Tag: MazonCreek
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Fossil Friday #294: Phenopterum briggsi
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #294. 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! Phenopterum briggsi is a grylloblattidan species of insect from the…
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Mazon Monday #298: The Freeze/Thaw Method
This is Mazon Monday post #298. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. With winter arriving this weekend, it’s the perfect time to set out a few containers of Mazon Creek concretions and let nature do the work. Many collectors take advantage of the season’s freeze/thaw cycles to speed up the opening process,…
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Fossil Friday #293: Mazon Creek Lepidodendron Cones from the River
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #293. 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! We have a couple rare and beautiful cones from the…
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Mazon Monday #297: Pit 11 Coal Mining Artifact
This is Mazon Monday post #297. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. We often focus on the beautiful fossils found in the Mazon Creek deposit, but sometimes overlook the rich history that surrounds them. Coal mining played a central role in shaping the Wilmington, Braidwood, and Coal City area, from the deep…
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Fossil Friday 292: Annularia inflata From the Past
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #292. 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! Michele Micetich, curator at the Carbon Hill School Museum in…
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Throwback Thursday #292: Isabel Bassett Wasson… revisited
This is Throwback Thursday #292. 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. You may remember Throwback Thursday #284, where we discussed Isabel Bassett Wasson. Wasson (1897-1994) was one of the…
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Mazon Monday #296: Jim Turnbull in Pit 11
This is Mazon Monday post #296. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Jim Turnbull, namesake for Anthracomedusa turnbulli (see Mazon Monday #278), worked for Abbott Labs for many years. Abbott has/had an internal newsletter called “AbbotTopics”. In the October 8th, 1965 edition, Jim is the subject of an article titled “Prehistoric Insect…
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Fossil Friday #291: Carboniferous Fish in Black Shale
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #291. 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! This week’s Fossil Friday is a detailed Carboniferous fish fossil…
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Mazon Monday #295: Ida Thompson collecting in Pit 11 in 1968
This is Mazon Monday post #295. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Michele Micetich, curator of the Carbon Hill School Museum, provided the photos in this post. The photos are part of the Tom Testa collection at the museum. On the back of the photos, there are notes written by Ida Thompson…
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Fossil Friday #290: Cyclopteris orbicularis
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #290. 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! We have a beautiful Cyclopteris orbicularis from Knob Noster for…
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Mazon Monday #294: Montceau-les-Mines
This is Mazon Monday post #294. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Montceau-les-Mines is a commune located in the Saône-et-Loire department of the Bourgogne–Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It lies southwest of the city of Dijon and today has a population of just under 20,000 people. The town was officially established on…
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Fossil Friday #289: Asolanus camptotaenia bark from the Mazon River
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #289. 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! Recently, George Witaszek sent us photos of a rare Mazon…
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Mazon Monday #293: Mazon Creek Project Slides
This is Mazon Monday post #293. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The Mazon Creek Project was a program sponsored by Northeastern Illinois University. Founded in the 1960s, by the late Eugene Richardson Curator of Fossil Invertebrates at the Field Museum in Chicago Illinois. It was originally an attempt to encourage more…
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Mazon Monday #292: Mazon Creek Fossil Day 2025
This is Mazon Monday post #292. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. We had a nice turnout at the Mazon Creek Fossil Day event in the Coal City library a few weeks ago. There were multiple displays by members and people brought in some of their finds for identification. Last week’s Fossil…
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Fossil Friday #287: Palaeoxyris multiplicatum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #287. 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! Hunter Nettles brought an absolutely breathtaking specimen of Palaeoxyris multiplicatum…
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Mazon Monday #291: Dithyrocaris sp.
This is Mazon Monday post #291. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Dithyrocaris sp. is a genus of crustacean from the Carboniferous. The Mazon Creek fossil biota includes one undescribed species, although there are other described species from other fossil localities – Bear Gulch, Montana (Dithyrocaris rolfei). Danville, IL (Dithyrocaris carbonarius), Cane…
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Fossil Friday #286: Rhabdoderma exiguum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #286. 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! For this week’s Fossil Friday, we have a Rhabdoderma exiguum.…
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Reminder: 2025 Mazon Creek Fossil Day, October 11th, 2025 at the Coal City Library
The 2025 Mazon Creek Fossil Day will be held on October 11th, 2025 at the Coal City Library from 10 AM to 3 PM. See you there! Previous events
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Mazon Monday #290: Danville Spoil Pile Trip Report for September 2025
This is Mazon Monday post #290. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. There was lots of fun on the field trip to the Danville Spoil Pile on Saturday, September 27th, 2025. The day was hot and dry with a clear sky and temperatures in the 80s… summer like weather in late September…
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Fossil Friday #285: Palaeoxyris lewisi
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #285. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! We have a beautiful Palaeoxyris lewisi shark egg case…
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Mazon Monday #289: Ctenerpeton remex at Mazon Creek
This is Mazon Monday post #289. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. More exciting Mazon Creek research is out. Featured here is a short paper in the journal Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology (VAMP), which details the first occurrence of the urocordylid Ctenerpeton remex in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit! Arjan Mann, a…
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ESCONI September 2025 Paleontology Meeting – “Show and Tell”
There were some very interesting things on display at the September 2025 Paleontology Meeting. The theme of the night was “Show and Tell”. We had over 20 attendees with everything from Mazon Creek to crinoids to nautiloids to a large model of a Velociraptor. John Catalani, Paleontology Study Group chairman, gave us a preview of…
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Mazon Monday #288: Callipteridium neuropteroides
This is Mazon Monday post #288. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Callipteridium neuropteroides is one of the rarer seed ferns (Pteridospermatophyta) found in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit. Although, it is much more common in the Herrin Coal flora, if the Danville locality is truly representative of that deposit. Callipteridium jongmansi…
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Fossil Friday #283: Fossundecima konecniorum
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #283. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! A nice predatory polychaete worm from Mazon Creek…
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Throwback Thursday #283: The Strip Mines
This poem first appeared in the September 1964 edition of the ESCONI newsletter. Written by Gene Falada, it was inspired by a field trip to the spoil piles near South Wilmington, Illinois, on August 8, 1964. His words capture an experience that still feels familiar today. ESCONI field trips continue to bring people together—you meet…
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Mazon Monday #287: Braceville Fall 2025 Report
This is Mazon Monday post #287. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. The Braceville Fall 2025 Field Trip was held on the weekend of September 6th and 7th, 2025. We had perfect weather… sunny with temperatures in the mid-70s. There was nearly 100% attendance. It was two days of fun in…
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Fossil Friday #282: Crossotheca sagittata
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #282. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Today, we have a very nice Crossotheca sagittata.…
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Throwback Thursday #282: Field Museum Postcard
I found this old Field Museum postcard at the recent ESCONI Rock Swap. It’s a photo of the coal forest in the Evolving Planet exhibit. This exhibit was originally in the Ernest R. Graham Hall in the Field Museum. The postcard is from the middle 20th century.
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Mazon Monday #286: There’s a Mother Lode of Fossils in Chicago’s Backyard, and It Could Hold Clues to the Evolution of Life on Earth
This is Mazon Monday post #286. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Last week, Mazon Creek, the Field Museum, and ESCONI were back in the news! WTTW, Chicago’s public television station, ran an article highlighting Mazon Creek. The story is an excellent read, exploring the scientific importance and new research of…
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Fossil Friday #281: Dasyleptus sp.
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #281. 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 Bluesky/Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world! Dasyleptus is an extinct genus of monurian insect.…
