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This is the "Fossil Friday" post #69. 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 many fossil collectors, Tully Monsters represent the holy grail of Mazon Creek fossils. But, there are other more rare and charismatic Mazon animals, like spiders and scorpions. Either of those would form the cornerstone of any collection. There are individuals out there, that don't stop at collecting just one of these, but push on to actually bag one of each for their fossil menagerie. You might remember Phil Anderson's scorpion... it was the feature of Fossil Friday #10. Now, Phil is back with a very nice spider! It even won "Fossil of the Month" for July 2021 on the Fossil Forum! The species is Architarbus rotundatus. Wow, I need to start following you around on field trips! Congratulations and thanks for the contribution!
The ESCONI field trips to Braceville for Mazon Creek fossils are set for Sept 11 and 12, 2021 from 9 AM to 3 PM. You can attend one or the other, but not both days. There is an overall attendance limit of 50 people each day. NOTE THE TIME CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS TRIPS!
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!
Please bring a mask and use it if you are within 6 feet of someone else.
Meet at 9 AM at the entrance to the collecting site on S Berta Road, just east of the intersection with Division St (Braceville IL). A nearby landmark for driving directions is the Braceville Gardner Cemetery, 7295 East Braceville Road, Braceville. I can send a small map to anyone that needs it.
This is Throwback Thursday #71. 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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Today, we have the poem entitled "The Title of the Picture Sentimental" from the November 1968 edition of the ESCONI newsletter. This poem was written by Walter Dabasinkas, who was an old time Mazon Creek collector. Between he and his wife, they have no less than five Mazon Creek animals named for them - two are sharks and three are insects... it goes without saying that this is amazing! Maybe change that to hardcore collector!
This poem also appeared in the "Pick and Dop Stick", which is the newsletter of the Chicago Rocks and Mineral Society. Chicago Rocks is alive and well. They have been a club since 1946.
THE TITLE OF THE PICTURE "SENTIMENTAL"
by Walter DabasinskasBy Nature painted. on this rock,
two hundred and fifty million years ago,
This painting tells me a little story:
I was alive,
two hundred and fifty million years ago!Mother Nature was very proud of me.
As I grew a little older,
She decided to preserve me for a little while
and I was kept in hiding, for
two hundred and fifty million years.Finally she decided to take me out of hiding,
So that I might be seen again for a little while.I was beautiful when I was alive.
I am beautifully preserved.
Eventually I must come to an end,
and make room for more beautiful things,
Which Mother Nature is going to create.
Pick and Dop Stick
Life reconstruction of Thapunngaka shawi. Image credit: Richards et al., doi: 10.1080/02724634.2021.1946068.
Science Alert has a story about a terrifying new pterosaur recently described from Australia. It had a seven meter wingspan, bristling teeth in its jaws, and it flew through the air! That's how a new pterosaur from Australia has been described. Named Thapunngaka shawi, it lived about 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The discovery is described in a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. It's the largest species of pterosaur ever found on the continent, an extremely important find that contributes to our understanding of pterosaur diversity in Australia. And it would have been absolutely metal.
"It's the closest thing we have to a real life dragon," said paleontologist Tim Richards of the University of Queensland in Australia.
"The new pterosaur, which we named Thapunngaka shawi, would have been a fearsome beast, with a spear-like mouth and a wingspan around seven meters (23 feet). It was essentially just a skull with a long neck, bolted on a pair of long wings.
"This thing would have been quite savage. It would have cast a great shadow over some quivering little dinosaur that wouldn't have heard it until it was too late."
For more coverage, have a look at this story in Sci-News or this one in ABC News.
Cairo's fossilized forest, taken while researchers from SUNY Binghamton and Cardiff University in England examined the find. Courtesy Willian Stein
The Times Union in Albany, New York has a story about the world's oldest fossilized forest. The forest was discovered in a quarry in Cairo, NY, near where other ancient trees were discovered in Gilboa, NY. These lycopsid "tree" fossils date to the Devonian Period, about 400 million years ago. They were described in a paper in the journal Current Biology in 2019. Now, there are competing ideas as to how to preserve the site for study, education, and tourism.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t have the full board’s support — we had enough to move a resolution and things like that, but with a project like this, it would be great to have full community support,” he said.
