Tag: Ordovician
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Oldest Pterodactylus fossil found in Germany
Phys.org has a story about the oldest Pterodactylus ever found. This specimen was found in 2014 near Painten in central Bavaria. The animal lived about 152 million years ago, which is about a million years older than all other Pterodactylus specimens. All the details were published in a recent paper in the journal Fossil Record.…
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Welsh ‘weird wonder’ fossils add piece to puzzle of arthropod evolution
Phys.org has a story about a new “weird wonder” from the Ordovician Period. This new animal is called Mieridduryn bonniae and is thought to be related to Opabinia, which is one of the iconic animals discovered in the Burgess Shale by Charles Walcott in 1909. Many of the Burgess Shale animals were termed “weird wonders”…
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ESCONI November 2022 General Meeting – November 11th, 2022 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “A Sea Without Fish, Ordovician Fossils of the Cincinnati Region”
On November 11th our speaker will be Dr. David Meyer from the University of Cincinnati. The title of his talk is “A Sea Without Fish, Ordovician fossils of the Cincinnati region“. His book has the same name as his presentation. Checkout his page at the University of Cincinnati. Book Description: The region around Cincinnati, Ohio,…
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Trilobite Tuesday #42: Trilobites’ growth may have resembled that of modern marine crustaceans
Phys.org has a story about trilobite growth. Research published in the journal Paleobiology shows that trilobites grew in a fashion similar to modern extant crustaceans. Data for the study came from exceptionally preserved trilobites from “Beechers Trilobite Bed” in upstate New York. For more information about “Beecher’s Trilobite Bed”, have a look at Trilobite Tuesday…
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Sharks are older than the dinosaurs. What’s the secret to their success?
Live Science has a shark story just in time for Shark Week. Yes, you read that correctly… sharks are much older than dinosaurs. Sharks evolved way back during the Ordovician Period, some 450 million years ago, while dinosaurs are relative youngsters at about 235 million years old. Sharks have made it though all the major…
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Fossil Friday #115: Ordovician Conulariid
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #115. 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! For this weeks Fossil Friday, we have…
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Trilobite Tuesday #40: Find the Trilobite!
ESCONI recently held a field trip to the St. Paul Quarry in St. Paul, Indiana. As part of that trip, a few of us paid a visit to the famous St. Leon roadcut on Indiana Route 1 just off Interstate 74 at exit 164 for St. Leon. The road cut is huge and loaded in…
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Throwback Thursday #112: April 1990 Field Trip to St. Paul and Brookville, IN
This is Throwback Thursday #112. 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! ESCONI has been visiting St. Paul, IN for Silurian fossils for a long time. In 1990, there was…
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TRIP FULL! – ESCONI Field Trip to a Belvidere Quarry Saturday, May 21st, 2022, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
THE TRIP IS FULL! It filled up in less than an hour! We are still accepting requests, which will place you on the waiting list. Please let us know if you can’t make it, as it makes room for those on the waiting list. Thanks! There will be a field trip to a quarry near…
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Trilobite Tuesday #37: Trilobite Fossils Suggest Cannibalism Is More Ancient Than Once Thought
The New York Times Trilobites column has a story about cannibalism among trilobites. A new study published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology found evidence of cannibalism in 512 million year old fossils from Emu Bay on Kangaroo Island off the south Australia coast. Cannibalism is common among the millions of modern arthropod species. A…
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TRIP FULL! – ESCONI Field Trip to Vulcan DeKalb Quarry Field Trip May 7, 2022
The trip is full! It filled up in about a day! We are still accepting requests, which will place you on the waiting list. Please let us know if you can’t make it, as it makes room for those on the waiting list. Thanks! Vulcan DeKalb Quarry Field Trip May 7, 2022 There will be…
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Fossil Friday #89: Green Bay Cystoid
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #89. 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! A crinoid from Green Bay, Wisconsin is…
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Trilobite Tuesday #35: Ceraurinus icarus
How about a Trilobite Tuesday post? Here is a rare species of trilobite from Indiana, Ceraurinus icarus. This specimen is from the Whitewater Formation in Union Co., Indiana. The pictures were contributed by Dan Damrow. Thanks, Dan! Awesome trilobite!
