Tag Archives: fossils

A wet cave and the Mighty Mississippi River

Mark Wilson August 1, 2016 8:01 am

Rochester, Minnesota — Since Team Minnesota efficiently finished its fieldwork yesterday, we have two days before the students fly out of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The good weather has given us a gift of time, so we’re using it like … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Team Minnesota finishes its work (in Iowa, funny enough)

Mark Wilson July 31, 2016 7:31 am

Rochester, Minnesota — We returned to Decorah, Iowa, today to measure and sample the Decorah Shale (Upper Ordovician) in its type locality. It was much drier here than on our last attempt! Above is the gray Decorah Shale topped by … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Paleontological fieldwork in southeastern Minnesota

Mark Wilson July 30, 2016 7:30 am

Rochester, Minnesota — It was a good day for fossil collecting on the Minnesota prairie. Above you see a handful of articulated orthid brachiopods collected by Nikki Bell at a quarry exposure near Rochester. This quarry has long been abandoned … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A new Late Ordovician bryozoan from Oklahoma

Mark Wilson July 29, 2016 12:01 am

I am very pleased to introduce a new bryozoan genus and species recently described in the First View section of the Journal of Paleontology. Paul Taylor (Natural History Museum, London) and I present: “A new runner-like cyclostome bryozoan from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Team Minnesota visits the Upper Ordovician of Iowa

Mark Wilson July 27, 2016 7:27 am

Rochester, Minnesota — Team Minnesota traveled south today to visit exposures of our three favorite formations: the Platteville Limestone, Decorah Shale, and Cummingsville Limestone. Where best to see the Decorah Shale than in Decorah, Iowa? Above the crew is scattered … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A bored rhynchonellid brachiopod from the Middle Jurassic of France

Mark Wilson July 22, 2016 12:01 am

Another beautiful brachiopod this week from our friend Mr. Clive Champion in England. His donations to our collections have considerably enriched our teaching program, especially for brachiopods! This specimen is the rhynchonellid Kutchirhynchia morieri (Davidson, 1852) from the Middle Jurassic … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A molluscan assemblage from the Miocene of Maryland

Mark Wilson July 15, 2016 12:01 am

Earlier this month a gentleman stopped by The Department of Geology and donated the above beautiful slab of fossils to our program. Dale Chadwick of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is an avid amateur fossil collector with a very useful website and considerable … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An ammonite from the Middle Jurassic of southern England

Mark Wilson July 8, 2016 12:01 am

We’re featuring just a workaday fossil this week because of other summer activities. This is the ammonite Leptosphinctes Buckman 1929 from the Inferior Oolite (Middle Jurassic) at Coombe Quarry, Mapperton, Dorset, southern England. Cassidy Jester (’17) and I collected it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Iron-oxide oncoids (“snuff-boxes”) from the Middle Jurassic of southern England

Mark Wilson July 1, 2016 12:01 am

These fossils (in the broad sense!) are inevitable for our weekly feature considering how much time we spent studying and collecting them during last month’s fieldwork in Dorset, southern England. “Snuff-boxes” are the subject of Cassidy Jester’s (’17) Senior Independent … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Final day at The Natural History Museum … and one more Jurassic snuff-box

Mark Wilson June 17, 2016 6:17 am

London, England — My last day in London was spent working on GSA abstracts and examining one last ferruginous oncoid (“snuff-box”) from the Jurassic (Bajocian) of southern England. Bob Chandler donated to the cause a large discoidal snuff-box. We cut … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments