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New sauropod dinosaur species unearthed in Argentina – Lavocatisaurus agrioensis
Read more: New sauropod dinosaur species unearthed in Argentina – Lavocatisaurus agrioensisThe Guardian has a story about a new sauropod dinosaur discovered in Argentina. It lived about 110 million years ago and was found by a team of Spanish and Argentinian paleontologists. Lavocatisaurus agrioensis was described in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. A team of Spanish and Argentinian paleontologists have discovered the remains of dinosaurs that lived 110m years ago in the centre of the country, the National University of La Matanza has revealed. The remains came from three separate dinosaurs from the herbivorous group of sauropods, the best known of which are the Diplodocus and Brontosaurus. This new species has…
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This Dino-Era Bird Was as Advanced as Modern Species. So Why Did It Disappear?
Read more: This Dino-Era Bird Was as Advanced as Modern Species. So Why Did It Disappear?The Smithsonian has a piece about a recently rediscovered 70 million year old fossil bird from the Cretaceous Period. The specimen was originally found 25 years ago in the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It’s called Miracre eatoni, and it was about the size of a turkey vulture. It has been described in a new paper in the journal PeerJ. The completeness of the fossil allowed researchers to figure out how the birds flew and shows that by the end of the Cretaceous some enantiornithines had developed many features that made them good flyers with traits similar…
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Reminder: Warehouse Work Day – Saturday, November 17th, 2018, 9:00 – 2:00ish
Read more: Reminder: Warehouse Work Day – Saturday, November 17th, 2018, 9:00 – 2:00ishIf you have some time, come join our work day at the warehouse on Saturday, November 17th, 2018 from 9:00-2:00ish. The warehouse address is 900 Knell in Montgomery, IL. Please meet/enter in the back of the warehouse ONLY. You will see railroad tracks along the back of the warehouse. Drive all the way to the end in the back. For more information, contact Jim Fairchild at 1-630-497-9700 or e-mail at esconi@hotmail.com
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SUE the T. rex, Chomping Back into Action 12.21.18
Read more: SUE the T. rex, Chomping Back into Action 12.21.18The wait is almost over, SUE the T. rex* will be back on display at the Field Museum, starting Friday, December 21. Plan your visit to see SUE’s new digs and experience the world’s biggest and most complete T. rex like never before. Step into the world of SUE and uncover what our scientists discovered about the life of our fearsome fossil. Experience a unique multimedia show for visitors of all ages to see how scientists believed SUE walked and stalked prey. Learn how the fossil was unearthed, and how scientists continue to make discoveries about SUE today, including important updates to the skeleton,…
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Reminder: ESCONI Holiday Party will be held on December 7th, 2018 5:30 to 7:30 PM
Read more: Reminder: ESCONI Holiday Party will be held on December 7th, 2018 5:30 to 7:30 PMThe 2018 ESCONI Holiday Dinner will be held at Cozymel’s, 311 East Loop Rd, Wheaton on Friday December 7, 2018 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. We will be ordering off the menu and everyone is responsible for their own bill. There will be a drawing for door prizes. The general meeting starts at 8 PM in TEC 1038B. Our speaker is Dr. Peter Makovicky of the Field Museum. His talk is titled "Antarctic Dinosaurs". If you plan to attend the dinner, please RSVP to Dave at fossil54@att.net
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Reminder: ESCONI General Meeting on November 9th, 2018
Read more: Reminder: ESCONI General Meeting on November 9th, 2018The ESCONI General Meeting for November 2018 will be held on November 9th, 2018. The presentation will be given by Dr. Rex Hanger of the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. His presentation is entitled “Cretaceous Reef Paleoecology of Central Texas”. Don’t miss it!
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Warehouse Work Day – Saturday, November 17th, 2018, 9:00 – 2:00ish
Read more: Warehouse Work Day – Saturday, November 17th, 2018, 9:00 – 2:00ishIf you have some time, come join our work day at the warehouse on Saturday, November 17th, 2018 from 9:00-2:00ish. The warehouse address is 900 Knell in Montgomery, IL. Please meet/enter in the back of the warehouse ONLY. You will see railroad tracks along the back of the warehouse. Drive all the way to the end in the back. For more information, contact Jim Fairchild at 1-630-497-9700 or e-mail at esconi@hotmail.com
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Reminder: ESCONI November Junior Meeting, Friday 9th, 2018 at 7:00 PM – Topic “Crystals”
Read more: Reminder: ESCONI November Junior Meeting, Friday 9th, 2018 at 7:00 PM – Topic “Crystals”Is your child interested in crystals? Join us at our junior meeting! Friday November 9th 7pm College of DuPage Technical Education Center West side room 1038B Contact gallowayscottf@gmail.com with questions facebook.com/ESCONI.fb
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Paleontologists Are Still Digging Into the Origins of the ‘Chinese Pompeii’
Read more: Paleontologists Are Still Digging Into the Origins of the ‘Chinese Pompeii’AtlasObscura has an interesting story about the “Chinese Pompeii”. The Jehol Biota has long been known for its amazing preservation. WHEN SOMETHING DIES, NATURE ENSURES that its remains won’t stay intact. Microbes eat away at the soft tissue, and wind, rain, rivers, oceans, and scavengers shuffle around the hard segments of the corpse. As eons pass by, these skeletal segments may become fossilized, but they remain broken jigsaw pieces of a puzzle that often cannot be entirely pieced back together. But around 130 to 120 million years ago, in what is now northeastern China, nature behaved rather differently. It was…
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Why Do Birds Have Colorful Eggs? Because They’re Dinosaurs
