Category: Mazon Creek
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Mazon Monday #307: Arjan Mann on Fossil Nerds
This is Mazon Monday post #306. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Episode #94 of the Fossil Nerds podcast is “The Marvelous Mini-Monsters of Mazon Creek with Arjan Mann”. Arjan is the Assistant Curator of Early Tetrapods at the Field Museum. He discusses his lab’s work, various ancient fish and tetrapods,
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Fossil Friday #302: A Beautiful Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri from Braceville!
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #302. 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! For this week, we have a beautiful pyritized Macroneuropteris sheuchzeri
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Mazon Monday #306: Drevotella proteana
This is Mazon Monday post #306. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Drevotella proteana is believed to be a hydrozoan. It lived during the Pennsylvanian Period. Fossils of this soft-bodied animal are known only from the Mazon Creek fossil deposit, where exceptional preservation allows such delicate organisms to be recorded. Hydrozoans
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Fossil Friday #301: French Palaeocaris
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #301. 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! In Mazon Monday #294, we highlighted the fossil site at
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Mazon Monday #305: Herdina mirificus
This is Mazon Monday post #305. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Herdina mirificus is an extinct species of short-winged insect, currently classified in the order Protorthoptera. Protorthoptera is an extinct lineage of insects that lived during the middle to late Pennsylvanian Period some 318 to 299 million years ago. The
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Fossil Friday #300: Orthotarbus robustus from the River
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #300. 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! Is there a better way to post our 300th Fossil
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Mazon Monday #304: Field Museum… Illinois by the sea
This is Mazon Monday post #304. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. In May 1970, the Field Museum opened an exhibit about Mazon Creek. It was called “Illinois by the sea: a coal age environment” and ran from May 25th until September 25th. It was a successful exhibit that featured Field
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Fossil Friday #299: Annularia sphenophylloides
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #299. 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! Today, we have another beautiful contribution from George Witaczek. This time
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Mazon Monday #303: Smithixerxes juliarum
This is Mazon Monday post #303. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Smithixerxes juliarum is among the rarest animals found in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. It belongs to an extinct group of arthropods known as the euthycarcinoids, which ranged from the Cambrian to the Triassic periods. Some researchers believe euthycarcinoids may
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Fossil Friday #298: Seed Fern Fiddlehead – Spiropteris
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #298. 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! This week’s Fossil Friday features a fiddlehead — the coiled
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Mazon Monday #302: The Wreck of the 5560
This is Mazon Monday post #302. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The Marion Power Shovel Company was an American company that designed, manufactured, and built steam shovels, power shovels, blast hole drills, excavators, and dragline excavators. The company was headquartered in Marion, Ohio and operated from 1884 to 1997, when it
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Fossil Friday #297: Alethopteris serlii
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #297. 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! This week’s Fossil Friday is a favorite of many
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Throwback Thursday #297: Season’s Greetings from the Langfords!
This is Throwback Thursday #297. 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! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. George Langford, Sr. (1876–1964) was a prolific collector of Mazon Creek fossils, assembling multiple significant collections over his
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2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #1: Tully Monsters
This is the preview post #1 for the 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2026 will be held on March 21th and 22nd at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here.
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Mazon Monday #301: Cordaianthus ovatus
This is Mazon Monday post #301. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Cordaianthus ovatus is thought to be the fertile structure for Cordaites borassifolius (see Mazon Monday #299), an extinct genus of early gymnosperms. Cordaites probably grew to more than 100 feet tall in swampy conditions, forming forests similar to modern day mangroves. Cordaianthus
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Fossil Friday #296: Roachoid Wing from the Creek
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #296. 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! This beautiful roachoid wing was collected from the Mazon
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Mazon Monday #300: Mazon Creek horseshoe crab fossil shows evidence of ancient algal or parasitic infestation
This is Mazon Monday post #300. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The Lauer Foundation just won’t let the Mazon Creek horseshoe crabs alone… first it was Euproops danae remains in bromalites (see Mazon Monday #283), now they’ve found evidence of ancient algal or parasitic infestation in another Euproops danae fossil from the
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Fossil Friday #295: Juvenile Dvinosaur From Mazon Creek
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #295. 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! We have a particularly special Mazon Creek fossil to share
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Mazon Monday #299: Cordaites borassifolius
This is Mazon Monday post #299. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Cordaites borassifolius is an extinct genus of early gymnosperms. Cordaites probably grew maybe 100 feet tall in the drier areas of the Carboniferous swamps. They had stilt-like roots, forming forests similar to modern day mangroves. Cordaites is relatively rare in the Mazon
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Fossil Friday #294: Phenopterum briggsi
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #294. 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! Phenopterum briggsi is a grylloblattidan species of insect from the
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Mazon Monday #298: The Freeze/Thaw Method
This is Mazon Monday post #298. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. With winter arriving this weekend, it’s the perfect time to set out a few containers of Mazon Creek concretions and let nature do the work. Many collectors take advantage of the season’s freeze/thaw cycles to speed up the opening process,
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Mazon Monday #297: Pit 11 Coal Mining Artifact
This is Mazon Monday post #297. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. We often focus on the beautiful fossils found in the Mazon Creek deposit, but sometimes overlook the rich history that surrounds them. Coal mining played a central role in shaping the Wilmington, Braidwood, and Coal City area, from the deep
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Fossil Friday 292: Annularia inflata From the Past
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #292. 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! Michele Micetich, curator at the Carbon Hill School Museum in
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Throwback Thursday #292: Isabel Bassett Wasson… revisited
This is Throwback Thursday #292. 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! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. You may remember Throwback Thursday #284, where we discussed Isabel Bassett Wasson. Wasson (1897-1994) was one of the
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Mazon Monday #296: Jim Turnbull in Pit 11
This is Mazon Monday post #296. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Jim Turnbull, namesake for Anthracomedusa turnbulli (see Mazon Monday #278), worked for Abbott Labs for many years. Abbott has/had an internal newsletter called “AbbotTopics”. In the October 8th, 1965 edition, Jim is the subject of an article titled “Prehistoric Insect
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Fossil Friday #291: Carboniferous Fish in Black Shale
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #291. 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! This week’s Fossil Friday is a detailed Carboniferous fish fossil
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Mazon Monday #295: Ida Thompson collecting in Pit 11 in 1968
This is Mazon Monday post #295. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Michele Micetich, curator of the Carbon Hill School Museum, provided the photos in this post. The photos are part of the Tom Testa collection at the museum. On the back of the photos, there are notes written by Ida Thompson
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Fossil Friday #290: Cyclopteris orbicularis
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #290. 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! We have a beautiful Cyclopteris orbicularis from Knob Noster for
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Mazon Monday #294: Montceau-les-Mines
This is Mazon Monday post #294. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Montceau-les-Mines is a commune located in the Saône-et-Loire department of the Bourgogne–Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It lies southwest of the city of Dijon and today has a population of just under 20,000 people. The town was officially established on
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Fossil Friday #289: Asolanus camptotaenia bark from the Mazon River
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #289. 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! Recently, George Witaszek sent us photos of a rare Mazon
