Ammonites

Due to their rapid evolution and widespread

distribution, ammonoids are used
by geologists and paleontologists for biostratigraphy.
They are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible
to link the rock layer in which they are found to
specific geologic time periods.
Due to their free-swimming and/or free-
floating habits, ammonites often happened to live
directly above seafloor waters so poor in oxygen as to
prevent the establishment of animal life on the
seafloor. When upon death the ammonites fell to this
seafloor and were gradually buried in accumulating
sediment, bacterial decomposition of these corpses often tipped the delicate balance of
local redox conditions sufficiently to lower the local solubility of minerals dissolved in the
seawater, notably phosphates and carbonates. The resulting spontaneous concentric
precipitation of minerals around a fossil, a concretion, is responsible for the outstanding
preservation of many ammonite fossils.

Examples:
Ammonitida

Ceratitida

Ganiatite
Brachiopods
Brachiopods are characteristic of shallow marine
environments, and in some Palaeozoic rocks they are
the main rock-forming component. Brachiopods are also
particularly suitable for palaeoecological analyses.
Influenced by such factors as water depth, salinity,
oxygen levels and static lifestyle, the distribution
patterns of fossil brachiopods provide a useful tool in
deducing the position of ancient shorelines and the past
distribution of land and sea. Through the rapid evolution
of some brachiopod lineages, they can be useful for
understanding the relative ages of rock successions,
and for correlation. 

Examples:

Rhynchonellata
Obolella

Craniata

Inarticulata
Graptolites
Graptolites are excellent geological
time-keepers, for they can be used to date
the rocks in which they are found. They
evolved quickly and assumed a wealth of
easily recognizable shapes. Many of these
evolutionary steps, which can be traced
around much of the world, define periods of
time. Some of these time-slices are only a
few hundred thousand years long, which to
a geologist, amounts to pinpoint accuracy
given that all this took place hundreds of millions of years ago.

Examples:

Climocagraptus

Didymograptus

Clonograptus
Monograptus

Diplograptus

Phyllograptus
 Tetragraptus

Trilobites
The vast geographic range and long period in
which trilobites lived make their fossils incredibly useful
to researchers. Trilobites are known as index
fossils, fossils used by scientists to make inferences
on the ages of rock layers. Trilobites allow geologists
to date the rocks they are found in and correlate them
with other rocks of similar ages around the world. This
helps us understand the timing of events in the fossil
and geologic record, which is critical to reconstructing
the history of life and our planet.
Examining trilobites also provides a unique
window into the mysterious undersea world from half a billion years ago. Due to their
hard exoskeleton, a rare feature for marine animals at the time, the entire bodies of
trilobites are more easily preserved. This gives researchers a detailed look at their
adaptations and vital clues on the environment at the time in which they lived. Their
morphology, geographic distributions, and preservation all provide information on past
environments, biological interactions (food webs, symbiosis, commensalism, etc.), and
ecosystem evolution.

Examples:

Phacopida Asaphus

Proetida
Paradoxides Agnostida
Redlichiida

Asaphida

Ptychopariida