Overview

• Researchers confirmed a new temnospondyl species from a 309-million-year-old concretion collected this spring at Mazon Creek.
• The newly identified amphibian relative will bear the name of the husband-and-wife Evanston rock shop owners who discovered its fossil.
• The museum is hosting meet-the-researcher events through Aug. 7 to let visitors examine the latest Mazon Creek finds up close.
• Dr. Arjan Mann’s team, in partnership with the Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois, spent the past year excavating fossils and conducted a May trip to the Braidwood spoil pile.
• Mazon Creek’s Francis Creek Shale site is renowned for its soft-bodied preservation, offering a window into a Carboniferous inland sea ecosystem populated by cephalopods, sea scorpions and the Tully monster.