Team members from Everything Dinosaur spotted an unusual dinosaur themed gift. Whilst on their travels they spotted a pair of dinosaur themed wellingtons. The blue boots had been decorated with various colourful dinosaurs.
Everything Dinosaur team members are always looking for unusual dinosaur themed gift ideas. The wellington boots feature stegosaurs, sauropods and theropod dinosaurs. The boots look very comfortable, however, we did not try on a pair.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:
“Dinosaurs have great public relations. They seem to be featured on all sorts of merchandise. We were impressed with these colourful wellington boots. It is not something we would consider stocking. After all, we have around 1,000 product lines already. However, seeing the boots made our day.”
Engineering students visit Everything Dinosaur. As part of the company’s work in the community, Everything Dinosaur was visited by Tom and Bolaji, two final year engineering students at Liverpool John Moores University. Tom and Bolaji are currently working on a practical project that focuses on using state-of-the-art software and engineering skills. The project forms part of their final year studies.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Students Visit Everything Dinosaur
We hope that Tom and Bolaji found the visit to our offices and warehouse illuminating. Everything Dinosaur team members have worked on a number of student projects. Recently, we were invited to talk to students at Manchester Metropolitan University. We have been engaged in several outreach projects, it is all about giving something back to the wider community and helping to motivate the next generation of entrepreneurs.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:
“It was wonderful to meet the two students. Their energy, enthusiasm and approach to business problems was refreshing. Tom and Bolaji definitely have a “can do” attitude. It was great to be able to exchange ideas and consider problems in our industry from a different perspective.”
Everything Dinosaur wishes them every success with their engineering project and in their careers.
A colourful and educational dinosaur display spotted in a Reception classroom has been praised by Everything Dinosaur. On a visit to Micklehurst All Saints Church Primary (Ashton-under-Lyne), team members spotted the carefully crafted children’s display.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
The Dinosaur Display
The teaching team had been focusing on food chains. They had used the dinosaur term topic to help the children to understand what foods animals eat. The Reception class were keen to demonstrate their knowledge. The children eagerly pointed out which dinosaurs ate meat and which ones ate plants.
As part of the varied term topic, the children had been making replicas of fossils. Some of these fossil replicas were on display in the classroom.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Praising the Children and the Teaching Team
The fossil replicas had been created by pressing dinosaur models into salt dough. These objects had been painted a variety of metallic colours. The children’s artworks certainly made a colourful dinosaur display in the classroom.
We tested the children’s understanding of food chains. Some of the more capable learners were happy to identify which dinosaurs may have been omnivorous.
A spokesperson from the UK-based mail order company commented:
“We remember visiting the school back in March 2019. At the time we remarked on the beautiful school displays. The children had enjoyed their prehistoric animal themed term topic. They were eager to highlight which parts of the dinosaur display that they had personally contributed to.”
The Lyme Regis Fossil Festival (2024) is scheduled to take place over the weekend of the 8th and 9th of June. Everything Dinosaur has received an official media pack providing further details about this exciting event. A spokesperson for the UK-based mail order company also confirmed that the preceding Friday would be allocated for schools and students.
The Lyme Regis Fossil Festival (2024)
The festival is organised by the Lyme Regis Museum with the support and assistance of key partners. These partners include the Charmouth Heritage Centre and the London Natural History Museum. The allocated venues are the Lister Gardens, the Jubilee Pavilion, the Marine Theatre and the Lyme Regis Museum. Aimed at families especially young children, there will be no entry fees.
Everything Dinosaur was involved in the inaugural event and has participated subsequently. Unfortunately, other commitments prevent team members from attending in 2024.
The photograph (above) was taken around 2016 during one of Everything Dinosaur’s visits to the festival. We provide lots of free drawing materials to mums and dads of budding young palaeontologists.
The Lyme Regis Fossil Festival is one this country’s leading palaeontological events. It brings together eminent scientists as well as top geological and palaeontological organisations. The two-day event celebrates the rich fossil heritage of the “Jurassic Coast”.
There are lots of free, family-orientated activities including shows, talks, fossil hunting walks, exhibitions and interactive displays. The organisers predict that there will be over 10,000 visitors to the Dorset town over the weekend of 8th/9th June 2024.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
The picture (above) shows the CollectA prehistoric life belemnite model. CollectA have introduced a range of figures representing iconic animals from the fossil record.
