History of invertebrate paleozoology and simpler sea-dwelling organisms. By far, invertebrate paleozoology is the easiest type of fossil collecting. "Unlike" the difficult-to-analyze and hard-to-interpret fossils of paleobotany (plants) and micropaleontology (microbes), and "unlike" the rarely found and poorly preserved skeletons of vertebrate paleontology, invertebrate fossils are usually both common and simple to identify. This is because many prehistoric invertebrates were hard-shelled mollusks, brachiopods, trilobites, bryozoans, crinoids or corals who were buried amid marine, sediment-preserving conditions; and therefore frequently fossilized. Stone-age people were without doubt the very first fossil collectors. Fossilized echinoderms have been found in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, central England, decorating a long-buried human skeleton;
Portuguese man o' war human stings in Australia each summer, particularly on the east coast, with some others occurring off the coast of South Australia and Western Australia. One of the problems with identifying these stings is that the detached tentacles may drift for days in the water, and the swimmer may not have any idea if they have been stung by a man o' war or by some other less venomous creature. The stinging, venom-filled nematocysts in the tentacles of the Portuguese man o' war can paralyze small fish and other prey. Detached tentacles and dead specimens (including those that wash up on