April, 2016 | Everything Dinosaur Blog

6 04, 2016

“Egg-citing” Dinosaur Egg Discovery from China

By Mike|2023-04-17T07:40:44+01:00April 6th, 2016|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

Dinosaur Eggs from the Early Cretaceous

Parts of China have provided palaeontologists with ample evidence of dinosaur nesting behaviour, fossils of nests, eggshells and complete eggs themselves have been excavated from a number of locations. Guandong Province (southern China) in particular is famous for the relative abundance of dinosaur egg fossils that have been found.

Dinosaur Eggs

However, the vast majority of these egg fossils from China come from Upper Cretaceous deposits, indeed from a global perspective, dinosaur eggs that date from the Lower Cretaceous are much rarer than their Upper Cretaceous counterparts. Up until now, the only confirmed dinosaur egg fossils from Lower Cretaceous age deposits from China have been excavated from sites in Liaoning Province in the north-east of the country.

A Dinosaur Egg Fossil

Dinosaur eggs studied by palaeontologists.

A dinosaur egg fossil. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Scientific Paper Published

A press release from the Chinese Academy of Sciences which provides information on a new paper published in the academic journal “Vertebrata PalAsiatica” changes all that. A new type of dinosaur egg is described, although the fossils are fragmentary, the largest piece of eggshell found to date in only a few centimetres in diameter, a microscopic analysis of the eggshells structure has revealed new characteristics indicating that this is a new type of dinosaur egg, but as to which dinosaur laid the eggs, that remains a bit of a mystery.

A Fragment of the Dinosaur Egg Fossil (Eggshell)

(A) scale bar = 1 cm and (B) scale bar = 1 mm

Picture credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences

The picture above shows the largest eggshell fragment discovered to date (A), the second picture (B) is a close up of the highly weathered surface of another piece of dinosaur eggshell from the same location.

From Lower Cretaceous Deposits

The fossils come from the uppermost siltstone layer of exposed Lower Cretaceous sediments in Gansu Province. These rocks make up the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group in the Lanzhou-Minhe Basin, north-western China. Exposed Lower Cretaceous strata in Gansu Province has yielded extensive dinosaur and bird tracks, but these are the first dinosaur egg fossils to have been found in this part of China.

To read an article about some intriguing sauropod tracks found in the same area as these egg fossils: Swimming or Walking Sauropods

Important Implications for the Study of Dinosaur Eggs

The eggs have been assigned to a new oogenus, a new oospecies has been erected. Just like fossilised animal tracks, palaeontologists can establish a scientific name for egg fossils, such names have the prefix “oo”, from the ancient Greek for egg, placed in front of them to indicate these names refer to an egg. With trace fossils the prefix “ichnos” is used, this too comes from ancient Greek, (ichnos means track).

The oogenus is Polyclonoolithus and the oospecies is Polyclonoolithus yangjiagouensis, the dinosaur eggs can be distinguished from other Chinese dinosaur eggs as under the microscope the eggshell showed unique features such as highly branched eggshell units not having a compacted layer near the outer surface of the shell and very irregular pore canals.

Microscopic Study of the Eggshell Revealed Unique Features

Microscopic analysis of the eggshell structure revealed unique features in this Lower Cretaceous dinosaur egg.

Picture credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences

The authors of the scientific paper conclude that the eggshell fossils represent a more basic type of dinosaur egg, especially when compared to the highly diverse forms of dinosaur egg found in Upper Cretaceous deposits. Its taxonomic relationship to other oogenera is not known, but these fossils might represent an early form of egg that led onto the evolution of more rounded, spherical eggshell shapes (spheroolithid eggs).

Polyclonoolithus yangjiagouensis

As for the name Polyclonoolithus yangjiagouensis (pronounced Pol-ee-klon-ooh-lith-us yang-gee-ah-gou-en-sis), the oogenus name is derived from the Greek for “egg stone with many small branches”, the oospecies name honours the town of Yangjiagou, in the border region of Lintao and Yongjing counties, Gansu Province, which is close to where the fossils were found.

By honouring the local town in this way the scientists hope to deter pilfering of fossil material, unfortunately, there is an extensive illegal trade in fossils in China and although the authorities have worked hard to stamp out the black market, many hundreds, if not thousands of rare artefacts such as dinosaur fossils are smuggled out of China each year.

