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We have a remote speaker for our June meeting. He is Dr. Joe Peterson from the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh. Joe earned a BS Geology at SIU-C and an MS/PhD Geology from NIU. Since, then, he worked and volunteered at Burpee for many years. The title of his program is “Dino-Sores: Injury and Behavior in Cretaceous Dinosaurs”.
This meeting will be held over Zoom. Here is the link.
If you need help with Zoom, here are some useful Zoom Instructions.
This is the "Fossil Friday" post #8. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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Trilobites from the St. Paul Stone Quarry in St. Paul, IN. These photos are from a field trip on October 4th, 2013. The short video gives you an idea of the size of the quarry at that time.
This is Throwback Thursday #9. 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 sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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ESCONI has had a long history of field trips to the old Elmer Larson (now Vulcan) Quarry in DeKalb, IL. In researching this story, I found this article in the Chicago Tribune from March 27th, 1994 that lists Jack Wittry and others collecting there. There are also articles in various papers of the Open House events they held for years (2007).
The abundant fossils collected at this site come from the Brainard Shale, which is part of the Maquoketa Group. Some of the common fossils found there are brachiopods, trilobites, bryozoans, crinoids, tentaculites, and cephalopods. Below is a picture of the rock formation exposed in this quarry.
Here are the field trip pictures. I see quite a few ESCONI regulars, including a younger version of myself!
Original artwork depicting the moment the asteroid struck in present-day Mexico. Credit: Chase Stone
Phys.org has a story about the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs. A study at Imperial College London did simulations and found that the angle of attack for the asteroid that struck the Earth at the end of the Cretaceous Period hit at the "deadliest possible" angle. All the details are in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.
New simulations from Imperial College London have revealed the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs struck Earth at the 'deadliest possible' angle.
The simulations show that the asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which maximised the amount of climate-changing gases thrust into the upper atmosphere.
Such a strike likely unleashed billions of tonnes of sulphur, blocking the sun and triggering the nuclear winter that killed the dinosaurs and 75 per cent of life on Earth 66 million years ago.
Drawn from a combination of 3-D numerical impact simulations and geophysical data from the site of the impact, the new models are the first ever fully 3-D simulations to reproduce the whole event—from the initial impact to the moment the final crater, now known as Chicxulub, was formed.
This is Mazon Monday post #9. Acanthodes beecheri is the subject of this Species Spotlight. Some of the material in this post was provided by David Duck. Dave has a deep appreciation and interest in the Mazon Creek fauna and flora. He has even constructed 3-D models of quite a few of the Mazon animals, including the Tullymonster gregarium, Euproops danae, Mamayocaris jaskoskii, and Acanthodes beecheri among others. The models are very detailed! Thanks for your contribution, Dave!
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Acanthodes is an extinct genus of spiny shark. Fossils have been found in Europe, North America, and Australia. Their geologic range is from the Middle Devonian until the Lower Permian. Their actual position on the tree of life is controversial. The following quote comes from the wikipedia page for Acanthodes.
The scientific classification of acanthodians is still a subject of great dispute, due to the fact that they share qualities of both bony fish (osteichthyes) and cartilaginous fish (chondrichthyes). A recent study has suggested that Acanthodes may have been, or closely related to an early common ancestor to all cartilaginous and bony fish, including humans.[6][7] Acanthodian internal anatomy is primarily understood by Acanthodes bronni because it remains the only example preserved in substantial detail, central to which is an ostensible osteichthyan braincase. For this reason, Acanthodes has become an indispensable component in early gnathostome phylogenies.[8] Acanthodes is quantifiably closer to chondrichthyans than to osteichthyans. However, phylogenetic analysis places Acanthodes on the osteichthyan stem, as part of a well-resolved tree that also recovers acanthodians as stem chondrichthyans and stem gnathostomes. As such, perceived chondrichthyan features of the Acanthodes cranium represent shared primitive conditions for crown group gnathostomes. There has been increasingly detailed findings of early gnathostome evolution highlights ongoing and profound anatomical reorganization of vertebrate crania after the origin of jaws but before the divergence of living clades.[8]
Two species of Acanthodes have been identified in the Mazon Creek fauna. One species identified in this paper is Acanthodes beecheri. The pictures below are of 3-D models laid next to two specimens found in Mazon Creek. The specimens are from the collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum and Yale. The 3-D model was created by David Duck.
A Creature Corner article on Acanthodes appeared in the April 1989 edition of the ESCONI bulletin.
Mazon Creek concretions have preserved what is considered to the most diversified Late Pennsylvanian fish fauna known. Represented are lampreys, lungfish, coelacanths, shark-like fishes, various bony fishes, and acanthodians. Two species of acanthodians have been described from this location. More recent studies have noted that the vagaries of preservation preclude descriptions down to the species level, therefore, only the genus Acanthodes is recognized.
The Acanthodii are known from the Silurian and are the oldest known group of vertebrates with jaws. Superficially, acanthodians resemble sharks; heterocercal tail (vertebral column turning up at the end with tail fin suspended from it), large orbits on a stout body with shark-like proportions. Fins on this Class are an unusual type; all fins were paired and consisted of a membrane strengthened by a long spine at the front of each fin. In some species, the spine greatly exceeded the fin length. Despite the old designation "spiny sharks", they were completely armored with small diamond shaped scales, not the isolated dermal denticles of sharks. Scales on our 3-inch long genus, Acanthodes, averaged out at a square millimeter in size. Early acanthodians had teeth fixed to jaw bones; Acanthodes lacked any tooth-like structures. Braincase, head features and large orbits are comparable to those of ray-finned bony fish. The poor preservation of acanthodians hinders study of their internal features. Most were small and easily crushed, yet portions of an internal skeleton are visible.
Acanthodes has been found in the Essex and in the Braidwood biota. Most typical acanthodians were freshwater dwellers, so it is assumed that Acanthodes ventured out into the Mazon delta during the periods of high water. Acanthodians became extinct in the Lower Permian.
Where and how to place these strange fish is the evolutionary scheme puzzles scientists. Paired fins with bony spikes resemble primitive sharks (Class Chondrichthyes), yet the well-developed skeleton and scale covering resemble the Class Osteichthyes (the higher bony fishes). It is no wonder that Romer (1966) and Carroll (1987) have placed the genus Acanthodes and other acanthodians in "Class incertae sedis Acanthodii". There the Class "sits" awaiting further study.
A court ruling clarified ownership of the “Dueling Dinosaurs.” Part of the specimen is shown here at auction. AP PHOTO/SETH WENIG
Science Magazine has a story about the "Dueling Dinos". Discovered in 2006, the "Dueling Dinos" is a specimen that consists of two dinosaurs, a ceratopsian and a tyrannosaur, lying next to each other in what seems like mortal combat. Over the last few years, a court battle has tried to determine who owns these priceless fossils. On Wednesday, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that fossil could not be considered as minerals and so the land owner not the mineral rights owner would own this fossil. Quite often in the western United States, different entities own land and mineral rights.
A legal saga that threatened to upend fossil hunting in dinosaur-rich Montana has drawn to a close, and paleontologists are breathing a sigh of relief.
The Montana Supreme Court this week ruled that fossils are not legally the same as minerals such as gold or copper. Therefore, Montana fossils, including a dramatic specimen of two dinosaurs buried together, belong to people who own the land where they are found, rather than to the owners of the minerals underneath that land.
The 4-3 decision upholds the way U.S. scientists have long approached questions of fossil ownership. It appears to defuse a potentially explosive 2018 ruling by the federal 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that fossils went to the owners of mineral rights.
The outcome is a win for scientists who had warned that tying fossils to mineral rights could make it harder to get permission to excavate and could throw into doubt who owns fossils already on display, says David Polly, an Indiana University paleontologist and past president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The ruling is the final blow in a war that was, in many ways, already decided. In 2019, the Montana legislature passed a law affirming that fossils belong to landowners.
