Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois

RNA is supposed to fall apart within hours…

RNA is supposed to fall apart within hours, yet researchers have now read it from a mammoth frozen in Siberian permafrost 39,000 years ago — and the transcripts caught his muscle tissue in the middle of a stress response

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PBS Eons: When Earth Was a Toxic Wasteland

PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the Permian Mass Extinction, the Earth’s worst mass extinction. Watch Eons: Life and Death on Pangea on the free PBS App: https://to.pbs.org/EonsApp or on the web here: https://pbs.org/eons ← use this link if you are outside of the U.S. For 3 million years, microbes ruled the Earth. But were these tiny survivors just lucky? Or did they play a more sinister role in the greatest disaster our planet has ever faced?

Fossil Friday, Mazon Creek

Fossil Friday #331: Peachocaris strongi

Jerry Zhu posted this stunning example of Peachocaris strongi to the “Illinois, Mazon Creek, and Carboniferous Fossils of the World” group on Facebook a few weeks ago. The concretion was collect from Pit 11. From the looks of it, it must have opened via freeze/thaw.

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday #331: Happy (Belated) Unearth Day, SUE!

Last Wednesday was SUE’s Unearth Day! SUE was found by Sue Hendrickson on August 12th, 1990. Sue hung back at camp, while the rest of the team from the Black Hills Institute went to town to fix a flat tire on one of their trucks. Sue decided to explore some area around the camp. She noticed some bone bits at the base of a hill and the rest is history…

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Lost ‘mega-escarpment’ across ancient USA may explain Grand Canyon’s missing billion years

Phys.org has an interesting story about the Grand Canyon. The geologic record of the Grand Canyon spans about 2 billion years, but more than half of it is missing! This gap is known as the Great Unconformity. Now, a new study, published in the journal Geology, may have found evidence of what happened those missing rock layers. Scientists have found evidence that a colossal cliff stretching thousands of kilometers across ancient North America may have exposed the heart of the Grand Canyon nearly a billion years before it was carved by the Colorado River. The study, led by the University…

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Field Faire: A Knight at the Museum

The Field Museum is holding another special Museum After Hours event. This one is Thursday, August 20th, 2026. Hear ye, seekers of wonder, scholars of the arts, and revelers of science and sorcery— For one enchanted evening, the hallowed halls of the Field Museum will transform into a realm of myth, merriment, and discovery for a 21+ Renaissance-inspired celebration unlike any other. Upon arrival, guests shall join one of four noble orders — Science, Record, Research, or the Dissemination of Knowledge — the founding muses upon which the museum was built, and rally behind their Champion of Discovery throughout the evening’s festivities.…

Mazon Creek, Mazon Monday

Mazon Monday #336: 1980’s Pit 11 Collecting

Keeping with the history theme, here’s a photo from a field trip to Pit 11 most likely from the 1980’s. You can see Braidwood Station in the background. Construction on August 1st, 1975 and completed in 1988.

Calendar of Events

Report for the Rock, Mineral, and Fossil Swap 2026

The day started cloudy with a predictions on rain from about 9 AM to 11 AM. Unfortunately, the meteorologists were correct this time. It rained pretty steadily for more than an hour. That kept probably kept quite a few people away, but for the ones who showed, there was much fun and plenty of rocks! Here is just a small sampling of the day…

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Field Museum in the News! Paul Mayer on the Morgan Shoal

Paul Mayer, Fossil Invertebrate Collection Manager at the Field Museum in Chicago, IL was on “Chicago Live” recently. He was answering questions about the Silurian Rocks exposed in Lake Michigan at Morgan Shoal along the southern shoreline.

Fossil Friday, Mazon Creek

Fossil Friday #330: Mazon Creek in the Illinois State Fair 4H

ESCONI Junior Luke Schallhorn had his Mazon Creek Fossils 4H geology project selected as a delegate from Marshall-Putnam County to the Illinois State Fair! It was on display on Sunday, August 16th, 2026. Maybe, you saw it?!?

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday #330: All Illinois Rock Swap and Silent Auction 1976

August 28, 2026 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the “All Illinois Rock Swap and Silent Auction”. It was held on August 28th and 29th, 1976 at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, IL. The event was held in Parking Lot K. Long-time ESCONI member Rich Rock was Chairman. And really, who has a better name for than him to be involved in an event like this? Here is a photo of him and his grandson Pete at last year’s ESCONI Rock Swap.

Field Trips

ESCONI Field Trip to Bellevue, MI Quarry on Saturday, September 12th, 2026

A field trip to a quarry in Bellevue, MI is scheduled for Saturday, September 12th, 2026. This is a joint trip with the Kalamazoo Geological and Mineral Society (KGMS), and will be led by KGMS members. There is space for 15 ESCONI members. The trip will be from 9:30 AM ET to 2:30 PM ET. Note […]

Calendar of Events

Reminder! 2026 ESCONI Rock, Mineral and Fossil Swap and Sale – August 15, 2026 at College of DuPage

ESCONI is sponsoring a rock swap and sale event on August 15, 2026 at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. The location is Parking Lot 4, south of the Health and Science Building, and adjacent to the prairie.

Mazon Creek, Mazon Monday

Mazon Monday #335: Richardson Collecting at Pit 11 in 1974

A few years ago, Charlie Shabica donated a collection of historical documents to ESCONI, and these photographs were among the materials. They document a Mazon Creek field trip in July 1974 led by Eugene Richardson Jr., Curator of Fossil Invertebrates at the Field Museum.

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Behold, The World’s Oldest Amber – a Record of a World 385 Million Years Ago

Science Alert has a story about the discovery of the oldest known amber. The amber dates to the Middle Devonian Period, some 385 mullion years ago and about 65 million years older than the previous record holder. Amber is fossilized tree resin, so land plants needed to evolve before amber was possible. This particular amber was found in a coal deposit in northwest China. We tend to think of tree resin as an ancient, fragrant defense against munching insects – one that fends off pests and scabs over the wounds left by their voracious mandibles. But a new discovery suggests that these viscous…

Around the Web

Rock River Valley Gem and Mineral Society Rock Swap – Saturday, September 12th, 2026

Rock River Valley Gem and Mineral Society Rock Swap – Saturday September 12, 2026

Fossil Friday, Mazon Creek

Fossil Friday #329: Pit 11 Roachoid!

This beautiful roachoid comes from ESCONI President Chris Berg. He collected it from the Pit 11. It opened up recently via the freeze/thaw method. Thanks for sharing, Chris!

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday #329: Looking Back At ESCONI For July/August 2026

The newsletters are typically sparse in the summer, but here is a bit of ESCONI history for your summer reading pleasure. 25, 50, and 70 years ago…

Around the Web

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

The Conversation has an interesting post about an important fossil site in northeastern Italy. The Villaggio del Pescatore site dates to 80 million years ago, which was near the end of the Cretaceous Period. Fossil animals found in the locality were swept in to the area by monsoon rains and tropical cyclones. Dinosaurs, crocodiles, and plants were preserved in river mud on a tidal flat. More details can be found in the paper “Climate-extreme-driven genesis of a Cretaceous dinosaur Lagerstätte” in the journal ScienceDirect. My colleagues and I have published a new study that reconstructs the violent tropical climate behind the Villaggio del Pescatore…

Uncategorized

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. Check it out! There are roughly 70,000 acres of forest preserve in Cook County, another 26,000 in DuPage, and 31,600 across 65 sites in Lake. You do not…

Saturday, July 11th	Field Trip to Mount Orab for Ordovician Trilobites Details were sent in an email.
Saturday, August 15th	ESCONI Rock, Mineral, and Fossil Swap College of Dupage – 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM. Details here.
No meetings until September	General Meeting
No meetings until September	Paleontology Study Group
No meetings until September	Junior Study Group Meeting
No meetings until September	Mineralogy Study Group

ESCONI Rock, Mineral and Fossil Swap and Sale!

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