Wishing Everyone a Peaceful and Prosperous 2013

So another year begins in the geological epoch referred to as the Holocene.  To mark the beginning of the new year and the start of another 365 blog articles or so, team members have designed a banner for the homepage of the Everything Dinosaur website: Our Everything Dinosaur Home Page

Using our nascent photoshop skills, we have put together a little “Happy New Year” banner to place on the home page of our website.  It will stay up just a short while before we move onto the next banner, a showcase of some of the soft toys of prehistoric animals that we supply, but more about that later.

Everything Dinosaur’s New Year Banner

Happy New Year from the team at Everything Dinosaur.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

It looks like 2013 is going to be another big year for the company staffed by parents, teachers and real dinosaur experts. We expect to stock even more prehistoric animal themed products and we already have a number of exciting projects planned.  Our warehouse is going to be even more full of dinosaur models and toys.

In the meantime, we take this opportunity to wish everyone a peaceful and prosperous 2013.

Banners Up and Visuals Created for Website

With just twenty-three days left to the big day, team members at Everything Dinosaur have just finished the banners that are now up on the company’s website, part of the promotional activities for the festive season.  Staff have spent most of the day packing and despatching orders to help ensure that there is no back log of orders at the warehouse, however, time was still found to finalise the visuals for the various banners that they can be found at: Everything Dinosaur’s Website all in a day’s work for the team.

The Everything Dinosaur website’s home page can have as many banners as team members like, but for most of the time they limit the number so that the site’s navigation does not get too confusing.  Many of the banners have links associated with them.  These links can take visitors to various parts of the Everything Dinosaur website,  to specific articles on this blog or other company social media.

One of the Everything Dinosaur Banners on the Website

Team members preparing for Christmas.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Monday 3rd December (tomorrow), is predicted to be the busiest day of the year for on line retailers and time is running out for sending parcels overseas by Airmail to ensure they arrive in time for Christmas.  Each year, Royal Mail and a number of other postal services provide guidelines on the last appropriate posting day to send items overseas.  To view relevant postal information click the link below to be taken to an article written by our team members.

Information on Christmas Post: Christmas Posting Dates

For example, the last recommended posting date for Airmail parcels to the United States is Monday December 10th.

Everything Dinosaur Banner – Promoting Dinosaur Books for Christmas

Recommending dinosaur books for Christmas presents.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Papo Models Help with Image

Now that the news regarding the excavation of the nearly complete Woolly Mammoth fossilised skeleton has been circulated, it is time to focus on a little bit of Everything Dinosaur’s Adobe CS5 work which was undertaken so that the feature we wrote could be illustrated.

The finding of the Changis-sur-Marne Mammoth with pieces of flint associated with the bones suggests to palaeontologists that this Mammoth may have been attacked by Neanderthals.  Another possible scenario is that Neanderthals may have butchered the carcase of the Mammoth and removed cuts of meat.  The French research team hope to use radiocarbon dating to assess the age of the fossils.  A close examination of any cut marks or pathology on the bones themselves should enable a theory regarding the Neanderthal/Mammoth interaction to be put forward.

But how to illustrate a potential scenario where a Woolly Mammoth is attacked by a hunting party of Neanderthals? Thanks to Papo and their recently extended range of Pleistocene-aged replicas (part of the French company’s “Dinosaures” range), we can use images of Woolly Mammoth models and Neanderthal hunters to create our own scene in Adobe CS5.

Once the model images had been selected, it was a question of choosing a suitable backdrop image to reflect the landscape of this part of France perhaps as long ago as 200,000 years back.   Then with a little positioning and a little use of the Transform – Scale elements; team members at Everything Dinosaur could create their own prehistoric scene.

Neanderthals Attacking a Woolly Mammoth and Calf 

Neanderthals attacking a Woolly Mammoth.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

The beautifully crafted and painted Papo models are great for creative play and it is great to see such detailed models of Woolly Mammoths and Neanderthals in such a model and figure range.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s range of Woolly Mammoth models: Prehistoric Animal models from Papo

Look out for the Papo Woolly Rhino model (Coelodonta spp.) due to be launched next year.  More details no doubt available on the Everything Dinosaur blog and our other social media pages.

Latest News on the Brachiosaurus from Papo of France

Sources close to Everything Dinosaur have reported that the first stocks of the new Papo Brachiosaurus model are currently being painted in the factory before being shipped out to Papo’s European distribution hub (France).  Shipments are expected to be arriving in France by the end of the 19th October.

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur (UK retailer of dinosaur models) commented that if this schedule was followed then this new model should be available from the company a few days after the stock had been sorted and allocated in France.

Papo Brachiosaurus Ready for Loading (artists impression)

Papo Brachiosaurus ready for shipping (nearly).

