Sixty-five miles southwest of Chicago, a small hill that looks like a prop from an Indiana Jones movie breaks up the flat, monotone landscape. Consisting of shale, sandstone and rocks from an old coal ...

These fossilized “blobs” were a puzzle 310 million years old. These fossilized “blobs” were a puzzle 310 million years old. Paleontologists decided that they were odd jellyfish named Essexella asherae ...

A fossil of a spider-like creature was discovered in Illinois’ Mazon Creek after 308 million years. Photo by George Rosema via Unsplash At first glance, this fossilized eight-legged creature looks ...

More than 300 million years ago, during the Carboniferous Period, much of northern Illinois outside Chicago — including what is now the Mazon Creek (“muh-ZAHN”) fossil site — was alive with ancient ...

Good afternoon! Take a minute to wish the “man trapped inside the Bean” a Happy Friday. Here’s what else you need to know today. Curator Arjan Mann and his team have been studying and collecting ...

Essexella, a 310-million-year-old fossil sea anemone from Illinois. Credit: Papers in Palaeontology Billions of sea anemones adorn the bottom of the Earth's oceans—yet they are among the rarest of ...