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Video for ESCONI June 2021 General Meeting – “The Glasford Structure: A Marine Target Impact Crater with a Possible Connection to the Great Ordovician Meteorite Shower”
The speaker at our June 2021 meeting was Charles Monson from ISGS. Charles recently published on the Glasford Illinois impact structure and its relation to the Ordovician meteor event. WCBU, a joint service of Bradley University and Illinois State University, interviewed Charles back in November 2019. Their program is online and available for listening. His paper was published…
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Fossil Friday #72: Galena Fossils
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #72. 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! We are stepping away from Mazon Creek…
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ESCONI Field Trip to a Rockford Quarry Saturday, October 2, 2021, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Rockford Quarry Field Trip There will be a field trip to a quarry near Rockford, Illinois on Saturday, October 2, 2021, from 9AM to 12 noon. The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a “hard-rock” quarry (dolomite). There may also be glacial deposits, including gravel, in place (not washed and processed) making it possible…
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Oldest Fossilized Land Plant Spores Have Scientists Rethinking How Plants Evolved
Science Alert has a story about the oldest land plants. In rock samples from the Canning Basin in Western Australia, scientists have found clues to early land plant evolution. These samples come from deposits that date to the lower Ordovician about 480 million years ago when land plants were small and moss-like. The research can…
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Fossil Friday #66: Galena Cephalopods
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #66. 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! ESCONI Paleontology Study Leader John Cataloni sent…
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ESCONI June 2021 General Meeting – June 11th, 2021 at 8:00 PM via Zoom – “The Glasford Structure: A Marine Target Impact Crater with a Possible Connection to the Great Ordovician Meteorite Shower”
The speaker at our June 2021 meeting will be Charles Monson from ISGS. Charles recently published on the Glasford Illinois impact structure and its relation to the Ordovician meteor event. WCBU, a joint service of Bradley University and Illinois State University, interviewed Charles back in November 2019. Their program is online and available for listening. …
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ESCONI Field Trip to Belvidere Quarry – June 26th, 2021
Belvidere, IL Quarry Field Trip There will be a field trip to a quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Saturday, June 26, 2021, from 9AM to 12 noon. The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a “hard-rock” quarry (dolomite). If you like Hormotoma or Receptaculites, this is the place for you! The quarry has been…
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A Milwaukee Suburb Is Full of Ultrarare Fossils
Hakai Magazine has a story about a special fossil deposit in Waukesha, Wisconsin. The deposit dates to the Ordovician Period about 440 million years ago. It was discovered in 1984 by amateur paleontologists Jerry Gunderson and Ron Meyer. They found fossilized soft tissue why splitting open rocks from a thin layer called the Brandon Bridge…
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Roy Plotnick: Alien technology on Earth!
Roy Plotnick has a new post over on Medium. In this one, he ponders the possibility of alien life and whether it could have visited Earth… I had not been able to get out into the field for months, so on the first warm day of spring, I headed to a nearby outcrop of Ordovician…
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Fossil Friday #38: Vinlandostrophia ponderosa
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #38. 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! For our post today, we have one…
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Trilobite Tuesday #29: Why did trilobites go extinct?
LiveScience has a piece about the extinction of the trilobites. Trilobites existed on Earth for about 270 million years from the early Cambrian until the Permian Mass Extinction. Many organisms went extinct during that time… perhaps upward of 90% of species. But, it’s still an open question that has not been completely answered. During their…
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PBS Eons: How Plankton Created A Bizarre Giant of the Seas
PBS Eons has a new episode over on Youtube. This one is about anomalocaris… a giant anomalocaris called Aegirocassis. At more than 2 meters long, Aegirocassis was not only the biggest radiodont ever, but it also may have been the biggest animal in the Early Ordovician. This bizarre marine giant may have only been…
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Fossil Friday #30: Flexicalymene from St. Leon, IN
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #30. 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! —————————————————– Today, we have a trilobite from…
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Trilobite Tuesday #29: Enrolled Isotelus
“Fossil Friday” post #29 is about an enrolled Isotelus. For this Fossil Friday, we are highlighting a specimen of Isotelus . Isotelus is a genus of asaphid trilobites that lived during the middle and upper Ordovician period. This little guy is enrolled and hails from the state of Ohio, where this species, Isotelus maximus, is the state fossil. One of the…
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Fossil Friday #29: Enrolled Isotelus
This is the “Fossil Friday” post #29. 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! For this Fossil Friday, we are highlighting…
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Trilobite Tuesday #25: Fossils of New Trilobite Species Found in Tasmania
SciNews has a piece about a new species of trilobites from Tasmania. A new species of the genus Gravicalymene has been named. It’s called Gravicalymene bakeri after the actor Thomas Stewart Baker, the fourth actor to play the title character in the television series “Doctor Who”. This animal lived about 450 million years ago during…
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Trilobite Tuesday #24: Fossils In Millard County, Utah by Rich Holm
While doing some research during my recent trip to Utah, I ran across a very interesting page on the fossils of Millard County, Utah. It’s a great report of a couple field trips in this area of Utah. We stayed in Delta, Utah, which is a great place to stay to explore this area. The…
