Collecting Fossils
Did ancient peoples understand fossils? Adrienne Mayor thinks they did
.
Discovering and collecting a Miocene whale on the Chesapeake Bay shore.
News item from the Calvert Marine Museum, January 2004. This is a really nice story on how field collecting works (sometimes).
Early dinosaur discoveries in North America led to feuds among paleontologists
A day collecting fossils in Patagonia, 1933
, by the great vertebrate paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson.
Collecting fossils in the rain
. Only the English would think this was a normal activity.
A joint American-Chinese expedition colleting Jurassic fossils in Xinjiang, western China
A dinosaur dig that you can follow on-line
(May 2004) National Geographic News. The URL for the dig itself is
here
A mastodon dig in New York state, 1999-2000:
The Chemung mastodons homepage
.
Digging Ice-Age mammals in Oregon
.
A plesiosaur dig in the US
A plesiosaur dig against time in Australia
.
Preparing Fossils
Feature about Sarah Finney, preparator of early tetrapods for Jenny Clack
Beware of Hoaxes!
The hoax fossil "Archaeoraptor" is now fully analysed.
National Geographic News, November 20, 2002.. The current research is published in
Nature
, which does not allow universal access. Previous stories:
How
Archaeoraptor
was faked.
BBC News OnLine, March 29, 2001.
An earlier announcement in February 2000:
Science News
.
Last updated August 27, 2004.
Links last checked September 30, 2005
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Chapter 2 page