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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 Events August 2019
Read more: ESCONI Events August 2019Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Sat, August 17th ESCONI Field Trip, Starved Rock Clay Pit, 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM – Details here ESCONI Junior Meeting – No meeting until September. Have a great Summer! ESCONI General Meeting – No meeting until September. Have a great Summer! ESCONI Paleontology Study Group Meeting – No meeting until September. Have a great Summer! Be ready for Show & Tell in September!
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ESCONI Flashback Friday #12: Moon Rocks At Argonne
Read more: ESCONI Flashback Friday #12: Moon Rocks At ArgonneAs part of the run up to ESCONI’s 70th Anniversary, here is Flashback Friday post #12. If you have pictures or stories to contribute, please send them over to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! From the September 1969 edition of the ESCONI “The Earth Science News”. Some Moon rocks were studied at Argonne National Laboratory in 1969 and the early 1970s. Moon Rocks In Room H 158 of Building 203 at Argonne National Laboratories is one of approximately 110 cogs in the wheel that may tell scientists what the noon is of and how it cot there. In that room lies the 100…
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The Guardian: Perhaps the best dinosaur fossil ever discovered. So why has hardly anyone seen it?
Read more: The Guardian: Perhaps the best dinosaur fossil ever discovered. So why has hardly anyone seen it?The Guardian has an article about the so called “Dueling Dinosaurs”. The “Dueling Dinosaurs” are a large fossil plate that consists of both a 28 foot long ceratoptian (probably Triceratops horridus) and a 22 foot long theropod (possibly Tyrannosaurus rex or the controversial Nanotyrannus lancensis). Both skeletons are fairly complete, with exceptional preservation, fully articulated, with envelops of mummified skin, and probably internal organs. These are among the best dinosaur fossils ever found. The article goes on to describe the discovery and the long court battle to decide who owns them. The early June morning in Montana was already very hot and…
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SciNews: New Bird-Like Dinosaur Unearthed in Wyoming
Read more: SciNews: New Bird-Like Dinosaur Unearthed in WyomingSciNews has an article about the discovery of a new bird-like dinosaur in Wyoming. The animal, Hesperornithoides miessleri, lived about 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic period. It has been nicknamed Lori and was about the size of a chicken. Its contemporaries were giant dinosaurs like Stegaoaurus, Diplodocus, and Allosaurus. The description appeared in a paper in the Journal PeerJ. Hesperornithoides miessleri is a highly terrestrial proto-bird, suggesting that many features scientists associate with being bird-like evolved in dinosaurs that lived out their lives on the ground. “We found that Lori is a primitive member of a group of dinosaurs…
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SciNews: Small horned dinosaur from China, a Triceratops relative, walked on two feet
Read more: SciNews: Small horned dinosaur from China, a Triceratops relative, walked on two feetSciNews has an article about a relative of the iconic dinosaur Triceratops. Auroraceratops rugosus lived about 115 million years ago in China’s Gansu Providence. It was discovered in 2005. And, in the intervening years, about 80 individuals have been found. Some recent analysis has led to the theory that Auroraceratops walked on two feet instead of four like its later relatives. This research appears in a paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. In the intervening years, scientists have recovered fossils from more than 80 individual Auroraceratops, bringing this small-bodied plant-eater into the ranks of the most completely known dinosaurs.…
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PBS Eons: How Volcanoes Froze the Earth (Twice)
Read more: PBS Eons: How Volcanoes Froze the Earth (Twice)PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about Snowball Earth, which is the theory that the whole earth was covered by ice. This happened at least twice in the last 700 million years. Over 600 million years ago, sheets of ice coated our planet on both land and sea. How did this happen? And most importantly for us, why did the planet eventually thaw again? The evidence for Snowball Earth is written on every continent today.
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50 Years Ago We Landed On the Moon!
Read more: 50 Years Ago We Landed On the Moon!The NY Times Science Time section has a bunch of stories about the Moon landing 50 years ago today, July 21st, 1969. Here is a partial list of related stories. Enjoy!
