Geobulletin alpha

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A bored Ordovician hardground from Ohio, and an introduction to a new paper on trace fossils and evolution 

Above is an image of a carbonate hardground (cemented seafloor) from the Upper Ordovician of Adams County, Ohio. It comes from the Bull Fork Formation and was recovered along State Route 136 north of Manchester, Ohio (Locality C/W-20). It is distinctive for two reasons: (1) the many external molds (impressions, more or less) of mollusk

Orthospirifer sp. brachiopod from the Silica Shale 

Years ago I purchased some brachiopods that came from the middle Devonian aged Silica Shale in Ohio. These were fossils that had been collected in the 80's and 90's and came from older collections. Among the various species were these two articulated shells. The label that came with them called them Orthospirifer sp. but they look very similar to Mediospirifer audaculus which is a somewhat common brachiopod species from the middle Devonian. I've done a little research and it seems to me that [...]

Construction of the new Life Sciences building begins, and the geologists welcome our new biologist labmates 

Wooster, Ohio — The College of Wooster community will soon say goodbye to Mateer Hall (above), which has housed the Biology Department for decades. It will be demolished next month to make way for the new Ruth Williams Hall of Life Science. I haven’t heard anyone yet say they will miss the creaky and undersized

Mastodon Tooth 

This mastodon tooth is on display at the Falls of the Ohio State Park Interpretive Center. A learned a couple of things from the display. Mastodons differ from mammoths in their teeth were used to eat more trees (branches, twigs, bark) while the mammoths ate more grasses. Also mammoths are more similar to today's elephants with their longer tusks and more distinct heads. The mastodon has

Mammoth Tusk 

These mammoth tusk pieces are on display at the Falls of the Ohio State Park Interpretive Center. They thought to be 12,000 to 20,000 years old. The tusks were unearthed at the Nugent Sand Company quarry in Bethlehem, Indiana, USA. Studying the dentine layers on these tusks can help researchers determine the age of the creature when it died. I have not seen Indiana tusks in this good

Aulocystis Encrusting a Favosites Coral Fossil 

This fossil is on display at the Falls of the Ohio State Park Interpretive Center. It is thought to be an Aulocystis (?) procumbens tube coral growing on top of a Favosites turbinatus tabulate coral fossil. They existed in the Devonian time period and were found in the Jeffersonville Limestone of Clark County, Indiana, USA. Very neat specimen put on display in the new exhibit there. If

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A common trilobite from the Upper Ordovician of Ohio 

This beautiful specimen was collected by Wooster student Eve Caudill on this year’s College of Wooster Invertebrate Paleontology field trip to Caesar Creek Lake, Ohio. It is the iconic trilobite Flexicalymene meeki (Foerste, 1910) from a soft, “buttery” shale in the Waynesville Formation (Upper Ordovician). This is one of the most common trilobite species in

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A fragmentary rostroconch from the Middle Devonian of Ohio 

Not all of our featured fossils are particularly beautiful, or even entire, but they are interesting in some way. Above is the broken cross-section of a rostroconch mollusk known as Hippocardia Brown, 1843. It was found somewhere in Ohio by the late Keith Maneese and kindly donated to the department by his widow Cameron Maneese.

Field Drain Tile and the “Re-Eutrophication” of Lake Erie 

Algae Blooms, Microcystin and Phosphorus It’s been over a year since Toledo, Ohio and surrounding communities shut down public water supplies due to an algae bloom and microcystin contamination in western Lake Erie. Was the trouble a “one-off” or can we expect more of these events in the future? While attending a seminar this year hosted by the Michigan Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society, my interest was

Wooster Paleontologists return to Caesar Creek Lake 

Ohio is a wonderful place for paleontologists. One of the reasons is the thick, productive set of Upper Ordovician rocks that are exposed in the southwest of the state in and around Cincinnati. It is an easy drive south from Wooster into some of the most fossiliferous sediments in the world. Today Wooster’s Invertebrate Paleontology

A Wooster Geologist goes to a Bigfoot meeting 

ORRVILLE, OHIO — The First-Year Seminar course I teach at Wooster is called “Nonsense! (And Why it’s So Popular)“. It is ostensibly about exploring irrational ideas in human society, such as astrology, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, quack medicine, the “paranormal” and the like, but more fundamentally concerned with critical thinking and writing. It is about skepticism

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Small and common orthid brachiopods from the Upper Ordovician of Ohio 

One of the many benefits of posting a “Fossil of the Week” is that I learn a lot while researching the highlighted specimens. I not only learn new things, I learn that some things I thought I knew must be, shall we say, updated. The above slab contains dozens of brachiopods (and a few crinoid

Nitrogen May Play Role In Lake Erie Algae Toxicity 

After the toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie that made water unsafe to drink for Toledo, Ohio, residents in August 2014, leaders from Michigan, Ohio and Ontario agreed to reduce[...] The post Nitrogen May Play Role In Lake Erie Algae Toxicity appeared first on Lake

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A coiled nautiloid from the Middle Devonian of Ohio 

The above fossil is a nautiloid cut in cross-section, showing the large body chamber at the bottom and behind it to the left and above the phragmocone, or chambered portion of the conch (shell). It is a species of Goldringia Flower, 1945, found in the Columbus Limestone (Middle Devonian, Eifelian) exposed in the Owen Stone

Mesopholidostrophia semicircularis brachiopod from Eifel, Germany 

The nacerous shell of Mesopholidostrophia semicircularis is typical of the genera. It can be seen in it's N. America cousins, Pholidostrophia nacera, which are common in the Givetian stage of the middle Devonian. The specimen of M. semicircularis shown below comes from the Eifelian stage (Devonian) of the Junkerberg formation near Gondelsheim, Eifel region, Germany.Specimen #1 Pedicle valveAnteriorBrachial valvePosteriorProfileSpecimen #2Pedicle valveAnteriorPosteriorProfileExamples of  [...]

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A molded brachiopod from the Lower Carboniferous of Ohio 

We haven’t had a local fossil featured on this blog for awhile. Above is an external mold of the spiriferid brachiopod Syringothyris typa Winchell, 1863, from the Logan Formation (Lower Carboniferous, Osagean, about 345 million years old) of southeastern Wooster, Ohio. The outcrop is along the onramp from north Route 83 to east Route 30.

February 4, 2014 

The Greenland Ice Sheet in HDThe Ohio State University Microbes Beneath Oceanic CrustUniversity of Southern California Global Topographic Data to Aid Climate Change ResearchUnited States Geological Survey China Builds Five Islands in Disputed Waters ?Los Angeles Times Why Google Maps Says You Are in Tulsa ?Quartz First Month of No Natural Gas Imports Since 1996Energy

Seasonal employment with Cleveland Metroparks 

There are a number of good jobs for students looking for field experience ranging from zoology to botany to geography to hydrology available with Cleveland Metroparks this summer. Check them out:

Internships and seasonal employment at Cuyahoga Valley National Park 

via Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP) and its nonprofit friends group, the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, have a variety of summer internships and jobs to offerKent State University students. Ranging from Creative Writing and Guest Services Management to Environmental Education and Resource

Year-End Summary of Eastern Earthquakes - Part 4 

Now, Arkansas and Ohio did not do their bit for Science since they chickened out at M4 and banned direct injection into the Precambrian.  As well, we had the Virginia earthquake, which was very poorly covered by seismometers, but the later aftershocks showed a NE trend, and some association with a dammed lake. Fortunately, we have other desperate states who are dying to prove my theories.  If