Month: November 2022
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ESCONI December 2022 General Meeting – December 2nd, 2022 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “The early diversification of birds: evidence from the Jehol avifauna”
December’s General Meeting will be held at 8:00 PM on December 2nd, 2022. The presenter is Dr. Jingmai O’Connor Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles at the Field Museum. The topic of her talk is “The early diversification of birds: evidence from the Jehol avifauna”. She calls herself a paleontologista aka a punk rock paleontologist. …
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6 feet of snow in Buffalo: What causes lake-effect storms like this?
Is the weather considered Earth Science? Sure, of course! The Conversation has an interesting post that discusses the hows and whys of “lake-effect snow”. Remember the huge snowstorm in Buffalo in mid-November 2022? Well… there are reasons why this happens so often for western New York. Six foot snowstorms are not rare in Buffalo and…
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Mazon Monday #140: Gilpichthys greenei
This is Mazon Monday post #140. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Gilpichthys greenei was a jawless fish. They are fairly rare and associated with the Essex fauna of Pit 11. G. greenei was described in 1977 by David Bardack and Eugene Richardson in the paper “New agnathous fishes from the…
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ESCONI Events December 2022
Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Fri, Dec 2nd ESCONI General Meeting 8:00 PM Zoom – Topic: “The early diversification of birds: evidence from the Jehol avifauna” by Dr. Jingmai O’Connor from the Field Museum Zoom link Sat, Dec 10th ESCONI Holiday Lunch – 12:00 PM at Warren’s Ale House…
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For years, experts said a Roman emperor wasn’t real. Scientists say a coin could prove otherwise
USA Today has an interesting story about some Roman coins. The four coins were discovered in 1713 in what is now Romania. They depict three different people – one shows Emperor Gordian II and two show Emperor Phillip. The fourth coin is problematic as it bears the visage of Sponsian. Although there are other Sponsian…
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As Dinosaur Fossils Fetch Millions, There’s Many a Bone to Pick
The New York Times has an article about the canceled auction of Shen a Tyrannosaurus rex. Christie’s was scheduled to auction the dinosaur in November 2022, but canceled the event when questions emerged about how it had been described. Shen’s skeleton consists of 79 original bones, which was described as “54% complete by bone density”. …
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Fossil Friday #136: Postcard from Holden Beach, North Carolina…
This is “Fossil Friday” post #136. 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! For this week’s port, we have a guest…
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Throwback Thursday #138: Under Your Feet
This is Throwback Thursday #138. 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! Today, we have poem from the Chicago Lapidary Club, which doesn’t seem to exist anymore. There is a…
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ESCONI Holiday Lunch Saturday, December 10th, 2022 at 12:00 PM at Warren’s Ale House in Wheaton
The ESCONI Holiday Party has been moved from evening of December 2nd, 2022 to lunch on Saturday, December 10th, 2022. Lunch will be at Warren’s Ale House in Wheaton, IL. The original party was canceled by the restaurant. See you there!
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New Bird-Like Dinosaur Species Found with Remains of Frog in Its Stomach
SciNews has an article about the discovery of a new bird-like dinosaur. Daurlong wangi lived between 130 and 120 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what in now China. It was a dromaeosaur of medium size bird-like dinosaur. The animal, part of the famous Jehol Biota, was described in a paper, which appeared…
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Scientists Unearth a Prehistoric Marine Turtle the Size of a Car
Smithsonian Magazine has an article about a new fossil turtle. The animal, Leviathanochelys aenigmatica, lived during the Cretaceous Period about 72 million years ago in what is now Spain. It was discovered by a hiker in the Pyrenes mountains. The new species was described in a new paper, which appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.…
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Mazon Monday #139: Lepidocystis sp.
This is Mazon Monday post #139. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! For this week’s Mazon Monday, we have Lepidocystis sp., which is a type of spore packet associated with the cone genus Polysporia. Early Mazon Creek collectors referred to this as “cockroach egg sacs”. This is known to be false…
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Scientists Find Plaster Copies of Fossil Destroyed by Nazis
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about an interesting rediscovery. In 1818, Mary Anning discovererd one of most complete ichthyosaur skeletons ever found. The fossil eventually made its way to the Royal College of Surgeons in London, where it was destroyed in WW II by the Nazi bombing. There were a few drawing, but the fossil…
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PBS Eons: We Met Neandertals Way Earlier Than We Thought
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the missing Neandertal Y chromosome. My cousin did a DNA test the other month and was embarrassed about having a much higher amount of Neandertal DNA than the average European, but I told them about all the cool things I learned about them on this…
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Fossil Friday #135: It’s Got Belotelson Eyes…
This is “Fossil Friday” post #135. 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! Who’s old enough to remember the Kim Carnes…
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Throwback Thursday #137: Archaeopteryx in Chicago!
