Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Source of Stonehenge Smaller Bluestone

Via LiveScience:

Scientists have found the exact source of Stonehenge's smaller bluestones, new research suggests.

The stones' rock composition revealed they come from a nearby outcropping, located about 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) away from the site originally proposed as the source of such rocks nearly a century ago.

Oldest known piece of our planet, dating to 4.4 billion years ago

Via Reuters:

Scientists using two different age-determining techniques have shown that a tiny zircon crystal found on a sheep ranch in western Australia is the oldest known piece of our planet, dating to 4.4 billion years ago

Guide to Owning a Pet Dinosaur

Pet Dinosaur Guide - fun

 

ESCONI Events - March 2014

Sat 3/22	Archaeology Study Group Meeting. 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, - Tech Ed Building (TEC), Room 1038B (Map) Topic: "History & Science of the Shroud of Turin."   Dr John Ruskamp will be lecturing on the history and science of the famous Shroud of Turin. As one of most famous shrouds of history, Dr Ruskamp will display a life size replica of the shroud. As one of only a handful in existence, you will have the opportunity to see for your self the shroud in detail, learn about its discovery, and discuss its scientific significance.  Visit the site below for more history on the shroud. https://www.shroud.com This is an event you will not want to miss!
Sat. and Sun. 3/22 - 3/23	Des Plaines Valley Geological Society's 49th Annual Gem, Mineral, Fossil, Jewelry and Lapidary Arts Show, Sa: 9:30-5, Su: 10-4. Admission - Adults $3.00, Seniors $2.00, Students with School ID $1.00, Children under 12 FREE when accompanied by an adult., Des Plaines Park District Leisure Center, 2222 Birch Street, Des Plaines, IL., http://www.desplainesgeologyclub.org or contact Jeanine N. Mielecki at [email protected]
Fri 3/28	ESCONI Board Meeting. 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, Tech Ed Build. TEC 1038B  (Map)
3/29-3/30	Badger Lapidary and Geological Society's 44th Annual Rock, Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show, Monroe WI.,  Sa: 9-5, Su: 9-5, Monroe High School, 1600 26th St., Monroe, WI 53566, Info: http://www.badgerrockclub.org or contact Terri Marche at [email protected]

Burpee Paleofest Speaker Schedule

Paleofest - Burpee Museum of Natural History - to purchase tickets
Download PaleoFest Speaker Schedule (.pdf)

Saturday March 8, 2014	Time	Sunday March 9, 2014
Opening Comments	9:00-9:30	Megalodon: How Did the World’s Largest Shark Live? Dana Ehret Ph.D.,  Curator of Paleontology, Alabama Museum of Natural History
The Beginning of the Age of Mammals in New Mexico Tomas Williamson Ph.D, Curator of Paleontology, New Mexico Museum of Natural History	9:30-10:00	The Life and Death of Whales: New Discoveries About the Evolution of the World’s Largest Animals Nick Pyenson Ph.D., Curator of Marine Mammals, Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of Natural History
Survivors: Turtles of the Early Cenozoic Tyler Lyson Ph.D., Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of Natural History	10:00-10:30	The Final Days of Mammoths and Mastodons Chris Widga Ph.D., Curator of Geology, Illinois State Museum
BREAK	10:30-11:00	BREAK
Tropical Wyoming: Using Early Eocene Leaves from Fossil Lake to Infer Climate Arvid Aase, Curator at Fossil Butte National Monument, Kemmerer, WY	11:00-11:30	Horses and Bison: Icons of the Ice Age Eric Scott Ph.D., Curator of Paleontology, San Bernardino County Museum-Redlands
Unique Fauna of Fossil Lake Lance Grande Ph.D, Field Museum Distinguished Service Curator, Field Museum of Natural History	11:30-12:00	Deadly Carving Tooth: The Sabercat, Smilodon fatalis Julie Meachen Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anatomy, Des Moines University
BREAK	12:00-1:30	BREAK
Terrestrial Biotic Response to the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum Jonathan Bloch Ph.D., Research Foundation Professor, University of Florida	1:30-2:00	Stories Yet Untold: The History of Crocodyliforms After the Age of Dinosaurs  Christopher Brochu Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Geology, University of Iowa
The Age of Mammals Snakes:  Cenozoic Diversity and Radiations of Squamate Reptiles Jason Head Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska	2:00-2:30	A Vanished Ecosystem: Late Tertiary Fossils from Northern Indiana (Pipe Creek Sinkhole, Grant County) James Farlow Ph.D., Professor of Geology, Purdue University-Fort Wayne

