Product Description
Anyone interested in collecting fossils or in learning more about the previous life of these animals and plants will find a wealth of information in this lavishly illustrated guide. Here Helmut Mayr brings together over five hundred color photographs with concise and lively descriptions of both common and unusual fossils. Intended to aid amateurs in specimen identification and classification, this book offers an encyclopedic breadth of coverage that many specialists too will find useful.

In his introduction Mayr discusses the most important genera of animals and plants, the origins of fossils and the forms of their preservation, tips on collecting and on recovery and storing, technical terminology, and insights into scientific research. The main section contains illustrations and descriptions of the fossils themselves, with an emphasis on ammonites, but also including corals, mollusks, snails, echinoderms and brachiopods, vertebrates, and plants. Each illustrated example is accompanied by information on distinguishing marks, geographical distribution, period of existence, and the habits and ecology of the important representatives of the individual genera. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Overly broad
This text is overly broad in its scope.Not useful for anyone wanting to identify fossils that they've found.As an overview of the diversity of past life this may be interesting for a young reader.Given the cost of returning this text, it'll likely end up given away as a gift to a young relative. ... Read more

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Explains how the remains of an animal or plant fossilize over millions of years, where fossils may be found, and what we can learn from them. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides an excellent practical introduction to the study of plant fossils, and is written for those who have had little previous experience of this type of palaeontology. The text summarizes the groups of plants occurring as fossils and describes how best to investigate them. It explains modern research techniques that reveal details of anatomical and reproductive characteristics, and the features for identifying commonly found plant fossils. The approaches for interpreting these fossils are assessed, and the book highlights how such methods are employed by palaeobotanists to increase our knowledge of plant evolution, palaeoecology, palaeogeography and stratigraphy. The book discusses how the science of palaeobotany has developed over the last 300 years, with examples and illustrations from a global range of plant groups. It is valuable for students on introductory or intermediate courses in palaeobotany, palaeontology and plant evolution, and for amateurs looking for help in studying plant fossils. ... Read more

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What is a fossil?

Sometimes it's the imprint of an ancient leaf in a rock. Sometimes it's a woolly mammoth, frozen for thousands of years in the icy ground. Sometimes it's the skeleton of a stegosaurus that has turned to stone.

A fossil is anything that has been preserved, one way or another, that tells about life on Earth. But you can make a fossil, too--something to be discovered a million years from now--and this book will tell you how.

Customer Reviews (6)

Fish Fossil at Hays, KS
Great book!My daughter received this book as part of her 2nd grade curriculum through K12.The book details a specific fish-within-a-fish fossil.The original of this fossil is located at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University located in Hays, Kansas. The museum has also has robotic dinosaurs and is located on I-70 halfway between Kansas City and Denver.

"I love this book." --my 5-year-old
I'm quite taken with this one myself. We just picked the 1990 Revised Edition off the library shelves this week. What a find! It's 32 pages and just about every page is a home run. There's no fluff. The scientific content is spot-on. And the book is thick with fascinating stuff. We see rocks formed from mud, coal from peat, and amber from sap; geological changes; paleontologists at work --and did you know a whole woolly mammoth was found frozen in the Siberian tundra in 1901?

Usually I can take or leave Aliki's smiling schoolchildren and their cartoon speech balloons. Here, everything they say is interesting or illustrative, and their enthusiasm is contagious.

My 5-year-old is somehow able to read a little of this book at a time (by aggressively guessing at the longer words, I guess) but with words like "imprint" and "preserved" it's closer to a second-grade (7-to-8-year-old) reading level.

P.S. The famous fish-within-a-fish fossil described in the book is on display at the Sternberg Museum of National History in Hays, Kansas, USA.

Fossils for Primary Learners
My son and I enjoyed this book and used it to add to our study of fossils.The book was easy to understand the artwork was engaging. I recomend this book for primary grades 1-3.

Another hit from Aliki
I love the Let's Read and Find Out science series, and Aliki is one of my family's favorite authors, so this book is a real winner for us.Clearly written text and lovely illustrations make for an enjoyable read-aloud for K-2 level students, or an informative read-alone book for older kids or early readers.

