The Bird Spring Formation is know from the Mississippian through Permian of Southwestern Nevada and California. It is characterized primarily by thick, massive, not easily differentiable, limestones and dolostones and dependent upon the section, contains the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian and Pennsylvanian-Permian boundaries. The formation is known to contain a number of microscopic and macroscopic fossils including fusulinids, conodonts, brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids and echinoids. It has long been thought that Echinoids are fairly rare constituents of Upper Paleozoic benthic communities, however, recent work indicates that they may be more important members of Upper Paleozoic communities than previously thought. A new, relatively unstudied section of the Bird Spring Formation, approximately 250 M thick, has been found at Lovell Wash Canyon in Clark County, Nevada and this new section provides an excellent framework for the testing of hypotheses regarding the abundance and ecological dominance of Paleozoic echinoids and the effects of diagenesis upon the rocks and fossils of the Bird Spring Formation. The primary lithology at this section is dolostone and many of the fossils present have been silicified. The section will be measured in the field and samples will be collected for in lab petrographic thin section analysis and for biostratigraphic analysis with fusulinids and conodonts. The thin sections will be used to study the diagenetic effects of dolomitization and silicification on the fossils and rocks within the section in hopes to better understand the conditions that lead to carbonate diagenesis.