Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Mazon Monday #36: Fossils of Terre Haute Indiana #MazonMonday #fossils #MazonCreek #Indiana

This is Mazon Monday post #36.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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Recently, there has been a few questions about the Mazon Creek-like fossils from around Terre Haute, Indiana.  Although there is a pretty rich history of these fossils, there's not much reference information about the locality.  There were actually two distinct localities in the area.  They are the Chieftain No. 20 Flora of the Dugger Formation in Vigo County Indiana and the Stanley Cemetery Flora of the Brazil Formation of both Vigo and Green Counties in Indiana.  The age of the Chieftain No 20 deposit is around 305.5 million years old, which is a little younger than the Mazon Creek deposits at about 307 million years ago, while the Stanley Cemetery Flora is older at about 313 million years ago.  The fossils found there included many of the same plants and animals as those found in the Mazon Creek biota.

The following article appeared in the March-April 1967 issue of Earth Science magazine.  It was written by Merton Young, a prolific collector whose entire collection of Chieftain No. 20 plants now reside in the collections of the Indiana University.  In the last few years, Jim Konecny, a past president of ESCONI, donated a large collection of Indiana fossil plants to the Field Museum.

 

Growth Rings From Fossil Bones Reveals T. rex Had Huge Growth Spurts, but Other Dinosaurs Grew “Slow and Steady” @SUEtheTrex #FieldMuseum #dinosaurs #TyrannosaurusRex #Trex @FieldMuseum

SciTechDaily has a story about Tyrannosaurs rex and how it grew.  A new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, discusses diverse growth strategies in dinosaurs and how that relates to body size.  The paper's authors include Tom Cullen of the North Carolina Museum of Natural History and Peter Makovicky of the University of Minnesota, who have both spoken at ESCONI General Meetings.

Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs of all time — it measured up to 42 feet long from snout to tail and would have weighed in at around 16,000 pounds. And it wasn’t alone — some of its less-well-known cousins could reach nearly the same size. Scientists have previously shown that T. rex got so big by going through a huge teenage growth spurt, but they didn’t know if that was true for just tyrannosaurs, just them and their close relatives, or perhaps all big bipedal dinosaurs. By cutting into dinosaur bones and analyzing the growth lines, a team of researchers got their answer: T. rex and its closest relatives had an awkward adolescence during which they got huge, while its more distant cousins in the allosauroid group kept on growing a little bit every year.

“We wanted to look at a wide swath of different theropods, two-legged, carnivorous dinosaurs, in order to understand broader patterns of growth and evolution in the group,” says Tom Cullen, the lead author of a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Cullen, a scientific affiliate of Chicago’s Field Museum who worked on the study as a postdoctoral researcher at the Field with the museum’s then-curator of dinosaurs, Pete Makovicky, explains, “We particularly wanted to understand how some of them got so big — is the way T. rex grew the only way to do it?”

Makovicky, a scientific affiliate of the Field and professor of geology at the University of Minnesota and the paper’s senior author, says, “We also wanted to see if we got the same growth record when we sampled a variety of different bones from the same skeleton. All these questions about how theropods grew could impact our understanding of the evolution of the group.” Makovicky developed the idea for the project and also discovered several of the dinosaurs whose fossils were analyzed in the study.

The question of how an animal gets big is a surprisingly tricky one. Mammals like us tend to go through a period of extreme growth when we’re young and then stay the same size once we reach adulthood. In other animal groups, that’s not always the case. “Growth rate really varies, there’s no one size fits all,” says Cullen, who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “Birds have super growth spurts and reach adult size really fast, while reptiles like alligators and various lizards and snakes have extended growth. With them, a really, really big individual is probably really old.”

