Month: April 2024
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ESCONI Events May 2024
Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Sat, May 4th ESCONI Field Trip Braceville, IL for Mazon Creek Fossils – Full! Details can be found here. Sun, May 5th ESCONI Field Trip Braceville, IL for Mazon Creek Fossils – Full! Details can be found here. Fri, May 10th ESCONI General Meeting…
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Paleontologists Discover Massive Dinosaur Tracks in China, Hinting at One of the Largest Known Raptors
Smithsonian Magazine has a post about fossil tracks of one of the largest known raptors. The tracks were found on what was once a muddy river plain in what is now southwestern China. The dinosaur, named Fujianipus (meaning “foot of Fujian”) yingliangi, lived about 96 million years ago during the middle Cretaceous Period. The footprints were discovered during…
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Mazon Monday #214: Rhabdoderma exiguum
This is Mazon Monday post #214. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Rhabdoderma exiguum is a species of Mazon Creek coelacanth. Coelacanths are lobe-finned fish, thought extinct since the Cretaceous. The first living coelacanth was discovered in 1938 off the coast of South Africa. There are now two known living species.…
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Planet of the Rocks – May 25th and 26th, 2024 at the Kane County Fairgrounds
Chicagoland Gems & Minerals Association 47th Annual Show ● May 25th & 26th, 2024 Saturday, 10am-6pm ● Sunday, 10am-5pm Kane County Fairgrounds525 S. Randall RoadSt. Charles, IL 60174 Over 30 Dealers, Special Exhibits, Demonstrators,Kids Korner, Door Prizes, and Silent AuctionsFree Parking – Air Conditioned – Food Available Wholesale RoomRequires Current State Tax lD and Trade…
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Enormous dinosaur dubbed Shiva ‘The Destroyer’ is one of the biggest ever discovered
LiveScience has a story about a new dinosaur discovery. A huge titanosaur, Bustingorrytitan shiva, one of the largest land animals ever, has been found in Argentina. B. shiva had an estimated weight of 74 tons. It lived about 90 million years ago during the middle Cretaceous Period. The animal was described in a paper in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. The B. shiva discovery in…
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Fossil Friday #210: Rhabdoderma exiguum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #210. 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, we have a…
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Throwback Thursday #211: Don Auler Paintings
This is Throwback Thursday #211. 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! ——————————————————————————————- Who was Don Auler? He and his family joined ESCONI in March 1967. He and his wife…
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Paleontologists unearth what may be the largest known marine reptile
Phys.org has a story about the discovery of what might be the largest marine reptile ever found. A father and daughter, Justin and Ruby Reynolds from Braunton, Devon, found pieces of the jawbone of a huge ichthyosaur that lived about 202 million years ago during the Triassic Period. While hunting fossils on the beach at…
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Geologic History of Kansas
The Kansas Geologic Survey has a new video over on Youtube. This one is on the geologic history of Kansas. We look at the geologic history of Kansas, which includes oceans, tropical rainforests, loads of salt, and glaciers. To learn more about the geologic history of Kansas, check out our educational website: https://geokansas.ku.edu/
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Mazon Monday #213: Postcards from Mazon Creek
This is Mazon Monday post #213. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Deltiology is the study and collection of postcards. The name comes from Greek, δελτίον, deltion, diminutive of δέλτος, deltos, “writing tablet, letter”; and -λογία, -logia. Deltiology is a very popular type of collecting. People all around the world collect and trade both vintage and…
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You Can Visit the World’s Largest Continuous Dinosaur Trackway, Now on Protected Public Land
Smithsonian Magazine has an article about a dinosaur trackway in Colorado. The track dates to about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. 134 consecutive footprints trace out a sauropod dinosaur walking for a bit and then changing direction in a loop. The West Gold Hill Dinosaur Track site dates is located just west of…
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PBS Eons: The Hazy Evolution of Cannabis
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the origin of Cannabis. How did such a strange plant like cannabis come to be in the first place? When and where did we first domesticate it? And why oh why does it get us high?
