This is the “Fossil Friday” post #315. 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!

---

Jeremy Zimmerman sent us these photos of his breathtaking Eubleptus danielsi a little while ago. And, unfortunately, it took a bit to get it out. This beauty was found in Pit 11 many years ago.

Eubleptus danielsi belongs to the Palaeodictyoptera an extinct order of medium-sized to very large, primitive Palaeozoic paleopterous insects.  E. danielsi was described by Anton Handlirsch in 1906.  Handlirsch (1865 – 1935) was an Austrian entomologist, who worked extensively on many insect orders.   He did significant work studying of fossil insects.  Handlirsch described E. danielsi in “Revision of American Paleozoic insects. Proceedings of the United States National Museum“. 

E. danielsi was named for L.E. Daniels a significant collecting from Mazon, IL in the late 1800s (see Mazon Monday #184).  Daniels has six Mazon Creek animals named for him, including a spider, a scorpion, and four insects.  Fossilworks has references to some of the specimens he contributed to UMMP and USNM.

• Arthrolycosa danielsi (spider)
• Gerarus danielsi (winged insect)
• Asemoblatta danielsi (cockroach)
• Eubleptus danielsi (insect – Paleodictyioptera)
• Eoscorpius danielsi (scorpion)
• Aenigmatodes danielsi (insect)

This is a beautiful specimen! Thanks for sharing, Jeremy!