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 fracture-shaped bioerosion trace from the Pliocene of Cyprus

Mark Wilson June 10, 2016

This past semester I worked with three colleagues on a massive trace fossil review paper, which we hope meets success in the next month or so. My primary job on the team was to sort out bioerosion traces, especially those … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: A bored Ordovician hardground from Ohio, and an introduction to a new paper on trace fossils and evolution

Mark Wilson June 3, 2016

Above is an image of a carbonate hardground (cemented seafloor) from the Upper Ordovician of Adams County, Ohio. It comes from the Bull Fork Formation and was recovered along State Route 136 north of Manchester, Ohio (Locality C/W-20). It is … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Echinoderm holdfasts from the Upper Cambrian of Montana

Mark Wilson May 27, 2016

The white buttons above are echinoderm holdfasts from the Snowy Range Formation (Upper Cambrian) of Carbon County, southern Montana. They and their hardground substrate were well described back in the day by Brett et al. (1983). We have these specimens … Continue reading →
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Construction of the new Life Sciences building begins, and the geologists welcome our new biologist labmates

Mark Wilson May 24, 2016

Wooster, Ohio — The College of Wooster community will soon say goodbye to Mateer Hall (above), which has housed the Biology Department for decades. It will be demolished next month to make way for the new Ruth Williams Hall of … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A phyllocarid crustacean from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia, Canada

Mark Wilson May 20, 2016

We are fortunate at Wooster to have a few fossils from the Burgess Shale (Middle Cambrian) collected near Burgess Pass, British Columbia, Canada, including this delicate phyllocarid Canadaspis perfecta (Walcott, 1912). This species is one of the oldest crustaceans, a … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A Recent Sponge Boring from South Carolina

Mark Wilson May 13, 2016

We’re not actually looking at fossils here, but this bivalve-coral-sponge assemblage from the very modern Myrtle Beach in South Carolina is to cool not to share. Jacob Nowell (Wooster ’18) picked it up while on Spring Break this year and … Continue reading →
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A Wooster Geologist Visits Spangler Park

Mark Wilson May 9, 2016

Editor’s note: The following entry was written by Chloe Wallace (’17), a student in this year’s Sedimentology & Stratigraphy course. One of our writing assignments was to write a blog post about our recent field trip to Spangler Park (also … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A craniid brachiopod from the Upper Cretaceous of The Netherlands

Mark Wilson May 6, 2016

These striking little brachiopods are gifts from Clive Champion, a generous Englishman with whom I occasionally exchange packets of fossils. In January I received a surprise box with lots of delicious little brachs, including the two shown above. I remember … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologists in the 2016 Wooster Senior Research Symposium

Mark Wilson April 29, 2016

WOOSTER, OHIO–A dozen Wooster Geologists participated today in the annual Wooster Senior Research Symposium: A Celebration of Independent Study! All did superb presentations that were very well received. The geology portion began in the morning with talks from Team Utah … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A terebratulid brachiopod from the Middle Jurassic of northwestern France

Mark Wilson April 29, 2016

We have another beautiful brachiopod this week from our friend Mr. Clive Champion in England. He sent me a surprise package of fossils earlier this year. They are very much appreciated by me and my students! The specimen above is … Continue reading →
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