#FossilFriday With the hype around #TheOdyssey, meet Palaeoloxodon falconeri: an extinct dwarf elephant (<1m tall) from the Pleistocene of Sicily & Malta, whose skull was once mistaken for a Cyclops paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/g...
Aaron Woodruff
@cenozoicking.bsky.social
🦴🦣🎨 Paleontologist, paleoartist and scientific illustrator 📬 DM for commissions
This replica fossil skull is of a Sea Otter Dog. The strong tooth enamel and shape of the premolars suggest this was the first dog adapted to cracking its prey's bones for the marrow inside. Enhydrocyon lived 29-21 million years ago. #paleosky #FossilFriday
An analysis of fossil mammals in Science suggests that Mexico served as a long-term evolutionary “holding pen” where North American species adapted and diversified for millions of years before sweeping into South America 2.8 million years ago. https://scim.ag/4fu2QKL
Want to know more about the evolution of amphibious hearing in seals? Check out our article in The Conversation! 🦭 🔊 🧪 doi.org/10.64628/AA....
Seals have a unique superpower in their ears, and we finally know how it evolved
Unlike all other mammals, seals can hear both in the air and underwater. How do they do this?
doi.org
The skull of the extinct Morenelaphus brachyceros from the Pleistocene of South America. It was one of the largest deer that lived on the continent. #FossilFriday
Ausarchosaur@ausarchosaur.bsky.social · last mo.Dawn horse (Eohippus): ankle biter (just look at those front teeth) Later than usual #FossilFriday
Evidence of fruit-eating from preserved gut contents in Eocene birds of the Messel Formation: link.springer.com/article/10.1... 🪶🧪 (📷Mayr & Collinson)
“Geology gave us the immensity of time and taught us how little of it our own species has occupied.” ― Stephen Jay Gould
This study really demonstrates how different #herbivores affect their environments in different ways. Makes you wonder how many #ecological interactions we've lost since the #Pleistocene extinctions doi.org/10.1098/rspb... Image credit: Byrdyak, Wikimedia Commons
This makes me think about all of the scientifically priceless fossils that were lost during World War II. It is amazing to hear that there is an effort to digitize specimens in Kyiv’s natural history museum despite the inherent danger
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.@arctomet.bsky.social · last mo.The Lonely Race to Save Ukraine’s Past - bioGraphic www.biographic.com/the-lonely-r...
Based on the GI tract contents of the frozen mammoth calf Yana, and material between her front legs, Yakutia was dominated by sparse larch forests with a shrub layer of dwarf birch, alder, and willow. She primarily ate sedges and cotton grass. #FossilFriday
Ausarchosaur@ausarchosaur.bsky.social · 2mo agoAstrodon is named for the fact that one of its teeth was cut open and revealed a vaguely star-shaped cross section. Here it is figured in Joseph Leidy's "Cretaceous reptiles of the United States" (1865). #FossilFriday
#FossilFriday doubleheader from our lab: #1: descriptive study of a beautiful skull of the early diverging sabertooth cat Adelphailurus. Lead by @narimanechatar.bsky.social doi.org/10.1080/0272...
New material of Adelphailurus kansensis sheds light on the cranial anatomy of an early-diverging machairodontine felid
Adelphailurus kansensis is a puma-sized felid, originally described from fragmentary material in the Edson Quarry (Kansas, Mio-Pliocene). Here, we describe a nearly complete cranium from the Wikieu...
doi.org
#FossilFriday doubleheader from our lab: #2: Functional morphology of the first known skeleton of the double-crested, badger-like Leptarctus. sjp.pensoft.net/article/1950...
Functional morphology of the first known skeleton of Leptarctus (Mustelidae, Carnivora) clarifies the palaeoecology of a distinctive predator lineage
Leptarctine mustelids are Neogene carnivorans with fossil records in Asia and North America. In the 170 years since the clade was erected, all taxa within this clade have been characterised based on c...
sjp.pensoft.net
Exhibitions in #Devon and Lyme Regis are showcasing how paleoartists combine #science and #art to reconstruct #dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. www.bbc.com/news/article... #paleoart #fossils
Where science meets art: Paleoartists bringing dinosaurs to life
Devon paleoartists are hoping exhibiting their art will get young people excited about dinosaurs.
bbc.com
For #DinosaurDay I thought I'd post a commission I did last year of the #Jurassic Troodontid Hesperornithoides, shown about to swallow an unfortunate mammal it has captured called Glirodon grandis. Really proud of how the feathers turned out with this one #paleoart #digitalart #dinosaur #sciart
In recognition of #WorldOtterDay I touched up a skull restoration from a few years ago of the #extinct #otter Enhydritherium terranovae. This species lived during the late #Miocene across southern North America from coast to coast. It was the size of the modern Giant Otter #paleoart #paleontology
#FossilFriday I mostly draw mammals, but I've always been fascinated by marine reptiles. So after the new paper by @tyrantlzrdqueen.bsky.social et al announced a new species of #Tylosaurus, T. rex, I had to take a crack at a reconstruction! Fun to try something different..
#fossilfriday although the end of the symphysis is damaged it clearly has a bilobed tuskless end and a huge anterior mental foramen. These features are shared with Megabelodon lulli, leading many (including me) to think T.phippsi is a junior synonym of M. lulli.
In the brain of a sabertooth: First neuroanatomical description and ethological insights on Megantereon cultridens (Felidae, Machairodontinae). Study by Ilaria Meli et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... Artwork by Simone Zoccante #FossilFriday
Giant sea monsters are trending with the newly described Cretaceous "kraken"*. So for #FossilFriday, a better known super predator named after myth: Livyatan melvillei! A true terror of the Miocene oceans, I was thrilled to see original fossils and a skull cast of this killer sperm whale in Lima.
Uri Wolkowski@deinocurious.bsky.social · 4mo agoThis #FossilFriday I'm moving over from giant marine reptiles to mammals! Starting with one of the biggest of them all: Perucetus collosus! First claimed to be potentially heavier than a blue whale, Perucetus had since been "downsized" drastically. It was nevertheless a mightily chonky beast >
🧵 (1/3) 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....
#Fossilfriday: The hyaenid Dinocrocuta, from the Late Miocene of Eurasia and Africa. Dinocrocuta was much larger than living hyaenas, around 200 kg (440 pounds.)
#fossilFriday A mastodon at the Huston Museum of Natural Science tosses a paleo-hunter into the air with a quick twist of its tusks.
#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.
#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.
