Tag: ESCONI
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Mazon Monday #265: Historic Collectors – John and Lucy McLuckie
This is Mazon Monday post #265. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. John McLuckie, a prominent figure in the history of Mazon Creek fossil collecting and an early member of ESCONI, was well known—along with his wife Lucy—for their extraordinary fossil collection. The two are pictured together on the left in…
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Throwback Thursday #252: Field Trip to Thornton Quarry – April 24th, 1955
This is Throwback Thursday #252. 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! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. If you live on the southside of Chicago, you are probably aware of the large holes on…
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ESCONI Board Members for 2025
PRESIDENT: Chris Berg 1ST. VICE PRESIDENT: Katherine Howard 2ND. VICE PRESIDENT: Keith Robitschek RECORDING SECRETARY: Valerie Anderson TREASURER: Andrew Jansen PUBLICITY: Elizabeth Magnus-Gentry LIBRARIAN: Andrew Jansen CURATOR: Chris Cozart HISTORIAN: Richard Holm Assistant Field Trip Chairman: Connor Puritz Assistant Field Trip Chairman: Jeremy Zimmerman EDITOR: Don Cronauer CIRCULATION: Rose Jansen PAST PRESIDENT: Phil Anderson MEMBERSHIP: Rose Jansen SHOW…
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ESCONI Board Members for 2024
PRESIDENT: Phil Anderson 1ST. VICE PRESIDENT: Katherine Howard 2ND. VICE PRESIDENT: Irene Broede RECORDING SECRETARY: Valerie Anderson TREASURER: Andrew Jansen PUBLICITY: Chris Berg LIBRARIAN: Andrew Jansen CURATOR: Chris Cozart HISTORIAN: Richard Holm Assistant Field Trip Chairman: Dave Carlson Assistant Field Trip Chairman: John Catalani EDITOR: Don Cronauer CIRCULATION: Rose Jansen PAST PRESIDENT: Keith Robitschek MEMBERSHIP: Rose Jansen SHOW CHAIRMAN: Dave Carlson…
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ESCONI Board Members for 2023
PRESIDENT: Keith Robitschek 1ST. VICE PRESIDENT: Katherine Howard 2ND. VICE PRESIDENT: Irene Broede RECORDING SECRETARY: Valerie Anderson TREASURER: Andrew Jansen PUBLICITY: Chris Berg LIBRARIAN: Andrew Jansen CURATOR: Chris Cozart HISTORIAN: Richard Holm Assistant Field Trip Chairman: Dave Carlson Assistant Field Trip Chairman: John Catalani EDITOR: Don Cronauer CIRCULATION: Rose Jansen PAST PRESIDENT: Jeff Lord MEMBERSHIP: Rose Jansen SHOW CHAIRMAN: Dave Carlson…
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ESCONI is now on Instagram!
Come see us over on Instagram. Tell your friends! We have been posting there for about a month. There’s lots of photos, some of which are unique to Instagram. Also, check us out on Twitter. We’ve been there for a few years now. Links to our posts are posted to Twitter automatically.
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Lauer Foundation: The integument of pelagic crocodylomorphs
From the ESCONI Members in the News Department: The Lauer Foundation has announced that they have published their first paper. It’s titled “The integument of pelagic crocodylomorphs” and is a detailed description of Metriorhynchidae integrument (skin) and how that group shows adaptations to a highly pelagic lifestyle. It was published in the journal Palaeoelectonica in…
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ESCONI March 2021 Paleontology Meeting – April 17th, 2021 at 7:30 PM via Zoom – “Analysis of the Mifflin Member of the Platteville Formation”
SATURDAY – APRIL 17 – 7:30 PM Central Time (US & Canada) Topic: “Analysis of the Mifflin Member of the Platteville Formation” Presented by: John Catalani, ESCONI Member Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/84740566864?pwd=aG9hbU5wUCtHenI0Tmt5NTN1S2VJZz09 Meeting ID: 847 4056 6864Passcode: 569922 One tap mobile+13126266799,,84740566864#,,,,*569922# US (Chicago)+13017158592,,84740566864#,,,,*569922# US (Washington DC) Dial by your location+1 312 626 6799…
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Mazon Monday #41: Revisiting the exceptional tetrapod fauna of Mazon Creek, Illinois
This is Mazon Monday post #41. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. This article is republished from the January 20201 ESCONI Newsletter. If you are a member, you will receive this newsletter January – June, July/August, and September – December during the year. Please consider joining ESCONI for $20 a year…
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ESCONI Board Members for 2022
PRESIDENT: Keith Robitschek 1ST. VICE PRESIDENT: Dave Carlson 2ND. VICE PRESIDENT: Irene Broede RECORDING SECRETARY: Valerie Anderson TREASURER: Andrew Jansen PUBLICITY: Chris Berg LIBRARIAN: Andrew Jansen CURATOR: Chris Cozart HISTORIAN: Richard Holm Assistant Field Trip Chairman: Dave Carlson Assistant Field Trip Chairman: John Catalani EDITOR: Don Cronauer CIRCULATION: Rose Jansen PAST PRESIDENT: Jeff Lord MEMBERSHIP: Rose Jansen SHOW…
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Remembering Dave Bergmann 1935-2020
Dave Bergmann passed away on April 7, 2020. Dave and his wife, Sheila, have been very active in ESCONI for more than 30 years. They have participated in the ESCONI shows demonstrating their collection of artifacts including fossils and microcrystals (in particular Dave had a powerful large crystal microscope with TV display monitor). Activities extended…
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480-million-year-old fossils reveal sea lilies’ ancient roots
Phys.org has a story about the origin of crinoids. Tom Guensburg, research associate at the Field Museum in Chicago, is the lead author of a paper in the Journal of Paleontology, that describes Athenacrinus browneri. This new fossil shows evidence that is key to how sea lilies evolved from the earliest known echinoderms, which lived…
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ESCONI November General Meeting – ESCONI 70th Birthday Celebration Pictures
The November General Meeting last Friday, November 8th, 2019 was a great time! We have a very large turnout and had to expand into the neighboring room. There were two speakers, Keith Robitschek and Paul Mayer. Keith did a presentation that discussed the history of ESCONI from 1949 to the present, while Paul spoke about…
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UChicago: Fish story for the ages: High schooler unearths rare fossil
The University of Chicago has a post about a recent Green River find. A very interesting gar fish skull was found this summer by a high school student in Lance Grande’s “Stones and Bones” program at the University of Chicago this last summer. The specimen comes from a fish estimated to be 8 feet long! …
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The Forgotten Paleontologist: A Commentary by Keith Robitschek
The discovery: Paleontological events are based on theory and evidence is required to prove that an event actually occurred. Today, the event that occurred sixty-six million years ago at the Yucatan peninsula has been proven through scientific research based on core samples at the impact site and iridium analyses in the K-Pg boundary that was…
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Opal Hunting at the Spencer, Idaho Mini-Mine by Andy Jansen
Rock hunting opportunities were dancing through my mind when I was requested to go to Idaho Falls, ID for a business meeting the third week of July. Should I go for fossils, minerals, or both? I was scouring websites for options that would be within a couple hours drive from Idaho Falls in the likely…
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Carlton PhD Student: Filling in the Fossil Record
Carlton University in Ottawa, CA has a press release about the PhD student that has been involved in recently describing two new Mazon Creek vertebrates. Earlier this year, Diabloroter bolti (paper) and Infernovenator steenae (paper) were published. The research has been conducted by Arjan Mann, Jason D Pardo, and Hillary C Maddin of the Department…
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Infernovenator steenae, a new serpentine recumbirostran from the ‘Mazon Creek’ Lagertätte further clarifies lysorophian origins
