Tag Archives: Ordovician

Ordovician bioerosion and encrustation project begins

Mark Wilson March 9, 2014 6:37 pm

RICHMOND, INDIANA–Meet Coleman Fitch (’15) standing on the iconic outcrop of the Whitewater Formation (Upper Ordovician) on Route 27 about a mile south of Richmond (C/W-148; N 39.78722°, W 84.90166° — which has a nice Google Maps street view). This … Continue reading →

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Wooster paleontologists begin a new field season

Mark Wilson March 8, 2014 8:30 pm

RICHMOND, INDIANA–This is the first day of what upper midwesterners hilariously call “spring break”, so it is time to get some students in the field. I can’t say this is the first Wooster geology fieldwork of the year because that … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Bioclaustration-boring structures in bryozoans from the Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati region

Mark Wilson February 9, 2014 1:36 am

Another bioerosion mystery from those fascinating Upper Ordovician rocks around Cincinnati. Above you see a flat, bifoliate trepostome bryozoan (probably Peronopora) with pock holes scattered across its surface. At first you may think, after reading so many blog posts here, … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Mysterious borings in brachiopods from the Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati region

Mark Wilson February 2, 2014 1:19 am

Above is a well-used brachiopod from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky (C/W-152; Petersburg-Bullittsville Road, Boone County; Bellevue Member of the Grant Lake Formation). It experienced several events on the ancient seafloor during its short time of exposure. Let’s put … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Rugose corals from the Upper Ordovician of Ohio

Mark Wilson December 22, 2013 1:50 am

College of Wooster student Willy Nelson spotted and collected up this beautiful Liberty Formation slab on our 2013 Invertebrate Paleontology course field trip to the Upper Ordovician of the Caesar Creek area in southern Ohio. There are many exquisite fossils … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A trepostome bryozoan from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky

Mark Wilson December 15, 2013 1:26 am

First, what U.S. state does this delicious little bryozoan resemble? It’s so close I can even pick out Green Bay. This is Heterotrypa frondosa (d’Orbigny, 1850), a trepostome bryozoan from the Corryville Formation (Upper Ordovician) in Covington, Kentucky. I collected … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An encrusted cobble from the Upper Ordovician of Kentucky

Mark Wilson December 1, 2013 1:21 am

In 1984 I pulled the above specimen from a muddy ditch during a pouring rain near the confluence of Gunpowder Creek and the Ohio River in Boone County, northern Kentucky. It changed my life. This limestone cobble eroded out of … Continue reading →

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A paleontology field trip into the Upper Ordovician of Ohio

Mark Wilson September 8, 2013 9:00 pm

The 2013 Invertebrate Paleontology class at Wooster had its first field trip today. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the usual boatload of fossils was collected. We traveled this year to Caesar Creek State Park and worked in the emergency … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An asaphid trilobite from the Middle Ordovician of the Leningrad Region, Russia

Mark Wilson May 5, 2013 1:28 am

This weathered trilobite is nothing like the gorgeous specimens of this genus you can buy at various rock shops around the world and on the web, but it has sentimental value to me. I collected it on an epic field … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Tubular drillholes (Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati Region)

Mark Wilson April 28, 2013 1:59 am

This is one of the simplest fossils ever: a cylindrical hole drilled into a hard substrate like a skeleton or rock. The above image is of a hardground (cemented carbonate seafloor) from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky with these … Continue reading →

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