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.

Silurian limestone under our feet

Mark Wilson July 6, 2012 2:27 pm

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–The 2012 Wooster Estonia expedition had its first official time in the field this afternoon. Jonah, Richa and I traveled the short distance from Kuressaare to the historical Sõrve peninsula in the extreme southwest of Saaremaa. There we explored … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists return to Estonia

Mark Wilson July 6, 2012 6:49 am

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–It took longer than we expected, but three Wooster geologists and four colleagues from Ohio State University are finally on the island of Saaremaa and ready for our fieldwork in the Silurian limestones along the shores here and on … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Wiggly little foraminiferans from the Middle Jurassic of southern England

Mark Wilson July 1, 2012 1:49 am

These shell fragments are of the oyster Praeexogyra hebridica var. elongata, and I picked them up long ago from a remarkable unit made almost entirely of them. It is the Elongata Bed at the base of the Frome Clay (Middle … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A mastodon tusk (Late Pleistocene of Holmes County, Ohio)

Mark Wilson June 24, 2012 1:00 am

This long and weathered tusk sits in a display case outside my office. It is from the American Mastodon (Mammut americanum) and was found many decades ago in Holmes County, just south of Wooster. A tooth found with it was … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a long and skinny bryozoan (Upper Cretaceous of Wyoming and South Dakota, USA)

Mark Wilson June 17, 2012 1:35 am

Please say hello to Pierrella larsoni Wilson & Taylor 2012 — a new genus and species of ctenostome bryozoan from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) Pierre Shale of Wyoming and South Dakota. I imagine it as a graceful little thing spreading … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: dinosaur gastroliths (Jurassic of Utah, USA)

Mark Wilson June 10, 2012 1:52 am

These rounded stones are labeled in our collections as gastroliths (literally “stomach stones”) from Starr Springs near Hanksville, Wayne County, Utah. I’m featuring them this week in honor of our Utah Project team working right now in the baking Black … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologist on the Blue Ridge of Virginia

Mark Wilson June 3, 2012 8:13 pm

The summer field season has started for Wooster geologists. Greg Wiles is now in southern Alaska with his students doing dendrochronology and geomorphology. Meagen Pollock and Shelley Judge are running an integrated project in west-central Utah with their students doing … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a very large clam (Upper Cretaceous of South Dakota, USA)

Mark Wilson June 3, 2012 1:31 am

Our version above of the bivalve Inoceramus is actually rather small compared to how big it can get. The record holder is a specimen 187 centimeters in diameter (over six feet) in the Geological Museum of Copenhagen. This Wooster Inoceramus … Continue reading →

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Scovel Hall lecture room renovations begin (periodically updated)

Mark Wilson May 31, 2012 3:42 pm

Our beloved Scovel Hall lecture rooms are finally being updated. The fixed seats in Room 105 endured by generations of student behinds are headed to the dumpster (including their 1985 color scheme) and will be replaced by tables and movable … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a trilobite burrow (Upper Ordovician of Ohio)

Mark Wilson May 27, 2012 1:43 am

This is one of my favorite trace fossils. Rusophycus pudicum Hall, 1852, is its formal name. It was made by a trilobite digging down into the seafloor sediment back during the Ordovician Period in what is now southern Ohio. It … Continue reading →

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