But it exempted active lawsuits, leaving open the case now decided by the state supreme court. “The general principle was already made by the legislature,” says Polly. “But it is good that the supreme court felt the same.”
This is the "Fossil Friday" post #7. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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Today's fossils for Fossil Friday are brachiopods from the Silica Shale in Ohio. The Silica Shale dates to the Middle Devonian Period about 390 million years ago. During the Devonian, North America occupied a much more southern position on Earth than today. This rock formation is part of the Michigan Basin, which was slowly subsiding during this time. Meanwhile, to the east the Acadian Mountains were being formed as part of the Acadian Orogeny. Pulses of fine sediment were laid down in the Michigan Basin to help create the beautiful fossils found around Toledo, Ohio.
Portion of global paleogeographic reconstruction of the Earth in the middle Devonian period 385 million years ago, showing Eastern North America with key features labeled - http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/rcb7/namD385.jp
Here are a couple sites (here and here) that can help you identify fossils of the Silica Shale. The LaFarge quarry in Paulding, OH is a famous locality where anyone can collect from the Silica Shale. Details can be found here.
Most of these brachiopods are partially or even fully pyrtized. It makes them heavier and quite beautiful.
Mucrospirifer mucronatus
Stropheodonta demissa
Mediospirifer audaculus
Paraspirifer bownocki
Pseudoatrype devoniana
Mary Anning with her dog, Tray, painted before 1842; the Golden Cap outcrop can be seen in the background
Mary Anning was born on May, 21st, 1799. She was a fossil collector, dealer, and paleontologist that lived in and around Lyme Regis a city on the South coast of England in the early 19th century. She is most famous for her discoveries of the first correctly identifier ichthyosaur, two of the first complete plesiosaurs, the first pterosaur, Dimorphodon, found outside Germany, and numerous important fish fossils. From her Wikipedia page...
Anning searched for fossils in the area's Blue Lias cliffs, particularly during the winter months when landslides exposed new fossils that had to be collected quickly before they were lost to the sea. She nearly died in 1833 during a landslide that killed her dog, Tray. Her discoveries included the first ichthyosaur skeleton correctly identified; the first two more complete plesiosaur skeletons found; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and important fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilised faeces. She also discovered that belemnite fossils contained fossilised ink sacslike those of modern cephalopods. When geologist Henry De la Beche painted Duria Antiquior, the first widely circulated pictorial representation of a scene from prehistoric life derived from fossil reconstructions, he based it largely on fossils Anning had found, and sold prints of it for her benefit.
A Dissenter and a woman, Anning did not fully participate in the scientific community of 19th-century Britain, who were mostly Anglican gentlemen. She struggled financially for much of her life. Her family was poor, and her father, a cabinetmaker, died when she was eleven.
She became well known in geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America, and was consulted on issues of anatomy as well as about collecting fossils. Nonetheless, as a woman, she was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London and she did not always receive full credit for her scientific contributions. Indeed, she wrote in a letter: "The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone." The only scientific writing of hers published in her lifetime appeared in the Magazine of Natural History in 1839, an extract from a letter that Anning had written to the magazine's editor questioning one of its claims.
After her death in 1847, her unusual life story attracted increasing interest. An uncredited author in All the Year Round, edited by Charles Dickens, wrote of her in 1865 that "[t]he carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and has deserved to win it." It has often been claimed that her story was the inspiration for the 1908 tongue-twister "She sells seashells on the seashore" by Terry Sullivan. In 2010, one hundred and sixty-three years after her death, the Royal Society included Anning in a list of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science.
This is Throwback Thursday #8. 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 sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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Thanks go out to ESCONI member John Liskey as he provided pictures, mineral material, and the idea for this post! Thanks, John!
