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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · 1d

#FossilFriday the mandible of Notiomastodon platensis, one of the last gomphothere-grade proboscideans from the Pleistocene of Argentina.

Lateral view of a dhort dark brown mandible with a highly worn second molar and a third molar in place. The coronoid process and condyle are damaged.

Occlusal view of a dark brown short mandible showing a highly worn 2nd molar and a less worn 3rd molar (wisdom tooth) with 5 lophids (ridge-crests)

Close up on the 3rd lower molar (wisdom tooth) of Notiomastodon showing wrinkled enamel and double trefoil wear patterns. There are five ridge crests and a small heel.

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

cenofreak88.bsky.social @cenofreak88.bsky.social · 8d

Welcome to the first instalment of #gomphtober2025 where we spotlight gomohotheres and their relatives. Kicking things off is Stegomastodon Arizona from the pliocene of Arizona.

#fossilfriday #smithsonian #nationalmuseumofnaturalhistory #elephant #fossil #prehistoricarizona #paleontology

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

Alberta Palaeontological Society @abpalaeosociety.bsky.social · 8d

Did you know that mastodons used to live in Alberta? This jaw was found in Edmonton and is currently housed at the Royal Alberta Museum. Mastodon are relatives of elephants and have very distinctive jaws and teeth.

#fossilfriday #palaeontology #paleontology #mastodon #fossils #mammals #alberta

Two lower jaws of a mastodon in a museum display. The teeth have very high cusps. In the corner is a skeletal of a mastodon next to a person, showing that the person roughly comes up to the mastodon's shoulder.

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

Camben Creatives LLC @cambencreatives.bsky.social · 22d

Millions of years ago, California had a familiar yet alien landscape from what it sees today. This painting highlights the animals that may have passed through Death Valley long ago.

This painting features as a 4ft mural hung in the Copper Canyon Visitor Center in southern Cali.

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · 27d

academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/a...

A new genus of amebelodonts from the Miocene of China and a re-examination of the phylogeny of the Amebelodontidae

Abstract. Amebelodontidae, a group of proboscideans with distinctive shovel-like mandibular symphysis and tusks, have been the subject of contentious class

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

Chris Widga @widga.bsky.social · 29d

It lives!!! 🦣🦣🦣🧪

Repeated climate-driven dispersal and speciation in peripheral populations of Pleistocene mastodons | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Repeated climate-driven dispersal and speciation in peripheral populations of Pleistocene mastodons

Coastal mastodon mitochondrial genomes contextualize species distributions and dispersal patterns near southern glacial limits.

www.science.org

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

American Museum of Natural History @amnh.org · Sep 5

Smile like Smilodon because it’s #FossilFriday! Scientists estimate that its signature teeth grew at the rapid speed of .24 in (0.6 cm) per month—double the growth rate of an African lion’s teeth. Smilodon could open its jaws twice as wide as today’s big cats.

Close-up portrait shot of the side of a Smilodon's fossil skeleton. Its skull is facing the right of the frame. Two long canine teeth are protruding from each side of its mouth.

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · Aug 29

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Columbian mammoth mitogenomes from Mexico uncover the species’ complex evolutionary history

Paleogenomic studies suggest that Mammuthus columbi derives from an ancient hybridization between Mammuthus primigenius and Mammuthus trogontherii. While its habitat spanned from North to Central Amer...

www.science.org

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · Aug 29

www.science.org/content/arti...

Mammoths in Mexico? Huge bone trove reveals giant beasts thrived in warmth, too

Fossils found while building airport contain first mammoth DNA from tropical location

www.science.org

Reposted by Owen Goodchild

radish cellar @jrtsk.bsky.social · Aug 5

Mammut americanum, the elephants relative
#art #paleoart

American mastodon (Mammut americanum) takes a shower in the middle of the vast lake.

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

RJ Millena @entomolrj.bsky.social · Jul 8

Our big review paper on strepsipteran systematics for Insect Systematics and Diversity is out! Hoping it's a helpful resource for anyone who needs it.

