Monthly Archives: November 2016

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Geological Magic Lantern Slides from the 19th Century (Part I)

“Wooster’s Fossil of the Week” is not always about actual fossils, but our topics are each paleontological. Many years ago I discovered in an old box tucked away in the attic of Scovel Hall at Wooster a set of “Magic … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A juvenile conch from the Upper Pleistocene (Eemian) of The Bahamas

I collected this beautiful shell from a seashore exposure of Pleistocene sediments on Great Inagua, the third largest island of The Bahamas. I was on an epic expedition to this bit of paradise with Al Curran and Brian White of … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Modern vermetid snails, a slipper shell, and an oyster

Not actually fossils this week, but cool nonetheless. This complex specimen is in our Invertebrate Paleontology teaching collection with no label giving its original location. In the foreground is the underside of a slipper shell gastropod identified as Crepidula fornicata. … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

How thick was the ice?

AMHERST, MA – Our Keck project studying the construction of a glaciovolcanic ridge in southwest Iceland is in full swing and our students are hard at work on their research. You may remember that we traveled to Iceland this summer to … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Demosponge borings in a muricid gastropod from Florida

Technically these are “subfossils” since this appears to be an old shell still within the Holocene, although it is possibly eroded out of Pleistocene sediments and then redeposited on a Florida beach. It is a muricid snail eroded enough to … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment