Tag Archives: fossils

Fossils in the Wild: Invertebrate Paleontology Field Trip

mwilson September 11, 2011 11:06 pm

CAESAR CREEK LAKE, OHIO–The 2011 Invertebrate Paleontology class had a productive field trip on a beautiful Ohio day. Thunderstorms roamed the state, but we saw them only when we were comfortably on the bus. We worked in the emergency spillway … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A tabulate coral (Middle Devonian of New York)

mwilson September 4, 2011 1:43 am

This week’s specimen is from a group of fossils I gave my Invertebrate Paleontology students as “unknowns” to identify. Since it is their very first week of class I expected them to struggle, but many did remarkably well. (Congratulations to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A trilobite hypostome (Upper Ordovician of southern Ohio)

mwilson August 21, 2011 1:44 am

We had a familiar trilobite last week, so this week we’ll look at a poorly-known part of a trilobite: the hypostome. Above is an incomplete forked, conterminant hypostome of the large trilobite Isotelus. (Isotelus, by the way, is the state … Continue reading →

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

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A trilobite (Middle Cambrian of Utah)

mwilson August 14, 2011 1:32 am

I’ve avoided having a trilobite as Fossil of the Week because it seems like such a cliché. Everyone knows trilobites, and they are the most common “favorite fossil” (invertebrate, anyway). Plus our best trilobite (seen above) is the most familiar … Continue reading →

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

Using the iPad in museum work

mwilson August 8, 2011 8:00 pm

COLUMBUS, OHIO–Earlier this summer my colleagues and I had blog posts describing how we use our iPads in geological fieldwork (with examples from the limestones of Estonia to the basalts of Iceland). Today I used my iPad2 during work in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: barnacle borings (Middle Jurassic of Israel)

mwilson August 7, 2011 1:49 am

Tiny little trace fossils this week in a Jurassic crinoid stem from the Matmor Formation of the Negev Desert. They are borings produced by barnacles, which are sedentary crustaceans more typically found in conical shells of their own making. These … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An edrioasteroid (Upper Ordovician of Kentucky)

mwilson July 24, 2011 1:17 am

This week’s fossil appeared previously in this blog when we discussed hiatus concretions and their fossil fauna. It is one of my favorites for both how we found it (see the entry linked above) and the way it introduced me … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Pelican’s-foot snail (Pliocene of Cyprus)

mwilson July 17, 2011 12:27 am

This week’s fossil was found on the same 1996 Keck Geology Expedition to Cyprus that produced the Thorny Oyster highlighted in January. Stephen Dornbos (’97) was there, but this fossil was not part of the Pliocene coral reef complex he … Continue reading →

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

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Ancient shrimp burrows (Middle Jurassic of Israel)

mwilson July 10, 2011 1:01 am

This week we have a trace fossil, the burrow Thalassinoides. It is represented by one of my favorite images, reproduced above, showing a very large Thalassinoides suevicus in the Zohar Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of Makhtesh Qatan in the Negev … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Paleoecology of the Hilliste Formation (Lower Silurian, Llandovery, Rhuddanian) Hiiumaa Island, Estonia: An example of a shallow marine recovery fauna — An abstract submitted to the Geological Society of America for the 2011 annual meeting

mwilson July 7, 2011 2:24 pm

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–Editor’s note: The Wooster Geologists in Estonia found enough material, and had enough time, to write abstracts for posters at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Minneapolis this October. The following is from student guest blogger Rachel … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments