Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Mazon Monday #62: Common Descent Podcast Episode 110 - Mazon Creek Fossil Beds #fossil #MazonCreek #MazonMonday #podcast #ferns #Illinois #lagerstätte #Pennsylvanian #Carboniferous

This is Mazon Monday post #62.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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The Mazon Creek fossil beds are considered a conservation lagerstätte, a site of exceptional preservation. Plant and animal fossils are often preserved here with full-body impressions and even soft tissues like leaves, skin, and organs.  Images: fossil plants and shark by James St. John [CC BY 2.0]

"Common Descent" is a podcast about paleontology, biology, and evolution.  The hosts are David Moscato and Will Harris, who are paleontologists and science communicators. As it says on their website, they "love talking about fossils, evolution, and life history"  They have interesting episodes on many topics, including - dinosaurs, the Burgess Shale, Trilobites, Fins to Feet, and Trees.  Episode 110 is called "Mazon Creek Fossil Beds".  It's very informative and provides a good summary on a huge topic.  They discuss ferns, shark egg cases, and the Tully Monster among other topics like the geology and paleoenvironment of Mazon Creek.

Go digging in the right place in Illinois and you’re liable to find some of the best Carboniferous fossils in the world. This episode, we discuss the history, the geology, and the incredible – and sometimes bizarre – plants and animals of the Mazon Creek Fossil Beds.

Since at least the mid-1800s, geologists and fossil collectors have recognized that the banks of Mazon Creek (Mazon River) in Northeast Illinois are a source of exceptional fossils. Throughout the 1900s, as extensive mining operations dug into the geologic formation known as the Francis Creek Shale, it became clear that these Mazon Creek fossils were also exceptionally widespread, found over an area of some 150 square kilometers. Today, thousands and thousands of Mazon Creek fossils are held in museum collections and private collections, making this one of the best-sampled fossil localities in the world.

The Francis Creek Shale was deposited in a deltaic environment, a vast region where freshwater flowed into an ancient shallow sea around 310 million years ago during the Pennsylvanian Period, at a time when Illinois was very near the equator. The fossils of Mazon Creek represent animals that lived in these tropical waters, as well as land-dwelling plants and animals washed into the delta by the flowing rivers.

What a weirdo! The Tully Monster has a soft body, stalk eyes, and a long clawed proboscis. Most Mazon Creek fossils are pretty recognizable, but Tullimonstrum looks like it belongs in the Burgess Shale.
Artist’s reconstruction (left) by PaleoEquii [CC BY-SA 4.0)
Fossil photo (right) by James St. John [CC BY 2.0]

This link was contributed by an ESCONI member.... Thanks, Stephanie!

 

ESCONI at CGMA 2021 #gems #minerals #fossils #Chicago #Illinois #KaneCounty

Today is the last day of the 2021 Chicagoland Gems and Minerals Association show. It's at the Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles, IL.  Masks are optional for vaccinated people, hand sanitizer will be everywhere and there will be extra space between vendors.  There's lots of vendors, interesting displays, and good friends.... See you there!

Answers for the TBT #60 Mineral Quiz from November 1966 #minerals #history #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #quiz #answers

You have probably been waiting for the answers to Throwback Thursday #60's mineral quiz.  Well, wait no more.... how'd you do?

Note: this quiz originated from Science Digest, but we got it from the KGMS (Kalamazoo Geological & Mineral Society).  We've had a relationship with the KGMS, sharing a few field trips. They joined us at Braceville in the fall of 2020 and we visited the Cheney Limestone in Bellevue, MI with them last fall.

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1. B--Sometimes an entirely different color from that of the minoral. Black hematite, an ore of iron, makes red streak. Metallic minerals when powdered tend to make dark streaks and non-metallic ones, light streaks. Black mica, biotite, has a colorless streak.

2. C--Hexagonal--triagonal trapezohedral. Quartz may have several modifications in its crystals depending upon temperatures. The quarts we usually find is alpha quartz. The chemical substance SiO₂ (quartz) may form a cubic-type crystal when crystallized at temperatures above 1470 C., but this is called cristobalite.

