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: Rugose corals from the Upper Ordovician of Ohio

Mark Wilson December 22, 2013

College of Wooster student Willy Nelson spotted and collected up this beautiful Liberty Formation slab on our 2013 Invertebrate Paleontology course field trip to the Upper Ordovician of the Caesar Creek area in southern Ohio. There are many exquisite fossils … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Rugose corals from the Upper Ordovician of Ohio

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A trepostome bryozoan from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky

Mark Wilson December 15, 2013

First, what U.S. state does this delicious little bryozoan resemble? It’s so close I can even pick out Green Bay. This is Heterotrypa frondosa (d’Orbigny, 1850), a trepostome bryozoan from the Corryville Formation (Upper Ordovician) in Covington, Kentucky. I collected … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A trepostome bryozoan from the Upper Ordovician of northern Kentucky

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Echinoid fragments from the Upper Carboniferous of southern Nevada

Mark Wilson December 8, 2013

  This rock has been in my Invertebrate Paleontology course teaching collection since I arrived in Wooster. I collected it way back when I was doing my fieldwork for my dissertation on the biostratigraphy and paleoecology of the Bird Spring … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Echinoid fragments from the Upper Carboniferous of southern Nevada

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An encrusted cobble from the Upper Ordovician of Kentucky

Mark Wilson December 1, 2013

In 1984 I pulled the above specimen from a muddy ditch during a pouring rain near the confluence of Gunpowder Creek and the Ohio River in Boone County, northern Kentucky. It changed my life. This limestone cobble eroded out of … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: An encrusted cobble from the Upper Ordovician of Kentucky

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A crinoid calyx from the Lower Carboniferous of Iowa

Mark Wilson November 24, 2013

In honor of Echinoderm Week for my Invertebrate Paleontology course, we have a beautiful crinoid calyx (or crown, or just “head”) on a slab from the Burlington Limestone (Lower Carboniferous, Osagean) found near Burlington, Iowa. I inherited this fossil when … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A crinoid calyx from the Lower Carboniferous of Iowa

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A long scleractinian coral from the Middle Jurassic of Israel

Mark Wilson November 17, 2013

Just one image for this week’s fossil, but we make up for the numbers in image length! The above fossil with the alternating “saw teeth” is the scleractinian coral Enallhelia d’Orbigny, 1849. It is a rare component of the diverse … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A long scleractinian coral from the Middle Jurassic of Israel

Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A colonial scleractinian coral from the Pliocene of Cyprus

Mark Wilson November 10, 2013

This week’s fossil is another from the collection made in 1996 on a Keck Geology Consortium expedition to Cyprus with Steve Dornbos as a Wooster student. Steve and I found a spectacular undescribed coral reef in the Nicosia Formation (Pliocene) … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A colonial scleractinian coral from the Pliocene of Cyprus

Citizen scientist to the rescue (in more ways than one)

Mark Wilson November 9, 2013

NEW LONDON, OHIO–The Wooster paleontologists spent a pleasant afternoon with our favorite amateur fossil collector Brian Bade. Brian has been mentioned in this blog previously for the many important fossils he has found and donated. He is a spectacular citizen … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Citizen scientist to the rescue (in more ways than one)

Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Very common orthocerid nautiloids from the Siluro-Devonian of Morocco

Mark Wilson November 3, 2013

If you’ve been to a rock shop, or even googled “fossil”, you’ve seen these beautiful and ubiquitous objects. They are polished sections through a nautiloid known as “Orthoceras“. We put quotes around the genus name because with these views it … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: Very common orthocerid nautiloids from the Siluro-Devonian of Morocco

Wooster Geologists at GSA 2013: Last one standing

Mark Wilson October 30, 2013

And that would be me. This morning I gave a talk about a project Paul Taylor and I have been working on for about two years. In fact, it was about a year ago that I was in the Smithsonian … Continue reading →
Continue reading →

Posted in ScotBlogs Contributed | Comments Off on Wooster Geologists at GSA 2013: Last one standing