Watts, who is running for town supervisor — Coyne is not seeking reelection — wanted to sell the site at the time.
Watts said he has since changed his mind, essentially because the site can’t be sold.
To sell it, the site must be appraised, but “there’s nothing to appraise it against,” Watts said — the site is globally unique, and therefore priceless.
Watts said as recently as May’s Town Board meeting he wanted to sell it, according to HudsonValley360, and claimed at an earlier meeting he had received an estimate on the site of between $500,000 and $1 billion.
Any sale he might have pursued would have been to an educational institution, Watts told the Times Union on Monday.
“They’re the ones that can find the funding; we can’t find the funding for this,” he said. “We could do some kind of fundraiser, some chicken BBQ or something, and then we’ll only get a couple thousand dollars to put towards this.”
This is Mazon Monday post #72. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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T. gregarium fossil (part and counterpart)
We've been doing Mazon Monday posts for almost 1.5 years now. And. it seems like an index of posts would be helpful. Hard to believe all the topics we have covered! Let is know your favorite and any suggestions for new posts at email:[email protected]
The Paleontological Society has several categories for membership, including “Amateur/Avocational”, which is half the price of a regular membership. Benefits include online access to the Journal of Paleontology, Paleobiology, Elements of Paleontology, The Paleontological Society Papers, and Treatise Online. See https://www.paleosoc.org/ for more information.
The membership page is here.
The new frog-legged beetle species, Pulchritudo attenboroughi, or Attenborough’s Beauty, was identified by Frank Krell, Denver Museum of Nature & Science Senior Curator of Entomology and Francesco Vitali, National Museum of Natural History of Luxembourg Invertebrate Zoology Collections Curator in August 2021. Credit: ©Denver Museum of Nature & Science
Phys.org has a story about a newly described fossil insect. The beetle, Pulchritudo attenboroughi, is named for Sir David Attenborough. The name means "Attenborough's Beauty". It was found in what is now Colorado in the famous Green River Formation. The full description of the insect appeared in a paper in the journal Papers in Paleontology.
A new frog-legged beetle species, Pulchritudo attenboroughi, or Attenborough's Beauty, was announced today in the scientific journal Papers in Palaeontology. Frank Krell, Denver Museum of Nature & Science Senior Curator of Entomology, and Francesco Vitali, National Museum of Natural History of Luxembourg Invertebrate Zoology Collections Curator, worked together to identify this new species.
The beetle, which has been on display in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science's "Prehistoric Journey" exhibition since it opened in 1995, is from the Green River Formation in Garfield County, Colorado and lived nearly 49 million years ago. Its beautiful patterns on its wing casings caught Krell's eye.
"This is one of the most magnificent beetle fossils ever found," Krell said. "The patterning is preserved in unsurpassed clarity and contrast, making this one of the best-preserved beetle fossils. It is most definitely deserving of its name."
Beetles are sturdy when they are alive, but they do not easily fossilize as a whole beetle. They float on water, and when they sink and reach the sediment, they often fall apart. Usually, only single wing cases are found in the fossil record. Some deposits with a fine-grained sediment and particularly favourable conditions provide us with very well preserved, often almost complete fossils. These deposits are called lagerstätten. The Eocene Green River Formation in northwest Colorado is one of them.
This is the "Fossil Friday" post #68. 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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Being soft bodied makes jellyfish extremely rare in the fossil record. So, it's interesting that the most common fossil in the Essex Biota of the Mazon Creek fossil deposit is the jellyfish Essexella asherae, which was named for amateur collector Helen Asher. They come in many shapes and sizes. We did a Species Spotlight for E. Asherae back in Mazon Monday #14. For Fossil Friday this week, we have a few concretions with multiple Essexella asherae.
This double specimen is from ESCONI member Chris Berg. Thanks, Chris!
