North America Ammonite Dichotomous Key?

[KyleR]

Hi everyone,

 

I just got into fossil collecting and for some reason Ammonites have my attention. I have a small background in beetle taxonomy, so I was curious if there is a dichotomous key for North American Ammonites? Are dichotomous keys even a thing for fossils? Is there any comprehensive books or guides for Ammonites in English? All I am aware of is the "Treasties on Invertebrate Paleontology" and the fourm search function isn't helping me out either.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Fossildude19]

Welcome to the Forum.  

 

I am not aware of any dichotomous keys for fossils. 

Most scientific papers about ammonites tend to be tied to specific localities, and/or  time periods. So typing in "North American Ammonite fossils PDF" on Google might only get you an overview .

 

However, "Texas Ammonites" brings up these results on the Forum. 

 

Knowing what Formation you are concerned with can help narrow down your searches. 

 

[KyleR]

Thank you,

 

I am still very new to all of this, so I don't really have much of a clue. I guess I need to figure out which formations are in my area, and while I'm at it, learn basic geology

[FossilDAWG]

Hi Kyle, and welcome to the Forum.  I am also an entomologist (although more on the molecular biology side) and I teach a lab course in medical entomology (amongst other things), and so I am quite familiar with dichotomous keys.  I have thought from time to time that they would be useful for fossil identification, but I have never seen them used.  I started to put some together one time, but I never finished the project.  Maybe it would be something worthwhile to finish up, if I can find the files I started.

 

Don

[Ludwigia]

2 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

   Maybe it would be something worthwhile to finish up, if I can find the files I started.

 

Don

I would encourage you to do just that, especially now that we have so much extra time on our hands