Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

ESCONI Events April 2015

Sat, April 10-12	MAPS EXPO Sharpless Auction House, Iowa City, IA (Map) - Title: "Cenozoic Era" Friday, April 10: 08:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Saturday, April 11: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sunday, April 12: 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. (NOTE: extended Sunday hours)
Sat, April 11	ESCONI Mineralogy Meeting 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage  - Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) - Topic: "Iron Mining in the Midwest", ESCONI member Jim Daly will discuss iron mining in the midwest
Fri, April 17	ESCONI General Meeting 8:00 p.m. College of Dupage - Tech Ed (TEC) Building, Room 1038B (Map) - Topic: Niagaran Fossils and the Silurian Reef Digitization Project at the Field Museum.” by Dr. Paul Mayer of the Field Museum
Sat, April 18	Field Trip, 9:30 a.m. Vulcan Quarry, Sycamore, IL - (Map)
Sat, April 18	ESCONI Paleontology Study Group Meeting 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, - Tech Ed Building (TEC), Room 1038B (Map)- Topic: "Vertebrate Microfossils of the Illinois Basin", ESCONI member Dave Carlson will discuss vertebrate microfossils of the Illinois Basin.
Fri, April 24	ESCONI Archaeology Study Group Meeting 7:30 p.m. College of Dupage, - Tech Ed Building (TEC), Room 1038B (Map) - Topic: "The Bermuda Triangle", ESCONI member Eric Schmidt will be discussing the Bermuda Triangle and it's many mysteries.

The April General Meeting is on April 17th

Due to the MAPS show April 10th-12th.  The general meeting has been moved to Friday, April 17th at 8:00 PM.  The presentation will be by Paul Mayer on 'Niagaran' Fossils and the Silurian Reef Digitization Project'.  Paul works at the Field Museum.  Sounds like a good one, hope to see you there!

 

CBC Quirks & Quarks - Giant Creatures from the Past

Reconstruction of Carnufex carolinensis (Jorge Gonzales)

This week's CBC Quicks & Quarks has a couple of segments on giant creatures from the past. 

The first is about a super-sized salamander from the Triassic (about 230 million years ago) of Portugal.  The interview is with Dr. Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist from the School of Geosciences at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.  He describes a 2 meter long creature that spent most of it's time in the water.  There is evidence that it came on land to feast on small dinosaurs and mammals that ventured too close to the water's edge.  This giant animal was one of the many victims of the mass extinction caused by the break-up of Pangea.  Here is the original paper from The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

The next segment is about a giant prehistoric crocodile, referred to as a "Carolina Butcher".  This fossil is of an ancestor of modern crocodile (Carnufex carolinensis).  It was discovered in North Carolina and is about 231 million years old (Triassic).  The bones included skull, spine, and forelimbs.  The juvenile specimen appears able to walk on it's hind legs and would have been nearly 3 meters long.  It also did not survive past the Triassic mass extinction.  Here is the original paper in the journal Nature's Scientific Reports.

 

 

 

Earth Hour 2015 - March 28th Between 8:30 PM and 9:30 PM

Earth Hour 2015 is coming up on Saturday, March 28th during the hour of 8:30pm - 9:30pm.  To honor the global environmental initiative, please turn off your lights.

Earth Hour started in 2007 as a lights-off event to raise awareness about climate change. The organization has grown to engage more than 162 countries and territories worldwide.

If you would like more information on this important cause please visit: 

earthhour.org

A Little Spring Humor

Enjoy!

Woolly Mammoth DNA Successfully Spliced into Elephant Cells

Popular Science (and others) has a story about some scientists that have successfully copied genes from a frozen woolly mammoth into the genome of the Asian elephant.  Asian elephants are their closest living relative.  This is a interesting step, even though researchers don't expect clones any time soon.  The research is being done at Harvard University by a team that includes geneticist George Church.

Using a DNA editing tool called CRISPR, the scientists spliced genes for the mammoths’ small ears, subcutaneous fat, and hair length and color into the DNA of elephant skin cells. The tissue cultures represent the first time woolly mammoth genes have been functional since the species went extinct around 4,000 years ago.

The research has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal “because there is more work to do,” Church told the U.K.’s Sunday Times, “but we plan to do so.”

The work is part of an effort to bring extinct species back from the dead, a process called “de-extinction”. The recent breakthrough shows that one proposed de-extinction method--which involves splicing genes from extinct animals into the genomes of their living relatives--just might work. But don't believe the headlines suggesting woolly mammoth cloning is just around the corner. Church explained to Popular Science that there’s a lot more research to be done.

 

New Fossil Project Newsletter

The Fossil Project has a new edition of their newsletter.  Find it here.  There's a story by ESCONI's own John Catalani about MAPS.

