Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right: A brachiopod that has been assigned to the genus Neospirifer; it's from the upper Pennsylvanian Lecompton Limestone. Right--An Amphiscapha coiled marine gastropod from the upper Pennsylvanian Kanwaka Shale. Both specimens are from the Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage, Kansas--some 303 to 301 million years old.

I personally collected a lot of the fossil specimens figured at this web page several years ago during my former residence in Kansas. Unless otherwise specified, I collected and photographed the fossils included here.

When a fossil enthusiast reflects on the numerous universally acknowledged classic invertebrate animal localities of Paleozoic Era geologic age (roughly 542 to 251 million years ago) exposed throughout the US, several special specific places naturally materialize in the mind's eye. For example, for early Cambrian paleontologic assemblages (trilobites, archaeocyathids, annelids, algae, salterella, brachiopods, hyoliths, and early echinoderms), the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts of western Nevada and eastern California hold a practically preeminent interest; for middle Cambrian trilobites, one is invariably drawn to the spectacular extinct arthropod occurrences in western Utah; for late Ordovician brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and echinoderms probably no other district rivals southern Ohio; for Silurian Period paleontology, a visit to the upper Midwestern states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio is a definite necessity; for Devonian-age invertebrate material, the world-famous New York state outcrops remain the standard by which all geologically correlative fossiliferous strata in North America are compared; for Mississippian fossil abundance, Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas provide ample opportunities for satisfying fossil experiences; and for fantastically productive Permian paleontology, the west Texas outback remains perennially popular.

But for late Pennsylvanian invertebrate fossil associations--roughly 307 to 299 million years old--probably no other area of comparable geologic age rivals Kansas. True, that same vast- shallow upper Pennsylvanian sea that deposited its fossil wealth in Kansas also left sedimentary evidence over a considerable distance within Paleozoic territory presently assigned to the North American mid-continent, mainly from eastern New Mexico and north Texas, north to Indiana and Illinois (just in case folks are wondering, the world-famous Illinois Mazon Creek concretion localities are middle Pennsylvanian in geologic age, around 309 million years ancient)--not to mention significant Late Pennsylvanian deposits also available for inspection in a number of Northern Appalachian Basin and western US states (notably--Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Utah), where dedicated students of invertebrate animal life can certainly explore not a few surprisingly reliable producers of late Paleozoic fossil material--yet, nowhere is latest Pennsylvanian Period paleontology better exhibited than in Kansas.

Here is a fossil-finding paradise of rare perfection. Bountiful, beautifully preserved specimens from all major categories of invertebrate animals can be secured from late Pennsylvanian strata identified in Kansas. The list is definitively inclusive, and exciting to consider collecting: algae; annelids (represented by abundant minute scolecodonts, the jaws of polychaete worms); arthropods (famously--insects, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders); brachiopods (myriads of species distributed among every major and most minor Pennsylvanian brachiopod genera); bryozoans (every conceivable kind present and accounted for--wildly branching digitate varieties, lattice-fenestrate types, and innumerable encrusting species); conodonts (minute tooth-like dentical structures, unrelated to modern jaws, that helped process food in an extinct lamprey eel-like organism); corals (solitary, so-called horn corals and colonial kinds very well-represented); echinoderms (crinoids--practically every individual skeletal constituent exquisitely preserved: stems, columnals, crown plates, spines, and dorsal cups among the numbered; starfish; and loads of superior echinoid spines and plates, too, revealing great morphological detail); fusulinids (an extinct single-celled animal that secreted a small wheat grain to American football-shaped shell; indeed, prolific associations of fusulinids occur in Kansas calcium carbonate accumulations); ichnofossils (trace fossils of tracks and trails made by invertebrate animals); mollusks (all major types wonderfully kept intact for approximately 300 million years: gastropods--showy coiled species, curious bellerophon snails, and many finely detailed high-spired types; pelecypods--clams of every possible example, from stunning large Myalina, Septimyalina and Orthomyalina genera to more diminutive varieties with intricately sculpted exterior valves; cephalopods--including orthoconic forms, nautiloids, and numerous ammonoids; and scaphopods--commonly called a "tusk shell"); ostracods (tiny crustaceans that frequently contribute prolific monotypic quantities of their spendidly preserved bivalved shells to limestone and shale layers); sponges (remarkable, well-preserved examples of the Phylum Porifera, with the enigmatic Chaetetes sponge abundantly represented, indeed); and trilobites (on their way out, geologically speaking; along with fully 90 percent of all life on Earth, trilobites would go extinct at the conclusion of the Permian Period, some 48 million years after providing their remains in the Kansas late Pennsylvanian sedimentary rocks).

The stratified sequence from which such an astounding abundance and diversity of late Pennsylvanian fossil forms derives is considered within earth science communities the world-over a genuinely classic association of cyclothemic (repetitive alternating between marine and non-marine coal-bearing facies) limestones, shales, and sandstones whose formalized stratigraphic nomenclature has been committed to fond memory by many a student of Kansas Paleozoic Era paleontology. Within North America, the late Pennsylvanian is officially divided into two great subdivisions: the Missourian Stage (early late Pennsylvanian--307 to 305 million years ago) --which in Kansas is on average roughly 650 feet thick--and the Virgilian Stage (latest late Pennsylvanian--305 to 299 million years ago), approximately 1,200 feet thick throughout its Kansas stratigraphic development.

A more precise resolution of relative geologic ages of Kansas late Pennsylvanian rocks is established by further dividing each stage into three major groups. That is to say, in ascending order of geologic time (oldest to youngest) the Missourian Stage gets additionally separated into three more categories: the Pleasanton Group (307-306.5 million years); the Kansas City Group (306.5 to 305.5 million years); and the youngest Lansing Group (305.5 to 305 million years). And the succeeding Virgilian Stage receives the following partitioning: the Douglas Group (305 to 303 million years); the Shawnee Group (303 to 301 million years); and the Wabaunsee Group (301 to 299 million years). Above the Wabaunsee occur rocks of Permian age, the final formally established geologic Period of the Paleozoic Era, which ended 251 million years ago. From the instant that strata assigned to the Wabaunsee Group stopped accumulating, 299 million years ago, 90 percent of life on Earth had 48 million years to continue to exist, before it ceased to exist.

