All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
13 08, 2017

Giant South American Dinosaur Gets a Name

By |2023-07-01T22:20:17+01:00August 13th, 2017|General Teaching|Comments Off on Giant South American Dinosaur Gets a Name

“Enormosaurus” Has a Name – Patagotitan

A super-sized dinosaur discovered in southern Argentina in 2014, has finally been given a name.  The dinosaur, described as one of the largest land animals to have ever lived has been named Patagotitan mayorum.  The name translates as “the Mayo family’s Patagonian titan”, as the fossils were found on the Mayo ranch in Patagonia.  When this dinosaur was first described, based on the fossilised remains of at least seven individual animals being excavated from a single site, it was thought that this huge long-necked sauropod tipped the scales at a massive seventy-seven tonnes.  Now that the scientific paper has been published (Proceedings of the Royal Society B), the body mass estimate for this giant has been reduced, but only slightly.  The researchers estimate that this monster weighed a staggering sixty-nine tonnes.

A Size Comparison between Patagotitan and an African Elephant

Patagotitan size comparison.

Patagotitan mayorum size comparison with an adult African elephant and a human for scale.

Picture credit: G. Lio/Everything Dinosaur

No More “Enormosaurus”

At Everything Dinosaur, we have followed the excavation and the preparation of the fossil material very carefully.  Colleagues have visited the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio, Trelew in Argentina, many of the palaeontologists who have worked on this huge dinosaur are based at this museum.

In 2016, the BBC aired a documentary all about this dinosaur, it was narrated by Sir David Attenborough and it was entitled “Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur”.  At the time of the broadcast the titanosaur had not got a name, so we nick-named it “Enormosaurus”.  At around 37 metres long (it may not have been fully grown), Patagotitan was certainly a giant.

For models and replicas of titanosaurs and other dinosaurs: Safari Ltd. Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models.

When working with school children we have explained some of the research that has gone into describing the fossils and we challenged the children to come up with their own names for this new type of dinosaur.  The names we received were very imaginative and we enjoyed challenging the various classes to have a go at naming their very own prehistoric animal.

Sir David Attenborough Stands Next to the Huge Thigh Bone of Patagotitan mayorum

Huge dinosaur - huge thigh bone.

That is a very big thigh bone!

Picture credit: BBC

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13 08, 2017

Papo Cave Bear Model Reviewed

By |2023-08-10T14:59:29+01:00August 13th, 2017|Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur Products, Main Page, Photos of Everything Dinosaur Products, Product Reviews|5 Comments

A Review of the New for 2017 Papo Cave Bear Model

The Papo Cave Bear model is now in stock at Everything Dinosaur.  This eagerly anticipated Papo replica arrived at our warehouse today and team members at Everything Dinosaur have been busy checking inventory and putting models to one side for those customers who requested that we reserve one for them.  It really is a splendid model and it is great to see the French manufacturer extend their model range by including a prehistoric mammal, especially since the recent retirement of their popular Woolly Rhino (Coelodonta) figure.

The Papo Cave Bear Model is Now in Stock at Everything Dinosaur

The new for 2017 Papo Cave Bear model.

Lateral view of the Papo Cave Bear model. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus)

Cave bears shared a common ancestor with the modern Brown bear (Ursus arctus) and they evolved around 300,000 years ago and survived until the late Middle Palaeolithic of the Stone Age, (around 40,000 years ago).  The last Cave bears existed in the Caucasus mountain range, but these large bears once roamed an area of Europe from southern Russian to southern England.  Everything Dinosaur is not aware of Cave bear fossils having been found in Ireland, although the Brown bear is known to have existed in Ireland.

A View of the Beautifully Sculpted Snout and Skull of the Papo Cave Bear

Papo Cave Bear replica.

A anterior view of the Papo Cave Bear model.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Papo Cave Bear Model

The picture above shows a close-up view of the Papo Cave Bear model.  Cave bears can be distinguished from modern Brown bears as they tended to be larger and more powerfully built.  The skull has a distinctive slope down to the bridge of the long muzzle, this feature can be clearly made out in the excellent Papo replica.  The large canines are prominent and each of the incisors at the front of the jaws have been individually painted, the paint work on the model is really good and we like the darker colouration along the back, giving the impression of a thicker coat on this part of the animal’s body.

The limb bones of Cave bears were of slightly different proportions when compared to their modern cousins.  The limbs on the Papo figure give an impression of huge power and strength, the Cave bear was a formidable animal best avoided by people, recent studies have suggested that there was very little ecological interaction between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens and Cave bears, they may have used the same rock shelters and caves but at different times in history.  A number of carved artefacts and paintings have led some anthropologists to suggest that these large mammals were revered by our ancestors.

A Close-up View of the Large, Powerful Paws of the Papo Cave Bear Figure

The huge paws of the Papo Cave Bear model.

The large paws of the Papo Cave Bear model.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the new for 2017 Papo Cave Bear model and the rest of the Papo prehistoric animal range available from Everything Dinosaur: Papo Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Cave Bear and Other Prehistoric Animal Models

Measuring a fraction under fourteen centimetres in length and standing some eight and half centimetres high at those muscular shoulders, this is an excellent Pleistocene-aged mammal model, one that works well in scale with several Woolly Mammoth replicas including the Papo Woolly Mammoth models as well as the CollectA Neanderthal figures.

The Papo Cave Bear Model (New for 2017)

The Papo Cave Bear Model.

A powerful Cave Bear model from Papo.

The remaining new for 2017 Papo models, the Sabre-toothed cat and the Dimorphodon replica should be available next month (September 2017).

Visit the award-winning Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

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