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.

A lovely day to visit the Ordovician seas of Indiana

Mark Wilson August 20, 2023 8:06 pm

This year’s Paleoecology class field trip was to a familiar place: a roadcut outside Richmond, Indiana, exposing the Whitewater Formation in the gorgeous Upper Ordovician System. We call it the catchy name “C/W-148” (N 39.78722°, W 84.90166°). It was a … Continue reading →

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Aquatic siliceous microbiota team excelling with summer research at The College of Wooster

Mark Wilson July 6, 2023 1:23 pm

I am honored to be working with a great research team this summer in Scovel Hall at The College of Wooster. Our topic has been the analysis of the siliceous sponges and diatoms in a sediment core from Brown’s Lake … Continue reading →

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Another new paper: A nestling brachiopod in an Ordovician boring and its implications

Mark Wilson June 8, 2023 9:54 am

I know, I know, several new papers lately. This spike in publications is a function of two things: The pandemic with its enforced isolation meant my colleagues and I had more time to finish manuscripts, and I belong to some … Continue reading →

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The Ordovician Bioclaustration Revolution: A new paper

Mark Wilson June 6, 2023 8:08 am

Bioclaustration is the process by which an organism is embedded within the growing skeleton of another. Bioclaustrations are fascinating in the fossil record because they give direct information about how two or more organisms lived together in the ancient past … Continue reading →

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A new paper on brachiopod symbiosis in the Early Paleozoic

Mark Wilson May 20, 2023 1:19 pm

My Estonian colleague and friend Olev Vinn and I have been working for many years on examples of parasitism recorded in the fossil record. For the last couple of years we have been summarizing the data and assessing paleoecological and … Continue reading →

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Consequences of publishing fraud: A geosciences journal placed on probation

Mark Wilson May 15, 2023 8:41 am

In the Fall of 2021, in the depths of the covid pandemic, I found a long series of fake papers in the Springer Nature Arabian Journal of Geosciences. These were blatant frauds, with nonsense titles, nonsense references, and nonsense text … Continue reading →

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An Analysis of the Effects of Water Chemistry on Diatom Ecology Over Time in the American Upper Midwest — The Independent Study project of Richard Torres (’23)

Mark Wilson May 9, 2023 10:45 am

Editor’s Note: Independent Study (IS) at The College of Wooster is a three-course series required of every student before graduation. Earth Sciences students typically begin in the second semester of their junior years with project identification, literature review, and a … Continue reading →

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The Gunlock Member: Description of a Proposed New Member of the Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic) of Southwestern Utah — The Independent Study project of Lucie Fiala (’23)

Mark Wilson May 8, 2023 10:56 am

Editor’s Note: Independent Study (IS) at The College of Wooster is a three-course series required of every student before graduation. Earth Sciences students typically begin in the second semester of their junior years with project identification, literature review, and a … Continue reading →

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The Nuclear Densitometer: Its Design, Use in Construction, and an Experimental Application — The Independent Study project of Addie Tagg (’23)

Mark Wilson May 7, 2023 10:34 am

Editor’s Note: Independent Study (IS) at The College of Wooster is a three-course series required of every student before graduation. Earth Sciences students typically begin in the second semester of their junior years with project identification, literature review, and a … Continue reading →

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Creating a Hydrological Profile of Northern Shreve, Ohio, Through Groundwater Well Analysis — The Independent Study project of Ryan Sullivan (’23)

Mark Wilson May 6, 2023 10:24 am

Editor’s Note: Independent Study (IS) at The College of Wooster is a three-course series required of every student before graduation. Earth Sciences students typically begin in the second semester of their junior years with project identification, literature review, and a … Continue reading →

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