If you collected minerals back in the middle of the 20th century, you were certainly familiar with Grieger's. That company, founded in 1930 by John Grieger, started as a hobby and it grew into a giant in the mineral world. John Grieger was born on June 17, 1910 in Michigan City, Indiana. His family moved to Pasadena, California sometime in the 1920s. By all accounts, he was an avid mineral collector from an early age. In 1930, he decided to start his own mineral business with a friend named Tommy Warner. They named their business Warner & Grieger. This article in the Pasadena Star-News from 2010 details some of the history of the business, which specialized in the sale a mineral specimens via catalog, but included a showroom of beautiful minerals, a lapidary shop, and a museum, at its height.
Pasadena was once the home of the largest mineral and lapidary mail order supplier in the country. It was called Grieger’s.
It was started as a hobby and expanded into a large business. John Grieger became interested in collecting minerals in the early 1930s.
He wrote in a catalog, “I started this business by picking up a piece of petrified wood, 25 years ago. Was a guest of the Pasadena Junior College mineral class on a trip to Signal Mountain in Mexico. In those days, this locality was abundant in petrified wood. Among those collected was an especially attractive wind-worn piece. One of the Los Angeles commercial cutters told me he would cut it in two and polish half, if he could have the other half. That was my first specimen and one which I still have.”
Grieger began to display his collection on racks in the backyard of the family home on Ninita Parkway in Pasadena. He soon began buying and selling from that location, shown at right in a 1942 photo. For a while, the business was known as Warner & Grieger as he partnered with Tommy Warner, whose family owned an Orange Grove Boulevard mansion. He also built a lapidary shop at the residential site.
John died in 1981 and unfortunately his business only lasted until 1997. It had effectively faded away... most likely victim to changing interests and changing times. You can find additional biographical information over on this page at mineralogicalrecord.com.
Here are pictures of the 1990-1991 catalog.
Here is an example of an order sheet from 1981.
The following pictures are sure to stimulate some memories... they are of various Grieger's specimens... most with their own Grieger's label.
Life reconstruction of the first Australian elaphrosaur. Image credit: Ruairidh Duncan.
SciNews has an article about a new dinosaur discovery in Australia. This new dinosaur lived around 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. It's a rare type of dinosaur that belongs to the group Elaphrosaurinae, which are odd ceratosaurians known from fossils from Africa, Asia, and Argentina. The fossils were discovered by Dinosaur Dreaming volunteer Jessica Parker in 2015 near Cape Otway, Victoria. All the details can be found in a paper that was published in the journal Gondwana Research.
The newly-discovered dinosaur belongs to Elaphrosaurinae, an enigmatic group of gracile ceratosaurian dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic period of Africa and Asia, and the early Late Cretaceous period of Argentina.
“Elaphrosaurs were strange looking dinosaurs — they ran low to the ground on two legs, with a slender body, long neck, stubby arms, and a delicate toothless skull,” said Dr. Tim Ziegler, collection manager of vertebrate palaeontology at Museums Victoria.
“They started life eating a wide range of foods, but shed their teeth as they aged. Elaphrosaurs are unusual among theropods because adults had a plant-based diet, rather than hunting prey.”
“Young elaphrosaurs might have hunted the tiny monotremes along with snapping up insects and fruits.”
This is Trilobite Tuesday post #8. Please note: most of the information used here came from the State Fossil page on Fossilera. It has information on all the state fossils, including state dinosaurs and state "stones". They have nice pictures and a brief description with links for each one.
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All but seven states have state fossils. And, there are three types of trilobite that have been honored as state fossils. Those types are listed below.
Isotelus
Age: Ordovician
Year Designated: 1985
Isotelus is a genus to large Asaphid trilobite that lived during the Ordovician Period. It’s fossils are common within several formations that outcrop in Southwestern Ohio. The largest Isotelus trilobite to be found in Ohio is about 16 inches long though the largest known trilobite Isotelus rex found in Manitoba, Canada is from the same genus.
