Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Giant ostracods (Silurian of Estonia)

During our Estonian expedition this summer, Richa Ekka (’13) chose as her Independent Study project focus the Soeginina Beds (lowermost Ludlow, Upper Silurian) of the Paadla Formation exposed in southeastern Saaremaa Island. These carbonate sediments, mostly dolomitized, were deposited in … Continue reading

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Wooster Geologist at the New England Aquarium

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS–I’m in Boston for a day on some College business and had the opportunity to visit the New England Aquarium. Its primary feature, a huge central aquarium with steps surrounding it, is under construction, but there were plenty of … Continue reading

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Early Morning Powdering Session

WOOSTER, OH – Our dedicated Mineralogy students appeared in the lab bright and early this morning for an optional sample prep session. Each student has an unknown mineral that they are studying in a semester-long research project. Most of the … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Beautiful molds on a concretion (Lower Carboniferous of Ohio)

Kit Price (’13) was exploring a local creek on a Geomorphology course field trip north of Wooster led by Dr. Greg Wiles. Like the excellent paleontologist Kit is, her eyes continually searched the pebbles, cobbles, slabs and outcrops for that … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Earthquake Machine

WOOSTER, OH – Thanks to our crafty technician, the Wooster Geology Department is now the proud owner of an earthquake machine. The design comes from IRIS as a way to demonstrate Elastic Rebound Theory, the idea that stress accumulates on a … Continue reading

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TREE CAMPUS USA – The College of Wooster

On a beautiful homecoming afternoon in September – The College of Wooster celebrated its new designation as a Tree Campus USA. This special designation of The College of Wooster was lead by Beau Mastrine, director of grounds (above).  Partners include the … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a deformed brachiopod (Upper Ordovician of Indiana)

Kevin Silver (’13), a sharp-eyed paleontology student, found this odd brachiopod on our field trip earlier this month in southeastern Indiana. It comes from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Whitewater Formation. Kevin correctly identified it as Vinlandostrophia acutilirata (Conrad, 1842), an … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: a little sclerobiont community (Upper Ordovician of Indiana)

Last week the students of my Invertebrate Paleontology class found many excellent fossils in the Whitewater and Liberty Formations of southeastern Indiana. We will be featuring some of them in this space. I want to start with one of my … Continue reading

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Paleontology field trip in southeastern Indiana

RICHMOND, INDIANA–Geology students in the Cincinnati area are a bit spoiled when it comes to finding fossils in the field. The Upper Ordovician rocks here are world-famous for the extraordinary abundance, variety and preservation of invertebrate fossils.like those shown above … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a twisted little crinoid (Lower Silurian of Estonia)

This week’s fossil is a tiny little crinoid with an odd shape. Calceocrinus balticensis (shown above with the scale bar as one millimeter) is a new species from the Lower Silurian (Llandovery) of Hiiumaa, western Estonia. It is part of … Continue reading

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