Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A cystoid (Middle Ordovician of northeastern Estonia)

mwilson January 16, 2011 1:26 am

Fossils don’t get much more spherical than Echinosphaerites aurantium, an extinct creature common in the Early and Middle Ordovician of North America and Europe. These are cystoids, a somewhat informal category of filter-feeding, stalked echinoderms that are relatives of the … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A three-branched graptolite (Lower Ordovician of southeastern Australia)

mwilson January 9, 2011 2:22 am

This week I’m correcting a mistake I’ve been making in my paleontology courses for nearly thirty years. Our subject is a graptolite from the teaching collections — a specimen that has been at least cursorily examined by all of my … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: The tabulate coral Aulopora (Devonian of northwestern Ohio)

mwilson January 2, 2011 6:49 pm

We’re going to start 2011 with a new blog feature: Fossil of the Week! My colleagues, of course, are welcome to also start “Mineral of the Week”, “Structural Geologic Feature of the Week”, or “Climate Event of the Week”.  The … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists Pass Through Travel Hell

mwilson December 20, 2010 1:37 pm

I think the lowest moment was this morning as I stood in one of those long, snaking security lines in the Delta portion of Terminal 3 at JFK International Airport. The high ceiling has pigeon nests in it, and the … Continue reading →

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“The Heathrow Diversion”: Wooster Geologists unexpectedly in New York City

mwilson December 19, 2010 3:24 pm

FLUSHING, QUEENS, NEW YORK–It seemed like such a good plan months ago. My Senior Independent Study student Megan Innis and I worked this summer in the American South with Paul Taylor and Caroline Sogot, as documented in this blog. We … Continue reading →

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The paleontology of hiatus concretions: fossils without sediment

mwilson December 15, 2010 8:16 pm

Way back in 1984, when I was just a green Assistant Professor of Geology, my wife Gloria and I explored a series of Upper Ordovician (about 445 million years old) outcrops in northern Kentucky to plan a paleontology course field … Continue reading →

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Memories of warmer days…

mpollock December 2, 2010 7:09 pm

Now that the semester is winding down and the cold weather has set in, I find my mind wandering back to the beginning of the academic year. It seems like it was years ago, not months, that our Mineralogy class … Continue reading →

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A very volcanic tour of New Zealand’s North Island

mwilson December 1, 2010 4:47 pm

Our most distant Wooster Geologist this year, Andrew Collins, is now home from his semester abroad in New Zealand. He had many geological adventures, including that massive earthquake in Christchurch with its hundreds of aftershocks. Please visit his blog for … Continue reading →

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Trays of trilobites, buckets of belemnites ….

mwilson November 26, 2010 9:20 am

WOOSTER, OHIO — Last weekend we picked up another load of rocks, minerals and fossils donated by the family of one of our loyal alumni. We will be sorting through them for months getting them ready for displays and our … Continue reading →

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An Afternoon of Rocks and Minerals at Cornerstone Elementary

gwiles November 16, 2010 9:20 pm

Tuesday we had the pleasure to work with Mrs. Gaut’s and Ms Long’s (standing) third grade classes. Wooster Geology seniors Stephanie Jarvis and LaShawna Weeks taught 32 well-prepared students mineral and rock identification. LaShawna shows the group the fine art … Continue reading →

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