Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Smithsonian: Discovery of a 95-Million-Year-Old ‘Eagle Shark’ Fossil Makes Waves #fossil #shark #Cretaceous

The eagle shark's long, slender side fins are one of its "most striking features," says first author Romain Vullo. (Image by Wolfgang Stinnesbeck)

Smithsonian Magazine has a story about an interesting new shark fossil.  The eagle shark, Aquilolomna milarcae, lived about 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now northeastern Mexico.  It was found in 2012 by a quarry worker in the Vallecillo limestone quarry.  The animal was about 5.4 feet long and 6 feet wide, due to its large wing-like pectoral fins.  Paleontologists believe it was most likely a filter feeder.  The description of this new species was published in the journal Science.

“My first thoughts on seeing the fossil were that this unique morphology is totally new and unknown among sharks,” says Vullo to National Geographic.

While its head and side fins are unusual, the eagle shark’s tail and tail fins resemble those of modern sharks. So the researchers suggest that the shark probably used its tail to propel itself forward and its long side fins for stabilization. Manta rays have a different strategy, flapping their wide side fins to propel themselves forward.

"One of the most striking features of Aquilolamna is that it has very long, slender pectoral [side] fins," writes Vullo in an email to Laura Geggel at Live Science, "This makes the shark wider than long," because it is just over six feet wide but only about 5.4 feet long.

The fossil didn’t show signs of a dorsal fin—the notorious sign of an approaching shark that sticks up above the water—or of pelvic fins, which are on the underside of the shark. It’s not yet clear whether the eagle shark lacked these fins, or if they just didn’t fossilize, per Live Science.

The biggest mystery surrounding the eagle shark comes from the lack of teeth in the fossil. Paleontologists rely on sharks’ teeth to identify them and figure out their evolutionary relationship to other ancient sharks. The eagle shark might have had tiny, pointed teeth like the basking shark and the megamouth—two modern filter-feeding sharks—or taken a different strategy.

“It is truly unfortunate that no teeth were preserved in the specimen that could have allowed researchers to determine the exact taxonomic affinity of the new shark,” says DePaul University paleobiologist Kenshu Shimada to National Geographic.

For now, the research team used the shape of the fossil’s vertebrae and the skeleton of its tail fin to classify it as a shark in the order Lamniformes, which includes filter-feeding sharks, mako sharks and the great white. Future fossilized finds and analysis of the eagle shark’s anatomy could help scientists understand the strange shapes of sharks in the distant past.

Phys.org: Giant fossil flightless bird had an enormous body but was still 'bird-brained' #fossil #bird #Australia #fossils

The giant mihirung Dromornis stirtoni. Credit: Peter Trusler

Phys.org has a story about a giant flghtless bird from Australia.  The animal, Dromornis stirtoni, lived in Australia about 50,000 years ago.  It stood about 3 meters high and had a weighed up to 600 kg.  The description of this species was recently published in the journal Diversity.

The largest flightless bird ever to live weighed in up to 600kg and had a whopping head about half a meter long—but its brain was squeezed for space.

Dromornis stirtoni, the largest of the 'mihirungs' (an Aboriginal word for 'giant bird'), stood up to 3m and had a cranium wider and higher than it was long due to a powerful big beak, leading Australian paleontologists to look inside its brain space to see how it worked.

The new study, just published in the journal Diversity, examined the brains of the extinct giant mihirungs or dromornithid birds that were a distinctive part of the Australian fauna for many millions of years, before going extinct around 50,000 years ago.

"Together with their large, forward-facing eyes and very large bills, the shape of their brains and nerves suggested these birds likely had well-developed stereoscopic vision, or depth perception, and fed on a diet of soft leaves and fruit," says lead author Flinders University researcher Dr. Warren Handley.

"The shape of their brains and nerves have told us a lot about their sensory capabilities, and something about their possible lifestyle which enabled these remarkable birds to live in the forests around river channels and lakes across Australia for an extremely long time.

"It's exciting when we can apply modern imaging methods to reveal features of dromornithid morphology that were previously completely unknown," Dr. Handley says.

Mazon Monday #53: Species Spotlight - Diplazites unita #fossils #fern #plant #MazonMonday #MazonCreek #Pennsylvanian #Illinois

This is Mazon Monday post #53.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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This week, we are going to take a look at a fairly common fern fossil of the Mazon Creek biota.  That fern is Diplazites unita.  We featured D. unita back in Fossil Friday #35 with specimens from ESCONI member Andrew Young.

Diplazites unita belongs to class Filocopsida (ferns).  A good explanation of the ferns of Mazon Creek appears on page 81 of "The Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".

