All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
11 06, 2007

Should Wannabe Bosses ask for Directions – Part 2 (Helpful Advice)

By |2024-02-08T08:47:00+00:00June 11th, 2007|Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Should Wannabe Bosses…

One of the nice things about working for Everything Dinosaur is that we do attract quite a bit of publicity.  I suppose there are not many businesses that sell dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals for a living, so we are quite unusual.  Barclays Bank who are the company’s bankers wrote an article about our company and it has ended up being featured in a new business magazine called “Start Your  Business”.

Wannabe Bosses

This is a big glossy magazine that comes out every two months.  It is full of articles about starting and running your own business, with hints, tips and advice.  The magazine has features from famous entrepreneurs and business people.  Recent editions have included interviews with and advice from the likes of Richard Branson and Richard Farleigh from the “Dragon’s Den” TV series.  I think Barclays were asked to write a bit of advertorial about their products and services and chose to write about Everything Dinosaur.  It is very flattering to have our business featured in a magazine alongside all these famous entrepreneurs.

Sometimes, when you get an article published in one magazine it ends up being forwarded by the PR agencies to other types of media.  A similar article on us, written by Barclays Bank has appeared in the South Wales Echo, this is very much appreciated as we find press releases and news stories much more effective at creating business than advertisements.  We keep cameras handy when we do our dinosaur themed events, you never know when a picture might be required to support a press release or a news article.

“Start Your Business”

The feature in “Start Your Business” including a nice pic of one of our team members – looking very smart in the office.  Pictures can be essential to ensure a story gets published so we try to do what we can to build up our own stock of images.

Alternatively, you can pick up copies at your local Barclays Bank in the UK (the Everything Dinosaur article is on page 96 of the April/May issue).

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

10 06, 2007

Thank you to Pupils from Everything Dinosaur

By |2023-02-11T15:13:03+00:00June 10th, 2007|Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates|0 Comments

Saying Thanks to School Children

After another school visit, just time to thank all the teaching staff for their help and assistance today and of course our thanks  to the teaching support team of higher learning teaching assistants (HLTAs) and teaching assistants (TAs) for their help also.  We were amazed at the huge number of questions about dinosaurs the school children asked, Everything Dinosaur team members did their best to answer every single one of them.  Dinosaur workshops in schools give us the opportunity to show pupils fossils and other amazing objects, but today we were amazed at the knowledge and enthusiasm of all the school children.

Thanks to School Children

Additional teaching resources have been emailed out by Everything Dinosaur team members in support of the teaching team and their term topic.  We even took the opportunity to take some photographs of the children’s work (we always ask permission of course).

Dinosaur workshop saying thanks to school children.

A dinosaur wall display. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Take a look at Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

9 06, 2007

Meet an ancestor of Triceratops – Albertaceratops

By |2023-08-31T07:40:05+01:00June 9th, 2007|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|2 Comments

Say hello to Triceratops’s great, great, etc. Grandfather

On average a new dinosaur species is discovered every six weeks or so.  This may surprise you but, if you think about it for a moment, palaeontologists are now excavating parts of the world where there has not been much digging – Antarctica, Argentina and so forth.  Also, dinosaurs were around for 160 million years and they diversified into an awful lot of different types – so we have still got plenty of dinosaurs to discover and then describe.

Recently the press covered the announcement of the finding of a new horned dinosaur (a ceratopsian or ceratopsid if you prefer).  The animal was called Albertaceratops (Alberta horned face) as it was found in Alberta, Canada.  A nearly complete skull of a new Triceratops-like dinosaur was discovered in 2001 and five years later, Dr Michael Ryan of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, who led the project team, has formerly described it and given it a name – Albertaceratops.

It is a new genus (like a family) of dinosaur, no other remains like this animal had ever been described before.  It was unearthed in Southern Alberta from a rock formation called the Oldman Formation – a area of the world we know quite well as part of the Oldman Formation lies within the famous Dinosaur Provincial Park, a part of the world which we have visited and worked in.

Albertaceratops – An Ancestor of Triceratops

The fossil comes from rocks that are about 76 million years old and from research it looks like this animal was a distant ancestor of Triceratops.  Albertaceratops had a typical Triceratops-like frill (but with two holes in it called fenestra – means windows) and two prominent brow horns (horns over the eyes).  However, it seems not have had a nose horn like its more famous descendant Triceratops, but more like a bump where the nose horn should be.  This would have made it look a bit like a Pachyrhinosaurus but with two brow horns.

