Fossil Echinoids Of Texas

Texas is known worldwide as a rich resource for the intricate Cretaceous-age echinoids widely sought by professional and amateur paleontologists. With much of the scientific literature on Texas Cretaceous echinoids decades old, here is an updated and detailed guide for identifying this rich fossil fauna. After a brief description of the climatic events that led to the formation of these marine deposits, readers are introduced to the terminology needed to understand the morphology and biology of echinoids. More than 350 high-quality color photographs and detailed descriptions provide a visual guide to identifying, usually to the species level, most of the Cretaceous echinoids found in Texas. The information will be of interest to nature lovers, new and advanced collectors, and students of invertebrate paleontology looking for in-depth, updated insights into the morphology, classification, and identification of these striking fossils.

A Field Guide to Fossils of Texas is the only definitive guide that presents a collection of the state's most common fossils and also shows the most important, noteworthy, and unusual specimens.

Collector's Guide to Fort Payne Crinoids and Blastoids is the first comprehensive guide for identifying the fossils of echinoderms from hundreds of millions of years ago, when North America was covered by a warm, equatorial sea. Crinoids and blastoids, echinoderms (the same family of marine animals to include starfish, sea urchins, and sand dollars) from the Fort Payne Formation in Kentucky, are rarely seen at gem, mineral, and fossil shows, nor are they regularly displayed at major museums. By combining high-quality color photographs and an accompanying descriptive text, William W. Morgan provides the first comprehensive identification guide to these fascinating fossils. Collector's Guide to Fort Payne Crinoids and Blastoids features photographs, often offering more than one view, of the best-quality specimens curated in the Smithsonian and other prominent invertebrate fossil museums. Morgan includes photographs that are unlabeled so that readers can test themselves to see whether they can differentiate some of the more subtle features that may be necessary for accurate identification.