O primeiro maxilar de "pelicossauro" encontrado na América do Sul. #FossilFriday

The largest extinct volant bird Pelagornis could not meet the energetic demands of skimming Abstract. The fossil record is one of our only direct insights into the lives of extinct species. In recent years, the development of biomechanical and aer

The largest extinct volant bird Pelagornis could not meet the energetic demands of skimming url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

Archie the Mammoth's Champion Profile | Glow Big Red 2026 Help Archie the Mammoth's champion efforts for Glow Big Red 2026

Our museum is part of the University's fund-drive: pardon the NPR-style interruption, but consider donating if you want to support public science.

Wonderful donors are matching gifts, so it's a great chance to help us keep connecting the public with natural history.

go.unl.edu/unsmglowbigred

Ever wonder how you can tell a dinosaur’s age?

In a new study establishing Nanotyrannus as a species, researchers cross-sectioned
slices of its hyoid to gauge maturity and understand how quickly it grew.

Read more about the brand new discovery here: nhm.org/new-nanotyra...

#FossilFriday visiting some old friends! This was the first turtle shell I collected, it is a pelomedusoid from the early #Oligocene Juana Diaz Fm. in southwestern #PuertoRico. Pelomedusoids are found in shallow marine deposits across the #GreaterAntilles until the Pliocene.
#CaribbeanPaleobiology

Mounted skeleton of the legged sea cow Pezosiren

#FossilFriday The walking sea cow Pezosiren at the National Museum of Natural History

Happy #FossilFriday! Heading to #PuertoRico for some #fieldwork & R&R! So here's #Elasmodontomys obliquus, an endemic rodent of unusual size that became extinct a few thousand years ago, marking the end of a lineage that reached the West Indies ~33 million years ago!! #ROUS #RodentsoftheCaribbean

Tomorrow’s the big day. Feel free to stop by my poster on the evolution of pan-cheloniid pelagic specializations!

#2025SVP #SeaTurtle

Fandom Springs to Life Mark Langill | Team Historian, Los Angeles Dodgers

One team. Decades of history. Revisit our time with #Dodgers Team Historian Mark Langill as fandom springs to life with the #WorldSeries! Let’s go, Dodgers!  go.nhm.org/dodgers

‼️Special volume about arthropod paleontology was published today in the Journal of Paleontology, honoring the late Dr. Rodney Feldmann.🦀🦞🦐 Many of the 20 articles are open access. @paleosoc.bsky.social #paleontology #fossil #crab #lobster #shrimp
Full volume:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🦂 Scorpions? Not quite.

Take a closer look into #NHMLA's Entomology collection and learn more about false scorpions with resident Assistant Curator of Entomology, Rodrigo Ruedas!

Inside The Multi-Million Dollar Global Dinosaur Fossil Market | Bones Of Contention - Part 1/2 YouTube video by CNA Insider

From auction houses to private apartments in Asia, this film peels back the curtain on a world few ever see: fossil hunters risking everything, dealers moving specimens across borders, collectors with their prehistoric trophies, and scientists fighting to protect irreplaceable clues to Earth’s past.

These differences may be due to variations in seafloor productivity, and/or physiological differences between #desmostylians, #sirenians and #sloths.
To learn more make sure to check out our paper and its many figures: peerj.com/articles/198...
6/6
#FossilFriday

Besides describing this amazing material we also compared ancient marine mammal herbivore communities across the Pacific Ocean. One of the things we noticed is that the South Pacific communities were chronostratigraphically younger, but also with smaller body sizes & less diverse.
5/6
#FossilFriday

After a thorough morphological assessment we concluded that the morphology of the NBC specimens is closest to #Thalassocnus natans, otherwise known from the late #Miocene of #Peru. But we did noticed some differences that may hint at greater variation, or a different species!
4/6
#FossilFriday

The specimens we describe come from the Late #Miocene Bahia Inglesa Formation in the Atacama Region. The fossils, all from the Norte Bahía Caldera (NBC) locality, include associated cranial & postcranial elements of one individual, plus additional material representing others.


3/6
#FossilFriday

While fossils of #Thalassocnus are best known from the Pisco Formation in Peru, they've been previously found in Chile too. This includes a site we previously worked on, #CerroBallena! And although mainly known from marine deposits, there is at least one continental record!
2/6
#FossilFriday

My newest publication is out in @peerj.bsky.social! In this collaboration with Ana Valenzuela, Nick Pyenson & Mario Suarez we describe the most complete skeleton of the #AquaticSloth - #Thalassocnus - from #Chile!
Artwork by @alexboersma-art.bsky.social
1/6
#FossilFriday
peerj.com/articles/198...

