Tag Archives: fossils

A new paper on symbiosis between brachiopods and bryozoans in the Late Ordovician of Estonia

mwilson February 10, 2023 7:56 am

I’m pleased to announce another paper has appeared from our ongoing Estonian-German-American collaboration on symbiosis in the fossil record. The beautiful specimen above is the trepostome bryozoan Esthoniopora subsphaerica growing around a bioclaustration, forming a distinctive tube (Katian, Rakvere, northern … Continue reading →

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The delightful Fall 2022 Paleoecology class at Wooster

mwilson December 13, 2022 2:20 pm

I was so impressed with the post by Professor Greg Wiles about his Fall 2022 Geomorphology class that I decided to highlight the Fall 2022 Paleoecology class as well. It was a great group of students, and we did an … Continue reading →

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Paleoecology field trip to the Upper Ordovician of eastern Indiana: Haven’t done this for awhile!

mwilson September 4, 2022 10:58 pm

Richmond, Indiana — Today Nick Wiesenberg (our invaluable geological technician), Brianna Lyman (my excellent Teaching Assistant), and I took the 15 students in the Paleoecology course to the fossiliferous Upper Ordovician of eastern Indiana (upper Whitewater Formation). It’s a location … Continue reading →

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Who knew that crinoids could be boring? A possible bioeroding crinoid attachment structure from the early Silurian of Estonia (new paper)

mwilson August 20, 2022 4:17 pm

Our hard-working and observant Estonian colleagues (Olev Vinn and Ursula Toom) recently made a remarkable discovery among Estonian early Silurian fossils: an attachment structure of a stalked crinoid that apparently bioeroded its way into a calcitic stromatoporoid skeleton. There’s a … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Lingulid brachiopod trace fossils from the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation of southwestern Utah

mwilson July 7, 2022 12:48 am

This is a short trace fossil story with two disappointments, one much more than the other. It involves trace fossils made by lingulid brachiopods, a marine invertebrate group with a very long geological history. The earliest appeared in the Cambrian, … Continue reading →

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New paper: Early Neoproterozoic stromatolites from south Liaoning Province, China

mwilson June 23, 2022 12:11 pm

I’m pleased to announce the online publication of a new paper from a Chinese-American geological team (Zhang et al., 2022). I’m the sole American! My role was minor, being mostly useful for literature review and writing. The senior author is … Continue reading →

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Old dogs, old tricks: A very pleasant day of paleontology in the Lower Carboniferous of northeastern Ohio

mwilson June 8, 2022 5:36 pm

The weather was perfect today in verdant northeastern Ohio. Bill Ausich (retired paleontologist from The Ohio State University), Nigel Brush (retired geologist/archaeologist from Ashland University), and I (not retired!) have started a project examining the crinoids and associated fossils of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Team Utah 2022 Fieldwork

mwilson May 29, 2022 5:29 am

This is the index page for Wooster’s Team Utah 2022 expedition (May 20-29, 2022). The primary goal of this fieldwork was to provide data and samples for the Independent Study theses of Lucie Fiala (left) and Shipei (Vicky) Wang (right). … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists Team Jurassic Utah dips down into the Triassic for its last field day

mwilson May 28, 2022 5:28 am

Today the Wooster Geologists of Team Jurassic Utah visited Early Triassic rocks near Hurricane, Utah (N 37.041054°, W 113.273450°). These are rocks of the Virgin Limestone Member of the Moenkopi Formation. I wanted to show the students the abundant brachiopod … Continue reading →

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A culture and nature day for Team Jurassic Utah 2022

mwilson May 27, 2022 5:27 am

Our field work is now done, so we had a day of cultural and natural sites. Our morning started with a visit to the Visitor’s Center at the LDS Temple in St. George. There the students learned at least one … Continue reading →

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