  We compare the results of the mark correlation analysis of galaxies in a
sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and from two galaxy catalogs obtained
by semi-analytical galaxy formation models implemented on the Millennium
Simulation. We use the MOPED method to retrieve the star formation history of
observed galaxies and use star formation parameters as weights to the mark
correlations. We find an excellent match between models and observations when
the mark correlations use stellar mass and luminosity as weights. The most
remarkable result is related to the mark correlations associated to the
evolution of mass assembly through star formation in galaxies, where we find
that semi-analytical models are able to reproduce the main trends seen in the
observational data. In addition, we find a good agreement between the redshift
evolution of the mean total mass formed by star formation predicted by the
models and that measured by MOPED. Our results show that close galaxy pairs
today formed more stellar mass ~10 Gyr ago than the average, while more
recently this trend is the opposite, with close pairs showing low levels of
star formation activity. We also show a strong correlation in simulations
between the shape and time evolution of the star formation marks and the number
of major mergers experienced by galaxies, which drive the environmental
dependence in galaxy formation by regulating the star formation process.
