Ichnogram

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A record or trace left by the movement or activity of an organism, typically preserved in sediment or rock as a fossilized track or burrow
2. A fossilized mark or impression produced by an organism's movement or behavior preserved in ancient sediment or stone
3. A physical trace or imprint left behind by an animal's activity or locomotion that becomes embedded and hardened in geological material

Etymology: "Ichnogram" is built from two Greek elements: "ichnos," meaning "track" or "footprint," and "-gram," from "gramma," meaning "something written" or "a mark." Put together, the word describes a mark that has been written by a track, and that literal sense is what the word still carries. The first half, "ichno-," appears in several scientific terms that concern traces rather than the creatures themselves. Palaeontologists use it to separate the study of fossil tracks, burrows, and other behavioural remains from the study of body fossils, so an ichnogram is a record of what an animal did rather than what it looked like. The suffix "-gram" is the same one found in words such as "telegram" and "diagram," where it denotes a drawn or written record.