Read more: Why Do Birds Have Colorful Eggs? Because They’re DinosaursGizmodo has an article about bird eggs. Why are they colorful? Well, dinosaurs had colorful eggs and birds are dinosaurs, therefore, birds also have colorful eggs. A recent study in Nature proposes that colorful dinosaur eggs had a single evolutionary origin. Birds are the only living amniotes with coloured eggs, which have long been considered to be an avian innovation. A recent study has demonstrated the presence of both red-brown protoporphyrin IX and blue-green biliverdin5—the pigments responsible for all the variation in avian egg colour—in fossilized eggshell of a nonavian dinosaur. This raises the fundamental question of whether modern birds…
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ESCONI Events November 2018
Read more: ESCONI Events November 2018Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Fri, Nov 9th ESCONI Junior Meeting, 7:00 PM College of Dupage – Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) – Topic: Crystals Fri, Nov 9th ESCONI General Meeting, 8:00 PM College of Dupage – Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) – Topic: “Cretaceous Reef Paleoecology of Central Texas” by Dr. Rex Hanger of the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater Sat, Nov 10th ESCONI Field Trip – Behind the Scenes at the Burpee Museum, 11:00 AM – Burpee Museum in Rockford, IL. Details are here. Sat, Nov 17th ESCONI…
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ESCONI Field Trip: Behind the Scenes at the Burpee Museum
Read more: ESCONI Field Trip: Behind the Scenes at the Burpee MuseumThere will be an ESCONI Field Trip to the Burpee Museum in Rockford, IL on Saturday Nov 10 starting at 11 AM. This will be a guided, behind-the-scenes tour of collections and preparation. The trip is open to families and is limited to 25 total. There is for members only and there is no cost. Registration is required by sending an email to Dave Carlson at fossil54@att.net. You will receive a response within 24 hours. If you don’t hear back in that time, send it again! Be sure to include the total number of members attending in your email.
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Notebaert Art Exhibit by ESCONI Member Andrew Young “All This Land” October 27th, 2018 through February 3rd, 2019
Read more: Notebaert Art Exhibit by ESCONI Member Andrew Young “All This Land” October 27th, 2018 through February 3rd, 2019ESCONI member Andrew Young has an art show currently up at the Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. Twenty-four new paintings and sculptures will be on view from October 27th, 2018 to February 3rd, 2019. Andrew Young: All This Land October 27th, 2018 through February 3rd, 2019 For over three decades, Andrew Young has created art that presents nature as a reference point for human aspirations, worldly and spiritual. His earlier tempera works grappled with our natural desire for ethereal and transcendent experience, yet constrained by such temporal matters as history and mortality. The next phase in Young’s work more…
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ESCONI November Junior Meeting, Friday 9th, 2018 at 7:00 PM – Topic “Crystals”
Read more: ESCONI November Junior Meeting, Friday 9th, 2018 at 7:00 PM – Topic “Crystals”Is your child interested in crystals? Join us at our junior meeting! Friday November 9th 7pm College of DuPage Technical Education Center West side room 1038B Contact gallowayscottf@gmail.com with questions facebook.com/ESCONI.fb
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Intriguing German Fossil Could Be an Entirely New Species of Archaeopteryx
Read more: Intriguing German Fossil Could Be an Entirely New Species of ArchaeopteryxGizmodo has a story about a new study which proposes a new species of Archaeopteryx. The 8th specimen, discovered in 2009, is described as Archaeopterxy albersdoerferi, separate from the other two Archaeopteryx species – Archaeopteryx lithographica or Archaeopteryx siemensii. The study was published in Historical Biology. Archaeopteryx is one of the most intriguing dinosaurs in the paleontological record. Discovered back in the 1860s, this Jurassic-era dinosaur was celebrated as being a conspicuous demonstration of evolution in action. Not quite lizard and not quite bird, it seemed to show, almost literally, lizards evolving into birds. Archaeopteryx was thus branded a “transitionary”…
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End-Permian extinction, which wiped out most of Earth’s species, was instantaneous in geological time
Read more: End-Permian extinction, which wiped out most of Earth’s species, was instantaneous in geological timePhys.org has a story about new research into the Permian Mass Extinction. The research was detailed in a paper in the GSA Bulletin. The study was a collaboration between scientists at MIT, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Museum of Natural History, and the University of Calgary. For over two decades, scientists have tried to pin down the timing and duration of the end-Permian mass extinction to gain insights into its possible causes. Most attention has been devoted to well-preserved layers of fossil-rich rocks in eastern China, in a place known to geologists as the Meishan section. Scientists have…
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Lizzardro Museum: The Science of Jurassic Park – Saturday, October 27th, 2018
Read more: Lizzardro Museum: The Science of Jurassic Park – Saturday, October 27th, 2018The Lizzardro Museum in Elmhurst, IL has a program entitled “The Science of Jurassic Park” this Saturday, October 27th, 2018 at 2 PM. Details are on their website calendar of events. This unique presentation by Donald Baumgartner, M.S. examines the science facts and myths behind the movies. For optimum experience, watch the movies before coming and bring your fossils for identification after the show. Real dinosaur fossils will be available for sale. Lecture – 2 p.m. – 75 minutes – Ages 10 and UpFee: $8.00 per person; Museum Members FreeReservations Recommended
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FOSSIL Project Newsletter for Fall 2018
Read more: FOSSIL Project Newsletter for Fall 2018Volume 5, Issue 3, Fall 2018 |FOSSIL Project Newsletter Fall 2018
ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show
Most Recent Post
- Mazon Monday #316: Sublepidophloios protuberans
Today, we have Sublepidophloios protuberans, which is a species of lycopsid branch. It’s very common, actually the most common form of lycopsid bark in the Mazon Creek fossil flora.
- About ESCONI
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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.” |
| No meeting this month | Mineralogy Study Group |
