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Dinosaur Fossils
Scientists know a lot about dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures
because they have found fossils.
On this page, you can find more information about fossils:
Fossils are preserved remains or traces of animals, plants and other
organisms. They are generally found in rocks.
Dinosaur Fossils Embedded in Rock
Photographic Print
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Most fossils are found in sedimentary rocks that form from the deposits
of sand and mud.
When an animal or plant dies, its body can get buried into
sand or mud. Then, over ages (millions of years), the sand or mud gets
compacted, and eventually turns to rock. Minerals can also leach into
the animal's body, helping to preserve it.
Similarly, just as animals' bodies and plants can be preserved by this
process of fossilization, so too can animals' nests, burrows,
footprints,
dung, etc.
Of course, most animals and plants
that die are not preserved in this way. Likewise most nests, burrows, footprints,
dung, etc., are also not preserved.
It is far more likely that they are destroyed - for example, bodies
can be eaten by scavengers or rot away, footprints can be washed away, and
so forth. It is only rarely, when all the circumstances happen to be just right,
that a fossil is formed.
There are two kinds of fossils:
- Fossilized Body Parts
These are fossils formed from parts of an animal
such as:
Since skin and soft tissues usually decay before being fossilized,
the most common parts of animals to be preserved in this way are the
toughest parts of the animal, especially teeth, and to a lesser extent bones.
- Trace Fossils
Trace fossils (which technically known as "ichnofossils")
are fossils
which show the living activities
of animals.
Such fossils can include (for example):
From time to time, fossils in the ground are revealed by erosion - the wind
or rain erodes rock, revealing fossils contained within. It is therefore
likely than mankind has encountered fossils, including dinosaur fossils
since ancient, perhaps even prehistoric times.
The first modern scientific description of a dinosaur fossil was written
by
William Buckland.
Buckland wrote a paper in 1824 that was entitled: "Notice on the Megalosaurus or Great
Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield".
Since then, many other
scientists
have contributed to finding, researching,
dinosaur fossils.
Many scientists
(and quite a few amateur fossil-hunters too) have found fossils of
dinosaurs and
other prehistoric animals.
Man Digging For Fossils
Photographic Print
Eisenstaedt,...
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Some of the most famous fossil hunters include:
- William Buckland
(1784-1856)
who wrote the first scientific description of a dinosaur.
- Mary Anning
(1799-1847)
was a
fossil hunter who lived in Lyme Regis,
England.
Anning was responsible for the discovery of the fossilized s
skeleton of an
Ichthyosaur (the skeleton is now in
London's
Natural History Museum)
in 1811,
as well as
a Plesiosaur in 1821,
and a Pterodactyl in 1828.
- Edward D. Cope
(1840-1897) was an American paleontologist who
discovered over a thousand species of extinct vertebrates.
His exploration and research took place principally in
Texas
and
Wyoming.
- Lawrence Lambe
(1849 to 1934)
was one of Canada's
greatest paleontologists. He discovered and named many
types of dinosaurs,
and also studied other prehistoric animals.
- Othniel C. Marsh
(1831-1899) was a professor of paleontology at Yale.
He discovered the first
American
Pterodactyl fossils, and was first to scientifically
describe many different dinosaurs,
including
Apatosaurus
and
Allosaurus.
- Henry Fairfield Osborn
(1857-1935)
was an American paleontologist who was the
president of the
American Museum of Natural History, and also a professor
at Columbia University,
Osborn described and named
Tyrannosaurus Rex
in
1905,
the first fossils of the animal have been discovered by
Barnum Brown in
1902.
Osborn also did important theoretical work, and proposed
the theory of Adaptive
Radiation, in which animals and plants evolve into several species
by spreading and adapting to new areas and ecological niches.
- Barnum Brown (1879-1968)
was perhaps the greatest dinosaur hunter of the
20th century -
many people remarked on his uncanny ability to sniff out
dinosaur fossils. Brown began by
working as an assistant to
Henry Fairfield Osborn
in 1897, and during this career
discovered numerous species of dinosaurs and other animals.
His most famous discovery was the first
Tyrannosaurus Rex
ever found, in
1902
in Montana.
Related Information & Resources
See Also
Fossil Pictures and Posters
by AllPosters
Here are some Fossil pictures and posters:
(Disclosure: Products details and descriptions provided by AllPosters. Our company may receive a payment if you purchase products from them after following a link from this website).
Books about Fossils
Here are some books from Amazon.com:
Disclosure: Products details and descriptions provided by Amazon.com. Our company may receive a payment if you purchase products from them after following a link from this website.