Trade in unlawfully gained fossil material is significant, dinosaur eggs are particular favourite of unscrupulous traders as they are relatively small , portable but retain a high resale value. Last year Everything Dinosaur reported on the seizure of huge haul of stolen dinosaur eggs from Guandong Province, to read more about this: Chinese Authorities Seize Hundreds of Dinosaur Eggs in Raid

Which Animal Laide These Dinosaur Eggs?

The eggs were probably little more than ten centimetres in diameter, not huge when compared to the eggs of sauropods for example. However, the palaeontologists cannot be certain as to which type of dinosaur laid the eggs.

Only a handful of dinosaurs are known from the siltstone strata (late Early Cretaceous). Evidence of basal titanosaurs have been found along with the fossils of an iguanodontid Lanzhousaurus magnidens. The eggshell fragments come from the same locality where fossils of an armoured dinosaur, a nodosaurid (Taohelong jinchengensis) have been discovered. It is not possible at this time to identify which type of dinosaur produced these intriguing eggs.

For dinosaur models and replicas: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

5 04, 2016

Everything Dinosaur to the Rescue

By Mike|2023-04-17T07:30:41+01:00April 5th, 2016|General Teaching|Comments Off on Everything Dinosaur to the Rescue

Everything Dinosaur to the Rescue Helping a Teacher who had been Let Down

Today, we were telephoned by a teacher based in Oxfordshire who had a bit of a problem. She had booked a dinosaur workshop (not us) and they had let her down at the last minute, so she was trying to ring round and find another company to step into the breach at short notice. Unfortunately, all our dinosaur and fossil experts were already booked for the day in question (we tend to get booked up months in advance), but not too worry we set about sorting resources and providing some useful contacts from our vast database of fossil experts and outreach specialists.

Everything Dinosaur

Within twenty minutes of the phone call, we had emailed over information on who to talk to with regards to a dinosaur themed presentation. In addition, the first of our teaching materials all about Mary Anning, ammonites and sharks teeth were emailed across. By 9pm that evening the teacher had received several ideas for her teaching work, including example lesson plans and other helpful items. We even sent over fact sheets and drawing materials to support her scheme of work that involved learning about what fossils tell us about life in the past.

The Children Will be Learning About Ammonites

A stunning fossil of a Jurassic ammonite on display at the London Natural History Museum.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Providing Assistance and Support

We explained that the Everything Dinosaur teaching blog has lots of articles on dinosaur teaching in schools, lesson plan suggestions, features on Mary Anning, learning through creative play and so on. This would also prove to be a valuable and inspirational resource. In addition to the fossil fact sheets and drawing materials we provided a helpful pronunciation guide:

Ammonite (Am-mon-night)
Belemnite (Bel-em-night)
Megalodon shark (Meg-ah-low-don)

After purchasing some useful teaching resources, from the Everything Dinosaur website, Everything Dinosaur something like thirty items of around £18.00 including VAT and first class postage, we emailed over the “she sells sea shells tongue twister” to support teaching about the famous fossil hunter Mary Anning and a helpful pdf document to help the teaching team identify dinosaurs.

What is a Dinosaur? Dinosaurs Defined

The shape of the hip bones help to classify the Dinosauria.

Classifying dinosaurs by the shape of their hip bones.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The grateful teacher emailed to say:
“I have just received all your emails, they look great, these are very useful documents. You have been so helpful.”

Everything Dinosaur is a small team of very dedicated people, if you like our service and the support we provide fellow teachers, perhaps if you are on a teaching forum or network, you could post up our website address: Everything Dinosaur

5 04, 2016

Extinct Bird of New Caledonia Mystery Solved

By Mike|2023-04-17T07:26:01+01:00April 5th, 2016|Animal News Stories, Main Page, Palaeontological articles|0 Comments

Giant Bird Mystery Solved But Heaps of Problems

Scientists including researchers from Flinders University (South Australia), have solved the mystery of an extinct flightless bird that once roamed the island archipelago of New Caledonia. For the first time, the post cranial skeleton has been reconstructed using fossils from a number of cave sites, however, the strange heaps found on the island may not have been nesting mounds created by this large bird, the mounds remain a mystery.

Extinct Flightless Bird

The bird named Sylviornis neocaledoniae, was about the size of a Dodo, but with much longer legs and a longer neck, large individuals may have reached 80 centimetres tall and weighed as much as 34 kgs. It survived on these isolated islands until very recently, there is evidence to suggest that these birds were around 2,500 years ago. The arrival of humans in New Caledonia led to the extinction of Sylviornis, but a mystery remained. Large earth mounds were believed to be nesting sites excavated by these flightless birds but an analysis of foot bones reveals that this extinct New Caledonian resident was not a member of the Megapodiidae (incubator birds), if it did not build these mounds than what or who did?