The six late Pennsylvanian Groups that constitute the Missourian and Virgilian Stages contain numerous geologic rock formations, many separated once again by stratigraphers into distinct mappable subunits called "members," whose remarkably persistent carbonate and clastic lithologies can be traced for hundreds of miles across Kansas and contiguous Midwestern US states; indeed, not a few limestone intervals but a foot thick, or less, remain geologically obvious mappable intervals no matter where they outcrop in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Iowa--for example, from extreme northernmost state localities, to their southern boundaries.

Within Kansas, those Missourian and Virgilian-age sedimentary accumulations of 307 to 299 million years ago reach their ultimate paleontologic deveolopment, providing an unprecedented supply of reliably abundant and diverse latest Pennsylvanian fossil resources: Paleontological prizes awaiting discovery in many of the interbedded marine limestone and shale units include: extraordinarily well-preserved invertebrate animals from every major zoological division; fascinating algal developments (peculiar "biscuit" and nodular kinds, plus intricate stromatolitic varieties); beaucoup bony fish skeletal elements; and sensational shark teeth. In the non-marine detrital deposits observed in stratigraphic relationships with marine-originated phases of the late Pennsylvanian cyclothems, many additional spectacular fossil occurrences await discovery--among them: paleobotanical constituents (leaves, seeds, and woody structures of plants); commerical coal deposits, within which fern and horsetail "trees" have been preserved upright, in their original standing positions); paleoentomological preservations (the insects); and terrestrial vertebrate material (amphibians, reptile-like amphibians, reptiles and mammal-like reptiles).

Here is the complete list of traditionally recognized Stages, Groups, Formations, and Members used for rocks of late Pennsyvanian geologic age in Kansas:

The Missourian Stage (307 to 305 million years ago) consists of the following Groups and subunits:

Pleasanton Group (307-306.5 million years), which includes the following subunits: Seminole Formation (Hepler Sandstone Member, South Mound Shale Member); Checkerboard Limestone; and the Tacket Formation.

Kansas City Group (306.5-305.5 million years), which includes the following subunits: Heartha Limestone (Critzer Limestone Member, Mound City Shale Member, Sniabar Limestone Member); Ladore Shale; Swope Limestone (Middle Creek Limestone Member, Hushpuckney Shale Member, Bethany Falls Limestone Member); Galesburg Shale (Dodds Sandstone Member); Dennis Limestone (Canville Limestone Member, Stark Shale Member, Winterset Limestone Member); Cherryvale Shale (Fontana Shale Member, Block Limestone Member, Wea Shale Member, Westerville Limestone Member, Quivira Shale Member); Drum Limestone (Dewey Limestone Member, Corbin City Limestone Member); Chanute Shale (Noxie Sandstone Member, Cottage Grove Sandstone Member); Iola Limestone (Paola Limestone Member, Muncie Creek Shale Member, Raytown Limestone Member); Liberty Memorial Shale; Wyandotte Limestone (Frisbie Limestone Member, Quindaro Shale Member, Argentine Limestone Member, Island Creek Shale Member, Farley Limestone Member); and the Bonner Springs Shale.

Lansing Group (305.5-305 million years), which includes the following subunits: Plattsburg Limestone (Merriam Limestone Member, Hickory Creek Shale Member, Spring Hill Limestone Member); Villas Shale; and the Stanton Limestone (Captain Creek Limestone Member, Eudora Shale Member, Stoner Limestone, Cheyenne Creek Sandstone Bed (locally), Hafer Run Shale Bed (locally), Onion Creek Sandstone Lentil (locally), Rock Lake Shale Member, South Bend Limestone Member).

The Virgilian Stage (305 to 299 million years ago) consists of the following Groups and subunits:

Douglas Group (305-303 million years), which includes the following subunits: Stranger Formation (Weston Shale Member, Iatan Limestone Member, Tonganoxie Sandstone Member, Westphalia Limestone Member, Vinland Shale Member); and the Lawrence Formation (Haskell Limestone Member, Bobbins Shale Member, Ireland Sandstone Member, Amazonia Limestone Member).

Note: A recent revision places the beginning of the Virgilian Stage at the base of the Haskell Limestone in the Douglas Group--based on first appearance of a specific conodont species; that revision is here rejected in favor of the traditional placement of the Virgilian (beginning at the base of the Weston Shale Member of the Stranger Formation).

Shawnee Group (303-301 million years), which includes the following subunits: Oread Limestone (Toronto Limestone Member, Synderville Shale Member, Leavenworth Limestone Member, Heebner Shale Member, Plattsmouth Limestone Member, Huemader Shale Member, Kereford Limestone Member); Kanwaka Shale (Jackson Park Shale Member, Clay Creek Limestone Member, Stull Shale Member); Lecompton Limestone (Spring Branch Limestone Member, Doniphan Shale Member, Big Springs Limestone Member, Queen Hill Shale Member, Beil Limestone Member, King Hill Shale Member, Avoca Limestone Member); Tecumseh Shale; Deer Creek Limestone (Ozawkie Limestone Member, Oskaloosa Shale Member, Rock Bluff Limestone Member, Larsh and Burroak Shale Member, Ervine Creek Limestone Member); Calhoun Shale; and the Topeka Limestone (Hartford Limestone Member, Iowa Point Shale Member, Curzon Limestone Member, Jones Point Limestone Member, Sheldon Limestone Member, Turner Creek Shale Member, Du Bois Limestone Member, Holt Shale Member, Coal Creek Limestone Member).

Wabaunsee Group (301-299 million years), which includes the following subunits: Severy Shale; Howard Limestone (Bachelor Creek Limestone Member, Aarde Shale Member, Wauneta Limestone Member, Shangai Creek Shale Member, Church Limestone Member, Winzeler Shale Member, Utopia Limestone Member); Scranton Shale (White Cloud Shale Member, Happy Hollow Limestone Member, Cedar Vale Shale Member, Rulo Limestone Member, Silver Lake Shale Member); Bern Limestone (Burlingame Limestone Member, Soldier Creek Shale Member, Wakarusa Limestone Member); Auburn Shale; Emporia Limestone (Reading Limestone Member, Harveyville Shale Member, Elmont Limestone Member); Willard Shale; Zeandale Limestone (Tarkio Limestone Member, Wamego Shale Member, Maple Hill Limestone Member); Pillsbury Shale; Stotler Limestone (Dover Limestone Member, Dry Shale Member, Grandhaven Limestone Member); Root Shale (Friedrich Shale Member, Jim Creek Limestone Member, French Creek Shale Member); and the Wood Siding Formation (Nebraska City Limestone Member, Plumb Shale Member, Grayhorse Limestone Member, Pony Creek Shale Member, Brownville Limestone Member).