This is Throwback Thursday #137. 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! October 1997 was a huge month for the Field Museum. The annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate…
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Welsh ‘weird wonder’ fossils add piece to puzzle of arthropod evolution
Phys.org has a story about a new “weird wonder” from the Ordovician Period. This new animal is called Mieridduryn bonniae and is thought to be related to Opabinia, which is one of the iconic animals discovered in the Burgess Shale by Charles Walcott in 1909. Many of the Burgess Shale animals were termed “weird wonders”…
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The theory of continental drift and how it changed the geosciences forever
EGU Blogs has an informative page on continental drift. Originating with Alfred Wegener around 1912, continental drift seemed somewhat ridiculous at the time. How could something so large as a continent move?!? The evidence was there… matching geologic formations across oceans, mountain building, and sea floor spreading. There were no good explanations until Plate Tectonics…
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Mazon Monday #138: The Konecnys on Mazon Creek Fossil Preparation
This is Mazon Monday post #138. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Jim and Sylvia Konecny were very active in ESCONI for many years. They held various board positions over the years with Jim serving as president in 1966. They were prolific fossil collectors, who donated a significant collection to the…
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2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – March 18th – 19th, 2023
Save the date! The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2023 will be held on March 18th and 19th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL. This is the same place as last year. Here is a quick sneak peek of some auction items…
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PBS Eons: How Plate Tectonics Gave Us Seahorses
PBS Eons has a new episode on Youtube. This one is about the evolution of the seahorse. How did seahorses — one of the ocean’s worst swimmers — spread around the globe? And where did they come from in the first place? Thanks to Franz Anthony (http://franzanth.com) for the incredible syngnathid reconstructions used in this…
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Fossil Friday #134: Myriacantherpestes from Kansas
This is “Fossil Friday” post #134. 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! Today, we have a absolutely breathtaking Myriacantherpestes sp.…
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Throwback Thursday #136: Hilmer Case in Fossil Ridge Public Library
This is Throwback Thursday #136. 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! Back in 1990, ESCONI donated a display case to the Fossil Ridge Public Library in Braidwood, IL. The…
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ESCONI November 2022 General Meeting – November 11th, 2022 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “A Sea Without Fish, Ordovician Fossils of the Cincinnati Region”
On November 11th our speaker will be Dr. David Meyer from the University of Cincinnati. The title of his talk is “A Sea Without Fish, Ordovician fossils of the Cincinnati region“. His book has the same name as his presentation. Checkout his page at the University of Cincinnati. Book Description: The region around Cincinnati, Ohio,…
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A Fossil Museum Uses the Past to Reimagine Climate’s Future
The New York Times has a story about the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. Climate change is at the center of many of the extinctions in Earth’s past. The La Brea Tar Pit Museum in Las Angeles is researching what happened to megaspecies like mastodons, mammoths dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, and…
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Mazon Monday #137: Geological Society of Marietta College Field Trip 1978
This is Mazon Monday post #137. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! The Mazon Creek area is a well known fossil collecting locality. It’s considered a lagerstatte, with soft-bodied fossil preservation of exquisite quality. It can be very challenging to collect, as public areas are rare and the ones that exist are…
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New Plant-Eating Dinosaur Species Uncovered in Nevada
SciNews has a piece about the discovery of a new dinosaur. Nevadadromeus schmitti lived between 100 and 94 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now Nevada. It seems to be related to Thescelosaurinae, but also has features of Orodrominae. It is an Ornithiscian dinosaur, a group that includes hadrosaurs, cerotapsian, and…
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NYT: The Sad Fate of the Ancient, Well-Shelled Mariners
The New York Times has an article about oceanic turnover from brachiopods to mollusks which occurred throughout the Paleozoic. During the Cambrian and the Ordovician, brachiopods ruled the sea floor. By the Devonian, much of the diversity of brachiopods had disappeared. In the current oceans, brachiopods are rarely found. They have been replaced by bi-valved…
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Fossil Friday #133: Tully Monster from the River!
This is “Fossil Friday” post #133. 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! Tully Monsters are always popular fossils. They come…
