ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Neoichnology

Neoichnology is a big word that means studying the behavior of animals by looking at their footprints, burrows, nests, and other things they leave behind. It's like being a detective who follows clues to figure out what happened!

Scientists who study neoichnology are interested in learning about the behaviors of animals that lived a long time ago, even millions of years ago. They use the footprints, burrows, and other things left behind by these animals to gather information about how they lived and how they behaved.

For example, imagine you're walking on the beach and you see a set of footprints in the sand. By looking at the size and shape of the footprints, you might be able to tell whether the person who left them was tall or short, and whether they were walking or running. Scientists use this same idea to study animals from the past!

By studying the footprints and other traces left by prehistoric animals, neoichnologists can learn things like how big the animal was, how it moved, and even what kind of skin it had. This helps scientists understand more about the animals that lived in the past, and how they fit into the bigger picture of the Earth's history.