Albertaceratops – Amazing ceratopsian.

Artist – Mike Skrepnick

So far only the skull of this animal has been found and this is not complete but it has provided scientists with an insight into the evolution of this particular group of dinosaurs, perhaps the last great dinosaur dynasty to evolve.

Dr Michael Ryan and his team have assigned a species name to this dinosaur.  It is known as Albertaceratops nesmoi or A. nesmoi for short.  The animal was named after the place where it was found and a local rancher called Cecil Nesmo who has supported palaeontologists by letting them dig on his land.

Our thanks to Dr Michael Ryan for his assistance with this article and Mike Skrepnick for permission to use his illustration.

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur.

8 06, 2007

Should Wannabe Bosses ask for Directions? Time to Provide Helpful Advice

By |2024-02-08T08:45:56+00:00June 8th, 2007|Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Should Wannabe Bosses ask for Directions?

When you start a business it helps to have a business bank account.  It may not be absolutely necessary and I am sure there are plenty of small businesses who are quite happy to operate using personal bank accounts and building societies, but for Everything Dinosaur we decided from the start to have a business account.

In these matters I am happy to defer to my colleague Sue.  She, I have to admit, has far more knowledge of financial matters than I do.  Her background is book keeping and office administration so I have left it to her to choose our bank, financial advisers, accountants and so forth.  Everything Dinosaur banks with Barclays, this was Sue’s choice.  I know that banks make money out of businesses such as ours, you only have to look at the enormous profits the high street banks are making to see this, but banks make money from everybody even personal bank accounts that remain in credit.

Banks may claim that they offer “free” banking in the UK, so long as you keep a positive balance in your account, but this isn’t the case.  Financial institutions use the money in your account to make money for themselves, if you are paid interest it is nowhere near the commercial rate.  The difference between the interest banks pay and the returns they make when they use your money makes up a proportion of their profits.

So, there is no such thing as free banking… this is the issue we discuss today with Everything Dinosaur blog readers.

If you accept that you need a business bank account, there are certainly lots to choose from.  Banks on the whole like small businesses, the make money from them and sooner or later you may need an overdraft or a bank loan – more opportunities for the bank to cash in.

Wannabe Bosses

Banks and other organisations do provide advice and assistance.  For example, Everything Dinosaur has a Start-up and Small Business Adviser, he is called Nick and he is based at a Barclays branch about 10 miles from our offices.  Nick has been very helpful and he has provided some sound advice.  Nick has to look after many customers in the region and I suppose he has targets to reach such as number of new accounts opened, amount of money loaned etc. so the cynic in me sometimes thinks just how impartial his advice may be.   He is also difficult to track down, like many banks Barclays have reduced the number of support staff and as a result Nick has a bigger and bigger area to cover, so if you do try to contact him, mobile phone is your best option.

Two Things to Note

Two things I have learnt whilst running Everything Dinosaur, firstly it is useful to ask for advice and support.  Secondly, it is useful if you know where to find this advice and support.  I think one of the differences between men and women is their different attitudes when it comes to asking for advice.  Men, like me are reluctant to do so, whilst women are more willing.  Take asking for directions as an example, if Sue and I are going to a dinosaur event at a school and we get lost I am very reluctant to stop and ask someone for assistance.  Sue on the other hand has no problem with this.  Perhaps our brains are just wired differently, this may be a result of our environment and evolution.

Our ancestors divided the daily tasks with women going off to do one thing and the men another.  This might have resulted in our different attitudes for asking advice when we get lost, or it might be because I just don’t want to admit I have lost control of the situation.

Either way, it is important to seek advice when a running a company.   Whether you sell doughnuts or dinosaurs often the problems you have are the same – how to increase sales, where to find premises etc?

When we were planning Everything Dinosaur we used a software programme provided free by Barclays Bank coupled with a handy booklet from Natwest to help write the business plan.  The best tool we were given was a book entitled “Small Business Guide”, this was given to us by Lloyds TSB.  In fact I have both the fourteenth and fifteenth editions of this book in my office, the second copy was given to me by our local Business Link adviser – another example of me asking for directions.

This book contains information on how to develop your business idea, raising money, increasing sales plus lots of useful tips on how to deal with VAT, income tax and other issues.  If you are going to take the plunge like we did and start your own company I would recommend you read this book.

This book was written by a woman, called Sara Williams.  I suspect she brought in specialists to help her with each of the chapters – I guess she asked for directions…

You don’t need directions to visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website, it is here: Everything Dinosaur.

7 06, 2007

New Research Suggests Tyrannosaurus rex was a Slowpoke

By |2024-03-09T18:58:57+00:00June 7th, 2007|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Tyrannosaurus rex was a Slowpoke

Earlier this week a number of news media covered a story on Tyrannosaurus rex.  In a paper published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology a team of researchers report on the results of a new computer modelling programme that explored the range of movement of these animals had and how fast they were capable of running.

The article focused on the popular myth of T. rex running down a jeep, sprinting in excess of 45 mph (72 kph) as depicted in films such as Jurassic Park.  To better estimate this giant’s movement, this new study examined a typical complete Tyrannosaurus skeleton, estimating the weight in life to be between 13,000 – 17,000lbs (5.9 Tonnes to 7.7 Tonnes), looked at the centre of mass, the centre of gravity and studied the inertia or resistance to movement that the animal may have had when it turned or pivoted.

Previous studies have looked at the movements of birds, assumed to be the direct descendants of Theropod dinosaurs like T. rex and fossilised footprints to judge how these animals moved.

T.rex (like most of the big carnivorous dinosaurs), was bipedal – it walked on its two hind legs using its tail to balance the very heavy front end of the animal.  The centre of gravity was probably over the hips.

Tyrannosaurus rex was a Slowpoke

The computer calculations show that T. rex probably had a top speed of no more than 25 miles an hour (40 kph) and that it would have had considerable inertia preventing it from turning quickly. A 45-degree turn would have taken one or two seconds – much longer than us.

To move the sort of bulk that T. rex had would have taken huge leg muscles.  Although the animal had strong hind legs they were no where near capable of moving the animal around at 45 mph.

This research is not new, merely building upon work done by other scientists earlier.  Whether T. rex was an active hunter or a lazy scavenger has been a perennial debate.

Here is an extract from a book entitled “The Evolution and Ecology of Dinosaurs” first published in 1975.   It is interesting to see how the discussion has evolved (pardon the pun):-

“Recently, scientists have discovered that it (T. rex) was not quite as alarming as it looked.  Its tail was shorter, and it did not stand so high because most of the time it held its backbone horizontally, parallel to the ground, with its tail straight out behind.  From footprints we know that Tyrannosaurus’s massive hind legs took short steps, only about 1 metre long, so that it waddled along rather like a goose, its front legs dangling far above the ground.

Even its vicious-looking teeth were not as bad as they seemed:  if it had tried to tackle living animals, the teeth would have snapped off in the struggle.  However, the great claws on its three-toed feet were effective weapons against even the largest plant eaters and the teeth were probably only used to feed on dead animals”.

We have never recovered a complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, only about 30 specimens are known and most of these are only partial at best.  With the exception of Sue Hendrickson’s famous find in August 1990 – (T. rex called Sue) and one or two others such as AMNH-5027 and TMP 81.6.1 (known affectionately as “Black Beauty” we don’t have a great deal of fossil evidence to work with.

There are only two certainties really:

1).  The debate will continue

2).  Somewhere out there is a fossil specimen that will shed more light on Tyrannosaurus rex, its lifestyle and behaviour.

You can read more about the T. rex speed debate by searching the Everything Dinosaur web log for “T. rex“.

Bipedal Dinosaur Models

Bipedal dinosaurs are difficult to reproduce as models.  Getting the centre of gravity right is not easy.  Nobody wants to purchase a model of a ferocious T. rex that behaves like the animal was drunk all the time, with it constantly falling over.

When we come to sell our models we do check them over to make sure that they balance.  We have even been known to put them in the office fridge having set the feet into the correct posture thus ensuring the models don’t topple over.