A review of the record of fossils for children Ages 5 and up
Fossils tell of long ago is a good book for children.Brightly illustrated pictures help them grasp the facts of fossils.It includes a fun experiment, too, along with a clear explanation of how fossils were made.I give this book four stars. ... Read more

Product Description
This revised and expanded edition of Oregon Fossils includes a record of all known fossils in Oregon going back 400 million years, along with collecting localities by county, age, rock formation, and published source. The book also provides a geologic overview of the state, from ocean beaches to the high desert, from the Blue Mountains to the Siskiyous.

Unique among fossil field guides, Oregon Fossils includes both specimen identification and interesting notes about their discovery, naming, and conservation. The narrative is sprinkled with biographical sketches of paleontologists who have contributed to the state’s fossil record, and the text is richly illustrated with photographs, line drawings, charts, and maps. A complete bibliography lists full citations to fossil material.

The only single volume that provides Oregon’s fossil record and history, Oregon Fossils is well-written, well-organized guide. It is an excellent reference for classroom and library use, for researchers, and for private collectors and hobbyists. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Different Take on Mary Anning
This picture book about Mary Anning is written in large comic book format.It opens when Mary is twelve and her father has already passed away.It lets the reader in on some information that they might not have gotten from other books on the same topic, for example, Mary searched for fossils with her brother Joe and he was the one who originally found the ichthyosaur in the cliff. I had one thing about the book that bothered me and that was an illustration showing Mary lowering a large part of the fossil she was excavating from a tower she was standing on.Even my pre-school aged children thought that this was a bit of a stretch as the piece shown must have been quite heavy.While this book provides interesting details ommitted from other books, it is still my second pick on the the subject of Mary Anning with my first choice being Stone Girl, Bone Girl. ... Read more

Product Description
Revised edition. Updated directions (with maps) on where and how to hunt for fossils in the Sunshine State. Complete photo identification section and insightful comments on the history of the fossil treasures you'll uncover. A great gift for serious or beginning archaeologists. Paintings by Chris Kreider; photos by the author. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

REALLY HELPS THE FL COLLECTOR TO GET STARTED
I HAVE ENJOYED THIS BOOK GREATLY, I HAVE BEEN TO ALOT OF THE LOCATIONS AND I REALLY ENJOYED THE READ. THE AUTHOR IS DOWN TO EARTH AND IS AN EASY READ.

Worth every penny!
This book is a wealth of information, the Bible if you will for Florida teachers, layman, evenpaleontologists from elsewhere in the world! Can not say enough good things about it! I use it as a reference source very often. I have looked thru all the other books of this type and all pale in comparison.

Florida fossils
This is a good book, especially for its time.That said, it is time for an update!

Florida's Fossils:Guide to Location, Identification, and Enjoyment
Very easy to read, understand, and use book.I have visited many of the sites listed in the book, and have enjoyed them tremendously.This book eliminates the need to cart around several books to find the information needed.Perfect for the amateur fossil hunter.

Florida's Fossils: Guide to Location, Identification and Enjoyment
Very nicely presented book.Photos are very good.A great guidebook and reference for any collector's library. ... Read more

Product Description
Definitive guide provides paleontologists and amateur fossil enthusiasts with invaluable information about where fossils have been found, how to care for samples and what can be learned by studying them. Profusely illustrated and expanded edition contains fascinating information about everything from single-celled organisms, arthropods and amphibians, to dinosaurs, birds and mammals. Includes identification keys, glossary and more. Over 1,500 illustrations.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Great resource book!!!
This was a great resource book!Lots to see and use. Most other books dont have enough detail. This one really takes it up a notch!

The Fossil Book
The original version of this book was published in 1958.It is a wonderful introduction to the fossil record.The book is organized by begining with the oldest fossils, and working forward through time to the most recent fossils.There are many excellent drawings and photographs to help the reader understand not only what the living animal looked like, but what the typical fossil parts look like.

This book does not require the reader to already be a scientist in order to understand and enjoy it's contents.For the amateur fossil collector, this is a valuable reference book that will be used over, and over again.

Many important discoveries have been made in geology since 1958, and the more recent edition(s) incorporate these discoveries.Like all sciences, geology is a growing body of knowledge.

