Recent progress and focuses of ichnology: Outline of the 14th International Ichnofabric Workshop

The 14th International Ichnofabric Workshop was held successfully in Taipei, China from April 29th to May 2nd. From the oral presentations, posters, intra- and post-workshop field trips, and workshop discussions, a few promising aspects of ichnological study can be outlined: (1) Ichnotaxonomy is, and will be the major endeavour of ichnologists, supplying important behavioural information for palaeontological studies, and also providing reasonable, objective, and convenient taxonomical framework for further sedimentological and palaeoecological studies; (2) Ichnofabric analysis is widely applied to in-depth sedimentological, palaeoclimatical, and petroleum exploration studies, offering a wealth of biological information that cannot be properly obtained from traditional sedimentological and geochemical analyses; (3) Study of trace fossils in the context of evolutionary palaeoecology sheds light on some intriguing issues of the biological responses during certain critical periods in Earth's history; (4) Work on combining geomicrobiology and ichnology is under way; (5) Quantitative morphological characterization has become increasingly useful in grasping the finer ingredients of functional morphology.