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Fossil Friday #209: Palaeocampa anthrax
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #209. 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, we have the rarest…
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Throwback Thursday #210: A Rockhound
This is Throwback Thursday #210. 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! This poem by Ted Johnson of the Puget Sounder appeared in the April 1962 edition of the ESCONI…
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Ancient Foxes Lived and Died Alongside Humans
The New York Times Trilobites column has a story about domesticated foxes. A paper in the Royal Society Open Science describes evidence that foxes lived among people of early South American communities. “It appears to have been intentionally buried within this human cemetery,” said Ophélie Lebrasseur, a zooarchaeologist at the University of Oxford and an…
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ESCONI April 2024 Paleontology Meeting – Saturday, April 20th, 2024 at 7:30 PM Zoom – “Terror Birds”
The April 2024 will be held on April 20th, 2024 at 7:30 via Zoom. The presentation will be given by John Catalani. Abstract We begin with an explanation of the “Terror Birds” and their position in Geologic Time. The two major groups of these large cursorial birds are the Phorusrhacidae and the Gastornithidae. The first…
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Mazon Monday #212: Aphlebia crispa
This is Mazon Monday post #212. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. We have a very rare plant for this week’s post. Aphlebia crispa is a leafy plant that was lettuce-like in appearance. It had wide distribution as it’s found in fossil deposits throughout England, Europe, and North America. Aphlebia is…
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Uncovering the Secrets of Colombia’s Rich Fossil Deposits
Smithsonian Magazine has a piece about Columbia’s rich fossil deposits. The formation of the Andes Mountain, about 72 million years ago, revealed many marine fossils from the Cretaceous Period. Ammonites—extinct marine cephalopods with distinctive coiled shells—are embedded in walls, floors and roads all across town. Locals and visitors often find fossils when walking unpaved roads…
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Volcano Comedy Show – Thursday, April 18th, 2024
Ben Miller is bringing his Volcano Comedy Show to Chicago on Thursday, April 18th, 2024. The show will be held at the Lincoln Lodge in Chicago from 7:30 to 9:00 PM. What happens when a comedian walks into a volcano? In 2023, Ben Miller was the artist in residence at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, the first…
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Fossil Friday #208: Mamayocaris jaskoskii
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #208. 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 week’s contribution comes from Pat Kelly,…
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ESCONI April 2024 General Meeting – Friday, April 12th, 2024 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “Ice age mammals from the frozen North”
The ESCONI General Meeting for April 2024 will be held on Friday, April 12th, 2024 at 8:00 PM zia Zoom. The topic of the presentation is “Ice age mammals from the frozen North“. It will be given by Yukon Paleontologist Grant Zazula. Ever since the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, Yukon miners in search of…
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Throwback Thursday #209: Tony Sobolik, I Remember…….
This is Throwback Thursday #209. 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! This was originally posted as Flashback Friday #10. It was part of the run up to ESCONI’s 70’s…
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Newly discovered fossil of giant turtle is named after Stephen King novel character
Phys.org has a story about a new described giant turtle from the Brazilian Amazon. The new species, Peltocephalus maturin, lived during the late Pleistocene, between 40,000 an 9,000 years ago. It was described by Dr. Gabriel S. Ferreira from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen. The name P.…
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Titanosaurs were the biggest land animals Earth’s ever seen − these plant-powered dinos combined reptile and mammal traits
The Conversation has an interesting article about Titanosaurs. It’s written by Kristina Curry Rogers a Professor of Biology and Geology at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She studies titanosaurs, which are a group of sauropod dinosaurs. Titanosaurs originated by the Early Cretaceous Period, nearly 126 million years ago, at a time when many of the Earth’s…
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Mazon Monday #211: Mariopteris wilmingtonense
This is Mazon Monday post #211. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Mariopteris wilmingtonense is a rare and beautiful variety of Mariopteris found only in Mazon Creek. It was described by George Langford Sr. in 1958 in his first Mazon Creek book “The Wilmington Coal Flora From a Pennsylvanian Deposit in…
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New Jurassic Shuotheriid Species Sheds Light on Early Evolution of Mammaliaforms
Live Science has a story about a new Jurassic mammaliaform. Feredocodon chowi lived during the Jurassic in what is now China. It’s a Shuotheriid, which is a group of mammal-like animals that have long been problematic as to where they fit into the mammalian family tree. Their unique dental characteristics make them hard to classify. …
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PBS Eons: What Will Earth Be Like 300 Million Years From Now?
PBS Eons has a new video. This one looks forward in time to see what the Earth will look in the future. We spend a lot of time here on Eons looking backwards into deep time, visiting ancient chapters of our planet’s history. But this time, we’re taking a look towards the deep future. After…
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Fossil Friday #207: Fossils from the Permian of Jordan
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #207. 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! On a recent field trip to a…
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ESCONI Field Trip to Braceville, IL for Mazon Creek Fossils – Saturday, May 4th and Sunday May 5th, 2024
Both days are full! We do have a waiting list. Braceville Field Trip RulesMay 2024 The ESCONI field trips to Braceville for Mazon Creek fossils are set for May 4 and 5, 2024 from 9 AM to 3 PM. You can attend one or the other, but not both days. There is an attendance limit…
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Throwback Thursday #208: Looking Back At ESCONI For April 2024
This is Throwback Thursday #208. 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 – April 1999 50 Years Ago – April 1974 70 Years Ago – April 1954…
