History of Ichnology: The Origins of Trace Fossil Taxonomy and the Contributions of Joseph F. James and Walter H. Hantzschel
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| Authors: | Pemberton, SG; MacEachern, JA |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Journal: | Ichnos 20: 181-194 Article Link (DOI) |
| Title: | History of Ichnology: The Origins of Trace Fossil Taxonomy and the Contributions of Joseph F. James and Walter H. Hantzschel |
| Abstract: | The taxonomy of trace fossils has had a somewhat controversial history because they do not represent the actual animal remains but rather their work on and in the substrate. As such, traditional palaeontologists and zoologists have viewed them with some skepticism. Ichnologists owe a great debt to two geologists: Joseph F. James of Cincinnati and Walter H. Hantzschel of Hamburg, who took it upon themselves to impose some order on the chaos that constituted trace fossil taxonomy at the time. James, working independently and in ignorance of Alfred Nathorst, arrived at and utilized many of the same criteria his Swedish counterpart employed to criticize the fucoid origins of many trace fossils in the late 19th century. With his restudy of the systematics of Fucoides, Skolithos, and Arthrophycus, James brought to light many of the taxonomical nightmares that faced-and are still facing-the fledging science and can be rightfully considered the first trace fossil taxonomist. During the 1940s and 1950s, Hantzschel collected the widely scattered pertinent data from the literature, an immense task that, when published in 1962 (and later revised and expanded in 1975), made trace fossils accessible to further research and started a worldwide boom in trace fossil research. |
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