Author Archives: Mark Wilson

About Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is a Professor of Geology at The College of Wooster. He specializes in invertebrate paleontology, carbonate sedimentology, and stratigraphy. He also is an expert on pseudoscience, especially creationism.

Paleoecology field trip to the Upper Ordovician of eastern Indiana: Haven’t done this for awhile!

Mark Wilson September 4, 2022 10:58 pm

Richmond, Indiana — Today Nick Wiesenberg (our invaluable geological technician), Brianna Lyman (my excellent Teaching Assistant), and I took the 15 students in the Paleoecology course to the fossiliferous Upper Ordovician of eastern Indiana (upper Whitewater Formation). It’s a location … Continue reading →

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Who knew that crinoids could be boring? A possible bioeroding crinoid attachment structure from the early Silurian of Estonia (new paper)

Mark Wilson August 20, 2022 4:17 pm

Our hard-working and observant Estonian colleagues (Olev Vinn and Ursula Toom) recently made a remarkable discovery among Estonian early Silurian fossils: an attachment structure of a stalked crinoid that apparently bioeroded its way into a calcitic stromatoporoid skeleton. There’s a … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Lingulid brachiopod trace fossils from the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation of southwestern Utah

Mark Wilson July 7, 2022 12:48 am

This is a short trace fossil story with two disappointments, one much more than the other. It involves trace fossils made by lingulid brachiopods, a marine invertebrate group with a very long geological history. The earliest appeared in the Cambrian, … Continue reading →

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Reflecting on the Earth Sciences Department’s Community Climate Change (CCC) Project

Mark Wilson June 25, 2022 9:13 am

Editor’s note: The following is by Caitlyn Denes (’23). “The Community Climate Change Project sought to document the changes in climate in Wooster, Ohio and surrounding communities. Through the collection, analysis, and interpretation of climatological data, we summarized our findings … Continue reading →

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New paper: Early Neoproterozoic stromatolites from south Liaoning Province, China

Mark Wilson June 23, 2022 12:11 pm

I’m pleased to announce the online publication of a new paper from a Chinese-American geological team (Zhang et al., 2022). I’m the sole American! My role was minor, being mostly useful for literature review and writing. The senior author is … Continue reading →

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The Diatom Lake Adventure: Ice ages, hotel titrations, and the Midwest

Mark Wilson June 14, 2022 8:35 am

Editor’s note: Rising Wooster senior Richard Torres (’23) had a spectacular opportunity this summer (May 31 – June 12, 2022) to participate in a National Science Foundation-funded research trip with Dr. Tom Lowell (on the right) and his team from … Continue reading →

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Old dogs, old tricks: A very pleasant day of paleontology in the Lower Carboniferous of northeastern Ohio

Mark Wilson June 8, 2022 5:36 pm

The weather was perfect today in verdant northeastern Ohio. Bill Ausich (retired paleontologist from The Ohio State University), Nigel Brush (retired geologist/archaeologist from Ashland University), and I (not retired!) have started a project examining the crinoids and associated fossils of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Team Utah 2022 Fieldwork

Mark Wilson May 29, 2022 5:29 am

This is the index page for Wooster’s Team Utah 2022 expedition (May 20-29, 2022). The primary goal of this fieldwork was to provide data and samples for the Independent Study theses of Lucie Fiala (left) and Shipei (Vicky) Wang (right). … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists Team Jurassic Utah dips down into the Triassic for its last field day

Mark Wilson May 28, 2022 5:28 am

Today the Wooster Geologists of Team Jurassic Utah visited Early Triassic rocks near Hurricane, Utah (N 37.041054°, W 113.273450°). These are rocks of the Virgin Limestone Member of the Moenkopi Formation. I wanted to show the students the abundant brachiopod … Continue reading →

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A culture and nature day for Team Jurassic Utah 2022

Mark Wilson May 27, 2022 5:27 am

Our field work is now done, so we had a day of cultural and natural sites. Our morning started with a visit to the Visitor’s Center at the LDS Temple in St. George. There the students learned at least one … Continue reading →

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