Tag Archives: Silurian

Wooster Geologist in New York

Mark Wilson August 5, 2015 12:05 am

LOCKPORT, NEW YORK (August 5, 2015) — What looks like an ordinary commercial quarry above is actually quite unusual. It is an excavation done entirely by amateur paleontologists (“citizen scientists”) to collect and preserve fossils from the Rochester Shale (Upper … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A Silurian encrinite from southwestern Ohio

Mark Wilson May 22, 2015 12:51 am

The above rock was collected on our Sedimentology & Stratigraphy class field trip last month. It is an average piece of weathered Brassfield Formation (Early Silurian, Llandovery) from Oakes Quarry Park near Fairborn, Ohio (N 39.81472°, W 83.99471°). It is … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A ptilodictyine bryozoan from the Silurian of Ohio

Mark Wilson May 15, 2015 1:00 am

The fossil above was found by Luke Kosowatz (’17) on our Sedimentology & Stratigraphy class field trip last month. We were measuring and sampling the Brassfield Formation (Early Silurian, Llandovery) near Fairborn, Ohio, and Luke pulled this beauty out of … Continue reading →

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A beautiful day for Wooster Geologists in the Silurian of Ohio

Mark Wilson April 18, 2015 7:56 pm

FAIRBORN, OHIO–It’s field trip season at last for the Wooster Geologists. Several geology classes have now been out in Ohio, taking advantage of windows of spectacular weather. Today was one of those days for 25 students in the Sedimentology & … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A new crinoid genus from the Silurian of Estonia

Mark Wilson March 13, 2015 1:50 am

It is my pleasure to introduce a new Silurian crinoid genus and species: Velocrinus coniculus Ausich, Wilson & Vinn, 2015. The image above is a CD-interray lateral view of the calyx (or head), with the small anal plate in the … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A stromatoporoid from the Silurian of Estonia

Mark Wilson January 30, 2015 1:30 am

Stromatoporoids are extinct sponges that formed thick, laminated skeletons of calcite. They can be very common in Silurian and Devonian carbonate units, sometimes forming extensive reefs. The stromatoporoid above is Densastroma pexisum (Yavorsky, 1929) collected from the Mustjala Member of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: The mysterious Paleozoic encrusters Ascodictyon and Allonema

Mark Wilson September 12, 2014 1:53 am

  The above pair of fossils are small sclerobionts commonly found on hard substrates in shallow marine sediments through much of the Paleozoic, especially the Silurian and Devonian. Paul Taylor and I have been studying them for a few years … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A tubeworm-encrusted parasitic gastropod (Silurian of Indiana)

Mark Wilson February 16, 2014 1:26 am

Last week three Wooster geology students and I visited Ken Karns, an enthusiastic citizen scientist who has developed an extraordinary fossil collection in his home in Lancaster, Ohio. Ken is a man of prodigious energies and skills as he not … Continue reading →

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Citizen scientist to the rescue (in more ways than one)

Mark Wilson November 9, 2013 6:16 pm

NEW LONDON, OHIO–The Wooster paleontologists spent a pleasant afternoon with our favorite amateur fossil collector Brian Bade. Brian has been mentioned in this blog previously for the many important fossils he has found and donated. He is a spectacular citizen … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Very common orthocerid nautiloids from the Siluro-Devonian of Morocco

Mark Wilson November 3, 2013 1:39 am

If you’ve been to a rock shop, or even googled “fossil”, you’ve seen these beautiful and ubiquitous objects. They are polished sections through a nautiloid known as “Orthoceras“. We put quotes around the genus name because with these views it … Continue reading →

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