Author Archives: Mark Wilson

The most effective agents of marine bioerosion today are among the simplest of animals: clionaid sponges. The traces they make in carbonate substrates are spherical chambers connected by short tunnels, as shown above in a modern example excavated in an… Continue reading →

WOOSTER, OHIO–The College of Wooster requires an Independent Study (I.S.) thesis (or performance) from all of its graduates. These are not just extended literature reviews, but unique research projects crafted for and by each of our students. We … Continue reading →

It’s no ordinary oyster, of course, because it comes from Texas. It certainly is the largest oyster I’ve ever seen. Wooster received it as part of a large donation in 2010. (You can see students studying it in this previous … Continue… Continue reading →

This summer ten College of Wooster faculty will be traveling to Jordan and the Jerusalem area for an extended study seminar on conflict and cooperation between Jordanians, Israelis and Palestinians. We are supported by the Hales Fund at Wooster adminis… Continue reading →

WOOSTER, OHIO–It is now difficult to believe that we were measuring stratigraphic sections in a sleety thunderstorm on Saturday. Today the Tuesday lab of my Sedimentology & Stratigraphy course visited a local outcrop of the Logan Formation (L… Continue reading →

We’re looking at two fossils above. One is the bryozoan Peronopora, the major skeletal structure. The second is the odd series of scalloped holes in its surface. These are a trace fossil called Catellocaula vallata Palmer and Wilson 1988. They &#… Continue reading →

FAIRBORN, OHIO–I actually used to brag about the great weather on my class field trips. The hubris! Today Shelley Judge and I took our combined Sedimentology & Stratigraphy and Structural Geology classes to Oakes Park Quarry near Dayton for a… Continue reading →

WOOSTER, OHIO–Six Wooster geology seniors presented their research to the campus and public this morning in Kauke Hall on the College of Wooster campus. They were among the first posters in the annual Senior Research Symposium in which Independen… Continue reading →

This weathered and encrusted shell was pulled from a round hole bored in a Pleistocene reef (about 125,000 years old) exposed on San Salvador Island, The Bahamas. It is Coralliophaga coralliophaga (Gmelin 1791), a derived venerid bivalve (a type of &#8… Continue reading →

DAYTON, OHIO–It was 37°F and raining this morning as three stalwart Wooster Geology students and I worked in a muddy quarry near Fairborn, Ohio (N 39.81472°, W 83.99471°). Our task was to scout out a beautiful exposure of the Brassfield &#8230… Continue reading →