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.

Because ice is a mineral …

Mark Wilson February 1, 2011 10:07 am

… we should record this morning’s ice storm in Wooster. You can read about the surprising properties of water ice as well on Wikipedia. This makes me long for hot desert days.

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: The Multidisciplinary European Thorny Oyster (Pliocene of Cyprus)

Mark Wilson January 30, 2011 1:56 am

In the summer of 1996, I was a co-director of  a Keck Geology Consortium project on the island of Cyprus. My students and I worked on the hot central plains far from the well known ophiolite complex in the cool … Continue reading →

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In praise of the humble Ro-Tap

Mark Wilson January 25, 2011 3:58 pm

While we celebrate our new XRF and XRD equipment in Dr. Meagen Pollock’s petrology lab (which has already produced actual results), I thought we should also recognize our oldest piece of continuously-operated equipment in the department, the Ro-Tap Sieve Shaker: … Continue reading →

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Dr. Stan Totten (’58) receives a Hall of Fame award from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Mark Wilson January 25, 2011 12:51 pm

Wooster has always been proud of its distinguished alumnus Stan Totten (’58), a retired professor of geology at Hanover College. We are now pleased to see that the state of Ohio has recognized him for his many contributions to understanding … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A most unlikely clam — rudists from the Upper Cretaceous of the Oman Mountains

Mark Wilson January 23, 2011 1:08 am

This week’s fossil was collected on a memorable trip in 2000 to the United Arab Emirates and Oman with my friend Paul Taylor, an invertebrate paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. We were there to study hard substrate … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A cystoid (Middle Ordovician of northeastern Estonia)

Mark Wilson January 16, 2011 1:26 am

Fossils don’t get much more spherical than Echinosphaerites aurantium, an extinct creature common in the Early and Middle Ordovician of North America and Europe. These are cystoids, a somewhat informal category of filter-feeding, stalked echinoderms that are relatives of the … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A three-branched graptolite (Lower Ordovician of southeastern Australia)

Mark Wilson January 9, 2011 2:22 am

This week I’m correcting a mistake I’ve been making in my paleontology courses for nearly thirty years. Our subject is a graptolite from the teaching collections — a specimen that has been at least cursorily examined by all of my … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: The tabulate coral Aulopora (Devonian of northwestern Ohio)

Mark Wilson January 2, 2011 6:49 pm

We’re going to start 2011 with a new blog feature: Fossil of the Week! My colleagues, of course, are welcome to also start “Mineral of the Week”, “Structural Geologic Feature of the Week”, or “Climate Event of the Week”.  The … Continue reading →

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Wooster Geologists Pass Through Travel Hell

Mark Wilson December 20, 2010 1:37 pm

I think the lowest moment was this morning as I stood in one of those long, snaking security lines in the Delta portion of Terminal 3 at JFK International Airport. The high ceiling has pigeon nests in it, and the … Continue reading →

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“The Heathrow Diversion”: Wooster Geologists unexpectedly in New York City

Mark Wilson December 19, 2010 3:24 pm

FLUSHING, QUEENS, NEW YORK–It seemed like such a good plan months ago. My Senior Independent Study student Megan Innis and I worked this summer in the American South with Paul Taylor and Caroline Sogot, as documented in this blog. We … Continue reading →

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