Mammals & Lice We are interested in understanding what drives host-parasite relationships. We are using the Anoplura (sucking lice) parasite and mammalian host system to generate a comprehensive sucking louse phylog...

Hi! We need lice for our diversity and adaptation project. Specifically, we need lice from zebras, camelids (camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, guanacos) & aardvarks. If you or someone you know might have lice, I'm happy to discuss our inclusive collaboration plans!
sites.google.com/nhm.org/anop...

Fossilized Bison teeth

Fossilized Bison teeth

Fossilized Camel teeth

Fossilized Horse teeth

🍖 Hungry for History? Fossils from the #TarPits reveal the diets of saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, and more—served straight from asphalt.

Take a bite into prehistory: bit.ly/TarPitsPD

Are you tired of people constantly overestimating body size of marine reptiles? No longer!

We provide equations to estimate body size in ichthyosaurians, mosasaurids, and thalattosuchians.

1/4

A new leatherback marine turtle from the lower Oligocene of North America and a phylogenetic nomenclature for Dermochelyidae The modern leatherback sea turtle Dermochelys coriacea possesses a unique, flexible mosaic carapace adapted for deep diving. The evolutionary origins of this structure remain poorly understood because...

A.D. Gentry et al. (2025)

A new leatherback marine turtle from the lower Oligocene of North America and a phylogenetic nomenclature for Dermochelyidae

Palaeodiversity 18(1): 127-149 (2025)

doi: doi.org/10.18476/pal...

bioone.org/journals/Pal...

Family Fishing Trip Leads to “One-in-a-Million” Fossil Discovery - Poarch Creek Indians A family of four recently discovered the fossilized shell of a 32-million-year-old leatherback sea turtle while fishing along a river in south Alabama. The new species, Ueloca colemanorum was named by...

A new fossil of the Leatherback Turtle from Alabama just dropped! #FossilFriday

bioone.org/journals/Pal...

Reconstruction of Navaornis hestiae in its 80 million-year-old environment Copyright owned by Julia d’Oliveira. Credit: J. d’Oliveira. Email: julia_d.oliveira@hotmail.com

The giant ichthyosaur Cymbospondylus youngorum Illustration by Stephanie Abramowicz

To celebrate a momentous 10 Years of #DinoFest, we’re looking back at a decade of discoveries from the Mesozoic—the period from about 252 to 66 million years ago, when dinosaurs evolved and then came to rule the planet: go.nhm.org/dinofest10

🦖 Will you be joining us this Sunday, September 14?

Camelops hesternus fossil on display at the La Brea Tar Pits.

An illustration of the large-headed llama Hemiauchenia.

A Camelops skeleton.

An illustration of Camelops hesternus, an extinct North American camel.

🐪 Think being stuck in L.A. traffic's a drag? Try getting stuck in its 𝘵𝘢𝘳. Meet 𝘊𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘶𝘴, the Ice Age camel that once roamed North America: bit.ly/AncientCamelLA

While we don’t know if there were ever such fetching coats as these, carnivores like tigers and leopards roaming forested habitats today do sport spotted, vertically striped, and horizontally striped fur as camouflage.

🐾 Are you a saber-toothed cat person, or do you prefer to chill with giant sloths? Pick Your Summer and learn all about these polar opposite Ice Age mammals during your next trip to the #TarPits: go.nhm.org/tpsummer

Are Dire Wolves Back? with Dr. Emily Lindsey YouTube video by La Brea Tar Pits and Museum

🦴 𝘼𝙧𝙚 #direwolves back? Dr. Emily Lindsey, Associate Curator and Excavation Site Director at the #TarPits, shares some insight about the Ice Age Angeleno that's making headlines.

youtu.be/v9d1Yu3OZBw

🦣 Meet the #TarPits' resident mammoth, Zed!

Catch a glimpse of the most complete Columbian mammoth discovered in the heart of LA, only at La Brea Tar Pits!

Artistic reconstruction of Bolg amondol, depicted raiding an oviraptorosaur dinosaur nest amidst the lush Kaiparowits Formation habitat. Art by Cullen Townsend.

From the Press Room | New Species of Armored, Monstersaur Lizard that Lived Alongside Dinosaurs Identified by #NHMLA Paleontologists!

Discovery of 𝘉𝘰𝘭𝘨 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘭 reveals the complex evolutionary history of giant Gila Monster relatives: go.nhm.org/bolg-pr

📷 Cullen Townsend