Marcus Brandel
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lostbones.bsky.social
Marcus Brandel
@lostbones.bsky.social
140 followers 330 following 78 posts
Coder 🖥️💾, Cycler 🚴‍♂, Independent Researcher 🐂🐴🐘🍃🐪🦥, Natural History Writer, Poor Golfer, Professional Nerd. Follow #LostBones to find out more about Pleistocene fossils or the Midwest https://linktr.ee/lostbones
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lostbones.bsky.social
Marcus Brandel @lostbones.bsky.social · Apr 19
#FossilFriday 🦥 Bison bones, found east of Melrose, MN in Apr 1967 by Ivan Brouwer near I-94, were shared with his friend Bob Freeman Sr. Rumored plans for a full skeleton mount by Bob remain unconfirmed. The skeleton's existence is still under investigation!

#LostBones:
medium.com/@dbrake40/lo...
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
pacbirds.bsky.social
A Dusky Moorhen with chick at Lane Cove National Park, Sydney NSW, for the #CootsAndMoorhens theme of #BirdOfTheDay. October 2004.

#birds #photography #birdphotography #birding #nature #naturephotography
A rotund moorhen sitting on a nest with a little chick peeking out from under her.
November 15, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
dr-crocogator.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday! It’s #GarWeek so check out these 50 million year old #gar fish from #Utah at the Science Museum of Minnesota! This genus, Lepisosteus, goes back to the Cretaceous and is still swimming today! Thanks to @bellmuseum.bsky.social & @garlab.bsky.social for hyping these cool #fish!
November 7, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
dr-crocogator.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday! We’re in #England for a conference and went to the #Jurassic Coast, in Lyme Regis. The shore here has loads of #fossil marine creatures from about 150 million years ago, like ammonites and belemnites, home of famed paleontologist Mary Anning in the early 1800s.
November 14, 2025 at 5:48 AM
lostbones.bsky.social
🐻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 situ 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.
November 15, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
deadbovids.bsky.social
Two Hartebeest molars in a maxilla, from the Last Interglacial of Turkana, Kenya--a time period in which we desperately need more research! #FossilFriday
October 31, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
cascoclauda.bsky.social
happy #fossilfriday and halloween 🎃 in celebration of spooky season, i give to you the phorusrhacids, more popularly (and aptly) known as the terror birds. they were some of the most formidable land predators of the cenozoic, and in my opinion, are vastly underappreciated
(art by rudolf hima)
a black-and-white artpiece depicting titanis walleri standing in a grassland, a dismembered, hoofed limb clasped in its massive beak
October 31, 2025 at 2:54 PM
lostbones.bsky.social
#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. Bison skull sideview Bison skeleton in private collection.
October 31, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
gondwannabe.bsky.social
I made a run to the Field Museum this week and finally saw the Chicago Archaeopteryx.
Just wow, it’s a stunner. And the exhibit is a beauty! 🪶 👀🤩
#FossilFriday
October 31, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
dr-crocogator.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday! It’s the last day of #Croctober so check out this amazing cast Macrospondylus 🐊, from the #Jurassic of #Germany at the Science Museum of Minnesota! It lived about 180 million years ago and would have spent nearly its whole life at sea, & even had super reduced front legs!
October 31, 2025 at 1:56 PM
lostbones.bsky.social
#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 Tyson Spring Cave (Website) 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)
October 24, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
cenofreak88.bsky.social
Third installment of #gomphtober2025 : lower jaw of the amebelodont Amebelodon fricki. The largest jaw of any land animal. On display at the University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln.

#fossilfriday #universityofnebraskastatemuseum #universityofnebraskalincoln #elephant #prehistoricnebraska
October 17, 2025 at 7:07 PM
lostbones.bsky.social
#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).
October 18, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
gondwannabe.bsky.social
Big week at the @imnh208.bsky.social as one of our *best* Bison latifrons 🤩 🦬 was packed for a long term loan to the Smithsonian in DC! #FossilFriday Named “Junior” btw. 👀 Look for this Idaho treasure next summer. Thanks @mosasaurologist.bsky.social!
Huge brown Bos “Bison” latifrons skull surrounded by foam and wooden framing. Bos “Bison” latifrons skull with foam and tin foil stuck into its eyes and nostrils. Safety first! Not a white spaceship prototype, but an upside down giant Ice Age bison skull in its new clamshell jacket. Dressed for travel!
October 17, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
mosasaurologist.bsky.social
Thanks for the invite to come get plastered on Idaho! Junior's horns put most ceratopsians to shame.
Junior the bison being readied to leave it's legacy mount, with ray troll artwork the rear wall
October 17, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
dr-crocogator.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday! This week the paleo team from the Science Museum of Minnesota was out picking up ancient #Bison bones here in #Minnesota! 🦬🦬🦬 The bones are in the river itself, which has zero visibility, so they have to be found by feel. A little chilly & mucky but some cool fieldwork!
October 17, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
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
lostbones.bsky.social
🦥 #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.
October 11, 2025 at 1:43 AM
lostbones.bsky.social
Croctober continues!
dr-crocogator.bsky.social dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · Oct 11
Happy #FossilFriday! It’s #Croctober so check out these #fossils of the ‘Terror Croc’ Deinosuchus! These’re from South Carolina, about 80 million years ago, now at the Science Museum of Minnesota, incl. osteoderms (armor plates), & parts of 2 vertebrae from this croc that reached up to 35 feet long!
October 11, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
dr-crocogator.bsky.social
Recently the #paleontology team from the Science Museum of Minnesota + Hill Annex Paleontology Project visited the Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History in Blue Earth, #Minnesota and made the local news! Check it out!

www.faribaultcountyregister.com/news/local-n...
Blue Earth Museum has some special guests
The Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History in Blue Earth, often called the Dinosaur Museum, had some very special guests come and visit recently. It was a group of professional and amateur paleo...
www.faribaultcountyregister.com
October 8, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
mosasaurologist.bsky.social
It's the first ##FossilFriday for Croctober! Here is the prototype reconstruction of Deinosuchus schwimmeri, from the late Cretaceous of Georgia and other places around the south.

I finally got a Pic with me in it for scale so you can see just how huge this dead gator was.🐊🧪
Gigantic skeleton of a gator in the museum atrium with curator for scale
October 3, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
tetzoo.bsky.social
Come and hear me talk SEA MONSTERS - both of the cryptozoological sort and the ancient fossil sort - at Dorset Museum and Art Gallery, Dorchester (UK) - on Fri 21st November. I'll be signing and selling books too :) www.dorsetmuseum.org/whats-on/sea...
Sea Monsters Past and Present | Dr Darren Naish – Dorset Museum & Art Gallery
Join esteemed author and palaeozoologist Dr Darren Naish as he explores our developing ideas about sea monsters past and present, a subject that combines developments in palaeontology with studies of ...
www.dorsetmuseum.org
October 4, 2025 at 2:46 PM
lostbones.bsky.social
It was an adventure as always! #volunteerwork
dr-crocogator.bsky.social dr-crocogator.bsky.social @dr-crocogator.bsky.social · Oct 3
Happy #FossilFriday! This past weekend the paleo team from the Science Museum of Minnesota brought a bunch of fun #fossils to the annual show of the #Minnesota Mineral Club. We had fun talking #dinosaurs 🦕, #crocodiles 🐊, Giant #Beavers 🦫 (the new state fossil!) and sooo much more!
October 3, 2025 at 4:15 PM
lostbones.bsky.social
🐪 #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
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#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. Camel calcaneus Camel calcaneus
October 3, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Marcus Brandel
dr-crocogator.bsky.social
Happy #FossilFriday! We had an amazing #CroctoberFest this past Saturday at @badweatherbrew.bsky.social ! We brought a LOT of #crocodile #fossils from the Science Museum of Minnesota, I gave 2 talks + there were live crocodilians. Absolutely 10/10! 🐊🍻🐊
September 26, 2025 at 1:14 PM
lostbones.bsky.social
🐘🦥🐪 #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. Probing for bones at the site.
September 27, 2025 at 3:46 AM