Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Field Museum: Meet a Scientist: Chicago Fossils August 5th, 2022 #fossil #paleontology @FieldMuseum #fossils #chicago #silurian

The Field Museum's "Meet a Scientist" is looking at "Chicago Fossils" on August 5th, 2022.  Learn what you can find on Chicago beaches and in nearby limestone exposures.

That 430 million years ago Chicago was covered by a tropical sea with 300 foot tall reefs growing here. The evidence for this is the fossils we find in the rock around Chicago. Join a conversation with Paul Mayer, Fossil Invertebrate Collections Manager, and learn about Chicago fossils and rocks you can find on the beach. 

Scientists, researchers, and collections managers are behind the scenes every day, uncovering new information and taking care of our collection.

During Meet a Scientist, you can find them in the Grainger Science Hub. They'll discuss their work and share real items from the museum’s collection of nearly 40 million objects. From collections care to field work, and dinosaurs to ecology, there’s a world of science to explore.

Visit the Science Hub on select weekdays for an up-close look at what our researchers do every day.

PBS Eons: How Plate Tectonics Transformed Los Angeles #geology #platetectonics #losangeles #labrea #tarpits #paleontology

PBS Eons has a new episode over on Youtube.  This one is about the geology and paleontology of Los Angeles.

Despite the profound changes we’ve made here in recent history, the epic saga of Los Angeles' natural history is still visible - and even striking - if you know where and how to look for it.

 

Fossil Friday #119: Annularia sphenophylloides #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #Carboniferous #illinois #fossils #annularia

This is "Fossil Friday" post #119.  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!

-----------------------------------------------------

Calamites reconstruction

This week, we have a sweet little Mazon Creek Annularia sphenophylloides. This little beauty comes from ESCONI member Ralph Jewell.  Ralph has a new thread over on The Fossil Forum that will make you drool if you love Mazon Creek fossils.  This thread is full of fossils from a collection he recently purchased from an old-time collector.  Check it out when you get a chance!

A. sphenophylloides is a smaller species of Annularia and quite often they are preserved in 3-D.  This one does not disappoint.  Thanks for sharing this stunning specimen!

Throwback Thursday #121: The Chicago Portage #history #chicago #TBT #ThrowbackThursday

This is Throwback Thursday #121.  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!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ever wonder why Chicago is Chicago?  It's all about a small piece of land now called the "Chicago Portage".  There's even a historic site - The Chicago Portage National Historic Site.  which is located in Lyons, IL in Portage Woods Forest Preserve at 47th Street near where the Old Route 66 crosses the Desplaines River.

Welcome to the Chicago Portage, the birthplace of Chicago. This National Historic Site commemorates the place where 17th century French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette were shown an ancient portage connecting the Great Lakes Basin and the Mississippi Valley watersheds. Connecting these two great water trails of the past meant easy access across the continent, from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico. This strategic location soon became the hub of economic activity in the Midwest and to this day Chicago is a major center of the global economy.

The site is easy to visit... it's even on Google Maps!

The National Park Service also has a website for the historic site.  It became a National Historic Site in 1952.

The Chicago Portage, a low and short divide between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River systems, has been described as one of the “keys to the continent.” Following the lead of generations of Native Americans, explorers Marquette and Joliet first crossed the Chicago Portage in 1673. One of the most important travel routes of the mid-continent, the portage was a significant factor in the development of the United States interior. During early European exploration, natural waterways were often the easiest route across the North American landscape and places where canoes and trade goods could easily be carried around barriers or across multiple rivers were critically important. Along with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848, the portage became the transportation link that spurred the growth of the City of Chicago.

A book by Benjamin Sells tells the fascinating story of how Chicago came to be.  "A History of the Chicago Portage - The Crossroads That Made Chicago and Helped Make America" was published by Northwestern University Press in August 2021.

This fascinating account explores the significance of the Chicago Portage, one of the most important—and neglected—sites in early US history. A seven-mile-long strip of marsh connecting the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers, the portage was inhabited by the earliest indigenous people in the Midwest and served as a major trade route for Native American tribes. A link between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean, the Chicago Portage was a geopolitically significant resource that the French, British, and US governments jockeyed to control. Later, it became a template for some of the most significant waterways created in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The portage gave Chicago its name and spurred the city's success—and is the reason why the metropolis is located in Illinois, not Wisconsin.

A History of the Chicago Portage: The Crossroads That Made Chicago and Helped Make America is the definitive story of a national landmark.

The Chicago Reader has a nice interview with the Author.

Conceptually, the words “Chicago, Wisconsin” are sure to baffle almost anyone reading them today. The idea that Illinois’s metropolis (and the nation’s third-largest city) could somehow be a part of the Dairy State seems laughable. Too bound to the long and sordid annals of Illinois politics, despite at times feeling a million miles away from anything happening “downstate,” Chicago is clearly wrapped up in Illinois history, and vice versa.

When examining the longer history of the colonization of the North American continent by white settlers, one can see that Chicago was originally intended to have been included in the Wisconsin Territory, per the rules laid down by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. That fate was averted due in large part to the Chicago Portage, a marshy, unpredictable site of passage that linked the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, and became the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848. When white settlers first came to the region and saw the portage’s potential to connect the continent, it spurred the actions of those like Daniel Pope Cook, namesake of Cook County, to both incorporate Illinois as a state and push the boundary line north to include the portage site for such commercial purposes.

That story, and plenty of other fascinating examples of the portage’s long significance in the history of the continent, are documented in Benjamin Sells’s new book A History of the Chicago Portage: The Crossroads that Made Chicago and Helped Make America. Sells, who served as a two-term village president of suburban Riverside until earlier this year, documents the longer geological becoming of the portage site, the region’s significance for generations of Potawatomi, Chippewa, Ojibwe, and other tribal groups, and the ways in which images of the portage’s ability to connect the continent spurred the development that made Chicago a major city. While the physical history of the portage has mostly been erased by land development and the creation of the canals, tracing the story back reestablishes its significance in the history of the region. The Reader caught up with Sells over the phone in early September.

For a good book review, have a look at this article by 3CR, the 3rd Coast Review.

Let me tell you: I’m a huge Chicago history nerd, and I just gobbled up Benjamin Sells’s new book A History of the Chicago Portage: The Crossroads That Made Chicago and Helped Make America, newly published by Northwestern University Press.

You’re probably not as nerdy as I am, so you may not realize that Chicago is here because, back around 500 BC, a tiny piece of land was created.

Chicago is Chicago because of that tiny piece of land, known to history as the Chicago Portage.

It was the result of something like 70 millenniums of movement by ice and water and debris across the surface of the earth, and, when all the movement was finished, the portage was left behind on the St. Lawrence Continental Divide, which separates the Mississippi watershed basin from the Great Lakes watershed basin.

It was called a portage because it was the land between the DesPlaines River and the South Branch of the Chicago River, and, during the frequent times when water levels were low, Native American traders and then European and American traders would have to carry their canoes and trade goods on their shoulders—to “portage” them—to get from one water highway to the other.

Splitting T. Rex Into 3 Species Becomes a Dinosaur Royal Rumble #fossil #paleontology #trex #tyrannosaurus @SUEtheTrex @FieldMuseum #dinosaur #dinosaurs #fossils

Without dinosaur DNA, the lines between one fossil species and another are messy, so paleontologists measure different traits, like the size and shape of a particular bone. But fossils can also mislead.Credit...Mark Witton

The New York Times Science column has a story about Tyrannosaurus rex.  Back in February 2022, a paper in the journal Evolutionary Biology proposed that Tyrannosaurus rex is actually three distinct species - Tyrannosaurus rex, Tyrannosaurus imperator, and Tyrannosaurus regina.  The paper pointed to differences like number of "incisor" teeth and whether the animal was gracile or robust as the distinguishing features.  The proposal was met with much skepticism in the paleontology community.   Now, we have a rebuttal, which also was published in the journal Evolutionary Biology.  The authors of this paper include some of the most respected names in Dinosaur research (Thomas D. Carr, James G. Napoli, Stephen L. Brusatte, Thomas R. Holtz, David W. E. Hone, Thomas E. Williamson, and Lindsay E. Zanno.  Four of which have spoken at ESCONI meetings!)  They address the claims of the previous paper, stating the "The results showed that the absolute variation in Tyrannosaurus is unexceptional and it does not indicate cryptic diversity. We conclude that “T. regina” and “T. imperator” are subjective junior synonyms of T. rex."

The proposed T. rex reclassification struck the paleontology community like an asteroid, igniting passionate debates. On Monday, another team of paleontologists published the first peer-reviewed counterattack.

