Webinar report: Seminario Virtual Internacional de Icnología de Vertebrados – SEVIIV2021

Abstract

SEVIIV2021 was a scientific webinar on vertebrate ichnology hosted by the Universidad Nacional de La Pampa and the Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa, that was convened on five half-day sessions developed between June 14-18, 2021. This virtual activity was effective in facilitating discussions and interchange between experienced vertebrate ichnologists and graduate students. Spanish and Portuguese were the languages of this free seminar that included 33 talks and an average audience of 140 participants per day. Presentations were delivered by vertebrate ichnologists from nine countries, including Giuseppe Leonardi (Italy), Martin Lockley (USA), Silvério Figueiredo (Portugal); Félix Pérez Lorente, José Joaquín Moratalla García, Laura Piñuela, and Diego Castanera (Spain); Karen Moreno and Jorge Campos (Chile); Mariano Verde and Valeria Mesa (Uruguay); Eduardo Jiménez Hidalgo, Rosalía Guerrero, Felisa J. Aguilar Arellano, Víctor Manuel Bravo Cuevas, and Rubén Rodríguez de la Rosa (Mexico); Ismar de Souza Carvalho, Paula Dentzien-Dias, Caio César Rangel, and Heitor Francischini (Brazil); Teresa Manera, Bernardo González Riga, María Belén Tomaselli, Carlos Cónsole-Gonella, Silvina de Valais, Ignacio Díaz-Martínez, Paolo Citton, Jorge Orlando Calvo, María Cristina Cardonatto, Verónica Krapovickas, Nahuel Espinoza, Manuel Rojas Manriquez, and Arturo Heredia (Argentina). The topics covered were diverse including dinosaur tracks (perhaps the more common theme); protection of the ichnological heritage; factors affecting the formation and preservation of footprints; ichnotaxonomy; regional or basinal synthesis of the vertebrate ichnological record; paleoenvironmental, paleoecological and evolutionary aspects of vertebrate trace fossils; importance of osteological studies for the interpretation of tracks; modern and fossil tetrapod burrows; coprolites; and human footprints in archeological settings. The talks are stored in the CPA UNLPam YouTube channel, separated in individual links related to each day (day 1: https://youtu.be/-pa8-pTynW4, day 2: https://youtu.be/ fXCkozfTjzc, day 3: https://youtu.be/CExQVQ78iBE, day 4: https://youtu.be/ZgcuEI0DG-I, day 5: https:// youtu.be/orYEpDcPbtE). The talks and lively discussions invite some reflections on current aspects of the discipline, at least from the Latin ichnological community. It is well known that the approaches of invertebrate and vertebrate ichnology are different (e.g. Bromley, 2004; Lockley, 2007). This webinar also revealed that even between vertebrate ichnologists there are differences or shades in the purposes of the study of trace fossils and the methodology they employ. A good example of this fact is that several vertebrate ichnologists are reluctant to use or even do not “believe” in ichnotaxonomy. This position is probably linked with the complicated formative and taphonomical processes of footprints, and the resulting preservational variants (Marchetti et al., 2019), in addition to the purposes of the study. Another aspect is that only a small fraction of the footprint record of a given unit can be confidently compared with definite ichnotaxa, which arguably leaves a large amount of potential information in the rocks. Some talks highlighted that fossil footprints are considerably more common than bone remains. Growing evidence suggest that the information to be obtained from footprints is potentially more representative and relevant for reconstruction of past communities than the osteological record. However, both records are complementary and important. Several talks emphasized that vertebrate trace fossils should be studied along with a detailed description of the hosting sedimentary rocks to avoid potential mistakes and to unlock the maximum information from trace fossils.