Six weeks in the Bighorn Basin, WY searching for Cretaceous mammals (and studying their rocky crypts) about to begin! Ann Arbor crew did a detour to Badlands Nat'l Park to get hyped. Follow #CretaceousBighornProject for updates! UM Paleontology Michigan EARTH UMich Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Great Fourth of July celebration at the Churchill’s in Powell, WY last night. So fun to mix past and future generations of paleontologists together. And UMich Ecology and Evolutionary Biology undergrad Megan Riley spearheaded the pie contributions! #CretaceousBighornProject

Find Judithian mammals? ✅ Clarify local sed/strat? ✅ Find awesome fossils in situ, including theropods, so that Megan, Tara, Abby can take a sweet pic? ✅ Awesome day for our #CretaceousBighornProject camp UM Paleontology UMich Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Michigan EARTH Tara

Found our first decent #dinosaur bone today in the latest Cretaceous Lance Fm (cranial bone?). Not nearly as exciting as a tiny mammal tooth, but fun to mix it up from the microsites. Found by Michigan EARTH undergrad Andrew Colon! #CretaceousBighornProject

More bone emerging from our little dinosaur quarry in the Lance Formation. We’re speculating juvenile Triceratops scapula and humerus based on the size, but what do I know… I’m a mammal guy 🤷‍♂️ The students have named her “Helga” #CretaceousBighornProject

Great day/evening visit from Ingrid Lundeen & Slim Jesus to the #CretaceousBighornProject camp. They have now forsaken the Eocene and agree that Mesozoic mammals are way more interesting. 📸 Tom Churchill. Megan Riley Abby Waller Henry Fulghum

Penultimate day of collecting for the #CretaceousBighornProject crew and we spent it in the Paleocene (Ft. Union Fm; Tiffanian). Pictured here are a few of the #multituberculate blade-like premolars (p4) found today—the pinnacle of mammalian dental evolution!

Non-stop rain for our last day prevented a proper farewell to the badlands… But we finished screenwashing yesterday! >2 tons of sediment down to a few boxes of concentrate. Proud of the #CretaceousBighornProject team! Megan Riley Abby Waller Henry Fulghum

Happy #FossilFriday! Here's a great resource for Michigan Fossils -- michiganbasinfossils.org photo credit to Friends of the U of M Museum of Paleontology

The 2023 #CretaceousBighornProject field season is officially in the books. What an amazing and productive summer with undergrads, grads, postdocs, and faculty from UM Paleontology, UMich Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Michigan EARTH, University of Alabama Geological Sciences, Loyola University Chicago, IU Earth & Atmos Sci, + more 🧵1/6

But ultimately none of this would be possible without the students (most of whom don’t have twitter) Abby Waller Megan Riley Kara Mia Ehler, plus special guest appearance by Tara to start the season… Maybe my favorite team of students ever 5/6

Excited to share my beloved Poebs with everyone at #napc2024!

Loyola University, College of Arts and Sciences WY field season ‘24 off to a great start today! Prospecting the White River Formation and had fun with all the mammals!

Back at an insanely productive Lance Creek micro vertebrate site today with the Loyola University, College of Arts and Sciences and Idaho Museum of Natural History crew.

For #FossilFriday, wrapped up collecting from a new microsite collection today in the Lance Formation. We also got to play with lasers under a blanket and dig up some larger bones too Loyola University, College of Arts and Sciences Idaho Museum of Natural History

Cretaceous and Paleocene mammal adventures in the Bighorn Basin (mostly geology this trip). It’s the people that make it! UM Paleontology Michigan EARTH + University of Alabama Geological Sciences + UF Geology #CretaceousBighornProject

Wrapped up a super productive week in the Lance Formation with a collaborative group from Loyola University, College of Arts and Sciences and Idaho Museum of Natural History . Thanks to the whole team but a special thanks to our hosts Tom Kaye and Carol Kaye.

Happy campers! 2024 #CretaceousBighornProject crew w/ Late Triassic Chugwater Fm in background. UM Paleontology Michigan EARTH University of Alabama Geological Sciences UF Geology Henry Fulghum Anna Wisniewski Iso Paleo Lab

Thanks to everyone who stopped by my poster yesterday at #2024SVP!