Table Of ContentFOSSILS FOR AMATEURS
FOSSILS FOR AMATEURS
A Guide to Collecting
and Preparing Invertebrate Fossils
RUSSELL P. MacFALL
& JAY WOLLIN
We are the Ancients of the Earth,
And in the morning of the times.
Tennyson
Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
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Dedicated to all the fossils yet unfound
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Copyright © 1972 by Litton Educational Publishing, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 74-149259
ISBN 0-442-25060-6 cloth 0-442-25061-4 paper
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon
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Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
450 West 33rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10001
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
FOREWORD
Some years ago, I clipped a sentence from an abstract in the program of the
annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, and pasted it to the
bookshelf by my desk. I no longer remember who was the author of this
quotation, and I don't know whether his tongue was in his cheek when he
wrote: "Geologists are the most literate of all technical writers. Skilled in a
descriptive science, strong on grammar, they are beautifully, even romanti
cally fluent."
Perhaps there is an affinity between the earth and writers—and between
writers and the earth. Perhaps the thrills and pleasures of digging up clues
to the history of our planet—tangible bits of the planet itself—require to
be shared.
This sharing can be seen on many levels. Specialists, popularizers, tyros,
teachers, hobbyists: all have something to say, and all to more than one
audience. Russell MacFall, for many years an editor of the Chicago
Tribune, is a hobby collector of both fossils and minerals. His amateur
standing with respect to the latter category was shattered two decades ago
with the publication of his Gem Hunter's Guide. His amateur position in
paleontology is shattered by the volume now before us. Jay Wollin, briefly
a landscape designer, holds degrees in horticulture and paleobotany and
currently teaches earth science at Oakton Community College in Morton
Grove, Illinois.
Both authors remain authentic members of the far-flung community of
amateurs of paleontology; for both remain keen collectors and happy
devotees of the thrill of uncovering and preserving fossils. It is to their
fellow collectors that they address this book. In presenting it, the publisher
has chosen well, for one could look long and far to find authors so well
established in the affections of their fellows. Both have come up through
the ranks of local collecting societies to the presidency of the Midwest
Federation of Mineralogical and Geological Societies.
EUGENE S. RICHARDSON JR.
Curator, Fossil Invertebrates,
Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago, Illinois
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors wish to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Dr. Richardson and
to the Field Museum of Natural History which they can never hope to
repay. Dr. Richardson read critical parts of the manuscript, masterfully
extricating the authors from pitfalls of fact and phraseology into which
they had blundered. The museum staff patiently gave access to fossil col
lections and preparation rooms and gave freely of their own ideas.
The book also owes much of its value to the close cooperation of Mrs.
Betty Crawford of Mansfield, Ohio, who supplied photographs and made
pencil drawings and detailed state maps for it. Dr. Dwayne Stone of
Marietta College, Dr. Kenneth E. Caster of the University of Cincinnati,
and Dr. Frank M. Carpenter of Harvard University generously lent photo
graphs; and a number of state geological surveys supplied useful material.
Hands appearing in some photographs are visual evidence of the coopera
tion of Alice Wollin, Philip Olsberg, and Orville Gilpin. The manuscript
was neatly retyped several times by Mrs. Diane Bowden, Miss Nadine
Abicht, and Miss Beth Burgess. Photographs, unless otherwise credited,
were taken by Jay Wollin and printed by Michael Gibson and Tom
McCleary.
Finally, the authors wish to thank the several editors of our publisher
who have guided the manuscript to completion, and especially Patricia Hor-
gan of New York, who has the supreme wisdom to know how and when
to ask the right questions.
vi
CONTENTS
I Treasures in the Dust 1
II The Nature of Fossils 12
The Earliest Paleontologists 12
How Fossils Are Formed 14
Miscellaneous Fossil Forms 32
III The Naming of Fossils 39
Classifying Plants and Animals 39
IV Where Fossils Occur 45
Sedimentary Rocks 46
V Time Before Time 69
Relative Time 71
Absolute Time 74
VI Where to Look for Fossils 79
Limestone Quarries 79
Shale Quarries 83
viii CONTENTS
Coal Mines 86
Pits 89
Washing Plants 90
Waste Piles 91
Gravel Pits 94
Metal Mines 97
Road Cuts 99
Railroad Cuts 103
Natural Exposures 104
Other Areas 112
VII Practical Field Tripping 116
Preliminary Preparations 116
Safety Precautions in the Field 119
The Etiquette of Collecting 124
VIII Maps and How to Use Them 133
Road Maps 133
Topographic Maps 134
Geologic Maps 139
IX Preparing and Cleaning Fossils 142
Field Work 143
Cleaning at Home 148
X Special Techniques 179
Thin Sections 179
Plastic Embedment 188
Casting Fossils 192
X-Ray Examination 197
Fluorescence 199
XI Cataloging and Displaying Fossils 201
Labeling 201
Cataloging 202
Displaying 204
Photographing Fossils 209
Trading and Swapping 215
XII Microfossils 217
Conodonts 218
Ostracods 220
CONTENTS ix
Foraminifera 220
Radiolarians 222
Diatoms 222
Other Microfossils 224
Collecting and Preparing Microfossils 224
XIII Fossils and their Families 231
Plants 233
Animals 246
APPENDIX 287
State Maps Showing Fossil Areas 288
Public Sources of Further Information by State 321
Dealers in Fossils 323
Recommended Books 324
INDEX 333
