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 gastropod/coral/hermit crab combination from the Pliocene of Florida

These two shells show a lovely symbiosis between shallow marine hermit crabs and encrusting scleractinian corals. I was first introduced to the concept of “pagurized” shells by my friends Paul Taylor and Sally Walker. They showed me the many ways … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A terebratulid brachiopod from the Miocene of Spain

These large brachiopods are of the species Terebratula maugerii Boni, 1933. They were found in Upper Miocene (Tortonian-Messinian) beds near Cordoba, Spain. Wooster acquired them through a generous exchange of brachiopods with Mr. Clive Champion in England. The specimen on … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A delicate brachiopod from the Pliocene of Cyprus

These thin-shelled brachiopods were collected in the summer of 1996 on a Keck Geology Consortium project in Cyprus. Strangely enough, they were the first brachiopods I had ever seen in the Cenozoic. These are ventral valves of the terebratulid Maltaia … Continue reading
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A Wooster Geologist goes to Washington for a different kind of fieldwork

WASHINGTON, DC–Today I was in Washington, DC, with 70 other colleagues for the annual Geosciences Congressional Visits Day organized by the American Geosciences Institute (AGI). I was ostensibly representing the Paleontological Society as its secretary, but I was really a … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: An ancient predator/prey system from the Lower Pleistocene of Sicily

The above fossils were collected from a Lower Pleistocene silty marl exposed near the Megara archaeological site east of Augusta, Sicily, Italy. I was on that epic International Bryozoology Association field trip this summer I’ve been blogging about. The shells … Continue reading
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A paleontology field trip into the Upper Ordovician of Ohio

The 2013 Invertebrate Paleontology class at Wooster had its first field trip today. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the usual boatload of fossils was collected. We traveled this year to Caesar Creek State Park and worked in the emergency … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A nautiloid from the Middle Jurassic of southern Israel

This is the first nautiloid specimen I’ve seen in the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic, Callovian) after ten years of collecting in it. Our colleague Yoav Avni (Geological Survey of Israel) picked it up during this summer’s fieldwork. It is a … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A strophomenid brachiopod from the Middle Devonian of Michigan

Every year in the first class session of my Invertebrate Paleontology course I give my students each an unknown fossil. It must be something relatively common so that I can give 20 nearly-identical specimens, and it is ideally of a … Continue reading
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Wooster Geologists begin a new year

WOOSTER, OHIO–The happy people above represent most of the Wooster Geology Club in late August, 2013. We’re missing one faculty member: Greg Wiles, who is currently in the Far East of Russia on a research leave. Thank you to Danielle … Continue reading
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A crab’s meal from the Pliocene of Cyprus

This week’s fossil was collected on a Keck Geology Consortium expedition to Cyprus in the summer of 1996. My Independent Study student on that adventure was Steve Dornbos (’97), now a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (and a … Continue reading
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