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.

Laboratory macrophotography in the Department of Earth Sciences at The College of Wooster

Mark Wilson June 3, 2021 12:29 pm

In a comment on a Fossil of the Week post last month, Wooster Geologist Alumnus Dr. Bill Reinthal suggested I describe the processes I use to create images of rocks and fossils for this blog, publications and other outlets. This … Continue reading →

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A diatom study begins at Wooster

Mark Wilson June 1, 2021 6:40 pm

This happy Wooster Geologist is Justine Paul Berina (’22). He and I have started a project with diatoms found in mud cores taken from Brown’s Lake and Brown’s Lake Bog by Dr. Greg Wiles, Nick Weisenberg, various crews from the … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Giant Pliocene scallop from Virginia with bonus sclerobionts

Mark Wilson May 30, 2021 3:31 pm

Yes, the feature “Wooster’s Fossil of the Week” was retired long ago (all entries still available on this blog), but occasionally I will still cover interesting fossils we come across in the lab or field. The title is now a … Continue reading →

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Milestones for two Wooster Geologists

Mark Wilson May 26, 2021 5:43 pm

There was some good news for the College of Wooster Earth Sciences faculty during the otherwise dreary Pandemic Year. The two cheerful Wooster geologists pictured above in the field (today!) reached important points in their professional lives. Dr. Meagen Pollock … Continue reading →

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Microbial Structures of the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) Carmel Formation, Southwest Utah: William Santella’s Senior Independent Study thesis

Mark Wilson April 16, 2021 6:14 pm

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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Wooster Geologists featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education

Mark Wilson April 9, 2021 10:18 am

The Senior Independent Study process for Morgan Pedroso Curry (’21) and his creative, enthusiastic advisor Dr. Shelley Judge is the subject of an excellent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education this week. (The article may be behind a pay … Continue reading →

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A new “living fossil” bryozoan with a Wooster connection

Mark Wilson March 13, 2021 11:43 am

Way back in the summer of 2008, my good friend Paul Taylor (the Natural History Museum, London), John Sime (Senior Independent Study student at the time) and I explored the Pierre Shale (Upper Cretaceous) of the Black Hills region in … Continue reading →

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New paper on predatory drill holes in Cambrian/Ordovician brachiopods (northern Estonia and northwest Russia)

Mark Wilson February 4, 2021 6:17 pm

Once again I’m proud to be on Olev Vinn’s team with this new article on predatory drill holes in Cambrian and Ordovician brachiopods. Predation in the fossil record is always interesting, especially in the early Paleozoic. Here is the abstract … Continue reading →

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Israeli Graduate Student Yael Leshno Afriat summarizes her work in the Middle Jurassic of Israel

Mark Wilson January 23, 2021 4:12 pm

For several years I’ve been in the advising circle of Yael Leshno Afriat, a geology graduate student at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She has been working in the gorgeous Middle Jurassic units of northern and southern Israel — rocks … Continue reading →

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A Wooster Geologist goes virtual

Mark Wilson December 15, 2020 3:53 pm

Wooster, Ohio — We can’t let the eventful year of 2020 to pass without some record in this blog of how these difficult times profoundly affected Wooster’s Department of Earth Sciences. Along with the rest of the American educational system, … Continue reading →

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