Tag: Carboniferous
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Fossil Friday #134: Myriacantherpestes from Kansas
This is “Fossil Friday” post #134. 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 absolutely breathtaking Myriacantherpestes sp.…
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Mazon Monday #137: Geological Society of Marietta College Field Trip 1978
This is Mazon Monday post #137. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! The Mazon Creek area is a well known fossil collecting locality. It’s considered a lagerstatte, with soft-bodied fossil preservation of exquisite quality. It can be very challenging to collect, as public areas are rare and the ones that exist are…
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Fossil Friday #133: Tully Monster from the River!
This is “Fossil Friday” post #133. 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! Tully Monsters are always popular fossils. They come…
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Mazon Monday #136: Is the Tully Monster Really Extinct
This is Mazon Monday post #136. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! Jim Konency wrote this article for the ESCONI newsletter back in May 1997. Jim was president of ESCONI back in the early 1960’s. Here’s a photo of him at a meeting back in the 1960’s. Jim and his wife…
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Mazon Monday #135: McLuckie Collection Donated to the Smithsonian in 1990
This is Mazon Monday post #135. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! —————————————————– The collection of John and Lucy McLuckie, who we’ve covered a few times in Throwback Thursday #55, Throwback Thursday #104, and Flashback Friday #29, was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C in…
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Fossil Friday #131: Tully Monster!
This is “Fossil Friday” post #131. 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! Who doesn’t love a Tully Monster?…Â especially a…
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Mazon Monday #134: 2022 Mazon Creek Open House Report With Videos
This is Mazon Monday post #134. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! The 2022 Mazon Creek Open House was held on Saturday, October 15th, 2022 at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL. It was a rousing success! We had around 100 visitors throughout the day. There was plenty to talk about…
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ESCONI Mazon Creek Open House October 15, 2022
Today is the day! Hope to see you there! The Mazon Creek Open House is October 15th, 2022 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL. The Mazon Creek Open House is returning for 2022! If you’ve been a Mazon Creek collector (or even just a passing fan), you may have…
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Fossil Friday #130: Mariopteris nervosa
This is “Fossil Friday” post #130. 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 multiple Mariopteris nervosa seed fern…
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Throwback Thursday #132: Mazon Creek Open House Videos
Long time ESCONI member Ralph Jewell took videos at some past Open House events in the 1990’s and 2000’s. Thanks, Ralph! It’s very interesting to look back. Here are a few highlights. You’ll see some current members looking very young. I attended the 2006 and 2007 events. Which ones did you attend? If you have…
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Mazon Monday #133: Mazon Creek Open House History
The Mazon Creek Open House started in the early 1985. It was an extension of the Mazon Creek Project at Eastern Illinois University. We posted about that in Mazon Monday #5.
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Fossil Friday #129: Cyclopteris orbicularis
This is “Fossil Friday” post #129. 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 large Cyclopteris…
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Mazon Monday #132: Homaloneura dabasinskasi
This is Mazon Monday post #132. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Homaloneura dabasinskasi was described by F. M. Carpenter in 1964. The paper “Studies on North American Carboniferous Insects. 3. Spilapterid From the Vicinity of Mazon Creek, Illinois (Palaeodictyoptera)” appeared in the Entomology Journal Psyche. Frank M. Carpenter was an…
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Fossil Friday #128: Acanthotelson from the Mazon River
This is “Fossil Friday” post #128. 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! This gorgeous Acanthotelson stimpsoni comes from the Mazon…
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Mazon Monday #131: Fall 2022 Braceville Field Trip Report
This is Mazon Monday post #131. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– On Saturday, September 10th, 2022 and Sunday, September 11th, 2022, ESCONI hosted the Fall 2022 Braceville Field Trip. These are semi-annual field trips held each spring and fall. Here is a report by ESCONI president Keith Robitshek, Andrew…
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Mazon Monday #130: Braceville Spoil Pile History
This is Mazon Monday post #130. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– ESCONI has been visiting the Braceville spoil pile each year in the spring and fall for many years, but the pile has been there even longer – 130 years in total. It started existence as the spoil pile …
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Fossil Friday #126: Sphenopteris sp. from Danville
This is “Fossil Friday” post #126. 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! ESCONI member Maarten Vonhof sent us these photos…
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Mazon Monday #129: Pecopteris fontainei
This is Mazon Monday post #129. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Pecopteris fontainei is a fern belonging to the clade Pteridophyta. They are vascular plants that reproduce by dispersing spores. It was classified by Leo Lesquereux in 1889. This is the sterile form. The fertile form is known as…
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Fossil Friday #125: Neuropteris vermicularis
This is “Fossil Friday” post #125. 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’s Fossil Friday photo comes from ESCONI member…
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Mazon Monday #128: Biomarkers Found in Mazon Creek Coprolites
This is Mazon Monday post #128. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Fossils are often found in concretions, which form within sediment as a local accumulation of matter. In the case of Mazon Creek, these concretions consist of Iron Carbonate and quite often form around some central organic material. The…
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Fossil Friday #124: Mazon Creek Lungfish Scale
This is “Fossil Friday” post #124. 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! Saturday, August 27th and Sunday August 28th were…
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Mazon Monday #127: The Inarticulate Brachiopods of Pit 14
This is Mazon Monday post #127. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Today, we have an article called “The Inarticulate Brachiopods of Pit 14” by Earl Hoffman. This piece appeared in the July/August 1972 edition of the ESCONI newsletter “Earth Science News”. Earl was Historian and later Micro-mount study group…
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Fossil Friday #123: Lepidostrobophyllum lanceolatus
This is “Fossil Friday” post #123. 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! A stunning cone bract is up for Fossil…
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Mazon Monday #126: Relative Abundance of Different Mazon Creek Organisms
This is Mazon Monday post #126. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– There are good shapes and bad shapes, but at the end of the day – it’s what’s in the concretion that counts. Everyone wants to know what might be in the concretion they just found. It’s pretty well known…
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Mazon Monday #125: Lycopodites meekii
This is Mazon Monday post #125. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Lycopodites meekii are foliaged lycophyte twigs. They were described in 1870 by Leo Lesquereux. L. meekii is probably the terminal branches of Bothrodendren minutifolium or a similar plant. These plants were herbaceous resembling the modern day Lycopodium, a club…
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Fossil Friday #121: Alethopteris from Danville
This is “Fossil Friday” post #121. 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! This week’s Fossil Friday post is an Alethopteris…
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Mazon Monday #124: Lepidostrobophyllum majus
This is Mazon Monday post #124. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Lepidostrobophyllum majus is a cone bract. In modern plants, the woody pieces of a pine cone are the bracts. L. majus are the largest species found in the Mazon Creek biota. The cones these bracts were part of…
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Mazon Monday #123: Annularia sphenophylloides
This is Mazon Monday post #123. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Annularia is the extinct form genera given to the leaves of Calamites. Annularia sphenophylloides is a smaller variety. It was described in 1837 by August von Gutbier (1798-1866), a German paleontologist who described many Carboniferous plants from deposits…
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Fossil Friday #119: Annularia sphenophylloides
This is “Fossil Friday” post #119. 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! This week, we have a sweet little Mazon…
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Mazon Monday #122: Mazon Creek Open House 2022 is October 15th, 2022
This is Mazon Monday post #122. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– Save the date! The Mazon Creek Open House is October 15th, 2022 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL. The Mazon Creek Open House is returning for 2022! If you’ve been a Mazon…
