Tag Archives: Fossil of the Week

Wooster’s Fossil (and Mineral) of the Week: Marcasite worm burrows from Bolivia

Mark Wilson June 9, 2013 1:41 am

Here’s a type of fossil I’ve never seen: worm burrow casts made entirely of the mineral marcasite. These come from the George Chambers (’79) gift collection, so we know only that they were found in Bolivia. Despite the lack of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A shrimp from the Upper Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany

Mark Wilson June 2, 2013 1:18 am

The beautiful fossil shrimp above is Aeger tipularis (Schlotheim, 1822), and it comes from one of the most famous rock units: the Solnhofen Plattenkalk (Tithonian, Upper Jurassic) of Germany. (The Solnhofen is well known for its extraordinary fossils, including the … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Mackerel shark teeth from the Eocene of the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Mark Wilson May 26, 2013 1:30 am

This week we highlight another gift to the Wooster Geology Department from George Chambers (’79). Among the many fossils that arrived in three delightful boxes were these shark teeth. They are from the extinct Mackerel Shark Otodus obliquus Agassiz, 1843. … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An amphibian from the Permian of Germany

Mark Wilson May 19, 2013 1:41 am

The above skeleton is of the salamander-like Apateon pedestris von Meyer 1840 from the Lower Permian of Odernhelm, Germany. There are just enough of these tiny little bones to show the ghostly outline of this freshwater amphibian. It is our … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Embedded cornulitids from the Lower Silurian of Estonia

Mark Wilson May 12, 2013 1:57 am

At first specimen this looks like a series of holes drilled into a small, smooth substrate (like Trypanites), but then you notice that the substrate has grown up around the holes, and on the far left you can make out … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An asaphid trilobite from the Middle Ordovician of the Leningrad Region, Russia

Mark Wilson May 5, 2013 1:28 am

This weathered trilobite is nothing like the gorgeous specimens of this genus you can buy at various rock shops around the world and on the web, but it has sentimental value to me. I collected it on an epic field … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Tubular drillholes (Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati Region)

Mark Wilson April 28, 2013 1:59 am

This is one of the simplest fossils ever: a cylindrical hole drilled into a hard substrate like a skeleton or rock. The above image is of a hardground (cemented carbonate seafloor) from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky with these … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A pentamerid brachiopod from the Lower Silurian of New York

Mark Wilson April 21, 2013 1:19 am

Another brachiopod this week. This simple fossil is an internal mold of the brachiopod Pentamerus oblongus (J. de C. Sowerby, 1839). It was a very common and widespread taxon throughout North America and Europe in the Early Silurian. This particular … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A terebratulid brachiopod from the Middle Triassic of southern Israel

Mark Wilson April 14, 2013 1:19 am

Sure, I could have picked a pristine shell from our collection, but I like the rugged character of this one. It is the terebratulid brachiopod Coenothyris oweni Feldman, 2002, from the lower Saharonim Formation (Middle Triassic) of Har Devanim, southern … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A camerate crinoid from the Lower Carboniferous of north-central Ohio

Mark Wilson April 7, 2013 1:57 am

Visitors often bring rocks and fossils to the Geology Department for identification. We love to solve the puzzles (or at least make the attempt), and our new friends appreciate names and ages for their treasures. (Usually. We’ve disappointed more than … Continue reading →

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