Osteohistological analyses reveal diverse strategies of theropod dinosaur body-size evolution

Abstract

The independent evolution of gigantism among dinosaurs has been a topic of long-standing interest, but it remains unclear if gigantic theropods, the largest bipeds in the fossil record, all achieved massive sizes in the same manner, or through different strategies. We perform multi-element histological analyses on a phylogenetically broad dataset sampled from eight theropod families, with a focus on gigantic tyrannosaurids and carcharodontosaurids, to reconstruct the growth strategies of these lineages and test if particular bones consistently preserve the most complete growth record. We find that in skeletally mature gigantic theropods, weight-bearing bones consistently preserve extensive growth records, whereas non-weight-bearing bones are remodelled and less useful for growth reconstruction, contrary to the pattern observed in smaller theropods and some other dinosaur clades. We find a heterochronic pattern of growth fitting an acceleration model in tyrannosaurids, with allosauroid carcharodontosaurids better fitting a model of hypermorphosis. These divergent growth patterns appear phylogenetically constrained, representing extreme versions of the growth patterns present in smaller coelurosaurs and allosauroids, respectively. This provides the first evidence of a lack of strong mechanistic or physiological constraints on size evolution in the largest bipeds in the fossil record and evidence of one of the longest-living individual dinosaurs ever documented.

Video: ESCONI October 2020 General Meeting - "The Blue Forest of Ancient Lake Gosiute” #fossils #paleontology #PetrifiedWood #chalcedony

 

At the October 2020 General Meeting, we had Mike Viney speak about the petrified wood of the Blue Forest in Wyoming.  The Zoom meeting video has been processed and is now available for viewing.  After the presentation, Mike sent a pdf with many of his slides (RBlueForestOfAncientLakeGosiute).

Mike is a Teacher in Residence at Colorado State University and a long-time collector and researcher into petrified wood. The title of his talk was "The Blue Forest of Ancient Lake Gosiute: Sweetwater County, Wyoming". The Blue Forest is a famous source of petrified wood known for its blue chalcedony. Lake Gosiute was one of the lakes in the Green River region during the Eocene.

Here's a link to Mike’s web page called "The Virtual Petrified Wood Museum" http://petrifiedwoodmuseum.org/

 

Fossil Friday #33: Tylosaurus and Turtle at KU #Tylosaurus #turtle #fossils #cretaceous #KU #FossilFriday #mosasaur

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #33.  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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If you get a chance to check out the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas in Laurence, KS.  Take just a few more minutes and visit Slawson Hall.  They have hung casts of a Tylosaurus (Tylosaurus proriger) and a turtle (Protostega sp.).  Here the large predatory animal is giving chase for a meal in the Cretaceous oceans of the Niobrara Formation. These animals lived about 84 million years ago in what is now western Kansas.    The original skeleton of the mosasaur is known as the Bunker Mosasaur.  This specimen is huge... a real monster.   It hangs in the entrance of the KU Museum of Natural History. 

The KU Alumni Association has a nice page about the installation of the Slawson Hall display.

The new Earth, Energy & Environment Center will include some old bones.

Triebold Paleontology recently cast and installed a replica of a mosasaur fossil known as Tylosaurus proriger. C.D. Bunker, curator at KU’s Natural History Museum, and his associates collected the fossil in Wallace County in 1911.

An intimidating predator, the mosasaur will take your breath away. The size and length are imposing enough. But its teeth seal the deal—or in this case, the fate of an 84-million-year-old sea turtle the Tylosaurus is chasing in the display

“This is the Earth Energy and Environment Center; it’s all about the earth sciences,” said Bob Goldstein, Haas Distinguished professor of geology and special advisor for campus development in the provost’s office. “What better specimen to bring the public in than a spectacular 45-foot-long sea monster from the cretaceous of Kansas.”

Ancient fossils and KU connections

Sea turtles were likely prey for mosasaurs, and this particular fossil shows nearly 100 bite marks from a mosasaur similar in size to Tylosaurus proriger. Anthony Maltese, c’04, was part of the team that collected the sea turtle fossil south of Quinter in October, 2011.

Bunker’s original Tylosaurus specimen resides at the KU Natural History Museum in Dyche Hall. It is believed to be the largest complete mosasaur fossil in existence.

Original skeleton

Slawson Hall display

Washington Post: How to dissect your Thanksgiving dinosaur #dinosaurs #birds #thanksgiving

 

Happy Thanksgiving from ESCONI!  The Washington Post has a story and video that does a good job explaining why birds are dinosaurs and how you can see that in your turkey's skeleton this Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving, people will gather with their loved ones to share their gratitude for one another over a lavish meal. And in all likelihood, the centerpiece of this feast will be a dinosaur.

