Tag: Field Museum
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Mazon Monday #342: Jeanerpeton mazonensis – A new Mazon Creek tetrapod!
The Mazon Creek fossil biota has a new member… a tetrapod, which are quite rare. Jeanerpeton mazonensis, which means “Jean’s crawler from Mazon Creek”, was named by two student-scientists from the Field Museum. The name honors their mothers, who are both named Jean.
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PBS Eons at the Field Museum!
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Eons (@eonsshow) PBS Eons posted this video a few days ago on Instagram. In making Life and Death on Pangea, not only did we get to tell the story of one of the most dramatic times in Earth’s history, but we got visit places that were…
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ESCONI September 2026 General Meeting, Friday, September 11th, 2026 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “Searching for Colorado’s Tiktaalik on the West Coast of Laurentia”
The September 2026 General Meeting will be held on Friday, September 11th, 2026 at 8:00 PM via Zoom. Our presentation is by Franklin Duffy, PhD Student and Research Affiliate from The Field Museum and Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He will be presenting “Searching for Colorado’s Tiktaalik on the West Coast of Laurentia.” This…
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Throwback Thursday #331: Happy (Belated) Unearth Day, SUE!
Last Wednesday was SUE’s Unearth Day! SUE was found by Sue Hendrickson on August 12th, 1990. Sue hung back at camp, while the rest of the team from the Black Hills Institute went to town to fix a flat tire on one of their trucks. Sue decided to explore some area around the camp. She…
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Field Faire: A Knight at the Museum
The Field Museum is holding another special Museum After Hours event. This one is Thursday, August 20th, 2026. Hear ye, seekers of wonder, scholars of the arts, and revelers of science and sorcery— For one enchanted evening, the hallowed halls of the Field Museum will transform into a realm of myth, merriment, and discovery for…
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Field Museum in the News! Paul Mayer on the Morgan Shoal
Paul Mayer, Fossil Invertebrate Collection Manager at the Field Museum in Chicago, IL was on “Chicago Live” recently. He was answering questions about the Silurian Rocks exposed in Lake Michigan at Morgan Shoal along the southern shoreline.
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Throwback Thursday #328: Go on… Introduce yourself, tiny frog
The Field Museum made an intriguing historical post to LinkedIn last week. It was a meet-and-greet between two frogs…
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Video for ESCONI June 2026 General Meeting – “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums”
The ESCONI June 2026 General Meeting will be held via Zoom at 8:00 PM on Friday, June 12th, 2026. Adrienne Stroup, Geological Collections, Vertebrate Paleontological Loan Manager, PaleoArtist/Scientific Illustrator from The Field Museum will be presenting “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums.” Adrienne will talk about the vertebrate paleontological collections…
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The Field Museum’s Dinopalooza 2026, Saturday, June 13th, 2026
The Field Museum’s annual paleontology extravaganza “Dinopalooza 2026” is today! Come on out and join the fun!
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ESCONI June 2026 General Meeting, Friday, June 12th, 2026 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums”
The ESCONI June 2026 General Meeting will be held via Zoom at 8:00 PM on Friday, June 12th, 2026. Adrienne Stroup, Geological Collections, Vertebrate Paleontological Loan Manager, PaleoArtist/Scientific Illustrator from The Field Museum will be presenting “At the Intersection of Art and Science: Outreach in Natural History Museums.” Adrienne will talk about the vertebrate paleontological…
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Throwback Thursday #319: Happy 150th Birthday, George Langford!
May 26th, 2026 marks George Langford’s 150th birthday! He was born on May 26th, 1876 in Denver, Colorado. George Langford Sr. is giant in the history of Mazon Creek. Before Jack Wittry’s books, George’s books were the go-to source of information about Mazon Creek. George wrote three books about Mazon Creek fossils. The first was…
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The Pokémon Fossil Museum at the Field Museum is now Open!
The Pokémon Fossil Museum at the Field Museum opened on Wednesday, May 20th, 2026. Tickets can be purchased here. Tickets are required for entry and should be purchased in advance. Here is the FAQ page.
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Fossil Friday #318: Rex, the Wonder Amphibian
We have something very interesting this week… The specimen’s label says “Rex, the Wonder Amphibian”. It’s an early tetrapod from the Mississippian of Iowa, some 340 million years ago. Whatcheeria deltae was described by R. Eric Lombard and John R. Bolt in 1985 in the paper “A new primitive tetrapod, Whatcheeria deltae, from the Lower…
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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!
