Average Customer Review: ( 16 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 45 found the following review helpful:
 If you only have one fossil book, this should be it! Jul 12, 1998
By Ken LeBlanc
The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American fossils was the first and best book on fossils I ever purchased. The pictures and maps have helped me may times to find locations to dig for fossils. Hundreds of beautiful drawings and complete descriptions help to identify the fossils you find. Highly recommended.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 Great Field Guide... but it cant have everything.... Oct 09, 2001
By David Fields
It would be impossible, I'm sure, for a field guide to North American Fossils to provide us with every single fossil that can be found on our continent. No doubt the Audobon Society did not have in mind for a user of this guide to be able to identify everything they find, but to at least highlight the more common fossils, and to guide the reader to look for answers to all the rest. For instance, in Nebraska there are at least 3 types of horn coral that can be found near the Omaha region alone, and there is doubtless many more species that can be found. The guide helps you find the most common and to surmise what you have found by those examples.Furthermore, no book to be placed in the back pocket of us fossil enthusiasts could possibly be made very thin if it included every illustration, and every detailed description of every type of fossil. If I have one complaint about this book, its that the maps are difficult to read, and could have been simplified a bit more.. and printed clearer. But, that is a small complaint as I am able to get further detailed maps, and descriptions from the State of Nebraska Geological Survey and other sources. Get this book if you want to seriously hunt for fossils.. and identify them.
21 of 23 found the following review helpful:
"THE" Fieldguide Dec 23, 2003
By Christine
If you're looking for an excellent fossil fieldguide, look no further. This is the first book I purchased to help me identify fossils, and have since purchased seven more but keep going back to this one. Why? First of all, the format is great. Tons of full-color photos and precise descriptions of the pictured specimens, including which areas of North America they normally occur in and when the organism existed (or exists) in geological time. Also lists similar fossils that are sometimes mistaken for or confused with the one illustrated. Second, this book focuses specifically on North American fossils, which means that you get more concise information. Many other fossil guides attempt to cover fossils of the world in the same size book (or smaller), which is doubtless a very ambitious project, but probably impossible to do successfully in the form of a fieldguide. So with the National Audobon guide, you get more pertinent information. Granted, not everyone is looking for an American-specific guide. But if you
want information on, say, European or Morrocan fossils, the same concept applies: Purchasing a more specific guide gives you more specific information for your money. Third, the photos in this guide look like fossils as they occur in nature (as opposed to some fossil guides picturing specimens that have been prepped and polished and perfectly repaired). This is an obvious advantage when trying to identify a specimen that you have just brushed the soil off of. (In fact, most "serious" paleontologists recommend that the natural condition of a fossil be altered as little as possible.) Fourth, the book diagrams and labels the different parts of the major fossil types. So by studying the diagrams, one can learn the paleontological names for the parts. I will say that the book focuses mainly on invertebrate fossils, so if you're interested specifically in vertebrate paleontology this would not be the book for you. But again: Purchasing a more specific guide gives you more specific information for your money. In conclusion, I very highly recommend this book to someone that is interested in identifying and learning more about invertebrate fossils. I have yet to find a guide that tops it!
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
CERTAINLY FITS MY NEEDS Aug 26, 2006
By D. Blankenship
I am certainly not an expert in this field, have no formal training. I am simply a rather old man who has been grubbing in the ground and dirt and in the rocks for most of my life and have had a fascination with fossels since a very, very young child. This particular book has brought me a lot of pleasure and added greatly to the enjoyment of my hobby of "grubbing." I realize that no one book can provide all the answers and identify all the fossil remains known (good grief, there are new ones being discovered every day it seems), but this work certainy meets my needs. I have yet to find a fossel that I was unable to identify with it's use, and at the very least, has given me clues as to where I might go to find the answers I needs. The photographs are great as are the written discriptions. I carry this one with me always when out in the field. Recommend this one highly.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 OK, if your're into shells Nov 29, 2009
By alan
I bought this book on the strength of reviews here. I was sadly disappointed when I tried to identify some plant fossils I had found. The section on plants has only 4 pages. The rest of the book is almost entirely devoted to marine fossils, (shells).
See all 16 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
