ESCONI

Mazon Monday #309: Herbivory is Older Than We Thought! #fossils #paleontology #MazonMonday #MazonCreek #SydneyMines #Canada #Carboniferous #Pennsylvanian #tetrapods

PBS Eons: 130 Million Years Ago, the World Caught Fire PBS Eons has a new video. This one is about the evolution of flowering plants. It seems that for flowering plants to take over the world, first they may have had to help burn the old one away…and then put those fires out.

PBS Eons: 130 Million Years Ago, the World Caught Fire #plants #evolution #floweringplants #angiosperms

ESCONI Field Trip to “Escape the Excavation” – College of DuPage – March 14th, 2026 ESCONI will participate in a hands-on archaeological adventure on March 14th, 2026. The event will be in-person at the College of DuPage from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. This interactive workshop offers a hands-on archaeological "escape room" that invites participants to engage with curated archaeological remains. Blending problem-solving with experiential learning, Escape the Excavation will challenge participants to interpret evidence, decode context clues, and use archaeological reasoning to unlock each stage.

ESCONI Field Trip to "Escape the Excavation" - College of DuPage - March 14th, 2026 #history #fieldtrip #archaeology

Des Plaines Valley Geological Society’s 61st Annual Jewelry, Mineral, Gem & Fossil Show, March 28-29, 2026 Des Plaines Valley Geological Society's 61st Annual Jewelry, Mineral, Gem & Fossil Show, March 28-29, 2026.  Des Plaines Park District Leisure Center, 2222 Birch St., Des Plaines, IL. Sat. 9-5, Sun. 10-4. Adults $3, seniors $2, students over 12 or with school ID $1, children under 12 free when accompanied by an adult. Dealers, demonstrators, silent auction, geode cutting, kids' activities, and door prize drawings. Contact Connie Lavin at (815) 222-8197, email Nival48@hotmail.com or call Mike Hanley at (847) 525-2941.

Des Plaines Valley Geological Society's 61st Annual Jewelry, Mineral, Gem & Fossil Show, March 28-29, 2026 #gem #minerals #fossils #show

Fossil Friday #304: A Heartwarming Tully Reunion This is the “Fossil Friday” post #304.  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 Valentines Day, we have a nice heartwarming Tullymonster reunion story we received from long-time ESCONI member and Mazon Creek Collector Jim Alann.

Fossil Friday #304: A Heartwarming Tully Reunion #fossils #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #Tully #Tullymonster

Throwback Thursday #304 – Lizzadro Field Trip in January 1971 This is Throwback Thursday #304. 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. The Lizzadro Museum was originally located in Wilder Park, Elmhurst, IL. It was opened on November 4th, 1962 by its founder Joseph Lizzadro.

Throwback Thursday #304 - Lizzadro Field Trip in January 1971 #history #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #LizzadroMuseum #Lapidary

ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – February 13th, 2026 at 8:00 PM – “Diggin’ Illinois: A hands-on introduction to the fascinating archaeological record of Illinois.” Dale Simpson of the University of Illinois' Prairie Research Institute will present "Diggin’ Illinois: A hands-on introduction to the fascinating archaeological record of Illinois." The meeting will be held on February 13th, 2026 at 8:00 PM via Zoom. Illinois has a rich and varied archaeological record that spans some 13,000 years. In this hybrid presentation, we will first explore this record in lecture format, then interact with hands-on stations that include different archaeological materials from the Land of Lincoln.

ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – February 13th, 2026 at 8:00 PM – “Diggin’ Illinois: A hands-on introduction to the fascinating archaeological record of Illinois.” #history #archaeology #illinois

2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #4: Halite This is the preview post #4 for the 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction.  The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2026 will be held on March 21th and 22nd at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year.   All details can be found here. Today's preview is a beautiful piece of Halite from Searles Lake, Trona, California.

2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #4: Halite #minerals #salt #halite

Mazon Monday #308: Acitheca polymorpha This is Mazon Monday post #308.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at  email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Fig. 8. Acitheca polymorpha (Brongniart) Schimper; proposed tripinnate-primary frond reconstruction with pinnule type placed at appropriate places. From Taxonomic revision of the Palaeozoic marattialean fern Acitheca" Acitheca polymorpha is an extinct species of the class Filcopsida. It is one of the rarer species of fern found in the Mazon Creek fossil localities.

Mazon Monday #308: Acitheca polymorpha #fossils #paleontology #MazonCreek #MazonMonday #fern #carboniferous #pennsylvanian

Netflix: “The Dinosaurs”… Coming March 6th, 2026 Netflix has a new dinosaur documentary "The Dinosaurs", which premiers on March 6th, 2026. The trailer is on Youtube. Welcome to The Dinosaurs – an epic journey into a lost world. From executive producer Steven Spielberg, Amblin Entertainment, and the award‑winning team behind Our Planet, this groundbreaking documentary series follows the rise and fall of the dinosaurs across hundreds of millions of years. Narrated by Academy Award–winner Morgan Freeman. Watch The Dinosaurs – only on Netflix, March 6. Watch on Netflix:

Netflix: "The Dinosaurs"... Coming March 6th, 2026 #fossils #paleontology #dinosaurs #documentary #netflix

PBS Eons: When Ancient Weeds Fooled Us PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about evolution of weeds. Ancient weeds began mimicking early crops again and again over the course of the agricultural revolution, as ancient farmers made similar mistakes in different places at different times.And it turns out, some of our closest plant friends today actually started out as uninvited guests that hid their true identity.

PBS Eons: When Ancient Weeds Fooled Us #evolution #plants #fossils #mimicry

ESCONI Events for February 2026 Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings! Friday, February 13th General Meeting – 8:00 PM via Zoom Dale Simpson will present "Diggin’ Illinois: A hands-on introduction to the fascinating archaeological record of Illinois." Saturday, February 14th Junior Study Group – 2:00 PM, Topic TBA Specifics of this meeting are available from Scott Galloway, 630-670-2591,  gallowayscottf@gmail.com.

ESCONI Events for February 2026 #calendar #paleontology #archaeology #geology

Fossil Friday #303: Mounted Pecopteris notata This is the “Fossil Friday” post #303.  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! Today, we have one of the rarer forms, Pecopteris notata. It's not always present in Mazon Creek plant books, but Jack Wittry did include it in his latest flora book “A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek”.

Fossil Friday #303: Mounted Pecopteris notata #fossils #paleontology #history #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #fern #carboniferous #pennsylvanian #paleobotany

Throwback Thursday #303: Looking Back At ESCONI For February 2026 This is Throwback Thursday #303. 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. Turquoise 25 Years Ago – February 2001 The General Meeting featured a presentation by long-time ESCONI members David and Sheila Bergmann. The topic was "Dinosaur Digging in the Canadian Rockies".

Throwback Thursday #303: Looking Back At ESCONI For February 2026 #history #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #minerals #fossils

PNAS: Can paleontologists pinpoint the dawn of the dinosaurs? Most paleontologists agree that Lewisuchus is part of a wider group of animals called silesaurs. Some paleontologists think that silesaurs were bird-hipped ornithischian dinosaurs, a group that later included Stegosaurus and Triceratops; others argue that they were not dinosaurs, but were closely related. Image credit: Nobumichi Tamura/Stocktrek Images / Science Source. PNAS has an interesting news feature about the origin of the dinosaurs.

PNAS: Can paleontologists pinpoint the dawn of the dinosaurs? #dinosaurs #fossils #Argentina #evolution #paleontology

2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #3: Acanthotelson stimpsoni This is the preview post #3 for the 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction.  The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2026 will be held on March 21th and 22nd at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year.   All details can be found here. For today, we have another of the Mazon Creek fossils for the Live Auction at the 2026 ESCONI Show.

2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #3: Acanthotelson stimpsoni #fossils #paleontology #shrimp #MazonCreel #pennsylvanian #carboniferous

Mazon Monday #307: Arjan Mann on Fossil Nerds This is Mazon Monday post #306. What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Episode #94 of the Fossil Nerds podcast is "The Marvelous Mini-Monsters of Mazon Creek with Arjan Mann". Arjan is the Assistant Curator of Early Tetrapods at the Field Museum. He discusses his lab's work, various ancient fish and tetrapods, gorganopsids, and (of course!) Mazon Creek.

Mazon Monday #307: Arjan Mann on Fossil Nerds #fossils #paleontology #FieldMuseum #ArjanMann #MazonCreek #MazonMonday #Onychodua #tetrapods

Stunning Fossil Site Reveals Life Rebounding After Major Extinction Event An artistic reconstruction of the Huayuan ecosystem. (Zeng et al., Nature, 2026) Science Alert has a story about the discovery of a new Cambrian lagerstatte in China. The site preserves an entire ecosystem in stunning detail. There are about 40 Cambrian sites worldwide that exhibiting exquisite preservation of rarely preserved, non-mineralized soft tissue. Add this newly discovered 512 million years old fossil site in Hunan, South China, named the Huayuan biota.

Stunning Fossil Site Reveals Life Rebounding After Major Extinction Event #fossils #paleontology #China #Cambrian #lagerstatte

You Wouldn’t Want to Butt Heads With This Small Dinosaur An artist’s interpretation of Xenovenator espinosai, a newly discovered species of cassowary-size, head-butting raptor from Mexico that lived during the Late Cretaceous period.Credit...Andy Fraser The New York Times' Trilobites column has a story about the discovery of a new dinosaur in Mexico. The animal, Xenovenator espinosai, was discovered in 2000 in the Cerro del Pueblo formation in northeastern Mexico by Martha Aguillón-Martinez.

You Wouldn’t Want to Butt Heads With This Small Dinosaur #dinosaurs #fossils #paleontology #Mexico

Fossil Friday #302: A Beautiful Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri from Braceville! This is the “Fossil Friday” post #302.  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, we have a beautiful pyritized Macroneuropteris sheuchzeri (see Mazon Monday #39…

Fossil Friday #302: A Beautiful Macroneuropteris scheuchzeri from Braceville! #fossils #paleontology #FossilFriday #MazonCreek #seedfern #Braceville #pennsylvanian #carboniferous

Throwback Thursday #302: More Old Cars This is Throwback Thursday #302. 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. In Throwback Thursday #267, we posted field trip photos that showed old cars from the 1950s and 1960s. With the frigid weather this week and last...