Note: A year 2013 study that proposes placement of the Pennsylvanian-Permian border in rocks situated above the Brownville Limestone Member (latest Pennsylvnanian) and overlying Towle Shale Member of the Onaga Shale (lowermost Permian), based on conodont stratigraphy, is in my opinion completely unaccepatable and is here rejected. Similarly, the rather recent idea that the Admire Group and part of the Council Grove Group should now be placed in the late Pennsylvanian is also here rejected.

Still and all, I recognize the need to present both sides here. The year 2013 revision of Kansas late Pennsylvanian stratigraphy:

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left and right--Three brittle star resting borrows; called scientifically, Asteriacites. Stem-like object at left side of photograph at right is a bryozoan colony. All specimens from the upper Pennsylvanian Kanwaka Shale. Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old.

Photograph at left courtesy Jim Saueressig II @ 2008 of KansasHorizons.com. Image at right courtesy James St. John.

Click on the image for a larger picture. Conodont specimens (greatly magnified), from the Missourian Stage, 306.5 to 305.5 million years old. Photograph courtesy Stephan C. Orbony.

Numbers 1 through 6 came from the Kansas City Group; numbers 7 though 10 were collected from the Lansing Group: (1) Idiognathodus turbatus; Hushpuckney Shale Member of the Swope Limestone; (2) Idiognathodus eccentricus, Hushpuckney Shale Member of the Swope Limestone; (3) Idiognathodus biliratus, Hushpuckney Shale Member of the Swope Limestone; (4) Idiognathodus confragus, Stark Shale Member of the Dennis Limestone; (5) Streptognathodus elegantulus, Stark Shale Member of the Dennis Limestone; (6) Streptognathodus gracilis, Stark Shale Member of the Dennis Limestone; (7) Idioprioniodus sp., Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone; (8) Idioprioniodus sp., Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone; (9) Gondolella sp., Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone; (10) Gondolella sp., Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the image for a larger picture. Conodont specimens (greatly magnified), from the Missourian Stage, 306.5 to 305.5 million years old. Photograph courtesy Stephan C. Orbony.

Numbers 1 through 8 came from the Kansas City Group; number 9 was collected from the Lansing Group: (1) Idiognathodus magnificus, from the Quivira Shale Member of Cherryville Shale; (2) Idiognathodus magnificus, Muncie Creek Shale Member of the Iola Limestone; (3) Idiognathodus cherryvalensis, Muncie Creek Shale Member of the Iola Limestone; (4) Idiognathodus cherryvalensis, Muncie Creek Shale Member of the Iola Limestone; (5) Idiognathodus cherryvalensis, Quivira Shale Member of the Cherryville Shale; (6) Idiognathodus cherryvalensis, Quivira Shale Member of the Cherryville Shale; (7) Idiognathodus magnificus, Muncie Creek Shale Member of the Iola Limestone; (6) Hindeodus sp., Quindaro Shale Member of the Wyandotte Limestone; (9) Adetognathodus sp., Merrian Limestone Member of the Plattsburg Limestone.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the image for a larger picture. Conodont specimens (greatly magnified), from the Missourian Stage, 306.5 to 305.5 million years old. Photograph courtesy Stephan C. Orbony.

All 8 specimens came from the Quindaro Shale Member of the Wyandotte Limestone, Kansas City Group: (1) Streptognathodus elegantulus; (2) Streptognathodus gracilis; (3) Streptognathodus corrugatus; (4) Streptognathodus excelsus; (5) Streptognathodus excelsus; (6) Idiognathodus “post magnificus” ; (7) Idiognathodus “post magnificus” ; (8) Idiognathodus “post magnificus”

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the image for a larger picture. Conodont specimens (greatly magnified), from the Missourian Stage, 306.5 to 305.5 million years old. Photograph courtesy Stephan C. Orbony.

All 9 specimens came from the Lansing Group: (1) Streptognathodus "elegantulus bent morph," Hickory Creek Shale Member of the Plattsburg Limestone; (2) Streptognathodus "elegantulus bent morph," Hickory Creek Shale Member of the Plattsburg Limestone; (3) Streptognathodus "elegantulus bent morph," Hickory Creek Shale Member of the Plattsburg Limestone; (4) Streptognathodus firmus, Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone; (5) Streptognathodus firmus, Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone; (6) Idiognathodus eudoraensis, Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone; (7) Idiognathodus eudoraensis, Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone; (8) Idiognathodus eudoraensis, Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone; (9) Idiognathodus eudoraensis, Eudora Shale Member of the Stanton Limestone.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Conodont specimens (greatly magnified), collected and photographed by an individual who goes by the cybername "Kacie." I edited and processed the images through photoshop. Left and right--both conodonts preserved on their respective matrixes from the upper Pennsylvanian Stark Shale member of the Dennis Limestone. Left to right: genus Synprioniodina; genus Gondolella. Kansas City Group, Missourian Stage, 306.5 to 305.5 million years old.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Conodont specimens (greatly magnified) collected and photographed by an individual who goes by the cybername "Kacie." I edited and processed the images through photoshop. Left and right--both conodonts preserved on their respective matrixes from the upper Pennsylvanian Stark Shale member of the Dennis Limestone. Left to right: genus Lonchodina; genus-species Gondolella denuda. Kansas City Group, Missourian Stage, 306.5 to 305.5 million years old.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Conodont specimens (greatly magnified) collected and photographed by an individual who goes by the cybername "PetrolPete." I edited and processed the images through photoshop. Left and right--both conodonts preserved on their respective matrixes from the upper Pennsylvanian Eudora Shale. Called scientifically, genus Gondollela. Lansing Group, Missourian Stage, 305.5 to 305 million years old.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Conodont specimens (greatly magnified) collected and photographed by an individual who goes by the cybername "PetrolPete." I edited and processed the images through photoshop. Left and right--both conodonts preserved on their respective matrixes from the upper Pennsylvanian Eudora Shale. Called scientifically, genus Gondollela. Lansing Group, Missourian Stage, 305.5 to 305 million years old.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left and right--Conodont from the upper Pennsylvanian Iola Formation, Kansas City Group, Missourian Stage--306.5 to 305.5 million years old. Called scientifically, genus Idiognathodus sp. Right--Conodont from the upper Pennsylvanian Cherryvale Shale, Missourian Stage--306.5 to 305.5 million years old. Greatly magnified. Called scienfifically, Streptognathodus corrugatus. Images courtesy a specific scientific publication.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--Conodont from the upper Pennsylvanian Oread Limestone, Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Greatly magnified. Called scientifically, Idiognathodus simulator. Right--Conodont from the upper Pennsylvanian Wakarusa Limestone, Wabaunsee Group, Virgilian Stage--301 to 299 million years old. Greatly magnified. Called scienfifically, Streptognathodus virgilicus. Images courtesy a specific scientific publication.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--Conodont from the upper Pennsylvanian Plattsmouth Limestone, Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Greatly magnified. Called scientifically, Lonchodina douglasensis. Right--Conodont from the upper Pennsylvanian Plattsmouth Limestone, Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Greatly magnified. Called scientifically, Hindeodus sp.. Images courtesy a specific scientific publication.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--Conodont from the upper Pennsylvanian Spring Brach Limestone, Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Greatly magnified. Called scientifically, Streptognathodus wahaunsensis. Right--Conodont from the upper Pennsylvanian Queen Hill Shale, Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Greatly magnified. Images courtesy a specific scientific publication.