“The evidence was not convincing and had to be responded to because T. rex research goes well beyond science and into the public sphere,” said Thomas Carr, a paleontologist at Carthage College in Wisconsin and an author of the new rebuttal. “It would have been unreasonable to leave the public thinking that the multiple species hypothesis was fact.”

The earlier team of researchers have anticipated the rebuttal, which was published in the journal Evolutionary Biology. Gregory Paul, one of the authors of the original study, is working on another paper and says many of the rebuttal’s claims are outlandish.

“I don’t like flat-earthism because the evidence is against it,” said Mr. Paul, who is an independent researcher and influential paleoartist. “It’s the same here: the evidence indicates very strongly that there are multiple species.”

This king-size taxonomic debate seems destined to rage for epochs. Which is unsurprising considering how difficult it is for researchers to differentiate prehistoric species. Without dino DNA, the lines between one fossil species and another are messy. So paleontologists measure different traits, like the size and shape of a particular bone. However, the fossils can be misleading, as spending eons entombed underground can distort bone. And this is before considering how sexual differences, injuries, illness and natural variation sculpt bones during the animal’s lifetime.

Sharks are older than the dinosaurs. What's the secret to their success? #fossil #paleontology #shark #fossils #sharks #SharkWeek

Here we see a group of bull sharks at Beqa Lagoon in Fiji. (Image credit: Alastair Pollock Photography via Getty Images)

Live Science has a shark story just in time for Shark Week.  Yes, you read that correctly... sharks are much older than dinosaurs.  Sharks evolved way back during the Ordovician Period, some 450 million years ago, while dinosaurs are relative youngsters at about 235 million years old.  Sharks have made it though all the major mass extinctions.  So, why have sharks, as a group, been so successful?

One explanation could be that sharks are capable of modifying their physiology in response to environmental conditions, such as shrinking in size when temperatures increase. This capability enables species to quickly adapt to rapidly changing ecological niches.

Sharks are close relatives of skates, rays and chimeras, all of which belong to a group of fish known as the chondrichthyes, which are distinct in that most of their skeleton is made of cartilage rather than bone. Gene expression studies in skates have shown their adaptability when the waters they inhabit change several degrees in temperature. For example, a population of winter skate (Leucoraja ocellata) living in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada was able to adapt to water temperatures increasing 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) over a period of 7,000 years by "dramatically reducing its body size" by 45%, a 2016 study in the journal Royal Society Open Science found. In evolutionary terms, 7,000 years is a short amount of time, which led scientists to think the winter skates' rapid change in size was down to an epigenetic response, in which gene expression is altered due to environmental factors, rather than natural selection gradually selecting for smaller individuals.

Christopher Lowe, a professor of marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, told Live Science that some sharks are unique in that they have very large genomes, which may contain genes that, while not being useful now, may have enabled them to tolerate past climatic conditions.

Mazon Monday #122: Mazon Creek Open House 2022 is October 15th, 2022 #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #MazonMonday #fossils

This is Mazon Monday post #122.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

-----------------------------------------------------

Save the date!  The Mazon Creek Open House is October 15th, 2022 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Cantigny Park in Wheaton, IL.

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.  

There will be four speakers this year.  We'll post the topic of their talks soon.  All have done interesting research and written paper about Mazon Creek's plants, animals, and even the whole ecosystem.

• Dr. Victoria McCoy – University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
• Dr. Roy Plotnick – University of Illinois Chicago
• Dr. Jason Pardo – Field Museum
• Scott Elrick – Illinois State Geological Survey

Admission is free and lectures will be available via zoom.

 

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:

Dr. Victoria McCoy – University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

Dr. Roy Plotnick – University of Illinois Chicago

Dr. Jason Pardo – Field Museum

Scott Elrick – Illinois State Geological Survey

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

For more information see:

www.esconi.org

Jurassic insect wore eggs on its legs, fossils show

A water bug from the Jurassic period carried its eggs on one leg until they hatched. (Image credit: Courtesy of Diying Huang)

Live Science has a story about a Jurassic insect discovery.  Fossils show that a water bug that lived about 160 million years ago carried its eggs on its legs.  The fossils were discovered in the Haifanggou Formation, a fossil-filled rock deposit near the village of Daohugou in northeastern China.  A paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences has the details.

In a study published Wednesday (July 13) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences(opens in new tab), researchers analyzed nearly 160 fossilized Karataviella popovi, an extinct species of water bug with oar-like hind legs. The fossils — which the study authors called "exceptional" — are 163.5 million years old, meaning they date to the middle of the Jurassic period (201.3 million to 145.5 million years ago).

 

 

Among these fossils, the team identified 30 adult female specimens with a cluster of eggs anchored to their left "mesotibia," the middle leg in their trio of left-side legs. The densely-packed eggs were arranged in five or six staggered rows, with six to seven eggs per row, each attached via a short "egg stalk." Each egg measures about 0.04 to 0.05 inches (1.14 to 1.20 millimeters) across — a fairly hefty size considering that K. popovi adults only measure roughly 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) long.

 

These Fins Were Made for Walking … and Then Swimming #fossil #canada #paleontology #Devonian #tetrapod #fossils

An artist’s reconstruction of Qikiqtania wakei, in light green, and its larger cousin, Tiktaalik roseae.Credit...Alex Boersma

The New York Times has a story about a newly described fish from the Devonian.  Qikiqtania wakei lived about 375 million years ago during the Devonian Period in what is now Nunavut, an Arctic territory of Canada.  It was discovered in 2004 by Dr. Neil Shubin.  This animal is closely related to a tetrapod-like fish called Tiktaalik roseae, which Shubin detailed in a paper in 2006 and the book "Your Inner Fish" in 2008.  Qikiqtaniais interesting because it seems to be an animal that adapted back to swimming. 

One of the biggest myths of evolution is that it is a relentless march of progress. In fact, evolution is not a linear track, but a branching tree. New species do not arise as part of some long-term goal; they adapt to new opportunities in their surroundings.

On Wednesday, paleontologists unveiled a fossil that proved a potent antidote for the march-of-progress myth. It was a fish that lived about 375 million years ago, when our ancestors were scaly creatures vaguely resembling giant eels, walking across mud flats with four limbs complete with elbows, knees, wrists and ankles. The newly discovered fossil, called Qikiqtania wakei, belonged to this lineage.

But its anatomy suggests that its ancestors, unlike ours, did not continue the move to land. Instead, they gave up walking to swim again.

“We think of evolution in directional terms,” said Neil Shubin, a paleobiologist at the University of Chicago. “That’s not the case here. You have some species going to land and some actually returning to the water.”

Fossil Friday #118: Tully Monster #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday #TullyMonster #fossils #Pennsylvanian #illinois

This is "Fossil Friday" post #118.  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!

-----------------------------------------------------

For Fossil Friday this week, we have a very nice specimen of the Tully Monster from past President of ESCONI, Floyd Rogers.  Floyd recently donated some fossils, minerals, and other assorted material, including an exquisite Mazon Creek insect wing, which might belong to an undescribed species.  Stay tuned for more information.

Tullymonstrum gregarium is probably the most recognizable Mazon Creek animal species.  It was described in 1969 by Ralph Johnson and Eugene Richardson of the Field Museum.  The paper "Pennsylvanian Invertebrates of the Mazon Creek Area, Illinois: The Morphology and Affinities of Tullimonstrum" appeared in the Field Museum's journal Fieldiana.  In 1989, it was officially designated the State Fossil of Illinois.   Since its discovery, its classification has been a puzzle.  While recent research might have shed some light on where it belongs on the tree of life, its actual position remains controversial.

This Tully Monster specimen is interesting.   It has most of the claw and part of the eye bar.  Thanks for the generous donation, Floyd!

Throwback Thursday #120: What is "Earth Science"? #history #ThrowbackThursday #TBT #science #earthscience

This is Throwback Thursday #120.  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!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This Throwback Thursday is a look back at a column published in April 1952 called "What is "Earth Science"?  It was written by William Allaway, the first Chairman on ESCONI.  Dust-bowl, sinking water tables, city water supply, and flood control were the topics he touched upon.  The water issues are still very relevant today.  As surface water disappears, we are using up aquifers around the world at a prodigious rate.  Coastal freshwater is being inundated by rising oceans.  Even floods are still in the news, look at the flooding at Yellowstone National Park just this past spring and flooding in Germany last year.  It may not be a dust-bowl, but droughts are common, with the western states suffering their worst drought ever recorded.   All of these have one cause, climate change due to the release of greenhouse gases.  Mr. Allaway doesn't mention climate change because it wasn't a mainstream issue in the 1950's.  It was already happening then, just wasn't noticed.  Climate change had been predicted way back in 1896 by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius, and, in 1938, Guy Callendar connected carbon dioxide increases in Earth's atmosphere to global warming.