Good
It is really good because it is local based for Melbourne, Australia, not America.

What happened to all the transitional forms?
We've all heard confident claims about "multitudes" of transitional forms in the fossil record, but what have the evolutionary paleontologists been forced to admit?Are there any transitional forms at all?

"... I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used to visualize such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic license, would that not mislead the reader?

I wrote the text of my book four years ago. If I were to write it now, I think the book would be rather different. Gradualism is a concept I believe in, not just because of Darwin's authority, but because my understanding of genetics seems to demand it. Yet Gould and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. As a palaeontologist myself, I am much occupied with the philosophical problems of identifying ancestral forms in the fossil record. You say that I should at least `show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived.' I will lay it on the line-there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument."--Personal letter (written 10 April 1979) from Dr. Colin Patterson, Senior Palaeontologist at the British Museum of Natural History in London, to Luther D. Sunderland; as quoted in "Darwin's Enigma" by Luther D. Sunderland, Master Books, San Diego, USA, 1984, p. 89.

"I know that, at least in paleoanthropology, data are still so sparse that theory heavily influences interpretations.Theories have, in the past, clearly reflected our current ideologies instead of the actual data." --Dr. David Pilbeam (Physical Anthropologist, Yale University, USA), "Rearranging our family tree". "Human Nature", June 1978, p. 45.

"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution."--Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging?" "Paleobiology", vol. 6 (1), January 1980, p. 127.

"All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt."--Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "The return of hopeful monsters". "Natural History", vol. LXXXVI (6), June-July 1977, p. 24.

"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils. Yet Darwin was so wedded to gradualism that he wagered his entire theory on a denial of this literal record:

"The geological record is extremely imperfect and this fact will to a large extent explain why we do not find interminable varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory."

Darwin's argument still persists as the favored escape of most paleontologists from the embarrassment of a record that seems to show so little of evolution. In exposing its cultural and methodological roots, I wish in no way to impugn the potential validity of gradualism (for all general views have similar roots). I wish only to point out that it was never `seen' in the rocks.

Paleontologists have paid an exorbitant price for Darwin's argument. We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life's history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study."--Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "Evolution's erratic pace"."Natural History", vol. LXXXVI (5), May 1977, p. 14.

So how important is the fossil record to the evolutionist?

In 1960 the point was still being made...

"Although the comparative study of living animals and plants may give very convincing circumstantial evidence, fossils provide the only historical, documentary evidence that life has evolved from simpler to more and more complex forms." --Carl O. Dunbar, Ph.D. (geology) (Professor Emeritus of Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Yale University, and formerly Assistant Editor, "American Journal of Science") in "Historical Geology", John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1960, p. 47.

But more than 20 years later, after concerted creationist exposure of the true nature of the fossil record...

"In any case, no real evolutionist, whether gradualist or punctuationist, uses the fossil record as evidence in favour of the theory of evolution as opposed to special creation."--Mark Ridley (zoologist, Oxford University), "Who doubts evolution?" "New Scientist", vol. 90, 25 June 1981, p. 831.

"Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con-men, and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever. In explaining evolution, we do not have one iota of fact." --Dr. T. N. Tahmisian (Atomic Energy Commission, USA) in "The Fresno Bee", August 20, 1959. As quoted by N.J.Mitchell, "Evolution and the Emperor's New Clothes", Roydon publications, UK, 1983, title page.

Books I also strongly recommend reading are: "Bones of Contention" by Marvin Lubenow, "Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!" by Duane Gish, "Icon of Evolution" by Jonathan Wells and "Darwin's Black Box" by Michael Behe.