The actual conodont animal was a soft-bodied lamprey eel-like organism with an elongated body; associated with the extraordinarily rare, complete fossil specimens are imprints of chevron-shaped muscles--along with a trace of the notochord (non-calicified primitive spine), large paired eyes, plus a caudal fin strengthened by radials. The calcium phosphate jaw to tooth-like conodont structures (called denticles by conodont specialists) lie in the head region, perhaps at the entrance of the pharynx. Presumably they represent a unique feeding apparatus unrelated to modern jaws and teeth.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left photograph--Top row: individual crinoid columnals. Middle row--first two are crinoid sac spines; last three are crinoid primabrachial arms. Bottom row--Crinoid crown plates. From the upper Pennsylvanian Oread Limestone. Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old.

Right image--A complete crinod crown from the upper Pennsylvanian Kanwaka Shale, assigned to the genus Apographiocrinus. Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Image courtesy Bob Schacht.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--Infrabasal cones of the extinct crinoid called scientifically, Paragassizocrinus sp--an unusual variety of stemless crinoid. The infrabasal cones were situated at the very base of the crinoid calyx ("head" region at top of the crinoid ) and served to anchor the echinoderm to the sea floor. They're from the upper Pennsylvanian South Bend Limestone of the Lansing Group, Missourian Stage. Photo courtesy an individual who goes by the cyber-name Missourian.

Right--A closeup of the upper surface of a Paragassizocrinus sp. infrabasal cone. They're from the upper Pennsylvanian South Bend Limestone of the Lansing Group, Missourian Stage. Photo courtesy an individual who goes by the cyber-name Missourian.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--High-spired gastropods: Far left and middle are genus Donaldina; specimen at far right is genus Hyphantozyga. From the upper Pennsylvanian Kanwaka Shale, Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old.

Right--Three gastropods, genus Trepospira, from the Villas Shale--Lansing Group of the Missourian Stage--305.5 to 305 million years old. Photograph courtesy the Kansas Geological Survey.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--Gastropods, genus Bellerophon, from the Drum Limestone, Kansas City Group of the Missourian Stage (306.5-305.5 million years old). Photograph courtesy the Kansas Geological Survey.

Right--Gastropods assigned to the genus Hypselentoma. From the upper Pennsylvanian Stanton Limestone, Douglas Group of the Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Photograph courtesy the Kansas Geological Survey.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left--Ostracods (greatly magnified) assigned to the genus-species, Jonesenia howarensis. From the upper Pennsylvanian Howard Limestone, Wabaunsee Group of the Virgilian Stage--301 to 299 million years old.

Right--Ostracods (greatly magnified) assigned to the genus-species, Hollinella cushmani. From the upper Pennsylvanian Ervine Creek Limestone Member of the Deer Creek Limestone, Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Both photographs courtesy a specific scientific document.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left--Ostracods (greatly magnified) assigned to the genus-species, Havellina fittsi. From the upper Pennsylvanian Howard Limestone, Wabaunsee Group of the Virgilian Stage--301 to 299 million years old. Photograph courtesy a specific technical document.

Right--Specimens 1a to 1e are ostracods (greatly magnified) assigned to the genus-species, Healdia compressa. From the upper Pennsylvanian Howard Limestone, Wabaunsee Group of the Virgilian Stage--301 to 299 million years old. Specimens 2a to 2e are ostracods (greatly magnified) from the upper Pennsylvanian Stanton Limestone, Lansing Group, Missourian Stage-- 305.5-305 million years old. Called scientifically Healdia simplex. Photograph courtesy a specific scientific document.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--Shark teeth and scale from the upper Pennsylvanian Lawrence Formation of the Douglas Group, Virgilian Stage. A-C: Called scientifically, Cladodus; D--Orthacanthus latus; letter E is placoid scale. Photograph courtesy a specific scientific paper.

Right--Bony fish remains from the upper Pennsylvanian Lawrence Shale (Douglas Group) and Calhoun Shale (Shawnee Group) of the Virgilian Stage. Called scientifically: Paleoniscoidea; Rhabdoderma; and Sagenodus. Photograph courtesy a specific scientific paper.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--Trace fossils (technically termed ichnofossils) from the upper Pennsylvanian Rock Lake Shale, Lansing Group of the Missourian Stage--305.5 to 305 million years ago. Called scientifically, Lingulichnus sp. Although the creature that created the trails has never been definitively identified, ichnofossil specialists speculate that the trails represent activity by Lingulid brachiopods. Photograph courtesy a specific scientific publication.

Right--Trace fossils (technically termed ichnofossils) from the Ireland Sandstone, Douglas Group of the Missourian Stage--305 to 303 million years old. Called scientifically, Psammechnites plummeri. Possibly created by sea urchins. Photograph courtesy a specific scientific publication.

Click on the images for larger pictures. Left to right--Trace fossils (technically termed ichnofossils) from the upper Pennsylvanian Tonganoxie Sandstone member of the Stranger Formation, Douglas Group of the Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years ago. They represent crawl tracks made by two horseshoe crabs (presumably genus Limulus) that might have been attached to each other. Photograph courtesy a specific scientific publication. As explained by the author of that publication: "The very irregular pattern of parts of the trail might have been formed by two animals attached to each other, as can be seen frequently today during the mating season of Limulus polyphemus on Atlantic beaches and intertidal flats of North America. The male climbs on the back of the female and holds firmly to her abdominal margins while she drags him along."

Right--Trace fossils (technically termed ichnofossils) from the Tonganoxie Sandstone member of the Stranger Formation, Douglas Group of the Virgilian Stage--303 to 301 million years old. Crawling trails left by an isopod arthropod. Photograph courtesy a specific scientific publication.

Click on image for a larger pictures. A Google Earth street car perspectives that I edited and processed through photoshop. A roadcut in Kansas that exposes the base of the late Pennsylvanian Lansing Group (Missourian Stage) in Kansas--the Captain Creek Limestone Member of the Stanton Limestone.

A Google Earth street car perspectives that I edited and processed through photoshop. A roadcut in Kansas that exposes strata in the late Pennsylvanian Lansing Group (Missourian Stage): Light gray massive interval at base, to ground level, is the Spring Hill Limetone Member of the Plattsburg Limestone; recessive material directly above is the Villas Shale; and the brownish ledge at top of the cut, grading down to ground level in the distance, is the Captain Creek Limestone Member of the Stanton Limestone.

Click on the image for a larger picture. A Google Earth street car perspective that I edited and processed through photoshop. A roadcut in Kansas that exposes a classic stratigraphic section of the upper Pennsylvanian Tokeka Limestone (Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage).

Individual stratigraphic Members of the Topeka Limestone (youngest formation of the Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage) exposed here include--from bottom to top of roadcut: Grayish patch at bottom is Iowa Point Shale; first brownish ledge is the Curzon Limestone; next recessive interval is the James Point Shale; second ledge is the Sheldon Limestone; above the Sheldon lies the Turner Creek Shale; third ledge from bottom is the Du Bois Limestone; next recessive interval is the Holt Shale; and capping the exposure, at the top, is the very top of the Shawnee Group, the Coal Creek Limestone.

Click on the image for a larger picture. A Google Earth street car perspective that I edited and processed through photoshop. A different view of the same roadcut, above, in Kansas that exposes a classic stratigraphic section of the upper Pennsylvanian Tokeka Limestone (Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage).

Individual stratigraphic Members of the Topeka Limestone (youngest formation of the Shawnee Group, Virgilian Stage) exposed here include--from bottom to top of roadcut: Grayish patch at bottom is Iowa Point Shale; first brownish ledge is the Curzon Limestone; next recessive interval is the James Point Shale; second ledge is the Sheldon Limestone; above the Sheldon lies the Turner Creek Shale; third ledge from bottom is the Du Bois Limestone; next recessive interval is the Holt Shale; and capping the exposure, at the top, is the very top of the Shawnee Group, the Coal Creek Limestone.

Click on the image for a larger picture. A Google Earth street car perspective that I edited and processed through photoshop. A roadcut in Kansas that reveals the world-famous geologic contact between two Paleozoic Era time periods in Kansas--the transition from the late Pennsylvanian below to the younger lower Permian age above. The precise moment of change from the Pennsylvanian to the Permian Period takes place directly above the brownish limestone ledge that protrudes near the middle of the roadcut--that's the latest Pennsylvanian (top of the Wabaunsee Group, Virgilian Stage) Brownville Limestone, slightly older than 299 million years old. Directly above the upper Pennsylvanian Brownville Limestone is the lower Permian Period Towle Shale Member of the Onaga Shale (Admire Group of the Gearyan Stage), approximately 299 million years old; that thin limestone ledge near top of roadcut is the lower Permian Aspinwall Limestone Member of the Onaga Formation. Strata below the latest Pennsylvanian Brownville Limestone belong to the Pony Creek Shale.

48 million years after deposition of the earliest Permian Towle Shale began, 90 percent of all life on earth died out at the conclusion of the Permian Period.

• The Acoustic Guitar Solitaire Of Inyo: A Cyber-CD: I play 30 covers of some of my favorite songs on an acoustic 6-string guitar; it's all free music.
• Beyond The Timberline--A Cyber-CD: I play 32 selections comprised of covers and original tunes on acoustic 6 and 12-string guitars; it's all free music.
• The Distant Path--A Cyber-CD: I play 32 acoustic guitar covers and original compositions; it's all free music.
• Inyo And Folks--A Musical History--A Quintuple Cyber-CD: My parents and I play 203 selections; it's all free music.
• Acoustic Stratigraphy--A Cyber-CD: I play 34 covers of some of my favorite songs on 6 and 12-string guitars; it's all free music.
• Back To Badwater--A Cyber-CD: I play 32 covers and original compositions on 6 and 12-string guitars; it's all free music.
• All Inyo All The Time: All six of my cyber-cds in one place (includes a quintuple cyber-cd box set); links to all of my solo acoustic guitar playing, in addition to selections my parents and I recorded during the Golden Age of our spontaneous, impromptu recording sessions. Includes an option to stream all 364 selectons; thirteen hours, seventeen minues and forty seconds of music (it's all free music).
• It's A Happening Thing--Music From The Year 1967: All songs that charted US Billboard Hot 100 (#1 to #100) and Bubbling Under (records that charted in positions #101 to #135) in 1967.

