Aaron Woodruff
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cenozoicking.bsky.social
Aaron Woodruff
@cenozoicking.bsky.social
52 followers 25 following 27 posts
Paleontologist, paleoartist, blogger, history buff, and anime lover. Cenozoic mammals are my specialty. Currently a collections manager at @floridamuseum.bsky.social
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Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
extinctmonsters.bsky.social
…a horse rears in alarm as dire wolves chase a pronghorn past it, and Eremotherium pulls down a branch of what I’m assuming are Osage oranges. #FossilFriday
Rearing horse skeleton with two dire wolves (all dark colored bones) chasing a leaping pronghorn (light colored bones). Mural of a swampy scene with various animals behind. Lower angle with better view of dire wolves and pronghorn Giant sloth skeleton leaning forward, one arm hanging near the ground, the other up by a 2-D cutout of a branch with round green fruit.
November 28, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
erenji.bsky.social
To celebrate the release of Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, I'm skipping ahead to some photos of Smilodon fatalis for #FossilFriday, left from the Royal Ontario Museum, right from La Brea Tar Pits Museum. These saber-toothed cats were at least as big as lions, but much heavier. #PaleorenjiPhoto (2019)
A photo of the fossil torso of a Smilodon, a brown fossil with enormous saber fangs extending from its upper jaw. A photo of the fossil bust of a Smilodon, a brown fossil with enormous saber fangs extending from its upper jaw.
November 28, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
erenji.bsky.social
Prehistoric Planet release bonus: a couple photos of Megaloceros giganteus, the largest deer ever to live, from the Pleistocene epoch. Photographed at the National History Museum in London in 2018. #FossilFriday #PaleorenjiPhoto
A photo of the dark brown fossil of a giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus, including its skull and part of its neck, shoulders, and antlers. The same fossil from the front, showing its impressive span of antlers, around 12 feet wide.
November 28, 2025 at 4:45 PM
cenozoicking.bsky.social
Not sure why the sight of an Arctotherium basking in the morning sun brings such joy to my heart, but it does! #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge
Arctotherium Wakes Up From A Nap | Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age | OFFICIAL NEW CLIP
YouTube video by EDGE Science
www.youtube.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
doktrock.bsky.social
#FossilFriday 🧪⚒️
smmnh.bsky.social Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History @smmnh.bsky.social · 3d
Oreodonts are extinct mammals that looked similar to pigs and sheep, but were more closely related to camels. They are the most commonly found fossil in the White River Badlands in South Dakota, and this exceptional specimen from our collection shows an oreodont curled up inside its burrow.
Oreodonts are extinct mammals that looked similar to pigs and sheep, but were more closely related to camels. They are the most commonly found fossil in the White River Badlands in South Dakota, and this exceptional specimen from our collection shows an oreodont curled up inside its burrow.
November 28, 2025 at 5:35 AM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
cascoclauda.bsky.social
happy #fossilfriday! this is euthecodon, a long-snouted crocodile that lived between the miocene and pleistocene of africa. despite a gharial-like appearance, euthecodon was a true crocodile aka a member of crocodylidae
(art by joschua knuppe)
the longirostrine crocodile euthecodon lunges out of the water to catch a flamingo in mid-air. given that the flamingo has been snatched around where the neck connects to the skull, it is assuredly very very dead a photograph of two large euthecodon skulls
November 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
arctomet.bsky.social
#FossilFriday The walking sea cow Pezosiren at the National Museum of Natural History
Mounted skeleton of the legged sea cow Pezosiren
November 21, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
cenofreak88.bsky.social
Everyone's talking about nanotyrannus. But we have to wrap up #gomphtober2025 . Finishing things off is Eubelodon. On display at the University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln.

#fossilfriday #universityofnebraskastatemuseum #universityofnebraskalincoln #prehistoricnebraska #fossil #elephant
October 31, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
palaeosingh.bsky.social
A side-on snapshot of the skull of Megacerops, a #brontothere (‘thunder beast’) from North America for this #FossilFriday. Sporting large bulbous horns, these large, ancient mammals looked a bit like rhinos 🦏 but are actually more closely related to horses 🐎.

#Paleontology #Science #Cenozoic

🧵1/
The skull of a Megacerops brontothere on display at the Brigham Young University Palaeontology Museum in Provo, Utah, USA.
October 24, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
ferwen.bsky.social
#FossilFriday Megatherium americanum Cuvier, 1796. Museo Argentino de La Plata 🧪⚒️ #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge

paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/t...
October 17, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
cenofreak88.bsky.social
Second installment of #gomphtober2025 skeleton of gomphotherium from Mt. Diablo, California. Was on display at UC Berkeley, don't know if it still is.

#fossilfriday #prehistoriccalifornia #gomphotherium #cenozoic #miocene #elephant #fossil
October 10, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
extinctmonsters.bsky.social
This adorable oreodont family has had quite a journey. Paul Miller made this mount for the U of Chicago Walker Museum in 1924. They were transferred to the Field when the Walker shut down, then loaned to the BYU museum for 60 years. The oreodonts are now back in Chicago. #FossilFriday
Framed plaster slab with three mounted Miniochoerus skeletons
October 3, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
cenofreak88.bsky.social
#fossilfriday skull and lower jaw of the fox-like dog Archaeocyon. On display at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center, Badlands National Park, South Dakota.

#badlandsnationalpark #badlands #dog #doge #doggo #oligocene #fossil #paleontology
September 26, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
cascoclauda.bsky.social
happy #fossilfriday! bonus: this is nihohae, a waipatiid dolphin from the oligocene of new zealand. the 2023 paper describing the taxon suggests that nihohae hunted and fed in a manner analogous to sawsharks, preying predominantly on soft-bodied cephalopods such as squid
(art by shunovachrono)
art of nihohae, a snaggle-toothed dolphin with its premaxillary teeth (called 'tusks' in the paper describing the taxon) projecting forwards, with the teeth at the very tip of the jaws being almost horizontal the skull of nihohae
September 12, 2025 at 2:29 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
naturenickpics.bsky.social
The Pleistocene camel Camelops hesternus once lived on the cool, windy plains of Alberta during the Ice Age where it lived alongside bison, mammoths, horses, and other such creatures #FossilFriday #camel #Alberta #IceAge #yeg
September 5, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
cenofreak88.bsky.social
#fossilfriday skull of the sheep-sized oreodont Mesoreodon. On display in the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon

#johndayfossilbedsnationalmonument #johndayfossilbeds #nationalmonument #prehistoricoregon #oregon #cenozoic #oligocene #paleontology
September 5, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
xrciseguy.bsky.social
#FossilFriday: Stephanorhinus, a two horned rhinoceros from the Pleistocene of Austria. A 2021 genetic study suggested its closest living relative is the Sumatran rhinoceros.
August 22, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
andersonmineral.bsky.social
A close up of the skull and impressive teeth of the sabre-toothed cat: Smilodon fatalis. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪
Smilodon fatalis seen from the neck up with the skull facing right. You can see the lower bit of a giraffe behind it. At National Museums Scotland.
August 22, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
museumguyscott.bsky.social
#FossilFriday. here kitty kitty....sort of!
museumoftherockies.bsky.social Museum of the Rockies @museumoftherockies.bsky.social · Aug 8
Happy #FossilFriday! Pogonodon was a “false saber-tooth” from the extinct family Nimravidae. This ancient carnivore roamed the region that is now Montana in the Oligocene Epoch, about 20 million years before true cats evolved.
Fossilized skull of Pogonodon, an extinct “false saber-tooth” from the Nimravidae family, displayed on a metal stand in a museum exhibit. The skull shows elongated saber-like teeth and weathered bone texture, with other fossils visible in the background.
August 9, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
coastalpaleo.bsky.social
#fossilfriday Brontothere skulls from the Eocene of the White River Badlands on display at the @alfpaleo.bsky.social museum in Claremont, CA. One of these (suspect it's the middle one) was collected by a teenage Malcolm McKenna before his career in vert paleo took off!
A skull of a brontothere mammal. It looks a bit like a rhino skull, with a long, low and robust skull and has two bony bosses over the nose. A skull of a brontothere mammal. It looks a bit like a rhino skull, with a long, low and robust skull and has two bony bosses over the nose. Several skulls of brontothere mammals. It looks a bit like a rhino skull, with a long, low and robust skull and has two bony bosses over the nose.
August 8, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
xrciseguy.bsky.social
For #internationalcatday and #FossilFriday, the saber-toothed cat, Smilodon.
August 8, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
mostlymammoths.bsky.social
#FossilFriday Megacerops robustus, 38-34 mya, #SouthDakota, at the Yale Peabody Museum
Seen from the side, a four-legged mammal with a unique horn at the tip of its snout. Displayed as though walking; positioned in the middle of the room with fossil displays of other species on either side.
August 1, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
probablygeeky.bsky.social
The Mammoth at the Royal Alberta Museum. #fossilfriday
A Mammoth skeleton in a museum.
July 25, 2025 at 11:40 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
ashpoust.bsky.social
The horrifying humerus of the giant short-faced bear for #FossilFriday.

This specimen from Nebraska makes a large adult black bear humerus look miniscule.

Not to be tangled with.

🧪⚒️🦕 @unsmmorrillhall.bsky.social
Two bones sit on a grey shelf. A brown humerus is much larger than the small bone-colored one next to it.
July 18, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Reposted by Aaron Woodruff
andersonmineral.bsky.social
The koala lemur, Megaladapis edwardsi, found in Madagascar, which went extinct due to early human activity. #FossilFriday⚒️🧪
Megaladapis edwardsi with its big head mounted standing with its hands and left hind leg on a vertical tree branch in a glass display case. At the Museum national d’Histoire naturelle.
June 6, 2025 at 11:16 AM