I wonder what Bill would write about if he was around today?  Any guesses?  Here's a hint.... similar topics with a more immediate and dangerous cause.

What is "Earth Science"?

At various times we have shown in these columns the individual benefits accruing from the pursuit of Earth Science the pleasures of exploring the particular specialty which interests us most, the joys of collecting beautiful or significant objects, the satisfactions of fellowship with like-minded enthusiastic "rockhounds" and so on. In addition to these very real benefits there are others of a less tangible nature, which are important, particularly from a consideration of the advancement and spread of Earth Science knowledge on an ever increasing plane.

This stems from the fact that "Science" in the broadest sense is more than observing, experimenting and accumulating objects, facts and theories. It also involves the communication of these basic facts, and the exchange of ideas about them. In short Science (and this includes Earth Science) is a social activity. It involves the passing on of one person's findings and observations to another. Without this process of communication, the findings of the greatest geologists or archaeologists of all time would be lost forever. Science must extend itself beyond the individual, or it operates in a vacuum.

When we bear this basic truth in mind, our club's activities become part of a larger pattern than we might originally have dreamed possible. For instance, who can assess the part clubs such as ours play in developing well-informed public opinion? And this opinion can be brought to bear in the halls of our legislatures, where earth science problems of great magnitude need intelligent action. A few of these many problems, which will not wait forever for a solution, are listed below:

1. What is the best type of flood control system to prevent our large rivers from making their periodic rampages over the surrounding farmlands, with the appall ing loss in money, productivity and human suffering which now results yearly?
2. What is the scientific answer to the problem of our sinking water table, with its exhaustion of the vital water supplies from this source required by industry?
3. Can we best assure a stable water supply for our cities and farms through the creation of artificial lakes, made at the expense of inundating large areas of farm or forest land?
4. What is the best approach to the problem of erosion? Are forest "shelter-belt" strips the answer to "dust-bowl" conditions of erosion in our great plains states?

Upon the wise solution of these problems, may eventually depend our continued existence as a great nation in the world, as no nation can remain preeminent which has lost its basic natural resources. In many other ways the influence of clubs such as ours may act in a manner analogous to the ripples which spread out in all directions when a pebble is thrown into the water. Some of these will be discussed in a later issue of the NEWS,

W. H. Allnway, Chairman

Cambrian Bivalved Arthropod Had Extremely Multisegmented Body #fossil #paleontology #Cambrian #canada #burgessshale

Life reconstruction of Balhuticaris voltae. Image credit: Hugo Salais.

SciNews has a story about a large bivalved arthropod from the Burgess Shale.  This animal, Balhuticaris voltae, lived about 506 million years ago in what is now British Columbia, Canada.  It is one of the largest known Cambrian arthropods and the largest bivalved arthropod every found.  The new species was described in a paper in the journal Science.

Eleven specimens of Balhuticaris voltae were collected from the Marble Canyon area of the famous Burgess Shale, a Cambrian-age fossil field in Canada.

“Balhuticaris voltae is one of the biggest fully-preserved animals from the Burgess Shale and the Cambrian,” the scientists said.

“The increasing ecological complexity of the Cambrian has long been recognized based on its planktonic communities or the filling of the pelagic zone and species such as Balhuticaris voltae, thus, not only exemplify how gigantism in the Cambrian occurred in a wider number of groups than Radiodonta but also exemplify this increasing complexity of the Cambrian ecosystems.”

MAPS 2022 "Lagerstatten" - October 21-23, 2022, Illinois State Fairgrounds, Springfield, IL #fossils #paleontology #show

The MAPS show is moving to October 21nd to 23rd, 2022 in Springfield, IL.

DATES: October 21-23, 2022.

LOCATION: EXPO XLIII will be held at the Orr Building located on the Illinois State Fairgrounds, 801 E Sangamon Ave., Springfield, Illinois (see Map p. 5). This facility has approx. 39,000 sq ft of floor space and is heated and air conditioned with restrooms and a finished kitchen. It is complete with two overhead doors and a loading dock for easy entry. Additionally, there are electrical outlets at every support post. Both the Orr Building and the Fairgrounds are locked nightly.

LOCATION: EXPO will be held at the Orr Building located on the Illinois State Fairgrounds, 801 E Sangamon Ave., Springfield, Illinois.

