#fossil birds

[makairodonx]

Color pencil impression of Vegavis iaai, a prehistoric cousin of modern ducks and geese that lived around 68-67 in the Late Cretaceous of what is now Antarctica

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

We NEED more Extinct Cenozoic Bird Content!!!!!

Dinosaurs didn't stop at 66mya!!!

Birds didn't magically appear today out of thin air!!!!

They went through tons of evolution and there are so many cool extinct kinds, not just recent ones, but throughout the Cenozoic!!!!

AND BARELY ANYONE DRAWS, DEPICTS, OR TALKS ABOUT THEM

ITS A CRIME

A CRIME, I SAY

Conflict of Interest Report: I study some of them for my job

Should I make an art/writing/etc challenge or something? Fossil Bird November? Idk

[amnhnyc]

Gone, but not forgotten. 🦤 Today’s Exhibit of the Day is one of the most famous birds in history: the Dodo (Raphus cucullatus). This iconic species is a lesson in extinction. Around the year 1600, Dutch soldiers found the Dodo on Mauritius Island, east of Madagascar. Less than 80 years later, it was gone. Deforestation, hunting, and the introduction of invasive species contributed to the downfall of this flightless bird.

Though it died out before photography, the Dodo’s skeleton offers clues about what this species was like. For example, this bird couldn’t fly—its wings were small for its size, its sternum had no keel (the support birds need for flight muscles), and it had thick leg bones made for walking. You can see a Dodo skeleton in the Museum’s Hall of Biodiversity.

Photo: D. Finnin/ © AMNH

[monarchbutt]

whenever i can't picture dinosaurs existing i just humble myself by looking at birds alive today. what the actual fuck is that thing

[fossilprep]

NEW RAPTOR HAND! This is the partial hand of a raptor dinosaur that we collected from our super-site "Jack's bonebed" in 2024. It does not look quite right to be from the troodontid raptor that we have been collecting from this site, so we think it is from another skeleton that we have only just identified coming out of the same bed - a parrot-mimic oviraptorid (technically a Caenagnathid). We have a few tentative pieces of this skeleton so far, but it's looking really promising!

What's especially cool about this specimen is that it contains the "semi-lunate carpal" (meaning: half-moon wrist bone, outlined in red). This strange little bone was really important in the "birds are dinosaurs" debate: when the raptor bends its wrist, the twisted shape of the semi-lunate carpal means the arm folds like the wing of a bird. Super cool!

I purposely left a bit of matrix between the bones for stability. The bone is fairly crunchy and cracked so there was a little Apoxie gap filling plus the tiny cracks in the bones had to be meticulously cleaned grain by grain. All work done under a compound lens microscope between 12-50x magnification.

From US Public Lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management - Montana/Dakotas

[ihatebrainstorm]

All the Dinosaur talk makes me think of Brainstorm and Percy having a date at the Natural Science museum and BS just going ham talking about fossils

Ok real fast, I read this really late at night and misread Natural Science Museum as the Natural History Museum ksdkf

Just a nice moment for the two of them :)

[great-and-small]

Do people who live within the ecosystem of the Gambel's quail know how lucky they are? These little fellas are really something special

[retrogamingblog2]

[bobnichollsart]

Yes, this Hyphalosaurus fossil REALLY DOES exist, and it is on the cover of our new book, written by Dr Dean Lomax - Palaeontologist and illustrated by me (Published by Columbia University Press). Read all about it and 49 other amazing fossils (not all dinosaurs) that tell us about the behaviour of prehistoric animals. Pre-order on Amazon now!

[aliceandhare]

Archaeopteryx, a new beginning.

One of my favorite dinosaurs and fossils, Archaeopteryx lithographica. I hope I get to see it in person someday <3

The missing link between dinosaurs and birds, an extinct animal shedding light on such a modern matter. It has always fascinated me. The evolutionary success of so many animals, still present and alive today, coming from millions of years ago.

Even before it was found, scientists expected some animal like Archaeopteryx to have existed, so here archaeopteryx stands in the middle, glowing, as if saying "I'm here! I existed! We are still around, in stone, and in the sky!"

I am submitting this drawing to the art contest Paleoartapalooza, held by the Museum of the Rockies. Wish me luck 🤞

I hope you like it!

[samimarkart]

some new and restocked stickers are up this morning! i really love how the fossil one turned out :)

[artofmaquenda]

Cretaceous Memory

Finished! Very happy with this one ;0;

Prints are available: https://artofmaquenda.etsy.com/listing/1728553128/cretaceous-memory-print-geese-dinosaurs

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

artwork by @thewoodparable

[amnhnyc]

See this big bird in the Museum’s Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs! We're open daily from 10 am–5:30 pm. Plan your visit!

[dozydawn]

“Mapping flow lines within the amber using UV light, in ‘angel wing’ specimen.”

[7thatlas]

Choices...