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: Zig-zag oysters from the Middle Jurassic of southern Israel

Mark Wilson December 3, 2015

These pretty little oysters are from the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) of Makhtesh Gadol in southern Israel. Because I regrettably missed going to Israel for fieldwork this summer, I thought I’d choose these exquisite fossils to be celebrated this … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A fragmentary rostroconch from the Middle Devonian of Ohio

Mark Wilson November 26, 2015

Not all of our featured fossils are particularly beautiful, or even entire, but they are interesting in some way. Above is the broken cross-section of a rostroconch mollusk known as Hippocardia Brown, 1843. It was found somewhere in Ohio by … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A tall brachiopod from the Devonian of western Russia

Mark Wilson November 19, 2015

In the summer of 2009 I had a field adventure in Russia. It was an extraordinary time. I learned considerable amounts of Russian geology and paleontology, of course, and was immersed in the Russian geological culture. Along the way I … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A striated brachiopod from the Silurian of New York

Mark Wilson November 12, 2015

Sometimes it is a Fossil of the Week simply because it is new to me. The brachiopods above are abundant in a thin layer of shells within the Lewiston Member of the Rochester Shale (Silurian, Wenlockian) in western New York … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Reptile tracks from the Lower Permian of southern Nevada

Mark Wilson November 5, 2015

Always lead with your most interesting image. The fossil here is the thin orange slab of siltstone underneath my magnificent Komodo Dragon model. Here is the slab itself. On the far right and the far left you can see two … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Pseudofossils of the Week: Shatter cones from southern Ohio

Mark Wilson October 30, 2015

This complex rock was collected decades ago in Adams County, Ohio, by the late Professor Frank L. Koucky of The College of Wooster. He was at the time studying a strange geological feature in that part of the state known … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil (Maybe) of the Week: Kinneyia ripples

Mark Wilson October 23, 2015

While hiking through the Niagara Gorge on a field trip in August, my friend Andrej Ernst of the University of Kiel found the above block of siltstone from the Grimsby Formation (Silurian) with unusual small-scale ripples in a patch. Carl … Continue reading →
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Greetings from a Wooster Geologist in Scotland

Mark Wilson October 18, 2015

Annette Hilton (’17) is having a great time in Scotland, where she is spending a semester abroad. She had a chance to go on a geography field trip recently to the Isle of Kerrera, in the Inner Hebrides off the … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: an upside-down nautiloid from the Devonian of Wisconsin

Mark Wilson October 16, 2015

This lump of a fossil in Wooster’s teaching collection requires some explanation. It is not particularly well preserved, but it is our only representative of an interesting group of nautiloid cephalopods. The label that came with it says it is … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologists on the Gettysburg Battlefield

Mark Wilson October 12, 2015

Gloria and I and our daughter Amy took advantage of the first days of Fall Break at Wooster to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania, about a 5.5 hour drive from home. The weather was spectacularly beautiful, as you can … Continue reading →
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