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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

#MuseumSpotlight for #FossilFriday: Bison and other remains at the Jackson County Historical Society collected during Des Moines River investigations for a Gustavus Adolphus College and Bates College. The museum maintains, specimens, site photos, and two scientific posters. Visit www.jchsmn.org

Multiple tooth specimens from the project. Because the bones span roughly 200–1000 BP and show transport, scavenging, and human modification, maintaining the collection supports future scientific research—providing material, provenance, and long-term access.

Horse and/or cattle incisor specimen from the project.

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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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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 · 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

#FossilFriday! 🐂 A revelation for me and my friend: bison material could be found along our small town’s river gravel bars. This right frontal bone is from a juvenile bison. Other skull and horn‑core material have turned up, but this was the first—and remains the only—juvenile skull we’ve found.

A well worn skull fragment with horn core. The river it was found in runs fast, distorts its channel, and loves to grind up its ancient bones as it tumbles them through glacial gravels and Cretaceous seaway landforms. It often crests multiple times a season—a pattern known as pulse flooding.

A well worn skull fragment with horn core. In the spring of 2019, the river where it was found reached a maximum height of 17.92 feet, with two major crests: 17.92 ft on March 24 and 15.02 ft on April 19—high enough to coax the river's banks into revealing a few buried secrets.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

The Carver County Historical Society: The past is on display with a mammoth molar and exhibits on Indigenous history, agriculture, and military service. Found in 2000 when a Chaska gravel pit’s clamshell dredge—dropping through 100 feet of water—hauled up a proboscidean tooth. tinyurl.com/bdcar2zr

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

🐴 #CitizenScience #FossilFriday — Molar (SMM P77.20.1), specimen 8 of 12, was recovered in 1976. This story emerged from the landscape around St. Cloud, Minnesota, when P. Lansing collected this horse molar near Hgwy 23. Before modern roads and cities, horses may have roamed Ice Age Minnesota.

Horse molar in vault at the science museum of Minnesota.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 06/03/2026

🐴 #FossilFriday — Lower horse molar (SMM P2020.7.34) from my hometown ❤️‍🔥. Specimen 7 of 12 headed for radiocarbon dating. #LostBones updates on Substack: substack.com/@marcusbrand... 👇 What do you think this molar’s age will come back as — Ice Age or more recent? #Pleistocene #Equus #CitizenScience

Possible Ice Age horse molar next to bison molar. Science Museum of Minnesota. Another incredible Ice Age find from my good friend Bill in 2018 — New Ulm, Minnesota.

Every one of these teeth and bones helps us answer a bigger question: Were Ice Age horses still roaming Minnesota later than we thought?
Follow along as we work through all twelve specimens and uncover what the dates reveal.

#Pleistocene #Equus #MinnesotaHistory #Paleontology #CitizenScience #IceAgeMinnesota #RadiocarbonDating

Possible Ice Age horse molar. Science Museum of Minnesota.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

#LostBones #FossilFriday #Equus #RadioCarbonDating 🐴 In June 1921, crews at the Sagamore Mine near Riverton, Minnesota uncovered a peat layer eight feet down containing a Pleistocene bone bed with a horse molar (#6), a horse incisor, and other late‑Quaternary fossils. www.crowwinghistory.org

The series continues: twelve horse teeth from across Minnesota, each one headed for radiocarbon dating to finally pin down when these animals moved across the state’s post glacial landscape. Pictured is a potential upper Ice Age molar. Occlusal view.

Potential Ice Age horse incisor. Side view

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

#LostBones #FossilFriday! 🐴🐂🦥🐪🐟 Was on the road this week with@dr-crocogator.bsky.social to retrieve this beauty, specimen #4, found on Buffalo Lake in from Wright County, Minnesota. www.wrighthistory.org 📖 Notes: substack.com/profile/7473... #pleistocene #equus #palaeontology #citizenscience

Lower p2 horse molar (side view) found near Olson's Point in Buffalo Lake

Lower p2 horse molar (side view) found in 1976 on Olson's Point south side of Buffalo Lake

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

#Lostbones Equine molar #3 of 12 will also be radiocarbon dated this year. This one was found in Flower Valley near Redwing Minnesota in the 1960s by ten year old Shari Albers. Read Shari's story in Lost Bones #4

Horse molar side view. Shari also found sea shells and her father told her of an enormous inland sea that once covered the valley during the Ordovician—where Shari immediately imagined going for a swim.

Photo Credit: Purple prairie clover central MN / Kelly Povo

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

For #FossilFriday: 12 horse teeth from across Minnesota headed for radiocarbon dating. Specimen #2 comes from the Cottonwood River in New Ulm — found with landowner permission in 2025. Will its age hint at a possible association with paleo‑Minnesotans? Follow here and @dr-crocogator.bsky.social

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

#FossilFriday 12 horse teeth. 12 stories. I’m working with the Science Museum of Minnesota to radiocarbon date a collection of specimens to trace when the last ice age horses ran the post‑glacial landscape. Specimen #1: is from Little Sauk pulled from a skull found in black marl of the Sauk River.

A private collection horse skull retrieved from the sediment of the Sauk River.

This single horse tooth is the first step in a deeper story: What species were these Minnesota horses? How late did they survive here? And how do they fit into the broader Pleistocene–Holocene transition as well as the lives or paleo-Minnesotans?

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

A #FossilFriday #MnMuseum highlight: The Anoka County Historical Society has greatly supported volunteer paleo work through specimen access and historical insight. They’re relocating due to city redevelopment and could use community support. History 21 pod: anokacountyhistory.org/history-21-t...

Bison occidentalis remains. Including 4 right mandibles.

New office location. The Ticknor Hill house in Anoka

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 26/12/2025

🐘🦥 For #FossilFriday: a mammoth mystery. The Franklin Street tooth was the first of twelve specimens from New Ulm, MN—unearthed in 1912 in glacial drift, it’s the earliest known. New Ulm finds continue! Read more about the “dirty dozen” in #LostBones #3 on my Substack. marcusbrandel.substack.com

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

For #FossilFriday: the Eocene “dawn horse” Protorohippus venticolus (cast), at Utah Field House in Vernal, UT. The original—now private—is ~33 cm tall, one of two from Fossil Butte Member, WY. More on North American equids soon. #Eocene #equus #palaeontology #citizenscience www.nps.gov/fobu/

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Happy #FossilFriday! 🐴🐘🐪💀 This gorgeous horse mandible comes from Brown County, Minnesota. Collected by a friend of mine under permit in a state park earlier this year. The bone is deceptively heavy, suggesting it has been partially mineralized. To read more like this: marcusbrandel.substack.com

Right horse mandible with teeth. Later today, it will be donated to the Science Museum of Minnesota for study.

Occlusal surface - right horse mandible with teeth.

Right horse mandible with teeth. Occlusal surface of premolars

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

#FossilFriday 2nd of the OG 12 mammoth finds from New Ulm, MN 🦣. This molar is split lengthwise—rare compared to the usual broken plates. Chewing surface’s gone, but you can still some jaw and roots. New Ulm discoveries continue! More in Lost Bones #3 (free on Substack): marcusbrandel.substack.com

Mammoth molar showing tooth roots and partial jaw.

Mammoth molar showing top edge with missing chewing surface.

Mammoth molar showing side and top edge with missing chewing surface.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

🐻Happy #FossilFriday! This canine tooth was found at the bottom of Lake Bronson Reservoir in northern MN after draw down for dam replacement. Flagged in a pedestrian survey, likely from an American black bear (Ursus americanus). The site is pre-contact Native American, submerged nearly 90 years.

The bear tooth in situ, spent nearly 90 years submerged beneath the lake, and an estimated 250 to several thousand years on the landscape before the reservoir’s creation.

The bear tooth in the palm of my hand gave me the chill considering it cultural and spiritual significance.

Reservoir after draining. The dam, completed in 1937 as part of a Works Progress Administration initiative that began in 1936, transformed the landscape into the current lake reservoir.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

#lostBones This is the fourth full skeleton I’ve written about from the state - all proudly assembled by private individuals without institutional help. If you know of others, or if you have your own skeleton haunting your basement or garage this Halloween #FossilFriday I’d love to hear the tale!

In a glacial outwash channel near Little Sauk, Minnesota, a local naturalist began discovering bison and horse bones in the thick black marl at the bottom of a river on his property. So, as one does, he and a family friend started visiting the river - wading in the neck-deep water feeling for bones with their feet! Eventually, they retrieved enough bones to construct the complete composite skeleton shown here.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 24/10/2025

#FossilFriday, The Midwest’s #Homotherium! A partial skullcap, the first Homotherium serum specimen found in Minnesota, recovered in 2008 from Tyson Spring Cave in Fillmore County. The find, along with a Cervalces skullcap, was published by Chris Widga and colleagues in Boreas (Widga et al., 2012).

