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Fossil Friday #162: J.C. Carr Mazon Creek Fern
Read more: Fossil Friday #162: J.C. Carr Mazon Creek FernThis is the “Fossil Friday” post #162. 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 fossil specimen from long time ESCONI member Jim Alann, who has shared quite a few fossils with us in the past, including a spider (Arthrolycola), a Helen Asher jelly, and a eurypterid. Now, he’s back with another very nice historically significant piece. J.C. Carr was a…
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Throwback Thursday #163: Scenes from the 2000 Chicagoland Gem & Mineral Association Show
Read more: Throwback Thursday #163: Scenes from the 2000 Chicagoland Gem & Mineral Association ShowThis is Throwback Thursday #163. 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! Don’t forget that the 46th Annual CGMA – Chicagoland Gem & Mineral Association is this weekend May 27th and May 28th, 2023. It’s at Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles. All the information is available at the website: cgmashow.com. There will be an ESCONI table at the Show, so stop by and say hello and introduce yourself as an ESCONI member! It’s always great…
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Video for ESCONI May 2023 General Meeting – “About the Falls of the Ohio State Park”
Read more: Video for ESCONI May 2023 General Meeting – “About the Falls of the Ohio State Park”The title of the presentation at the May 2023 General Meeting was “About the Falls of the Ohio State Park”. It was given by Dr. Alan Goldstein. As a Park Paleontologist and Interpretive naturalist, Dr. Goldstein has worked at the Falls of the Ohio State Park’s Interpretive Center since it opened in January 1994. Additionally, Dr. Goldstein has also been the curator of the Gerald Troost collection at the Louisville Science Center. He has been investigating, collecting, and writing about the Illinois-Kentucky fluorspar district since 1982. His article on the fluorspar district published in 1997 won the Friends of Mineralogy paper…
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Marsupials might be the more evolved mammals
Read more: Marsupials might be the more evolved mammalsPhys.org has an interesting article about mammal evolution. A new paper in the journal Current Biology claims that marsupial mammals are more evolutionarily derived than placental mammals. This discovery is very surprising as marsupial mammals have long been thought to be an intermediate state between egg laying and placental birth. The study, published in Current Biology, analyzed skulls during different stages of development in 22 living mammal species. Micro-CT scans of 165 specimens helped the research team reconstruct the changes of the skull for these species during this early phase. Using this data, they estimated how the common ancestor of marsupials and…
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Mazon Monday #165: Braceville Spring 2023 Report
Read more: Mazon Monday #165: Braceville Spring 2023 ReportThis is Mazon Monday post #165. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The ESCONI Braceville field trips for spring of 2023 were well attended. We had 50+ people for both Saturday, May 6th and Sunday, May 7th. The weather was great. Saturday started overcast with light sprinkles, but turned into a nice day, with highs in the low 70’s. Sunday was hot! It was sunny all day with highs in the upper 80’s. Many concretions were collected. Not only is Braceville an event for beginners to experience fossil collecting out in nature. It has also become…
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Earliest sea scorpion from China found in end-Ordovician Anji Biota in Zhejiang
Read more: Earliest sea scorpion from China found in end-Ordovician Anji Biota in ZhejiangPhys.org has a story about sea scorpions. Eurypterids are iconic animals of the Paleozoic. They first show up in the fossil record during the Darrowillian stage of the Ordovician 467 million year ago and go extinct at the end Permian mass extinction event about 250 million years ago. Now, a new paper published in the Journal of Paleontology sheds light on their presence in China during the Ordovician. These new animals also represent the first Eurypterids from China and their evolution on the ancient continent of Gondwana. Eurypterids (Arthropoda: Chelicerata), normally known as sea scorpions, are an important extinct group…
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Never Get Poison Ivy Again! The Science Explained
Read more: Never Get Poison Ivy Again! The Science ExplainedWhen out collecting fossils in the spring, summer, and fall, I always seem to come across poison ivy…. usually when I’m not paying attention or least expecting it. A video by StoneAgeMan over on Youtube claims to show you how you’ll never get poison ivy again. Check it out and happy hunting this summer! I poured poison ivy on myself to show you how to never get it yourself!
