Tag Archives: Fossil of the Week

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A foraminiferal ooze from the Pleistocene of Italy

On a recent field trip to Sicily, our paleontological party visited outcrops at Cala Sant’Antonino on the western side of the Milazzo Peninsula in the northwestern part of the island. We saw there an Early Pleistocene sedimentary unit informally called … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An almost planispiral gastropod from the Middle Jurassic of southern Israel

  Add this to the list of fossils that have confused me. This summer, during a Wooster expedition, Lizzie Reinthal and Steph Bosch collected the above specimen from the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of southern Israel. I simply assumed … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An irregular echinoid from the Middle Jurassic of southern Israel

From the view above, this fossil from the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of southern Israel looks like your standard echinoid (a group that contains sea urchins and sand dollars), but turn it on its side (see below) and you … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An infected crinoid from the Middle Jurassic of southern Israel

This weathered beauty is a stem fragment of the articulate crinoid Apiocrinites negevensis from the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of the Negev, southern Israel. The regular divisions you see making up the stem are the columnals, which look a … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Dinosaur teeth from the Cretaceous of Morocco

The fossil above is the best of a collection of dinosaur teeth given to us by the generous George Chambers (’79). The species that held it is the gargantuan theropod predator Spinosaurus aegyptiacus Stromer, 1915. The teeth are from Cenomanian … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Dinosaur footprints of unknown provenance

These are the only fossils in the Wooster collection I feel some shame about. They are tridactyl theropod dinosaur footprints. They are not spectacular, but they do the job for classes and visits by schoolchildren. I regret that we have … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An echinoid from the Eocene of France

The above is a specimen of the echinoid Echinolampas ovalis (Bory de St Vincent, 1824) from the Eocene of Civrac-en-Médoc, France. We are looking at what is called the aboral surface — that part of the organism on the other … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Mosasaurid teeth from the Cretaceous of Morocco

These impressive teeth are from the mosasaurid Prognathodon and were found in the Upper Cretaceous phosphorites near Khouribga, Morocco. They are not actually a matching set — I just arranged them to look fearsome. (Prognathodon lutigi from the Upper Cretaceous … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A barnacle-bored belemnite from the Jurassic of Spain

Two subjects of previous Fossil of the Week posts are combined together here: a belemnite (the elegant Hibolites hastatus) and barnacle borings (the ichnofossil Rogerella). This specimen is from the Jurassic of Moneva Teruel, Spain. Belemnites are extinct cephalopods, oddly … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A sawfish rostral tooth from the Upper Cretaceous of Morocco

More fossil fish teeth this week. This impressive, barbed tooth is from the ancient chondrichthyan sawfish Onchopristis numidus (Haug, 1905). It was found in the Tegana Formation (Cenomanian, Upper Cretaceous) near Kem Kem, Morocco (and is yet another contribution from … Continue reading

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