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This is the "Fossil Friday" post #106. 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 week's Fossil Friday is a twofer... two very beautiful shark egg cases from central Illinois. These are not from Mazon Creek, but are from central Illinois, near a famous Little Vermillion Carboniferous locality. This contribution comes from long time ESCONI member Rich Kerrill. The species name is Palaeoxyris prendeli. Jack Wittry of the Field Museum has a useful pdf for identification on the museum's website.
Thanks for sharing... these are great specimens!
This is Throwback Thursday #108. 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 are currently deep into field trip season, so to celebrate, for our throwback this week, we have a poem that appeared twice in the ESCONI newsletter. Gene Falada, a long time ESCONI member, was looking through some old newsletters back around 2004, when he came across his poem titled "Field Trips" in the October 1965 edition. Back then, he lived in Berwyn, IL. He decided to resubmit the poem. It was accepted for publication and was published for the second time in the October 2004 edition. This time the newsletter included a photo of his house in Colorado. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much more about Gene... hopefully, he will see this post as his poem has now been "published" by ESCONI for a third time.
FIELD TRIPS by Gene Falada
We've all climbed over mine dumps
And searched the coal strip heaps.
Snaked through mountain passes
With station wagons and jeeps.We've stared at endless quarry walls
And sifted through the dust,
And peeked in nooks and crannys
From ledges we shouldn't trust.We've chopped out many fossils
With chisels and with pick,
And fingered through gravel piles
To give each agate a lick.We've started out on mornings
When there was rain in every cloud,
When the wind was bending trees
And the sky was like a shroud.And yet on other days.
When the wind was fresh with Spring,
We'd venture up the back roads
With all the gear that we could bring.We've been up to Bancroft
And stopped off at the iron range.
Went to the New England pegmatites
And gathered everything strange.Down to Florida for black coral
And to Carolina's ruby fields,
Stopped off at Llano County
To see what Texas has to yield.Headed west into the Black Hills
For a Fairburn or two,
And concretions filled with barite
Of brilliant golden hue.From here out to the Rockies
Are the richest treasures of all,
There's wood and agate and crystals
We'd better heed their call.We've circled through Wyoming
Arizona and New Mexico,
And broughtback loads of minerals,
Some with fluorescent glow.We've searched for gold in the Sierras
And other precious stones.
Scratch through dried up lake beds
For ancient petrified bones.Then back again toward Canada
But stop this side of the line,
And 'midst the Oregon ponderosa
Are thundereggs and plumes so fine.You can cross our country over
And use toll roads all the way,
But you'11 pass up all the good spots
'Til on the dirt roads you do stray.Load your trunk up to capacity
'Til your springs are way down low,
But leave some for those behind you
Better yet!! Show them where to go.We've met rockhounds at the campsites
And in the mountain peaks so cold,
And they all have shared a story
These friends with hearts of gold.
West side of our home - with my totem pole peeking from behind Colorado Spruce - Gene Falada
Yes, the banner is correct! The Mazon Creek Open House is returning for 2022! If you've been a Mazon Creek collector (or even just a passing fan), you may have heard of the Mazon Creek Open House. It was an annual affair, usually held in October at places as varied as the Burpee Museum, the Lizzadro Museum, and even the Elgin Public Library. There were quite a few events in the 1990's and early 2000's up until the last one in 2007. For much of that time, it was hosted by the Mazon Creek Project of Northeastern Illinois University with ESCONI providing essential support. Look for more information in the coming months.
E S C O N I
Mazon Creek Open House
October 15, 2022
A 1-day conference devoted to Mazon Creek and related topics
Displays of Mazon Creek fossils
Mazon Creek fossil Identification
Mazon Creek books for sale
Speakers
Public invited - Admission is free
Held in-person in the Visitors Center Theater
Cantigny Park
Winfield Rd just south of Roosevelt (Rt 38)
Wheaton, Illinois
9 AM to 4 PM
Also online via Zoom
Stay tuned more information to follow
Inspired by the compound eyes of a species of trilobite, researchers at NIST developed a metalens that can simultaneously image objects both near and far. This illustration shows the structure of the lens of an extinct trilobite. Credit: NIST
Phys.org has a story about technology derived from fossils. Some researchers at NIST have took inspiration in the eyes of the trilobite Dalmanitina socialis to make special bifocal lenses for a miniature camera. Their work can be found in a recent paper published in the journal Nature Communications.
Five hundred million years ago, the oceans teemed with trillions of trilobites—creatures that were distant cousins of horseshoe crabs. All trilobites had a wide range of vision, thanks to compound eyes—single eyes composed of tens to thousands of tiny independent units, each with their own cornea, lens and light-sensitive cells. But one group, Dalmanitina socialis, was exceptionally farsighted. Their bifocal eyes, each mounted on stalks and composed of two lenses that bent light at different angles, enabled these sea creatures to simultaneously view prey floating nearby as well as distant enemies approaching from more than a kilometer away.
Inspired by the eyes of D. socialis, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a miniature camera featuring a bifocal lens with a record-setting depth of field—the distance over which the camera can produce sharp images in a single photo. The camera can simultaneously image objects as close as 3 centimeters and as far away as 1.7 kilometers. They devised a computer algorithm to correct for aberrations, sharpen objects at intermediate distances between these near and far focal lengths and generate a final all-in-focus image covering this enormous depth of field.
Such lightweight, large-depth-of-field cameras, which integrate photonic technology at the nanometer scale with software-driven photography, promise to revolutionize future high-resolution imaging systems. In particular, the cameras would greatly boost the capacity to produce highly detailed images of cityscapes, groups of organisms that occupy a large field of view and other photographic applications in which both near and far objects must be brought into sharp focus.
This is Mazon Monday post #109. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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Today, we are looking at one of the rarer forms of Pecopteris, namely Pecopteris notata. This variety doesn't show up in a few of the Mazon Creek plant books, but it can be found in the new "A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek" by Jack Wittry.
Lesquereux in 1864, from Wikipedia
P. notata was described by Leo Lesquereux in 1858. He described much of the North American Carboniferous flora in the mid 1800's as a consultant to various US state geological surveys. His book "Atlas to the Coal Flora of Pennsylvania and the Carboniferous Formation throughout the United States" written from 1879 to 1884 was the standard reference for the Carboniferous flora in the US for many years. In 1870, he co-authored a book with Amos Henry Worthen called "Report on fossil plants of Illinois", which can be found on the Smithsonian's website. Worthen was the first curator of the Illinois State Museum.
Pecopteris notata Lesquereux, 1858
1858. Pecopteris notata Lesquereux: p. 866, pl. 18, fig. 4
1880. Pecopteris notata Lesquereux: p. 262
1889. Pecopteris notata Lesquereux; Lesley: p. 607, pl. no numberDESCRIPTION: The penultimate pinnae are lanceolate, taper gently to blunt lobes at the apices, and have channeled rachises. The ultimate pinna is nearly linear, with six to eight pairs of pinnules attached to a flexuous rachis. It has a large and blunt terminal pinnule at its apex. The pinnules are oblique, obtuse, ovate, about 5 mm long, and are confluent for half of their length. They are decurrent and have a small sinus on the acroscopic side. The venation consists of a thin, decurrent midvein that forks before reaching the apex. The lateral veins are thin, distant, and simple or divided once near the middle. The pinnules are punctate, which appears to be evidence of glands. The pits are randomly placed, small, and of various sizes and shapes.
REMARKS: Pecopteris notata is rare. This taxon is very similar to Pecopteris subcrenulata, but P. notata has shorter and wider pinnules and more distant ultimate pinnae. Most known examples in the Mazon Creek flora are from the Pit 15 area (see Fig. 2 on p. vi).
Specimens
From "A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek" by Jack Wittry.
From the Field Museum website
Recently collected specimen from ESCONI member Rich Holm. A single pinnule recovered from Pit 11.
"It had been thought that there could not be an event of that size in the north of the country simply because you could not get a long enough rupture," study co-author James Goff, a geologist at the University of Southampton in England, said in a statement.
Like the Valdivia earthquake, the ancient quake was a megathrust earthquake, the most powerful type of earthquake in the world. These earthquakes occur when one of Earth's tectonic plates gets forced, or subducted, underneath another. The two plates eventually get locked into place by friction, but the forces that caused the plates to collide continue to build. Eventually, so much strain gathers that the point of contact between the plates rips apart, creating a gigantic rupture and releasing energy in the form of devastating seismic waves.
Evidence for the giant quake was found in marine and coastal items — such as littoral deposits (boulders, pebbles and sand native to coastal regions) and marine rocks, shells and sea life — that the researchers discovered displaced far inland in Chile's Atacama Desert.
"We found evidence of marine sediments and a lot of beasties that would have been living quietly in the sea before being thrown inland," Goff said in the statement. "And we found all these very high up and a long way inland, so it could not have been a storm that put them there."
This is the "Fossil Friday" post #105. 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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A gorgeous Annularia annulariafolius is our Fossil Friday this week. These are fairly rare fossils, which often are preserved in 3-D, which can lead to them breaking into many pieces across multiple planes. This specimen comes from ESCONI board member Andy Jansen. He had to piece it back together. Looks like you did a great job, Andy! Thanks for sharing this stunning and interesting specimen!
Andy's story.
Here is the Annularia annulariaefolius that I froze outside overwinter and lightly tapped with another small concretion this spring. It "blew apart" along the many planes formed by the leaves that radiate around each node. I glued most pieces back in place, which hid several leaves. One section of leaves, I kept unglued so you can see the leaves underneath the stem (compare the two final photos). This was a very poor looking concretion when I found it. I almost didn't collect it since it showed signs of being hammered at least three times in the past (see photo of outer surfaces) - proof that freeze-thaw is the method that should be used first for all concretions.
The puzzle...
And, the solution!
It's a stunner!
This is Throwback Thursday #107. 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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Harriet Williamson
If you grew up anywhere in the area, you may remember G-Shaft Candy. It's a hard candy, brown in color with a light colored line running through it. It has a unique taste, with hints of anise or peppermint. Currently, you can buy it from Dan's Homemade Candies in Joliet. They are said to use the original recipe, which they bought from the Williamson family. The candy has an interesting origin story, part of which appears on the current label for the candy.
The origin story appeared in Will Grundy Genealogical Society (WGGS) Quarterly, Vol XXIX, No 1.
Readers, I hope you enjoy revisiting the story of the ever-popular "G-Shaft" Candy.
In the 1800's, before Mrs. Harriet Williamson left Sheffield, Yorkshire, England to join her husband in the United States, her father gave her a recipe for a candy called Bull's-Eye. Family legend has it that he told her it might help her make a living one day.
Mrs. Williamson came with her husband to Galena, Illinois in 1866 where he was a hoisting engineer. Coal mines were being developed in Braidwood, Illinois, and so the family moved there in 1872. Mrs. Williamson would make the family candy recipe and it became popular. She became known as the candy lady who lived near the "G" Shaft. In those days, mines were named by the alphabet.
Tragically, on Sept. 9, 1881, Mr. Williamson was killed in a mine accident when the roof and scaffold in the engine room of the I-Shaft began to collapse on top of him. He worked diligently at the hoist controls while this accident was occurring to make sure the miners below were brought to the surface. Mrs. Williamson suddenly was left with six children to support and no income. Remembering the popularity of her "Bull's-Eye" candy, Mrs. Williamson began her candy-making business.
Enlisting the help of the children, she made and distributed the candy to local merchants in Braidwood, Illinois and surrounding communities. She named the confection "G-Shaft" Candy, because that mine was visible from her kitchen window. As her candy grew in popularity, Mrs. Williamson obtained a copyright for the recipe and registered the "G-Shaft" trademark, granted in 1893.
Mrs. Williamson lived to nearly 80 years of age, and when she died in 1914, her son, Harry, received the recipe and trademark as inheritance. The candy has been made in Coal City, Illinois and Minooka, Illinois, where it was made in Harry's home and packaged and distributed by his children. Some was shipped to customers out of state.
During WWII, two things occurred which caused the business to cease, 1) rationing of sugar, and 2) the tragic death of Ralph Williamson along with 67 other men in a disastrous explosion at the Joliet Arsenal in 1942. Ironically it was a tragic death that made the business and a tragic death that ended the business.