• Fossils In Death Valley National Park: A site dedicated to the paleontology, geology, and natural wonders of Death Valley National Park; lots of on-site photographs of scenic localities within the park; images of fossils specimens; links to many virtual field trips of fossil-bearing interest.
• Fossil Insects And Vertebrates On The Mojave Desert, California: Journey to two world-famous fossil sites in the middle Miocene Barstow Formation: one locality yields upwards of 50 species of fully three-dimensional, silicified freshwater insects, arachnids, and crustaceans that can be dissolved free and intact from calcareous concretions; a second Barstow Formation district provides vertebrate paleontologists with one of the greatest concentrations of Miocene mammal fossils yet recovered from North America--it's the type locality for the Bartovian State of the Miocene Epoch, 15.9 to 12.5 million years ago, with which all geologically time-equivalent rocks in North American are compared.
• A Visit To Fossil Valley, Great Basin Desert, Nevada: Take a virtual field trip to a Nevada locality that yields the most complete, diverse, fossil assemblage of terrestrial Miocene plants and animals known from North America--and perhaps the world, as well. Yields insects, leaves, seeds, conifer needles and twigs, flowering structures, pollens, petrified wood, diatoms, algal bodies, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, bird feathers, fish, gastropods, pelecypods (bivalves), and ostracods.
• Fossils At Red Rock Canyon State Park, California: Visit wildly colorful Red Rock Canyon State Park on California's northern Mojave Desert, approximately 130 miles north of Los Angeles--scene of innumerable Hollywood film productions and commercials over the years--where the Middle to Late Miocene (13 to 7 million years old) Dove Spring Formation, along with a classic deposit of petrified woods, yields one of the great terrestrial, land-deposited Miocene vertebrate fossil faunas in all the western United States.
• Cambrian And Ordovician Fossils At Extinction Canyon, Nevada: Visit a site in Nevada's Great Basin Desert that yields locally common whole and mostly complete early Cambrian trilobites, in addition to other extinct organisms such as graptolites (early hemichordate), salterella (small conical critter placed in the phylum Agmata), Lidaconus (diminutive tusk-shaped shell of unestablished zoological affinity), Girvanella (photosynthesizing cyanobacterial algae), and Caryocaris (a bivalved crustacean).
• Fossil Plants Of The Ione Basin, California: Head to Amador County in the western foothills of California's Sierra Nevada to explore the fossil leaf-bearing Middle Eocene Ione Formation of the Ione Basin. This is a completely undescribed fossil flora from a geologically fascinating district that produces not only paleobotanically invaluable suites of fossil leaves, but also world-renowned commercial deposits of silica sand, high-grade kaolinite clay and the extraordinarily rare Montan Wax-rich lignites (a type of low grade coal).
• Ice Age Fossils At Santa Barbara, California--Journey to the famed So Cal coastal community of Santa Barbara (about a 100 miles north of Los Angeles) to explore one of the best marine Pleistocene invertebrate fossil-bearing areas on the west coast of the United States; that's where the middle Pleistocene Santa Barbara Formation yields nearly 400 species of pelecypod bivalve mollusks, gastropods, chitons, scaphopods, pteropods, brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, ostracods (minute bivalve crustaceans), worm tubes, and foraminifers.
• Trilobites In The Marble Mountains, Mojave Desert, California: Take a trip to the place that first inspired my life-long fascination and interest in fossils--the classic trilobite quarry in the Lower Cambrian Latham Shale, in the Marble Mountains of California's Mojave Desert. It's a special place, now included in the rather recently established Trilobite Wilderness, where some 21 species of ancient plants and animals have been found--including trilobites, an echinoderm, a coelenterate, mollusks, blue-green algae and brachiopods.
• Fossil Plants In The Neighborhood Of Reno, Nevada: Visit two famous fossil plant localities in the Great Basin Desert near Reno, Nevada--a place to find leaves, seeds, needles, foilage, and cones in the middle Miocene Pyramid and Chloropagus Formations, 15.6 and 14.8 to 13.3 million years old, respectively.
• Dinosaur-Age Fossil Leaves At Del Puerto Creek, California: Journey to the western edge of California's Great Central Valley to explore a classic fossil leaf locality in an upper Cretaceous section of the upper Cretaceous to Paleocene Moreno Formation; the plants you find there lived during the day of the dinosaur.
• A Visit To Ammonite Canyon, Nevada: Explore one of the best-exposed, most complete fossiliferous marine late Triassic through early Jurassic geologic sections in the world--a place where the important end-time Triassic mass extinction has been preserved in the paleontological record. Lots of key species of ammonites, brachiopods, corals, gastropods and pelecypods.
• Fossil Plants At The Chalk Bluff Hydraulic Gold Mine, California: Take a field trip to the Chalk Bluff hydraulic gold mine, western foothills of California's Sierra Nevada, for leaves, seeds, flowering structures, and petrified wood from some 70 species of middle Eocene plants.
• Field Trip To The Alexander Hills Fossil District, Mojave Desert, California: Visit a locality outside the southern sector of Death Valley National Park to explore a paleontological wonderland that produces: Precambrian stromatolites over a billion years old; early skeletonized eukaryotic cells of testate amoebae over three-quarters of billion years old; early Cambrian trilobites, archaeocyathids, annelid trails, arthropod tracks, and echinoderm material; Pliocene-Pleistocene vertebrate and invertebrate faunas; and late middle Miocene camel tracks, petrified palm wood, petrified dicotlyedon wood, and permineralized grasses.
• Fossils In Millard County, Utah: Take virtual field trips to two world-famous fossil localities in Millard County, Utah--Wheeler Amphitheater in the trilobite-bearing middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale; and Fossil Mountain in the brachiopod-ostracod-gastropod-echinoderm-trilobite rich lower Ordovician Pogonip Group.
• Fossil Plants, Insects And Frogs In The Vicinity Of Virginia City, Nevada: Journey to a western Nevada badlands district near Virginia City and the Comstock Lode to discover a bonanza of paleontology in the late middle Miocene Coal Valley Formation.
• Paleozoic Era Fossils At Mazourka Canyon, Inyo County, California: Visit a productive Paleozoic Era fossil-bearing area near Independence, California--along the east side of California's Owens Valley, with the great Sierra Nevada as a dramatic backdrop--a paleontologically fascinating place that yields a great assortment of invertebrate animals.
• Plant Fossils At The La Porte Hydraulic Gold Mine, California: Journey to a long-abandoned hydraulic gold mine in the neighborhood of La Porte, northern Sierra Nevada, California, to explore the upper Eocene La Porte Tuff , which yields some 43 species of Cenozoic plants, mainly a bounty of beautifully preserved leaves 34.2 million years old.
• Late Triassic Ichthyosaur And Invertebrate Fossils In Nevada: Journey to two classic, world-famous fossil localities in the Upper Triassic Luning Formation of Nevada--Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park and Coral Reef Canyon. At Berlin-Ichthyosaur, observe in-situ the remains of several gigantic ichthyosaur skeletons preserved in a fossil quarry; then head out into the hills, outside the state park, to find plentiful pelecypods, gastropods, brachiopods and ammonoids. At Coral Reef Canyon, find an amazing abundance of corals, sponges, brachiopods, echinoids (sea urchins), pelecypods, gastropods, belemnites and ammonoids.