Image from Illinois State Museum (Facebook),

Figure from Widga et al. (2012). Homotherium serum and Cervalces from the Great Lakes Region, USA: geochronology, morphology and ancient DNA. Boreas, 41(4)

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

#FossilFriday - This rare Midwest partial skullcap and antler beam of Cervalces scotti marked the first stag-moose specimen found in Minnesota. Recovered in 2008 from Tyson Spring Cave along with a Homothereium skullcap! Published by @widga.bsky.social in Boreas (Widga et al., 2012). #Cervalces

Figue 3 or the specimen from Widga et al. (2012). Homotherium serum and Cervalces from the Great Lakes Region, USA: geochronology, morphology and ancient DNA. Boreas, 41(4)

An early image of the specimen form Mather, D. (2009). A new twist in megafauna history. Minnesota Conservation Volunteer, March–April 2009. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

A map of Tyson Spring Cave's general location from Boreas (Widga et al., 2012).

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

🦥 #FossilFriday P68.40.1 - the rarest Minnesota fossil I’ve ever held in my hand: an ungual phalanx of #Megalonyxjeffersoni (Giant #GroundSloth). Discovered in a pile of excavated peat, this individual toe claw remains the singular specimen of this animal found in the state. #Pleistocene #Fossil

Discovered in the late 1960s by a City of Minneapolis Park Board Department worker in a pile of excavated peat, this individual toe claw remains the singular specimen of this animal found in the state and is now in the Science Museum of Minnesota’s collection.

Plate 2 from: Erickson, Bruce R. (1968). A Claw of Megalonyx (Ground Sloth) from Minnesota. In Volume 1: Paleontology, pp. 1–8.

Plate 1 from: Erickson, Bruce R. (1968). A Claw of Megalonyx (Ground Sloth) from Minnesota. In Volume 1: Paleontology, pp. 1–8.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

🐪 #LostBones 🐪 says Hmmm… A recent visit to the Jackson County Historical Society Museum revealed a camel calcaneus in the collection. But was this camel actually in Minnesota? More to come. Jackson County: www.jchsmn.org . . . #FossilFriday #Pleistocene #Camel #Palaeontology #CitizenScience

The camel calcaneus included with specimens form a 2015 study on a southern Minnesota section of the Des Moines which examined bison, horse, deer, and other skeletal remains found in the river, exploring their transport and any human interaction.

Over 800 bones, including this calcaneus, were catalogued.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

🐘🦥🐪 #FossilFriday: Meet the big boy, numero uno - Bison Skull 147 found in a peat deposit packed with bones in Anoka county Minnesota. Now housed at the #SouthernMinnesotaMuseumOfNaturalHistory 🔗 www.smmnh.com #Pleistocene #AnokaSandPlain #BisonOccidentalis #Palaeontology #CitizenScience

In the early 1990s, construction activities unearthed a paleo-channel running through an ancient peat bog. This channel was packed with bison and other mammal remains. Local citizen Pat Cherney, along with his wife and several friends, salvaged everything they could before the bulldozers rolled in. Included in their efforts were over 100 skulls or partial skulls.

Skull #147 is one of the largest specimens – an impressive 94 cm (37 in.) across the horn cores. These remains likely belong to the extinct species Bison occidentalis. Radiocarbon dating of othe

In June 2024, the Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History in Blue Earth, MN, acquired the collection. The museum is now fundraising to assemble a full skeleton from the site for an upcoming exhibit.

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Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

The Goodhue County Historical Society tops my list. Not only do they feature some of my favorite megafauna specimens—like bison, mammoth, and giant beaver—but they also offer an array of historical, archaeological, and regional displays highlighting the cultural and natural heritage of Red Wing.

Exhibit on the Archeological history or Reb Wing an Oneota native pottery.

A display about the Pleistocene giant beaver.

A display highlighting the historic brickyards in Reb Wing.

A mammoth molar and proboscidean tusk on display at the museum.
Want to know more? Here's a related #lostbones SubStack: https://open.substack.com/pub/marcusbrandel/p/lost-bones-4-a-dip-with-the-sea-creatures

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