Team members at Everything Dinosaur wish the organisers every success with their endeavours. Hopefully, the weather will behave, and it will be warm and dry over that weekend.
Princeton University Press has published a new book all about Mesozoic marine reptiles. Entitled “Ocean Life in the Time of Dinosaurs”. It documents the evolutionary development and radiation of a variety of amazing prehistoric creatures that dominated marine environments during the “Age of Dinosaurs”. Beautifully illustrated by Alain Bénéteau, this book, due out this month (November, 2023), dives into a fascinating period of our planet’s history.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
“Ocean Life in the time of Dinosaurs”
The book is divided into seven main chapters. After an initial chapter that “sets the scene”, there follows an introduction to the different types of marine reptile. Chapter three highlights the marine reptiles that thrived during the Palaeozoic. Subsequent chapters focus on Mesozoic marine reptiles. There are individual chapters on Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous marine life.
As well as providing information on ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs and giant pliosaurs, the authors introduce some of the lesser-known Mesozoic marine reptiles. For example, the bizarre, Australian plesiosaur Umoonasaurus is described. Measuring around two metres in length, this is one of the smallest members of the Plesiosauria clade described to date. A piscivore, at home in shallow, near coastal environments, Umoonasaurus had crests over its eyes and a thin crest running along its rostrum. The purpose of these adornments is unknown.
The K-Pg extinction event is discussed, and the closing chapter examines how ocean ecosystems recovered with mammals and birds evolving to fill niches in marine food chains.
There is a helpful glossary and bibliography too.
A Collaboration Between Palaeontologists
“Ocean Life in the time of Dinosaurs” is a collaboration between four scientists. Nathalie Bardet and Alexandra Houssaye are palaeontologists and research directors at the prestigious Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France). Stéphane Jouve is a palaeontologist and manager of the geoscience collections at the Sorbonne University (Paris). The fourth author is Natural History Museum of London palaeontologist Peggy Vincent. It has been translated by Mark Epstein.
This excellent book also provides readers with an opportunity to learn about ocean-going reptiles alive today such as sea snakes and turtles.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
The Book Details
The Book: “Ocean Life in the time of Dinosaurs”
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published November 2023 | Price: £25.00/$29.95 USD (hardback) | Pages: 208 Over 200 colour scientific illustrations plus black and white images.
ISBN: 9780691243948
Visit the website of Princeton University Press: Princeton University Press. Search on the website for the authors or title to find the book.
Everything Dinosaur team members wish all their blog readers a happy Halloween. Today is All Hallows’ Eve, a festive event celebrating spooks, ghouls, monsters and scary skeletons. We wish all our readers and social media followers a happy Halloween.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Happy Halloween from Everything Dinosaur
It seems fitting to post up a picture or two of dinosaur skeletons. Here is an image of a Triceratops skeleton from a dinosaur excavation kit.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
The Triceratops kit allows young palaeontologists to excavate a complete miniature Triceratops skeleton. The challenge is to dig the skeleton out of the plaster block using the special digging tools. The Triceratops skeleton excavation kit is supplied with an Everything Dinosaur Triceratops fact sheet.
University of Bradford researchers in collaboration with other leading institutions have been awarded a substantial grant helping them to explore prehistoric landscapes.
The Submerged Landscapes Research Centre, at the University of Bradford is embarking on an ambitious project to map the Baltic and the North Sea thanks to a grant of €8 million (just under £7 million GBP). This is the largest single grant ever awarded to Bradford University.
Sea levels were much lower 20,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. The grant will permit the scientists to explore ancient landscapes that are now submerged. The funding is from the European Research Council. This research will provide a deeper understanding of how our ancestors lived in these regions. Wind farm developments are making these locations more inaccessible for scientists.
European Union Research Funding
The EU has provided overall funding of more than €13.2 million for SUBNORDICA – a research collaboration between Moesgaard Museum, Aarhus University, the University of Bradford and the German research institute NIHK.
The scientists will be able to utilise the latest technologies to map and explore the seabed.
Generative AI and computer simulation will be employed to identify areas where long lost settlements may still survive and can be mapped.
