Category: Mazon Creek
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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
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 Discovery May Bear Abbott Man’s Name”.
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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
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 to Melbourne McKee, a chemist for the Peabody Coal Company in the Coal City area.…
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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…
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Mazon Monday #293: Mazon Creek Project Slides
The Mazon Creek Project was a program sponsored by Northeastern Illinois University. Founded in the 1960s, by the late Eugene Richardson Curator of Fossil Invertebrates at the Field Museum in Chicago Illinois. It was originally an attempt to encourage more communication between paleontologists and amateur collectors. After Peabody Coal Company sold Pit 11 to Commonwealth…
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Fossil Friday #288: Danville Roachoid Wing
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #288. 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! Andrew Young sent us photos of a beautiful Roachoid wing…
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Mazon Monday #292: Mazon Creek Fossil Day 2025
We had a nice turnout at the Mazon Creek Fossil Day event in the Coal City library a few weeks ago. There were multiple displays by members and people brought in some of their finds for identification. Last week’s Fossil Friday was an absolutely beautiful shark egg case (Palaeoxyris multiplicatum, see Fossil Friday #287).
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Fossil Friday #287: Palaeoxyris multiplicatum
Hunter Nettles brought an absolutely breathtaking specimen of Palaeoxyris multiplicatum to the Mazon Creek Fossil Day. This specimen was found last year (2024) in the Pit 1 locality of Mazon Creek.
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Mazon Monday #291: Dithyrocaris sp.
Dithyrocaris sp. is a genus of crustacean from the Carboniferous. The Mazon Creek fossil biota includes one undescribed species, although there are other described species from other fossil localities – Bear Gulch, Montana (Dithyrocaris rolfei). Danville, IL (Dithyrocaris carbonarius), Cane Hill, Arkansas (Dithyrocaris quinni), the Allegheny Group, Ohio, and localities in Europe.
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Fossil Friday #286: Rhabdoderma exiguum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #286. 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’s Fossil Friday, we have a Rhabdoderma exiguum.…
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Reminder: 2025 Mazon Creek Fossil Day, October 11th, 2025 at the Coal City Library
The 2025 Mazon Creek Fossil Day will be held on October 11th, 2025 at the Coal City Library from 10 AM to 3 PM. See you there! Previous events
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Mazon Monday #290: Danville Spoil Pile Trip Report for September 2025
This is Mazon Monday post #290. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. There was lots of fun on the field trip to the Danville Spoil Pile on Saturday, September 27th, 2025. The day was hot and dry with a clear sky and temperatures in the 80s… summer like weather in late September…
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Fossil Friday #285: Palaeoxyris lewisi
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #285. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! We have a beautiful Palaeoxyris lewisi shark egg case…
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Mazon Monday #289: Ctenerpeton remex at Mazon Creek
This is Mazon Monday post #289. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. More exciting Mazon Creek research is out. Featured here is a short paper in the journal Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology (VAMP), which details the first occurrence of the urocordylid Ctenerpeton remex in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit! Arjan Mann, a…
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Fossil Friday #284: Alethopteris lonchitica
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #285. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! We have a very special seed fern…
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ESCONI September 2025 Paleontology Meeting – “Show and Tell”
There were some very interesting things on display at the September 2025 Paleontology Meeting. The theme of the night was “Show and Tell”. We had over 20 attendees with everything from Mazon Creek to crinoids to nautiloids to a large model of a Velociraptor. John Catalani, Paleontology Study Group chairman, gave us a preview of…
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Mazon Monday #288: Callipteridium neuropteroides
This is Mazon Monday post #288. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Callipteridium neuropteroides is one of the rarer seed ferns (Pteridospermatophyta) found in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. Although, it is much more common in the Herrin Coal flora, if the Danville locality is truly representative of that deposit. Callipteridium jongmansi…
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Fossil Friday #283: Fossundecima konecniorum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #283. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! A nice predatory polychaete worm from Mazon Creek…
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Throwback Thursday #283: The Strip Mines
This poem first appeared in the September 1964 edition of the ESCONI newsletter. Written by Gene Falada, it was inspired by a field trip to the spoil piles near South Wilmington, Illinois, on August 8, 1964. His words capture an experience that still feels familiar today. ESCONI field trips continue to bring people together—you meet…
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Mazon Monday #287: Braceville Fall 2025 Report
This is Mazon Monday post #287. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The Braceville Fall 2025 Field Trip was held on the weekend of September 6th and 7th, 2025. We had perfect weather… sunny with temperatures in the mid-70s. There was nearly 100% attendance. It was two days of fun in…
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Fossil Friday #282: Crossotheca sagittata
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #282. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Today, we have a very nice Crossotheca sagittata.…
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Mazon Monday #286: There’s a Mother Lode of Fossils in Chicago’s Backyard, and It Could Hold Clues to the Evolution of Life on Earth
Last week, Mazon Creek, the Field Museum, and ESCONI were back in the news! WTTW, Chicago’s public television station, ran an article highlighting Mazon Creek. The story is an excellent read, exploring the scientific importance and new research of the site along with the perspective of amateur fossil collectors.
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Fossil Friday #281: Dasyleptus sp.
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #281. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Dasyleptus is an extinct genus of monurian insect.…
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Mazon Monday #285: Etacystis communis
This is Mazon Monday post #285. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. One of the more problematic animals from Mazon Creek is Etacystis communis, known as the Aitch or “H” animal by amateur collectors. It was described by Matthew Nitecki and Frederick Schram in “Etacystis communis, a fossil of uncertain affinities…
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ESCONI Field Trip to Danville Shale Pile Fossils – Saturday, September 27th, 2025
Danville Field Trip Rules for Saturday, September 27th, 2025 An ESCONI field trip to the Danville IL Shale Pile for Pennsylvanian fossils is scheduled for Saturday September 27, 2025 starting at 10 AM. This is on private property and there is an attendance limit of 25 people. The gate will be secured once we are…
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Fossil Friday #280: Mayomyzon pieckoensis
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #280. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Mayomyzon pieckoensis is an extinct species of lamprey found…
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Throwback Thursday #280: Braceville Trip 05/16/2009
Here’s a great report from Andrew Young of the Braceville Field Trip on May 16th, 2009. Notice that the spoil pile is much bigger!
