Interactive field guide

Life is like a box of fossils.

Open a specimen case spanning more than 500 million years. Explore ancient oceans, tropical swamps, and vanished coastlines—then test the clues geologists use to identify the past.

Open the case →Travel through time

CHENGHAN HUANG · DIJIE HUANG · FELIX SHEN

Earth with oceans, continents and cloudsA living planet500 million years in the making
16fossil clues
across deep time
Specimen case

Sixteen clues to vanished worlds

Look for shape, texture, setting, and geologic period. Select any specimen to open its complete field profile.

Deep time

500 million years at a glance

Scroll from the Cambrian toward the Pliocene. Gaps represent periods not preserved in this particular case.

Quick fossil challenge

Read the evidence.

Choose one answer for each question. Your score appears instantly.

Score: 0 / 3
Sources

Evidence behind the case

Specimen evidence: Ward’s Natural Science Establishment, Fossils for the Beginning Geologist.

National Park Service fossil glossary · Paleobiology Database · International Chronostratigraphic Chart · Atlas of Ordovician Life

Older → Younger