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Mazon Creek Fossil Blog – American Fossil Hunt
Read more: Mazon Creek Fossil Blog – American Fossil HuntRecently, I ran across an interesting blog called “American Fossil Hunt”. It’s written by Andrew Bach, an ESCONI member. He details his adventures hunting for Mazon Creek concretions in Pit 11, the Braceville spoil pile, and other nearby locales. Additionally, there are posts about trips to Florida and California. His posts include many pictures of fossils and what to expect if you visit the same places. He has a book, which has additional material on Mazon Creek. It’s $25 for both the ebook and a print copy. It has helpful hints, maps, and descriptions of a few well known localities. …
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Reminder: March General Meeting is on Friday, March 9th, 2018 – Dr. Dan Gebo “Human Evolution – An Update”
Read more: Reminder: March General Meeting is on Friday, March 9th, 2018 – Dr. Dan Gebo “Human Evolution – An Update”The speaker will be Dr. Dan Gebo from the Department of Anthropology at NIU. The title of his talk is "Human Evolution – An Update". Come on out, we missed you in February!
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ESCONI Events March 2018
Read more: ESCONI Events March 2018Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Fri, Mar 9th ESCONI General Meeting, 8:00 PM College of Dupage – Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) – Topic: “Human Evolution – an update.” by Dr. Dan Gebo from the Department of Anthropology at NIU Sat, Mar 10th Warehouse Work Day, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM – (Map) – Preparation for the 2018 Show in March. Please meet in the back of the building! Sat, Mar 24th ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – DuPage County Fairgrounds (Map) 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Sun, Mar 25th ESCONI…
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Reminder: ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show will be held on March 24th and 25th, 2018
Read more: Reminder: ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show will be held on March 24th and 25th, 2018Save the date! We are one month away from the ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show! Saturday, March 24th – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Sunday, March 25th – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free admittance and parking! Exploreyour interests Shop for jewelry, gems, fossils, minerals from world-class vendors List to Follow Soon, Stay tuned! Find unique and interesting books at the used book sale Learn from members of club demonstrating their hobbies and collections Bid and buy gems, minerals and fossils at the Silent Auction and Live Auctions(photos of some items will be posted on website a week before…
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Rainforest collapse 307 million years ago impacted the evolution of early land vertebrates
Read more: Rainforest collapse 307 million years ago impacted the evolution of early land vertebratesPhys.org has a story about a mass extinction in plants that occurred during the Pennsylvannian Period. Researchers from the University of Birmingham published a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The mass extinction seems to have been caused by the onset of a drier climate 307 million years ago. This led to some extinctions of some tetrapods, just as they evolved to live on land. Curiously, it probably allowed others to diversify an expand across the globe. The Carboniferous and Permian periods (358 – 272 million years ago) were critical intervals in the evolution of life on…
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A Jawbone Is the Oldest Modern-Human Fossil Outside of Africa
Read more: A Jawbone Is the Oldest Modern-Human Fossil Outside of AfricaThe Atlantic has a story about a recent discovery that threatens to rewrite the early history of modern humans. The find from an Israeli cave dates to between 177,000 and 194,000 years ago. These dates, along with a 315,000 year old fossil from Ethiopia, call into question the previous “Out of Africa” estimates of 50-60,000 years. After more than a decade of work, the team has now confirmed that the Misliya jaw belonged to a modern human, and that it is even more ancient than the Skhul remains. At somewhere between 177,000 and 194,000 years old, it now holds the…
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The February General Meeting has been rescheduled for March 9th, 2018
Read more: The February General Meeting has been rescheduled for March 9th, 2018The February General Meeting has been rescheduled for March 9th, 2018. The speaker will be Dr. Dan Gebo from the Department of Anthropology at NIU. The title of his talk is “Human Evolution – An Update”. Come on out, we missed you in February!
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Happy Darwin Day 2018
Read more: Happy Darwin Day 2018Happy Darwin Day 2018. Here is a link with events all over the world. Enjoy!
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Warehouse Work Day Moved to Saturday, February 17th, 2018, 9:00 – 2:00ish
Read more: Warehouse Work Day Moved to Saturday, February 17th, 2018, 9:00 – 2:00ishThe Warehouse Work Day scheduled for February 10th has been moved to February 17th. If you have some time, come join our work day at the warehouse on Saturday, February 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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The February General Meeting has been POSTPONED!
Read more: The February General Meeting has been POSTPONED!The February General Meeting for Friday, February 9th, 2018 has been postponed. COD will be closed due to the predicted snow storm. We plan to reschedule with the speaker. Expect to hear more shortly!
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Spider-like Creature With a Scorpion’s Tail Found Trapped in Amber
Read more: Spider-like Creature With a Scorpion’s Tail Found Trapped in AmberThe NY Times has an article about an exciting new spider-like fossil discovered in amber. Chimerarchne yingi lived during the Cretaceous Period more than 100 million years ago in what is now Southeast Asia. It’s spider-like, because it’s not quite a spider. It have 8 legs, fangs, and a whip like tail. It was only 2.5 millimeters long, with a tail almost twice as long as its body. The original paper appeared in Nature Ecology and Evolution. C. yingi is not a spider, but rather a relative that lived alongside ancient spiders for millions of years. Its discovery provides insight…
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The dismantling of Sue
Read more: The dismantling of SueThe Chicago Tribune has a story about the plans to dismantle at the Field Museum. The Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur, known as Sue, has been on display in the Field Museum’s Stanley Field Hall since 2000. She was discovered in 1990 in South Dakota by Sue Hendrickson. Beginning this week, she will be disassembled to make room for a replica of the largest dinosaur ever found – Patagotitan mayorum. She will eventually be placed back on display in the Evolving Planet exhibit in early 2019. Goodbye for now Sue… we will miss you! The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton we know as Sue…
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Brain Scoop: The ‘Sistine Chapel of Taxidermy’ – Conserving Akeley’s Elephants
Read more: Brain Scoop: The ‘Sistine Chapel of Taxidermy’ – Conserving Akeley’s ElephantsThe Brain Scoop has an episode about the 100+ year old elephants at the Field Museum in Stanley Field Hall. They were created by Carl Akeley and his wife Delia way back in the early 1900s. A previous episodes from 2013 are here and here.