That’s right. Birds, like the turkey gracing your Thanksgiving table, are dinosaurs. They are the only dinosaurs to survive the mass extinction that wiped out T. rex, triceratops and other behemoths 65 million years ago.

Scientists got their first whiff of the bird-dinosaur connection in 1861, when they found a fossilized feathered dinosaur called archaeopteryx in Germany. But feathers aren’t our only clue that birds are dinosaurs. Since the 1800s, paleontologists have found a wealth of evidence to support this claim. And on Thanksgiving, you and your family can dissect your own personal dinosaur to see the evidence for yourself.

Shaena Montanari, a paleontologist and dinosaur expert, showed me and my friend Joe Hanson how to perform the dissection. You can follow along in a video Joe made for his YouTube channel, It’s Okay To Be Smart. We used a rotisserie chicken, but you find the exact same structures in the bones of your bird on Turkey Day.

 

ESCONI December 2020 General Meeting - December 4th, 2020 at 8:00 PM via Zoom - "What Genetics Tells Us About the Peopling of the Americas” #archaeology #genetics #Americas #NativeAmericans

The title for our Dec 4th program is "What Genetics Tells Us About the Peopling of the Americas” by Dr. Jennifer Raff, of the University of Kansas.  Dr. Raff's  research includes ancient DNA, anthropological genetics, human evolution and population history, migration, bioarchaeology, and scientific literacy.

You can find more about her on her page at KU.  https://anthropology.ku.edu/jennifer-raff

A zoom link will be sent soon.

 

ESCONI Events December 2020

Field trips require membership, but visitors are welcome at all meetings!

Fri, Dec 4th	ESCONI General Meeting 7:30 PM Zoom - Open Chat Time Wear your ugly holiday sweater!  Zoom link.
Fri, Dec 4th	ESCONI General Meeting 8:00 PM Zoom - Topic: "What Genetics Tells Us About the Peopling of the Americas” by Dr. Jennifer Raff from the University of Kansas.  Zoom link.

 

Trilobite Tuesday #30: How to hunt for fossils in Ohio #fossils #Ohio #trilobites #brachiopods #TrilobiteTuesday #cephalopods

Flexicalymene from Ohio

Here's a page that lists some places to find fossils in Ohio.  I'm not sure the trilobite on the page is correct... looks like an Elrathia kingii.  The one above is from Ohio and is a Flexicalymene.  But, the page has a nice list of places to go and what you can find.  Trilobites are a big part of what you can find... Check it out!

Southwestern Ohio

• Caesar Creek State Park (Warren and Clinton Counties) – requires permit, which is available free from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Visitor Center.
• Cowan Lake State Park (Clinton County)
• East Fork State Park (Clermont County)
• Hueston Woods State Park (Preble and Butler Counties)
• Oakes Quarry Park (Greene County)
• Stonelick State Park (Clermont County)
• Trammel Fossil Park (Hamilton County)

Northwestern Ohio

• Fossil Park (Lucas County)

Mazon Monday #35: Scallops #fossils #MazonCreek #MazonMonday #scallop #mollusc #Pennsylvanian

This is Mazon Monday post #35.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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For this post, we are highlighting some of the pectens found in the Mazon Creek fossil deposit.   Aviculopecten mazonensis is one of the most commonly known, but there are three others of note  Dunbarella striata, Euchondria pellucida, and Palaeolima retifera.  They are mostly found in Pit 11, Braceville, and other parts of the Essex biota.  But, they were found in Morris at the old Chowder Flatts locality.

Aviculopecten mazonensis is in the Creature Corner book.  The article first appeared in the November 1988 issue of the newsletter.  Here is the text of the article by Andy Hay and a illustration drawn by Don Auler.

Aviculopecten mazonensis is the most common of the several pectinoids found in the Essex biota of the Francis Creek Shale, Carbondale Formation. A. mazonensis was the first figured and described by Worthen in 1890. The genus Aviculopecten can be found in strata of the Silurian to the Permian Period.

