Tag: fossil
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RNA is supposed to fall apart within hours…
RNA is supposed to fall apart within hours, yet researchers have now read it from a mammoth frozen in Siberian permafrost 39,000 years ago — and the transcripts caught his muscle tissue in the middle of a stress response
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Fossil Friday #331: Peachocaris strongi
Jerry Zhu posted this stunning example of Peachocaris strongi to the “Illinois, Mazon Creek, and Carboniferous Fossils of the World” group on Facebook a few weeks ago. The concretion was collect from Pit 11. From the looks of it, it must have opened via freeze/thaw.
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Mazon Monday #336: 1980’s Pit 11 Collecting
Keeping with the history theme, here’s a photo from a field trip to Pit 11 most likely from the 1980’s. You can see Braidwood Station in the background. Construction on August 1st, 1975 and completed in 1988.
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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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Fossil Friday #330: Mazon Creek in the Illinois State Fair 4H
ESCONI Junior Luke Schallhorn had his Mazon Creek Fossils 4H geology project selected as a delegate from Marshall-Putnam County to the Illinois State Fair! It was on display on Sunday, August 16th, 2026. Maybe, you saw it?!?
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Mazon Monday #335: Richardson Collecting at Pit 11 in 1974
A few years ago, Charlie Shabica donated a collection of historical documents to ESCONI, and these photographs were among the materials. They document a Mazon Creek field trip in July 1974 led by Eugene Richardson Jr., Curator of Fossil Invertebrates at the Field Museum.
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Behold, The World’s Oldest Amber – a Record of a World 385 Million Years Ago
Science Alert has a story about the discovery of the oldest known amber. The amber dates to the Middle Devonian Period, some 385 mullion years ago and about 65 million years older than the previous record holder. Amber is fossilized tree resin, so land plants needed to evolve before amber was possible. This particular amber…
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Fossil Friday #329: Pit 11 Roachoid!
This beautiful roachoid comes from ESCONI President Chris Berg. He collected it from the Pit 11. It opened up recently via the freeze/thaw method. Thanks for sharing, Chris!
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Storms that built a graveyard: ancient monsoons created a spectacular dinosaur fossil site
The Conversation has an interesting post about an important fossil site in northeastern Italy. The Villaggio del Pescatore site dates to 80 million years ago, which was near the end of the Cretaceous Period. Fossil animals found in the locality were swept in to the area by monsoon rains and tropical cyclones. Dinosaurs, crocodiles, and…
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Mazon Monday #334: Mariopteris lobatifolia
Mariopteris lobatifolia is one of the rare species of Mariopteris. Its pinnules have a very distinctive wing-like shape. See Mazon Monday #181 for the most common variety of Mariopteris, Mariopteris nervosa.
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PBS Eons: How Pangea Upended Life on Earth
PBS Eons has released their TV series about Pangea! Check out Episode 2 on pbs.org. In the Late Carboniferous Period, predatory amphibians and giant arthropods ruled the swamps. But ancient seed plants and amniotes were evolving adaptations to drier climates. These will help them thrive on Pangea in the Permian Period to come. This is…
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Fossil Friday #328: A Pit 11 Octomedusa piekorum
Well, we know how Alan Keith is spending his summer vacation… freeze/thawing his Mazon Creek concretions. Although, probably not out in the hot Texas sun. Alan had this nicely detailed Octomedusa piekorum (see Mazon Monday #54) open up recently.
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PBS Eons: How the Tibetan Plateau Created the Ultimate Cat
PBS Eons has a new video. This one is about the evolution and migration of Homotherium, a large saber-tooted cat that lived on the Tibetan Plateau. How did Homotherium evolve to be so successful, and so different from basically all other cats, living and extinct? Well the answer may lie in a huge geological event:…
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Mazon Monday #333: Interesting Pennsylvanian Fossil Sites – Okmulgee, Oklahoma
Way back in Mazon Monday #10, we referenced the paper “Mazon Creek-Type Fossil Assemblages in the U.S. Midcontinent Pennsylvanian” written by G. C. Baird, S. D. Sroka, C. W. Shabica, T. L. Beard, A. C. Scott and F. M. Broadhurst in October 1985. The paper lists and discusses the various Pennsylvanian fossil sites known to…
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Fossil Friday #327: Danville Fish Scale
Andrew Young sent us these photos of an absolutely breathtaking fish scale from our most recent Danville field trip in early May 2026. He found it near the top of the slopes. It opened via freeze/thaw. The scale measures just 1.5 cm. The species is unsure, but it’s likely a lobe-finned fish. The Danville spoil…
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Dinosaur-loving schoolboy opens natural history museum with astonishing fossil collection
The Guinness World Records website has a story about a natural history museum in Cambridge, IL. This museum in a small Illinois town is significant becase when it opened in August 2024, the curator and sole owner was just 9 years old! It all started in 2022 after a family trip to Scotland. “When I…
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Mazon Monday #332: Tom Testa Winter Freeze/Thaw
Sorry, this is a bit of a repeat… But, Tom Testa has been on our minds lately and we’ve all been enduring a stretch of hot weather, so here’s a post that will cool you off!
