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.

Fossils in the Wild: Invertebrate Paleontology Field Trip

mwilson September 11, 2011 11:06 pm

CAESAR CREEK LAKE, OHIO–The 2011 Invertebrate Paleontology class had a productive field trip on a beautiful Ohio day. Thunderstorms roamed the state, but we saw them only when we were comfortably on the bus. We worked in the emergency spillway … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A tabulate coral (Middle Devonian of New York)

mwilson September 4, 2011 1:43 am

This week’s specimen is from a group of fossils I gave my Invertebrate Paleontology students as “unknowns” to identify. Since it is their very first week of class I expected them to struggle, but many did remarkably well. (Congratulations to … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists begin the 2011-2012 school year

mwilson September 1, 2011 2:52 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO–The cheerful group above is the Wooster Geology Club in our traditional start of the year group photograph. (The image was kindly taken by Danielle Reeder.) We are fewer than usual because an unprecedented number of our geology majors … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A trilobite hypostome (Upper Ordovician of southern Ohio)

mwilson August 21, 2011 1:44 am

We had a familiar trilobite last week, so this week we’ll look at a poorly-known part of a trilobite: the hypostome. Above is an incomplete forked, conterminant hypostome of the large trilobite Isotelus. (Isotelus, by the way, is the state … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A trilobite (Middle Cambrian of Utah)

mwilson August 14, 2011 1:32 am

I’ve avoided having a trilobite as Fossil of the Week because it seems like such a cliché. Everyone knows trilobites, and they are the most common “favorite fossil” (invertebrate, anyway). Plus our best trilobite (seen above) is the most familiar … Continue reading →

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Using the iPad in museum work

mwilson August 8, 2011 8:00 pm

COLUMBUS, OHIO–Earlier this summer my colleagues and I had blog posts describing how we use our iPads in geological fieldwork (with examples from the limestones of Estonia to the basalts of Iceland). Today I used my iPad2 during work in … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: barnacle borings (Middle Jurassic of Israel)

mwilson August 7, 2011 1:49 am

Tiny little trace fossils this week in a Jurassic crinoid stem from the Matmor Formation of the Negev Desert. They are borings produced by barnacles, which are sedentary crustaceans more typically found in conical shells of their own making. These … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An edrioasteroid (Upper Ordovician of Kentucky)

mwilson July 24, 2011 1:17 am

This week’s fossil appeared previously in this blog when we discussed hiatus concretions and their fossil fauna. It is one of my favorites for both how we found it (see the entry linked above) and the way it introduced me … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Pelican’s-foot snail (Pliocene of Cyprus)

mwilson July 17, 2011 12:27 am

This week’s fossil was found on the same 1996 Keck Geology Expedition to Cyprus that produced the Thorny Oyster highlighted in January. Stephen Dornbos (’97) was there, but this fossil was not part of the Pliocene coral reef complex he … Continue reading →

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Exploring the Silurian at the Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet in Stockholm: Last day of work for the Wooster Geology Estonia Team

mwilson July 12, 2011 11:34 am

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN–No paleontological expedition is complete until it includes time in the collections of a museum. No single sampling trip like ours can describe the full diversity of a fossil site, no matter how many days we spend scouring the … Continue reading →

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