Tag Archives: Fossil of the Week

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Bits of a bamboo coral from the Lower Pleistocene of Sicily

Earlier this summer I participated on a pre-conference field trip of the International Bryozoology Association throughout Sicily. We had an excellent time and saw many wondrous things. At one stop on the western side of the Milazzo Peninsula in the … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A carnivorous snail from the Pliocene of Cyprus

These drab and worn shells from the Pliocene of Cyprus are the remains of deadly little snails still around today. They are from an unknown species of the genus Euthria Gray, 1850. (Sometimes Euthria is considered a subgenus of Buccinulum.) … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A cheilostome bryozoan and serpulid worm bryolith from the Recent of Massachusetts

A bryolith is a mobile, unattached mass of bryozoans. Cheilostome bryozoans are especially good at forming bryoliths because of their hardy skeletons and relatively rapid rates of growth. The above specimen is a bryolith collected by my good friend Al … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A gastropod/coral/hermit crab combination from the Pliocene of Florida

These two shells show a lovely symbiosis between shallow marine hermit crabs and encrusting scleractinian corals. I was first introduced to the concept of “pagurized” shells by my friends Paul Taylor and Sally Walker. They showed me the many ways … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A terebratulid brachiopod from the Miocene of Spain

These large brachiopods are of the species Terebratula maugerii Boni, 1933. They were found in Upper Miocene (Tortonian-Messinian) beds near Cordoba, Spain. Wooster acquired them through a generous exchange of brachiopods with Mr. Clive Champion in England. The specimen on … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A delicate brachiopod from the Pliocene of Cyprus

These thin-shelled brachiopods were collected in the summer of 1996 on a Keck Geology Consortium project in Cyprus. Strangely enough, they were the first brachiopods I had ever seen in the Cenozoic. These are ventral valves of the terebratulid Maltaia … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: An ancient predator/prey system from the Lower Pleistocene of Sicily

The above fossils were collected from a Lower Pleistocene silty marl exposed near the Megara archaeological site east of Augusta, Sicily, Italy. I was on that epic International Bryozoology Association field trip this summer I’ve been blogging about. The shells … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A nautiloid from the Middle Jurassic of southern Israel

This is the first nautiloid specimen I’ve seen in the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) after ten years of collecting in it. Our colleague Yoav Avni (Geological Survey of Israel) picked it up during this summer’s fieldwork. It is a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A strophomenid brachiopod from the Middle Devonian of Michigan

Every year in the first class session of my Invertebrate Paleontology course I give my students each an unknown fossil. It must be something relatively common so that I can give 20 nearly-identical specimens, and it is ideally of a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A crab’s meal from the Pliocene of Cyprus

This week’s fossil was collected on a Keck Geology Consortium expedition to Cyprus in the summer of 1996. My Independent Study student on that adventure was Steve Dornbos (’97), now a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (and a … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment