All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
4 10, 2016

New Safari Ltd Prehistoric Animal Models 2017

By |2023-05-07T17:13:58+01:00October 4th, 2016|Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur Products, Main Page, Press Releases|0 Comments

Thirteen Prehistoric Animal Models from Safari Ltd for 2017

Over the last fourteen days or so, lots of forums, blogs and other platforms have been busy discussing the new for 2017 prehistoric animal models to be released by Safari Ltd.  At Everything Dinosaur, we are well aware of what has been going on and we have tended to step aside from all the hyperbole for the moment and concentrate on other projects.  However, with the management of Safari Ltd drip feeding various snippets of information, we do appreciate how frustrating this can be for collectors, so in this blog post we will discuss what we know about the new models, their sizes and when they are likely to be in stock at Everything Dinosaur.

A Revised Version of Diplodocus from Safari Ltd for 2017

A Diplodocus dinosaur model.

Safari Ltd will introduce a counter shaded Diplodocus model in 2017.

Wild Safari Prehistoric World

The only sauropod included in the new for 2017 replicas is a rather splendid model of Diplodocus, complete with whip-like tail, counter shading and dermal spikes.  This impressive model measures 45 cm from nose to that curled up tail and the head is a fraction under 11. 5 cm high.  It replaces the now long retired, Carnegie Collectibles Diplodocus replica, which was the longest dinosaur model that Safari Ltd had ever produced.  This model measured just under sixty centimetres in length (what a whopper), some of these replicas are still available from Everything Dinosaur, but stocks are running low and once they are gone, they’re gone!

To view the Safari Ltd prehistoric animal models: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Figures.

New for 2017 Prehistoric Animal Models

On the subject of counter shading, the dinosaur at the centre of the counter shading debate in the Dinosauria, Psittacosaurus, is also one of the new for 2017 models.  The introduction of a Psittacosaurus reflects a trend from Safari Ltd to replace those prehistoric animals once represented by Carnegie scale replicas hence the introduction of a new Tylosaurus, Microraptor, Giganotosaurus, Kronosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus, Parasaurolophus and so forth (don’t worry a full list will be published in this article, promise).

Ironically, the spotted look of the Safari Ltd model seems a world away from the latest Psittacosaurus interpretation.  Never mind, perhaps the Wild Safari Prehistoric World Psittacosaurus represents another species, after all, there are plenty of Psittacosaurus species to pick from, this genus being regarded as the most speciose of all the dinosaur genera.

Spot the Psittacosaurus (New for 2017)

Psittacosaurus dinosaur model.

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Psittacosaurus dinosaur model.

To read an article which reveals the latest research into the colouration of Psittacosaurus: Calculating the Colour of Psittacosaurus.  It is good to see a model of Psittacosaurus back in the Safari Ltd fold (excluding the Psittacosaurus replica available in the feathered dinosaur toob), the original Carnegie Collectibles 1:10 scale model was retired more than twelve years ago.

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Einiosaurus

Joining the Psittacosaurus, is the second representative of the Marginocephalia, a model of the horned dinosaur Einiosaurus.  There has been a trend amongst model manufacturers to extend the range of horned dinosaurs offered, Safari Ltd have been no exception and for the last few years at least one horned dinosaur has been added to their range.  It is very pleasing to see a replica of the centrosaurine Einiosaurus added.  Ironically, this dinosaur was formally named and described some twenty years ago, prior to the big boom in North American ceratopsian discoveries.

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Einiosaurus

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Einiosaurus.

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Einiosaurus replica.

The Full List of Wild Safari Prehistoric World New for 2017 Models

  • Coelophysis (18.25 cm by 6.5 cm high)
  • Deinocheirus (see picture below) measuring 20 cm long and around 7.5 cm high
  • Diplodocus (45 cm long with a head height of around 11.5 cm)
  • Einiosaurus (16.25 cm long by around 6.5 cm head height)
  • Feathered Tyrannosaurus rex (just over 30 cm long with a head height of around 13.5 cm)
  • Feathered Velociraptor (21.5 cm long and with a head height of a little over 7 cm)
  • Giganotosaurus (37 cm long and just over 10 cm tall)
  • Kronosaurus (34.25 cm long by 19.25 cm wide)
  • Microraptor (18 cm long with a wingspan of over 13 cm)
  • Parasaurolophus (19.75 cm by 5.74 cm)
  • Psittacosaurus (13 cm long by 4.5 cm high)
  • Quetzalcoatlus (Pterosaur) with a wingspan of around 22 cm
  • Tylosaurus (just under 24 cm long)

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Deinocheirus Replica

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Deinocheirus.