The members of the ferns described here have pinnate leaves, which have been shown to be homosporous and produced sporangia on the underside (abaxial surface) of their leaves. This includes problematic species with unknown fertile structures thought to be ferns based solely on having pecopteroid foliage. However, as more knowledge has been gained about the fossils, better-defined fossil genera have been developed based on a combination of pinnule vein pattern, sporangia characteristics, and overall pinnule form (see Appendix D). The genus Pecopteris is still used, but only on less-understood species, or species with a combination of features which do not easily fit into a better-defined genus. One of the taxonomic casualties is the genus Asterotheca, once commonly used by earlier authors for any pecopterid fern which, when fertile, produced radial sporangia in a line on each side of the midvein and divided into four or five sporangia. It was later found that the interpretation used by these authors for Asterotheca was not that of the original author thus the name was invalid applied. Presently, only one Late Carboniferous species is left of Asterotheca.

Some of the ferns, like the ones that grew Corynepteris and Nemejcopteris foliage, were shrub-like and belonged to the extinct order Zygopteridales. The Zygopteridales had unique vascular structures and grew banana-shaped sporangia on the underside of the leaves or at branch tips. Senftenbergia and Oligocarpia are early members of the extant order Filicales. The plant that produced Oligocarpia is poorly understood and has not been confidently assigned to a family. Senftenbergia is a common Pennsylvanian-age genus which grew as a tree fern, and whose characteristics are well understood. It has been assigned to the extinct family Tedeleaceae. Stellatheca is thought to be a possible very early member of the extant order Osmundales, which produces some of the most widely recognized species today, such as the royal fern, cinnamon fern, and interrupted fern. Most of the species in the following genera-Acitheca, Cyathocarpus, Diplazites, Myriotheca, Crenulopteris, and Pecopteris-grew as tree ferns and belong to the extant order Marattiales. Also, possibly belonging to this group is Radstockia, but it was likely herbaceous. The earliest known examples of this group are from the Carboniferous Period and reached their peak of diversity in the Permian. The extant members of Marattiales are not arborescent and produce more than one trunk, unlike their ancient Carboniferous ancestors.

With Pennsylvanian-age ferns, the name Psaronius is used for both the name of the fossil taxon of the trunks of marattialean tree ferns as well as the name for the entire plant. Psaronius was opportunistic and rapidly occupied any areas of disturbed soil away from flooded habitats of the swamp. It grew up to 30 feet tall, with a trunk that was unbranched until near the top, where it produced a crown of large, up to 10 feet long, pinnately divided fronds. Psaronius had a trunk covered by a wide, fibrous root mantle which gave it strength,
and visible frond scars only near the top.

The fronds attached to the trunks of Psaronius formed distinctive frond scars when shed. The generic names Artisophyton, Megaphyton, and Caulopteris are used for these scars. When present, the scars are diagnostic for the different species of Psaronius.

Diplazites unita has had a bit of a tortured past with quite a few different names over the years.  This list is from "The Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".

• 1836. Pecopteris unita Brongniart: p. 342, pl. 116, figs. 1-5
• 1833. Pecopteris longifolia Brongniart: p. 273, pl. 83, fig. 2
• 1870. Alethopteris longifolia. Lesquereux: p. 469
• 1870. Alethopteris emarginata Göppert; Lesquereux: p. 398, pl. 13, fig. 4
• 1879-80. Pecopteris emarginata. Lesquereux: p. 225, pl. 39, fig. 11
• 1879-80. Pecopteris unita Brongniart; Lesquereux: p. 223, pl. 40, figs. 1-7
• 1884. Callipteridium sinuatum? Brongniart; Lesquereux: p. 745, pl. 99, fig. 3
• 1925. Ptychocarpus unita Brongniart; Kidston: p. 548, pl. 131, figs. 1-9
• 1925. Pecopteris unita Brongniart; Noé: pl. 35, fig. 1; pl. 36, figs. 2-4
• 1969. cf. Desmopteris longifolia. Darrah: p. 145, pl. 31, fig. 1
• 1969. Pecopteris unita Brongniart; Darrah: p. 143, pl. 14, figs. 2, 3; pl. 15, figs. 1, 2
• 1971. Asterotheca (ex Pecopteris) pfefferkorn: p. 17, fig. 8, non fig. 7; pl. 8, figs. 1-7
• 1979. Ptychocarpus unitus Brongniart; Janssen: p. 139, fig. 122
• 2015. Diplazites unita Brongniart; Cleal: pp. 1-12

The "ESCONI Keys to Mazon Creek", published in 1990, has some nice simple descriptions to help identify this species.  At that time, D. unita was referred to as Pecopteris unita.

Immature pinnules are placed alternately along the rachis and arc united. The midvein extends nearly to the apex where it forks. Veins are opposite, do not branch, and curve upward to the margin.

Mature pinnules are separate and broadly attached to the rachis. The midvein is strong and extends nearly to the apex where it forks. Veins are opposite each other, straight to the margin, and do not fork. The mature pinnules were formerly called Ptychocarpus.

