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Ichnos

The aim of Ichnos is to promote excellence in ichnologic research through publication of articles dealing with the ethologic and ecologic significance of tracemaking organisms; organism-substrate interrelationships; and the role of biogenic processes in environmental reconstruction, sediment dynamics, sequence or event stratigraphy, biogeochemistry, and sedimentary diagenesis.

It was first published in 1990 with Robert W. Frey and George S. Pemberton as editors. In 1993 Ron Pickerill replaced Bob Frey as co-editor of the journal until 2008, when he was replaced by Murray Gingras. George Pemberton continued his role as editor up until his death in 2018. Currently, Murray Gingras (University of Alberta) and Luis A. Buatois (University of Saskatchewan) are the editors of Ichnos.

Recent articles

Freshwater to low salinity expressions of Cretaceous Glossifungites-demarcated autogenic stratigraphic surfaces, central Utah

Michael R. King, Scott E. Botterill, Murray K. Gingras & James A. MacEachern

One of the most important contributions that S. George Pemberton made to the field of ichnology was the identification that burrowed firmgrounds associated with the Glossifungites Ichnofacies, commonly demarcate important sequence stratigraphic allogenic surfaces, and more recently described autogenic surfaces. This study considers an outcrop example from the Turonian Ferron Sandstone of central Utah, wherein high and low abundance monospecific suites of Glossifungites isp. are preserved landward of marginal-marine settings, recording colonization in channels under low salinity conditions. High abundances of Glossifungites isp. are associated with sloped areas of the erosional surfaces due to environmental preference, and with clay-rich underlying lithologies owing to either substrate selection or toponomy. These suites of the Glossifungites Ichnofacies demarcate surfaces at the bases of small, stacked channels encased in coastal plain strata. Stacking suggests repeated colonization related to an autogenic process. The enclosing strata and estimated position of the shoreline indicate a more landward affinity than previously reported for the ichnogenus Glossifungites, which is normally related to erosional nearshore processes or, less commonly, to offshore submarine channel development. Glossifungites-like burrows are constructed in modern freshwater settings by subaqueous insects, such as mayfly nymphs, but the trace fossil widths reported from the Ferron Sandstone are up to one and a half times larger than these modern examples. This suggests that the described trace fossils were made by marine-recruited, brackish-water crustaceans that created similar-sized burrows, or if constructed by subaqueous insects, the tracemakers were divergent in size or body plan from known modern tracemakers.

Published online: 16 Dec 2020

Ichnology Newsletter

Ichnology Newsletter was first published in 1968 by James D. Howard. Its main purpose was to distribute current bibliography on ichnology. Soon, Robert W. Frey joined Howard as an editor, and the Newsletter became longer and more elaborate, adding announcements of news, meetings, and books, together with current research and addresses of subscribers. After five years, Howard and Frey gave the editorship over to Charles T. Siemers (1974-76). Succeeding editors were Gary W. Hill (1979-88) and S. George Pemberton (1989-90). After the issue no. 19 in 1990, the newsletter stopped publication for almost a decade. In 1998, with Andrew K. Rindsberg and Alfred Uchman as editors, Ichnology Newsletter revived with the same spirit that it had before. Rindsberg and Uchman were responsible for 7 issues between 1998 and 2004, two of them (20 and 21) still available in the web. In 2006, issue no 27 was edited  by Shahin Dashtgard (Simon Fraser University) and Murray Gingras (University of Alberta). Issue no 28 was edited by Shahin Dashtgard (Simon Fraser University) and Noelia Carmona (Universidad Nacional de Río Negro) in 2011. The Ichnology Newsletter is no longer active.

Special Publications

Several special publications have resulted from the successive International Congresses on Ichnology (Ichnia). These are:

 

Baucon, A. & Neto de Carvalho, C. (Eds) 2017. Proceedings of Ichnia 2016 - the 4th International Congress on Ichnology Ichnology for the 21st century. Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana 56, v. 2.

McIlroy, D. (Ed.) 2015. Ichnology: Papers from Ichnia III: Geological Association of Canada, Miscellaneous Publication 9.

Uchman, A. & Rindsberg, A.K. (Eds) 2010. Advances in marine ichnology. Special Issue Acta Geologica Polonica 60, v. 1.

Pienkowski, G., Martin, A.J. & Meyer, C. (Eds) 2009. Advances in marginal marine and non-marine ichnology. Special Issue Geological Quarterly 53, v. 4.

Bromley, R., Buatois, L.A., Mángano, M.G., Genise, J. & Melchor, R. (Eds) 2007. Sediment-Organism Interactions: A multifaceted ichnology. SEPM Special Publication 88.

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