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About Fossil Crates
Fossil Crates (@fossilcrates) is a Shopping & retail creator on Instagram, also filed under eCommerce/DTC and Shopping & Retail. The account has 62,672 followers and 2,152 published posts. Recent posts average 7,878 likes and 63 comments, an engagement rate of 10.62%.
With 62.7K followers, Fossil Crates is a micro creator by the common 10,000 to 100,000 definition. Fossil Crates follows just 9 accounts, which leaves well over 1,000 followers for every account followed. Fossil Crates uses an Instagram professional account. Flinque files Fossil Crates under 3 categories, led by Shopping & retail and followed by eCommerce/DTC and Shopping & Retail.
The Instagram bio for Fossil Crates runs to 13 words across 3 lines. Emoji sit alongside the words. The latest activity Flinque has on record for Fossil Crates dates from August 2024.
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2,152 Posts
Of the 10 most recent posts shown for Fossil Crates, 9 are videos and 1 is a single image. That mix leans toward videos. With 2,152 posts published, Fossil Crates's archive runs well past the 2,000 mark. Against the audience, that is roughly 29 followers for each post published. Fossil Crates also keeps 4 story highlights on the profile. All 10 carry captions, averaging 282 words each. The captions are written mainly in English. Words that recur across them include skull, museum, long, history and teeth. The captions tag #fossilcrates, #saltriovenator, #museumselfieday, #alligatorellus and #macrospondylus.
All at the Milan Natural History Museum.
Odoiporosaurus “traveller lizard” is the cousin of Neusticosaurus and Serpianosaurus, making up a family of pachypleurosaurs. The skull has super cool teeth that jut out of its mouth. No lips here;-)!
Mixosaurus “mixed Lizard” has five fingers, showing the “fish lizards” reduce digits over time. They remind me of fun-sized 3’ porpoises. Such wonderful preservation!
Macronemus “long tibia” is a tanystropheid with yet another cool skull and sweet tail. I grew up with the term protorosaur, of which it turns out this beast used to belong. It may have had some terrestriality to it and might be on the ancestral tany line.
Saurichthys “lizard fish” a 5’ long ambush predator a la modern gar. Pregnant females indicate live birth.
Tanystropheus “long necked one”(?) is still my favorite. That neck! That skull! That tail! Taffeta! Such spectacular specimens in museums across Europe we saw.
Cyamodus “bean tooth”(?) is a placodont, not a turtle. It has two shells with a hinge between them and massive flat teeth.
Serpianosaurus “Serpiano reptile” is another new-to-me beast. A 3’ pachypleurosaur, such “thick rib lizards” definitely live up to their name as when you get close to it you can see their heavy ribs. Though this one’s ribs weren’t as thick as others we saw.l the are still thicker than you’d expect.
Askeptosaurus “unconsidered reptile”(?) was new to me. I’d read its name a time or two but had no idea what it was. Then in Milan and in Zurich I saw a bunch of’ em! Tis a 10’ thalattosaur with a sweet tail. Not a croc but rather tis in its own order, Thatattosauria.
The Triassic was a wild and wondrous time for vertebrates.
#FossilCrates
After hopping off a trolley and crossing an exciting street, we entered the Indro Montanelli Garden, laden with statues of famous folk (and deer!). It was a beautiful day for a nice stroll to the museum proper.
Built in the 1800s (I’m guessing), the exterior is wonderful to behold! The “classic” style screams awesome. As does the inside, even though we didn’t make it to the second level.
I didn’t know I’d be seeing a Saltriovenator. I saw the big lacrimals from far away and initially thought Allosaurus, but as I got closer, I started to wonder. The sign confirmed it was no allosauroid. Tis a bloat-and-float ceratosaurian with casts of the bones inside a glass case. I was fortunate to touch the original material in the collection. Amazing!
#FossilCrates
#museumselfieday
#Alligatorellus beaumonti is a new-to-me crocodylomorph. Despite having “alligator” in its genus name, this Late Jurassic critter isn’t an alligatoroid, rather tis something I know next to nothing about, an atoposaurid.Digging further (heh) it turns out these cool beasts are members of the Neosuchia, a group that does contain all living crocs.
I quickly get askance when it comes to crocs, but we’ve seen so many in the last few years that I probably should figure out what a mesoeucrocodylian is versus a notosuchian, etc. (Or I can just read more sauropod papers;-))!
Steneosaurus is a label we see everywhere, yet in reading up on S. bollensis I learned it is now called #Macrospondylus, and #Steneosaurus is a “waste-basket taxon,” a term we use when lots of unrelated animals are called the same name.