• Fossils From The Kettleman Hills, California: Visit one of California's premiere Pliocene-age (approximately 4.5 to 2.0 million years old) fossil localities--the Kettleman Hills, which lie along the western edge of California's Great Central Valley northwest of Bakersfield. This is where innumerable sand dollars, pectens, oysters, gastropods, "bulbous fish growths" and pelecypods occur in the Etchegoin, San Joaquin and Tulare Formations.
• Field Trip To The Kettleman Hills Fossil District, California: Take a virtual field trip to a classic site on the western side of California's Great Central Valley, roughly 80 miles northwest of Bakersfield, where several Pliocene-age (roughly 4.5 to 2 million years old) geologic rock formations yield a wealth of diverse, abundant fossil material--sand dollars, scallop shells, oysters, gastropods and "bulbous fish growths" (fossil bony tumors--found nowhere else, save the Kettleman Hills), among many other paleontological remains.
• A Visit To The Sharktooth Hill Bone Bed, Southern California: Travel to the dusty hills near Bakersfield, California, along the eastern side of the Great Central Valley in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, to explore the world-famous Sharktooth Hill Bone Bed, a Middle Miocene marine deposit some 16 to 15 million years old that yields over a hundred species of sharks, rays, bony fishes, and sea mammals from a geologic rock formation called the Round Mountain Silt Member of the Temblor Formation; this is the most prolific marine, vertebrate fossil-bearing Middle Miocene deposit in the world.
• High Sierra Nevada Fossil Plants, Alpine County, California: Visit a remote fossil leaf and petrified wood locality in the Sierra Nevada, at an altitude over 8,600 feet, slightly above the local timberline, to find 7 million year-old specimens of cypress, Douglas-fir, White fir, evergreen live oak, and giant sequoia, among others.
• In Search Of Fossils In The Tin Mountain Limestone, California: Journey to the Death Valley area of Inyo County, California, to explore the highly fossiliferous Lower Mississippian Tin Mountain Limestone; visit three localities that provide easy access to a roughly 358 million year-old calcium carbate accumulation that contains well preserved corals, brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, and ostracods--among other major groups of invertebrate animals.
• Middle Triassic Ammonoids From Nevada: Travel to a world-famous fossil locality in the Great Basin Desert of Nevada, a specific place that yields some 41 species of ammonoids, in addition to five species of pelecypods and four varieties of belemnites from the Middle Triassic Prida Formation, which is roughly 235 million years old; many paleontologists consider this specific site the single best Middle Triassic, late Anisian Stage ammonoid locality in the world. All told, the Prida Formation yields 68 species of ammonoids spanning the entire Middle Triassic age, or roughly 241 to 227 million years ago.
• Late Miocene Fossil Leaves At Verdi, Washoe County, Nevada: Explore a fascinating fossil leaf locality not far from Reno, Nevada; find 18 species of plants that prove that 5.8 million years ago this part of the western Great Basin Desert would have resembled, floristically, California's lush green Gold Country, from Placerville south to Jackson.
• Fossils Along The Loneliest Road In America: Investigate the extraordinary fossil wealth along some 230 miles of The Loneliest Road In America--US Highway 50 from the vicinity of Eureka, Nevada, to Delta in Millard County, Utah. Includes on-site images and photographs of representative fossils (with detailed explanatory text captions) from every geologic rock deposit I have personally explored in the neighborhood of that stretch of Great Basin asphalt. The paleontologic material ranges in geologic age from the middle Eocene (about 48 million years ago) to middle Cambrian (approximately 505 million years old).
• Fossil Bones In The Coso Range, Inyo County, California: Visit the Coso Range Wilderness, west of Death Valley National Park at the southern end of California's Owens Valley, where vertebrate fossils some 4.8 to 3.0 million years old can be observed in the Pliocene-age Coso Formation: It's a paleontologically significant place that yields many species of mammals, including the remains of Equus simplicidens, the Hagerman Horse, named for its spectacular occurrences at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho; Equus simplicidens is considered the earliest known member of the genus Equus, which includes the modern horse and all other equids.
• Field Trip To A Vertebrate Fossil Locality In The Coso Range, California: Take a cyber-visit to the famous bone-bearing Pliocene Coso Formation, Coso Mountains, Inyo County, California; includes detailed text for the field trip, plus on-site images and photographs of vertebrate fossils.
• Fossil Plants At Aldrich Hill, Western Nevada: Take a field trip to western Nevada, in the vicinity of Yerington, to famous Aldrich Hill, where one can collect some 35 species of ancient plants--leaves, seeds and twigs--from the Middle Miocene Aldirch Station Formation, roughly 12 to 13 million years old. Find the leaves of evergreen live oak, willow, and Catalina Ironwood (which today is restricted in its natural habitat solely to the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California), among others, plus the seeds of many kinds of conifers, including spruce; expect to find the twigs of Giant Sequoias, too.
• Early Cambrian Fossils Of Westgard Pass, California: Visit the Westgard Pass area, a world-renowned geologic wonderland several miles east of Big Pine, California, in the neighboring White-Inyo Mountains, to examine one of the best places in the world to find archaeocyathids--an enigmatic invertebrate animal that went extinct some 510 million years ago, never surviving past the early Cambrian; also present there in rocks over a half billion years old are locally common trilobites, plus annelid and arthropod trails, and early echinoderms.
• Fossils From Pleistocene Lake Manix, California: Explore the badlands of the Manix Lake Beds on California's Mojave Desert, an Upper Pleistocene deposit that produces abundant fossil remains from the silts and sands left behind by a great fresh water lake, roughly 350,000 to 19,000 years old--the Manix Beds yield many species of fresh water mollusks (gastropods and pelecypods), skeletal elements from fish (the Tui Mojave Chub and Three-Spine Stickleback), plus roughly 50 species of mammals and birds, many of which can also be found in the incredible, world-famous La Brea Tar Pits of Los Angeles.
• Field Trip To Pleistocene Lake Manix, California: Go on a virtual field trip to the classic, fossiliferous badlands carved in the Upper Pleistocene Manix Formation, Mojave Desert, California. It's a special place that yields beaucoup fossil remains, including fresh water mollusks, fish (the Mojave Tui Chub), birds and mammals.
• Trilobites In The Nopah Range, Inyo County, California: Travel to a locality well outside the boundaries of Death Valley National Park to collect trilobites in the Lower Cambrian Pyramid Shale Member of the Carrara Formation.
