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- Video for ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”
Jean-Pierre Cavigelli, of Casper College in Casper, WY, presented “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”. Wyoming’s fossil bird record spans much of… Read more: Video for ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”
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Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings!
| Saturday, Jan 3rd | Mineralogy Study Group – 7:30 PM via Zoom “Critical Minerals: What are they and Opportunities in Illinois” presented by Dr. Jared Freiburg of the Illinois State Geological Survey. |
| Friday, Jan 9th | General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom Jean-Pierre Cavigelli, Tate Geological Museum, Casper College, will present “Fossil Birds of Wyoming” |
| Saturday, Jan 10th | Junior Study Group – 6:30 PM, TBA Specifics of this meeting are available from Scott Galloway, 630-670-2591, gallowayscottf@gmail.com. The meeting will be in person at the College of DuPage Technical Education Center (TEC) Building – Room 1038A (Map). |
| Saturday, Jan 17th | Paleontology Study Group – 7:30 PM via Zoom “Getting Lost Can Lead to Treasure – Edrioasteroids – What to Do When You Find Thousands” by Jack Kallmeyer President, Dry Dredgers |
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Video for ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”
Read more: Video for ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”Jean-Pierre Cavigelli, of Casper College in Casper, WY, presented “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”. Wyoming’s fossil bird record spans much of the Late Cretaceous through the Cenozoic, though its completeness varies widely through time. The state’s oldest known bird fossils come from the late Cretaceous Mesa Verde Formation and Pierre Shale, dating to about 79 million […]
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Mazon Monday #305: Herdina mirificus
Read more: Mazon Monday #305: Herdina mirificusThis is Mazon Monday post #305. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Herdina mirificus is an extinct species of short-winged insect, currently classified in the order Protorthoptera. Protorthoptera is an extinct lineage of insects that lived during the middle to late Pennsylvanian Period some 318 to 299 million years ago. The […]
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PBS Eons: How Brawn Led to Brains
Read more: PBS Eons: How Brawn Led to BrainsPBS Eons has a new video. This one is about the evolution of brains. While we often think of brains as some kind of triumph over brawn, it turns out that those two things might not be mutually exclusive, and in fact, they’ve been linked for far longer than we might imagine. PBS Member Stations […]
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There’s Something MUCH Bigger Than Yellowstone. And It Will Happen Again
Read more: There’s Something MUCH Bigger Than Yellowstone. And It Will Happen AgainPBS Terra has an interesting video about super volcanoes and they larger cousin… Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs). Yellowstone was massive. Roughly a thousand times larger than the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the biggest eruption in the history of the continental United States. And if Yellowstone erupted again, the consequences for the U.S. and the […]
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Fossil Friday #300: Orthotarbus robustus from the River
Read more: Fossil Friday #300: Orthotarbus robustus from the RiverThis is the “Fossil Friday” post #300. Expect this to be a regular feature of the website. We will post fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Is there a better way to post our 300th Fossil […]
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Throwback Thursday #300: Poem… The Rockhound
Read more: Throwback Thursday #300: Poem… The RockhoundThis is Throwback Thursday #301. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. We have a poem this week. This poem appeared in the July 1970 edition of the ESCONI newsletter. […]
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This Dinosaur Really Knew How to Get a Grip
Read more: This Dinosaur Really Knew How to Get a GripThe New York Times Trilobites column has an interesting story about a tiny egg stealing dinosaur that lived about 67 million years ago in what is now Mongolia. Manipulonyx reshetovi had a strange spike-covered hand, which provided its genus name meaning “manipulating claw”. The animal’s fossil was discovered in 1979 and described in the journal […]
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ESCONI January 2026 Paleontology Meeting – January 17th, 2026 at 7:30 PM – “Getting Lost Can Lead to Treasure – Edrioasteroids”
Read more: ESCONI January 2026 Paleontology Meeting – January 17th, 2026 at 7:30 PM – “Getting Lost Can Lead to Treasure – Edrioasteroids”Jack Kallmeyer President of the Dry Dredgers will present “Getting Lost Can Lead to Treasure – Edrioasteroids – What to Do When You Find Thousands”. The meeting will be held on January 17th, 2026 at 7:30 PM. While growing my early collection in the Cincinnatian, one of the most desired fossils that I sought after […]
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Mazon Monday #304: Field Museum… Illinois by the sea
