Ichnology in Shallow-marine and Transitional Environments

Book excerpt: The ichnology of shallow-marine to transitional environments is a key field of study with respect to understanding the variability of environmental parameters from inshore marginal-marine settings to the offshore transition zone. Over the last decades ichnology has evolved from being a tool to determine bathymetry, becoming the standard palaeoenvironmental methodology by which trace fossils can be used to inform sedimentary facies models. In particular, the analysis of mixed assemblages of invertebrate and vertebrate trace fossils allows detailed palaeoenvironmental and facies analysis. This volume focuses on the ichnological record of shallow-marine to transitional environments through the geological record, in addition to modern ones through neoichnology.