Storms that built a graveyard: ancient monsoons created a spectacular dinosaur fossil site

As normal tidal conditions returned, thin layers of sediment gradually buried bones and articulated carcasses (like the Acynodon croc in the drawing, A), sometimes preserving soft tissues. The photographs show undisturbed tidal layers (B), a storm deposit covered by microbial mats (C), and a plant leaf washed in from inland (D). Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Author provided (no reuse) The Conversation has an interesting…

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The Best Forest Preserves Near Chicago for Hiking, County by County

Sam S., the editor of the Chicago Signal, sent us a link to this article about hiking the forest preserves in the Chicago area. There are tips about Cook County and all the surrounding counties, even Midewin in Will County. Summer is slowly slipping away... get out there and enjoy some nature! The Chicago Signal has guides about Food & Drink, Things To Do, Real Estate & Moving, and Outdoors & Recreation.

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Mazon Monday #334: Mariopteris lobatifolia

Mariopteris lobatifolia is one of the rare species of Mariopteris. Its pinnules have a very distinctive wing-like shape. See Mazon Monday #181 for the most common variety of Mariopteris, Mariopteris nervosa.

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PBS Eons: How Pangea Upended Life on Earth

PBS Eons has released their TV series about Pangea! Check out Episode 2 on pbs.org. In the Late Carboniferous Period, predatory amphibians and giant arthropods ruled the swamps. But ancient seed plants and amniotes were evolving adaptations to drier climates. These will help them thrive on Pangea in the Permian Period to come. This is the first our our six-part series on life and death during the Permian period.

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Field Museum – Legendary Late Hours – August 11th, 2026 – Riot Fest Takeover!

The Field Museum is holding a "Riot Fest Takeover" on August 11th, 2026 from 5-9 PM. Enjoy extended museum hours from 9am to 9pm, last entry at 8pm. The Field Museum and Riot Fest are partnering up for a righteous Museum takeover from 5pm-9pm on August 11th, complete with music and some seriously sick specimens, to get you geared up for Riot Fest 2026.

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Fossil Friday #328: A Pit 11 Octomedusa piekorum

Well, we know how Alan Keith is spending his summer vacation... freeze/thawing his Mazon Creek concretions. Although, probably not out in the hot Texas sun. Alan had this nicely detailed Octomedusa piekorum (see Mazon Monday #54) open up recently.

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Throwback Thursday #328: Go on… Introduce yourself, tiny frog

The Field Museum made an intriguing historical post to LinkedIn last week. It was a meet-and-greet between two frogs...

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ESCONI Field Trip to Braceville, IL for Mazon Creek Fossils – Saturday, August 29th and Sunday, August 30th, 2026

Braceville Field Trip Rules for August 2026 The ESCONI field trips to Braceville for Mazon Creek fossils are set for August 29th and 30th, 2026 from 9 AM to 3 PM. You can attend one or the other, but not both days. There is an attendance limit of 60 people each day. You must register to go on this trip…

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PBS Eons: How the Tibetan Plateau Created the Ultimate Cat

PBS Eons has a new video. This one is about the evolution and migration of Homotherium, a large saber-tooted cat that lived on the Tibetan Plateau. How did Homotherium evolve to be so successful, and so different from basically all other cats, living and extinct? Well the answer may lie in a huge geological event: the rise of the Tibetan plateau.

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Mazon Monday #333: Interesting Pennsylvanian Fossil Sites – Okmulgee, Oklahoma

Way back in Mazon Monday #10, we referenced the paper "Mazon Creek-Type Fossil Assemblages in the U.S. Midcontinent Pennsylvanian" written by G. C. Baird, S. D. Sroka, C. W. Shabica, T. L. Beard, A. C. Scott and F. M. Broadhurst in October 1985. The paper lists and discusses the various Pennsylvanian fossil sites known to produce fossil bearing concretions similar to what is found at Mazon Creek. Although the list of concretionary sites has grown since the paper was published, it's still relevant and a good read. Check it out, you can download it from ResearchGate.

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Rare Pompeii Ceiling Is Restored From Fragments, Depicting Scene From Myth

art of the restored ceiling of the House with the Bakery displayed at the Pompeii Archaeological site.Credit...Parco Archeologico di Pompei, via Associated Press The New York Times has an interesting article about the restoration of a fresco at Pompeii. The fresco was restored from hundreds of plaster fragments recovered from the ruins of a house. The house, now called the "House with the Bakery", was discovered by researchers in 2023.

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PBS Eons: We Made a TV Show!

PBS Eons has some exciting news... they made a TV show. It's a two episode show called "Live and Death on Pangea". It becomes available on July 29th, 2026 at the PBS app, website, and other places (Youtube?). Hey Eons fans, after 8 seasons of exploring deep time we have some very important news to share... we've secretly been working on more stuff!

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Fossil Friday #327: Danville Fish Scale

Andrew Young sent us these photos of an absolutely breathtaking fish scale from our most recent Danville field trip in early May 2026. He found it near the top of the slopes. It opened via freeze/thaw. The scale measures just 1.5 cm. The species is unsure, but it's likely a lobe-finned fish. The Danville spoil pile contains the remnants of both the Herrin and Danville coals, which makes it younger than Mazon Creek.