EXPO HOURS: Friday, October 21: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Saturday, October 22: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sunday, October 23: 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

SET-UP: Normal set-up will take place on Friday, October 21, at 7:30 a.m. However, for those that want to set up their tables on Thursday, October 20, MAPS has arranged for the building to be opened with set-up from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday. Buying, selling, or trading will NOT be allowed on Thursday and will be enforced. NOTE: There will be no security Thursday night.

PARKING: Parking at the Orr Building is free.

TRANSPORTATION: The Orr Building (Illinois State Fairgrounds) is accessible via I-55 to E. Sangamon Ave. (Exit 100) west to the Fairgrounds. Business I-55 (Veterans Parkway) can also be used. See location maps page 3 this issue. The Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport is located just west of the Fairgrounds.

HOTELS/MOTELS: Although the “Hotel Show” will be located at the Northfield Inn (217-523-7900) (see p. 5 for more information), there is a wide variety of hotels/motels of varying price ranges just off of I-55 in Springfield. If you plan to stay in a motel, we urge you to make your reservations early.

ON-SITE FOOD: The LOESS Club will serve food from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.

ADMISSION: Admission is free for the 2022 EXPO Show.

SALES TAX: The sales tax rate for the Fairgrounds is 6.25%. For those without an Illinois tax number, there is a simple form available. The sales tax rate for the Hotel Show and the rest of Springfield is 9.75%.

EXPO THEME: Lagerstätten will be this year’s theme. Friday night’s Keynote Speaker will be Don Bissett and his program will be given at the Northfield Inn following the presentation of the Don Good and Sharon Sonnleitner Awards and is open to the public. Updates on the website. 

PROGRAMS: Each day of EXPO, a number of programs/lectures/workshops are given by members and interested individuals on-site at the Orr Building. These programs average 40-60 minutes in length, are usually given in PowerPoint format, and deal with various topics often, but not always, in line with the theme for that year. If interested in presenting a program, contact Dale Stout: [email protected]. Times will be posted.

REGISTRATION: A complete EXPO Registration Guide Digest with table registration form, general policies, location map for both the Main Show and the Hotel Show, etc. will be sent out sometime in April/May 2021. This Digest will follow the format of previous EXPO Registration Guides.

SHOW FLYER: The show flyer is attached at the end of this document. Please reproduce, distribute, and advertise EXPO whenever and wherever appropriate.

Mazon Monday #121: Rhaphidiophorus hystrix #fossil #paleontology #MazonCreek #MazonMonday #polychaete #worm

This is Mazon Monday post #121.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

-----------------------------------------------------

Rhaphidiophorus hystrix is a polychaete worm.  It was described by Ida Thompson in 1979 in the paper "Errant polychaetes (Annelida) from the Pennsylvanian Essex fauna of northern Illinois.", which was published in the journal Palaeontographica Abteilung A Palaeozoologie-Stratigraphie.

Abstract

 

The Essex Fauna is the marine phase of the Maxon Creek beds; soft-bodied animals, including the polychaetes, are preserved as whole-body fossils in siderite concretions within the Francis Creek Shale. Descriptions of the polychaetes include details of the jaws, setae, prostomia, cuticles, and cirri. Nine of the species are placed in the order Phyllodocida, extant families Aphroditidae, Hesionidae, Phyllodocidae, Nephtyidae, and Glyceridae, and the new family Fossundecimidae. One species is placed in the order Amphinomida, extant family Amphinomidae. The Essex polychaetes comprise the earliest (and only Paleozoic) record for all the families. For the families Hesionidae, Nephtyidae, and Fossundecimidae this is the only fossil record. As a group, the polychaetes were large, active, predaceous, and epifaunal. This contrasts with Recent polychaete faunas on soft bottoms, where the dominant polychaete type is a sedentary deposit feeder. Possible reasons for this difference are discussed, none proving entirely satisfactory.

R. hystrix appears in all the Mazon Creek fauna books including "ESCONI Keys to Mazon Creek Animals", "Creature Corner", "The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna", and the "Richardson's Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek".

 

The December 1985 "Creature Corner" featured Rhaphidiophorus hystrix or the "Oliver Hardy" worm as it was called by collectors.

Rhaphidiophorus hystrix Thompson, 1979

 

Rhaphidiophorus hystrix is a short (median length 22 mm), blocky polychaete, with a seldomly well-defined head, no jaws, and few body segments. The parapodia are not prominent. Setae bundles on the segments are the most distinctive feature of R. hystrix; they are short at the head end and grow progressively longer until the most posterior bristles are longer than the body.