Editor's Note -- It is possible to purchase "G-Shaft" candy today, but those who savored the Williamson's own say it just isn't the same. It is sold this time of year at Dan's Homemade Candies in Joliet, Illinois.
This is an original label from a box of G. Shaft candy made by the Harry Williamson Candy Co.
Chicago, Wilmington & Vermilion Coal Company's "G" shaft mine
Harry Williamson Family, 1912
A kettle like this was used to make the original G-Shaft Candy.
Reference material for today's post came from the Carbon Hill School Museum (Facebook) and the Coal City Library. The Carbon Hill School Museum is an excellent place to learn about the history of the surrounding area. The curator, Michele Micetich, has a wealth of information at her fingertips, if not in her amazing memory. Give them a visit some time, it's like taking a step back in time!
Regular hours
Open Mondays Noon - 4 PM
The museum also opens by appointment
for interested individuals, families or groups.Michele Micetich, Curator
The original 1893 schoolhouse displays hundreds of original artifacts depicting immigrant turn-of-the-century life of families, businesses, and coal mines. Original items include the jailhouse iron doors, soccer trophies and bocce balls, coal mining tools, furniture and household items, old store supplies, Illinois coal reports, maps and plats, and plenty of family memories; there is something to interest everyone.
An artist’s rendition of Thanatotheristes (left) and Ulughbegsaurus (right) based on the discovered fossils. (Julius Csotonyi), Author provided
The Conversation has a piece about the discovery of a couple "missing" apex predators during the Cretaceous. The animals, Thanatotheristes degrootorum, a tyrannosaur from North America and Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis, a carcharodontosaur from Uzbekistan, were found languishing in museum collections where they had sat for at least a decade. Both fill in gaps of our knowledge and help to paint a more complete picture of the mid-Cretaceous ecosystems. The Conversation is a place were researchers can report on their work in many fields including paleontology. This article was written by Associate Professor, Dinosaur Paleobiology at the University of Calgary.
In 2019, paleontologists Jared Voris and Kohei Tanaka — both who had trained in my lab at the University of Calgary — visited museums to look at fossils housed in collections. Voris went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta., and Tanaka to the State Geological Museum in Uzbekistan.
Each found a fossil specimen they thought may have been important, although overlooked. Both fossils had been found in Cretaceous age rocks of their respective region, and had sat in the museum collections for at least a decade without much notice.
After many months of study, each of these fossils turned out to be an entirely new species of meat-eating dinosaur, previously unknown to science. This meant that we would need to formally describe them, and each would be given its own species name.
We named the new tyrannosaur species Thanatotheristes degrootorum, which means “reaper of death.” The name draws inspiration from its predatory role in the 80-million-year-old ecosystem and for the first discoverer of the fossil bones, an Alberta rancher called John DeGroot.
On the other hand, we named the carcharodontosaur species Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis after Ulugh Beg, a historical figure and early astronomer in Uzbekistan.
Back in December 2020, Dr. Jennifer Raff of the University of Kansas spoke to in our General Meeting. Her program was titled "What Genetics Tells Us About the Peopling of the Americas". It was an interesting look into what genetics can tell us about the settlement of North America. Now, she has a new book out, "Origin, A Genetic History of the Americas".
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!
From celebrated anthropologist Jennifer Raff comes the untold story—and fascinating mystery—of how humans migrated to the Americas.
ORIGIN is the story of who the first peoples in the Americas were, how and why they made the crossing, how they dispersed south, and how they lived based on a new and powerful kind of evidence: their complete genomes. ORIGIN provides an overview of these new histories throughout North and South America, and a glimpse into how the tools of genetics reveal details about human history and evolution.
20,000 years ago, people crossed a great land bridge from Siberia into Western Alaska and then dispersed southward into what is now called the Americas. Until we venture out to other worlds, this remains the last time our species has populated an entirely new place, and this event has been a subject of deep fascination and controversy. No written records—and scant archaeological evidence—exist to tell us what happened or how it took place. Many different models have been proposed to explain how the Americas were peopled and what happened in the thousands of years that followed. A study of both past and present, ORIGIN explores how genetics is currently being used to construct narratives that profoundly impact Indigenous peoples of the Americas. It serves as a primer for anyone interested in how genetics has become entangled with identity in the way that society addresses the question "Who is indigenous?"
Recently, she was interviewed on CBC Radio's "Quirks & Quarks".
Over the last 30 years new archeological discoveries and DNA evidence have rewritten the story of the first people in the Americas. We now know people were here earlier than we'd thought, and much more about where they came from and how they got here. Bob speaks with anthropologist Jennifer Raff about the new story and her book, Origin, A Genetic History of the Americas.
This is Mazon Monday post #108. What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil? Tell us at email:[email protected].
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In general, Mariopteris, a seed fern, is fairly rare across all the Mazon Creek terrestrial localities. Mariopteris tends to have ornate pinnules compared to other species of seed feed like Alethopteris, Neuropteris, and Odontopteris. The species we are looking at today, Mariopteris decipiens, was described by Leo Lesquereux in 1858 as Sphenopteris decipiens. In 1883, Charles David White redescribed it as Mariopteris decipiens. White (1862 - 1935) joined the USGS in 1889 and rose all the way to chief geologist. In 1903, he became the associate curator of paleobotany at the Smithsonian Institution. He is known for his thorough study of the Glossopteris Flora, which is the main component of coal deposits in Brazil.
The following description appears in "A Comprehensive Guide to the Fossil Flora of Mazon Creek" by Jack Wittry on page 165.
Mariopteris decipiens (Lesquereux) White, 1883
1858. Sphenopteris decipiens Lesquereux: p. 862, pl. 18, fig. 2
1879-80. Pseudopecopteris decipiens Lesquereux: p. 648, pl. 52, fig. 9, non fig. 10 = Eusphenopteris neuropteroides
1883. Mariopteris decipiens Lesquereux; White: p. 47, pl. 1, figs 5-8; pl. 2, figs. 1-3EMENDED DESCRIPTION: The ultimate pinna has a narrowly winged rachis and terminates with a large pinnule. The pinnules are distant, oblique, alternate, coriaceous, decurrent, linear, and terminate in wide, blunt lobes. They are divided into three to six pairs of decurrent, deep, and obovate lobes, which are typically longer than wide and touch until near their middle. The veins are thin, distant, oblique, and decurrent. The veins entering the lobe do not branch from a midvein. They are all borne low on the base from a decurring vein which runs nearly parallel to the midvein. Veins fork once or twice, are weakly arched, and can remain nearly parallel depending on lobe position. Veins may appear partially immersed in the thick lamina.
REMARKS: Mariopteris decipiens is very rare and most commonly found as fragments. When Lesquereux re described Pseudopecopteris (Mariopteris) decipiens (1880), he had only two small fragments to study. He commented at that time, "the fragments may represent two species or both pertain as branches of diminutive size to Pseudopecopteris speciosa." His two type examples were identified as Figs. 9 and 10 on plate 52. They differed in the length, shape of pinnae, and lobes; only their venation united the two. The features seen in his figure 10 are not unique, but closely conform to those of Eusphenopteris neuropteroides, and should be discarded as a type for Mariopteris decipiens. Since that time, several more examples which conform to Fig. 9 have been found for study and their unique combination of features is now better understood. It does not appear from the better examples that, as Lesquereux suggested, Pseudopecopteris (Mariopteris) decipiens and Pseudopecopteris speciosa might be conspecific. The latter has lobes with midveins, a feature lacking in the former, and they have differing lobe shapes.
From George Langford
From Wittry
From an ESCONI member, from Chowder Flats.
The trip is full! It filled up in just a couple of days! We are still accepting requests, which will place you on the waiting list. Please let us know if you can't make it, as it makes room for those on the waiting list. Thanks!
Braceville Field Trip Rules May 2022
The ESCONI field trips to Braceville for Mazon Creek fossils are set for May 14 and 15, 2022 from 9 AM to 3 PM. You can attend one or the other, but not both days. There is an attendance limit of 50 people each day.
You must register to go on this trip. See rule 6 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.
Families are welcome, but the minimum age is 5 years old. Children must be supervised at all times by their parent or guardian. Registration ends at midnight May 8th.
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 May 8th. You can pay dues by mailing a check, or with a credit card using the PayPal link on the ESCONI website.
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.
