The lower Maastrichtian chalk of the Isle of Rügen was deposited in a pelagic setting in the aphotic zone. Its rich fossil content has attracted research attention for centuries, whereas its ichnological characteristics remain poorly understood, even though horizons with intense bioturbation and occurrences of trace fossils in flint are common. The enhanced colour contrast of smooth chalk faces reveals repeated phases of benthic colonisation; larger burrows are commonly subject to silicification, while flint nodules also can preserve burrows in chalk. A total of 37 ichnogenera, including 47 ichnospecies of bioturbation and bioerosion trace fossils have been recognised; these are here briefly described, in addition to indeterminate material. Many ichnotaxa are recorded for the first time from the Rügen chalk. Bioerosion is restricted mainly to local hardgrounds in the form of biogenic components (such as shells and belemnite guards).

Aeolianites and cemented foreshore deposits on South Africa's Cape south coast have the capacity to record and preserve events that transpired on them when they were composed of unconsolidated sand. Thirty-five Pleistocene elephant tracksites have been identified along this coastline. This abundance of sites along what was the margin of the vast Palaeo-Agulhas Plain allows for an appreciation of the forms that elephant tracks and traces can take in the context of the global proboscidean track record. They point to a significant regional elephant presence from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (~400 ka) through MIS 5 (~130–80 ka) to MIS 3 (~35 ka) and also indicate repeated use of certain dune areas. They buttress Holocene and historical evidence that elephants made use of open areas in the region, and that the remaining “Knysna elephants” retreated into dense afrotemperate forest for protection in recent centuries. Analogies can be drawn between Pleistocene elephant tracks and Mesozoic dinosaur tracks, and some of the Cape south coast elephant tracks are among the largest Cenozoic (and hence, Quaternary) tracks ever to be described. A newly identified tracksite in this area may provide the first reported evidence of elephant trunk-drag impressions.

In northwestern France, the Brioverian series is a thick siliciclastic succession deposited during the Cadomian cycle (c. 750–540 Ma). In the uppermost Brioverian beds, previous studies unravelled an assemblage dominated by simple horizontal trace fossils associated with microbially stabilized surfaces. Here, we report Spirodesmos trace fossils – one-way, irregular and regular horizontal spirals – from Crozon (Finistère, Brittany), Montfort-sur-Meu and St-Gonlay (Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany). After reviewing the literature on horizontal spiral trace fossils, an Ediacaran–Fortunian Spirodesmos pool is identified from marginal-marine to shelf settings, while an Ordovician–Recent trend formed in the deep-marine realm. These results suggest that an onshore–offshore migration in Spirodesmos took place during Ediacaran–Fortunian to Ordovician time, similar to what happened in graphoglyptids. In addition, the age of the uppermost Brioverian beds (Ediacaran or early Cambrian) is still a pending question. Here, we report two new U–Pb detrital zircon datings from sandstone samples in St-Gonlay, giving maximum deposition ages of 551 ± 7 Ma and 540 ± 5 Ma. Although these results do not discard an Ediacaran age for the uppermost Brioverian beds, a Fortunian age is envisioned because the new dating corroborates previous dating from Brittany, Mayenne and Normandy. However, the intervals of error of the radiometric dating, and the dominance of non-penetrative trace fossils associated with matgrounds (an ecology more typical of the Ediacaran Period), do not allow definitive conclusions on the age of the uppermost Brioverian beds.

More than 250 Pleistocene vertebrate trace fossil sites have been identified on the Cape south coast of South Africa in aeolianites and cemented foreshore deposits. These discoveries, representing the epifaunal tracks of animals that moved over these sand substrates, complement traditional body fossil studies, and contribute to palaeo-environmental reconstruction. Not described in detail until now, but also important faunal components, are the infaunal traces of animals that moved within these sandy substrates. Six golden mole burrow trace sites (Family Chrysochloridae) have been identified on the Cape south coast. In addition, three sites, including one on the Cape southeast coast, have been identified that show evidence of sand-swimming, probably by a golden mole with a means of locomotion similar to that of the extant Eremitalpa genus. Such traces have not been described in detail in the global ichnology record, and merit the erection of a new ichnogenus Natatorichnus, with two ichnospecies, N. subarenosa ichnosp. nov and N. sulcatus ichnosp. nov. Care is required in the identification of such traces, and the orientation of the trace fossil surface needs to be determined, to avoid confusion with hatchling turtle tracks. Substantial regional Pleistocene dune environments are inferred from these sand-swimming traces.