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NPR: Mystery bidder buys T. rex nicknamed ‘Gus’ for a record $50 million
NPR has a story about the recent auction of “Gus” the Tyrannosaurus rex at Sotheby’s in New York. The winning bid of 50.1 million represents the highest price ever paid for a dinosaur. “Gus” was found by the late Gary “Gus” Licking, a cattle rancher in Harding County, South Dakota. The same county that has…
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PBS Eons: We found the head of the biggest bug ever
PBS Eons has a new short. This one is about Arthropleura, the giant millipede… or is it?
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Paleontologists Discover New Species of Titanosaur in Uruguay
SciNews has a post about a new species of titanosaur from Uruguay. Mesetasaurus protector lived between 86 and 72 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The paper describing this species was published in the journal Ameghiniana. The new species was a member of a group of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs known as Aeolosaurini, a lineage that…
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The 250-million year rise and fall of the dinosaurs | Steve Brusatte
Big Think has a video with Steve Brusatte, an American paleontologist, a professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, and author of a few pop-science books. Steve grew up in Ottawa, IL. He’s spoken to ESCONI in the past. In this video, Steve discusses the origin and the evolution of dinosaurs, mammals, and…
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Mazon Monday #331: Recap of Tom Testa Day at the Carbon Hill School Museum
Back in Mazon Tuesday #328, we did a post about Tom Testa and his amazing Mazon Creek fossil collection. There was a great turnout at the Carbon Hill School Museum special event “The Legacy of Tom Testa” on June 25th, 2026.
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PBS Eons: The potato’s origin was a mystery…until now
PBS Eons has a new Youtube Short. This one is about the evolutionary origin of the potato.
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Fossil Friday #325: Radstockia kidstonii
Jeremy Zimmerman sent in photos of this breathtaking Radstockia kidstonii. R. kidstonii is a very rare true fern from Mazon Creek. Its pinnules and fertile structures are similar to the modern fern Marattia alata.
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‘Gus’ the T. rex presented in New York ahead of auction
Phys.org has an article about “Gus” the Tyrannosaurus rex. “Gus” lived during the late Cretaceous Period, about 67 million years ago. The fossil is about 61% complete by bone count and 75-80% by bone mass. It was discovered in Harding County, South Dakota in 2021. “Gus” is named after the late rancher Gary “Gus” Licking,…
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Scientists Discover the First-Ever Molecules Preserved Inside a 113-Million-Year-Old Pterosaur Fossil
SciTechDaily has a story about an exceptionally preserved pterosaur wing from Brazil. The animal lived about 113 million years ago, during the middle Cretaceous Period, in what is now northeastern Brazil. Its wing phalanx, which refers to the individual bone segments which make up the finger skeleton supporting the wing, was preserved in 3 dimensions…
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Mazon Monday #330: A New Mazon Creek Worm
While you were getting ready to celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday, a new fossil polychaete from Mazon Creek was being introduced to the world! It’s the first in annelid from Mazon Creek in over 20 years! Mazovermes magnaterminus was described in “The first new polychaete from the Mazon Creek fossil site in 20 years suggests…
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Happy 4th of July… the 250th Edition!
What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than with some beautiful Annularia fossils?!? We have a variety of species here, so sit back and enjoy the fireworks!
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Fossil Friday #324: A Big Beautiful Acanthotelson stimpsoni
It’s not exactly fireworks, but this week’s beautiful Acanthotelson stimpsoni will leave you speechless. A. stimpsoni is a syncarid shrimp and one of the most common shrimp found amongst the fauna of Mazon Creek. Syncarida is a superorder of crustaceans. It consists of two extant orders Anaaspidacea and Bathynellacea, and one extinct order Paleocaridacea, to…
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After 35 Years, 152-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur ‘Big Al’ Returns Home To Wyoming
Cowboy State Daily has a story about “Big Al” the Allosaurus… He is headed home! “Al”, the star of the 2000 BBC documentary “Walking with Dinosaurs”, was found near Shell, WY in 1990. He lived about 152 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. A 2002 paper, “Record-Breaking Pain: The Largest Number and Variety of…