BREAK	2:30-3:00	BREAK
New Vertebrate Fossils from the Cenozoic of Madagascar Karen Samonds Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, Northern Illinois University	3:00-3:30	A Lost World Found: Texas in the Mid-Cretaceous Christopher Noto Ph.D., Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin – Parkside
Murderous Weapon Indeed: Evidence of Fatal Combat within the “False Saber-Toothed Cats” Clint Boyd Ph.D., Haslem Postdoctoral Fellow, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology	3:30-4:00	Discovering New Dinosaurs in Well-Known Places: A How-To Gude David Evans Ph.D., Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, Royal Ontario Museum
The Emergence of Modern People Fred Smith PhD., Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Illinois State University	4:00-4:30	Wounding Tooth Starts a Family: Reproduction in the Cretaceous Theropod Troodon formosus Dave Varricchio Ph.D., Associate Professor of Paleontology, Montana State University

New Book on Hell Creek Formation from GSA

From the Geological Society of America:

 

Full Title: Through the End of the Cretaceous in the Type Locality of the Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Adjacent Areas

 

Editors: Gregory P. Wilson, William A. Clemens, John R. Horner, and Joseph H. Hartman

 

Description:

For over a century, the Hell Creek and Fort Union formations and their constituent fossil biotas have captivated geologists and paleontologists alike. In Montana and adjacent areas, these rocks have become renowned as the type locality for Tyrannosaurus rex and the epicenter for debate surrounding the mass extinction of dinosaurs at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The chapters in this volume represent a surge of field and laboratory research activity that illustrates the impacts of new and refined methods and tools. In tandem, the research questions have evolved to take advantage of the increased precision, quality, and quantity of the data, from determinations of paleoecologies to assessment of ontogenetic sequences, patterns of sedimentation, and basin-level intraformational correlations. Together, the chapters in this volume are a major step forward in the quest to mine the rich lode of geologic and biologic history preserved in the strata bounding the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary.

Treasure Hunt This Saturday 2/22 at 9:00 am

 

Come out for the greatest identification project ever undertaken by our club - Saturday, 2/22, Montgomery, IL.  (Photo is one item just found last weekend - more to ifind and identify!)

We have over 500 boxes of UNIDENTIFIED minerals and fossils that have been recently donated to the club! Minerals and fossils collected from the 1960s to today from all over the US - Maine to California. We need member help in identifying and prepping specimens for the annual show.

What is in the 500 boxes? Bring your loupe, your identification books and your curiosity and work with experts from our group to identify all this newly donated treasure!

To get directions to the Montgomery IL location : Contact John Good at 1-630-483-2363

Photo: Mazon Creek spider that was identified and found last weekend. This specimen will be sold at ESCONI annual show - silent auction.

Later that night - you can attend the interesting lecture being given by Dr. John Ruskamp at the Archaeology Study Group. 

 

This Saturday - Lecture by Dr. Ruskamp at Archaeology Study Group Meeting

Archaeology Study Group Meeting. 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, - Tech Ed Building (TEC), Room 1038B (Map) Topic: Dr John Ruskamp will speak on "Asiatic Echoes" The identification of ancient Chinese pictograms in pre-Columbian North America rock writing.n  Article about John Ruskamp and his work: http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2014-01/11/content_17230727.htm

New Fossil Archaeopteryx Discovered

Over on the ESCONI Facebook page, Donald Baumgartner, posted:

New Fossil Archaeopteryx Discovered. See the story at http://ewilloughby.tumblr.com/post/77207050788/the-12th-archaeopteryx-discovered

Fossil and mineral treasure hunt this Saturday

Come out for the greatest identification project ever undertaken by our club - Saturday, 2/22, Montgomery, IL. 9:00 am - till 2-3 pm

We have over 500 boxes of UNIDENTIFIED minerals and fossils that have been recently donated to the club by two serious collectors. The donations include minerals and fossils collected from the 1960s to today from all over the US - Maine to California.

What is in the 500 boxes? It is a mystery! Bring your loupe, your identification books and your curiosity and work with experts from our group to identify all this newly donated treasure!

To get directions to the Montgomery IL location : Contact John Good at 1-630-483-2363

A Different Link about the New Burgess Shale Discovery

We reported on the new Burgess shale discovery last week with a link to Scientific American, but over on the ESCONI Facebook site, Don Baumgartener posted a different link to the Royal Ontario Museum's reporting on the discovery.

