Tag: fossils
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PBS Eons: The Graveyard at the Center of the Earth
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about plate tectonics… how and why. Scientists have been trying to solve the mystery of why plate tectonics works the way it does for over a hundred years. And they might have just uncovered a key to cracking it.
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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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2025 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – March 15th and 16th at the DuPage Fair Grounds
Day 1 report… Awesome! One more day, don’t miss it! Here are some photos! Lots of smiling faces at the welcome tables! Cuddle up with a Tully Monster… Charlie Shabica stopped by to say hello. Jack Wittry with Rich and Pete Rock Lots of books! Eric at the Junior tables More similing faces! Don busy…
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2025 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – March 15th and 16th at the DuPage Fair Grounds
Today is the day! Come on out! Photos from setup day… Live Auctions Displays
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Fossil Friday #256: Mazon Creek Millipede
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #256. This is a regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the hash tag #FossilFriday on Twitter/X and Bluesky for contributions from around the world! —————————————————– For this week, we have Euphoberia,…
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Throwback Thursday #256: Scenes from the 2018 Show
This is Throwback Thursday #256. 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. Here are some scenes from the 2018 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show, which was held on…
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2025 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #19: Oligocene Fossils From South Dakota
This is the preview post #19 for the 2025 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction. The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2025 will be held on March 15th and 16th at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year. All details can be found here.…
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Mazon Monday #259: Pecopteris bucklandii
This is Mazon Monday post #259. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Pecopteris bucklandii is one of the rarer ferns from Mazon Creek. Like all the true ferns from Mazon Creek, P. bucklandii is an extinct species of the class Filcopsida. It’s fronds have been associated with the Caboniferous tree fern…
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Fossil Friday #255: Pecopteris bucklandii
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #255. This is a regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the hash tag #FossilFriday on Twitter/X and Bluesky for contributions from around the world! —————————————————– We have a very rare Mazon…
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New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Unearthed in China
SciNews has a story about the discovery of a new dinosaur in China. The unnamed animal lived between 70 and 67 million years ago during the late Cretaceous Period, in what is now the Sanshui Basin in the northwestern part of the Pearl River Delta in South China. It represents the first lambeosaurine known from…
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Mazon Monday #258: Myriotheca scaberrima
This is Mazon Monday post #258. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Myriotheca scaberrima is a very rare fern, which was originally only known from fertile foliage. It was named by Leo Lesquereux as Sphenopteris scaberrima in 1870. In 1901, it was reclassified as Myriotheca scaberrima by Elias Howard Sellards (1875 –…
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ESCONI Field Trip to the Lab of Dr. Paul Sereno at the University of Chicago, Saturday, April 12, 2025
There will be a field trip for ESCONI members on Saturday, April 12, 2025, to the lab of Dr. Paul Sereno at the University of Chicago. We will be given a tour by Dr. Sereno of his lab and all the exciting projects he is working on. The tour begins at 2PM and will last…
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Fossil Friday #254 – Sphenophyllum emarginatum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #254. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the hash tag #FossilFriday on Twitter/X and Bluesky for contributions from around the world! —————————————————– Sphenophyllum emarginatum is…
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Mazon Monday #257: Mazon Creek Fossil Species Named for ESCONI
ESCONI has played a significant role in the study of the Mazon Creek fossil biota. Its members have authored at least nine books on the subject, beginning with George Langford, Sr. in the late 1950s and early 1960s, followed by the ESCONI Keys and Creature Corner books of the 1980s and 1990s, and most recently,…
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Fossil Friday #253 – Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #253. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! —————————————————– This week, we have a beautiful…
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Throwback Thursday #253: Field Trip to the Field Museum in February 1971
This is Throwback Thursday #253. 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. ESCONI had a field trip to the Field Museum in February 1971. This announcement appeared in the…
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Mazon Monday #256: Sphenophyllum emarginatum
This is Mazon Monday post #256. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Sphenophyllum emarginatum is a species in the order Sphenophyllales, which is an extinct order of plants that existed from the late Pennsylvanian to the Early Permian. They are a sister taxa to the present day Equisetales (horsetails). The parent…
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Chimaeropsis paradoxa Zittel, 1887 (Myriacanthoidei, Holocephali) from the Late Jurassic of Solnhofen
Bruce and Rene’ Lauer of the Lauer Foundation have co-authored another research paper, with lead author Christopher J. Duffin from the Natural History Museum in London – Department of Earth Sciences as the lead author. The study looked at Chimaeropsis paradoxa which is a holocephalian, a lesser-known group of ancient sharks. The paper was recently…
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PBS Eons: How Mountains Make Evolution Weird
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about how barriers between populations can effect evolution. Mountains have a unique effect on diversity, messing with our understanding of animals through time, and pretty much just making evolution weird. And they would eventually reveal something even stranger about a group of mammals even closer to…
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Fossil Friday #252: Oligocarpia gutbierii
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #252. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the hash tag #FossilFriday on Twitter/X and Bluesky for contributions from around the world! Oligocarpia gutbierii is a herbaceous…
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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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Fossils Preserve Both Skin and Scales from an Ancient Sea Monster
The New York Times’ Trilobites column has news of a breathtaking plesiosaur specimen. The animal lived about 183 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. The fossils were found in the legendary Posidonia Shale of southern Germany and excavated in from a quarry near Holzmaden in 1940. The specimen was prepared in 2020. At that…
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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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PBS Eons: Could You Survive The Messinian Salinity Crisis?
There's a new episode of PBS Eons. This one is about the "Messinian Salinity Crisis", which is the time when the Mediterranean Sea was separated from the Atlantic Ocean. In the Late Miocene Epoch, tectonic forces uplifted the Earth's crust, blocking off the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. A once-thriving marine ecosystem was replaced…
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Fossil Friday #251: A “Museum Quality” Alethopteris serlii
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #251. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the hash tag #FossilFriday on Twitter/X and Bluesky for contributions from around the world! It’s Fossil Friday, and…
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Mazon Monday #254: Pit 11 Concretions
This is Mazon Monday post #254. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– In less than a month, fossil collecting season will begin at the IDNR Mazonia-Braidwood State Fish and Wildlife Area. Many of you are likely eager to get out there before the vegetation returns and obscures the concretions scattered…
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66-million-year-old vomit fossil discovered in Denmark
NBC News has a story about fossilized vomit. Yes, fossilized vomit, Unlike coprolites, which are fossilized dung, regurgitalites are rare in the fossil record. A danish fossil hunter, Peter Bennicke, found a strange clump of sea lily fragments embedded in chalk. He took it to the Geomuseum Faxe in November 2024, where a museum curator…
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PBS Eons: What Killed These Sleeping Dinosaurs?
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the fossils of Liaoning in northwestern China… amazingly, beautifully preserved dinosaurs that give us insight into dinosaur and bird evolution. Since the 1990s, paleontologists have been pulling 125-million-year-old complete dinosaur skeletons from the rocks of the Lujiatun in Northwestern China, most seemingly posed in perfect…
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Fossil Friday #250: Alethopteris sullivantii
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #250. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to esconi.info@gmail.com. Please include a short description or story. Check the hash tag #FossilFriday on Twitter/X and Bluesky for contributions from around the world! Today, we’re featuring a…
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Throwback Thursday #250: Andy Hay Speaks at Lizzadro on Mazon Creek Plants – March 10th, 2001
This is Throwback Thursday #250. 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. This post originally ran as Flashback Friday #37 in 2020. Andy Hay was a dedicated ESCONI member,…