Scientists have Reconstructed the Skeleton of Sylviornis neocaledoniae

Scale bar = 50 cm, a skeletal reconstruction of the giant, flightless bird from New Caledonia Sylviornis neocaledoniae.

Picture credit: PLOS One

Known bones are shaded white in the illustration above, bones not associated with known remains are shaded grey. Previously, only the skull had been reconstructed, this robust bird probably fed on small animals including invertebrates.

Sylviornis neocaledoniae

The islands of New Caledonia in the south-west Pacific lie some 750 miles to the east of the coast of Queensland. Dinosaur enthusiasts might remember that New Caledonia was the location chosen to shoot episode three of the ground-breaking BBC television series “Walking with Dinosaurs” that first aired back in 1999. The exotic fauna of these tropical islands contains a number of unique trees and plants, that are descended from species that once existed on the super-continent Gondwana.

The isolation of the islands permitted several types of ancient flora to survive, for example the New Caledonia Pine (Araucaria columnaris) is descended from ancient trees once grazed by dinosaurs. The islands became Oxfordshire in the Late Jurassic some 149 million years ago, for the purposes of episode three of the television series – “The Cruel Sea”.

A Scientific Paper Published

The research, published in the on-line journal PLOS One suggests that S. neocaledoniae is not closely related to megapodes, birds such as the Australian Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami) or the Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata), it had feet more like a chicken than the feet of birds that construct large mounds of earth and vegetation which they then lay eggs in, relying on the mound to incubate the eggs.

Comparison of Foot Bones S. neocaledoniae (left) with a Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata)

Sylviornis foot bones (left) compared to the extant, mould building Malleefowl of Australia (right).

Picture Credit: PLOS One

The two black bars are scale bars, each one equates to ten centimetres. The foot of Sylviornis may have been much bigger than the extant Malleefowl, but the toes are proportionally much smaller, the claws less sharp and indeed, the pedal unguals (bones that make up the digits) are also proportionally smaller than that found in the Malleefowl. The scientists conclude that these feet were not adapted to creating nesting mounds and that S. neocaledoniae probably incubated its eggs by sitting on the nest in the same way as Ostriches and Emus.

Commenting on the Extinct Flightless Bird Study

Commenting on the study, one of the authors of the scientific paper, Miyess Mitri (Flinders University) stated:

“I was privileged to study this amazing bird, whose large legs and tiny wings made it look like a turkey on steroids. The tell-tale muscle scars showed that the muscles for the toes were weak and the claws were just like those of chickens — nothing like the mini-spades of mound-builders.”

A phylogenetic analysis using characteristics observed from more than 600 bones studied, suggests that the closest relative of Sylviornis neocaledoniae was Megavitiornis altirostris, colloquially known as the Noble Megapode, that was once resident on the island of Fiji some 850 miles east of New Caledonia. Sadly, the flightless Megavitiornis seems to have suffered the same fate as Sylviornis, it too became extinct once humans settled on Fiji. It is likely that both birds, believed to be from the same bird family as the chicken, were hunted to extinction because they tasted good and being flightless they would have been relatively easy to catch.

As for those strange heaps of earth, the research team suggest that they could have been caused by a phenomenon of natural erosion.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

4 04, 2016

The “Kite Runner” from the Silurian of England

By Mike|2023-04-17T07:21:08+01:00April 4th, 2016|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Main Page, Photos/Pictures of Fossils|0 Comments

Aquilonifer spinosus – Meet the “Kite Runner” from the Silurian

A team of international researchers including scientists from Leicester University, Oxford University, Imperial College London and Yale have published a paper on a two centimetre long, ancient Arthropod that once scuttled around an ancient Silurian sea floor. The fossil, preserved in almost three-dimensions has slowly emerged from its volcanic ash matrix and the specimen is not only a new species but it reveals a novel way of brooding its young.

The new species is named in honour of the best selling 2003 novel “The Kite Runner” by Khalid Hosseini, as the young are tethered to the adult’s body in capsules or pouches that reminded the research team of kites.

A Computer Generated Three-dimensional Image of A. spinosus

The capsules or pouches to carry young look like squashed lemons in this image.

