Category: Mazon Creek
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Fossil Friday #195: Acanthodes beecheri
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #195. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! For this week’s Fossil Friday, we have…
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Mazon Monday #198: Priapulites konecniorum
This is Mazon Monday post #198. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Priapulites konecniorum is an extinct species of priapulid worm. Priapulida is a phylum of unsegmented marine worms. The name relates to the Greek god of fertility. Due to their shape and their extensible proboscis, they are sometimes referred to…
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Fossil Friday #194: Asterophyllites equisetiformis from Indiana
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #194. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Today, we have a nice Asterophyllites equisetiformis…
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Throwback Thursday #195: Looking Back At ESCONI for January 2024
This is Throwback Thursday #195. 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! Geology Class 1953 at Downers Grove High School 25 Years Ago – January 1999 50 Years Ago –…
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Mazon Monday #197: Palaeostachya
This is Mazon Monday post #197. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Palaeostachya sp. is a cone from a Calamites plant. It is very similar to Calamostachys (Mazon Monday #99), which are also cones from Calamites. Identification between the two can be difficult as the attachment point of the sporangiophores is…
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Fossil Friday #193: Dunbarella sp. From Danville
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #193. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! I’m not sure how tasty scallops from…
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Mazon Monday #196: 1939 Season’s Greetings from the Langfords!
This is Mazon Monday post #196. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. George Langford, Sr. (1876-1964) was a prolific collector of Mazon Creek fossils. He collected and then sold or donated multiple collections of Mazon Creek fossils. The fossils he collected in various museums around the country including Illinois State Museum…
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Fossil Friday #192: Palaeoxyris lewisi
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #192. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Shark egg cases are back on the…
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Mazon Monday #195: Vetacapsula cooperi
This is Mazon Monday post #195. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Vetacapsula cooperi is a very rare shark egg case from the Pennsylvanian Period. It was originally described by Robert Crookall (1890-1981) in 1928. In the late 1920’s, Crookall took a deep look at Carboniferous shark egg cases, then classified…
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Fossil Friday #191: Acanthodes beecheri
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #191. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! For this week’s Fossil Friday, we have…
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Throwback Thursday #192: December 1953 Mazon Creek Facet
This is Throwback Thursday #192. 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! In the 1950’s, the newsletter had a regular feature called “Facets”. The entries were small bits of generally…
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Mazon Monday #194: Mazon Creek Census
This is Mazon Monday post #194. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The September 1978 edition of the Field Museum Bulletin had a article by Gordon Baird about his project to survey Mazon Creek fossil localities across Will, Grundy, Livingstone, and Kankakee Counties in Illinois. Almost 300,000 concretions were collected from…
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Fossil Friday #190: Squirmarius testai
Squirmarius testai is up this week. It’s a new Mazon Creek fossil family member and hagfish. It was the subject of Mazon Monday #193.
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Mazon Monday #193: A reappraisal of Nemavermes mackeei from the Mazon Creek fossil site expands Carboniferous cyclostome diversity
The Mazon Creek fossil family has a new member… Squirmarius testai. It was described in the paper “A reappraisal of Nemavermes mackeei from the Mazon Creek fossil site expands Carboniferous cyclostome diversity“. The paper’s lead author is Victoria McCoy, who you’ll remember from her work on Tullymonstrum gregarium. S. testai was named for Tom Testa,…
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Fossil Friday #189: Alethopteris serlii
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #189. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! For this week, we have a beautiful…
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Throwback Thursday #190: Carbon Hill School Museum
We recently stopped by the Carbon Hill School Museum in Carbon Hill, IL. Michele Micetich, the curator, was a key partner with ESCONI for the Mazon Creek Fossil Day back in mid-October. She has many historical artifacts and displays to document the history of the area. This includes coal mining and Mazon Creek fossils. It’s…
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Mazon Monday #192: Mischoptera douglassi
This is Mazon Monday post #192. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Mischoptera douglassi is a winged fossil insect from the Pennsylvanian Period. It belongs to Superorder Palaeodictyopteroidea and Order Megascoptera. The first specimen was found by Lincoln Douglass in Pit 6 of the Northern Illinois Coal Company. Lincoln, was the…
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Fossil Friday #188: Essexella asherae
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #188. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! In the marine areas of the Mazon…
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Mazon Monday #191: Ilyodes inopinata
This is Mazon Monday post #191. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Velvet worms, also known as Onychophora, are a phylum of terrestrial invertebates. They are soft-bodied, with many short thick legs, and a velvety body. Modern day examples live in tropical environments. They are very rare in the fossil record…
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Fossil Friday #187: Mazon Creek Chiton
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #187. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! For this week’s Fossil Friday, we have…
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Throwback Thursday #188: Field Museum Photos – Mazon Creek Fossils
This is Throwback Thursday #188. 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! Today, we take another peek into the Field Museum Photo Archive over on Tumblr. The subject is “Fossil…
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Mazon Monday #190: Amarixys sulcata
This is Mazon Monday post #190. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Amarixys sulcata is a Mazon Creek spider. When it was first found in the late 1880’s, it was mistaken for a beetle. A.L. (Axel Leonard) Melander (1878-1962) described it as Kustarachne sulcata in 1903 in the paper “Some additions…
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Throwback Thursday #187: Chowder Flats Field Trip March 1994
This is Throwback Thursday #187. 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! John Good gave us some great ESCONI photos back at the 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show. …
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Mazon Monday #189: Fossil Plant Miniatures of Mazon Creek
This is Mazon Monday post #189. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. You might remember Raymond Janssen from his “Leaves and Stems from Fossil Forests” book (Mazon Monday #51), which was published in 1939. It was part of a series of books distributed by the Illinois State Museum. Until George Langford…
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Fossil Friday #185: Adelophthalmus mazonensis
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #185. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Jeremy Zimmerman sent us some photos of…
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Mazon Monday #188: He looks for Tullys in gullies – Andy Hay
Tullimonstrum gregarium was first discovered by Francis Tully in the mid-1950s in the legendary Pit 11 fossil locality. It was described by Ralph Johnson and Eugene Richardson Jr. in the article “Pennsylvanian Invertebrates of the Mazon Creek Area, Illinois: The morphology and affinities of Tullimonstrum“, which was published in the March 1969 edition of Fieldiana…
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Fossil Friday #184: Gilpichthys greenei from Mazon Creek
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #184. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Today, we have a beautiful, huge Gilpichthys…
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Mazon Monday #187: Palaeocampa anthrax
This is Mazon Monday post #187. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Palaeocampa anthrax was an polychaete worm, believed to be similar to a group of modern day annulid worms referred to as fireworms. It was described by Fielding Bradford Meek (1817-1876) and Amos Henry Worthen (1813-1888) in “Notice of some…
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Fossil Friday #183: Mazon Creek Spider
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #183. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! For this week, we have a breathtaking…
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Mazon Monday #186: Mazon Creek Fossil Day
ESCONI and the Carbon Hill School Museum sponsored “Mazon Creek Fossil Day” on October 14th, 2023. The event was a celebration of Mazon Creek amateur fossil collectors and their contributions to Paleontology. There were fossil displays, two presentations, and 5+ hours of interesting conversation.
