Fossil Collecting in the Mid-Atlantic States: With Localities, Collecting Tips, and Illustrations of More Than 450 Fossil Specimens

by Jasper Burns and Professor Jasper Burns

Book Overview

A fossil, writes Jasper Burns, is first of all a thing of remarkable beauty. The sense of awe and exhilaration so many of us feel in the presence of the Ocean, or the Pyramids, or the Great Wall of China comes to me when I find a broken shell that's a million years oldNothing in nature can seem more mute than the stone impression of an organism whose kind disappeared half a billion years ago-yet almost nothing can be more eloquent if we have the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801841453
• ISBN13: 9780801841453
• Release Date: April 1991
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.9" x 10.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Illustrations are great guides

This book was helpful for me because of the life-like illustrations. While I have only visited one site discussed by the author, his drawings have been a great comparison point against the typical fossil guides' pictures.The author's interest in his hobby is contagious - I recommend you read the book and share his passion.

A productive guide to fossil hunting.

One of the best guides to invertebrate fossils hunting I have read. Drawing from his experience in the Appalacian region (mainly West Virginia and Virginia), the author offers many fine sites which are accesible to the professional and amature alike. Was well worth the 8 hour drive from New Jersey and the cost of the book ! Includes excellent annotated references as well.

A great guide for finding fossils!

I went to many of the fossil locations mentioned in the book and came home with a load of fossils. It was a great book, one of the best fossil books i've ever seen. I would recommend this book to any fossil collector.

Excellent guide book to fossil localities

The book is laid out well and is easy for the layman to understand. The localities are varied, and the directions to them, plus the drawings of the fossils, are accurate and beautiful. I highly recommend this book to anyone even mildly interested in hunting/collecting fossils.

Very useful guide to collection & identification of fossils

The book contains information on over 45 fossil-collecting sites in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Each site description contains detailed directions on how to find the site, what to look for when you get there, and drawings of representative specimens that the author has found there. The drawings help with an initial identification (e.g. "shark's tooth"), but the serious collector will want to consult a more detailed work for positive identification (e.g. "tooth from a Galeocordo aduncus"). The book also has very useful advice on what equipment you might need (not much is needed, but the advice and tips are excellent). Drawings