Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A silicified rhynchonellid brachiopod from the Permian of West Texas

Mark Wilson June 22, 2014 1:01 am

Sometimes fossils can be more useful when broken than whole. Above is a much-abused rhynchonellid brachiopod from the Road Canyon Formation (Middle Permian, Roadian, about 270 million years old) found in the Glass Mountains of southwestern Texas. It is part … Continue reading →

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A Nazi hiding hole in Middle Triassic rocks (Będzin, Poland)

Mark Wilson June 20, 2014 4:27 pm

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — On my last full day in Poland, Michał Zatoń and his family took me on a tour of the city they live in and where my hotel is located: Będzin. The history of this place is very long, … Continue reading →

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Castles in Poland I expect, but a desert?

Mark Wilson June 19, 2014 4:03 pm

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — Today my colleague Michał Zatoń took me and his family (wife Aneta and son Tomasz) on a tour of the Polish Jura, an upland with spectacular exposures of Jurassic rocks and the castles who love them. Above is … Continue reading →

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The Gleiwitz Incident completes the grim prologue

Mark Wilson June 18, 2014 11:44 pm

(It is the nature of this blog that our most recent entries are at the top, making it a bit awkward to read what is here the third part of a trilogy of posts today. You might want to start … Continue reading →

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Geology and nationalism at Góra Świętej Anny

Mark Wilson June 18, 2014 10:25 pm

Geology, of course, is so much our fundamental basis for being that we rarely think about it. Occasionally, though, particular geological circumstances play direct roles in history. Today as I was visiting Góra Świętej Anny with my geologist friends I … Continue reading →

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The Triassic limestones at Góra Świętej Anny, Poland

Mark Wilson June 18, 2014 2:27 pm

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — My friends Michał Zatoń and Tomasz Borszcz took me on a very pleasant day trip to Góra Świętej Anny in southwestern Poland about an hour’s drive northwest from Sosnowiec. This is a place of considerable geological and … Continue reading →

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A new Polish colleague (and cool dinosaur model)

Mark Wilson June 17, 2014 12:57 pm

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — The above full-scale model of Tyrannosaurus rex is one of my favorite dinosaur reconstructions. It sits in front of the Earth Sciences Building at the University of Silesia. Since it is outside the lighting is always dramatic, … Continue reading →

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Research begins in southern Poland

Mark Wilson June 16, 2014 4:49 pm

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — On this beautiful day I began research at the University of Silesia with Michał Zatoń and Tomasz Borszcz in this impressive building. (It is reportedly the tallest Earth Science building in the world, although the Chinese are on … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A geopetal structure in a boring from the Middle Jurassic of Israel

Mark Wilson June 15, 2014 1:25 am

We have a very simple trace and body fossil combination this week that provides a stratigraphic and structural geologic tool. Above is a bit of scleractinian coral from the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of Makhtesh Gadol in southern Israel. … Continue reading →

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Science fluorishes even on long train trips

Mark Wilson June 15, 2014 1:12 am

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — Today my friend and colleague Tomasz Borszcz and I had a ten-hour train trip from Sopot to Sosnowiec in southern Poland. Our destination was the University of Silesia to meet with Michał Zatoń for research. I didn’t see … Continue reading →

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