Informally named the Oliver Hardy Worm, R. hystrix is placed in the family Amphinomidae. Extant members of this family prey on soft animals such as sponges. Apparently lacking jaws, this could have been the feeding behavior of their Mazon Creek relatives.

From "The Richardson's Guide to the Fossil Fauna of Mazon Creek", Chapter 7A.

Rhaphidiophorus hystrix Thompson, 1979 Figures 7A.2, 7A.3

Description. Body short, broad; total length 10-35 mm, with 9 to 16 segments (Figures 7A.2A, 7A.3). Anterior end usually poorly preserved; well-preserved specimens with anterior prostomium margin rounded, bilobed, three short antennae present. Anterior parapodial dorsal cirri present in some specimens. Parapodia biramous (Figure 7A.2B). Noto- and neurosetae stout; short in anterior segments, becoming very long in posterior segments; setae hollow, outer surfaces ornamented with fine, longitudinal ridges. Anal cirri not observed.

Remarks. Thompson (1979, pl. 6, fig. 7) described a small, teardrop-shaped depression or elevation in the anterior end of some specimens that she thought might be a caruncle. The caruncle is a sensory lobe behind the prostomium, characteristic in extant amphinomids (e.g., Figures 7A.1C, 7A.2A). In addition to the three "antennae" Thompson (1979, p. 191) also observed in four specimens "[s]ome what longer projections... located below the outline of the prostomium," which she suggested were "peristomial or parapodial cirri." Since extant amphinomids do not have peristomial cirri, it is possible that these structures are palps.

Thompson (1979) hypothesized that R. hystrix was an epifaunal scavenger or possibly pelagic. Extant amphinomids are carnivores (Fauchald and Jumars, 1979) and typically epifaunal. 

Specimens

From the Field Museum collected by J. Herdina.

 

From the "The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna" by Jack Wittry.

 

 

Researchers Have Discovered a Previously Unknown Roman City ‘of Monumental Proportions’ in Northern Spain #archaeology #history #roman

Picture from the artnet article.

artnet has a story about the discovery of a large unknown Roman city in Spain.  An entire Roman city has been discovered by Archaeologists from the University of Zaragoza in Spain.  The location is just outside the small town of Artieda in Aragon.  The remains include stunning motifs of shells, scallops and seahorses.  Hopefully, we will get more details of this discovery soon!

Until now, researchers thought this 10-acre expanse was home to several separate archaeological sites, including the Hermitage of San Pedro and Rein. El Forau de la Tuta is the name for everything now, since the team realized they’re all one interconnected city.

Research remains ongoing, but 13 experts from the university recently released a report on the project’s findings so far. According to an English translation, their involvement started in 2018, when Artieda’s city council contacted the University of Zaragoza out of concern for the “deterioration and neglect” of the existing ruins.

In early 2021, after two years of planning, researchers opted to focus on the area formerly known as the Hermitage of San Pedro. They spent July and August that year conducting field work, “which combined intensive surface prospecting, clearing, and cleaning of opus caementicium elements of the western slope and the delimitation of four stratigraphic surveys.”

Only two of those surveys have been conducted so far. Their findings’ importance demanded the researchers take their time.

PBS Eons: When Giant Millipedes Reigned #fossil #paleontology #millipede #carboniferous #england

PBS Eons has a new episode.  This one is about the giant millipede Arthropleura, which lived during the Carboniferous Period. Arthropleura fossils are rare and this is one of the largest and the oldest.

This giant millipede was the largest known invertebrate to ever live on land. So how did it get so big??

 

Fossil Friday #117: Lobatelson mclaughlinae #fossil #paleontology #FossilFriday #MazonCreek #Pennsylvanian #shrimp

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #117.  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!

-----------------------------------------------------

Today, we have a very nice Pit 11 Lobetelson mclaughlinae from ESCONI member Jake Fill.  Jake says he collected it earlier this spring and opened it via Freeze/Thaw.  The longer rostrum and the wider shape of the telson are the identifying features between it and Belotelson magister.  L. mclaughlinae  was described in 2006 by Frederick Schram, who described many Mazon Creek crustaceans.  For more details, see Mazon Monday #120.

Thanks for sharing this beautiful specimen, Jake!

