Fossil
Invertebrates
Paul
D Taylor and David N Lewis
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.
Published
by the Natural History Museum.
Key
features
- Only
book of its kind on the subject of invertebrate fossils
- Suitable
for academic and general readership
- Accessible
text by expert authors
Contents
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 lhorseshoe 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
About
the authors
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.
Related titles
Ammonites
(2002),
Fossils: The Key to the
Past (2002) and
Fossil Plants
(2004).
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Specifications
ISBN:
0 565 09183 2
Price: £25.00
Format: Hardback with jacket
Size: 231 x 261 mm
Extent: 208 pp
Published: 29 June 2005
Subject classification: Natural history; palaeontology
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