Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Dinosaurs unearthed in China may have ended with a collapse, not a catastrophe #fossils #paleontolgy #dinosaurs #china #psittacosaurus

Two complete skeletons of the dinosaur Psittacosaurus from one of the sites analyzed by the research team. Some scientists say these fossils show evidence of preservation due to their burrows collapsing.

NPS has news of an interesting new theory of how a group of dinosaurs were preserved in China. Recent research offers a new perspective on the preservation of dinosaur fossils in China's Yixian Formation, often dubbed the "Chinese Pompeii." Previously, the exceptional preservation of these Cretaceous-period fossils was attributed to periodic volcanic eruptions over a 90,000-year span. However, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) challenges this view. Paul Olsen of Columbia University proposes that many of these dinosaurs perished due to the collapse of their burrows, leading to suffocation. This theory suggests that rather than catastrophic volcanic events, more mundane processes like burrow collapses played a significant role in the fossilization of these ancient creatures.

Olsen and his colleagues studied the sediment surrounding and inside two three-dimensional fossils of Psittacosaurus. “The sediment inside the animal in both dinosaurs was much finer grained than the sediment outside of it,” he says.

That observation indicated to Olsen that the animals were buried with their skin and muscles still intact, since the flesh would have only allowed fine grained material to flow slowly into the body cavity, filtering out anything coarse. Olsen and his collaborators argue that such a burial would not have been the result of catastrophic volcanic flows. He says burrow collapse is a more straightforward conclusion.

“Maybe some of them collapsed because a big sauropod dinosaur walked by,” says Olsen. “Or maybe it was an earthquake. Or maybe it was just the water-logged mud simply collapsed.”

PBS Eons: What Happened To The Other Mesozoic Mammals? #fossils #paleontology #evolution #mammals #floweringplants #angiosperms

There's a new episode of PBS Eons.  This one is about the rise of modern mammals through the Cretaceous Period.

In 2003, a fossil belonging to a mammaliaform was discovered in an ancient lakebed in what's now China. It was an almost complete skeleton the size of a platypus, a find that complicated the history of mammaliaforms. It painted a picture of their explosive diversification, their mysterious disappearance, and how our own ancestors might have survived thanks to a leg up from some leafy allies… *They weren't /exactly/ mammals...

Fossil Friday #238: Edestus heinrichi from St. David, IL #fossils #paleontology #FossilFriday #pennsylvanian #shark #sharktooth #edestusshark

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #238.  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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Long time ESCONI member Ralph Jewell sent us images of a very nice Edestus heinrichi shark tooth he purchased at the 2023 MAPS Show in Springfield, IL.  Edestus sharks are known from the Pennsylvanian Period.  The genus was established by Joseph Leidy in 1856, when he described Edestus vorax.  Edestus is one of the sharks known for its strange tooth whorl, which consisted of a singe row of teeth.  Research suggests they didn't shed like modern sharks, instead they grew new teeth at the back of their mouth pushing older teeth to the tip of their jaws.  Leidy is considered one of the founders of American vertebrate paleontology.

Edestus heinrichi was described in 1980 by John Strong Newberry and Amos Henry Worthen.  Worthen was the second state geologist of Illinois and the first curator of the Illinois State Museum.  The holotype was found in Illinois, but has been lost.  We had an Edestus tooth not long ago in Fossil Friday #221.

Ralph's specimen is especially interesting for a few reasons.  First, it's complete and unprepared.  It includes both sides of the split shale.  So many times you'll see a single prepared 3-D tooth mostly removed from the original shale.  Notice the nice coloring and what seems to be a conchoidal fracture on the upper right of the positive half.

Lastly, those labels... they tell everything about where and when it was found.  Anson Simpson found this tooth in April 1932 in the St. David Strip Mine in St. David, IL. St. David is southwest of Peoria in Fulton County.  It's a small town, which had a population of 522 in the 2020 census.  The tooth was found in shale associated with the Illinois #5 Springfield Coal, which is younger than the #2 Colchester Coal, but older than the #6 Herrin Coal.  Ralph did a little research and found the coal mine was the actually called the Saint David Coal Mine 1 in 1932 after starting life as Big Creek Coal mine  No. 2 of the Big Creek Coal Company from 1905-1920.  See the Howdy from Havana, Illinois blog for details about the mine.  That post dates to 2017.  The author of the blog has an obvious love of trains and coal mines.

