Editing Trace fossil (section)

=== Paleoecology ===
Trace fossils provide us with indirect evidence of [[prehistoric life|life in the past]], such as the footprints, tracks, burrows, borings, and feces left behind by animals, rather than the preserved remains of the body of the actual animal itself. Unlike most other fossils, which are produced only after the death of the organism concerned, trace fossils provide us with a record of the activity of an organism during its lifetime. Unlike body fossils, which can be transported far away from where an individual organism lived, trace fossils record the type of environment an animal actually inhabited and thus can provide a more accurate palaeoecological sample than body fossils.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Belvedere |first=Matteo |last2=Jalil |first2=Nour-Eddine |last3=Breda |first3=Anna |last4=Gattolin |first4=Giovanni |last5=Bourget |first5=Hélène |last6=Khaldoune |first6=Fatima |last7=Dyke |first7=Gareth J. |date=August 2013 |title=Vertebrate footprints from the Kem Kem beds (Morocco): A novel ichnological approach to faunal reconstruction |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018213002137 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |language=en |volume=383-384 |pages=52–58 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.04.026 |access-date=5 November 2024 |via=Elsevier Science Direct|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Trace fossils are formed by organisms performing the functions of their everyday life, such as walking, crawling, burrowing, boring, or feeding. [[Tetrapod]] footprints, [[worm]] trails and the burrows made by [[clam]]s and [[arthropods]] are all trace fossils.

Perhaps the most spectacular trace fossils are the huge, three-toed footprints produced by [[dinosaur]]s and related [[archosaur]]s. These imprints give scientists clues as to how these animals lived. Although the skeletons of dinosaurs can be reconstructed, only their [[fossilized]] footprints can determine exactly how they stood and walked. Such tracks can tell much about the gait of the animal which made them, what its stride was, and whether the front limbs touched the ground or not.

However, most trace fossils are rather less conspicuous, such as the trails made by [[segmented worm]]s or [[nematode]]s. Some of these [[worm]] castings are the only fossil record we have of these soft-bodied creatures.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}