You’re going to be digging in clay and rocks – dress accordingly! Boots and gloves are strongly recommended. No open-toed shoes or soft climbing shoes. Hard hats are not required. You may want to bring a shovel, pickaxe, trowel, or hammer. Use only a rock hammer, not a claw hammer or roofing hammer. If you decide to hammer on something, use eye protection. There may also be insects and poison ivy. Bring a bucket to carry your fossils in. The collecting site is an old spoil pile on private property. There may be old rusty tools or other iron pieces embedded in the pile. Sliding down the hill could be very painful.
The top of the pile is unstable and not safe to stand on. Do not go above the flags/caution tape markers. Anyone found above the markers will be asked to leave and may not be allowed to sign up for future field trips.
Sign up for the trip by sending me (Dave) an email with your name, the number of members attending and the day you are 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]
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.
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.
The April 2022 General Meeting was held on Friday, April 8th, 2022. The presentation was "Seeing the Forest for the Fossil Trees - Plants at Red Hill" by Dr. Walt Cressler of West Chester University in Pennsylvania.
Red Hill is known for the First Modern Tree and a bunch of very early vertebrates. For information about Red Hill plants, see this page at the Devonian Times.
The First Modern Tree
Archaeopteris spp. account for slightly more than half of the identifiable plant fossils collected at the floodplain pond facies of Red Hill; the pre-fern Rhacophyton accounted for most of the rest. Typically, these fossils were relatively intact abscised branches that were probably blown by the wind into the floodplain pond from elsewhere in the floodplain. Larger woody fossils (i.e., trunks or large branches) have yet to be collected, but one likely and several suggestive root casts have been found. The fossils collected at Red Hill are assignable to four species based on leaf morphology. Most belong to either Archaeopteris macilenta or A. hibernica. Two other species, A. halliana and A. obtusa, were much less frequent.
The co-dominance of Archaeopteris and Rhacophyton at Red Hill is typical of Late Devonian floodplain localities from the Catskill Delta (New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia). Archaeopteris was also common to abundant in some near-marine Catskill localities, primarily as sea-drifted logs (form genus Callixylon). In addition, Archaeopteris-dominated forests are common in Late Devonian localities from elsewhere in Euramerica (North America and Western Europe), Gondwana (Africa, Antarctica, Australia and South America), China and Siberia. It has been found at paleolatitudes ranging from equatorial to sub-polar. From its first appearance in the middle Frasnian Archaeopteris quickly became an important and typically dominant component of the flora. Indeed, it became the lynchpin of the first true forests. Archaeopteris remained paramount until the end of the Devonian, at which time it mysteriously became extinct.
Fossil of Archaeopteris halliana. Photo courtesy of Walt Cressler.
This is the "Fossil Friday" post #104. 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 week, we have a Mazon Creek insect. This animal is Dasyleptis brongniarti a wingless insect similar to bristletails and silverfish. We covered these animals back in Mazon Monday #44. In that piece, we quoted Andy Hay in the "Creature Corner" book. Also, included in that article were pictures from Don Auler.
Monura and Silverfish
Among restaurateurs and homemakers, the sight of a silverfish scurrying over the plumbing engenders panic and revulsion. Yet this very ancient insect, a Thysanuran, and its sister group, the Monura (extinct), are prize finds for the paleontologist. Both creatures were members of the Mazon Creek biota.
The taxonomy of animals that are descended from an ancient arthropod-like creature can get quite "sticky". Authors have developed various phylogenetic charts. It is sufficient for our purpose to state that the wingless (Apterygote) and the winged (Pterygote) insects evolved from a common myriapod-like ancestor. Discoveries within the last 15 years have tentatively pushed the antiquity of the Hexapoda (Insecta) back to the Silurian. Myriapod-like animals, somewhat replaced by fluorapatite, were discovered in a dolomite quarry near Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1985.
One scenario for Insect development goes in order to escape predators the ancestors of insects used their clawed "legs" to climb the primitive low-growing plants near shore, acclimating themselves to a terrestrial existence. Myriapods (millipedes) and Hexapods (insects) split off from the parent group becoming inhabitants of swampy, then moist soil. Differentiation continued until the Monurans split off from the group that would produce Thysanura and winged insects. All three groups are found in the concretions of the Mazon Creek area.