Topics include:

• Featured Paleontologist: Thomas J. DeVries
• Club Corner: Mid-America Paleontology Society by John Catalani
• Featured Fossil: Scavenged Whale Bone by Cindy Roll and Victor Perez
• Amateur Spotlight: Jayson Kowinsky by Victor Perez
• Education: Digital Fossils in the High School Classroom by Andy Farke, Robert Gay and Taormina Lepore
• Research: First Steps in Primate Evolution by Stephen G. B. Chester
• Introducing Ronny M. Leder by Ronny Leder
• An introduction to Paleoart with Florida Museum of Natural History Artist Jeff Huber by Gabriella Nicholas
• The FOSSIL Project Updates, Announcements and Events by Bruce MacFadden

ESCONI Show 2015 - Day 2

Here are some pictures of Day 2 of the ESCONI Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Show 2015.  By all accounts, the show was successful.  I recognize many faces in these photos.  Hopefully, you were able to attend and had a great time along with everyone else!

ESCONI Show 2015 - Day 1

A record number of people, over 700, attended the ESCONI Gem, Mineral and Fossil Show on Saturday. We look forward to seeing attendees on Sunday too.  At the juniors booth, kids of all ages created mineral collections.  Attendees enjoyed exhibits from the Field Museum and the Lizzadro Museum, as well as exhibits and demonstrations from members (see Herkimer Diamond photo).  The live and silent auctions provided much entertainment and some fabulous deals. 

Hope to see you Sunday! Free admission and free parking. 

 

(TIP - on Sunday, an antique fair will be happening in the  building across from the ESCONI show, so bring a friend who like antiques. And after the antique show, bring come on over to the ESCONI show to see some  antique fossils and minerals that are 300 million years old - give or take a couple hundred million years.)

 

Researchers may have solved origin-of-life conundrum

JOE TUCCIARRONE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYCORBIS

The crash of meteors on early Earth likely generated hydrogen cyanide, which could have kick-started the production of biomolecules needed to make the first cells.

Science has a story about the origin of life on earth.  "How did life arise?"  It's long been a question that has baffled both modern day scientists and our ancient brethren.  Now, we may have a few more pieces of the puzzle.  Some chemists from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom have reported that they have created nucleic acid precursors starting with just hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), and ultraviolet light.  

Sutherland’s team argues that early Earth was a favorable setting for those reactions. HCN is abundant in comets, which rained down steadily for nearly the first several hundred million years of Earth’s history. The impacts would also have produced enough energy to synthesize HCN from hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen. Likewise, Sutherland says, H2S was thought to have been common on early Earth, as was the UV radiation that could drive the reactions and metal-containing minerals that could have catalyzed them.

That said, Sutherland cautions that the reactions that would have made each of the sets of building blocks are different enough from one another—requiring different metal catalysts, for example—that they likely would not have all occurred in the same location. Rather, he says, slight variations in chemistry and energy could have favored the creation of one set of building blocks over another, such as amino acids or lipids, in different places. “Rainwater would then wash these compounds into a common pool,” says Dave Deamer, an origin-of-life researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who wasn’t affiliated with the research.

 

Reminder: Today is the ESCONI Show at Dupage Fairgrounds!

It’s warming up outside and soon it’ll be time to hunt for treasure… Why wait?

This year’s ESCONI Gem, Fossil and Mineral show is set to start in just 6 days and counting!  You can find all sorts of hard to find goodies as this year’s show will feature many of the same attractions that have made our show popular. You’ll find great deals from gem, jewelry, fossil, bead and mineral dealers, live and silent auctions of minerals and fossils (you can go to our club website or Facebook site to see pictures of some of the top specimens up for auction), craft demonstrations, book sales, member displays, kids' corner and geode cracking.  As always, children under the age of 16 can receive a free geode at the geode booth!

The 2015 ESCONI Gem, Mineral and Fossil show will be held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, which is located at 2015 Manchester Road, Wheaton, IL.

The show times will be 10 am - 5 pm on Saturday, March 21st and 10 am - 4 pm on Sunday, March 22nd.  Information and directions to the DuPage County Fairgrounds can be found on our ESCONI website: http://www.esconi.org/esconi_earth_science_club/2015/01/2015-ESCONI-Show.html .

We hope to see you at the show!

 

ESCONI Show 2015 - Setup

Here are a few pictures of the setup of the 2015 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Show.   We are getting ready for you!  Come out for great deals, fun, rocks, minerals, fossils, fun, gems, and even more fun!  It all starts tomorrow at 10:00 am at the Dupage County Fairgrounds.  Come on out!

 

ESCONI Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show is Tomorrow! At the Dupage Fairgrounds

The ESCONI Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Show is tomorrow, March 21st and 22nd, 2015.  There will be fun for the whole family... don't miss it!

 

Darwin’s “Strangest” Beast Finds Place on Tree

Ed Yong has an interesting story about Toxodon on the blog Phenomena over at National Geographic.  Seems the animal never really had a comfortable place in the tree of life.  But now, using molecular biology techniques on old bones, scientists were able to extract enough information from collagen molecules to place Toxodon near perissodactyls - odd-toed hoofed mammals like rhinos, tapirs, and horses.

“Toxodon is perhaps one of the strangest animals ever discovered,” wrote Charles Darwin, a man who was no stranger to strangeness. He first encountered the creature in Uruguay on November 26th, 1834. “Having heard of some giant’s bones at a neighbouring farm-house…, I rode there accompanied by my host, and purchased for the value of eighteen pence the head of the Toxodon,” he later wrote.