The Saint David , Illinois area has a long history of coal mines over a hundred and some years.  Coal mines popped up, prospered for either a short period time but the luckier ones lasted a few decades.  When I say luckier mines the ones who were loaded with coal.  The smaller mines worked until they ran out or the mines became to unsafe afterwards they were abandoned.  This county has alot of coal mines some of which i'll cover in my blog in the future.  So we'll start this off covering some of the history of the Saint David Coal mine aka Big Creek Coal Mine.

The St. David Coal Mine was located north of the town of Saint David in section 16 of the township.  It was north of the town and just north of My Aunt Edna's house which I once played there  quite a few times as a kid unaware of the history just feet away. I'll post a picture later the trees in the background was where the mines were beyond that nearby.  There was a CB&Q spur that came up here in the early 1910's.  There is a street in Saint David that headed north and is a dead end n\called Burlington street which I assume was named because the spur came up in the exact area up to the mine.  Towards the mainline it split off in both directions heading back onto the mine.  The land is all private property so no chance of exploring anywhere near it and probably for good reason who knows if there is pits still back there or you can stumble into  or over something so just as well.   Okay blabber mouth here will shut her trap and let;s get back to the history of this mine and enough of my trying to be friendly  chit chat. :)

The St. David coal mine in section 16 lasted into the 1940's by what I found so far.  If I find more out I'll be sure to add later.   It was Big Creek Coal mine  No. 2 and the Big Creek Coal Company from 1905-1920.  From 1920-1924  it was Big Creek Coal mine 22, operated by Big Creek Coal Company. In 1924 Saline County Coal Company took ownership of it  naming it  Saline County Coal Mine No. 22 and it ran from 1924 until 1928.  After 1928 Truax Traer Coal Company took over and the mine name was changed to Saint David Coal Mine 1 which was a strip mine.  It ran from 1929-1943.

Anson Simpson appears to have been a director of the Archaeology Section of the Peoria Acadamy of Science, Inc.   Simpson was honored by the Illinois State Archaeology Society for his service in 1947.

As the article says, Dr. Charles D. Sneller was president of the Peoria Acadamy of Science, Inc. in 1932.  Sneller was a medical doctor, who presented a paper titled "The Mucus Membran of the Nose" in 1936.  You just have to love the reference to Devonian Period fish! 

Sneller was a fossil collector who ran ads in Hobbies magazine to buy "Fossils and Shells".  Here's an ad from March 1931.

The level of documention about this fossil is incredible! We should all take the time to document our finds. When winter arrives and collecting becomes difficult, that's a great time to label our fossils properly.

Ralph, thanks for sharing this interesting fossil and its informative label!

 

Throwback Thursday #239: Looking Back at ESCONI for November 2024 #history #TBT #ThrowbackThursday #benldmeteorite #meteorite

This is Throwback Thursday #239.  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 Benld Meteorite damaged Edward McCain's car seat and dented muffler.  It's now on display at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. James St. John (Flickr)

25 Years Ago - November 1999

• The November 1999 issue of the newsletter marked the 50th Anniversary of ESCONI!
• The speaker at the General Meeting was Lawrence Scheff of the Oriental Institute and the Archaeology Department of the University of Chicago.  His presention was about Egypt and the West Bank's Valley of the Kings.
• The Paleontology Study Group was identifying Illinois fossils... I wonder how many were from Mazon Creek or the northern Illinois hard rock quarries.
• The fluorescent minerals of Franklin, New Jersey were the topic of the Micro/Mineralogy Study Group meeting.
• The Archaeology Study Group had a field trip to the Dickson Mounds Museum at the Dickson Mounds State Park near Peoria, IL.

50 Years Ago - November 1974

• The November 1974 issue of the newsletter marked the 25th Anniversary of ESCONI!
• There was a Braidwood field trip schedule for November 2nd.
• The Paleontology Study Group was discussing Florida corals and a Mastodon find in Indiana.
• Pseudomorphs were the subject of the Mineralogy Study Group.
• Hazel Peterson of the Chicago Archaeology Society had a slide show for the Archaeology Study Group.
• Doris Kemp was showing Lapidary how to display minerals and specimens.

70 Years Ago - November 1954

• The Regular Meeting featured Dr. Ben Hur Wilson speaking on "Messengers From Space".  Wilson was part of the investigation into the Benld Meteorite in 1938 (see Throwback Thursday #69).
• The ESCONI Auction in October 1954 was a huge success.  The financial gain was the second highest for the annual event, with the largest return being the "good fellowship and merriment".
• Each Regular Meeting had a new "Swapit and Whatsit" table.  Bring something to swap and something else for identification.
• Bill Allaway, first Chairman of ESCONI, wrote the article "Paleo News Cast".
• George and Ethel Malott wrote summaries of the Paleontology Night School classes.

