Tag: Ordovician
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Trilobite Tuesday #15: The Last of the Trilobites
Both the American Museum of Natural History and Trilobites.info have pages on “The Last Trilobites”. By the end of the Permian, trilobites had existed for nearly 300 million years. That stretch of time spread from the lower Cambrian to the mass extinction events at the end of the Permian. Their highest diversity was during the…
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Trilobite Tuesday #6: The Largest Trilobites #trilobite #fossils #TrilobiteTuesday
If you’re interested in the largest trilobites, have a look over at this page on “A Guide to the Orders of Trilobites” or this page at the American Museum of Natural History. The following quote is from the AMNH page. The size variance shown among trilobite species is nothing less than astonishing. Generally when one considers these…
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Trilobite Tuesday #5: Are These Trilobite Eggs?
Scientific American’s “The Artful Amoeba” had a piece about trilobite eggs a few years ago. It seems that Markus Martin, an amateur paleontologist, discovered gold, or more specifically trilobite gold. Atlas Obscura has the more personal details of this fossil find. It what was once known as Beecher’s Bed, Martin found and then prepared some…
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ESCONI May Paleontology Study Group Meeting – “The Gonioceras Fauna: Inhabitants of the Mohawkian Sea” on May 16th, 2020
On course, this depends on how everything is going with the gobal Covid-19 pandemic… here hoping! This exciting presentation will be given by ESCONI member John Catalani. The “Gonioceras Fauna”: Inhabitants of the Mohawkian Sea The Upper Ordovician “Gonioceras Fauna” of the Mohawkian Sea is remarkably abundant, diverse, and often well-preserved. I will start with…
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In Upstate New York, Ancient Arthropods Can Get Turned Into (Fool’s) Gold
Atlas Obscura has a piece about trilobites… golden trilobites. Trilobites are some of the most desirable fossils and highly detailed, pyritized trilobites are especially desirable. “Beecher’s Bed” is a famous trilobite quarry discovered and named for Charles Emerson Beecher, a paleontologist a the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. It is made of…
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Roy Plotnick: Existence Locates a Path
Roy Plotnick has a new post over on Medium. The post is about extinction… mass extinction. We have a roll in the current and a past extinction. Time for action! Mass extinctions and their causes are topics of intense interest. Nearly forty years after the 1980 paper on the end-Cretaceous impact, significant new research on…
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Ancient ‘Cockroaches of the Sea’ Fossilized While Playing ‘Follow the Leader’
LiveScience has a piece on a new trilobite discovery in Morocco. Morocco is famous for fossils and one particularly notable animal from there is the trilobite. In this case, a whole line of these animals died and were preserved together in line. Behavior is rarely fossilized, but this window into the past, shows collective…
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ESCONI Field Trip to an Ordovician, Hard-rock Quarry Near Belvidere, Illinois on Saturday, Sept 21, 2019
There will be a field trip to an Ordovician, hard-rock quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Saturday, Sept 21, 2019, from 9AM to 12 noon. We visited this quarry in April. If you like Hormotoma or Receptaculites, this is the place for you! The quarry has been active so there is new rock exposed. Rules The…
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ESCONI Field Trip to an Ordovician Hard Rock Quarry in Roscoe, IL July 13th, 2019
There will be a field trip for ESCONI members on Saturday, July 13, 2019 to an Ordovician, hard-rock quarry in Roscoe, IL (north of Rockford). We visited this quarry before in May 2017. The trip starts at 9 AM and ends at 12 noon. Rules are as follows: To sign up for this field trip,…
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ESCONI Field Trip to Belvidere Quarry April 20, 2019
There will be a field trip to the Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Saturday, April 20, 2019, 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 active so there is new…
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ESCONI Field Trip to Vulcan DeKalb Quarry April 13, 2019
There will be an ESCONI Field Trip to the Vulcan DeKalb (aka Larson) Quarry on Saturday April 13, 2019 from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM. The quarry is located at 15622 Barber Green Road. This trip is combined with a visit from Dr. Roy Plotnick’s class from UIC. The rules are shown below: Everyone in…
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480-Million-Year-Old Mystery Creature Finally Identified from Its Preserved Guts
LiveScience has an interesting story about some bizarre creatures found in Morocco. The animals are called stylophorans and lived during the Ordovician. The fossils were discovered in 2014 in the Fezouata Formation. They are now identified as echinoderms and are related to modern animals such as sea urchins, starfish, brittle stars, and sea lilies. The…
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Laelaps: Strange Fossil Filter Feeder Was an Ancient Survivor
Over on the Laelaps blog on National Geographic, there’s an interesting post about a new Anomalocaridids – “anomalous shrimp”. The group was named originally by Joseph Frederick Whiteaves, because he only had the front appendages. Much later, the rest of the body of the large arthropod was described by Conway Morris and Harry B. Whittington. …
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ESCONI Field Trip: Sunday, September 30th, 2018 to Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois 10 AM to 1 PM
There will be a field trip to the Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Sunday, Sept 30, 2018, from 10AM to 1 PM. 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 active so there is…
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ESCONI Field Trip: Saturday, April 21st, 2018 to Vulcan Manteno Quarry
There will be an ESCONI Field Trip to the Vulcan Manteno Quarry on Saturday April 21, 2018 from 9 AM to 11:30 AM. The quarry is located at 6141 Highway 50, Manteno Illinois. The rules are shown below: Email Dave Carlson at fossil54@att.net to reserve a spot. You should be able to find this quarry…
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Reminder: Next General Meeting is on Friday, January 12th, 2018 – Dennis Whitney on the Ordovian of Morocco
The title of Dennis Whitney's talk at our January 12, 2018 meeting is “The Ordovician of the Anti-Atlas Mountains.” In the talk he will discuss his 2011 and 2013 trips to Morocco and the geology and paleontology of the various collecting sites which were visited.