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

The spokesperson also confirmed that space had been made available in the Everything Dinosaur warehouse to accommodate this new model’s arrival.  Plans are in place to email all the customers who had requested that a Brachiosaurus be reserved for them, team members already having been assigned to the task of  managing the reserved models list and contacting customers.

Fingers crossed that everything goes OK with this last Papo release in 2012.

Trying to Round up a Megacerops

We have been experimenting with some of the backdrop pictures that Collecta have kindly provided for us.  The picture team members at Everything Dinosaur have created shows a Neanderthal man bravely trying to corral a fearsome Megacerops (Thunder Beast).  The Brontotheres were extinct by the time the Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis) evolved but we thought we would practice our photoshop skills by trying to create this image.

Rounding up a Megacerops

Horns versus Spear

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Fossils of Neanderthals show a considerable amount of pathology.  The sort of injuries identified match those seen in modern day rodeo riders, so palaeontologists think that these hominids tackled large prey at close quarters.  They must have been very tough.

The Dinosauria over the Last Sixty Years

Over the next few days a number of events are being held around the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth  II, who has been the queen for sixty years.  The queen’s coronation was held on the second of June 1953, but she actually ascended to the throne a year earlier on the death of her father, King George VI.  At Everything Dinosaur, the challenge was how to create a banner for placing on our website celebrating the occasion and how to incorporate palaeontology and specifically dinosaurs into the theme.

Everything Dinosaur – Diamond Jubilee Banner

A Royal Occasion with one or two Dinosaurs

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

To return to Everything Dinosaur’s home page: Everything Dinosaur

For example, if the queen reigns for another three years and one hundred days or so, she will become the longest reigning British monarch, passing Queen Victoria who reigned from 1837 until 1901.  It was in the reign of Queen Victoria that the word Dinosauria was first coined.  Richard Owen (later Sir Richard Owen), used the phrase “fearfully great lizards”, otherwise referred to as “terrible lizards” to establish a new Order of reptiles – the dinosaurs.

More different types of dinosaurs have been discovered in the reign of Her Majesty the Queen than in the reign of any other British monarch.  In fact, more dinosaur species have been named and described in the last sixty years than in the previous one hundred and fifty years.

The dinosaur featured on the banner, wearing the Union Jack bowler hat and holding a Union Jack flag is a Proceratosaurus.  This dinosaur was chosen at it was named and described in the year her Majesty was born (1926).  The fossils of this dinosaur were found in England (Gloucestershire), this is the county where two of the queen’s children Prince Charles and Princess Anne have their royal residences (Highgrove House and Gatcombe Park).  Proceratosaurus is believed to be a member of the Tyrannosaur family (Tyrant Lizard Kings), appropriate to have a Tyrannosaur on a banner celebrating a royal occasion.  In addition, this dinosaur although discovered in England, was named by a German palaeontologist, our Royal family (the house of Windsor) are of German descent.

Proceratosaurus Celebrates a Royal Occasion

Theropod Enters into the Party Spirit

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Let’s hope the weather improves and that the forecast rain does not occur so that the diamond jubilee celebrations can proceed under clear, blue skies.

Hope everybody has fun.  Congratulations your Majesty.

To return to Everything Dinosaur’s home page: Everything Dinosaur

Providing Assistance to the Parents of a Graduate – Quetzalcoatlus

Our team members tend to get a lot of emails and letters, we try our best to respond to all those that require a reply.  One of the more unusual requests for assistance received by Everything Dinosaur involved a graduate, geologists and Azhdarchid Pterosaurs.

Genny Marcus Haskins has just graduated with a degree in Wildlife Conservation – our congratulations to her.  Her parents, Sue and Roger are both geologists.  When Genny was born, instead of a stork being depicted on cards announcing the birth of their daughter, Sue and Roger decided that it would be more appropriate to illustrate Genny’s arrival with a Pterosaur carrying their little bundle of joy in its jaws, rather than the traditional stork.

When Genny graduated from high school, a geologist/artist friend revised the non-stork/Pterosaur image providing an updated picture of a flying reptile.  As Genny aged, so Pterosaurs evolved – that was the general idea.  So when Genny graduated with her degree, it was necessary to find a picture of another, later type of flying reptile and the Quetzalcoatlus, one of the last of the Pterosaurs (Maastrichtian faunal stage), and one of the largest known was selected.

Genny’s Unique Graduation Card

Keeping up with the Evolution of Pterosaurs

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur/Sue Marcus and Roger Haskins

The picture above shows the graduation card that team members at Everything Dinosaur helped design.  We were happy to help out these geologists from overseas, although we are not sure how we managed to have a Velociraptor photographed lurking behind the card.  Still Genny is in no danger, she can always escape by taking to the air.

