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After 35 Years, 152-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur ‘Big Al’ Returns Home To Wyoming
Read more: After 35 Years, 152-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur ‘Big Al’ Returns Home To WyomingCowboy State Daily has a story about “Big Al” the Allosaurus… He is headed home! “Al”, the star of the 2000 BBC documentary “Walking with Dinosaurs”, was found near Shell, WY in 1990. He lived about 152 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. A 2002 paper, “Record-Breaking Pain: The Largest Number and Variety of Forelimb Bone Maladies in a Theropod Dinosaur”, documented 19 distinct injuries and diseases preserved in “Big Al’s” fossils. The injuries included several fractured ribs, a torn up hand, and a massive bone infection in his right middle toe bone.
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Mazon Monday #329: Danville Spoil Pile May 2026
Read more: Mazon Monday #329: Danville Spoil Pile May 2026Saturday, May 2nd, 2026 was a fairly nice day. It was partly cloudy with some wind. It was a little cooler than previous trips.
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PBS Eons: The Terrifying Reason Flightless Dinosaurs Grew Feathers
Read more: PBS Eons: The Terrifying Reason Flightless Dinosaurs Grew FeathersPBS Eons has a new video. This one is about the evolution of feathers. The question of what non-flying dinosaurs were doing with their feathered wings – and why they originally evolved in the first place – has been a mystery since they were discovered. But thanks to what might just be one of the strangest experiments in the recent history of paleontology – involving a makeshift robot-dino – a new hypothesis has emerged…
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The Real Dinosaurs Were MUCH Weirder
Read more: The Real Dinosaurs Were MUCH WeirderIn this New Scientist video, David Hone discusses dinosaurs. What were dinosaurs really like?
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Fossil Friday #323: Laveineopteris rarinervis from the Mazon River
Read more: Fossil Friday #323: Laveineopteris rarinervis from the Mazon RiverThis is the “Fossil Friday” post #323. 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! Marie Angkuw sent us these photos of a gorgeous Laveineopteris rarinervis from the Mazon River. Laveineopteris rarinervis, a seed fern, is pretty commonly found in Mazon Creek localities (see Mazon Monday #81). This specimen was collected from one of the I&M Canal Corridor benefits on the Kodat farm. The concretion opened via the freeze/thaw…
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Throwback Thursday #323: June 30, 1956 Mid-Air Collision Over the Grand Canyon
Read more: Throwback Thursday #323: June 30, 1956 Mid-Air Collision Over the Grand CanyonNewspapers.com recently featured an interesting article about the tragic mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon on June 30, 1956. TWA Flight 2, a Lockheed Super Constellation en route to Kansas City, collided with United Flight 718, a DC-7 bound for Chicago. Both aircraft had departed from Los Angeles, and the collision is believed to have occurred at an altitude of about 21,000 feet.
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Video for ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting – “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.”
Read more: Video for ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting – “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.”The ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting was held on Saturday, June 20th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom. Lincoln Shoemaker presented “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.” Lincoln Shoemaker is currently a master’s student at the University of Cincinnati where he is involved in multiple projects regarding the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction along with minor work involving Mississippian crinoids. Prior to pursing a master’s Lincoln worked as a freelance fossil preparator and commercial dealer of invertebrate fossils.
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Mazon Tuesday #328: The Legacy of Tom Testa
Read more: Mazon Tuesday #328: The Legacy of Tom TestaMichele Micetich, curator of the Carbon Hill School Museum, will host a special event on Saturday, June 27, 2026, celebrating the life and legacy of Tom Testa. A lifelong fossil collector with a passion for Mazon Creek fossils, Tom assembled one of the finest private collections of its kind. In 2015, he gave his collection to Jack Wittry, who donated it to the Field Museum, ensuring that it would remain available for scientific study. The remarkable depth and diversity of Tom’s collection have contributed to numerous scientific discoveries, including research highlighted recently in Mazon Monday #327.
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Mazon Monday #327: Direct development of stem tetrapods across the fin-to-limb transition
Read more: Mazon Monday #327: Direct development of stem tetrapods across the fin-to-limb transitionA significant paper on tetrapod development was published last week, and Mazon Creek fossils played a central role. “Direct Development of Stem Tetrapods Across the Fin-to-Limb Transition” by Jason Pardo and Arjan Mann of the Field Museum appeared in the journal Science. Lauer Foundation for Paleontology, Science, and Education also contributed to the study. The paper presents an important new perspective on the life history of the earliest tetrapods, which are the vertebrates that eventually gave rise to amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Using exceptionally preserved fossils from the Mazon Creek, the authors conclude that these early tetrapods did not…
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ESCONI at the Coal City Library!
Read more: ESCONI at the Coal City Library!On June 4, ESCONI was at the Coal City Library to kick off summer with exhibits of fossils, geodes, and our popular dig box. Jody Gosain and Jim Bigler presented to over 150 people including 100 children. Interestingly, the library itself has three beautiful collection of Mazon Creek fossils donated by locals over the years. So many residents told stories of relatives having “tullies” , buckets full of concretions collected over the years and asking how to get them to open, and playing along the creek and finding beautiful specimens! Many were surprised to learn just how fortunate they were…
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PBS Eons: Why Humanity Has Amnesia About Giant Sloths
Read more: PBS Eons: Why Humanity Has Amnesia About Giant SlothsPBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about human interactions with the giant megafauna of the Pleistocene.
