Marcus Brandel

Happy #FossilFriday! Many thanks to @iknowdino.bsky.social for the spotlight on the Science Museum of Minnesota with everything that's been happening in #Minnesota. We appreciate the support and acknowledgement that everything here is affected by this, even #dinosaur #paleontology.

iknowdino.com

Upper horse molar, occlusal view.

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

#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

Whhyyy! Never let discimilar foods touch.

The variation is bison Pleistocene/Holocene bison skulls is trippy!

Root of horse upper molar.

Occlusal of horse upper molar.

Horse molar side - for more stories about Pleistocene Minnesota, visit the link in my profile.

Horse molar side - for more stories about Pleistocene Minnesota, visit the link in my profile.

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

Four people (including a brown-haired Mark Norell) on ladders remove model skull from Apatosaurus mounted skeleton

Hmm, sounds like we need a refresher. The issue of whether everyone's favorite long-neck is called Brontosaurus or Apatosaurus (or both) has *nothing* to do with which skull was historically included on museum mounts! 🧵#FossilFriday

Happy #FossilFriday! Last night the Science Museum of Minnesota held a fashion-themed science night. Paleo connected w/ the shark tooth necklace, worn by many across the world, for many years people have expressed themselves w/ sharks. Pics 2 & 3 show off my part at the herps & fishes table!

A mounted fossil cast of a rhino-like animal with enormous horns on its boxy shaped skull.

Arsinoitherium zitteli at Natural History Museum, London in 2018 (cast). While it looks like a rhino, Arsinoitherium were more closely related to elephants, hyraxes, and sea cows. #FossilFriday #PaleorenjiPhoto

A large wader with a huge curved bill and intricately patterned feather coat is walking in the surf of the Pacific Ocean.

A long-billed curlew showing off the length of its beak for the #LongBeaks theme of #BirdOfTheDay picked by @robcrank68.bsky.social

#birds #waders #shorebirds #MontereyBay #EastCoastKin

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?

Occlusal surface of a horse tooth with a cm scale. Follow as each of the twelve specimens gets its moment. And for more stories about Pleistocene Minnesota visit the link in my profile.

#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.

Happy #FossilFriday! Fossil fans may know about #stromatolites, remains of bacteria that go back billions of years. But they are still alive, even in #Minnesota! This specimen is less than 10,000 yrs old (at the Science Museum of Minnesota) and will be the subject of an upcoming study. Stay tuned!

Front view of a Columbian mammoth fossil skull displayed in a museum case, showing the massive domed cranium, large nasal opening, and a long, curved tusk resting in front of the skull.

Happy #FossilFriday! The Columbian #Mammoth was one of the largest species of mammoth to walk the Earth and roamed North America until ~11,000 years ago. The skull of one of these giants (#MOR604) is on display in the #Cenozoic Corridor at #MOR.

#yearofthehorse #equus

Bison occidentalis remains. Including 4 right mandibles.

Bison occidentalis skull

New office location. The Ticknor Hill house in Anoka

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...

Happy #FossilFriday! In honor of the World Juniors Hockey Championship happening across the street now, the Science Museum of Minnesota’s #Trex got a new hockey stick. Not sure how it’ll get the skates on, but it’s ready for some action!

🚨Paper Alert!🚨
Our work on Precambrian basement deep beneath the Williston Basin in #NorthDakota. We looked at two >2900 m drill cores, sampling the W edge of the Superior Craton and E margin of the 1.9 - 1.8 Ga Trans-Hudson Orogeny. ⚒️🧪 (T Nesheim, myself, J Vervoort) doi.org/10.1130/B374...
1/5

The last #FossilFriday of 2025.
A beautiful fossil specimen of Mesosaurus being shown at the PALEO SP 2025 (December 11-13) at the Biosciences Institute of UNESP-Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil.

Happy #FossilFriday! Part 3 from the @childrensmuseum.bsky.social in #Indiana! Seriously so much there even beyond the Dinosphere, from giant ammonites to marine reptiles (this one is Plioplatecarpus) to Dracorex to a local Mastodon. Floor after floor, there is more to find!

Mammoth molar. Scale is 10cm.

🐘🦥 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

Happy solstice! This is my longest longest day ever ☀️#Antarctica

Missed this one today. Feel free to repost others.

And some shaking. Thank goodness for those deeply anchored lateral teeth! ;)

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/

Please share to support my volunteer effort.

Lost Bones #5: (From the Ashes a Fire Shall be Woken) Interstate 94’s Lost Mounted Bison Bones

Lost Bones #5: (From the Ashes a Fire Shall be Woken)
open.substack.com/pub/marcusbr...

"In April 1967, Burgess Construction employee Ivan Brouwer's dragline struck bones..."

#FossilFriday #Writing #HistoricalNonFiction #Pleistocene #BisonOccidentalis #Palaeontology #Bison #CitizenScience

Up From the Abyss of Time On the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs as Public Art

Up From the Abyss of Time
open.substack.com/pub/walrod/p...

Lost Bones #2 Update The mastodon tooth featured in the Lost Bones #2 storyline is now available in 3D

The Science Museum of Minnesota has scanned the Northfield Mastodon molar for palaeontology outreach. See the link is in my profile for more or on Substack goto: marcusbrandel.substack.com/p/lost-bones...

Please share to help support my volunteer work!

#Mastodon #Pleictocene #CitizenSceince

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

Right horse mandible with teeth.

Occlusal surface - right horse mandible with teeth.

Right horse mandible with teeth. Occlusal surface of premolars

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

Happy #FossilFriday! A little while back some of us from the Science Museum of Minnesota visited the Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History (@smmnh.sky.social) in Blue Earth, #Minnesota. Nice place with a great cast of Lythronax (type of tyrannosaur), touchable footprints and so much more!

Please help spread the word if you like reading about the Pleistocene and it's megafauna!