Tag Archives: Cretaceous

A new “living fossil” bryozoan with a Wooster connection

Way back in the summer of 2008, my good friend Paul Taylor (the Natural History Museum, London), John Sime (Senior Independent Study student at the time) and I explored the Pierre Shale (Upper Cretaceous) of the Black Hills region in … Continue reading

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Into a bit of the Czech Cretaceous

Beroun, Czech Republic — Today the International Bryozoology Association pre-conference field party visited a fascinating quarry near Chrtníky, Czech Republic. Ordovician diabase is mined here for road gravel and other industrial uses. This rock was uplifted and exposed during the … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Echinoid bite marks from the Upper Cretaceous of southwestern France

Above is another beautiful image from Paul Taylor’s paleontological lab at the Natural History Museum, London. It is one of our fossil oysters (Pycnodonte vesicularis) from the French Type Campanian collected in the town of Archiac in southwestern France on … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Barnacle borings from the Cretaceous of southwestern France

Small comma-shaped trace fossils this week in a Cretaceous (Upper Campanian) oyster (Pycnodonte vesicularis) from the Aubeterre Formation of southwestern France. (Locality C/W-747, Plage des Nonnes, to be exact.) These are borings produced by barnacles, which are sedentary crustaceans more … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Bryozoan encrusting a bryozoan (Campanian of southwestern France)

Today’s post is in honor of Macy Conrad’s (Wooster ’18) poster at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, which was held earlier this week. It is also to recognize again the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) genius of … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Foraminifera clustered around a sponge boring (Campanian of southwestern France)

If all goes to plan, today I leave for the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, held this year in Seattle, Washington. To mark the occasion, this week’s fossil is from a poster Macy Conrad (’18), Paul Taylor … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A terebratulid brachiopod from the Upper Cretaceous of southwestern France

Yes, we’ve had a run of French Cretaceous fossils here. This is because we’re in the midst of a major project stemming from summer fieldwork in the Type Campanian of southwestern France. The fossils are delicious, and they are before … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Predatory trace from the Upper Cretaceous of southwestern France

One hole in a shell is unremarkable. Several in a repeating pattern is a story. Above is a right valve (exterior) of the oyster Pycnodonte vesicularis from the Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) of southwestern France. It was collected during our fantastic … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A rudist clam from the Upper Cretaceous of southwestern France

When we picked up this beautiful fossil in southwestern France this summer, Paul Taylor immediately predicted it would become a Wooster Fossil of the Week. Macy Conrad (’18), Paul and I were on our wonderful expedition in the Type Campanian … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Oysters from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) of southwestern France

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week returns from its summer hiatus. It is appropriate, then, to feature as our first fossil of the new season an oyster species prominent in our summer research. This is Pycnodonte vesicularis (Lamarck, 1806), a very … Continue reading

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