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Fossil Friday #322: Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri from Dresden
Read more: Fossil Friday #322: Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri from DresdenFor this week’s Fossil Friday, we have a very nice Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri (see Mazon Monday #39). Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri is a fairly common seed fern, which is found in many Carboniferous fossil deposits. In some Mazon Creek localities like the Mazon River, it’s a dominant component of the flora. It was called Neuropteris scheuchzeri until 1977, when the classification was changed by Robert Gastaldo after extensive studies on European examples that looked at its frond architecture and cuticle.
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Throwback Thursday #322: An Othniel Charles Marsh “Origin of Species”
Read more: Throwback Thursday #322: An Othniel Charles Marsh “Origin of Species”While speaking with a Field Museum visitor at the recent “Dinopalooza 2026”, I learned about an extraordinary book discovery made at a Salvation Army store in Delaware a few years ago. The visitor shared in a 2025 post he made on the Reddit community r/rarebooks. The book is a signed copy of On the Origin of Species that once belonged to Othniel Charles Marsh. It is a first-edition, second-state American printing, published by Appleton and Company in 1860.
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Video for ESCONI June 2026 General Meeting – “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums”
Read more: Video for ESCONI June 2026 General Meeting – “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums”The ESCONI June 2026 General Meeting will be held via Zoom at 8:00 PM on Friday, June 12th, 2026. Adrienne Stroup, Geological Collections, Vertebrate Paleontological Loan Manager, PaleoArtist/Scientific Illustrator from The Field Museum will be presenting “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums.” Adrienne will talk about the vertebrate paleontological collections at the Field Museum and how she has used her skills as an artist to reach different audiences at the museum. She will go into a brief history of paleoart as well, especially artists that have a connection to the Field Museum such as Charles…
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ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting, Saturday, June 20th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom – “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.”
Read more: ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting, Saturday, June 20th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom – “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.”The ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting will be held on Saturday, June 20th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom. Lincoln Shoemaker will present “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.” Lincoln Shoemaker is currently a master’s student at the University of Cincinnati where he is involved in multiple projects regarding the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction along with minor work involving Mississippian crinoids. Prior to pursing a master’s Lincoln worked as a freelance fossil preparator and commercial dealer of invertebrate fossils. Description: Many crinoid genera well represented in rocks of the Illinois Basin similarly occur in…
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Mazon Monday #326: More Mazon Creek at the 2026 CGMA Show
Read more: Mazon Monday #326: More Mazon Creek at the 2026 CGMA ShowThis is Mazon Monday post #326. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Long-time ESCONI member Rich Rock had an amazing display of Mazon Creek fossils at the CGMA show. There’s a little a bit of everything here, from clams to ferns to spiders to an absolutely breathtaking Alethopteris serlii. Enjoy!
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‘Whoa’: 12-year-old boy finds 80-million-year-old fossil during educational field trip
Read more: ‘Whoa’: 12-year-old boy finds 80-million-year-old fossil during educational field tripKCTV 5 has the story of a 12 year old finding some prehistoric treasure. Corbin Bullard, a budding paleontologist, discovered the skull and some vertebrae of an 80 million year old tylosaurus on a 4-H Geology Club field trip to Sedgwick County, Kansas.
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The Field Museum’s Dinopalooza 2026, Saturday, June 13th, 2026
Read more: The Field Museum’s Dinopalooza 2026, Saturday, June 13th, 2026The Field Museum’s annual paleontology extravaganza “Dinopalooza 2026” is today! Come on out and join the fun!
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Fossil Friday #321: A Large Crenulopteris acadica from the Mazon River
Read more: Fossil Friday #321: A Large Crenulopteris acadica from the Mazon RiverMarie Angkuw sent us these photos of a beautiful Mazon Creek fern. It’s a Crenulopteris acadica from the Mazon River. Crenulopteris acadica is a common fern from Mazon Creek, but this one is very large with multiple fronds. Marie collected this one a few years ago at the I&M Canal Corridor Benefit. The concretion opened up via the Freeze/Thaw method this past winter.
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Throwback Thursday #321: The Fossil Legacy of Thomas Jefferson
Read more: Throwback Thursday #321: The Fossil Legacy of Thomas JeffersonThe following article “The Fossil Legacy of Thomas Jefferson” by Trick Runions, a long-time ESCONI member, first appeared in the May-June edition of the Flatirons Mineral Club newsletter “Flatirons Facets”.
ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show
Most Recent Post
- After 35 Years, 152-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur ‘Big Al’ Returns Home To Wyoming
Cowboy State Daily has a story about “Big Al” the Allosaurus… He is headed home! “Al”, the star of the 2000 BBC documentary “Walking with Dinosaurs”, was found near Shell, WY in 1990. He lived about 152 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. A 2002 paper, “Record-Breaking Pain: The Largest Number and Variety of Forelimb Bone Maladies in a Theropod Dinosaur”, documented 19 distinct injuries and diseases preserved in “Big Al’s” fossils. The injuries included several fractured ribs, a torn up hand, and a massive bone infection in his right middle toe bone.
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Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings!
| Friday, June 12th | General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom. Adrienne Stroup of The Field Museum will present “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums”. |
| Saturday, June 20th | Paleontology Study Group – 7:30 PM via Zoom. Lincoln Shoemaker will present “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.” |
| No meeting this month | Junior Study Group Meeting |
| No meeting this month | Mineralogy Study Group |