Tag Archives: ichnology

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Sponge and clam borings that revealed an ancient climate event (Upper Pleistocene of The Bahamas)

Mark Wilson April 28, 2017 12:01 am

This week’s fossils celebrate the publication today of a paper in Nature Geoscience that has been 20 years in the making. The title is: “Sea-level oscillations during the Last Interglacial highstand recorded by Bahamas coral”, and the senior author is … 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 Fossils of the Week: Ordovician bioerosion trace fossils

Mark Wilson December 9, 2016 12:01 am

This week’s post is a celebration of the appearance of a remarkable two-volume work on trace fossils and evolution. The editors and major authors are my friends Gabriela Mángano and Luis Buatois (University of Saskatchewan). They are extraordinary geologists, paleontologists … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Trepostome bryozoans, burrow systems, and bedding features in an Upper Ordovician limestone from southeastern Minnesota

Mark Wilson August 12, 2016 12:01 am

One of the little mysteries on the recent Minnesota research trip by Wooster students, faculty and staff is the origin of thin limestone beds in the middle of the thick shales of the Decorah Formation (Upper Ordovician). How did such … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A fracture-shaped bioerosion trace from the Pliocene of Cyprus

Mark Wilson June 10, 2016 12:01 am

This past semester I worked with three colleagues on a massive trace fossil review paper, which we hope meets success in the next month or so. My primary job on the team was to sort out bioerosion traces, especially those … Continue reading →

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Last day of fieldwork in England: A working quarry and another great unconformity

Mark Wilson June 26, 2015 6:26 am

BRISTOL, ENGLAND (June 26, 2015) — Tim Palmer has a professional interest in building stones, and a passion for sorting out their characteristics and historical uses. He thus has many contacts in the stone industry, from architects to quarry managers. … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologist in England (again)

Mark Wilson June 25, 2015 6:25 am

BRISTOL, ENGLAND (June 25, 2015) — Our little geological exploration of southern Britain now passes into England. Tim Palmer and I crossed the River Severn and drove to the Cotswolds to examine old quarry exposures and Medieval stonework. We are … Continue reading →

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A great unconformity in South Wales

Mark Wilson June 24, 2015 6:24 am

BRIDGEND, WALES (June 24, 2015) — Today Tim Palmer and I visited a famous unconformable rock plane in South Wales. I last saw it thirty years ago, when I knew a lot less about eroded, bored and encrusted surfaces. It … Continue reading →

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A Wooster Geologist goes to Washington for a different kind of fieldwork

Mark Wilson September 18, 2013 11:35 pm

WASHINGTON, DC–Today I was in Washington, DC, with 70 other colleagues for the annual Geosciences Congressional Visits Day organized by the American Geosciences Institute (AGI). I was ostensibly representing the Paleontological Society as its secretary, but I was really a … Continue reading →

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Field reconnaissance in the northern Negev of Israel

Mark Wilson July 1, 2013 2:20 pm

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–This morning Team Israel 2013 met our friend Yoav Avni, a geologist with the Geological Survey of Israel (GSI), and we traveled north to our field localities. We did a survey of the sites so that we could … Continue reading →

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