prehistoric times

40730_Prehistoric_Times_Cover_114.qxp_PT #73 covers 7/7/15 11:43 AM

40730_Prehistoric_Times_114.qxp_Prehistoric Times #73 7/7/15 12:36 PM Page 1

The PT Interview: Sean Cooper. . . . . . . . . . . Liebman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Jurassic World - The Film & the Collectibles Fredericks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Brontosaurus Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

How to Draw Dinosaurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Collectors Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fredericks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Dinosaur Collector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Knol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Wisbech Museum Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Howgate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Interview Matt Mossbrucker T. rex Autopsy . Campagna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

What’s New in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fredericks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Aurochs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Evolution & Ghost Slumber Mtn . . . . . . . . . Debus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Reader Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

World of T. rex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Paleonews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Mesozoic Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fredericks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Marx Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Schaefer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

America’s State Fossils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Telleria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Acrocantho & Sauropelta Models . . . . . . . . . Harrison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Prehistoric Times No. 113 SPRING 2015

Publisher/Editor: Mike Fredericks

145 Bayline Circle, Folsom, Ca 95630-8077

(916) 985-7986 between 8-5 PST M-Fbusiness hours only please.

FAX (916) 985-2481

[email protected]

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app for your phone or computer

PT logo by William Stout Redone above by Thomas Miller

Front cover graphic design by Juan CarlosAlonso

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Table of Contents

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Mike Fredericks

Tracy Ford

John Sibbick

Sean Cooper

Martin Garratt

Mark Hallett

William Stout

Julius Csotonyi

Kevin Hedgpeth

Jorge Blanco

Fabio Pastori

Fred Wierum

Robert Telleria

Trish Burnett

John Goodier

Meg Bernstein

Betty Reid Martin

Zubin Erik Dutta

Chris Srnka

Mike Landry

David Kinney

Jason Ward

John K Patterson

Jim Martinez

Russell J Hawley

Chris DiPiazza

Elijah Hampton

John F Davies

Damir G Martin

Caroline Dreese

Nathan E Rogers

Kurt Miller

Bill Unzen

Paul Passano

Chris Kastner

James Kuether

Daniel Luckeydoo

Ricky Lim

Joschua Knuppe

Andrew Ebbett

Meggy Vodusek

Dean Schaefer

Keith Berdak

Roman Morales

Gabriel Lio

Artists in this issue:

Mike Fredericks

Tracy Ford

Randy Knol

Phil Hore

Allen Debus

Robert Telleria

Tony Campagna

Mike Howgate

Dan Liebman

Mike Kelley

Jan Harrison

Pat Schaeferwww.prehistorictimes.com

Writers in This

4 Prehistoric Times No. 114 SUMMER 2015

“Clearly, these are the bones of a“Clearly, these are the bones of a

Prehistoric Times subscriber.” Prehistoric Times subscriber.” PTPThelps build strong bones 12 ways.helps build strong bones 12 ways.

SSUUBBSSCCRRIIBBEE

TTOODDAAYY!!


How’s it going? It’s your ole’ friend MagicMike XXL here and I have an amazing

Summer issue of PT for you.As usual Juan Carlos Alonso put together our front cover utilizing a beautiful

model of the Spanish, Early Cretaceous dinosaur Concavenator corcovatus sculptedby Sean Cooper and painted by Martin Garratt. To the right is a photo of anothercopy of that model with a different paint scheme, also accomplished by Martin.Some exciting news is that Juan Carlos Alonso has a new dinosaur book coming outin the fall illustrated by him and written by Gregory S Paul. Check out his site:www.alonsopaleo.com. It is titled “Ancient Earth Journal - The Early Cretaceous”Coming in September 2015. Here is a well done video about the book --http://youtu.be/jBtnqACZdyA

But anyway, as I was saying, sculptor Sean Cooper is featured in this issue with aninterview by Dan Liebman of dansdinosaurs.com. Check out Dan’s internet site ashe has just about every dinosaur figure and model for sale including some exclu-sives. And of course I thank Sean for takingthe time from his busy schedule to answerDan’s questions. I hope you all enjoy it.

Long time PT readers will remember thename Tony Campagna, who used to handleso many of our interviews in the mag. He isback! And he has interviewed paleontologistMatthew Mossbrucker, who was recently onthe National Geographic TV special, the “T.rex Autopsy.” Thanks Tony, nice to have youback. Thanks too to Matt for agreeing to bea part of this issue.

Of course wacky Phil Hore is hereto announce the happy news thatBrontosaurus is back and also to tellus the amazing history of Aurochs.The very talented Robert Telleria edu-cates us about all of the U.S. stateofficial fossils and creates a model ofeach, standing on its state. I thank MikeHowgate for showing what just might bethe first prehistoric models ever made.Pat Schaefer is back with a new articleabout Marx toy dinosaurs. Read this arti-cle and then you tell me whether this manis a genius or completely crazy. I think itmight actually be the former becausewho else would think to WEIGH toydinosaurs to determine when theywere manufactured. Dinosaur modelerJan Harrison shows us how to make abeautiful diorama utilizing DaveSilva’s Acrocanthosaurus andSauropelta resin kits. Author Mike Kelley has provided us with a very well writtenstory about T. rex. Of course our regulars Allen Debus, Tracy Ford and Randy Knolsupplied us with interesting articles. Tracy’snew book is a collection of some of his earli-est articles in PT and is reviewed in this issue.

I don’t suppose any of you saw a littleSummer film bythe name of“Jurassic World,”did you? Oh, youdid? I thought Isaw you allthere. Among myusual dinosaurfigure and bookreviews inside Ialso give my lit-tle review of therecently releasedfilm “JurassicWorld” and tellyou all about the related collectibles I have discovered. Ihope you enjoy it all and I see you again with issue #115

in the Fall, when it is much cooler and more comfortable herein California.

Dinotopia artist James Gurney recently finished a coupleof beautiful paintings of tyrannosaurs that appear in the Mayissue of Scientific American magazine. Here's a 5-minuteYouTube video about the story behind the art:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jRmyRoLQWU In thisissue I review his latest DVD for sale on how he illustratedthe tyrannosaurs for the magazine.

MOVING?? PLEASElet us know your newaddress the second you planto move. The magazine isNOT forwarded and it costsus to resend the magazinelater to your new “digs.”Also if you subscribed toPT by sending your pay-ment anywhere exceptdirectly to us, please knowthat we only received a pal-try percentage of that pay-ment. The people you sentthe payment to got the lion’s

share. When you (hopefully) renew your subscription, PLEASE doit by sending your payment directly to us. We are a small businessand could really use your support. Thanks so much to many of youwho have started renewing directly with us. Would the rest of youplease stop your automatic renewal with an internet subscriptionservice? I have been begging some of you for years. Do you want tosee PT flourish or fade away?

ARTISTS! PT does not pay for submissions but many artistswhose work is seen in Prehistoric Times get paying work fromother sources. Please send jpg files of your artwork scanned at300 DPI resolution. Send as an approx 4” jpg with your namein the title of the image--example--Triceratops by JohnSmith.jpg to our e-mail address or send good copies (that youdon’t need returned and that aren’t larger than our 9 x 12 scan-

ner bed) to our mailing address in California. We need your art and info. For #115Pachycephalosaurus & Deinotherium (Deadline Sep 10, 2015) For #116Kentrosaurus & Argentenavis (Deadline Dec 10, 2015) Thank you!

FROM THE EDITORA

d design by Michael Stevens

The Perfect Summer

Wear!!

An interesting, recent set of dinosaur postage

stamps from Spain. Two of the stamps are 3D

when you wear 3D glasses and the Ankylosaurus

has texture to the touch on its back.

PT readers have become very familiar with the fantastic art of pale-

oartist Julius Csotonyi. Julius was kind enough to autograph several

different sheets of a beautiful new set of Canadian stamps that he

painted and send them here to PT.

Sean Cooper’s Concavenator modelpainted ny Martin Garratt

T. rex Autopsy

Artist KevinHedgpeth’s Aurochs, ourfeatured extinct mammal

Prehistoric Times No. 114 SUMMER 2015 5


Hi Mike, I was reading Steyer's book, "TheEarth Before The Dinosaurs," and it struck me!How come, with all the spectacular reptiles andamphibians living during the Permian, the onlyrecent reptile produced as a toy is theDimetrodon? What about Diplocaulus,Eryops, Bunostegos, Scutosaurus, Gorgonopsor Dicynodon. You see how well Papo did theirDimetrodon, imagine what they could do withEdaphosaurus. The reason that I am writing toyou is that I was wondering if you would askthis question of your readers in your next issue.I am sure that I am not the only one crying outfor something different and unique. I amreally interested to hear what they have tosay. YourLoyal Subscriber,Aldon Spencer

Well you know I am always up forany new prehistoric animals made intowell done figures and especially onesthat you don’t see very often (or ever).There have actually been a number offigures of Diplocaulus, Eryops,Edaphosaurus and others over theyears but we can never get too many. Iwill print your letter here and hopethat someone sculpting figures willagree with you/us - editor

I want to point out that hand painteddinosaur toys were not introduced to theworld by Safari's Carnegies as implied in

the article in#113. Therewere paintedT s u k u d a s ,S t a r l u x ,B u l l y l a n dminis, Inpros,O r s e n i g o s ,T i m p o s ,Millers and amultitude ofm i n i a t u r eAsian madeplastic figuresbefore Safarientered thefield, plus fig-ural and toydinos all theway back inthe 1920swere hand

painted. Dinosauriana is full of examples.

I also want to clarify/remind that Invictafigures (and even ROMs) were never "hard toget" as stated in the article. Among the sup-pliers in the 70-80s were various Invicta dis-tributors from Toys R Us, Lionel Playworld,Circus World, and various mom and pop toyshops. In the 80s, Barnes & Noble did anationwide mail order campaign (at the high-est prices anywhere), while education outletsincluding Discovery Toys, Edmund Scientific

and Carolina Biological alsooffered them (at the lowest pricesanywhere). Dozens of Dinosaurs,The Dinosaur Store, DinosaurCatalog, Prehistoric Products,and National WildlifeFederation/Ranger Rick also soldthem. All the big city museumscarried Invictas right into the late1990s. To be sure, they wereubiquitous.

Another supplier of Invictas? Safari Ltd. - even when they offered theirown Carnegies! (source: 1980s catalogs) The business model was clearlyalready proven by Invicta. They showed the market was there - that's whythey are still plentiful today on the secondary market. One issue with Invictawas their mixed message - first they were not toys, then distributors market-ed them as toys, then they were not toys again, etc. Safari Ltd. knew fromthe outset they were in the toy business. They wanted colorful figures in fair-ly active gestures rather than just passive portraits like Invicta's.

The biggest concern with Carnegie was the total abandonment of thestandard 1/40 scale a few years into the range, something not lost on con-sumers prompting Safari to add the scales and remove certain language

M E S O Z O I CM E S O Z O I C

M A I LM A I L

Nice little Tarbosaurus metallic sculpture byAndrey Atuchin. PT thanks Paul McFarland for

sending this photo.

Artist Jorge Blanco sent us this photo ofhis "Euenantiornithes", the oldest record of abird of South America. He made the recon-struction under the direction of Dr FernandoNovas from Argentina (MACN) andProfessor Ismar Carvalho from Brazil(UFRJ). The fossil is about 2 inches long andhas two long feather impressions - tail feath-ers about 2 inches with pigment cells whichgives a total length of 4 inches.


John Sibbick sent us this Jaggermeryx that he illustrated. It was a weird, hoofed,swamp dwelling prehistoric animal from Africa-19mya [Miocene] based upon jaw

fragments which indicated a large snout and lower lip giving it its name afterMick Jagger, the famously large lipped singer of The Rolling Stones.

By Tony Campagna

Apatosaurus herd © John Sibbick -- www.johnsibbick.com


from catalogs a few years back.To date, no company has pro-duced a range of modeldinosaurs (toys?) that are con-sistently scale that are fully sat-isfactory to the world's leadingpaleontologists. Not evenBattat - as you will see in anupcoming article. RobertTelleria, New York

Dear Mike, Yours is a greatmagazine and I hope it contin-ues on. I especially enjoy thatyou not only cover dinosaurs but also the Paleozoic and Cenozoic eras.There were many creatures then as strange and as interesting as thedinosaurs such as the Ice Age Elasmotherium. After reading how the legendof the gryphon started with Sycthian tribes’ interpretation of Protoceratopsskeletons, I started thinking that Elasmotherium may have planted the ideaof the unicorn. The concept of the unicorn as a fierce beast bearing a singlehorn is an ancient one, going back as far as Pliny. But I wonder if the con-cept goes back even further. Elasmotherium carried its nose on its forehead,rather than on the nose like rhinos, and importantly, it was a contemporary

of early humans. I’m going toguess that it was probablyshort-tempered like the extantones, too. It’s just an idea, butfossils have contributed to themythological bestiary, so whynot this one? I wanted to say Ialso enjoy the model build-uparticles and the reader art, as I

build dinosaur kits and the articles helpout. Those articles came in handy when Ibuilt Alchemy Work’s Aurora What-Ifwooly rhinoceros, as this was my first resinkit. Keep up the good work, you and yourstaff! Sincerely, Suzanne Grant, RohnertPark, Ca.

I, too, find it interesting to wonderwhich legendary animals were based

upon the discovery of fossilized bones. Most obvious would be dragons.They could be based upon any number of dinosaurs and/or prehistoricmammals. I like the idea of the cyclops coming from ancient people see-ing an elephant skull as they look like they only have one eye in the cen-ter of their face. Thanks for the kind words, Suzanne - editor

Kretaceous Kinders

We can’t get enough of readers like Daniel Luckeydoo from Saginaw, TX, shown withhis science project on Anomalocaris (which he said he learned about in PT) and enjoying

his latest PT and also sending us his artwork.

“Dinosaur Island” is a new, complete Official DreamwishPlayset!! A set that Marx didn’t make but we wished theyhad - featuring a NEW Line of realistic, plastic dinosaurs!

Includes illustrated box, one-of-a-kind terrain base andmuch more. $299.00 postage paid. Ron Lizorty 6117 Fee

Fee Rd. Hazelwood, Mo. 63042 (314) 731-0584

Caroline Dreese Age 5

Daniel Luckeydoo Age 8

Cretaceous War Zone,Hydra Wars, andPrehistoric Times

Magazine at SuperScience Saturday in the

Museum in Trenton, NewJersey.

More Artwork © Damir G Martin. See “SuperPredator, The World of T. rex” on pages 48 and 49

Caroline DreeseAge 5



1. “Dinosaur Collectibles” price guide co-written and signed by PT editor $492. Linde 1950s Coffee Premium plastic dinosaur figs 7 from Austria. $12ea.3. Rare 8th Linde figure to complete above set: Rare Rhamphorhynchus $454. Marx orig. sm/med 50s/ 60s dinosaur toy figs (green, brown, gray) $5 5. Marx orig. Krono, T-rex (pot-belly or slender) $39, Brontosaurus $34 6. Marx original second series dinos/mammals $12 each, set of 8 - $797. Marx 45mm cavemen (6 diff) $7 ea Marx 6” cavemen (6 diff) $15 ea. 8. Multiple (MPC) dinosaur plastic figures many colors $5-10 each (inquire) 9. JH Miller waxy plastic 50s Tricer, Mammoth/Mastodon or Stego $65 JH Miller Bronto (complete) $79, Rare Pterodactyl (broken feet) $99.JH Miller Rare small Dimetrodon (one broken foot) Stands fine $59

10. Sinclair 1960s green plastic 10” brontosaur bank $2411. Sinclair 1934 Dinosaur book $25 & Sinclair1964 Worlds Fair booklet $1512. Sinclair 60s colorful Hardback “The Exciting World of Dinosaurs” $4413. Sinclair hollow dinosaurs 64 NY World’s Fair dinos in several colors @$3514. Sinclair rare hollow NY Worlds Fair Brontosaurus looking backward $6615. Sinclair album and complete stamps set1935 $35 or 1959 $2016. Sinclair 60s solid Worlds Fair dinos (6 diff. various prices) (bagged set $89)17. Sinclair Oil 1960s dino chrome metal tray $6918. Hollow, dimestore plastic dinos, 60s/70s six different $8 each (see photo)19. SRG Small metal dinosaurs T. rex, Tricer, Tracho, Bronto or Stego $39 ea. SRG sm. Caveman, Dimetrodon or Plesiosaur $59 ea. SRG Large metal Stegosaurus or T. rex $69 each

20. 60’s Japan Porcelain Dimetrodon, Stego, Bronto, T-rex or Protoceratops 5” @$2421. Nabisco silver prehistoric mammal cereal premiums early 1960s $10 ea. All 8 $7522. Nabisco/Fritos dinosaur premiums, gray (60s) $5 each, 1950s green & red $10 ea.23. ROM (Royal Ontario Museum)plastic dinosaur figures. $15 ea, Pteranodon $2524. View Master Prehistoric Animals 1960s comp. 3 reels/booklet nm $2425. 1960s La Brea Wm Otto bronze 3” Saber-toothed cat (short tail) $7926. Ultra Rare Chialu Italian 1950s resin Ankylosaurus figure in great shape $199.27. Teach Me About Prehistoric Animals Flash cards 1960s $4928. Brooke Bonde 60s dinosaur trading album w/ set of cards attached $5929. Pyro white box MIB dinosaur model kits, Proto, Stego, @$3930. Palmer 1960s Mastodon skeleton or Brontosaurus skeleton $39 each MIB 31. Marx Linemar 1960s one inch metal dinos. T. rex or Brontosaurus $24 ea.32. Golden Funtime 1960s Dinosaur punch out (unpunched in book) $9933. Abbeon 1960s Japan bone china orange Stegosaurus or Dimetrodon 5” - $3934. Timpo (England) 50/60s plastic 4” Dimetrodon (black or red brown) or Triceratops $45PT back issues 31, 33, 41, 42, 52, 66, 74-76, 78, 85, 92-110 $8 each or $12 each foreign. (PT issue prices include shipping)

Please add $6 shipping in U.S. • Call or e-mail me about condition.

Mike Fredericks Prehistoric Times

145 Bayline Cir. Folsom, California 95630-

8077 (916) 985-7986

[email protected]

The PT DinoStoreVintage dinosaur collectibles for sale from PT magazine

21. Nabisco cereal prehistoricmammals

13. Sinclair hollow dinosaurs

25. ROM plastic dinos 7. 6 inch Marx large cavemen

11. 1934 Book

26.Chialu

Ankylosaur

16. Sinclair 1959 Oildino stamps & album

32. 1960s GoldenDinosaur funtimepunch out in book

22. Nabisco dinos

24. 60’s Viewmaster

30. Palmer

20. 1960sJapan


2&3. Linde

8. MPCMultiple dinos

18. hollow dinos

10. Sinclair banks

16. Sinclair bagged set

19. SRG

1. Collectiblesbook

27. Flash cards28. Brooke Bond

17. Sinclair chrometray 1960s

19. JH Millersmall Dimetrodon

25. Wm OttoSabertooth

30. Palmer

31. MarxLinemar tinymetal T. rex

33. AbbeonDimetro &

Stego

9. MillerPterodactyl

13. Sinclair1960s hard-

back

34. TimpoDimetrodon or

Triceratops


Dan Liebman: Tell us a little about how your business “Paleocraft” cameto be.

Sean Cooper: First Dan, I want to thank you and Mike Fredericks for thisopportunity. I hope all the PT readers find this interesting and informative.The ground work for what would later become "Paleocraft" the businessgoes back about 20 years ago in the mid 90's. At that time I was making fan-tasy, sci-fi, and prehistoric themed sculptures, mainly because it was justsomething I was interested in and enjoyed doing, rather than for any com-mercial intentions. The internet had just recently exploded and through thatI had discovered Super Sculpey. Prior to Super Sculpey any sculpting I hadattempted had alwaysbeen with either plas-ticine clays or waxes.Super Sculpey was agame changer, beingable to make somethingthat could be easilysolidified was fascinat-ing to me. Also throughbrowsing the internet, Ilearned there were entirewebsites, magazines, andindustries devoted tothis. Among those, ourvery own "PrehistoricTimes" Magazine, wherethe earliest of my prehis-toric themed sculpts canbe seen in the "Reader'sArt” section. And it wasthrough PT that Ibecame acquainted withMike Evans at AlchemyWorks. Being able to

n e t -work with the right people is what allowed me to turn a hobby into a busi-ness.

Before utilizing Mike's professional mold making and casting skills I wasattempting to do it myself with mixed results. Without The Alchemy Worksthere probably wouldn't be a Paleocraft because although I could fumblethrough the casting process, I was never able to do it efficiently. Mike and Ihave developed a good working relationship over the years and continue towork together to produce models.

DL: You have some amazing Mesozoic models, but it seems you areuniquely known for other prehistoric fauna, predominantly mammals. How

did this come about?

SC: Well it's true I'm usu-ally associated with theprehistoric mammals andthat's okay. As I men-tioned before they're notmy sole point of interest,but to me, they're just asinteresting and I believedunder represented in theprehistoric model genre.At the time I was gettingstarted with Paleocraftthere were already severalreally good sculptors pro-ducing dinosaur models.The mammals were some-thing I decided to focus onpartly to distinguishmyself and partly to justadd some variety to theindustry. Producing mam-mal models was risky at

THE PT INTERVIEW:

Sculptor Sean Cooperby Dan Liebman of Dansdinosaurs.com

All models built/painted by Martin Garratt

Predation Scene

Machairodus and 3-toedHorse



first because I wasn’t sure just how indemand they'd be. Some are more success-ful than others but most have done well andI don't regret focusing on them.

DL: It’s probably safe to say that you’vemastered the hairiest and scariest of beasts.Do you have any general tips for sculptingfur, and do these abilities translate wellwhen developing feathered theropods?

SC: That's very kind of you to say; I don'tknow if I'd say "mastered" though, I havemade some breakthroughs over the yearsthat lend themselves to creating a success-ful sculpture, at least in regards to fur tex-turing. Sculpting fur is one of those thingsthats hard to make convincing at smallscales. I mean its impossible to sculptevery single hair so at best you have to justtry and create the illusion of fur.

There's lots of different types of fur, lowshag, high shag, course, fine, etc. to namea few. I just recently sculpted a musk ox, which is probably one of the hairi-est creatures to have ever existed. They seem to have every type of fur tex-ture there is on some point of their body and are a real challenge to sculpt.For anyone looking to hone their hair sculpting abilities the musk ox wouldbe a good one to practice on. When making the different textures, I used atool made from a bent stick pin. If I had to give any general tips, I'd say usethe tool to make tiny impressions rather than dragging or raking it.Ultimately it just takes practice and a lot of trial and error to get the lookand technique down.

In regards to feathered theropods, I do think that being able to sculpt furdoes often translate to sculpting feathers; at least at small scales, especiallyproto-feathers or the type of feathers you see on ratites like emus andostriches. Of course, flight feathers and tail feathers are different all togeth-er.

DL: Your models show a great deal of attention to the musculature of theanimal. How do you develop the body of an animal that is quite differentfrom extant species, such as a ceratopsid?

SC: Well a lot of it is just educated guess work. I think its important to payclose attention to the actual skeleton when creating the armature and makenote of where muscles would attach. Fortunately, Ceratopsian skeletons arewidely represented in the fossil record. However, since we know someextinct animals from only a few bones, maybe a skull if we're lucky, I findit important to reference related species that we have more fossilized evi-dence of. And it's also important to reference and understand the muscula-ture of modern animals. Then at the end of the day, since there's no pho-tographs or actual living specimens to go by, the best I can hope for is aplausible, believable reconstruction.

DL: Are there any animals or features that you find especially interestingor challenging to work on?

SC: I guess that would depend on the dayand just how interested I am in the subjectmatter. There's good sculpting days whereI'm focused in and everything sort of goes theway I want and I make great progress andthen there are other days where I can't seemto get anything to work and look right.Symmetry is always a challenge when sculpt-ing, trying to make the left side match theright can be daunting. Getting a unique andinteresting pose in the armature stages can

also be a struggle. Sometimes I findmyself backtracking to change the pose inlater stages of the sculpt, having to redowork is no fun but if that's what it takes tomake it look good then that's what I do.

Any tiny, highly detailed features can bea challenge, like rows of tiny teeth or ahand or paw full of tiny claws. My eyesight isn't what it used to be so I have towear optivisors to help see when sculpting,especially when sculpting the fine details.I think pterosaur wings, or bat type wingscan also be difficult. Making the thin wingmembrane look smooth and uniform overa large span isn't easy.

Sculpting any features of modern ani-mals can also be challenging. There's usu-ally lots of reference material to workfrom but at the same time everyone isfamiliar with how, let's say, an AfricanElephant looks so it's easier to be morecritical of how accurate the sculpture is.Prehistoric mammals can be the same way

since many of them have extant relatives we're all familiar with. Withdinosaurs there's no actual images to go by so its just a matter of what’s amore believable or plausible reconstruction.

DL: Do you have any favorite resources or artistic influences, perhaps evenspecific art that you feel strongly about?

SC: Not specifically, I tend to appreciate most art on some level. I'm notusually critical of other's work and find value in not just the successes butalso in stuff that falls short. And in regards to influences, I think I'm influ-enced in one way or another by everything I see and I try to learn throughthe endeavors of others, even if its just what not to do.

In regards to resources, I'm a long time subscriber of periodicals likeNational Geographic, National Wildlife, Amazing Figure Modeler, and ofcourse Prehistoric Times magazine. I find taxidermy catalogs to be veryuseful. All of the images of eyes, ears, noses, etc. are great to reference. I'malso an avid browser of the internet and like to look up the latest paleonto-logical discoveries and theories. I find search engines very useful. Beingable to quickly find specific images to reference when sculpting is invalu-able. I used to spend hours scouring books and magazine to find just theright image, like the foot of a rhinoceros for example or the horns of a muskox, a task achievable in a matter of seconds through the internet.

DL: I sometimes hear from collectors who are exclusively interested in yourwork. Aside from your obvious high standards, why do you believe you haveso many devout followers?

SC: I've been very fortunate over the years to have gained support from sev-eral collectors, I try to be as loyal to them as they have been to me. If giventhe choice between doing commissions, I'm probably more apt to choose aproject for one of my collectors. They've come to know what to expect from

me and that they can trust I'm not going tosend them something I'm not happy with. It'sgood to work with that kind of familiarity. It'sa lot less stressful once you've already estab-lished that kind of trust. I also have somecommercial clients who have been great sup-porters of my work and always try to givethem equal time.

DL: The market of garage-kit hobbyists andartists is sometimes tricky to navigate, yetyou’ve become known as a beacon of profes-sionalism and reliability. What advice would


Martin Garratt created a beautiful glaze on Sean’s Dunkleosteus

Baryonyx


you offer to other sculptors who maystruggle with managing the businessend of things?

SC: When dealing with modelers,collectors, or other clients I believeit's always important to conduct one-self professionally. I would suggestto anyone wanting to enter theindustry that its very important tomaintain good communication,especially when making a transac-tion from afar. Whether through themail, phone or internet, just a simplemessage saying you received theirorder or payment to reassure themtheir money didn't just disappearinto the oblivion. And if its going totake longer than expected to complete the project or fill the order, send aquick status update. When something comes up and there's a delay mostpeople are understanding as long as you keep them in the loop.

It's important to always keep improving or honing your skills, produce aquality product and you'll gain repeat customers. And moreover its veryimportant to self promote and get your name out there, advertise whereyou'll reach the largest audience. The Garage-Model business is sort of aniche industry, so it's important to utilize the resources available. The inter-net is invaluable so create a user friendly website that showcases your work,follow the online forums and network with related sites.

Another thing I'd suggest, in regards to shipping, is to make sure to packeverything extra secure. There's an art to packing things to ship and noteveryone does it well. There's nothing more frustrating to a modeler or col-lector than to receive their item or items damaged; frustrating on both ends.I've had pretty good luck but every now and then something I've sent willget broken. And when that happensI'd say be prepared to replace or fix itat your expense. I'd rather lose a littlemoney having another cast made, orspend time fixing a sculpt than to losea customer.

DL: Are there any species or subjectsthat you’ve wanted to sculpt, but haveyet to tackle?

SC: I have been threatening to sculpta Short-Face Bear for some time now.I've had many requests and inquiriesin recent years of its availability inmodel form. I've started to sculpt it afew times but always seem to haveother more pressing projects come upso I keep pushing it back. There are alot of Pleistocene mammal fans outthere that would like to see that model produced. I'd also like to eventuallysculpt a Mastodon, another common Pleistocene mammal and maybe someother prehistoric elephants as well. And although not a species nor even areal creature, I'd like to maybe sculpt and produce a dragon model since I'malso a fan of the Fantasy genre.

DL: You have become a particular favorite for commissions, not merely forcommercial producers, but for personal collectors who just want a singleoriginal sculpt for themselves. What should people know before they con-tact you, if they intend to commission a piece from you?

SC: I feel very fortunate that my sculpting work is often desired by bothcollectors and commercial producers alike. Time and energy is always thebiggest factor when deciding to take on new projects. Sometimes I just have

to clear my plate and finish up existingprojects or honor prior commitmentsbefore I'll agree to do more. I like totake short breaks between projects soas not to get burned out and I try not towork on too many projects at one time.I like to focus in on individual sculptsand give them the time and attentionthey deserve to be successful. I tend tostay away from the really large sculpts,sculptures that are difficult to fit intoan oven and have to be made in seg-ments, or projects that are really heavyand awkward to handle. And equallyI'm not particularly interested in thereally small scales that require magni-fying lenses and tweezers to work on.Fortunately at any given time I seem to

have several projects either in the works or in the hopper. And as far asfuture commissions go, we just have to evaluate those as they present them-selves. For anyone serious about a commission they can always email me sowe can discuss it, I try to answer any and all emails as quickly as I can.

DL: I am surprised whenever an artist is ambivalent to the idea of keepinga personal casting of their own work. Are there any models that hold a spe-cial place in your heart?

SC: In regards to keeping castings or copies of my work, that's really notthat important to me. Over the years I've accumulated so much that my workroom is just littered with stuff, I have no place to put it all; my shelves arefull. The idea of hoarding more things, to collect dust on the shelf orinevitably end up in a box in storage, just doesn't appeal to me. I'm a bit ofa minimalist at heart and am usually content just knowing copies of my

work exist in the possession of seri-ous collectors. Every now and thenI'll sculpt something that I really likeor feel would be good to have as ref-erence for future projects. A fewyears ago I sculpted a Coelocanth fishfor a commercial client in Japan, itwas heavily detailed and took me sev-eral attempts at the scales to get it towhere I thought it was right. Once itwas finished I was very pleased withthe outcome and was happy to receivea complimentary copy to hold on to. Ialso have T-rex/Triceratops modelpainted by Steve Riojas that I'm proudof. I sculpted the original about tenyears ago and it still remains one ofmy more popular models.

DL: What should we do for a futurecommission? Have you been getting any specific requests lately that weshould consider?

SC: Well that's always the question, what should we do next, what's the lat-est and greatest subject matter that modelers want to see? I mentioned ear-lier that I occasionally get the short-face bear request but I'd think you'reprobably more in tune with what hobbyists want since you sell a much widerdiversity of models than me. I know you can't go wrong with the predators.Modelers love teeth and claws.

Sean Cooper: [email protected] www.paleocraft.comDan Liebman: Dansdinosaurs.comThanks to both above and Garratt Martin and Marilyn Price

Diabloceratops by Sean Cooper sold exclusively atDansdinosaurs.com

New Gorgosaurus vs.Pachyrhinosaurus modelby Sean Cooper & paint-ed by Martin Garratt, andit's a DansDinosaurs.com

exclusive.



By now, you are likely aware that the Jurassic World film broke all ticket sales records bringing in over $224 million dollars in its openingweekend. For its second weekend it grossed the second highest amount ofall time. By the third weekend it was still number one and had grossed$500 million. I am so glad that people still enjoy dinosaurs so much. (I justwish one of those millions would trickle into Prehistoric Times magazinesubscriptions.) For the two or three of you who have yet to see this movie,

I warn you that there are many spoilers in this arti-cle.

Although I alreadymentioned in the lastPT that I was nothappy with the ideathat Chris Pratt’s char-acter “has a relation-ship” with theVelociraptors andtherefore has “some”control over them, myoverall review of themovie is this - “plentyof dinosaurs and plen-ty of action; what morecould you ask for froma Jurassic Park film?”That’s it! I’ve watched

it several times invery crowded the-aters and each timethe audience rose up and clapped at theend.

The movie starts out with the twonephews of Ron Howard’s daughtercoming to visit Jurassic World, a parkstocked with living prehistoric animals;thanks to genetic science. Their aunt istoo busy to meet them in person andsends her British super model assistantto greet them and get them set up intheir hotel. (Notice she is reading Dr. Malcolm’s(Jeff Goldblum) book (Chaos Theory?) while onthe people mover. I won’t make any joke aboutsuper models not understanding his book; ormaybe I just did. We also see the book later in thecontrol room.)

We soon learn that Chris Pratt’s character worksat the park as the “raptor trainer.” We also find outthat the scientists at the park have geneticallyengineered a totally new meat-eating dinosaur thatthey name “Indominus rex.” (I like that Chris’s

character laughs at the name when hefirst hears it.) When Chris finds out, hethinks this is a bad idea and of course,

he could not bemore right. We

soon get to see animpressively over-sized mosasaur

eat a great white shark and are teased with a T. rex eatinga goat off camera. We also see a dinosaur petting zoo in which

young children and young herbivorous dinosaurs frolick together.There is a great scene where the boys in their gyro-car are surrounded by

harmless “veggie-saurs” - Triceratops, sauropods, Stegosaurus andParasaurolophus.

Well of course the Indominus rex escapes its penand begins terrorizing the Park including the boys intheir gyro vehicle. We learn and see that it can camou-flage itself like its surroundings thanks to cuttlefishDNA that the scientists supplied (remember thischameleon-like ability was explored in the thirdJurassic Park movie too.)

A dome-shaped aviary of pterosaurs includingPteranodons and Dimorphodons is breeched allowing

the flying creatures to terrorize the park visitors fora while. Chris andOpie’s daughter res-cue the two boys butare soon confrontedby the Indominus inthe middle of thepark. TheVelociraptors cometo the rescue butaren’t enough tobring the big girldown so they also

enlist the help of the Park’s T. rex. As the T. rex charges theIndominus, there is great symbolism when it crashes through aSpinosaurus skeleton. I’m sure you recall the T. rex in the thirdJurassic Park film was killed by a Spinosaurus and this seems tobe its revenge for T.rexes everywhere,some 14 years later.

The youngerof the nephewshad said that

they needed “more teeth” to defeat the Indominusrex. T. rex was “holding its own” in the fight butcouldn’t quite bring down its adversary. As thefight moves close to the water, the enormous(oversized) mosasaur (Tylosaurus?) noses its wayout of the water, grabs the Indominus with hishuge jaws and pulls it under the water to its doom.The end. Never mind that we saw something sim-ilar in “Walking with Dinosaurs” when theLiopleurodon did the same thing to theEustreptospondylus. Oh, and my apologies to

Baking&

Partyfigures


The Film and the CollectiblesThe Film and the Collectibles

Hasbro makes the action figs.


Bryce Dallas Howard (yes, I knowher name). I couldn’t resist kiddingaround with her some here. Shedoes a good job in the film and allwhile wearing high heels.

Did you like the film? I thoughtit was a pretty good re-tellingof the Jurassic Park tale; thistime with customers in thepark. The movie has taken a lotof flak for not being more sci-entifically accurate with theappearance of its dinosaurs(no feathers on the theropods,some dinosaurs too big andsome too small, tails muchcloser to the ground than inprevious films and more.) ButMichael Chrichton wrote in

his books, and it was discussed in the first threemovies, and it was certainly talked about in thisfilm that these are not real dinosaurs. Dinosaursare gone forever. These are the closest that thescientists could get utilizing partial DNA fromfossilized dinosaurblood found insideinsects trappedinside fossilized

amber plus adding everything from frog DNAto cuttlefish DNA. The dinosaurs were made tolook the way the “Average Joe” would expectthem to look. He might not have paid good moneyto see giant chickens. Yes, I too would like for themto be as realisticas possible, butthis is a plausi-ble explanationfor why theywere not. I wishthey could haveworked in a fewdinosaurs neverseen in aJurassic Parkmovie before however. Indominus doesn’t count!For instance, how about our cover dinosaurConcavenator to pop up in the park at one point? I think it could be a crowdpleaser. And that, of course, is just one of hundreds of possibilities.

Well, a cornucopia (I like that word) of Jurassic World related collectibleshave come out this summer. Of course movie theaters have some niceposters and dinosaur drinking cups and popcorn buckets. Barbasol shaving

cream offers some specially decorated

cans for the film. Dairy Queenwas offering special desserts inJW cups. Mike and Ike waschanged to a Jurassic World

candy. There were also JurassicWorld fruit snacks that I showedin the last issue of PT.

Walmart stores offer manyexclusive toys based upon thefilm. There are more than a dozen diecast toy vehicle sets from Matchboxthat only Walmart sells. Another Walmart exclusive are the tiny little plasticdinosaur figures they offer in bags. (There were similar dinosaur figuresbased upon the “Walking with Dinosaurs 3D” movie last year.) You can buybags that hold just one figure and take your chances trying to complete a setor you can buy the 15 figure bag that gives you the complete set includingthe exclusive Indominus rex. There are color variations however for the

completist collector. These figures alsocome three per tube where you can seeexactly what you are getting. Look forthe rare metallic colored dinos. I haveSpinosaurus and Stegosaurus in metal-lic paint.

Super Walmarts (with grocery storesinside) also have pizzas in JurassicWorld packaging. There are four differ-ent pizzas to buy to get the complete

four card set of Jurassic World trading cards that came inside each box.

Hasbro again has the action figure license. The Hasbro Jurassic WorldIndominus rex vs. Ankylosaurus set with gyroshere is a Target Exclusive asis the Hasbro Jurassic WorldVelociraptor set with Echo,Delta, Charlie, and Blue TargetExclusive Figures. (No oneelse offers a Blue figure.) TheHasbro Jurassic WorldIndominus rex HeroMashers is only sold at

Target. The Jurassic WorldBrawlasaurs Dino 5 Pack isan exclusive figure set fromToys R Us.

There are a number of JurassicWorld Lego sets. Toys R Us had aday in June for kids to come intothe store and receive a free LegoJurassic World exclusive front gateto build. It was not sold in stores.That should be a nice collectible.There are remote control JurassicWorld vehicles and Jurassic World

video games, JW children’sbooks, backpacks, T-shirts,Playskool Heroes JW dinos andalso a Jurassic WorldMonopoly game. Of course I’llbe first in line for the JurassicWorld BluRay DVD in a fewmonths. I’m sure there is muchmore out there. Please let usknow what good collectiblesyou find and what you thoughtof the movie. Will you get inline for Jurassic World 2 some-day?


plush figures

Exclusive Toys R Us Lego JWgate given free to customers.

Pizza box (left) plus 4 card set (above)

Hasbro Velociraptorchomping head

MetallicminiSpino


Normally we would have a story here, so please indulge me a little as Irecount my encounter with one of the most important storytellers in paleon-tology. Let me begin by explaining how I got into trouble when I visitedYale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History in Connecticut. The dinosaurhall there is top notch (if a little dated), and the prehistoric mammal displayis nice, but the real reason you visit the Peabody is for its mural—its spec-tacular, world-renowned mural.

As a child I was the proud possessor (and still am) of a Golden Circlebook called Dinosaurs and Their Prehistoric Relatives. Unlike most of thedinosaur books today, which are full of technical explanations and scientificphotographs of dinosaur skeletons, this book contained tales of day-to-daylife told by skilled storytellers. By far my favorite was the attack of an

Allosaurus on a Brontosaurus we highlighted in part one, and as great as thestories were, it was the art that really made this book special.

Born in Siberia, Rudolph Franz Zallinger attended Yale’s School of Fine

Arts during the Great Depression. Here he studied not only art, but alsoanatomy and paleontology. This final course was to help him complete a jobYale had asked him to do: paint the 110-foot bare wall above the museum’sdinosaur hall.

Although many of us believe The Age of Reptiles mural is his mostfamous work, Zallinger also created during this time what is arguably oneof the most important scientific illustrations in the world, the image depict-ing human evolution from the monkeys, called The March of Progress.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_Progress#/media/File:The_March_of_Progress.jpg

I was photographing The Age of Reptiles mural when I got in trouble fortaking too many pictures and perhaps rightfully so (I will agree now thoughI was more than a little miffed at the time) because the museum is very pro-tective of its magnificent mural, which adorns T-shirts, posters, and coffee

by Phil Hore [email protected]

BrontosaurusBrontosaurusPart 2Part 2

© Fred Wierum

© Kurt Miller

© Paul Passano

© Bill Unzen

© Nathan E. Rogers



mugs in its gift shop. The museum depends on a per-centage from these products because it is a private-,not a government-funded institution and fights hardto make sure the painting doesn’t appear on knockoffproducts.

Taking nearly three years and completed in 1947,the mural was painted in the Renaissance frescosecco technique. This required the pigments to beapplied to wet plaster, making them durable and cre-ating depth. The painting was also carefully plottedas a “panorama of time” to tell a story, with the old-est environments and animals at the far left of themural merging into the younger ones on the far right.

Far from just a painting, there is layer upon layerof information within the composition of the image.First, it is separated into individual times, with thesize of each era corresponding to the length of wall the images cover. Eachof these eras is divided by a large tree in the foreground, creating biologicalpanels if you will, while the animals themselves depict life the way it wasbelieved to have been at the time. This means the dinosaurs are sluggish and

reptilian looking, withBrontosaurus sitting in aswamp to support its enor-mous bulk. Today we under-stand most dinosaurs werequick, bird-like creatures,whereas the sauropods liveda lifestyle more like that ofan elephant.

There are other Zallingerpieces throughout the muse-um as well. Almost asimpress iveas the mainmural is theAge ofM a m m a l s ,which picksup the storyfrom the endof the

Cretaceous and marches all the way up to the Ice Age. Thereare also individual pieces, some even from my childhoodbook.

It was a great pleasure to see these artworks, but what real-

ly got me excited was a display on how the Age of Reptiles mural was cre-ated. There were original sketches and photos of Zallinger painting the pic-ture, and my seeing these put an even bigger smile on my face. As a kid

growing up in Australia I neverbelieved there’d be any chanceof seeing these things in per-son, and so I encourage you allto visit if you get the chance. Iguarantee you’ll be grinningjust like I did.

And if you ever get to visit,there is a little trick to gettingan unusual view of both thedinosaur hall and the Zallingermural. On the second floor youwill find the hands-on educa-tion center for students, and atthe far end of this room is asmall portal looking out fromthe roof of the hall, giving youa bird’s eye view of the entireroom.

Dinotopia Market Place © James Gurneywww.dinotopia.com

© James Kuether

© John K. Patterson

© Ricky Lim

Chris Kastner sculpturebackyardterrors.com


© Julius Csotonyi http://csotonyi.com


To Be or Notto Be

As PT issue112 headed tothe printers,s o m e t h i n gr e m a r k a b l eoccurred. Foryears, nay, fordecades therehas been a pushin paleontologyto teach the gen-eral public that,despite whatthey learned inThe Flintstones,

there was no suchdinosaur asBron tosaurus .The species name

was actuallyApatosaurus. Well,it would appear wewere wrong.

O.C. Marsh suregot it right in 1877when he named

two sauropods that had come out ofWyoming ‘Deceptive Lizard’ becausethey had indeed proved to be a trickybunch. What we regarded was onespecies may actually be two, or possi-bly even three.

Apatosaurus was described froman incomplete juvenile, and the“deceptive” part came from the factthat Marsh recognized that the smallbones under the tail (called chevrons)were different “from those of mostknown Dinosaurs in having the supe-rior articular ends of the rami notunited, but separated from each other,as in the Mosasauria…” (“Notice ofNew Dinosaurian Reptiles from the

© Chris Dipiazza

© Jason Ward

© Chris Srnka

© Jorge Blanco

© John F Davies


© Mike Landry

Horizon model kitbuilt/painted by Bruce

Horton

© Betty Reid Martin


Jurassic Formation,” American Journal of Science, Series 3, Vol. 14: 514-516, December 1877).

Two years later Marsh received 25 crates of bones from the MorrisonFormation at Como Bluff, Wyoming. After it was unpacked, he now had analmost complete skeleton of an adult sauropod, and because of the robustsize of the animal, especially when compared to the juvenile Apatosaurusand the far more gracile Diplodocus, he gave his specimen the new nameBrontosaurus excelsus, the ‘lofty thunder lizard’.

Due to the differences in size and the incompleteness of the juvenile,Marsh had missed that both were actually the same species, and theyremained separated until 1903, when Elmer Riggs published an articleclaiming that “the two genera may be regarded as synonymous. As the term‘Apatosaurus’ has priority, ‘Brontosaurus’ will be regarded as a synonym.”

Any confusion over the combining of the two was not helped when a fewyears later the American Museum of Natural History crowned their ownspecimen with a “largely conjectural” reconstructed skull. Based onCamarasaurus, it is important to note that this was not actually aCamarasaurus skull but a created one. It also didn’t help that the AMNHcontinued to call their specimen Brontosaurus until 1912 and that a skull(numbered CM 11162) found in 1909 near a new Apatosaurus skeleton atthe National Dinosaur Monument in Utah had been rejected outrightbecause it was too similar to the smaller Diplodocus. Almost everyonebelieved the beefy Brontosaurus needed an equally beefy head.

One person who did believe the skull was correct was the CarnegieMuseum’s director William H. Holland. When the museum’s new skeletonwent on display, Holland mysteriously left it headless, as though he wasashamed of the discovery, yet refused to conform witheveryone else’s opinion. When the director died in 1934, themuseum finally relented and put a skull on their specimen,but instead of placing their own, correct skull in place, theCarnegie used a cast of a Camarasaurus skull. This mayhave been a reaction to Yale, which had recently mountedMarsh’s original Brontosaurus skeleton with a partly com-posite, partly carved skull of their own, one that differedfrom everyone else’s but was still far more beefy than thosefound on Diplodocus.

Today we know all these skulls were far too robust thanthe correct skull though it would not be until 1979 that thedecision was finally made to start replacing all theCamarasaurus and carved skulls with copies of the correctCM 11162 skull. Finally these displays were correct, andalmost everyone agreed there was only one species of therobust sauropod, Apatosaurus, but that was last century, andthings have changed.

In 2011 an articulated Apatosaurus skull and neck wasunearthed, proving once and for all their heads were far

more Diplodocuslike. The excitingthing was that thisskull proved to benot exactly thesame as CM11162 either,indicating therewere actually twosubspecies. Thiswas not exactlynews to paleon-tologists like Dr.Robert Bakker,

who for years had been trying to savethe name Brontosaurus, because theyrecognized there were enough differ-ences between all the remains to sep-arate them. Bakker’s unpopular andunsupported idea would become verypopular and highly supported in2015 when Emanuel Tschopp,Octavio Mateus, and Roger Bensonreleased a new report. They hadinspected all the known Apatosaurusfossils and found there were enoughdifferences to not only resurrect theoriginal Brontosaurus species, butalso add two subspecies and keepApatosaurus.

From two we went to one and now have five, all sitting inside a singlesubfamily, the Apatosaurinae. This is splitinto two species, Apatosaurus (with A. ajaxand A. louisae) and Brontosaurus (B. excel-sus, B. yahnahpin [Lakota ‘necklace’], andB. parvus). Furthermore all are Diplodocids,meaning they are also closely related toDiplodocus, Barosaurus, and Supersaurus,explaining the similarity of the skulls.

What isn’t often reported though—andsomething I found surprising in myresearch—was that Marsh did not originallyname two sauropods in the 1870s; he namedthree. Although we remember Apatosaurusand Brontosaurus, the first sauropod Marshdescribed was Titanosaurus montanus, aname that would be short lived when it waspointed out there was already a sauropodcalled Titanosaurus, and so Marsh renamedthe specimen Atlantosaurus.

© John Sibbick

www.johnsibbick.com

© John Goodier

© Trish Burnett


© William Stoutwww.williamstout.com

© Elijah Hampton


In 1877 anEnglish teacher liv-ing in Denver wroteto both Marsh andE.D. Cope aboutsome giganticbones he hadunearthed and waslooking to sell.Marsh respondedimmediately bysending one of hiscollectors, Prof.B.F. Mudge, toinspect and buy thefossils. This pur-chase wouldinclude those bonesLakes had alreadysent to Cope, soyou can imaginehow that went overwith Marsh’s opponent.

Later that year Marsh announced “his” discovery:

“THE gigantic Dinosaur, Atlantosaurus montanus,described by the writer in the July number of this Journal,proves to belong to a lower horizon than at first supposed andis really from the upper Jurassic. Additional remains of the typespecimen, moreover, throw considerable light on the structureof this largest of land animals and indicate that it is the repre-sentative of a distinct family, which may be calledAtlantosauridae. . . . The size of the original specimen of A.montanus may be estimated from the femur, which was aboutseven feet in length. If the animal had the proportions of aCrocodile, it was at least eighty feet long.”

Although this species is all but forgotten today, twenty yearsafter its initial description it was still appearing in books andarticles across the globe.

“Belonged to an animal the length of which has been esti-mated at from eighty to a hundred feet. It has been calledAtlantosaurus, on account of its size. This Atlantosaurus musthave been a beast able to sweep down an elephant with a strokeof its tail as a crocodile would a dog. Of all the known land-ani-mals, living or fossil ones, it is the largest, and it is probablethat Nature reached a limit in producing land-animals of this

size” (Popular Science,February 1889).

Marsh would name asecond species A.immanis, and from thefew remains he estimat-ed it was a whopping115 feet long. This waslater scaled back to 80feet, and though heapparently did littlework on thesesauropods after namingthem, they seemed tohave left a lastingimpression since Marshnamed the fossil-richJurassic formation theycame out of theAtlantosaurus beds.For decade after decade

and book after book paleontologists dug around and wrote about the amaz-ing fossils they found in the Atlantosaurus beds, yet for such a famous site,where is it? And who today has heard of it? Well, the answer is a simple onebecause the beds were later renamed the Morrison Formation, arguably themost fertile source of Jurassic dinosaur fossils in the world.

Today Atlantosaurus hangs on by a thread though most who have seen thefew fossils believe they likely belonged to Apatosaurus/Brontosaurus. Whyis this important? Well, on the same page Marsh had describedAtlantosaurus he had also named Apatosaurus, but Atlantosaurus was first,and since the species has still not been entirely discarded, it creates an inter-esting possibility. After a century-long debate over which name has priority,there is a tiny chance any new discovery of the original specimen couldrequire us, at the very least, to dump one of these new subspecies andrename it Atlantosaurus.

To be or not to be! It’s great to have Brontosaurus back, but for how long?Well, that may well be the question!

© David Kinney

© Zubin Erik Dutta

© Mark Hallett

www.hallettpaleoart.com

© Russell J Hawley



Dinosaur Playsets An Illustrated Guide to the Prehistoric Playsets of Marx and MPC

Coming Soon!

Finally! The definitive reference work on the dinosaur playsets from these two iconic companies!

Perhaps the most endearing of dinosaur collectibles to many people are the lines of figures and playsetsproduced by the Louis Marx Toy Company. The figures have attained a near iconic status among collectors of

dinosaur toys and memorabilia. Frequently considered something of a “baby sister” to the Marx dinosaur line isthe series of prehistoric figures and playsets put out by the Multiple Products Corporation (MPC) at roughly thesame time period. Often confused with one another, the dinosaur output of these two companies has shaped the

perception of what these prehistoric beasts were like in the minds of generations of children and adults.

Unfortunately, up to this point there has not been an abundance of detailed information available concerningthese popular lines of prehistoric toys, and much of what is out there can be wildly inaccurate, frustrating, and

confusing to the beginner and serious collector alike. Author Jeff Pfeiffer has compiled this fully illustrated 8 ½x 11-inch volume to help playset enthusiasts navigate the prehistoric output of these two legendary toy

companies. Written with both the novice and seasoned collector in mind, this book starts at the basics, withbrief histories of each company, discussions of the various dinosaur figures and accessories found in these

playsets, and (most significantly) over 175 full color photographs, encompassing most of the boxed dinosaurplaysets, carded sets, and bagged assortments of both Marx and MPC. This represents the most comprehensivework on the prehistoric playsets of these two companies to date. Information is also presented concerning thevarious reissue and knock-off sets that were produced by other companies, such as Toy Street, Spaulding, andWinneco, as well as additional items and games that were directly based on the Marx and/or MPC prehistoric

output. Also included is a handy guide to each playset discussed, with a listing of its contents, year of production, and model number. This is the book that Marx and MPC dinosaur collectors have been waiting for!

Author Jeff Pfeiffer has been an avid collector of Marx and MPC prehistoric playsets for well over a decade. Over the course of that time he has amassed an extensivecollection of playsets from both companies. His passion for dinosaurs began in childhood, when he was given his first set of MPC dinosaur figures as a birthday present,and continues to the present day. Jeff presents Dinosaur Playsets to devotees of the dinosaurs of Marx and MPC as an indispensable tool in their own collecting passions!

The book will be available through Authorhouse.com, and from various online outlets such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.



Sexing Stegosaurs

Determining the sex of dinosaurshas been a daunting task. It had beenspeculated that it was possible todetermine sex in hadrosaurs and someceratopians based on the shape oftheir horns/crests; however that possi-bility has come under scrutiny and hasbeen challenged. One of the dinosaursthat had their sex determined wasProtoceratops. This determinationwas based on the size of the skull, itsshape, and the width of the frill; how-

ever, this theory has been recently challenged. Maiorino, et al.,2015 determined that many of the skulls that were identified asa female, were actually young males that had not matured yet.

There are only a few ways to determine if a specimen wasactually a female; medullary bone (the medullary bone isfound in the center of the bone in female birds and assist in eggproduction), an egg, or an embryo in the body cavity. Malesand females show different morphologies; horns, color, bodysize, and so forth. In some animal clades the males are largerthan the females, whereas in other clades it is the other wayaround.

A new paper published in PLoS determined that with at leastone Stegosaurus species its sexual dimorphism is recogniz-able. Saitta 2015 studied several specimens of Stegosaurusmjosi. This species was first described as Hesperosaurusmjosi, Carpenter, et al., 2001, and was made a junior synonymof Stegosaurus by Maidment, et al. 2008. Personally, I believethey are separate genera, but I’m not totally against its being aStegosaurus species, as should be evident at the end of thisarticle. For the rest of the article I’ll be using Hesperosaurus.

Saitta studied several Hesperosaurus specimens that were

discovered in different localities. He found two different types or morphs ofplates (figure 1). Either there were two different species based on the plates,or there were both males and females at the sites. Skeletally, the two morphsdon’t vary that much. Histologically, both morphs occur in fully-grown indi-viduals. The plates are known from the whole animal, not just individualplates. One morph had rounded plates; the other had more pointed plates.Saitta suggests the rounded plates were from males and the females hadmore pointed plates (figure 2).

There are at least three validspecies of Stegosaurus, dependingon who you believe. Stegosaurusarmatus is the type species ofStegosaurus, and is from the highestMorrison Formation. It has not beenwell described because the type spec-imen is incased in rock hard cementmatrix and is very difficult to pre-pare. When the material ofStegosaurus ungulatus, was found,Marsh decided to focus on thatspecies because the matrix was mucheasier to prepare. Then S. stenopswas discovered, which became theiconic image for Stegosaurus. Thereare a few other species that have beennamed but they are fragmentary. Onesmall genus is Diracodon laticepsand it comes from Albany County,

Wyoming. It is only known from 2 different dentaries and the end of the tailof a juvenile. It might be a valid genus or a juvenile Stegosaurus stenops. Ifit is, then the name of Stegosaurus stenops would be Diracodon (Greek:‘neck-point tooth’).

Out of all the Stegosaurus species, stenops is the most abundant. It hasdistinct plates. At the locality where the first road kill S. stenops was discov-ered, there is a tail of a larger specimen, but the plates are smaller. Couldthis also be a male and female? The largest plates on Stegosaurus are overand just behind the pelvis (figure 4).

The plate tips of S. ungulates has more a point than stenops does. AtDinosaur National Monument there is stegosaur material that ranges frombabies to full adults. What is interesting is that the plates have more a point,more than those found in S. ungulatus, and Bakker and I believe they repre-sent a new species (figure 3 and 4).

H o w t o D r awH o w to D r awDD ii nn oo ss aa uu rr ss

By Tracy Lee Ford [email protected]

Figure 2. Hesperosaurus mjosi sexual dimorphism; A) male, andB) female, after Saitta.


Figure 1. Plates of Hesperosaurus mjosi, A) after Carpenter, etal., 2001; B) after Saitta, 2015.

Figure 3. Plates of Stegosaurus: A) single plate of S. armatus, after Carpenter &Galton, 2001); B) Stegosaurus stenops, after Ostrom & Mcintosh, 1999, Gilmore, 1914,C) Stegosaurus ungulatus, after Ostrom & Mcintosh, 1999, Gilmore, 1914, and D)Stegosaurus nova? from Dinosaur National Monument.


Stegosaurus longispinus is known from frag-mentary material and has extremely long tailspikes. It may be either a genus ofKentrurosaurus or a new genus. It is not aStegosaurus.

More research is needed to either confirm ordeny the sexual dimorphisms in Stegosaurus,and for that matter, ankylosaurs, and the Saittapaper is a good start.

The plates of the female Hesperosaurus arethin, tall and pointed and do resemble those ofother Stegosaurus species, but the more round-ed male’s don’t. It is the female plates that lookmore like Stegosaurus than the males do. Withsuch dynamically different looking plates,placing those specimens into a genus is diffi-cult.

To complicate things even further, at theHowe Quarry in Shell, Wyoming there appearsto be a different stegosaur. Recently the BritishMuseum of Natural History bought a nearlycomplete Stegosaur from the Howe Quarry andthe Sauriermuseum. The stegosaur was named“Sarah”. And its plates are different fromHesperosaurus (figure 5).

However, there is a controversy with thestudy. The specimens were discovered on pri-vate land, and the material is held in privatecollections. There are some North Americanpaleontologists who have a problem with this,and have complained about the speci-mens being held in private collections.Unlike European paleontologists, whodon’t have a problem with privatelyheld specimens, and have a betterworking relationship with private col-lectors, some American paleontolo-gists don’t think any fossil should beheld in private collection. Dr. Padianalso has a problem with the interpreta-tion of the histology used, and I’ll haveto bow to his expertise and his conclu-sions since he is one of the foremostpaleontologists in the study ofdinosaur histology.

There is also another new paper onStegosaurs based on swimming traces.The tracks are of geologically olderspecimens. There are good pes tracksand scratches of the manus. I find itinteresting imagining a swimmingstegosaur.

My book, How to Draw Dinosaurs,volume 1 is now available on Amazon.It is my first 25 articles fromPrehistoric Times magazine and onefrom Dinosaur world.

Watch this space, I will have anoth-er announcement in the next issue ofPrehistoric Times.

Don’tforget to visit my two websites; my orig-inal Dinohunter (http://www.dino-hunter.info) and Paleofile(http://www.paleofile.com).

Paleofile has several areas and aneasy index (just click on the name, andit will take you to the systematic list), oryou can go directly to the systematic list(eggs and ichnology included). Click onthe name in the list, and it will take youto a more compressive listing: genus,species, etymology, holotype (lecto-,para-, etc.), locality, horizon (forma-tion), biostratigraphy (faunal zone ifknown), age, material, and referredmaterial. There will be two faunal lists,one in which you can check your area orany area in the world to see what ani-mals were found there and the other willbe ages. If you’re interested inBiostratigraphy, you can see which ani-mals lived with which at that time fromaround the world.

There are also smaller sections: pale-opathology, histology, extinction,taphonomy, skin, coprolites, etc.Eventually it will be fully illustrated.

The site is now a free site; no sub-scription. I do have a donate button forthose who would like to give money tohelp keep the site going.

Figure 4. Stegosaurus specimens; A-B) Stegosaurus stenops; A) USNM 4934, B) USNM 4714,showing the different sized animals and plates, modified from Gilmore, 1914; C) Stegosaurus ungula-tus, and D) Stegosaurus nova? from Dinosaur National Monument.

Figure 5. Stegosaurus specimens from the Howe Quarry; A(“Lilly”)-B (“Victoria”) Hesperosaurus mjosi, and C) Stegosaur“Sarah” (modified from Siber & Mockli, 2007).



Pick up your copy of thiscomputer disc direct from

the author. Please note it is a PDFformat so you must have Adobe Reader.

The disc sells for $22 including shipping.Contact Joe at [email protected].

Joe accepts Paypal.

With over 2000 full color photos and a wealth of information ondinosaur and prehistoric animal collectibles from the 20th centuryby expert Joe DeMarco and a half dozen other experts, this disc

allows you to also become the expert with just a touch ofyour computer mouse.

Dinosauriana, The Compendium



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ABOVE: Canadian Doug Watson’s vintage certifi-cate he received when he completed his Brooke

Bond Dinosaur card album.

BELOW: In 1993 Trendmasters issuedthis trio of battery-operated toys with

roaring sounds and eyes that light up red.They were packaged on blister cards

with art that traced John Gurche'sDaspletosaurus. The figures themselveswere larger, unlicensed versions of the

ever-popular scale dinosaurs produced byInvicta. Collection of Robert Telleria

ABOVE : In the 1950s/60s, British Shreddies cereal boxes contained oneflat, hard plastic prehistoric animal figure. This photo shows a few of

those figures. It also includes the back of the cardboard cereal box that akid had cut out and started crossing off the figures he had, leaving onlytwo left. I wonder if he ever got that “Fish Lizard” and that “Fin Devil.”

ABOVE & LEFT: The J. H.Miller hollow waxy plastic

Protoceratops is very tough tofind in its normal tan color but Ihad never heard of one in blackuntil I saw one in the collection

of Ron Vasquez (left). Thencollector Jean Marie Leonard ofFrance showed me a photo ofhis (above.) Interestingly, hishas the dinosaur name on thetail where Ron’s figure does

not. Very strange.

BELOW : Remember Mattel’s Creepy Crawlers?You poured plasti-goop into metal molds, heated itup in the “Thingmaker” and rubbery creepy crea-

tures came out. Well, with expansion kits, youcould buy all kinds of molds including prehistoricanimals. Here are two molds of prehistoric mam-

mals and two of marine reptiles.

ABOVE : The complete boxed set of BritishTimpo Collection plastic, 5” prehistoric ani-mal figures from the 1960s/70s. This is thesecond release with the figures in different

colored plastic from the originals. The origi-nal release was slightly painted.

LEFT : The Sinclairdinosaur (DINO) coinbank manufactured by

Hull Pottery ofCrooksville, OH exclu-

sively for the Sinclair OilCorporation. This rare and

expensive 7” tall col-lectible is desireable notonly to dinosaur collec-

tors, but also collectors ofSinclair Oil Memorabilia,Hull Pottery, Coin Banks,and Advertising. It there-fore commands very highprices if you can find one.

LEFT : Rare prehistoric birds salt &pepper shakers made in Japan probably

in the 1960s. Collection of RonVasquez.

BELOW:Here is a recent reproduction of

the Waterhouse HawkinsMegalosaurus. It is a plastercast made by British sculptorRussell Batten and is 20 cm.

long from nose to tail. Russelldevised and ran a ‘Dinosaur

Museum’ in Gloucester Docksfor several years in the 1980’sto 1990’s. From the collection

of Mike Howgate, London, UK



by Randy [email protected]

www.dinosaurcollectorsitea.com

Wild Safari: In Liaoning, northeastern China125 million years ago Yutyrannus wasthe Lord of the Yixian. The Yixian wasthe home of the best documented feath-ered dinosaurs. Safari Ltd gave us theFeathered Dinosaur Toob that includesYixian small theropods Dilong,Beipiaosaurus, Sinornithosaurus, andClaudiopteryx all contemporary withYutyrannus. This year we getYutyrannus, a medium sized tyran-nosauroid that is the largest known feath-ered dinosaur. This game-changing dis-covery raises the possibility that the later tyrannosaurids of North America,like T. rex, would have been feathered. The 2015 Wild Safari is the mostphotogenic release of the year. The figure is covered in gray dino fuzz. Theuse of a dark base under the gray is what gives the feathers their 3D lookthat stands out in photographs. This is a veryeffective painting technique to display the sculp-ture’s level of detailing. The legs have feathered“trousers” and the robust forearms have feath-ered “sleeves.” The scaled skull has a red mid-line crest and two small horns over the front ofthe eyes. The forearms are held palms in withthree strong claws contrasting with the laterpuny arms and two fingers of the larger NorthAmerican tyrannosaurids. The tail is held highand straight and the model is well balanced ontwo feet. You will want to add this to your collec-tion with the Feathered Dinosaur Toob as atten-dants.

Archaeopteryx the Urvogel lived on the arid shores and islands ofGermany's Late Jurassic Solnhofen lagoons. Although known since 1861 itwas not a popular subject for replicas. Artist Zdenek Burian's blue featheredlizard headed version was imitated by Kaiyodo and Bullyland when theycreated their Archaeopteryx figures. The French toy company Papo pro-duced a fantasy version of Archaeopteryx in 2014. The figure is coloredbrown, with blue, red, and white like an exotic pheasant with some bizarrelyimpractical looking wing tip feathers. The head is naked like a modern vul-ture. For 2015, we have the Wild Safari Archaeopteryx incorporating themost recent scientific advances, including colors for the first time. In 2011,melanosomes were identified on the fossil feathers that enable the coloringto be identified. The Wild Safari reconstruction has black tips on the endsof the flight feathers with black and white over the rest of the wing. Theasymmetric shape of the flight feathers is clearly visible. The wings arerounded at the ends and of middle width reminding me of a quail'swingspan. The tail is long with broad feathers. The skull is feathered to thesnout and the jaw is populated with small teeth. The feet have a hyperextendable second toe like raptors and a hind toe is reversed to supportperching. This is an excellent educational tool and with many teachablemoments built into it. It is the most accurate reproduction I have seen.

CollectA’s Deluxe Guidraco is the new release in their extra-large figuresline. While other companies are rushing to release mini figures, CollectAjust works on getting better at being bigger. I had been just nonchalant to thetrend of jaw and other articulation in toys until I saw Guidraco. Guidraco is

a pterosaur from the EarlyCretaceous Liaoning, a popularsource for the best toy figures.Guidraco is interestingbecause of the teeth and themoveable jaw allows you tocheck them out closely. Thereare long and very narrow frontteeth, 8 on top and 9 on the bot-tom, that are intermeshingwhen the jaw closes. These arefollowed by a series of fourmedium-length forward-

curved teeth thatare progressivelysmaller. The remaining teeth are a long row of small pegs grad-ually diminishing in size. The skull supports a large multi-col-ored crest with a rounded top pointing forward. It has a four-footed posture like the old Marx Pteranodon, a near relative.The back feet are webbed; natural for a fish eater. The coveringof pterosaur fuzz is done in a shorebird's black and white. Thefigure is detailed, plausible and the articulated jaw lets youcount the teeth. A unique figure you can only get from

CollectA. Deluxe euryapsids: the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs from

CollectA have a wide selection. Temnodontosaurus was a large, EarlyJurassic ichthyosaur perhaps getting as big as the Late Triassic shonisaurs.It was the top predator of the sea feeding on other marine reptiles. The darkgray body is long, robust and slender. The narrow forefins and hind fins are

roughly the same lengths. It has big eyes and a longslender snout lined with teeth. From fossils we knowichthyosaurs gave live birth with the young birthing tailfirst. This is skillfully included for another CollectAfirst.

Pliosaurus is an homage to the BBC Predator X andthe Invicta pliosaur. The top predator of the LateJurassic seas, it was the largest of the pliosaurs at over40 feet long. The figure appears to be modeled onPliosaurus kevani, there are several recognized species.The open jaws lined with teeth have a crocodile feelwith a hitch in the upper jaw. The smooth dark greenskin on top turns white at the belly. The skin is populat-ed with parasites resembling a hagfish. This is a big fig-ure recalling the old Schleich Kronosaurus but with a

more convincing design and character. The euryapsids had a single temporalfenestra, an opening behind theeye orbit. This model has a depres-sion behind the eye that provides away to introduce the distinctivesignature of the group.

CollectA Popular series gives ustwo horned dinosaurs a chas-mosaurine and a centrosaurinewith the trademark CollectA fringeover the hips. Medusaceratops is

from theJudith Riverformation inMontana andis the oldestknown chas-m o s a u r i n e .The formationsupported oneof the most diverse dinosaur faunas, but fossils are pretty scrappy. Goodskeletons from the formation have yet to be found, so Medusaceratops is

Dinosaur Collector News


Safari Ltd Yutyrannus & Feathered DinosaurToob figs.

Wild Safari Archaeopteryx (in foreground)compared to other Archaeopteryx figures

behind.

CollectA’s Deluxe Guidraco

CollectA Pliosaurus andTemnodontosaurus

CollectA Medusaceratops and Nasutoceratops


reconstructed based on relatives. I like this model. The frill has six scallopswith two outward curving parietals, the brow horns are angled out in acurve. The nose horn is a boss. The parrot-like beak is open with the headraised as if bellowing. The skull is a combination of brown, black and white.The bovine torso is brown with dark stripes. The legs are slender with fivetoes on the manus and four on the pes. The color scheme engages the imag-ination without being garish. Nasutoceratops lived in Utah in theCampanian. The American southwest seems to have developed a fauna dif-ferent from the dinosaurs living in Montana and Canada and the fossils aremore recent. Centrosaurines typically have short frills, prominent nodehorns, and no brow horns. Nasutoceratops has a medium frill, long curvedbrow horns like a Texas longhorn or bison and has a boss in place of a nosehorn. The skull is short with a strong beak. The frill is edged with roundedosteoderms. The skin is scaled, the tail is short and the legs are slender withfive toes in the back and four in front like Medusaceratops. CollectA’sdesigner Anthony Beeson has created another original reconstruction.

GeoWorld: Daspletosaurus was a Late Cretaceous North American tyran-nosaurid. While many of its rela-tives are known to have had feath-ers, all of the fossilized skinknown for North American tyran-nosaurids shows a bare, scaly skin.It is becoming clear that in theCampanian, tyrannosaurids werevery diverse. Daspletosaurus had

a robust body, with a large head and long arms for a tyrannosaurid. TheGeoWorld company captures the long arms. Compared with the GeoWorldAlbertosaurus it is more robustly built with a larger head. The skin has acrocodile appearance with a segmented cuirass descending from the headalong the back. The blue base color is suitable for a child's toy and the firmvinyl seems to be a good medium to hold paint for those who prefer a cus-tom look. A distinctive GeoWorld touch is a crest of filaments along theback of the skull suggesting a display of protofeathers. Like all GeoWorld

figures, it comes witheducational support in theform of unmatched docu-mentation in the packag-ing.

The Universal Picturesfilm Jurassic World hasarrived and many compa-nies are betting they canride the coattails. Therehas been a surge in small

figure sets. Safari Ltd. has dominated the high end of the 2 inch and undermarket niche. Papo releasedan uninspired set last year(and then a second set) andSchleich has 8 new mini fig-ures for 2015, I just obtainedthe Prehistoric Life SceneSetters from SceneArama andWalmart has been selling a setof exclusive Jurassic Worldblind bag figures fromHasbro's Amblin. The

Schleich figures are in the company style. The figures are chubby in the pre-ferred preschool style. When I first saw them I thought there were intendedto be baby versions of the large set. There are no names on the figures, butthey are easy to identify. The Pentaceratops is interesting and rare in thissize. The raptor is missing the toe claw for a Jurassic World feel but hasfeathers on the arms. The Schleich Saichania is much better looking thanthe Amblin ankylosaur that is a splayed belly dragger. There are 12 differentJurassic World figures sold in 15 figure packets. There are at least 3 colorvariations. I think we are supposed to buy the blind bags until we get all thevariants. Amblin is a production company found by Spielberg and doessome of the Jurassic Park franchise tie-in products. The figures are in the

style of the originalHasbro figures so theyare best appreciated bysuspending your disbe-lief. There are somenew figures. Themosasaur has a scal-loped tail, theDimorphodon is theright size to be an accessoryto some of the serious largerscale series, the new allosauris interesting, but then thereis the problematic mutantIndominus rex. The brief onJurassic World describesIndominus as a chimeramade from the recoveredgenes of Giganotosaurus, Rugops, Majungasaurus and Carnotaurus plusbird filler and more. So there are feathers on the arms and spine and the feetare webbed, so it must have been a duck for the bird genes. The arms arelong with long claws. It is ¾ abelisaur and they had 4 fingers but short arms.I guess I could pass it off as an early theropod. I prefer the Amblin figuresto the Hasbro articulated versions. SceneArama sells canned diorama setsfor use at grade school science fairs. They sell a package of figuresDimetrodon, Saltasaurus, Pteranodon, Triceratops, and Tyrannosaurus foruse with their display kits. They are not great figures but original and I likethat they keep the sizes relative, as Dimetrodon is the smaller andTyrannosaurus is bigger. I Hope Jurassic World’s success creates a tide thatfloats all boats.

GeoWorld Daspletosaurus

SceneArama canned diorama

Walmart’s Jurassic Worldtiny figures

Schleich mini figures



In December1868 two fullyladen wagons trun-dled north fromPark Lane inLondon to the townof Wisbech in ruralN o r t hCambridgeshire, in

what must have been ajourney of more than aweek. Their destinationwas the WisbechMuseum, which had beenbuilt in 1846 making itone of the earliest purposebuilt museums inEngland*. Their load,consisting of 51 packages,weighed 15 tons and waspart of the bequest of theReverend Chauncy HareTownshend esquire.Although born inGodalming in Surrey,Townshend owned land inthe Wisbech area anddeveloped such an attach-ment for the town that itbecame the principal ben-eficiary of his will after

the South Kensington Museum in London (known today as the Victoria andAlbert Museum).

It is worth quoting at length the part of his will we are interested in: “…I give and bequeath all the rest of my pictures and water colour drawings andengravings. And my coins and all my books and my original sketches andmy fossils, autographs, rings set with jewels intended to illustrate my geo-logical collections and my collection of dried plants and all other effectsunder the denomination of ‘Curiosities’, objects of antiquity or vertu, to theTrustees or Directors for the time being of ‘The Wisbech Museum’ estab-lished at Wisbech aforesaid, on condition that the same several articles benever sold or exchanged but deposited and kept in the same museum forever under proper regulation and exhibited to the public for the advantage ofthe town and neighbourhood.”**

And that is how it is to this day. The Wisbech Museum, for the small localmuseum that it is, is a gem of a museum. It is preserved in aspic from theearly Victorian period and puts the majority of modern county museums toshame for the range of material it has on display. No modern gimmicky dis-play technique here, just a multitude of specimens.

One display case, however, will be of particular interest to readers of‘Prehistoric Times’ and would reward a detour on any visit to the U.K. beingjust twenty miles north of the fabulous Sedgwick Museum in Cambridge. Ina corner cabinet at the end of the geology gallery on the upper floor is a col-lection of geological curiosities that are unique in the history of palaeontol-ogy - a collection of small scale models of the Crystal Palace ‘GeologicalIllustrations’. The life-sized models erected in Sydenham, South London ofdinosaurs, marine reptiles, Permo-Triassic amphibians, mammal-like rep-tiles and Tertiary and Quaternary mammals are world famous and feature in

just about every ‘DinosaurBook’ ever produced. Theywere, as every P.T. readershould know, designed andsculpted by BenjaminWaterhouse Hawkins underthe direction of ProfessorRichard Owen between1852 and 1854.

Waterhouse Hawkinsalso produced some spin-offs of his ‘GeologicalIllustrations’. Theseincluded a series of six lith-ographic dioramas intendedfor use as teaching aids, twoof which are displayed inthe Huntarian Museum ofthe University of Glasgow,and a series of 1 inch to 1foot plaster models whichwere available for purchaseby museums and collectorsboth in the U.K. and theU.S.A. These were verydetailed and well executedmodels obviously producedby Waterhouse Hawkins tohis exacting standards.Two, the Iguanodon andMegalosaurus are on dis-play in the DinosaurGallery of the Natural

History Museum in London. Others that were produced are a Pterodactyl, aLabyrinthodon a diorama featuring an Ichthyosaurus and two Plesiosaurs(Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus and P. microcephalus). The models were soldby James Tennant at his shop in the Strand in London and were available inthe USA through Professor Henry Ward from whom the full set could behad for a mere thirty dollars.***

Compared to these models the Wisbech Museum examples look likecrude knock-offs. It is like comparing pristine Marx original toy dinosaurfigures with the ubiquitous Hong Kong repros! The Wisbech models alsocome in different materials; some are in cast iron, both hollow and solid,while others are in plaster. The quality of the sculpting varies from more orless accurate to the frankly comical.

Nearly all of the Crystal Palace models were produced, only thePterodactyls, the Mosasaurus, the Anoplotherium group and theMegatherium are missing. But to make up for these there are two extra mod-els, one that Waterhouse Hawkins planned but never produced; a Mammothand what the museum list describes as a giant turtle which is most likely arepresentation of the living Galapagos giant tortoise. The Mammoth has the

tusks curved upwards at the samelevel as the head rather than thedownwards sweep to ankle heightwe know is correct today, but this ishow Waterhouse Hawkins plannedto produce the life-sized model. Areport in the daily newspaper TheObserver for January 7th. 1855notes “We cannot pass over thegigantic mammoth without a word.

This is the last of Mr. Hawkins creations and will probably be the largest.The solid foundations of brick and cement which are to receive him are laidand his model on a scale of an inch to a foot constructed.” ***

How he planned to engineer the tusks in this position is anybody’s guess.But he did manage the giant-sized antlers of the male Megaloceras, the IrishElk, which must have posed a similar problem.

THE WISBECH MUSEUM WATERHOUSEHAWKINS PREHISTORIC MODELSWERE THESE THE FIRST EVER PREHISTORICMODELS?By Mike Howgate



The Wisbech models could not have been reproductions of themaquettes made by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins for the full-sizedmodels he produced in 1852-4. Several of these were produced forJames Tennant who sold these accurate one inch to one foot scale mod-els in both the U.K. and the U.S.A. where his agent was ProfessorHenry Ward. Hawkins was a consummate artist who illustrated CharlesDarwin’s ‘The Zoology of The Voyage of HMS Beagle’ and exhibited hisgroup study ‘Model of the Aurochs’ at the Royal Society.

It seems highly unlikely that he would have allowed such crude casts tobe made for sale. It is more likely that they were-one off models made byhim in order to plan out how the models would fit into the landscape ofthe ‘islands’ they were to adorn. These crude models could be movedaround a model of the proposed landscape to find the most desirable fit.They may also have provided the basis for the ‘Baxter’ print of early1854 which shows some of the models in an imagined ‘CrystalPalace’ landscape and was produced before the Grounds wereopened and some of the models even constructed. The print alsoshows the models in a different arrangement to that in which theywere eventually erected .****

* While it cannot be proved that these models came from theTownshend bequest as there is no documentation to prove it, it doesseem to be the most likely source.** Quotation from ‘A1 Among Country Museums’ published by TheFriends of Wisbech and Fenland Museum in 1985 to celebrate the150th anniversary of the opening of the museum.*** Information from ‘ The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, the story of theWorld’s First Prehistoric Sculptures’ by Steve McCarthy and MikeGilbert published by ‘ The Crystal Palace Foundation’ in 1994.**** To see the print and a discussion of it by Professor Joe Caingo to the website of the ‘Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs’ atcpdinosaurs.org.

Below is a full list of the 25 Wisbech models, both those on displayin the cabinet and those held in storage in three boxes labelled‘Victorian Replicas’.

CRYSTAL PALACE PREHISTORIC ANIMAL MODELSIN THE WISBECH AND FENLAND MUSEUM

Models on display in the corner cabinet of the first floor gallery.(WISFM = Wisbech & Fenland Museum)WISFM: 1999.3.18 Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris. Cast iron hollow model280 mm long.WISFM: 1999. 3.16 Ichthyosaurus communis. Cast iron hollow model420 mm long, with two right fins and the tail broken and repaired.WISFM: 1999. 3.15 Ichthyosaurus platyodon. Cast iron hollowmodel 240 mm long, repaired right fore-fin. WISFM: 1999. 3.19 Iguanodon. Plaster cast 320 mm long, onefore-foot raised and with the distinctive double nasal horn. WISFM: 1999.3.20 Megalosaurus. Plaster cast on a base 420 mmlong, WISFM: 1999. 3.22 Hylaeosaurus. Plaster cast 330 mm long withtriangular spines along the back cut from sheet metal. Label on theside says Iguanodon, presumably because of the nasal horn, but ithas the dorsal spines and distinct knobbly-ness above the eyes ofHylaeosaurus. WISFM: 1999. 3.17 Plesiosaurus. Cast iron (solid) 135 mm long.WISFM: 1999. 3.14 Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus. Cast iron (solid)210 mm long. WISFM: 1999. 3.2 Palaeotherium. Cast iron (solid) 75 mm long. Onmuseum list described as a Tapier.WISFM: 1999. 3.23 Labyrinthodon pachygnathus. Plaster cast 100mm.long. The skin is warty and toad-like.WISFM: 1999. 3.4 Female Irish Elk. Cast Iron 115 mm long. Describedon the museum list as ‘Horse’.WISFM: 1999. 3.6 Male Irish Elk. Cast Iron 100 mm. long. The antlers areinserted into holes drilled into the head.WISFM: 1999. 3.10 Woolly Mammoth. Plaster cast 380 mm long. Hollow

body and upturned tusks.WISFM: 1999. 3.8. Dicynodon. Cast Iron 140mm. long with long tusks and tortoise like shell onback.Models in store – Geology shelf 19

(WISFM = Wisbech & Fenland Museum)Victorian Replicas Box 1:WISFM : 1999.3.9 Dicynodon. Cast iron, hol-low, 140 mm long.WISFM : 1999.3 5 Giant Tortoise? Plaster cast130 mm long. Limbs damaged. Rt. Limbrepaired, others missing. WISFM : 1999. 3.1 Palaeotherium. Cast iron75 mm long. In museum list described as a

Tapier. Victorian Replicas Box 2:WISFM : 1999. 3.25 Labyrinthodon salaman-droides. Plaster cast 140 mm long. With smoothfrog-like skin.WISFM : 1999. 3.13 Plesiosaurus. Cast iron (solid)

152 mm long. WISFM :1999.3.11 Teleosaurus. Cast iron(solid)340 mm long. WISFM : 1999. 3. 12 Teleosaurus. Cast iron (solid)340 mm long. With broken left forelimb.

Victorian Replica Box 3:WISFM : 1999. 3. 21 Iguanodon. Large Plaster cast.with ‘Hylaeosaurus’ (wrongly) scratched on the

underside. WISFM: 1999. 3.7 Irish Elk. Cast iron 100 mm long.Antlers inserted into holes in the head. Left antler twistedout of alignment and with forward pointing prong not cast.WISFM:1999. 3.24 Labyrinthodon pachygnathus. Plastercast 100 mm long. With ‘warty toad-like skin’.WISFM: 1999.3.3 Female Irish Elk. Cast iron 115 mm

long. Described on the museum list as “horse”.

ILLUSTRATIONS:DSCF 4234: The classical entrance of the WisbechMuseum built in 1846.DSCF 4236: The ‘Victorian’ main gallery of theWisbech Museum.DSCF 4239 and 4281 The ‘Crystal Palace’ modelson display in the Geology gallery.DSCF 4243 Iguanodon plaster model WISFM

1999.3.21 in storage which has Hylaeosaurus wronglyscratched on the underside. DSCF 4291 Hylaeosaurus plaster model WISFM1999.3.22 in display case, with sheet metal cut out spinesalong its back wrongly identified as ‘Iguanodon’DSCF 4292 Iguanodon plaster model WISFM 1999.3.19

in display case and wrongly identified as‘Hylaeosaurus’.DSCF 4293 Megalosaurus plaster model WISFM1999.3.20 with cast iron Ichthyosaurus communisWISFM 1999.3. 16 below.DSCF 4265 Cast iron Teleosaurus 1999.3.11 in stor-age. DSCF 4290 Woolly Mammoth plaster model

WISFM 1999 3.10 in display case.DSCF 4283 Male Irish Elk WISFM 1999. 3. 6 in display case.DSCF 4282 Female Irish Elk WISFM 1999. 3. 4 in display case identifiedas Eohippus and on museum list as Horse.DSCF 4278 cast iron Palaeotherium WISFM 1999.3.1 in storage anddescribed on the museum list as a Tapier.



When Matthew T. Mossbrucker isn’t busy dissecting dinosaurs for TheNational Geographic Channel he’s directing the public Morrison NaturalHistory Museum in Morrison, Colorado, home of the type section of thefamous Morrison Formation. www.mnhm.org He also curates the museum'scollections, which are partially a state repository for Colorado fossils. Theflora and fauna of the Morrison remains his particular passion, along withcommunicating science to museum-goers. His work make him something ofa paleontological generalist, studying everything from stegosaurs to lung-fish. With his crew, he's lead the re-excavation at historic Jurassic fossilquarries in Morrison and prepares new material from these sites. We firsttalked about the National Geographic channel’s T. rex Autopsy and thencontinued with a discussion about this issue’s featured dinosaurs

TC: How did you end up pulling out the first T.rex entrails on nationaltelevision? How does a young man working the Morrison end-up dissectingthe king of carnivores from the Cretaceous?

MB: This “Jurassic life” is an unusual one sometimes; like eviscerating arubber meat puppet on global TV. It happened very quickly. British produc-tion company Impossible Factual contacted me in the early spring to film"T.rex Autopsy" for the National Geographic Channel. Once I vetted themthat they weren't in fact making another Mermaids or Megalodon fakumen-tary, I quickly signed on. I felt that folks would be attracted to the gore andcampy nature of the concept, but stick around for real science. I talk to thou-sands of folks every year, and it's always bothered me that some viewdinosaurs as monsters. "T. rex Autopsy" allowed us to showcase thedinosaur's animalhood in an entertaining way.

Not entirely sure how Impossible Factual found me. Previous to “TA”,most of my on camera time revolved around museum outreach to theInternet geek community (who happen to be massive dino geeks. There's alot of overlap). I've worked with Hannah Hart of My Drunk Kitchen, TheHappy Hobbits, several Comic Cons, and The One Ring.net, the leading J.R. R. Tolkien fan club. One of these streaming videos must have caught theeye of somebody at Impossible Factual. Perhaps it was my rhythmlessbreakdancing instructional video? Dunno.

TC: Who made the call to have the "paleo-brat pack" do the show? Whynot all the old familiar faces? Any ideas?

MB: I don't know, Tony. That's above my pay grade. From the looks of it,everyone else was busy with documentaries of their own. Point of fact, the

narrator sayssomething like"..greatest teamof experts..." inthe "T. rexAutopsy" intro,and I keepadding "... were busy, so they called these people." But it's inaccurate to saynone of the old hands appeared during Nat Geo's "Dino Week." I watchedthose specials, and a large swathe of paleo professionals appeared in theother three documentaries airing concurrently. And I'm not sure some of theseasoned pros would have wanted to wade around in the buckets of gore thatwe did.

When it came to the cast of our little show, I'm the junior member, interms of television experience. Luke Gamble had a one season reality showrevolving around his veterinary practice. Paleontologist Steve Brusatte didboth camera work and consulting for the "Walking With Dinosaurs" fran-chise on the BBC. And Paleobiologist Tori Herridge appeared in a showcalled "Mammoth Autopsy." While I have filmed a sizzle reel that wasshopped to about twenty networks, and interviewed with a variety of newsprograms, I've never been in a show before. I think there's a desire at leastat the network level for some young whippersnappers in front of the camera.Everybody else was busy, so I jumped into the rubber carcass with bothboots.

TC: Had you worked with any of the other team members previous to thisevent?

MB: Never! I met Luke and Steve the day before we started shooting, andTori the day of shooting. The project was borderline anarchy, no turningback and no reshooting many scenes due to the syrupy, gory nature of theT.rex. It was exhausting, but great fun. Given the absurdity of the situation,all we could do is have a great time and laugh and joke at our lot. I stillexpect all of us to get matching tattoos at some point.

TC: Did you have to keep it all a secret from everyone? When did youwrap up shooting?

MB: We weren't under any kind of embargo or non disclosure agreement.It was a gentleman's agreement. But to make sure there weren't any inadver-tent leaks, I left my cell phone back in my hotel room. Shooting wrapped inmid April. It was a whirlwind production schedule. Signed on in mid March;cutting up a fake T.rex a month later.

Interview with Paleontologist MatthewMossbrucker of National Geographic

Channel’s T. rex Autopsy by Tony Campagna


MatthewMossbrucker next tohis T. rex Autopsy


TC: As I watched the show each time, Ihad to wonder how many times you all musthave slipped and or fell in all of that"blood"?

MB: It was slick. It was treacherous. Wewere ankle deep in fake corn syrup bloodinside the body cavity of the rex. A scalpelwas lost in there that we never recovered.

TC: Funny stories? Interesting behind thescenes stories?

MB: The TV crew pumped sugar blood all over the T.rex and set by thegallon. It was so sticky, Tori got stuck while reaching into the rex's cloaca. Ihad to pull her out by the ankles. We wore the cheapest medical scrubs andwhite wellies chosen more for their look than comfort. We all had contactbruises from our scrubs fusing to our skin. Peeling them off after fourteenplus hours of shooting was a particular agony. The production team alsomade a maquette, a small scale model of the T.rex. There was no place to putit at the end of a long day's shoot, so it ended up spending the night with mein my hotel room. Insert the salacious joke of your choice here.

She's called Becky, by the way.

TC: What has become of the beast and itsparts now? I think if Nat Geo were smartabout it they'd put it on a traveling exhibit asit is a TV star itself.

MB: I heard they sold it to a casino inMonte Carlo. No doubt, they now have amajor problem with ants. I warned them...

TC: I've read that there was no script.True? You appeared to have very little dia-logue.

MB: Still waters run deep, my friend. They fed us lines, and there wascursory rehearsal. Mostly, we were improvising and sharing our knowledgeon the fly. Given that most scenes were one take, I was still finding my foot-ing on camera.

TC: As a scientist, how did you/the team/the show make calls about notbeing accurate? Example - lots CSI fans, crime show junkies, IZOMBIEviewers, and junior high school biology students, know that you don't dis-sect and animal with such reckless abandon. Why was that the actingchoice? How did you all balance making it "real" and "we're not saying thisis really real"?

MB: As my mentor Dr. Bakker says about a lot of paleo art, "Accuracyschmack-uracy; schlock sells." This was a campy exercise in popular sci-ence education, not an accurate portrayal of a dissection or necropsy. Interms of aesthetics, it has more in common with a slasher film than a "howto" for veterinary procedure. What we were really doing as a team was a lit-tle subversive; disguising teaching, science and critical thinking for the aver-age viewer inside the milieu of a monster movie. We hid the broccoli insidebuttery mashed potatoes so that the kids would eat their vegetables. If youbuy into this joke, it is a great deal of fun. It was "Saw" meets "JurassicPark" with a healthy dollop of "Sharknado."

TC: Any opinion on how social mediaplays into the sciences? There are so manyarmchair paleontologists – some are good,some are TROLLS, and some are profession-als who use FB and Twitter and such to shareand "debate" the sciences, Is it a good thingor not? The openness of it all now?

MB: Social media amplifies voices -- thegood, the bad and the ugly. We live in anInformation Age, but not an EnlightenmentAge. It remains vital that scientists engagethe general populace through TV and social

media. Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies, in terms of outreach andPR.

TC: A little bird (Greg Tally!) told me to ask - What's with the nicknameDr.Sugarbeard?

MB: It's a nickname bestowed upon me by my colleagues at the MorrisonNatural History Museum. I was in illfitting scrubs and by the end of eachday of shooting, my facial hair was caked and knotted with yet more sugarblood. So my friends came up with a teasing nickname of "Dr. Sugarbeard."

I like it. It makes me feel like a Bond villain.

TC: Please tell us about the awesomeviewing party your friends and such threwfor the premiere please!

MB: My wife Colleen as well asMeredith and Greg Tally (owners of adinosaur-themed Best Western near mymuseum) - were rushing and planning anearly impromptu gathering to view "T. rexAutopsy." Colleen ordered a cake from ourlocal Target in Littleton, Colorado and thebaker must have searched the web for "T. rex

Autopsy" because they really outdid themselves. We ended up with a gorylittle cake that was perfect for my museum crew, friends and family. Myfriends and family gathered at the Dino Hotel's restaurant bar called PaleoJoe's to watch together. Perfect setting.

TC: As a Jurassic guy – tell me, How do I identify which of myBronto/Apatosaurus toys/models are which? I am so confused!

MB: From what I've seen they're all a hot mess, my friend. I have yet tobe satisfied with popular models of either dinosaur. I'm still holding out forthe posable action figures of the "T.rex Autopsy" team, replete with a bloodsoaked rex with removable organs.

*This is where the T. rex Autopsy interview ended but as this issue of PTis about Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus I went on to ask a few questionsabout them from Matt; someone in the know.

TC: Matt, this issue focuses on the animal(s) Apatosaurus and/orBrontosaurus. I thought the last big news about its reconstruction wasputting the right head on the animal, but you made an interesting find(when?) dealing with the face of Apatosaurus. What was it and what is itssignificance?

Matthew’s Trex Autopsy viewing party cake

(From l to r) Paleobiologist Tori HerridgePaleontologist Steve Brusatte,

Paleontologist Matthew Mossbrucker,Veterinarian Luke Gamble

Continued on Pg. 37



Sideshow collectibles’ Apatosaurus repaint/variantstatue arrived here for review and is well timed forthis issue. This new version differs mainly in itsprominent banded paint on the neck and tail. It has agreat “water-pattern” striped camouflage paintscheme. Artists Steve Riojas and Anthony Mestasagain did a “bang up job” (that’s a compliment, bythe way) of painting this 43” long sauropod statue.Sculptor Jorge Blanco really created a masterpiecewith his sculpting on this beast. All of the skin tex-ture details, wrinkles and protruding bone structure

is evident and amazingly defined. I like how the groundwork base has manydifferent footprints on it, both from this Apatosaurus and from other passersby. With these repaints, an extra piece of ground work is attached (like withthe Styraco repaint Ireviewed last issue) thatgives the statue a littlemore height. TheApatosaurus is anotherhigh-quality polystone,impressive museumquality piece and isguaranteed to thrilldinosaur enthusiasts.Please go to this site:http://bit.ly/GetApato.Sideshow Collectiblesis gauging theinterest in theirprehistoric animalline by how manypeople visit thissite. Thank you.Price is $359.99

We alsoreceived a secondreview statue fromS i d e s h o wCollectibles. Thisis a new re-paintof their recentlyr e l e a s e dMosasaurus kit

from their acclaimedDinosauria collection.Mosasaurus was a power-ful swimmer, the predatorymarine reptile of the LateCretaceous period. It risesfrom the depths of a seabedteeming with colorfulmarine life. Perhaps in cel-

ebration of the “Jurassic World” moviereleased this summer the Mosasaurus is painted in an amber-colored paintand reptilian brown spotted skin. (Mosasaurus was a star of the film.) Theentire paint job on this new version is completely different from the firstgray-colored mosasaur. Both have their merits and I like them both. AgainJorge Blanco did an amazing job of creating a realistic looking and scientif-ically accurate prehistoric animal here and again Steve Riojas did a wonder-ful job of painting it. Jorge told me the sealife around the Mosasaur is basedupon real fossils of creatures known to have lived then too. It is great thatSideshow is re-releasing much of their Dinosauria line in new paintschemes. This gives people who missed the first run of the statues a secondchance without hurting the collectibility of the first statues which were donein completely different paints. The first Mosasaurus was a run of 1000 edi-tions where this Amber version is only 400. Price is $299.00. Please go tothis site: http://bit.ly/GetMosasaurAmber. Sideshow Collectibles is gaugingthe interest in their prehistoric animal line by how many people visit this

site. Thank you.

Anchiceratops was a chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur thatlived during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what isnow Alberta, Canada. Anchiceratops is also a beautiful 1/10thscale resin model kit sculpted by Darren McDonald. Darren hasdevised a new method for dinosaur skin that is amazing. He also,of course, really researches his subject matter so that all aspectsof his models are scientifically accurate. I think the photos to theleft speak for themselves. This is a resin model kit that requiresassembly with super glue and painting. The length is about 22"long with no base included. Casting is by Russ Mueller, whoreally knows what he is doing so the model will be “clean as awhistle.”

There is a*Prehistoric Times" specialprice good until Sept. 1st.check/money order/PayPal$160 SHIPPED within 48States --$170 SHIPPEDwithin 48 States after that.International shipping is$45. Immediate shipping isavailable (Josh has castingson hand and ready to go).Send payments to: JoshBurch 3625 WilmingtonAve St Louis, Mo [email protected]

What’s NewWhat’s Newin reviewin review

By Mike FredericksBy Mike Fredericks

Prehistorix Dimetrodon base withswamp


Sideshow’s Apatosaurus re-paint.

Two views of Anchiceratopsresin model kit

Sideshow’s re-paint - Amber coloredMosasaurus


I want to introduce you toPrehistorix. We received theMesozoic Hunting GroundAdd On Base fromPrehistorix for the AuroraPrehistoric Scenes Kits. Itincludes; base, smalldinosaur carcass withdetachable leg (for theAurora Allosaurus to munchon. NOW we know why he’sbeen drooling the past 40 years!),carrion eating lizard, small treefern and a broken plant, all in aCollectors Box with instructions.This is a fun resin model kit thatrequires assembly and painting. Itlooks to be in the style and spiritof the old Prehistoric Scenes mod-els by Aurora, just as Prehistorixdesigned it to look. This is a limit-ed edition kit of only 20 and they have sold most ofthose already so hurry. Prehistorix is a busy companywith much new coming on the horizon.

Prehistorix also supply recasts of missing rareAurora P/S Bases and Flickering Products (one oftheir best sellers) to bring your models to life. They

have collabo-rated withAroarA for theLeaping/ImpaledSaber Tooth Tiger.

They offer abase to give theDimetrodon aswampy home.This base willfinally takecare of thatsmall pool ofwater on theDimetrodon Base by extending itinto a real swamp… “TheCarboniferous Swamp.” Also,they have products for theP y r o / L i n d b e r g / L i f e - L i k eDinosaur fan with more to comeand a universal base for yourAirfix Dinos to play on. This willinclude a Collectors Box with abackdrop.

Another new release is Baby Mammoth Peril! This resin kit will includea Baby Woolly Mammoth, a 2 part base that connects to the P/S MammothBase, A small rock cliff and an Altered Saber Tooth Tiger in crouching posi-tion, ready to spring on our hapless Baby. Also includes a nameplate.(Thisis a AroarA/Prehistorix collaboration )

And finally they will be coming out with a kit that will be a crossover tothe Monster Scenes Series titled " The Woman Eating Plant!" Please go totheir website prehistorix.wix.com/prehistorix

I hope no one will mind that I use my illustrations for some of the figuresI review this time. After all, Randy Knol and/or I have shown photos of allof them in previous issues of PT anyway. Thanks for your understanding andI hope you like my little drawings.

Safari Ltd. sent us samples of their latest prehistoric animal figures. Theyare genuinely beautiful figures. Canadian sculptor Doug Watson does many

of them, especially the Wild Safari fig-ures. PT readers have voted his figuresas the best two years in a row now. Hegets scientific help from experts tomake them as realistic as possible. Herecently told me that paleontologistKen Carpenter helped him on theSauropelta and paleontologist EricLund of Utah helped him on theNasutoceratops. His Yutyrannus isquite well done too. This is a newlyfound feathered relation ofTyrannosaurus from China. Allthree of these Wild Safari figures aresuper detailed and as accurate asthey could be made. I highly recom-mend them. PT was also sent TheWild Safari Archaeopteryx who’s feathers are black and white, just as pale-ontologists have discovered that melanosome shape and density in fossilized

feathers can infer color. A black and white mixwas found. The Archaeopteryx also has minutedetail. We were also sent the Wild SafariBrachiosaurus. This is also very nice lookingand colored in brilliant earth-tones of greenand brown with a light greenish-yellow under-belly. These are all “musts” for you collection.

PT has yet to find a contact at the Frenchcompany Papobut have beenreceiving review

samples from DeanWalker’s dinosaur fig-ure selling companyfound atD e J a n k i n s . c o m .DeJankins has every-thing in the toy prehis-toric animal world andat the best prices. Thelatest from Papo is ayoung Apatosaurus.Of course depending

on the scale, this could also be an adultApatosaurus (or even a Brontosaurus nowthat it is back!) This is another beautiful Papoprehistoric animal with its long, soft whip-ping tail and its mouth open; it appears to bein peril. It is almost a foot and a half long.Also new is the pterosaur Tupuxuara which isa large crested flyer from Brazil. This is a finefigure shown walking on the ground on allfours. Its mouth is wide open with its tonguesticking forward, undoubtedly calling outloudly. Get these figures and much more atDeJankins.com.

A fine producer of many new figures isCollectA. They are turning out beautiful,innovative, prehistoric animals like crazy,many of which have never been createdbefore. We received a big box from them.First I have to talk about the huge 1/4 scaleGuidraco pterosaur with movable jaw. (Guimeans "malicious ghost" + Lat. draco"dragon") is a genus of large-toothed ptero-dactyloid pterosaur known from the EarlyCretaceous of Liaoning Province, northeast


Wild SafariSauropelta

CollectAXiongguanlong

CollectADaxiatitan

CollectADaeodon

Prehistorix MesozoicHunting Ground

Prehistorix BabyMammoth Peril!

1:15 Nasutoceratopsmodel

Both are exclusiveto dansdinosaurs.com

1:20Yutyrannusmodel byShane Foulkes

Wild SafariNasutoceratops

Papo youngApatosaurus

CollectAGuidraco

PapoTupuxuara

Wild SafariYutyrannus


China. In fact, the teeth on this creature are amazing.Guidraco has a colorful crest and is posed crawling onall four limbs. It stands over ten inches tall. Like WildSafari, CollectA has also come out with a fine littleNasutoceratops figure. This Late Cretaceous ceratopi-an dinosaur had a rack of horns more similar to a steeror bull than any other known to science.Acrocanthosaurus is a favorite dinosaur of many peo-ple. CollectA’s Deluxe 1:40 scale Acro has a moveablejaw and a line-type camouflage pattern. Also in thisDeluxe 1:40 scale series is their new Pliosaurus.Pliosaurus cruised using just two fore-flippers, usingthe back pair for extra speed when pursuing and cap-turing prey. It is interesting that this figure has suckingparasites attached to it too. CollectA’s 1:20 scale linehas two new prehistoric mammals in it, Moropus andDaeodon. The Late Oligocene Daeodon (Meaning:Dreadful teeth) had long and slender limbs. This wildboar-like animal was the largest and last of theentelodonts. Moropus has long been known to science. It was Herbivorousand lived during the Miocene. Moropus (Meaning: Sloth foot) is related tothe modern horse, the rhino and the tapir. Also new from CollectA isDaxiatitan. This enormous, long necked, Lower Cretaceous titanosaurdinosaur may have been protected by a scattering of bony armored plates.This is another of the figures that only CollectA offers. Medusaceratops isa newly discovered ceratopian dinosaur that CollectA offers in brown witha striped motif on its back. CollectA has come out with a fantastic lookingSmilodon figure - the famous saber-toothed cat. It has well done, spottedleopard-type fur. The marine reptile Temnodontosaurus platyodon is por-trayed giving live birth which is a clever idea. And finally, a tiny littleXiongguanlong was included in the box. This carnivorous, LowerCretaceous bipedal long-snouted ancestor of the tyrannosaurs had a narrowelongated muzzle reminiscent of the later Alioramus. It is attached to a

small stand. Whew, well that is the lot. My congratulationsto another banner group of figures designed by AnthonyBeeson and produced by the Leungs.

Rebor is a Chinese company offering many new ready-for-display finished dinosaur statues. I received the Rebor“King T -rex” which is a very nice sculpt in traditionalbrown.The design is very similar to Papo’s T. rex designwhich, of course, is very similar to the T. rex from JurassicPark which Crash McCreery and Mike Trcic designed overtwenty years ago for the film. And as is the trend thesedays with dinosaur figures, the mouth opens and closes.The figure is designed to have one foot balanced on a rockabout the same size as the foot (no other base is included.)This is a very precarious stance to say the least and who-ever at Rebor designed this needs to be slowly killed. I’msorry; that was harsh. I will amend that to he should bequickly killed. The resin rex will balance there with a littlefinesse from your fingers but I’m afraid to even breathe onit after that. And if it falls over, it will probably break and

ruin the statue. Rebor released this statue of Tyrannosaurus rex in 2014. Asstated, the articulated jaw can be adjusted for display, and the nice, detailedtextured skin work and well done paint job can be admired from all angles.This solidly build model is packed within its own collector's box with sleekgraphic design, information booklet, and fitted foam to protect the model.1:35 Scale. Dimensions: 13" L x 7" H. I have the T. rex but there are manyothers to get now and even more coming soon. Rebor also offersCeratosaurus Dentisculcatus Savage, Utahraptor Ostrommaysorum WindHunter, Yutyrannus Huali Y-Rex and Hatchling Triceratops Jolly. And com-ing soon are Acrocanthosaurus Atokensis Hercules, Velociraptor TripletsStatue, Fallen Queen Triceratops, Sauropod Nest Diorama (non-scale),Theropod Nest Diorama (non-scale), Dimorphodon 1:6 Scale. Get yoursfrom dansdinosaurs.com

ReborUtahraptor


MB: I identified the missing muz-zle of Apatosaurus ajax. It's locked in granite-hard sandstone and I'm stillpreparing the fossils. The process is like cleaning concrete off of a FabergeEgg.

(TC - The following was sent by email.) MB: Here's the abstract thatAdam Marsh, Bob Bakker and I published (along with a poster) at the 2014annual meeting of the Geological Society of America held in Denver,Colorado.

Here's our published abstract. Feel free to quote from it.

"In 1877, the first giant Jurassic dinosaurs were discovered in Morrison,Colorado by Arthur Lakes. Although North America did not produce thefirst sauropodomorph dinosaur, Apatosaurus ajax was the first sauropodthat provided insight into the form of the most iconic family of long-neckeddinosaurs. Crowning the neck with the correct skull proved challenging,particularly for the type sample of Apatosaurus, as only the rear of the skullhad been identified -- until now.

From Lakes' Quarry 5, the most productive Morrison Formation sand-stone quarry, we have recovered a virtually uncrushed, disarticulated butassociated diplodocid maxilla and premaxillae. We assign these specimensto Apatosaurus ajax because the general proportions are most likeApatosaurus as described by Berman and McIntosh and differ from thoseof other diplodocids. A. ajax appears to be the only Apatosaurus speciesdocumented from the sample area.

The new Quarry 5 maxilla - premaxilla is broader across the muzzle thanin Diplodocus, and agrees with that of Apatosaurus louisae. The undistort-ed new maxilla suggests a deeper eye/cheek region than previously recon-structed for A. louisae. Another feature linking the new maxilla to that of A.louisae is the proportionately large antorbital fenestra with an anterior endfar deeper and blunter than that of Diplodocus.

The proportions of the Quarry 5 specimen are unique in the extremedepth of the anterior end of the antorbital fenestra, indicating that A. ajaxwas more derived in this feature than Apatosaurus louisae and to a lesserextent, Apatosaurus excelsus. Seven dentary teeth sans dentary fromQuarry 5 was assigned to Diplodocus lacustris in 1884 by Marsh; howeverthe specimen was excavated in the same sandstone and within 10 m of thenew apatosaur muzzle and shares identical dental morphology to the newmaterial, hence we refer Diplodocus lacustris to cf. Apatosaurus ajax.

With this new partial snout, combined with the paired quadrates andbraincase from the 1877 excavation at Morrison’s Quarry 10, we can moreaccurately reconstruct the skull of the first known species of Apatosaurus.With further preparation, these specimens from Quarry 5 help to illuminatethe distinction between Apatosaurus ajax and other diplodocids."

TC: What are your thoughts on the validity of there being two differentcreatures with these names?

MB: They are different. Historically, paleontologists always regardedthem as such. The argument is how different were these animals?

When O. C. Marsh named Apatosaurus from the first fossils (conse-quently, they're from a hole across the highway from our museum) and acouple years later Brontosaurus, he noted that Apato had three fused verte-brae in the sacrum, while Bronto had five.

About a century later, John Berman and Jack McIntosh argued that pale-ontology had the wrong noggin on the neck of the family apatosaur - theyreminded the world that Elmer Riggs has joined Brontosaurus withApatosaurus in 1903. Riggs correctly pointed out that the differences in therumps and shoulders were slight between Professor Marsh's Apatosaurusand Brontosaurus, and could be attributed to changes during growth. ButRiggs didn't look at the necks, let alone the skulls, which had either beenmisidentified in museum collections or were languishing in the ground.

When we find one of these giant dinos, we don't find more than a couplein the same layer - suggesting the animals are contemporaneous and fromthe same breeding population. If we want to quantify the differences fromone individual to another or between sexes, we need more than just a carcassor two. Uncertainty arises when you move above or below that layer becauseyou're time traveling. Move across a valley or into another basin as youcould be mushing together different populations from other points in dinohistory. The blankets stone that make up the Morrison Formation captureseveral million years of time. When skeletons are pulled from the Morrisonthat does not necessarily mean that they all lived at the same time. When welook at the skeleton of Brontosaurus and the skeleton of Apatosaurus, wesee that they are clearly related. However, we don't find them together andthe differences in their bodies make me want to cleave the genera in orderto best express the diversity between the two species.

If we can't prove with the rock record that a population of fossil beastswere alive at the same time, why should we assume that they are samespecies or genus when we the skeletons don't look the same?

I think the fundamental question is why is the recognition of fossilspecies important? I think that charting the diversification of living thingsthroughout time is the only way for us to understand the tempo of evolutionwithin time's song. I find a greater danger in lumping physically differentcritters across the boundaries of rock layers because we understand howecosystems evolved and fell apart, and recognizing the diversity of organ-isms is the foundation of our understanding of extinction. The concept of afossil species matters.

TC: Is there anything about Apato/Bronto that you share with visitors tothe museum that you see is news to them? What don't we armchair paleon-tologists know about this icon of all things dinosaur?

MB: If you were to stand an Apato and Bronto side-by-side, you'd imme-diately be struck by how much larger Apatosaurus ajax was compared toBrontosaurus excelsus, by almost a third. The neck of each animal is differ-ent - Bronto's neck is nearly as wide as it was deep in cross-section, whilethe Apato neck was almost twice as wide as it was deep. There's some otherdifferences, but I've yet to publish on them. Stay tuned...

TC: Thank you for sharing your work and experiences with us.

MB: Let me say thank you to Prehistoric Times. Their review of the besttoys is like a hot sheet we use for our museum gift shop. Also, I have beenreading PT since I was a kid. I have read your work Tony and I consider itan honor to be interviewed by you and join the ranks in Prehistoric Times.

Crawley Creatures put the Rex together. http://www.crawley-creatures.com/

Nat Geo Channel has some featurettes on the 'T. rex Autopsy' website :http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/t-rex-autopsy/.


The fourscientists get

down and dirtyat the TrexAutopsy

Continuing from Pg 31


With the park now operating at full capacity it had beendecided to use the power of this technology to blunt some ofthe attacks by those who opposed what the park had beendoing. Live dinosaurs were great and paid the bills, but manypeople had begun asking, perhaps correctly, why the companyhad not brought back other recently extinct species. Well itwas time to answer that question.

The company had begun by using DNA collected from thehide of an extinct, zebra-like African creature called a quagga.Extinct since the 1880s because of overhunting, a cloned herdwith the company’s logo stamped inside their ears was nowrunning wild in a South African nature park. The success ofthis program had brought a flood of orders to repopulate thewilds of many of the hidden corners of the planet with lost ani-mals, and today the company was about to reveal its latestproduct.

Oliver Ryan, head of the Taurus Genome Project, stoodbehind the gathered crowd of reporters and scientists, alongwith the European politicians whose funding had helpedfinance the project, as the large door at the far end of the col-iseum opened. Camera flashes and gasps of pleasure brokeover the crowd as five enormous animals trotted into view.

All were quadrupeds with enormous, forward-pointinghorns that curved back in toward their face. The largest indi-vidual was a male, as tall as an adult human at its enormouslymuscled shoulder, which bulged and flexed as it shook itsenormous horned head about and snorted. The beast’s coat wasa dark brown, almost black, with a small, light stripe of hairrunning down its neck shaped somewhat like an eel.

“Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the aurochs.”

Ryan, standing at the podium situated in front of the enclosure, askedthose gathered: “Any questions before we move on?” He then pointed, sin-gling out one person from a sea of desperately raised hands.

“Why?”

Ryan looked long and hard at the reporter, before responding. “The glibanswer would be ‘why not?’ The pot-boiler answer would be ‘that we can!’I’d rather point out that the power to reproduce extinct species is moreimportant than ever before.

Our modern world has decimated the natural one to such an extent thattoo many species have become so genetically bottlenecked that there is areal danger of inbreeding. Most people are aware of the trouble the cheetahshave had thanks to this issue. Well, you may not be aware that the Irish pota-to famine occurred when farmers began relying on a single, hardy, high-yield strain of potato. Tragically, when that strain proved vulnerable to

blight, almost the entire nation’s yield ofpotatoes failed, and people started dying.All over the globe we have cultures rely-ing on fewer and fewer crop and farmspecies, and there is strong evidence theseare vulnerable and likely to fail if theywere ever to encounter an aggressivepathogen.”

Many of the hands poised above thecrowd had dropped because their ques-tions were answered, and so rather thancall on someone else and get pulled offtopic, Ryan continued on.

“Records and numerous studies haverevealed over the last 25 years that wehave lost 190 breeds of farm animals,with thousands more on the verge ofextinction as markets call for standardized

products. Cattle, sheep,goats, chickens, and pigs—we have lost many of theolder breeds because theyproduce less meat, milk,and eggs, meaning if thefew remaining speciesalmost all of humanityrelies on ever suffer thesame fate as the Irishlumper potato, we are inserious trouble.

There is hope, however.All over the world, forward-thinking nations have longestablished seed banks; lit-tle deposits of botanicaltreasures that are helping toensure the survival of ourmost important cropsagainst natural disasters.

Well, with the technolo-gy here we have shown thatthe world’s zoos and naturalhistory museums canbecome a similar geneticbank for our lost species.These animals before youwere partly cloned fromcentury-old specimens sit-

ting in museum cupboards across Europe. Exactly how we did this is ofcourse a trade secret, but I can tell you it is built on the same technology thathelped us create the dinosaurs currently roaming the park outside this roomand is a large step to ensure that should we ever face a biological disaster inthe future the world has a chance to recover and survive. If we have learnedanything by growing our own dinosaurs, extinction is forever unless we dosomething about it, and now we can do something about it.”

Finished, Ryan looked at the gathered crowd. “So, any questions?”

Only a single hand was still raised. “Could you tell us exactly why theseanimals were the ones you brought back first?”

“The aurochs is the basis of almost all our domestic cattle species. Theyare large and hardy and records show they rarely have any trouble calving.They are also capable of breeding with every single cow species we havetoday, giving us the potential to enter new genetic material into these speciesand reverse any genetic bottleneck. For these reasons the aurochs was theobvious choice, plus the nations who helped fund this program, Russia,Poland, the Netherlands, well they hold the aurochs in a special place in their

by Phil [email protected]

© Joschua Knuppe

AUROCHS

© Trish Brunette



national heart and are proudly waitingfor the herds we have produced forthem to help rewild their parks andforests. That’s the reason we havechosen these animals to begin ourprogram.”

The Aurochs

There is an . . . [animal] which arecalled uri. These are a little below theelephant in size and of the appear-ance, color, and shape of a bull. Theirstrength and speed are extraordinary;they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. These theGermans take with much pains in pits and kill them. The young men hardenthemselves with this exercise and practice themselves in this kind of hunt-ing, and those who have slain the greatest number of them, having producedthe horns in public to serve as evidence, receive great praise. But not evenwhen taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed. Thesize, shape, and appearance of their horns differ much from the horns of ouroxen. These they anxiously seek after and bind at the tips with silver and useas cups at their most sumptuous entertainments. Julius Caesar.

This description from the future Roman emperor can be found in his sixthvolume on the war he waged against the Gauls and their leader Ambiorix.Though Caesar won the war, his description of the aurochs suggests that henever really encountered one (or had never really seen an elephant) and waseither just recalling a distant view or someone else’s description. I point thisout as a little strange because the powerful, aggressive aurochs was a com-mon beast fighting in Roman circuses.

The aurochs was a wild species ofcattle that once roamed across Europe,Asia, and large parts of the MiddleEast right up until the seventeenth cen-tury, though to be fair they had beenrare for centuries before their extinc-tion.

Rather than “a little below the ele-phant in size,” the largest male speci-mens were around 6 feet tall at theshoulder, though there seems to havebeen geographic variations, withsouthern European species a littleshorter and lighter and those in thenorth taller and heavier, possibly tohelp them retain heat during the freez-ing winters there. This makes theaurochs equal in size to the largest modern cattle species, India’s gaur. Therewere also cases of island dwarfism, with those on Mediterranean islandslike Sicily around 20% smaller than those on the mainland.

The aurochs likely evolved from a Pleistocene species called Bos acu-tifrons around 1.5 mya and then moved up from India into the wide grassyEuropean plains that appeared during the cold climate of the Pliocene.These regions would become the very places humans and their agriculture-loving ways would infest, forcing the bovines into more remote regions suchas swamps and marshes. It wasn’t all bad news for the aurochs, however,because these intruders also saw value in the hardy animals and began todomesticate them. It is also thanks to these early humans that we have agood idea what these cattle looked like since there are prehistoric images ofthem scattered across Europe.

Genetics, fossils, and local lore tells us this domestication processoccurred twice, with the larger Eurasian subspecies (Bos primigenius prim-igenius) being domesticated into taurine cattle during the Copper Age(around 8000 years ago). The Indian aurochs (Bos primigenius namadicus)separated from their Eurasian cousins around 2 mya and were likely domes-ticated at the start of the Neolithic (around 11,000 years ago) into the zebu,or Brahman cattle. Almost all other modern cattle species are hybrids

between these two, along with a sprinkling of other bovines, such as yaksand bison.

At the same time Jurassic World is in cinemas and the somewhat fiction-al science behind the story is coming under scrutiny, there are numerousexperiments moving forward whose goal is to rebuild prehistoric landscapesand repopulate them with rare and possibly even extinct species.

Called “rewilding,” one such program is Russia’s Pleistocene Park, anature reserve along the Kolyma River where scientists are attempting to

rebuild such an accurate Ice Ageecosystem that a mammoth could callit home. After a modest start reintro-ducing the Yakutian horse to theregion in 1988, the park today con-tains reindeer, moose, wild horses,musk-oxen, wisents (European bison),wolves, brown bears, wolverines, andfoxes, with future plans to bring intigers, elks, Saiga antelopes, camels,and, if they are ever reproduced, mam-moths.

The park would also be interested inthe aurochs, which had survived theIce Age and endured until 1627 whenthe last known individual, a female,died in Jaktorów forest, Poland. The

remains of this specimen were stolen during the Swedish invasion of Polandand are held today in a museum located within Sweden’s Royal Palace.

The idea of the species being revived to help rewild parts of the NorthernHemisphere is not so crazy as it sounds. The TaurOs Project is an interna-tional effort (though mostly a Dutch program) to collect those primitive cat-tle breeds that most resemble their aurochs ancestors and try to reproducethe species. Of course any offspring will only physically resemble theaurochs, but then because these animals are descendants of the aurochs any-way, what will that really matter? This was all given a boost in 2013 with theUruz Project, which plans to not only use the same back-breeding idea oflooking for the most primitive domestic species with the most aurochs-likefeatures “to breed back an animal that resembles the Aurochs in everyaspect: appearance, behavior and even genetically. Uruz is the old Germanicword for Aurochs and seems fit for a project that has the goal to recreate themighty wild cattle that roamed throughout Eurasia until four centuries ago(www.truenaturefoundation.org).” [Note: Old High German uruz is pro-nounced /OO-roots/.]

Bizarrely this effort was not the first time someone had tried to bring theaurochs back either. In 1996 a German-based group had tried to back-breedcattle with aurochs-like features, and the results today are called Taurus cat-

This aurochs hornwas once the treasure

of a Polish Prince.

© Mike Landry



tle, herds of which have beenreleased into controlled parks in sev-eral European nations. The Taurus isa tall, long-legged, far sleeker animalthan most farm cows, showing theproject is, at least physically, on theright track because modern farmingrequires animals to be less mobileand far bulkier to increase their con-trollability and meat production—features not only unnecessary, butdangerous in a wild animal thatneeds to roam long distances anddeal with predators. All these pro-jects were built on the back of one ofthe strangest moments in paleontol-ogy and zoology, and it occurred in aPolish forest called Białowie�a(/byah-wo-VYEH-zhah/ ‘white-tower’).

In the 1930s a dark cloud rolledover central Europe, with Adolf Hitler and his cronies taking control ofGermany and immediately setting their eyes outward. At the same time thesecond most powerful Nazi,Herman Göring, became ReichMaster of the Hunt and Master ofthe German Forests. A prolifichunter, Göring took these positionsseriously and introduced many last-ing changes, such as protecting andexpanding the few national Germanparks. These would become havensfor the few remaining wild lynx,European bison, and wolves, andGöring added to the forests byrestocking them with other, onceplentiful creatures such as elk,moose, and bears. Many of thesewere imported from NorthAmerica, along with any zoo in thecountries Germany invaded duringthe war. It was in this roll that thevice-chancellor also met with a pairof brothers interested in bringingback a creature that the Aryan-lov-ing Nazis were fascinated in.

Lutz and Heinz Heck were zoologists in charge of zoos in Berlin andMunich and had been at the forefront of saving the European bison, aspecies that had been decimated during WWI. Also surviving the Ice Age,the wisent had been reduced to a few hundred animals, and the Hecks col-lected these to breed. They ensured there would be no inbreeding by creatingthe first ever studbook of a wild animal species to keep track of each ani-mal’s pedigree. This effort was successful because today there are nearly5000 animals, though any congratulation should be tempered with the factthat the Hecks took Nazi dignitaries through Poland’s zoos, and any animalsthey felt were “not necessary” they shot for fun.

This work with the bison triggered an idea in theHecks to look at some of the oldest domestic lines ofhorses and cattle to see if they could breed theirancient ancestors back. With the help of Göring, thebrothers searched far and wide for animals with thephysical features they required to bring back theaurochs and the ancestor of the domesticated horse,the recently extinct tarpan (Equus ferus ferus), theEurasian wild horse.

For fifteen years the brothers experimented away;

meanwhile Germany invaded Polandwith the help of their ally Russia andthen turned around and invadedRussia, leaving Göring master of theannexed nation’s forests. This leadsus to a very suspicious photo takenin 1933 of Göring and the Hecksworking on a map of the Białowie�aforest.

The Nazis considered themselvesthe children of the Aryan race—andhere is the important part—wouldprove themselves by hunting themost powerful creature in theirworld, the aurochs. It would seem tohunt this cow was to be Aryan! Sodoes anyone find it suspicious thatsix years before Germany invadedPoland and triggered the SecondWorld War, Göring and the Heckswere planning the largest nature

reserve in Europe in the last bit of prehistoric forest in the north of the coun-try?

The timing of this is bizarre andrequires a far deeper investigationthan we can get into here. We doknow that Göring had been invitedby the Polish government to hunt theforest years earlier, and so he obvi-ously had first-hand knowledge ofthe region and had likely begunplanning his park the moment Hitlerset his eyes on their national neigh-bor.

We also know that there weremany people living in and aroundthe forest at the start of the war, andmany of these people were Jewish.Between the occupying Soviet andthen the German forces, Białowie�aexperienced the first of many exter-minations, often committed by oneof the most notorious Nazi units inPoland, Police Battalion 322.

After 15 years of breeding and with the forest cleared, the Hecks beganthe last stage of their experiment. Lutz had created a herd of cattle thatlooked a lot like an aurochs, and although smaller than the prehistoricspecies, the cows were hardy, tough, and highly aggressive, attacking any-one who approached them. He had part of his herd transported to Poland,along with some bison and some of the tarpan-like horses his brother Heinzhad bred. All were released into Białowie�a forest, and for the first time incenturies a herd of admittedly pseudo-aurochs were roaming free in Europe.

Although these Nazi-bred animals (called Heck cattle and Heck horses)were later exterminated by the Soviets, who understandably wanted few

reminders of their former opponents running aboutattacking people, today there are still a few Heckcattle herds about. These cattle are the ones thathave been used in the modern programs intent onbringing the mighty aurochs back to life; so, whoknows, shortly we may have news of aurochs beingreintroduced once more into Białowie�a forest, thistime for the right reasons.

Beautiful Aurochs sculpture byJim Martinez

Herman Göring, (right) Reich Master of theHunt and Master of the German Forests



Evolution (1923)and Ghost of SlumberMountain (1919) asLife-Through- TimeIllustration.By Allen A. Debus

To many, “evolution” simply means life throughgeological time, although by the turn of the 20th cen-tury, these were terms that one usually only encoun-tered in museums and books (both popular and text-books). Of course, today, we’re accustomed tobeing bombarded not only in televised nature &science documentaries about how life developedand changed throughout the Phanerozoic Era, butwe’re also exposed to this theme even in popularmovies and television series. Just think of the words in that theme songcomposed by the ‘Bare Naked Ladies’ for CBS’ popular comedy, The BigBang Theory, for example. Quite unexpectedly, the 2014 film Noah actuallyincludes a cgi-animated evolutionary sequence. The Americanized versionof the Japanese giant dino-monster movie, Gigantis the Fire Monster (1959)contains a recreated life- through- time element, incorporating several life-through-time stop-motion animated shots. Yes - and there are numerousother examples abounding!

Whether or not we fully comprehend or accept it, by the early 21st centu-ry, life-through-time explanation of prehistory has truly & irrevocably gone“popular.” This is perhaps, especially, because pro-ducers can incorporate knowledge and restorationsof fossils, dinosaurs and other prehistoric & extinctanimals into the traditionalized tale, as related infilm. It seems, however, that by the 1920s, the then(new) stop-motion animation technique offeredfresh and startling opportunities for portrayingcreatures as genuinely fascinating as dino-mon-sters!

So when did representations of life-through-time first appear for wider audiences, not simply inbooks, but on film? Possibly in 1923, in a silent41-minute documentary titled Evolution, directedby Max Fleischer, with scientific supervision pro-vided by Edward J. Foyles (American Museum ofNatural History). Footage in this rather simple(needless to say - black & white) silent film mayseem far removed from the more sophisticated,analogously themed fare one views today (forexample, contrasting the visually absorbing 2014re-make, Cosmos: A Space-time Odyssey hosted byNeil deGrasse Tyson). But Evolution scored thenin attempting to present the essence of the evolu-tionary, life through time idea, without becomingoverly technical. Charles Darwin probably wouldhave enjoyed viewing it, had he been alive then,without being overly critical of the effort.Evolution also straddles the period in betweenrelease of two early significant silent dinosaur pic-

tures, 1919’s Ghost of Slumber Mountain, andThe Lost World (1925). Perhaps for today’s audi-ences and film historians, Evolution is mostnotable due to its incorporation of several stop-motion scenes swiped from Ghost of SlumberMountain.

Evolution’s fundamental question is, how didwe come to be upon the Earth? Also, was manalways man, or formerly a lower animal? Toanswer such queries, viewers are treated to quite avariety of visuals. In an extended opening seg-ment, Fleischer outlines familiar geologicalprocesses, as well as techniques & the tool kit uti-lized by scientists to infer what we’ve learnedabout prehistory. We see fossils (trilobites &ammonites), and are mesmerized by the results offossil vertebrate restoration (spying CharlesKnight’s swamp-dwelling Apatosaurus AmericanMuseum painting, and his horned “Agathaumas”sculpture). Prehistoric cave paintings (Lascaux),and examples of ancient architecture (Aztecs,Egyptian, Stonehenge and Roman ruins) are also

shown. While interesting, this introductory,“instructive” (or table setting) portion of thefilm is uneven in meaning and best rather vagueconceptually. Next, we delve into Earth’s murkyorigins, quickly progressing to modern times, a

visualized life through time sequence which is the main focus of the film.

Life’s development on Earth is outlined, but only after visuals illustratehow the solar system originated from the near-collision of stellar bodies (apopular astronomical theory then), followed by formation of the Earth andplanetary system from swirling stardust. As a prerequisite to life’s origin,we see examples of molten masses, steaming lakes, and then, as the surfacecools, formation of oceans. The Moon finally becomes visible throughvaporous clouds, volcanoes erupt and mountain ranges buckle. Theseeffects are achieved with minimal use of model-making, live footage and

props, yet they effectively convey ideas as read byaudiences on inter-title cards. Chemical reactionsgive rise to aqueous, microscopic life, which rapid-ly proliferates from single-celled “shapeless proto-plasms” into multicellular jellyfish and other inver-tebrates. Here, Fleischer spliced in footage of mod-ern echinoderms, an octopus and then the first ver-tebrates - fish, all representing nature’s struggle forexistence in which, it is claimed, instinctual fearbecame instilled during primeval times. The nextimportant marker is the arrival of lungfish sprawl-ing onto shallow beachheads (gills making way forlungs), amidst the carpet of awaiting terrestrial veg-etation. These biological “milestones” are achievedwithout indicating how much intervening geologi-cal time has passed (which wasn’t accurately knownthen). We also sense the old “ladder” concept ofevolutionary development in play here, leadingsomewhere – inevitably – to that fully anticipated,familiar biological destination.

Of course, after life spreads onto land, reptilesdutifully evolve. Fleischer shows us several mod-ern examples, and then more dramatically - restora-tions of prehistoric reptiles – dinosaurs! Thedinosaurs’ age as featured in this documentarycomes from two main sources. Several of JosefPallenberg’s life-sized dinosaur statues displayed inHamburg’s Zoo Tiergarten, as well as footage fromThe Ghost of Slumber Mountain (not a documen-tary, but an early sci-fi/fantasy film released in June

Willis O’Brien’s Tyrannosaurus ‘puppet’(sometimes referred to as an “allosaur”) forGhost of Slumber Mountain, excerpted from

Jeff Rovin’s “From the Land Beyond Beyond”(1977).

Advertising for Ghost of Slumber Mountain,showing the large flightless bird, Diatryma as an

attraction. But where is O’Brien’s name?



1919) represent the Mesozoic Era. Firstwe see Pallenberg’s Iguanodon(misidentified as Tyrannosaurus), fol-lowed by Allosaurus biting Stegosaurus’flank, and a Triceratops ‘family.’ (SeePrehistoric Times magazine # 106 formore on sculptor Josef Pallenberg.)

Then several sequences from Ghostare spliced into the sequence; briefscenes showing Willis O’Brien’s stop-motion animated “Brontosaurus,” feed-ing and jousting Triceratops, and atyrannosaur “Tyrant Lizard King” vs.Triceratops battle. Mark F. Berry notesin his Dinosaur Filmography(McFarland, 2002), that 9 of the original17 stop-motion cuts in Ghost are represented in Evolution. Berry alsoclaims the 15-minute silent “The Ghost of Slumber Mountain is notable asmore than just a stepping stone on (O’Brien’s) progressive journey to KingKong; it is in fact the first movie to really begin to exploit the cinematicpotential of dinosaurs.” (pp.116, 99) There were two additional prehistoriaanimated by O’Brien for Ghost, however, Fleischer chose to feature (i.e.borrow) only the most dramatic scenes.

O’Brien had a falling out with Ghost of Slumber Mountain’s producer,Herbert M. Dawley, following its release resulting from their very one-sidedcollaboration on stop-motion animation. Dawley had experimented with acumbersome & time consuming stop-motion technique, involving thesculpting of life-sized prehistoric animals that presumably were sufficientlyflexible through armatures or some other mechanism. As the sculptureswere moved incrementally, photos could be taken of the models “moving.”However, according to Jeff Rovin in The Land Beyond Beyond, Dawley“hadn’t “… actually shot any film of these creations. He had simply takenstill photographs and pasted them into a book. When the pages were flipped,the animals appeared to move.” So Dawley hired the more experiencedO’Brien, whose demonstrated use of camera footage, with miniature “pup-pets” each having moveable armatures was far more refined and practical.The film was ultimately successful, owing mainly to the special effects (notso much the story itself). And Dawley was jealous, afterward striving toerase O’Brien’s credit for his contributions and special effects mastery.Although during the premier O’Brien was duly credited for the production,now Dawley coveted all the praise for himself, expunging O’Brien’s goodname from released film prints.

For instance, in the August 1919 issue of Motion Picture Magazine, awriter describes the exacting process Dawley allegedly went through to pro-duce the startling effects, claiming:

“Mr. Dawley wanted to film prehistoric mammoths in action, and he builthuge models – of cloth, wire, and steel – of the dinosaurs and other mon-strosities of the pre-stone ages. Placing these in front of the camera andslowly filming their movements – that is, by moving their head a bit andphotographing, moving it again a bit more and again photographing – heattained the effect of prehistoric animals in action. Mr. Dawley was able totake something like twenty feet of film a day – that is, on days he workedhard and consistently. But the result! Astonishing, even to the fight to thedeath between huge creatures of the dim past.”

Ridiculous!

And in ensuing months, Dawley proved unrelenting. For in theNovember 1919 issue of Illustrated World, another writer states, “Maj.Dawley … laid in a supply of lumber, cloth, paint, clay and other materials… He first prepared a rugged wooden skeleton … with a covering of clayto express the muscles, tendons and bones … and over this placed a skin-like covering of cloth painted a dark brown color. After building several ani-mals – one of them was 17 feet high – he was ready to make them act forthe camera … In addition to placing the legs in the proper posture each timean exposure was made, he had to change the position of the neck, the trunkand the tail each time a new step was taken…. In one of Maj. Dawley’s

films, two animals are shown fighting … twice as mucheffort as a film showing but one monster in action. Yetthis sculptor did not stop with two in the same picture; heput in three and four, and the difficulty … was quadru-pled.”

Even worse, Dawley cut several stop-motion scenesfrom Ghost; the outtakes, again O’Brien’s work, wouldlater appear in another unfairly credited production, Alongthe Moonbeam Trail (1920). A recently “rediscovered”film (i.e. as of late 2009), Moonbeam Trail relied onfootage of a duckbilled “Trachodon,” a tyrannosaur, and aStegosaurus menacing people in a cave. The film involvedyoungsters whisked off to the Moon where they see thesecreatures. (The film is retained within the collection of theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.) A“Trachodon” puppet sculpt (most likely O’Brien’s) is

plainly visible on a table near the window in Mad Dick’s hut, as shown inGhost of Slumber Mountain.

Well, naturally O’Brien had had enough of this odious treatment and left,thus beginning his fruitful association with Watterson R. Rothacker whowas appalled by Dawley’s selfish tactics. This led both to 1925’s The LostWorld and a lawsuit brought by Dawley against Rothacker and ArthurConan Doyle (author of The Lost World serialized in 1912). The case wasreadily overturned.

Compared to the version of Ghost of Slumber Mountain featured in arecent DVD, (appended as a special feature to Retromedia’s 20th anniver-sary edition release of Planet of Dinosaurs), the visual clarity of thedinosaur scenes borrowed from Ghost & spliced into Evolution is clearer(and less ‘ghost-like’). Ghost is O’Brien’s only surviving film made prior toThe Lost World in which stop-motion animation is combined with liveaction. According to Steve Archer, the great special effects artist also (sup-posedly) appears in Ghost as “Mad Dick,” the hermit who invites the pro-tagonist to peer through a telescope to witness “live” prehistoric animals.Archer also explains that surviving prints of Ghost were derived from onepoorly preserved 16 mm negative, claiming, “This is a big problem withviewing films from the silent period. Films were not expected to make anymoney after their initial release, so they were stored – not so future genera-tions could see them, but to be forgotten and to disintegrate slowly tounviewable dust. … According to some sources, the original running timeof The Ghost of Slumber Mountain was considerably longer than it is today.”(Archer, Willis O’Brien: Special Effects Genius, pp.5-6).

Fleischer, who went on later to create Betty Boop, Popeye and was cred-ited with an early classic Superman cartoon series, was evidently highlyinspired by Willis O’Brien’s animation of The Ghost of Slumber Mountaindinosaurs. However, (as Neil Pettigrew suggests in his The Stop-MotionFilmography), he may have thought such avenue of trick photography toointricate (& costly) to perform routinely, thus moving toward the two-dimen-sional cartoon medium.

Fleischer’s evolutionary sequence continues in Evolution, with footage ofmodern birds and a new warm-blooded type – mammals! Curiously, no pre-historic paleomammals are indicated or shown in the film. Or even fossilbirds. Where is Archaeopteryx in a documentary concerning evolution?!And Fleischer missed an opportunity to borrow the Diatryma flightless birdalso animated by O’Brien for Ghost. Interestingly, in Ghost of SlumberMountain, the Diatryma bends to scratch its ear with its right leg, analo-gously to how Marcel Delgado’s Tyrannosaurus in 1933’s King Kong alsoscratches its ear upon making its startling appearance. This was a signaturecharacterization inaugurated by O’Brien in his earlier film, PrehistoricPoultry (1917).

Climate change next ensues in Fleischer’s Evolution and a pervadingglacial period results in widespread extinctions. In the wake of the greatcontinental glaciers, after the ice sheets melt, we witness modern faunalassemblages, emphasizing organismal adaptations for survival. There is alsoan evolutionary trend noticeable, with successive shots of creatures suppos-edly on that “‘inevitable” branch leading to man. So we see not only lemurs

Advertising for Ghost of Slumber Mountain(1919)



and various primates, but also J. HowardMcGregor’s head restorations of prehistorichumans, including Java Man, Piltdown Man,Neanderthal Man and Cro-Magnon. (Relics thenattributed to Piltdown Man, of course, planted in arock stratum for unwary discoverers to find in 1915,fooled many. The Piltdown hoax wasn’t provenuntil the 1950s.) From there, various races spreadworldwide leading to modern civilization, and weread of the voice of nature calling for “everlastingchange.” The film ends cautiously on a theologicaltone, not unlike the early 1960s Americanized ver-sion of Karel Zeman’s Journey to the Beginning ofTime, also another life-through-time extravaganzarelying heavily on stop-motion animation, exceptwith a fantasy plot moving backward into the geo-logical past, from the present instead of forwardfrom the beginning.

Certainly by today’s standards, as a documentaryconcerning Life’s history, Evolution isn’t visually captivating. Modernyouthful audiences wouldn’t appreciate it. And yet, even for its time, itwould appear to be antiquated. It missed great opportunities for embellish-ment or to capitalize on other significant matters known to science then

from the fossil record. Evolution is overly ambi-tious yet superficial. In his Prehistoric Humans inFilm and Television, Michael Klossner claims thesubtitles in Evolution are “overwrought.” Berryadds “… despite its drawbacks, this creaky butthankfully straightforward relic is actually morewatchable – the dinosaur sequences notwithstand-ing – than Irwin Allen’s similar but painfully smug1956 entry, The Animal World” (which incorporat-ed Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion dinosaurscenes).

With that said, however, the life-through-timetheme of portraying prehistoric times has alsotaken a back seat to more forward probing, state-of-the-art, variegated “dinosaur renaissance” sci-entific matters. True – despite its former heraldryduring Victorian times (usually illustrated & out-lined in an array of popular books), by the late 20thcentury, the “life through time” theme had become

prosaic, if not mundane. And Ghost of Slumber Mountain, rarely witnessedtoday, with its dramatic, pre-Lost World dino-monster stop-motion footageonce central to a lawsuit has quietly settled into the dust of yesteryear, pro-jecting mere phantasms from a simpler, forgotten time.


H. M. Dawley’s patented concept of howstop-motion might, or could conceivably workusing life-sized armature models ran counter to

O’Brien’s more practical approach involvingpuppet miniatures. It was O’Brien, not Dawley,

who animated dino-monsters for “Ghost ofSlumber Mountain”, although Dawley tried to

steal credit for O’Brien’s successes.


READER

ART


Apato © Mark Hallett

www.hallettpaleoart.com

T. rex © Roman Morales

Juvenile T. rex

© Dean Schaefer

T. rex

© Nathan E Rogers

Smilodon populator

© Fabio Pastori

© Andrew Ebbett

Brachio

© Meggy Vodusek



Free to subscribers but must be updated each issue

Wanted: Paying TOP dollar for SRG dinosaurs I need.Offering $800 for SRG Dinichthys. Offering $500 for LargeSRG Cavewoman. Also, will pay $250 for the following SRGcollectibles: large caveman, large mammoth, large Mosasaurus,and large Plesiosaurus. Contact me at [email protected]

Large Fossil Collection for sale. Selling as one lot. Manyunique and hard to find..Serious inquiries only please. Call after8:00 PM EST and leave message..I would be more than happyto email pics upon request. Call Mark (704-763-8401)

FOR SALE: Complete collection of Prehistoric Times #1 -113 plus the next eight issues. Collection of Indian ArtifactMagazines 1982 - 2012; all in binders. Complete collection ofDinosaurs The Encyclopedia Vol. 1 plus all seven supplements(Don Glut). Complete set of Dinosaurs (Atlas Addition) All103 volumes in original binders plus 3-d glasses. Many bookson dinosaurs, fossil and other dinosaur magazines. 80 volumesof National Geographic magazines that cover dinosaurs and ori-gins of man. Complete collection of CollectA dinosaurs 2006 -2014. All standard and deluxe models plus plants, all new.Please contact Bobby Goodman at 727-424-7881 or email meat [email protected] if you are interested in anything.

LIFE SIZE DINOSAURS FOR SALE - Four differentCreatures. All hand sculpted by a professional artist. Madefrom 100% recycled materials. Light weight and mounted onwood bases with caster wheels for ease of movement. Highlydetailed and accurate. Very lifelike with vivid color. 1. AdultAletopelta - $1500.00 2. Adult Deinonychus - $1500.00 3.Adult Leptoceratops - $750.00 4. Juvenile Nanotyrannus -$1500.00 Prefer to sell as group but will sell separately.Reasonable offers considered. For information contact Wayneat 785-250-2460 or email [email protected]

For Sale as complete Collection: 273 books on dinosaursand other prehistoric animals. Over 90% are hardbacks inexcellent condition with perfect dust jackets. Many are rare andhighly collectible. The Earth for Sam (1930 1st ed.) PrehistoricLife (1939 3rd Ed.) The Dinosaur Book (Colbert 1945 2nd ed.)Evolution in the Past (Knipe 1945 1st ed.) Prehistoric Animals(Augusta & Burian 1957 1st ed.) The World We Live In (LifeMag Zallinger 3 vol set 1962 1st ed) Dinosaurs (Brooke BondAlbum (Zallinger 1963 1st ed.) and many more from the 1940sto the present that are extremely rare or impossible to find. Thecollection is a showcase of prehistoric art from Hawkins thruWoodward & Bucknall, to Parkjer’s beautiful B&Ws, toBurian’s classic studies to the fantastic art of Knight &Zallinger leading to Kish, Sibbick, Stout, Gurche, Forsey,Hallett, Henderson, Slovak, Walters, Delgado, Martin & Reyand also artistic authors like Bakker & Paul. The collection is awealth of art & info for students, libraries, colleges or muse-ums. This is my personal collection dating from 1955 andwould be impossible to duplicate today. A 20 page annotatedlisting of the 273 items is avail. for $10 postage included andapplicable to the purchase price. To view the collection w/ pics,go to Ebay and enter “Lifetime Accumulation of PrehistoricBooks.” Asking 4,999.00 or best offer. Local pickup. RobertCampbell, [email protected]

Prehistoric Planet Store. “The Museum Where You CanPurchase Every Exhibit”. We have over 1000 dinosaur skulls,skeletons, models, fossil, rock and mineral items atPrehistoricStore.com. Like our Facebook Page and post on ourwall why you like dinosaurs.....We’ll enter you in our monthlydrawing for a free replica dinosaur claw. https://www.facebook.com/prehistoricplanetstore.com.

WANTED: Aurora Prehistoric Scenes model kit pinkinstructions from Canada (litho in Canada): Neanderthal man(729), Cave (732), Tar Pit (735), Cave Bear (738), JungleSwamp (740), Three-Horned Dinosaur (741), Wooly Mammoth(743). Please send infos to: [email protected] 1000+ MODEL DINOSAURS shown in The Visual Guide to

Scale Model Dinosaurs, 2012, softcover, 300 pages. Contact:eonepoch@aol .com

FOR SALE: Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs Book (Currie,Padian) in new condition, $120 Stratford, Ct 203-375-8560

Wanted: Back issue of Prehistoric Times Magazine #90.Contact David McBride at [email protected].

Wanted: Louis Marx 6” cavemen, Miller dinosaurs, MPC

World of Prehistoric Monsters playset, any MPC dinosaurs,Marx Prehistoric Times #3988 playset, Marx PrehistoricMountain playset, Marx Prehistoric playset #3398 w/ waxy fig-ures, Marx World of Dinosaurs Storage Box set, Marx #2650Prehistoric playset (The holy grail) and Ajax dinosaurs. JamesJ. Berger, 3515 Howard St., Park City, Il 60085 1-847-625-1807

French collector (prehistoric animal figures, fossils and min-erals), Phd in Geology, inhabitant of Grenoble, seeks U.S. andother collectors outside the European Union to help me to com-bine and reship my purchases on Ebay made in their coun-tries. In exchange, I offer the same services for yourpurchases made in France and the European Unionto reduce shipping costs, VAT and customs duties.I can also help with your purchases in France, forexample, to complete your Starlux collection(Prehistoric animals and other figures of thisFrench brand) or your minerals collection withgood quality crystals from the French Alps. Contact :Jean-Marie LEONARD [email protected]

For Sale: Horizon 1/19 scale vinyl Jurassic Park Brachiosaurkit. Original box and parts still in poly bag. $105 plus ship-ping. Dave Colton – [email protected]

Attention Museums and collectors – Five original lampsdesigned by and made for Zdenek Burian's art studio for sale,contact me, Jiri Hochman for photograph, details and prices.Zdenek Burian post cards, posters, coffee cups and copyrightsof Burian images for sale. Also looking for a producer/sponsorfor: a Zdenek Burian exhibition in the USA/Canada etc ZBGreat Monograph for sale in the USA/Canada etc production ofcopies of ZB original paintings for sale a completely new book(the best of) Zdenek Burian – Action Illustration - website:www.zdenekburian.com or contact [email protected]

For Sale: My book, Lens to the Natural World: Reflectionson Dinosaurs, Galaxies, and God by Ken Olson (Foreword byJack Horner, endorsed by Kevin Padian of the National Centerfor Science Education). Celebrating the wonders of nature, thisis a work of “science & religion & philosophy & literature,” andnavigates a middle way between the vocal extremists on theissue of evolution. I have been a Research Associate inPaleontology at The Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT for24 years. List price is $26; add just $2 to ship in the lower 48states. Send check or USPS money order to: Ken Olson, 1009W. Blvd, Lewistown, MT 59457.

Wanted: I am interested in any playvisions animal figures butespecially the African Forest Buffalo, Chital (Axis Deer) andDhole. I am also looking for Jeols Bushpig, Safari VanishingWild Gemsbok (adult and calf), and ELC Kob. I would be inter-ested in almost any mammal figures, prehistoric and modern.Please email me at [email protected], you can call at 801597 8875 or write to Keith Brown, 3032 S 5990 W, Salt LakeCity, Utah, 84128

For Sale : Complete set of Battat dinosaurs for sale, as a set.I also have one of the few JP full size raptor promotional pieces.This piece is unreal. I'm also downsizing a very large collectionof various pieces amassed over 20 years of collecting. I havemany unique and extremely hard to find dinosaurs and mam-mals that are no longer in production. Most of these are sets, allare in mint condition and never used other than for display. Calland or e-mail for more information on what's [email protected] 513-737-6695

For Sale or trade: I offer all the large J H Miller prehistoricanimals/dinosaurs, caveman, cavewoman and cave. I have manySRG, both large and small, including the caveman, a completeset of Linde dinos, complete set of Battat (Boston Museum)dinos, Castagna dinos, Alva Bronto, Marx, Chialu, Starlux andmore. Call Jim Van Dyke 616-669-3897 [email protected]

WANTED: Max Salas 1/35 Entelodon and Andrewsarchus.Contact Ron at [email protected].

WANTED: RAY HARRYHAUSEN & STOP-MOTIONRELATED 'ZINES Colossa #1 (1993) / Hollywood HorrorClassics #4 (1996) Cinemagram #1 (1964) / Cinefantastique #2(Mimeo - Apr 1967) Mystification #6 (1965) / AnimalsMagazine (Aug 1969) - British Wonder #2 (Summer 1989) /Box Office Vol. 90 #16 (Feb 6 1967) Spectre #18 (Mar/Apr1968) / Photon #1, 7, 13 (1963, 1965, 1967) Vampire's Crypt #8(Dec 1963) / Amazing Screen Horrors #6 (1966) Just Imagine#4 (1977) - British / Cosmos Aventuras #9 (May 1964) RayHarryhausen Journal (1973) / Animation Journal #4 (May1965) Stop-Motion Monsters of Filmland #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 -Japanese (1990’s) King Kong: Unauthorized Jewish Fractals inPhilopatry (1996) Contact: Scott McRae ([email protected])

Wanted: PT issues 1-22 & later back issues no longer avail-able through PT, Marx dinos in metallic green and gold, PomPoms candy boxes w/ Aurora Prehistoric Scenes art on them,SRG metal Dinychthys fish, Chialu dinos (Italian composition),NF Neoform dinos, La Brea (Wm Otto) standing cave bear &

horse plus T. rex, Smithsonian metal prehistoric animals,Messmore & Damon 1933 Chicago World’s Fair metal figs!For Trade/Sale: vintage dinosaurs of most manufacturers. I’vegot a ton of old dinosaur figures for sale. I’m always buyingpre-1970s dino collectibles --Please contact Mike Fredericks145 Bayline Cir, Folsom, Ca 95630-8077, (916) 985-7986 [email protected]

WANTED: Prehistoric Times issues 79, 81, 83, and 84. Alsolooking for any books, magazines, and/or DVDs on whale evo-

lution/extinct whales/dolphins, ancient marine reptiles, ele-phant evolution/extinct elephants, and shark

evolution/extinct sharks. Will pay by money order only.Also looking for any information on fossils in Alabama,Mississippi, and the rest of the southeastern US. Pleasecall 205-269-7054.

For Sale: 3/4'” cloisonne lapel pin that states:REUNITE GONDWANALAND and depicts Pangea and

Laurasia united in one huge continent. Only a limited numberare available. $8 includes the pin and postage. Contact LynneDickman, (406) 728-5221, [email protected]

Wanted: Hobby Trading Post (Nu-Card) DINOSAURS cards(B&W, post-card size) #'s 7, 13, 15, 28. I will gladly purchasethese but I also have many duplicate cards available for trade. Iwould prefer "nice" condition cards (e.g., VG+ to Mint) withoutmajor creasing or other significant defects. Please contact me(Mike Riley) at: [email protected] or at 303-566-1267(weekdays, 7:00 am to 4:00 pm, MDT).MODELERS: PT build up writer, Sean Kotz, now has a

national hobby column on line at the Examiner. I am committedto bringing paleo models, sculptors and kits to the forefront ona regular basis, as well as all other forms of modeling from plas-tic kits to rocket ships. Go to www.examiner.com and search for"Model Building Examiner" or my name and bookmark or sub-scribe. You can also search out the Facebook Fan page

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J H Miller repaired - your broken and incomplete vintage JH Miller plastic figures -expertly repaired. Ask for NickLamanec (484) 274-0315

FOR SALE: Looking for awesome paleontology-themed T-shirts? Visit www.cafepress.com/dannysdinosaurs! Featuringclever dinosaurian designs on everything from shirts to coffeemugs to bumper stickers, www.cafepress.com/dannysdinosaursis a great place for all your dinosaur apparel needs.

TOP DOLLAR PAID for prehistoric animal postcardsincluding diorama scenes, statues, fossils, museum displays,etc. I also would like to purchase prehistoric animal museum orexcavation site brochures and posters. If you have vintagedinosaur or prehistoric animal books or photographs from the1900's up to 1980 please let me know since I also collect these.I have lots of paper ephemera such as this for trade if that ispreferable. Please contact Stephen Hubbell (253) 851-7036 oremail me at [email protected].

PALEODIRECT.COM Your direct source for the finestand rarest fossil specimens along with tools and weapons ofprimitive man. With several thousand pages of fossils and prim-itive man artifacts displayed online, PaleoDirect.com is trulyone of the largest online paleontological suppliers across theglobe. Categories include a BROAD DIVERSITY of bothINVERTEBRATE and VERTEBRATE fossils. We also spe-cialize in genuine TOOLS and WEAPONS of PRIMITIVEHUMANS from the Lower PALEOLITHIC through theNEOLITHIC Periods up to and including the Iron Age. PALEODIRECT, Inc. is a full-time, professional supplier and a mem-ber of the American Association of PaleontologicalSuppliers.We acquire specimens direct from the source regionsof the world through exclusive affiliations with the diggers andtheir management as well as conduct several of our own inter-national collecting expeditions each year. Furthermore, many ofour rare specimens are prepared in-house by our own conserva-tion facilities and staff. This explains our consistently betterquality fossils than is usually found in the marketplace. In addi-tion to what is shown on the site, an even greater inventory ofspecimens are either yet to be listed or in various states ofpreparation. New material from around the world is constantlybeing added. If you wish to be added to our email list for whennew specimens are updated to the website, please email or callus and let us know. PALEO DIRECT, INC. P. O. Box 160305Altamonte Springs, FL 32716-0305 (407) 774-1063www.PaleoDirect.com [email protected] Supplying muse-ums, educational facilities and collectors around the world.

CCrreettaacceeoouussCCllaassss ii ff ii eeddss


Location : Newcastle, Wyoming, USA.

Time Zone : Late Cretaceous, Maastrichtian -66.331231 Ma

The sun now low in the sky, dips behind the treetops of the forest, instantly dark-ening the countryside to the East, across the low coastal floodplain. A Tyrannosaurusrex also watches, poised, tense and motionless from the cover at the edge of the foresttree line, bordering a glade. She knows instinctively that her mate is away to her rightsome fifty meters or so, deeper in the forest and moving stealthily towards the openlandscape ahead, following the infrasound transmitted through the ground by themovement of mega herbivores migrating through their territory. The search for preyis never ending and she has perfected the vital skill required for the perfect ambush -patience. Her mate occasionally makes a low frequency call and she in turn answersthe infrasound grunt so as to co-ordinate their movements. The ambush predatorwatches the group of ten or more chasmosaurine, ceratopsids from downwind of theherd; Triceratops horridus is feeding in the clearing. With eyes the size of softballs,large retinae make T. rex vision in the low light of dawn and dusk more keen thanother animals and provides this deadly predator with a hunting edge at these times ofthe day. Above each eye she has a gnarled, ruggose boss that performs the same func-tion as the ridge above the eye of a raptorial bird, physically protecting her eyes fromwind, dust, and debris and shielding them from excessive glare. A circle of bonyplates, known as the sclerotic ring, surrounds each of her eyes, holding them rigid andstabilized in the skull. In an improvement over the reptilian eye, her avian eye designpushes the lens further forward, increasing the size of the image on the retina. Shecompensates by moving her head rather than her eyes. This advanced gaze stabiliza-tion allows her to keep track of prey even at high speeds. Her eyelids never blink. Thisis done by the nictitating membrane, a transparent third eyelid which moves horizon-tally and allows for continuous vision even in a high speed chase through thick jungle.

The herd is much larger than the small group of animals that we can see, withhundreds more scattered through the woodlands. One can clearly see that Triceratopsis a large, powerful and sophisticated plant eating dinosaur. Old ‘three horned face’has a huge head (only the modern whale is known to have a larger skull), up to sevenfeet long and fully one third of the total length of the animal. Triceratops has threehorns on its head: two long ones over each brow and one smaller horn on the snout.Unlike the horn of the modern Rhino which is composed entirely of keratin, (the samesubstance that hair and nails are formed from), the horns of Triceratops are formedfrom a core of solid bone, part of the skull itself, covered by a thin sheath of keratin.Along the back of the head the luxuriantly colorful, bony frill resembles a shield andprotects the neck. The largest of the ceratopsians, this ornithischian dinosaur (bird-hipped) has a solid four legged, rhinoceros like body; an animal to be reckoned with.Of the adult Triceratops some stand nearly ten feet high at the hip and must be of theorder of 7 tons. Triceratops is an ill-tempered animal, temperamental and excitable,showing outright aggression to any animals coming close enough to disturb it. Cowswith calves are especially dangerous and will charge under almost any circumstanceswhen threatened. These herbivores have a projecting parrot like beak and they chompon the vegetation indiscriminately, using the beaklike mouth and powerful jaws linedwith rows of sharp cheek teeth to shred and grind cycads, ferns, angiosperms (flow-ering plants) and other low-lying vegetation.

The forelimb posture and locomotion of ceratopsians, particularly the ceratop-sids, has long been controversial. Ceratopsid dinosaurs traditionally have beenrestored with sprawling forelimbs and were considered unable to run at high speeds.Here we see the ceratopsids as rhinoceros-like in stance with neither the proposedsprawling forelimb nor a columnar like elephantine stance. The forelimb posture issimilar to that of large, extant mammals, albeit with slightly more averted elbows.They are clearly capable of speeds in excess of those of modern elephants, more inkeeping with a charging rhinoceros.

Looking at the herd we are able to track how the frill and horns change shape

as the Triceratops mature. In the past this had lead Paleontologists to assign sixteendifferent species of Triceratops based on all the different skull variations found. Nowwe know there are only two confirmed species, namely, T. horridus and T. prorsus.In the small infants the frill is short with a scalloped edge, and the horns mere bumpsthat stick straight up. In the juveniles the brow horns curve upward and backward, andsmall triangular bones form a spiky edge to the neck frill. In the older animals, thebrow horns have transitioned to facing forward and the triangular bones have becomecompletely fused to the edge of the growing frill. The forward-facing brow hornsreached a meter long at maturity, while the frill edges become nearly smooth as thebones along the edge are completely absorbed into the frill. It would appear that thesehuge skull features serve for both sexual display and competition with rivals and thatthe changing horns and frill features signal the level of maturity to other Triceratops.

The female T. rex is full grown, not the biggest (very few are), but a prime spec-imen, nonetheless, at around twelve metres in length, four meters high and just oversix tons in weight. Her eyes are fixed upon a young, five ton, alpha male Triceratops,that has strayed from the protection of the rest of the herd to within thirty meters ofher hiding place. This Triceratops has broken the first rule of the coastal flood plain;never stray from the herd. For this relatively inexperienced Triceratops it is potential-ly a very dangerous mistake. He is tired from locking horns earlier with another alphamale and not as alert as usual. The female T. rex has sensed this, intuitively calculat-ing his vulnerability, looking beyond the outer wall of his horny armaments. Infactwhilst the distant infrasound of the herd was the first signal that she locked onto itwas the faint scent of blood that provided the homing signal to bring her to this loca-tion. The Triceratops’s injuries are only slight grazes to the neck frill, barely drawingblood, gouges from its opponent’s brow horns. Just as a modern day shark can detecta single drop of blood in a million drops of sea water so too Tyrannosaurus can smellthe slightest trace of blood in a similar volume of air. From over one and a half milesaway she has refined her hunting of the herd down to the stalking of one single indi-vidual. The final approach is critical. She inches forward on the flat of her feet whichis very unusual for tyrannosaurs and a mode of walking reserved for stalking. She hasselected her target and brought him into the cross hairs of her acute bifocal vision.Her concentration is intense and absolute. She must wait for the perfect moment. Theoutcome depends upon strategy and the skill to survive. She is totally focused on herobjective but the result is far from certain. Many factors will influence the next fewminutes as she takes on the most dangerous of prey, not least of all her experience,honed over twenty five years. Whilst a perfect ambush will end in slaughter any errorsmay result in a long drawn out death match.

A Thescelosaurus, a heavily built, bipedal, herbivorous animal of three metersin length, with small broad five fingered hands and a long pointed snout, the mostcommon small herbivore in this region rustles the undergrowth some fifteen metersdistant, browsing and feeding selectively from the low lying vegetation, the firstmeter or so from the ground up. The animal’s cheeks bulge with food held in thecheeks as it chews, oblivious to the presence of the huge predator nearby. The elabo-rate alarm call of the Thescelosaurus to warn conspecifics of approaching predatorsis also recognized for what it is by many other animals. The Triceratops could bealerted to the presence of the concealed ambush predator. The female T. rex remainscalm and motionless, watching both the intruder with her wide peripheral vision andher intended prey with her sharp binocular vision.

The Triceratops moves towards an isolated cycad bush in the direction of thewaiting killer. As with modern predator attacks on the Savannah grasslands of Africaonly about fifty percent are successful; every inch nearer tilts the odds in her favour.Prey are always alert and defensive, the balance of advantage between these animalsincredibly fine. She probably won’t be seen if she doesn’t move. The mistake is topounce too soon. Failure is a large part of any predator’s life but attacks on this par-ticular animal can often prove fatal for the attacker. There is rarely an easy contest butshe is well rehearsed. Her thighs begin to twitch. When she makes her move it mustbe clinical and precise. Her striking range is a measured radial arc of thirty meters orso across which the Triceratops now moves. Before the herbivore can settle to feedthe T. rex breaks cover from the dense group of sequoia trees and dashes towards itsintended victim. As she erupts forth muscles snap into action, fuelled by glycogen, achemical that releases a concentrated burst of energy when required. T. rex is a sprint-er not a long distance runner. Energy stored in taut, stretched tendons explodes forth.She accelerates very quickly, launching forwards on her outstretched, arc-tometatarsalian tip toes, the epitome of raw power. Her muscles ripple under the skin.Her strides lengthen.

T. rex has an avian breathing system, the same as in modern day birds. Thishighly efficient air sac system evolved to enable the Saurischian dinosaurs to survivewhen oxygen levels at the Earth's surface were about half of today's 21%, the samelevel that modern birds breathe at altitude. Oxygen levels at the surface in the lateCretaceous have already risen to todays 21% levels giving T. rex a massive oxygenboost. Unlike the two-way mammalian lung system (a bellows type, tidal flow systemof interrupted breathing), the avian system is unidirectional, continually oxidizing theblood with fresh air and allowing T. rex to extract up to 160% more oxygen from theair than mammals.


Super Predator, TheWorld of Tyrannosaurus

rex by Mike Kelley

[email protected]


The predator’s stereoscopic vision is critical in determining when her prey iswithin reach. The temperature of her brain will reach dangerously high levels towardsthe end of the measured dash. Tyrannosaurus rex is much faster than that predictedfor an animal of its size due to the huge continuous oxygen intake and the mass of thecaudofemoralis muscle, the primary hind limb retractor, which takes up over half thetotal mass of its tail. Rich in tendons and septa the tail muscles are an enormous storeof elastic energy. The caudofemoralis muscle is relatively larger in Tyrannosaurus rexthan in any other known animal and has evolved in compensation for the animal’simmense size, greatly improving locomotive efficiency. Propelled forwards by thehuge thigh and tail muscles the female T. rex acceleration is explosive.

A flock of birds take to the air screeching. The screech of the Thescelosauruspierces the air. Seeing the dark shape of the approaching predator too late theTriceratops is slow to turn the large, frilled head and horns, as the rest of the herd,some fifty to a hundred meters distant, begin to bellow their warning signals. Splitseconds decide whether a predator will feed or go hungry, whether the fighting bullwill survive. The ceratopsid bony neck frill flushes with blood, an intimidating ‘threatdisplay,’ as the T. rex slams into the side of the all but motionless Triceratops.Didactyl claws grab onto the flat of the herbivore’s back, hooking into the flesh,anchoring her to her prey. The predator’s highly sophisticated inner ear, balance andequilibrium system transmits almost instant, motor control body-stance adjustments,milliseconds where life hangs in the balance. Any slight miscalculation and the preda-tor itself may be badly injured. The shocked herbivore shrieks loudly as the fullweight of his assailant hits broadside on. The air in its body, within the rudimentary,ornithischian respiratory system, is forced out, leaving the Triceratops winded. Hadthe Triceratops managed to swing the colorful, frilled head and long, brow horns topoint at the T. rex, his attacker would have aborted the ambush. Heading for coveronce more, she would have let out a deep, low growl to alert her mate that the attackwas unsuccessful and that he should now make his own attack run. Perhaps she wouldhave attempted to bite one of the horns to immobilize her prey whilst the maleattacked the undefended flanks. Instead the ‘land shark’-like ambush is successful.

The short arms of the T. rex punch into the Triceratops high on its back abovethe pelvis, squirting blood into the air. Tyrannosaurus rex puny looking arms areadapted for this particular hunting strategy, pushing the prey with its chest while grip-ping with its arms reduces the chance of the prey slipping away while being pushed.The arms, being short yet strong, reduced the chance of joint injury during this strug-gle. Built relatively low to the ground, endowing it with a stubborn center of gravity,Triceratops is a difficult dinosaur to dislodge but pushing forward with the chest area,a heavily reinforced pectoral girdle, the attacker has its prey off balance. The furcula,the ‘wish-bone’, acts as a spring-like shock absorber. As the T. rex takes another stepthe horned beast topples over, legs flying out from underneath the huge bulk and hitsthe ground with a loud thump and a spray of dust. The attacking T. rex stamps on thebody with one foot as it climbs over, raking the razor sharp claws of the other footbackwards across the thick hide and ripping a yard long gash open in the belly of theTriceratops. As the T. rex steps over the struggling animal the pes claws gouge deepinto the open wound and a fountain of blood sprays into the air and is caught on thewind. The Triceratops squirms on its back, trying helplessly to roll over onto its side,legs tucked underneath the body. Once the victim is grounded it is all over. The neckfrill digs into the soft earth hampering the animal’s attempts to right its self. As the T.rex turns, leaving bloody footprints in the soil, the gaping maw opens impossiblywide and plunges downwards toward the Triceratops’ exposed ribcage. As the hugejaws come together, six inch teeth puncture the scaly skin and dark blood gushes

forth. The powerful teeth pulverize bone as they shear past each other. Rib bones snaploudly as the jaws close. The T. rex jerks back its violently shaking head, taking withit flesh, guts and bones, leaving a deep, four foot long, scarlet hole in the dyingTriceratops. Ragged shreds of red meat and splinters of shiny, white bone are thrownsideways from the thrashing head. The background noise of bellowing Triceratopsgrows louder as the rest of the herd look on, the victim’s distress calls enraging theherd. They will not rally to their fallen comrade’s aide as the battle is too close to theedge of where the darkened forest is thickest and of which they are instinctively ner-vous. Where there is one T. rex there is sure to be more. Snorting loudly, the tri-umphant monster shakes its head one last time, gulping successively on huge chunksof meat and hide. Sharp pes claws provide traction and the arctometarsalian footdesign absorbs the shock and spreads the loading. The animal’s deft turn is now com-plete and the teeth, armor piercing spikes, bear down for a second, death deliveringbite to the ribcage, cutting short the Triceratops’ blood curdling scream; again theloud cracking of bone. This is not for the squeamish.

A dark stain spreads across the ground in the low light of dusk and theTriceratops herd falls silent. With its prey successfully downed the female T. rexroars into the sky aloft and spreads its comically short arms out to the sides. It is aclean kill. The male T. rex, slightly smaller than the female, trots into the clearingwith two juveniles in tow, one half the size of the adults and the other half the sizeagain of its sibling. The male has a bright red snout and brightly coloured, primitivefeathers sweeping back from use his arms. He is a pursuit predator. It is the female ofthe species that has adapted to an ambush strategy and become the specialized, largeprey hunter, not the male. Were we able to see the world through the eyes of a T. rexand see in the ultraviolet light spectrum, the male would appear even more brightlycolored as it does to the female of the species.

The female T. rex has locked her jaws firmly on the neck frill and is wrenchingthe enormous head from the Triceratops body. There isn’t much flesh on the keratincovered frill of Triceratops, she is trying to get at the succulent neck muscles. As sheviolently shakes and twists her jaws, providing the torsion to tear the head from thebody, the rest of the family group join her. A feeding frenzy commences with thepredators thrusting their heads deep into the carcass and raising them again, snoutssoaked in blood, to gulp down huge lumps of flesh and bone. Now we see why thenecks of these animals are bare of feathers or ‘dino fuzz’ in all ontogenetic growthstages. These carnivores waste no time chewing. At times the blood crazed tyran-nosaurs rip out lumps of flesh that are tossed into the air, recaught and then gulpeddown. With the carcass split open the juveniles fight for the softer internal organs, theadults crunch down on the rib cage.

In less than an hour only the five foot head of the Triceratops, untouched, savefor a ‘U’- shaped bite mark in the neck frill, remains at the edge of a large oval patchof blood stained and flattened undergrowth. The herd of Triceratops continues slowlyon their way feeding as they go, seemingly unperturbed now that the killers are sati-ated…….

With the artist Damir G Martin, Mike Kelley is working on the book,Super Predator, The World of Tyrannosaurus rex, along with SergeyKrasovsky, Luis V Rey and Jaime Headdon.


Artwork © Damir G Martin



PaleonewsBat-Winged Dinosaur Discovery Poses

Flight Puzzle

A newly found fossil of a small, feathereddinosaur that probably sported bat-like wingmembranes might have been able to glide orfly short distances. The fossilized remains ofthe creature, unearthed in eastern China,have a 13-centimeter-long, rod-like bonethat extends from each wrist, which mighthave helped to support or position wingmembranes; small patches of membranoustissue also cling around the bones. It is thefirst time such a bone structure has beenseen in dinosaurs.

It is difficult to ascertain how much areathe dinosaur’s wing membranes covered,says Xing Xu, a paleontologist at theInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology andPaleoanthropology in Beijing and lead author of the paper. The newly dis-covered species, which lived approximately 160 million years ago, has beendubbed Yi qi, which in Mandarin means “strange wing”. Xu and his col-leagues estimate that the creature had a 60-centimeter wingspan andweighed about 380 grams—roughly the size of a magpie but slightly hefti-er.

“This is one of the strangest animals that I’ve seen in the fossil record inyears,” says Thomas Holtz Jr, a vertebrate paleon-tologist at the University of Maryland in CollegePark. “It’s raising a lot more puzzles than it’s solv-ing.”

Xu says that it is not clear whether the rod-likebone extending from Yi qi’s wrist remained in oneposition or could somehow be moved to control themembrane. And on the basis of the one specimenhis team has unearthed, he notes that it is difficultto tell whether the creature glided, flapped itswings or alternated between the two, as do somemodern-day bats and many birds, including swifts,woodpeckers and finches.

If Yi qi did take to the air, it may have spent mostof its time gliding, not flapping its wings, the teamsuggests. The bone in the wing membrane mighthave rendered flapping unwieldy, and features onthe forelimb bones suggest that the dinosaur's flightmuscles may have been relatively small and weak.(The creature’s feathers would not have helped it to fly: they are more likestiff, frayed bristles than the aerodynamic structures that today’s birds have).

If its wing membranes were used for flight, the dinosaur’s aerial abilitieswould have evolved separately from those of pterosaurs, a group of ancientflying reptiles that sported wing membranes rather than feathers, says Holtz.He adds that the dinosaur's membranes might instead have been displaydevices, used during courtship rituals or to help distinguish themselves fromother species. “The temptation to associate these membranes with flightmay be misleading,” he says.

After all, evolution might have played a similar trick before: many pale-ontologists have proposed that feathers first evolved so that dinosaurs couldbetter retain body heat or communicate with potential mates, and that onlylater were feathers co-opted for the purposes of flight.

New Ceratopian dinosaur dubbed “Hellboy.”

Scientists had a heck of a time getting the remarkable fossil of a dinosaurthey dubbed "Hellboy" out of the hard limestone along a Canadian river

bank where it was entombed for 68 million years, but thediabolic task proved gratifying.

The scientists on Thursday described one of the mostunique horned dinosaurs ever discovered, a beast boasting anexotic set of facial horns and spines around the edge of thebony frill at the back its skull.

"This new animal is definitely one of the weirdest horneddinosaurs," said paleontologist Caleb Brown of the RoyalTyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta. "How weird itis really only becomes fully apparent when you compare it toits close relatives, in which case it stands out like a sorethumb.

They officially named it Regaliceratops peterhewsi,meaning "royal horned face" and honoring geologist PeterHews, who found it. But they nicknamed it "Hellboy"because its stubby horns above the eyes resembled thecomic-book character of the same name and because of thehellish time they had in painstakingly extricating it fromincredibly hard rock.

"We did have an earlier, politically incorrect name for it,but with great effort we managed to stop ourselves using it after a fewmonths," Royal Tyrrell Museum paleontologist Donald Henderson said.

Regaliceratops, similar in size to today's largest rhinos, was estimated at16 feet (5 meters) long, 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall at the hips, weighing about1.5 tons.

"Think of it like a big SUV," Brown said.

The fossil was found in 2005 along the Oldman River in southwesternAlberta, with the tip of the snout sticking out of thecliff. Rather than being squashed flat like manyfossils, the skull was in remarkable three-dimen-sional preservation

Horned dinosaurs were a formidable group ofCretaceous Period plant-eaters. Regaliceratopslived near the end of the age of dinosaurs. It pos-sessed a large conical horn over its nose and a pairof small, forward-curving horns over its eyes thatwere puny compared to its bigger close relative,Triceratops. Seven bony spines in triangular andpentagonal shapes formed a halo around the edgeof its large shield-like frill

"The complete frill looks like a crown formedaround the face of the animal," Brown said.

Nearly the entire skull, but none of the rest ofthe skeleton, was found.

T. rex cousin found and it’s a vegetarian

Tyrannosaurus rex, one of history’s most dreaded carnivores, had an odd-looking vegetarian cousin with a tiny head, long neck and stubby fingers,scientists said Monday, admitting its anatomy had them puzzled.

Chilesaurus diegosuarezi had a bird-like beak with leaf-shaped teeth, evi-dence that it feasted on plants, but with hind leg features similar to theropoddinosaurs, the group into which it was slotted with notorious killers like T.Rex, Velociraptor and the horned Carnotaurus.

“Chilesaurus constitutes one of the most bizarre dinosaurs ever found,”Fernando Novas of Argentina’s Natural History Museum in Buenos Airessaid of a study published in the journal Nature which he co-authored.

“At the beginning, I was convinced that we had collected three differentdinosaurs, but when the most complete skeleton was prepared, it (became)evident that all the elements pertained to a single dinosaur species.”

The bizarre creature was named after the South American country whereits fossilized remains were found, and the seven-year old boy, Diego Suarez,

Yi Qi

An artist’s reconstruction of the new horneddinosaur Regaliceratops peterhewsi. Illustration: Julius

T. Csotonyi/Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller,Alberta.


who discovered the first bones in 2004 while exploring the Andes moun-tains with his geologist parents. About a dozen Chilesaurus specimens havesince been dug up.

Theropods like T. rex tended to have relatively short necks, big heads andstrong, muscled hind legs much bigger than their arms, vicious claws andjaws brimming with razor-sharpteeth. But Chilesaurus cuts an alto-gether less threatening figure.

“The proportionally small skullof Chilesaurus, with the presenceof a horn beak at the tip of thesnout and… leaf-shaped teeth,reveal that Chilesaurus was a strictplant eater,” Novas said, “Its fore-arms were robust, but the handswere provided with just two bluntfingers.”

Most skeletons discovered so farwere the size of a turkey, but isolat-ed bones have revealed thatChilesaurus could grow to aboutthree metres (10 feet) in length.Novas and his team have taken tocomparing Chilesaurus to a platy-pus, which with its duck-like bill,beaver-like tail and otter-like feet,has features of many different animals.

“We are puzzled by the weird anatomy of Chilesaurus, which recalls dif-ferent dinosaurian groups,” said Novas.

Its pelvis is reminiscent of ornithischian dinosaurs with beaks, likeStegosaurus, and its wide, four-toed hind feet are similar to those of themassive, “lizard-footed” sauropods like Brontosaurus. Yet the research teambelieved Chilesaurus to represent a new type of theropod — “an evolution-ary jigsaw puzzle that will generate debate among paleontologists,” accord-ing to Novas. Until now, herbivorous theropods were known only in closedinosaur relatives of modern-day birds, the team said. Yet the discovery ofChilesaurus showed that a meat-free diet was acquired much earlier thanthought. Chilesaurus lived at the end of the Jurassic period, some 145 mil-lion years ago — long before T. rex which ruled at the end of the Cretaceousera some 70-65 million years ago.

The Common Ancestor of all snakes is found

Millions of years ago, the common ancestor of all living snakes, a longcreature with tiny hind limbs as well as ankles and toes, could be foundslithering over the damp soil of forests in search of soft-bodied prey, a newstudy finds.

In the first comprehensive reconstruction of ancestral snakes, theresearchers analyzed the fossils, DNA and anatomy of 73 species of snakeand lizard. Their findings suggest that the most recent common ancestor ofsnakes was likely nocturnal, evolved on land and lived in the warm, dampforests of the Southern Hemisphere about 128 million years ago. The find-ing sheds light on the evolutionary history of snakes. Even though morethan 3,400 snake species currently live on Earth in all sorts of habitats, littleis known about where and when theydeveloped, and how their original ancestorlooked and behaved.

In addition to using genetic and anatom-ic data, the researchers "were able to takeavailable data and backtrack through timeto reconstruct what was the most likelybehavior exhibited by the fossil snakes,given that the living snakes are behaving inthis way," said Allison Hsiang, the study'slead researcher and a postdoctoral

researcher of geology and geophysics at Yale University. Hsiang and col-leagues created an enormous snake family tree by identifying each species'similarities and differences. Their findings focused on the ancestor of allsnakes and snakelike animals, as well as the legendary great granddaddy ofonly snakes.

Both ancestors likely hunted at night and ate "soft-bodiedvertebrate and invertebrate prey" that was about the size of theirheads, the researchers wrote in the study. Although their preywere relatively large compared to prey eaten by lizards at thetime, it does not appear that these ancient creatures could con-strict and manipulate prey larger than themselves, as the mod-ern boa constrictor can, the researchers said. And unlike con-strictors, these snake ancestors likely used needlelike teeth tosnag prey before swallowing them whole. The ancestors alsolikely lived on land in "warm, well-watered and well-vegetatedenvironments," they added.

However, the ancestor of all snakelike animals, whichincludes some lizards, likely developed during the middle of theEarly Cretaceous period, about 128.5 million years ago, onLaurasia, a continent that included what is now North America,Europe and Asia, the researchers said. The ancestor of allsnakes followed about 20 million years later on the superconti-nent Gondwana, which includes what is now South America,Africa, Antarctica and Australia, they said.

The team also found that snakes used to be night owls.Although many ancestral reptiles were active during the day-

time, the ancestral snake was nocturnal for about 45 million to 50 millionyears, they said. This nocturnal behavior likely stopped when Colubroidae,a family of snakes that makes up more than 85 percent of living snakespecies, stopped going out at night as temperatures dropped. It did wellbecause it could adapt to daytime activities, the researchers said. Moreover,snakes may be successful at occupying different types of habitat becausethey can travel far and wide. Snakes can journey in ranges of about 42,500square miles, which is about 4.5 times larger than the range of lizards. Theycan also live in both land and water, which has impeded the dispersal ofother terrestrial animals, the researchers said.

Chilesaurus © Gabriel Lio



Prehistoric Predators by Brian Switek, illustrated byJulius Csotonyi, Ages 6 and up, Hardcover: 104 pages,Applesauce Press, ISBN-10:1604335521, ISBN-13:978-1604335521. Withthis new book, youngsters can discover the most dangerous prehistoric car-nivores that ever roamed the Earth (featuring a unique cover that feels likedinosaur-skin) The carnivores come alive in “Prehistoric Predators.” Fromfavorites like T. rex and Spinosaurus, to the ferociousGiganotosaurus and terrifying Megalodon giant shark, theamazing full-color illustrations from renowned paleoartistJulius Csotonyi make these dangerous creatures spring to lifeon each page. Bursting with many new facts written byNational Geographic contributor Brian Switek, this is actuallythe perfect book for dinosaur lovers of every age! BrianSwitek is the author of Written in Stone and My BelovedBrontosaurus, and regularly covers the latest prehistoric dis-coveries on his National He lives in Utah. Julius Csotonyi isone of the world's most high profile and talented contempo-rary paleoartists and is well known to PT readers. Julius hasconsiderable academic expertise that contributes to hisdynamic art. He has created life-sized dinosaur murals for theRoyal Ontario Museum and for the Dinosaur Hall at the NaturalHistory Museum of Los Angeles County, and most of the artwork for thenew Hall of Paleontology at the HMNS. He lives in Canada.

How to Draw Dinosaurs volume 1 by Tracy Ford, Paperback, 176 pages,Our own Tracy Ford has collected his “How to Draw Dinosaurs” articlespreviously shown in Prehistoric Times magazine issues from 1996 to early2001 and presented them in one handy volume (most of theseissues are no longer available.) Tracy even shows the PT frontcover that each article originally appeared in. Of course hisdinosaur art articles have been a regular feature in PrehistoricTimes magazine for close to twenty years. They include blackand white, detailed, line drawings of different dinosaur’s anato-my or whatever is needed to support what Tracy is teaching us inthat issue’s writing. They provide paleontological informationthat is near impossible to find elsewhere. The goal of Tracy’sarticles are to be a resource to help artists stay scientificallyaccurate in representing each dinosaur by keeping current on thelatest available information. Tracy’s book is an unbelievablyhelpful source for artists who want to portray the appearance ofprehistoric animals to the best that the latest scientific knowledgecan make them. Tracy has done the home work for you and consequently allpaleoartists really need this book. Available at Amazon.com

A Field Guide to the Dinosaurs of North America: and PrehistoricMegafauna Paperback by Bob Strauss Paperback: 224 pages, FalconGuides, ISBN-10: 1493009257, ISBN-13: 978-1493009251 A field guideto 60 dinosaurs and prehistoric animals that once lived in what isnow North America. Featuring beautifully done illustrations ofeach animal by world-famous artist Sergey Krosovskiy andbased on the latest paleontological research, this book providesinformation about the where and when the animals lived, whatthey ate, and more.

The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs DroveNeanderthals to Extinction by Pat Shipman, Hardcover: 288pages, Belknap Press, ISBN-10: 0674736761, ISBN-13: 978-0674736764 With their large brains, sturdy physique, sophisti-cated tools, and hunting skills, Neanderthals are the closestknown relatives to humans. Approximately 200,000 years ago, asmodern humans began to move north out from their evolutionary

birthplace in Africa, Neanderthals were already thriving inEurope;�descendants of a much earlier migration of the Africangenus Homo. But when modern humans eventually made theirway to Europe 45,000 years ago, Neanderthals suddenly van-ished. Ever since the first Neanderthal bones were identified in1856, scientists have been wondering why modern humans sur-vive while their evolutionary cousins went extinct? “TheInvaders” collects good evidence to show that the major factorin the Neanderthals’ demise was direct competition with newlyarriving humans. Pat Shipman traces the devastating impact of

a growing new human population, the reduction of the Neanderthals’ geo-graphic range, their isolation into small groups and thereby loss of geneticdiversity.

But interestingly, modern humans were not the only invaders who com-peted with Neanderthals for big game. Shipman reveals fasci-

nating confirmation of humans’ partnership with the firstdomesticated wolf-dogs soon after Neanderthals began todisappear. This alliance between two predator species, shehypothesizes, made possible an great degree of success inhunting large Ice Age mammals,�a distinct and ultimatelydecisive advantage for humans over Neanderthals. Utilizingnew evidence, Pat Shipman of Pennsylvania State Universityshows how our coevolution with wolves contributed to theextinction of Neanderthals and further transformed usthrough the process of domesticating our dogs that we soenjoy today.

Age of Reptiles: Ancient Egyptians Paperback byRicardo Delgado (Author, Illustrator) One of the most

beloved and respected comic book series returns as Ricardo Delgado's Ageof Reptiles: Ancient Egyptians series continues with his great wordless sto-rytelling. Ricardo sets his new book in the swamps of Cretaceous Africa thatare packed with prehistoric life and primordial danger in a tale filled withvillains, victims, and one of the most dangerous and unpredictable protago-

nists ever created. Our anti-hero is the huge Spinosaurus aegyp-ticus as he faces a swamp full of dangerous dinosaurs andother prehistoric animals that Ricardo fills with the feel of theclassic spaghetti western and the noble samurai tale. Using themost up-to-date science regarding Spinosaurus, Ricardo showsus a day or two in the life of this ancient water-bound animal.Ricardo’s illustrations may seem simplistic at first viewing butthen you see all of the detail and multiple stories happening ineach frame. Add all of the beautiful color and you can appre-ciate his vast artistic talent that bring his storytelling to life.Three more issues are forthcoming in this series. See ad in thisissue.

Digging for Triceratops: Digging for Tyrannosaurusrex: Digging for Stegosaurus: Digging for Brachiosaurus:

A Discovery Timeline (Dinosaur Discovery Timelines) by Thomas R.Holtz Jr. Age Range: 8 - 12 years, 32 pages, Capstone Press ISBN-10:149142124X, ISBN-13: 978-1491421246 Four different books make up thisseries in which we discovery most all there is to know about T. rex,Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus and Triceratops. Through this new and inter-

esting timeline format, we retrace the steps including the sci-entists, digs, and fossils from around the world that broughteach of these prehistoric creatures into modern times. Welearn things like the first time scientists unearthed aTriceratops fossil, they initially thought they might be deal-ing with a really big bison. The books go year by year withhighlights regarding discoveries of the titled dinosaur includ-ing related dinosaurs. Piecing some of these dinosaurstogether was a worldwide puzzle that took years to be solved.Each book is very colorful with many paintings and pho-tographs on every page. Take a great journey through thisdiscovery timeline series of books to reveal the mysteries andrevelations of how four of the most iconic dinosaurs werediscovered. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. is a vertebrate paleontolo-

Mesozoic Media



gist with the University of MarylandDepartment of Geology who haswritten many books and has beenseen on several dinosaur TV docu-mentaries.

A Walk Through Dinosaurlandby Jim Lawson. Lawson’s newpaperback, comic art style book is alot of fun to read. Jim got it success-fully published by using the internetsite Kickstarter to acquire investors.It tells the tale of John who is a“man” who takes Matthew (a youngboy) on a tour of evolution throughprehistoric times. All types of prehis-toric animals are shown and

John informs Matt (and us) about each one in a way that is funnyyet accurate for all ages to enjoy. Just for added fun, Jim givesthe book a plausible ending and then a more crazy second pos-sible ending. Jim sent us an autographed copy by mail. I don’tsee the book available on amazon.com but maybe throughKickstarter, you can still find copies.

Tyrannosaurs: Behind the Art DVD by James Gurney. Jim’snew video tutorial gives you front row seats at the creation oftwo Tyrannosaur paintings for Scientific American magazine,including one for the cover. Super talented Illustrator JamesGurney fully explains his process as he reconstructs two recentlydiscovered relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex, as if you were sittingright there with him. Working closely with scientist StephenBrusatte, who discovered one of them, he shows his process includingthumbnails and color comprehensives. He shows how he uses photos andmodels, as well as outdoor studies, as he moves ahead to the final oil illus-tration. He explains both his methods and his thinking with an emphasis onthe techniques for portraying feather and foliage textures, thereby creatinga believable reconstruction of a scene that is imag-ined based on scientific evidence. Jim Gurneyshows how he chooses his colors, what brushes heuses at each stage, and how he prepares his boardfor painting. The production is packed with infor-mation that will fascinate dinosaur artists as wellas all other artists. I promise you will be mostimpressed. PT readers have seen a lot of Jim’s artin this magazine as well as Steve Brusatte’s arti-cles on new paleontological discoveries. Pleasesupport both of their work by picking up a copy ofthis DVD. Check out jamesgurney.com or ama-zon.com to order your DVD.

Terra Nova, Complete Series, 4 DVDs. I wascertainly among the PT faithful who were reallylooking forward to this heavily hyped StevenSpielberg TV series before it arrived. The SciFiplot sounded good. It is the year 2149. Mankind is on the brink of extinc-tion. “Lucky” people of a future earth use a time machine to start all overagain and make their utopia in prehistoric times- packed with lots of dinosaurs. Well, it turnedout that the show wasn’t bad but certainly itlacked a very important element - where werethe dinosaurs? Not just for PT readers but alsothe rest of the viewers expected a new “JurassicPark” from this TV show. Afterall, it wasSpielberg making it. And I think that was one ofits greatest problems and caused its eventualdownfall. We saw a few prehistoric animals inearly episodes and occasionally more in laterones but mostly, it was just about the interactionbetween the human actors - and they just weren’t

good enough to pull that off on their own. But anyway,for fans, this 4-disc set contains all 13 episodes includingthe double length pilot plus special features like behind-the-scenes content, a gag reel, deleted scenes and more.

The Last Dinosaur DVD starring Richard Boone andJoan Van Ark. This is a movie from 1977 that starsRichard Boone who is probably best known for playingPalladin on the 1960s TV western show “Have Gun-WillTravel.” Boone’s character in “The Last Dinosaur” is abillionaire who enjoys hunting big game. He has built aboring machine, (that’s “boring” as in digging a hole)large enough to hold agroup of humans, that he

plans to use to cut into theearth to a cavity where pre-historic life still livesincluding a tyrannosaur.He acts like he plans tostudy the rex but everyonein the audience (and no onein the film) knows he real-ly plans to hunt it and killit. He and his team arrivein the prehistoric under-ground with Joan VanArk’s character in tow.They see Pteranodons and an enormous Uintatherium-like creature (that the ‘expert’ calls a ceratopsian) andeventually the T. rex. We also see the T. rex battle and killa Triceratops (that must be the ceratopsian he meant.)

First off, I will say that “Have Gun-Will Travel” was a respected 1960s TVshow in its day. I was a little young then to remember it now but I know mydad really enjoyed it. So, I have to ask, what happened to Boone’s actingabilities in the 1970s when he made this movie? And Joan Van Ark and theothers in this film aren’t much better. Wow, is this ever a bad movie! Yes,

that’s my opinion but I challenge any of you tosit and watch this entire movie, like I had todo, and tell me I’m mistaken.

