Owen Goodchild
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paleowen.bsky.social
Owen Goodchild
@paleowen.bsky.social
240 followers 380 following 97 posts
Comparative biology PhD candidate at the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History studying the evolution of North American proboscideans.
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Reposted by Owen Goodchild
reptiledude.bsky.social
People should seriously visit the Academy of Natural Sciences while they can. If you are in or near Philly and have time, see it before it’s gone. Also if you think it would be beneficial for it to remain open write Governor @joshshapiropa.bsky.social, Mayor @cherelleparker.bsky.social & Drexel BoS
The skull of Herrarasaurus, a very early theropod from the Late Triassic
September 15, 2026 at 1:45 AM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
diplotomodon.bsky.social
Here's the big one: what's going to happen to the Academy's collections? Excellent and thorough reporting from the Inquirer (gift link) www.inquirer.com/arts/academy...
The Academy of Natural Sciences museum is closing, but all eyes are on its specimens — all 19 million of them
"Profound concern" over the fate of the Academy and its internationally significant collection.
www.inquirer.com
September 12, 2026 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
captainfossil.bsky.social
For #FossilFriday: holotype of the extinct Pleistocene bison species Bison antiquus, one of millions of specimens housed in the collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University - the oldest natural history museum in the US, now slated for permanent closure on 30 September. 🧪
Bison antiquus holotype (ANSP 12990) braincase with left horn core, shown in posterior view (top) and dorsal view (bottom). From McDonald & Scott (2023), The Pleistocene Fauna of Big Bone Lick, Boone County, Kentucky: A Rich History and Unanswered Questions
September 11, 2026 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
widga.bsky.social
It is always lovely to spend a Friday with a mammoth. This one is the Moon Mammoth from Lake Pleasant near Erie showing its barely erupted third molars. PA State Museum, Harrisburg.
Carmel brown fossil mammoth jaw with many-plated teeth in a white steel museum cabinet drawer.
September 11, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
sarahmackattack.bsky.social
Today’s rally to save the academy of natural sciences was incredible. Hundreds of people turned out.

This is only the beginning. Follow along with save-the-academy.org
September 8, 2026 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
diplotomodon.bsky.social
#DoItForNed
Ned Gilmore, Academy collections manager extraordinaire, dutiful steward of basically half the entire museum at this point, extracting a very old hellbender specimen from a jar of formaldehyde
September 8, 2026 at 3:02 AM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology stands with the Academy of Natural Sciences (ANSP) staff, and preservation of the ANSP Museum. SVP urges our member community and anyone who enjoys and supports the natural sciences to speak up on behalf of the ANSP and their staff!

#SaveTheAcademy
September 8, 2026 at 2:31 AM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
reptiledude.bsky.social
A repost of Ichthyosaurus somersetensis for #FossilFriday and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. One of many unique and scientifically important specimens at risk now that the museum is closing. I sincerely hope that the collections are preserved of nothing else.
Ichthyosaurus somersetensis, a recently defined species of Ichthyosaurus, a fish like reptile that somewhat resembles a dolphin, approximately 2.5 meters long, still in strata. This was a fast moving predator that ate what it could catch and likewise had to avoid much larger predators. Fossil is dated to the early Jurassic, approximately 200 million years ago.
September 4, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
sarahmackattack.bsky.social
Please repost!

Drexel announced that it will close the Academy of Natural Sciences public museum- the oldest nat history museum in the US.

There are 2 petitions to support the academy. Please sign both & come to our rally Tues.

actionnetwork.org/petitions/pe...

