# Fossil identification and legal collecting

Canonical page: https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils
Last reviewed: September 18, 2026
Page purpose: Directory of original LithoMap guides for recognizing common nonvertebrate and plant fossils and handling them legally and responsibly.

A fossil name never proves that collection is legal. Permission depends on the exact land, current manager rules, closures, fossil category, scientific significance, quantity, tools, and intended use.

## Identification guides

- Brachiopods: Learn to recognize brachiopod shells and molds, separate them from bivalves, and interpret their marine context without assuming that possession or collection is legal. — https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/brachiopods
- Bivalves: Identify fossil clams, oysters, mussels, and related bivalves using hinge, valve, ornament, and preservation clues while keeping taxonomic and legal limits explicit. — https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/bivalves
- Gastropods: Recognize fossil snails from their whorled single shells, distinguish common lookalikes, and understand what preservation and context can—and cannot—show. — https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/gastropods
- Trilobites: Use the three-lobed body plan, segmentation, head, thorax, and tail to assess possible trilobite fossils without mistaking simple ridges or fragments for a complete animal. — https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/trilobites
- Crinoids: Recognize common crinoid stem pieces and rarer body parts, distinguish circular lookalikes, and interpret their marine limestone context cautiously. — https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/crinoids
- Bryozoans: Recognize fossil bryozoan colonies from their repeated microscopic openings and growth forms, while separating them cautiously from corals and patterned rock. — https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/bryozoans
- Corals: Identify major coral fossil patterns from corallites, radial partitions, colony form, and geologic context without treating every porous limestone as coral. — https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/corals
- Plant fossils: Recognize leaves, stems, and petrified wood using biological structure and preservation clues while avoiding manganese dendrites, banded silica, and other common lookalikes. — https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/plant-fossils

## Legal guide

- U.S. fossil collecting laws and ethics: https://lithomap.app/resources/fossils/collecting-laws

The collection excludes dinosaur and vertebrate collecting guidance, sensitive locality directions, commercial collecting advice, and claims that a map or identification grants access.