Meet two new Ordovician fossil species from Estonia — a cover story

Mark Wilson January 28, 2024 10:07 am

The conical fossil above on the cover of the latest issue of Palaeoworld is the paratype of Conchicolites parcecostatis, a new Ordovician (Katian) cornulitid species from the Korgesaare Formation, Sutlema quarry, Estonia. It is tiny, only about two millimeters long. This species, and another new one below, are now formally described and assessed by Vinn et al. (2024). I’m proud to have been on Olev Vinn‘s team for this project, which also included Ursula Toom (Tallinn University of Technology) and Anna Madison (Russian Academy of Sciences).

Above is the paratype of the other new cornulitid species from the same location: Conchicolites sutlemaensis.

The fossils in the Korgesaare Formation of Estonia are diverse and have abundant small cornulitids representing at least a half-dozen species of the genus Conchicolites. This group, the smallest of the cornulitids, appears to have been adapted to soft, muddy seafloors, unlike most other cornulitids that are found attached to hard surfaces such as those of carbonate shells and hardgrounds. These new fossils are thus further documentation of an evolutionary trend towards diverse substrates among the cornulitids in the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE).

Cornulitids, for all their ubiquity in the Lower to Middle Paleozoic, are still phylogenetically mysterious. We don’t yet know their larger evolutionary history, so we can’t definitively place them in any particular phylum yet. They seem most likely related to the microconchids and tentaculitids, which are themselves difficult to place. Cornulitids went extinct in the Carboniferous and apparently left us no living descendants to study.

So, these unassuming little critters have their roles to play in life’s history as they present us with new mysteries to solve. Welcome to the world of named taxa, Conchicolites parcecostatis and Conchicolites sutlemaensis!

Reference:

Vinn, O., Wilson, M.A., Madison, A. and Toom, U. 2024. Small cornulitids from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) of Estonia. Palaeoworld 33: 57-64 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2022.12.005).

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Two new Upper Ordovician bryozoan papers appeared this week

Mark Wilson December 14, 2023 11:33 am

Readers of this blog will remember Kate Runciman, a 2022 graduate of The College of Wooster and now a graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Her Independent Study thesis (after peer review and revisions) has now been published in a conference volume from the 2022 meeting of the International Bryozoology Association (Runciman et al., 2023). She studied growth patterns within large trepostome bryozoan skeletons from the Cincinnati, Ohio, region. They are from various units in the exposed Upper Ordovician (Katian) rocks.

The images above are from acetate peels, with the scale bars equal to 0.50 mm. Figure A shows zooids that grew laterally over a cavity opening, sealing it off with a flat “roof” (C/W-152-2; Amplexopora (?) filiasa). Figure B shows zooids that budded down into a cavity and then angled upwards (C/W-152-1; Amplexopora robusta).

In this new paper, Kate and her colleagues explore the paleoecology of trepostome bryozoans and the various organisms that interacted with them on the Ordovician seafloor. They cover topics from borings, bioclaustrations and parasites to self-overgrowths, brown bodies and “ghosts” of boring inhabitants.

The second paper in the same volume is from a project led by our friend and colleague Caroline Buttler, who is based in the Department of Natural Sciences, Museum Wales, Cardiff. She led a team using non-destructive 3D imaging technology to explore skeletal details of Paleozoic palaeostome bryozoans. The results are spectacular (Buttler et al., 2023). The images obtained by X-ray Micro Computed Tomography (X-ray μCT) and Microscopy (XRM) are have exquisite details.

The images above show the silicified fenestrate bryozoan Oeciophylloporina in 3-D (A) and a “digital thin section” (B). Amazing detail. The specimen is from the Lower Silurian (Aeronian) of the Derenjal Mountains in central Iran.

Another example of the application of this X-ray μCT (the part I was directly involved in) was to look at the internal features of borings in hemispherical calcitic trepostome bryozoans. The above images show a bryozoan from the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian) of Estonia (C/W-231-1). In A the borings are shown in transverse section; in B the segmentation of the borings with the rest of colony are made digitally transparent. We’ve just started to explore what these tomography techniques can tell us about the development of these borings, their possible inhabitants, and how the bryozoans responded to them.

Fossil bryozoology advances!

References Cited

Buttler, C.J., Mitchell, R.L., Wilson, M.A. and Johnston, R.E. 2023. Applications for x-ray tomography/microscopy of Palaeozoic palaeostome bryozoans, p. 1–8. In: Key, M.M., Jr., Porter, J.S. and Wyse Jackson, P.N. (eds) Bryozoan Studies 2022. CRC Press/Balkema, Abingdon and Boca Raton.

