Tag Archives: fossils

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A puzzle for my paleo students!

mwilson August 26, 2016 12:01 am

Every year I start my Invertebrate Paleontology course by giving every student an “unknown” fossil to identify. (Here is last year’s version.) This is not always easy since each student gets the same species from the same horizon and with … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Another molluscan assemblage from the Miocene of Maryland (side two)

mwilson August 19, 2016 12:01 am

Last month we featured a fossil slab kindly donated by Dale Chadwick of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Dale is an enthusiastic fossil collector with a very useful website for his favorite sites and specimens. I promised to show the other side of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Trepostome bryozoans, burrow systems, and bedding features in an Upper Ordovician limestone from southeastern Minnesota

mwilson August 12, 2016 12:01 am

One of the little mysteries on the recent Minnesota research trip by Wooster students, faculty and staff is the origin of thin limestone beds in the middle of the thick shales of the Decorah Formation (Upper Ordovician). How did such … Continue reading →

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

mwilson August 5, 2016 12:01 am

This week’s specimen comes from one of my favorite fossiliferous units: the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of Makhtesh Gadol in southern Israel. I’ve been delighted by the fossils and lithologies of the Matmor since 2003. This particular fossil is … Continue reading →

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A wet cave and the Mighty Mississippi River

mwilson August 1, 2016 8:01 am

Rochester, Minnesota — Since Team Minnesota efficiently finished its fieldwork yesterday, we have two days before the students fly out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The good weather has given us a gift of time, so we’re using it like … Continue reading →

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Team Minnesota finishes its work (in Iowa, funny enough)

mwilson July 31, 2016 7:31 am

Rochester, Minnesota — We returned to Decorah, Iowa, today to measure and sample the Decorah Shale (Upper Ordovician) in its type locality. It was much drier here than on our last attempt! Above is the gray Decorah Shale topped by … Continue reading →

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Paleontological fieldwork in southeastern Minnesota

mwilson July 30, 2016 7:30 am

Rochester, Minnesota — It was a good day for fossil collecting on the Minnesota prairie. Above you see a handful of articulated orthid brachiopods collected by Nikki Bell at a quarry exposure near Rochester. This quarry has long been abandoned … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A new Late Ordovician bryozoan from Oklahoma

mwilson July 29, 2016 12:01 am

I am very pleased to introduce a new bryozoan genus and species recently described in the First View section of the Journal of Paleontology. Paul Taylor (Natural History Museum, London) and I present: “A new runner-like cyclostome bryozoan from the … Continue reading →

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Team Minnesota visits the Upper Ordovician of Iowa

mwilson July 27, 2016 7:27 am

Rochester, Minnesota — Team Minnesota traveled south today to visit exposures of our three favorite formations: the Platteville Limestone, Decorah Shale, and Cummingsville Limestone. Where best to see the Decorah Shale than in Decorah, Iowa? Above the crew is scattered … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A bored rhynchonellid brachiopod from the Middle Jurassic of France

mwilson July 22, 2016 12:01 am

Another beautiful brachiopod this week from our friend Mr. Clive Champion in England. His donations to our collections have considerably enriched our teaching program, especially for brachiopods! This specimen is the rhynchonellid Kutchirhynchia morieri (Davidson, 1852) from the Middle Jurassic … Continue reading →

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