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.

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Giant ostracods (Silurian of Estonia)

Mark Wilson October 7, 2012 1:24 am

During our Estonian expedition this summer, Richa Ekka (’13) chose as her Independent Study project focus the Soeginina Beds (lowermost Ludlow, Upper Silurian) of the Paadla Formation exposed in southeastern Saaremaa Island. These carbonate sediments, mostly dolomitized, were deposited in … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologist at the New England Aquarium

Mark Wilson October 4, 2012 4:17 pm

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS–I’m in Boston for a day on some College business and had the opportunity to visit the New England Aquarium. Its primary feature, a huge central aquarium with steps surrounding it, is under construction, but there were plenty of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Beautiful molds on a concretion (Lower Carboniferous of Ohio)

Mark Wilson September 30, 2012 1:41 am

Kit Price (’13) was exploring a local creek on a Geomorphology course field trip north of Wooster led by Dr. Greg Wiles. Like the excellent paleontologist Kit is, her eyes continually searched the pebbles, cobbles, slabs and outcrops for that … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a deformed brachiopod (Upper Ordovician of Indiana)

Mark Wilson September 23, 2012 1:12 am

Kevin Silver (’13), a sharp-eyed paleontology student, found this odd brachiopod on our field trip earlier this month in southeastern Indiana. It comes from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Whitewater Formation. Kevin correctly identified it as Vinlandostrophia acutilirata (Conrad, 1842), an … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: a little sclerobiont community (Upper Ordovician of Indiana)

Mark Wilson September 16, 2012 1:28 am

Last week the students of my Invertebrate Paleontology class found many excellent fossils in the Whitewater and Liberty Formations of southeastern Indiana. We will be featuring some of them in this space. I want to start with one of my … Continue reading →

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Paleontology field trip in southeastern Indiana

Mark Wilson September 9, 2012 9:07 pm

RICHMOND, INDIANA–Geology students in the Cincinnati area are a bit spoiled when it comes to finding fossils in the field. The Upper Ordovician rocks here are world-famous for the extraordinary abundance, variety and preservation of invertebrate fossils.like those shown above … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a twisted little crinoid (Lower Silurian of Estonia)

Mark Wilson September 9, 2012 1:39 am

This week’s fossil is a tiny little crinoid with an odd shape. Calceocrinus balticensis (shown above with the scale bar as one millimeter) is a new species from the Lower Silurian (Llandovery) of Hiiumaa, western Estonia. It is part of … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Sea urchin bits (Middle Jurassic of southern Israel)

Mark Wilson September 2, 2012 1:48 am

Our fossils this week come from our growing collection of material found in the Matmor Formation (Callovian-Oxfordian) of Makhtesh Gadol, southern Israel. In November I will be giving a talk at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists begin the 2012-2013 school year

Mark Wilson August 30, 2012 8:49 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–Always so much fun to begin a new year with the Wooster Geologists. The happy people above belong to the Geology Club in our annual group photo. This semester we are missing our treasured colleague Shelley Judge who is … Continue reading →

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Classes begin again for Wooster Geologists

Mark Wilson August 27, 2012 10:07 am

The happy students above are in our 8:00 a.m. History of Life course (Geology 100). They are the first class to use our newly-renovated Scovel 105 room. To remind you what it used to look like — This new room … Continue reading →

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