Monuran Silverfish (primitive insect) Collection of Kathy Dedina
Reconstruction 1987 by Kukalova-Peck J.
Today's particular specimen comes from ESCONI board member Chris Berg. He found it in Pit 11 near Torino Hill last year. It opened just last week... you may have heard him yell out! As he tells it, the look of the concretion left him with low expectations. It sure is a good thing he picked it up... maybe those ugly looking concretions are the ones we should all be looking for?!? Great find, Chris! Thanks for sharing!
Braceville Field Trip Rules May 2022
The ESCONI field trips to Braceville for Mazon Creek fossils are set for May 14 and 15, 2022 from 9 AM to 3 PM. You can attend one or the other, but not both days. There is an attendance limit of 50 people each day.
You must register to go on this trip. See rule 6 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.
Families are welcome, but the minimum age is 5 years old. Children must be supervised at all times by their parent or guardian. Registration ends at midnight May 8th.
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 May 8th. You can pay dues by mailing a check, or with a credit card using the PayPal link on the ESCONI website.
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.
You’re going to be digging in clay and rocks – dress accordingly! Boots and gloves are strongly recommended. No open-toed shoes or soft climbing shoes. Hard hats are not required. You may want to bring a shovel, pickaxe, trowel, or hammer. Use only a rock hammer, not a claw hammer or roofing hammer. If you decide to hammer on something, use eye protection. There may also be insects and poison ivy. Bring a bucket to carry your fossils in. The collecting site is an old spoil pile on private property. There may be old rusty tools or other iron pieces embedded in the pile. Sliding down the hill could be very painful.
The top of the pile is unstable and not safe to stand on. Do not go above the flags/caution tape markers. Anyone found above the markers will be asked to leave and may not be allowed to sign up for future field trips.
Sign up for the trip by sending me (Dave) an email with your name, the number of members attending and the day you are 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]
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.
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 #106. 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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Our throwback for this week is a poem from Donnafred Hoff, the wife of Dr. Wilbur Hoff, who you might remember from the "Mid-century Mazon Creek" in Mazon Monday #104. This poem, entitled "Rebellious Bones", was published in the June 1957 edition of the newsletter.
Rebellious Bones
While contemplating ancient ferns and corals
And bones of men and apes, their loves and morals,I can't approve the obvious conclusion.
Though death is fact and life is brief illusion,My skeleton shall not lie idly docile;
It shall become Earth's most unwilling fossil.-- Donnafred Baker Hoff --
Namacalathus (individuals numbered). Centimeter scale. Image credit: Shore et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf2933.
SciNews has a story about a fossil that links the animals of the Ediacaran and the Cambrian periods. The fossils, which date to about 547 million years ago, were found by University of Edinburgh’s Professor Rachel Wood as she did field work in Namibia, in Africa. The fossil preserves soft tissue from an animal called Namacalathus hermanastes. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.
Until recently, little was known about the origins of animals that evolved during the Cambrian explosion event because of a lack of well-preserved fossil evidence.
The mysterious origins of animals that evolved at this time baffled 19th century naturalist Charles Darwin. It is often referred to as Darwin’s dilemma.
Prior to the new study, it had proven difficult to trace links with earlier animals because their soft tissues — which provide vital clues about the animals’ ancestry — almost always break down over time.
During fieldwork in Namibia, University of Edinburgh’s Professor Rachel Wood and colleagues unearthed the well-preserved fossilized remains of Namacalathus hermanastes.
Using an X-ray imaging technique, they found some of the animals’ soft tissues immaculately preserved inside the fossils by a metallic mineral called pyrite.
Until now, paleontologists had only ever identified skeletal remains of Namacalathus hermanastes.
Reconstruction of the living Namacalathus: 1 – stem; 2 – parental cup; 3 – daughter cups; 4 – hollow ciliated tentacles; 5 – spines; 6 – lateral lumen; 7 – central opening; 8 – inner skeletal layer, foliated with columnar microlamellar inflections; 9 – internal (middle) skeletal later, organic rich; 10 – external outer skeletal layer, foliated with columnar skeletal inflections. Image credit: J. Sibbick.
