MrDarwin

Bottjer et al. 2002, Exceptional Fossil Preservation (Amazon.com listing)

I just skimmed this new book in my library and it really blew me away. Clear non- technical language, with great illustrations of exceedingly well preserved organisms (many of them soft-bodied) from exceptional fossil beds around the world. Not terribly in-depth, but a good overview of what's out there, and covering many of the major discoveries of the last 20 years or so. (But we still don't know what the Tully monster was!)

Table of Contents:

Foreword; Alfred G. Fischer
Fossil-Lagerstätten: Jewels of the Fossil Record; David Jè. Bottjer, Walter Etter, James W. Hagadorn, and Carol M. Tang
Enigmatic Ediacara Fossils: Ancestors or Aliens?; David J. Bottjer
Chengjiang: Early Record of the Cambrian Explosion; James W. Hagadorn
The Burgess Shale: Cambrian Explosion in Full Bloom; James W. Hagadorn
Burgess Shale-Type Localities: The Global Picture; James W. Hagadorn
Orsten Deposits from Sweden: Miniature Late Cambrian Arthropods; Carol M. Tang
Beecher's Trilobite Bed: Ordovician Pyritization for the Other Half of the Trilobite; Walter Etter
The Hunsrück Slate: Widespread Pyritization of a Devonian Fauna; Walter Etter
Bear Gulch: An Exceptional Upper Carboniferous Plattenkalk; James W. Hagadorn
Mazon Creek: Preservation in Late Paleozoic Deltaic Environments; Stephen A. Schellenberg
Grès à Voltzia: Preservation in Early Mesozoic Deltaic and Marginal Marine Environments; Walter Etter
Monte San Giorgio: Remarkable Triassic Marine Vertebrates; Walter Etter
Berlin-Ichthyosaur: Preserving Some of the Earth's Largest Marine Vertebrates; David J. Bottjer
Osteno: Jurassic Preservation to the Cellular Level; Carol M. Tang
Posidonia Shale: Germany's Jurassic Marine Park; Walter Etter and Carol M. Tang
La Voulte-Sur-Rhône: Exquisite Cephalopod Preservation; Walter Etter
Oxford Clay: England's Jurassic Marine Park; Carol M. Tang
Solnhofen: Plattenkalk Preservation with Archaeopteryx; Walter Etter
Smoky Hill Chalk: Spectacular Cretaceous Marine Fauna; David J. Bottjer
Monte Bolca: An Eocene Fishbowl; Carol M. Tang
Index