Tag Archives: fossils

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Revisiting a pair of hyoliths from the Middle Ordovician of Estonia

Mark Wilson January 20, 2017 12:01 am

We met these modest internal molds of the mysterious hyoliths about five years ago. With a dramatic new development in hyolith studies, they are worth seeing again. These fossils are internal molds (the sediment that filled the shell) of of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: New review paper on architectural design of trace fossils

Mark Wilson January 13, 2017 12:01 am

Last year my friend Luis Buatois led a massive project to review essentially all trace fossil invertebrate ichnogenera (523!) to place them in a series architectural design categories (79). This is a new way to assess patterns of ichnodisparity (variability … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Upper Ordovician brachiopods and bryozoans from paleontology class collections

Mark Wilson January 6, 2017 12:01 am

Last semester the Invertebrate Paleontology class at Wooster had its annual field trip into the Upper Ordovician of southern Ohio. We had a great, if a bit muddy, time collecting fossils for each student’s semester-long project preparing, identifying, and interpreting … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Ordovician bioerosion trace fossils

Mark Wilson December 9, 2016 12:01 am

This week’s post is a celebration of the appearance of a remarkable two-volume work on trace fossils and evolution. The editors and major authors are my friends Gabriela Mángano and Luis Buatois (University of Saskatchewan). They are extraordinary geologists, paleontologists … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A juvenile conch from the Upper Pleistocene (Eemian) of The Bahamas

Mark Wilson November 18, 2016 12:01 am

I collected this beautiful shell from a seashore exposure of Pleistocene sediments on Great Inagua, the third largest island of The Bahamas. I was on an epic expedition to this bit of paradise with Al Curran and Brian White of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Demosponge borings in a muricid gastropod from Florida

Mark Wilson November 4, 2016 12:01 am

Technically these are “subfossils” since this appears to be an old shell still within the Holocene, although it is possibly eroded out of Pleistocene sediments and then redeposited on a Florida beach. It is a muricid snail eroded enough to … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A naticid gastropod from the Pliocene of southern California

Mark Wilson October 28, 2016 12:01 am

This week’s fossil comes from our teaching collection. It’s label appears to be from the late 19th Century. It is a naticid gastropod (“moon snail“) listed as Polinices galianor. That name, which I can only find in two lists and … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Pseudofossils of the Week: Artifacts in thin-sections of Ordovician limestones from southeastern Minnesota

Mark Wilson October 21, 2016 12:01 am

It is always exciting to a geologist when thin-sections of curious rocks are completed and ready for view. A thin-section is a wafer of rock (30 microns thick) glues to a glass slide and examined by transmitted light through a … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Spiriferinid brachiopod from the Lower Carboniferous of Ohio

Mark Wilson October 14, 2016 12:01 am

Sometimes I choose a Fossil of the Week from our Invertebrate Paleontology teaching collection because students have responded to it in some way. This week’s fossil brachiopod has confused my students a bit because it is an internal mold (unusual … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Upper Ordovician strophomenid brachiopods from Iowa

Mark Wilson October 7, 2016 12:01 am

Since we are covering brachiopods in my paleontology course this week, I’ve chosen a very recognizable genus from the Upper Ordovician of Iowa for our Fossil of the Week. This wrinkly strophomenid brachiopod is of the genus Leptaena Dalman, 1828. … Continue reading →

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