Some ranges still opt for the safer “kangaroo stance” which is easier to mould, others try their best to depict the animal in what is thought to be a realistic life-like pose.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s dinosaur model range: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

6 06, 2007

Feathered Dinosaurs – New Fossil Finds and More Controversy

By |2023-11-23T10:44:18+00:00June 6th, 2007|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Did Dinosaurs evolve into Birds? – the debate continues

A number of eminent scientists and palaeontologists continue to shed doubt over the widely accepted theory that small theropod dinosaurs developed feathers and that this shows that birds are dinosaur’s direct decendents.  I suspect the debate will continue. It may never be resolved, ardent supporters of the feathered dinosaur theory use evidence from the fantastic “feathered” dinosaur fossils of China to champion their cause whilst the sceptics cite the same fossils as proof that there is no link between birds and dinosaurs.

Feathered Dinosaurs

A new study of fossils of Sinosauropteryx, a small theropod discovered in the Liaoning region of China, the first of the so-called feathered dinos (discovered in 1996), claims that the “black fuzz” in the skeleton around the head and neck region are not fossilised primitive feathers (called proto-feathers) but collagen.  These scientists claim that as the fibres in the skeleton seem rather straight and rigid they look very similar to the collagen found in sharks and many reptiles today.  Iguanas for example, have a collagen frill that runs down their necks and back, could the fossil of Sinosauropteryx show the remains of this frill and not the feathers as first thought.

Feathers or Simply Frills?

Could these be simple feathers or if these structures are too rigid and inflexible as some scientists claim are they simply frills?

One argument for small dinosaurs having feathers (Sinosauropteryx was only about 4 feet long), is for insulation to keep their little bodies warm.  However, if this was the case then perhaps this fossil should show lots of feathery down all over the body not just running the length of the back, head and tail.  Hang on a minute, what is the point of having insulation if your are cold-blooded – does this mean that some dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded (endothermic) like us, I feel another “heated” discussion (no pun intended) coming on.

A Photograph of a Sinosauropteryx Fossil Specimen

Sinosauropteryx fossil material.

Sinosauropteryx on display – the first feathered dinosaur described.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

PNSO have produced a range of feathered dinosaur models including a replica of Sinosauropteryx.  To view the PNSO range: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs.

The discussion will continue.

5 06, 2007

Norway’s First Dinosaur – Say hello to Plateosaurus

By |2023-02-11T15:05:18+00:00June 5th, 2007|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page|1 Comment

Remembering Norway and its first Dinosaur

Many people believe that we now know just about everything we are ever going to know about dinosaurs.  This time of year the end of school summer trips are being planned by teachers and many schools will have the opportunity to tour their regional museum and no doubt the fossil galleries and the dinosaur exhibits will prove to be very popular.

Norway’s First Dinosaur

Museum curators and directors up and down the country will be finalising their plans for the summer events programme.  I am sure a number of dinosaur themed events will be be taking place all aimed at satisfying the curiousity of children and adults alike.

However, in reality we still know very little about the Mesozoic (the Age of Reptiles 248 million to 65 million years ago) and the creatures and plants that inhabited these ancient times.  True, we have some spectacular fossils, including dinosaur fossils, many of which will form the central theme for the museum programmes and the school trips, but despite the very best efforts of the scientific community, our understanding of dinosaurs and their world is still very fragmentary.

Take Norway for example, this very beautiful country with its majestic fjords may be renowned for its geology (along with herrings, oil, dodgy Eurovision songs, Vikings and woolly jumpers), but until recently no dinosaur remains had been unearthed on the country of Norway itself.

In May 2006 the first ever dinosaur discovery was made in Norway. Scientists drilling for oil at the Snorre offshore field in the North Sea discovered a fossil of a crushed knucklebone of a large dinosaur in a sandstone rock core. Palaeontologists identified the bone to belong to a Plateosaurus, which probably died as it migrated across a huge dry, sandy plain, criss-crossed with rivers approximately 210 million years ago. As Plateosaurus lived in herds there are probably many more fossils awaiting discovery deep beneath Norway’s seas.

The fossil was found in sediments 1.4 miles down, making this the deepest ever fossil find as well as Norway’s first dinosaur.  This is a truly remarkable discovery and one, like many scientific discoveries which was down to pure luck.

