An Introduction To Fossils
The materials used/mentioned in my Hidden Horizons online palaeontology course, An Introduction To Fossils, can be found below.
The specimens in the GeoEd ‘Diversity of Life‘ set are as follows:
| Fossil name | Fossil type | Higher group | Age | Where from? |
| Acervularia luxurans | Coral | Cnidarians | Silurian | UK |
| Albertosaurus sp. | Dinosaur tooth | Reptiles | Late Cretaceous | Canada |
| Calymene blumenbachii | Trilobite | Arthropods | Silurian | Dudley, UK |
| Cheirotherium | Reptile footprint | Trace fossils | Triassic | Germany/UK |
| Diplomystus | Fish | Ray-finned fish | Eocene | Wyoming, USA |
| Echioceras quenstedti | Ammonite | Molluscs | Early Jurassic | Dorset, UK |
| Gissocrinus typus | Crinoid (sea lily) | Echinoderms | Silurian | UK |
| Hefriga serrata | Shrimp | Arthropods | Late Jurassic | Germany |
| Ichthyosaurus sp. | Ichthyosaur tooth | Marine reptiles | Early Jurassic | UK |
| Neuropteris scheuchzeri | Plant | Pteridosperms | Carboniferous | Illinois, USA |
| Otodus obliquus | Shark tooth | Cartilaginous fish | Eocene | Kent, UK |
| Phymosoma koenigi | Echinoid (sea urchin) | Echinoderms | Cretaceous | Kent, UK |
Slides for class 3 (PowerPoint)
Slides for class 3 (pdf)
Did sharks evolve from a bony fish? (Guardian article, based on this scientific paper by Martin Brazeau and colleagues)
Fossil fish of Caithness – if you’re ever in north-east Scotland, go fishing!
Fossil Focus: Ichthyosaurs
Why are birds the only surviving dinosaurs? (NHM article)
Slides for class 2 (PowerPoint)
Slides for class 2 (pdf)
I talked about ammonite shells having distinctive sutures. Here is a nice example from the Middle Jurassic of Ravenscar, North Yorkshire:
If the tremendous trilobites caught your fancy, meanwhile, you can sign up for our “Trilobites: An Introduction” online class (December 2020) here!
Slides from class 1 (PowerPoint)
Slides from class 1 (pdf)
Geological timescale (from the International Commission on Stratigraphy)
Diversity of life (biology introduction)
Animal evolution (paper by Telford and colleague, 2015)
If you’re out and about hunting fossils in the UK, the Natural History Museum’s Fossil Explorer app is very useful. The NHM also have plenty of fantastic fossil information more generally, too.
For all the latest information on activities online or in the Fossil Shop, please keep an eye on the Hidden Horizons website!
And to find other fossily teaching resources here on fossilhub, please click on the fossils hashtag.
