iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

For #ArcheologyMonth this mossy decrepit Alces alces (North American moose) skull stole the show for me last weekend during a public tour at the 106 Group’s St. Paul office. 106 Group is a cultural resource management (CRM) firm doing heritage work in the MN. For more: 106group.com #LostBones

Alces alces (North American moose) skull tag.

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! This week we did CROCtoberfest at @badweatherbrew.bsky.social We brought cool #fossil #crocodiles from the Science Museum of Minnesota, there were live #alligators, I gave a talk on my croc research from #Germany and we even got to hold a lil’ gator. Good times and good brews! 🐊

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

🐂For #FossilFriday I’m #CountingBones. The bison pelvis is one of the biggest bones in the skeleton — but in the Midwest museum and institutional collections I've visited, it almost never survives whole. Out of 41 county and city institutions, only 10, all partial. More: marcusbrandel.substack.com

Anoka County Historical Society partial Bison occidentalis pelvis.

Melrose area Museum partial Bison pelvis.

Saint Cloud State University partial bison pelvis.

Science Museum of Minnesota partial bision pelves.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Stop by, say hi, and have a beverage of your choice!

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Ausarchosaur @ausarchosaur.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Sometimes I think about how the padded feet of modern camels are actually a reversion from the hooves most artiodactyls today have. Some fossil camelids, like Stenomylus on the right, had unguligrade feet, but all camelids since the Pliocene were digitigrade.

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Jeanne Timmons @mostlymammoths.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

In 2007, workers in a quarry found the end of a tusk. They dug some more & thought they'd found a mammoth. Although the fossil was offered to the local university, no one was interested. No one, that is, until Peter Houde heard about it. #proboscideans mostlymammoths.wordpress.com/2026/09/14/t...

mostlymammoths.wordpress.com

This Rare Fossil Was Almost Lost to Science

Those working in a quarry in New Mexico knew what fossils looked like; they’d found them before. So when someone saw the circular white end of a tusk in 2007, they immediately shut off the heavy eq…

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

🐴🦥🐘🐪 #CitizenScience #FossilFriday — Horse incisor & molar from Brown County More Ice Age finds keep turning up — horse, mammoth pieces, and pelvis fragments from local gravels. Three molars are already headed for radiocarbon dating. New stories, updates, and more: marcusbrandel.substack.com

Horse incisor and molar occlusal surface.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Lost Bones #7 is up! In 1929, a nearly ten-pound mammoth molar was discovered west of my hometown New Ulm, Minnesota. Donated to the University of Minnesota—then disappeared into nearly a century of museum transfers. Follows my 7-year search for the tooth: marcusbrandel.substack.com/p/lost-bones

A nearly ten-pound mammoth molar discovered fourteen feet beneath the ground west of New Ulm, Minnesota. It was donated to the University of Minnesota—and then effectively disappeared into nearly a century of museum transfers, changing catalog numbers, and incomplete records.

MAmmoth molar at the Science Museum of Minnesota. #CitizenScience #PublicHistory #MuseumCollections #MinnesotaHistory
#LostBones #Mammoth #Paleontology

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! Come check out the Science Museum of Minnesota’s exhibit Ultimate Dinosaurs at the Minnesota State Fair, it’s up the whole time at the North End Event Center! It features 16 Dino skeletons from the southern hemisphere and SO much more!

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

For #FossilFriday — dinosaurs headline the Minnesota State Fair, but an Ice Age predator is also on display! These 26,900-year-old Homotherium serum fossils from Tyson Spring Cave were found beginning in 2008, they provided the first record of this scimitar-toothed cat in Minnesota.

A partial skull, shoulder blade, and upper foreleg bone—belong to Homotherium serum, the scimitar-toothed cat.

The prehistoric cat skullcap which was described by Chris Widga and colleagues in 2012 alongside remains of the extinct stag-moose Cervalces. The fossils from Science Museum of Minnesota can currently be seen at the state fair exhibit through September 7.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

🐂 #MinnesotaMuseum #FossilFriday 🐘🦥🐴🐪 Today I’m spotlighting the Redwood County Museum. If you’re a naturalist — and a lover of #LostBones — this one’s for you. A collection of mounted mammals and birds, plus a lineup of skulls including a nicely crusty bison skull. redwoodcountyhistoricalsociety

Mammal room with mounted mammals and a collection of skulls.

A beautifully crust bison skull found in the Minnesota river.

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! Why’d the Giant Beaver lose its head? Because it’s going to the Minnesota State Fair! Our actual Giant Beaver skeleton is traveling to the North End Event Center, in the Ultimate Dinosaurs exhibit, celebrating it officially becoming our State Fossil. Come see it for yourself! 🦫

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

#FossilFriday 3.6-billion-year-old gneiss bedrock at Granite Falls Minnesota, created a landscape ideal for collecting sediment layers and preserving bones. Yellow Medicine County Historical Society holds a collection of bison remains from the area, some from a famous bison kill: the Peterson Site.

Bones and artefacts from the Peterson Site.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

🦌 #FossilFriday — Megaloceros giganteus, specimen USNM 7051. Masterfully mounted at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History its ~3.6‑meter antlers supported by a structural steel carriage #pleistocene #megalocerosgiganteus #citizenscience Skull mount photos credit: NMNH/Loren Ybarrondo

Giant deer skull and antlers supported by steel armature.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Latest update is now on Substack. marcusbrandel.substack.com/p/lost-bones...

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! The outreach continues! Today I presented for a summer youth program hosted at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota. We covered lots of dinos, Ice Age beasts, the state fossil and a titanic snake. Such a great crowd!

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

🐯🐾🦥🐴🐘🐪 For #FossilFriday, a fantastic mount from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Fossils. The Smilodon on display — specimen v10928 — is a composite skeleton sourced from the La Brea Tar Pits, CA. #pleistocene #smilodonfatalis #citizenscience Skull photo credit NMNH

Smilodon fatalis skull, Photo credit NMNH

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

🐂🦥🐴🐘🐪🐟🍃 A surprisingly common bone in small city and county museum collections across the Midwest — and one that’s often left unidentified — is the sternum. Fo bison It’s usually found disarticulated into its individual segments, called sternebrae. Read more: marcusbrandel.substack.com

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! This past week the paleo team from the Science Museum of Minnesota was at TWO breweries talking science! First up was Bad Weather Brewing for their Summer Block Party then Indeed Brewing last night to do a talk & table on #dinosaurs (and other ancient life). Great times! 🦖🍻

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

An Eremotherium #FossilFriday. This remarkable giant ground sloth, Eremotherium laurillardi, stands at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Remounted on a new steel armature during the renovation of the Hall of Fossils–Deep Time in 2019, it reportedly reaches to a height of 13 feet.

Ground sloth massive forelimb in metal frame.

Ground sloth massive hindlimb with metal frame.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

It's a follow-up #FossilFriday The mysterious bone fragment I posted about last year has an ID! After examination by the Science Museum of Minnesota, as suspected, the specimen has been confirmed as a mastodon tooth cusp. If you would you have recognized it let me know. #citezenscience #mammut

Partial mastodon molar. A simple gravel‑bar discovery has turned into a scientific find — another reminder that Ice Age history is still hiding in plain sight across the Midwest.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

For #Fossil Friday, meet "Junior." On loan to the new Bison: Standing Strong Smithsonian exhibit in Washington, DC. Junior is a massive Bison latifrons skull. Marie L. Hopkins, Idaho's first female paleontologist, excavated Junior in 1951. #womenwhodig #pleistocene #bison doi.org/10.2307/1375...

Massive Bison latifrons skull with horns over six feet wide. He was discovered along the Snake River near the American Falls Reservoir in southeastern Idaho.

Bison latifrons skull.

Hopkins, M. L. (1951). Bison (Gigantobison) latifrons and Bison (Simobison) alleni in southeastern Idaho. Journal of Mammalogy, 32(2), 192-197. https://doi.org/10.2307/1375374

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! Check out some recent finds from fieldwork in #NorthDakota! A claw, tooth, and osteoderms (armor plates) of Borealosuchus + some turtle shell. These are all about 60 million years old from life’s recovery phase after the big extinction that ended the Age of the Dinosaurs.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Lost Bones #6 (Bears Repeating) 🐻 For #FossilFriday 🐂🦥🐴🐪🐟 a new #LostBones article out on Substack! This one is a deep dive into brown bear (Ursus arctos) and giant short-faced bears (Arctodus simus) in the Midwest and Surrounding areas. Please share the story! open.substack.com/pub/marcusbr...

open.substack.com

Lost Bones #6 (Bears Repeating)

Minnesota's Megafauna Fossil Shortage (Ursus arctos)

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Brandon Peecook @gondwannabe.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Huge deal all! @pbseons.bsky.social has made a SIX episode series around the Permian and it is a delight. Coming soon! 📺 🍿 There will be familiar faces.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

#FossilFriday The final tooth—12 of 12—is SMM P2024.5.1, a lower molar found at Mississippi Gateway Regional Park (Brooklyn Park, MN) in 2023. Twelve 3D printed reproductions of the molars are also underway and are now receiving their final paint touches. #Equus #RadiocarbonDating

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

🐂 🐴🐪 #FossilFriday Still one of my favorite mounts! 9K years ago, a group of Bison occidentalis wandered into what’s St, Paul MN. In 1955, at Mississippi St. & Maryland road crews found them resting beneath a peat layer. Today the remains form specimen P68.54.1 at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Mounted Bison occidentalis on display at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The exhibit label includes the Dakota and Ojibwe names for this robust Ice Age species: Ehañna Ṭaṭanka (Dakota) Gete mashkode bizhiki (Ojibwe)

Bison remains found by construction crews digging the Trout Brook sewer line—along what is now the I 35E corridor—the bones were scattered. Three bison sculls were found beautifully preserved, resting on a thin layer of marl buried in a peat deposit.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

#FossilFriday specimen SMM P2025.8.6 (MNH 779) comes from Nicollet County near St. Peter, Minnesota’s almost‑capital. #11 of 12 in the state’s Ice Age horse project heading to UC Irvine’s W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Facility (KCCAMS) for radiocarbon dating this summer.

Science Museum of Minnesota upper horse molar lateral view.

Science Museum of Minnesota upper horse molar occlusal view.

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Brandon Peecook @gondwannabe.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Huge day for reptile evolution. We FINALLY find strong morpho-/paleontological support for Pantestudines with Archosauria. WOO! 🐢 + 🐊🦩 Eunotosaurus is firmly down on the reptile stem. "Eu-not-a-turtle" amirite?? Phylo tests ALL prior candidates for turtle origins in one deeply satisfying work.

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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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Earth Science Week @earthsciweek.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Did you know - camels originated and evolved in North America?! 🐪 But back then, they were smaller and had no humps! Wanna learn more? Head to bit.ly/oligocene-camel & tune in next week for another #FossilFriday from the Paleo Research Institute www.digitalatlasofancientlife.org/vc/ #Paleontology

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! Today a team from the Science Museum of Minnesota went to Garden City Elementary school in Brooklyn Center, #Minnesota to talk about the fun & interesting science careers at the museum. I, of course, brought some fun #fossils to share. Great to talk to so many kids!

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

#FossilFriday 🐘🦥🐴Happened upon a fantastic life‑sized mastodon with its juvenile at the Boonshoft Museum’s Entering the Ice Age exhibit in Dayton, OH recently. Great for paleo‑curious kids—plus a great mammal and historical exhibits as well as giant sloth and short‑faced bear replicas. boonshoft.org

A small part of the museum's mammal exhibit.

Proboscidean molar morphological comparison display.

Adult and juvenile mastodon reconstructions

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

🐂 #LostBones #FossilFriday 🐟️🐘🦥🐴🐪 I'm back out #CountingBones. At the Winnebago Area Museum — bison and horse remains from two Blue Earth sites. Shout‑out: this museum has been entirely volunteer‑run for 50 years. 🏦Museum: www.winnebagoareamuseum.org 🔄Project: marcusbrandel.substack.com/about

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! This week, the paleo team from the Science Museum of Minnesota was at Beaver Fest, at lovely Carleton College in Northfield, #Minnesota. It was our 3rd year there but the first with the Giant Beaver as Minnesota’s official state fossil. Such a good time!

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Brandon Peecook @gondwannabe.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Among the tiniest theropod teeth I’ve seen from this not-to-be-identified locality! Familiar to anyone? We’ve got our ideas. #FossilFriday 🦖 🦷

A mm scale recurved tooth (brown) in a conglomerate. Larger serrations on the distal surface.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

🐴🐘🐪 This tooth survived the end of the Ice Age in a gravel pit. 🦷 Found 5 miles east of Montevideo, this lower horse molar may have belonged to one of the last Equus roaming Minnesota. Follow the whole 12 tooth journey in Lost Bones #4 thru the link in my bio. #LostBones #FossilFriday #Equus

Occlusal view of possible Ice Age horse molar.

Lateral view of possible Ice Age horse molar.

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! Last night the Science Museum of Minnesota had its big Science Celebration night. We of course brought out lots of cool #fossils, including from our recent fieldwork and the new state fossil. Thanks to all who came and helped out to make the evening a success!

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

Fire, Bone, and Silicone — Skeletal Mount in Progress The full bison skeletal build is officially taking shape at the Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History. Smmnh smmnh.com Walter Varcoe equineskeletons.com Lost Bones marcusbrandel.substack.com #LostBoses #CitizenScience #FossilFriday

Huge thanks to Jim Pollard and Walter Varcoe for the interview and for letting me see part of the mounting process in action. And yes — if you feel a Lost Bones article coming out of this, you’re correct. It’s going to be a banger.

After years in storage, the Cherney site’s bones are finally moving from crates into museum care. Vertebra by vertebra, limb by limb, a Pleistocene giant from Coon Rapids, Minnesota, is rising again in Blue Earth.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

#lostbones #FossilFriday 🐂🦥🐴🐪🐟 Possible Cretaceous age Inoceramus (or Platyceramus)—the giant clam. From the Yellow Medicine County Historical Society & Museum in MN. Explore more? Check out these links: www.co.ym.mn.gov/county-museums substack.com/home/post/p-... . . #Paleontology #CitizenScience

Giant clam top. #lostbones #FossilFriday 🐂🦥🐴🐪🐟🍃 The Minnesota River valley at Granite Falls makes a dramatic bend to skirt the city’s famous 3.6 billion year old gneiss bedrock. Today’s fossil comes from an slightly less ancient time along the river.

Giant clam top. If you’d like to explore more about the Museum, the Cretaceous, or Minnesota’s prehistoric past, check out the link in my bio.

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! We have a new publication out this week on extinct #crocodiles! We revise a bunch of higher level group names and propose an all new one to help streamline discussion of evolution in this awesome group of crocs! 🐊🐊🐊 Message if you want a copy! academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

academic.oup.com

The systematics and nomenclature of Tethysuchia (Archosauria: Crocodylomorpha) under the International Code of Phylogenetic Nomenclature

Abstract. Over the past two decades, numerous species of tethysuchian crocodyliforms have been described, and their phylogenetic relationships have increas

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dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Happy #FossilFriday! The paleo crew from the Science Museum of Minnesota has been attending the annual meeting of the Association for Materials & Methods in Paleontology here in Bismarck, #NorthDakota! Great time presenting and learning about fossil methods & winning trivia!

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

🦥🐴🐘🐪#FossilFriday #LostBones, Lower horse molar (SMM P2025.8.7) from Olmsted County is specimen 9 of 12 headed for radiocarbon dating. The County has produced Ice Age finds over the years—several mammoth tusks and both mammoth and mastodon teeth from county gravel deposits—posted about previously.

Horse lower molar lateral view. Follow along as we work through all twelve specimens and uncover what the dates reveal: Were Ice Age horses roaming Minnesota earlier than currently documented?

Horse lower molar occlusal view. If you want the deeper story—the hunt for lost bones, and the unfolding discoveries—I’ve added a new update to #LostBones 4 on Substack.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

#LostBones #FossilFriday Horses vanished from North America ~10K years ago — yet their fossilized teeth keep turning up in the Midwest. No radiocarbon dates have ever been documented in Minnesota. Dating begins this summer. What will the results reveal. More: open.substack.com/pub/marcusbr...

A friend found the infamous “black tooth” back in 2018 — and now we’re waiting for the radiocarbon dates.

A depiction indicating twelve teeth will be radiocarbon dated.

The timeline in question is Pleistocene to Holocene.

A post glacial landscape with a horse and a mammoth.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

#FossilFriday The largest bone in the skeleton—the femur—often survives the test of time. It is the eighth most common vertebrate mammal post cranial element I’ve documented in county museum collections across the Midwest so far. #Palaeontology #CitizenScience Lost Bones marcusbrandel.substack.com

Whole and partial femur at the Melrose Area Museum. Each bone preserves data from ancient animals that once roamed the area’s post glacial landscapes.

Distal end of a bison femur at the Rice Country Historical Society. #Pleistocene #Holocene #Bison #Palaeontology #Mnmuseums #CitizenScience

Bison femur at the Pope County Historical Society

Bones discovered near Hansen Park in New Brighton Minnestoa

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Brandon Peecook @gondwannabe.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Hard to beat a Chicago #FossilFriday in Evolving Planet. 🦕 Apatosaurus at the Field Museum. 🦴🦴🦴

A pillar-like brown fossilized left hindlimb of the sauropod Apatosaurus. Families mill about and the head is in the far mid ground.

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