Tag Archives: fossils

A day’s work in the Natural History Museum, London

Mark Wilson June 23, 2014 3:32 pm

LONDON, ENGLAND — This is one of my favorite places in the world. It is a Victorian cathedral of science: The Natural History Museum in London. Today I began three intense days of research with Paul Taylor in his paleontology … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologist in London at the British Museum

Mark Wilson June 22, 2014 1:42 pm

LONDON, ENGLAND — I arrived late last night in London after a series of delays in my departure from Poland, so I was pleased that today was a Sunday so I could chill a bit before work with Paul Taylor … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A silicified rhynchonellid brachiopod from the Permian of West Texas

Mark Wilson June 22, 2014 1:01 am

Sometimes fossils can be more useful when broken than whole. Above is a much-abused rhynchonellid brachiopod from the Road Canyon Formation (Middle Permian, Roadian, about 270 million years old) found in the Glass Mountains of southwestern Texas. It is part … Continue reading →

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The Triassic limestones at Góra Świętej Anny, Poland

Mark Wilson June 18, 2014 2:27 pm

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — My friends Michał Zatoń and Tomasz Borszcz took me on a very pleasant day trip to Góra Świętej Anny in southwestern Poland about an hour’s drive northwest from Sosnowiec. This is a place of considerable geological and … Continue reading →

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A new Polish colleague (and cool dinosaur model)

Mark Wilson June 17, 2014 12:57 pm

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — The above full-scale model of Tyrannosaurus rex is one of my favorite dinosaur reconstructions. It sits in front of the Earth Sciences Building at the University of Silesia. Since it is outside the lighting is always dramatic, … Continue reading →

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Research begins in southern Poland

Mark Wilson June 16, 2014 4:49 pm

SOSNOWIEC, POLAND — On this beautiful day I began research at the University of Silesia with Michał Zatoń and Tomasz Borszcz in this impressive building. (It is reportedly the tallest Earth Science building in the world, although the Chinese are on … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A geopetal structure in a boring from the Middle Jurassic of Israel

Mark Wilson June 15, 2014 1:25 am

We have a very simple trace and body fossil combination this week that provides a stratigraphic and structural geologic tool. Above is a bit of scleractinian coral from the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of Makhtesh Gadol in southern Israel. … Continue reading →

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The last presentations of the 2014 Larwood Meeting, including a sober reminder for paleontologists

Mark Wilson June 13, 2014 2:33 pm

SOPOT, POLAND — This morning we had the final set of talks at Larwood 2014. Out of all the presentations, the one that struck me the most was by Paul Taylor and Andrea Waeschenbach entitled “Molecular phylogeny and the adequacy … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologist on the Baltic Coast

Mark Wilson June 11, 2014 11:19 am

SOPOT, POLAND — Yes, that’s a view from my hotel window. I’ve suddenly found myself in an old resort town on the Baltic coast of Poland near the cities of Gdansk and Gydnia. Another one of those astonishing geographic transformations … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A fragment of an asteroid (the sea star kind) from the Upper Cretaceous of Israel

Mark Wilson June 8, 2014 1:07 am

This is not an important fossil — there is not enough preserved to put a name on it beyond Family Goniasteridae Forbes, 1841 (thanks, Dan Blake) — but it was a fun one to find. It also photographs well. This is … Continue reading →

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