Tag: fossil
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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…
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Mazon Monday #329: Danville Spoil Pile May 2026
Saturday, May 2nd, 2026 was a fairly nice day. It was partly cloudy with some wind. It was a little cooler than previous trips.
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Fossil Friday #323: Laveineopteris rarinervis from the Mazon River
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #323. Expect this to be a regular feature of the website. We will post fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Marie Angkuw sent us these photos of a gorgeous…
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Video for ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting – “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.”
The ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting was held on Saturday, June 20th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom. Lincoln Shoemaker presented “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.” Lincoln Shoemaker is currently a master’s student at the University of Cincinnati where he is involved in multiple projects regarding the Late…
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Mazon Tuesday #328: The Legacy of Tom Testa
Michele Micetich, curator of the Carbon Hill School Museum, will host a special event on Saturday, June 27, 2026, celebrating the life and legacy of Tom Testa. A lifelong fossil collector with a passion for Mazon Creek fossils, Tom assembled one of the finest private collections of its kind. In 2015, he gave his collection…
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Mazon Monday #327: Direct development of stem tetrapods across the fin-to-limb transition
A significant paper on tetrapod development was published last week, and Mazon Creek fossils played a central role. “Direct Development of Stem Tetrapods Across the Fin-to-Limb Transition” by Jason Pardo and Arjan Mann of the Field Museum appeared in the journal Science. Lauer Foundation for Paleontology, Science, and Education also contributed to the study. The…
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Fossil Friday #322: Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri from Dresden
For this week’s Fossil Friday, we have a very nice Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri (see Mazon Monday #39). Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri is a fairly common seed fern, which is found in many Carboniferous fossil deposits. In some Mazon Creek localities like the Mazon River, it’s a dominant component of the flora. It was called Neuropteris scheuchzeri until 1977,…
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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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ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting, Saturday, June 20th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom – “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.”
The ESCONI June 2026 Paleontology Study Group Meeting will be held on Saturday, June 20th, 2026 at 7:30 PM via Zoom. Lincoln Shoemaker will present “Factors controlling the distribution of Late Ordovician – Silurian crinoids.” Lincoln Shoemaker is currently a master’s student at the University of Cincinnati where he is involved in multiple projects regarding…
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Mazon Monday #326: More Mazon Creek at the 2026 CGMA Show
This is Mazon Monday post #326. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Long-time ESCONI member Rich Rock had an amazing display of Mazon Creek fossils at the CGMA show. There’s a little a bit of everything here, from clams to ferns to spiders to an absolutely breathtaking Alethopteris serlii. Enjoy!
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‘Whoa’: 12-year-old boy finds 80-million-year-old fossil during educational field trip
KCTV 5 has the story of a 12 year old finding some prehistoric treasure. Corbin Bullard, a budding paleontologist, discovered the skull and some vertebrae of an 80 million year old tylosaurus on a 4-H Geology Club field trip to Sedgwick County, Kansas.
