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.

Another geological scouting day in southwestern Utah

Mark Wilson April 17, 2018

Kanab, Utah — My day began with a visit to the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, where I met Andrew R.C. Milner, the Site Paleontologist and Curator. This museum is built over an extraordinary set of dinosaur … Continue reading →
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A Wooster Geologist returns to the Jurassic of southwestern Utah

Mark Wilson April 16, 2018

St. George, Utah — This week I’m exploring the wonderful Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation exposed in southwestern Utah. It is a rare bit of solo fieldwork I’m doing to prepare for a Wooster Independent Study expedition here with students and … Continue reading →
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A Wooster Paleontologist visits the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

Mark Wilson April 5, 2018

Washington, DC — I have the privilege this semester of being on a research leave from teaching, so I thought I’d report on one of my activities. Without classroom responsibilities I can travel for research opportunities, especially now as the … Continue reading →
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A geological and archaeological hike in northeastern Ohio on the last day of winter

Mark Wilson March 19, 2018

It was a beautiful latest-winter day in Wooster. Nick Wiesenberg had the great idea of taking an afternoon to hike through Pee Wee Hollow, a wooded area of ravines, streams and rocky exposures a few miles northwest of Wooster near … Continue reading →
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A warm February afternoon in Spangler Park

Mark Wilson February 20, 2018

Wooster, Ohio — The weather today was extraordinary. It reached at least 70°F in our little Ohio town, which must be near a record. Greg Wiles, Nick Wiesenberg and I took advantage of the warmth and sunlight to hike through … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Echinoid bite marks from the Upper Cretaceous of southwestern France

Mark Wilson November 29, 2017

Above is another beautiful image from Paul Taylor’s paleontological lab at the Natural History Museum, London. It is one of our fossil oysters (Pycnodonte vesicularis) from the French Type Campanian collected in the town of Archiac in southwestern France on … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Barnacle borings from the Cretaceous of southwestern Francs

Mark Wilson November 23, 2017

Small comma-shaped trace fossils this week in a Cretaceous (Upper Campanian) oyster (Pycnodonte vesicularis) from the Aubeterre Formation of southwestern France. (Locality C/W-747, Plage des Nonnes, to be exact.) These are borings produced by barnacles, which are sedentary crustaceans more … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: The tiniest of brachiopods (Middle Jurassic of Utah)

Mark Wilson November 3, 2017

While preparing for this summer’s expedition to the Middle Jurassic of southwestern Utah, I found this specimen in our collection from the 1990s. You may be able to just make out the wedge-shaped outline of a mytilid-like bivalve with several … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Bryozoan encrusting a bryozoan (Campanian of southwestern France)

Mark Wilson October 27, 2017

Today’s post is in honor of Macy Conrad’s (Wooster ’18) poster at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, which was held earlier this week. It is also to recognize again the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) genius of … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Foraminifera clustered around a sponge boring (Campanian of southwestern France)

Mark Wilson October 20, 2017

If all goes to plan, today I leave for the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America, held this year in Seattle, Washington. To mark the occasion, this week’s fossil is from a poster Macy Conrad (’18), Paul Taylor … Continue reading →
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