Category: Mazon Monday
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Mazon Monday #105: Kellibrooksia macrogaster
This is Mazon Monday post #105. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Kellibrooksia macrogaster is a species of mantis shrimp (stomatopods). It was described by Frederick Schram in 1973. Frederick Schram described many of the shrimp of Mazon Creek. We had a nice one for sale at the ESCONI Gem, Mineral,…
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Mazon Monday #104: Mid-century Mazon Creek
This is Mazon Monday post #104. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. We recently received an interesting link from ESCONI member Kristi Overgaard of a post on the Geology World group on Facebook. The post was by James Anderson and it described an transaction with Dr. Wilbur Hoff’s son. Dr. Hoff…
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Mazon Monday #103: Asterophyllites equisetiformis
This is Mazon Monday post #103. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Today, we look at another part of the plant Calamites. Recall that paleobotany uses form genera as a strategy to identify plant parts. If you aren’t familiar with the concept, there is a good explanation in the “Keys to…
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Mazon Monday #102: Eoscorpius carbonarius
This is Mazon Monday post #102. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Scorpions are very rare in the Mazon Creek fossil biota. Eoscorpius carbonarius was described by FB. Meek and A.H. Worthen in 1868. The paper was published in the America Journal of Sciences – “Meek, Fielding B. & A. H.…
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Mazon Monday #101: Peggy Macnamara
This is Mazon Monday post #101. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The cover of the book “A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek” by Jack Wittry features a painting of a fiddlehead, which is an immature fern frond. The fiddlehead species in the Mazon Creek biota are…
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Mazon Monday #100: Odontopteris subcuneata
This is Mazon Monday post #100. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. This is the 100th Mazon Monday post! We hope you are enjoying these posts! If you have any suggestions or feedback, please send it along to email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Odontopteris subcuneata was a seed fern that belonged to the same group…
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Mazon Monday #99: Calamostachys, sp.
This is Mazon Monday post #99. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Calamostachys is the cone portion of Calamites. Recall the Langford diagram which details the parts of Calamites. The round seed like part of these cones are actually sporagia, which Calamites used to reproduce. Calamites are horsetails. Their closest…
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Mazon Monday #98: Natural History of Coal Age Fossils
This is Mazon Monday post #98. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. George Langford’s second book, “The Wilmington Coal Fauna and Additions to the Wilmington Coal Flora from a Pennsylvanian Deposit in Will County, Illinois”, was published by Esconi Associates in 1963. As part of the publication of the book, Stella…
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Mazon Monday #97: “Historical Perspective on Early Twentieth Century Carboniferous Paleobotany in North American”
The book “Historical Perspective on Early Twentieth Century Carboniferous Paleobotany in North American” was published in 1995 by the Geological Society of America (GSA). It’s dedicated as a memorial volume for William Culp Darrah (1909-1989), who was a pioneer in the study of the Carboniferous of North America. The book is freely available on Google…
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Mazon Monday #96: Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils of Illinois
This is Mazon Monday post #96. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The book “Pennsylvanian Plant Fossils of Illinois” was #6 in the Educational Series published by the Illinois State Geological Survey in 1960. It was written by Charles Collinson (1923 – 2011) and Romayne Skartvedt. The book can be purchased…
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Mazon Monday #95: Neuropteris vermicularis
This is Mazon Monday post #95. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. For this post, we are looking at another seed fern species, Neuropteris vermicularis. N. vermicularis was identified by Leo Lesquereux in 1866. He described much of the North American Carboniferous flora in the mid 1800’s as a consultant to…
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Mazon Monday #94: Calamites cistii
This is Mazon Monday post #94. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. For this week, we are looking at Calamites, which is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails. They are sphenopsids. Modern horsetails, genus Equistem, are fairly closely related. Some of these Carboniferous plants could grow to heights of more than…
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Mazon Monday #93: Dr. Victoria McCoy: Mazon Creek Fossils
This is Mazon Monday post #93. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. ESCONI member Ralph Jewell sent me this link for a video of a presentation by Dr. Victoria McCoy of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Department of Geosciences. Her presentation is entitled “Mazon Creek Fossils”. Dr. Victoria McCoy, UWM Department…
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Mazon Monday #92: Illilepas damrowi
This is Mazon Monday post #92. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Illilepas damrowi is a gooseneck barnacle from the Mazon Creek biota, found in Essex localities like Pit 11. Barnacles are crustaceans thus they are related to crabs and lobsters. They are fairly rare in the fossil record with the…
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Mazon Monday #91: Macroneuropteris macrophylla
This is Mazon Monday post #91. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Today, we have a seed fern species called Macroneuopteris macrophylla. It was named Neuropteris macrophylla in 1831 by Alexander Brongniart, a French chemist, mineralogist, geologist, paleontologist, and zoologist. It was mistakenly renamed as Neuropteris clarksoni by Leo Lesquereux in…
