Wooster Geologists

Wooster's first dinosaur! (Well … maybe.)

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — This morning while collecting fossils in the Zihor Formation (Upper Cretaceous) we found the above bones and several other smaller fragments.  They are reptile bones as shown by their density and configuration.  The shape of the larger piece looks dinosaurian to me, but it may be wishful thinking.  We will turn them over to the Survey and park authorities, along with their exact location coordinates, so that maybe later a vertebrate paleontologist will examine them and explore the site further.  Dinosaurs are very rare in the Middle East so this could be a good story someday.  In any case, it was fun being vertebrate paleontologists for awhile!

UPDATE: Mosasaur bones, it turns out. Just as cool, I say.

Micah Risacher collecting fossils at one of our northern study sections in Wadi Aqrav. He is gathering fossils from the Zichor Formation (Late Cretaceous). Coordinates: N30° 33.741', E34° 38.926'.

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — Another day of learning Upper Cretaceous stratigraphy from Yoav Avni of the Geological Survey of Israel, this time in the north of our field area.  Just as last month in Mississippi and Alabama, we deployed the classic paleontological technique of sitting in one place in the sun and filling little bags with tiny treasures.

One of our primary goals for this project is to sort out the depositional environments for the Upper Cretaceous units formed near the developing monocline which will become Makhtesh Ramon.  We want to test the competing ideas that the sediments of the Menuha Formation were deposited in either very shallow or very deep water.  Today Yoav found a bedding plane of cobbles in place at the base of the Menuha.  They look like they were on the bottom of a tidal pool after the water was drained.  The cobbles are heavily bored by bivalves and worms, almost entirely on their tops.  I taught Yoav the American term “slam-dunk” when it comes to supporting the shallow water hypothesis.

Bed of cobbles at the base of the Menuha Formation. Micah in the background.

A closer view of the cobbles showing that they were bored by shallow water organisms which produced the trace fossils Gastrochaenolites and Trypanites.

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — Could the contrast be any more dramatic than when comparing the Wooster Alaska expedition images on this blog to those here from the Wooster Israel team?  Alaska looks so very green, cold and wet from here!

Two Wooster geology seniors in very different places this week. Andrew Retzler (left) is enjoying some respite from the blazing sun in southern Israel; Stephanie Jarvis (right) is cooking soup on the ice in Alaska. These two students have known each other well since they were both in Hayden Schilling's First Year Seminar course three years ago.

Today we explored what we call the “Southern Section” of the Menuha Formation (Late Cretaceous) south of Makhtesh Ramon.  The structure here is as complex as I’ve ever worked with, from overturned beds to limestone dikes.  (Yes, petrologists — limestone dikes.)  We found plenty of shark teeth for Andrew and Stuart’s projects, and through our friend Yoav Avni had an excellent introduction to the complex stratigraphy.  Way complex stratigraphy.

Walking along the base of the Menuha Formation south of Makhtesh Ramon.

The trace fossil Thalassinoides near the middle of the Menuha Formation. This structure may prove important for sorting out the depositional environment of these beds.

Shark teeth recently found by Andrew in the Menuha Formation. The one on the left was from today's work; the one on the right from yesterday.