By Scott D. Sampson
University of California Press
Hardcover (352 pages)
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Product Description:
This captivating book, laced with evocative anecdotes from the field, gives the first holistic, up-to-date overview of dinosaurs and their world for a wide audience of readers. Situating these fascinating animals in a broad ecological and evolutionary context, leading dinosaur expert Scott D. Sampson fills us in on the exhilarating discoveries of the past twenty-five years, the most active period in the history of dinosaur paleontology, during which more "new" species were named than in all prior history. With these discoveries--and the most recent controversies--in mind, Sampson reconstructs the odyssey of the dinosaurs from their humble origins on the supercontinent Pangaea, to their reign as the largest animals the planet has ever known, and finally to their abrupt demise. Much more than the story of who ate whom way back when, Dinosaur Odyssey places dinosaurs in an expansive web of relationships with other organisms and demonstrates how they provide a powerful lens through which to observe the entire natural world. Addressing topics such as extinction, global warming, and energy flow, Dinosaur Odyssey finds that the dinosaurs' story is, in fact, a major chapter in our own story. |
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By Shelley Emling
Palgrave Macmillan
Released: 2009-10-13
Hardcover (256 pages)
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Product Description:
Mary Anning was only twelve years old when, in 1811, she discovered the first dinosaur skeleton--of an ichthyosaur--while fossil hunting on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, England. Until Mary's incredible discovery, it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct. The child of a poor family, Mary became a fossil hunter, inspiring the tongue-twister, She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore.” She attracted the attention of fossil collectors and eventually the scientific world. Once news of the fossils reached the halls of academia, it became impossible to ignore the truth. Mary’s peculiar finds helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, laid out in his On the Origin of Species. Darwin drew on Mary’s fossilized creatures as irrefutable evidence that life in the past was nothing like life in the present. A story worthy of Dickens, The Fossil Hunter chronicles the life of this young girl, with dirt under her fingernails and not a shilling to buy dinner, who became a world-renowned paleontologist. Dickens himself said of Mary: The carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and deserved to win it." Here at last, Shelley Emling returns Mary Anning, of whom Stephen J. Gould remarked, is probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology,” to her deserved place in history. |
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By Niles Eldredge
Roberts Rinehart Publishers
Paperback (112 pages; 1)
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A fun and fact-filled activity book about discovering and collecting fossils, the history of the Earth, and the record of life we find on its surface. |
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By Mark Jaffe
Hardcover (384 pages)
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It was an age of counterfeit giants, avaricious robber barons, corrupt politicians, intrepid pioneers, fierce Indian chiefs, and dinosaurs. The second half of the nineteenth century -- the so-called Gilded Age -- was a time when Americans were exploring the West and building a nation that would stretch from coast to coast.
It was also a time of scientific ferment. Charles Darwin had shaken the very foundations of Victorian society with his theory of evolution by natural selection, and scientists across the civilized world were locked in a great battle over Darwin's idea. While the debate raged in Europe, the hunt for hard evidence increasingly focused on the American West, with its grand mesas, buttes, and badlands. "We must turn to the New World if we wish to see in perfection the oldest monuments of earth's history," advised Sir Charles Lyell, the father of modern geology, after a visit to America. "Certainly in no other country are these ancient strata developed on a grander scale or more plentifully charged with fossils."
Could the answer to the history of life and the proof of evolution be found in those fossils? That was the question that two young American paleontologists--Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh--set out to answer. But what began as a friendly contest quickly turned into bitter rivalry that would spill over into American science and politics and rage relentlessly for nearly three decades.
Cope and Marsh would battle on the prairies, in the halls of Congress, in science journals, and in the popular press. Both wealthy men, they launched lavish, western expeditions and raced across the plains and mountains searching for the remains of the magnificent beasts that once inhabited the continent. Along the way they would encounter George Custer, Sitting Bull, Buffalo Bill, and Red Cloud.
Among the most remarkable fossil discoveries of Cope and Marsh are a bevy of dinosaurs, including some of the best known beasts -- the Triceratops, the Stegosaurus, the Camarasaurus, and the Brontosaurus. Even today, Marsh holds the record for dinosaur discoveries.
Just as valuable, however, were some of Marsh's discoveries of ancient mammals and birds that provided the first real proof of Dar- win's theory--"The best support for the theory in twenty years," the great Darwin himself proclaimed.
