The Most Popular Web Log Articles of 2008 (Part 2)

By | December 27th, 2008|Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

The Most Popular Web Log Articles of 2008 – The Top Five

Each year team members at Everything Dinosaur review the web log articles that have been written over the last 12 months and calculate using the site’s statistical software, the top ten most popular blog entries.  Our web log is read by many thousands of people, all over the world and the articles published on the Everything Dinosaur blog, range from updates on research, new fossil finds, product updates, information about events, reviews, in fact all sorts of stuff to do with dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.

The variety of articles published by our team members is reflected in our top ten list, we have already counted down from ten to number six with our previous entry, here now are the top five of 2008.

Web Log Articles

5.  Duck-billed Platypus swam alongside Duck-billed Dinosaurs

The discovery of an ancient jawbone in the state of Victoria, Australia has been identified as belonging to a prehistoric platypus.  The tiny fragment of jaw showed signs of the nerve canal, diagnostic of this particular monotreme, as it is this canal that carries the nerves to the bill of this swimming, egg-laying mammal.

The research into Cretaceous mammals from this part of Australia has been led by husband and wife team, Dr Tom Rich and Pat Vickers-Rich, their work would indicate that the Platypus has remained largely unchanged for 65 million years.  It looks like the ancient ancestors of the modern Platypus were swimming in rivers and lakes whilst dinosaurs grazed along the bank.

To read the article in full:  Duck-billed Platypus Lived Alongside Dinosaurs.

4. Packing Parcels with Posters

A surprising entry in our top ten at number 4, an article on the steps taken by Everything Dinosaur team members to ensure that posters and other difficult to mail out items such as gift wrap are received by customers in tip-top condition.

Since the inception of Everything Dinosaur, the team has strived to find educational and informative products related to dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals.  In the beginning , when our product range was considerably smaller than it is today, posters were an important product category.   Posters provide young people the opportunity to learn about prehistoric animals, can help theme a bedroom into a young child’s very own “Jurassic Park” and can provide a useful teaching and reference source for schools and home educators.

Prehistoric Animal Posters

The number and types of posters we now stock has increased considerably, but one issue with posters always remains – how to ensure that they arrive in tip-top condition when they have been mailed out.  Making sure that posters arrive safely and undamaged is a problem for all mail order companies that sell items such as this.

We would not want to disappoint any of our customers, so right from the day the company first started trading we have taken great care to make sure that posters get VIP treatment.  This article, originally published in January of this year has entered the top ten most popular list at number 4.  It is  a testament to the care taken by our team when packing and dispatching products, as well as a very fast turnaround of orders, we try our best to ensure that the dinosaur toys and games that we sell are well packed and protected.

3.  New Dinosaur Models Available from Everything Dinosaur

Additions to the Schleich “Saurus” range in September make our top ten list, coming in at number 3.  Schleich retire a number of models from their ranges each year and then introduce new ones to replace them.  In September, the scale models of Spinosaurus, Allosaurus and the huge Brachiosaurus were launched.

The New Model Dinosaurs from Schleich (Schleich Saurus Range)

New from Schleich.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the Schleich Saurus model range and other prehistoric animal model ranges stocked by Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

In 2009, Schleich are changing their policy on model introductions, they intend to retire some models over the course of the year and phase in new ones.  There is a super, new Apatosaurus model due for launch, along with a new interpretation of Quetzalcoatlus.  We ourselves, are already working on some sculpts for the 2010 season, it seems like a model makers work is never done.

2.  Trying To Trace the Dinosaur Family Tree

The runner-up in our top ten most popular articles in 2008, is a little discourse on the problems associated with classifying dinosaurs and trying to establish taxonomic relationships between different types of these prehistoric animals.

Although, dinosaurs are very much part of the public conscience, their classification and phylogeny is very hard to pin down.  Much of the work of the Victorian anatomists and scientists and their classification of the Order Dinosauria has now been revisited and redefined.  It seems that dinosaurs and how they are all related to each other is going to challenge scientists for a long time to come.  The lack of data in the existing fossil record is one of the main problems, after all, some genera are known from just skull fragments or even a single tooth.

To read the article in full: Trying to Trace the Dinosaur Family Tree.

1.  New Feathered Velociraptor Model from Bullyland

In at number one, the most popular article published on Everything Dinosaur’s web log in 2008 is an article written on the 18th May about the introduction of a new dinosaur model.

Dinosaur toys and models are beginning to catch up with the latest scientific thinking on these amazing prehistoric creatures.  A new interpretation of Velociraptor by the German model maker Bullyland, captures the latest views of this little meat-eater quite nicely.

This new Velociraptor model is vividly painted and shows the dinosaur dressed in feathers.  Relatives of Velociraptor (dromaeosaurs) are known to have been covered in simple, insulating proto-feathers and the model makers wanted to depict this.

Feathered Velociraptor From Bullyland

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the model and other replicas of Velociraptor available from Everything Dinosaur in the Bullyland models and figures range: Bullyland Prehistoric Animal Models and Figures.

This dinosaur model, added to our museum line range of dinosaur toys and model is beautifully hand-painted and depicts this fearsome little hunter in an aggressive pose.   The blue facial markings are an interpretation of the animal’s pack hunting habit, the vivid markings helping individuals to recognise others in the group.  The wings are swept forward in a typical hunting pose.  The placement of the feathered arms is significant because dromaeosaurs such as Velociraptor had a novel feature in the bones of their hands.

They had a half-moon shaped wrist bone (called a semi-lunate carpal).  This allowed the wrist to be flexed sideways in addition to up and down.  This permitted these animals to swivel their wrists quickly to snatch up prey.  The semi-lunate carpal is also seen in the earliest recorded fossil of a bird Archaeopteryx.  The presence of this bone in the skeleton of Velociraptor is evidence that these little dinosaurs were closely related to birds.

It seems that reading about feathered dinosaur models is very much in fashion, as this is the article that has proved to be the most popular in the Everything Dinosaur 2008 list.