- Coprolite
- Fossilized dung (such as dinosaur poop) is called coprolite. The study of this material is a serious scientific discipline as it yields a great deal of information about lifestyle and eating habits.
- Crinoids
- These are strange looking animals that lived in the sea hundreds of millions of years ago. They were animals, but resembled plants with long stalks that attached them to the sea floor. At the top of the stalk was a bulbous bunch of tentacles that resembled a modern sea anemone. Their stalks consisted of a series of thin rings. They are a fairly common fossil and were used by native Americans to make beads for decoration.
- Cuvier, Baron Georges
- French scientist Cuvier is one of the most important people in modern science. He proposed that extinction of a species was possible. This proposition did not fit with the thinking of his late 18th century contemporaries, but he was later proved correct. Cuvier also identified a number of prehistoric species and their characteristics long before any established paleontological theories existed. For example, upon examining one of the first pterosaur fossils, he correctly deduced that its elongated finger supported a wing.
- Cycad
- A very primitive type of tree related to the conifers. Much more common in the Mesozoic, and a few species still survive today. They had a thick, short trunk and leaves that resembled those found on modern palm trees.
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