Month: February 2022
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ESCONI Events March 2022
Welcome back! Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Sat, Mar 19th ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the DuPage County Fairgrounds (Map) Details here. Show flyer. Sun, Mar 20th ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the…
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Mazon Monday #101: Peggy Macnamara
This is Mazon Monday post #101. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The cover of the book “A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek” by Jack Wittry features a painting of a fiddlehead, which is an immature fern frond. The fiddlehead species in the Mazon Creek biota are…
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Remains of ‘world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur’ recovered in Scotland
The Guardian has a story about the recent discovery of a large Jurassic pterosaur. Described as the largest Jurassic pterosaur, the animal is named Dearc sgiathanach and had a wingspan of about 2.5 meters. It lived about 170 million years ago on what is now the Isle of Skye. Prof. Steve Brusatte of the University…
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PBS Eons: Why We Only Have Ten Toes (It’s a Long Story)
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one discusses the evolution of vertebrate limbs, especially hands and feet. So, how did we get to fix fingers and toes? Today, all mammals from humans to bats have five fingers or fewer. Yes, even whales, whose finger bones are hidden in their fins. Birds have four…
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Fossil Friday #97: Kentucky Neuropteris
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #97. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Carboniferous seed fern fossils are on the…
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Throwback Thursday #99: Western Electric Magazine Rockhounds
This is Throwback Thursday #99. 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! William Allaway was one of the founders of ESCONI. He served as the first Chairman/President of ESCONI from…
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110-Million-Year-Old Lizard Found in Burmese Amber
General view of Retinosaurus hkamtiensis: (a) photograph of the specimen — a well-preserved skull, including the mandible, part of the hyoid (ceratobranchial), and a partial postcranial skeleton, as well as well-preserved skin tissues — within the amber resin in dorsal view; (b-d) high resolution computerized scan (HRCT) rendering of the integument surface; note that the integument…
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Tate Geological Museum: 2022 Spring Lecture Series “Ammonites 2022” – Zoom Lecture Thursday Feb 24th, 2022 8:00 PM – “”
The Tate Geological Museum in Casper, Wyoming has published the schedule for their 2022 Spring Lecture Series “Ammonites 2022”.
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Mazon Monday #100: Odontopteris subcuneata
This is Mazon Monday post #100. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. This is the 100th Mazon Monday post! We hope you are enjoying these posts! If you have any suggestions or feedback, please send it along to email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Odontopteris subcuneata was a seed fern that belonged to the same group…
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“I Know Dino” podcast
Roy Plotnick, long time ESCONI member and friend appears in a recent episode (#377) of the podcast “I Know Dino”. They usually discuss dinosaurs, but with Roy, they discuss paleontology in general and his book “Explorers of Deep Time: Paleontologists and the History of Life”. Roy gives ESCONI and rock clubs in general a very…
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PBS Eons: How Horses Went from Food to Friends
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the domestication of horses. Do our modern horses descend from just one domesticated population, or did it happen many times, in many places? Answering these questions has been tricky, as we’ve needed to bring together evidence from art, archaeology, and ancient DNA…Because, as it…
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Fossil Friday #96: Mazon Creek Insect Nymph
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #96. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! We have another Mazon Creek insect this…
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Throwback Thursday #98: The Rock I Threw Away!
This is Throwback Thursday #98. 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! We’ve featured the poems of Charles Schweitzer a few times in the past. In Throwback Thursday #59, we…
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Cretaceous Crocodiles Ate Ornithopod Dinosaurs, Fossil Evidence Shows
SciNews has a story about a new Cretaceous crocodile. The animal, Confractosuchus saurokonos, lived about 95 million years ago in what is now Queensland, Austrailia. As part of the skeletal remains, well preserved gut contents were found. With some analysis, those contents were found to be parts of a juvenile ornithopod dinosaur. This discovery was…
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NYT: One of Evolution’s Oddest Creatures Finds a Fossilized Family Member
The Trilobites column at the New York Times has a story about Opabinia, an enigmatic animal from the Burgess Shale. Stephen Pates, a paleotologist, discovered a strange animal in the collections at the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas in 2017. The animal was classified as a radiodont, like Anomalocaris, but he was…
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Mazon Monday #99: Calamostachys, sp.
