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: The tabulate coral Aulopora (Devonian of northwestern Ohio)

mwilson 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

mwilson 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

mwilson 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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The paleontology of hiatus concretions: fossils without sediment

mwilson December 15, 2010 8:16 pm

Way back in 1984, when I was just a green Assistant Professor of Geology, my wife Gloria and I explored a series of Upper Ordovician (about 445 million years old) outcrops in northern Kentucky to plan a paleontology course field … Continue reading →

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A very volcanic tour of New Zealand’s North Island

mwilson December 1, 2010 4:47 pm

Our most distant Wooster Geologist this year, Andrew Collins, is now home from his semester abroad in New Zealand. He had many geological adventures, including that massive earthquake in Christchurch with its hundreds of aftershocks. Please visit his blog for … Continue reading →

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Trays of trilobites, buckets of belemnites ….

mwilson November 26, 2010 9:20 am

WOOSTER, OHIO — Last weekend we picked up another load of rocks, minerals and fossils donated by the family of one of our loyal alumni. We will be sorting through them for months getting them ready for displays and our … Continue reading →

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GeoJeopardy!

mwilson November 11, 2010 7:01 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO — Dr. Meagen Pollock had a great idea: a geology Jeopardy game to liven up a Geology Club meeting … and to encourage the retention of all that knowledge we’re serving up daily. She used a software package … Continue reading →

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Putting donated fossils to work

mwilson November 5, 2010 10:52 am

WOOSTER, OHIO — Last month we began integrating a large collection of rocks, minerals and fossils into our teaching program in the Department of Geology. These specimens were donated by an Ohio family who lovingly gathered them over decades. They … Continue reading →

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It is not just fossils in a paleontology lab

mwilson November 4, 2010 2:50 pm

WOOSTER, OHIO — To understand ancient life a paleontology student must also know a considerable amount about modern life. In our Invertebrate Paleontology course this means that students study, for example, modern clams to provide a context for the fossil … Continue reading →

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Another GSA presentation from a Wooster Geologist: Long-term tree ring records from Glacier Bay National Park

mwilson November 3, 2010 6:25 pm

(by Stephanie Jarvis, ’11) Professor Greg Wiles, the Ross K. Shoolroy Chair of Natural Resources at Wooster, finished off the series of Wooster presentations at this year’s Geological Society of America Annual Meeting with his talk: “Multi-millenial-scale tree ring records … Continue reading →

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