Runciman, K.M., Wilson, M.A., Buttler, C.J. and Judge, S.A. 2023. Colony repair strategies in large trepostome bryozoans from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) of the Cincinnati region, USA, p. 105–111. In: Key, M.M., Jr., Porter, J.S. and Wyse Jackson, P.N. (eds) Bryozoan Studies 2022. CRC Press/Balkema, Abingdon and Boca Raton.

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Paleoecology class at Wooster finishes the semester in great style

Mark Wilson November 30, 2023 4:42 pm

I was very fortunate this semester to have such a fine class of paleoecologists. This course broadly covers the Earth’s ecological history, so it consists of principles, theories and processes illuminated with case studies, all strung along the thread of geological time. I thus depend on the students to bring in lots of questions and their own research on special topics. This class was brilliant with thee happy tasks. Part of the charm was how many disciplinary majors were represented, from the Earth Sciences through Archaeology and Biology. The above class photo was taken at the end of our last class, which was devoted to student research presentations.

We also had the final lab session in the afternoon. We had many lab projects, but the most challenging has been our analyses of the Upper Ordovician fossils we collected in the first week of classes.

Here is one of the student trays near completion of preparation, identification and labeling.

And our delightful (and very quiet) class mascot was Feather, the companion and service dog for Elise. He is so well trained that there were days I didn’t even know he was present!

A delightful class. I miss them already.

Editor’s addition: Turns out this was my last Paleoecology class. I’m retiring from the College in August 2024. It was a great run of paleo teaching for me — 43 years!

 

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An Exciting Trip to Tour Unconventional Oil and Gas Wells

Rebecca Matecha November 10, 2023 4:30 pm

This semester’s Geology of Energy Resources course, which focuses on how fossil fuels form, are extracted, and are used, had the opportunity to visit two unconventional oil and gas wells run by Ascent Resources located in southeastern Ohio this week. While most people in the Appalachian Basin think of the Marcellus Shale when it comes to natural gas, this area of Ohio targets the underlying Upper Ordovician Utica Shale.

The trip started with an early morning drive from Wooster down to Salesville Ohio, to visit an unconventional well that was in the final stages of the drilling process. As the vans neared the location the top of a tall metal structure was visible over the trees and an excited murmuring amongst the students began. As the vans pulled up to the gate the group was surprised to see towering walls surrounding the well pad with the top of the drill rig just visible.

After a warm greeting by our hosts each person was outfitted with their own PPE including the ever-stylish blue fire-resistant coveralls, hard hats, and safety glasses (as seen in the first picture and the photo below) and given a safety briefing. What was originally planned as a one-hour tour of this well quickly turned into an almost two-hour tour as there was so much to see and learn, and all the employees even while working were eager to explain and show the students each component of the well drilling process. Students learned that the walls were to block the sound of the drilling process which continues 24/7 until the well is drilled which takes 1-2 weeks from start to finish. Guides walked the group through each stage of the drilling process allowing the students to touch and see the drill pipe, well casings, drill bits, and more. All the while the rig was pulling up drill pipe piece by piece with a rumbling whirr, dropping it into the guiding rails with a loud clang before it was transported to pallets ready to be moved to the next drill site. The group even got to go up onto the derrick of the drill rig and watch the drill pipe being removed from the well up close, which is a very muddy process. By the end of the tour there were no clean shoes (as shown above), but everyone was in great spirits and were eager to see the next well pad.

A short drive later the group arrived at the second well pad which contained four actively producing well heads. This location was in sharp juxtaposition to the loud, crowded, muddy, and constantly moving drilling site. Here there was a solid layer of coarse gravel and distinct areas with machinery and pipes with large spaces in between for vehicles to pass through and little to no mud, though the smell of off gassing from the compressors carried on the air. The no less enthusiastic tour guides at this location walked the group through the plethora of safety measures present at the well pad to ensure worker health, but also protect the environment. Students followed the process from the well heads where the oil and gas exit the well, through the 3-phase separator which isolates oil, gas, and water, to the pipeline which carries the gas to processing facilities, and finally to compressors and storage tanks for the oil. As the temperature began to drop toward the end of the tour and stomachs began grumbling, the tour wrapped up.

