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Throwback Thursday #319: Happy 150th Birthday, George Langford!
Read more: Throwback Thursday #319: Happy 150th Birthday, George Langford!May 26th, 2026 marks George Langford’s 150th birthday! He was born on May 26th, 1876 in Denver, Colorado. George Langford Sr. is giant in the history of Mazon Creek. Before Jack Wittry’s books, George’s books were the go-to source of information about Mazon Creek. George wrote three books about Mazon Creek fossils. The first was published in 1958 and the second in 1963. Unfortunately, the third was published well after his death in the 1990s (Mazon Monday #74).
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Microcoprolite morphotypes from the Revueltian (Upper Triassic:Norian) age Homestead Site, Garita Creek Formation, east-centralNew Mexico, USA
Read more: Microcoprolite morphotypes from the Revueltian (Upper Triassic:Norian) age Homestead Site, Garita Creek Formation, east-centralNew Mexico, USAThe Lauers are back with more science! The paper “Microcoprolite morphotypes from the Revueltian (Upper Triassic: Norian) age Homestead Site, Garita Creek Formation, east-central New Mexico, USA” was published in the journal Ichnos, which is an international journal for plant and animal traces.
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Sundays on the Boulevard
Read more: Sundays on the BoulevardESCONI’s mission is to promote interest in the Earth sciences, both through programs and publications aimed at ESCONI members and through events aimed at the larger community, like the ESCONI and CGMA shows. Recently, thanks to the efforts of ESCONI volunteers like Jim Bigler and Jodi Gosain [and others?], we’ve expanded ESCONI’s outreach efforts by taking Earth Science activities to STEM events organized by schools and libraries in Chicago’s western suburbs. This summer ESCONI will be reaching out to new audiences in the city of Chicago by participating in Sundays on the Boulevard in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood.
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Mazon Monday #323: Mazon Creek at the 2026 CGMA Show
Read more: Mazon Monday #323: Mazon Creek at the 2026 CGMA ShowJack Wittry had a breathtaking display at the 2026 CGMA Show at the Kane County Fairgrounds this past weekend. It featured Mazon Creek fossils named for ESCONI members.
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Archaeologists Find Egyptian Mummy Buried With the ‘Iliad’
Read more: Archaeologists Find Egyptian Mummy Buried With the ‘Iliad’The New York Times has an interesting post about a discovery in Egypt. A 2,000 year old mummy in the burial site known as Oxyrhynchus had a papyrus fragment of the Homeric epic “Iliad” in a clay packet outside its wrappings. The mummy was a non-royal male,
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The Pokémon Fossil Museum at the Field Museum is now Open!
Read more: The Pokémon Fossil Museum at the Field Museum is now Open!The Pokémon Fossil Museum at the Field Museum opened on Wednesday, May 20th, 2026. Tickets can be purchased here. Tickets are required for entry and should be purchased in advance. Here is the FAQ page.
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Fossil Friday #318: Rex, the Wonder Amphibian
Read more: Fossil Friday #318: Rex, the Wonder AmphibianWe have something very interesting this week… The specimen’s label says “Rex, the Wonder Amphibian”. It’s an early tetrapod from the Mississippian of Iowa, some 340 million years ago. Whatcheeria deltae was described by R. Eric Lombard and John R. Bolt in 1985 in the paper “A new primitive tetrapod, Whatcheeria deltae, from the Lower Carboniferous of Iowa”.
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Throwback Thursday #318: 2001 Chicagoland Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show
Read more: Throwback Thursday #318: 2001 Chicagoland Gem, Mineral, and Fossil ShowThe 2001 Chicagoland Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show was held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds. This was the 25th year for the show. Back then, the show spanned three days, for 2001, that was May 26th, 27th, and 28th, 2001.
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Reminder: 49th Annual CGMA Show – May 23rd and 24th, 2026
Read more: Reminder: 49th Annual CGMA Show – May 23rd and 24th, 2026The 49th Annual CGMA Show will be held May 23rd and 24th, 2026 at the Expo Center of the Kane County Fairgrounds.
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Video for ESCONI May 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting – “An Ordovician Konzentrat Lagerstätte: The Dixon Mifflin Residuum Fauna”
Read more: Video for ESCONI May 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting – “An Ordovician Konzentrat Lagerstätte: The Dixon Mifflin Residuum Fauna”The program then concentrates on the Mifflin Member of the Platteville Formation and the exceptional preservation of the Dixon Lagerstätte. To appreciate the remarkable preservation of the Dixon material a standard fauna is needed for comparison. Fortunately, a Mifflin dolostone super-site is (was) located only 10 miles southeast of Dixon: the Lee Center Quarry. The two sites are examined in detail as to location, lithology, and faunal lists.
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Video for ESCONI May 2026 General Meeting – “Seeing Beneath the Ground: Geophysics and Archaeological Explorations in Illinois”
Read more: Video for ESCONI May 2026 General Meeting – “Seeing Beneath the Ground: Geophysics and Archaeological Explorations in Illinois”Thomas Loebel from the Illinois State Archaeological Survey will present “Seeing Beneath the Ground: Geophysics and Archaeological Explorations in Illinois”. Thomas will explain how archaeologists find sites, specifically how they use geophysics or remote sensing to locate sites for testing and preservation purposes.
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Mazon Monday #322: Asterophyllites longifolius
Read more: Mazon Monday #322: Asterophyllites longifoliusAsterophyllites longifolius like its sister taxon Asterophyllites equisetiformis (see Mazon Monday #103), formed part of the foliage of the giant horsetail-like plant Calamites. Both species are known from Mazon Creek, but while A. equisetiformis is common, A. longifolius is a very rare. One distinguishing characteristic of A. longifolius is that the leaves are longer than the distance between the internodes. There are nearly twenty species of Asterophyllites, although only a few are known from Mazon Creek.