Wild Safari Prehistoric World Deinocheirus replica.

The shaggy coated Deinocheirus replica concludes our current look at the latest editions to the Wild Safari Prehistoric World portfolio.  We expect all these models to be in stock at Everything Dinosaur by January 2017 (possibly a little sooner).

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: The Everything Dinosaur Website.

4 10, 2016

Big Blue Dinosaur Spotted at Three Peaks Academy

By |2023-05-07T17:04:59+01:00October 4th, 2016|Early Years Foundation Reception|Comments Off on Big Blue Dinosaur Spotted at Three Peaks Academy

There’s a Dinosaur Behind You!

Another busy morning for a member of the teaching team at Everything Dinosaur.  Today, it was an early start and off to Three Peaks Academy in the sunny West Midlands to work with two classes of eager Reception children.  The children had only just started attending the school for the entire school day and their first ever term topic is dinosaurs.  The budding young palaeontologists had already excavated some dinosaur bones and built a safe play area for the prehistoric animal models that had taken up residence in the well-appointed classrooms.

Lots of super listening skills on display and both classes were able to beat our fossil expert in the ammonite fish catching game, so that means stickers all round.

For creative, dinosaur themed toys and games: Dinosaur Toys and Gifts.

Lurking at the back of the spacious hall, the location for today’s dinosaur workshops with the Reception classes, was a huge, blue dinosaur.  Our dinosaur expert thinks that none of the children spotted the dinosaur, even the teacher looked surprised when she was informed.  Can you spot a blue dinosaur?

A Big Blue Dinosaur Spotted at Three Peaks Academy

School hall has a dinosaur in a mural.

A mural that features a big, blue dinosaur in a school hall.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

A Big, Blue Dinosaur

Can the children work out what the dinosaur’s name might be?  It’s not a Lexovisaurus or a Liliensternus that’s for sure, two dinosaurs that we discussed with Lexie and Lilly, promising to email over pictures of the dinosaurs that have similar names to their own.  What food did this big blue dinosaur eat?  Perhaps the dinosaur themed word mats that we provided as extension materials along with the other resources we sent to the teacher, could provide a clue.

During our dinosaur workshop with each Reception class we challenged the children to have a go at drawing their very own dinosaur.  Our dinosaur expert wanted to see lots of colourful pictures and could the children label their dinosaur’s body parts, especially the skull?

Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

3 10, 2016

Dinosaurs Copied Triassic Reptiles

By |2023-05-07T16:52:11+01:00October 3rd, 2016|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

Triassic Reptile Shows Example of Convergent Evolution with Dinosaurs

A team of scientists including researchers from Virginia Tech College of Science and the University of Chicago have identified a new species of Triassic archosaur (potentially), one that shared some remarkable anatomical characteristics with its much later and very distant relatives, the bone-headed dinosaurs.  The little reptile, fossils of which were excavated from Upper Triassic chalk deposits in Howard County (Texas, USA), has been named Triopticus primus, it’s skull shows a similar shape and morphology to the much later, Late Cretaceous pachycephalosaurid dinosaurs, animals that lived more than 100 million years later.

Triopticus primus

A Graphical Representation Showing Convergence Between Triassic Archosaurs and Later Archosaurs (Dinosauria)

Convergent evolution in Archosaurs.

Triassic archosaurs showed striking similarities to later archosaurs.