Picture credit: D Briggs/D Siveter/M Sutton/D Legg

A Remarkable Fossil Site

The fossil comes from a remarkable site in Herefordshire (England), close to the Welsh borders. The limestone strata is interrupted by a finely grained bedding plane that represents the ash from a volcanic eruption that settled on the seabed some 430 million years ago. This ash choked, buried and killed a lot of the Arthropods and other creatures that lived on or around the sea floor, and the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte has provided palaeontologists with an unique opportunity to study microfossils in exquisite detail.

The genus name Aquilonifer comes from the Latin “aquila” for eagle or kite and the suffix “fer” which means to carry. The paper describing the study has been published in the academic journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”.

Lead author, Professor Derek Briggs (Yale University and Royal Society Fellow), commented:

“Modern crustaceans employ a variety of strategies to protect their eggs and embryos from predators, attaching them to the limbs, holding them under the carapace or enclosing them within a special pouch until they are old enough to be released, but this example is unique.”

Strategy for Raising Young

No member of the Arthropoda, alive today (as far as we at Everything Dinosaur are aware), adopts such a strategy towards raising the next generation. As only one fossil specimen has been found and since no Arthropod known to science has evolved this behaviour, the fossil may record one reproduction strategy that ultimately proved to be unsuccessful, or at least less successful than other strategies employed by competing organisms.

Revealing the Tiny Fossil of Aquilonifer spinosus

The scientists were able to identify A. spinosus using a process whereby high intensity scanning photographs are taken, in a virtual slice by slice of the specimen. The results are then fed into a powerful computer programme that generates a three-dimensional image of the animal, including soft body parts such as, in this case, the pouches or capsules that held juveniles. The picture in this blog article is therefore an image of the “virtual fossil” that has been generated by this process.

The “Kite Runner” shows ten juveniles attached at various stages of development, all connected to the adult. The researchers suggest that the adult delayed its moult until the juveniles were old enough to hatch, otherwise, the juveniles would have been cast adrift as the exoskeleton was shed. It had been considered that the strange capsules/pouches with their tethers were some form of parasite, but the attachment seemed too uniform and the attachment position was not very favourable when it came to trying to access nutrients from the host.

Aquilonifer spinosus

Aquilonifer spinosus shared its marine environment with a host of other invertebrates including ostracods, brachiopods, worms, gastropods (snails), sea stars, and various shrimp-like creatures. The scientists suggest that this animal was a mandibulate, belonging to a clade of the Arthropoda that includes crustaceans, and modern insects. It lacked eyes and probably relied upon its long, robust antenna to find its way about, the trunk had eleven body segments which all had tiny jointed limbs to help it scuttle along the seabed.

Co-author, Dr. Legg of Oxford University stated that this bizarre creature that seems to have kept its babies close to it by thin threads may have had a segmented body and an exoskeleton but deciding where in the Order Arthropoda it fitted proved a tricky task.

Over the last few years, Everything Dinosaur has covered a number of fossil discoveries from the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte made using the same techniques employed in this study.

To visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

To read about the discovery of a strange ostracod fossil: Ancient Ostracod from Herefordshire

To read about a rather nasty surprise revealed by this fossil preparation process: Prehistoric Parasites from the Silurian

3 04, 2016

Identification Key for Prehistoric Animal Skeleton Set

By Mike|2023-04-17T07:11:39+01:00April 3rd, 2016|Early Years Foundation Reception, Key Stage 1/2|Comments Off on Identification Key for Prehistoric Animal Skeleton Set

Identifying Prehistoric Animal Skeletons

At Everything Dinosaur, we take pride in going that extra mile to support learning. Take for example, our set of twelve prehistoric animal skeletons. These are models of the skeletons of prehistoric animals. These little critters are ideal for use in the school sand pit to help young explorers experience the excitement of digging out their very own dinosaur fossils. The sand play area makes an ideal resource for a topic on dinosaurs and life in the past. Simply bury the prehistoric animal skeletons in the sand and invite the class to become palaeontologists and to have a go at “digging up dinosaurs”.

Prehistoric Animal Skeletons

Using plastic spades and old paint brushes the children can explore the sand area and excavate the plastic models. This is an ideal activity suitable for FS1 (Nursery) through to Year 1 (Lower Key Stage 1).

Digging for Dinosaurs and Fossils Just Like a Palaeontologist

Year 1 and dinosaurs. Digging for dinosaurs in the sand.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the set of twelve dinosaur and prehistoric animal skeletons, find them in this section of the Everything Dinosaur website: Replica Fossils, Dinosaur Themed Crafts and Toys.