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Fossil Friday #161: Seeds from Danville
Read more: Fossil Friday #161: Seeds from DanvilleThis is the “Fossil Friday” post #161. 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! On April 15th, 2023, ESCONI held a field trip to a coal mine spoil pile near Danville, IL. Everyone found something, and there were numerous nice fossil specimens. Caroline Davis found not one, but two seed fossils. One was a well preserved Trigonocarpus sp. (Mazon Monday #67), while the other was unidentified. …
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Throwback Thursday #162: Field & Street Archaeopteryx
Read more: Throwback Thursday #162: Field & Street ArchaeopteryxThis is Throwback Thursday #162. 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! Back in Throwback Thursday #137, we looked at the traveling Archaeopteryx exhibit back in 1997. Althiough it was only at the Field Museum from October 4th to the 19th, actual Archaeopteryx fossils were on display for the first time in the United States, ESCONI was there for a field trip on the last day, October 19th, 1997. About 10 years earlier on April…
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Smithsonian: Paleontologists Uncover Fossil Impressions of Giant, Alligator-Like Amphibians
Read more: Smithsonian: Paleontologists Uncover Fossil Impressions of Giant, Alligator-Like AmphibiansSmithsonian Magazine has a story about the discovery of alligator-like amphibians from the Permian Period. The animals, Rhinesuchus, were found in the Karoo Basin in South Africa. They lived more than 255 million years ago. They are thought to be salamander-like, but the size of modern day alligators. The rhinesuchid temnospondyls were described in the paper “Unique trackway on Permian Karoo shoreline provides evidence of temnospondyl locomotory behaviour”, which was published in the journal PLOS One. Determining what sort of organism made a trace fossil, including those on the Dave Green paleosurface, can be a challenging task. Body fossils, such…
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ESCONI Paleontology Meeting Saturday, May 20th, 2023 at 7:30 PM Hybrid “Echinoderms of the Platteville and Galena Formations”
Read more: ESCONI Paleontology Meeting Saturday, May 20th, 2023 at 7:30 PM Hybrid “Echinoderms of the Platteville and Galena Formations”A starfish (Hudsonaster) from the Ordovician Platteville Limestone, Wisconsin. Photo of YPM IP 538069 by Jessica Utrup (Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History on GBIF.org, CC0 1.0 Universal/public domain dedication). The May 2023 ESCONI Paleontology Study Group Meeting will be held on May 20th, 2023 at 7:30 via Zoom and at the College of DuPage Tech Ed (TEC) Building (Map) Room 1038B. The topic of the meeting is “Echinoderms of the Platteville and Galena Formations” . The presentation is by ESCONI member and Paleontology Study Group chairman John Catalani. Please bring any Ordovician echinoderms you may have. The program begins with Ordovician…
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Mazon Monday #164: The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna – Book Review
Read more: Mazon Monday #164: The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna – Book ReviewThis is Mazon Monday post #164. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Jack Wittry is a long time ESCONI member, who has written three books on the fossils of Mazon Creek “The Mazon Creek Fossil Flora” in 2006, “The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna” in 2012, and “A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek” in 2020. These books are excellent resources for anyone with any interest in the fossils from this amazing locality, which has been called one of the most important fossil sites in the world, due to the richness in variety and…
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Giants of the Jurassic seas were twice the size of a killer whale, says study
Read more: Giants of the Jurassic seas were twice the size of a killer whale, says studyPhys.org has a story about the size of the large marine reptiles that swam the seas of the Jurassic Period. Just how big was Liopleurodon, a large pliosaur from that time? The BBC’s “Walking with Dinosaurs” TV documentary series showed it as 25-meters-long, which was deemed vastly overestimated. New evidence, from the rediscovery of a similar species in the Oxfordshire museum, puts the length at around 14.4 meters, about twice the size of a modern killer whale. The research, led by to University of Portsmouth paleontologists, was published in the journal Proceedings of the Geologist’s Association. Professor David Martill from…
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PBS Eons: A Natural History of Mars
Read more: PBS Eons: A Natural History of MarsPBS Eons has a new episode on Youtube. This one is about Mars… how has it changed over the year? While Earth’s natural history has been playing out over the last few billion years, another epic planetary saga has also been unfolding right next door.