I visit the Tucson show every year and invariably see Holzmaden “steneosaurs.” I am curious to see what the labels say this year. Regardless of what these thalattosuchians are called (which are teleosauroids and machimosaurids. (my goodness new terms everywhere) they are quite impressive, with long snouts and superficial similarity to gharials, though these were marine and not freshwater beasts.
#Razanandrongobe is from yet another group, a notosuchian, from Madagascar. The oldest representative (165 Ma, Jurassic) of this once mighty group, the massive skull and chipped teeth suggest it was snacking on bones and possibly competed with theropods for prey. A sauropod (Archaeodontosaurus) bone was found nearby, and other sauropods wandered that area. Perhaps it grabbed small ones by the neck when thy came to drink?
#Barypharacta deponiae was moved to Diplocynodon, a eusuchian (yep, I gotta figure these names out…) croc from Germany in 2012. I saw a Diplocynodon not too long ago, now I’ve seen another. Gastroliths were present in both specimens (from Messel) and both were stunningly preserved.
FossilCrates
Stenopterygius is one of the most common “original material” ichthyosaurs we see in museum displays and is the one known with a baby sliding out of the cloaca at death. Skin coloration suggests countershading. It lived in the Jurassic, ~180 Ma, and exceeded 12’. They remind me of dolphins (hydrodynamic body) and sharks (fins). This one has been bitten on the face. Did it kill it? Alas, I know not.
Leptopterygius was renamed because that name was occupied by a fish. I didn’t know this until I started researching for this post, it is labeled Leptopterygius on every sign I’ve ever seen from what I recall. They have been found fantastically complete and original material is in museums around the world. The ROM one is quite memorable. They reached 20’ but the one here is far smaller.
Where ichthyosaurs came from has been a mystery. Over the years they’ve been associated with all manner of reptiles. The latest puts them as diapsids, but sisters to sauria, thus they are on their own. They came from terrestrial forebears, yet another dolphin similarity.
Utatsusaurus is an Early Triassic ichthyopterygian, the earliest by most accounts, from Japan and BC, Canada. Lacking a dorsal fin, and with peculiar girdles and limbs, it certainly seems to have been on the ancestral line to the ichthyosaurs. At ~245 Ma it is about the oldest we’ve found and, at ~3’ long, not that large.
Thaisaurus, found in the Early Triassic of Thailand, is known from the material you briefly saw in the case: skull, verts, limbs. It is a basal ichthyopterygian and has some controversy, with some arguing it is actually Chaohusaurus. Alas, the ~3’ specimen hasn’t been fully prepped from what I can tell.
Hupehsuchus, from the Early Triassic of Hubei, China and, along with its cousin Nanchangosaurus, are thought by some to be related to ichthyosaurs, however despite a complete skeleton they were placed in their own order (!). Even how they fed has been debated: piscivorous, filter feeding, pelican gulper?
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Camptosaurus from Utah’s Late Jurassic Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry (CLDQ). This ornithopod herbivore is being harassed by another CLDQ beast, Allosaurus.
This quintessential Jurassic predator has chosen to not try its mouth on the plates and spikes of the legendary Stegosaurus (also comes from the CLDQ), instead pursuing a meal from the unarmored, un-weaponized plant eater. A smart move, considering the power in a Stegosaurus tail that ends in four monstrous spikes.
Tyrannosaurus is represented by the ubiquitous cast of Stan. Yet, despite its size, it isn’t the most impressive beast in the room, in my opinion (the kids we watched squealed “T. rex!!!” according it its rock star status:-)), that honor belongs to that Triceratops life restoration.
I don’t think I have seen a larger Triceratops skull and resto. I am guessing it is on the older side restoration-wise based on its limbs, which are sprawling, something not done today as we know their limbs were more or less directly underneath the body.
The Plateosaurus is a nice touch as though it is a Triassic beast, I had no idea how diverse and spectacular the sauropodomorphs were in Europe.
Tito is the nickname given to a lone caudal vertebra of a sauropod that was found in Italy. I got to hold its bone in the collections (one of the reasons I went), which was very cool. It has an interesting backstory, being tied to a woman making a garden wall. All antiquities, be they human made or prehistoric, belong to the Italian government. When she found the bone, she handed it over and thus this seemingly insignificant bone was described as it represented the first Italian sauropod.
#FossilCrates
The Natural History Museum in Milan has amazing casts. Here are a few that made me smile.
