favorite fossil books

[val horn]

somebody asked about books on fossils, so I thought why not list my favorites and maybe get to discover something unknown on somebody else's book  shelf. 

 

Here are two of my favorites.  The Walking Whales: From Land to Water in Eight Million Years 
by J. G. M. Hans Thewissen  (Author) , 

and  The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution
by Donald R. Prothero  (Author).   I enjoyed the writing style and learned a fair amount of how the science of paleobiology has developed and some of the amazing findings can be determined.

 

[Notidanodon]

I enjoyed the s365 open university evolution book course, some great stuff in there and nice diagrams and explanations

[Tidgy's Dad]

These are pretty good :

Written and sent to me by our own Duchess of Dookie ,the marvelous Lori. 

@GeschWhat

And :

Sent to me by the wonderful Bea @Moozillion

[val horn]

could not find the s365 book on the internet, but do look forward to finding the pterosaurs book valerie

[Thomas.Dodson]

These days my bookshelfs are outnumbered by digital publications and the likes. Even my bookshelf seems to be filled more with manuscripts and hardcopy publications. It's been a while but I enjoyed Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Earth (DK Publishing). The illustrations and general information are good so it's a nice book for people who are just getting into paleontology. The specific information is light but I feel that's usually better suited to papers anyway.

 

It's been even longer since I read it but the Fossil Legends of the First Americans by Adrienne Mayor is interesting. It's a bit speculative in some parts and is light on the scientific side but is nice otherwise. I guess I really do prefer reading scientific papers.

 

This was my favorite book as an infant.

 

 

[Yoda]

So many....

 

But I have recently read :

Monarchs of the Sea - Danna Staaf

 

Which I really enjoyed

[Plax]

Fossils for Amateurs by Russell McFall and Jerry Case's Pictorial Guide to Fossils.

[AK hiker]

I’m starting from little background in geology and paleontology so prefer ebooks in a tablet that allows touch access to dictionary for referencing terms used. With that in mind Richard Fortey’s LIFE, A Natural History of Four Billion Years of Life on Earth gave a good foundation for building knowledge. Also his book titled Trilobite was good bedside reading.

[Thecosmilia Trichitoma]

“Das Holzmadenbuch” and “The Lost World of Fossil Lake” are my two top favorites. There’s also a fossil related book called “Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body“ that was a great read. There are many more great fossil books that I have read, but these were the ones that really stand out.

[jpc]

7 hours ago, Plax said:

Fossils for Amateurs by Russell McFall and Jerry Case's Pictorial Guide to Fossils.

Wow... these are the two books that got me started.  

Now, the books I like best are kinda site specific... Lance Grande's Fossil Lake book for example. There are some great books published in Europe on specific sites.

[Thomas.Dodson]

Just now, jpc said:

Now, the books I like best are kinda site specific... Lance Grande's Fossil Lake book for example. There are some great books published in Europe on specific sites.

I can relate to this. You can only fit so much information in a book and narrow topics like specific sites make it easier to get the amount of specific information I crave.

[LabRatKing]

I got my start with Gult’s New Dinosaur Dictionary

 

the little golden guide to fossils

 

and most importantly a children’s book by Jim Jensen about Supersaurus...which I cannot find anywhere and would pay desperately to own again as my mother sold my copy (with a letter from the man himself tucked inside) when I joined the Navy.

 

[Plax]

Jules DuBar's autobiography is very interesting. He worked the Waccamaw and other formations in the North and South Carolina borderlands mostly in the 60s and 70s. A friend gave me this book which I pick up and read again every few years. A good human side to paleontologists.

[Plax]

15 hours ago, LabRatKing said:

I got my start with Gult’s New Dinosaur Dictionary

 

 

the little golden guide to fossils

 

 

and most importantly a children’s book by Jim Jensen about Supersaurus...which I cannot find anywhere and would pay desperately to own again as my mother sold my copy (with a letter from the man himself tucked inside) when I joined the Navy.

 

I had the golden guide as well in the early 60s. I recall that it actually illustrates rudists so it's pretty inclusive.

[MikeR]

18 hours ago, jpc said:

Wow... these are the two books that got me started.  

Now, the books I like best are kinda site specific... Lance Grande's Fossil Lake book for example. There are some great books published in Europe on specific sites.

