Marcus Brandel

@lostbones

Coder 🖥️💾, Cycler 🚴‍♂, Independent Researcher 🐂🐴🐘🍃🐪🦥, Natural History Writer, Poor Golfer, Professional Nerd. Follow #LostBones to find out more about Pleistocene fossils or the Midwest

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Marcus Brandel@lostbones· 4d

🦌 #FossilFriday — Megaloceros giganteus, specimen USNM 7051. Masterfully mounted at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History its ~3.6‑meter antlers supported by a structural steel carriage #pleistocene #megalocerosgiganteus #citizenscience Skull mount photos credit: NMNH/Loren Ybarrondo

Giant deer skull and antlers supported by steel armature.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· 10d

#Equus #RadiocarbonDating #FossilFriday Latest update now in subscriber notes on Subsatck: substack.com/@marcusbrand...

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· 10d

Latest update is now on Substack. marcusbrandel.substack.com/p/lost-bones...

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· 12d

🐯🐾🦥🐴🐘🐪 For #FossilFriday, a fantastic mount from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Fossils. The Smilodon on display — specimen v10928 — is a composite skeleton sourced from the La Brea Tar Pits, CA. #pleistocene #smilodonfatalis #citizenscience Skull photo credit NMNH

Smilodon fatalis skull, Photo credit NMNH

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· 19d

🐂🦥🐴🐘🐪🐟🍃 A surprisingly common bone in small city and county museum collections across the Midwest — and one that’s often left unidentified — is the sternum. Fo bison It’s usually found disarticulated into its individual segments, called sternebrae. Read more: marcusbrandel.substack.com

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· 26d

An Eremotherium #FossilFriday. This remarkable giant ground sloth, Eremotherium laurillardi, stands at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Remounted on a new steel armature during the renovation of the Hall of Fossils–Deep Time in 2019, it reportedly reaches to a height of 13 feet.

Ground sloth massive forelimb in metal frame.

Ground sloth massive hindlimb with metal frame.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Jul 10

It's a follow-up #FossilFriday The mysterious bone fragment I posted about last year has an ID! After examination by the Science Museum of Minnesota, as suspected, the specimen has been confirmed as a mastodon tooth cusp. If you would you have recognized it let me know. #citezenscience #mammut

Partial mastodon molar. A simple gravel‑bar discovery has turned into a scientific find — another reminder that Ice Age history is still hiding in plain sight across the Midwest.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Jul 4

For #Fossil Friday, meet "Junior." On loan to the new Bison: Standing Strong Smithsonian exhibit in Washington, DC. Junior is a massive Bison latifrons skull. Marie L. Hopkins, Idaho's first female paleontologist, excavated Junior in 1951. #womenwhodig #pleistocene #bison doi.org/10.2307/1375...

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.

Bison latifrons skull.

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

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Jun 19

#FossilFriday The final tooth—12 of 12—is SMM P2024.5.1, a lower molar found at Mississippi Gateway Regional Park (Brooklyn Park, MN) in 2023. Twelve 3D printed reproductions of the molars are also underway and are now receiving their final paint touches. #Equus #RadiocarbonDating

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Jun 12

🐂 🐴🐪 #FossilFriday Still one of my favorite mounts! 9K years ago, a group of Bison occidentalis wandered into what’s St, Paul MN. In 1955, at Mississippi St. & Maryland road crews found them resting beneath a peat layer. Today the remains form specimen P68.54.1 at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Mounted Bison 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)

Bison remains found by construction crews digging the Trout Brook sewer line—along what is now the I 35E corridor—the bones were scattered. Three bison sculls were found beautifully preserved, resting on a thin layer of marl buried in a peat deposit.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Jun 5

#FossilFriday specimen SMM P2025.8.6 (MNH 779) comes from Nicollet County near St. Peter, Minnesota’s almost‑capital. #11 of 12 in the state’s Ice Age horse project heading to UC Irvine’s W. M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Facility (KCCAMS) for radiocarbon dating this summer.

Science Museum of Minnesota upper horse molar lateral view.