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ESCONI Events February 2018
Read more: ESCONI Events February 2018Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Rescheduled for Mar 9th ESCONI General Meeting, 8:00 PM College of Dupage – Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) – Topic: “Human Evolution – an update.” by Dr. Dan Gebo from the Department of Anthropology at NIU Sat, Feb 17th Warehouse Work Day, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM – (Map) – Preparation for the 2018 Show in March. Please meet in the back of the building! Sat, Feb 17th ESCONI Paleontology Study Group Meeting, 7:30 PM College of Dupage – Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) –…
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34 million year old carnivore named after the Egyptian god of the Underworld
Read more: 34 million year old carnivore named after the Egyptian god of the UnderworldPLOS Paleo’s Blog has an article about a newly described canine-like fossil from Egypt. Masrasector nananubis, or little “Anubis”, was a dog-like creature that lived during the late Eocene about 34 million years ago. The researchers that authored the open access paper are Matthew Borths from Ohio University and Erik Seiffert from the University of Southern California. The specimens were collected over more than a decade from the Fayum Depression in Egypt. An interview with Matthew Borths is available here. The animal is known as a hyaenodont, which you might be able to guess from the name is a relative…
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Reminder: ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show will be held on March 24th and 25th, 2018
Read more: Reminder: ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show will be held on March 24th and 25th, 2018Saturday, March 24th – 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.Sunday, March 25th – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free admittance and parking! Exploreyour interests Shop for jewelry, gems, fossils, minerals from world-class vendors List to Follow Soon, Stay tuned! Find unique and interesting books at the used book sale Learn from members of club demonstrating their hobbies and collections Bid and buy gems, minerals and fossils at the Silent Auction and Live Auctions(photos of some items will be posted on website a week before show) Enjoy amazing displays from the Field Museum & Lizzadro Museum Winan amazing earth-science related prize in…
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Palaeocast Episode 85: Ichthyosaurs
Read more: Palaeocast Episode 85: IchthyosaursThe Palaeocast podcast has a new episode on Ichthyosaurs. The discussion centers around a new documentary called “Attenborough and the Sea Dragon”. Ichthyosaurs are large marine reptiles that existed for most of the Mesozoic Era. The most familiar forms superficially represent dolphins, but some earlier ichthyosaurs were more eel like. They could attain huge proportions, with some genera reaching up to 21m long. They were active predators feeding on belemnite, fishes and even other marine reptiles! In this episode, we talk to Dr Ben Moon and Fiann Smithwick, researchers at the University of Bristol, UK. Both have recently been involved…
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Mineral Monday #1: Here’s How Much It Costs to Buy a Diamond the Size of a Tennis Ball
Read more: Mineral Monday #1: Here’s How Much It Costs to Buy a Diamond the Size of a Tennis BallFortune has a story about a diamond that weighs 1,109 carats. The stone, which was sold recently by the Canadian mining company Lucara Diamond, was discovered in 2015 at Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana. This is the largest diamond found in the last century. The record is held by the Cullinan Diamond, which was found in 1906 in South Africa. After a year of negotiations, the British jeweler Graff Diamonds has bought the world’s second-largest diamond, the tennis-ball-sized Lesedi La Rona. The Canadian mining outfit Lucara Diamond (LUCRF) had been struggling to sell the 1,109-carat uncut stone, with a Sotheby’s…
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CBC Quirks & Quarks – Why extinct creatures fought with their tails, while today animals use their heads
Read more: CBC Quirks & Quarks – Why extinct creatures fought with their tails, while today animals use their headsCBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment about dinosaurs that fought with their tails. There were quite a few dinosaurs that evolved defence mechanisms centered around their tails. Examples are Stegosaurs, Ankylosaurs, and maybe some Sauropods. Modern animals with powerful weapons, overwhelmingly use their heads instead of their tails, think rams, deer, elk, with large horns. A paper, by Victoria Arbour and Lindsay Zammo in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, speaks to why this has changed. To use your tail as an effective weapon, you likely have to be a large, armoured herbivore. That’s the conclusion of…
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Warehouse Work Day – Saturday, February 10th, 2018, 9:00 – 2:00ish
Read more: Warehouse Work Day – Saturday, February 10th, 2018, 9:00 – 2:00ishIf you have some time, come join our work day at the warehouse on Saturday, February 10th, 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
ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show
Most Recent Post
- Throwback Thursday #322: An Othniel Charles Marsh “Origin of Species”
While speaking with a Field Museum visitor at the recent “Dinopalooza 2026”, I learned about an extraordinary book discovery made at a Salvation Army store in Delaware a few years ago. The visitor shared in a 2025 post he made on the Reddit community r/rarebooks. The book is a signed copy of On the Origin of Species that once belonged to Othniel Charles Marsh. It is a first-edition, second-state American printing, published by Appleton and Company in 1860.
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Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings!
| Friday, June 12th | General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom. Adrienne Stroup of The Field Museum will present “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums”. |
| Saturday, June 20th | Paleontology Study Group – 7:30 PM via Zoom. Lincoln Shoemaker will present “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.” |
| No meeting this month | Junior Study Group Meeting |
| No meeting this month | Mineralogy Study Group |