The text from ""The Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek" is also very descriptive and helpful for identification.

DESCRIPTION: The pinnae are linear-lanceolate and slightly contracted near their bases; they taper near the apex to an obtuse point. The pinna rachis is broad and striated. The pinnules are slightly decurrent with parallel sides and united for some distance from the base; the apex can be obtuse (see Fig. 8) or subacute (see Fig. 3). The midveins are decurrent, extending to the tip where they sometimes divide into two veinlets. The lateral veins are simple, nearly opposite, and arch toward the pinnule tip, especially the lower ones, which are strongly oblique. The sori have an asterothecoid appearance with typically 6 sporangia. The isolated spores are correlated with Laevigatosporites minutus (Pfefferkorn et al., 1971 and Jennings and Millay, 1979).

REMARKS: Diplazites unita is one of the most common fossils in the Mazon Creek flora and the second most common true fern. In the Mazon Creek flora, about two out of every three are found in a fertile state (see Fig. 2) which is an unusually high percentage. Around the world, several different spore types have been isolated from fertile D. unita foliage, strongly suggesting there are more than one biological species represented by this form. Only one spore type has been found on D. unita from the Mazon Creek area Jennings and Millay, 1979), suggesting only one biological species is present.

Specimen photos

Illinois State Museum - Langford (Ptychocarpus unita)

Terminal foliage - Andrew Young

Fertile form - Andrew Young

Mature - Andrew Young

Terminal foliage - Jann Bergsten

 

 

 

 

 

PBS Eons: How Humans Became (Mostly) Right-Handed #PBSEons #paleontology #genetics #evolution

 

PBS Eons has a new episode over on Youtube.  Why are the majority of humans right-handed?  What evolutionary pressures led to it?

No other placental mammal that we know of prefers one side of the body so consistently, not even our closest primate relatives. But being right-handed may have deep evolutionary roots in our lineage. And yet, being a leftie does seem to come with some unexpected advantages.

Big thanks to Julio Lacerda (https://twitter.com/JulioTheArtist​​) for the excellent right-handed Neanderthal illustrations!

Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: http://youtube.com/pbsdigitalstudios

Roy Plotnick: The Real Monsters of the Midway: Mammoths and Mastodons of the Chicago Region #paleontology #fossils #mammoth #mastodon #chicago #illinois

The Perry Mastodon. At Wheaton College.

Roy Plotnick has a new article over on Medium.  This time he's written about Mammoths and Mastodons discovered in the Chicago area.  I knew there were a bunch found, but wow!

On October 25, 1880, workers putting in a sewer line along Fowler Ave. (now Schiller St.) just west of Wicker Park on the north side of Chicago, made an unexpected discovery. Some 13 feet down, in a layer of peat and muck, they found the tooth, a rib, and a portion of a tusk of what was then identified as a mastodon. The fossils were put on display in the mayor’s office, eventually ending up in the collections of the Chicago Academy of Sciences (the tusk is still there; it is not clear where the tooth and rib are). I recently had a chance to examine the tusk and reidentified the animal as a mammoth, based on its internal structure[i], an interpretation supported by paleontologist Chris Widga of East Tennessee State University.

These fossils remain the only fossil proboscideans (the extinct mammoths and mastodons) found within the city limits. Nevertheless, occurrences of both ancient animals are found throughout the region, telling us that they were common animals of the area before their unfortunate extinction and thus part of our geoheritage. They are still rare enough as fossils, however, that every occurrence is of note. Before I summarize what is known, it is important to briefly distinguish between the two extinct mammals (for more details, see All About Mastodon).

 

ESCONI Events April 2021

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

Fri, Apr 9th	ESCONI General Meeting 8:00 PM Zoom - Topic: "Pits, Posts, and Palisades: The Archaeology of the 17th-century Plymouth Colony Settlement on Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts.” by Dr. David Landon from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Zoom Link
Sat, Apr 10th	ESCONI Junior Meeting 7:00 PM Zoom - Topic: "Opals" and "Field Trip Safety" Specifics of this meeting are available from Scott Galloway, 630-670-2591, [email protected]. Contact Scott to get the Zoom link to attend the virtual meeting and find out how to join the Juniors Club.
Sat, Apr 17h	ESCONI Paleontology Meeting 7:30 PM Zoom - Topic: "Analysis of the Mifflin Member of the Platteville Formation"  by ESCONI Member John Catalani.  Zoom Link.

