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.

A much more pleasant day in southwestern Utah

Hurricane, Utah — This is our morning view to the north from our Team Utah headquarters in Hurricane. The snowy Pine Valley Mountains were especially beautiful as the clouds lifted overnight. Such colors. A much warmer day was ahead of … Continue reading
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Team Jurassic Utah endures polar conditions

Hurricane, Utah — Well, maybe not fully polar, but it was very cold and windy in southern Utah today. Our glove-less fingers were numb, and the bitter gusts penetrated our pitiful parkas. We collected some samples but put off measuring … Continue reading
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A productive first day for Wooster Geologists in Utah

Hurricane, Utah — Team Jurassic Utah 2019 started its fieldwork on a cloudy March day with a bit of a chill and some light rain, but it didn’t rain again and the cooler temperatures were comfortable. We worked on the … Continue reading
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Science Olympiad training, fossil events

Wooster, Ohio — I had the pleasure today of assisting with the training of Olympians! The above three students are from Orrville High and Middle Schools, along with their coach the ace geology high school teacher Jim Duxbury. They came … Continue reading
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Bringing three new Silurian bryozoan species into the world

I love being part of the scientific process of naming new organisms and placing them into the grand narrative that is the history of life. It is a kind of rescue — retrieving species from oblivion by giving them identities. … Continue reading
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Conulariid and trepostome bryozoan symbiosis in the Upper Ordovician of Estonia

A new paper is just out in which all the characters have been covered previously in this blog, but not as parts of a single story. It describes an interprets the relationship between the mysterious conulariids and trepostome bryozoans in … Continue reading
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New paper on bryoimmuration and taphonomic engineering

I’m pleased to link to a new paper that has just appeared in the journal Lethaia. My wonderful coauthors are Caroline Buttler (National Museum Wales) and Paul Taylor (Natural History Museum, London). The paper explores the role calcitic bryozoans play … Continue reading
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Wooster Earth Scientists at their annual “Mock GSA” — 2018 version

Wooster, Ohio — Every Fall the students and faculty of Wooster’s Earth Sciences Department look forward to participating in the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. Next week the meeting will be held in Indianapolis, and over a … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Invertebrate Paleontology class at work

Wooster, Ohio — The Invertebrate Paleontology class at Wooster set to work this afternoon on the excellent fossils they collected at the beginning of last week. They had already washed them carefully, using soft brushes and soap, and now were … Continue reading
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2018 Invertebrate Paleontology field trip — with the Ghost of Gordon

The Invertebrate Paleontology class at Wooster had its annual field trip today to the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Cincinnati Group (Upper Whitewater Formation) in eastern Indiana. The weather looked terrible as the remnant of Tropical Storm Gordon worked its way into … Continue reading
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