Identifying the Models

But what happens if one of the children asks which dinosaur is this? Not to worry Everything Dinosaur has this covered too. We have produced a handy key to help identify the different prehistoric animals in the set, all twelve models can be identified and you don’t need to ask for the services of a senior academic at a Natural History Museum.

Everything Dinosaur has Produced a Helpful Identification Key

A set of assorted prehistoric animal and dinosaur skeletons.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The key can help to identify the twelve different models in the set, we have even provided a useful pronunciation guide. To request a chart simply email Everything Dinosaur: Email Everything Dinosaur.

Extension Ideas

Having dug out the models, the children can use the key to help sort them out, can they divide them into plant-eaters and meat-eaters? For Year 1 children, they can be set the challenge of finding out about each particular prehistoric animal by undertaking some independent research using the internet or library books. Which models represent dinosaurs?

For further information and assistance, visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

3 04, 2016

Euoplocephalus “Well Armoured Head”

By Mike|2023-04-17T07:15:26+01:00April 3rd, 2016|Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

Euoplocephalus tutus – “Well Armoured Head”

The first fossils ascribed to this armoured dinosaur were discovered in 1897 by an expedition mapping the Red Deer River area in Alberta (Canada), led by the famous Canadian palaeontologist Lawrence Lambe. This locality now forms part of the famous Dinosaur Provincial Park Formation of southern Alberta. It was Lambe who named this dinosaur Stereocephalus tutus in 1902, on the basis of a partial skull and five pieces of dermal armour, however the genus name had already been given to a type of beetle from South America that had been named in 1884, so a new genus name was erected in 1910.

Euoplocephalus tutus

Everything Dinosaur’s Scale Drawing of Euoplocephalus tutus

A scale drawing of Euoplocephalus tutus.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

For models and replicas of armoured dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals: Safari Ltd. Wild Safari Prehistoric World Models.

Significant ankylosaurid specimens are relatively much rarer in the Dinosaur Provincial Park Formation when compared to other Ornithischian dinosaurs. Given the robust nature of the bones of these large animals and the amount of tough, dermal armour, this suggests that in the absence of a fossilisation bias, that Ankylosaurs may have inhabited areas that limited the potential for any remains to become fossils, or that these armoured dinosaurs made up only a small proportion of the total dinosaur population at any one time.

Euoplocephalus tutus, is, we at Everything Dinosaur think, the only ankylosaurid known from this formation. A study undertaken in 2003 provided a detailed analysis of Euoplocephalus cranial anatomy providing further evidence that this genus was indeed, distinct from Ankylosaurus. Early research examining the post cranial skeleton of Euoplocephalus identified subtle differences in the shape and size of the bony tail club. Euoplocephalus tail clubs could be grouped into three general categories:

Rounded tail clubs
Bluntly pointed at the end of the club
Elongate tail clubs

Ankylosaur Tail Clubs

The scientist responsible for this study (Coombs 1995) suggested that this individual variation might be accounted for by the fact that as these dinosaurs grew so their tail clubs altered shape. Or it might be to do with allometric factors. When an animal changes shape in response to size changes, it is said to scale allometrically. In a discussion regarding tail club function in the same scientific paper, it was proposed that the tail club would have made a very effective defensive weapon against tyrannosaurids. If the tail club was swung and made contact with an attacking theropod’s ankle joint then it was likely to have broken bones and caused an immense amount of damage.

Last year, Everything Dinosaur wrote a short article on the talented Victoria Arbour, a leading specialist in the study of Ankylosaurs and armoured dinosaurs in general. Thanks to Victoria many young women are looking to palaeontology and other related sciences for a career.

To read more about Victoria’s contribution to our understanding of armoured dinosaurs: Helping to Inspire Young People to Study Earth Sciences

2 04, 2016

JurassicCollectables Reviews the Papo Baryonyx

By Mike|2023-04-17T07:02:47+01:00April 2nd, 2016|Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur Products, Everything Dinosaur videos, Main Page|0 Comments

A Video Review of the Papo Baryonyx by JurassicCollectables

The first of the new for 2016 Papo prehistoric animal models is now in stock at Everything Dinosaur, and those clever people at JurassicCollectables have already produced a very informative video review of this, one of the largest models to be added to the Papo portfolio this year.

