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What makes South American Ungulates so unique?🦏🍃 #FossilFriday
Check out our new comprehensive combined-evidence #phylogeny of #Toxodontidae!!! #Paleontology #Evolution #Fossils #Argentina #CONICET
doi.org/10.1111/cla....
Posts by Aaron Woodruff
#Fossilfriday: The hyaenid Dinocrocuta, from the Late Miocene of Eurasia and Africa. Dinocrocuta was much larger than living hyaenas, around 200 kg (440 pounds.)
Juvenile fossil sperm whale skeleton hanging in a museum atrium; the skull is large with a pointed snout and a large satellite dish-like supracranial basin, and short, stout flipper bones; the lower half of the skeleton is covered by a metal mesh approximating the shape of the animal when alive. The vertebral column is in a gentle S-curve.
#fossilfriday And one more in side view.
Nice! I quite enjoyed it
#fossilFriday A mastodon at the Huston Museum of Natural Science tosses a paleo-hunter into the air with a quick twist of its tusks.
Mounted Barylambda faberi skeleton in a display case in front of a mural showing a reconstruction of the animal eating with a green background (only seen in photo from neck down). At the Field Museum.
The bulky herbivore, Barylambda faberi, a pantodont from the Paleocene. #FossilFriday ⚒️🧪
#FossilFriday: The Pacific mastodon, Mammut pacificus, known from California and Idaho. This species was described in 2019. This is the second of two species of Mammut from North America, the other being Mammut americanum.
Aepyceros datoadeni?
Never had the chance to look at any Impala bones, but it looks smaller than I'd expect it to be. Is this some smaller extinct taxon?
Thanks, I got it!
Link to the news article or paper?
#FossilFriday: The nimravid Dinictus, known from the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene of North America, about 35-29 million years ago.
#FossilFriday: The three-toed horse Miohippus, from the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon.
A perfect way to start off the year of the horse. Also, a nice preview for a reconstruction I'm working on! 🐎
I think that might be Borophagus actually
a pair of chasmaporthetes feed on a young mammoth alongside a trio of crows in a meadow
a photograph of a skull from chasmaporthetes
happy #fossilfriday! bonus: this is chasmaporthetes, a hyena from the pliocene and pleistocene of eurasia, north america, and africa. it was a long-legged, cursorial predator akin to modern canids, and c. ossifragus is the only hyena known from north america
(art by julius csotonyi)
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.
…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
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.
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 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.
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
Not sure why the sight of an Arctotherium basking in the morning sun brings such joy to my heart, but it does! #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge
#FossilFriday 🧪⚒️
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
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)
Mounted skeleton of the legged sea cow Pezosiren
#FossilFriday The walking sea cow Pezosiren at the National Museum of Natural History
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
The skull of a Megacerops brontothere on display at the Brigham Young University Palaeontology Museum in Provo, Utah, USA.
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
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#FossilFriday Megatherium americanum Cuvier, 1796. Museo Argentino de La Plata 🧪⚒️ #PrehistoricPlanetIceAge
paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/t...
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
Framed plaster slab with three mounted Miniochoerus skeletons
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
#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
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
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)