www.change.org/p/the-academ...
A poster featuring the T-Rex at the cognitive natural sciences, which says save the Academy natural sciences, museum rally in front of the academy 1900 Ben Franklin Parkway, Tuesday, September 8 10 AM. The T-Rex is saying tell Drexel keep the museum open. There’s an RSVP QR code and then the logos of Philly Science Action Skype scientist In Philly on the bottom.
September 5, 2026 at 2:23 AM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
friedmanlab.bsky.social
The reconstructed skull from Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' mount of Hadrosaurus (1868), formerly displayed at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Photo from my last visit to ANSP in 2021. #FossilFriday
Large plaster skull with a vaguely iguana-like appearance. The jaw is placed separately on a shelf with the rest of the cranium. They are both painted a shade of greenish-gray.
September 4, 2026 at 1:57 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
arctomet.bsky.social
#FossilFriday Skull of Torosaurus latus at the @acadnatsci.bsky.social
Skull of the horned dinosaur Torosaurus latus in side view
September 4, 2026 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
pasenatorsaval.com
It is unacceptable for a world-class city like ours to allow its major natural history museum to close. We cannot allow it. My statement ⬇️
The text of Senator Saval's statement on the closure of the Academy of Natural Sciences museum. The words are in white on a blue background. Senator Saval's image is in the lower-right corner. "For nearly two centuries, the museum of the The Academy of Natural Sciences has been the physical embodiment of a commitment to public natural history education. I was outraged to learn of the plans for its closure, both as a long-standing member of the museum and as an elected representative committed to the health and vitality of Philadelphia. It is unacceptable for a world-class city like ours to allow its major natural history museum to close. The mismanagement of such a treasured asset is a profound insult to the residents of the city and to the incomparable workers and curators at the museum. We cannot allow it." The text of Senator Saval's statement on the closure of the Academy of Natural Sciences museum. The words are in white on a blue background. "This museum is a place where generation after generation first became enthralled with our world, and as we face the enormity of the climate crisis and an unprecedented loss of biodiversity, the continuation of the museum’s legacy of marvel and care for the natural world has never been more urgent. Partners from all levels of government must unite in our efforts to see this vital work continue."
September 1, 2026 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
peterbrannen.bsky.social
I am not the biggest fan of the way resources are being allocated in society at the moment
sarahmackattack.bsky.social Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 15d
I feel like I’m going to throw up
Screen shot of an Instagram post that says the academy of natural sciences is closing its museum after nearly two centuries
September 1, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
paleowen.bsky.social
I worked there full time after my time as an undergrad before I moved to New York to pursue my PhD. The 6 years I spent with the academy were instrumental in developing me into the scientist I am today. To see this institution lose support, or even close completely would be a tragedy.
One of my graduation pictures from Drexel where I am posed holding one of the fossils of a new species of lobe finned fish that I described while an undergraduate there. Me in my graduation regalia posed with a pair of cast skulls, a Tyrannosaurus rex (Stan) and Triceratops horridus Me with a cast of the Panthera atrox holotype specimen posed outside the academy mimicking the statue of Joseph Leidy
April 6, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
paleowen.bsky.social
I grew up going to the academy. When I was in high-school I started volunteering in their fossil prep lab, my first museum volunteer position. I attended Drexel as an undergrad because of its relationship with the academy and would work there for parts of all three of my co-op internships.
Picture of me as a volunteer in 2018 holding a cast skull of a Pteranodon in the prep lab Me talking to a group of kids about dinosaurs The vertebrate paleontology lab in 2022 including left to right: Adam Eliezer (now a PhD student at Carleton University) Grace Goetchus, Ted Daeschler, me, and Ned Gilmore Me teaching some summer camp students about mammals from the white river badlands
April 6, 2026 at 1:56 PM
paleowen.bsky.social
For me and so many others in the area the Academy of Natural Sciences’ public exhibits were instrumental to our passion for science. This is a travesty. At least the collections are still being maintained, for now.
September 1, 2026 at 4:50 PM
paleowen.bsky.social
#fossilfriday figure making time featuring an age series of ‘Gomphotherium’ productum from the middle Miocene Española Basin of New Mexico. Plus “Amebelodon joraki” hanging out on the corner. Note the short symphysis even in the adult AMNH F:AM 21300.
Four small and short jawed proboscidean mandibles with a slightly elongated symphysis and round mandibular tusks. Top to bottom in order of dental age stage AMNH F:AM 21112; AMNH F:AM 21285; USNM V 2346 (cast); AMNH F:AM 21111 Occlusal view of three gomphothere mandibles. AMNH F:AM 21112, the smallest which has been cut into to show the fourth premolar still in the crypt. AMNH F:AM 21285 larger, with p4 in use. Cast of the holotype specimen USNM 2346, incomplete tan-gray mandible. USNM 2346 (cast) with AMNH F:AM 21111, a mature adult specimen with m2-m3 in use at the time of death.
August 7, 2026 at 7:14 PM
paleowen.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Lower speciation, not higher extinction, drove African megaherbivore diversity collapse - Nature Communications
Massive plant-eating mammals, or megaherbivores, once engineered African landscapes but are nearly gone today. This new analysis of their fossil record suggests their decline was driven not only by hi...
www.nature.com
July 31, 2026 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
tsengzj.bsky.social
Exhilarated to share a 2nd @science.org cover article this month from our lab @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social! A collaboration with US & Mexico colleagues on the role of a Mexican biogeographic holding pen in shaping the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI)(1/11)

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Cover of Science magazine for July 30, 2026. Caption from Science reads: A three-dimensional rendering shows the land bridge connection between North and South America. Research on the fossil record of mammals in Mexico suggests that the geographic region acted as a biodiversity “holding pen” for 10 million years, buffering the pace of both northward and southward movements of mammal species leading up to the Great American Biotic Interchange.
July 30, 2026 at 6:09 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
lovedalen.bsky.social
🦣🦴🦴🦴🦴🦴🦴🦣

What was the cause of all those mass accumulations of mammoth bones that have been found across Europe and Siberia???

Natural traps or humans?

Answers here:
www.cell.com/current-biol...
July 30, 2026 at 10:32 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
arctomet.bsky.social
Paleogenomic sex inference of mammoth remains sheds light on the anthropogenic nature of bone accumulations: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...
Paleogenomic sex inference of mammoth remains sheds light on the anthropogenic nature of bone accumulations
Moots et al. use ancient DNA to compare woolly mammoth sex ratios from anthropogenic bone accumulations and natural depositional contexts. The results show that accumulations are female-biased, which ...
www.cell.com
July 30, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
arctomet.bsky.social
A 10-million-year biogeographic holding pen primed the Great American Biotic Interchange | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A 10-million-year biogeographic holding pen primed the Great American Biotic Interchange
The movement of taxa between North and South America across the Panamanian land bridge, known as the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI), established modern-day mammal assemblages in the Americas...
www.science.org
July 30, 2026 at 7:56 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
arctomet.bsky.social
news.berkeley.edu/2026/07/30/n...
North and South America weren’t always connected, but their mammals still found a way to intermingle - Berkeley News
Before the Panamanian land bridge formed about 3 million years ago, mammals on the two continents were isolated — or so biologists thought. New fossils show that they found ways to mix long before tha...
news.berkeley.edu
July 30, 2026 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
widga.bsky.social
I like the big picture thinking, but....
1. We are not clear on the timing of access or the nature of human involvement to megafauna in this dataset, in MOST of the sites. This study does nothing to address this. 1/X
July 2, 2026 at 12:04 PM
Reposted by Owen Goodchild
widga.bsky.social
More of this, please. Metin Eren, @brianapobiner.bsky.social, and others.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Screenshot of journal article that says "did Clovis foragers hunt megafauna scavenge their carrion, or both -- and can we tell the difference?"
July 1, 2026 at 12:08 PM