Plateosaurus

The Plateosaurus genus is relatively well known with many fossils having been excavated across Western Europe.  The most famous specimens of Plateosaurus fossils is found at Trössingen in southern Germany.  It was a large herbivorous animal of the sub-order Sauropodomorpha.   Although, there is still some doubt as to how closely related this animal was to the true sauropods that were to evolve later.  Seeing a herd of these animals on the move would have been an awesome sight as they could weigh up to 4 Tonnes and many were up to 8 metres long.  I think two species have been described to date.

There are not many models of Triassic dinosaurs available, certainly there are only a few Plateosaurus dinosaur models, to see Everything Dinosaur’s model range: Dinosaur Models and Toys.

Flat Lizard

Plateosaurus (which means “flat lizard” was named and described by the German palaeontologist Hermann von Meyer in 1837.   It was one of the very first dinosaurs to be named and described.  It even pre-dates the word “dinosaur”, at the time Plateosaurus was formally described the word dinosaur had not been used yet and the leading thinkers of the day were still unsure how to classify these giant reptiles.

Still that means that we have only known about Plateosaurus for 170 years and although he may be a bit of an “old boy” when it comes to his scientific description, Plateosaurus is still able to surprise us by turning up in a North Sea oil drill core.

There is a lot more to learn about dinosaurs…

4 06, 2007

Dinosaurs at Lymm (Cheshire) Looking for Lost Treasures

By |2024-02-08T08:44:47+00:00June 4th, 2007|Dinosaur Fans, Geology, Main Page|0 Comments

Dinosaurs at Lymm (Cheshire)

Yesterday on ITV1 there was a programme called “Lost Treasures”, I think this is a programme produced by Northwest regional television, the idea being to showcase some of the more unusual things found in the countryside.  Being based in the Granada region the programme focused on some of the mysterious objects and curiosities associated with villages in Cheshire.

I am not familiar with this TV programme, to be perfectly honest I don’t watch a lot of television, still it is nice to know when dinosaurs or prehistoric animals get a mention in the media.   The host, Mark Olly and his team visited Lymm, a small village near Warrington in Cheshire and reported on the fossil trackways of a prehistoric animal that had been unearthed in the area.  The outcrops of rock that can be seen in the Lymm area are red sandstone.  These were laid down mainly in the Permian period (Permian period from 290-248 million years ago), although some sediment may be more recent (Triassic).  During this time Cheshire (like much of Europe), was a vast sandy desert resembling the Sahara.

Dinosaurs at Lymm

An animal left a trackway in soft sandy sediment, much of Europe at the time was covered with a very salty sea (like the Dead sea), scientists have called this ancient waterway the Zechstein sea.  The sea levels fluctuated frequently and an animal walked along a shoreline and the footprints are fossilised showing remarkable preservation.  Unfortunately, the TV presenter stated that this fossil trackway was from an early dinosaur.  This is simply not true, yet another case of television presenters believing that all animals that create fossils must be dinosaurs.  Or is it more likely that if they talk about dinosaurs they are liable to keep the viewers interest?

An Ancient Trackway (Chirotherium Tracks)

A Chirotheriuim trackway.

Chirotherium tracks on display at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Chirotherium or Cheirotherium?

The fossil trackway shows a four-footed animal with hind feet bigger than the front feet.  The toes are clearly seen, in fact the prints so resembled an ape or human hand that the animal was named Cheirotherium (hand-beast).  It is also sometimes known as Chirotherium.  No fossils of this animal have ever been recovered but trackways of similar animals have been found in Germany and North America.

To see what the animal is supposed to have looked like search the Everything Dinosaur web log for images.

This animal was probably a diapsid (openings in the skull bones like dinosaurs) but an Archosaur (ruling reptiles), part of the group of reptiles from which dinosaurs are descended.  From the claw marks that can still be clearly seen on the footprints, this animals was probably a carnivore – one of the biggest around at the time.   It also possessed an upright stance unlike the sprawling stance of more primitive reptiles.

During the Triassic these types of archosaurs gradually became rarer as the dinosaurs began to establish themselves and out compete them.  It would certainly have been interesting to travel back in time to see what gave the dinosaurs an evolutionary edge over the other archosaurs as by the end of the Triassic all these animals had become extinct.

