Author Archives: mwilson

About mwilson

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.

The Messel Fossil Pit: A world-class experience

mwilson August 13, 2010 11:23 pm

FRANKFURT, GERMANY–Last year at this time I had the privilege of visiting the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale on an expedition led by my friend Matthew James of Sonoma State University in California. It was an extraordinary opportunity to visit one … Continue reading →

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Tunnels yet again — and a loess connection

mwilson August 13, 2010 5:06 pm

OPPENHEIM, GERMANY–This jewel of a town, with its large cathedral, half-timbered buildings and narrow streets, share surprising geological connections with Vicksburg, Mississippi — a city visited by Wooster geologists earlier this summer. Both are river towns which profited in good … Continue reading →

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A rainy day in the Mainz Basin

mwilson August 12, 2010 3:49 pm

OPPENHEIM, GERMANY–I want this termed Wilson’s Law: “The amount of mud encountered at an outcrop is inversely proportional to the quality of the fossils found.” Maybe it is my desert heritage, but I absolutely detest mud on my boots. Especially … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologist on the Rhine

mwilson August 11, 2010 3:43 pm

OPPENHEIM, GERMANY–Our International Bryozoology Association field trip started the day in the little town of Prüm looking at Devonian limestones and shales, and then we drove to Boppard where we boarded a Rhine River ferry for a trip upstream to … Continue reading →

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Geology and religion: le Grand Animal de Maastricht

mwilson August 10, 2010 3:25 pm

MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS–Next month I am giving a talk on campus about evolution in a lecture series on “science and religion”. I was particularly intrigued, then, to hear a story about the famous mosasaur discovered in the Maastricht tunnels that … Continue reading →

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The best Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary yet

mwilson August 10, 2010 1:30 am

MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS–The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary (K/T, or as I should be writing, the “Cretaceous-Paleogene” boundary, or K/Pg) has been one of the Wooster Geology themes this summer. We saw it in Alabama and Mississippi in May, and in Israel in … Continue reading →

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Tunnels (again)

mwilson August 9, 2010 3:44 pm

MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS–After mentioning the excavations in the Maastricht Formation limestones (latest Cretaceous) in the last post, I expected to be moving on the next day to a quarry. I hadn’t read the guidebook closely enough: we were planning to … Continue reading →

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Geology and Art History

mwilson August 9, 2010 12:42 am

MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS–The tunnels dug into the soft Maastrichtian Formation limestones in this city have a long history starting with the Romans. At first the excavations were intended only to extract building stone, but with all the battles, sieges and … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologist in The Netherlands

mwilson August 8, 2010 4:37 pm

MAASTRICHT, THE NETHERLANDS–This is the first day of the International Bryozoology Association post-conference field trip. We took a train south from Kiel to Hamburg, Germany, and then connected with another train to Cologne. After spending a half-hour at the Cologne … Continue reading →

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The power of biostratigraphy: the Campanian-Maastrichtian boundary in the Late Cretaceous

mwilson August 7, 2010 12:10 pm

KIEL, GERMANY–Comparing the two very different geological sections pictured above, you should ask how we know that they are precisely the same age. After all, they are thousands of miles apart and are quite different in their composition and fossil … Continue reading →

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