Tag Archives: Ordovician

Starting work in the University of Tartu Natural History Museum

Tartu, Estonia — Today Bill Ausich and I began our work in the University of Tartu Natural History Museum. Our most knowledgeable and helpful host is chief geology curator Mare Isakar. This museum is just a short walk from our … Continue reading

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Wooster Geologists on Helvellyn

During the last two weeks of May, Dr. Alley and were in the UK.  Part of the experience involved complaining about the inadequate width of UK roads, but there was also some undeniably beautiful geology.  One such location was Helvellyn, … Continue reading

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New article: Paleoecology of an Upper Ordovician submarine cave-dwelling bryozoan fauna and its exposed equivalents in northern Kentucky, USA

I’m happy to link to an article on Ordovician bryozoans that has just appeared in the Journal of Paleontology: Paleoecology of an Upper Ordovician submarine cave-dwelling bryozoan fauna and its exposed equivalents in northern Kentucky, USA It is work Caroline … Continue reading

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A Wooster Paleontologist visits the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

Washington, DC — I have the privilege this semester of being on a research leave from teaching, so I thought I’d report on one of my activities. Without classroom responsibilities I can travel for research opportunities, especially now as the … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Encrusting cyanobacteria from the Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati region — now published

[This week’s post is a repeat from last year, with some modifications. The paper Paul Taylor and I wrote on these microbial beauties has just appeared this week in the latest issue of the journal Palaios. A pdf is yours … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: “Ghosts” in the Upper Ordovician of Kentucky

This year Caroline Buttler (Department of Natural Sciences, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales) and I had a great project describing a cave-dwelling fauna in the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky. We hope that work will appear soon in the … Continue reading

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Unknown fossils for the Invertebrate Paleontology class at Wooster

I start my Invertebrate Paleontology classes with an unknown fossil given to each student. I pick something I have enough examples of so that everyone gets the same species. As their first assignment, the students are asked to identify their … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A trilobite hypostome with an encrusting cyclostome bryozoan (Upper Ordovician of Kentucky)

A quick post this week. Above is a bit of a large isotelid trilobite my students and I found this past spring break on an expedition to the Upper Ordovician (Katian) of northern Kentucky. It was collected at a roadside outcrop … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A Biserial Graptolite (Middle Ordovician of Tennessee)

This week’s fossils are graptolites (from the Greek for written rocks) I found many years ago in the Lebanon Limestone near the town of Caney Springs south of Nashville, Tennessee. They are of the genus Amplexograptus and probably belong to … Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A slab of Upper Ordovician bivalves from northern Kentucky

Earlier this month, Luke Kosowatz, Matt Shearer and I went on a field trip through the Cincinnati region collecting Upper Ordovician (Katian) bryozoans and examples of bioerosion for their Independent Study projects and other investigations. I picked up the above … Continue reading

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