The Zoological Journal has another new paper describing a Mazon Creek vertebrate. This one is called Infernovenator steenae. The paper is authored by Arjan Mann, Jason D Pardo, and Hillary C Maddin of the Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, CA. Earlier this year, Mann and Maddin published a description of a…
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Diabloroter bolti, a short-bodied recumbirostran ‘microsaur’ from the Francis Creek Shale, Mazon Creek, Illinois
The Zoological Journal has a new paper describing a Mazon Creek “Microsaur” Diabloroter bolti. The paper is authored by Arjan Mann and Hillary C Maddin of the Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, CA. The sculpture in the picture was created by David Duck, who has been an ESCONI member. Congrats! The…
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Roy Plotnick: High impact paleontology
Roy Plotnick has another interesting article on Medium. In this one, he discusses the recent New Yorker article about “Tanis” site in the Hell Creek Formation. There is a good summary of the backstory of the actual discovery of the site. It was found by an old ESCONI member Rob Sula! Also mentioned are Paleo…
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Roy Plotnick: A Fossil Park for Illinois
Roy Plotnick has a great post on Medium about the Fossil Park proposal for the old Lone Star Quarry in Oglesby, IL. Anyone that visited the site in the past remembers the abundant fossils to be had. Brachiopods were just spilling out of the ground. The quarry was recently acquired by the Illinois Department of…
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Quicks & Quarks: Tiny tyrannosaur fossil helps scientists understand how T-rex grew so large
CBC’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment about a tiny tyrannosaur that helps shed light on how T-rex grew so large. The animal, Moros intrepodus, was found by Dr. Lindsay Zanno. She’s head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and research professor at N.C. State University in Raleigh. You might remember…
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Former ESCONI Junior hits the big time
Dr. Rebecca Rogers Ackermann is featured in September's issues of both Discover Magazine and Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-is-homo-sapiens-the-sole-surviving-member-of-the-human-family/ http://discovermagazine.com/2018/sep/hopeful-monsters
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Come See Tyler Keillor’s Dryptosaurus at the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County Grand Opening Event on Saturday, March 24th, 2018
Tyler Keillor, a past ESCONI member and paleo-artist will have his latest work, a Dyptosaurus, unveiled at the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake Count on Saturday, March 24th, 2018 from 10 AM to 5 PM. Details are here. “… The Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County invites visitors of all ages to attend its grand…
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Mazon Creek Fossil Blog – American Fossil Hunt
Recently, 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…
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New 245 Million Year Old Horseshoe Crab Discovered in Idaho by ESCONI Member
Live Science has a story about a new species of horseshoe crab. The crab lived during the Triassic Period about 245 million years ago. It was discovered by ESCONI member Trick Runions and is called Vaderlimulus tricki. The name stems from the shape of the head shield, which resembles the helmet worn by Darth Vader…
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Letter from Member
December 12, 2013 ESCONI old-timers may remember Allan Mitchell of Iowa City, Iowa, who died on November 22, 2013 at the age of 101. He sold and/or donated large amounts of interesting micro material to the micromount group on several occasions in the 1980s and was a familiar name to that group at that time. …
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ESCONI Newsletter Disc Soon To Be Available
Andy Jansen, the ESCONI Libarian has brought together ALL of the ESCONI newsletters – starting with Volume 1; 1 in 1950 to current day. He brought together all the newsletters, including tracking down some that were harder to find and scanned each page in. Wow! And the CD will be for sale soon – maybe…
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Calendar of Events 2012
(Dates subject change) Sat. 1/21 January 2012 Sat. 1/7 Dinosaur Day at Lizzadro Museum. Fri. 1/13 General Meeting, 8:00 p.m. College of Dupage Building K, Room #161. Jack MacRae from the Willowbrook Nature Center will speak on “Local Discoveries of Mammoths and Mastodons.“ Sat. 1/14 Mineralogy and Micromount Study Group Meeting. 7:30 p.m. College of…
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ESCONI Meetings This Friday and Saturday – Learn about Field Museum Meteorites & Split Geodes
Friday, January 8 – General Meeting. 8:00 p.m. Jim Holstein, of the Department of Geology at the Field Museum will be speaking on “The Field Museum’s Meteorite Collection.” Learn about meteorites, what they are, the different types, how they’re identified, and what we can learn from them. College of Dupage Building K, Room #131. Saturday, January…
