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.

One of the many diverse results of being a geology major: the adventures of Will Driscoll (’05) in evolutionary ecology

Mark Wilson March 6, 2013

WOOSTER, OHIO–Yesterday Greg Wiles and I attended a Biology Department Seminar given by our former student Will Driscoll (Geology ’05). Will was in all our standard departmental courses and did his Independent Study project with Dr. Wiles in dendrochronology. Yet … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossils of the Week: More bryozoan etchings and an African slug surprise

Mark Wilson March 3, 2013

This is the inside of a modern cockle shell (Dinocardium vanhyningi) found on a beach in Wilmington, North Carolina. Across the surface is a radiating series of pits, each of which was formed under a zooid of an encrusting cheilostome … Continue reading →
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The Dendrochronology Team of Wooster Geologists makes its television debut

Mark Wilson February 28, 2013

“Barn Detectives” is a recent episode of the television show Our Ohio, and it features Dr. Greg Wiles and his team of crack dendrochronologists. You can view the video by clicking the link. It is very well done. The project … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A bryozoan etching (Upper Ordovician of Indiana)

Mark Wilson February 24, 2013

Another trace fossil of a sort this week. Above you see the dorsal valve exterior of a strophomenid brachiopod from the Upper Ordovician of southeastern Indiana. Across the surface is a network of grooves looking a bit like a spider … Continue reading →
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Celebrating the achievements of Wooster Geologists

Mark Wilson February 21, 2013

WOOSTER, OHIO –One of the pleasures of being the chair of the Geology Department at Wooster is that I get to go to the annual college Awards Banquet with some of our best students. Tonight we celebrate three young women … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Encrusting tubes from the Devonian of Michigan

Mark Wilson February 17, 2013

The scanning electron microscope (SEM) image above shows the tubes of the encrusting group known as hederelloids. They are among my favorite fossils. I was reminded of them recently while reading this advertisement for a novel in which, to my … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: Sea urchin bites from the Upper Cretaceous of southern Israel

Mark Wilson February 10, 2013

What you see above is a bit of oyster shell with some curious small gouges in it. The oyster is Ilymatogyra (Afrogyra) africana (Lamarck, 1801) from the En Yorqe’am Formation (Cenomanian) exposed in Hamakhtesh Hagadol, southern Israel. The deep scratches … Continue reading →
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Women scientists at Wooster, featuring Wooster Geologist Shelley Judge

Mark Wilson February 7, 2013

Dr. Shelley Judge begins this excellent short video about women in science at Wooster: (You have to click the link I made in the text above. Embedding a video in a blog post is beyond my skills!) We’re proud of … Continue reading →
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Wooster’s Fossil of the Week: A very thin coral from the Upper Ordovician of Indiana

Mark Wilson February 3, 2013

What we have above is a heliolitid coral known as Protaraea richmondensis Foerste, 1909. It has completely encrusted a gastropod shell with its thin corallum. Stephanie Jarvis, a Wooster student at the time and now a graduate student at Southern … Continue reading →
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Stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of the Soeginina Beds (Paadla Formation, Lower Ludlow, Upper Silurian) on Saaremaa Island, Estonia (Senior Independent Study Thesis by Richa Ekka)

Mark Wilson January 28, 2013

Editor’s note: Senior Independent Study (I.S.) is a year-long program at The College of Wooster in which each student completes a research project and thesis with a faculty mentor.  We particularly enjoy I.S. in the Geology Department because there are … Continue reading →
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