All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
2 04, 2013

New Puzzles Added to Everything Dinosaur’s Product Range

By |2023-02-15T06:32:10+00:00April 2nd, 2013|Dinosaur Fans, Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Press Releases|0 Comments

New Dinosaur Themed Puzzles – Have You Evolved Enough to Solve Them?

More puzzles have been added to the Everything Dinosaur product range.  After the completion of the  testing programme four travel puzzles/games have been approved and have been posted up on the company’s website.  The puzzles include a magnetic Tyrannosaurus rex jigsaw, plus a dinosaur themed magnetic pyramid puzzle, dinosaur draughts and a magnetic dinosaur themed brain teaser.

New Puzzles

The dinosaur draughts (dinosaur checkers), along with the other three items are designed to played on the move, to help keep young palaeontologists occupied on car, boat or plane journeys.  In the dinosaur draughts game, one set of counters has a picture of a Triceratops, these are pitted against the opposing counters that have an image of a T. rex on them.  It seems that this travel game actually reflects real dinosaur conflicts, as palaeontologists are fairly confident that based on substantial fossil evidence, T. rex and the herbivorous Triceratops really did battle it out.

The Dinosaur Checkers (Dinosaur Draughts Game)

T. rex versus Triceratops

T. rex versus Triceratops.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Travel Games

These travel games are light, pocket-sized and great for keeping budding young palaeontologists occupied on journeys.  They are suitable for children from four years and upwards and all the puzzles except the checkers can be played by an individual.  When these items were on test with our field testers, one of the ways in which the puzzles such as the Pyramid Magnetic Brain Teaser puzzle (picture below) could be adapted for a multi-player format  was to time how long each child took to solve the puzzle.  The winner was the one with the quickest time.

The puzzles are actually quite hard, there are thousands of possibilities but only one solution that lines up all the pictures of the stegosaurs, Velociraptors and Iguanodons in the correct way.

Dinosaur Themed Pyramid Magnetic Brain Teaser

Tougher than it looks!

Tougher than it looks!

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The team members at Everything Dinosaur are proud of their educational games that they sell.  Each one has to be approved by the teachers/dinosaur experts in the company and of course they have to have an appropriate dinosaur theme.

To celebrate the addition of these new puzzles and games, over the weekend a new banner for the Everything Dinosaur website was created that features some of these new products.

Dinosaur Themed Puzzles and Educational Games

Dinosaur Themed Educational Puzzles and Games.

Dinosaur themed educational puzzles and games.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Just click on the banner image to be taken to the educational games section of the Everything Dinosaur website.  We look forward to adding more products over the next few weeks.

To view the range of dinosaur themed educational puzzles and games: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

1 04, 2013

Russian Scientists Name new Ichthyosaur Genus in Honour of Lenin

By |2023-02-15T06:28:23+00:00April 1st, 2013|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories|2 Comments

Lenin Honoured by Marine Reptile

A team of Russian scientists have honoured the leader of the Bolshevik 1917 revolution which led to the establishment of the Soviet Union by naming a new genus of marine reptile after Lenin.  Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who died in 1924, now has a genus of ichthyosaur named in his honour.  This prehistoric creature, a marine reptile that superficially resembled a modern-day, extant dolphin lived approximately 125 million years ago (Barremian faunal stage of the Cretaceous).  The scientific name for this new marine reptile is Leninia stellans.  The name means “starry or brilliant Lenin”.

New Genus of Ichthyosaur

Having an organism new to science named after you is an honour, although Lenin is not the first political leader to have his name immortalised in the fossil record.  For example,  a team of researchers studied a number of Late Cretaceous lizard and snake fossils (Squamata), in the southern part of Americas and in the course of their research they named a new genus of toothy lizard after the current president of the United States.  The prehistoric lizard was named Obamadon gracilis.  The name translates to mean “Obama’s graceful tooth”.

Speaking about the new marine reptile fossil, Gleb Uspensky, the Head of the Natural History Museum at Ulyanovsk State University, where the specimen is currently being stored commented:

“The name Leninia stellans was agreed collegially.  There is nothing strange about the name, many new discoveries are named after famous people.”

Ichthyosaurs (Typical Ichthyosaurs Illustrated)

Palvennia hoybergeti illustrated

An illustration of a typical ichthyosaur. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Marine Reptiles

Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles and not members of the Dinosauria Order.  Ichthyosaurs are a separate Order, the majority of ichthyosaurs were nektonic, fast-swimming predators.  The first ichthyosaurs evolved in the Early Triassic and persisted into the Cretaceous geological period, before finally becoming extinct approximately eighty million years ago.

Palaeontologists excavated elements of the skull a few years ago, on the outskirts of the city of Ulyanovsk on the banks of the Volga river.  The actual fossil material was discovered near the small village of Kriushi in the Sengileevsk region of this part of the former Soviet Union.  The skull material provided the scientists with an estimate of the size of the entire head and jaws of the animal, it measures over one metre in length and indicates an entire body length in excess of four metres.

It is likely that this marine reptile fed on fish and cephalopods such as squid, octopi and ammonites.  Recently, other elements of the ichthyosaur fossil have been excavated from this area.  Palaeontologists have assigned this new genus to a sub-family of ichthyosaurs known as the Ophthalmosaurinae.  Phylogenetically related to the Jurassic Ophthalmosaurus-type ichthyosaurs, the scientists hope to be able to learn more about the evolution and radiation of the ichthyosaurs during the Early Cretaceous geological period.

A Model of an Ichthyosaur with an Ammonite (Cephalopod) that it Has Caught

An Icththyosaurus with an Ammonite that it has caught.

An Icththyosaurus with an ammonite that it has caught.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

It is appropriate that this type of marine reptile should be named after the Founder of the Soviet Union (Lenin), for Lenin was born in this part of the Russian Empire, (as was), in fact the city of Ulyanovsk was renamed in 1924 (previously known as Simbirsk), to honour the Communist leader.

To view replicas and models of marine reptiles and other prehistoric creatures: Dinosaur Models, Pterosaurs and Marine Reptiles (PNSO).

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