OK but not up to date
This book would have been fine if it had been read by someone nearly fifty years ago.If you like fossils and fossil hunting this book would have been great.But I needed it for basically a resource for research, and it fell on the wayside miserably in that aspect.It was originally copyrighted for 1958, so the publication date on Amazon was a little misleading, no offense.The illustrations that are in it, and there are a lot, are downright pathetic, it looks like a 3 year old drew most of them.There was next to nothing on fossil floras and no descriptions of any paleoecosystems in detail.The classifications of various vertabrate groups are out of date miserably.All in all buy this book, if you're fifty years old and no nothing at all about fossils and paleontology.But if you do no some and you want to learn more, this book is a waste of time, and a waste of the green stuff if you know what I mean. ... Read more

Product Description
Rather survey of the extensive data, this book focuses on the ideas, methodology and scope of contemporary palaeobiology.It devotes four chapters to the central principles of the field and then describes in detail five areas of current research: fossils and phylogenetic inference, the mechanism of speciation, taxonomic turnover on the geological time-scale, mass-extinctions, and the origin of new taxa. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pattern and Process
This is a very good and not too technical summary by an expert in the Darwinian field not only of the current state of evolutionary theory, but of the real difficulties, stated with a succinct clarity often absent in other such works. A sort of Neo-Neo-Darwinian Synthesis emerges from the presentation of the complexities of the pattern and process debate, with good treatments of many issues, from cladistics, to punctuated equilibrium, and much else. The book is very clear, and, without parting ways with conventional Darwinism, highlights the complexities of the 'epistemological gap'as revealed in the actual state of our knowledge of the fossil record. As the author notes, there is "no single universally applicable theory of the cause of evolution that all agree explains all aspects of all cases". Such statements are more effective in the Darwin debate than the blank wall of massive denial that attends too many treatments.Veryclear, rigorous, and with excellent references. Good book to get one's bearings in a changing field, whatever one's views of evolution. ... Read more

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You've read every dinosaur book that you could get your hands on since you were ten years old. You've dragged your friends and family to natural history museums all across the country. Maybe, you've been volunteering for digs or lab work.Maybe you've already gotten your degree or even your first job in the field. Whatever the case, if you are chasing the beasts of life's past, and you know that paleontology is what you want to do for the rest of your life, then "The Top 256 Rules of Paleontology" should be the next step in your journey. The Top 256 offers introductory fossil technicians, volunteers and young professionals over 256 practical, candid, no holds-barred, tidbits of advice on how to make that journey a success. It covers everything from field and laboratory techniques, to advice on publishing, dealing with your peers and conducting research. If you're a young professional, an old pro or just someone interested in fossils, this book is a must read! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fun and interesting book to browse
I'm a huge fan of the author's "So You Want To Dig Dinosaurs" book, so I was really excited to see that he wrote another.The concept of this book is excellent, and there is a lot of good information in it.I don't know ifyou'd necessarily want to sit down and read it cover-to-cover, but it's fun to look through and read the sections that catch your eye.

What I would really *really* love to see him write is a "256 Rules of Paleontology Lab Prep."There just are no books that talk about the various techniques of preparing bones once you've got them in the lab.There is nothing that talks about what solvents to use on penetrant/stabilizer, what types of media to use with a media blaster, the various types and brands of blasters (microblaster, accuflow, swam, etc.), mini jackhammers (paleotools, or what about the low-vibration ones made in Germany), etc.What are the best products to use to glue and cosmetically repair bones, and when should they be used (or not be used,) etc. etc.There just doesn't seem to be any information on this on the web or in books.

So Mr. Stein, please make this your third book! ;-) ... Read more

Product Description
Millions of years after vanishing from the Earth, dinosaurs still have the power to stir students’ curiosity. Deepen that interest with Adventures in Paleontology, a series of lively hands-on activities especially for middle schoolers.

This beautifully illustrated full color book features 36 activities that open students up to a variety of foundational sciences, including biology, geology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy.
For example:
• “How Do Fossils Form?” discusses how organisms become fossils and illustrates the concept with activities that simulate fossil-making processes.
• “What Can You Learn From Fossils?” explores what fossils teach about ancient organisms.
• “Mass Extinction and Meteor Collisions With Earth” discusses recently discovered links between meteor and asteroid impacts on Earth and the demise of animals like dinosaurs.

Other chapters cover how to tell the age of the Earth; how dinosaurs evolved; and diversity, classification, and taxonomy. The final chapters offer humanistic perspectives on fossils in literature and art. As an attention-grabbing complement to the text, vivid full color illustrations show not just skeletons and animal tracks but also what dinosaurs probably looked like in their natural settings. Handy line drawings guide students through each step of the activities. ... Read more