Picture credit: Current Biology

Similarities in body plan evolution are relatively common place in the history of animal life on our planet.  For example, the wings of pterosaurs, bats and birds are superficially similar as they are all adapted to providing powered flight.  Icththyosaurs and dolphins have very similar shaped, streamlined bodies, adaptations to a nektonic marine existence.  Surprisingly, the researchers identified numerous additional taxa in the fossil deposits of Howard County (Otis Chalk assemblage from the Dockum Group of Texas), that demonstrate the early acquisition of morphological novelties that were later to appear in other members of the Archosauria, most notably the Dinosauria.

Dominating Terrestrial Environments

Developing similar body plans in Triassic archosaurs, comparable to those seen in later members of this extensive reptilian group, for example, the Dinosauria is not all that of a turn up for the books, when you consider it.  Towards the end of the Triassic the Archosauriformes had established themselves as the dominant terrestrial vertebrates, a position that one specialised group of archosaurs, the Dinosauria, were to take up and not relinquish for another 150 million years or so.

For models and replicas of dinosaurs and other archosaurs: Mojo Prehistoric and Extinct Figures.

A number of authors have challenged some of the conclusions from the paper entitled “A Dome-Headed Stem Archosaur Exemplifies Convergence among Dinosaurs and Their Distant Relatives”, nesting Triopticus primus within the basal Archosauriformes as in the paper, is not without its controversy.  The skull is very different from other archosaurs.  It is only until the likes of the pachycephalosaurid Stegoceras appears in the Late Cretaceous, that archosaurs with such expanded craniums that lack an upper temporal fenestra, that a skull shape like Triopticus is seen again.

Corresponding Author of the Scientific Paper Michelle Stocker and a Cast of the Triopticus Skull

The skull of Triopticus primus.

The skull of the bizarre Late Triassic reptile Triopticus.

Picture credit: Virginia Tech College of Science

Controversial Taxonomy

Although the exact taxonomic affinity of Triopticus is controversial, the Otis Chalk deposits may reveal more examples of convergent evolution.  If Triopticus is classified as a member of the archosaur group, then its fossils may demonstrate that some types of dinosaur evolved body plans very similar to their Triassic-aged relatives.  If this is the case, then early evolution of body plans may have constrained later archosaurs in the type of body plans that they could evolve.

Whatever the relationship to archosaurs, Triopticus primus evolved a very thickened skull, quite what for remains a mystery.

It Looks Like Pachycephalosaurs were not the First “Bone Heads”

CollectA Pachycephalosaurus model.

A lithe Pachycephalosaurus dinosaur model.

Picture aredit: Everything Dinosaur

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

2 10, 2016

The Extremes of Tetrapod Forelimb Modification

By |2023-05-07T16:45:39+01:00October 2nd, 2016|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|0 Comments

You Have Just Got to Hand it to Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus

A team of international scientists including researchers from a number of eminent American scientific institutions (Stony Brook University, The Dinosaur Institute at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum and the Natural History Museum of Utah, have published a remarkable description of a Late Triassic, diapsid reptile that overturns the rule book when it comes to tetrapod limbs.

Writing in the journal ” Current Biology”, the small-bodied, possible arboreal, reptile called Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus had the most astonishing forelimbs, the configuration of the bones that make up the forelimb are quite unlike anything previously seen.

Forelimb Specimens of Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus from the Chinle Formation (New Mexico)

Drepanosaurus  forelimb fossils and an illustration.

Forelimb specimens of Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus from the Zorzino Limestone and Chinle Formation.

Picture credit: Current Biology

Upsetting the Tetrapod Blueprint

Tetrapods, in essence all four-limbed vertebrates and that includes us, have shown remarkable consistency in the structure and anatomy of their limbs over the 375 million years or so since the very first tetrapods evolved (Late Devonian).  Tetrapod limbs may have become adapted for all sorts of functions, such as locomotion, climbing, swimming, digging or even manipulation of small objects via being able to pronate the limbs (something that we humans can do very well), but despite this enormous array or functions, the bones of the forelimb have remained largely unchanged.

Most tetrapods have parallel shafts of bone (the radius and ulna), in the forelimb.  The ulna is the medial bone, the radius is the bone furthest away from the centre of the body.  The forelimb bones of D. unguicaudatus are very different.