 

Fossil Friday #49: Insects from the Eocene, Green River Formation, Colorado #fossils #insects #Colorado #FossilFriday #GreenRiver #Eocene

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #49.  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 interesting contribution comes from ESCONI 1st Vice President and Co-Field Trip Chairman Dave Carlson.  Insects are the most abundant animals on Earth. With anywhere between six and ten million species, some estimates have insects making up as much as 90% of all animal life forms.  For all that bounty, they are actually pretty rare in the fossil record.  Currently, the oldest insect fossil is known from the Rhynie chert, which dates to the Devonian Period 396 million years ago.  Dave's fossils come from Green River Formation, which is quite a bit younger, at about 50 million years ago.  He sent this description on how he collected these specimens from the upper Parachute member of the Green River Formation in Douglas Pass, Colorado.

The older I get, the less stuff I want to keep around. With that in mind, I was going through a box of rocks in the garage with the intention of throwing them out. These were collected at Douglas Pass Colorado back in the 1990s. The site is near an FAA radar station northwest of Grand Junction, at an altitude of around 9000 feet. The rock exposed there is from the Upper Parachute Member of the Eocene Green River formation. This location has been heavily collected over the years, but may not be accessible now due to restrictions around the FAA building.

Awesome fossils, Dave!  Thanks for sharing!

The specimens above may be insect abdomens, or they may be pupae.

The eyes are visible as dark circles with a wing in white on the left side.

Something mosquito-like.

The specimen directly above is part and counter-part, and is partly covered by matrix. It needs to be prepared but the exposed leg reminds me of a spider, except I don’t see 8 legs total.

Most of these are very small (1 to 3 mm), which is why I didn’t know they were there. Other larger fossils were also found such as Equisetum (Horsetail), Cardiospermum (Balloon Vine) and other angiosperms.

This one is one half of what may be a bee, with two wings showing on the right side.

The eyes are clearly visible on this specimen.

This is part and counter-part of a wing, about 1.8 cm in length.

Throwback Thursday #51: Morris Field Trip, September 30th, 1954 #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #history #mazon #GooseLake #Illinois #logcabin

This is Throwback Thursday #51.  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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Ran across this story in the January 1955 edition of the ESCONI Newsletter, it's about a field trip to Morris on October 30th, 1954. The participants were three influential names in the early days of ESCONI, Bill Allaway, Orval Fether, and Harry Witmer.  They had quite the day...  As you can read, they started the day at the Centre quarry near Morris, IL, where they found brachiopods and trilobites.  Then, went to the Harry L. Hough log cabin to examine historical artifacts a hundred or so years old.  They finished up at the coal mining spoils north of Coal City, and one of them found a fish!  The writer, Harry Witmer, was the Vice Chairman of ESCONI at the time and would later become President of ESCONI in 1960.  As you might know, Bill Allaway was the first Chairman and one of the founders of ESCONI in 1949.  The fisherman, Orval Fether held a few different posts including Treasurer and Circulation Manager, during the 1950's.  By the way, Orval is known as O. M. Fether in pretty much all the newsletters and old photos.  I finally found his first name on the caption of a photo of him and others with George Langford Sr in 1958.

Saturday, October 30, Messrs. Alloway, Fether and Witmer, members of ESCONI, made a trip to the Centre quarry near Morris, Illinois, where marcasite, brachipods, trilobites etc. were found. Mr. E. S. Gore from Morris net us there, and then made arrangements for us to visit the Harry L. Hough home and museum in Mazon.

On arriving in front of the Hough home, the first thing striking the eye is the old Mill stones in the parkway. We were cordially invited into the home by Mr. Hough. The entryway is filled with stones, fossils, Indian artifacts and relics of Pioneer days. Being introduced to lovely Mrs. Hough we were taken upstairs and shown several wonderful cases of Indian arrowheads which were found almost entirely in Grundy and La Salle counties. The upstairs bedrooms are furnished with old pioneer furniture, After returning to the first floor and chatting with Mrs. Hough for a short time we were escorted to the log cabin in the back yard. The cabin is an original log cabin known as the "Button Cabin", also one of the underground stations for the movement of runaway slaves on the Bloomington trail. It was moved from its original site on Mazon Creek. The fireplace is fitted as in the pioneer days, and of course, had a fire going. The walls are lined with muskets, swords, uniforms and in one corner sets a case of stones which would make any Rock-hound drool. The furniture is regular pioneer chairs, tables, and rockers. Hanging on the side is a leather belt decorated with carnelian agate. The attic contains spinning wheels, pioneer furniture etc.

After spending much time examining things in the log cabin, we were taken across to a shed which contains much pioneer farm equipment, such wooden plows, harness, etc. Close outside the cabin is an outdoor fireplace which has some large and wonderful rock specimens in it, crystals, large geodes, etc.

The next in order is the yard itself, where many interesting rock specimens are on display, including old mill stones, hitching stones etc. This concluded our couple of very interesting hours at the Hough home.

Mr. and Mrs. Hough are both descendants of old pioneer families. Mr. Hough is now retired and formerly was an organizer for the Farm Bureau in Illinois and Wisconsin, Much of his time is now spent in caring for his wife who is stricken with arthritis and is bed fast. The Hough's are among the few who survived the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago.