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AMNH: Large Sea Snakes, Giant Catfish Once Swam in the Sahara
Read more: AMNH: Large Sea Snakes, Giant Catfish Once Swam in the SaharaThe American Museum of Natural History has an article about how the Sahara Dessert looked before it became a dessert. The area was underwater 50-100 million years ago. Fossil evidence shows that there were giant species of catfish, sea snakes, and fishes called the area home. The details are in a paper published in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. The Sahara Desert is the world’s largest hot desert, but 50 to 100 million years ago it was under water—and home to giant species of catfish, sea snakes, and fishes. A new study from Museum Research Associate…
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ESCONI Flashback Friday #11: September 1969 Field Trip – Sylvania Ohio on Labor Day Weekend by Bill and Virginia Popp
Read more: ESCONI Flashback Friday #11: September 1969 Field Trip – Sylvania Ohio on Labor Day Weekend by Bill and Virginia PoppAs part of the run up to ESCONI’s 70th Anniversary, here is Flashback Friday post #11. If you have pictures or stories to contribute, please send them over to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Here is a poem about a September 1969 Field Trip to Sylvania, OH. It was written by Bill and Virginia Popp and appeared in the November 1969 (20th Anniversary) Issue of the ESCONI Newsletter. They were given Meritorious Service Awards in 1973. Virginia was President in 1981 and 1982, 1st Vice President in 1979 and 1980, 2nd Vice President in 1977 and 1978, Recording Secretary from 1972 to 1975,…
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SciNews: A Greek skull may belong to the oldest human found outside of Africa
Read more: SciNews: A Greek skull may belong to the oldest human found outside of AfricaSciNews has a story about a skull discovered on Greece’s southern coast in 1978. That skull dates to at least 210,000 years ago. It was encased in a rock that included a Neandertal skull dating to at least 170,000 years ago. If these findings are verified, this skill represents the oldest Homo sapiens fossil outside of Africa and increases that age by 160,000 years! That original paper appeared in the journal Nature. “Multiple Homo sapiens populations dispersed out of Africa starting much earlier, and reaching much farther into Europe, than previously thought,” Harvati said at a July 8 news conference. African H. sapiensoriginated roughly 300,000…
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SciNews: ‘Shovel-Billed’ Dinosaur Roamed Texas 80 Million Years Ago
Read more: SciNews: ‘Shovel-Billed’ Dinosaur Roamed Texas 80 Million Years AgoSciNews has an article about the discovery of a primitive hadrosaur. The specimen was found and collected in the 1980s and 1990s in Texas and is called Aquilarhinus palimentus. It belongs to Hadrosauridae (duck-billed dinosaurs) a group of plant-eating dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period. The original paper appeared in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology. “Hadrosaurids were the most common herbivorous dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic Era, and all had a similar-looking snout,” the researchers said. “The front of the jaws meet in a U-shape to support a cupped beak used for cropping plants.” “The beak of some species…
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PBS Eons: The Hellacious Lives of the “Hell Pigs”
Read more: PBS Eons: The Hellacious Lives of the “Hell Pigs”Check out the episode of PBS Eons about “Hell Pigs”. Archaeotherium and Daeodon were species that lived in North America from about 40 million to 17 million years ago. The group may be most closely related to modern whales and hippos. As always, a very interesting and informative video! Despite the name, we don’t know where the so-called “hell pigs” belong in the mammalian family tree. They walked on hooves, like pigs do, but had longer legs, almost like deer. They had hunched backs, a bit like rhinos or bison. But as is often, if not always, the case,…
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Palaeocast Episode 101: Organic Preservation of Dinosaur Bone
Read more: Palaeocast Episode 101: Organic Preservation of Dinosaur BoneThere’s a new episode of the Palaeocast podcast. It’s a discussion with Dr. Evan Saitta of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, who recently published a paper that investigates the controversial discoveries. Fossilisation of organic material was long thought to result in the complete loss of original content. However in the last 20 years, several high-profile publications reported the discovery of proteins, blood vessels, blood cells and even DNA. But for as long as these arguments have existed, so too has a counterargument as to the validity of the discoveries. In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Evan…
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ESCONI Field Trip Photos: Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry in Roscoe, IL July 13th, 2019
Read more: ESCONI Field Trip Photos: Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry in Roscoe, IL July 13th, 2019It was a beautiful day to collect fossils today. The Fossil Forum user Praefectus posted a great field trip report for our field trip to an Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry in the Fossil Hunting Trips forum. Here are a few pictures to enjoy and visit the link to read more.