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Fossil Friday #160: Texas Starfish Fossils
Read more: Fossil Friday #160: Texas Starfish FossilsThis is the “Fossil Friday” post #160. 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 something a little different. ESCONI member Alan Keith sent us some photos of some fossil starfish he found on a field trip with the Austin Paleontological Society recently. Here is the story Alan sent… While on a field trip with the Austin Paleontological society, I found a…
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Throwback Thursday #161: Looking Back at ESCONI for May 2023
Read more: Throwback Thursday #161: Looking Back at ESCONI for May 2023This is Throwback Thursday #161. 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 – May 1998 50 Years Ago – May 1973 70 Years Ago – May 1953
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Worlds Largest “Raptor” Dinosaurs Lived 10 Million Years Earlier Than Thought
Read more: Worlds Largest “Raptor” Dinosaurs Lived 10 Million Years Earlier Than ThoughtSciTechDaily has a story about Utahraptor. New research by paleontologists (one at the University of Kansas) shows that Utahraptor actually lived about 135 million years ago, not 125 million years as previously thought. Utahraptor is the largest known “raptor” dinosaur at 4.9–5.5 m (16–18 ft) long and weighing 280–300 kg (620–660 lb). It’s also one of the oldest members of the family Dromaeosauridae. It was discovered in October 1991 by James Kirkland, Robert Gaston, and Donald Burge uncovered further remains of Utahraptor in 1991 in the Gaston Quarry in Grand County, Utah, within the Yellow Cat and Poison Strip members of the Cedar Mountain Formation. Read…
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ESCONI May 2023 General Meeting – May 12th, 2023 at 8:00 PM Via Zoom – “About the Falls of the Ohio State Park”
Read more: ESCONI May 2023 General Meeting – May 12th, 2023 at 8:00 PM Via Zoom – “About the Falls of the Ohio State Park”The title of the presentation at the May 2023 General Meeting is “About the Falls of the Ohio State Park”. It will be given by Dr. Alan Goldstein. As a Park Paleontologist and Interpretive naturalist, Dr. Goldstein has worked at the Falls of the Ohio State Park’s Interpretive Center since it opened in January 1994. Additionally, Dr. Goldstein has also been the curator of the Gerald Troost collection at the Louisville Science Center. He has been investigating, collecting, and writing about the Illinois-Kentucky fluorspar district since 1982. His article on the fluorspar district published in 1997 won the Friends of Mineralogy…
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Mazon Monday #163: Neuropteris flexuosa
Read more: Mazon Monday #163: Neuropteris flexuosaThis is Mazon Monday post #163. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Today, we have a different variety of Neuropteris – Neuropteris flexuosa. N. flexuosa is more rare than N. vermicularis. One distinguishing feature is a very large terminal pinnule. It also tends to have denser veins than N. vermicularis. This species has been found in other localities, including Okmulgee, Oklahoma, Alabama, and its type locality in Germany. N. vermicularis was described by Kaspar Maria von Sternberg (1761-1838) in 1826. He was a leading scientist in Europe during the early 1800’s, who knew and worked with Alexander von Humboldt. …
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462 million-year-old fossilized eyes and brains uncovered in ‘secret’ Welsh fossil site
Read more: 462 million-year-old fossilized eyes and brains uncovered in ‘secret’ Welsh fossil siteLive Science has an article about the exciting discovery of a new fossil site in Wales, UK. The locality is being called “Castle Bank” and could rank among the world’s most important. It dates to the Ordovician Period about 462 million years ago. “Castle Bank” preserves a variety of soft bodied animals with exquisite preservation, including internal organs. Many of the new animals were described in a recent paper in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Hosting a myriad of soft-bodied marine creatures and their organs, which are scarcely preserved in the fossil record, the site resembles the world-renowned Cambrian…
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| 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 |