Ichnofossils, also known as trace fossils, are geological records of biological activity rather than preserved body parts, encompassing structures such as burrows, tracks, trails, borings, and coprolites. They provide direct evidence of organism behavior, ethology, and organism–substrate interactions, often where body fossils are absent. Ichnofossil analysis underpins ichnology and is used to interpret paleoenvironmental conditions, substrate consistency, energy regimes, and bioturbation intensity. Because ichnofossils are typically preserved in situ, they are critical for refining depositional models, sequence stratigraphy, and basin analysis, and for constraining the distribution, locomotion, and trophic strategies of ancient benthic and nektonic communities.
A reexamination of microfossils found in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul shows that the marks previously interpreted as traces of worms or other small oceanic animals are actually communities of fossilized microscopic ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 11, 2026
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An international research team has rediscovered a dinosaur tracksite in the Saijrakh area of northern Mongolia. The site was originally reported about 70 years ago but had since been lost due to a lack of detailed documentation ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 20, 2026
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92
The south coast of South Africa's Western Cape province is a rich source of fossil tracks and traces—clues suggesting what this environment may have been like many thousands of years ago.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 16, 2026
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36
The study of dinosaurs has been through a revolution in recent decades. The story began half a century ago, when Robert McNeill Alexander, a professor of zoology at the University of Leeds, showed how the speed of an animal ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 5, 2026
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91
Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over the world and would eventually ...
Evolution
Apr 4, 2026
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84
Cute, green, and sporting two sprigs of hair on his head, a mischievous baby dinosaur named Dooly is one of the most beloved cartoon characters in South Korea. So, when researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 19, 2026
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403
The article presenting the research results was published online at the end of February in the journal Ichnos. The study focuses on two trackways (T1 and T2) preserved as convex hyporeliefs on the underside of a Late Jurassic ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 10, 2026
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25
Powerful, fierce and the king of the Cretaceous world, Tyrannosaurus rex was the ultimate apex predator. But it was also surprisingly dainty on its feet, according to new research. Findings published in the journal Royal ...
An international research team led by Dr. Lorenzo Marchetti from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin has described the oldest known impressions of reptile skin from the Thuringian Forest in central Germany. Particularly remarkable ...
Evolution
Feb 12, 2026
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94
University of Queensland research has confirmed Brisbane's only dinosaur fossil is Australia's oldest, dating back to the earliest part of the Late Triassic period 230 million years ago. The 18.5-centimeter footprint was ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Feb 2, 2026
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