3. B--Outward appearance. The main groups of luster are metallic and nonmetallic, although a third group, submetallic, is sometimes used. The metallic luster is that of any typical metal, and such minerals are opaque. A number of different types of nonmetallic luster are found. Vitreous or glass luster is common. Other types of non metalltc luster appear greasy, resinous, pearly, and so on, a few have a silky luster.

4. A--Calcite. It has a hardness of 3 in the scale from 1 to 10. The hardness of the mineral tale is 1; gypsum, 2; and calcite, 3. An average fingernail is 2. A diamond is 10--the top of the scale.

5. A--The way in which a mineral breaks naturally and smoothly. Cleavage is always parallel to possible or actual crystal faces the mineral possesses. When a mineral with no natural cleavage lines is struck sharply with a hammer, the mineral fractures, showing many irregular surfaces. Cleavage is an important property for the identification of minerals. Cleavage lines which lie in the plane along which cleavage occurs may be repeated many times throughout the crystalline mineral.

6. 0--Gypsum. The water-free gypsum CaSO₄ becomes CaSO₄ 2H₂0 by the process of hydration. Azurite may change to malachite. "Pyrite may change to llimonate by simple weathering. Pyrite is FeS₂ and becomes Fe₂0₃ nH₂0--1imonate without the sulfur (S) present.

7. B-Green and blue. The copper ore azurite is blue and malachite, green. Both are carbonates of copper. Azurite has the chemical formula 2CuCO₃, Cu(OH)₂ and Malachite, CuC0₃ Cu(OH)₂. The most important copper ore is chalcopyrite, a sulphide of copper and iron, CuFeS₂.

8. C--Quartz. In Moh's hardness scale, quartz is 7 and apatite, 5. The scale doesn't measure exact, but only comparative hardness. A mineral higher on the list will scratch those below. The scale does not mean that Number 9 18 three times harder than Number 3.  Window glass has a hardness of 5.

9. B-Twinning. A contact plane between the crystals may seem to be a prominent plane present in both crystals. This pairing is called twinning. Sometimes their repeated intergrowths appear on other planes, too. There are a number of special types of twinning such as spinel twinning; penetration twinning; which occurs in fluorite and pyrite; and repeated twinning, which makes a wheel-like pattern found in rutile.

10. A--Ilmenite. Ilmenite first came from the locality of the Ilmen Mountains in Russia. It is an iron titanate, FeTi0₃, generally black-or nearly so. The titanium content made it an undesirable iron ore, but since World War II, the titanium oxide extracted from the ore is used for a white pigment in paint. The reserves of this ore at Allgard Lake in Canada are great enough to supply the world. Cinnabar is the ore from which mercury is obtained in Spain and Italy. Wolframite is the important ore from which tungsten is obtained.

SCORE YOURSELF:
     8.- 10 right --A solid score
     4 - 7  right -- Minerals put you on your metal
     0 - 3  right -- Explore another vein.

- From Science Digest via" Gems" - Kalamazoo Geo.. & Min.

 

The CGMA 2021 Show is a GO! Saturday, May 29th and Sunday, May 30th, 2021 #gems #minerals #fossils #Chicago #Illinois #KaneCounty

The 2021 Chicagoland Gems and Minerals Association show at the Kane County Fairgrounds in St. Charles, IL starts tomorrow!  It will be held on both Saturday, May 29th and Sunday May 30th, 2021. Masks will be required, hand sanitizer will be everywhere and there will be extra space between vendors.  See you there!

Fossil Friday #58: Clam Clam Clam from Chowder Flatts #fossil #FossilFriday #clam #MazonCreek #Pennsylvanian #Carboniferous #clamclam

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #58.  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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Clowder Flatts was a Mazon Creek fossil locality just west of Morris, IL.  It was known for dark, black, heavy concretions and plenty of sulfur.  Probably, the most common fossil found there was Mazonomya mazonensis otherwise known as clam-clam, which is how it got its nickname.   Other fossils were found there... including ferns, shrimp, worms, insects, and stories that it is one of three localities where the Tully Monster was found.  Unfortunately, no one can collect there now as it's been built up as a community of homes.

For Fossil Friday this week, we have a triple clam... clam-clam-clam?

Throwback Thursday #60: Mineral Quiz from November 1966 #minerals #history #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #quiz

This is Throwback Thursday #60.  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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We don't have enough mineral posts and sorry to surprise everyone with a pop quiz.... But today, we have a mineral quiz from the November 1966 edition of the newsletter.  Try you luck.... we'll post the answers in a couple days.