The establishment of permanent animal communities on land was a defining event in the history of evolution, and one for which the ichnofauna and facies of the Tumblagooda Sandstone of Western Australia have been considered an archetypal case study. However, terrestrialization can only be understood from the rock record with conclusive sedimentological evidence for non-marine deposition, and original fieldwork on the formation shows that a marine influence was pervasive throughout all trace fossil-bearing strata. Four distinct facies associations are described, deposited in fluvial, tidal and estuarine settings. Here we explain the controversies surrounding the age and depositional environment of the Tumblagooda Sandstone, many of which have arisen due to the challenges in distinguishing marine from non-marine depositional settings in lower Palaeozoic successions. We clarify the terminological inconsistency that has hindered such determination, and demonstrate how palaeoenvironmental explanations can be expanded out from unambiguously indicative sedimentary structures. The Tumblagooda Sandstone provides a unique insight into an early Palaeozoic ichnofauna that was strongly partitioned by patchy resource distribution in a littoral setting. The influence of outcrop style and quality is accounted for to contextualize this ichnofauna, revealing six distinct low-disparity groups of trace fossil associations, each related to a different sub-environment within the high-ichnodisparity broad depositional setting. The formation is compared with contemporaneous ichnofaunas to examine its continued significance to understanding the terrestrialization process. Despite not recording permanent non-marine communities, the Tumblagooda Sandstone provides a detailed picture of the realm left behind by the first invertebrate pioneers of terrestrialization.

The transition between the seemingly disparate Ediacaran and Cambrian faunas is both enigmatic and body-fossil poor. The Chapel Island Formation on the Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada, contains a rich diversity of ichnofossils, providing new insight into the nature of the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition and early Fortunian ecosystems. Five ichnoguilds are recognized within the Treptichnus pedum zone. Ichnologic data are analysed from an ecospace perspective, revealing a more protracted transition between Ediacaran and Cambrian ecosystems. Our analysis documents the appearance of limbs, vertical burrows and uncontroversial equilibrium structures, as well as the retention of ‘other’ feeding styles, such as microbial grazing and chemosynthesis.

The Ediacaran–Cambrian (E-C) boundary is based on the first appearance of the ichnofossil Treptichnus pedum. Investing an ichnotaxon with such biostratigraphic pre-eminence has been the focus of criticism. Points of contention have revolved around four main issues: (1) ichnotaxonomy, (2) behavioural significance, (3) facies controls and (4) stratigraphic occurrence. First, confusion results from the fact that Treptichnus pedum was originally referred to as Phycodes pedum and, more recently, some authors have placed it in Trichophycus or Manykodes. However, the overall geometry of these burrows indicates they belong in Treptichnus. Second, regardless of its precise mode of feeding, the behaviour involved is iconic of the Cambrian explosion. Third, objections are based on the idea that trace fossils show a closer link to facies than body fossils. Notably, in contrast to common assumptions, T. pedum is not only present in the low-energy offshore of wave-dominated marine settings, but it occurs at considerably shallower water in intertidal and shallow-subtidal zones of tide-dominated systems, as well as in mouth bars of deltaic systems and lower shoreface to offshore transition zones of wave-dominated marine settings. Its broad environmental tolerance supports evolutionary innovations rather than facies controls as the main mechanism underlying the observed vertical pattern of distribution of T. pedum in most E-C successions comprising shallow-marine deposits. Fourth, although treptichnids have been documented below the E-C boundary, T. pedum is not known from Ediacaran rocks. The delayed appearance of T. pedum in E-C successions should be analysed on a case-by-case basis.

A new dinosaurian track-bearing site, with tridactyl footprints from the Lower Jurassic (pre-middle Pliensbachian) volcanogenic and epiclastic rocks of the Marifil Volcanic Complex, Patagonia, Argentina, is presented and described. The best-preserved footprint, classified as cf. Anomoepus, confirms the utility of the Anomoepus-like tracks for the Early Jurassic biochronology. Palaeobiogeographically, this record supports the idea that the South American Early Jurassic dinosaur fauna presents elements of Pangaean distribution, and others with Gondwanan relationships with prevalent southern African affinities. Dinosaur records from South America between the Rhaetian and the Pliensbachian are very scarce, and this find contributes to the knowledge of early radiation and evolution of Dinosauria.

