Tag Archives: fossils

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Orthid brachiopods from the Middle Devonian of New York

Mark Wilson August 29, 2014 1:14 am

On the first day of the Invertebrate Paleontology course at Wooster, I give all the students a fossil to identify as best they can. Everyone gets the same kind of specimen, and they can use any means to put as … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Remanié fossils in the Lower Cretaceous of south-central England

Mark Wilson August 22, 2014 1:55 am

The last two editions were about a bryozoan and borings from the Faringdon Sponge Gravels (Lower Cretaceous, Upper Aptian) of south-central England. This week we have some Jurassic fossils from the same unit. That sounds a bit daft at first … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Abundant borings in Early Cretaceous cobbles from south-central England

Mark Wilson August 15, 2014 1:37 am

Last week I described a cyclostome bryozoan on the outside of a quartz cobble from the Faringdon Sponge Gravels (Lower Cretaceous, Upper Aptian) of south-central England near the town of Faringdon. This week I’m featuring a variety of heavily-bored calcareous … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An Early Cretaceous cobble-dwelling bryozoan

Mark Wilson August 8, 2014 1:01 am

One of my formative experiences as a young paleontologist was working in the Faringdon Sponge Gravels (Lower Cretaceous, Upper Aptian) of south-central England while on my first research leave in 1985. (I was just a kid!) These gravels are extraordinarily … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: An Ordovician hardground with a bryozoan and borings — and an unexpected twist

Mark Wilson August 1, 2014 1:50 am

The view above, one quite familiar to me, is of a carbonate hardground from the Upper Ordovician Corryville Formation exposed near Washington, Mason County, Kentucky. We are looking directly at the bedding plane of this limestone. The lumpy, spotted fossil … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A faulted oyster ball from the Middle Jurassic of Utah

Mark Wilson July 25, 2014 1:23 am

I’m returning this week to one of my favorite fossil types: the ostreolith, popularly known as the “oyster ball”. These were lovingly described in a previous blog entry, so please click there to see how they were formed and some … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Silicified productid brachiopods from the Permian of West Texas

Mark Wilson July 18, 2014 1:14 am

The three beauties above are productid brachiopods from the Road Canyon Formation (Middle Permian, Roadian, approximately 270 million years old) in the Glass Mountains of southwestern Texas. They are part of a series we’ve done on the silicified fauna of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Silicified chonetid brachiopods from the Permian of West Texas

Mark Wilson July 11, 2014 1:57 am

Above are four valves of the chonetid brachiopod Dyoros planiextensus Cooper and Grant, 1975. They are preserved by silicification and were recovered from a block of the Road Canyon Formation (Roadian Stage of the Guadalupian Series of the Permian System) … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A barnacle and sponge symbiosis from the Middle Jurassic of Israel

Mark Wilson July 4, 2014 1:19 am

[Programing note: Wooster’s Fossil of the Week is now being released on Fridays to correspond with the popular Fossil Friday on Twitter and other platforms.] This week’s fossil is again from the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of southern Israel. … Continue reading →

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Last day of work at the Natural History Museum, and some special visitors

Mark Wilson June 25, 2014 4:14 pm

LONDON, ENGLAND — I know it is an acquired taste, and way too esoteric, but I think the above scanning electron micrograph is beautiful. This is an undescribed species of the cyclostome bryozoan Corynotrypa from the Upper Ordovician Bromide Formation … Continue reading →

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