#Eryops “Drawn-out face” megacephalus “mega head” (Cope, 1877) reached ~10’ long and 400+ lbs. Its 2’ skull was loaded with sharp teeth (think giant, angry frog head) with teeth in the palate (roof of the mouth) that helped to hold slippery prey.
It lived in water most of its life but had the musculature to come ashore and wreak some havoc. It was a giant for its day.
Eusthenopteron was an up to 7’ long lobe-finned fish with characters bridging fish and tetrapods. As a wee lad in the 1970s, this critter loomed large in every then modern textbook as a blueprint for how life eventually left the sea. One of my earliest memories is trying to figure out how to pronounce this animals‘s name. I still don’t know if I say it, right, but it’s gotta be close:-).
#FossilCrates
Among the very last of the cyamodontoids, #Psephoderma swam the shallow Late Triassic (~205-201 Ma) seas of Europe. The Rhaetian is the last age in the Triassic Period, giving way to the Hettangian (earliest Jurassic). Thus, these placodonts were thriving before a major extinction event.
Two species have been named, P. alpinum, originally found in the Bavarian Alps of Germany but known from the Alpine Triassic of Italy and Austria, and P. anglicum, from England. The holotype, P. alpinum, was named by Meyere in 1858 from BSP AS I 8, a carapace with “pebbly skin,” thus the genus name. Since then a number of nice skulls and skeletons have been found, including a juvenile described in 1979 by Pinna.
The Psephoderma skull tapers, with a long rostrum unlike those of its predecessors. The premaxilla lacks teeth (contra Pinna 1979), relying on the two massive crushing maxilla teeth at the back of the mouth.
The long snout has sparked much speculation about what and how it ate. The massive durophagous chompers suggest it ate hard-shelled critters, yet the long rostrum might make it difficult to pick them up from the bottom versus its flatter-faced kin.
One proposal is that it uses the snout to twist and break a mollusk from its holdfast. Trionychid turtles do something similar today.
Another idea is that the rostrum with long grooves that lead to its “nose” (the internal nares), suggesting it poked the tip into mud, sucked in water directly to its “taste center,” and then sucked in prey. Some turtles suction their prey today.
It walked across the sea floor akin to freshwater turtles today (you can watch them do this in zoos and aquaria) where it used those big teeth to crack open Modiolus and Isognomon molluscs, which are quite common in the beds where twas found.
The long tail and posterior armor have been for balance, with the gap between the rear and front armor allowing for easier swimming, aided by the streamlined and keeled carapace (of which the video doesn’t do a good job of showing off, the keels remind me of a leatherback turtle).
The Milan Natural History Museum is loaded with supercool animals!
#FossilCrates
This awesome Pseudopalatus #phytosaur skull is on display at the Museum of Northern Arizona. #Phytosaurs superficially resemble #crocodiles in skull and body. However, I’d say this skull is more intimidating than most (all?) extant #crocs, those teeth are savage!
One rarely (ever?) finds complete, articulated postcranial remains, even of Triassic, aquatic loving, phytosaurs. The longest of the Machaeroprosopus group (more on that in a bit) hit 16’ or so, rivaling the longest gators and approaching the longest extant crocodiles. This numbers are based on some reasonable assumptions and guesses based on partial skeletons. They are arguably more heavily armored than crocs today. They are not closely related to crocs, instead are a wonderful example of evolutionary convergence.
The label says #Pseudopalatus mccauleyi. Not knowing of this genus, I promptly looked up the paper that named it. It is named from a neat Arizona skull.
However, It appears Pseudopalatus is now a junior synonym of. Thus “False Palate” becomes “Sword Face” thanks to a tortured genus nomenclature history better left for another day…
I like the name Pseudopalatus, I always struggle saying Mack-air-oh-pro-soap-us (I hope that is correct). The only animal that comes to mind ending in -prosopus is “short face,” also from Arizona. That paper has some really neat graphics in it!
I have an ICZN species question. The etymology says, “This species in [sic] named after John D. McCauley and Mrs. Molly McCauley McLean...” AFAIK, when one names something after multiple people with the same last name it gets an -orum, like Diplodocus hallorum, which was originally named halli, but twas stated it was named after the Hall family, so twas later changed to a plural ending. Is it because Molly’s name ends in McLean (the paper didn’t show a hyphen but but was there?) that the name retains the singular “i” at the end? They are co-owners of the property, but are they married or siblings? It is an interesting scenario ending-wise, what does the ICZN do in hyphenated last name scenarios?
