Tag Archives: Italy

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A Pleistocene octocoral holdfast from Sicily

Mark Wilson February 6, 2015 1:17 am

My Italian colleague Agostina Vertino collected this beautiful specimen from the Pleistocene of Sicily and brought it to Wooster when she visited five years ago. It is the attaching base (holdfast) of the octocoral Keratoisis peloritana (Sequenza 1864). Octocorals (Subclass … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Bits of a bamboo coral from the Lower Pleistocene of Sicily

Mark Wilson October 27, 2013 1:09 am

Earlier this summer I participated on a pre-conference field trip of the International Bryozoology Association throughout Sicily. We had an excellent time and saw many wondrous things. At one stop on the western side of the Milazzo Peninsula in the … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: An ancient predator/prey system from the Lower Pleistocene of Sicily

Mark Wilson September 15, 2013 1:07 am

The above fossils were collected from a Lower Pleistocene silty marl exposed near the Megara archaeological site east of Augusta, Sicily, Italy. I was on that epic International Bryozoology Association field trip this summer I’ve been blogging about. The shells … Continue reading →

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

Mark Wilson August 18, 2013 1:29 am

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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The 16th Conference of the International Bryozoology Association

Mark Wilson June 17, 2013 1:33 am

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–The IBA meeting has now ended and, as this is posted, I should be winging my way home across the Atlantic. It was a fantastic experience. This is a unique organization, of which I’m now proud to be … Continue reading →

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Return to Mount Etna

Mark Wilson June 16, 2013 11:42 pm

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–The very last field trip stop — and final event — of the International Bryozoology Association Conference was a trip to the south side of Mount Etna. We drove to a spot that had significant activity in 2000 … Continue reading →

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Limestones, basalts, the wine-dark sea and the brooding volcano

Mark Wilson June 16, 2013 3:51 pm

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–Today we had our last field trip associated with the 2013 International Bryozoology Conference. We traveled to the east coast of Sicily at Castelluccio, which is south of Catania and north of Syracuse. The weather could not have … Continue reading →

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A visit to ancient Syracuse

Mark Wilson June 12, 2013 11:51 pm

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–One of the treats of many small scientific meetings, like the International Bryozoology Association conference I am attending now, is that we can have a variety of short field trips for all participants. Today we packed into two … Continue reading →

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Sediments, fossils and vistas at the Capo Milazzo Peninsula, Sicily

Mark Wilson June 9, 2013 1:51 pm

CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY–This was the last day of our International Bryozoology Association pre-conference field trip through Sicily. We had an excellent time and covered an extraordinary amount of territory on this large Mediterranean island. We started our final day on … Continue reading →

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Return to the Pliocene at Altavilla Milicia, Sicily

Mark Wilson June 8, 2013 11:58 pm

Our last stop of the day on the IBA field trip was to a classic fossil locality on the north coast of Sicily about an hour east of Palermo. These are fine sandstones and marls preserving a diverse array of … Continue reading →

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