Fossil Reveals Oldest Known Tadpole That Grew to the Size of a Hot Dog #fossils #paleontology #tadpole #amphibian #evolution #Jurassic #metamorphosis #frog

An artist’s conception of tadpole and adult Notobatrachus degiustoi in a Mid-Jurassic pond in Patagonia.Credit...Gabriel Lío

The New York Times Trilobite column has a story about what may be the largest tadpole species ever discovered. Notobatrachus, an ancient relative of modern frogs, lived around 161 million years ago in present-day Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. In 2020, a team of paleontologists from Argentina and China uncovered hundreds of adult fossils of Notobatrachus, each about the size of a bullfrog. Among these, they found a well-preserved 6-inch tadpole fossil, complete with a bony vertebral column that helped confirm it as a juvenile Notobatrachus. For full details, refer to the study published in the journal Nature.

The most notable feature of the find, however, was the tadpole’s gill system, which it used to filter food particles out of the water, as is the case with modern tadpoles. “We now know that this filter feeding system was present since the beginning of the group,” Dr. Chuliver said, adding that the gill system is still found in over 6,000 species of tadpole frogs today.

The gap between the first known frogs in the Triassic Period and the previous oldest-known tadpoles in the Cretaceous Period led some researchers to wonder whether the ancestors of frogs had a metamorphosis at all, Dr. Chuliver said. Some researchers pointed to the old lineage of living frog species, such as the cliff chirping frogs of Texas, whose life cycle skips the tadpole stage entirely.

The Early Bird Got the Cicada, Then an Evolutionary Air War Started #fossils #paleontology #evolution #birds #cicadas #insects

A fossil of Baeocossus fortunatus, an ancient cicada belongong to the group palaeontinidae, from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil.Credit...Xu et al., Sci. Adv. 10, eadr2201 (2024)

The New York Times has a story about the evolution of flight in cicadas.  New research published in the journal Science Advances found that cicadas likely evolved sleeker and more powerful wings due to the existential threat posed by birds.  The researchers, including Chunpeng Xu a scientist at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China, analyzed dozens of fossilized giant cicada wings from China, Brazil and Europe.  

Chunpeng Xu, a scientist at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China and the lead author of the new study, and his colleagues describe this evolutionary bout between predator and prey as an “air race,” and they posit that the conflict eventually improved ancient cicada diversity.

“The rise of early birds influenced the aerial ecosystem during the late Mesozoic, especially the evolution of flying insects,” he said.

Dr. Xu’s team analyzed ancient cicadas belonging to the group palaeontinidae. These insects, which resembled moths with shrunken heads, originated during the middle Triassic Period and persisted for around 160 million years into the Cretaceous Period. Like contemporary cicadas, the beefier palaeontinidae cicadas lived in trees and slurped up plant fluid.

Mazon Monday #241: Eucryptocaris asherorum #fossils #paleontology #MazonMonday #MazonCreek #pennsylvanian #shrimp

This is Mazon Monday post #241.  What's your favorite Mazon Creek fossil?  Tell us at email:[email protected].

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Eucryptocaris asherorum is a species of extinct shrimp-like animals from Mazon Creek. They are members on the suborder Tanaidacea, a minor group within the class Malacostraca.  Extant members of Tanaidacea are mostly marine, but a few species live in freshwater.  They live in the bottom sediments, sometimes in self-built tubes.

E. asherorum was described by Frederick R. Schram in "Designation of a new name and type for the Mazon Creek (Pennsylvanian, Francis Creek Shale) tanaidacean", which was published in the Journal of Paleontology in 1989.  It was named for Helen and Charles Asher.  You might remember that Helen is the namesake for the Mazon Creek Cnidarian Essexella asherae.  In the article's Extract. Schram explains why the holotype (PE 51405) of E. asherorum was originally classified as Cryptocaris hootchi in Scharm's "Paleozoic Peracarida of North America", whcih was published in Fieldiana in 1974. 

