Everything Dinosaur Predictions for 2009 – How Did we Do?

This is the time when we can reflect on the year just passed and look forward to 2010.  At this time last year, we wrote an article making ten predictions as to what sort of discoveries would take place over the next twelve months or so.  It is always difficult to make predictions especially when it comes to second guessing dinosaur and prehistoric animal discoveries and what articles we might have to put up on the web log.  However, looking back on our predictions, I don’t think we did too badly.

Here is a list summarising our predictions for 2009:

Image credit: Everything Dinosaur

We provided a varied set of predictions, some have come true and others have not.  For example, we were proved accurate in predicting the success of the UK tour of “Walking with Dinosaurs”, however, we did not foresee the very, very expensive merchandise or indeed the theft of one of the stage models during the Mexican leg of the world tour.  We were right about the Everything Dinosaur web log exceeding 100,000 page views per month.  We have managed to achieve in excess of 100,000 page views over the last few months or so, indeed our prediction regarding the number of products we would have in our web shop has also proved to be accurate.

Predicting that Charles Darwin would make a big impact in 2009, was not really difficult, it being the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book “The Origin of Species” and the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.

Our prediction about more large prehistoric animal fossils being found along the Jurassic coast was also spot on.  A number of important discoveries were announced last year, most notably the 2.4-metre-long pliosaur jaws, potentially the largest pliosaur jaws ever found.

To read the article on the giant pliosaur jaws: T. rex a “Kitten” compared to giant Dorset Pliosaur.

We were also correct when it came to predicting the discovery of more feathered dinosaurs from China.  We wrote a number of articles about dinosaur discoveries from China over the course of the last 12 months.  Of particular note, was the article regarding the discovery of feathered theropods that predated the first known bird Archaeopteryx.  A number of stories and articles regarding the evolution of our feathered friends have been published by Everything Dinosaur in 2009.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website for prehistoric animal games, models and toys: Everything Dinosaur.

With our other predictions, we were slightly less accurate, there was more data published regarding dinosaurs and arboreal environments but we were not aware of the publication of a new genus of Ceratopsian dinosaur from the Americas.  We could have missed this announcement, but we don’t recall coming across information of this nature.  As for fossilised nests and more information on the evolution of our own species, a number of exciting discoveries were made, but perhaps we need to give our crystal ball a bit of a polish before we make our selections regarding what might happen for 2010.