ichnotaxon

English

The ichnogenus Thalassinoi, an ichnotaxon representing "dichotomously or T-branched boxworks, mazes and shafts, unlined and unornamented"

Etymology

From ichno- +‎ taxon.

Noun

ichnotaxon (plural ichnotaxa)

1. (taxonomy) A grouping, analogous to a biological taxon, used to classify footprints, burrows or other trace fossils, and hence, indirectly, the organisms that might have produced them.

   Ichnotaxa are names used to identify and distinguish morphologically distinctive ichnofossils, more commonly known as trace fossils. The binomial names of ichnospecies and their genera are to be written in italics.

   • 2007, Christian Klug et al., “10: Soft-tissue Attachment of Middle Triassic Ceratitida from Germany”, in Neil H. Landman, Richard Arnold Davis, Royal H. Mapes, editors, Cephalopods Present and Past, Springer, page 208:

     It is important to note here that exactly the same ichnotaxon co-occurs with phosphatized soft-tissues in schizodont bivalves of the same age (Klug et al., 2005).

   • 2013, Hendrik Klein, Spencer G. Lucas, “The Late Triassic tetrapod ichnotaxon Apatopus lineatus (Bock 1952) and its distribution”, in Lawrence H. Tanner, Justin A. Spielmann, Spencer G. Lucas, editors, The Triassic System, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, page 313:

     Parallel to the osteological record of phytosaurs, the ichnotaxon Apatopus lineatus reflects a widespread group of archosaurs living in habitats that only randomly overlapped those of fully terrestrial chirotherian trackmakers.

   • 2015, Adiël A. Klompmaker, Geoff A. Boxshall, “6: Fossil Crustaceans as Parasites and Hosts”, in Tim Littlewood, Kenneth De Baets, editors, Fossil Parasites, Elsevier (Academic Press), page 242:

     In a note, Donovan (2015) cast doubt on the establishment of the ichnotaxon K. crusta by Klompmaker et al. (2014) for the branchial swellings exemplified in Figure 1.

Usage notes

• Classification generally extends only to the specification of ichnogenus and ichnospecies. Some researchers use higher-level categories, even as far as ichnosuperclass, but their usefulness is disputed.
• Following the convention of ordinary taxonomy, both ichnogenus and ichnospecies are rendered in italics; the combination is called a binomial name.

Derived terms

• ichnotaxonomy

Related terms

• ichnofossil
• ichnogenus
• ichnology
• ichnospecies
• parataxon

Further reading

• Trace fossil on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Trace fossil classification on Wikipedia.Wikipedia