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.

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A carrier shell snail (Recent, Pacific Ocean)

mwilson October 16, 2011 12:01 am

OK, it’s true: our Fossil of the Week is not actually a fossil. (The “Recent” in the title was a clue.) I bought this shell at the Wayne County Fair and it was so beautiful it just had to make … Continue reading →

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Sclerobionts and Extinctions: A Wooster Geologist Faculty Talk at the 2011 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting

mwilson October 12, 2011 9:29 am

The last day of a professional meeting is very different from the first. At least half the attendees have gone home. Those that remain move a little slower and have that glazed look from late night dinners, too little sleep, … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geology Alumni Gather at the 2011 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting

mwilson October 10, 2011 10:24 pm

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA–It is a tradition that Wooster geology alumni, faculty, students and friends gather at the Geological Society of America meeting on Monday evening. Twenty-three of us were there tonight, although we never seem to get everyone in the same … Continue reading →

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First Wooster student presentations: The Estonia team

mwilson October 9, 2011 11:07 pm

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA–The first Wooster students presented today at the Geological Society of America annual meeting. Above is Nick Fedorchuk who talked about his work in Estonia studying the Wenlock-Ludlow boundary on Saaremaa Island and its implication for Silurian stratigraphy and … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists in Minneapolis! (Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America)

mwilson October 9, 2011 2:27 pm

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA–Wooster Geologists are again attending the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in force. It is strangely very warm and sunny here in mid-October Minneapolis. The convention center looks like a late summer college campus with people … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: an aberrant brachiopod (Permian of Texas)

mwilson October 9, 2011 1:43 am

Funny word to apply to a fossil: aberrant, meaning “deviating from the normal”. It’s an old-fashioned word rarely used these days, primarily because we have a hard time defining “normal”. It was the word used when I was introduced to … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: an oreodont (probably from the Oligocene of Nebraska)

mwilson October 2, 2011 1:36 am

Oreodonts are extraordinarily common fossils in the Oligocene of North America. Just about every teaching fossil collection contains at least a couple oreodont skulls, most obtained during late Nineteenth-Century field trips to the Great Plains. Our specimen above is of … Continue reading →

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You’re never too young to be a geologist: Nursery School students visit Scovel Hall

mwilson September 30, 2011 2:05 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–The Wooster Geologists have long had a special relationship with The College of Wooster Nursery School (where young children “actively construct their own knowledge of the world”). Every year our faculty and students talk to the children about rocks, … Continue reading →

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A Midday Biology & Geology Field Trip

mwilson September 28, 2011 4:24 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–Our colleague Rick Lehtinen in the Department of Biology had a great idea: how about a casual noon trip to the local Spangler Park to enjoy the plants, animals, rocks and streams? So Greg Wiles and I took him … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: a venerid bivalve (Upper Cretaceous of Jordan)

mwilson September 25, 2011 1:39 am

This summer I joined a team describing a shell bed in the Upper Cretaceous (lower Campanian, about 80 million years old) Wadi Umm Ghudran Formation exposed northeast of Amman, Jordan (at N 32° 09.241′, E 36° 12.960′, to be exact). … Continue reading →

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