The collection and dissemination of vertebrate ichnological data is struggling to keep up with techniques that are becoming commonplace in the wider palaeontological field. A standard protocol is required to ensure that data is recorded, presented and archived in a manner that will be useful both to contemporary researchers, and to future generations. Primarily, our aim is to make the 3D capture of ichnological data standard practice, and to provide guidance on how such 3D data can be communicated effectively (both via the literature and other means) and archived openly and in perpetuity. We recommend capture of 3D data, and the presentation of said data in the form of photographs, false‐colour images, and interpretive drawings. Raw data (3D models of traces) should always be provided in a form usable by other researchers (i.e. in an open format). If adopted by the field as a whole, the result will be a more robust and uniform literature, supplemented by unparalleled availability of datasets for future workers.

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Based on a thorough examination of field and museum Climactichnites specimens, two species of this trace are recognized, each representing a unique behavioral variant produced by a soft-bodied animal in Late Cambrian intertidal environments. C. wilsoni represents surface-produced trails, whereas C. youngi is re-erected for burrows produced below the surface. Burrowing behavior is supported by: 1) the presence of C. youngi within, rather than on, the surface of beds; 2) the orientation of some burrows inclined to bedding; and 3) the occasional presence of distinct burrow fills. Burrows can also be distinguished morphologically from surface traces by the absence of lateral ridges and the presence of fine, mm-scale striations or grooves superimposed on the transverse bars and furrows. Burrowing behavior for the Climactichnites trailmaker was previously unknown and thus represents a new, although not entirely unexpected, behavior for this mollusk or mollusk-like animal. The body impression of the sedentary animal is removed to Musculopodus sedentarius n. igen. and isp. In the future, Musculopodus may be expanded to include the resting traces of other soft-bodied animals known from the fossil record. Currently, Climactichnites is known only from very shallow to emergent strata of North America; reports of this fossil in other parts of the world are misidentified trails produced by other animals.

A large open-pit quarry in Plainville, Massachusetts, has yielded fourteen invertebrate ichnotaxa from the Pennsylvanian Rhode Island Formation of the Narragansett Basin. These traces include Cochlichnus anguineus, Diplichnites cuithensis, Diplichnites gouldi, Diplopodichnus biformis, Gordia carickensis, Helminthoidichites tenuis, Lockeia isp., Mitchellichnus cf. ferrydenensis, Planolites montanus, Siskemia elegans, Stiallia pilosa, Stiaria intermedia, Tonganoxichnus buildexensis and Narragansettichnus fortunatus new ichnogenus and ichnospecies. Specimens were collected from talus and the depositional environment has been inferred from sedimentary structures. The sediment-ology of the slabs on which the traces were preserved indicates that the rocks represent lake-margin and shallowlacustrine sedimentary facies. Distinct ichnofacies occur in the different sedimentary environments. The lake-margin traces belong to the Scoyenia ichnofacies and include traces of apterygote insects, arthropleurid myriapods, bivalved arthropods and vermiform animals in association with tracks of temnospondyl amphibians and diapsid reptiles. The lacustrine traces include arthropod trackways, fish trails and a newly named body imprint possibly produced by an aquatic mayfly larva. These shallow lacustrine traces are attributed to the Mermia ichnofacies.