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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Our specimen is more . . . spread out. A two-person slab for sure.

Disarticulated fish bones on a large and heavy slab.

Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

A portion of the late-surviving osteostracan Escuminaspis from the Late Devonian of Miguasha (UMMP VP 110611) for #FossilFriday.

Dark, sickle-shaped fossil consisting of individual tesserae. It is preserved on dark gray matrix. Specimen cabinets are apparent in the background.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Teaching on campus, so no collections visit. Instead enjoy some actinopterygians for today's lab for EARTH 437: Vertebrate Paleontology.

A dark fish fossil preserved across several large slabs of rock.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Variety pack of eurypterids at UMMNH for #FossilFriday: Acutiramus (UMMP IP 86635), Paracarcinosoma (UMMP IP 62598), Eurypterus (UMMP IP 7157), and Dolichopterus (UMMP IP 62680). All from the Silurian of New York and Ontario.

A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock.

A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock. It has a narrow tail and a swollen midsection.

A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock next to a model of the same species painted green.

A fossil eurypterid on a gray slab of rock with long, extended swimming appendages. It is displayed next to a model of the same species painted brown and yellow.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Helped unpack a similarly lovely specimen at PRI that came from the old Dartmouth collection. Presumably Patten's.

Armored fossil fish with spine-line appendages and a well-preserved postcranium.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Teaching on the main campus so no collections work today. So here's Bothriolepis canadensis (UMMP VP 3475) from this week's lab for the vertebrate paleontology course.

Bony armor of a placoderm fish with tiny eyes. The fossil is dark in color and shaped like an egg.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

New exhibit at UMMNH. Come for the eurypterids, stay for the ostracoderms.

Image of a museum display featuring a large model of an aquatic arthropod.

Close-up of part of museum display featuring casts and models of jawless fishes.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Yesterday was the annual tour of the Research Museums Center for incoming staff, students, and postdocs at UMMP. Paid a visit to some comparative specimens in the Ford-Mitchell Collection.

Giraffe and horse skull in a specimen drawer.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

ANSP 22341, an unassuming slab from the Famennian Catskill Formation with portions of a few articulated lobe-finned fishes (Holoptychius) and a placoderm (Bothriolepis). Special to me as the first fossil I found to end up in a museum, collected during the first summer of my PhD. #FossilFriday

Red siltstone block containing blue-to-brown fish remains, including areas of articulated scales, fins, and skull bones. A collection label is on top of the specimen.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

And here's the holotype of Tecovaserpeton perfectum in person!

Underside of large, spade-shaped metoposaur skull.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Was delighted to see these remarkable actinopt lineages highlighted in "From These Lands," a temporary exhibit at NMNH highlighting the natural and cultural heritage of the US for the 250th.

Sign reading "From These Lands: Sharing Our National and Cultural Heritage."

Display case with a gar head, taxidermied sturgeon, and paddlefish skeleton.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

A new addition to the UMMNH paleo gallery for #FossilFriday: the Devonian stromatoporoid Stromatoporella (UMMP IP 80674). These calcareous sponges were important reef builders before they went extinct at the end of the Devonian.

Irregular shaped gray fossil sheet marked with low mounds and bearing numerous pimple-like structures.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Meetings and teaching on campus mean no collections for me today. So here are a few specimens for the upcoming chondrichthyan lab for EARTH 437 Vertebrate Paleontology: the Early Devonian Mesacanthus (UMMP VP 118509) and the early Permian Acanthodes (UMMP VP 118529).

Shark-shaped fish fossil with spiny guns on a gray slab of rock.

Trainwreck of an acanthodian, showing gill arches with long rakers.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Improved selection of eurypterid fossils plus old models from Ruthven now on display now at UMMNH!

Photograph of table case containing fossils and models of eurypterids.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Two pelagic predators separated by a mass extinction: the Late Cretaceous aulopiform Enchodus and an unnamed early Paleocene scombrid. #FossilFriday

Two fossil fishes in plaster jackets in a lab bench with a scalebar.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Thursday is my day in the collections, so here's the Devonian starfish Helianthaster gyalinus (UMMP IP 30527).

Starfish with numerous arms preserved as impression on a dark gray rock.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

The reconstructed skull from Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' mount of Hadrosaurus (1868), formerly displayed at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Photo from my last visit to ANSP in 2021. #FossilFriday

Large plaster skull with a vaguely iguana-like appearance. The jaw is placed separately on a shelf with the rest of the cranium. They are both painted a shade of greenish-gray.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Also stopped by the UMMZ dermestid colony to see an in-progress sturgeon prep.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Thursday is collections day, so here's an oversized mosa-drawer.

Oversized collection drawer with a mosasaur skull in a jacket.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Kids and I joined the Friends of UMMP field trip to Milan, MI today. Returned with many trilo-bits.

Parts of trilobites on small pieces of rock.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

This particular backstory emerged when I asked UMMP invertebrate paleontology collection manager Jen Bauer about another Turritella mortoni from Fredericksburg, entered into the ledger on the day Lincoln’s funeral train arrived in Springfield.

Old handwritten entry for a locality reading “Near Fredericksburg Va.”

Old hand-written entry for a donor and date reading “Delos Phillips 3 May 1865.”

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

A few years later, Rev. Taylor visited Washington, D.C. The quartermaster from his old Detroit congregation lived in the city and invited Rev. Taylor to stay with him. At the White House. Because the former congregant was U. S. Grant.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

In March of 1863, Rev. Taylor resigned from the 8th owing to poor health. He returned to Michigan—presumably with the fossil—and resumed preaching in the Ann Arbor area. He was a leading force behind the Michigan Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in Detroit, which was began construction in 1867.

Black and white photograph of a war monument.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Strata adjacent to battlefield include the Paleocene Aquia Formation, which contains thin beds with concentrations of Turritella mortoni. We know Rev. Taylor collected UMMP IP 329, so it stands to reason he found it around the time of the battle itself.

Geological map centered on Fredericksburg Battlefield. Mixon, R.B., Pavlides, L., Powars, D.S., Froelich, A., Weems, R.E., Schindler, J.S., Newell, W.L., Edwards, L.E., and Ward, L.W., 2000, Geologic map of the Fredericksburg 30' x 60' quadrangle, Virginia and Maryland: U.S. Geological Survey IMAP 2607, Report: 40 p.; 2 Plates: 58.00 x 41.00 inches and 56.00 x 41.00 inches; Database, https://doi.org/10.3133/i2607.

Legend for geological map. Mixon, R.B., Pavlides, L., Powars, D.S., Froelich, A., Weems, R.E., Schindler, J.S., Newell, W.L., Edwards, L.E., and Ward, L.W., 2000, Geologic map of the Fredericksburg 30' x 60' quadrangle, Virginia and Maryland: U.S. Geological Survey IMAP 2607, Report: 40 p.; 2 Plates: 58.00 x 41.00 inches and 56.00 x 41.00 inches; Database, https://doi.org/10.3133/i2607.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

For more than a decade, Rev. Taylor serves at several congregations in southeast Michigan. In October 1862 he enlists as chaplain in the 8th Michigan Infantry, which takes part in the Battle of Fredericksburg in December of that year. It is another early Union defeat.

Lithograph depicting a Civil War battle.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

That same year, a veteran of the Mexican-American War comes to Detroit as a quartermaster. He lives in a modest home in the city’s southeast side and regularly attends Rev. Taylor’s services. The two become close acquaintances. I’ll return to the quartermaster in a bit.

Black and white image of young military officer with large epaulettes.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

The story begins in 1832. Rev. George Taylor, a Methodist minister, leaves England to start a life in the US. In 1849, he arrives in Michigan and presides over a congregation in Detroit. His old church no longer stands but is a predecessor of Central United Methodist.

Photograph of an old stone church by Michael Barera. Shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_United_Methodist_Church_(Detroit)#/media/File:Detroit_August_2025_14_(Central_United_Methodist_Church).jpg

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Even unassuming specimens have backstories. Here’s a good example for #FossilFriday: the Paleocene gastropod Turritella mortoni from near Fredericksburg, VA (UMMP IP 329).

Irregular brown rock with cone-shaped shells and a yellowed specimen label.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Well, I did make it to the collection after all. Here's a school of recently trimmed Eocene suckers.

Gray slabs of rock with partial fossil fishes. They are on an off white towel drying after being cut on a water-cooled saw.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Disclaimer: I was in no way involved with the selection of objects and artifacts, but there are many fishes!

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Preparation for the new semester meant no collections day today . . . but I did get to attend the opening of a great new exhibit at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

Sign in Arabic, English and Spanish reading "The Byzantine and Islamic Worlds: 400-1800."

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

New dorm in the neighborhood features wolverine grotesques.

View of the top of a tower from below. Large arched windows are in foreground. Near the top of the tower is a crouched wolverine carved in stone.

Relief sculpture of a wolverine lounging on pillows and reading. Latin (LECTIO DIFFICILIOR POTIOR) appears above.

Close-up (sort of, it's way up there) of the crouched wolverine near the top of the dorm tower.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

And a bit of whimsy: E. C. Case's pencil drawing depicting Dimetrodon impaling a hapless Diplocaulus on its neural spines, along with a large skull of Dimetrodon he collected.

Large fossil skull with long teeth, with a piece of paper showing a cartoon sketch underneath. Pencils sit on top of the paper.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Then there are these trilobites described by Rominger in 1887. Collected the previous year, they are some of the first fossils described from the Burgess Shale.

Small fossil trilobites on transparent stands in front of an old black and white figure depicting some of these same specimens.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

A few highlights of "Library of Life." Some of the first fossils in the collection: orthocone nautiloids from Douglass Houghton's surveys of Michigan in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

Two worn beach rocks with partial segmented shells of squid-like creatures, sitting next to one another in a display case.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Something a little different on #FossilFriday: new temporary exhibit at UMMNH highlighting the history of paleontological collections at U-M. Timed to recognize UMMP's centennial (although the collection itself is approaching its bicentennial). 📸 Elliot Zirulnik/UMMNH

Photograph of display case featuring many fossils, photographs, and models. Large text at the top of the display reads "Library of Life."

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

A few weeks later, and the smile continues to grow #FossilFriday

Fossil fish skull in the process of being prepared.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Back to the Thursday collection routine after a chaotic few weeks. Today, some visiting researchers were studying this phytosaur and metoposaur material collected by E. C. Case in UMMP's early days.

Narrow fossil reptile skull in a padded box, next time shallow tray containing other pieces including a looooong snout.

View of museum cart from above showing several broad, flat skulls and slender lower jaws.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

One of the most remarkable deep-sea fish groups now has a paleontological record. Ridolfi and colleagues report the first fossil stylephorid (tube-eye) from the middle Eocene of Iran. #OA in Papers in Palaeontology: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Fossil of a long, slender fish coiled over itself on a beige piece of rock. Image from Ridolfi et al. 2026. A new fossil from the Eocene of Iran provides new insights regarding the evolution of the morphologically bizarre tube-eye fish. Papers in Palaeontology 12: e70114. Shared under CC BY 4.0.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

In 2019, Willy Bemis came to Michigan and gave a lecture on ocean sunfishes at UMMP. One of the most engaging talks I have ever attended. It included work that went into a new monograph published this week and led by Kate Bemis: scholarlypress.si.edu/publications...

Cover of a monograph titled "Comparative anatomy of ocean sunfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae). Authors are KE Bemis, JC Tyler, CD Carson, EJ Hilton, and WE Bemis. The cover is blue with a black horizontal band in the upper third featuring photographs of larvae of the three extant genera of ocean sunfishes.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Missed my chance to borrow a Charles R. Knight print from @aadl.org for #FossilFriday.

Framed images hanging on a panel, available to be checked out from a library. The top image is a black and white illustration of Stegosaurus, while the lower is an early 19th century American landscape painting.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

UMMP/Michigan Earth past & present at CBEP 2026 at the National Museum of Natural History.

Two rows of smiling paleontologists and Earth scientists in front of cases of natural history objects.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

It's the UMMP show for CBEP 2026 at the National Museum of Natural History.

Photo of a speaker at a lectern and two moderators at a desk. A screen with an image of a rainforest canopy and talk title appears in the center of the image. All three people in frame are representatives of the U-M Museum of Paleontology.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Such a satisfying X-ray projection.

Image of fossil fish skull taken in X-ray light.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

What could possibly go in this empty space between the Ordovician and Devonian display cases at UMMNH? 🤔

Picture of museum display with a large, empty wall composed of plywood with a note indicating the exhibit is under renovation. To the left is a touchable replica of a eurypterid, and to the right is a case filled with fossil fishes.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Missed out on #FossilFriday while checking out some cross bedding in the Cambrian Munising Fm. from a vantage point on Lake Superior.

View of the base of a cliff, taken from a kayak in the water. The water is dark green, and the cliff is gray to tan in color. It has prominent horizontal layers and is punctured by two modest sea caves. The edge of a neon green kayak is apparent in the lower left of the image.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

World's oldest scombrid takes an X-ray bath.

X-ray projection through the body of a fossil fish showing a chain of vertebrae.

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

New paper from @jakeberv.bsky.social harnesses a massive skeletal measurement dataset for passerines to show nested bursts in phenotypic evolution, many of which appear coincident with intervals of climate instability. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Radial phylogenetic tree of passerine birds, with branches colored according to evolutionary rate. Color drawings of select species decorate the tips. A set of bivariate plots are shown as four panels below.

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