The most famous specimen of Isotelus from Ohio was discovered in 1919 while digging an outlet tunnel during the construction of the Huffman Dam near Dayton. This giant trilobite specimen measures 14 ½ inches long. A couple elementary school classes in Dayton proposed naming this specimen of the official state fossil. While declining to designate only that specific specimen, the legislature instead passed a bill naming the genus Isotelus in 1985.
Eldredgeops rana
Age: Devonian
Year Designated: 1988
Phacops may be the most widely recognizable type of trilobite fossil in the world. Phacops rana is a species of the genus that can found in Pennsylvania's Devonian aged rocks. Trilobites are an extinct marine arthropod that occurred abundantly during the Paleozoic era.
Phacops rana was named the official state fossil of Pennsylvania in 1988 after being proposed to lawmakers by a elementary school science class. It has recently been declared synonymous with Eldredgeops rana.
Calymene celebra
Age: Silurian
Year Designated: 1985
In 1985 the trilobite Calymene celebra was adopted as the official Wisconsin state fossil. Trilobites are extinct marine arthropods which dominated the seas during the Paleozoic period. Calymene celebra lived during the Silurian period, at a time when warm, shallow seas covered the state. Its fossils are common in the vast Niagara dolomite outcroppings which are exposed in the state.
This species of trilobite is fairly common in Illinois. Of course, you have to find a place to get under the glacial till on top of our limestone bedrock.
This is Mazon Monday post #8. Testajapyx thomasi is the subject of this Species Spotlight, You may recognize the name of this species. It is named for ESCONI member, Tom Testa. Tom is a prolific, some might even say legendary, Mazon Creek collector. A great part of his collection resides in the Field Museum and is helping to further our knowledge of this ever interesting biota. Thanks for your invaluable contributions to science, Tom!
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Testajapyx thomasi is a wingless insect. It was described in October 1987, by Jarmila Kukalova-Peck from Carleton University in Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
A new Upper Carboniferous japygid, Testajapyx thomasi n.gen. et n.sp., shows that only Diplura of Entognatha shared an ancestral ground plan with Insecta–Ectognatha. Pleuron, palps, thoracic and abdominal legs, and vesicles are compared between Diplura, Archeognatha, Monura, Thysanura, and Pterygota. The origin and evolution of side lobes on the head, thorax, and abdomen, and of cereal legs, cerci, and posttarsal (=pretarsal) claws are considered. The paleoenvironment of the earliest insects and its impact on evolution of thoracic side lobes is discussed. Consistent evidence from several biological disciplines shows that protowings evolved from thoracic side lobes, which probably originated from serial, articulated outer appendages (=exites) of the arthropodan leg. Exites were continuously active and functional and became preadapted for flapping movements. Flight developed as the pterygotes diversified. Basic wing structures are monophyletic. Flight adaptation was finished and differences in wings arose somewhat later, by various means and in parallel, in already diversified lineages of Pterygota.
That paper has some great photos and drawings.
The Acknowledgements section of the paper mentions numerous amateur paleontologists. Some are recognizable as ESCONI members.
Here is the text from the Creature Corner article for Testajapyx. It first appeared in November 1990.
At first glance our Creature, Testajapyx thomasi, a member of the Mazon Creek biota, appears to be a larger version of that garden pest the European earwig. Both insects display long antennae and robust ringed abdomens terminatong in fierce looking pincers. Earwigs have the archaic appearance of Tastajapyx although most earwigs possess wings that are much pleated in a radial fan-like manner. These wings p\ace them in the sub-class Pterygota, while our Creature is classed as a Dipluran in the sub-class Apterygota (wingless).
Lack of wings, entognathous mouthparts (withdrawn into the head), and caudal cerci or "pincers" are features most similar to those of the modern tropical dwelling iapygids. Recent japygids are blind denizens of moist environments, living in soil, humus, and under rocks. They are predaceous hunters of insects and other arthropodous animals, seizing prey with their jaws or grasping it with the abdominal pincers. Certain tropical Japygids grow to 4 cm. In length and are able to overcome even the largest insects. One group of japygids lack well sclerotized body parts except for the forceps and adjacent abdominal segments. This group lives with head end buried in the soil, forceps protruding to seize small prey passing by.
