#Ichnology
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mostlymammoths.bsky.social
GORGEOUS artwork by Guilherme Gehr.

#ichnology #Brasil
From paper: Fig. 3 - Paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Botucatu paleodesert (Early Cretaceous, Berriasian-Barremian). The trackmaker of Farlowichnus rapidus Leonardi et al., 2024 has found a prey, namely, a specimen of the Brasilichnium elusivum Leonardi, 1981c trackmaker, which had unwisely ventured out of its den. The scene is depicted as occurring under the moonlight, as the best tracks were likely impressed at night, when the substrate was slightly moist with dew. Art by Guilherme Gehr.
November 6, 2025 at 2:24 AM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, walking with dinosaurs ~100 million years too late at the Davenport Ranch dinosaur tracksite (1st documented in 1940), near Bandera TX on a @geosociety.bsky.social pre-meeting field trip just 2 weeks ago. Tracks show evidence of herding sauropods & big theropods. 🧪🪨⚒️🦖🦕🐾 #ichnology
October 31, 2025 at 5:44 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Here's the research article reporting on the newly reinterpreted Mayan Dude Ranch sauropod trackway, which was published earlier in 2025. Kudos to "Jurassic Judy" for her discovery & for her well-deserved inclusion as a coauthor on the study. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 🧪🦕🐾🪨 #ichnology
www.tandfonline.com
October 24, 2025 at 1:20 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
More news about an incredible a Middle Jurassic (~170 mya) dinosaur tracksite near Oxford (U.K.), which includes one of the longest continuous dinosaur trackways in the world, made by a big sauropod. 🧪🦕🐾🪨 #ichnology
richardjbutler.bsky.social Richard Butler @richardjbutler.bsky.social · 29d
Back in June we were back on the Oxfordshire “dinosaur highway”, excavating more dinosaur tracks with our teams from the Universities of Birmingham, Oxford & Liverpool John Moores. The BBC have a story out today about our work at the site:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...
In the footsteps of giants - BBC News
One of the longest sets of dinosaur footprints in the world has been discovered in a limestone quary near Bicester, in Oxfordshire, England.
www.bbc.co.uk
October 14, 2025 at 11:22 AM
nplusodin.bsky.social
Палеонтологи обнаружили след, оставленный волочившим зад даманом, в плейстоценовых отложениях ЮАР. Возраст отпечатка составил 126 тысяч лет

https://nplus1.ru/news/2025/10/08/ichnology-rock-hyrax

#главноезанеделю
Даман волочил зад по песку 126 тысяч лет назад
N + 1 — главное издание о науке, технике и технологиях
nplus1.ru
October 12, 2025 at 3:44 PM
mammalssuck.bsky.social
Current Status: phys.org/news/2025-10...
Escalating Amazement Meme: Cool: Dinosaur Tracks: Dinosaur footprints: how do they form and what can they tell us? by Emily Osterloff for the Natural History Museum Very Cool: Fossilized Weaning in Neanderthal Teeth: Austin et al. 2013. Barium distributions in teeth reveal early-life dietary transitions in primates. Nature, 498(7453), 216-219. So Cool: Giant Sloth Hunt Tracks: Fossilized Human Footprint Found Nestled in a Giant Sloth Footprint by Ed Yong for the Atlantic AMAZING: Fossilized Mutual Destruction Nimravid Battle: The Dakota Badlands Used to Host Sabertoothed Pseudo-Cat Battles by Riley Black for the Smithsonian OH HOLY SHIT AMAZING: Fossilized Rock Hyrax Booty Skootch Tracks: Charles W. Helm et al, The unusual, unique ichnology of the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) and possible Pleistocene tracks and traces from South Africa, Ichnos (2025). DOI: 10.1080/10420940.2025.2546373
October 12, 2025 at 12:05 AM
historicalbiology.bsky.social
📣Editor spotlight

Diego Castanera is a Researcher at Deparment of Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain). He specialises in vertebrate ichnology with emphasis on dinosaur, pterosaur, crocodylomorph, mammal and bird tracks 🦖 🐊
October 8, 2025 at 11:15 AM
nplusodin.bsky.social
Палеонтологи обнаружили след, оставленный волочившим зад даманом, в плейстоценовых отложениях ЮАР. Возраст отпечатка составил 126 тысяч лет