The Hough's also have a log cabin located on the Grundy county fair grounds at Mazon which is open during the fair; although no fee is charged for the viewing of all these wonderful things, donations are accepted and turned over to the Grundy Co. Historical Society. The society now has a very good exhibit which can be seen in the basement of the court house at Morris, Illinois.

To top the day, we stopped at the spoils north of Coal City for a short time, and a very nice fish fossil was found by Mr. Feather.

H. Witmer

More on Cragg Cabin now at Goose Lake State Park.

The old Cragg Cabin was built in 1835 by John Cragg and stood on its original location for one hundred years giving it historical landmark status in Grundy County. Mr. Harry L. Hough, a Mazon resident, had played near this cabin as a boy.  Mr. Hough became interested in local history as an adult and obtained permission to remove the parts that could be used to rebuild the cabin from the owner, Mrs. Jennie Cragg. Using local tradesman, he built an almost exact replica of the old Cragg Cabin as it had been in pioneer days using period furnishings and antiques. He and his wife, Zula, lived in the cabin and opened it up to many visitors as a museum for 30 years until 1966 when Mr. Hough died. The cabin was deeded to the Mazon High School and moved to school property.  The school district did not have a procedure in place to maintain the cabin and it was disassembled and moved in 1975 to Goose Lake State Park. The Park Director, Mr. Joseph Nyhoff, planned to reassemble the cabin as a pioneer home.

Photos of the Field Trip participants.

Bill Allaway and Harry Witmer

Orval Fether

George Langford & ESCONI Associates 1st Book, Orval Fether, Geo.Malcott, Howard Knight (standing); Harry Witmer, Langford, Stella Barrick June 13,1958

 

 

 

Phys.org: Cephalopods: Older than previously thought? #fossils #Cambrian #cephalopod #Canada #Newfoundland #mollusc

Longitudinal and cross section of fossils that could turn out to be the first known form of a cephalopod. Credit: Gregor Austermann / Communications Biology

Phys.org has a piece on the discovery of some very old cephalopods.  Found in Newfoundland, Canada on the Avalon Peninsula, the animals date to about 522 million years ago during the middle Cambrian.  If really a cephalopod, these fossils would push their origin back about 30 million years from what is currently thought.  Details can be found in a paper published in Communications Biology.

Possibly the oldest cephalopods in the Earth's history stem from the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland (Canada) discovered by scientists from Heidelberg University. The 522-million-year-old fossils could turn out to be the first known form of these highly evolved invertebrate organisms, whose living descendants today include species such as the cuttlefish, octopus and nautilus. The find would indicate that cephalopods evolved about 30 million years earlier than has been assumed.

"If they should actually be cephalopods, we would have to backdate the origin of cephalopods into the early Cambrian period," says Dr. Anne Hildenbrand from the Institute of Earth Sciences. Together with Dr. Gregor Austermann, she headed the research projects carried out in cooperation with the Bavarian Natural History Collections. "That would mean that cephalopods emerged at the very beginning of the evolution of multicellular organisms during the Cambrian explosion."

The chalky shells of the fossils found on the eastern Avalon Peninsula are shaped like a longish cone and are subdivided into individual chambers. These are connected by a tube called the siphuncle. The cephalopods were thus the first organisms able to move actively up and down in the water and thus settle in the open ocean as their habitat. The fossils are distant relatives of the spiral-shaped nautilus, but clearly differ in shape from early finds and the still existing representatives of that class.

Phys.org: New study investigates how life on land recovered after 'The Great Dying' #Permian #MassExtinction #fossils #evolution #extinction

The plant-eating pareiasaurs were preyed on by sabre-toothed gorgonopsians. Both groups died out during the end-Permian mass extinction, or "The Great Dying." Credit: © Xiaochong Guo

Phys.org has a story about the Permian Mass Extinction.  A new study by an international team of scientists from multiple universities in China, Britain, and the United States looked at why communities took so long to recover after the "Great Dying", which took place 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian Period.  The reason was due to the sheer scale of the devastation, with 19 of 20 species going extinct during the event.  Find all the details in a paper which was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Over the course of Earth's history, several mass extinction events have destroyed ecosystems, including one that famously wiped out the dinosaurs. But none were as devastating as "The Great Dying," which took place 252 million years ago during the end of the Permian period. A new study, published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows in detail how life recovered in comparison to two smaller extinction events. The international study team—composed of researchers from the China University of Geosciences, the California Academy of Sciences, the University of Bristol, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences—showed for the first time that the end-Permian mass extinction was harsher than other events due to a major collapse in diversity.

To better characterize "The Great Dying," the team sought to understand why communities didn't recover as quickly as other mass extinctions. The main reason was that the end-Permian crisis was much more severe than any other mass extinction, wiping out 19 out of every 20 species. With survival of only 5% of species, ecosystems had been destroyed, and this meant that ecological communities had to reassemble from scratch.

