Stratigraphy is defined very broadly as the “science of rock strata.…concerned not only with the original succession and age relations of rock strata but also…with all characters and attributes of rock strata…and their interpretation in terms of environment or mode of origin, and geologic history” (Bates and Jackson, 1987, p. 649). Ichnology, the study of “post-depositional biological effects on sedimentary deposits” (Ekdale et al., 1984a, p. 4) manifest in distinct trace fossils and/or bioturbate textures, provides important tools for stratigraphic studies. Indeed, an accounting of previous and potential stratigraphic applications of ichnology would require nearly as much page space as would an inclusive summary of the myriad components of stratigraphy itself. Stratigraphic applications of ichnology include trace-fossil biostratigraphy of the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian transition (e.g., see MacNaughton and Narbonne, 1999; and references therein) and use of ichnofacies and ichnofabrics for depositional facies analyses (e.g., see Pemberton, 1992; and references therein), delineation of sequence stratigraphic packages and bounding surfaces (e.g., MacEachern et al., 1992; Savrda, 1995; Savrda et al., 2001; and references therein), and interpretation of Milankovitch-type depositional cycles (cyclostratigraphy; e.g., Savrda, 1995; Locklair and Savrda, 1998a; and references therein).
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Savrda, C.E. (2008). Zoophycos, Systematic Stratigraphic Leaking, and Lamella Stratigraphy. In: Harries, P.J. (eds) High-Resolution Approaches in Stratigraphic Paleontology. Topics in Geobiology, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9053-0_4
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