Here is a triple specimen found last year in Pit 11.
And, a couple more foundthis year, also from Pit 11.
This is Throwback Thursday #70. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc ...), please sent them to [email protected]. Thanks!
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The following article appeared in the September 1976 edition of the ESCONI newsletter. Coprolites are popular items for sale at any rock show. They are actually fossilize feces, not always from dinosaurs. We even find coprolites in the Mazon Creek biota. Here is the definition from Wikipedia.
A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κόπρος (kopros, meaning "dung") and λίθος (lithos, meaning "stone"). They were first described by William Buckland in 1829. Prior to this they were known as "fossil fir cones" and "bezoar stones". They serve a valuable purpose in paleontology because they provide direct evidence of the predation and diet of extinct organisms.[1] Coprolites may range in size from a few millimetres to over 60 centimetres.
I looked of the "Ozark Earth Science News" and couldn't find anything specific to a newsletter. However, The "Spring River Gem & Mineral Club" still exists. They have a page on Facebook with somewhat recent posts. They're location is Cherokee Village, Arkansas. Oh and 50 tons is a huge amount of anything.... especially poop!
THEY'RE SELLING WHAT? By Olga Curtis
COPROLITE is a popular item in the rock stores where bits of Colorado s stone are sold to souvenir-hungry tourists. It is pretty when polished, a variegated stone that looks good in rings, bracelets and pendants. But tourists want it for another reason: Coprolite is petrified dinosaur dung.
To scientists, fossil excrement is a valuable source of information about the food habits of extinct animals. To tourists, it is a conversation item. When complimented on wearing a nice looking stone, the: can reply: "That's dinosaur manure!"
Colorado has a lot of dinosaur manure, especially on the Western Slope, and J. V. Kelly of Mark, Colo., seems to collect more of it than any one else. Kelly is a professional rock hunter, estimates he has shipped 50 tons of coprolite to stores throughout the United States and abroad. since polished dinosaur droppings became jewelry items about 15 yrs ago.
At first, storekeepers would whisper the true nature of coprolite into a buyer's ear. Now, it is fashionable to label it correctly. One of Kelly's customers, Marty Stroo of Georgetown, Colo., displays a "Dinosaur manure" sign in the window of his store, The Wildcats. "It intrigues visitors," Stroo says.
Kelly sells coprolite for $1.30 a pound, as is. (It looks like a rocky cow pat in specimen form). Cut and polished, a two inch slab of coprolite set into a brooch or pendant costs from $7.50 to $11.50 or more. The price goes up with polishing because no one can tell if it is of gem quality, meaning suitable for polishing, until it is cut.
It can be found in various sizes, from rocks weighing only half a pound to chunks of nearly 200 pounds. "The size of the dinosaur has a lot to do with it," Kelly notes. Usually, he adds, when you find coprolite you find a great deal of it, maybe as much as a ton.
Did dinosaurs always relieve themselves in the same place? Stroo admit. that is what he tells tourists, but a more scientific explanation is that prehistoric waters pushed waste materials into a mass. The tourists, Stroo adds, are always impressed by the fact that coprolite is 140- to 170- million years old. But they still ask if it smells.
- "from the Denver Post" via Spring River Gem & Mineral Club, Ozark Earth Science News, 6/76
In this artist’s rendition, flamingo-like Pterodaustro guinazui fly against the backdrop of Early Cretaceous Argentina. New research suggests hatchlings of P. guinazui could fly the moment they emerged from their shells. MARK WITTON
ScienceNews has a story about pterosaurs. New research suggests that pterosaur hatchlings might have been able to fly right after hatching. This study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Pterosaur hatchlings may have been able to fly right out of the shell — although the flight of those ancient baby reptiles might have looked a bit different from that of the adults.
A new analysis of the fossilized wing bones of embryonic, newly hatched and adult pterosaurs suggests the baby creatures were strong and nimble fliers from the start, researchers report July 22 in Scientific Reports.
