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SciNews: Devonian Fossil Forest Unearthed in China
Read more: SciNews: Devonian Fossil Forest Unearthed in ChinaSciNews has a post about a Devonian aged fossil forest discovered in China. The fossilized forest dates to 360 million years ago and was found near Xinhang in China’s Anhui province. It is the oldest known fossil forest in Asia. A paper describing the fossils appeared in the journal Current Biology. The Xinhang forest covered an area of at least 62 acres (250,000 m2) and grew in a coastal environment prone to flooding. Lycopsid trees found in the forest resembled palm trees, with branchless trunks and leafy crowns. Named Guangdedendron, they had no flowers and no seeds, but shed megaspores. These…
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ESCONI Field Trip To Braceville, IL for Mazon Creek Concretions – September 14th and 15th, 2019
Read more: ESCONI Field Trip To Braceville, IL for Mazon Creek Concretions – September 14th and 15th, 2019Braceville Field Trip Rules September 2019 The ESCONI field trips to Braceville for Mazon Creek fossils are set for Sept 14 and 15, 2019 from 8 AM to 2 PM. You can attend either or both days. There is an attendance limit of 50 people each day. Meet at 8 AM at the entrance to the collecting site on S Berta Road, just east of the intersection with Division St (Braceville IL). A nearby landmark for driving directions is the Braceville Gardner Cemetery, 7295 East Braceville Road, Braceville, IL. I can send a small map to anyone that needs it.…
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Take a historical sip back to the 1893 World Fair with the Field Museum’s new beer
Read more: Take a historical sip back to the 1893 World Fair with the Field Museum’s new beerThe Chicago Sun Times has a story about the Field Museum’s new beer. Produced in a collaboration with Chicago Brewseum and Temperance Beer, “All the World is Here” is a new beer that is inspired by the World’s Columbian Exposition. The Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago in 1893. The Field Museum was founded on much of the exposition’s displays. Can you capture Chicago’s historical legacy in a beer? For the Field Museum, the answer is yes. Beginning Monday, museum-goers at the Field will be able to drink All the World is Here at the museum’s restaurants and bars, a…
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Roy Plotnick: Beyond the hammer and whisk broom: the technology of paleontology
Read more: Roy Plotnick: Beyond the hammer and whisk broom: the technology of paleontologyRoy Plotnick has a new blog post over on Medium. In this post, he discusses modern paleontology. Here’s a hint… it’s not your grandfather’s paleontology. The tools and the analysis have changed much over time and technology is more and more important in understanding the history of life. Paleontology, like most other fields of science, has been transformed by the advent of the high-speed computer, large databases, and sophisticated analytical equipment. Instead of being “old and archaic,” as it was derisively described to my colleague Jackie Wittmer Malinowski, paleontology is a modern science, eager to adopt the latest technology. In…
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PBS Eons: When Giant Deer Roamed Eurasia
Read more: PBS Eons: When Giant Deer Roamed EurasiaPBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the Irish Elk of more correctly, Megaloceros. Megaloceros was one of the largest members of the deer family ever to walk the Earth. The archaeological record is full of evidence that our ancestors lived alongside and interacted with these giant mammals for millennia. But what happened when they did interact, when humans met this megafauna?
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ESCONI General Meeting for October 11th, 2019 Upper Devonian Mass Extinction by Dr. James E. “Jed” Day, Professor of Geology at Illinois State University
Read more: ESCONI General Meeting for October 11th, 2019 Upper Devonian Mass Extinction by Dr. James E. “Jed” Day, Professor of Geology at Illinois State UniversityThe program at our October 11, 2019 meeting will be presented by Dr. James E. "Jed" Day, Professor of Geology at Illinois State University. The title of his talk is "Upper Devonian (Keellwasser) Mass Extinction Records from the Subtropics of North America". He will speak about the local (W. Illinois and Iowa) vertebrate microfossil and brachiopod records of the Late Devonian mass extinction.