The beast’s skeleton, once fully assembled, was a baffling mish-mash of traits. It was huge like a rhino, but it had the chiselling incisors of a rodent—its name means “arched tooth”—and the high-placed eyes and nostrils of a manatee or some other aquatic mammal. “How wonderfully are the different orders, at present time so well separated, blended together in different points of the structure of the toxodon!” Darwin wrote.

The original paper is in Nature.

Uni Students Discover Moa in Ancient Oven

Moa Statues

The Archaeology News Network has a piece about the discovery of Moa (Megalapteryx didinus) remains in an ancient oven.  The oven is thought to be at least 600 years old, which makes it one of the oldest archaeological sites in New Zealand. 

Moas are extinct flightless birds that lived only in New Zealand.  They went extinct due to various reason all having to do with the settlement of New Zealand around 1300 CE.  The extinction took less that 100 years, but there is some speculation the a few Moas may have persisted in remote corners of the islands until the 18th or even the 19th century.

St. Paul Field Trip - Friday, March 27th 2015

There will be a field trip to the St. Paul Stone Quarry on March 27th. We will meet at the quarry office at 8:45 am eastern time (7:45 am Chicago time) to sign waivers. Participation is limited to 20 and you must be 18 years old (quarry policy). You also must be a paid member by the end of the ESCONI Show (March 21). Map

To sign up, e-mail John Catalani: [email protected]

 

 

Ordovician Atlas

Ordovician Weekly has a story about the Digital Atlas of Ordovician Life site.  The Ordovician Atlas has a massive amount of information about the life of the Cincinnati Arch.  All of the expected animals are there, Arthropoda, Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Cnidaria, Echinodermata, Hemichordata, and Mollusca.  There are pictures for identification, notes on the geology of the area, geographic occurrence maps,  and (most important) links to places for collecting.  It looks like it's part of a larger NSF project to document the history of life.

Here is a paper that describes the site in detail.

 

 

ESCONI Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show - Mar 21 & 22 - Dupage Fairgrounds

It’s warming up outside and soon it’ll be time to hunt for treasure… Why wait?

This year’s ESCONI Gem, Fossil and Mineral show is set to start in just 6 days and counting!  You can find all sorts of hard to find goodies as this year’s show will feature many of the same attractions that have made our show popular. You’ll find great deals from gem, jewelry, fossil, bead and mineral dealers, live and silent auctions of minerals and fossils (you can go to our club website or Facebook site to see pictures of some of the top specimens up for auction), craft demonstrations, book sales, member displays, kids' corner and geode cracking.  As always, children under the age of 16 can receive a free geode at the geode booth!

The 2015 ESCONI Gem, Mineral and Fossil show will be held at the DuPage County Fairgrounds, which is located at 2015 Manchester Road, Wheaton, IL.

The show times will be 10 am - 5 pm on Saturday, March 21st and 10 am - 4 pm on Sunday, March 22nd.  Information and directions to the DuPage County Fairgrounds can be found on our ESCONI website: http://www.esconi.org/esconi_earth_science_club/2015/01/2015-ESCONI-Show.html .

We hope to see you at the show!

Today and tomorrow are Paleofest 2015 at the Burpee Museum in Rockford!

Quick reminder, today and tomorrow are Paleofest 2015 at the Burpee Museum in Rockford.  There's a long distinguished list of speakers.  And, many programs for families with kids.  Don't miss it!

Field Trip to Vulcan Sycamore Quarry on Saturday, April 18, 2015

A field trip to the Vulcan quarry (aka Larson) in Sycamore Illinois will be held on April 18, 2015. The trip starts at 9:30 AM and ends at 12:00 PM. The quarry is located at 15622 Barber Green Road.
 
You must be an ESCONI member as of March 22 to attend this trip. That means you can pay your membership dues at the upcoming show, if you haven't done so already.
 
The rules are a little different this time, so please read them carefully. This is what was given to me by Vulcan management.
 
1. This trip is combined with Roy Plotnick's class from UIC. Expect a bigger crowd than usual.
 
2. Get there early. The parking lot is on the south side of the road, but you may have to park elsewhere if they run out of space.
 
3. We will have site-specific training, and everyone will sign a waiver.
 
4. We will be collecting in a designated area on the overburden shale dump only. We cannot go anywhere else in the quarry.
 
5. You must have the following safety gear: steel-toed boots, hard hat, safety glasses and safety vest. These must be worn at all times on the property.
 
6. No rock hammers, chisels, or large shovels. We can keep the fossils we find as long as they can easily be carried.
 
7. Photographs of the quarry or quarry facilities are not allowed. Photographs of fossils ARE allowed, and Vulcan management would like to have pictures of nice specimens.

 

8. Minimum age is 18 to attend.

 

9. Carts, wagons, etc are allowed for carrying specimens.

If you have unique or impressive specimens found at this quarry, and are willing to bring them for the group(s) to see, please do so.
 
To sign up for this field trip, please send me (Dave) an email with the number of members attending. My email address is: [email protected]  No phone calls please. I will confirm via return email within 24 hours. If you do not hear back from me within that time, send it again!