All geoscientists that want identify trace fossils and interpret the activities of small animals and plants have on sediment properties and stratification to exploration and production.

Ichnology is the interdisciplinary subject that brings together sedimentologists, paleontologists, stratigraphers, and geochemists to unravel the post-depositional history of sedimentary rocks with respect to the lasting effects that the activities of small animals and plants have on sediment properties and stratification. The subject focuses on trace fossils (sedimentary structures that directly reflect organism activity such as burrows, borings, trails, tracks and fecal pellets), bioturbation (sediment-mixing and disruption of original stratification by burrowers) and bioerosion (excavation and breakdown of hard substrates by boring animals and plants).

Modern sedimentary geologists should be able to recognize biologically produced fabrics, textures and sedimentary structures, because they are extremely prominent in the sedimentary record. Interpretation of such post depositional biogenic features can aid the geologists immensely in solving major problems of paleoecology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, basin analysis, diagenesis, and reservoir properties. Included will be such topics as general models of bioturbation, animal-sediment relationships, paleoenvironmental interpretations based on trace fossil associations, sedimentologic implications of biogenic textures and fabrics, and the influence of bioturbation on early diagenetic processes, such as differential cementation and selective mineralization, and the implications of burrowing on fluid flow pathways in hydrocarbon bearing reservoirs.

The course will also include selected case histories, using core examples, to illustrate the significance of trace fossils in paleoenvironmental analysis. Special attention will be focused on the recognition of trace fossils in core and their implications in subsurface geology.