Tag: Field Museum
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Science Quickly: The fans who went from collecting Pokémon to studying bugs and fossils
Science American’s “Science Quickly” had a recent episode about the upcoming Pokemon display at the Field Museum. Arjan Mann, Field Museum Curator of Early Tetrapods, was one of the guests.
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Mazon Monday #313: Mazon Creek Studies – the first 120 years
For this week, we have an article from the September 1978 edition of the Field Museum’s Bulletin. The full edition, which includes Jaunary thru December, is available on the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) website.
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Mazon Monday #307: Arjan Mann on Fossil Nerds
This is Mazon Monday post #307. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Episode #94 of the Fossil Nerds podcast is “The Marvelous Mini-Monsters of Mazon Creek with Arjan Mann”. Arjan is the Assistant Curator of Early Tetrapods at the Field Museum. He discusses his lab’s work, various ancient fish and tetrapods,…
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Mazon Monday #304: Field Museum… Illinois by the sea
This is Mazon Monday post #304. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. In May 1970, the Field Museum opened an exhibit about Mazon Creek. It was called “Illinois by the sea: a coal age environment” and ran from May 25th until September 25th. It was a successful exhibit that featured Field…
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Throwback Thursday #293: Field Museum – Charles Knight
This is Throwback Thursday #293. 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. The Field Museum has an interesting Photo Archive page about Charles Knight. Knight was an American wildlife and…
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Hidden Secret in the Field Museum’s Silurian Diorama
The Field Museum has a very nice Silurian marine diorama, which includes crinoids, cephalopods, corals, trilobites, and more from the Silurian period. It’s meant to represent what the Chicago area looked like during the Silurian Period. Much of the insight comes from the the fossils found in Thornton Quarry. There is a little secret with…
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Field Museum: Your First Look at the Pokemon Fossil Museum in Chicago!
The actual museum opens on May 22nd, 2026, but the Field Museum has an early look in a new exhibit! In this special exhibition, you’ll immerse yourself in the worlds of Pokémon and natural history with models of fan-favorite Pokémon, real fossil excavation and preparation tools, as well as exhibition soundscapes. Three Field Museum scientists—Arjan Mann,…
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Field Museum: After the Age of Dinosaurs
The Field Museum has a new exhibit that looks at the time after the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct during the K-Pg Event about 66 million years ago. How did the world recover? And, how long did it take? Chicago-based illustrator Jay Ryan created original artwork for the Field Museum’s “After the Age of Dinosaurs” exhibition.
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Mazon Creek, Field Museum, and ESCONI in the News!
Mazon Creek, Field Museum, and ESCONI was in the news on multiple Chicago channels! FOX 32 CBS News NBC 5 Chicago One of the “world’s best fossil sites” is located just an hour outside of the Windy City, according to Chicago Field Museum researchers. Dr. Arjan Mann, assistant curator of early tetrapods at the Field…
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Reptiles Alive! exhibit opens at Field Museum
The Field Museum has a new exhibit… Reptiles Alive! Explore the fascinating world of reptiles in this one-of-a-kind family-friendly exhibition! Combining original Field Museum science with live animals and engaging interactives, Reptiles Alive! offers an immersive experience into the lives of snakes, lizards, crocodiles, and more. Discover their habitats, adaptations, and the groundbreaking research of Dr. Sara…
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Throwback Thursday #269: Field Museum Megatherium
This is Throwback Thursday #269. 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’ve been to the Field Museum in the last 100 years or so, you’ve invariably ran…
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Dinopalooza Dino Derby at the Field Museum on June 7th, 2025
This Saturday, June 7th, 2025 is Dinopalooza at the Field Museum. Find out more on the Dinopalooza webpage. Dinopalooza is back and bigger than ever! Come celebrate SUE at this Museum-wide dinosaur extravaganza featuring Field scientists sharing their work, paleoart crafts, face painting, special tours, and so much more! This year the Field Museum is…
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This Dinosaur Had Feathers and Probably Flew Like a Chicken
The New York Times has an article about the Chicago Archaeopteryx. The Field Museum unveiled the its Archaeopteryx in the Spring of 2024. Since then, the fossil has been revealing its secrets… some of them were published recently in the journal Nature. Archaeopteryx specimens have, “maybe more than any other fossil, changed the way that…
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Mazon Monday #260: Mazon Creek and the Field Museum in the News!
This is Mazon Monday post #260. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Sorry for the delay today. Typepad was having technical difficulties. WBEZ had a recent story about Mazon Creek fossils. Some of our favorite scientists at the Field Museum were mentioned in the article. Inside the fossil hunt: Digging for…
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Mazon Monday #255: A Forest of the Coal Age
This is Mazon Monday post #255. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Over the years, the Field Museum published many pamphlets, leaflets, journals, bulletins, etc. There’s a page on the museum website dedicated to sharing that wealth of knowledge. The popular/leaflet series was a series of booklets on popular topics for…
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Fossils of Illinois: A Step Back Through Time
Paul Mayer, the Collection Manager of Fossil Invertebrates at the Field Museum, has done many presentations for ESCONI over the years. In October 2023, he gave a presentation entitled “Fossils of Illinois: A Step Back Through Time” at the Lizzadro Museum. Video of the presentation is available on Youtube. Join us for a presentation by…
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Deck the Dinos at the Field Museum!
Deck the dinos! 🎁🦕 Stop in through the holiday season to catch a few of your prehistoric pals in their most festive attire. Snap a pic lounging with the Quetzalcoatlus or Máximo. Then stop by and sing a carol with SUE in the Flesh, before this carnivore hits the road on January 16!
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Paleontologists discover fossil birds with teeth had seeds in their stomachs, indicating that they ate fruit
Phys.org has a piece about birds with teeth. As rare as hen’s teeth is only a phrase for modern times… back in the Mezozoic – sometimes referred to as the “Age of Reptiles”, many birds had teeth. Longipteryx chaoyangensis is the subject of a new paper in the journal Current Biology. L. chaoyangensis lived during…
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Family Discovers Rare T. Rex Fossil in North Dakota
The site where a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton was found in North Dakota.Credit…Denver Museum of Science and Nature The New York Times has a story about the discovery of a Tyrannosaurs rex skeleton. The fossil was found in the summer of 2022 by two boys hiking with their father and a cousin. They saw bones poking…
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What’s in a Name? The Battle of Baby T. Rex and Nanotyrannus
The New York Times has a story about the debate of juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex vs Nanotyrannus. The debate has continued for years but was recently revived by the potential sale of a “rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton” by the David Aaron gallery. The dispute has produced reams of scientific research and decades of debate, polarizing paleontologists along the way. Now, with dinosaur…
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Field Museum Fossil ID Day 2023 – September 9th, 2023
The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago is holding Fossil ID Day 2023 on Saturday, September 9th, 2023. Found a rock that looks like a dinosaur fossil? Snapped a photo of a bird you don’t recognize? Our scientists will examine your object and give you their best identification during our annual ID Day! Members…
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The Discovery and Controversy of Spinosaurus
The Field Museum has an interesting video on Youtube. The video is a presentation by Dr. Jingmai O’Connor, who is the Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles, on Spinosaurus. With its crocodile-like jaws set in a skull that is 20% longer than T. rex and its large dorsal sail, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus is one of the most iconic…
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Dino Fest at the Field Museum – Saturday, June 10, 2023 11am-3pm
The Field Museum is holding “Dino Fest” on Saturday, June 10, 2023 from 11am – 3pm. There are many activities planned! Dino Fest is the official start of summer at the Field Museum, not only to welcome our newest dinosaur friend hailing all the way from the Cretaceous but also to celebrate SUE the T. rex,…
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Field Museum: Spinosaurus is arriving on June 2!
Just in case you didn’t hear, the Field Museum is getting a new dinosaur on June 2nd…. It’s a spinosaurus! Witness the unveiling of Spinosaurus as it prowls overhead at the Field Museum. Stretching 46 feet long, this fearsome fossil is one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs ever discovered, even longer than SUE the T. rex. Learn how this…
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Ants took over the world by following flowering plants out of prehistoric forests
The Field Museum has a press release about research performed at the museum. The research looked at the evolutionary relationship of ants and flowering plants. Ants took advantage of the diversification of flowering plants, which led to the thousands of species of modern ants which exist today. A paper detailing the research can be found…
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Dino-Sore: Smithsonian Paleontologist Diagnoses Ancient Ailments in the Museum’s Dinosaurs
Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting post about dinosaur injuries. Not injuries to humans, although getting dinosaur bones out of the ground can be physically challenging, but injuries to dinosaurs evident in their bones long after they have died. SUE, the T. rex at the Field Museum in Chicago, has numerous bone pathologies including broken ribs,…
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Smithsonian: Paleontologists Discover 52-Million-Year-Old Bat
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about a fossil bat from Wyoming. Bats are underrepresented in the fossil record due their small size and even smaller bones. Unfortunately, they also live in areas that don’t usually form fossils. The Green River Formation in Wyoming, which dates to the Eocene about 52 million years ago, has yield…
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The early bird gets the fruit: Fossil provides earliest evidence of fruit-eating by any animal
Phys.org has a story about birds and fruit. Jingmai O’Connor of the Field Museum is co-writer of a paper (in the journal eLife) about the early bird Jeholornis, which is believed to lived on a diet of fruit about 120 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. Jeholornis fossils have been found in China. “This is…
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Field Museum: Meet a Scientist: Chicago Fossils August 5th, 2022
The Field Museum’s “Meet a Scientist” is looking at “Chicago Fossils” on August 5th, 2022. Learn what you can find on Chicago beaches and in nearby limestone exposures. That 430 million years ago Chicago was covered by a tropical sea with 300 foot tall reefs growing here. The evidence for this is the fossils we…
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Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep at the Field Museum – Until September 5th, 2022
Illustration courtesy of Bob Nicholls (2009) The Field Museum recently opened a new exhibit… “Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep”. It runs until September 5th, 2022. More information can be found at the Field Museum website. During the Jurassic period, dinosaurs roamed a landscape covered in lush rainforests—thanks to Hollywood, most of us have a…