Despite the chilly temperature, the group enjoyed a late picnic lunch at Salt Fork State Park, along the shores of Salt Fork Lake. Even as everyone dug into their lunch the discussion was on everything they had seen and heard throughout the day. Finally, everyone hopped back in the vans to warm up and drive back to campus. The discussions continued during the first part of the drive until students began to doze off from the combination of an early morning, exciting but busy day, and the cold weather with a warm car.

Students will be writing a report about the trip and will also be using the information they gained in a class debate regarding the potential pros and cons of oil and gas wells.

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A delightful little field trip in Ohio with a Polish-American team

Mark Wilson October 23, 2023 10:21 am

Today was astonishingly beautiful in Ohio: bright blue skies and the peak of fall leaf colors. By happy circumstance, I had three Polish paleontologist friends visiting Wooster after the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh last week. Greg Wiles very generously drove us down to Caesar Creek State Park for a few hours of fossil collecting from Ordovician exposures in the emergency spillway of the lake. From the left the team consisted of Greg Wiles, me, Jakub Słowiński, and Michał Zatoń, the latter two from the Department of Palaeontology & Stratigraphy, University of Silesia. Tomek Zatoń took the photograph.

We’ve recorded this locality many times in this blog. I just want to record this trip and show the best fossil find of the day. Above is part of the cephalon of the large trilobite Isotelus maximus. Michał found it in the float on the spillway floor.

Again, wonderful day. Thank you Greg Wiles for your participation and driving. And thanks to my Polish friends for making this field trip possible on a sunny Monday.

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Freshwater sponge and diatom team presents at the annual Geological Society of America meeting in Pittsburgh

Mark Wilson October 18, 2023 10:45 pm

This summer Garrett Robertson and Minnie Pozefsky performed superb research on the sponges and diatoms in a core from Brown’s Lake near Shreve, Ohio. Their project is summarized here. Today Garrett presented their work, along with others on the NSF-funded team, at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Garrett is pictured above with the poster. (Thanks, Greg Wiles, for the image!)

Minnie Pozeksky, shown above, specialized in the diatoms, mastering their taxonomy, paleoecology, and statistical distribution. She is now a first-year student at Williams College. Garrett is finishing his Senior Independent Study at Wooster on the sponges this year.

In this photomicrograph, one of Garrett’s sponge spicules is above, and one of Minnie’s diatoms is below.

Garrett and Minnie were a fun, creative and very productive team to work with. Their work will continue as we add to it over the next summer.

Wooster was very well represented at this GSA meeting by faculty, students and alumni. We have a proud tradition of mentored research at Wooster. At meetings like this, where our current students converse with our alumni, we see the compounding value of this research over the years.

Reference:

Robertson, G.R.*, Pozefsky, M.E.*, Wilson, M.A., Wiles, G.C., Wiesenberg, N., Lowell, T.V., Diefendorf, A.F. and Corcoran, M. 2023. Preliminary analysis and paleoenvironmental assessment of the sponges and diatoms preserved in a Late Holocene to Recent sediment core from Brown’s Lake, Wayne County, Ohio. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, vol. 55, no. 6, doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-392825.

 

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The distinguished paleontologist Dr. Julia Clarke visits Wooster’s Earth Sciences department.

Mark Wilson October 13, 2023 11:54 am

The distinguished paleontologist Dr. Julia Clarke visited our Paleoecology lab in Wooster yesterday. She was there as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. She was wonderful with her several fascinating talks and many interactions with our students. Everybody is happy in this picture for a reason. A very high point for Wooster paleontology and the other Earth sciences. Thank you Emily Armour for this image!

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Work continues on our Ordovician paleoecology project

Mark Wilson October 11, 2023 3:38 pm

The Fall 2023 Paleoecology class is continuing to work on its Upper Ordovician fossil collections from our field trip at the beginning of the semester. Part of the class is shown above sorting their specimens and identifying them as precisely as possible. The other class members are in the basement with the rock saw and grinders. It’s a real-world experience including preservation and taphonomy issues with the vagaries of some taxonomies. The students took ownership of the joys and dilemmas of paleontology from that first field day.

Here are two trays in progress. Students are now using scraps of paper to record their observations and identifications. Later we will use more formal labels.

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A Wooster Geologist visits Fallingwater, southwestern Pennsylvania

Mark Wilson October 1, 2023 7:29 pm

While on our short Fall Break vacation in Pennsylvania, my wife, daughter and I visited the iconic Fallingwater. It must be one of the best known family houses short of Windsor Castle. Fallingwater is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is on the US National Register of Historic Places. It was built 1936-1939 following the modernist designs of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It is situated within the beautiful Laurel Highlands near Fort Ligonier in the previous post. The weather was perfect.