Throwback Thursday #119: Rockhounds vs Rockhogs #poem #rocks #history #collecting

This is Throwback Thursday #119.  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!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today, we have another poem by Charles Schweitzer, who wrote the book "Rhymes of the Rockhounds".  The book is a collection of his rockhound poems from the 1950's.  We have featured a few of his other poems, see Throwback Thursday #98 for "The Rock I Threw Away".

Remember, share what you find and leave a few for the next guy or gal...

Rockhounds vs. Rockhogs

THE rockhound likes to show his find,
He takes what rocks he needs.
He thinks the rocks belong to all.
He's governed not by greed.

The rockhog, on the other hand,
Takes all; nor does he share
His rocks with others who might want.
He cares not how they fare.

The rockhound always likes to help.
He'll show his latest find.
You may be sure he left some there;
For he is just that kind.

But does the rockhog like to share
Or tell you where he goes?
I'll say he doesn't; no, not he.
His secret no one knows.

Dinosaurs took over the planet because they could endure the cold, scientists say #fossil #paleontology #dinosaur #fossils #dinosaurs

A juvenile Edmontosaurus climbing out of the water next to an adult Edmontosaurus in “Prehistoric Planet.” (Image credit: Apple TV+)

LiveScience has a post about how dinosaurs came to dominate in the early Jurassic.  It's long been theorized that dinosaurs were better adapted to hot weather and so took over from their crocodillian cousins around the Triassic/Jurassic extinction event about 202 million years ago.  Now, a paper in the journal Science Advances proposes that it was relative warm-bloodedness, feathers, and a high metabolism that allowed them to push crocodillians to the side.

Dinosaurs took over the planet thanks to their surprising ability to endure freezing-cold temperatures, ancient footprints have revealed. 

The dinosaur tracks, stamped into the sandstone and siltstone of ancient lake beds in the Junggar Basin of northwestern China, suggest that more than 200 million years ago, the reptiles had already adapted to survive the cold of the polar regions before a mysterious mass extinction event plunged the world into freezing darkness.

Dinosaurs first appeared in temperate southerly latitudes roughly 231 million years ago during the Triassic period (around 252 million to 201 million years ago), back when Earth's continents were still joined together to form a supercontinent called Pangea. By around 214 million years ago, dinosaurs had spread northwards toward Arctic regions, but they still remained a minor group compared to other species on Earth — such as the ancestors of modern crocodiles that ruled over the tropics and subtropics, scientists reported in a new study. At the time of Pangea, the Junggar Basin was about 71 degrees north of Earth's equatorial plane, falling comfortably within the Arctic Circle.

 

 

 

500-million-year-old fossilized brains of Stanleycaris prompt a rethink of the evolution of insects and spiders #fossil #paleontology #cambrian #arthropod #fossils #britishcolumbia

Reconstruction of a pair of Stanleycaris hirpex; upper individual has transparency of the exterior increased to show internal organs. Nervous system is shown in light beige, digestive system in dark red. Credit: Sabrina Cappelli, © Royal Ontario Museum

Phys.org has a story about fossilized brains...500 million year old brains.  A recent paper from researchers at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada describes the fossilized brain in a species of Radiodont called Stanleycaris.  The animal is related to Anomalocaris and distantly related to modern day spiders and insects.  This amazing fossil was collected sometime in the 1980's and 1990's in a deposit of the Burgess Shale above the original Wolcott Quarry in British Columbia, Canada.

Royal Ontario Museum revealed new research based on a cache of fossils that contains the brain and nervous system of a half-billion-year-old marine predator from the Burgess Shale called Stanleycaris. Stanleycaris belonged to an ancient, extinct offshoot of the arthropod evolutionary tree called Radiodonta, distantly related to modern insects and spiders. These findings shed light on the evolution of the arthropod brain, vision, and head structure. The results were announced in the paper, "A three-eyed radiodont with fossilized neuroanatomy informs the origin of the arthropod head and segmentation," published in the journal Current Biology.

It's what's inside Stanleycaris' head that has the researchers most excited. In 84 of the fossils, the remains of the brain and nerves are still preserved after 506 million years.

"While fossilized brains from the Cambrian Period aren't new, this discovery stands out for the astonishing quality of preservation and the large number of specimens," said Joseph Moysiuk, lead author of the research and a University of Toronto (U of T) Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, based at the Royal Ontario Museum. "We can even make out fine details such as visual processing centers serving the large eyes and traces of nerves entering the appendages. The details are so clear it's as if we were looking at an animal that died yesterday."