u/lednarb13 — reddlx

A Spearpoint in the Shoulder

#citizenscience #pleistocene #lostbones #fossilfriday #bison During and after the southward drainage of glacial Lake Agassiz into glacial River Warren—now the Minnesota River valley—river-level fluctuations, combined with the river cutting through the 3.6-billion-year-old gneiss bedrock at Granite Falls, created a shifting landscape ideal for collecting sedimentary deposits and preserving bones. The Yellow Medicine County Historical Society holds an excellent collection of bison remains from the area, some from one of Minnesota’s most famous bison kill sites: the Peterson Site.

If you enjoy this type of content, please share this post or tell me about your passion!

u/lednarb13 — 5 days ago

▲ 135 r/pleistocene+1 crossposts

Smithsonian NMNH Megaloceros Giganteus

🦌🦥🐴🐘🐪 For #FossilFriday — Megaloceros giganteus, the Giant Deer or Irish elk. Another beautiful exhibit I was able to visit in June. Specimen USNM 7051 is a masterfully mounted animal in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Fossils–Deep Time.

The Megaloceros mount features a massive steel armature engineered to support its nearly 3.4–3.6 meter (11–12 foot) antler spread. Studies show that these Ice Age giants dropped and regrew their enormous antlers each year, making for a spectacular seasonal display in the Pleistocene.

Skull mount photos credit: NMNH/Loren Ybarrondo

u/lednarb13 — 12 days ago

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Big Kitten Smitten - Smilodon fatalis

🐯🐾🦥🐴🐘🐪 For #FossilFriday, another fantastic specimen mount from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Fossils–Deep Time. The Smilodon on display — specimen v10928 — is a composite skeleton, greeting visitors with its wide saber toothed smile.

California’s state fossil, Smilodon fatalis, was a powerful apex predator that lived from roughly 400,000 to 11,000 years ago. Every bone in this composite came from the La Brea Tar Pits in present day Los Angeles, California.
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If anyone knows who works on the metal armatures/supports for the Smithsonian, Let me know in the comments! Most of these animals were remounted in 2019 for the Fossil Hall's update.
Skull photo credit NMNH

u/lednarb13 — 19 days ago

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A Strange Creature

🦥🐴🐪An Eremotherium for #FossilFriday. This remarkable giant ground sloth, Eremotherium laurillardi, is displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Its skeleton was remounted on a new steel armature during the renovation of the Hall of Fossils–Deep Time, which reopened in June of 2019. I visited the display last month, and it is truly remarkable. The external metal supporting structure is artwork in itself.

The towering animal reportedly contains more than 80% genuine fossil bone and stands over 13 feet tall.

u/lednarb13 — 1 month ago

▲ 20 r/pleistocene+4 crossposts

A Mastodon in plain Sight — Keep Your Eyes on the Gravel and an Open Mind

It's a follow-up #FossilFriday—the gravel bar mystery I posted about last year has an ID! Originally, when spotted along the river, this specimen was thought to be a Lake Superior agate. But my friend Bill thought different after picking it up. After examination by the Science Museum of Minnesota, the specimen has been identified as a mastodon tooth cusp.

This sharp-eyed gravel bar find has turned into another reminder that Ice Age history is still hiding in plain sight across the Midwest. The original photos show the worn enamel-like surface, cusp shape, and fragmentary form that made it worth a closer scientific look.

Thanks to the Science Museum of Minnesota for taking a closer look and helping confirm the identification.

Would you have recognized it? Let me know in the comments.

Want to read more stories like this—small discoveries that open a window into the deep past of the Pleistocene? Read about more similar discoveries on my Substack, linked in bio.

Partial cusp side.

Partial cusp occlusal.

Partial cusp side.

reddit.com

u/lednarb13 — 1 month ago

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Meet Jr. The Bison latifrons.

For #Fossil Friday, meet "Junior." About a month back I was able to take these photos at the new Bison: Standing Strong Smithsonian exhibit in Washington, DC.

Junior is a 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.

Marie L. Hopkins, Idaho's first female paleontologist, excavated Junior and in 1951 published on the discovery (see reference below). One of the most complete long horned bison skulls I've ever come across.

#womenwhodig #pleistocene #bisonlatifrons #paleontology #iceage #fossil #citizenscience

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

u/lednarb13 — 2 months ago

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Brown and Short-faced Bears in the Midwest

🐻 For #FossilFriday 🐂🦥🐴🐪🐟 a new #LostBones article is out on Substack! This one is a deep-deep dive into brown bear (Ursus arctos) and giant short-faced bears (Arctodus simus) in the Midwest and Surrounding areas.