Researchers at the University of Bradford’s Submerged Landscapes Research Centre will lead exploration in the southern North Sea along with partners in Holland (TNO), Belgium (VLIZ) and the University of York. The University of Bradford will also host the project’s computing infrastructure, providing modelling and AI support in the quest to explore prehistoric landscapes.
The grant comes from the European Research Council, set up by the European Union in 2007 to fund research excellence in projects based across Europe. The funding is part of the Horizon Europe programme and is part of an overall budget of more than €16 billion from 2021 to 2027.
A Scientific Collaboration to Explore Prehistoric Landscapes
The funding will permit closer collaboration and co-operation between the participating institutions.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur stated:
“The University of Bradford has been at the forefront of the mapping of ancient landscapes such as Doggerland and the Irish Sea. This funding will enable the team to use innovative technology and map a far greater area of European seascape.”
A team member from Everything Dinosaur was invited to address final year digital marketing students at Manchester Metropolitan University. Mike of Everything Dinosaur had received some training from the University, taking part in a “Developing Innovation” programme. As a result of his connections to the University he was invited to present to the digital marketing students. The students are looking at Everything Dinosaur’s digital footprint and Google Analytics as part of their course. The aim is to provide them with a real business to study.
Everything Dinosaur Fielding Questions
Working with their teacher, Alexandra Severn (Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing Communications and Programme Leader), the students had compiled an extensive list of questions. The questions ranged from asking about our website, customer profiling and social media activities to enquiring about our favourite fossils. Fortunately, a fossil had been brought along. It is not very often a Woolly Rhinoceros dorsal vertebra takes part in a business school lecture.
One student asked:
“What was our favourite dinosaur?”
Ryan enquired:
“How sustainable is your operation? Do you consider the environmental impact at each stage of your operation?”
Amin wanted to know how the dinosaur models are made and are they made in a safe environment?
We hope the answers we provided were informative and helped the students to gain a better understanding of the business world. It was also a pleasure to be able to discuss some of the ways in which Everything Dinosaur has reduced its carbon footprint. In addition, our use of recycled cardboard and the replacement of compostable starch chips rather than using foam were highlighted.
Commenting on the experience, Mike stated:
“It is nice to be able to give something back to the next generation. They had compiled a challenging set of questions, and I did my best to answer them all. It was a pretty intense session, but I got the chance to talk to some of the students afterwards and they wanted to have their photograph taken with the Woolly Rhino fossil.”
Visit the award-winning and user-friendly Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.
A team member from Everything Dinosaur marvelled at a display featuring a pair of Homo erectus model skulls on display at a school. A visit to Painsley Catholic College back in 2018, provided us with the opportunity to photograph the clay models. The science and art departments had collaborated to create a beautiful exhibit that documented human evolution. Many different hominin species were illustrated. Our personal favourites were the pair of Homo erectus skulls.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur praised the teaching staff at the time for creating such an informative display.
Team members at Everything Dinosaur photographed a huge estuarine crocodile skull on display at a London museum. The stunning skull was part of an exhibit demonstrating reptile anatomy at the Grant Museum of Zoology (London).
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
An Estuarine Crocodile Skull
The Grant Museum is currently closed. It is undergoing a redevelopment programme. Everything Dinosaur visited this amazing museum in 2018. The Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy was established in 1827 by Robert Edmond Grant (1793-1874). It was established to serve as a teaching collection at the newly founded University of London (later University College London).
We photographed the estuarine crocodile skull in anterior view. The estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is the largest living reptile. Some specimens weigh more than a tonne. It is a formidable predator, and it is also referred to as the saltwater crocodile or saltie.
These crocodiles inhabit both freshwater and brackish environments. They have been observed swimming far out at sea. This may explain their extensive geographical distribution. These crocodiles are found from India’s eastern coast to northern Australia. They are apex predators and generalist carnivores. This crocodile is regarded as a maneater and sadly, there are numerous fatal attacks reported each year.
Once hunted for its skin, the numbers of this species of crocodile have dramatically increased since legal protection was implemented.
The Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy
The Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy is an amazing place to visit. It is full of stunning skeletons demonstrating the diversity of vertebrate life on Earth. It is also home to a vast collection of invertebrate specimens. If in London in 2024, a visit to this museum is recommended.