By Myron T. Sturgeon, Royal H. Mapes, Richard D. Hoare, and Delbert L. Windle
260 p., 54 plates, 45 figures, and 34 tables
1997
Price: $20.00 (plus sales tax and shipping)

Bulletin 71 is a comprehensive report on fossils from marine limestones and shales of the coal-bearing rocks of eastern Ohio. Cephalopods are mollusks represented in modern South Pacific seas by the chambered nautilus. These invertebrate animals were much more abundant and diverse in the ancient Paleozoic seas that once covered Ohio. Fossil forms had either coiled or straight shells.

Bulletin 71 is the latest in a series on Pennsylvanian-age fossils from Ohio published by the Survey. Others in the series cover brachiopods (Bulletin 63), bivalves (Bulletin 67), and trilobites (RI 142). These reports were initiated by Dr. Myron T. Sturgeon (Ohio University) and Dr. Richard D. Hoare (Bowling Green State University) and are based on the 50-year collection of Pennsylvanian fossils from eastern Ohio gathered by Sturgeon and his students. This massive collection is now reposited at the Orton Geological Museum at The Ohio State University.

The report is divided into two parts: part 1, with Sturgeon as principal author, is on nautiloid cephalopods; and part 2, with Mapes as principal author, is on ammonoid cephalopods. The book has 47 photographic plates of nautiloid cephalopods and seven plates of ammonoids, plus 32 figures and 34 tables. The morphology of each species known from Ohio is described in detail. The report includes a summary of the Pennsylvanian rock units that have yielded cephalopod fossils, an extensive bibliography, and a list of collecting localities from which Pennsylvanian cephalopods have been found in the state.

This volume will be of interest to amateur fossil collectors as well as professional paleontologists. Most of the collecting localities listed in the book have yielded a diverse assemblage of marine invertebrates and some fishes. Although many of the localities may no longer be accessible, some of them have produced excellent fossils for decades. Most of these localities are on private property and permission of the landowner must be obtained. Fossil cephalopods are not common but are among the specimens most highly prized by collectors. This comprehensive volume will allow collectors to identify nearly any cephalopod specimen they might find in Pennsylvanian rocks in Ohio and other states as well.

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