Our Creature has the familiar pecten outline, with a straight hinge line that is almost equal in width to the length of the shell (valve). lts dimensions are (29x 30 mm) about an inch in length and width in the larger specimens. Deeply notched auricles "ears" are near the hinge end. The valves are not symmetrical and are not equilateral in contour. The right and left valves are not equally convex. Numerous costae (ribs) on the valves are decorated with distinct fine lines. Auricles are also decorated with numerous costae. The costae on larger specimens exceed 50 in number. Aviculopecten lacked spines.

Assuming that A. mazonensis' life style to be similar to living pecten having the same shell configuration, it would be attached to the sea floor with its hinge line vertical; valves opened in the direction of sea currents to filter out passing food particles. This upright stance was maintained with the aid of byssussess (secreted filaments akin to silk) that held it to the sea bottom. To escape predators, valves would be "clapped" together, forcing water from the mantle. This jet-like stream broke it free of its moorings and away from danger.

Our Creature, Avicuiopecten mazonensis is classed: Phylum Mollusce; Class Bivalvia; Order isodonta; Superfamily Pectinacea; Family Aviculopectenidae; Genus Aviculopecten.

Next, let's have a look at the descriptions in the Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna book.

Avicuiopecten mazonensis

Aviculopecten mazonensis is the most common of the pecte noids among Essex Fauna bivalves. The hinge line is almost equal in width to the valve and its auricles (ears) are prominent, dis- similar, and deeply notched. The valves are not symmetrical nor equally convex. A. mazonensis has numerous fine costae (ribs) on the valves and auricles. The growth rings are weakly developed.

Modern pectens are common and colorful. They have rows of tiny eyes along the mantle edge which make them unique among bivalves. Normally, a pecten rests on the sea floor, but when disturbed, it can swim by rapidly clapping its two shell valves, creating a water jet for propulsion. A membranous fold beneath the shell (the muscular mantle) acts as a valve directingflow of the ejected water, and to a degree, maintains the direction of movement.

Dunbarella striata

Dunbarella striata is a pectenoid with a nearly circular shell. It has auricles (ears) that are similar in width, but only one side has a pronounced notch. The hinge line is nearly straight.Valves are almost equal in length and width and are decorated with numerous fine costae (ribs). One valve is slightly flatter than the other. Dunbarella is uncommon to rare, and occurs in the Essex Fauna.

Euchondria pellucida

Euchondria pellucida is the rarest ofthe Mazon Creek pectenoids. Smaller than Aviculopecten mazonensis though comparable in overall outline, it is surmised that they shared a similar lifestyle. E. pellucida likely lived exclusively in brackish water. What sepa- rates this species from the other scallops is its shell ornamentation. The left valve (top in life position) has thin radiating lines; crossing these are equally fine, regularly placed, concentric lines producing a checkerboard appearance. The right valve (bottom) has almost no ornamentation, displaying only weakly marked growth lines.

Palaeolima retifera

Palaeolima retifera has an inflated and obliquely oval shell. The valvesare similar and attached along a narrow hinge. It has prominent and pointed beaks, with distinct radial costae (ribs).

P retifera was a filter-feeder that lived on the surface of muddy bottoms and is most oftenfoundin an open death pose. Adorned with colorful tentacles, modern marine examples are sedentary, living in nests built from shell fragments held together by their byssi (silk-like filaments.) If needed, they can swim for short distances similar to other scallops by clapping their valves together.

Here are a couple fossil pictures.  The first in Dunbarella from Braceville and the second is Aviculopecten from Chowder Flatts.

NYT: Burning Fossil Fuels Helped Drive Earth’s Most Massive Extinction #MassExtinction #Permian #FossilFuels #Itally

In rocks that formed in Northern Italy’s Dolomites and elsewhere around the time of the Permian-Triassic extinction, researchers detected spikes of a molecule formed from fossil fuel combustion.Credit...Renato Posenato, Ferrara University

The New York Times Trilobites column has a story about the Permian Mass Extinction event.  A paper published in the journal Geology adds more evidence to the theory that this mass extinction was driven by volcanic eruptions through ancient oil and coal deposits in Siberia.  The study looked at chemical traces in the rocks in Northern Italy.