TRY YOUR LUCK WITH THIS MINERAL QUIZ??????

1. When you rub the fresh surface of a mineral on in unglazed tile the streak is:

a. Always the same color as that of the mineral
b. Sometimes an entirely different color from that of the mineral
c. Never colorless

2. A well-developed quartz crystal is geometrically

a. Octahedral
b. Cubic
c. Hexagonal- triagonal trapezohedral

3. The luster of a mineral refers to its

a. Color
b. Outward appearance
c. Streak

4. A mineral you can't scratch with your fingernail is

a. Calcite
b. Gypsum
c. Talc

5. Cleavage in crystalline minerals is the

a. way in which a mineral breaks naturally and and smoothly
b. Breaking of a mineral in random or irregular order
c. Breaking of a mineral in planes that are not parallel to any actual or possible crystal faces the mineral possesses.

6. Weathering may change one mineral into another. It is then called a pseudomorph (false form). A special name is applied to indicate type of change. A mineral chemically altered solely by the addition of water molecules is

a. Garnet
b. Azurite
c. Gypsum

7. Color is a clue in prospecting for copper ore. Stains on outcropping veins may indicate the presence of copper below when they are

a. Yellow and brown
b. Green and blue
c. Black and red

8. A mineral that can scratch window glass is

a. Apatite
b. Fluorite
c. Quartz

9. Crystals of minerals which grow close together may cause an intergrowth of two crystals or several intergrowths. This is known as

a. Parallel growth
b. Twinning
c. A distorted crystal

10. The following minerals are unusual because of the products obtained from them. The nearly black mineral that produces a product for making the whitest of paints is.

a. Ilmenite
b. Cinnabar
c. Wolframite

Note: this quiz originated from Science Digest, but we got it from the KGMS (Kalamazoo Geological & Mineral Society).  We've had a relationship with the KGMS, sharing a few field trips. They joined us at Braceville in the fall of 2020 and we visited the Cheney Limestone in Bellevue, MI with them last fall.

 

ESCONI Field Trip to Belvidere Quarry - June 26th, 2021 #fieldtrip #fossil #Illinois #quarry #fossilcollecting #ordovician

Belvidere, IL Quarry Field Trip

There will be a field trip to a quarry near Belvidere, Illinois on Saturday, June 26, 2021, from 9AM to 12 noon.

The rock is Ordovician, Galena Group. This is a "hard-rock" quarry (dolomite). If you like Hormotoma or Receptaculites, this is the place for you! The quarry has been active so there is new rock exposed.

If you are sick, have symptoms of covid or have tested positive recently, DON'T COME.
 
Rules

1. Everyone in your group MUST be an ESCONI member as of June 21, 2021.
2. Everyone in your group MUST be at least 18 years of age.
3. Everyone MUST have and wear a hard hat, safety vest, and sturdy boots while in the quarry. No sandals, tennis shoes, and the like. No claw hammers or roofing hammers - use only rock hammers. If you plan on hammering then bring eye protection and wear it.
4. This is a quarry and social distancing should not be a problem. If you are uncomfortable being around others then bring a mask and wear it.
5. Sign up by sending me (Dave) an email with the number of members attending and their names. My email is [email protected].   No phone calls please.
6. I will acknowledge by return email. If you don't get a reply in 24 hours, send it again!
7. Maximum attendance by ESCONI members is 15. This is a shared trip with the Rock River Valley Gem and Mineral Society.
8. Please review the Code of Ethics and Conduct on the ESCONI website. You will be expected to check-in at the quarry. By doing so you agree to follow the Code of Ethics and the conditions on the ESCONI Liability and Waiver form (sent by email to those that sign up). You do not need to print out the ESCONI waiver form, just know what you’re agreeing to. There may be an additional waiver from the quarry.   

The address of the quarry will be sent to those that sign up a few days before the trip.

I will distribute the waiver forms by email to those signed up just before the trip.
 
Questions? Send me an email at [email protected].