Extract

When i described the Mazon Creek tanaidacean crustacean and named it Cryptocaris hootchi Schram, 1974, two problems presented themselves. First, all specimens but one were in private collections, and none of their owners then seemed inclined to donate them to an established natural history museum. Second, the collections of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago at that time contained only a single specimen, P32053, of what appeared to be the Mazon Creek tanaidacean. This specimen is peculiarly preserved and of only mediocre quality. Consequently, I based the description of the Mazon Creek tanaidacean almost entirely on the privately held specimens, noting their numbers and private repositories, but designated the Field Museum specimen, P32053, as the holotype. A subsequent review of all fossil tanaidaceans (Schram et al., 1986) focused exclusively on the privately held specimens collected from Mazon Creek sites.

E. asherorum is very rare.  All known specimens have come from Peabody Coal Company's Pit 11.  A brief description and remarks can be found on page 84 of Jack Wittry's "The Mazon Creek Fossil Fauna".

Eucryptocaris asherorum Schram, 1989

Eucryptocaris asherorum has a wide and flattened carapace which covers only the first couple of segments of the tho- rax. The carapace is the widest part of the animal. The body is compressed dorsoventrally. Six thoracic segments are visible and all are decorated with longitudinal ridges along the mid- line. The pleon segments lack ridges, but have well-developed side lobes. The tail has two sets of rounded appendages. The legs are unknown at this time.

E. asherorum is a member of the suborder Tanaidacea, a present-day marine group usually found in freshwater coastal habitats or estuaries. The majority of extant species are bottom-dwellers in shallow water environments, but a few live in very deep water, exceeding for some species 9,000 meters. In some deep sea environments, they represent the most abun- dant and diverse fauna found.

Specimens

Field Museum Specimen PE 51405, the holotype

 

ESCONI Events for November 2024 #events #fieldtrips

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

Sat, Nov 2nd	ESCONI Mineralogy Study Group  - Cancelled!
Fri, Nov 8th	ESCONI General Meeting - 8:00 PM via Zoom - Topic: "From Muldraugh to Museum: The unexpected journey of Amphoracrinus tenax" by Gretel Monreal Zoom link
Sat, Nov 9th	ESCONI Junior Meeting - 6:30 PM (starts at 7:00 PM) at College of DuPage Room 1038A - Topic: "Crystallgraphic Systems" by Scott Galloway Specifics of this meeting are available from Scott Galloway, 630-670-2591, [email protected]. The meeting will be in person at the College of DuPage Technical Education Center (TEC), Room 1038A (Map).
Sat, Nov 16th	ESCONI Paleontology Study Group  - 7:30 PM via Zoom - Topic: "The Devonian Period" by Jim Preslicka Zoom link

 

450-Million-Year-Old Fossil Arthropod Found Preserved in Fool’s Gold #fossils #paleontology #pyrite #ordovician #newyork

Life reconstruction of Lomankus edgecombei. Image credit: Xiaodong Wang.

SciNews has news of a new species of arthropod from the Ordovician Period. Lomankus edgecombei lived some 450 million years ago in what is now New York.  This specimen was found at a fossil locality that includes the famous Beecher’s Trilobite Bed.  That locality is known for equisite pyrite replacement fossils.  The legs of trilobites were first seen in fossils from the site. Lomankus edgecombei was described in a paper in the journal Current Biology.

Lomankus edgecombei belongs to Megacheira, an iconic group of arthropods with a large, modified leg at the front of their bodies that was used to capture prey.

Megacheirans were very diverse during the Cambrian period (538-485 million years ago) but were thought to be largely extinct by the Ordovician period (485-443 million years ago).

The discovery of Lomankus edgecombei offers important new clues towards solving the long-standing riddle of how arthropods evolved the appendages on their heads: one or more pairs of legs at the front of their bodies modified for specialised functions like sensing the environment and capturing prey.

 

PBS Eons: Could You Survive The Ordovician Period? #fossils #paleontology #evolution #ordovician #massextinction

PBS Eons has another episode.  This one is about the Ordovician period... could you survive the Earth's first mass extinction?

The End-Ordovician Extinction was the first of the so-called ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions in the history of life on Earth - more than 80% of species in the oceans died out. But could you survive its aftermath?

Fossil Friday #237: Sphenophyllym emarginatum from Indiana #fossils #paleontology #MazonCreek #FossilFriday

This is the "Fossil Friday" post #237.  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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Ths week's Fossil Friday is a sweet little Sphenophyllym emarginatum from Indiana.  This little beauty was found in the spoil piles near Terre Haute, IN.  It doesn't always show in photos, but this specimen has 3-D preservation as is seen in most Sphenophyllym.