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Fossil Forum: Mazon Creek Threads
Read more: Fossil Forum: Mazon Creek ThreadsLooking for information about Mazon Creek fossils and collecting? Look no further than The Fossil Forum. The Fossil Forum is loaded with valuable information on all fossil subjects. It’s an awesome site with great people. Typically, there are numerous informative discussions between both amateurs and professional. Check it out! Here are some links to some recent informative threads about collecting Mazon Creek fossils.
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ESCONI Flashback Friday #10: Tony Sobolik, I Remember…………
Read more: ESCONI Flashback Friday #10: Tony Sobolik, I Remember…………As part of the run up to ESCONI’s 70th Anniversary, here is Flashback Friday post #10. If you have pictures or stories to contribute, please send them over to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Here is an article entitled “I Remember…………” by Anton “Tony” Sobolik that appeared in the 40th Anniversary issue of the newsletter in 1989. He was president of ESCONI for 1962-1963 and he, along with his wife Viola, received an honorary service award in 1969. He also served as 1st Vice President (1961), 2nd Vice President (1960), Historian (1959), Curator (1966-1969), and many other capacities including the Paleontology Study Group…
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Smithsonian: Discovery of Raptor-Like Dinosaur Adds a New Wrinkle to the Origin of Birds
Read more: Smithsonian: Discovery of Raptor-Like Dinosaur Adds a New Wrinkle to the Origin of BirdsSmithsonian has a story about the discovery of a small dinosaur that sheds light on the origin of birds. While excavating a Supersaurus nicknamed “Jimbo”, Wyoming Dinosaur Center paleontologist spotted some small bones amongst the enormous bones. Named Hesperornithoides miessleri, the animal lived about 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic. The specimen is referred to as “Lori”, after volunteer Lori Hockemeyer, who was involved in the 2001 find. All the details are in a paper published in the journal PeerJ. At first, Wyoming Dinosaur Center paleontologist Jessica Lippincott says, it seemed like the remains might belong to a flying…
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Roy Plotnick: I’m not lying
Read more: Roy Plotnick: I’m not lyingRoy Plotnick has yet another insightful blog post over on Medium. Take his advice, get out and experience nature first hand! I began teaching physical geology in Fall 1982. Like all other instructors of this type of course, I would discuss a wide variety of landforms and show textbook provided slides (you know, pieces of film in a cardboard mount) of them. But in nearly all cases, I had never seen them with my own eyes. The following summer, my wife and I drove from Chicago to San Juan Island, Washington. For the first time I walked on a glacier,…
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The Onion: Mariana Trench Once Again Named Worst Place To Raise Child
Read more: The Onion: Mariana Trench Once Again Named Worst Place To Raise ChildThe Onion has a funny post that details the Mariana Trench as the worst place to raise a child. A non-existent school system and utter darkness are listed among the reasons for the unfortunate rating. “In all categories, the Mariana Trench consistently got our lowest marks as a good place to start a family,” the 14-page article read in part. “The school system is nonexistent, the nearest playground is 300 nautical miles away, and at over 15,000 pounds per square inch, the hydrostatic pressure is enough to crush a child in less than a second.” “While the area does contain…
ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show
Most Recent Post
- Throwback Thursday #312: Ron Schinderle Donation
Barb Schinderle stopped by ESCONI Show last month to drop off a donation of her late husband Ron’s fossils. Ron passed away in 2021. He was a long time ESCONI member and an avid fossil collector . He went on many ESCONI field trips. A group of us remember him fondly from our many trips to Pit 11 and Fossil Rock Campgrounds to collect Mazon Creek fossils.
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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 |