The tale of Cope and Marsh is also the story of the rise of American science. When their story begins just after the Civil War, America was an intellectual backwater, with eminent scientists snookered by the great, fake stone statue The Cardiff Giant--a hoax unmasked by Marsh.
But even as Cope and Marsh waged war, they both fought to build up American science and its scientific institutions. Yet despite their discoveries and their Gilded Age celebrity, the names of Cope and Marsh have faded into the recesses of the library and archive. In The Gilded Dinosaur Mark Jaffe exhumes from those archives the notes, journals, and letters of Cope and Marsh to reanimate and retell one of the keenest rivalries in the history of science.
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By Frank A. Garcia
Stackpole Books
Paperback (212 pages)
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160 drawings 6 x 9 Complete beginners guide to fossil collecting Includes lesser-studied vertebrate fossils Detailed illustrations for identification and comparison Earlier life forms are buried all over the earths surfacein oceans, on mountain slopes, in our backyards. Discovering Fossils provides an essential background on where to search for fossils, how to scan for the right textures and shapes, and how to properly extract and protect ones findsa perfect reference for new collectors young and old. Includes practical advice on what to wear and which tools to carry as well as an illustrated identification section of common fossil finds. Frank A. Garcia is responsible for more than 30 previously undiscovered species of prehistoric animals. He lives in Ruskin, Florida. Donald S. Miller is a fossil collector, writer, and proprietor of Millers Fossils in Wilmington, Delaware. Artist, author, and fossil collector Jasper Burns lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. |
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By Caroline Arnold
Clarion Books
Hardcover (40 pages; 1)
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Product Description:
Dinosaurs are usually pictured in warm, tropical environments, but fossils found at the poles are filling in the gap of knowledge about how and where these creatures lived. Evidence from bones and teeth to trackways and skin impressions raises important questions: How did dinosaurs cope with three months of total darkness in winter? What plants grew in the polar regions? How cold was it? What are the implications for today, as glaciers retreat, ice shelves melt, and permafrost thaws? The polar regions are a unique "library" of the past, and Caroline Arnold introduces readers to the gigantic prehistoric creatures that inhabited them. |
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By Michael Novacek
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Paperback (380 pages)
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“A superb introduction to paleontology as it really is and how it is done, from fish to dinosaur, bird, and mammal.” —Edward O. Wilson
Michael Novacek, a renowned paleontologist who has discovered important fossils on virtually every continent, is an authority on patterns of evolution and on the relationships among extinct and extant organisms. Time Traveler is his captivating account of how his boyhood enthusiasm for dinosaurs became a lifelong commitment to vanguard science. Novacek writes of the alluring perils of fieldwork with affection and discernment, and he illuminates the most exciting issues in paleontology today.
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By Bailey
Picture Window Books
Paperback (32 pages; 1)
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A dinosaur was buried at the bottom of an ocean. Learn how its bones turned to stone, and how they got put back together again. See dinosaur scientists work on a special museum display in this story of fossils. |
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Academic Press
Hardcover (208 pages)
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No other single volume reference to the Jehol site and its fossils exists and nowhere is there such a collection of fine photos of the fossils concerned. This book has pieced together the most up-to-date information on the Jehol Biota, a place that has shown the world some of the most astonishing fossil finds including the first complete skeleton of Archaeopteryx in 1861, four-winged dinosaurs- many feathered ones, the first beaked bird, the first plants with flowers and fruits, and thousands of species of invertebrates. Authors shed new light on a number of interesting theoretical issues in evolutionary biology today, such as the origin and early evolution of some major taxonomic groups.
The first two chapters give an inviting introduction to the Jehol Biota in terms of its history of study, its main components, its scientific importance, its geographical, geological and biostratigraphic framework, and its renowned fossil discoveries. Each of the remaining chapters deals with a particular organismal group of the Biota written by leading experts. The book is lavishly illustrated with nearly 280 illustrations, which include 200 photographs that show the diversity of the taxa and beauty of their preservation. The colored life restorations, elegantly done by some of China's most celebrated scientific illustrators, give a kiss of life to the dead bones. Although targeted primarily at an educated public, the book is also an invaluable source of information for students and professionals in paleontology, geology, evolutionary biology and science education in general.
* Authoritative introduction to an exciting, classic Mesozoic site home to many of the world's most important and best preserved fossils
* Clear informative text accessible to the professional and lay reader alike
* Over 200 high quality photographs of a wide range of extraordinary fossils
* Beautiful colour paintings depicting reconstructed animals and plants in lifelike landscapes
* Lavish, large format, high quality production |
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