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friedmanlab.bsky.social
Matt Friedman
@friedmanlab.bsky.social
1.2K followers 820 following 410 posts
Vertebrate evolutionary biologist | Professor University of Michigan | Director & Curator UMMP | he/him/his
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friedmanlab.bsky.social
The museum lives up to its name: Grand.
Colossal statute on display in the main atrium of the Grand Egyptian Museum. The statue is mirrored in a reflecting pool.
February 7, 2026 at 4:13 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
I was, but returned to the frozen north yesterday 😂
View out of airplane window showing wing with flaps extended and a snowy landscape with gray skies.
February 7, 2026 at 3:52 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
"Yes, wonderful things!"
Largest of three nested shrines containing the nested sarcophagi of Tutankhamun. It is a large golden box with blue highlights, roughly the size of a single-car garage. Carved ox head with very long horns. The neck and horns are black and the face gold. Carved animal heads at the ends of benches. All are a golden color. They include lions, oxen, and (I think) a hippopotamus. Golden chair and footstool. The back of the chair features Tutankhamun and his wife.
February 7, 2026 at 3:23 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Looks like there's a cool interactive display from MNHN at CDG. Connection was far too short to find it--next time!
Advertisement in inter-terminal train at Paris airport for an interactive game/display out together by the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle.
February 6, 2026 at 5:17 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Some urban paleontology for #FossilFriday: echinoid tests in paving stones outside Casa-Voyageurs rail station, Casablanca.
Sections through white fossil sea urchins in gray-brown stone.
February 6, 2026 at 12:10 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
I've seen fossils in some remarkable places, but this takes the prize: the benthic foram Nummulites in the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza. These massive blocks were quarried from the Eocene Mokkatam Formation when a relictual population of woolly mammoths still lived on Wrangel Island.
Disc-shaped fossils with concentric grooves scattered through a limestone block. Image of the apex of the Great Pyramid, taken from the base of the southeast corner. The layers of massive blocks of limestone composing the pyramid are clearly visible. The pyramid is set against a sunny blue sky.
February 2, 2026 at 5:43 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Grateful for the opportunity to present a research talk to the amazing team at MUVP!
Selfie of Matt and the paleontologists of Mansoura University.
February 1, 2026 at 8:16 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Spent a very satisfying day looking at and drawing fossil fishes.
Matt leaning over a specimen on a lab table, drawing in a sketchpad.
January 31, 2026 at 10:33 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
I spent this #FossilFriday at Wadi al Hitan in Egypt, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where early whales like this Basilosaurus are hard to miss as they weather out of the Eocene Birket Qarun Formation. (Wadi al Hitan translates as "Valley of the Whales.")
Photograph showing a large reddish-orange sediment pillar in the foreground, with a whale skull eroding out at its top. The weathered bone is white, and impressions of several teeth are apparent. Fantastical wind-carved outcrops fill the background, and are set against a blue-grey sky.
January 30, 2026 at 8:56 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Having an amazing time at Mansoura University Vertebrate Paleontology Center. Great to catch up with old colleagues and meet new ones. Thanks for hosting me on my first (but certainly not last) trip to Egypt! 📸: Hesham Sallam
Selfie of several smiling people in a lab full of fossils, shelves with microscopes, cabinets, etc.
January 28, 2026 at 9:10 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Just in time for #FossilFriday, the next paper in the Grande volume! Two new double-armored clupeomorphs (Ellimmichthyiformes) from the Jurassic (!!) of Peru 🇵🇪 Open-access paper led by Elizabeth Ordóñez and including the incomparable Gloria Arratia: deepblue.lib.umich.edu/items/4a9a1b...
Multi-paneled figure showing five fossil fish specimens. Each shows a rust-colored on a dark or light gray matrix. Four-paneled figure showing fossil fish specimens. These are mostly shades of gray, rust, and yellow.
January 23, 2026 at 9:49 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Also Žilov, Czechia (Acrolepis gigas)

www.zilov.cz
Flag with three horizontal fields, from top to bottom: black, white, and red. The middle field also includes the image of a Paleozoic ray-finned fish ("palaeoniscoid").
January 18, 2026 at 8:45 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Just some Polypterus doing Polypterus stuff at the Belle Isle Aquarium.
Close-up of the heads of two bichirs sitting on gravel at the base of their tank. They look as though there is not a single thought between the pair of them.
January 18, 2026 at 5:01 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Out-of-this-world art by @davidzinn.bsky.social spotted on South U.