This is Mazon Monday post #99. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Calamostachys is the cone portion of Calamites. Recall the Langford diagram which details the parts of Calamites. The round seed like part of these cones are actually sporagia, which Calamites used to reproduce. Calamites are horsetails. Their closest…
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PBS Eons: How Vertebrates Got Teeth… And Lost Them Again
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the origin of teeth… did they start as teeth on skin or teeth in mouth? As revolutionary as teeth were, they would go on to disappear in some groups of vertebrates. But why?
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Happy Darwin Day 2022!
Happy Darwin Day 2022! Today is Charles Darwin’s 213th birthday. Head on over to the International Darwin Day website. Here is what it’s about… International Darwin Day on February 12th will inspire people throughout the globe to reflect and act on the principles of intellectual bravery, perpetual curiosity, scientific thinking, and hunger for truth as…
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Fossil Friday #95: Mazon Creek Winged Insect – Diaphanopterodea
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #95. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! This absolutely stunning Mazon Creek insect comes…
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Throwback Thursday #97: Fishing the Eocene Age
This is Throwback Thursday #97. 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! An article from FRIENDS magazine entitled “Fishing the Eocene Age” appeared back in the January 1972 edition of…
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ESCONI February 2022 Juniors Study Group Meeting (In-Person at COD) Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022 at 7:00 PM
s Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois Juniors Group Meeting In-Person at College of DuPage Does Your Child Love Fossils? At the next in-person Juniors meeting, ESCONI’s Scott Galloway and the Juniors will be picking at soft slabs of rock and dislodging Sylvania Ohio fossils, and they will be doing this hands-on activity in…
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ESCONI February 2022 General Meeting – February 11th, 2022 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “Before Yellowstone: Native American Archaeology in the First National Park”
The ESCONI February 2022 General Meeting will be on February 11th, 2022 at 8:00 PM via Zoom. The talk will be presented by Dr. Douglas MacDonald from the University of Montana, The title of his presentation is “Before Yellowstone: Native American Archaeology in the First National Park”. An article in the January 2021 edition of…
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2022 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – March 19th – 20th, 2022 – Preview #2, Fluorite Crystal
This is the preview post #2 for the 2022 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The show is on March 19th and 20th, 2022 at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL. All details can be found here. This absolutely gorgeous multi-colored grouping of fluorite will be available in our Live Auction. It…
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Mazon Monday #98: Natural History of Coal Age Fossils
This is Mazon Monday post #98. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. George Langford’s second book, “The Wilmington Coal Fauna and Additions to the Wilmington Coal Flora from a Pennsylvanian Deposit in Will County, Illinois”, was published by Esconi Associates in 1963. As part of the publication of the book, Stella…
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How we discovered a rare giant millipede fossil on a beach, and why it matters
This story on phys.org tell the story about the discovery of a giant millipede, Arthropleura in Engand in January 2018.. The original story describing the 326 million year old millipede fossil appeared back in December 2021. The animal was about 2.7 meters long (nearly 9 feet!). It lived during the Carboniferous Period in what is…
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CBC Quirks and Quarks: Darkness doomed the dinosaurs
The CBC Radio show/Podcast Quirks and Quarks has a segment entitled “Darkness doomed the dinosaurs — the extinction asteroid turned out the lights on Earth”. They speak with Peter Roopnarine from the California Academy of Sciences about the after effects of the meteor strike that took out the non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous.…
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Fossil Friday #94: Diaphorodendron rimosum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #94. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! We haven’t posted enough fossil wood on…
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Throwback Thursday #96: Looking Back at ESCONI for February 2022
This is Throwback Thursday #96. 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! 25 Years Ago – February 1997 50 Years Ago – February 1972 70 Years Ago – February 1952…
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Will County Forest Preserve: “Fossils: Frozen in Time” – Saturday, February 5th, 2022
The Will County Forest Preserve District has an lecture event on Saturday, February 5th, 2022 at 1:30 PM at the Four Rivers Environmental Education Center. FOSSILS: FROZEN IN TIME EVENT INFORMATIONDate: Saturday, 02/05/2022Time: 1:30 PM to 3:00 PMFee: Free!Age: Ages 5 or older.Contact Phone: 815.722.9470Location: Four Rivers Environmental Education Center (View on Google Maps) Photo…
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ESCONI Events February 2022
Welcome back! Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Fri, Feb 11th ESCONI General Meeting 8:00 PM Zoom – Topic: “Before Yellowstone: Native American Archaeology in the First National Park” by Dr. Douglas MacDonald from the University of Montana. Zoom link Sat, Feb 12th ESCONI Junior Meeting – 7:00 PM at…