For replicas and models of prehistoric animals, take a look at the remarkable Rebor range: Rebor Prehistoric Animal Models.

Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus

Examination of a number of specimens excavated from a quarry that forms part of the Petrified Forest Member of the Chinle Formation of northern New Mexico, revealed that this Late Triassic reptile had a flattened, crescent-shaped ulna and shaft-like carpal bones.  The second digit (the index finger if you like), supported an enormous and strongly curved claw somewhat reminiscent of the claw on a Silky Anteater (Cyclopes didactylus).  It has been proposed that the bizarre Drepanosaurus lived in trees and used its long claw and strong arms to rake the bark and to prise insects out of cracks and crevices.

The scientists conclude that the forelimbs of this small reptile (it grew to about sixty centimetres in length, possibly a little more), were adapted to a “hook and pull” niche seen in extant arboreal animals such as the Silky Anteater.  This huge claw gave Drepanosaurus its genus name “sickle lizard”, the claw on the second digit was bigger than the whole of the rest of the hand.

One Very Bizarre Reptile

Named and described in 1979 from a single, badly crushed specimen found in Italy, Drepanosaurus may represent an “experiment” in tetrapod evolution, with this animal adapting to a very specific niche. How specialised Drepanosaurus was has only been revealed following extensive CT scans of more fossils, this time excavated from a site known as Hayden Quarry from northern New Mexico.

An Illustration of Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus

Drepanosaurus Illustrated

An illustration of the strong-limbed, scorpion tailed diapsid Drepanosaurus.

Picture credit: Victor Leshyk

Drepanosaurus has been described as having a bird-like head, on the body of a chameleon with a humped back (possibly to anchor strong back muscles), disproportionately oversized forelimbs and a long tail with a claw on the end (presumably to help the animal gain a grip on a tree branch).  We like to think of Drepanosaurus as a reptilian equivalent of Popeye!

What Would Darwin Think?

Charles Darwin used the similar anatomies found in tetrapod forelimbs to support his idea that all these animals shared a common ancestor.  This biological principle of common, shared traits is called homology. Charles Darwin argued that the consistencies found in the bones and their configuration in four-limbed creatures supported the idea of evolution.  We wonder what the great man would have made of Drepanosaurus?

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

1 10, 2016

Spinosaurus and Pterosaur Prehistoric Scene

By |2023-05-07T16:35:29+01:00October 1st, 2016|Dinosaur Fans, Main Page, Photos of Everything Dinosaur Products|0 Comments

Spinosaurus and Anhanguera Prehistoric Diorama

Our thanks to the very talented Paleo Paul who sent us in a couple of pictures of his latest prehistoric scene that he had created.  A pterosaur looks down on the meal of a Spinosaurus, a giant fish that this sail-backed reptile has just caught for itself.  We really appreciate all the pictures, drawings and images we get sent and yes, we do look at them all and respond to all those that request a reply.

A Prehistoric Scene

A Spinosaurid and Pterosaur Inspired Prehistoric Scene

Cretaceous prehistoric animal scene.

Papo Spinosaurus and Schleich Anhanguera pterosaur models re-painted and modified.

Picture credit: Paleo Paul

The spinosaurid is a re-painted and re-modelled Papo Spinosaurus and very splendid it is too.  The pterosaur flying over the scene is a Schleich Anhanguera replica, which also has had a makeover by Paleo Paul.  It is always a challenge to paint water well and we commend the artist for this excellent effort, the Spinosaurus really does look at home on the shore.

To view the Schleich prehistoric animal model range: Schleich Dinosaur Models.

Paleo Paul Comments

Paleo Paul stated:

“The Spinosaurus has a central nasal crest added in conjunction with later discoveries.  The fish is Xiphactinus from the excellent Pegasus model kits.  All models slightly modified. Really get a buzz out of doing these compositions!”

A Wider Angle View of the Prehistoric Scene

Prehistoric animal model scene.

Papo Spinosaurus and Schleich Anhanguera Pterosaur models re-painted and modified.

Picture credit: Paleo Paul

Thanks for sending in these pictures, we too get a big buzz out of seeing such well-constructed dioramas.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.

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