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I've thought about doing this for some time, but only now during all this down time we're getting have I gotten around to seeing how many of the stages in the geologic timescale (the global version, at least) are represented by fossils in my collection. If a fossil collection can ever be said to be 'complete', this is one way of doing it - to try and get at least one specimen from every stage. Another would be to try and get a least one specimen from each group (phylum, class, order, etc) but I could see that quickly becoming difficult. I figure this one is within reach (at least relatively so). I guess some of you more serious collectors out there are ahead of me and it would be fun to compare notes. Of course it's complicated by factors such as knowing which stage your fossil is from. Some fossils come to you with a North American or European stage such as Stephanian or Richmondian, and if that stage overlaps two or more one of the Global ones then I can't be sure which one it is, without more research. Also an even greater number of fossils come to you that only say, eg. "Lower Devonian" or even just "Permian", and again, more research could enable me to fill in some more gaps with fossils already in my collection. I have already tried to research some of these and came up blank. Some of the entries here are educated guesses but if I'm really uncertain I'll leave it out until I've done more research (or question-asking). Turns out I've got just over half of the stages already (barring any mistakes. If I have made any mistakes, please let me know). The only Series that I am still missing are the Terreneuvian (Cambrian), Middle Permian and Lower Triassic. First, here is my timescale with the ones I have already, and I will follow that with pictures of the representative fossils I have chosen from my collection. Some of these are the only fossil I have from that stage so far. Others I have tons, especially the Santonian as that is what I have available to collect locally. I have marked off some of the North American stages where I have a North American fossil that is stated to be from a particular NA stage, or stated to be from a Global stage that I can confidently correlate with a NA stage. Maybe someday I'll have a fossil from all the NA stages as well as all the Global ones (or maybe not), but for now I'm going to focus on the Global. I have also marked off Pliocene and Pleistocene even though those are series (epochs) because I know I have fossils from those but not sure which stage exactly.
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