Though we may often think of fossils purely as the bones of ancient organisms that roamed the Earth millions of years ago, in fact, we are actually able to see evidence of this past roaming itself.
Trace fossils, known as ichnotaxa, can reveal the movement of past life, showing distinct trackways that scientists can interpret as normal gait or increased locomotion (perhaps running to escape a predator or being the hunter themselves), the scuffle of animals interacting, resting traces where they break for a while perching or nesting, as well as the burrowing and boring activities of organisms dwelling in the sediment.
Like animals and plants, these distinctive trace fossils are given specific ichnogenus and ichnospecies names, which can quite often be linked to their creator.
Ichnofossils form when an impression is made in moist sediment, then dries out and is rapidly covered by more sediment, being buried and cemented over millennia, until the trackway is discovered, seeming as though it could have just been made.
New research, published in Quaternary Science Reviews, details rare bird ichnotaxa discovered on Pessegueiro island, Portugal. Within this coastal location, researchers at Naturtejo da Meseta Meridional UNESCO Global Geopark and their collaborators identified two new bird trackways: Corvidichnus odemirensis, attributed to the movement of a Western jackdaw (Corvus monedula), and Buboichnus vicentinus, interpreted as a predatory feeding trace of a Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo). The latter is considered to be one of, if not the first, evidence of a raptorial bird preying upon another animal preserved in a trace fossil.
2023-07-19 03:00:04
Article from phys.org