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Fossils & Minerals
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| This web site, like many of the products of the Black Hills Institute, is intended to be educational and entertaining. Fossils, rocks and minerals are interesting collectibles, and can provide a rewarding and educational hobby. We strive to present all info here in a simple, non-technical manner. This is the same way we construct our fossil exhibits. We feel that most museums give their visitors an 'out of reach' feeling, but here there is always something you can reach out and touch.
Each section listed on the bar at the left links to a page with interesting tidbits of information about different types of fossils, minerals, meteorites, or geology in general. These pages reflect the primary areas of interest of our staff. Each provides some good, basic information about the primary topic. From each of these pages there are links to pages with more specific information about a narrower topic. There is also a slide show link to photos of specimens, either from our collections or pieces which we have worked on or sold. You will also notice links on these pages to our sales area. (Here you get a crate, not a shopping cart.) You can follow this link to see if we are offering casts, original fossils and minerals or books and other literature for sale relating to the various topics we present. There are further links which you can use to contact Black Hills Institute with questions and inquiries. From time to time there will be pages which are inaccessible marked 'under excavation'. These pages either simply aren't finished yet, or are being updated. Vertebrates
Invertebrates
Plants & Amber
Minerals, Meteorites & Geology
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Vertebrates Invertebrates - Minerals |
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Map ~ Help ~ Links |
Starting back in the Cambrian time, animals with a vertebral column (fish) eventually led to greater complexity, spanning from amphibians to eventually, dinosaurs, birds and mammals. The vertebrates are organized in this section in descending order of complexity
Animals without backbones first appeared before Cambrian times. The Cambrian time saw an 'explosion' of diversity, from which only a few groups have survived to the present day. Invertebrates are by far more varied and abundant throughout Earth history than the more 'advanced' vertebrates.
Since the arrival of the first land plants in the mid-Paleozoic, this group has diversified and flourished. Common deciduous trees developed at the end of the Mesozoic, and grasses, which permitted herbivorous mammals to thrive, appeared even later. Amber and copal, fossilized tree resins, are best known for the broad selection of life-forms which they trapped and preserved.
Geological processes control the environment on every scale. Recent findings show erosion and sedimentary deposits even on distant planets. Meteorites are earthly arrivals from outer space (possibly even our own solar system). Common minerals are the building blocks of all rocks on Earth, and the same are also found in meteorites and other planets.