Throwback Thursday #302: More Old Cars #TBT #history #ThrowbackThursday #oldcars #cars #fieldtrips

Collecting Echinoids (Sea Urchins) in North Jutland, Denmark Today, we have an interesting guest post from long-time ESCONI member Marie Angkuw. Marie is part of the Lyme Regis Babes as John Catalani has named them. Marie, Rhonda Gates, Jann Bergsten, and Deborah Lovely have taken numerous trips to Europe to collect fossils. They've been to Lyme Regis (multiple times), Whitby, Yorkshire, and the Isle of Wight. This time it was Marie, Jann, and Rhonda on a trip to Denmark to collect echinoids!

Collecting Echinoids (Sea Urchins) in North Jutland, Denmark #denmark #fossils #paleontology #fossilcollecting #echinoids

2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #2: Fluorite, Galena, and Barite From Bingham, NM This is the preview post #2 for the 2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show Live Auction.  The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show for 2026 will be held on March 21th and 22nd at the DuPage Fairgrounds in Wheaton, IL, which is the same location as last year.   All details can be found here. In addition to the…

2026 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show – Preview #2: Fluorite, Galena, and Barite From Bingham, NM #fluorite #minerals #2026show #ESCONIShow #newmexico

Mazon Monday #306: Drevotella proteana This is Mazon Monday post #306.  What’s your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at  email:esconi.info@gmail.com. Drevotella proteana is believed to be a hydrozoan. It lived during the Pennsylvanian Period. Fossils of this soft-bodied animal are known only from the Mazon Creek fossil deposit, where exceptional preservation allows such delicate organisms to be recorded. Hydrozoans are cnidarians and include jelly-like forms within the subphylum…

Mazon Monday #306: Drevotella proteana #fossils #paleontology #MazonMonday #MazonCreek #hydrozoa #cnidarian

Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society’s Annual Silent Auction, Saturday, March 14, 2026 Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society’s Annual Silent Auction Saturday, March 14, 2026 6 to 9 p.m. St. Peter's United Church of Christ 8013 Laramie Ave., Skokie, IL (Across the street from the public library on Oakton) Plus a special live auction of high-end specimens during the last half-hour! The first table closes at 6:30 p.m. Bid on minerals, fossils, crystals, geodes, gemstones, handmade jewelry, rough rock, books, magazines, and lapidary treasures galore.

Chicago Rocks & Minerals Society’s Annual Silent Auction, Saturday, March 14, 2026 #rocks #minerals #gems #fossils #ChicagoRocks

PBS: Inside the Vault Where They Keep the Dinosaur Apocalypse PBS has an interesting video about the K-Pg extinction. Check it out! A giant asteroid impact ended the age of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. How did this mass extinction play out, moment by moment? In this video we meet a geologist who has explored the asteroid crater and learn what the rocks tell us about the last days of the dinosaurs. It was pretty bad! References:

PBS: Inside the Vault Where They Keep the Dinosaur Apocalypse #fossils #paleontology #dinosaurs #extinction #cretaceous

Fossil Friday #301: French Palaeocaris This is the “Fossil Friday” post #301.  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! In Mazon Monday #294, we highlighted the fossil site at Montceau-les-Mines in southeastern France.

Fossil Friday #301: French Palaeocaris #fossils #paleontology #MazonCreek #fossilFriday #Montceau-les-mines #stephanian #France #shrimp #carboniferous #pennsylvanian

Throwback Thursday #298: Century of Progress - Sinclair Exhibit #history #TBT #ThrowbackThursday

Video for ESCONI January 2026 Paleontology Meeting – “Getting Lost Can Lead to Treasure – Edrioasteroids” Jack Kallmeyer President of the Dry Dredgers will present “Getting Lost Can Lead to Treasure – Edrioasteroids – What to Do When You Find Thousands”. The meeting was held on January 17th, 2026 at 7:30 PM. While growing my early collection in the Cincinnatian, one of the most desired fossils that I sought after was the Edrioasteroid. While not really rare (if you count fragmentary finds), nice complete specimens tend to be elusive.

Video for ESCONI January 2026 Paleontology Meeting – “Getting Lost Can Lead to Treasure – Edrioasteroids” #fossils #paleontology #ordovician #cincinnatian #Edrioasteroids

Video for ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – “Fossil Birds of Wyoming” Jean-Pierre Cavigelli, of Casper College in Casper, WY, presented “Fossil Birds of Wyoming”. Wyoming’s fossil bird record spans much of the Late Cretaceous through the Cenozoic, though its completeness varies widely through time. The state’s oldest known bird fossils come from the late Cretaceous Mesa Verde Formation and Pierre Shale, dating to about 79 million years ago, but this early record is sparse and fragmentary.

ESCONI January 2026 General Meeting – “Fossil Birds of Wyoming” #fossils #paleontology #wyoming #birds