Scientists are still debating just how closely related animals like Cheirotherium were to the actual dinosaurs.  It did belong to the same group of reptiles – the archosaurs, but just how closely related it was to the ancestors of the dinosaurs is still hotly debated.  Indeed, with relatively few fossils being preserved from this period, the ancestry of the dinosaurs and their development is still unclear.

Unfortunately, there are no models of Cheirotherium available (none that we can find anyway).  Bullyland of Germany have specialised in producing models of European archosaurs from this period and have made a number of models, to view Everything Dinosaur’s range of dinosaur models and dinosaur toys for children, click the link below:

Dinosaur and prehistoric animal models available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

3 06, 2007

Woolly Mammoths on Popular Breakfast Show

By |2024-02-08T08:44:19+00:00June 3rd, 2007|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Woolly Mammoths on Breakfast Radio

Sunday morning, after a fairly quite Saturday, not my favourite time of the week.  Get the papers, have breakfast sort out one or two things to do with the business (but nothing too taxing, it is the weekend after all).  Trouble with running your own company is that you never switch off.  I am always thinking about Everything Dinosaur and what we should be doing to improve sales, develop new products and such like.   You don’t really get any time off, unlike when I worked a “normal” 9-5 job with a salary.

Surprising how often prehistoric animals get a mention in the media.  Take for example this mornings breakfast programme on Radio 5 Live.  Richard Bacon (the host) had invited listeners to text/e-mail in with their stories about food that they have kept which was well past its sell by date.  A fairly mundane and trivial item for a national radio programme.  However, we were listening.  Actually, to be perfectly honest Sue and I have a digital alarm clock.  Everyday at 6.30am it goes off and Radio 5 comes on.  I have lost the instructions on how to tune it and I don’t know how to adjust the alarm time for the weekends so we are faced with a choice – either have the alarm go off at 6.30am seven days a week  and listen to Radio 5 or don’t use the alarm at all.  We could always revert back to my old battery operated alarm clock, but then I would lie awake at night wondering if the battery would last and whether it would work at all.  If we had a powercut then the radio alarm wouldn’t work either but if this were to happen at least Sue would have a plausible excuse for arriving late at work.

Anyway, back to the frozen Mammoths…

One of Radio 5’s listeners contacted the station recalling that their old geography teacher had regaled them with stories of Russians dining on Woolly Mammoths as they thawed out of the perma-frost in Siberia.  If locals were eating de-frosted Woolly Mammoths then this would be an extreme case of food being consumed well past its sell by date.

I have heard stories too, many text books contain references but to the best of my knowledge I am not aware of any proven cases of people eating recently thawed Mammoths.

There are a number of stories of this nature in circulation. Many Siberian Mammoths that died in the Autumn have been preserved exceptionally well as they have been quickly frozen by the rapid onset of winter and the resulting plummeting temperatures.   Even though the animal may have died over 20,000 years ago, the deep freeze that is Siberia has led to some remarkable states of preservation.

Natives were aware of the existience of strange creatures in the ground, but with no knowledge of palaeontology or of elephants Mammoths were thought to be giant moles that burrowed deep underground and perished instantly if they ever broke the surface.  This didn’t stop a brisk trade in Mammoth ivory recovered from the carcases.  Local warlords and leaders did try to put a stop to this by spreading rumours that the corpses were cursed and that if you interfered with one you would have bad luck.  Stories from the late 18th Century of a Tungus native who had allegedly removed a single tusk from a Mammoth corpse and within a few years he and his family and died, certainly helped protect the precious ivory.

There is not much evidence of people actually consuming thawed out Mammoth, but as these animals are eroded out in spring thaws they begin to defrost and many of the corpses have been reported as having been attacked by local scavangers and dogs.

Woolly Mammoths

In the notes of the 1901 expedition to Siberia in search of Mammoth remains led by the eminent zoologists Otto Herz and Eugen Pfizenmayer it is claimed that they were able to remove about 130 kilograms of meat from the hindquarters of a de-frosting Mammoth carcase. The meat was so well preserved that the expeditions dogs eagerly ate it, but the scientists themselves although tempted did not try it as it smelt like “a badly kept stable heavily blended with the smell of offal” as Pfizenmayer recalled.