• Ammonoids At Union Wash, California: Explore ammonoid-rich Union Wash near Lone Pine, California, in the shadows of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States. Union Wash is a ne plus ultra place to find Early Triassic ammonoids in California. The extinct cephalopods occur in abundance in the Lower Triassic Union Wash Formation, with the dramatic back-drop of the glacier-gouged Sierra Nevada skyline in view to the immediate west.
• A Visit To The Fossil Beds At Union Wash, Inyo County California: A virtual field trip to the fabulous ammonoid accumulations in the Lower Triassic Union Wash Formation, Inyo County, California--situated in the shadows of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.
• Ordovician Fossils At The Great Beatty Mudmound, Nevada: Visit a classic 475-million-year-old fossil locality in the vicinity of Beatty, Nevada, only a few miles east of Death Valley National Park; here, the fossils occur in the Middle Ordovician Antelope Valley Limestone at a prominent Mudmound/Biohern. Lots of fossils can be found there, including silicified brachiopods, trilobites, nautiloids, echinoderms, bryozoans, ostracodes and conodonts.
• Paleobotanical Field Trip To The Sailor Flat Hydraulic Gold Mine, California: Journey on a day of paleobotanical discovery with the FarWest Science Foundation to the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada--to famous Sailor Flat, an abandoned hydraulic gold mine of the mid to late 1800s, where members of the foundation collect fossil leaves from the "chocolate" shales of the Middle Eocene auriferous gravels; all significant specimens go to the archival paleobotanical collections at the University California Museum Of Paleontology in Berkeley.
• Early Cambrian Fossils In Western Nevada: Explore a 518-million-year-old fossil locality several miles north of Death Valley National Park, in Esmeralda County, Nevada, where the Lower Cambrian Harkless Formation yields the largest single assemblage of Early Cambrian trilobites yet described from a specific fossil locality in North America; the locality also yields archeocyathids (an extinct sponge), plus salterella (the "ice-cream cone fossil"--an extinct conical animal placed into its own unique phylum, called Agmata), brachiopods and invertebrate tracks and trails.
• Fossil Leaves And Seeds In West-Central Nevada: Take a field trip to the Middlegate Hills area in west-central Nevada. It's a place where the Middle Miocene Middlegate Formation provides paleobotany enthusiasts with some 64 species of fossil plant remains, including the leaves of evergreen live oak, tanbark oak, bigleaf maple, and paper birch--plus the twigs of giant sequoias and the winged seeds from a spruce.
• Ordovician Fossils In The Toquima Range, Nevada: Explore the Toquima Range in central Nevada--a locality that yields abundant graptolites in the Lower to Middle Ordovician Vinini Formation, plus a diverse fauna of brachiopods, sponges, bryozoans, echinoderms and ostracodes from the Middle Ordovician Antelope Valley Limestone.
• Fossil Plants In The Dead Camel Range, Nevada: Visit a remote site in the vicinity of Fallon, Nevada, where the Middle Miocene Desert Peak Formation provides paleobotany enthusiasts with 22 species of nicely preserved leaves from a variety of deciduous trees and evergreen live oaks, in addition to samaras (winged seeds), needles and twigs from several types of conifers.
• Early Triassic Ammonoid Fossils In Nevada: Visit the two remote localities in Nevada that yield abundant, well-preserved ammonoids in the Lower Triassic Thaynes Formation, some 240 million years old--one of the sites just happens to be the single finest Early Triassic ammonoid locality in North America.
• Fossil Plants At Buffalo Canyon, Nevada: Explore the wilds of west-central Nevada, a number of miles from Fallon, where the Middle Miocene Buffalo Canyon Formation yields to seekers of paleontology some 54 species of deciduous and coniferous varieties of 15-million-year-old leaves, seeds and twigs from such varieties as spruce, fir, pine, ash, maple, zelkova, willow and evergreen live oak
• High Inyo Mountains Fossils, California: Take a ride to the crest of the High Inyo Mountains to find abundant ammonoids and pelecypods--plus, some shark teeth and terrestrial plants in the Upper Mississippian Chainman Shale, roughly 325 million years old.
• Field Trip To The Copper Basin Fossil Flora, Nevada: Visit a remote region in Nevada, where the Late Eocene Dead Horse Tuff provides seekers of paleobotany with some 42 species of ancient plants, roughly 39 to 40 million years old, including the leaves of alder, tanbark oak, Oregon grape and sassafras.
• Fossil Plants And Insects At Bull Run, Nevada: Head into the deep backcountry of Nevada to collect fossils from the famous Late Eocene Chicken Creek Formation, which yields, in addition to abundant fossil fly larvae, a paleobotanically wonderful association of winged seeds and fascicles (bundles of needles) from many species of conifers, including fir, pine, spruce, larch, hemlock and cypress. The plants are some 37 million old and represent an essentially pure montane conifer forest, one of the very few such fossil occurrences in the Tertiary Period of the United States.
• A Visit To The Early Cambrian Waucoba Spring Geologic Section, California: Journey to the northwestern sector of Death Valley National Park to explore the classic, world-famous Waucoba Spring Early Cambrian geologic section, first described by the pioneering paleontologist C.D. Walcott in the late 1800s; surprisingly well preserved 540-510 million-year-old remains of trilobites, invertebrate tracks and trails, Girvanella algal oncolites and archeocyathids (an extinct variety of sponge) can be observed in situ.
• Petrified Wood From The Shinarump Conglomerate: An image of a chunk of petrified wood I collected from the Upper Triassic Shinarump Conglomerate, outside of Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado.
• Fossil Giant Sequoia Foliage From Nevada: Images of the youngest fossil foliage from a giant sequoia ever discovered in the geologic record--the specimen is Lower Pliocene in geologic age, around 5 million years old.
• Some Favorite Fossil Brachiopods Of Mine: Images of several fossil brachiopods I have collected over the years from Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic-age rocks.
• For information on what can and cannot be collected legally from America's Public Lands, take a look at Fossils On America's Public Lands and Collecting On Public Lands--brochures that the Bureau Of Land Management has allowed me to transcribe.
• In Search Of Vanished Ages--Field Trips To Fossil Localities In California, Nevada, And Utah--My fossils-related field trips in full print book form (pdf). 98,703 words (equivalent to a medium-size hard cover work of non-fiction); 250 printed pages (equivalent to about 380 pages in hard cover book form); 27 chapters; 30 individual field trips to places of paleontological interest; 60 photographs--representative on-site images and pictures of fossils from each locality visited.

• United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 264-J: Fossils Birds From Manix Lake California, by Hildegarde Howard.
• United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1928: Stratigraphy of the Lower And Middle(?) Triassic Union Wash Formation, East-Central California by Paul Stone, Calvin H. Stevens, and Michael J. Orchard.
• United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 483-F: An Unusual Lower Cambrian Trilobite Fauna From Nevada by Allison R. Palmer.
• United States Geological Survey Bulletin 1527: Age Of The Coso Formation, Inyo County, California by C. R. Bacon, D. M. Giovannetti, W. A. Duffield, W. A. Dalrymple and R. E. Drake.