This is the “Fossil Friday” post #342. 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!

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George Holub brought some fossils to our recent Mazon Creek Fossil Day at the Coal City Library. George is a long-time collector who donated a good portion of his collection over the last few years, some of it went to Field Museum and some went to the American Museum of Natural History.

Here’s how he described his generous donations…

242 arthopod specimens were donated to the American Museum of Natural History.

FMNH had first pick of my collection and took 129 faunal specimens.

Other donations included 8 faunal specimens to Roy Plotnick’s teaching collection at UofI Chicago, 163 faunal specimens to Lake Forest College (plus some flora specimens; I have lectured to their Plant Biology class annually in the Fall since before COVID), and 98 faunal specimens to Riverside-Brookfield High School (plus some flora specimens, my son/daughter went there). I annually lectured their freshmen Biology classes on Mazon Creek from 1992 for 15 years.

I’ll be going on a tour of Scotland in Fall 2027 and am considering donating some fossils to the University of Edinburgh – I know someone there.

George has appeared in other posts on our blog, see Fossil Friday #188. He attended the 1990 Mazon Creek Open House. Here he is with Ralph Jewell and Jack Wittry.

And, this is at the 2026 Mazon Creek Fossil Day.

Afterwards, he sent some other nice fossil photos we’ll use in a future post. Thanks for sharing, George and have fun in Scotland!