Last work of Team Israel, Matmor Division

Team Israel 050514WOOSTER, OHIO–Steph Bosch (’14) and Lizzie Reinthal (’14) volunteered to examine the Matmor Formation fossils I collected last month in Israel. Each fossil, most of which are crinoid ossicles, must be scanned under a microscope for tiny encrusters (especially bryozoans), borings, and bite marks. In the image above you can see the collection bags on the left and our three ‘scopes arranged so that we can exchange interesting bits that we find. I had planned to do this work all by my lonesome, and it would have taken a full day. With Steph and Lizzie, though, we were done in an hour and a half. No wonder — they’ve spent the last year doing this kind of analysis!

Israel specimens 050514And here are the results. Each paper tray has a particular category of fossil from a specific location. We found many little (and I mean little) treasures that my future students and I can now study. I’m grateful for the expert help.

Team Israel 2013 will be graduated a week from today. Congratulations to them!

About Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is a Professor of Geology at The College of Wooster. He specializes in invertebrate paleontology, carbonate sedimentology, and stratigraphy. He also is an expert on pseudoscience, especially creationism.
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