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.

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Peanut worms from the Silurian of Illinois

Mark Wilson February 2, 2017

This week’s fossils are a set of cool sipunculan worms from the Lockport Shale Member of the Racine Formation (Wenlockian, Silurian) of Blue Island, Illinois (which, it turns out, is not an island.). This is Lecthaylus gregarius Weller, 1925. (There … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Ammonite septa from the Upper Cretaceous of South Dakota

Mark Wilson January 26, 2017

This week we have an ammonite from the Pierre Shale (Upper Cretaceous, Campanian-Maastrichtian) of southwestern South Dakota. It was collected on a wonderful field expedition in June 2008 with my friend Paul Taylor (The Natural History Museum, London) and my … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Revisiting a pair of hyoliths from the Middle Ordovician of Estonia

Mark Wilson January 19, 2017

We met these modest internal molds of the mysterious hyoliths about five years ago. With a dramatic new development in hyolith studies, they are worth seeing again. These fossils are internal molds (the sediment that filled the shell) of of … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: New review paper on architectural design of trace fossils

Mark Wilson January 12, 2017

Last year my friend Luis Buatois led a massive project to review essentially all trace fossil invertebrate ichnogenera (523!) to place them in a series architectural design categories (79). This is a new way to assess patterns of ichnodisparity (variability … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Upper Ordovician brachiopods and bryozoans from paleontology class collections

Mark Wilson January 5, 2017

Last semester the Invertebrate Paleontology class at Wooster had its annual field trip into the Upper Ordovician of southern Ohio. We had a great, if a bit muddy, time collecting fossils for each student’s semester-long project preparing, identifying, and interpreting … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Geological Magic Lantern Slides from the 19th Century (Part III)

Mark Wilson December 15, 2016

This is the last post illustrating the 19th Century Magic Lantern Slides recently found in Scovel Hall of Wooster’s Geology Department. Please see the December 2 post and the week before for details. To review, these slides are 4×8 inches … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Ordovician bioerosion trace fossils

Mark Wilson December 8, 2016

This week’s post is a celebration of the appearance of a remarkable two-volume work on trace fossils and evolution. The editors and major authors are my friends Gabriela Mángano and Luis Buatois (University of Saskatchewan). They are extraordinary geologists, paleontologists … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Geological Magic Lantern Slides from the 19th Century (Part II)

Mark Wilson December 1, 2016

This is a continuation of last week’s post about a set of 19th century “Magic Lantern Slides” found in Scovel Hall at Wooster. These evocative scenes are taken from reconstructions of ancient life by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894). In 1855, … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Geological Magic Lantern Slides from the 19th Century (Part I)

Mark Wilson November 24, 2016

“Wooster’s Fossil of the Week” is not always about actual fossils, but our topics are each paleontological. Many years ago I discovered in an old box tucked away in the attic of Scovel Hall at Wooster a set of “Magic … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A juvenile conch from the Upper Pleistocene (Eemian) of The Bahamas

Mark Wilson November 17, 2016

I collected this beautiful shell from a seashore exposure of Pleistocene sediments on Great Inagua, the third largest island of The Bahamas. I was on an epic expedition to this bit of paradise with Al Curran and Brian White of … Continue reading →
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