Collecting Fossils: Hold Prehistory in the Palm of Your Hand

by Steve Parker

Step into the past. Here are all the basics on the fossilization process and collecting recognizing rocks that contain fossils, what tools and techniques to use, and how to collect in a safe and environmentally-safe way. Tips cover cleaning, preserving, and displaying your finds. Document and identify your collection properly using the handy guide, arranged in three sections.

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Steve Parker is a British science writer known for producing hundreds of children's and adult nonfiction books covering zoology, medicine, evolution, and natural history. Educated at the University of Wales, Bangor, where he earned first class honours in zoology, he later worked at the Natural History Museum and held editorial positions at Dorling Kindersley before becoming a freelance author during the late 1980s. Parker contributed early titles to the acclaimed Eyewitness series and later wrote award-winning books including Science Crazy, Fizzing Physics, The Human Body Book, and Kill or Cure. He has also edited major collaborative works on evolution and medicine, regularly visits schools and libraries, and serves as a Senior Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book goes over the basic generalities of fossils and then fossil collecting, followed by a brief guide to the history of life.

It was OK - sufficiently OK that I'm keeping it rathar than passing it on; it was well-designed and well-written and has some good info - but I have issues with it. I can't tell if it's aimed at children or adults; the general level of the writing seems to assume children, but then it assumes the readers will be using power tools and toxic chemicals alone and going on solo expeditions, so I am confused. This could explain why it failed to get checkouts at the library.

It also had absolutely nothing about the ethics of private fossil collection vs. scientific excavation and study, except one tiny box that suggested that if you find something really spectacular you should tell a scientist because you might get it named after you. Which is great as far as it goes but really, really doesn't cover the massive complexities of the ethical debates going on there.

Beyond that, it was just really vague, in such a way that I'm questioning how useful it would actually be. And like nearly all fossil guides I have read, it reflects an experience of amateur fossil collecting that really has very little to do with my lifetime's experience (and involves finding far more spectacular stuff...) without mentioning any of the actually useful advice I have given and gotten. Similarly, the "guide to fossils" pages, while they're an ok overview of the history of life, are really really unlikely to help anybody ID any fossils except in the most general way.