Category Archives: ScotBlogs Contributed

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–This exquisite snail is not a fossil, although students in the field often mistake it for one. (Melissa did not, I quickly add.) It is a terrestrial, air-breathing pulmonate snail called Sphincterochila boissieri. It is abund… Continue reading →

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–One reason why I like working in the Negev is that it was already familiar when I first visited in 2003. I grew up in the Mojave Desert of southern California, which is very similar to the Negev … Continue reading → Continue reading →

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–The above is an untouched view of an eroding marl of the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic) in Makhtesh Gadol. I simply placed a one shekel coin in the scene for scale. This is why we love this place … Continue reading … Continue reading →

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–It was a little warmer today in Makhtesh Gadol, but the sun was still obscured by the dust blown across the southern Mediterranean from the Sahara Desert. I may have an innate tolerance for dust from my childhood … Cont… Continue reading →

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL–Melissa Torma, our friend Yoav Avni (Geological Survey of Israel), and I just ended a productive first day in the field. The two of them are shown above in classic paleontological poses. They are collecting fossils from Subun… Continue reading →

I thought Rick Santorum was going to be the anti-environmental presidential candidate, with his talk about global warming as a hoax perpetrated by left-wing scientists. But now I think Mitt Romney has an oar in this pool as well.  Apparently … C… Continue reading →

It’s a low-light, iPad photo, but at least it shows Wooster geology junior Melissa Torma enjoying a fine meal in the Hotel Ramon of Mitzpe Ramon, deep in the Negev of Israel. We arrived here this afternoon after a 22-hour … Continue reading… Continue reading →

It’s only half a bone, but the above is one of my favorite fossils. This is a vertebra of an ichthyosaur, identifiable by its figure-8 cross-section. It is from the Sundance Formation (Middle-Late Jurassic) of Natrona County, Wyoming … and … Continue reading →

Happy International Women’s Day! I’ve been reflecting on what it means to be a female geology professor ever since the Wooster Alumni Magazine featured an article on Annie Irish, the first woman on Wooster’s faculty. Her portrait gra… Continue reading →

Join the Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs and C3: Cross-Cultural Connections for our International Women’s Day Celebration, beginning tomorrow night, Wednesday, at 630pm, in the Babcock Formal Lounge.  We will have a few speakers, consisti… Continue reading →