2. Fossil vertebrates
• (Phylum Chordata) are relatively rare fossils, although diligent
searching can turn up highly prized specimens.
• Many fossil vertebrate remains are so rare, and scientifically
important, that it is recommended that collectors contact the nearest
university geology department, museum, or the Ohio History
Connection.
5. Bony Fishes
• Bony fishes (Osteichthyes) include
• Most of the fishes living today
• and are divided into the
• ray-finned fishes,
• lobe-finned fishes,
• and lungfishes.
• Remains of all three groups are represented by fossils in Ohio
Paleozoic rocks.
6. Amphibian fossils
• Amphibians, familiar to most people as frogs, toads, and salamanders,
first appeared at the end of the Devonian Period.
7. Reptile fossils
• Reptile remains in Ohio ’s Upper Paleozoic rocks are very rare and
generally poorly preserved.
8. Dinosaur fossils
• Without question, the best-known and most popular fossil organisms
are the dinosaurs.
• Entombed about 300 MYA
9. Bird fossils
• Birds first appeared during the Mesozoic and are derived from
dinosaurs.
• These are rare fossils with only a few specimens having been found.
These include turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, the claw of a hawk, duck,
and possibly Canada goose.
• Bird bones are very delicate and easily destroyed by weathering and
easily overlooked except in excavations where sediments screened for
small bones.
11. Mammal fossils
• Mammals first appeared during the Triassic Period and lived with
dinosaurs during the Mesozoic Era.
• At the beginning of the Cenozoic Era, after extinction of the
dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, mammals flourished and
diversified.
13. Invertebrate fossils
• Invertebrates (“animals without backbones”) are all complex (more
than one cell) animals except for the vertebrates (“animals with
backbones”).
• Almost all animal species alive today are invertebrates (about 96%).
In fact there are more species of crustaceans (crabs, lobsters and
relatives; about 68,000 species) than vertebrates (mammals, reptiles,
fishes, etc.; about 47,000 species).
14. Brachiopod fossils
• Brachiopods have an extensive
fossil record,
• first appearing in rocks dating
back to the early part of the
Cambrian Period, about 541
million years ago.
15. Trilobite fossils
• Trilobites are a group of extinct
marine arthropods that first
appeared around 521 million
years ago, shortly after the
beginning of the Cambrian
period, living through the
majority of the Palaeozoic Era,
for nearly 300 million years
16. Graptolite Fossils
• Fossil graptolites are thin, often
shiny, markings on rock surfaces
that look like pencil marks, and
their name comes from the
Greek for 'writing in the rocks'.
17. Coral fossils
• Because modern corals live in
large colonies, these skeletons
can become quite large,
sometimes forming reefs. When
the polyp dies, its soft tissue
decays, but the hard skeleton is
left behind.
19. References
• Paolo Arduini (1987), Simon and Schuster's Guide to Fossils (Old
Tappan, New Jersey: Fireside), 320 pages. ISBN 0-671-63132-2.
• James R. Beerbower (1968). Search for the Past: An Introduction to
Paleontology (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall), 512 pages.
• R. S. Boardman and others (1985). Fossil Invertebrates.
• British Museum of Natural History (1969). British Palaeozoic
Fossils (London, England: British Museum of Natural History).