Ticks, Ticks, Ticks, Ticks, Ticks 2021! #ticks #Lyme #LymeNews #woods #grass #summer #spring #bites

Black-Legged or Deer Tick

With temperatures in the 80's, it's time for our annual Tick post.  It's getting warm and late spring/early summer is the peak of tick season.  With the nice weather, you will probably be spending more time outside looking for fossils, minerals, etc. in the woods, fields, and quarries.  Or at least, that's what we hope... after all, this is the ESCONI website.  One creature you may encounter is a tick.  Ticks are arthropods, that unfortunately are vectors for a number of serious diseases.  In Illinois, American Dog (Wood), Brown Dog, Lone Star, and Deer ticks are some of the more common species in Illinois.

Get a tick removal tool.  Here's the one I've used.

Another nice kit for removing ticks.

Here are some resources to learn more about avoiding ticks, treating bites, and getting medical attention if you get do come down with any disease symptoms.

• Ologies Podcast with Alie Ward has a great episode on Ticks.  BTW, it's a great podcast to learn more about any type of science.
• There's an app to help you avoid ticks!
• VOX has an interesting post about why there isn't a Lyme Disease vaccine.  Spoiler, there is!  Unfortunately, anti-vaccine sentiment has led to it being pulled from the market. 
• The University of Rhode Island runs the TickEncounters.com website with great information about all things tick!  Check out their blog Tick Notes.
• The Illinois Department of Public Health has information about ticks in Illinois.  Check for information in your state.  Check out the tick flyer.
• Camping Cooks has an excellent guide on Lyme Disease.
• LymeDisease.org is another great resource.

Recently, there has been a bunch of articles about ticks in the news.  Here are a few.

• Lyme disease and Ticks, how ti recognize the symptoms
• After An Absence, New England's Ticks Are Back - And Hungry
• The Ticks That's Becoming More Prevalent in RI Could Cause a Red Meat Allergy
• Rise in tick-borne disease in Midwest due to relocation, climate change says study
• Consumer Reports: How to protect yourself from ticks
• Check for Tick Bites Often While Outdoors, Illinois Officials Say
• Some Tick Bites Are Deadly, Illinois Agency Offers Safety Tips

Mazon Monday #61: Video for May Paleontology Meeting - "A Historical Perspective on Collecting Mazon Creek and Pit 11" by Peter Kruty #MazonMonday #fossils #history #Illinois #paleontology

This is Mazon Monday post #61.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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We are very excited to post the video of Peter Kruty's presentation for the May 2021 Paleontology Meeting. The title of his talk was "A historical Perspective on Collecting Mazon Creek and Pit 11". It was a very interesting presentation which was sure to bring back memories for long-time Mazon Creek collectors and instill a deep longing and heartfelt regret for those that couldn't or didn't participate in the glory years of the 1950's to the early 1980's.

Peter showed many photos of he and his family collecting at three different historic Mazon Creek localities. The first was a stretch of the Mazon River just east of Morris, which passes between the Kodat and Bensen farms. This was the original Mazon Creek collecting spot, active all the way back to the 1850's. The locality was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.

Secondly, the Greer School sat on what was Peabody Coal's Pit #1 and was known for incredible plant fossils. The school trained construction workers to drive heavy equipment. The site now hosts Cinder Ridge Golf Course in Wilmington, IL. The last site was Peabody Coal's Pit #11, which is now a State Park - Mazonia. The public is still allowed to collect in the park, however
it is overgrown with plants and concretions can be very difficult to find.

At the end of his presentation, Peter showed some stunning fossil specimens, including a Tully Monster, a very nice shrimp, some gorgeous ferns, and an incredible Elonichthys fish, which was featured in Fossil Friday #46.

Peter and his brother Paul donated parts of his father's fossil collection to ESCONI earlier this year. His father, Sam Kruty, a Chemical Engineer by profession, was an enthusiastic fossil collector, who contributed specimens to the Field Museum and the Mazon Creek Project. He was generous with his fossils using them to educate many that he met. Additionally, he was co-author of three chapters of the Richardson's Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek.

Thanks again, Peter and Paul!

