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.

Postcard from Wooster, Ohio

mwilson February 22, 2011 10:01 am

On such a winter’s day.

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A honeycomb coral (Upper Ordovician of southern Indiana)

mwilson February 20, 2011 1:22 am

Polygons are common in nature, whether in two dimensions as desiccation cracks or in three dimensions as with columnar basalt. They result from “closely-packed” disks or tubes. The honeycomb coral (Favosites Lamarck 1816) is one of the best fossil examples … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A brittle star trace fossil from the Jurassic of Utah

mwilson February 13, 2011 1:24 am

This week we have a trace fossil that looks almost exactly like the animal that made it. A trace fossil is evidence of organism activity recorded in the rock record. The photograph above shows one of my favorite specimens: Asteriacites … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin! An Occasion to Celebrate the Teaching of Evolution

mwilson February 12, 2011 11:56 am

It is now a tradition among scientists to celebrate the birthday of the great English naturalist Charles Darwin.  He was born on February 12, 1809 — the very same day Abraham Lincoln entered the world.  (I have images of both … Continue reading →

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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A chewed-up leaf (Upper Cretaceous of Kansas)

mwilson February 6, 2011 1:17 am

This week’s fossil is a departure from our usual set of marine invertebrate animals. Above is a leaf of Viburnum lesquereuxii from the Dakota Formation of Ellsworth County, Kansas. The rocks enclosing it are from the Upper Cretaceous Cenomanian Stage, … Continue reading →

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Because ice is a mineral …

mwilson 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)

mwilson 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

mwilson 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

mwilson 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

mwilson 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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