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Mazon Monday #90: Video for ESCONI December 2021 General Meeting – “The Life and Death of the Herrin Peat Swamp – Whys, Whens, and Hows”
For December 2021, the presentation by Scott Elrick provides context for the Danville, IL spoil pile fossils. Scott also discussed coal formation in Illinois during the Pennsylvanian. Additionally, he mentioned where the Colchester #2 Coal, associated with Mazon Creek, fits into the paleo-environment of the Pennsylvanian. A story about Scott and the discovery of a…
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Mazon Monday #89: Jeletzkya douglassae
This is Mazon Monday post #89. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Of all the millions (yes, millions!) of Mazon concretions that have opened over the years, only two specimens of Jeletzkya douglassae are known. That might make it the rarest of species in the Mazon Creek biota. It’s considered to…
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Mazon Monday #88: Hesserella shermani
This is Mazon Monday post #88. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Hesserella shermani is the earliest known isopod in the fossil record. Isopods are crustaceans, which includes shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. Modern day rolly-pollys are isopods, They have many common names like pill bugs, woodlice, and doodle bugs. They are…
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Mazon Monday #87: Video for November 2021 Paleontology Meeting – “The Linton Ohio Coal Mine; a unique look into Carboniferous Tetrapods”
This is Mazon Monday post #87. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at esconi.info@gmail.com. The ESCONI November 2021 Paleontology was held on Saturday, November, 20th, 2021 at 7:30 PM. The presentation was by ESCONI member Mike Payne. It’s called “The Linton Ohio Coal Mine; a unique look into Carboniferous Tetrapods”. The Diamond Coal…
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Mazon Monday #86: Herrin Coal Fossil Guides
This is Mazon Monday post #86. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. In 2021, ESCONI organized two field trips to a shaft mine spoil pile near Danville, IL. Both trips were very successful, with many fascinating specimens collected. You can find more information about these trips at the links below. Here…
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Mazon Monday #85: Neuropteris ovata
This is Mazon Monday post #85. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Our species spotlight for this week is Neuropteris ovata. N. ovata was described by Friedrich Hoffmann (1797-1836) in 1826. Hoffmann was a Professor of Geology at the University of Berlin. He is esspecially known for his work on the…
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Mazon Monday #84: Chowder Flats
This is Mazon Monday post #84. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. During the ESCONI Sale back in October, a member noticed a booklet called “A Guide to the Coal Fossils of Chowder Flats, Morris, Illinois”. It was written by Robert J. Reich in 1982, who was advisor to the Botany…
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Mazon Monday #83: George Langford at the Illinois State Museum
This is Mazon Monday post #83. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. As part of the trip to the 2021 MAPS Expo in Springfield, IL this past weekend, a few ESCONI members took the opportunity to visit the Mazon Creek exhibit at the Illinois State Museum. George Langford donated a large…
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Mazon Monday #82: Peachocaris strongi
This is Mazon Monday post #82. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. We’ve already looked at a few shrimp species from the Mazon Creek biota – Today, we are going to look at yet another… Peachocaris strongi. It was initially described in 1962 by H.K. Brooks and placed in the genus…
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Mazon Monday #81: Laveineopteris rarinervis
One of the common seed ferns that we haven’t mentioned yet is Laveineopteris rarinervis. For Fossil Friday #77, we showed a beautiful specimen from the Mazon River. L. rarinervis is common and found across all of the terrestrial Mazon Creek localities. It’s also known from the marine Pit 11 and Braceville spoil pile localities. With…
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Mazon Monday #80: Book “Coal Age Fossils From Mazon Creek”
This is Mazon Monday post #80. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The book “Coal Age Fossils From Mazon Creek” was published in 1979 by the Illinois State Museum. The ISM has a long history publishing science books. This one is volume III of the scientific papers series. It is a…
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Mazon Monday #79: Braceville Field Trip (Mazon Creek) Report
This is Mazon Monday post #79. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Here is the field trip report for the Braceville Fall Field Trip, written by ESCONI President Keith Robitschek. The September field trips to the Braceville spoil pile started with Saturday and Sunday being mostly sunny and rather warm for…
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Mazon Monday #78: Amynilyspes wortheni
This is Mazon Monday post #78. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Today, we are having a look at Amynilyspes wortheni, an extinct species of pill millipede. A. wortheni was described by Samuel Hubbard Scudder in 1882, a giant in the field of fossil insects and other arthropods during the 1800’s. The…
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Mazon Monday #77: Care and Feeding of Your Mazon Creek Concretions
This is Mazon Monday post #77. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Today, we have a repost of Mazon Monday #27 – “Care and Feeding of Your Mazon Creek Concretions”. We are posting it to help the new members and collectors we met on the Braceville spoil pile this past…
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Mazon Monday #76: Spring Braceville Field Trip Report by AJ Templer
This is Mazon Monday post #76. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. ESCONI’s mission is one of education and we love to get the kids interested in our Earth Science passions. In this case, it’s paleontology and we are hunting for Mazon Creek fossils. In order to get us ready for the…
