Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois

Calendar of Events

Burpee Museum: PaleoFest 2023 – March 3rd-5th, 2023

Burpee Museum’s PaleoFest 2023 is March 3rd-5th, 2023…. that’s this weekend! Details can be found on their website. Join us as Burpee Museum celebrates 25 years of PaleoFest, with research talks from paleontologists around the world, and special activities and programming! Dino-lovers, rock collectors, and fossil diggers unite for an internationally attended festival. Our audience includes scientists and researchers, aspiring scientists, students, and paleo-lovers, and even dino-loving kiddos! Many of the talks will focus on our speakers’ cutting edge research and amazing new discoveries. Not Just for Professional Scientists Students, interested community members, and aspiring scientists are encouraged to join the…
Read more: Burpee Museum: PaleoFest 2023 – March 3rd-5th, 2023
Fossil Friday

Fossil Friday #150: Cladodont shark tooth

This is the “Fossil Friday” post #150. 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 very nice Cladodont shark tooth from the Carboniferous rocks in central Illinois. It was found by ESCONI member Jake Fill just a few weeks ago. What a sweet late winter discovery! It was a little rough when he found it, but after a little prep with…
Read more: Fossil Friday #150: Cladodont shark tooth
Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday #151: Looking Back at ESCONI for March 2023

This is Throwback Thursday #151. 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! 25 Years Ago – March 1998 50 Years Ago – March 1973 70 Years Ago – March 1953
Read more: Throwback Thursday #151: Looking Back at ESCONI for March 2023
Calendar of Events, ESCONI Videos

Video for ESCONI February 2023 General Meeting – “Baby Dinosaurs of the Arctic: Discovery and Research of a Dinosaur Nursery North of the Arctic Circle”

The February 2023 General Meeting was held on February 10th. The program “Baby Dinosaurs of the Arctic: Discovery and Research of a Dinosaur Nursery north of the Arctic Circle” was presented by Dr. Patrick Druckenmiller. Dr. Druckenmiller is Professor of Geology and Director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North. He is a vertebrate paleontologist who research encompasses Mesozoic marine reptiles and Alaskan dinosaurs. He has conducted extensive fieldwork in North America and the Arctic, including northern Alaska where he directs excavation of the northernmost dinosaurs to ever walk the Earth. He became the Earth Sciences Curator in…
Read more: Video for ESCONI February 2023 General Meeting – “Baby Dinosaurs of the Arctic: Discovery and Research of a Dinosaur Nursery North of the Arctic Circle”
Calendar of Events, ESCONI Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show

2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #7!

This is the preview post #7 for the 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2023 will be held on March 18th and 19th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here. Time for another preview for the 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show. Expect quite a few more! This one is a small beautiful Malachite box… perfect for storing those secret items you want to keep in a protected place.
Read more: 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #7!
Mazon Creek, Mazon Monday

Mazon Monday #153: Crookallia czernyshevi

This is Mazon Monday post #153. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Crookallia czernyshevi is a rare shark egg case. Until recently, it was known only from a site in Russia and another in Europe. Recently, Jack Wittry, author of a few Mazon Creek plant and animal books, tentatively identified a C. czernyshevi from Mazon Creek. The specimen was collected by ESCONI member Rob Coleman, who has alerted us of some rare specimens in the past. Rob found this beauty in a Pit 11 concretion collected a few years ago. This species is similar to Vetacasula, …
Read more: Mazon Monday #153: Crookallia czernyshevi
Calendar of Events, ESCONI Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show

ESCONI Events March 2023

Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Sat, Mar 18th 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show – 10 AM to 5 PM at the DuPage County Fairgrounds Details are here! Sun, Mar 19th 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show – 10 AM to 4 PM at the DuPage County Fairgrounds Details are here! ESCONI General Meeting None due to the annual show… see you next month! ESCONI Junior Meeting None due to the annual show… see you next month! ESCONI Paleontology Study Group Meeting None due to the annual show… see…
Read more: ESCONI Events March 2023
Calendar of Events

ESCONI at the STEAM Night at Brookdale Elementary School in Naperville, Illinois

On Friday, February 24th, 2023, ESCONI participated in the STEAM Night held a Brookdale Elementary School in Naperville, IL. ESCONI members Keith Robitschek, Donald Cronauer, Rich and Heidi Holm were on hand to answer questions about paleontology, geology. and ESCONI. It was a well attended event. This was the first in person STEAM night, since before 2020. We had fossils and minerals on display. We had a spinner to give away fossil and mineral specimens. The booth next to us from Phillips Park Zoo in Aurora had a skink and a turtle, which are native to the area.
Read more: ESCONI at the STEAM Night at Brookdale Elementary School in Naperville, Illinois
Around the Web

PBS Eons: Is This A Theropod? A Sauropod? A Third Thing?

