Fantastic Fossils: A Guide to Finding and Identifying Prehistoric Life

by Donald R. Prothero

Overview

Nothing fills us with a sense of wonder like fossils. What looks at first like a simple rock is in fact a clue that reveals the staggering diversity of ancient environments, the winding pathways of evolution, and the majesty of a vanished earth. But as much as one might daydream of digging a hole in the backyard and finding a Tyrannosaurus, only a few places contain these buried treasures, and when a scientist comes across a remnant of prehistoric life, great care must be taken. What do budding paleontologists need to know before starting their search?

In Fantastic Fossils, Donald R. Prothero offers an accessible, entertaining, and richly illustrated guide to the paleontologist’s journey. He details the best places to look for fossils, the art of how to find them, and how to classify the major types. Prothero provides expert wisdom about typical fossils that an average person can hope to collect and how to hunt fossils responsibly and ethically. He also explores the lessons that both common and rarer discoveries offer about paleontology and its history, as well as what fossils can tell us about past climates and present climate change. Captivating illustrations by the paleoartist Mary Persis Williams bring to life hundreds of important specimens. Offering valuable lessons for armchair enthusiasts and paleontology students alike, Fantastic Fossils is an essential companion for all readers who have ever dreamed of going in search of traces of a lost world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231551489
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	03/31/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	113 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Donald R. Prothero is a paleontology and geology researcher, teacher, and author. He is adjunct professor of geological sciences at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and research associate in vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. His most recent book is The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries: Amazing Fossils and the People Who Found Them (Columbia, 2019).

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I. Fossils Are Where You Find Them
1. Fantastic Fossils
2. How Are Fossils Formed?
3. What Kinds of Rocks Yield Fossils?
4. Where Do You Find Fossils?
5. Dating Fossils
6. Collecting Fossils: Badlands
7. Collecting Fossils: Beaches
8. Collecting Fossils: Quarries and Roadcuts
9. The Crucial Step: Collecting Data
Part II. Identifying Your Fossils
10. What’s in a Name?
11. Phylum Porifera: Sponges and Their Relatives
12. Phylum Cnidaria (Coelenterates): Sea Jellies, Sea Anemones, and Corals
13. Phylum Brachiopoda: Brachiopods, or Lamp Shells
14. Phylum Bryozoa: Bryozoans, or Moss Animals
15. Phylum Arthropoda: Trilobites and Their Relatives
16. Phylum Mollusca: Clams, Snail, Squids, and Their Relatives
17. Phylum Echinodermata: Sea Stars, Sea Urchins, and Their Relatives
18. Phylum Hemichordata: Graptolites
19. Phylum Chordata: Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals
20. Paleobotany: Fossil Plants
Index

Editorial Reviews

This book condenses most of what you find in a college textbook on paleontology into a concise, readable handbook that explains everything from how to find and collect fossils to how to assign them scientific names. No fossil enthusiast should be without it!

Spencer G. Lucas

Accessible, entertaining, and richly illustrated. A must have for anyone with an interest in fossils.

Birdbooker Report

The text is easy to understand, with limited use of jargon, and will be most helpful to beginners who want to know more about fossils but have limited geological understanding.

Choice

Prothero is a prolific author of popular paleontology titles. Meeting his usual excellent standard, this delightful and wide-ranging book provides an engaging grounding in the basics of paleontology and geology, alongside information on many of the common creatures budding fossil hunters are likely to encounter.

John Pickrell

Donald Prothero knows how to use the written word to make paleontology exciting, and the literary adventure he takes us on in his latest book, Fantastic Fossils, is definitely worth the price of admission. Via prose and a plethora of illustrations, Prothero shepherds us from badlands to beaches and quarries to roadcuts; all of these peregrinations give the reader a sense of what it’s like to be on a paleontological quest. As part of this metaphorical pursuit one also receives practical knowledge; the reader comes to understand not only how to collect and identify fossils but also their broader significance as natural history objects with myriad implications for ecology, evolution and climate change. Prothero’s book features the remark that: “Fossils are cool. Fossils are amazing.” I concur, and if you do too, or if you’re anyone from nine to ninety who wants to learn more about fossils, you should definitely check out this book.

Bruce S. Lieberman

01/10/2020

Paleontologist Prothero (geological sciences, Calif. State Polytechnic; vertebrate paleontology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County; The Story of Life in 25 Fossils) offers practical advice and a solid biological foundation to the fledgling fossil collector. Beginning with some paleontology fundamentals—how fossils are formed, the fossil-bearing rocks, the best fossil sites, and the whys and wherefores of scientific nomenclature—Prothero progresses through the animal kingdom phylum by phylum, describing the anatomical features and basic physiology of representative organisms, living and fossil. The emphasis here is on the identification of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils; only one chapter is devoted to fossil plants. Although there are many helpful diagrams and fossil photos, the captioning method is sometimes cumbersome: one 14-part caption covers ten pages of illustrations, forcing readers to flip back and forth between the illustrations and the multipart caption. VERDICT Overall, this well-written introduction to the joys of fossil hunting is recommended for the neophyte fossil collector who hasn't read Richard Fortey's classic, Fossils: Key to the Past.—Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ

Library Journal