Each year more and more people are learning that these fossils are more than mere curiosities. Instead, they are realizing that a good collection of fossils provides much information about the early history of our earth, and that [fossil] collecting can be a most enjoyable, fascinating, and rewarding hobby. It is for these people that Texas Fossils was written.
This publication is primarily an amateur collector’s handbook and as such offers many suggestions and aids to those who would pursue the hobby of [fossil] collecting. It tells, for example, what fossils are, where and how to collect them, and how they are used. Suggestions are made as to how the specimens may be identified and catalogued, and there are discussions and illustrations of the main types of plant and animal fossils. Included also is a simplified [geologic map] of Texas and a brief review of the geology of the State.
Texas Fossils is not a comprehensive study of the paleontology of Texas. Rather, it deals primarily with the more common [species] that the average collector is likely to find. These fossils are illustrated in the plates and figures, and these illustrations should be of some help in identifying the specimens in one’s collection. Included for completeness, however, are sketches and descriptions of some of the more rare and unusual fossils, and, for general interest, there are illustrations and descriptions of many of the extinct reptiles and mammals that once inhabited this State.
In addition, a group of selected references has been included for the reader who wishes to know more about earth history and paleontology. Many of these publications provide references of a more technical nature for the more advanced or serious collector, and some of them list excellent collecting localities.
A minimum of technical terminology has been used, but terms not commonly found in dictionaries, or which have not been explained in the text, are defined in the glossary (pp. [111]-114).
Many people have helped in the planning, preparation, and completion of Texas Fossils, and their help is gratefully acknowledged: Dr. Keith Young, The University of Texas; Dr. Harold Beaver, Baylor University; and Professor Jack Boon, Arlington State College, offered helpful suggestions and information on [Cretaceous] fossils; Professors Richmond L. Bronaugh, Baylor University, and Jack T. Hughes, West Texas State College, provided information on [vertebrate] collecting localities; Professor Fred Smith, Texas A&M College, supplied data on [Tertiary] collecting localities and fossils which were used in illustrations; Dr. Saul Aronow and Professor Darrell Davis, Lamar State College of Technology; Dr. Jules DuBar, University of Houston; and Dr. Samuel P. Ellison, The University of Texas, made valuable suggestions which have been incorporated into the manuscript.
Special thanks are due Drs. John T. Lonsdale, L. F. Brown, Jr., and Peter U. Rodda, Bureau of Economic Geology, who critically read the manuscript and contributed greatly to the presentation of the material; Dr. John A. Wilson, The University of Texas, who read the section on [vertebrate] fossils and made invaluable suggestions and criticisms; Miss Josephine Casey, who edited the manuscript; and Mr. J. W. Macon, who prepared the maps and charts.
Thanks are due also to Dr. G. A. Cooper, United States National Museum, who prepared [Plate 3] especially for this publication, and to R. T. Bird and the American Museum of Natural History for photographs used in Plates [4] and [43]. Plates [38] and [39] were provided through the courtesy of Dr. J. W. Dixon, Jr., and the Geology Department of Baylor University. The other photographs were prepared by the writer. To Sarah Louise Wilson, Lamar State College of Technology, the writer gratefully acknowledges her tireless and painstaking efforts in preparing the many fine drawings which make up the balance of the illustrations.
WHAT ARE FOSSILS?
Fossils are the remains or evidence of ancient plants or animals that have been preserved in the rocks of the earth’s crust. Most fossils represent the preservable hard parts of some prehistoric organism that once lived in the area in which the remains were collected.