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ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show
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- 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #3: Acanthotelson stimpsoni
This is the preview post #3 for the 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem,… Read more: 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #3: Acanthotelson stimpsoni
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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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2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #3: Acanthotelson stimpsoni
Read more: 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #3: Acanthotelson stimpsoniThis is the preview post #3 for the 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2026 will be held on March 21th and 22nd at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here. For […]
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Mazon Monday #307: Arjan Mann on Fossil Nerds
Read more: Mazon Monday #307: Arjan Mann on Fossil NerdsThis is Mazon Monday post #306. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Episode #94 of the Fossil Nerds podcast is “The Marvelous Mini-Monsters of Mazon Creek with Arjan Mann”. Arjan is the Assistant Curator of Early Tetrapods at the Field Museum. He discusses his lab’s work, various ancient fish and tetrapods, […]
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Stunning Fossil Site Reveals Life Rebounding After Major Extinction Event
Read more: Stunning Fossil Site Reveals Life Rebounding After Major Extinction EventScience Alert has a story about the discovery of a new Cambrian lagerstatte in China. The site preserves an entire ecosystem in stunning detail. There are about 40 Cambrian sites worldwide that exhibiting exquisite preservation of rarely preserved, non-mineralized soft tissue. Add this newly discovered 512 million years old fossil site in Hunan, South China, named […]
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You Wouldn’t Want to Butt Heads With This Small Dinosaur
Read more: You Wouldn’t Want to Butt Heads With This Small DinosaurThe New York Times’ Trilobites column has a story about the discovery of a new dinosaur in Mexico. The animal, Xenovenator espinosai, was discovered in 2000 in the Cerro del Pueblo formation in northeastern Mexico by Martha Aguillón-Martinez. It lived about about 73 million years ago when the area was a marshy coastline. The animal’s […]
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Fossil Friday #302: A Beautiful Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri from Braceville!
Read more: Fossil Friday #302: A Beautiful Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri from Braceville!This is the “Fossil Friday” post #302. 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! For this week, we have a beautiful pyritized Macroneuropteris sheuchzeri […]
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Throwback Thursday #302: More Old Cars
Read more: Throwback Thursday #302: More Old CarsThis is Throwback Thursday #302. 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. In Throwback Thursday #267, we posted field trip photos that showed old cars from the 1950s and 1960s. […]
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Collecting Echinoids (Sea Urchins) in North Jutland, Denmark
Read more: Collecting Echinoids (Sea Urchins) in North Jutland, DenmarkToday, we have an interesting guest post from long-time ESCONI member Marie Angkuw. Marie is part of the Lyme Regis Babes as John Catalani has named them. Marie, Rhonda Gates, Jann Bergsten, and Deborah Lovely have taken numerous trips to Europe to collect fossils. They’ve been to Lyme Regis (multiple times), Whitby, Yorkshire, and the […]
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2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #2: Fluorite, Galena, and Barite From Bingham, NM
Read more: 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #2: Fluorite, Galena, and Barite From Bingham, NMThis is the preview post #2 for the 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2026 will be held on March 21th and 22nd at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here. In […]
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Mazon Monday #306: Drevotella proteana
Read more: Mazon Monday #306: Drevotella proteanaThis is Mazon Monday post #306. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Drevotella proteana is believed to be a hydrozoan. It lived during the Pennsylvanian Period. Fossils of this soft-bodied animal are known only from the Mazon Creek fossil deposit, where exceptional preservation allows such delicate organisms to be recorded. Hydrozoans […]
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Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society’s Annual Silent Auction, Saturday, March 14, 2026
Read more: Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society’s Annual Silent Auction, Saturday, March 14, 2026Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society’s Annual Silent Auction Saturday, March 14, 2026 6 to 9 p.m. St. Peter’s United Church of Christ 8013 Laramie Ave., Skokie, IL (Across the street from the public library on Oakton) Plus a special live auction of high-end specimens during the last half-hour! The first table closes at 6:30 p.m. […]
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PBS: Inside the Vault Where They Keep the Dinosaur Apocalypse
Read more: PBS: Inside the Vault Where They Keep the Dinosaur ApocalypsePBS has an interesting video about the K-Pg extinction. Check it out! A giant asteroid impact ended the age of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. How did this mass extinction play out, moment by moment? In this video we meet a geologist who has explored the asteroid crater and learn what the rocks tell […]
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Fossil Friday #301: French Palaeocaris
Read more: Fossil Friday #301: French PalaeocarisThis is the “Fossil Friday” post #301. 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! In Mazon Monday #294, we highlighted the fossil site at […]
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Throwback Thursday #301: Century of Progress – Sinclair Exhibit
Read more: Throwback Thursday #301: Century of Progress – Sinclair ExhibitThis 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. Ran across an interesting post on the Original Chicago Group on Facebook last month (December 2025). In […]
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Video for ESCONI January 2026 Paleontology Meeting – “Getting Lost Can Lead to Treasure – Edrioasteroids”
Read more: Video for ESCONI January 2026 Paleontology Meeting – “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 was 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 was […]
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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. […]