Author Archives: Mark Wilson

About Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson is a 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.

Who knew that crinoids could be boring? A possible bioeroding crinoid attachment structure from the early Silurian of Estonia (new paper)

Our hard-working and observant Estonian colleagues (Olev Vinn and Ursula Toom) recently made a remarkable discovery among Estonian early Silurian fossils: an attachment structure of a stalked crinoid that apparently bioeroded its way into a calcitic st… Continue reading

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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Lingulid brachiopod trace fossils from the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation of southwestern Utah

This is a short trace fossil story with two disappointments, one much more than the other. It involves trace fossils made by lingulid brachiopods, a marine invertebrate group with a very long geological history. The earliest appeared in the Cambrian, &… Continue reading

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Reflecting on the Earth Sciences Department’s Community Climate Change (CCC) Project

Editor’s note: The following is by Caitlyn Denes (’23). “The Community Climate Change Project sought to document the changes in climate in Wooster, Ohio and surrounding communities. Through the collection, analysis, and interpretation of cl… Continue reading

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New paper: Early Neoproterozoic stromatolites from south Liaoning Province, China

I’m pleased to announce the online publication of a new paper from a Chinese-American geological team. I’m the sole American! My role was minor, being mostly useful for literature review and writing. The senior author is my friend Yong-Li Z… Continue reading

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The Diatom Lake Adventure: Ice ages, hotel titrations, and the Midwest

Editor’s note: Rising Wooster senior Richard Torres (’23) had a spectacular opportunity this summer (May 31 – June 12, 2022) to participate in a National Science Foundation-funded research trip with Dr. Tom Lowell (on the right) and h… Continue reading

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Old dogs, old tricks: A very pleasant day of paleontology in the Lower Carboniferous of northeastern Ohio

The weather was perfect today in verdant northeastern Ohio. Bill Ausich (retired paleontologist from The Ohio State University), Nigel Brush (retired geologist/archaeologist from Ashland University), and I (not retired!) have started a project examinin… Continue reading

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Wooster’s Team Utah 2022 Fieldwork

This is the index page for Wooster’s Team Utah 2022 expedition (May 20-29, 2022). The primary goal of this fieldwork was to provide data and samples for the Independent Study theses of Lucie Fiala (left) and Shipei (Vicky) Wang (right). … Continu… Continue reading

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Wooster Geologists Team Jurassic Utah dips down into the Triassic for its last field day

Today the Wooster Geologists of Team Jurassic Utah visited Early Triassic rocks near Hurricane, Utah (N 37.041054°, W 113.273450°). These are rocks of the Virgin Limestone Member of the Moenkopi Formation. I wanted to show the students the abundant bra… Continue reading

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A culture and nature day for Team Jurassic Utah 2022

Our field work is now done, so we had a day of cultural and natural sites. Our morning started with a visit to the Visitor’s Center at the LDS Temple in St. George. There the students learned at least one … Continue reading → Continue reading

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Jackson Peak section: Another gnatty adventure

This morning the Wooster Geologists visited the westernmost exposure of the lower Carmel Formation at Nielson’s (1990) Jackson Peak section. Nick and Vicky are shown above on the road towards the conical Jackson Peak in the background. The site w… Continue reading

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