Paleontologists call it the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, but it has another name: “the Great Dying.” It happened about 252 million years ago, and, over the course of just tens of thousands of years, 96 percent of all life in the oceans and, perhaps, roughly 70 percent of all land life vanished forever.

The smoking gun was ancient volcanism in what is today Siberia, where volcanoes disgorged enough magma and lava over about a million years to cover an amount of land equivalent to a third or even half of the surface area of the United States.

But volcanism on its own didn’t cause the extinction. The Great Dying was fueled, two separate teams of scientists report in two recent papers, by extensive oil and coal deposits that the Siberian magma blazed through, leading to combustion that released greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane.

“There was lots of oil, coal and carbonates formed before the extinction underground near the Siberian volcanism,” said Kunio Kaiho, a geochemist at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and the lead author of one of the studies, published this month in Geology, which presented evidence for the burning of ancient fossil fuels by magma. “We discovered two volcanic combustion events coinciding with the end-Permian land extinction and marine extinction.”

The findings solidify the Great Dying as one of the best examples that we have from Earth’s history of what a changing climate can do to life on our planet.

Dr. Kaiho and his team retrieved samples from rock deposits in south China and northern Italy that formed around the time of the extinction, and they detected spikes of a molecule called coronene. That substance, Dr. Kaiho explained, is produced only when fossil fuels combust at extremely high temperatures — like those you might find in magma.

PBS Eons: The Rise and Fall of the Tallest Mammal to Walk the Earth #paleontology #fossils #rhino #mammals

 

PBS Eons has a new episode over on Youtube.  This one is about the tallest land mammal that every lived - Paraceratherium.

It arose from rhino ancestors that were a lot smaller, but Paraceratherium would take a different evolutionary path. Believe it or not, it actually became so big that it probably got close to what scientists think might be the actual upper limit for a land mammal.

 

Fossil Friday #32: Lepidodendron bark from the Carboniferous of Alabama #Pennsylvanian #FossilFriday #fossils #Lepidodendron

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #32.  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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The coal age in Alabama dates back to 310–315 million years ago, an interval of geologic time which lies within what geologists call the Early Pennsylvanian period.  Lepidodendron fossils are found in Mazon Creek, which is a little younger at 307 million years old. The fossils in this post are Lepidodendron bark from Alabama. 

Lepidodendron, also called scale trees, were fairly tall and looked something like the following.

Here are the fossils.

 

Throwback Thursday #34: The 2010 Show #TBT #history #fossils #minerals

This is Throwback Thursday #34.  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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Enjoy these photos from the 2010 ESCONI Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Show!

The greeting crew: Irene, Karen and Eileen

Sondra and Rob at their paleontology booth

View of a micro-mineral from David's booth seen from a 60-100 lighted microscope.

Dave showing attendees how a micromineral looks with Bruce looking on.

The ESCONI book nook crew with the auction crew behind them.

Mike, an ESCONI member, with his collection of southwestern minerals.

A beautiful example of a banded iron formation was on display at the show.

Some of Joan's Mazon Creek Fossil collection.

A member's gorgeous example of flourite from Ohio on display at the show.

 

LiveScience: Cretaceous cold case of 'dueling' T. rex and Triceratops may finally be solved #dinosaurs #triceratops #tyrannosaurusrex

 

This illustration shows what may have happened to the ceratopsian and tyrannosaur just before they died and were fossilized about 67 million years ago.  (Image: © Anthony Hutchings/Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences)

LiveScience has a story about the "Dueling Dinosaurs".   This extraordinary fossil specimen of two of the most complete dinosaurs skeletons ever discovered.  One is a Triceratops and the other is a Tyrannosaurs rex and they may possibly be locked in 67 million year old mortal combat.  These fossils are heading to North Carolina State University to undergo some extensive study.  Dr. Lindsay Zanno, who has spoken to ESCONI a few times in the past, will by involved with the study of this magnificent find.

The "Dueling Dinosaurs" fossils — the 67 million-year-old remains of what may be the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops on record, beasts that were possibly locked in combat when they died — are finally spilling their secrets. The iconic fossils are heading to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS), where a cutting-edge interactive exhibit will be built around them, the museum announced today (Nov. 17).

The fossils are steeped in controversy. They're remarkable specimens, thought to include 100% of both creatures' bones, as well as body outlines, skin impressions and possibly even the remains of soft tissues and stomach contents. But after their discovery by commercial collectors in eastern Montana in 2006, the dinosaurs failed to sell at auction and were later involved in a lawsuit that attempted to redefine fossils as minerals. And the scientific community was torn about the fossils; many were excited to learn about the dinosaurs, but some said they were scientifically useless and others disliked that they were being sold by for-profit collectors.

Now, after a tremendous fundraising project, the 30,000-lbs. (13,600 kilograms) fossilized chunks holding the Dueling Dinosaurs have arrived in North Carolina, where scientists plan to study them before the public's eyes. And the duelers definitely aren't "scientifically useless," said Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at NCMNS and associate research professor at North Carolina State University, who spearheaded the project to bring the fossils to the museum.

The “Dueling Dinosaurs” specimen identified as Nanotyrannus (shown here) has 16 to 18 tooth sockets in its upper jaw, whereas Tyrannosaurus rex has only 11 to 12 sockets. Credit: Raphael Rosen

The “Dueling Dinosaurs” specimen identified as Nanotyrannus (shown here) has 16 to 18 tooth sockets in its upper jaw, whereas Tyrannosaurus rex has only 11 to 12 sockets. Credit: Raphael Rosen

Trilobite Tuesday #29: Why did trilobites go extinct? #fossils #trilobites #TrilobiteTuesday

(Image: © Shutterstock)

LiveScience has a piece about the extinction of the trilobites.  Trilobites existed on Earth for about 270 million years from the early Cambrian until the Permian Mass Extinction.  Many organisms went extinct during that time... perhaps upward of 90% of species.  But, it's still an open question that has not been completely answered.  During their heyday in the Cambrian and Ordovician, their genera consisted of 10 orders.  But, by the Permian, after making it through a couple mass extinctions, they had dwindled to just one family, the Proetidae.  Were they out competed by other animals?  Probably. But was that the whole story?  Other arthropods had flourished.  What was their fatal flaw?  

Trilobites are weird creatures — they look like giant swimming potato bugs wearing helmets, and lived on Earth for a whopping 270 million years. These armored invertebrates, whose species once numbered in the thousands, thrived in the oceans as they scavenged and dug for food, and even managed to survive two mass extinctions.

But about 252 million years ago, trilobites disappeared from the fossil record. What finally wiped out this class of resilient bottom dwellers? 

The trilobite's disappearance coincided with the end-Permian extinction (also known as the Permian-Triassic extinction), the third and the most devastating mass extinction event. Volcanic eruptions in Siberia spewed enormous amounts of lava for around 2 million years, according to Melanie Hopkins, an associate curator of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. These fiery eruptions sent trillions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, triggering ocean acidification, which in turn made it very difficult for marine animals to survive, according to a 2010 paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Up to 95% of marine species succumbed to the end-Permian extinction, also known as the Great Dying, including the trilobites.

Mazon Monday #34: Pit 14 #MazonMonday #fossils #MazonCreek

This is Mazon Monday post #34.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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The Mazon Creek fossil deposits consists of numerous different localities.  These localities are the Mazon River, which has been collected since at least the 1850's (and probably earlier) to the shaft mines, which date to the late 1800's and early 1900's (Braceville is an example) to the strip mines, which began around 1910.  Unfortunately, many of these localities are no longer accessible.  They have been recovered for houses, golf courses, or just due to being private property.

For today, we have an article about Pit 14 from the September-October 1972 edition of Earth Science magazine.  Unlike its massive sister, there isn't much information on Pit 14.  It was known for black shale and not many concretions.  Back in the Pennsylvanian Period, it would have been farther offshore and is considered part of the Essex biota.

