Fossil Invertebrates, Paul D Taylor and David N Lewis, 9780643091627

Fossil Invertebrates

Paul D Taylor
David N Lewis

Illustrations, Glossary, Index
208 pages, 225 x 225 mm
Publisher: The Natural History Museum, London

Hardback - 2005
ISBN: 9780643091627 - AU $ 69.95

When searching at almost any fossil site, a collector is more likely to come across an invertebrate fossil than any other kind. This book is a marvellously detailed and accessible resource designed to unravel and interpret this rich fossil record. Ideal for any undergraduate or amateur fossil enthusiast, it covers all major groups of fossil invertebrates and provides illustrated descriptions of selected genera.

Fossil Invertebrates is a window into the ancient Earth when the seas teemed with ammonites, corals, sponges, molluscs, crinoids and trilobites. The sheer abundance of their fossils reflects the fact that many invertebrates, with solid, decay-resistant shells, were perfectly designed to become fossils. Many of these fossilised creatures have close relatives alive today, and the book demonstrates how the fossil record can shed light on today's fauna.

Only book of its kind on the subject of invertebrate fossils
Suitable for academic and general readership
Accessible text by expert authors

Chapter 1: Introduction to fossils and invertebrate animals
Fossils and non-fossils; what kinds of rocks contain fossils?; formation of fossils; types of preservation; dating fossils; the geological timescale; invertebrates
Chapter 2: Living in colonies: corals, bryozoans, sponges and graptolites
Colonial animals: feeding, growth and polymorphism, colony formation; Cnidaria: corals and coral reefs; bryozoans: functional morphology; sponges: feeding; graptolites: modes of life
Chapter 3: Shells galore: molluscs and brachiopods
Introducing molluscs; bivalves: shell shape as indicator of life habit; gastropods: classification and ecology; cephalopods: nautiloids, ammonoids: focus on Nautilus as a living analogue, coleoids: belemnites and other coleoids; bellerophontids; polyplacophorans, rostroconchs, scaphopods; brachiopods: ecology and evolutionary interactions with bivalves
Chapter 4: Worms and tubes
Annelids: serpulid tubes and other polychaetes; minor fossil worm phyla; enigmatic tubular fossils: tentaculitids, cornulitids, hyoliths
Chapter 5: Jointed limbed animals: arthropods
Trilobites: focus on the eye; chelicerates: eurypterids and horseshoe crabs; crustaceans; myriapods; insects
Chapter 6: Spiny-skinned animals: echinoderms
Introducing echinoderms; Echinoids; Crinoids; Ophiuroids; Asteroids; Holothurians; Cystoids; Blastoids; Eocrinoids; Edrioasteroids; Helicoplacoids; Ophiocistiods; Cyclocystoids; Carpoids
Glossary
Index

". . . a pleasant introduction to the world of fossils for the casual naturalist and an insight to why some people find them so fascinating."
Jacquie Milner, Presenter, Horizon: The Planetarium
(Science Network WA: Fossil Invertebrates, 2005)

Paul Taylor undertakes research on fossil and living bryozoans at the Natural History Museum.

David Lewis is a Collections Manager for fossil invertebrates at the Natural History Museum, specialising in fossil echinoids.

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