https://nplus1.ru/news/2025/10/08/ichnology-rock-hyrax
Даман волочил зад по песку 126 тысяч лет назад
N + 1 — главное издание о науке, технике и технологиях
nplus1.ru
October 8, 2025 at 2:27 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
A fringe benefits of following people on Bluesky who are not in my academic disciplines (ichnology, paleontology, taphonomy) is learning about unique modern animal-behavioral modes & traces: e.g., pigs using lumps of biscuit dough to construct dens for attracting avians & ambush predation. 🧪🐖🕳️🐦
kyloboomhauer.bsky.social Paul Riddell @kyloboomhauer.bsky.social · Oct 7
I read about a pig farm that would get uncooked biscuit dough rejects from a Pillsbury factory, big lumps of dough. The pigs would chew dens in the dough, climb inside, and then wait for starlings.
October 8, 2025 at 3:30 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Here's an article in @theconversation.com about the extraordinary find of the oldest termite nest in Australia, which was also the largest wood nest from the Early Cretaceous AND the only such nest known from a formerly polar environment. theconversation.com/ancient-term... 🧪🪵🪨⚒️ #ichnology #insects
Ancient termite poo reveals 120 million-year-old secrets of Australia’s polar forests
One fossilised log from southern Australia has spilled the dirt on termites’ very cold and very ancient past.
theconversation.com
October 3, 2025 at 1:14 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, an ichnological 2-for-1 special in a body fossil: a termite nest packed with termite coprolites (feces) in an araucarian tree trunk, from the Early Cretaceous (~125 mya) of Victoria, Australia; oldest termite nest in Australia & largest wood nest from this time. 🧪🪵🪨⚒️ #ichnology
Gray to light brown fossilized (petrified) wood with interconnected spaces between the wood filled with sand-sized coprolites (fossil feces); the spaces are interpreted as a nest, and the coprolites are also attributed to termites. A few black spots on the surface are of modern marine mussels, with a marine snail and barnacle in the upper left, which were living there because the fossil tree was on a rocky marine platform on the coast of Victoria, Australia.
October 3, 2025 at 1:07 PM
ipc7.bsky.social
IPC7 will host 29 themed symposia plus one open general symposium.

🌟Today we feature:
Ichnology – traces as multi-disciplinary lenses into the deep past

For participation or further details:
Miengah Abrahams — miengah.abrahams@uct.ac.za
Emese Bordy — emese.bordy@uct.ac.za
September 13, 2025 at 2:15 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
I love seeing these examples of how the effects of ancient behaviors influence modern behaviors, especially when trace fossils from vastly different environments nudge them this way or that. 🧪🐾🦖 #ichnology #FossilFriday
stupond.bsky.social Stu Pond @stupond.bsky.social · Sep 12
Species interaction over millions of years. Limpets sheltering in a dinosaur footprint seen at the impressive Triassic track site at the Bendricks, Barri, Cymru. #FossilFriday
Species interaction over millions of years. Limpets sheltering in a dinosaur footprint at the Bendricks, an impressive Triassic track site at Barri, Cymru.
September 12, 2025 at 12:28 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Howdy! I'm a [looks at Bluesky handle] ichnologist, with ichnology = the study of traces: tracks, burrows, borings, nests, toothmarks, feces, & other indirect signs of behavior. I've worked on modern & fossil traces made by lots of different critters, & I love talking/teaching about them. 🧪🐾
a close up of a dinosaur 's foot in the woods
Alt: Close up of a theropod dinosaur's three-toed foot stomping on moist mud and lifting it, leaving behind a clear three-toed footprint behind, but while also pulling some of the mud out of the footprint.
media.tenor.com
April 14, 2025 at 11:20 PM
eavpalaeo.bsky.social
while his research, in collaboration with local enthusiast Paul Foulkes, examined the interaction between dinosaur movement and host sediments along the Broome coast. Tony's 1990 book, "Dinosaur Tracks", remains a classic in the field of #ichnology.
Impact of Sauropod Dinosaurs on Lagoonal Substrates in the Broome Sandstone (Lower Cretaceous), Western Australia
Existing knowledge of the tracks left by sauropod dinosaurs (loosely ‘brontosaurs’) is essentially two-dimensional, derived mainly from footprints exposed on bedding planes, but examples in the Broome...
dx.plos.org
July 24, 2025 at 8:20 AM
ichnologist.bsky.social
In observance of Halloween 2024, here's an "old" (2011) blog post of mine about my favorite Georgia-coast tracemakers: "Ghost Crabs and Their Ghostly Traces," a detective tale about some of their once-mysterious traces. 🧪🦀 #invertobber2024 #ichnology
www.georgialifetraces.com/2011/10/31/g...
Ghost Crabs and Their Ghostly Traces
The ghost crabs of the Georgia barrier islands – all belonging to the species Ocypode quadrata – are among my favorite tracemakers anywhere, any time. My ichnological admiration for them stems from…
www.georgialifetraces.com
October 31, 2024 at 12:21 PM
johnjacksonnathist.bsky.social
Lines in the sand: if all we have in fossil evidence is the marks left by an animal in sediments, how can we understand the species? Zekun Wang & @imranrahman.bsky.social use quantitative ichnology to solve this knotty problem with Gordia onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
December 20, 2023 at 5:19 PM
paleobyliam.bsky.social
Also up your alley @ichnologist.bsky.social!
#sciart #scientificillustration #paleo #paleontology #paleoart #ichnology
January 15, 2025 at 9:15 PM
mostlymammoths.bsky.social
A new regime of herbivory from diverse plant–arthropod interactions from the Middle Jurassic of northeastern #China