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ESCONI Flashback Friday #14: George Langford
Read more: ESCONI Flashback Friday #14: George LangfordAs part of the run up to ESCONI’s 70th Anniversary, here is Flashback Friday post #14. If you have pictures or stories to contribute, please send them over to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Jim Konecny wrote this piece for the June 1994 edition of the ESCONI Earth Science News. This year marked the 55th anniversary of George’s death. He was a very interesting man. His contributions were many to both ESCONI and society in general. To learn more, visit the George’s Basement website. That site has a wealth of information about George, his family, and many, many other things. GEORGE LANGFORD1876-1964 June…
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Mazon Creek Word Scrambles #1
Read more: Mazon Creek Word Scrambles #1So, you think you know Mazon Creek fossils, eh? Well now you can prove it, by unscrambling these 10 names of fossil genera found at Mazon Creek. S A O S U P N I R __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ A L X S E E E L S __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ G R A O T S I R P N O C U __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ N O T E O S L E L B __ __…
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Rock River Valley – Rock, Mineral, Fossil, and Jewelry Swap Meet – Saturday, September 14th, 2019
Read more: Rock River Valley – Rock, Mineral, Fossil, and Jewelry Swap Meet – Saturday, September 14th, 2019The Rock River Valley Gem and Mineral Society will be having a Swap Meet on September 14th, 2019 from, 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM. $25 space donation for 10 ft by 10 ft LocationOdd Fellows Hall 6219 Forest Hills Rd. Rockford, IL 61114 Rain or Shine. Free Admission. ContactDuane at rrvgms@gmail.com (815)218-5011 Facebook – Rock River Valley Gem and Mineral Society, Group
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ESCONI Earth Science Event Calendar
Read more: ESCONI Earth Science Event CalendarIn the past, people have requested a calendar of Earth Science Events. This calendar is an attempt provide a solution to that request. It is very much a work in progress that will improve as time passes. Please send information of events to esconi.info@gmail.com. Any and all help is greatly appreciated! Below you will find the Google Calendar Link. Google Calendar Link Information on how to add the calendar to yours, can be found here.
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PBS Announces a New, National WTTW Series, ‘Prehistoric Road Trip’
Read more: PBS Announces a New, National WTTW Series, ‘Prehistoric Road Trip’WTTW has a post which announces a new 3-part natural history series entitled “Prehistoric Road Trip”. The show is hosted by Emily Graslie, Chief Curiosity Correspondent at the Field Museum in Chicago. Emily is the host and creator of the popular YouTube series “The Brain Scoop“. The show will premier on PBS stations nationwide in the summer of 2020. Wow, can’t wait! Filming is taking place this summer, as Graslie and a WTTW crew road trip around Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, where Graslie grew up. They’re exploring 2.5 billion years of Earth’s history through paleontology and fossil-hunting, from…
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myFOSSIL Project Newsletter for Summer 2019
Read more: myFOSSIL Project Newsletter for Summer 2019There’s the myFOSSIL Project Newsletter for Spring 2019. You can download it from here. Volume 6, Issue 2, Summer 2019| FOSSIL Project Newsletter Summer 2019
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Carlton PhD Student: Filling in the Fossil Record
Read more: Carlton PhD Student: Filling in the Fossil RecordCarlton University in Ottawa, CA has a press release about the PhD student that has been involved in recently describing two new Mazon Creek vertebrates. Earlier this year, Diabloroter bolti (paper) and Infernovenator steenae (paper) were published. The research has been conducted by Arjan Mann, Jason D Pardo, and Hillary C Maddin of the Department of Earth Sciences at Carlton. This press release describes some of Arjan’s work. It’s interesting that this research was done by reexamining specimens that were collected many years ago and then donated somewhat recently to the Field Museum in Chicago. The two papers are just…
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ESCONI Flashback Friday #13: Dave and Sheila Bergmann
Read more: ESCONI Flashback Friday #13: Dave and Sheila BergmannAs part of the run up to ESCONI’s 70th Anniversary, here is Flashback Friday post #13. If you have pictures or stories to contribute, please send them over to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Jim O’Brien wrote these words about Dave and Sheila Bergmann in the March, 1998 edition of the newsletter. At that time, Jim was chairman of the Junior Study Group and Dave was Field Trip Chairman, a post he held from 1992-1998. Sheila served in a few capacities, including the Lapidary Study Group Chairwoman for many years. In March 1998, she was Corresponding Secretary. Remember: there will be a sale…
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CNN: A vacationing teacher finds a 2.12-carat diamond at an Arkansas state park
Read more: CNN: A vacationing teacher finds a 2.12-carat diamond at an Arkansas state parkCNN Travel has a story about a teacher that finds a diamond at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. There’s a short video that does a great job telling the story. Josh Lanik, 36, was vacationing with his family when he discovered a brandy-colored gem at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. “It was blatantly obvious there was something different about it,” Lanik said, according to a press release from the park issued Monday. “I saw the shine, and when I picked it up and rolled it in my hand, I noticed there weren’t any sharp edges.”…