The ROM site includes videos and photos like this:

Saturday Lecture: Fields trips at the SVP 2013

Saturday - ESCONI Paleontology Meeting 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, - Tech Ed Building (TEC), Room 1038B (Map) Topic:  “Fields trips at the SVP 2013 meeting in LA” by Karen Nordquist and Irene Brody

Members - Need Your Help Saturday for Show Preparation

We need cars and help in moving the show inventory from a storage locker in West Chicago to our storage facility in Montgomery.

We will be meeting at 9:00 am this Saturday at CUBE SMART, 27W125 North Ave West Chicago.

Questions? : Contact John Good at 1-630-483-2363

Friday's Lecture: The Rancho La Brean Dire Wolf And What Its Bones Can Tell Us

ESCONI General Meeting 8:00 p.m. College of Dupage,  - Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) Speaker: Lindsey Koper. Instructor, Northern Illinois University. Topic: The Rancho La Brean Dire Wolf And What Its Bones Can Tell Us: A Brief Look Into The Life Of Canis dirus And What Became Of This Great Predator- 

Canis dirus, the dire wolf from the tar pits of Rancho La Brea was the dominant canid predator during the Pleistocene and thrived alongside other large carnivores such as Smilodon fatalis and Panthera atrox, the American lion.  The dire wolf also interacted and coexisted with the modern wolf (Canis lupus) when it reached North America.   

Looking at the fossils of Canis dirus found at Rancho La Brea both the dire wolf and modern wolf appear to be anatomically similar as well as share comparable hunting styles.  At the end of the last glacial maximum Canis dirus died out along with the other megafauna of the time while Canis lupus survives into today.  Clues as to why the dire wolf may have died out can be seen in the dentition and skeletal remains of this large canid.

New Fossil Bed Found in Kootenay National Park

Via Scientific American:

A treasure trove of fossils chiseled out of a canyon in Canada's Kootenay National Park rivals the famous Burgess Shale, the best record of early life on Earth, scientists say.

"Once we started to break fresh rock, we realized we had discovered something incredibly special," said Robert Gaines, a geologist at Pomona College in Pomona, Calif., and co-author of a new study announcing the find. "It was an extraordinary moment."...

end-Permian Extinction Instantaneous Geologically

Via PhysOrg:

...  researchers at MIT have determined that the end-Permian extinction occurred over 60,000 years, give or take 48,000 years—practically instantaneous, from a geologic perspective. The new timescale is based on more precise dating techniques,

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-02-end-permian-extinction-yearsmuch-faster-earlier.html#jCp

Oldest Footprints Outside of Africa

Via Scientific American:

...Archaeologists working on the eastern coast of England have found a series of footprints that were made by human ancestors sometime between 780,000 and one million years ago. Pressed into ancient estuary mudflats now hard with age, these prints are the oldest ones known outside of Africa, where humanity got its start.

Scientists discovered the prints early last May at the seaside site of Happisburgh in Norfolk. High seas had eroded the beach sand to reveal the ancient mudflats beneath. The team had to act quickly to record the footprint surface before it, too, eroded. They used a technique called multi-image photogrammetry and laser scanning to capture the footprints in three dimensions. By the end of May the prints were gone, thanks to the unrelenting surf....

Avalanche Becomes a River

Whorl of Teeth

Via Scientific American:

...

Part of the problem with Helicoprion fossils is that they are only known from the teeth. With one notable exception, no evidence remains of what these cartilaginous fish looked like – cartilage just doesn’t fossilize as reliably as bone. So for over a century, researchers have wrestled with how exactly the bizarre saw-like teeth fit in the jaws of these creatures.

Recently, however, researchers at the Idaho Virtualization Lab (IVL) at Idaho State University took a closer look at the one specimen that was noted in 1966 to have some remnants of the jaws preserved in the block surrounding the tooth whorl. At the urging of Troll, who was friendly with the researcher who had noted this fact in the ’60s, the IVL had the fossil CT scanned. Sure enough, after analyzing the data, they found evidence of an upper and lower jaw surrounding the tooth whorl, adding some much-needed evidence to the debate about how long Helicoprion’s snout was and where and how the unique tooth row sat in the jaws....

Link Between Wildflowers and Disappearance of Ice Age Giants

Via Reuters:

...  Flower power may have meant the difference between life and death for some of the extinct giants of the Ice Age, including the mighty woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros.

Scientists who studied DNA preserved in Arctic permafrost sediments and in the remains of such ancient animals have concluded that these Ice Age beasts relied heavily on the protein-rich wildflowers that once blanketed the region....