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.

Scene from the lab

mwilson July 8, 2010 4:43 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–I spent a good part of the day in the paleontology lab of Lisa Park, one of our accomplished Wooster Geology alumni who teaches at the University of Akron.  We took scanning electron microscope images of microconchid specimens I … Continue reading →

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Safely in the Tel Aviv airport and all’s well

mwilson June 16, 2010 4:03 am

BEN GURION AIRPORT, ISRAEL — It is always a special moment when the rental car is successfully returned (surprisingly undamaged), the luggage with its curious bags of rocks is checked through (“Why do you need to have numbers on all … Continue reading →

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A splash into the Jurassic on our last Negev field day

mwilson June 15, 2010 8:04 am

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — Today we traveled northeast of Mitzpe Ramon to Makhtesh Gadol (“The Large Crater”) to look at some Jurassic fossils in the Matmor Formation.  I had to take a few photographs and collect some cool crinoids there, … Continue reading →

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Last Field Day in the Cretaceous of the Negev

mwilson June 14, 2010 9:37 am

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — We spent our last Cretaceous field day in our section of the Zihor and Menuha Formations just south of Makhtesh Ramon.  It is a complicated place because of tectonic activity from the Late Cretaceous on, so … Continue reading →

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An igneous rock for Dr. Pollock

mwilson June 13, 2010 8:56 am
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A dip into Triassic seas

mwilson June 13, 2010 8:54 am

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — We wish there was still some water in those seas because it was 41°C (106°F) this afternoon, but alas the only water we saw was that which was warmly sloshing in our plastic bottles.  Today we … Continue reading →

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Holiday travel in southern Israel

mwilson June 12, 2010 12:29 pm

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — Today we took the usual weekly shabbat break from fieldwork and spent the day as tourists.

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The last of Scorpion Wash

mwilson June 11, 2010 12:05 pm

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — The 2010 Wooster Geology Israel team finished its work today in the Upper Cretaceous rocks at our northern locality, Wadi Aqrav.  We measured several dozen cobbles from the base of the Menuha Formation, and then collected … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s first dinosaur! (Well … maybe.)

mwilson June 10, 2010 11:58 am

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — This morning while collecting fossils in the Zihor Formation (Upper Cretaceous) we found the above bones and several other smaller fragments.  They are reptile bones as shown by their density and configuration.  The shape of the … Continue reading →

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Yes, we are finding plenty of fossil shark teeth in the Negev

mwilson June 10, 2010 11:56 am
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