 

Extraordinary Evolution Research Reveals Mammals in the Time of Dinosaurs Held Each Other Back #mammals #paleontology #mesozoic #evolution

Early lineages of mammals, like this large Gobiconodon from Mongolia, outcompeted the ancestors of modern mammals in the time of dinosaurs. Credit: Art by Corbin Rainbolt

SciTechDaily has an article about mammals during the age of dinosaurs.  A new study published in Current Biology looked at how mammals evolved before and after the extinction that took out the non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous.  The study found that it wasn't the dinosaurs that out competed the mammals, it was other mammals... and maybe even ancestral mammals.

A new study led by researchers from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, and the University of Birmingham for Current Biology has used new methods to analyze the variability of mammal fossils, revealing extraordinary results: it was not dinosaurs, but possibly other mammals, that were the main competitors of modern mammals before and after the mass extinction of dinosaurs.

The study challenges old assumptions about why mammals only seemed to diversify, becoming larger and exploring new diets, locomotion, and ways of life, after the extinction of the non-bird dinosaurs. It points to a more complex story of competition between distinct mammal groups. The new research also highlights the importance of testing old and established ideas about evolution using the latest statistical tools.

“There were lots of exciting types of mammals in the time of dinosaurs that included gliding, swimming, and burrowing species, but none of these mammals belonged to modern groups, they all come from earlier branches in the mammal tree,” said Dr. Elsa Panciroli, a researcher from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the study. “These other kinds of mammals mostly became extinct at the same time as the non-avian dinosaurs, at which point modern mammals start to become larger, explore new diets and ways of life. From our research it looks like before the extinction it was the earlier radiations of mammals that kept the modern mammals out of these exciting ecological roles by outcompeting them.”

PBS Eons: How Weasels Got Skinny #fossil #paleotology #mammals #weasels

 

PBS Eons has a new episode.  This one is about weasels and how they got their skinny body plan.

Weasels have an extreme body plan that may push the boundaries of what’s metabolically possible. So when and how did this happen? Why'd the weasels get so skinny?

Happy 222th Birthday, Mary Anning!

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.

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.

 

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.

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.

Fossil Friday #57: Cyperites bicarinatus #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #fossils #Carboniferous #Illinois

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #57.  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 few examples of Cyperites bicarinatus.  These specimens were found in the area around Pit 2.  These tapered grass-like leaves were part of the foliage of Carboniferous Period plants like Lepidodenron and Sigilaria.  These fossils are pretty common in some of the Mazon Creek localities.

Throwback Thursday #59: The Rock Pile #rocks #history #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #poem

This is Throwback Thursday #59.  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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In the October 1962 edition of the ESCONI newsletter "The Earth Science News", a poem called "The Rock Pile" by Charles Schweitzer of Temple City, CA appeared on page 6..  It's an interesting little poem that hints at the relaxation and restorative powers of rock collecting.  This is not the only poem written by Charles that ESCONI published.  We did a little research to see if he was a member and it turns out he wrote poems that were originally published in the Los Angeles Lapidary Society's newsletter.  And, there is a book of his various poems!  The book is called "Rhymes of the Rockhounds" and was published around 1956.

Sit back relax and enjoy "The Rock Pile"...

The Rock Pile

I'll tell you what I often do,

When I am tired or feeling blue:

I like to take a chair or box,

And sit beside my pile of rocks.

I get a thrill as I begin

To think of places I have been

To gather these, my treasures here,

In various spots both far and near.

Although I've sat here oft before,

Each time I find in this rock store

Some hidden gem I did not see,

Which somehow hid itself from me.

You'd be surprised the peace of mind

This simple act helps me to find.

So I advise you, when you are blue,

To do this thing I often do.

You'll find relief from toil and care.

You've left them at the rockpile there.

- Charles Schweitzer

 

Earth’s Worst Mass Extinction Took Ten Times Longer on Land Than in the Water #climatechange #paleontology #evolution @FieldMuseum #massextinction #Permian

An illustration showing Lystrosaurus during the end-Permian mass extinction. Credit: Gina Viglietti

SciTechDaily has a story about the Permian Mass Extinction.  The worst mass extinction in Earth's history, the Permian Mass Extinction happened about 252 million years ago.  Researchers at the Field Museum in Chicago looked at the rate of extinction on land to see if it matched what is seen in the oceans.  They found the land extinctions took much more time... perhaps as much as ten times longer.  The marine extinctions were 95% complete after 100,000 years, while life on land endured for about 1,000,000 years.  Details can be found in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“People assumed that because the marine extinction happened over a short period of time, life on land should have followed the same pattern, but we found that the marine extinction may actually be a punctuation to a longer, more drawn-out event on land,” says Pia Viglietti, a postdoctoral researcher at Chicago’s Field Museum and the lead author of the PNAS study.