Pterosaurs were a diverse group of ancient flying reptiles that lived alongside dinosaurs from the Triassic to the Cretaceous periods, 228 million to 66 million years ago. The group includes Quetzalcoatlus northropi, the largest creature known to take wing, and Kunpengopterus antipollicatus (aka “Monkeydactyl”) which had opposable thumbs that enabled it to climb trees (SN: 4/14/21).
Here's a field trip report from ESCONI Vice President Dave Carlson for the Starved Rock Clay Pit field trip back on July 24th, 2021.
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Usually we are concerned about mud at the clay pit, but not this time. It was quite dry for this trip, even to the point where some rain would have been welcome in order to clean things off and keep the dust down. As always, we do the best with the conditions we have.
Recent work had changed the configuration of pits. Some of the underclay was brought to the surface forming blue/gray/purple piles. The Colchester coal was exposed intact showing cracks filled with calcite. Calcite has also mineralized the black shale but that didn't stop some folks from breaking large pieces open. The calcite cement varies from clear to tan to brown and the crystals can be showy. They are also fluorescent in LW UV.
These pictures are from Ceal Tobias.
Fossils were also recovered in the black shale like this stick found by Rob Russell.
Also some invertebrate fossils like these found by Connor Puritz.
Above, Pseudorthoceras, and below, Desmoinesia.
The only vertebrate specimens were Listracanthus, a shark denticle, like this one found by Kyle Schroeder.
A few plant fossils were found in the gray shale. This Annularia was found by Melissa Parages.
This fern was found by Ceal Tobias.
This location always produces stable pyrite in various forms, such as balls and cylinders, and pyritized wood which is unstable and subject to pyrite disease.
This is a unique and geologically complex location. It can be challenging to collect at the clay pit but with persistence and patience, interesting fossils and minerals can be found.
This is Mazon Monday post #71. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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(A) Specimen of the fossil horseshoe crab Euproops danae from Mazon Creek, Illinois, USA, preserved with its brain intact. (B) Close-up of brain, as indicated by box in image (A). (C) Reconstruction of Euproops danae, including the position and anatomy of the brain. Russell Bicknell
Mazon Creek is categorized as a Lagerstatte due to the extraordinary preservation. For Mazon Creek, this presentation quite often includes soft bodied animals and soft tissues. Last week, there were a whole bunch of stories about a fossilized brain from a Mazon Creek horseshoe crab. The crab, a Euproops danae, was found in a siderite concretion. The study was published in the journal Geology back on July 26th,
The Conversation has a good article. which also discusses soft tissue preservation.
But what about the really delicate anatomy of animals, such as their internal organs? Can they be fossilised too?
Our study, published today in Geology, shows how even the intricate brains of ancient aquatic arthropods (invertebrates with jointed legs) can be preserved in remarkable detail.
The discovery of a 310 million-year-old horseshoe crab in the US, complete with its brain intact, adds to a recent string of fossil finds which have unearthed some of the oldest arthropods with a preserved central nervous system.
The horseshoe crab fossil we document in our study sheds new light on how these fragile organs — typically prone to very rapid decay — can be preserved with such fidelity.
Live Science also has an article.
Researchers have uncovered a never-before-seen fossilized brain from a 310 million-year-old horseshoe crab, revealing some surprises about the evolution of these wannabe crustaceans, according to a new study.
The fossilized brain, which belongs to the extinct species Euproops danae, was discovered at Mazon Creek in Illinois, where the conditions were just right to perfectly preserve the animal's delicate soft tissue.
There are four species of horseshoe crabs alive today — all of which sport hard exoskeletons, 10 legs and a U-shaped head. Despite their name, these "crabs" are actually arachnids that are closely related to scorpions and spiders, according to The National Wildlife Federation. Although horseshoe crab fossils are relatively common, nothing was previously known about their ancient brains, the researchers said.
"This is the first and only evidence for a brain in a fossil horseshoe crab," lead author Russell Bicknell, a paleontologist at the University of New England in Maine, told Live Science. The chances of finding a fossilized brain are "one in a million," he added. "Although, even then, chances are they are even rarer."
