TABLE 1. Bibliographic review of fossil trackways and their interpretations.
|
Palaeoichnological features |
Interpretations (locomotion styles, behavior, taphonomy, physiology etc.) |
References |
|
Cruziana of Cambrian-Ordovician trilobite origin |
Different swimming-walking styles |
Crimes, 1975 |
|
Millions of small- to medium-sized reptile trackways from Early to Middle Triassic carbonate tidal flats in the Germanic Basin, central Europe |
Collectively attributed to emigration through inter-peninsular bridges exposed during low sea stands |
Diedrich, 2008 |
|
Late Triassic-Early Jurassic track surface from the lacustrine Santo Domingo Formation (Argentina) containing hundreds of bird tracks and trackways |
Behavioural and taphonomic interpretations |
Genise et al., 2009 |
|
Tetrapod footprints and trackways along with profuse arthropod traces found in the interdune deposits of the Lower Triassic Tumlin Sandstone of Central Poland |
Rapid colonization of interdunes |
Gradziński and Uchman, 1994 |
|
A large variety of Lower Palaeozoic Trilobite trackways |
Different types of locomotion such as walking, grazing, galloping, fast and slow sidling, walking - swimming etc. |
Seilacher, 2007 |
|
Climatichnites |
Surface tracks and trails of mollusk having physiological capacity to manipulate sediment to produce the structure |
Getty and Hagadorn, 2005 |
|
Shoreface crab resting traces |
Resting patterns, hydration and respiration |
Martin, 2006; Minter et al., 2007 |
|
Aestivation burrows of lungfish, earthworm, lysorophid and dicynodont |
True physiological need of retaining body water content during extremely dry (draught) situation |
Hembree, 2010 |
TABLE 2. Ichnological clues of crab trackways to basinal geomorphology.
| Ichnological clues | Possible geomorphic implications |
| Large burrow opening connected with outgoing long trackways | Supratidal zone, land - sea (burrow mouth to trackway) directions and shoreline orientation (across the trackway) |
| Maximum length of individual trackway | Minimum beach width up to the then water level |
| End point of longest trackway | Low tide level |
| Best preserved segment of the long trackway | Stretch of moist intertidal flat or biomat substrate |
| Least preserved segment of the long trackway | Dry supratidal flat to coastal dune sand or too moist lower intertidal flat |
| Larger twists and turns of the long trackway | Positions of steep obstructions like dunes that are maneuvered |
| Overall slope of the long trackway on single surface | Local beach slope |
| Length vs. slope of the best and least preserved segments of the long trackway | Approximate tidal range and width of the supratidal and intertidal flats |