To investigate, lead author and Academy researcher Yuangeng Huang, now at the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, reconstructed food webs for a series of 14 life assemblages spanning the Permian and Triassic periods. These assemblages, sampled from north China, offered a snapshot of how a single region on Earth responded to the crises. "By studying the fossils and evidence from their teeth, stomach contents, and excrement, I was able to identify who ate whom," says Huang. "It's important to build an accurate food web if we want to understand these ancient ecosystems."

Mazon Monday #52: Species Spotlight Acanthotelson stimpsoni #MazonCreek #fossil #MazonMonday #shrimp #Pennsylvanian

This is Mazon Monday post #52.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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Drawing from George Langford Sr.

This week, we are going to look at a syncarid shrimp called Acanthotelson stimpsoni.  It's one of the most common shrimp found amongst the Braidwood fauna.  We had a very nice one from the Mazon River a few weeks ago for Fossil Friday #42.  A. stimpsoni was described in 1865 by F.B. Meek and A. H. Worthen.  Fielding Bradford Meek and Amos Henry Worthen were both prolific namers of taxa back in the middle 1880's.  They collaborated on many papers through the years. Meek worked at the USGS.  A.H Worthen was the second state geologist of Illinois and the first curator of the Illinois State Museum.  He has an extensive fossil collection, which now resides at the Prairie Research Institute PRI at the University of Illinois.  Acanthotelson was named for another early contributor to American science - William Stimpson. Stimpson worked at the Smithsonian Institution and was later the director of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.

Syncarida is a superorder of crustaceans.  It consists of two extant orders Anaaspidacea and Bathynellacea, and one extinct order Paleocaridacea.  There are 59 living genera, in six families.  They generally live in fresh water, but a few species do tolerate brackish conditions.

The book "ESCONI Keys to Mazon Creek Animals" has some great detailed drawings by Don Auler and a good write up by Andy Hay.

Scotland, 1835, was the site of the first reported discovery of a fossil shrimp. A concretion bearing the fossil shrimp, Acanthotelson stimpsoni, was reported from the Mazon Creek area, about 1860. Prior to the opening of Pit 11 during the 1940's, the diversity of the shrimp-like fauna in the Francis Creek Shale of Mazon Creek and the surrounding coal mines proved remarkably small. The opening of a strip mine, Pit 11, near the town of Essex, Illinois, ushered in a new age of crustacean and soft-bodied animal research.

There are two distinct faunas within the Mazon Creek area: the non-marine Braidwood Fauna and the marine Essex Fauna. Numerous shrimp-like animals, filter-feeders, algal-feeders, scavengers, and predators were found in the Essex biota. A great diversity of form and genera were described and recorded. Shrimp of the Braidwood and Essex biota have separate ecologies and relationships.

Terminology used in their formal descriptions varied widely among early writers. The labeled drawing utilizes terms used most often by present-day authors. They will be used in our descriptions. Another fact comes to light in a study of fossil shrimp.  Shrimp, as indeed with all arthropods, are a prisoner of their exo-skeleton: their body armor.  A periodic molting is required to allow growth of the animal.  Thisis a source of present day confusion. Preservation of Mazon Creek/Pit 11 shrimp  varies from excellently preserved specimens showing hair-line detail, to concretions containing nothing more than a color difference arising from the animal's body juices. To facilitate reading, "Shrimp" will be used to designate these interesting animals, whose shapes may resemble present-day shrimp, crayfish, crabs, or lobsters.

It should be noted, and strongly emphasized, at the risk of being boringly repetitious, that the preservation of soft-bodied animals is a highly singular event in the fossil record. Reconstruction of the animals depicted in this chapter was only possible through the study of numerous concretions. The concretion held by the reader
will not contain every detail in the individual sketch.

This moderately sized crustacean was first described in 1865. Original specimens were found along Mazon Creek. Concretions bearing Acanthotelson in the Mazon Creek. area are abundant in the Braidwood Fauna, but uncommon and poorly preserved in the Essex.

The cephalon (head shield) is short, grooved, with a small rostrum (beak) and insignificant optic notch. The eyes are small and stalked. First thoracic segment is short, next three are progressively longer, the other body segments are rather equal in length. Telson and uropods are slender with no pronounced bristles. First thoracopod (leg) very small, second and third are adapted for seizing prey; the other five for walking Last five "legs or pleopods are flap-like paddles with bristled margins.

Due to poor preservation this arthropod was shifted between various classes In some older literature it is referred to as Eileticus aequalis. The generic name Eileticus today reserved for a myriapod.

A. stimpsoni is mentioned in the Crustacea chapter in the "Richardson's Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek".  That chapter was written by Frederick R. Schram, W. D. Ian Rolfe, and Andrew A. Hay.