“The focus for studying terrestrial extinction has basically been, ‘Can we match up the pattern in the terrestrial realm with what’s observed in oceans?’ And the answer is, ‘Not really,’” says Ken Angielczyk, the paper’s senior author and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Field Museum. “This paper is the first really focusing on vertebrates and saying, ‘No, something was going on that was unique to the terrestrial realm.’”

Part of why scientists had looked to the marine extinctions for clues as to what happened on land is that there’s a more complete fossil record of life underwater. If you want to become a fossil, dying by water, where your body will rapidly get covered by sediment, is a good way to make that happen. As a result, paleontologists have known for a while that 252 million years ago a mass extinction hit at the end of the Permian period, and within 100,000 years, more than 85% of the species living in the ocean went extinct. And while that seems like a long time to us, that’s very quick in geologic time. The marine version of the end-Permian extinction took up 100,000 years out of the entire 3,800,000,000 years that life has existed—the equivalent to 14 minutes out of a whole year.

To learn what happened to life on land, Viglietti, Angielczyk, and their colleagues examined fossils from 588 four-legged fossil animals that lived in what’s now South Africa’s Karoo Basin at the time of the Permian mass extinction.

A Milwaukee Suburb Is Full of Ultrarare Fossils #fossil #arthropod #rare #Wisconsin #Ordovician #softtissuefossil

Preserved by ancient microbial mats, these fossilized trilobite relatives allow scientists to glimpse Silurian life. Photo courtesy of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Geology Museum

Hakai Magazine has a story about a special fossil deposit in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  The deposit dates to the Ordovician Period about 440 million years ago.  It was discovered in 1984 by amateur paleontologists Jerry Gunderson and Ron Meyer.  They found fossilized soft tissue why splitting open rocks from a thin layer called the Brandon Bridge Formation.  They realized they had come across something ultra-rare and donated their finds to the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum.

These fossils offer an unparalleled glimpse into the Silurian, a geological period during which Earth’s climate stabilized, plants conquered land, and fish developed jaws. “There’s a lot of really important events that are occurring in the Silurian, and we actually get to see some of these things with the Waukesha” fossils, says Andrew Wendruff, a paleontologist at Ohio’s Otterbein University.

And what a glimpse those Waukesha fossils provide. Although most creatures found in the formation lack easily fossilized hard tissue, they appear on the rock in exquisite detail: Several trilobites sport preserved guts, while some tiny crustaceans no bigger than Altoids possess 440-million-year-old hearts. “To be able to look at this specimen of a leech and actually see the segmented rings and the mouth structure preserved hundreds of millions of years ago is mind-blowing,” says Carrie Eaton, the Geology Museum’s curator.

For decades, this incredible preservation of soft tissue stumped scientists. “Often, there’s this cookie-cutter definition of rapid burial,” Wendruff says. “But what we have here is very different.” In a recent study, Wendruff attempted to answer this question by examining thousands of Waukesha fossils. It turned out that the answer had been there all along, adorning the shale in deep folds like elephant skin.

Mazon Monday #60: Species Spotlight - Annularia inflata #fossil #MazonMonday #MazonCreek #illinois #plants

This is Mazon Monday post #60.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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This week, we are looking at a species of Annularia. Annularia is actually the foliage of a plant called Calamites.  Calamites is classified as a Sphenopsid, which is a primitive vascular plant characterized by jointed ribbed stems and small leaves usually in whorls at distinct stem nodes.  Its closest living relative are the horsetails.  In life, the plant would have looked something like this, with some individual plants reaching tens of meters tall.