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Throwback Thursday #327: Walter Cronkite and… dinosaurs!

David Bressan of the History of Geology group on Facebook has an interesting post about the 1991 A&E documentary series "Dinosaur!". Walter Cronkite was the host. Several episodes are available to watch on YouTube. I vaguely remember watching the series when it aired. Revisiting it today is fascinating as it offers an opportunity to see what scientists knew about dinosaurs more than thirty years ago. It's remarkable to see just how much our understanding has advanced since then.

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Dinosaur-loving schoolboy opens natural history museum with astonishing fossil collection

The Guinness World Records website has a story about a natural history museum in Cambridge, IL. This museum in a small Illinois town is significant becase when it opened in August 2024, the curator and sole owner was just 9 years old! It all started in 2022 after a family trip to Scotland. “When I went to Scotland,” Anderson said, “I went to the Staffin Dinosaur Museum and that’s what inspired me to make this museum.

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Meteorite That Crashed Into New Jersey Home Contains Rare Ingredients of Life

Gizmodo has news of a meteorite that crashed into a Hillsborough, New Jersey home in July 2024. A recent paper in the journal Science Advances details research into both the makeup and the potential origin of the meteorite.

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Mazon Monday #332: Tom Testa Winter Freeze/Thaw

Sorry, this is a bit of a repeat... But, Tom Testa has been on our minds lately and we've all been enduring a stretch of hot weather, so here's a post that will cool you off!

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NPR: Mystery bidder buys T. rex nicknamed ‘Gus’ for a record $50 million

This undated photo provided by Sotheby's on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, shows "Gus," one of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever discovered. NPR has a story about the recent auction of "Gus" the Tyrannosaurus rex at Sotheby's in New York. The winning bid of 50.1 million represents the highest price ever paid for a dinosaur. "Gus" was found by the late Gary "Gus" Licking, a cattle rancher in Harding County, South Dakota.

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PBS Eons: We found the head of the biggest bug ever

PBS Eons has a new short. This one is about Arthropleura, the giant millipede... or is it?

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Fossil Friday #326: Rhacophyllum cornutum from the Mazon River

This is a very beautiful Rhacophyllum cornutum (see Mazon Monday #266) from the Mazon River. Lil Magnussen showed me this stunner at the spring 2026 Danville field trip. Lil is a long-time ESCONI member... She joined in the 1960's.

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Throwback Thursday #326: Photos from a 1970 Lapidary Meeting

This is Throwback Thursday #325. 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. Andy and Rose Jansen recently received two photos from Mary Hason, daughter of Betty and Chet Williamson. The Williamsons were long-time members, joining ESCONI in 1959!

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Paleontologists Discover New Species of Titanosaur in Uruguay

Mesetasaurus protector. Image credit: Merlina Ramírez. SciNews has a post about a new species of titanosaur from Uruguay. Mesetasaurus protector lived between 86 and 72 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The paper describing this species was published in the journal Ameghiniana. The new species was a member of a group of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs known as 

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The 250-million year rise and fall of the dinosaurs | Steve Brusatte

Big Think has a video with Steve Brusatte, an American paleontologist, a professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Edinburgh, and author of a few pop-science books. Steve grew up in Ottawa, IL. He's spoken to ESCONI in the past. In this video, Steve discusses the origin and the evolution of dinosaurs, mammals, and birds. It's a great summary of his three books - "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs", "The Rise and Reign of the Mammals", and most recently "The Story of the Birds".

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Mazon Monday #331: Recap of Tom Testa Day at the Carbon Hill School Museum

Back in Mazon Tuesday #328, we did a post about Tom Testa and his amazing Mazon Creek fossil collection. There was a great turnout at the Carbon Hill School Museum special event "The Legacy of Tom Testa" on June 25th, 2026.

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Archaeologists in France Dig Up a Jar Packed With Tens of Thousands of 1,800-Year-Old Roman Coins

ZME Science has an interesting piece about the discovery of three large jugs containing roman coins. The jug was found during an archaeological dig in the town of Senon in northeastern France. There were more than 25,000 bronze and copper coins dating to the 3rd-century CE in the jugs.

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ESCONI Events for Summer 2026

ESCONI Events for Summer 2026

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PBS Eons: The potato’s origin was a mystery…until now

PBS Eons has a new Youtube Short. This one is about the evolutionary origin of the potato.

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Fossil Friday #325: Radstockia kidstonii

Jeremy Zimmerman sent in photos of this breathtaking Radstockia kidstonii. R. kidstonii is a very rare true fern from Mazon Creek. Its pinnules and fertile structures are similar to the modern fern Marattia alata.

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Throwback Thursday #325: Journey to the Beginning of Time

Ok, who remembers "Journey to the Beginning of Time" on Garfield Goose on morning television in Chicago? Just recently, the trailer to the US version of the movie recently appeared in one of my feeds, so I did a little research to find out more about the film/episodes.

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‘Gus’ the T. rex presented in New York ahead of auction

Phys.org has an article about "Gus" the Tyrannosaurus rex. "Gus" lived during the late Cretaceous Period, about 67 million years ago. The fossil is about 61% complete by bone count and 75-80% by bone mass. It was discovered in Harding County, South Dakota in 2021. "Gus" is named after the late rancher Gary "Gus" Licking, on whose land it was found.

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