Fossil Links

My Fossil Field Trips - Illinois and Vicinity

• Chicago's Michigan Avenue ^. Dinosaur Lab Tour ^. Thornton Quarry ^. Kankakee River ^. La Salle ^. Southern Illinois
• First Families of Chicago includes Illinois bedrock maps and stratigraphic columns, illustrations of Chicago region fossils and fossil hunting localities in the Chicago Region.
• Useful Publications about Illinois Geology

Illinois Fossil Illustrations

Fossil Hunting Beyond Illinois

• Hunting Dinosaurs in Wyoming
• Cenozoic Fossils in the Humboldt Bay Area, Northern California

Illinois Fossil Hunting Resources

• Swim around a Silurian reef at the Milwaukee Public Museum
  
  
• Fossils of Illinois based on Collinson's Guide for Beginning Fossil Hunters available from the ISGS.
• A geologic column from the ISGS.
• Illinois State Fossil - Tullimonstrum gregarium from ISGS.
• Illinois by time period and geological history of Illinois by a teacher at the University of Chicago Lab School, Flo Vaughn.
  
  
• Mazon Creek Project book review and information about this unique Pennsylvanian fauna.
• Mazon Creek online exhibit from the Illinois State Museum .
• Mazon Creek from the University of California Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley.

Large Worldwide Sites

• USGS - Fossils, Life and Time Brochure.
• The Tree of Life Project provides a phylum by phylum series of photos and links. Start on this root page and follow the links to the group you are searching. There are some super links; coverage is better in the "lower animals" and rather thin in the vertebrates.
• Berkeley Museum of Paleontology -- Museum without Walls.
  • PaleoNet has art exhibits, latest finds, links and more.
  • The Taxonomic List provides a clickable list though life and its fossils.
  • Links to collections worldwide.

By Locality

• Burgess Shale from Science Web provides information on geology, paleontology and animations of Anomalocaris.
• Burgess Shale from the University of Calgary.
• Burgess Shale fossils at Yale's Peabody Museum.
• Anomalocaris Home Page.
• Aberdeen's Rhynie Chert formation from about 400 million years ago preserves organisms in a hot springs silica coating and even cell structures are visible.
• Ontario's fossil past from the University of Waterloo. It's similar to that of Illinois in that it is rich in Paleozoic material, unconformably overlain by glacial deposits.

Taxa Pages

• Gaia Project
  • Paleozoic home page.
  • Gaia Project. Brachiopod page.
  • Horn Corals page.
• Trilobites and Eurypterids
  • Trilobites taxonomy, systematics, morphology and life history. Try this link if the above link has moved.
  • Trilobites of Illinois from ISGS.
  • Eurypterids and other odd Silurians at this educational section of a commercial site.
  • Trilobites and Eurypterids from the Langheinrich Museum.
• Taxonomic and phylogenetic data on 3200 named species of North American fossil mammals.
• Turtles -- Testudinae from the American Museum of Natural History in New York has an interactive cladogram for living and extinct groups.

Computational Paleontology

• Study logarithmic spirals and other mathematical models seen in the shape of protista, plants and animals.
• The Paleomap Project - watch the continents move!
• Study fossil skulls in this virtual gallery. Rotate and view from different angles.

Future Fossils

• The Plankton Net. More than 100,000 species of really small stuff lives in our ocean now. See the fossils of the future at the University of Ontario - Guelph site.
• American Society for Microbiology provides a view of the smallest plants and critters know, the bacteria, algae, parasites and yeasts. You'll never forget to wash up again.
• 70,000 microorganisms, including fungi, algae and animal cells.
• More than 5000 cyanobacteria references and links.
  
  
• Palynology Page. Bone up on your fossil and present plant pollen here. ("Acritarchs" are pollen.)
  
  
• The algae image library has scanning electron microscopy of diatoms and much more.
• Diatom optical microscopy "elevate diatoms from tiny translucent plants to [an] art form."
• Diatom taxonomy, glossary and illustrated key as well as a list of type specimens in this California Academy of Sciences site.
• Diatom Database from Geological Survey of Canada provides sampling data along with (planned) 5000 species accounts and environmental requirements over over 1000 species.
  
  
• 9000 species of annelid worms and still counting. Pictures of leeches feasting and deep-sea tube worms. Try this link if the above link has changed addresses.
  
  
• Moths of the United States and sister-site butterflies of the U.S. have range maps, checklists and illustrations.
  
  
• The Reef Education Network - University of Sydney, Australia.
  
  
• Sharks -- Elasmobranchs from the Florida Museum of Natural History includes taxonomy, diet, range and conservation status for modern species.
  
  
• EMBL Reptile Database. More than 1,000 species photographed and counting. Taxonomy, synonyms and distribution for nearly all of the world's approximately 7,900 living species.
  
  
• HerpDigest: A Free Electronic Newsletter on Reptile and Amphibians