Science Museum of Minnesota upper horse molar occlusal view.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· May 30

#FossilFriday 🐘🦥🐴Happened upon a fantastic life‑sized mastodon with its juvenile at the Boonshoft Museum’s Entering the Ice Age exhibit in Dayton, OH recently. Great for paleo‑curious kids—plus a great mammal and historical exhibits as well as giant sloth and short‑faced bear replicas. boonshoft.org

A small part of the museum's mammal exhibit.

Proboscidean molar morphological comparison display.

Adult and juvenile mastodon reconstructions

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· May 22

🐂 #LostBones #FossilFriday 🐟️🐘🦥🐴🐪 I'm back out #CountingBones. At the Winnebago Area Museum — bison and horse remains from two Blue Earth sites. Shout‑out: this museum has been entirely volunteer‑run for 50 years. 🏦Museum: www.winnebagoareamuseum.org 🔄Project: marcusbrandel.substack.com/about

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· May 9

🐴🐘🐪 This tooth survived the end of the Ice Age in a gravel pit. 🦷 Found 5 miles east of Montevideo, this lower horse molar may have belonged to one of the last Equus roaming Minnesota. Follow the whole 12 tooth journey in Lost Bones #4 thru the link in my bio. #LostBones #FossilFriday #Equus

Occlusal view of possible Ice Age horse molar.

Lateral view of possible Ice Age horse molar.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· May 3

Fire, Bone, and Silicone — Skeletal Mount in Progress The full bison skeletal build is officially taking shape at the Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History. Smmnh smmnh.com Walter Varcoe equineskeletons.com Lost Bones marcusbrandel.substack.com #LostBoses #CitizenScience #FossilFriday

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.

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.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Apr 24

#lostbones #FossilFriday 🐂🦥🐴🐪🐟 Possible Cretaceous age Inoceramus (or Platyceramus)—the giant clam. From the Yellow Medicine County Historical Society & Museum in MN. Explore more? Check out these links: www.co.ym.mn.gov/county-museums substack.com/home/post/p-... . . #Paleontology #CitizenScience

Giant clam top. #lostbones #FossilFriday 🐂🦥🐴🐪🐟🍃 The Minnesota River valley at Granite Falls makes a dramatic bend to skirt the city’s famous 3.6 billion year old gneiss bedrock. Today’s fossil comes from an slightly less ancient time along the river.

Giant clam top. If you’d like to explore more about the Museum, the Cretaceous, or Minnesota’s prehistoric past, check out the link in my bio.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Apr 17

🦥🐴🐘🐪#FossilFriday #LostBones, Lower horse molar (SMM P2025.8.7) from Olmsted County is specimen 9 of 12 headed for radiocarbon dating. The County has produced Ice Age finds over the years—several mammoth tusks and both mammoth and mastodon teeth from county gravel deposits—posted about previously.

Horse lower molar lateral view. Follow along as we work through all twelve specimens and uncover what the dates reveal: Were Ice Age horses roaming Minnesota earlier than currently documented?

Horse lower molar occlusal view. If you want the deeper story—the hunt for lost bones, and the unfolding discoveries—I’ve added a new update to #LostBones 4 on Substack.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Apr 10

#LostBones #FossilFriday Horses vanished from North America ~10K years ago — yet their fossilized teeth keep turning up in the Midwest. No radiocarbon dates have ever been documented in Minnesota. Dating begins this summer. What will the results reveal. More: open.substack.com/pub/marcusbr...

A friend found the infamous “black tooth” back in 2018 — and now we’re waiting for the radiocarbon dates.

A depiction indicating twelve teeth will be radiocarbon dated.

The timeline in question is Pleistocene to Holocene.

A post glacial landscape with a horse and a mammoth.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Apr 3

#FossilFriday The largest bone in the skeleton—the femur—often survives the test of time. It is the eighth most common vertebrate mammal post cranial element I’ve documented in county museum collections across the Midwest so far. #Palaeontology #CitizenScience Lost Bones marcusbrandel.substack.com

Whole and partial femur at the Melrose Area Museum. Each bone preserves data from ancient animals that once roamed the area’s post glacial landscapes.