Acanthotelson stimpsoni
Meek and Worthen, 1865

First thoracic limb markedly reduced; outer ra mus of thoracic limb as a single flaplike segment; second and third thoracic limbs robust and spiny; abdominal limbs with two flaplike branches; telson and uropods styliform, with telson equal to or slightly longer than the uropods.

The cuticle of these animals was apparently very well sclerotized. As a result, these fossils are often well preserved with distinct segmental rings in evidence along the length of the body. This species has been the subject of much taxonomic confusion. In the older literature, it was often referred to by the incorrect generic name Eileticus. It is quite abundant in the Braidwood assemblage, but relatively rare and poorly preserved in the Essex assemblage.

The CGMA 2021 Show is a GO! #gems #minerals #fossils #Chicago #Illinois #KaneCounty

The 2021 Chicagoland Gems and Minerals Association show at the Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles, IL will be held on May 29 – 30. Masks will be required, hand sanitizer will be everywhere
and there will be extra space between vendors. As usual, we’ll be looking for volunteers to help run the show, and folks who want to provide a display. Remember that volunteers and displays
generate money back to ESCONI! More info will be forthcoming next month.

If you have any questions, contact Dave at [email protected]

 

PBS Eons: How Worm Holes Ended Wormworld #paleontology #worms #fossils #Ediacaran #Precambrian

 

PBS Eons has a new episode.  This one is about the Wormworld of the Ediacaran.

Elongated tubes, flat ribbons, and other “worm-like” body plans were so varied and abundant that a part of the Ediacaran is sometimes known as Wormworld. But in the end, the ancient Wormworld was ended by the actions of its very own worms.

Thanks to Franz Anthony (http://franzanth.com​) for the incredible illustrations of Ediacaran life!

Canceled - Lizzadro Museum Virtual Lecture March 20th, 2021 at 2 PM: Sharks at Mazon Creek by Jack Wittry #fossils #MazonCreek #sharks

This program has been postponed.  A new date will be announced.

Jack Wittry, Collections Associate at the Field Museum and author of the Mazon Creek Fossil Flora and Fauna books, presents the Mazon Creek fossil shark nurseries and discusses the controversy surrounding this topic. His new book on Mazon Creek plants will be available for signing after the lecture.

Canceled - New date TBA
60 minutes – Virtual Lecture
All Ages – Free program

 

Fossil Friday #48: Neuropteris jacksonii #fossil #FossilFriday #MazonCreek #milipede #Pennsylvanian

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #48.  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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For this week, we have a rare species of seed fern called Neuropteris jacksonii.  This magnificent specimen was found in a concretion collected from the Mazon River by ESCONI member Phil Anderson.  It's just another instance in his streak of fine discoveries this past winter as he freeze/thaws his way through the concretions he salted away last fall.  Congratulations, Phil!

Neuropteris jacksonii is a seed fern.  It's described on page 206 of Jack Wittry's new book "A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek".  N. jacksonii is a Pteridosperm and belongs to the order called Medullosales, which went extinct during the Permian.  Some of the other familiar names in this order include Alethopteris, Neuropteris, Odontopteris, Macroneuropteris, Linopteris, and Laveineopteris.

 

ESCONI March 2021 Paleontology Meeting - March 20th, 2021 at 7:30 PM via Zoom - "Collecting in Extreme Environments" #fossil #paleontology #fossilcollecting #nature

The title for the March 2021 Paleontology Meeting is "Collecting in Extreme Environments".  It will be given by ESCONI member Tom Williams.

What is an extreme condition? What should you be prepared for and what to pack, especially if it's just one or two of you.

Zoom details:

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 892 3317 1323
Passcode: 498376

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Throwback Thursday #50: Revisiting a Field Trip to Galena, IL August 8th-9th, 1959 #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #history #Galena #Illinois #minerals #agates

This is Throwback Thursday #50.  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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Back in Throwback Thursday #18, we recalled a field trip to Galena, IL on August 8th and 9th, 1959.  After digging through the newsletters, we have the field trip announcement, the report, and a few more photos.  John Ade, who would later become president of ESCONI, was the field trip chairman.  They were hunting for minerals - Galena, Marcasite, Calcite, and Sphalerite.  And, lodging was at the DeSoto Hotel.  

It sounds like they had a great time and added a little agate hunting before the whole ESCONI group of 50 (!) arrived. 

People dressed a little different for field trips in the 1950's.  No hard hats, steel toed boots, gloves, or safety vests were needed.  Skirts, scarves, and high heels were more the bill of fare.  Love the old cars!  It does look like they had a fun time!

