Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois

Throwback Thursday #343: Stegosaurus Poem from 1958

How about a nice little dinosaur poem from Donnafred Hoff. This little ditty appeared in the November 1956 edition of the newsletter. Donnafred was the wife of Wilbur Hoff. They were founding members of ESCONI.

In Memoriam and Honorarium, Mazon Creek

Gordon C. Baird (1946 – 2026) RIP

We are sad to bring you the news of the sudden passing of Gordon C. Baird (emeritus SUNY Fredonia) on November 3, 2026. Baird authored many important papers in his long career, but for Mazon Creek paleontology, he might be best remembered for his foundational work towards understanding sideritic nodule preservation. That work included a survey of more than 100 Mazon Creek localities consisting of 20 strip mines and more than 90 shaft mines during the 1980’s. He said at times he was collecting 500 to 1,000 concretions per day. What a huge load of concretions that must have been……

Calendar of Events

ESCONI November 2026 General Meeting, Friday, November 13th, 2026 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “Lyell in Chicago: A Historic Collection Illustrates a Missing Chapter in 19th Century Geology”

The ESCONI November 2026 General Meeting will be held on Friday, November 13th, 2026 via Zoom. Roy Plotnick will present “Lyell in Chicago: A Historic Collection Illustrates a Missing Chapter in 19th Century Geology.” From June 17–24, 1841, Charles Lyell followed the footsteps of Roderick Murchison by collecting in “Silurian” localities in Wales and the Welsh Borderland of England. This collection travelled with Lyell during his first visit to America that began in July of that year. At some point, it ended up in James Hall’s possession and then eventually at the Field Museum in Chicago. Lyell’s trip to collect these…

Mazon Creek, Mazon Monday

Mazon Monday #348: Grammysioidea hayi

Grammysioidea hayi is a very rare Mazon Creek bivalve clam. The holotype specimen was found by Andy Hay in the early 1980’s, on the channel side of ESCONI Hill, where the hill projects out into the water. In life, the animal was likely sedentary.

Around the Web

New long‑clawed British dinosaur is the first of its kind in Europe

Phys.org has a story about a new dinosaur discovery in the United Kingdom. The new animal, Invictibellatrix amberina, lived about 120 million years ago, during the Cretaceous Period in what is now the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. I. amberina belongs to a group of dinosaurs known as the Megaraptora. The description was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. In 2020, Paul Barrett, one of the museum’s paleontologists, looked through the fossil collections and came across a small chunk of bone which he recognized as an important part of the skull of a dinosaur: the braincase.…

Around the Web

PBS Eons: The First Apex Predator on Land

PBS Eons has a new video. This is episode 2 of the 6 part series “Eons: Life and Death on Pangea”. This is episode 2 of our 6-part series, Eons: Life and Death on Pangea. You can watch the whole series right now on https://www.pbs.org/eons or if you prefer to watch on YouTube check back here weekly for new episodes! The first herbivorous vertebrates evolve on the side of the amniote family tree leading to mammals. Alongside them come apex predators, like Dimetrodon. But the Early Permian Period ends in a mystery: is it an extinction event or just a…

Fossil Friday, Mazon Monday

Fossil Friday #342: Essexella asherae and more, much more!

This is the “Fossil Friday” post #342. 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! George Holub brought some fossils to our recent Mazon Creek Fossil Day at the Coal City Library. George is a long-time collector who donated a good portion of his collection over the last few years, some of it went to Field Museum and some went to the American Museum of Natural History. Here’s how…

Mazon Creek, Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday #342: Looking Back At ESCONI for November 2026

25, 50, and 70 years ago

Around the Web

Fossilised red blood cells found in 115m-year-old dinosaur’s bone, say scientists

The Guardian has a story about the discovery of fossilized red-blood cells in a dinosaur bone. The fossilized cells were found the hind leg bones of a small, meat-eating dinosaur called Aratasaurus. Aratasaurus lived about in 115 million years ago in what is now northeastern Brazil. The research was published in a paper in the journal PNAS. It could be the opening of a Jurassic Park rip-off: scientists examining ancient dinosaur bones find what appear to be fossilised red blood cells, and traces of the molecule that gives the beast’s blood its distinctive crimson hue. But that is what researchers…

Calendar of Events

ESCONI 2026 Holiday Luncheon – Saturday, December 5th, 2026 – 12 Noon

The ESCONI 2026 Holiday Luncheon will be held on Saturday, December 5th, 2026 at Warren’s ale House in Wheaton, IL. Please RSVP here.