The late Wisconsinan Touchet Beds section at Mabton, Washington reveals at least seven stacked jökulhlaup deposits, five showing evidence of post-flood recolonization by vertebrates. Tracemakers are attributed to voles or pocket mice (1–3 cm diameter burrows) and pocket gophers or ground squirrels (3–6 cm diameter burrows). The Mount St. Helens S tephra deposited between flood beds contains the invertebrate-generated burrows Naktodemasis and Macanopsis. Estimates of times between floods are based on natal dispersal distances of the likely vertebrate tracemakers (30–50 m median distances; 127–525 m maximum distances) from upland areas containing surviving populations to the Mabton area, a distance of about 7.9 km. Tetrapods would have required at least two to three decades to recolonize these flood beds, based on maximum dispersal distances. Invertebrate recolonization was limited by secondary succession and estimated at only a few years to a decade. These ichnological data support multiple floods from failure of the ice dam at glacial Lake Missoula, separated by hiatal surfaces on the order of decades in duration. Ichnological recolonization times are consistent with published estimates of refill times for glacial Lake Missoula, and complement the other field evidence that points to repeated, autogenically induced flood discharge.

Quaternary post-Barreiras sediments are widespread along Brazil's passive margin. These deposits are well exposed in the onshore Paraíba Basin, which is one of the rift basins formed during the Pangean continental breakup. In this area, the post-Barreiras sediments consist of sandstones with abundant soft-sediment deformation structures related to seismicity contemporaneous with deposition. The trace fossils Thalassinoides and Psilonichnus are found up to 38 m above modern sea level in sandstones dated between 60.0 (± 1.4) and 15.1 (± 1.8) ka. The integration of ichnological and sedimentary facies suggests nearshore paleoenvironments. Such deposits could not be related to eustatic sea-level rise, as this time coincides with the last glaciation. Hence, an uplift of 0.63 mm/yr, or 1.97 mm/yr if sea level was 80 m lower in the last glaciation, would have been required to ascend the post-Barreiras sediments several meters above the present-day sea level during the last 60 ka. This would suggest that the post-rift stage of the South American eastern passive margin may have experienced tectonic reactivation more intense than generally recognized. Although more complete data are still needed, the information presented herein may play an important role in studies aiming to decipher the Quaternary evolution of this passive margin.

New specimens described herein add to our knowledge of uncommon parataxa (embedment structures, borings and a certain type of burrow) from the type area of the Maastrichtian Stage, the material originating from the ENCI-HeidelbergCement Group (Maastricht), Ankerpoort-'t Rooth (Bemelen) and former Blom (Berg en Terblijt) quarries in southern Limburg (the Netherlands), and from the CBR-Romontbos (Eben Emael) and CPL SA (Haccourt) chalk pits in the province of Liège (northeast Belgium). Although Centrichnus eccentricus Bromley & Martinell has previously been recorded from this area, it has not received formal description; the specimen documented herein shares a test of the echinoid Echinocorys gr. conoidea with numerous other episkeletozoans. Podichnus cf. centrifugalis Bromley & Surlyk occurs both on echinocorythid echinoid tests and guards of belemnitellid coleoids; two out of seven specimens display radial discontinuous channels, indicative of the extreme penetration of filaments from the attached brachiopod's pedicle. Renichnus arcuatus Mayoral shows a range of morphologies, from the embedment structure sensu stricto through to specimens retaining internal moulds of the producing, embedded vermetid gastropod to free shells of Vermetus binkhorsti Cossmann. Burrows packed with bioclastic debris, particularly primary spines and a few test plates of phymosomatid echinoids, present a systematic conundrum, although appearing comparable to the ichnogenera Nummipera Hölder and Baronichnus Breton in several respects.

Zoophycos-group burrows are prevalent elements of the post-Cambrian trace fossil record. Here we report the oldest specimens of Zoophycos from Lower Cambrian strata of the Lower Member Wood Canyon Formation in southeastern California. In addition to these being the oldest examples of this well-known trace fossil, the discovery of these specimens also reveals the presence of deposit feeding considerably earlier than has been suggested for the advent of this feeding style. This type of activity may have had a significant impact on sediment mixing during the Precambrian–Cambrian transition, though the rarity and shallow tier position of these specimens suggests otherwise.