The Late #Jurassic Morrison Formation produced iconic and awesome #theropod #dinosaurs like you see laid out here at our Fossil Crates staging ground. Gunnar andI finally located the skulls to our numerous theropod skeletons. Can’t wait to lay those out!!!
A tiny bit of info about each of them:
#Snax, aka #Saurophaganax maximus, was among the largest to ever live. This skull is conjectural as we have no skull material of note afaik. Yet the postcranial bones are strongly reminiscent of a giant, thus this build. The presence of parasagittal laminae and chevron shape led to it being split into its own genus. Studies are underway on this material that will delight the world!
tanneri in “old school” guise, built with all of the holotype bones included. A, it had a long, low skull, and some huge teeth! We know the skull was even longer and lower thanks to new finds, but I love this Allo-on-steroids look. It vies for title of largest Jurassic theropod, though my personal studies suggest it defers to Snax. Look at those teeth, largest in the Jurassic? AFAIK they are!
fragilis is represented by these composite builds constructed from Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry remains, that legendary predator trap preserved over 50 Allosaurus partial skeletons, from adults with 37” femora (the big skull here) to babies. The smaller skull is our tweenager:-).
Look for some Scaled loved later this year if all goes to plan! And full-size offerings, too. Big plans for and 2025!
Meet #Titanis, a #phorusrhacid aka “#terrorbird” that famously ruins players days in various video games, and many an animal long ago.
Underfoot is #Pliohippus, an ancestral #horse. Today’s horse is the largest of the lineage, its ancestors were much smaller. However, this may even be a juvenile Pliohippus, which would explain its very small size.
Terror birds were up to 10’ tall and 300 lbs. With their hooked beak and incredibly dangerous killing clawed feet, they were able to run down prey at their leisure.
Titanis lived in Florida and Texas 5mya, dying out around 2 mya. People never saw a live Titanis. They saw some of its cousins possibly, but not “Da Biggest Bird” version. It’s living cousin is the, a bird which has a ish killing claw on each foot.
We actually have very few bones of this big bird. A few foot bones from one individual helped paleontologists figure out they were dealing with a very large bird, and a partial wing showed some features that only the seriema has, but we have, afaik, no skull elements, so this skull is a conjecture based upon its cousins. The toe bones we have do indicate a predator, unlike it’s oft-confused-with distant cousin,, which is related to geese and was an herbivore. Not is it much closely related to the Shoebill, which is a cousin of the pelican.
This animatronic is on display at the Billings Dinosaur Company warehouse, one of the most unique and fun places I have had the chance to visit. Definitely schedule your tour the next time you are in Dallas, Texas as it is in Allen, Texas nearby.
(kinda;-))
Fossil Crates's engagement
Fossil Crates's engagement rate on Instagram is 10.62%, over 6%, more than 6 likes and comments per 100 followers. On a typical post that comes to about 1 like or comment for every 9 followers. Likes outnumber comments by roughly 125 to 1, with 7,878 likes and 63 comments on an average post, so most reactions are taps rather than replies.
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10.62%
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Who is Fossil Crates?
Fossil Crates (@fossilcrates) is a Shopping & retail creator on Instagram, also filed under eCommerce/DTC and Shopping & Retail. Fossil Crates uses an Instagram professional account. The Instagram bio for Fossil Crates runs to 13 words across 3 lines.
How many followers does Fossil Crates have?
Fossil Crates has 62,672 followers on Instagram (62.7K). Fossil Crates follows just 9 accounts, which leaves well over 1,000 followers for every account followed. With 2,152 posts published, Fossil Crates's archive runs well past the 2,000 mark.
What is Fossil Crates's engagement rate?
Fossil Crates's engagement rate on Instagram is 10.62%, over 6%, more than 6 likes and comments per 100 followers. On a typical post that comes to about 1 like or comment for every 9 followers. Likes outnumber comments by roughly 125 to 1, with 7,878 likes and 63 comments on an average post, so most reactions are taps rather than replies.
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Flinque files Fossil Crates under 3 categories, led by Shopping & retail and followed by eCommerce/DTC and Shopping & Retail. Of the 10 most recent posts shown for Fossil Crates, 9 are videos and 1 is a single image. The 10 recent Instagram captions Flinque holds for Fossil Crates repeatedly use the words skull, museum, long, history and teeth. Fossil Crates's captions carry hashtags such as #fossilcrates, #saltriovenator and #museumselfieday. Fossil Crates writes those captions mainly in English. Fossil Crates keeps 4 story highlights, which open with a free Flinque account.
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