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 Fossil of the Week: A new Late Ordovician bryozoan from Oklahoma

Mark Wilson July 29, 2016

I am very pleased to introduce a new bryozoan genus and species recently described in the First View section of the Journal of Paleontology. Paul Taylor (Natural History Museum, London) and I present: “A new runner-like cyclostome bryozoan from the … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A bored rhynchonellid brachiopod from the Middle Jurassic of France

Mark Wilson July 22, 2016

Another beautiful brachiopod this week from our friend Mr. Clive Champion in England. His donations to our collections have considerably enriched our teaching program, especially for brachiopods! This specimen is the rhynchonellid Kutchirhynchia morieri (Davidson, 1852) from the Middle Jurassic … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologist at Argonne National Laboratory

Mark Wilson July 16, 2016

Editor’s note: The following post is from guest blogger Clara Deck (’17) about her research experience this summer with an internship at one of the world’s most prominent laboratories. She is working on an important climate change project involving the … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A molluscan assemblage from the Miocene of Maryland

Mark Wilson July 15, 2016

Earlier this month a gentleman stopped by The Department of Geology and donated the above beautiful slab of fossils to our program. Dale Chadwick of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is an avid amateur fossil collector with a very useful website and considerable … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An ammonite from the Middle Jurassic of southern England

Mark Wilson July 8, 2016

We’re featuring just a workaday fossil this week because of other summer activities. This is the ammonite Leptosphinctes Buckman 1929 from the Inferior Oolite (Middle Jurassic) at Coombe Quarry, Mapperton, Dorset, southern England. Cassidy Jester (’17) and I collected it … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Iron-oxide oncoids (“snuff-boxes”) from the Middle Jurassic of southern England

Mark Wilson July 1, 2016

These fossils (in the broad sense!) are inevitable for our weekly feature considering how much time we spent studying and collecting them during last month’s fieldwork in Dorset, southern England. “Snuff-boxes” are the subject of Cassidy Jester’s (’17) Senior Independent … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Encrusting cyanobacteria from the Upper Ordovician of the Cincinnati region — now published

Mark Wilson June 24, 2016

[This week’s post is a repeat from last year, with some modifications. The paper Paul Taylor and I wrote on these microbial beauties has just appeared this week in the latest issue of the journal Palaios. A pdf is yours … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologist high in the air!

Mark Wilson June 21, 2016

Editor’s note: The following post is from guest blogger Annette Hilton (’17) about her extraordinary research experiences this summer. Annette gets around: You may remember her post last summer from the American Museum of Natural History. This summer I have … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologists in England: Team Dorset

Mark Wilson June 19, 2016

Cassidy Jester (’17) and I have now finished our fieldwork in southern England this month. Cassidy traveled through Britain afterwards, and I went on to London and the Natural History Museum. It was all a success thanks to my friends … Continue reading →
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Final day at The Natural History Museum … and one more Jurassic snuff-box

Mark Wilson June 19, 2016

London, England — My last day in London was spent working on GSA abstracts and examining one last ferruginous oncoid (“snuff-box”) from the Jurassic (Bajocian) of southern England. Bob Chandler donated to the cause a large discoidal snuff-box. We cut … Continue reading →
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