The authors revise the occurrences of burrow networks with striated walls having dominantly transverse to oblique striae, which have been assigned to the ichnogenera Spongeliomorpha Saporta, 1887, and Steinichnus Bromley & Asgaard, 1979. The taxonomic status of the ichnogenus Steinichnus Bromley & Asgaard, 1979 is examined and it is suggested that this ichnogenus is a subjective junior synonym of Spongeliomorpha Saporta, 1887. Spongeliomorpha is best reserved for an unlined network of burrows having distinct surface ridges or grooves of different orientation and massive filling. The diagnosis of Spongeliomorpha is emended accordingly and the proposed ichnospecies revised for consistency with the diagnostic features of the ichnogenus. Spongeliomorpha milfordensis Metz, 1993a is considered a subjective junior synonym of Spongeliomorpha carlsbergi (Bromley & Asgaard, 1979) after a visual comparison and statistical analysis of the angle of striation with respect to the burrow midline in the type material. Nevertheless, the use of statistical techniques is not advocated for distinction of ichnotaxa, but may support observations. Spongeliomorpha carlsbergi is considered as an indicator of nonmarine settings and was probably produced by burrowing insects. Proposed ichnospecies of Spongeliomorpha that fit the emended diagnosis include S. sudolica (Zaręczny, 1878); S. iberica Saporta, 1887; S. sicula D’Alessandro & Bromley, 1995; S. chevronensis Muñiz & Mayoral, 2001; and Spongeliomorpha isp. nov. aff. sicula Lewy & Goldring, 2006.

The commonest arthropod trace fossils from Triassic aquatic red beds are the bilobate traces Isopodichnus and trackways known as ‘Merostomichnites’ triassicus. These trace fossils were probably produced by notostracan branchiopods, similar to Triops. Four arthropod ichnocoenoses from Lower Triassic fluvial sandstones have been analysed in terms of size frequency distribution, behavioural variation and relationship to sedimentary structures and depositional environment. One Isopodichnus ichnofauna associated with flute moulds (Dumfries-shire, Scotland) shows a normal age-structured population of arthropods responding with strong rheotaxis within shallow fluvial channels. The second Isopodichnus assemblage associated with ripple marks (Worcestershire, England) also shows strong rheotaxis but is bimodal in size and morphotype, possibly suggesting change in arthropod behaviour with age. Two ichnocoenoses of trackways with less pronounced rheotaxis associated with ripples (Cheshire, England) and flute moulds (Württemberg, Germany) were produced by larger arthropods than the resting traces. These arthropods probably possessed 6 to 9 pairs of walking limbs.

The conclusions derived from these notostracan trace fossils are compared with data on palaeoecology, population size-frequency, morphology and behaviour of Triops cancriformis derived from the analysis of three Triassic body fossil faunas and literature on living populations. Taxonomic consideration favours retention of the name Isopodichnus but the trackways should be included in Acripes Matthew. Brief review of late Palaeozoic Isopodichnus assemblages which appear to predate known notostracan fossils is inconclusive as regards both identifying producers or infallible means of separation from Cruziana assemblages.

The Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the Southern Uplands of Scotland have been interpreted as sediments deposited on the northern margin of the Iapetus Ocean. Trace fossils are abundant at many localities in ocean-floor turbidites and mudstones that usually lack all other evidence of life. Twelve ichnogenera are present, and they are mainly meandering locomotion and feeding trails and burrow networks: Dictyodora, Caridolites, Helminthoida, Neonereites, Nereites, Protovirgularia, Gordia, Megagrapton, Paleodictyon, Chondrites, Plano-lites and Skolithos. The trace fossils occur in at least five distinct assemblages and the composition of these was probably controlled by the frequency and nature of the turbidity currents, and possibly by the oxygen content of the mudstones. Where turbidity currents were weak, abundant Dictyodora, together with Caridolites, Neonereites, Nereites, Protovirgularia and Gordia occur in various combinations. Where currents were stronger, traces such as Gordia, Paleodictyon and Megagrapton may be exhumed and cast on turbidite soles, and the sand may contain Skolithos. The ‘deep-sea’ Nereites trace fossil facies is divisible into several assemblages, presumably environmentally controlled.