Information recommendation

[TracyN]

I’ve recently remember that I like dinosaurs and fossil and got back into it again this time I actually bought fossils and have a small collection, on to the main topic, I was wondering if there are any things with information you would recommend. Example: sites, posts, studies, documentary, books or a place with news relating to new discoveries, fossil or paleontology, I enjoy facts or interesting information, If there’s something that you enjoy and think it’s not that big of a deal to others I would also like to know what that may be.

Other Things I would enjoy:

 

-learning more about the technical side of paleontology like why they name true bone with letters and numbers

 

-Formation and what makes the fossil there unique if there is any

 

-Scientific things like Taxonomy, genus and species (quite interesting in that stuff but can’t seem to find a place that compiles the information to an easy understandable thing to read, though I’m sure it’s not that complex)

 

Any info is appreciated!

[Ludwigia]

It's actually quite simple. Just open up the Home Page here and click on the subjects which are of interest to you. All of the things which you have mentioned above are covered here in a great number of topics and you should have no difficulty in finding them. Then you are guaranteed to be in for hours and hours of reading and information gathering.

[Thomas.Dodson]

Ludwigia has good advice, the search function is very useful for starting your search for more knowledge.

 

24 minutes ago, TracyN said:

-Scientific things like Taxonomy, genus and species (quite interesting in that stuff but can’t seem to find a place that compiles the information to an easy understandable thing to read, though I’m sure it’s not that complex)

I will briefly address this though. This is by far the most complex and controversial thing on your list. You could spend a lifetime studying taxonomy and it would not be enough to settle the complexities and controversies in the field. People often still think of species as immutable and a species to be the lowest reduced level, some kind of truth. However, species are hypotheses, don't forget this. Understanding that will go a long way in understanding why there's so much complexity and controversy in taxonomy.

 

A VERY brief list of subjects in taxonomy I'd recommend starting with:

 

At its simplest we use Linnaen classification for our species delineation. If you're not familiar with this, then understanding this is a fine first step since it is still the way we typically categorize organisms. There's controversy there too, but start small. Then look into clades and cladistics.

 

Familiarize yourself with species concepts. There's 20-something of them but some of the most common/important to understand are the phylogenetic species concept, the biological species concept, the typological (morphological) species concept, the evolutionary species concept... There are flaws with all of these that lead to disagreement and controversy. The field of biology you work in will in part determine which concepts people are most likely to follow. For example, what kind of paleontologist in their right mind would follow the biological species concept for describing species?

[TracyN]

13 minutes ago, Thomas.Dodson said:

Ludwigia has good advice, the search function is very useful for starting your search for more knowledge.

 

I will briefly address this though. This is by far the most complex and controversial thing on your list. You could spend a lifetime studying taxonomy and it would not be enough to settle the complexities and controversies in the field. People often still think of species as immutable and a species to be the lowest reduced level, some kind of truth. However, species are hypotheses, don't forget this. Understanding that will go a long way in understanding why there's so much complexity and controversy in taxonomy.

 

A VERY brief list of subjects in taxonomy I'd recommend starting with:

 

At its simplest we use Linnaen classification for our species delineation. If you're not familiar with this, then understanding this is a fine first step since it is still the way we typically categorize organisms. There's controversy there too, but start small. Then look into clades and cladistics.

 

Familiarize yourself with species concepts. There's 20-something of them but some of the most common/important to understand are the phylogenetic species concept, the biological species concept, the typological (morphological) species concept, the evolutionary species concept... There are flaws with all of these that lead to disagreement and controversy. The field of biology you work in will in part determine which concepts people are most likely to follow. For example, what kind of paleontologist in their right mind would follow the biological species concept for describing species?

Yeah sorry and thanks, I should’ve made it more clear, I mean’t what those terms are since searching for their definition isn’t quite stated well by the internet, I understand that there are some debates out there about what are consider what, what I mean’t was definition to paleontology terms and basics of taxonomy species and genus and their order (still not sure which comes first and their definition even if their definition still isn’t quite clear) shouldn’t of use the line “I’m sure it’s not complex”.

[Fin Lover]

I Googled the basics when I started, since most sites, papers, etc. are going to assume you know the basics (and I didn't).  I can't tell you a particular site that I used...it was various sites.

 

For finding research papers, etc. try Google Scholar (I know those who don't like Google will have other suggestions).  It was very helpful to me.  I also purchased a local book to ID fossils that could be found in my area and used this forum and Fossilguy.com to learn how to ID what I found. 

 

Just reading through posts on this forum has taught me the most.  You can search by keyword for something specific, or just watch all of the ID requests coming in and learn about lots of different kinds of fossils from different areas.  I think the approach really depends on the goal.  Mine was to learn to ID fossils in my area, but the goal could be to learn about dinosaurs in general, paleontology in general, formations in your area, or lots of other things.