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PBS Eons: The Mystery of the Missing Deep-Sea Fish
Read more: PBS Eons: The Mystery of the Missing Deep-Sea FishPBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the evolution of fish.
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Introducing Laueropterus!
Read more: Introducing Laueropterus!On his blog “Archosaur Musings”, David Hone has an excellent post about the newly described pterosaur Laueropterus, which was named for the Bruce and Rene’ Lauer of the Lauer Foundation. Bruce and Rene’ are long time ESCONI members. They do extraordinary work in Paleontology, Science, and Education. Their work and accomplishments have been featured many times on our website. Pictured below are René and Bruce with Andrew Young at the 2025 ESCONI Holiday Party.
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Fossil Friday #317: Silurian Aquatic Scorpion From the Kokomo Limestone
Read more: Fossil Friday #317: Silurian Aquatic Scorpion From the Kokomo LimestoneThis undescribed aquatic scorpion dates to the Silurian Period and was collected by Sam Ciurca from the Kokomo Limestone at Yeoman Quarry near Kokomo, Indiana, in 1975. Measuring about 2 inches in length, this animal is extraordinarily rare, with only a handful of specimens known.
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Throwback Thursday #317: The Fossil Story from Shell Oil Co.
Read more: Throwback Thursday #317: The Fossil Story from Shell Oil Co.I saw this video mentioned the May 1956 edition of the ESCONI newsletter (see Throwback Thursday #316). I vaguely remember watching it in grade school. It’s interesting how our view of paleontology changed with the addition of plate tectonics.
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ESCONI May 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting Saturday, May 16th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom – “An Ordovician Konzentrat Lagerstätte: The Dixon Mifflin Residuum Fauna”
Read more: ESCONI May 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting Saturday, May 16th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom – “An Ordovician Konzentrat Lagerstätte: The Dixon Mifflin Residuum Fauna”John will begin the program by introducing what a Konzentrat-Lagerstätten consists of and a brief introduction of the Platteville Formation. The depositional environment of the Mohawkian Sea, home of the Platteville fauna sets the stage for the faunal comparison.
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ESCONI Field Trip to Mount Orab for Trilobites – Saturday, July 11th, 2026
Read more: ESCONI Field Trip to Mount Orab for Trilobites – Saturday, July 11th, 2026ESCONI will have a field trip to Flat Run Fossils in Mt. Orab, OH on Saturday July 11, 2026. There is an attendance limit of 16 people. Flat Run Fossils is a new pay-to-dig site in the famous Mt. Orab trilobite beds. For many years, thousands of gorgeous Flexicalymene and Isotelus trilobites have been collected from this area. Other possible finds include brachiopods, graptolites, cephalopods, and crinoids. You will certainly walk away with trilobites – they are not hard to find!
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Mazon Monday #321: So, where’s the shrimp?!?
Read more: Mazon Monday #321: So, where’s the shrimp?!?Andy Jansen wrote this article for the December 2007 edition of the ESCONI newsletter. Andy has been an ESCONI board member for many years. He’s currently our Treasurer and Librarian. If you attended our show in March, he was in his usually position at the book display and sale tables.
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A 75-million-year-old fossil reveals a shocking tyrannosaur secret
Read more: A 75-million-year-old fossil reveals a shocking tyrannosaur secretScience Daily has a story about the feeding habits of tyrannosaurs. The diet of tyrannosaurs has been long and sometimes controversial, remember when it was proposed that T-rex was a scavenger? Well a new paper in the journal Evolving Earth, found evidence of cannibalism from marks on a massive tyrannosaur foot bone. Interestingly, the marks were very small and suggest scavenging by a smaller individual.
ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show
Most Recent Post
- Throwback Thursday #319: Happy 150th Birthday, George Langford!
May 26th, 2026 marks George Langford’s 150th birthday! He was born on May 26th, 1876 in Denver, Colorado. George Langford Sr. is giant in the history of Mazon Creek. Before Jack Wittry’s books, George’s books were the go-to source of information about Mazon Creek. George wrote three books about Mazon Creek fossils. The first was published in 1958 and the second in 1963. Unfortunately, the third was published well after his death in the 1990s (Mazon Monday #74).
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Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings!
| Friday, May 2nd | Field Trip to Danville, IL. Details here. |
| Friday, May 8th | General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom. Thomas Loebel will present “Seeing Beneath the Ground: Geophysics and Archaeological Explorations in Illinois”. |
| Saturday, May 9th | Junior Study Group Meeting – 2:00 PM, in person at the College of DuPage Technical Education Center (TEC) Building – Room 1038A (Map). “The Rock Cycle and Sedimentation” Specifics of this meeting are available from Scott Galloway, 630-670-2591, gallowayscottf@gmail.com. |
| Saturday, May 16th | Paleontology Study Group – 7:30 PM via Zoom. John Catalani will present “An Ordovician Konzentrat Lagerstätte: The Dixon Mifflin Residuum Fauna”. |
| Saturday, May 23rd | CGMA Show, Kane County Fairgrounds |
| Sunday, May 24th | CGMA Show, Kane County Fairgrounds |
| Saturday, May 30th | Field Trip to Braceville, IL. Details here. |
| Sunday, May 31st | Field Trip to Braceville, IL. Details here. |
| No meeting this month | Mineralogy Study Group |