Distal end of a bison femur at the Rice Country Historical Society. #Pleistocene #Holocene #Bison #Palaeontology #Mnmuseums #CitizenScience

Bison femur at the Pope County Historical Society

Bones discovered near Hansen Park in New Brighton Minnestoa

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Mar 28

#FossilFriday! 🐂 A revelation for me and my friend: bison material could be found along our small town’s river gravel bars. This right frontal bone is from a juvenile bison. Other skull and horn‑core material have turned up, but this was the first—and remains the only—juvenile skull we’ve found.

A well worn skull fragment with horn core. The river it was found in runs fast, distorts its channel, and loves to grind up its ancient bones as it tumbles them through glacial gravels and Cretaceous seaway landforms. It often crests multiple times a season—a pattern known as pulse flooding.

A well worn skull fragment with horn core. In the spring of 2019, the river where it was found reached a maximum height of 17.92 feet, with two major crests: 17.92 ft on March 24 and 15.02 ft on April 19—high enough to coax the river's banks into revealing a few buried secrets.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Mar 22

The Carver County Historical Society: The past is on display with a mammoth molar and exhibits on Indigenous history, agriculture, and military service. Found in 2000 when a Chaska gravel pit’s clamshell dredge—dropping through 100 feet of water—hauled up a proboscidean tooth. tinyurl.com/bdcar2zr

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Mar 22

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Mar 15

Https://marcusbrandel.substack.com/p/your-german-shepard-the-geoarchaeologist #archaeology #geoarchaeology #workingdogs #caninescience #dogs #detectiondogs #humanremainsdetectiondogs #AHRDD

Https://marcusbrandel.substack.com/p/your-german-shepard-the-geoarchaeologist

An image including a link to the story in a photo of a German Shepherd.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Mar 13

🐴 #CitizenScience #FossilFriday — Molar (SMM P77.20.1), specimen 8 of 12, was recovered in 1976. This story emerged from the landscape around St. Cloud, Minnesota, when P. Lansing collected this horse molar near Hgwy 23. Before modern roads and cities, horses may have roamed Ice Age Minnesota.

Horse molar in vault at the science museum of Minnesota.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Mar 6

🐴 #FossilFriday — Lower horse molar (SMM P2020.7.34) from my hometown ❤️‍🔥. Specimen 7 of 12 headed for radiocarbon dating. #LostBones updates on Substack: substack.com/@marcusbrand... 👇 What do you think this molar’s age will come back as — Ice Age or more recent? #Pleistocene #Equus #CitizenScience

Possible Ice Age horse molar next to bison molar. Science Museum of Minnesota. Another incredible Ice Age find from my good friend Bill in 2018 — New Ulm, Minnesota.

Every one of these teeth and bones helps us answer a bigger question: Were Ice Age horses still roaming Minnesota later than we thought?
Follow along as we work through all twelve specimens and uncover what the dates reveal.

#Pleistocene #Equus #MinnesotaHistory #Paleontology #CitizenScience #IceAgeMinnesota #RadiocarbonDating

Possible Ice Age horse molar. Science Museum of Minnesota.

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Feb 27

#LostBones #FossilFriday #Equus #RadioCarbonDating 🐴 In June 1921, crews at the Sagamore Mine near Riverton, Minnesota uncovered a peat layer eight feet down containing a Pleistocene bone bed with a horse molar (#6), a horse incisor, and other late‑Quaternary fossils. www.crowwinghistory.org

The series continues: twelve horse teeth from across Minnesota, each one headed for radiocarbon dating to finally pin down when these animals moved across the state’s post glacial landscape. Pictured is a potential upper Ice Age molar. Occlusal view.

Potential Ice Age horse incisor. Side view

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Feb 14

#LostBones #FossilFriday! 🐴🐂🦥🐪🐟 Was on the road this week with@dr-crocogator.bsky.social to retrieve this beauty, specimen #4, found on Buffalo Lake in from Wright County, Minnesota. www.wrighthistory.org 📖 Notes: substack.com/profile/7473... #pleistocene #equus #palaeontology #citizenscience

Lower p2 horse molar (side view) found near Olson's Point in Buffalo Lake

Lower p2 horse molar (side view) found in 1976 on Olson's Point south side of Buffalo Lake

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Feb 7

#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

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

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Jan 31

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

Marcus Brandel@lostbones· Jan 17

#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.