CONTENTS: Acknowledgements. Sources. Foreword (by Professor David A.T. Harper, Durham University). Introduction. Getting started: 1. How to collect; 2.

Where to collect; 3. What to collect; 4. The field notebook; 5. Measuring sections (and why); 6. The Law of Superposition; 7. Fossiliferous sedimentary rocks: Siliciclastics; 8. Fossiliferous sedimentary rocks: Limestones, cherts and coals; 9. Reworked fossils; 10.

Fossils as way-up structures; 11. Fossils as current indicators; 12. Your palaeontological library; 13. Fossils in caves 14. Beachcombing; 15. Common sense in the field; 16. Collecting with a camera; 17. Buying specimens.

Some theoretical aspects: 18. Palaeoecology 1: The organism; 19. Palaeoecology 2: Organism meets organism; 20. Palaeoecology 3: Getting more information from the bed; 21. Preservation 1: Fossilization; 22. Preservation 2: Death; 23. Preservation 3: Disarticulation, transport and residence ; 24. Preservation 4: Burial and diagenesis; 25.

Trace fossils. Working on your collection at home; 26. Storage; 27. Labelling; 28. Photography at home; 29. Drawing; 30. Specializing in your favourite fossil group; 31. Writing descriptions; 32.

Casting from natural moulds; 33. Problems with preservation. The wider field: getting involved; 34. Collaboration; 35. Scientific societies; 36. Conferences; 37. Journals and magazines; 38. Offprints, PDFs and filing; 39.

Visiting museums; 40. Ideas for further involvement; 41. Publishing I: Persuading you to get involved; 42. Publishing II: The hard work of self-editing; 43. Publishing III: How to publish a new species. Fossils in many fields: 44. The field guide; 45. Field trip: Den Haag, the Netherlands; 46.

Field trip: The Piltdown Trail; 47. Field trip: Overstrand to Cromer, Norfolk; 48. Field trip: Cleveleys, Lancashire; 49. Field trip: Queen Victoria's bathing beach, Isle of Wight; 50. Field trip: Salthill Quarry, Clitheroe; 51. Field trip: Hurdlow, Derbyshire; 52. Field trip: Antigua. Glossary.

Index.