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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At one time, ESCONI had a yearly field trip to the old Lone Star Quarry near Oglesby, IL. And, in some years, we had both a spring and fall field trip there. The quarry provided a very rich fossil deposit, which included brachiopods, crinoids, sponges, trilobites, cephalopods, and even shark teeth. The exposed rock layers date to the Pennsylvanian Period. The State of Illinois purchased the quarry in October 2018, and there is now a proposal to turn it into a Fossil Park.
Here are some pictures from years past, many are from one of our last field trips in 2008.
With very little effort, brachiopods could be collected in the hundreds!
And, in June 2000, an amphibian fossil was found, by junior member Matthew Galloway!
Don Auler, Jim Fairchild, and David Bergman in a photo that is likely from the 1990s.
ESCONI members gather on a chilly morning before descending into the quarry.
Dramatic late-summer skies over the parking area.ESCONI members gather on a chilly morning before descending into the quarry.
LaSalle limestone provides abundant marine fossils.
Sharing a find. (Marie Angkuw and Deborah Lovely)
Some fossils are just millimeters in width. (Andrew Young)
Taking a careful look.
Collecting can be a solitary, meditative act.
A lucky collector with a nautiloid and a shark's tooth.
Everyone finds fossils in this rich site.
Three treasures: a crinoid calyx, a large Juresania brachiopod, and a rare nautiloid.
Sorting the treasure from collecting bags.
A good haul: Spirifer and Juresania brachiopods, gastropods, crinoid stems and calyx, and several nautiloids.