Testajapyx bore protruding eyes on a small rounded head. The large eyes had rounded not hexagonal facets. Its thorax consisted of three segments, each segment bearing one of the three pair of robust walking legs common to all "higher" insects; the abdomen bore vestigial legs on most segments; the last segment had the prominent terminal forceps. Thoracic limbs bore double claws, enabling the owner to climb on and up plants. The legs and terminal forceps were covered by sockets of large bristles. Bristles such as these were found on recent ground-dwelling insects, serving as a sensory warning system that stimulates the animal to jump away from any predators. Body length exclusive of the 10 mm long antennae was almost 50 mm; about twice the size of its present day look-alike, the earwig.
The previously mentioned vestigial legs or limbs appear during the embryological development of present day insects and are considered, by some experts, to be a carryover from the presumed ancestors of insects, the myriapods. While the double clawed limbs are described as the tools used by proto-insects to pull themselves up out of the water onto plant stems to escape capture.
A recurrent problem in studying fossil insects is that the earliest known forms are still very much advanced. Despite many body structures that display primitive characteristics, our creature also displays features found in the "higher" winged insects. Although both winged and wingless forms of insects were evolving explosively during the Pennsylvanian, none of the known insects of that period can truly be labeled "primitive".
Andrew A. Hay
Herrerasaurus skeleton replica at a special exhibition of the Naturmuseum Senckenberg (Wiki Commons / Eva K)
Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting piece about carnivorous dinosaurs. The evolution of large meat eating dinosaurs is a long and complicated story. Dinosaurs evolved around 235 million years ago. At that time, they were lanky and small. One of the largest early meat eaters was Herrerasaursus. It was about 16 feet long and lived in Argentina during the Triassic. Paleontologists have been searching for clues as to how and when the larger dinosaurs evolved.
Up until now, paleontologists thought theropods remained generally small and on the ecological sidelines from about 235 through 201 million years ago. It was only after a mass extinction at the end of the Triassic, at the 201 million-year mark, that carnivorous dinosaurs started to get big. But that view is starting to change thanks to a new reading of the bone trail by scientists who think large meat-eaters may have appeared much earlier.
Virginia Tech paleontologist Christopher Griffin says a key player in this story is Herrerasaurus. This early dinosaur roamed Triassic Argentina about 230 million years ago and reached more than 16 feet in length with a mass greater than a polar bear. There is some debate about whether or not Herrerasaurus is truly a theropod, but it was a carnivorous dinosaur and was one of the largest of its time.
The known carnivorous dinosaurs during the later part of the Triassic appeared to be smaller and less imposing than the crocodile relatives they lived alongside (such as Postosuchus from the southwestern United States). Thanks to a better understanding of dinosaur growth, however, paleontologists have found that some of those little theropods were hiding a secret.
This is the "Fossil Friday" post #6. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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Here are various Mazon Creek fossils from an I&M Canal Corridor Mazon River trip. This is an annual trip on private land. It does cost money, but the fees go to charity. These specimens are from the 2019 trip. And, were opened using the freeze/thaw method.
This is Throwback Thursday #6. 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 sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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The annual gem, mineral, and fossil show has been a part of ESCONI since nearly the beginning. Here are some pictures from the 1990 show. It was held on March 3rd and 4th 1990 at the old K building of the College of Dupage.
The 1990 Show Flyer
President Kathy Dedina
Floyd Rogers knapping
Dorothy Auler
Silent Auction
Martha Prepp seated in the blue. She and her husband Jerry were members starting in the 1950s! And, boy those are some coats!
Dan Damrow of Rib River Fossils, a part of ESCONI shows for a long time!
