Digital Atlases

The Digital Atlases of Ancient Life are online field guides to fossils from particular time intervals and regions of the United States. Each Digital Atlas provides overviews of hundreds of species, as well as high-quality images and occurrence information to help you identify your fossil discoveries. An overview of the Digital Atlas field guide project was published by Jon Hendricks, Alycia Stigall, and Bruce Lieberman (2015) in the open access journal Palaeontologia Electronica.

Four Digital Atlases are online now.

Neogene Atlas

Time period: Neogene Period (23 to 2.6 million years ago).

Region: Southeastern United States, from Virginia to Florida.

Major fossil groups: Snails, clams, sand dollars, sea urchins, and corals.

Neogene Atlas of Ancient Life

Cretaceous Atlas

Time period: Late Cretaceous Period (100 to 65 million years ago).

Region: Western Interior of the United States, from Montana to Texas.

Major fossil groups: Ammonites, snails, clams, echinoids, and vertebrates.

Cretaceous Atlas of Ancient Life

Pennsylvanian Atlas

Time period: Pennsylvanian subperiod of the Carboniferous period.

Region: Midcontinent of the United States, from Iowa to Texas.

Major fossil groups: Brachiopods, crinoids, snails, and cephalopods.

Pennsylvanian Atlas of Ancient Life

Ordovician Atlas

Time period: Ordovician Period (485 to 444 million years ago).

Region: Cincinnati region of southwestern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and southeastern Indiana.

Major fossil groups: Trilobites, brachiopods, corals, crinoids, and cephalopods.

Ordovician Atlas of Ancient Life