Glossary of technical terms. Beginners can be blocked by many technical terms used in our descriptions of ammonite. In this case, they should read the "Ammonoidea" section, which already presents the basic vocabulary, and then consult the glossary for definitions of many additional terms.
Bibliographic references. Many ammonites sold at fossil fairs, auctions, and online shops have incorrect identifications. Furthermore, their origin and/or geological period are often missing or wrong. This isn't surprising, as identifying fossils is a delicate task requiring experience and a large documentation. To help you, I've added a list of more than 410 bibliographic references to my website! You might be wondering: that's all well and good, but how can I get these documents for free?
Many French works dating up to around 1940 can be downloaded from the Gallica website of the National Library of France (BnF). Examples include the Bulletin of the Geological Society of France, the Annals of the Geological Society of the North, and the Bulletin of the Society of Historical and Natural Sciences of the Yonne. The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a natural sciences website to which many partner museums, such as the British Museum, have transferred some of their publications. More recent documents, up to 1980, can be found there. Russian specialists of the Cretaceous period also have many documents in Russian, English, French, and German at www.cretaceous.ru. Otherwise, of course, a Google search can often find the documents you are looking for.
Some open access journals offer more recent work, such as Carnets Géol. Sites like JSTOR contain journal articles that have become copyright-free after 10 or 20 years. Otherwise, journals are very expensive: my university pays €500,000 per year for its journal subscriptions! If you want a recent article for free, the easiest way is to politely ask the authors by email. Avoid looking like an idiot by saying it's to identify your "stone snails with printed ferns" (I saw this verbatim for an ammonite sold on eBay)!
List of some useful links . I offer, quite subjectively, a growing list of non-commercial links about the Albian period, ammonites, and fossils in general. Twenty years ago, there were many more, but unfortunately, quite a few have disappeared, such as Frédéric Diebold's site and the excellent American website www.cretaceousfossils.com.
Researchers on the Albian. This section presents short biographies of researchers who have made substantial scientific contributions about the Albian period.
About fossil collecting. This page gathers some tips and remarks, which I value, on fossil collecting!