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PBS Eons: How Earth’s First, Unkillable Animals Saved the World
Read more: PBS Eons: How Earth’s First, Unkillable Animals Saved the WorldPBS Eons has another new episode. This time they discuss sponges and how they saved the world to allow more complex life to evolve. They have survived every catastrophe and every mass extinction event that nature has thrown at them. And by being the little, filter-feeding, water-cleaning creatures that they are, sponges may have saved the world. Thanks to Franz Anthony and Julio Lacerda for their wonderful illustrations of sponges and snowball earth and other things. You can find more of their work here: https://252mya.com/
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SciNews: Paleontologists Identify Oldest Known Ancestor of Mackerel Sharks
Read more: SciNews: Paleontologists Identify Oldest Known Ancestor of Mackerel SharksSciNews has an article about the ancestor of Mackerel sharks. The article is from earlier this month, but posting it seems appropriate with Shark Week occurring this week. An ancestor of the Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) has been found. Palearocarcharias stromeri was a small benthic shark, which lived about 165 million years ago, during the Jurassic period. The researchers looked at tooth structure to determine ancestry in sharks. The findings were published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports. “Similar to humans, shark teeth are composed of two mineralized structures: a hard shell of hypermineralized tissue (in humans enamel, in…
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Rock and Fossil Garage Sale, Saturday August 3rd, 2019 – From the Collection of Dave and Sheila Bergmann
Read more: Rock and Fossil Garage Sale, Saturday August 3rd, 2019 – From the Collection of Dave and Sheila BergmannThere will be a sale of rocks and fossils from the collection of Dave and Sheila Bergmann on Saturday, August 3rd, 2019 at 401 S. Lombard Ave, Lombard , IL from 10 AM to 5 PM. This is mostly less-expensive material in flats. There will be other sales this Fall with more material and specimens.
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NPR: College Student Discovers 65-Million-Year-Old Triceratops Skull
Read more: NPR: College Student Discovers 65-Million-Year-Old Triceratops Skullhttps://youtu.be/9rqOcg9aqIc NPR has a story about hunting dinosaurs in the Badlands of North Dakota. The post describes the adventures of college student Harrison Duran. He grew up visiting the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and dreamed of finding dinosaurs. This year, he participated in a paleontology dig with Michael Kjelland, a biology professor at Mayville State University of North Dakota. This summer he is working as an intern at Kjelland’s nonprofit group, Fossil Excavators. The result is a partial Triceratops skull. Follow your dreams, they can come true! “I’m just feeling absolute – it’s almost like disbelief at…
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ESCONI Field Trip to Starved Rock Clay Pit, Saturday August 17th, 2019
Read more: ESCONI Field Trip to Starved Rock Clay Pit, Saturday August 17th, 2019There will be a field trip to the Starved Rock Clay Pit on Saturday, August 17, 2019. This a combined trip with the Lincoln Orbit Earth Science Society (LOESS) of Springfield. There is room for 20 ESCONI members. The clay pit is located just south of Starved Rock State Park. I know the date conflicts with the Canal Corridor trip – sorry. Other than the glacial overburden, everything at the clay pit is Pennsylvanian. From top down the layers are: Mecca Quarry Shale – Black shale, hard. Francis Creek Shale – Mudstone from deltaic deposits. Colchester No. 2 coal Underclay…
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- ESCONI Field Trip to the Winfield Mounds “Walking with the Ancestors” – Saturday, May 9th, 2026
There will be a field trip to the Winfield Mounds on Saturday, May 9th, 2026. Meet at Hedge’s Station in Winfield, IL. at 1:00 PM. We will be departing from the meeting spot at 1:15 PM. The field trip ends around 3:00 PM. This guided nature-and-culture hike offers participants an immersive journey through the Winfield Mounds—one of DuPage County’s most significant Indigenous archaeological landscapes—situated along the dynamic ecotones of the West Branch of the DuPage River. Blending natural history with archaeological insight, the experience highlights how ancient peoples selected, shaped, and understood this riverine environment.
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Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings!
| Friday, April 10th | General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom. Jessica Hull will present “Life in the Devonian Period, The Age of Fishes.” |
| Saturday, April 11th | Junior Study Group Meeting – 2:00 PM, in person at the College of DuPage Technical Education Center (TEC) Building – Room 1038A (Map). Katherine Howard will present on Sand and Sediment Collecting. Specifics of this meeting are available from Scott Galloway, 630-670-2591, gallowayscottf@gmail.com. |
| Saturday, April 18th | Paleontology Study Group – 7:30 PM via Zoom and in person at the College of DuPage, TEC, Room 1038B (Map). Keith Robitschek will present “Digging the Marl of the Lance Formation.” |
| Friday, April 24th | MAPS Expo XLVII – Springfield, IL. |
| Saturday, April 25th | MAPS Expo XLVII – Springfield, IL. |
| Sunday, April 26th | MAPS Expo XLVII – Springfield, IL. |
| No meeting this month | Mineralogy Study Group |