Texas is known worldwide as a rich resource for the intricate Cretaceous-age echinoids widely sought by professional and amateur paleontologists. With much of the scientific literature on Texas Cretaceous echinoids decades old, here is an updated and detailed guide for identifying this rich fossil fauna. After a brief description of the climatic events that led to the formation of these marine deposits, readers are introduced to the terminology needed to understand the morphology and biology of echinoids. More than 350 high-quality color photographs and detailed descriptions provide a visual guide to identifying, usually to the species level, most of the Cretaceous echinoids found in Texas. The information will be of interest to nature lovers, new and advanced collectors, and students of invertebrate paleontology looking for in-depth, updated insights into the morphology, classification, and identification of these striking fossils.

Collector's Guide to Fort Payne Crinoids and Blastoids is the first comprehensive guide for identifying the fossils of echinoderms from hundreds of millions of years ago, when North America was covered by a warm, equatorial sea. Crinoids and blastoids, echinoderms (the same family of marine animals to include starfish, sea urchins, and sand dollars) from the Fort Payne Formation in Kentucky, are rarely seen at gem, mineral, and fossil shows, nor are they regularly displayed at major museums. By combining high-quality color photographs and an accompanying descriptive text, William W. Morgan provides the first comprehensive identification guide to these fascinating fossils. Collector's Guide to Fort Payne Crinoids and Blastoids features photographs, often offering more than one view, of the best-quality specimens curated in the Smithsonian and other prominent invertebrate fossil museums. Morgan includes photographs that are unlabeled so that readers can test themselves to see whether they can differentiate some of the more subtle features that may be necessary for accurate identification.

The purpose of this bulletin is to furnish to residents of the county and to other interested a constructive guide to the geology of the county, its influence on general development, and its possibilities for exploitation -- Introduction.

A photographic guide to Oklahomas Devonian trilobites. The geological history of Coal County, Oklahoma. Descriptions of rock formations where trilobites are found. Excavation and restoration of trilobites. A photographic atlas of the Lower Devonian trilobites of Oklahoma, with helpful information to aid in their identification. Trilobites are a well-known fossil group, possibly second most famous only to dinosaurs. With their easily fossilized exoskeleton, they left an extensive and diverse fossil record. They began a drawn-out decline to extinction during Late Devonian time, when all but one of the trilobite orders died out. This meticulously researched reference guide is a photographic atlas and descriptive compendium on the trilobites of Coal County, Oklahoma. The species described lived during the Lower Devonian in a shallow tropical ocean that had advanced over the landscape of North America. More than twenty species are exquisitely preserved in Oklahomas limestone rocks. Each species is carefully illustrated, including thorough descriptions, so that those familiar and unfamiliar can understand and appreciate these amazing creatures. The most current scientific research on these trilobites is also included. For those wishing to pursue a deeper interest in trilobites, a comprehensive bibliography lists hundreds of sources of information for further study.