INTRODUCTION 



CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 



MI AT FOSSILS ARE. Fossils are the remains of past life. The definition covers a wide 

 field for it includes the bones and tusks of huge animals like the mastodon and mammoth and 

 the tiniest shells of one -celled animals sometimes found literally by the millions in the rocks. 

 Anything that is a clue to past life is included: trails and footprints, worm burrows, fossil 

 leaves, tree trunks, and seeds, and the almost invisible spores of fungi. 



WHERE FOSSILS ARE FOUND . In Ohio, fossils are around us everywhere. They are 

 found in all 88 of the counties of the state; the only difference between one county and another 

 is the age and type of fossils found and their abundance or scarcity. On city streets people 

 walk on fossils every day, for some of the old sidewalks are made of slabs of limestone that 

 contain fossils. Even in our buildings, fossils are present in numbers: the walls of the State 

 House in Columbus contain fossils; the stone walls and chimneys of houses and the gravel in 

 our driveways are often crammed full of them. 



USES OF FOSSILS . Fossils are useful in three ways. To mankind in general, they are 

 the evidence of animals of the long-distant past, the only clue to the nature of the life of 

 millions of years ago. They show the appearance of different life forms one after another. 

 Fossils are the documents from which development of life in the past can be traced. 



Fossils have a practical use too. Different kinds of fossils are found in the successive 

 layers of rocks. The rocks can be recognized by their fossils. Some beds can be identified 

 by their fossils even though they are separated by miles of ocean or by areas covered by 

 soil or glacial debris. Even the layers far under the surface of the earth, when they are 

 penetrated by the drill of the oil seeker, can be identified as to age by the fossils they contain. 

 Some of the fossils brought up by the drill are broken but others are so small and so numerous 

 that they can be identified. 



HOW FOSSILS ARE FOUND. In some parts of the state, fossils are so large and numerous 

 that everybody knows about them. Elsewhere, fossils are not so obvious and they must be 

 looked for with more care. 



The terms abundant, common, and rare are used as a matter of convenience throughout 

 this book. We realize that their meaning varies greatly, as we found out when we compared 

 statements in other publications with our own experience on some of the species of Ohio 

 fossils. It seems best, therefore, to define our particular understanding of these terms so 

 that you will not be misled by our statements. For us, abundant fossils are those that are so 

 numerous in a particular formation and so widely distributed that they are bound to turn up in 

 the majority of collections. C ommon fossils are numerous at some localities and not at others; 

 or they may be widespread in most localities but they do not form a high proportion of any 

 collection. Rare fossils are those that are found only occasionally. 



The main equipment of the fossil hunter is a pair of sharp eyes, a good stock of patience, 

 and a few tools. The main tool is a hammer. It should be a fairly stout one, preferably with 

 a chisel or point on one end of the head and a flat, square face on the other. A few cold chisels 

 of assorted sizes may be useful in particularly hard rocks. The fossil hunter also needs a 

 stout haversack to carry his finds, newspapers and tissue paper to wrap them in, and some 

 pieces of paper to label them with. Cleani ng and cataloguing aL fossils are described later in 

 this book. 



