Systematic arrangement
Browse by group
The same specimens as the period listing, arranged instead by what the animal or plant actually was. Groups are given in roughly systematic order, with the plants last.
- CoralCnidariaTabulate and rugose corals: two entirely Palaeozoic groups, both extinct by the end of the Permian. Neither is ancestral to the corals living today.19
- ConulariidCnidariaFour-sided phosphatic cones, now generally read as scyphozoan cnidarians — relatives of the jellyfish.1
- BryozoanBryozoaColonial filter feeders of a phylum entirely their own. Often mistaken for corals; the tubes are far finer.4
- BrachiopodBrachiopodaTwo-valved shells that are not molluscs. The valves are top and bottom rather than left and right.5
- BivalveMolluscaTrue molluscs, with mirror-image left and right valves.1
- GastropodMolluscaSnails. The largest class of molluscs, and the only one to have fully colonised the land.2
- CephalopodMolluscaChambered shells of the relatives of squid, octopus and the living Nautilus.1
- TrilobiteArthropodaMarine arthropods, and the emblem of the Palaeozoic. Most specimens are moulted shells rather than dead animals.14
- CrinoidEchinodermataSea lilies — stalked echinoderms. Almost always found as scattered stem discs, because the skeleton falls apart on death.7
- GraptoliteHemichordataColonial hemichordates preserved as carbon films. The floating forms are among the best fossils for dating rock.3
- PlantTracheophytaThe Gondwanan floras: Glossopteris seed ferns of the Permian coal swamps, and Carboniferous scale trees.6
Earlier groupings
The categories and keywords used on the site between 2013 and 2025. They mixed taxonomic rank with habitat, and several duplicated one another, so they have been replaced by the groups above. They are kept because the addresses are still linked to from elsewhere.
Categories
Animal Phylum Carboniferous Coral Invertebrate Land Based Marine Life Permian Plant Phylum Shell-like Structures Silurian Trilobite Uncategorized
Keywords
Bivalve-Mollusc brachiopod Brain Coral Bryozoan Cephalopod Club Moss compound rugose coral Conulariid Coral Crinoid Crinoidea Crinoids Echinoderm Echinodermata Favosites feather duster coral Gastropod Glossopteris Glossopteris Branch Graptolite Graptolites Graptolithina Graptolithinia Hexagonaria Horn Coral Lamp Shell Leaf Lepidodendron Leptagonia Proteus Rugose Coral Solitary Rugose Coral Spiny Brachiopod Spiriferida Stigmaria ficoides Syringopora tabulate coral Themnopora Trilobite Vertebraria