Tag Archives: Cretaceous

Meanwhile, what are the Wooster Paleontologists up to?

Mark Wilson July 19, 2017 10:57 am

Wooster, Ohio — The igneous petrology team has a thorough and entertaining report about their activities in the Wooster geology labs this summer. It has encouraged the summer paleontologists (that would be me and Macy Conrad ’18) to give a … Continue reading →

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French oysters. Aged to perfection.

Mark Wilson June 30, 2017 12:10 pm

Wooster, Ohio — After our glorious fieldwork in France earlier this month, the Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) oysters Macy Conrad (’18), Paul Taylor (Natural History Museum, London), and I collected are now in our cozy Wooster Paleontology Lab. Now the less … Continue reading →

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Revisiting the Gironde Estuary for our last day of fieldwork in southwestern France

Mark Wilson June 7, 2017 6:07 am

La Barde, France — Today Paul Taylor, Macy Conrad (’18) and I had our last fieldwork in France for this expedition. We returned to sites along the eastern shore of the Gironde Estuary to study the Biron Formation (Campanian, Upper … Continue reading →

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A day of rocks and churches in southwestern France

Mark Wilson June 6, 2017 6:06 am

La Barde, France — This is our second-to-last day in southwestern France on this research expedition. Macy Conrad (’18), Paul Taylor (Natural History Museum, London) and I are continuing our study of sclerobionts on Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) oysters. I know … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists get to work in southwestern France

Mark Wilson June 4, 2017 6:04 am

La Barde, France — After a day of almost solid rain, we woke up the next morning to brilliant weather in southwestern France. Macy, Paul and I drove to the small town of Archiac, where we collected a bag full … Continue reading →

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A day of geology on the coast of southwestern France

Mark Wilson June 2, 2017 6:02 am

La Barde, France — Today we traveled west to the Gironde Estuary on the southwest coast to continue our survey of Campanian fossils. It looks like we will be working on the sclerobionts found with the extensive Pycnodonte oyster beds. … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists begin fieldwork in southwestern France

Mark Wilson June 1, 2017 6:01 am

LA BARDE, FRANCE–Macy Conrad and I began our paleontological fieldwork in what may be the most beautiful part of Europe: southwestern France. Our superb guide and colleague is Natural History Museum scientist Dr. Paul Taylor, a long-time friend who has … Continue reading →

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A Wooster Geologist on the Somme Battlefield

Mark Wilson May 30, 2017 5:30 am

Amiens, France — I had two days between the bryozoan meeting in Vienna and the fieldwork in southwestern France, so I decided to visit the World War I battlefields in the Somme Valley of northern France. It was a somber … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Bivalve escape trace fossils (Devonian and Cretaceous)

Mark Wilson April 7, 2017 12:01 am

It is time again to dip into the wonderful world of trace fossils. These are tracks, trails, burrows and other evidence of organism behavior. The specimen above is an example. It is Lockeia James, 1879, from the Dakota Formation (Upper … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A scaphitid ammonite (Late Cretaceous of Mississippi)

Mark Wilson February 24, 2017 12:01 am

The beauty above is Discoscaphites iris (Conrad, 1858) from the Owl Creek Formation of Ripley, Mississippi. Megan Innis and I collected it during our expedition to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in the southern United States last summer. It is a significant … Continue reading →

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