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2014 Hales Expedition to Japan
Discovery of India
Hales Expedition 2018 – Australia
Hales Fund – China Trip
Hales Fund – Iceland
Hales Group 2017 – London
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan
Jordan and Jerusalem: A Hales Group Expedition
Author Archives: Mark Wilson
Geology and art meet with a ceramic creation from the Cretaceous extinctions
In August 2010 I had a fantastic geologic field trip to the tunnels of Geulhemmmerberg, The Netherlands, to see an unusual exposure of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. There I collected a fist-sized sample of the famous boundary clay, which is found … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An asteroid trace fossil from the Devonian of northeastern Ohio
It is pretty obvious what made this excellent trace fossil: an asteroid echinoderm. (The term “asteroid” sounds odd here, but it is the technical term for a typical sea star.) The above is Asteriacites stelliformis Osgood, 1970, from the Ch… Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A mysterious sponge (Late Ordovician of Ohio)
I’ve been collecting and studying fossils from the Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati region for three decades now, but I’ve never seen another specimen like the one pictured above. An amateur collector, Howard Freeland, generously donated … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Bivalve escape trace fossils (Devonian and Cretaceous)
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 Fossil of the Week: A syringoporid coral (Lower Carboniferous of Arkansas)
This specimen was collected from the Boone Limestone (Lower Carboniferous) near Hiwasse, Arkansas. It is a species of Syringopora Goldfuss 1826, sometimes known as the organ-pipe coral (but not the real organ pipe coral!). Syringoporids are tabulate co… Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Marrella splendens (Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, British Columbia)
The first story about this iconic fossil is the trouble I went through to get the photograph above. Our specimen of Marrella splendens is preserved in the common Burgess Shale fashion as a thin dark film on a black piece … Continue reading → Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A scale tree (Late Carboniferous of Ohio)
We haven’t had a plant fossil in this place for awhile. Lepidodendron Sternberg 1820, pictured above, is one of the most common fossils brought to me in Wooster by amateur collectors. It is abundant in the Upper Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) sand… Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A Tully Monster! (Late Carboniferous of Illinois)
We have several examples of one of the strangest fossils known: Tullimonstrum gregarium Richardson 1966 — otherwise affectionately known as the Tully Monster. The above specimen is from the Francis Creek Shale Member (Carbondale Formation) at Maz… Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a siliquariid gastropod (Eocene of Alabama)
It is hard to believe that this twisty tube is a snail, but it is. Tenagodus vitis (Conrad, 1835) is the scientific name for this worm-like gastropod from the Claiborne Sand (Eocene) of Alabama. It was originally named by Conrad … Continue readin… Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A cornulitid (Late Ordovician of Indiana)
This may look like just another wormtube on a shell — a recurring theme on this blog — but it is special, of course. This is the common Paleozoic genus Cornulites Schlotheim 1820, specifically Cornulites flexuosus (Hall 1847). It was …… Continue reading
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