Glad to have helped out, good luck with the job hunt Genny.

How to Fly on a Pterosaur

At Everything Dinosaur we get lots of emails, letters and drawings from people with an interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric animals.  We do our best to respond to them all, helping where we can and supplying information and advice.  We get a number of what might be regarded as rather unusual requests, for example, Susan from Virginia (United States), contacted us yesterday with a plea for help.

This is what she wrote :

“My husband and I are both geologists, so, when our daughter, Genny, was born, we had a friend/colleague do a cartoon of a Pterodactyl (instead of a stork) bringing the baby.  When Genny graduated from high school, he managed to paste her head on a later (more evolved, get it?!) version of a Pterosaur.  After many gray hairs on our part, she has just graduated from college.  She has no interest in becoming a geologist, though she’s become accustomed (or maybe inured) to my humour.  I would love to have her announcement card showing her riding the Quetzalcoatlus (she selected the image she liked).”

Having selected an image of an Azhdarchid Pterosaur – the Quetzalcoatlus that was one on display at the Everything Dinosaur on-line shop, Susan then had the problem of creating the image of her daughter riding the flying reptile.

Although our team members would be the first to admit that they are not experts at Photoshop CS5, but yesterday evening they had a go and produced the image below which they then emailed over to Virginia.

Flying A Pterosaur – Graduating to Success

Image Created for Susan

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

 Congratulations to Genny for graduating and we wish Genny and her parents every success.

Baby T. rex Models from Papo by Everything Dinosaur

The new Papo baby Tyrannosaurus rex models have arrived at Everything Dinosaur.  These are the last of the Tyrannosaurids to be added this year by the French manufacturer who have introduced a total of four T. rex models into their “Dinosaures” figure series.

The Papo Baby T. rex Models

Baby T. rex Models from Papo

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

As well as a new brown version of their standing T. rex model, Papo introduced a “running T. rex” replica, both these models came out in February, the babies; or should that be hatchlings, are the latest additions along with one more model, a large replica of the Sauropod Brachiosaurus due to be launched in July.

Like the adult T. rex models, the babies have articulated lower jaws, although the mouths do not open as wide as with other Papo figures.  As these dinosaurs have been sculpted looking up, perhaps seeking food or protection from a parent, team members at Everything Dinosaur used their photoshop skills to have our newest recruits to the Papo model range studying the Everything Dinosaur logo.

Papo prehistoric animal models: Papo Dinosaur Models

Dinosaur enthusiasts can now re-create their own version of the new Tyrannosaurus exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum – they can create their own family of Tyrannosaurs.

Many Happy Returns to the Naturalist and Broadcaster

Today, May 8th is the birthday of Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist, broadcaster and keen fossil collector who has done so much to popularise Earth sciences and a fascination with life on Earth, both extant and extinct.  We at Everything Dinosaur, would like to wish Sir David many happy returns for the day.

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

Still Enthusing about the Natural World

Picture Credit: Sir David Attenborough/Everything Dinosaur

Many of our team members have been inspired by Sir David’s enthusiasm and energy.  We wanted to create a special tribute to him and as we are getting better at using the software programme Adobe CS5, we created a special banner on the Everything Dinosaur website which has been posted up today honouring the great man.  We have had the pleasure to be able to write reviews on a number of books that accompany the many television documentaries that feature Sir David.  Only the other week, we set about trying to discovery the whereabouts of the book “Life on Earth” which accompanied the 1979 seminal documentary series narrated by Sir David and made in conjunction with the BBC’s natural history unit. This book has gone missing from our office library and we have instigated a search around the offices and the warehouse to hunt down our copy.

One of the most influential television series for us, was not the “Life” series of programmes that established Sir David as the voice of natural history programming in the BBC, but a little known, short series called “Fabulous Animals” first broadcast we think in the mid 1970s.  In this programme, aimed at children, Sir David enthused about mythical creatures and the fossils that inspired the legends and myths.  For many of us, our fascination with all things Dinosauria came into being at this point.  The programme was broadcast in the summer holidays, mid-morning and although a distant memory for most of us these days, it remains a favourite amongst us.

Sir David’s Birthday Banner online at Everything Dinosaur

Celebrating the Birthday of Sir David Attenborough

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

Having covered the main Kingdoms and Phylum of the natural world, Sir David’s work stands as testament to the broadcasting qualities of the BBC’s natural history unit.  Hopefully, “Life on Earth” will be broadcast on terrestrial television once more, in the near future, giving us a chance to watch all over again an example of this extraordinary body of work which Sir David has dedicated a life time to creating.

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

Still enthusing about the Natural World

From all of us at Everything Dinosaur – we wish Sir David Attenborough a happy birthday.