Putting donated fossils to work

WOOSTER, OHIO — Last month we began integrating a large collection of rocks, minerals and fossils into our teaching program in the Department of Geology. These specimens were donated by an Ohio family who lovingly gathered them over decades. They displayed these natural wonders to friends, neighbors and children for their beauty and their educational value. Now we have started to use some of the specimens in our classes.

Invertebrate Paleontology students Sarah Appleton, Megan Innis (the TA), Melissa Torma and Michaela Caventer examine donated bivalve fossils. We are especially impressed with the large articulated Eocene oyster Michaela is holding.

Andrew Retzler holding two vertebrae of the Jurassic dinosaur Camarasaurus. We used these in the History of Life course.

Side view of the Camarasaurus vertebrae. These bones were reconstructed from dozens of fragments.

About Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is a Professor of Geology at The College of Wooster. He specializes in invertebrate paleontology, carbonate sedimentology, and stratigraphy. He also is an expert on pseudoscience, especially creationism.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Putting donated fossils to work

  1. Pingback: Wooster Geologists » Blog Archive » Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A giant oyster (Eocene of Texas)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.