Trilobites of New York - Annotated by Thomas E Whiteley & Gerald J Kloc & Carlton E Brett (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Trilobites are the most lifelike of fossils--many well-preserved specimens belie their great antiquity and seem almost ready to arch their bodies, peer about with their compound eyes, and crawl forward as if to complete a journey that was interrupted...

Book Synopsis

"Trilobites are the most lifelike of fossils--many well-preserved specimens belie their great antiquity and seem almost ready to arch their bodies, peer about with their compound eyes, and crawl forward as if to complete a journey that was interrupted hundreds of millions of years ago."--from the Foreword"New York State is and has long been a magnet for trilobite hunters.... New York's trilobites were among the first illustrated fossils in North America.... Many outstanding localities in New York State, from the majestic Ordovician limestone bluffs of Trenton Falls, to the Silurian beds in the great gorge of Niagara River, to the Devonian shale cliffs of Lake Erie, continue to yield abundant and spectacular trilobite fossils. New York strata have also yielded more trilobites with preserved appendages and other "soft parts" than almost any other region of the world.... Spectacular, ornate trilobites from New York ranging from a few millimeters to nearly a half meter in length, are featured in museums all over the world."--from the PrefaceThis superbly illustrated book reviews the trilobite fossils found throughout New York State, including their biology, methods of taphonomy (preservation of specimens), and the broader Paleozoic geology of the state. A general chapter on the geology of New York State places the importance of these now-extinct invertebrate marine animals into context. Sixty-seven line drawings and 175 black-and-white photographs illustrate individual species, many represented here by type specimens, and display the eerie beauty that has made New York State trilobites favorites of collectors the world over.

Review Quotes

Cornell University Press is to be congratulated on this excellently-printed volume, which will be an eye-opener to the teachers and cooolectors to whom it is primarily aimed. To those, both inside and outside the United States, whose special interest is tribolites, the very complete documentation of known species and the selection of rare specimens illustrated provide a new and valuable guide... This book provides for the general reader a first-rate view of the variety of tribolites known from a long-explored region, and basic information about them. For the collector there is much vital information, and for the specialist excellent photographs of previously unkown, type or exceptional examples of particular species.

I can't express my amazement at Tribolites of New York. Volumes such as this coffee table book/textbook hybrid should be published for the invertebrate fossils of every states. The three authors do an excellent job of introducing the reader to tribolite anatomy and evolution, and then continue with a nice overview of the geology of new York. What follows is a beautiful collection of photographs and descriptions of the state's most important tribolite fossils. This book is a must for anyone interested in invertebrate paleontology.

About the Author

Thomas E. Whiteley has retired as Associate Director of Photographic Research at Eastman Kodak. Gerald J. Kloc is Geological Technician in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rochester. Carlton E. Brett is Professor of Geology at the University of Cincinnati and coauthor of Fossil Crinoids. Rolf Ludvigsen is Head of Denman Institute for Research on Trilobites, editor of The Trilobite Papers, and Adjunct Professor at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria.