Editing Paleontology (section)

===Paleoichnology===
{{main|Paleoichnology}}
[[File:Hadrosaur tracks.png|thumb|left|Diagram showing how dinosaur footprints preserve in different deposits]] 
Paleoichnology is the study of trace fossils, which can display interactions between organisms or other aspects of behavior. Common trace fossils are the burrows of bivalves or [[worm]]s in shallow water, feeding traces on the deep [[ocean floor]], and the footprints of dinosaurs and other animals in mud and sand beside bodies of water.<ref name="benton2020-20"/> The description of dinosaur tracks goes back to the early 19th century, but larger discussions about paleoichnology and its uses came with the reidentification of supposed plant fossils as invertebrate trackways in the 1880s to 1920s, where modern analogues were introduced to interpret these trace fossils. Advancements by [[Adolf Seilacher]] in the 1960s identified the shortcomings of ichnology: trace fossils were limited in their ability to establish the paleoenvironment, and as they lacked a consistent naming scheme it was difficult to classify and compare trace fossils. Seilacher expanded upon [[ichnotaxonomy]] as a way to classify trace fossils according to the behavior that caused them allowing the identification of sedimentary or environmental contexts.<ref name="kelley2013"/> From this, ichnotaxonomy differentiates between trace fossils created by tracks, burrows or [[boring (earth)|borings]], [[excrement]], and other types of behaviours, rather than describing the organism that created them. One animal can make many different kinds of traces, and one trace can be made my many different kinds of animals.<ref name="benton2020-20"/>

Footprints made by vertebrates can often be compared more with the organism that could have created them, but this identification is not definitive and can be reinterpreted over time. Different kinds of trace fossils can also be dependent on the type of sediment the organisms were interacting with, with feeding traces on the ocean floor fossilizing differently over different [[substrate (biology)|substrates]], and trackways of vertebrates being able to be followed across distances. The understanding that trace fossils directly correlate to sediments means that they can be used as indicators of environment types, termed [[ichnofacies]] and [[paleosols]].<ref name="benton2020-20"/> In rare cases trace fossils can also be preserved alongside body fossils, such as the dinosaur ''[[Oryctodromeus]]'' that is the first to show definitive evidence of [[burrowing]] behavior as its body fossils were found buried within a fossilized burrow.<ref name="varricchio2007"/> Trace fossils are able to be used as markers of biochronology and biogeography for correlation, and some such as coprolites can be used to understand the diets, diseases, parasites, or climates of the organisms that created them. Some trace fossils show evidence of [[gregariousness]] in animals travelling together in the same direction or congregating at a site, while others can show [[pathologies]] in the form of uneven [[gait]]s or pathologic foot impressions. Trackways of footprints can even be used to estimate the size and speed of their creators and their courtship and nesting behaviors.<ref name="lucas2024"/>