There was once upon a time a somewhat crazy ichnologist vertebrate, who liked to look for fossil tracks where no other or few others had been. He liked being a paleontologist explorer. When I become professor of geological and paleontological chairs in the Federal University of Paraná, I often asked my colleagues: “Where are there vertebrate fossil tracks in Brazil?”. I knew from the literature the presence of two short trackways in the western side of the Paraíba State and of a flagstone with a track found on the sidewalks of São Carlos, in the state of São Paulo. But there were then no ichnologists of the tetrapods in Brazil. A first expedition to the Sousa Basin and after kindly dislodges the washerwomen that had stretch out the cloths and the hammocks washed by them on the rocky banks of the Peixe river, I discovered the dinosaur trackways. Do you want to know how this and other exciting ichnological histories? Then come to ICHNIA 2024 and join me in this adventure!”
Giuseppe Leonardi: Geology Department, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
A growing number of researchers have described coprolite assemblages from around the world. Lithified coprolites can be challenging to interpret, but the application of a variety of analytical approaches continues to reveal different types of paleobiological and paleoenvironmental information within these ichnofossils.
Karen Chin: Department of Geological Sciences and University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, University of Colorado Boulder
Our understanding of how the world responds to climate change is largely based on elaborate reconstructions using micropaleontological, geochemical, and isotopic proxies in marine sediment. The influence of the activities of benthic organism on the fidelity of these records, however, is routinely overlooked. In this contribution, I will highlight some of the worst errors and biases that bioturbation and deep-reaching burrowers can cause to paleoclimatic time series.
Ludvig Löwemark: Department of Geosciences, National Taiwan University.
Biological sediment mixing, or bioturbation, is one of the most important controls on biogeochemical cycling and vertical sediment redistribution in seafloor environments. Analysis of modern bioturbation structures also provides useful information on paleoecology of trace fossils. In this talk, I will show my recent neoichnological achievements on beaches, shorefaces, and deep sea deposits.
Koji Seike: Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
Ichnology is one of the oldest sciences practiced by humankind and is now studied formally in institutions worldwide. Yet public awareness of ichnology still lags behind other more popular sciences. In his lecture, Anthony (Tony) Martin will share highlights from more than 30 years of educational outreach in ichnology, telling us what worked (or not) and how we might all work together toward a future "popular ichnology."
Anthony J. Martin: Department of Environmental Sciences, Emory University