Lifang Xiao, Yuekun Wu et al 🧪⚒️ #ichnology #paleobotany #palaeobotany

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Diverse pictures of fossil plants and insect traces
September 30, 2024 at 10:24 PM
mostlymammoths.bsky.social
WOW!!

Take a (virtual) summer road trip to White Sands National Park to explore the fossilized tracks of giant ground sloths - Tyler Hayden @nhmla.bsky.social @tarpits.bsky.social

#ichnology 🧪🦥

tarpits.org/stories/walk...
Walking With Giant Sloths
Take a (virtual) summer road trip to White Sands National Park to explore the fossilized tracks of giant ground sloths
tarpits.org
August 4, 2024 at 1:59 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Today, in my first-year-student seminar (the "tracking class"), we'll be outside, looking for tracks & trails in Lullwater Preserve of Emory U. (Atlanta GA). Here are photos of students taking their "final exam" there in December 2016 (R) & opossum tracks + clam burrows (L). #ichnology
Two groups of students (3-4 people) in a forest during fall (lots of leaves on the ground), looking closely at the sand banks of a stream bank for animal tracks. Opossum tracks (five toes per footprint, with a rear footprint stepping onto the front footprint on each side) and tiny, shallow, and meandering clam burrows on a damp and dark-brown sandy surface.
October 4, 2023 at 1:34 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
Although I had not heard of the "Clearwater Monster" before now, I very much approve of its theropod-like tracks in this fun/terrifying illustration by @danielloxton.bsky.social. #ichnology
danielloxton.bsky.social Daniel Loxton 🇨🇦 @danielloxton.bsky.social · Feb 27
New illustration, created as a companion piece for my recent interview on the Squaring the Strange podcast, depicting the mythical "Clearwater monster" (which I previously investigated for my final Skeptic mag story). 
Listen to the interview: squaringthestrange.libsyn.com/episode-221-... 🪶🐡
Young man wearing checkered shirt and fedora flees from gigantic monster penguin on Florida beach, backlit by rising sun
February 27, 2024 at 2:04 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #TheropodThursday (why not?), a large (40-cm long) theropod #dinosaur track from the Cretaceous (~100 mya) Glen Rose Formation, Glen Rose TX. This dinosaur stepped on former lagoon sediments that had U-shaped invertebrate burrows, which were likely unoccupied when dino-stomped. #ichnology 1/2
Large (40 cm/ 16 in long) three-toed theropod dinosaur track, preserved as a depression, with points at the ends of each toe from claws and rounded in the "heel." Track is preserved in a gray and light-brown limestone with fractures, and accompanied by smaller (1 cm/0.7 in wide) linear ovals on the surface, which are the tops of U-shaped invertebrate burrows. A photo scale is to the right with centimeters and inches indicated. Limestone is in the Glen Rose Formation (about 100 million years old) near Glen Rose, Texas.
July 11, 2024 at 12:45 PM
ferwen.bsky.social
Leonardo da Vinci was born #OTD, 1452. Artist, architect, polymath & #ichnology pioneer. He wrote about the original horizontal arrangement of strata before Nicola Steno & provided the first observations on concepts as actualism & taphonomy.
wp.me/p3ihHu-4rI 🧪⚒️
Leonardo and the Fossil Whale
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was the archetype of the Renaissance Man: artist, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, naturalist and geologist. A true polymath. He was bo...
wp.me
April 15, 2024 at 6:04 PM
ichnologist.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday, "resting" trace a small sea star/"starfish" the Late Ordovician Sequatchie Formation (~445 mya) of northwest Georgia (USA), preserved as a natural cast & accompanied by thin & tiny invertebrate burrows. #ichnology 🪨⚒️🧪
"Star" (five pointed) 3-centimeter (1+ inch) wide structure in gray siltstone, sticking up from the rock surface, showing that this is a natural cast on the bottom part of the shale. The structure is interpreted as the "resting" trace fossil of a small sea star ("starfish") that buried itself in a muddy sediment, which was then filled from above by silt. Tiny (< 1 millimeter wide) meandering burrows are also right of the sea-star trace fossil. Preserved in what was interpreted (by me) as an estuarine deposit from the Late Ordovician (~445 million years ago) and in northwest Georgia.
February 28, 2025 at 3:06 PM