 

2 hours ago, Plax said:

Jules DuBar's autobiography is very interesting. He worked the Waccamaw and other formations in the North and South Carolina borderlands mostly in the 60s and 70s. A friend gave me this book which I pick up and read again every few years. A good human side to paleontologists.

 

McCall and Case's books also got me started in this hobby. Both were in my high school library.  Not bad for a solidly Piedmont school.

 

Being an Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain collector, I too am familiar with Jules Dubar's professional work in the Carolinas and Florida.  When Don, mentioned his autobiography, I went online to look it up.  Dubar's book, "Never ###### into the Wind" has the most interesting review history of any book that I can recall.  On Amazon 53% were 5 star reviews while 47% were 1 star; nothing in between.  Similar to American politicians in today's partisan society, I almost want to get it to see why.  Reviews ranged from and I am paraphrasing "An early Hunter S. Thompson" to "it was so bad that the CIA required Guantanamo prisoners to read it for punishment". 

 

Mike

[Notidanodon]

I revise my statement actually, fossils of the London clay is amazing, if anyone doesn’t have it; I would really recommend it, very visual (great pieces in there) and highly informative on one of the most important formations in the uk

[Sjfriend]

On 2/9/2021 at 8:53 AM, AK hiker said:

I’m starting from little background in geology and paleontology so prefer ebooks in a tablet that allows touch access to dictionary for referencing terms used. With that in mind Richard Fortey’s LIFE, A Natural History of Four Billion Years of Life on Earth gave a good foundation for building knowledge. Also his book titled Trilobite was good bedside reading.

You'll have to let me know what you think of the Trilobite book. Could use another bug book if it's good.

[ScottBlooded]

13 hours ago, Sjfriend said:

You'll have to let me know what you think of the Trilobite book. Could use another bug book if it's good.

Hah, I literally just put this book down to check the forum for a bit. It’s been good so far

[jpc]

19 hours ago, will stevenson said:

I revise my statement actually, fossils of the London clay is amazing, if anyone doesn’t have it; I would really recommend it, very visual (great pieces in there) and highly informative on one of the most important formations in the uk

This is an example of one of the excellent European books on single localities that I mentioned earlier.  Yes, great book.  When I choose this as my bedtime reading, I will end up in at Sheppey in my dreams finding birds skulls

[Notidanodon]

24 minutes ago, jpc said:

This is an example of one of the excellent European books on single localities that I mentioned earlier.  Yes, great book.  When I choose this as my bedtime reading, I will end up in at Sheppey in my dreams finding birds skulls

It’s more than a single locality, I think it’s 6 publicly accessible ones but it underlies south east England there is some great bird material in there, my favourite though is the articulated ray mouth (two plates and cartilage) 

[jpc]

14 minutes ago, will stevenson said:

It’s more than a single locality, I think it’s 6 publicly accessible ones but it underlies south east England there is some great bird material in there, my favourite though is the articulated ray mouth (two plates and cartilage) 

I stand corrected... it is a single geological layer.  (The point remains valid).  

[thelivingdead531]

On 2/10/2021 at 1:09 PM, will stevenson said:

I revise my statement actually, fossils of the London clay is amazing, if anyone doesn’t have it; I would really recommend it, very visual (great pieces in there) and highly informative on one of the most important formations in the uk

Is it London Clay Fossils of Kent and Essex?

[jpc]

1 minute ago, thelivingdead531 said:

Is it London Clay Fossils of Kent and Essex?

There are two of them, an older version exists, but, yes, this is the one, in full color.  

[Notidanodon]

16 minutes ago, thelivingdead531 said:

Is it London Clay Fossils of Kent and Essex?

Yup

[AK hiker]

On 2/11/2021 at 6:57 AM, ScottBlooded said:

Hah, I literally just put this book down to check the forum for a bit. It’s been good so far

 

On 2/10/2021 at 5:25 PM, Sjfriend said:

You'll have to let me know what you think of the Trilobite book. Could use another bug book if it's good.

I enjoyed Richard Fortey’s book called Trilobite, Eyewitness to Evolution.  It was more than about Trilobites as he used the distribution of specific trilobites to piece together the oceans and associated continents in formulating plate tectonic models. Anatomy and trilobite history of their discovery and naming as well, worthwhile read for me.