iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 16h

Oh Sardis how I’ve missed you

Plastic container with half a rotisserie chicken, fried rice and yucca

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 17h

But here’s the fossil that made me gasp: a *carbonized* conifer cone stem. I’ve never seen anything this gorgeously preserved and diagnostic in the lignite at the Muirkirk site!

2193 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 17h

At the MNCPPC paleo office this #FossilFriday. Love what they’ve done with the place! Here are the nodosaur tail verts that got a bunch of press in 2023: they’re ugly, but outrageously big. This guy was easily 40-50 feet long.

Sorta trapezoidal thick slab of bone in a tray, next to a rectangular slab of bone

1256 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Happy #NationalFossilDay 2026! Fossils connect us to the lands we live on and the ecosystems we're a part of. They show us that everything around us is part of a 3.5 billion years story that's still ongoing. I just think that's magical. ☮️❤️🦣🦕

Gnatalie, a mounted sauropod dinosaur. In a museum corridor alongside a mural depicting scenes from Chicano history

Charles and George Sternberg use a tripodal hoist to lift a jacketed fossil alongside a brushy cliff

Families sit and wander on a gravely hill looking for fossils

06623 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

I need a museum to be bold enough to pose a big theropod skeleton like this

Red and gray cranes doing a courtship dance. One has its head upside down over its back, the other is leaning forward with head and wings raised

Albatross pair with heads pointed skyward. Enrique R. Aguirre/Alamy

1439 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

However I'm like 95% sure there's no such place as Nairobi National Park in Tanzania

Sign posts for hippo indoor, big cat country, and "Nairobi National Park Tanzania, 7987 miles"

291 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Anyway the newly renovated rhino and hippo house in Milwaukee is really nice, both for animals and visitors. And as we suspected, Bears-Packers game day was the perfect time to visit—basically deserted.

View across plexi rail at a large indoor space with rockwork in the center.

Underwater viewing area for hippo enclosure

Map of rhino care center, showing individual animal "suites", common areas, and classrooms.

Muck splatter zone warning sign (hippos spray poop to mark their territory. Be aware muck may reach the viewing area)

3202 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

ugh, we can see cats sleeping at home (the jaguar was even twitching his paws in his sleep)

Two lions sleeping belly to belly, it’s aggressively cute

A jaguar sleeping on a bed of fiber, his little fangs sticking out

1256 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Matt Carrano suggested this pose after being told the Jurassic platform was too tight and one of the the six big skeletons planned for it would have to be cut. He made a little clay model to explain it to the team, I wish I had gotten a photo of it!

Early sketch of the Jurassic platform. Polygonal platform with sauropod and stegosaurus skeletons, a tree, columns, and lots of handwritten notes

0131 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

In 2019, NMNH debuted new casts of the Stegosaurus and Ceratosaurus skeletons originally collected by Marsh’s teams. Ceratosaurus was casted and assembled in-house, but Stegosaurus was made by RCI. Getting them to fight took great care, and some cardboard stand-ins. #FossilFriday

Stegosaurus cast skeleton with head down and tail swinging. In an empty room with green spotlight

People make adjustments to a cast Ceratosaurus skeleton propped up on a table

A cardboard stand-in Ceratosaurus alongside finished Stegosaurus cast in a workshop

Final display. Ceratosaurus is on its back, limbs pinwheeling, about to be finished off by Stegosaurus

26716 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This tooth from something like Acrocanthosaurus was found in five parts over several months. The tip turned up nearly a year later—see how it's weathered differently? This is the advantage of long-term regular surface collecting at Dinosaur Park: you miss nothing.

Pointy black tooth glued together. Next to a scale bar, it's 9.5 cm long

1498 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Hagryphus at NHMU is the main competition, I think. I suppose there's an argument against this sort of thing, but I won't be the one making it! A mounted skeleton is an art/science hybrid that always involves a certain amount of interpretation and artifice.

Reconstructed skeleton of an oviraptorosaur with its arms outspread.

Silhouette of an oviraptorosaur with hand bones illustrating known material. I think there's also a foot bone not included here. Text label says Hagryphus giganteus.

1224 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Nominating this Nanuqsaurus at the Perot Museum as the mounted dinosaur skeleton based on the smallest amount of actual known material.

Reconstructed skeleton of Nanuqsaurus leaning forward with tail high. Guy in plaid stands next to it and gestures toward it.

Diagram showing known Nanuqsaurus pieces. It's a minority of the jaw and a scrap of skull.