Chalk street art decorating a right-angle bend in a concrete city bench. It depicts a flying saucer with a domed canopy piloted by a green alien with eyes on stalks. The saucer is emitting a green, cone-shaped beam that is lifting a mouse wearing a blue dress and red shoes off the ground.
January 11, 2026 at 11:00 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Meanwhile, other ammonites weather the impact winter to limp along into the Danian . . .
January 10, 2026 at 10:16 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Some wax models of Cretaceous cephalopods for your enjoyment.
Life reconstruction of a disc-shaped ammonite (Placenticeras) with a straight-shelled ammonite (Baculites) in the foreground. These models are in a display case with text and figures apparent in the background. Life reconstruction of an ammonite with a corkscrew-shaped shell with spines (Didymoceras) in a display case. Some text is visible in the background. Life reconstruction of a squid-like cephalopod called a belemnite in a display case. Some text is visible in the background.
January 10, 2026 at 8:43 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Struck by the similarity between this portrait of Douglass Houghton seen today at the Michigan History Museum (facsimile of original in the state capitol) and the famous one of Mary Anning: cliffs, water, hammer, black-and-white dog (Meeme for Houghton, Tray for Anning), etc.
Portrait of Douglass Houghton, first state geologist of Michigan, posing in front of cliffs next to Lake Superior (I assume) with his dog in the foreground. Famous portrait of Mary Anning next to the Jurassic cliffs of Lyme Regis. She is carrying a basket and a geological hammer, and her dog is visible resting in the lower right.
January 3, 2026 at 12:19 AM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Oh!
Activity sheet called "Fish Scavenger Hunt" at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan. It depicts seven museum artifacts showing fishes.
December 30, 2025 at 10:01 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
The largest trilobite in our collection, Isotelus maximus UMMP IP 74758, is now displayed in a highlights case outside the museum's specimen-based classroom. If you can't make it in person, you can examine a photogrammetric model this #TrilobiteTuesday:
umorf.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/wp/specimen-...
Image of a brown trilobite on a slab of gray rock, set against a dark blue background.
December 30, 2025 at 4:44 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Beautiful paper on Ordovician cyclocystoids out now in JP. This rests on the expertise & hard work of avocational paleontologists, w/ Friends of the UMMP as authors (Joe Koniecki) & honored w/ a new species (Brechincycloides stanhynei, for the late Stan Hyne). OA: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Black and white figure showing fossil specimens (cyclocystoids) dusted with ammonium chloride. Left panel shows a disc-shaped fossil with a raised, segmented margin. Right panel shows close-up of the margin. Black and white figure showing fossil specimens (cyclocystoids) dusted with ammonium chloride. Upper panel shows a disc-shaped fossil with a raised, segmented margin. A smaller individual, labeled as a juvenile, is apparent to the side of the main specimen. Lower panel shows close-up of plates in the center of the main specimen. The look a bit like a pile of puzzle pieces.
December 29, 2025 at 4:37 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Recently unearthed in a desk drawer: guides for now-extinct paleo galleries at the Field and Carnegie.
Pamphlets for fossil galleries long since renovated. On the left, "DNA to Dinosaurs" at the Field featuring a spiral with very 90s illustrations of assorted extinct creatures. On the right, "Dinosaur Hall" at the Carnegie with a black-and-white photo of the head, neck, and arms of the old T. rex mount.
December 27, 2025 at 7:55 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
👀
Closeup of image above. A stem flatfish (Amphistium) is lying on the seafloor as a crab scurries by.
December 22, 2025 at 10:40 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
On this shortest day of the year, let's all admire an iconic diorama depicting a scene from a place of eternal night . . .
Diorama at the American Museum in New York featuring the deep-sea battle between a giant squid and a sperm whale. The whale is directed toward the viewer, with the squid's arms wrapped around its jaws.
December 21, 2025 at 9:26 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
String of Stratodus vertebrate emerging in the lab.
Chain of half a dozen vertebrae oriented vertically in the frame. The bone is dark brown against a cream-colored chalk matrix.
December 21, 2025 at 2:41 PM
friedmanlab.bsky.social
Fish time at the market! Scomber, Lutjanus, Zenopsis, Scomberomorus.
A row of mackerels sitting in ice at a fish market. Head of a large red snapper surrounded by ice. A buckler dory partially obscured by an overlying red snapper, sitting on ice at a fish market. A long, slender Spanish mackerel partially obscured by an overlying buckler dory. Various other whole fishes and fish steaks are surrounding it in a case with ice at a fish market.
December 20, 2025 at 9:39 PM