Here s a map of the various strip mines.  Notice Pit 14.  It's southwest of Pit 11 and pretty small.  It is currently private property.

Here is a satellite picture from google maps.

Here is the article.

Eos: A Little-Known Mass Extinction and the “Dawn of the Modern World” #dinosaurs #Triassic #Canada #MassExtinction

The earliest crocodilian reptiles, like Hesperosuchus, arose during the Carnian. Credit: iStock.com/Aunt_Spray

Eos has a story about a little known mass extinction that led to the rise of the dinosaurs.  New research published in the journal Science Advances shows that climate change driven by volcanic eruptions in western Canada brought about the dinosaurs and eventually the modern world.   The event is called Carnian Pluvial Episode.  It occurred 233 million years ago during the Triassic Period.  The name of the event comes from the extensive rains... a million years of rain (!), that fell across the super continent of Pangaea.

Massive volcanic eruptions followed by climate change, widespread extinction, and, eventually, the emergence of new life forms. It sounds like the story of one of Earth’s five great mass extinctions.

Now researchers say the same description applies to a lesser known—but highly consequential—event referred to as the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE), 233 million years ago.

Unlike some of the more dramatic mass extinctions, the signature of the CPE is difficult to trace. But working across disciplines and continents, a team of scientists has been able to piece together a broad overview, showing that it was a period of rapid biological turnover on a global scale.

The accumulated evidence, including results of a new fossil analysis, shows that the CPE was a major extinction event. More than that, however, the evidence indicates it was a period of new beginnings. Most notably, the CPE marks the start of the dinosaurs’ ascendence to ubiquity and ecological dominance.

PBS Eons: How Plankton Created A Bizarre Giant of the Seas #paleontology #fossils

 

PBS Eons has a new episode over on Youtube.  This one is about anomalocaris... a giant anomalocaris called Aegirocassis.

At more than 2 meters long, Aegirocassis was not only the biggest radiodont ever, but it also may have been the biggest animal in the Early Ordovician. This bizarre marine giant may have only been possible, thanks to a major revolution among some of the tiniest organisms in the world.

Fossil Friday #31: Ferns from St. Clair, PA #fern #Pennsylvanian #FossilFriday #fossils #Alethopteris

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #31.  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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Fossil Friday #31 highlights Pennsylvanian Period ferns from St. Clair, PA.  Yes, that's Pennsylvanian ferns from Pennsylvania!  The Llewellyn Formation, from whence these ferns come, dates to 308 to 300 million years ago.  Remember, the fossils of Mazon Creek date to about 307 million years, so these plants were contemporaries.  It should not be surprising that the species found in this deposit are very similar if not the same as those found in Mazon Creek.  The fern fossils of this formation were formed in a low oxygen muddy swamp bottom, which is why they are in black shale.  

The Fossil Guy has good web page that describes a trip to the locality.  Here is what it looks like.  Unfortunately, the site has new owners and is currently closed to collecting.

And, here are some plates with Alethopteris serlii and Neuropteris fossils.  Fossils from St. Clair can be very striking in silver, white, and orange on black.

Throwback Thursday #33: Field Trip Sylvania, OH in 1959 #TBT #history #fossils #Ohio

This is Throwback Thursday #33.  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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Sylvania, OH has long been a destination to collect great fossils.  Back in May 2020, we did Fossil Friday #7 that featured brachiopods from Sylvania.  Today, we have some photos from a June 1959 field trip to Sylvania. 

The trip was organized by John Ade and a bunch of ESCONI members traveled by bus on the weekend of June 6th and 7th 1959.  Here is the announcement in the June 1959 newsletter.

And, here is the trip report, which appeared in the July-August 1959 edition of the newsletter.

 

Here are the photos... looks like they had a great time!

W. Kelly on the bus trip... hopefully, she found something nice, or maybe it was on the way back.

Howard Knight

Bill Kelly

Prepps, Fether, and Gertrude Hannon in Sylvania.

Bill Kelly

Gertrude Hannon asleep.

Glacier grooves, Pugh Quarry

Chuck Armstrong

Darrows, Kellys

George and Marge Darrow in Sylvania

Gertrude Hannon in Sylvania