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: A hardground with rugose corals from the Upper Ordovician of southern Ohio

Mark Wilson September 5, 2014

The above slab is a carbonate hardground from the Liberty Formation (Upper Ordovician) of southern Ohio. Carbonate hardgrounds are cemented seafloors, so we’re actually looking at the hard rocky bottom of an Ordovician sea. I’ve long found the idea of … Continue reading →
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First Wooster paleontology field trip of the year: the glorious Ordovician of Ohio

Mark Wilson August 31, 2014

Today the Invertebrate Paleontology class at The College of Wooster drove south to one of our favorite outcrops: the Waynesville, Liberty and Whitewater Formations (= Bull Fork Formation) at the emergency spillway in Caesar Creek State Park. I enjoy taking … Continue reading →
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Wooster Geologists begin the 2014-2015 school year

Mark Wilson August 30, 2014

What a fine group of geologists we had at the first meeting of the College of Wooster Geology Club this week. We have an ambitious year ahead of us with outside speakers, student presentations, course field trips, and our biennial … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Orthid brachiopods from the Middle Devonian of New York

Mark Wilson August 29, 2014

On the first day of the Invertebrate Paleontology course at Wooster, I give all the students a fossil to identify as best they can. Everyone gets the same kind of specimen, and they can use any means to put as … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Remanié fossils in the Lower Cretaceous of south-central England

Mark Wilson August 22, 2014

The last two editions were about a bryozoan and borings from the Faringdon Sponge Gravels (Lower Cretaceous, Upper Aptian) of south-central England. This week we have some Jurassic fossils from the same unit. That sounds a bit daft at first … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Abundant borings in Early Cretaceous cobbles from south-central England

Mark Wilson August 15, 2014

Last week I described a cyclostome bryozoan on the outside of a quartz cobble from the Faringdon Sponge Gravels (Lower Cretaceous, Upper Aptian) of south-central England near the town of Faringdon. This week I’m featuring a variety of heavily-bored calcareous … Continue reading →
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The power of hand-held x-ray fluorescence analysis comes to Wooster

Mark Wilson August 13, 2014

WOOSTER, OHIO–Dr. Meagen Pollock, our mineralogist-petrologist and instrument scientist extraordinaire, should be writing this post, but she was off campus during this event. It is left to the paleontologist, of all people, to file this report. Despite my technological naïveté … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An Early Cretaceous cobble-dwelling bryozoan

Mark Wilson August 8, 2014

One of my formative experiences as a young paleontologist was working in the Faringdon Sponge Gravels (Lower Cretaceous, Upper Aptian) of south-central England while on my first research leave in 1985. (I was just a kid!) These gravels are extraordinarily … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: An Ordovician hardground with a bryozoan and borings — and an unexpected twist

Mark Wilson August 1, 2014

The view above, one quite familiar to me, is of a carbonate hardground from the Upper Ordovician Grant Lake Formation exposed near Washington, Mason County, Kentucky. We are looking directly at the bedding plane of this limestone. The lumpy, spotted … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A faulted oyster ball from the Middle Jurassic of Utah

Mark Wilson July 25, 2014

I’m returning this week to one of my favorite fossil types: the ostreolith, popularly known as the “oyster ball”. These were lovingly described in a previous blog entry, so please click there to see how they were formed and some … Continue reading →
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