Baryonyx Named and Described in 1986

It is twenty years since Baryonyx was formally named and described (Charig and Milner – 1986) and since then, our understanding of the Spinosauridae and the sub-family Baryonychinae, which includes B. walkeri and its closest relatives, has altered quite dramatically. The sculpt, the glossy, “wet look” given to this model and those dermal spines have certainly intrigued dinosaur model fans and divided opinions but it cannot be doubted that the model definitely has the look of a Papo replica about it.

The Video Review of the New for 2016 Papo Baryonyx Dinosaur Model

Video credit: JurassicCollectables

In this short video, (the video lasts for eight and a quarter minutes), the narrator guides the viewer over some of the finer points of this new replica – the attention to detail around the skull, the superb paintwork on the inside of the cavernous jaws (notwithstanding the rather too white of the dentition) and so forth.

A Video Review

JurassicCollectables show this new model from a number of angles, this really gives the viewer and any would-be model collector the opportunity to appreciate this replica and to make a proper assessment of it. This is so much better than having to rely on just photographs. The size of the new Papo Baryonyx can be appreciated when it is compared next to the classic Papo Spinosaurus and the now, ever so rare, green standing Tyrannosaurus rex figure (also Papo).

To see the range of Papo prehistoric animals available from Everything Dinosaur (including the Papo Baryonyx dinosaur model): Papo Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Papo Baryonyx Dinosaur Model

In the video, the Papo Baryonyx model has a tripodal stance (the hind feet and the tail resting on the ground), this too has irked some model collectors and at Everything Dinosaur we have tried to find models that balance on their hind feet for collectors, although this has not always been possible. Hopefully, given the fact that a number of Papo Theropods also have a tripodal stance this will not detract too much from the overall enjoyment of the model.

JurassicCollectables have produced video reviews of every prehistoric animal replica that Papo have made, to see these videos and to subscribe to their excellent YouTube channel: Subscribe to JurassicCollectables on YouTube

The Papo Baryonyx Dinosaur Model

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

There is much to be admired about this new Papo dinosaur. We suspect that it will prove to be very popular with collectors and dinosaur fans alike, but it will, no doubt have its detractors. We shall see what reviews and feedback we get from our customers and we look forward to welcoming into our warehouse the rest of the new for 2016 Papo dinosaur and prehistoric animal models.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

1 04, 2016

Preview of the New Prehistoric Times (Spring 2016)

By Mike|2024-01-01T17:26:36+00:00April 1st, 2016|Dinosaur Fans, Magazine Reviews, Main Page, Prehistoric Times|2 Comments

Prehistoric Times Magazine Previewed

Team members at Everything Dinosaur are looking forward to receiving the next edition of the quarterly magazine ” Prehistoric Times”. Issue 117 (spring 2016), is due to arrive in the next couple of weeks or so and what an exciting edition this promises to be. The two featured prehistoric creatures Carnotaurus and the enigmatic “Bear Dogs” are amongst our favourite prehistoric animals preserved in the fossil record, we expect it to be jam-packed with lots of amazing reader submitted artwork showcasing “meat-eating bull” and all things Amphicyonidae – the correct term for the “Bear Dog” taxonomic family.

The Front Cover of Prehistoric Times – Spring 2016

The front cover of the next edition of “Prehistoric Times” magazine.

Picture credit: Mike Fredericks (Prehistoric Times)

For further information on Prehistoric Times and to subscribe to this magazine: Visit Prehistoric Times Website

“Prehistoric Times”

Inside, readers will find updates on dinosaur and other fossil discoveries, reviews of the latest dinosaur books, plus an interview with American freelance researcher, author and illustrator Greg Paul. On the subject of great artists, issue 117 will conclude the special two-part feature on Zdeněk Burian, a man regarded by many as one of the pioneers of modern palaeoart. Don’t forget to check out Tracy L. Ford’s amazing article on feathered members of the Dinosauria, it’s bound to be compulsive reading.

Also a Digital Magazine

“Prehistoric Times” is also available as a digital download for your favourite mobile device. Handy dinosaurs downloaded to your phone, laptop, tablet etc.

Amongst the book reviews, new prehistoric animal models and model making tips there will be a special feature on the the Philadelphia Museum of Natural Science, so much is crammed into the sixty or so pages it’s like looking at an over stuffed vertebrate collections draw at the Natural History Museum.

The spring edition of “Prehistoric Times” magazine should be with us in a few days, we can’t wait, bags I get first read!

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.