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- Title: Understanding Fossils: An Introduction to Invertebrate Palaeontology
- Author: Peter Doyle
- Publisher: WILEY
- Pages: 423
Fossils are among the most highly prized natural objects in the world. They figure in our everyday lives as decorative objects in our homes, and as the dinosaur products which fill the toy and book shops and which periodically appear in the cereal packets at our breakfast tables. Collecting fossils is an absorbing pastime which grades into a passion for weekend geologists, and many students enter higher education through their interest, reading for degrees in the earth sciences which have a direct benefit for the national economy.
Despite this, palaeontology is often one of the most neglected, misunderstood and poorly promoted subjects on the geological curriculum. It suffers from two preconceived ideas: that it is a subject steeped in Latin names, and that learning lists of species and genera is at the core of any teaching strategy. The names are important, of course; they are part of a truly international scientific language, but learning them parrot-fashion should be a task undertaken by only the most dedicated specialist.
Palaeontology is much more than this. The reality is that each fossil has a tale to tell, as each one is a fragment of an ancient ecosystem, a frozen frame in an evolutionary lineage or a chronometer of geological time. Putting aside the long names and the stupefying detail of their component parts, it is the value of fossils in applied studies which determines that they should be included within the text of any geology course.
This book is intended for first-level students. It is an overview and introduction, and is not the last word on the subject. It is meant to demonstrate the geological applications of fossils. Each of the main fossil groups is deliberately dealt with in brief so that the tedium of unnecessary detail is pared down. Undoubtedly this treatment may dissatisfy, even annoy, specialists, but this book is intended for undergraduates, from those who will go on in palaeontology to those who may never study palaeontology beyond the first level of their degree.
It is a book written out of a love for a subject born when I was a young boy collecting fossils in North Wales and North Yorkshire. If it goes some small way in inspiring interest in one of the cornerstones of geology, I shall have succeeded in my aim.