48620 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I was going to say iguanas and tegus get big and spiky eating like 4 calories a day with tiny teeth, but ankylosaur teeth really are still proportionally smaller, aren’t they?

Iguana skull on black bg. Teeth are a bit bigger proportionally then ankylosaur skull above

170 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Going through my Dinosaur Park hard drive for a project I’m getting ready to lock in on. And this Priconodon tooth is just so stupidly huge. Not in absolute terms, but ankylosaur teeth are proportionally really tiny…

Leaf shaped tooth with long root next to a scale bar showing it’s about 5.5 cm long

Cast skull of Denversaurus. The teeth are hanging out of their sockets so you can see the roots a bit

3474 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It's also very fun to see that there's a new sign that is *still* using that logo I drew in photopia or something a decade ago.

Dinosaur Park roadside sign features silhouettes of Astrodon, Acrocanthosaurus, and Deinonychus on an orange background.

0313 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Very happy to hear that the Maryland Dinosaur Park's discovery trail is now open! Congratulations to everyone there for *finally* making this happen. The sculptures by Tristan Crum look phenomenal—can't wait to see them in person in a couple weeks. Photos borrowed from JP Hodnett. #FossilFriday

Minimalist outdoor metal sculpture of a juvenile sauropod skeleton

Minimalist outdoor metal sculpture of a giant ankylosaur skeleton

Minimalist outdoor metal sculpture of a crocodile skeleton

Man stands under a metal nodosaur skeleton with a face mask and portable welder

426673 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Assuming all the sauropod material from Maryland's Arundel Clay is Astrodon, we actually have quite a lot of this east coast sauropod! And fossils range from tiny babies to Brachiosaurus-sized adults.

Photos of fossils superimposed on a sauropod silhouette. Most of the limbs, neck, tail, and some cranial material are known

Baby sauropod fibula in a cotton-patted case

Partial jaw with teeth from a juvenile sauropod

Clarence Schumaker's mural of an Astrodon herd in a cypress swamp

073 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Since it's #AstrodonDay, here's the Big Femur found by the Norden family in 1991. AFAIK it's still on display at the Maryland Science Center.

Woman and two kids pose with a large plaster jacket in a gray landscape.

Man applies burlap soaked in plaster to a dinosaur bone

Photo looking down of half a gnarly-looking sauropod femur

Partial sauropod femur with black silhouette showing the missing portion

2185 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

All I want at this point is some decent closure for these boys. They deserve better.

Video game still of Arbiter and Master Chief back to back

150 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

The Smithsonian also got their Moropus from the Agate Fossil Beds out of the deal. In return, they sent AMNH a portion of Barosaurus (helping to reunite a Dinosaur National Monument skeleton that had been harvested for parts by multiple museums) and a bunch of Hagerman horses.

Moropus skeleton mounted rearing on its hind legs, reaching toward some foliage.

Iconic rearing Barosaurus cast in AMNH rotunda. Seen looking through the Allosuarus it's facing off with.

070 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I love this picture because of the story it tells about how fossil specimens (and the mixed media sculptures that incorporate them) travel among different museums. The two flanking Gorgosaurus are still at AMNH, but the one in the middle was traded to the Smithsonian in 1933.

Black and white photo of a Gorgosaurus skeleton in death pose on a slab mount being lifted on a chain hoist. There are two relief skeletons of Gorgosaurus flanking a doorway behind it.

Same death pose Gorgosaurus set into a wall next to a relief-mounted Edmontosaurus

2296 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Anyway, the robot T. rex and Corythosaurus in the museum were the eventual compromise between the literal Jurassic Park this guy was envisioning and what was possible in real life.

Life-sized green T. rex model among forest scenery, beneath a white dome roof.

Coythosaurus adult and baby on either side of a path among rocks and palms.

3241 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

A half-remembered Sternberg Museum story I need to get to the bottom of: After FHSU bought the metroplex dome and exhibits were being developed to fill it, some important stakeholder (donor? university prez?) kept insisting that the museum be "more like Jurassic Park."

A square building next to a huge dome in front of a blue sky in flat western Kansas.

3279 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

To continue the stream of consciousness flailing, both these statements are so exasperating. Just no idea whatsoever what they have.

Between now and the end of the year, faculty and staff will be focused on helping review the museum’s collections, determine what must be kept for research and teaching and then work with appropriate organizations to make sure every specimen is handled responsibly.