Please share to get out the word!

See it thru the link in my bio or here: https://marcusbrandel.substack.com/p/lost-bones-6-bears-repeating

Lostbone article now on Substack

Ursus arctos patella with other mixed species skull and long-bone fragments. Crowing County Historical Society

Ursus arctos patella

reddit.com

u/lednarb13 — 2 months ago

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Final Tooth—12 of 12—is SMM P2024.5.1

https://preview.redd.it/iijgdncbgg8h1.png?width=873&format=png&auto=webp&s=8986872f48da3dc5e1aec4fa03e337e911711c6c

For #FossilFriday, the final tooth—12 of 12—is SMM P2024.5.1, a lower molar found at Mississippi Gateway Regional Park (Hennepin County) in August 2023.

Some updates on the Ice Age Horse project (see Lost Bones #4 and its updates — Part 1 and Part 2):

The physical 3D prints of all twelve molars are now in the final stages of painting, with detailed coloration matched closely to the originals. Alongside the prints, high‑resolution photogrammetry was completed for each specimen. These scans will generate detailed 3D models (STL or OBJ) suitable for interactive viewing, research use, and future 3D printing. The Science Museum of Minnesota already shares many of its digital models on Sketchfab, where many of these models already appear.

And as many of you already know, once these steps are complete, the original specimens will be carefully packed and shipped to UC Irvine’s W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Facility (KCCAMS) for radiocarbon dating.

Follow along as this Ice Age project approaches its next major milestone through the link in my profile.

Reproduction Painting in Progesss

Occlusal View

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u/lednarb13 — 2 months ago

▲ 113 r/naturalhistory+3 crossposts

Favorite Bison occidentalis Mount

🐂 🐘🦥🐴🐪 For this Fossil Friday—still one of my favorite bison skeletal mounts! About 9,000 years ago, a group of Bison occidentalis wandered into what is now the North End of St. Paul Minnesota… and never walked back out. In 1955, construction crews digging the Trout Brook sewer line at Mississippi St. & Maryland Ave E—along what is now the I 35E corridor—hit something unexpected: a scatter of beautifully preserved Ice Age bones, including three bison skulls, resting on a thin layer of marl buried in a peat deposit.

Today, many of those bones make up specimen P68.54.1, the mounted B. 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).

What do you think? Have you visited?

u/lednarb13 — 2 months ago

▲ 8 r/Museums+1 crossposts

🐴 Year of the Horse — Fossil Friday

Lost Bones Science Museum of Minnesota specimen SMM P2025.8.6 (originally MNH 779) comes from Nicollet County near St. Peter, Minnesota’s almost‑capital and the site of the historic Traverse des Sioux river crossing.

This upper molar is #11 of 12 in the state’s Ice Age horse project. All twelve will be heading to UC Irvine’s W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Facility (KCCAMS) for radiocarbon dating this summer.

Follow the full 12‑tooth journey in Lost Bones #4 and the Lost Bones #4 Updates — link in comments.

Lateral view upper horse molar, Nicollet County

Occlusal view upper horse molar, Nicollet County

reddit.com

u/lednarb13 — 3 months ago

▲ 2 r/Museums+1 crossposts

Roadtrip Museum Find

🐘 #MuseumSpotlight #FossilFriday 🐟🐘🦥🐴🐪

Come on—how often do you get to see a life‑sized mastodon with its juvenile in a full reconstruction?

On a recent road trip, I stumbled across this fantastic display in the Entering the Ice Age exhibition at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery in Dayton, Ohio. If you have nature ‑ or paleo‑curious kids—or if you simply love mastodons—I highly recommend a visit.

They also feature an excellent proboscidean molar comparison display, plus giant ground sloth and short‑faced bear skeletal replicas, along with strong mammalogy and Egyptology exhibits.

https://boonshoft.org/

#OhioMuseums #Pleistocene #Mastodon #Palaeontology #Fossils #CitizenScience #Ohio

Full size mastodon with juvenile reconstuction.

Part of the musuem's mamal exhibit.

Proboscidean molar morphology display.

reddit.com

u/lednarb13 — 3 months ago

▲ 3 r/u_lednarb13+2 crossposts

🦥🐴🐪🐟🍃**#mnmuseums #fossilfriday**

The full bison skeletal build is officially taking shape at the Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History. 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.

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.

Smmnh http://smmnh.com

Walter Varcoehttp://equineskeletons.com

Walter Varcoe in action.

The first stretch of vertebrae.

reddit.com

u/lednarb13 — 4 months ago