Author Archives: Mark Wilson

About Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is an emeritus 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.

Muscle scars in tiny conical fossils: A new paper describing the musculature of Devonian tentaculitids from Armenia and what they mean for the biology and evolution of the group

Mark Wilson December 3, 2025 5:45 pm

A new paper on tentaculitid paleobiology and evolution has just appeared in its final form in the journal Historical Biology. The authors are headed by my Estonian friend Olev Vinn and include two new Armenian colleagues Tamara Hambardzumyan and Vahram … Continue reading →

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A spotty Middle Ordovician trilobite from Estonia: A new paper describing an ancient parasitic infection

Mark Wilson November 26, 2025 11:01 am

One of the many reasons we need natural history museums is that they can curate large collections of specimens that can be examined for interesting features decades after they were bagged in the field. Recently my Estonian colleagues Olev Vinn … Continue reading →

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A new paper on James Parkinson’s neglected 19th century contributions to crinoid paleontology

Mark Wilson November 24, 2025 8:54 pm

About three years ago I became curious as to who the “Parkinson” was of Parkinson’s Disease. I found the Wikipedia entry for the man, and its first sentence is: “James Parkinson FGS (11 April 1755 – 21 December 1824) was … Continue reading →

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The boulders of Little Round Top on the Gettysburg battlefield

Mark Wilson September 16, 2025 9:50 am

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.– As a retirement gift in 2024, my thoughtful department and other friends gave Gloria and me a certificate to stay in a beautiful and charming bed & breakfast establishment in Gettysburg. (Shout out to the Brafferton Inn!) They … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists in northern Virginia on a great summer day

Mark Wilson September 6, 2025 11:21 am

Alexandria, Virginia.– Today Wooster Geologists Greg Wiles and Nick Wiesenberg visited Gloria and me in our new home in northern Virginia. It was great to see treasured old friends from the department. After lunch we visited a tree in our … Continue reading →

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A new paper on a tiny cryptic trace fossil from the Silurian of Sweden and Estonia

Mark Wilson January 18, 2025 1:30 am

One of my favorite trace fossils (fossils that record ancient behavior) is the ichnogenus Arachnostega. It was first formally described and named by Bertling in 1992, which is surprisingly recent for such a common fossil. This week my Estonian colleagues … Continue reading →

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Carbonate hardgrounds at Wooster

Mark Wilson September 25, 2024 1:34 pm

On the second floor of Wooster’s Scovel Hall, in a room behind the main teaching laboratory, are six cabinets completely full of labelled rocks and fossils (see below). There is even an additional set of specimens too large for the … Continue reading →

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A Wooster Geologist visits Fort Meigs, Ohio

Mark Wilson September 20, 2024 8:54 pm

Today my wife Gloria and I visited the reconstructed Fort Meigs in the northwestern corner of Ohio in Perrysburg, just south of Toledo. It was a beautiful day and we practically had the place to ourselves. It was our first … Continue reading →

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And sometimes it rains.

Mark Wilson July 17, 2024 7:42 pm

Today I took Peter, Lauren and Evie on another afternoon local field trip, this time to Wooster Memorial Park (Spangler). We wanted to repeat the enjoyable exploration we had last week in Lodi Community Park. This time, though, we got … Continue reading →

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54 cm Core from Brown’s Lake Bog Reveals …

Mark Wilson July 17, 2024 9:30 am

Guest Bloggers: Evie Sanford and Peter Rothstein Summer diatom research continues at The College of Wooster. Building on last summer’s work by Garret Robertson, Minnie Pozefsky and Dr. Mark Wilson, as well as that of other previous IS students Justine … Continue reading →

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