I certainly can’t say much about the architecture and engineering (which are equally impressive), but I can note that the stones used in the house were quarried just down stream and are carefully used to reflect the stratigraphy of this little valley.

The local rock is a sandstone from the Pottsville Group (Upper Carboniferous), which is nearly level in this part of its exposure.

We didn’t go inside, but I got this one view through a window of the furnishings and open architecture. Mid-Century Modern, I heard this style called. A little too open for me, but then you’d never find me living in a house so completely surrounded by trees with a river flowing through it!

The “plunge pool” under the house catches the “falling water” from Bear Run. It produces a dramatic rumble through the house. The geologist in me, though, is a bit disappointed with the engineered outcrop — lots of vertical and horizontal surfaces. I suppose the flow must be carefully managed, though, because there’s a house built on top of it!

Fallingwater is worth the visit, even if it is just a walk around it in the woods.

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Wooster Geologist at Fort Ligonier, Pennsylvania: Choosing your ground geologically

Mark Wilson September 30, 2023 8:24 pm

This afternoon, the first day of Fall Break at The College of Wooster, my family began a weekend excursion to southern Pennsylvania — our first vacation since the pandemic. We first visited one of my favorite reconstructed frontier outposts: Fort Ligonier. I was here eleven years ago and wrote a blog post about it. It was again so interesting that I’m updating that older post here.

Fort Ligonier was built by the British in 1758 during the French and Indian War (or Seven Years’ War) along the Loyalhanna River in what is now Westmoreland County of southwestern Pennsylvania. It is a spectacular site today with a fully reconstructed fortification and an excellent museum. It gives us a chance to see how a military engineer used the local geology to build a successful fort in a difficult terrain.

One of several internal fortified gates.

Headquarters buildings.

 

One of the many brass cannons guarding the fort perimeter.

 

The purpose of Fort Ligonier was to serve as the forward base for the capture of the French Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio River. This was the most strategic site on the western frontier. The French and their Indian allies desperately wanted to preempt this attack by destroying the advancing British columns in the woods before they could assemble. The British and American colonists needed a robust road through the wilderness approaching Fort Duquesne, along with defensible strongholds. Fort Ligonier was the most critical of these positions, then, for both sides.
You would expect a fort to be built on the highest ground, yet Fort Ligonier is in a valley surrounded by commanding heights. The British knew, though, that the French and Indians did not have significant artillery in this theater. They could give up the heights so that they could use the Loyalhanna River as a defensible barrier against the inevitable infantry attacks. The site of Fort Ligonier also has small ravines on its other sides, forming a kind of moat. Most importantly, sandstone cliffs on the river side provide an unbreachable wall and an overview of the most likely approaches to the fort by the enemy. The British placed their largest cannon at the top of this cliff, surrounding them with an elaborate wooden stockade and sharpened obstacles.

A storage room in the fort for various foodstuffs.

The exposed rock of the Fort Ligonier cliffs is the Casselman Formation, a Late Carboniferous (about 300 million years old) mixture of shale, siltstone, sandstone and occasional coal beds. The particular unit here is a fine micaceous sandstone with cross-bedding. It was formed in an ancient river system. The cross-bedding and abundance of mica is a clue to this environment: the cross-bedding shows high-energy seasonal flooding; the mica flakes (the white grains seen below) show ebbs in water energy to near zero.
The French and Indians attacked Fort Ligonier on October 12, 1758, and very nearly took it. The British artillery sited on the sandstone cliffs was the deciding factor, though, and the besiegers retreated. Fort Ligonier swelled in population as British troops assembled for the attack on Fort Duquesne. In fact, in November 1758 it was the second largest city in Pennsylvania! (Among the British forces was the young George Washington.) The French saw the score and retreated from Fort Duquesne. The British captured this most strategic location and renamed the site “Pittsburgh”. Building and defending Fort Ligonier was key to this victory. By March 1766 the fort had served its purpose and was decommissioned.

References:

Fowler, W.M., Jr. 2005. Empires at War: The French and Indian War and the Struggle for North America, 1754–1763. Walker & Company, 360 pages.

Sipe, H.C. 1971. Fort Ligonier and Its Times. Ayer Company Publishers, 699 pages.

Stotz, C.M. 2005. Outposts of the War for Empire: The French and English in Western Pennsylvania: Their Armies, Their Forts, Their People, 1749-1764. University of Pittsburgh Press, 260 pages.

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