Calendar of Events

ESCONI Events for November 2026

Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Friday, November 13th General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom. ESCONI member, Roy Plotnick, will be presenting “Lyell in Chicago: A Historic Collection Illustrates a Missing chapter in 19th Century Geology.” Saturday, November 14th Junior Study Group Meeting – 2:00 PM at the Lizzadro Museum (Meet at 1:45 PM) Scott will guide the Juniors and their families on a tour of the Lizzadro Museum during this free day! You must RSVP for the 2:00 time slot to reserve your free museum tickets. Saturday, November 21th Paleontology Study Group –…

Mazon Creek, Mazon Monday

Mazon Creek 347: Mazon Creek in the Science Hub at the Field Museum

This is Mazon Monday post #347. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at esconi.info@gmail.com. For the last few months and continuing for a while longer, Mazon Creek is center stage in the Field Museum’s Grainger Science Hub. The Science Hub is a great place to learn about the museum’s ongoing research and collections. It’s open daily from 10am to 3pm. Here is the exhibit’s description from the Field Museum’s website. Mazon Creek: Illinois’s Fossil Hotspot Imagine the Earth 300 million years ago. The planet was a vastly different place with both familiar and unfamiliar life. Tropical wetland forests…

Around the Web

STEAM Fest 2026 – November 7th, 2026 – Julian Middle School, Oak Park

The Oak Park Education Network is holding a STEAM Fest 2026 event at Julian Middle School in Oak Park, IL on Saturday, November 7th, 2026 from 10 AM to 2 PM. ESCONI will be there with a few tables. More details can be found here, here, and here.

Around the Web

PBS Eons: Pumpkins Shouldn’t Exist… Happy Halloween!

PBS Eons has a new post and this one is sort of about Halloween. Pumpkins only survived thanks to an unlikely partnership they forged with another type of mammal. One that still found them to be toxic and disgusting at first, but could see the potential in the relationship. Us.

Fossil Friday, Mazon Creek

Fossil Friday #341: Mazon Creek Coprolite

Kane McLuckie and his father, Robert, brought one of Kane’s recent fossil finds to our Mazon Creek Fossil Day event. It’s a large Mazon Creek coprolite found near their house. Coprolites are fairly common. If you find one, get out a magnifying glass and have a closer look. You can all kinds of things in coprolites… scales, plant parts, seeds, calcareous worms, and even bones!

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday #341: Rockford Brick and Tile Company

I was looking through some old newsletters looking for interesting bits of ESCONI history and ran across the announcement for the opening of the Fossil & Prairie Park Preserve in Rockford, IA. It opened officially 36 years ago in October 1990.

Around the Web

‘Jodi,’ a Nanotyrannus Skeleton, Gets $47.3 Million at Auction

The New York Times is reporting that “Jodi” the Nanotyrannus lancensis sold for 47.3 million at Sotheby’s on October 27th, 2026. Both the buyer and seller are unknown at this time… Ok, who bought and when are you inviting us over to see it?!? A skeleton belonging to a smaller relative of Tyrannosaurus rex was sold at auction on Tuesday for nearly $47.3 million, far beyond projections. It was the latest lucrative sale of a fossil coming out of the field of commercial paleontology. The final price, $47,255,000, was higher than other recent auctions of larger dinosaur fossils, though below…

Around the Web

What Happened to the Neanderthals?

The New York Times has an interesting article about the Neanderthals. Are they us? Amid the daunting saga that is human evolution, the Neanderthals, so recent and closely studied, are in many ways the accessible celebrities of the story. Their fate seems to offer a toehold on the big questions about how we came to be the last species standing. What happened to the Neanderthals, then? One glib answer is that they are still here, lurking in the DNA of present-day people in tiny amounts. Ancient DNA studies revealed that Neanderthals and Denisovans, and possibly others, didn’t so much as…

Mazon Creek, Mazon Monday

Mazon Creek 346: SciShow “The Bizarre Case of the Tully Monster”

The SciShow is a Youtube channel with interesting videos. Just a few days ago, they posted an episode about our friend the “Tully Monster.” With the exception of their pronunciation of Mazon Creek (see Mazon Monday #147), they did a very good job telling the long and ongoing story of the Tully Monster…

Around the Web, Calendar of Events

Fright at the Field – October 26th to November 1st, 2026… They are open late!

Checkout “Fright at the Field“, open at the Field Museum from October 28th to 30th, 2026. Spooky season has arrived at the Field Museum! Join us for Fright at the Field, a Halloween experience featuring the return of Underground MISadventure, and Halloween Harvest Maze, a new spooky takeover of Plants of the World. Plus, explore the Museum to find seven creepy-cool specimens, like Witch’s Hat Fungus and the Vampire Bat, to complete Chompy’s Secret Lair challenge to win a special prize! Underground MISadventure: Zombie Fungus This year, Underground Adventure will transform into Underground MISadventure: Zombie Fungus. Step into an immersive…

Friday, November 13th	General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom. ESCONI member, Roy Plotnick, will be presenting “Lyell in Chicago: A Historic Collection Illustrates a Missing chapter in 19th Century Geology.”
Saturday, November 14th	Junior Study Group Meeting – 2:00 PM at the Lizzadro Museum (Meet at 1:45 PM) Scott will guide the Juniors and their families on a tour of the Lizzadro Museum during this free day! You must RSVP for the 2:00 time slot to reserve your free museum tickets.
Saturday, November 21th	Paleontology Study Group – 7:30 PM via Zoom Owen Goodchild, PhD candidate, Richard Gilder Graduate School and American Museum of Natural History will present “American Elephants: Untangling the evolution and biogeography of N. American Proboscideans.”
No meeting this month	Mineralogy Study Group

Mazon Creek Fossil Day – October 10th, 2026!

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