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ESCONI Field Trip: October 8th, 2017 to Irene Quarry
There will be a field trip to the Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Sunday, Oct 8 2017, 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! Rules: 1. Everyone in your…
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ESCONI Field Trip Sept 24 2017 to the Cunningham Quarry in Rockford
There will be a field trip to the Cunningham Quarry in Rockford, Illinois on Sunday, Sept 24 2017, from 9AM to 12 Noon. The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a “hard-rock” quarry (dolomite). There is a pile of shot rock (large uncrushed stone after a blast) in the middle where there is…
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Field Trip: Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Sunday, July 16 2017
There will be a field trip to the Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Sunday, July 16 2017, 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! Rules: 1. Everyone in your…
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Field Trip: Vulcan DeKalb (aka Larson) Quarry, Monday, April 10, 2017
There will be an ESCONI Field Trip to the Vulcan DeKalb (aka Larson) Quarry on Monday (!) April 10, 2017 from 1 PM to 3 PM. The quarry is located at 15622 Barber Green Road.This trip is combined with a visit from Dr. Reed Scherer’s Invert Paleo class from NIU. There are no trips to…
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Preserved Trilobite eggs from the Ordovician of New York State
Sciency Thoughts has a story about pyritized trilobite eggs. The eggs were found associated with 2 Triarthrus eatoni trilobites from the Ordovician Whetstone Gulf Formation (Lorraine Group), in upstate New York. The eggs were found in the cephala (head) of the trilobites, which is similar to the method of reproduction in Horseshoe Crabs. In Horseshoe…
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Field Trip: Irene Quarry May 7th, 2016 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
There will be a field trip to the Irene Quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Saturday, May 7, 2016, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (Noon). This is a combined trip including both ESCONI and LOESS (Lincoln Orbit Earth Science Society). The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a “hard-rock” quarry (dolomite) owned…
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ESCONI Field Trip in September 2013 – Ordovician Paleonotology
ESCONI Field Trip: Irene Quarry near Belvidere, 9AM to 2PM This is the third visit by ESCONI to this site. The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a “hard-rock” quarry (limestone or dolostone), not shale like Vulcan. The site is owned by William Charles Construction. This is a good place to find Receptaculites and…
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Events This Week 6/13 – 6/20/2011
Saturday, 6/18 – ESCONI Field Trip to the Larson (Vulcan) Quarry on Barber Greene Road in Sycamore, IL. 9:00 am to 11:30AM. Sign up by sending me an email with the number of people and their names. I will acknowledge by return email. Dave fossil54@att.net Rules: 1. Must be an ESCONI member. 2. Must be…
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Fossil Collecting Field Trip with Lizzadro Museum, 2010
Travel by motor coach to a quarry near Rockford, Illinois. Collect Ordovician Period (450 million years old)) marine fossils in limestone. Collectable fossils include: brachiopods, gastropods, corals, crinoids, trilobites and cephalopods. Field Trip – Ages 8 yrs. to Adult8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.Fee: $40.00 per personMuseum Members $35.00Reservations Required by Friday July 16th at 5:00…
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Identification References
Larson Quarry Fossil Identification and Illinois Geode Collecting Links Dave Carlson’s Larson Quarry Fossil documentIllinois Geode Collecting from the ISGS.
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Paleontology Meeting – Saturday 3/21 at 7:30 pm
The Paleontology Study Group meets this Saturday, 3/21 at 7:30 pm at College of Dupage, Building K, Rm 131. Ordovician fossils will be discussed.