Read more: Mazon Monday #304: Field Museum… Illinois by the seaThis is Mazon Monday post #304. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. In May 1970, the Field Museum opened an exhibit about Mazon Creek. It was called “Illinois by the sea: a coal age environment” and ran from May 25th until September 25th. It was a successful exhibit that featured Field […]
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NPR Short Wave: The dinosaur secrets found in the archives of a natural history museum
Read more: NPR Short Wave: The dinosaur secrets found in the archives of a natural history museumNPR’s Short Wave show has an episode about dinosaurs at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. What happens behind the scenes of a dinosaur exhibit? Short Wave host Regina Barber got to find out … by taking a trip to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. In the museum’s basement, she talked to […]
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The Year in Neanderthals
Read more: The Year in NeanderthalsThe New York Times has a nice article that highlights new understanding into who the Neanderthals were. Neanderthals lived across Eurasia for hundreds of thousands of years before going extinct some 40,000 years ago. A bunch of new high profile studies were published in 2025. Barely three decades ago, these ancient hominids were still being […]
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Fossil Friday #299: Annularia sphenophylloides
Read more: Fossil Friday #299: Annularia sphenophylloidesThis is the “Fossil Friday” post #299. Expect this to be a regular feature of the website. We will post fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Today, we have another beautiful contribution from George Witaczek. This time […]
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Throwback Thursday #299: Macfallite
Read more: Throwback Thursday #299: MacfalliteThis is Throwback Thursday #299. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. This post is a follow up to last week’s Throwback Thursday, where we mentioned the mineral species Macfallite. […]
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WHY DINOSAURS? Award-Winning Dinosaur Documentary!
Read more: WHY DINOSAURS? Award-Winning Dinosaur Documentary!The award winning documentary “Why Dinosaurs” is now available on Youtube! The documentary covers quite a bit of the history and the science of paleontology. Did I mention that ESCONI’s own Rob Sula has his own segment? Oh, there’s also a great website – whydinosaurs.com. The website has extended interviews and other extras! Check it […]
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ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – January 9th, 2026 at 8:00 PM – “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”
Read more: ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – January 9th, 2026 at 8:00 PM – “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”Jean-Pierre Cavigelli, of Casper College in Casper, WY, will present “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”. Wyoming is well known for its fossils of all kinds. Dinosaurs are probably the most famous. They were first discovered here in the late 1800’s and are still being uncovered and studied nowadays. Fossil fishes from the southwest corner of the […]
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Mazon Monday #303: Smithixerxes juliarum
Read more: Mazon Monday #303: Smithixerxes juliarumThis is Mazon Monday post #303. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Smithixerxes juliarum is among the rarest animals found in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. It belongs to an extinct group of arthropods known as the euthycarcinoids, which ranged from the Cambrian to the Triassic periods. Some researchers believe euthycarcinoids may […]
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Adam Savage at the American Museum of Natural History
Read more: Adam Savage at the American Museum of Natural HistoryThe AMNH has a new exhibit called “Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs”. Adam Savage visited the museum just before the exhibit opened in November, There are a series of videos on Youtube. How do you come up with the physical representation of animals we know lived on Earth, when the evidence of […]
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PRI’s Wonderful Life
Read more: PRI’s Wonderful LifeIn a followup to the New York Times’ post about the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) and the Museum of the Earth’s financial woes… they found funding and will continue operation! By late summer, although gifts continued to arrive at roughly twice the rate of previous “normal” years, larger gifts had slowed and we were still […]
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Fossil Friday #298: Seed Fern Fiddlehead – Spiropteris
Read more: Fossil Friday #298: Seed Fern Fiddlehead – SpiropterisThis is the “Fossil Friday” post #298. Expect this to be a regular feature of the website. We will post fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! This week’s Fossil Friday features a fiddlehead — the coiled […]
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Throwback Thursday #298: Looking Back At ESCONI For January 2026
Read more: Throwback Thursday #298: Looking Back At ESCONI For January 2026This is Throwback Thursday #298. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. 25 Years Ago – January 2001 50 Years Ago – January 1976 70 Years Ago – January 1956