Complete beginner's guide, with vertebrate and invertebrate fossil descriptions.

Fishes have a unique evolutionary history that stretches back in time more than 450 million years. They are incredibly ancient-older than the dinosaurs-and include the ancestors of all limbed vertebrates living on land, even humans.In Discovering Fossil Fishes , John Maisey traces the evolution of fishes over the course of nearly half a billion years, describing the discovery of their extraordinary fossil remains and explaining what these ancient animals tell us about our own place in the history of life. Combining current scientific information with entertaining tales about historic and contemporary fieldwork, Maisey brings to life the development of armored fishes, monster sharks, and fishes with arms as he reveals the subtleties of evolution's greatest success story.More abundant and more diverse than their air-breathing cousins, fishes today dominate the seas and freshwaters of Earth. Through outstanding full-color photographs of their fossils and of fossil reconstructions by artists David Miller and Ivy Rutzky, along with informative photographs, charts, diagrams, and drawings, we discover a staggering half-billion-year history in which lies our own watery origins.

Describes the 1938 discovery of the coelacanth, a fish previously believed to be extinct, and subsequent research about it.

One of the greatest mysteries in reconstructing the history of life on Earth has been the apparent absence of fossils dating back more than 550 million years. We have long known that fossils of sophisticated marine life-forms existed at the dawn of the Cambrian Period, but until recently scientists had found no traces of Precambrian fossils. The quest to find such traces began in earnest in the mid-1960s and culminated in one dramatic moment in 1993 when William Schopf identified fossilized microorganisms three and a half billion years old. This startling find opened up a vast period of time--some eighty-five percent of Earth's history--to new research and new ideas about life's beginnings. In this book, William Schopf, a pioneer of modern paleobiology, tells for the first time the exciting and fascinating story of the origins and earliest evolution of life and how that story has been unearthed. Gracefully blending his personal story of discovery with the basics needed to understand the astonishing science he describes, Schopf has produced an introduction to paleobiology for the interested reader as well as a primer for beginning students in the field. He considers such questions as how did primitive bacteria, pond scum, evolve into the complex life-forms found at the beginning of the Cambrian Period? How do scientists identify ancient microbes and what do these tiny creatures tell us about the environment of the early Earth? (And, in a related chapter, Schopf discusses his role in the controversy that swirls around recent claims of fossils in the famed meteorite from Mars.) Like all great teachers, Schopf teaches the non-specialist enough about his subject along the way that we can easily follow his descriptions of the geology, biology, and chemistry behind these discoveries. Anyone interested in the intriguing questions of the origins of life on Earth and how those origins have been discovered will find this story the best place to start.

How do scientists learn about dinosaurs? They ask questions! How are fossils found? What do fossils tell us about dinosaurs? Did dinosaurs come from eggs? Join a world-famous dinosaur expert as he helps you answer these questions. You will soon start asking questions of your own! Book jacket.

Dig into this photo-packed Penguin-Smithsonian book about fossils—and find out what was going on in our world. Aren't you curious about what Earth was like long ago? What creatures lived before us? What happened to the dinosaurs? Curious about Fossils explains why and where fossils form and looks at the colorful lives and important discoveries of some of the great early fossil hunters and collectors, including Mary Anning who unearthed the first ichthyosaur skeleton; Richard Owen who coined the word dinosaur; and Barnum Brown, who discovered the first remains of a T-rex. Then the adventure continues into modern times, where scientists on fossil hunts in places like North Dakota's Hell Creek Formation use computers and other technology to dig up the fossilized bones, teeth, and even poop that provide clues to the past. A must read for every kid who's ever collected a shark tooth or trilobite!

In 1898, a 19-year-old girl marched into the Natural History Museum and demanded a job. At the time, no women were employed there as scientists, but for the determined Dorothea Bate this was the first step in an extraordinary career as a pioneering explorer and fossil-hunter and the beginning of an association with the Museum that was to last for more than 50 years. As a young woman she explored the islands of Cyprus, Crete and the little known Majorca and Menorca, braving parental opposition and considerable physical hardship and danger. In remote mountain caves and sea-battered cliffs, she discovered, against enormous odds, the fossil evidence of unique species of extinct fauna, previously unknown to science, including dwarf elephants and hippos, giant dormice and a strange small goat-like antelope. Internationally respected as an outstanding palaeontologist during her lifetime, Dorothea was largely forgotten after her death. Now, working from unpublished letters, papers and work diaries and re-tracing her steps, Karolyn Shindler has rediscovered Dorothea's life.