The following text is from "A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek" by Jack Wittry

SPHENOPSIDA: RELATIVES OF THE HORSETAILS

Modern horsetails all belong to the genus Equisetum and are the distant relatives of the ancient tree-like Calamites and the vine-like Sphenophyllum. They are closely related to and even considered by some researchers to be members of the fern family. Calamites grew to about 30 feet tall, and like today's horsetails, preferred moist lake or river shorelines where they formed dense monospecific stands. Sphenophyllum was a relatively small plant that made up a small part of the forest under story. Both reproduced by spores that were shed from cones hanging from branch tips. Cones are assigned to six genera: Calamostachys, Palaeostachya, the less common Mazostachys, Bowmanites, Macrostachya, and the very rare Tetraphyllostrobus. The foliage of Calamites is placed into two genera: Annularia and Asterophyllites. As with the description of Lepidodendron, the name for the trunk and stems is shared with the plant name Calamites.

In Sphenophyllum, there are only two identified species found in the Mazon Creek flora. All other names found in the literature could not be confirmed and were often placed on small, poorly preserved, or partially buried specimens of what otherwise may have been recognized as one of the common forms.

The stem fossils of calamites have often been referred to as pith casts made by the in-filling of their hollow pith cavity. This has now been shown not to be the case (DiMichele et al., 2012). It was demonstrated that most are really casts of the exterior of the stem, and that the outside of the stem of calamites appears nearly identical to casts made of the pith cavity. In either case, the name remains the same and the descriptions for both preservational aspects are the same. It is possible to distinguish between the two if vascular canal scars are present on the ribs near the nodes. Only the pith casts will display them.

The description of Annularia inflata appears on page 58 and 59.

Annularia inflata Lesquereux, 1870

1870. Annularia inflata Lesquereux: p. 423, pl. 20, figs. 1, 3; non pl. 20, fig. 2 = Annularia latifolia
1870. Annularia longifolia Brongniart; Lesquereux: p. 423, pl. 20, fig. 4
1879-80. Annularia inflata Lesquereux: p. 47, pl. 2, fig. 2; non pl. 2, fig. 1 ?Annularia radiata
1880. Annularia longifolia White: p. 521, pl. 11, fig. 1; non pl. 11, fig. 2
1925. Annularia stellata Wood; Noé: pl. 3, figs. 1-5
1938. Annularia stellata forma mucronata Bell: p. 85, pl. 89; non pl. 90, fig. 1
1958. Annularia stellata Wood; Abbott: p. 321, pl. 35, fig. 1; pl. 36, figs. 8, 9; pl.41, fig. 58
1958. Annularia stellata Wood; Langford: p. 39, figs. 38, 39
1969. Annularia stellata Wood; Darrah: p. 172, pl. 37, fig. 1
1979. Annularia stellata Janssen: p. 84, fig. 67
1979. Annularia radiata Janssen: p. 85, fig. 68
2017. Annularia inflata Lesquereux; Álvarez-Vázquez and Wagner: p. 26, figs. 4, 5

DESCRIPTION: The whorls slightly overlap and lay on the same plane as the axis. The leaves, 20 to 28 per whorl, vary in length, making the whorl appear elliptical rather than round. The widest part is at a right angle to the axis and up to 10 cm wide; the shortest leaves are on the proximal side. The leaves are enrolled at the margins and widest in the upper-third of the leaf. The apex is obtuse, though it appears variable, even on the same whorl due to the amount of compression and enrollment. At the tip of the leaf, there is a short, sharp point (see Fig. 3 inset) referred to as a mucro. This is most often lost in the matrix and not seen. A strong midvein is the only venation, though it is often missing due to poor preservation.

REMARKS: Annularia inflata is common, though only the third most common annularid. The form described here, when found in North America of similar age, had been called Annularia stellata (= Annularia spinulosa) by previous authors. Since their writing, the range of features of A. stellata = A. spinulosa has been better defined and found dissimilar enough to reject its use for the Mazon Creek form. It is replaced by A. inflata in the Mazon Creek flora, a name which was originally erected using Mazon Creek fossils as the type examples.

The book "Keys to Identify Pennsylvanian Fossil Plants of the Mazon Creek Area" provides some nice hints to identify Annularia.

Specimens

Trip Full! ESCONI Field Trip to Danville Shale Pile Fossils - Saturday, June 5th, 2021 #fossils #fossil #FieldTrip #Carboniferous #Illinois #coal #fern #plants #MazonCreek

Sorry, for now this trip is full!