CBC: Bloodsucking-fish fossils overturn once-popular theory about our evolution #evolution #lamprey #science #fossils #biology #paleontology

Researchers found the fossil of a newly-hatched ancient lamprey, left, that has large eyes and a sucker mouth with sharp teeth, like the modern sea lamprey, right. (Tetsuto Miyashita/Canadian Museum of Nature; Taylor Simmons/CBC)

CBC Technology & Science has a story about fossil lampreys.  New baby lamprey fossils found in South Africa have shed some light on the early evolution of vertebrates.  The fossils date to the Devonian Period about 360 million years ago.  Incredibly, there were hatchlings included with some of the specimens of the Priscomyzon.   Babies are very rarely preserved in the fossil record.  All the detail are in a paper published in the journal Nature.

Lampreys are boneless, blood-sucking snake-like fish considered to be "living fossils" that have barely changed since they first arose during the Paleozoic era, more than 100 million years before the first dinosaurs.  

Interestingly, since the 1800s, scientists have thought that the earliest ancestors of all vertebrates, including ourselves, resembled lampreys' worm-like babies.

...

That's because lampreys don't fossilize well, as they have no bones, only cartilage. They only form compressed fossils under very specific conditions, similar to those that preserved soft-bodied ancient creatures in Canada's Burgess Shale, said Philippe Janvier, emeritus director of research at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientific (CNRS) in an email.

"Such fossils have long been regarded as barely more informative than a squashed slug on a highway," said Janvier, who co-authored the 2018 paper with Docker. It was hard to tell whether any of them were ammocoetes or juveniles in the middle of metamorphosing into adults.

...

Back in the Paleozoic, South Africa was located at the South Pole, but it was much warmer and wasn't always iced over. At that time, Waterloo Farm was a coastal lagoon teeming with fish and invertebrates, which made up most of the animals on Earth at that time, when the ancestors of modern amphibians were just starting to take their first steps out of the water and onto land.

Miyashita got in touch with the local expert there, Robert Gess, a paleontologist and research associate at the Albany Museum and Rhodes University in Makhanda, South Africa. Gess had rescued 100 tonnes of shale that contained thousands of fossil specimens at Waterloo Farm before the construction of a local road.

Seminar at U of I via Zoom: "Rivers of Power: How an Ancient Force Still Rules Us All" - March 25, 2021 from 1:00 - 2:00 PM #geography #rivers #nature

There will be a free seminar presented via Zoom by the Geography Dept at the University of Illinois on March 25, 2021 called "Rivers of Power: How an Ancient Force Still Rules Us All" by Laurence Smith of Brown University.  Dr. Smith wrote the book "Rivers of Power: How a Natural Force Raised Kingdoms, Destroyed Civilizatioons, and Shapes Our World"

 

 

"This talk will explore some of the many ways that humans have used rivers over time, and how we continue to do so today. Since our earliest cities established along the Tigris-Euphrates, Indus, Nile, and Yellow rivers, anthropogenic use of rivers has changed over time and varied by region. Yet their critical importance has persisted because they provide five fundamental benefits: access, natural capital, territory, well-being, and a means of projecting power. The manifestations of these benefits have changed, but societal demands for them have not."

 

See: https://calendars.illinois.edu/detail/6562/33404572 for info and Zoom link. This is open to the public.

Phys.org: 'Pompeii of prehistoric plants' unlocks evolutionary secret: study #fossil #plants #China #Pennsylvanian #seeds #PNAS

Reconstruction of the crown of Paratingia wuhaia sp. nov. Credit: University of Birmingham

Phys.org has a story about some Pennsylvanian fossil plants from China.  The species of plants, Paratingia wuhaia, which belong to a group called Noeggerathiales, were highly successful. They survived from about 325 million years ago in the Pennsylvanian Period until the Permian Mass Extinction about 251 million years ago.  At one time, they were thought to be an evolutionary dead-end, but new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) details how they are actually a highly-evolved member of the group that became seed plants.

Spectacular fossil plants preserved within a volcanic ash fall in China have shed light on an evolutionary race 300 million years ago, which was eventually won by the seed-bearing plants that dominate so much of the Earth today.

New research into fossils found at the 'Pompeii of prehistoric plants', in Wuda, Inner Mongolia, reveals that the plants, called Noeggerathiales, were highly-evolved members of the lineage from which came seed plants.

Noeggerathiales were important peat-forming plants that lived around 325 to 251 million years ago. Understanding their relationships to other plant groups has been limited by poorly preserved examples until now.

The fossils found in China have allowed experts to work out that Noeggerathiales are more closely related to seed plants than to other fern groups.

No longer considered an evolutionary dead-end, they are now recognized as advanced tree-ferns that evolved complex cone-like structures from modified leaves. Despite their sophistication, Noeggerathiales fell victim to the profound environmental and climate changes of 251 million years ago that destroyed swamp ecosystems globally.

The international research team, led by palaeontologists at Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology and the University of Birmingham, today published its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).