The origins of ichnology are located in a land of convergence between Art and Science, in a historical period – the Renaissance – during which the scientific method had its birth. Trace fossils were studied and graphically represented by preeminent naturalists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Konrad...
Science historians separated the scientific origins of ichnology and body fossil paleontology; the birth of body fossil paleontology is attributed to the Renaissance, whereas the beginnings of ichnology are placed in the 19th century. The present study shifts the boundaries of the history of paleontology...
Although the concept of ichnology as a single coherent field arose in the nineteenth century, the endeavor of understanding traces is old as civilization and involved cultural areas worldwide. In fact, fossil and recent traces were recognized since prehistoric times and their study emerged from the...