Danville Field Trip Rules

An ESCONI field trip to the Danville Shale Pile for Pennsylvanian plant fossils is scheduled for June 5, 2021 from 10 AM to 3 PM. This is on private property and there is an attendance limit of 20 people. The gate will be secured once we are in and locked when we leave at 3 PM.

You must register to go on this trip. See rule 7 below for instructions. This is the only way to register.

If you are sick, have any symptoms of Covid-19 or have recently tested positive, DO NOT COME.

Everyone MUST have a face mask and wear it if less than 6 feet from another person.

1. The minimum age is 18 years old. Registration ends at midnight June 1st.
2. You and everyone in your party must be members of ESCONI. No membership dues will be accepted at the field trip site. Have your membership status resolved before the trip, no later than June 1st. You can pay dues by mailing a check, or with a credit card using the PayPal link on the ESCONI website.
3. You will be required to check-in at the collecting site. By attending, you agree to follow the ESCONI Code of Ethics and Conduct (available on the ESCONI website) and agree to the
   conditions set forth in the ESCONI Accident Waiver and Release of Liability Form (sent by email to those that register). You don’t need to print it out, just know what you’re agreeing to.
4. The collecting site is in Vermilion County. If Vermilion County’s covid status slips back from phase 4 to phase 3, the trip will be canceled.
5. The pile is a mixture of “Red dog” shale (bisque fired shale), gray shale and black shale. You’ll be collecting from loose shale which can be hard and sharp. If you decide to dig for concretions, it is much like Braceville, though concretions are less common. Sturdy boots are highly recommended as are gloves. Wear eye protection if using a hammer.
6. Parts of the pile are unstable. You must not go into areas marked with flags/caution tape. Anyone found beyond the markers will be asked to leave and may not be allowed to sign up for future field trips.
7. Sign up for the trip by sending me (Dave) an email with your name and the number of members attending. I will acknowledge by return email within 24 hours. If you don’t hear from me in that
   time, send it again! My email is [email protected]
8. If the trip is full I will keep a waiting list in case there are cancellations. If you are signed up and can’t make it, please let me know.

I will send a map to those that register a few days before the trip. The driving distance is significant.  Depending on where you live, it could take 2 to 4 hours to get there.

 

PBS Eons: When Trees Took Over the World #paleontology #Ordovician #trees #plants #NewYork #fossils #paleontology

 

PBS Eons has a new episode.  This one is about the first "trees"... hint, they didn't look like trees back then.

420 million years ago, the forest floor of what's now New York was covered with a plant that didn’t look like a tree at all, except its roots were made of wood. Instead of looking up to learn about the evolution of trees, it turns out paleobotanists should’ve been looking down all along.

A big thank you to Franz Anthony (http://franzanth.com), Julio Lacerda (https:twitter.com/JulioTheArtist), and Fabrizio de Rossi (https://www.facebook.com/ArtofFabrici...) for their excellent paleoart featured in this episode.

 

Fossil Friday #56: Braceville Mazon Creek Fossils #FossilFriday #fossil #MazonCreek #FieldTrip #carboniferous #ferns #animals #jellyfish #shrimp

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #56.  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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This weekend, May 15th and 16th, 2021, ESCONI returns to the Braceville spoil pile to collect Mazon Creek fossils and concretions.  Last fall, we had a couple posts to show what has been found there in the past - Fossil Friday #22 and Fossil Friday #23.  Today, we are going to revisit those specimens for the new visitors on this trip.  Good Luck!

Animals

Animals are much more common than plants at Braceville.  Jellyfish are the most plentiful, but many worms have been found.  In fact, many people refer to the Braceville spoil pile as "Worm Hill".

Octomedusa pieckorum (Jellyfish)

Kallidecthes richardsoni (Shimp)

Palaeoxyris sp. (Shark egg case)

Essexella asherae (Jellyfish)

Paucijaculum samamithion (Arrow worm)

Dryptoscolex matthiesae (Rat worm)

Mazonomya mazonensis (Clam)

Aviculopecten mazonensis (Scallop)

Mazopherusa prinosi (Fan worm)

Plants

While relatively rare compared to animals, there has been a good variety of plant fossils found at Braceville.  

Stygmaria

Laveiniopteris rarinervis

Alethopteris sullivantii

Cyperites bicarinatus

Lepidodendron