 85:

     Oldhamia encompasses six ichnospecies, O. alata, O. antiqua, O. curvata, O. flabellata, O. geniculata, and O. radiata, all of them present in lower Cambrian rocks, with a few ichnospecies persisting into the middle Cambrian (Fig. 3.5) (Seilacher et al. 2005; Herbosch and Verniers 2011; Jensen et al. 2013).

   • 2017 March 22, Elsa Panciroli, The Guardian, Walking in the footsteps of giants and gerbils: what fossil prints can tell us:

     A recent paper by a team from Brazil described a new ichnospecies of these tracks: Brasilichnium saltatorium.

Usage notes

• Generally, only two levels of taxonomic classification of trace fossils are used: ichnogenus and ichnospecies. Higher levels have been used by some authors, but their usefulness is disputed.
• The classification ichnospecies plays no part in the taxonomy of organisms. The connection is one of analogy: ichnospecies is to ichnogenus as species is to genus.
  • Nevertheless, given a trace fossil of an ichnospecies known to be produced by only a limited number of organism species, it may be possible to deduce which species produced it. More generally, the description of an ichnospecies reveals aspects of the behaviour of the species that produced it.

Related terms

• ichnofamily
• ichnogenus
• ichnology
• ichnotaxon
• ichnotaxonomy

Translations

level of classification of trace fossils

• French: please add this translation if you can
• German: Ichnospezies f
• Italian: icnospecie f