PBS Eons has a new episode on Youtube. This one is about therizinosaurs and where they fit into the dinosaur family tree. How the therizinosaurs lived and evolved ended up being just as weird as their mixed-up anatomy.
Read more: PBS Eons: Is This A Theropod? A Sauropod? A Third Thing?
Fossil Friday, Mazon Creek

Fossil Friday #149: Rhaphidiophorus hystrix

This is the “Fossil Friday” post #149. 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! We have a gorgeous Mazon Creek worm fossil for your enjoyment today! It’s a Rhaphidiophorus hystrix, which was known informally as the “Oliver Hardy” worm by old-time collectors. It was described in 1979 by Ida Thompson in her epic worm paper “Errant polychaetes (Annelida) from the Pennsylvanian Essex fauna of northern Illinois”,…
Read more: Fossil Friday #149: Rhaphidiophorus hystrix
Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday #150: History of Coal City and Surrounding Areas

This is Throwback Thursday #150. 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! On Tuesday, February 28th, 2023, local historian Michele Micetich is speaking at the Coal City Library about the history of Coal City and the surrounding area. She manages the Carbon Hill School Museum in Carbon Hill, IL. Her presentations are as informative as they are interesting. No one knows more about the history of the area than Michele! Visit the School Museum! There’s…
Read more: Throwback Thursday #150: History of Coal City and Surrounding Areas
Around the Web

The Search for the Perfect Stone

The New Yorker has a story about the annual Tuscon Gem and Mineral Show. The show has been held each winter since 1955. If you can’t find it there, you can’t find it anywhere! For a few weeks every winter, Tucson briefly goes rock crazy. In 1955, local gem-and-mineral enthusiasts began hosting a get-together, an event that’s since become something much more commercial, and much more overwhelming. This year, there were forty shows throughout the city, each of them a mazelike complex of dozens or hundreds of venders, drawing tens of thousands of visitors in total. Browsing one afternoon, I…
Read more: The Search for the Perfect Stone
Calendar of Events, ESCONI Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show, Mazon Creek

2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #6!

This is the preview post #6 for the 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2023 will be held on March 18th and 19th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here. Time for another preview for the 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show. Expect quite a few more! This time we have a gorgeous Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri for the live auction. We spotlighted this species back in Mazon Monday #39. It’s a seed fern named for Johann Jakob…
Read more: 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #6!
Mazon Creek, Mazon Monday

Mazon Monday #152: Crenulopteris subcrenulata

This is Mazon Monday post #152. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Crenulopteris subcrenulata is somewhat common in Mazon Creek fossil deposit. It has been misunderstood and misidentified for many years, with a long list of classifications where is included with other distinct species due to the variation in its growth forms. It has at times been mistaken for Pecopteris (Cyathocarpus) arborescens (arborea), Pecopteris (Cyathocarpus) hemitelioides, and Pecopteris (Diplazites) unita. It was first described by Leo Lesquereux in 1866 as Alethopteris crenulata in his “Report on the Fossil Plants of Illinois”. C. subcrenulata appears on pages 97…
Read more: Mazon Monday #152: Crenulopteris subcrenulata
Around the Web

PBS Eons: These Fossils Were Supposed To Be Impossible

PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the earliest animals, which evolved during a period of the Pre-Cambrian called the Ediacaran. Hidden in rocks once thought too old to contain complex life we may have found the animal kingdom’s oldest known predator.
Read more: PBS Eons: These Fossils Were Supposed To Be Impossible
Calendar of Events, Mazon Creek

ESCONI Paleontology Meeting Saturday, February 18th, 2023 at 7:30 PM Hybrid – “Mazon Creek”

The February Paleontology Study Group Meeting is tonight… Saturday, February 18th, 2023 at 7:30 PM. It’s a hybrid meeting, Zoom details are below. If you’d like to come out to the College of DuPage, please bring some of you favorite specimens. Also, bring anything you’d like to have identified. ESCONI President Keith Robitschek is going to do a presentation on some of the collecting areas in Pit 11. We hope to see you there! DATE/TIME: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2023, 7:30PM TOPIC: COLLECTING MAZON CREEK FOSSILS PRESENTED BY: KEITH ROBITSCHEK, ESCONI President IN-PERSON: COLLEGE OF DUPAGE, Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) Bring in your specimens…
Read more: ESCONI Paleontology Meeting Saturday, February 18th, 2023 at 7:30 PM Hybrid – “Mazon Creek”
Fossil Friday

Fossil Friday #148: Phareodus encaustus

This is the “Fossil Friday” post #148. 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 very nice Phareodus encaustus from ESCONI President Keith Robitschek. He found this beautiful fossil in the summer of 2020 at American Fossil Quarry in Kemmerer, Wyoming. American Fossil lets has a large exposure of the Green River Formation, which dates to the Eocene Epoch about 52 million years…
Read more: Fossil Friday #148: Phareodus encaustus
Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday #149: Dues Are Due… From the Past!

This is Throwback Thursday #149. 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! Have you paid your 2023 ESCONI dues? I know I have to pay mine! Please get them in, you can use our PayPal link on the website. It makes it very easy! ESCONI was more creative in the past when they sent out the Dues requests. Here is a “Dues are Due” poem from February 1973. DUES ARE DUE Dues are Due and what…
Read more: Throwback Thursday #149: Dues Are Due… From the Past!
Around the Web

A Historic Discovery: Archaeologists Uncover Oldest Known Projectile Points in the Americas

SciTechDaily has a story about some Oregon State University archaeologists that have found the oldest projectile points in North America. The researchers were working at a site known as Cooper’s Ferry. The points have been dated to about 15,700 years, which is about 3,000 years older than Clovis points found throughout North America. The research was published in the journal Science Advances. “From a scientific point of view, these discoveries add very important details about what the archaeological record of the earliest peoples of the Americas looks like,” said Loren Davis, an anthropology professor at OSU and head of the…
Read more: A Historic Discovery: Archaeologists Uncover Oldest Known Projectile Points in the Americas
Calendar of Events, ESCONI Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show

2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #5!

This is the preview post #5 for the 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2023 will be held on March 18th and 19th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here. Time for another preview for the 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show. Expect quite a few more! Back to the minerals… This is a chunk Colemanite from Death Valley. Colemanite is a borate mineral found in evaporite deposits. This particular specimen comes from the…
Read more: 2023 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #5!

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
No meeting this month	Junior Study Group

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