Tag Archives: Carboniferous

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A camerate crinoid from the Lower Carboniferous of north-central Ohio

Mark Wilson April 7, 2013 1:57 am

Visitors often bring rocks and fossils to the Geology Department for identification. We love to solve the puzzles (or at least make the attempt), and our new friends appreciate names and ages for their treasures. (Usually. We’ve disappointed more than … Continue reading →

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The field trip scout

Mark Wilson March 30, 2013 7:23 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–One of the early spring pleasures of a geologist in the Upper Midwest is finally getting outside and scouting the field trips for the semester. Today we had bright sun and temperatures in the 50s (I know — I’m … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A twisty trace fossil (Lower Carboniferous of northern Kentucky)

Mark Wilson January 27, 2013 1:58 am

My Invertebrate Paleontology students know this as Specimen #8 in the trace fossil exercises section: “the big swirly thing”. It is a representative of the ichnogenus Zoophycos Massalongo, 1855. This trace is well known to paleontologists and sedimentologists alike — … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Beautiful molds on a concretion (Lower Carboniferous of Ohio)

Mark Wilson September 30, 2012 1:41 am

Kit Price (’13) was exploring a local creek on a Geomorphology course field trip north of Wooster led by Dr. Greg Wiles. Like the excellent paleontologist Kit is, her eyes continually searched the pebbles, cobbles, slabs and outcrops for that … Continue reading →

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A pleasant and productive geological walk in the woods

Mark Wilson August 1, 2012 11:07 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–One of the best parts of my job is answering questions from the public about rocks and fossils. Now that I’m Secretary of the Paleontological Society, I get queries every day about something or other. (And since my brief … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: fusulinids (Upper Carboniferous of Kansas)

Mark Wilson July 8, 2012 12:24 am

They look like little footballs, at least the American variety of football. Fusulinids (the name indicating the fusiform shape) are about the size and shape of wheat grains. They were marine protists (single-celled eucaryotes) that lived from the late Early … Continue reading →

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Now this is field trip weather

Mark Wilson May 1, 2012 3:30 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–It is now difficult to believe that we were measuring stratigraphic sections in a sleety thunderstorm on Saturday. Today the Tuesday lab of my Sedimentology & Stratigraphy course visited a local outcrop of the Logan Formation (Lower Carboniferous) to … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A scale tree root in its own soil (Upper Carboniferous of Ohio)

Mark Wilson April 15, 2012 1:48 am

Last week a local man, Larry Stauffer, brought in the above fossil for identification and then kindly donated it to the department. It is part of the root system of Lepidodendron, the “scale tree” of the Carboniferous Period. What is … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A spiriferinid brachiopod (Logan Formation, Lower Carboniferous, Ohio)

Mark Wilson April 1, 2012 1:59 am

This brachiopod is one of the most common in the Logan Formation of Wooster, Ohio, so our students know it well from outcrops in Spangler Park and the occasional excavations in town. Four specimens of Syringothyris Winchell 1863 are visible … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A syringoporid coral (Lower Carboniferous of Arkansas)

Mark Wilson January 22, 2012 1:24 am

This specimen was collected from the Boone Limestone (Lower Carboniferous) near Hiwasse, Arkansas. It is a species of Syringopora Goldfuss 1826, sometimes known as the organ-pipe coral (but not the real organ pipe coral!). Syringoporids are tabulate corals, a group … Continue reading →

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