iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

REIDENTIFICATION: This is actually the notarium form the pterosaur skeleton coming out from this site!

Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This bone was only dug up a few weeks ago from our site: "Jack's Bonebed", which has many different species of dinosaurs preserved in an ancient riverbank deposit. We will have much more to tell you about our fieldwork at our 10th Annual Field Report in a few months' time.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

In N. America, there were three contemporaneous caenagnathids in a given ecosystem, a small, med., & large species. This is probably from the small kind (elmisaurines) and is probably either the 1st or 2nd sacrum known of its species, of only ~7-10 caenagathid sacra ever found.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This is a sacrum (vertebrae that fuse over the hips), from a parrot-mimic raptor dinosaur (caenagnathid, oviraptorosaur). These feathered raptors have quite fragile bones and are consequently quite rare. #dinosaur #dinosaurs #FossilFriday #fossils #SciComm

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

That's no trick of perspective. My fingers are very short and widen towards the end like an ice cream cone. :P

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Water spout (tornado) hit camp while we were away. Some parts of camp untouched other parts absolutely battered. It came off the lake, knocked over a tree, mauled the north side of camp, smashed its way through a hedge, then blew the metal dumpster across the parking lot!

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Steve and I did a hot wings interview challenge run by the guys from our IT department. We answer various questions about dinosaurs, mainly off-the-beaten track stuff I think. If you're interested: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz_3...

youtube.com

This Is What Happens in Museums After Dark

YouTube video by Nerdy Narratives

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I collect paleontology postcards. If you want to trade some. I'd happily send you a whole bunch that I've got for a whole bunch that you've got.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Is that the one Nick Chase found? I saw that specimen many years ago, when it was probably at dinosaur farm. I know it's not the only one.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

These specimens are not worth the money. It is not good value to "save them for science". If provided with even a tenth of the projected prices, museums could find their own, better specimens. Indeed we have. Journalists need to stop telling the wrong story about these auctions.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

From US public lands. A reminder that we do all of this digging for a little over $20,000 for our field season. The dinos currently selling for millions of dollars are in my opinion, very bad value for money. They're also not all that scientifically important and don't need to be saved for science.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Metatarsal & tail vert from our gryposaurus, tibia & lower jaw from a small lambeosaur, & couple of bones from something small and fragile. And there's something way more exciting at the other end of the quarry. #fossilfriday #dinosaurs #publiclands

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

RAPTOR TOOTH: very large tooth from a raptor #dinosaur, Paronychodon. It's been really rainy here for a few days, but we're back in the quarries today and finding new things! Dinosaur Park Fm, 76M yrs old. From US public lands administered by @BLM_MTDKs #FossilFriday

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

#Tyrannosaur tooth of the day. Found by Laura. Dinosaur Park Fm, Montana. #dinosaurs #fossilfriday

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

I'll buy one. I can't dm you, if you DM me I guess that would work

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Re-identified as ornithimimid manual d1 claw

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

#Tyrannosaur hand claw? Found 2 hrs ago, live on @Paleontologizin. From US public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. #dinosaur park Fm, 76 million yrs old, Montana. #fossilfriday #dinosaurs. Badlands Dinosaur Museum, Dickinson ND. Loads of good fossils today!

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Big metatarsal from a Gryposaurus skeleton that we're digging up at Jack's bone bed. Lots of cool new bones turning up every day. This is where the raptors and pterosaur skeletons are too. Us public lands BLM #fossilfriday #dinosaurs

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Totally agree. It's a weird right wing fantasy that the Nazis were anything other than completely rubbish at running a country. They were even worse strategists in wartime. All you can really say for them is that they invaded France successfully. Everything else was a monumental failure.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Not cause I'm a gastrolith expert, but I've spent many hours discussing with my friend Oliver Wings who is. Iirc gastroliths only in sea lions, not seals.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Amanda 3D scanned our existing bones for the reconstruction, then painted the restored parts. I edited and 3D printed the missing parts. Steve and I designed and made the complicated mount.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

kindly donated to Badlands Dinosaur Museum summer 2025 by the Leppart family. Brule Formation, 35 million years old, Oligocene, Dickinson North Dakota. Built in house. 3D scanned using our @Revopoint3d mini2 and printed on our @Phrozen3D mega8k

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

The omnivorous entelodonts are actually more closely related to modern hippos and whales. However they had long striding legs for living on land in the ancient US Great plains. This enormous specimen was found in the 1970s by Gary Leppart, near Dickinson, ND.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

NORTH DAKOTA'S BIGGEST HELL PIG: Our brand new exhibit, a Hell Pig from right here in Dickinson! The past few months we've been piecing this together, and today we got it finished! #fossil #fossils #paleontology #hellpig #entelodont #FossilFriday #NorthDakota #dickinson

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

We still have ours from the old Museum shop. It'll probably get used again in the new shop refit which is quite exciting. Plus we have this big boy.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Reference 1: Hooker, JJ (2021) The Mammals of the Late Eocene – Early Oligocene Solent Group Part 1, INTRODUCTION AND EUARCHONTA: NYCTITHERIIDAE. Monogr. Palaeogr. Soc., 175 www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

tandfonline.com

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

There were hundreds of teeth in our picked concentrates so I'm guessing that a few other teeth in these monographs were from our samples (none are specifically labeled). So cool. Bats & hedgehogs, rodents, all the little guys were in that concentrate! My dad would be so proud. /5

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

20 years later... Yesterday I was looking to see if Jerry had published anything new & found his 2021 and 2024 monographs... and there in the second part was the jaw! It looks like it is maybe only the second jaw known for the taxon (Quinetia misonnei), a long-eared bat! /4

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

In 2006 I collected another sample, dried it in my mum's oven, and got my dad to pick it. He had a great time, and when I was going through his discoveries I saw this spiky toothed jaw. I sent the photos to Jerry and he said it was a bat, and that he'd describe it. /3

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

The 1st sample was processed my fellow Bristol Uni Palaeobio students in 2000, & donated to the NHM, so Jerry Hooker could study them. Among that batch were some spiky-crowned forms which Jerry told me were insectivores, including the earliest hedgehogs - interesting! /2

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Excited! I just found out that the FOSSIL BAT jaw my dad found 20 yrs ago was described in 2024! We'd collected macromammals from Boldnor, Isle of Wight (Oligocene) for over a decade, but in 2000, I discovered a rich concentrate of microverts in situ at the top of the beach /1

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

This is the model. Nova said they'll adapt it to be up to date scientifically (simple changes to h the feet and hands) I'm really pleased with how it turned out . www.novastudios.be/product/comp...

novastudios.be

Pachycephalosaurus skull

The Compsognathus was a small, bird-like dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic period, approximately 150 million years ago. With its sleek, agile frame and sharp teeth, it was a fearsome predat...

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Made this nice Compsognathus. Adapted it a bit for our exhibit. Thinking of writing about how Compsognathids are a fake clade created by ontogenetic clustering (Cau's work). Cool stuff. model by Nova. #fossilfriday #dinosaurs

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Not a very insightful article. The important questions of how much is real, how much it actually costs to dig these things up (etc) are not asked.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Suggestion. The lowermost part of the Javelina Fm is probably late Campanian (see supp info to Fowler and freedman Fowler, 2020). There are probably two significant hiatuses within the Javelina-Black Peaks. It's not as simple as has been portrayed.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Collected many decades ago by Gary Leppart in the badlands of the Brule Formation near Dickinson, and kindly donated by his family in 2025. Next step is painting and mounting, but we should have it ready to go in the exhibit for the summer season.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Entelodonts were large omnivorous mammals that lived from 38-15 million years ago. Although they look a bit like a pig, they're more closely related to whales. We think this specimen belongs to Daeodon, although it could instead be a very large individual of Archaeotherium.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

RECONSTRUCTING A HELL PIG: This really big entelodont snout is possibly the biggest found in North Dakota! To reconstruct it, Amanda laser scanned a smaller skull, then we scaled it up, and 3D printed the missing back half #fossilfriday #scicomm #museums #mammals #fossil

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Cleaned by Deanna. Jack's Bonebed found by J Wilson. We're microprocessing the matrix from this site: all kinds of cool things are coming out. The richest and most exciting bonebed I have ever worked

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

The lines at the top of the jaw are tooth sockets for the tiny teeth! We think it looks close to Scapherpeton. Undoubtedly, this fine specimen will be useful to scientists who study these little creatures.

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

This fossil may look small - that's because it's from a salamander, but what a salamander! It's actually very large and surprisingly complete for the late Cretaceous of North America. From US Public lands administered by the BLM. #FossilFriday #fossils #scicomm #salamander #microfossil

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Specimen in the UV photo is Archaeotherium sp., from the historical League collection. Originally found in South Dakota White River Group, 32 million years old. Plus a reminder photo of how MASSIVE the Leppart skull is (AND it's from North Dakota)

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Today, Amanda is 3D scanning our Hell Pig (Entelondont) skull (usually in the lobby display). We're going to use the 3D scan to restore the enormous snout kindly donated 2025 by the Leppart family. Here UV light shows the skull is ~60% real. #FossilFriday #fossils #scicomm

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

If you like what we do please consider donating, or buying something from our online shop. We have some unique items that you can only get from us, with new things being added all the time: shop.dickinsonmuseumcenter.com

shop.dickinsonmuseumcenter.com

Dickinson Museum Center Online Gift Shop

Dickinson Museum Center

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Denver Fowler Ph.D @denverfowler.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

SITE: "Jack's Bonebed", Dinosaur Park Formation, ~76 Million Years old, Montana. Site found by Jack Wilson on US Public Lands administered by the US Bureau of Land Management MT/Dakotas. Permanently reposited at Badlands Dinosaur Museum, Dickinson, North Dakota.

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