Author Archives: Mark Wilson

Last week was an intensely bored Upper Ordovician bryozoan, so it seems only fair to have a thoroughly encrusted Upper Ordovician brachiopod next. The above is, although you would hardly know it, the ventral valve exterior of a common strophomenid … Continue reading →
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Yes, yes, I’ve heard ALL the jokes about being bored, and even intensely bored. I learn to deal with it. This week we continue to highlight fossils collected during our productive expedition to the Upper Ordovician (Cincinnatian) of Indiana (with … Continue reading →
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This week and next we will highlight fossils collected during our brief and successful expedition to the Upper Ordovician (Cincinnatian) of Indiana (with Coleman Fitch ’15) and Kentucky (with William Harrison ’15). We found what we needed to pursue some … Continue reading →
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FLORENCE, KENTUCKY–Today it was William Harrison’s turn to collect specimens for his Independent Study project. He’ll be working a full year on what he’s putting in these bags before he turns in his thesis. William’s project is an interpretation of … Continue reading →
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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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This is another fossil that has sat in a display case for decades in Scovel before I really examined it. Unlike last week’s specimen, though, it has no identifying label on its reverse. This is always a serious disappointment for … Continue reading →
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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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I long thought of this beautiful specimen as more rock than fossil. It is a scleractinian coral that has had its outer skeleton replaced by the silicate material agate and its interior skeleton completely hollowed out. The result is a … Continue reading →
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This beautifully polished fossil looks like half of an antique bowling ball. Normally I hate polished fossils because the external details have been erased, but in this case the smooth surface reveals details about the organisms and their relationship. We … Continue reading →
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GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA — The 10th North American Paleontological Convention here is sponsored by the Florida Museum of Natural History. (The meeting is excellent, by the way, and very well organized. Congratulations to the paleontological team that put it together.) Since … Continue reading →
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