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.

From east to west across Saaremaa Island’s Silurian

mwilson July 8, 2012 11:15 am

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–The Wooster/OSU Estonia team continued to explore the Silurian section on Saaremaa Island today. It was our last day with our friend Olev Vinn, and he showed us the only remaining Silurian outcrop here I have not seen: Kübassaare … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: fusulinids (Upper Carboniferous of Kansas)

mwilson July 8, 2012 12:24 am

They look like little footballs, at least the American variety of football. Fusulinids (the name indicating the fusiform shape) are about the size and shape of wheat grains. They were marine protists (single-celled eucaryotes) that lived from the late Early … Continue reading →

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Crinoid hunting in ancient Baltica

mwilson July 7, 2012 2:12 pm

KURESSAARE, ESTONIA–Bill Ausich (Ohio State University) and I have a grant from the National Geographic Society to study the “origination and evolution of Middle Paleozoic crinoids on the Baltica paleocontinent“. Bill is the prime mover behind this project as one … Continue reading →

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Silurian limestone under our feet

mwilson 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

mwilson 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

mwilson 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)

mwilson 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)

mwilson 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)

mwilson 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

mwilson 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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