I think you would have to be pretty desperate to attempt to eat Woolly Mammoth, our ancesters certainly hunted these creatures but they would have been eating fresh meat, not the remains of an animal preserved frozen for thousands of years.

An Adult Woolly Mammoth Model with a Juvenile

CollectA Woolly Mammoth models.

The CollectA Deluxe Woolly Mammoth model in 1:20 scale and the CollectA Prehistoric Life Woolly Mammoth calf. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Several Mammoth Species

There are a number of Mammoth species known, the largest was the Columbian (M. columbi) of North America with males weighing up to 10 Tonnes and standing over 3.5 metres high at the shoulder.  The Woolly Mammoth (M. primigenius) was slightly smaller with much denser fur, believed to be a dark brown to sandy colour.  Mammoths were very symbolic to our early ancestors with many cave paintings depicting them and hunting scenes.

Woolly Mammoths are still very popular with children today “Martha the Mammoth” was a popular animal on the recent Prehistoric Park TV show and Mammoths come out quite high in our surveys.

Some good models around too, such as the adult Woolly Mammoth models and baby Woolly Mammoth toys.

Everything Dinosaur Models: Dinosaur Models and Dinosaur Toys.

2 06, 2007

How Big Was the Heart of Brachiosaurus?

By |2023-02-08T08:14:26+00:00June 2nd, 2007|Dinosaur Fans|0 Comments

How Big was the Heart of Brachiosaurus?

In the course of Everything Dinosaur’s work with school children and young dinosaur fans we get asked lots of questions.  During a school visit, one of the children asked the Everything Dinosaur team member present how big was the heart of Brachiosaurus?  This was a very difficult question, one that we cannot answer with any degree of certainty as we are not aware of any soft tissue representing a heart ever being preserved in the Sauropoda fossil record.

Fossils Found in the United States

Brachiosaurus is known from fossil material found in North America (United States).  Brachiosaur fossil material found in East Africa is now more often than not assigned to another brachiosaurid genus Giraffatitan.  Brachiosaurus fossils are associated with Upper Jurassic aged strata and estimates of the size of the Brachiosaur known as B. altithorax put this dinosaur around the 22 metres long mark.  Brachiosaurus may have weighed 50,000 kilogrammes or more.

Brachiosaurus Dinosaur Model

A Traditional Brachiosaur interpretation?

A traditional Brachiosaur interpretation – big hearted dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We can state with confidence that the hearts of sauropods were very big, after all, these on the whole were massive animals.  The hearts had to be strong enough to pump blood around the body and every time a Brachiosaurus raised its head above the position of its heart in its body (which was probably most of the time), the heart had to work extra hard against gravity to pump blood up the neck to the animal’s brain.  The heart had to effectively pump blood “uphill”.  With a head, in some specimens of Brachiosaurus over fourteen metres up in the air, this was no mean feat.

A Huge Dinosaur

A fully grown Brachiosaurus would have been composed of approximately 27,000 kilograms of soft tissue (muscles, cartilage, internal organs and so on), plus around 2,000 kilogrammes of blood or thereabouts.  The hearts of adult Giraffes can weigh more than ten kilogrammes and measure more than sixty-five centimetres long.  Although, the heart of a Brachiosaurus may have been different to that of a mammal such as a giraffe, it was a very much bigger animal and therefore a larger, stronger heart would be required.

When you look at extant reptiles today, snakes, crocodiles and lizards for example, nearly all living reptiles standing in a natural posture have their heads almost exactly on the same level as their hearts.  Reptiles that are alive today have hearts that cannot properly separate pulmonary and systemic blood.  However, many dinosaurs had heads higher than their hearts so these reptiles may have had fully divided hearts very similar to the hearts of mammals and the Dinosauria’s very near relatives – the birds.

The Heart of a Brachiosaurus

But how big?  That’s a very tough question.  Based on a 50,000 kilogramme specimen the heart would have been something like the size of a dust bin, very muscular and weighing perhaps in excess of 150 kilogrammes.  These are just estimates, in the absence of supporting data from the fossil record, the truth is nobody really knows.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a range of brachiosaurid figures including the impressive Papo Brachiosaurus model.  View Papo dinosaur models here: Papo Prehistoric Animal Models.

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