Strepsiptera systematics: past, present, and future

Abstract. The twisted-wing parasites (Strepsiptera Kirby) are among the most obscure and enigmatic orders in the Insecta. Strepsipterans are endoparasites

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · Jun 18

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus of the >146,000-year-old Harbin cranium

Denisovans have yet to be directly associated with a hominin cranium, limiting our understanding of their morphology and geographical distribution. We…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · Jun 6

Big thanks to Ted Daeschler for advising me as an undergrad on this project, and to my coauthors A.R Cicarrielo, and @nshubin.bsky.social for their work on this project.

Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · Jun 6

My first lead-author paper! Meet Onychodus mikijuk from the Late Devonian Nordstrand of the Canadian Arctic. A small new addition to a very strange group of lobe-finned fishes.

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · Jun 6

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A new onychodontid (Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii) from the Upper Devonian (Frasnian) of Devon Island, Nunavut Territory, Canada

We describe a new onychodontid, Onychodus mikijuk, from the Upper Devonian (Frasnian) Nordstrand Point Formation of the Grinnell Peninsula, Devon Island, Nunavut Territory, Canada, represented by t...

www.tandfonline.com

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · May 25

I think those may be vestigial lower tusk alveoli. Perhaps there were deciduous lower tusks there early in life? There is a juvenile specimen from the type locality of the Nebraska Megabelodon (M.lulli) but I am unsure if the presence/absence of tusks is conclusive there.

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · May 25

Maybe. Li et al 2024’s tree recovered Megabelodon and Eubelodon as early diverging Amebelodonts.

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · May 25

Some have suggested Megabelodon could be a Choerolophodont. The Nebraska Megabelodon specimens have downturned upper tusks with enamel bands, unlike even the most primitive Asian Choerolophodonts, which makes me doubt that.

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · May 20

Finite element analysis. Like what Li et al., (2024) used here for Gomphotherium, Platybelodon, and Choerolophodon. elifesciences.org/articles/90908

The trunk replaces the longer mandible as the main feeding organ in elephant evolution

The long mandibles were gradually replaced by more flexible trunks in the evolution of proboscideans.

elifesciences.org

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · May 20

FEA could be a powerful tool for testing what’s up with the long tuskless mandibles of Megabelodon and Eubelodon.

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · May 20

Megabelodon’s funky spoonbill mandible seems like it must have been good for something. NM and NE Megabelodon both have large anterior mental foramina with a long tube like fossa leading to that spoonbill, but what the soft tissue pad/lower lip looked like remains uncertain.

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

Steve White @sharkbitesteve.bsky.social · Apr 30

Tinkering with colour pencils on colour paper again.

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County @nhm.org · Apr 29

NEWLY PUBLISHED » Dr. Jorge Velez-Juarbe (Associate Curator, Marine Mammals) discovers that sebicids, ancient land-dwelling crocodile-like beasts, reigned over the West Indies as apex predators after vanishing from South America: bit.ly/AncientCrocs

A sebecid and its prey, a megalocnid ground sloth, overlook a coastal pond in the Dominican Republic around 5.8 million years ago. Artwork by Machuky Paleoart.

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Reposted by Owen Goodchild

Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. @arctomet.bsky.social · Apr 10

Behold!

With lots of dino 🦕love 💕

youtu.be/VAVp_1-Aqc8?...

Walking With Dinosaurs Official Trailer (2025) | BBC Earth

YouTube video by BBC Earth

youtu.be

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Owen Goodchild @paleowen.bsky.social · Apr 4

#fossilfriday the partial mandible of the New Mexico “spoonbill mastodont” AMNH F:AM 21296 originally called ‘Amebelodon joraki’ then ‘Trilophodon joraki’ and finally ‘Megabelodon joraki’ (albiet informally). Smaller than its Nebraskan cousin, and yet clearly an old adult.

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