She also shared that the museum has not been financially stable for some time, stating that on average, the museum spends about $1.3 million per year and generates about $470,000 in revenue. She said the university has explored financing tools like federal museum funding, STAR bonds or a dedicated property or sales tax levy, but none have proved viable.

1153 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I forget who I stole this photos from, but it's stuck with me that the "for kids" label at MoMA isn't a simplified or dumbed down version of the normal label. It's just a completely different set of information that's actually useful and informative.

For kids
This small painting is one of the best known pictures in the history of modern art.
In the background you can see the ocean - the cliffs are like those in Cadaqués, a town in Spain where the painter, Salvador Dali, grew up. When you take a closer look, you will see some strange objects in the foreground - clocks that seem to be melting, ants swarming over a gold fobwatch and something that looks like a face drapped over a small ridge on the ground. Salvador was a member of a group of artists called the Surrealists, who wanted to make pictures that were like their dreams.
Do you remember your dreams?

150 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

When Mantellisaurus was standing up

Ornithopod dinosaur mounted skeleton on an open platform. Upright godzilla pose.

Same skeleton with horizontal posture. In a large case.

15511 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Mama praying mantis with her eggys

Brown praying mantis hangs upside down from mesh top of terrarium. There’s a brown blob there too

1557 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A perplexing photo of the AMNH rotunda Barosaurus. Is it a trick of the lighting, or was there a time when this cast was painted something other than Morrison gray? The single platform and advertisement for an "interactive audio CD-ROM" dates this image to the early to mid-90s, I'd say.

Rearing Barosaurus skeleton in an ornate rotunda. Shares a platform with charging Allosaurus skeleton. Allosaurus is normal Morrison gray buy the Barosaurus is ivory-tan.

Same display as it appears today. The Allosaurus and Barosaurus now stand on seperate platforms to improve traffic flow. Barosaurus adult and juvenile are now the same gray as Allosaurus.

3261 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

When I was there last year, tourists with only like an hour to spend there seemed to make up a huge portion of the visitors. So it makes sense that they'd want to provide something snackable. Plus these shows are generally cheaper and faster to put together than a big narrative exhibition.

Narrow space with ornate windows and central row of cases with random objects in them, including a taxidermy auk in the first row.

Museum gallery with marlin skeleton out front next to "Fixing Our Broken Planet" title graphic.

090 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My photos are all from the wrong side but it’s…. 🥁 🥁 🥁 Thescelosaurus and Mamenchisaurus at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum

Five o clock angle of a big sauropod skeleton on an open platform with smaller ornithopod under its belly.

Close up of Thescelosaurus in front of a sunny window

1100 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Can you guess what major North American fossil exhibit was planned using this model?

Crude wire model of a two-legged, small headed dinosaur beneath the belly of a bigger four-legged dinosaur. On a light surface with white background.

2171 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I think Brian Engh’s sauropods are a whole chapter!

Hugh angle painting of a Jurassic river landscape. Foreground Brachiosaurus is covered in weird bristles and dewlaps, as are all the other sauropods further away

160 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Liaoning diorama made for an AMNH temporary exhibit, now living at COSI in Columbus. Kind of a first day of Fall vibe?

67321 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Jackie Chan vs a dragon made of kung fu

Life sized bronze sculpture as described. The features of the “dragon” are all hands in martial arts poses

1203 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Plus, I got that whale fall diorama and giant tardigrade out of my system. 😂

Woman reaches up to touch the toe on a cow-sized tardigrade model mounted about 7 feet in the air, above a green text panel.

0150 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I think the exhibit's greatest success was the outpouring of humanity it was able to muster. This was visible every day on the concluding chalkboards. I had some conversations with visitors I know I'll never forget, including an individual with a terminal condition.

Vertical chalkboard with numerous handwritten responses to "Before I die..." header

1152 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Plenty of mistakes were made in creating Death. I think many are worth sharing and learning from, others will probably be taken to the grave.

Replica of a human skeleton in a fetal position.

180 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Nearly fifty experts and community members shaped this exhibit in the midst of navigating their own 2020-22 lives. The fact that all these folks were willing to share their stories during this time was extremely moving.

Museum case featuring household serving items, spices, dates, and a small Quran.

1100 0

Ben Miller @extinctmonsters.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

We were also riding the wave from old-fashioned, anthropologist-driven exhibits to yielding the driver's seat to community members, and all the logistical hurdles that go with that.

Panoramic view of museum gallery with a variety of small cases and large banners.

190 0