Tag Archives: Israel

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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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: My favorite part of a crinoid (Middle Jurassic of Israel)

Mark Wilson June 1, 2014 1:14 am

In April of this year I completed my 11th trip to southern Israel for fieldwork in the Mesozoic. My heart warmed every time I saw these robust plates of the crinoid Apiocrinities negevensis, which was reviewed in a previous blog … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: One sick crinoid from the Middle Jurassic of Israel

Mark Wilson May 11, 2014 1:01 am

My first thought on seeing this distorted fossil was how much it evoked one of those Palaeolithic “Venus figurines“. It is certainly difficult to deduce that this is actually a crinoid column (or stem). It was found during my last … Continue reading →

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Last work of Team Israel, Matmor Division

Mark Wilson May 5, 2014 6:11 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–Steph Bosch (’14) and Lizzie Reinthal (’14) volunteered to examine the Matmor Formation fossils I collected last month in Israel. Each fossil, most of which are crinoid ossicles, must be scanned under a microscope for tiny encrusters (especially bryozoans), … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A helpful echinoid from the Upper Cretaceous of Israel

Mark Wilson April 27, 2014 1:40 am

These beaten-up fossils have served me well in the field this month. They are the regular echinoid Heterodiadema lybicum (Agassiz & Desor, 1846). They are common in the Cenomanian throughout northern Africa and the Middle East. These particular specimens, the … Continue reading →

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Among citizen scientists in southern Israel

Mark Wilson April 24, 2014 12:13 pm

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–Today Yoav Avni and I drove south to meet an enthusiastic group of naturalists in Arava of the Jordan Rift Valley. The group is led by Dr. Hanan Ginat and consisted of a micropaleontologist and three amateur collectors … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologist in Jerusalem and the Judean Mountains

Mark Wilson April 23, 2014 10:47 am

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–Very early this morning (5:05 am) Yoav and I boarded a bus in Mitzpe Ramon for a journey north to Jerusalem. After a change of buses in Beersheva, we arrived in Jerusalem 3.5 hours later. (This is Yoav’s … Continue reading →

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Where sedimentology meets structural geology

Mark Wilson April 21, 2014 1:12 pm

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–“Like a hot dog in a bun.” Late this afternoon, while exploring the Eocene (Lutetian) Horsha Formation near the Nabatean/Roman/Byzantine city of Avdat, Yoav Avni and I ran across these odd features in a limestone layer within the … Continue reading →

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A 10K run into the Eocene of the Negev

Mark Wilson April 20, 2014 10:27 am

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–Yoav and I had a long hike today into the Eocene succession of rock units in the northern Negev. We wanted to look especially at the Horsha Formation (Eocene, Lutetian) because it has some cool trace fossils and … Continue reading →

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