Monthly Archives: January 2011

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: The Multidisciplinary European Thorny Oyster (Pliocene of Cyprus)

In the summer of 1996, I was a co-director of  a Keck Geology Consortium project on the island of Cyprus. My students and I worked on the hot central plains far from the well known ophiolite complex in the cool … Continue reading

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In praise of the humble Ro-Tap

While we celebrate our new XRF and XRD equipment in Dr. Meagen Pollock’s petrology lab (which has already produced actual results), I thought we should also recognize our oldest piece of continuously-operated equipment in the department, the Ro-Tap Sieve Shaker: … Continue reading

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Dr. Stan Totten (’58) receives a Hall of Fame award from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Wooster has always been proud of its distinguished alumnus Stan Totten (’58), a retired professor of geology at Hanover College. We are now pleased to see that the state of Ohio has recognized him for his many contributions to understanding … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A most unlikely clam — rudists from the Upper Cretaceous of the Oman Mountains

This week’s fossil was collected on a memorable trip in 2000 to the United Arab Emirates and Oman with my friend Paul Taylor, an invertebrate paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. We were there to study hard substrate … Continue reading

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The Very First Analysis Goes To…

WOOSTER, OH – The XRF and XRD are officially installed! We learned the basics about how to operate and maintain the XRF this afternoon. We even ran our first official sample using the EZScan. It was a difficult choice, but … Continue reading

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New Geology X-Ray Lab

The COW Geology Department gets a new X-ray lab, thanks to funding from the National Science Foundation and the efforts of many people across campus. Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A cystoid (Middle Ordovician of northeastern Estonia)

Fossils don’t get much more spherical than Echinosphaerites aurantium, an extinct creature common in the Early and Middle Ordovician of North America and Europe. These are cystoids, a somewhat informal category of filter-feeding, stalked echinoderms that are relatives of the … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A three-branched graptolite (Lower Ordovician of southeastern Australia)

This week I’m correcting a mistake I’ve been making in my paleontology courses for nearly thirty years. Our subject is a graptolite from the teaching collections — a specimen that has been at least cursorily examined by all of my … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: The tabulate coral Aulopora (Devonian of northwestern Ohio)

We’re going to start 2011 with a new blog feature: Fossil of the Week! My colleagues, of course, are welcome to also start “Mineral of the Week”, “Structural Geologic Feature of the Week”, or “Climate Event of the Week”.  The … Continue reading

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