The story is so unoriginal and the acting isjust sad. The dinosaurs are of the man-in-a-suit variety. The T. rex even makes the samesound that Godzilla does in all of his films.Like the dinosaur suits, the miniature models(like the bore machine, for instance) are obvi-ously made in Japan. There are even severalJapanese actors in the film and all of thecavepeople that our intrepid team meet in pre-historic land are also Japanese. So, this wasobviously a Japanese collaborative effort,even though the movie was done byRankin/Bass, probably best known for

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and other holiday animated cartoons. Itsays on the DVD that this is the completeoriginal theatrical version. I have been toldthat on the Japanese version of this DVD, afurther half an hour of footage is included.I’m not complaining that I only have theAmerican version however as it is merciful ofthis version to have cut out a half an hour ofthis film. Thank you. (Also this DVDincludes nothing extra: no deleted scenes, nodirector’s commentary, no special features.)

And finally, does anyone remember anepisode of “Have Gun - Will Travel” in whichPalladin is searching for a giant cyclops? Thatis a vague childhood memory of mine.

Previously reviewedin PT. Now in paperback



Marx Set Science Weighs InBy Pat Schaefer

In PT #91, wecrossed a great dividein order to continueour discussion aboutMarx dinosaur play-sets sold at Sears. Inthat article, we mostlytalked about the play-sets, and did not dwellso much on the mean-ing of the great divide.What was this greatdivide? First of all, itwas the time thatpassed between the Marx dinosaur playset, offered in the 1963 Marx catalogand the next Marx dinosaur playset, seen 8 years later in 1971. Second, itwas the jump from commercial rules and regulations circa 1960, to the moremodern age of product warnings and labels. The final part of the greatdivide, we encapsulated as “seventies style, same molds, newmaterials” and, further focused the topic to a single word,“Plastics”. We now want to review and expand that topic, andso we say “Plastics, old and new”. In our earlier investiga-tions, we learned that instead of “new”, some say “waxy”,“shiny” or use the code word “heritage” and think enough hasbeen said. As for me, sometimes I see waxy and sometimes Iam not sure. So, now is the time for set science to weight in,and propose a new way of determining the old plastic figuresfrom the new.

Previously, we investigated various means of plastic deter-mination but found nothing better than “waxy”. Today, weare going to compare old figures vs new figures, looking forsomething to complement our waxy discriminator. As luckwould have it, we got a scale for Christmas. No, NOT thatkind, I did put on a pound or two, thank you very much, but,a small scale, accurate to .1 gram, and two calibrationweights to monitor its accuracy. So, we selected two sets offigures, one old, the other new, and started weighing. The great divide wasall about same mold, new material. What we found is that the old materialweighs more than the new material. How much more? Do you know howmuch a nickel weighs? Well not as much as that, but, for 2 different molds,6 different figures, the old figures all weighed more than the new.

Figures, old and new. Which figures did we choose? For the most partwe chose large, relatively heavy figures. From the large mold group, wechose pot bellied T-Rex, Brontosaurus, and Kronosaurus. From the revisedmold group, we chose slim T-Rex, revised Brontosaurus, and revisedStegosaurus. We chose the relatively light weight Stegosaurus figurebecause in PT #107, we distinguished two different kinds of revisedStegosaurus figures, and further, suggested that one would be in the time ofold plastic, the other in the time of new plastic.

Once the figures were chosen, where to get samples? The trick, of course,is to be sure that the “old” figures are old, and the “new” figures are new.We selected figures from 14 examples of these 8 old sets: 3389, 3390, 3388,3394, square box set with no number, 3398, 0645, and marx card P-1078 ;and 15 examples of these 9 new sets: 3398, 4130, 3421, 4208, Superior5500, Sears/Toy Street 49-56312, Toy Street 4700, Marx of Miami, JurassicIsland, and Marx of Miami 4673, Flintstones Collector Set.

How did we choose each particular set for measurement? We chose thesets carefully. We are more confident in our judgement, now that, in earlierPT articles, we have collected and reviewed the Sears and Wards catalogs.We expect the sets to look how they did in the catalogs. We like figures that

come with a box, but just being found IN A BOX is not enough; we expectthe figures to be FROM THE BOX because they match our catalog expec-tations. We do not always have the luxury of having a box. If there is nobox, we want to see a set of figures that match our catalog models and arenear complete.

How did we weigh the figures? Well, in the name of brevity, let’s just saywe weighed them carefully, repeatedly, and, as nearly as possible, in thesame way, each and every time.

PLEASE! not more numbers. OK, I hear you, and you get your wish. Thistime we are going to flex our artistic muscles, just drawing and painting and,ok, there will be a wee bit of counting. Yes, I know this is set science andall, but I am going to release my inner artist.

So, let me show you a couple drawings of the results. Those of you in theknow may think they see influence by the great modern artist Mondrian, but,trust me, the inspiration is more “Tukey.” Let me tell you how these pictureswere created.

We start with the weighing of the figures. Then, there are just four easysteps. First, we paint the value on the grid. Second, we paint a median bar.We count the number of observations. If there is an odd number of samples,we find the 1 value which splits the readings in half, and paint a black barnext to that reading. If there are an even number of readings, we find the 2values which again splits the readings in half. So for 14 samples, we find the

seventh and eighth sample and we paint ablack bar on both. This separates readings 1through 6 (6 samples) from 9 through 14 (6samples). Third, we add a gray box aroundthe black bars, enclosing at least 50% of thereadings. The results again break along thelines of even or odd. If there is an even num-ber of samples, exactly 50 % of the samplesare enclosed. If the number is odd, then weinclude a little more than 50%, up to a max-imum of 57%. For example, with a samplesize of 7, we enclose 4 of 7 samples (57%),not 3 of 7 samples (43%) and, we do not tryto find the elusive sample number three andone half. We put observations into the graybox, two at a time, one from above the blackbar, then one from below, until we haveenclosed 50% of the samples, or, we need toplace only one more sample. That last sam-

ple is the one closest to the black bar, either above or below.Fourth, we count the number of steps between the two grayboxes and place a bright red dividing line midway betweenthe two. With that, our masterpiece is finished.

Consider first, the portrait “Slim T-Rex, in hot pink andcorn flower”. The old plastic is hot pink, the new is in a kindof corn flower blue color. We have 14 samples total, 6 oldplastic, 8 new plastic.

What do we see? Old plastic median: 38.1-38.6. Newplastic median: 35.9- 36.1. Old different than new?: Yes.Difference: 2.85 grams. Samples Overlap?: No. Gapbetween Gray boxes: 1.7 grams. Dividing line between grayboxes: 37.3 grams. Divide Clean?: Yes.

What does it mean? To me, it means there is a differencein what the old figures and what the new figures weigh, withthe old figures being slightly heavier. Samples lying outsideof the old figure’s gray box do not overlap those lying out-side of the new figure’s gray box; there is a clear breakbetween outliers of the old and new. The dividing linebetween the gray boxes clearly separates old from new.Based on this limited sample, I would suggest that slim T-Rex figures that weigh more than 37.3 grams are old, andthose that weigh less than that are new. As always, more sam-ples may move, substantiate or repudiate this demarcation.



How are we going to use this information? Consider this set of figuresthat I acquired some time ago, Mystery Contestant #1. The appeal was thetwo brown slim T-Rex figures. Everything else seemed a mishmash, withoutrhyme or reason.

Now, let’s plot them up against known brown figures. From the 60s, thereis the brown slim T-Rex figure as found on a Marx blister card. You can seeone on the far right. From the 70s, there is the brown slim T-Rex figure thatI know as one of the “revised red brown” figures which were sprinkled intothe 3398 sets, to liven up the light gray and green color scheme. He is pic-tured on the left; the mystery contestants have been placed in between.

So now, from the 70s, we have Mr. 35.0, a light brown slim T-Rex figure.Is it a very pale, “revised red brown” figure, or a recast figure from SDC wehave not seen before, or, maybe, a figure from a Canadian set? Didn’t the3398 MO have 2 brown colors in it (see PT #103).

And on the other hand, from the 60s, we have Mr. 37.8, a dark brown slimT-Rex figure. Is it a lighter colored Marx card figure now freed from theblister card and, seemingly, bereft of his revised moldbuddies, or, maybe, a dump figure, a fugitive fromMarx quality control? (see also The DUMP!! in MikeFredericks and Joe DeMarco’s monograph ath t t p : / / w w w. d i n o s a u r - t o y s - c o l l e c t o r s -guide.com/marx-playset-monograph.html). The fig-ure has to be from Marx, no recasts in the 60s.

All clear now, right? Ok, maybe not so much. ButI believe we have placed them on the correct side ofthe great divide.

Color aside: Siri, what color are my figures?This is an entirely gnarly topicand there will be no possible lastword, but, I would like to sharewith you what my computerthinks. As part of our investiga-tion, we made a “color track” ofthe four figures, scanning thestanding figures to give a view offour sets of feet (see PT #102).We scanned all figures at thesame time, so the lighting shouldbe near identical. We made a happy discovery that allowsus to locate an identical spot on each figure. We made ourcolor comparisons starting from this spot. The slim T-Rexhas a very, very small dimple on the bottom of the middletoe, right foot. The dimple was most pronounced on theunused, just-off-the-Marx-card figure, and was present butnot as clear on all the other figures. In addition, this kindof spot comparison, might be utilized to judge the “wear”on a figure, the clearer the dimple the fresher the figure.

We centered our digital color meter on that spot, lockedthe position and then, opened the sampling aperture, onestep at a time. By the time we reached the fifth step, RGBvalues stopped changing with increasing sample area. Forwhat it is worth, based on this analysis, my computerthinks these four figures are these RGB colors : (140, 104,94), (141, 134, 120), (139, 122, 108), (127, 99, 89). Leaveart to the artist, right?

Now consider, the portrait “Pot Belly T-Rex, in cornflower and hot pink”. The old plastic is hot pink, the newis in a kind of corn flower blue color. We used 21 samples,14 old plastic (12 sets, 2 sets had multiple samples) and 7new plastic (6 sets, 1 set had multiple samples).

What do we see? Old plastic median: 47.8 - 48.0. Newplastic median: 45.1. Old different than new?: Yes.Difference: 2.8 grams. Samples Overlap? No. Gapbetween Gray boxes: 1.3 grams. Dividing line between

gray boxes: 46.2. Divide Clean?: No. Number of measurements overdivide?: 1. Comment: All the lightest old measurements belong to figureswhich have a metallic (M) color. Also, it should be noted that none of thenew figures are Marx, as Marx stopped producing figures from the largemold in the 60s.

What does it mean? To me, it means, there is a difference in what the oldfigures and what the new figures weigh, with the old figures being slightlyheavier. Samples lying outside of the old gray figure’s box do not overlapthose lying outside of the new gray figure’s box, there is a small but clearbreak between outliers of the old and new (.2 grams). The divide betweenthe 50% boxes separates all but 1 old figure from new. Based on this limitedsample, I would suggest that pot bellied T-Rex figures that weigh more than46.2 grams are old, and less than that are new. Figures with weights near thedivide should be checked for having a metallic style color which would indi-cate old plastic. As always, more samples may move, substantiate or repudi-ate this demarcation.

How are we going to use this information?Consider this set of figures that I saw recently,Mystery Contestant #2. A large mold group indark red brown would be a new one on me, evenif, they turned out to be recast figures. I wasexcited, boy howdy! But not every fairy tale hasa Disney ending, some endings are more Grimm.

Now, let’s plot them up against known brownfigures. I only know of one brown pot bellied T-Rex figure from the 60s. It is a milk chocolatebeauty, a special bonus figure included in certainsets of 3389/3390, 3391/3392 vintage. He hasbeen placed on the far right. The only brown potbellied T-Rex figure from the 70s that I know,was found in a Marx of Miami, Jurassic Villageset. He is pictured on the left, the two mysterycontestants have been placed in between.

Yes, that’s right, we have TWO, not one, mys-tery contestants, because two large moldgroups finally came with the set; one in metal-l i csil-

ver and one in a light redbrown. No time to say why.What I was expecting was alarge mold group whose colorwas something like the samplesquare in the upper right cornerof the picture of MysteryContestant #2.

That is not what I received.Once the figures were actuallyin hand, the color match withthe Jurassic Village figureclearly identified it as 70s not60s. The 45.1 gram weight justcements the case. This time thecolor gave it away, but IF theset was really a dark red browncolor, set science would haveyou looking for his buddies onthe correct side of the greatdivide.

Where did the dark redbrown figures go? That’s astory for another time. Keepyour eyes open, who knowswhat treasures we may find.


Mystery Contestant #2


T. rex - certainly not the nation’skindest, gentlest state fossil - mostlybecause it never had to be one. Theflag didn’t stand a chance – mostlybecause the colors didn’t run.

by Robert Telleria

dinosauriana.compaleoartistry.webs.com

Continuing my “what if ” serieswhere I create models that neverexisted, I realized no artist orcompany has ever issued a seriesof figurines specifically com-memorating any or all of our

nation’s official state fossil representatives. As we celebrate America’s inde-pendence this Fourth of July, I focusedmainly on the dinosaurs and select fishand mammals that form the cast of seem-ingly haphazardly selected state fossilsof the U.S.

The figures sculpted by William Otto,still lovely after 50-odd years, inspiredmy set of state fossils. The color wasinspired by William Otto’s beautiful cop-per and chocolate toned pot metal PageMuseum La Brea Tar Pit Los AngelesPage Museum paleofauna souvenirs soldin the late 1950s-1960s. The scale varies but each miniature figure, usually5” to 7” is placed on 3” bases shaped as their native states. Of course I didn’tsculpt all fifty states. Nine states do not have an official state fossil whileothers like Alabama and Mississippi, or Washington and Alaska, share thesame state fossil. In these cases I picked the first state to claim it. Utah andOklahoma share fossils that may actually be the same genus, so I only chosethe better known one in these cases. Plants and invertebrates do not person-ally satisfy me to create so I also skipped these. In some of these instances,in the spirit of independence and true “what if ” fashion, I have replacedthem with what I consider more spectacular choices for that state represen-tative.

Alabama (1984)/Mississippi (1981) –Basilosaurus cetoidesSince the Yellowhammerand Magnolia states bothyield the same Eocenewhale I decided to justmake the base shaped likeAlabama rather than Mississippi which technically elected it first onlybecause Alabama has done a better job of displaying the skeleton in theirnatural history museum.

Alaska – Mammuthus primigenius (Woolly Mammoth), 1986.Considered the Last Frontier, Alaska has pachyrhinosaurs, albertosaurs andankylosaurids in the North Slope, but these were barely known when thestate elected the mammoth as state fossil. With part of the state glacial theIce Age giant is a fitting and evocative choice.

Arizona - Araucarioxylon arizonicum (Petrified Wood), 1988. The statefossil is a Triassic conifer because of the Petrified Forest National Park, ofcourse, yet there are many excellent animal prospects for the Grand CanyonState Fossils from dicynodont Placerias, phytosaur Rutiodon, to early (butpoorly known) dinosaur Chindesaurus, to camels, horses and mastodons inthe Pleistocene. I would nominate the Jurassic theropod Dilophosaurus –

although two states already may have the same creature represented byEubrontes tracks. To change things up, I would hope rauisuchidPostosuchus would win any future honors.

Arkansas - None. For the Natural State I would suggest a mosasaur orplesiosaur, both unclaimed by any state so far.

California – Smilodon fatalis, 1973. When one thinks of Golden Statepaleontology they think of the “black gold” found in La Brea Tar Pits wherethe majority of saber cat fossils have been unearthed. Other fossil treasuresfrom California span all ages of the prehistoric past from pterosaurs,dinosaurs (Labocania anyone?), mosasaurs and plesiosaurs (likeMuraenosaurus) to the aforementioned Pleistocene fauna. I originally envi-sioned Smilodon laying down on its side taking up the length of the state butit would mean the size of the state would have to be dramatically larger thanthe rest.Colorado – Stegosaurus

armatus, 1982. If its fos-sil record was a factor,the Centennial Statecould have more accu-rately been called theM ega m u l t i m i l l e n i a lState. How does one choose from all the possible excellent candidates? The

archetypal armored dinosaur Stegosaurus is emblematicand a true American icon. Colorado can be real proud asthe genus with its large triangular plates, has yet to turnup anywhere else in the world as big as they are in theU.S.

Connecticut (1991)/Massachusetts (1980) –Eubrontes giganteus tracks. The Constitution State andthe Bay State both share what is believed to have beentracks left by a dilophosaur. The sculpt is based on thelifesized model at Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill,Connecticut, which was sculpted by Richard Rush

Studio in turn based on specs provided by Gregory Paul.Delaware - Belemnitella americana, 1996. Maybe it is fitting that the

First State has such a primitive animal (a Cretaceous belemnite) for its statefossil but Delaware’s where some decent late Cretaceous deposits are found,so theropod Dryptosaurus may have roamed the area. Footprints calledGrallator may have been a Triassic predator like or the same asCoelophysis. Either would be good choices for state dinosaurs.

District of Columbia – “Capitalsaurus.” Can’t do any better than theinformal name: although it may well be Acrocanthosaurus.

Florida - None. With a Cretaceous age sea turtle as its oldest known fossilvertebrate, the Sunshine State was underwater during the Mesozoic Eraleaving megafauna contenders like glyptodonts, scimitar cats, short-facedbears (Tremarctus floridanus), and bear dogs. With Jefferson’s GroundSloth already claimed by West Virginia, maybe Florida can foregoMammuthus floridanus, saber cat Xenosmilus, or the predictable marinethemes (i.e. fossil sharks, whales or sirenians) and champion a terror bird,Titanis or giant condor Teratornis.

Georgia - unidentified Miocene shark tooth, 1976. The Peach Stateshould have waited for a better, more certain state fossil to be unearthed.Eocene whale Georgiacetus would have been a nicer pick.

Hawaii – None. It was only 5 million years ago that this state said Alohato the world, so it only has sea fossils and remains of fossil birds to offer.

Idaho - Equus simplicidens (Hagerman horse), 1988. The American zebrais the first true horse, dating back to the Pliocene. A good candidate for statedinosaur would be its most abundant genus, the burrowing ornithopodnamed Oryctodromeus. If it couldn’t be the Fossil State, then the GemState’s not a bad monicker.

Illinois - Tullimonstrum gregarium, 1989. The Paleozoic era depositsare excellent for trilobites and brachiopods. The Pennsylvanian deposits arein the Mazon Creek fossil beds from which the enigmatic carnivore nick-named “Tully Monster” used to swim these seas of what is now the PrairieState. Though they may have been present, no remains of dinosaurs havebeen found in Illinois, as it too had a gap between the Mesozoic and IceAge.


Bronzes byWilliam Otto


Indiana – None. So, Hoosier State Fossil? (Get it? Who’s yer state fossil?)Jokes aside, while they may have existed in the state, dinosaurs are out ofthe running as the state’s Mesozoic age sediments were not deposited. Dittofor Permian age creatures. The likely vertebrate contenders would be anynumber of mammals though the candidate may be nothing more than someplant life from the Carboniferous Period.Iowa – None. It would take hawk eyes indeed to find any interesting candi-dates in the fossil record of the Hawkeye State. Devonian marine life, ple-siosaur, mosasaur and pterosaur remains have been recovered as well ashadrosaur and ankylosauriddinosaurs.

Kansas - None. Many may thinkof marine reptiles when they thinkof the prehistoric Sunflower Statebut I vote for Pteranodon aspterosaurs are not represented byany states currently. Cretaceousfish Xiphactinus would be a runnerup. Government Fundies may be inthe way of getting a state fossil process never mind a state rock, gemstoneor mineral.

Kentucky - Brachiopod, 1986. Most of the coal deposits in the BluegrassState stem from the Carboniferous age rocks. The fossil record is extremelypoor for the Permian Period and Mesozoic Era; not even Devonian depositsyield any fish. The Quaternary age fauna is well-represented however, sowhy not short-faced bear Arctodus or bear-sized beaver Castoroides?

Louisiana - Palmoxylon (petrified wood), 1976. The Pelican State ismainly buried marine life going back to the Devonian. Like its Southernneighbors Alabama and Mississippi, you will find Basilosaurus fossils fromthe Eocene. There are also abundant Miocene fossil mammals likeSynthetoceras, Hipparion and Teleoceros and Pleistocene Glyptotherium. Asingle dinosaur tooth belonging to an unidentified dromaeosaurid has beenreported.

Maine - Pertica (plant), 1985. A Devonian plant. What else would youexpect from the Pine Tree State? The rest of its fossil record is mainlySilurian or Ordovician marine life. If you came looking for megafauna youcame to the wrong place as back then it could have been called the GlacierState…

Maryland – Ecphora gardnerae (snail), 1994. I know what you are think-ing. A snail? How dull! However, if a dinosaur was selected for the Old LineState, it would have been old hat since Astrodon (Pleurocoelus), aCretaceous sauropod which is already claimed (as Paluxysaurus) by Texas.

Massachusetts - See Connecticut.Michigan - Mammut americanum (American Mastodon), 2002. The

American Mastodon is a great choice for the Great Lakes State. It couldhave selected yet another mammoth from its Pleistocene deposits or lessspectacularly a Devonian fish, brachiopod, bryzoan, trilobite, gastropod, orcephalopod. The Carboniferous material is typically not well-preserved andthe Mesozoic rocks did not survive.

Minnesota – None. In the North Star state, they have yet to find a star tobe their state fossil. The only dinosaurs, recovered from Cretaceous Perioddeposits, belong to unidentified species of hadrosaurs. No Permian or evenCarboniferous age fossils have been found. Hopefully when one is selectedit will not be another mammoth.

Mississippi - See Alabama.Missouri - Delocrinus (sea lily), 1989; Hypsibema missouriensis, 2004.

Show Me State should show me better state fossils. A sea lily is franklylame, and the state dinosaur is an extremely poorly known hadrosaur. IceAge mastodons or sloths (like Mylodon) would have made better candidatesfor state fossils.

Montana – Maiasaura peebleso-rum, 1985. There’s a lot of paleon-tological treasure in the TreasureState of Montana: Triceratops,Deinonychus, Tyrannosaurus, forstarters. But mostly it’s duckbillterritory all over so Maiasaura, the

headline-making dinosaur that showed the world how motherly dinosaurparents could be, is a perfect representative.

Nebraska – Mammuthus primigenius, M. columbi, M. imperator(Mammoths – Woolly, Columbian and Imperial), 1967. First to lay claim tothe mammoth, which represents the Cornhusker State well but the bear dogAmphicyon and any number of fossil rhinos from Ashfall Fossil Beds wouldhave avoided the clash when Alaska, South Carolina and Washington alsoelected mammoths decades earlier. I assigned Nebraska the ColumbianMammoth which is now considered synonymous with Imperial Mammoth.I also assigned Teleoceras, actually the most common fossil at Ashfall, toLouisiana.

Nevada – Shonisaurus popularis, 1977. Here’s a state that got it right -by default. The fifty foot ichthyosaur Shonisaurus is the only real choice forthe Silver State.

New Hampshire – None. Paleozoic life - brachiopods, bryozoans, corals,crinoids, and trilobites - seem to be the only fossils from the perfectly nick-named Granite State.

New Jersey - Hadrosaurus foulkii, 1991. With its ample late Cretaceousdeposits, who knows what other dinosaurs lie beneath the Garden Statewaiting to be discovered? Hadrosaurus is the first significant dinosaurfound in America, and deserving of the status of New Jersey State Fossil. Ididn’t sculpt this because another artist already did a miniature commemo-rative bronze that was good enough.

New Mexico - Coelophysis bauri, 1981. When Edwin Colbert discoveredthe Ghost Ranch site was full of Coelophysis skeletons he undoubtedlyagreed with the state’s nickname as the Land of Enchantment, and for pale-ontologists it still rings true. Some thirty four years later the Triassicdinosaur became the state fossil. A few years after that, supersizeddiplodocid Seismosaurus was found. Additionally there’s been allosauridsand tyrannosaurids, large chasmosaurines, Stegosaurus, therizinosaurs likeNothronynchus, crested duckbills like Parasaurolophus and many others.

New York - Eurypterus remipes (sea scorpion), 1984. The geologic riseand fall of The Empire State is inconsistently recorded by the rocks, partic-ularly in the Adirondacks, dating back to the Precambrian. Carboniferousand Permian rocks were eroded, and late Mesozoic age sediments are limit-ed to the Coastal Plain area of Long Island. This leaves the best fossils fromthe Silurian and Devonian periods. One of the largest specimens is the man-sized Eurypterus, the largest arthropod ever.

North Carolina – Carcharodon megalodon, 2013. Good for the Tar HeelState: selecting the giant whiteshark relative first whenMaryland or Florida could haveeasily claimed the same genus.If you are familiar with theexhibit at North Carolina’sMuseum of Natural Scienceshopefully you know that there’sno solid proof Acrocanthosaurus roamed the state as it did Texas, Oklahomaand Maryland.

North Dakota - Teredo (petrified wood), 1967. There’s petrified wood inthe Peace Garden State but as far as animal candidates, there’s many of thesame superstars from neighboring state South Dakota including Cretaceousdinosaurs Triceratops, Edmontosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus as well asmosasaurs. I suggest they claim Tyrannosaurus before someone else does.

Ohio – Isotelus maximus (Trilobite), 1985. A bit shortsighted, theBuckeye State’s choices of vertebrate fossils need to be reconsidered. Toobad the more spectacular Dunkleosteus, housed at the Cleveland Museum ofNatural History, was not elected state fossil.

Oklahoma – Saurophaganax maximus, 2000. It could have been decidedsooner than 2000 which fossil would represent the Sooner State, and whileI am glad it is a dinosaur, Saurophaganax could very well be a large speci-men of the better known Allosaurus, already claimed by Utah. It is too badthe more unique Acrocanthosaurus didn’t get the vote instead; WashingtonD.C.’s “Capitalsaurus” may be more or less the same animal but is still frag-mentary.Oregon – Metasequoia (Dawn redwood), 1988. As awesome as the Dawnredwoods are, they are actually not extinct but alive and fairly well in China.



With an animal friendly nickname like the Beaver State, they should reallychoose an actual fossil vertebrate. When and if they do it will likely be oneof those found in John Day Fossil Beds, such as an oreodont, a brontothereor a hyaeodont. I vote for the creodont Patriofelis; it sounds almost patriotic.

Pennsylvania – Phacops rana (trilobite), 1988. Some of the same verte-brates in Arizona and Connecticut occur in the Keystone State so I wouldprefer to see Devonian fish or better still, Carboniferous amphibians as statefossil vertebrates.

Rhode Island – None. A prehistoric arthropod, such as Carboniferousarachnid Anthracomartus, may be a candidate as might a marine inverte-brate for the appropriately named Ocean State. Due to eroded deposits fortheir respective periods, dinosaurs and mammals are out of the running.

South Carolina – Mammuthus columbi (Columbian Mammoth), 2014. Acontroversial victory for the evolutionists of the Palmetto State, one of themost religious and conservative states in the union. A symbol of the waragainst Fundies in the backwards South, it is still too bad that mammothsare already overrepresented and that the dinosaurs and Cretaceous reptilesthat have been detected are still too poorly known.

South Dakota - Triceratops horridus, 1988. Triceratops is a true NorthAmerican icon, the largest and most famous horned dinosaur, found on noother continent. Had Black Hills Institute of Geological Research unearthed“Sue” or even “Stan” sooner than the early 1990s, perhaps the RushmoreState would have rushed to elect Tyrannosaurus rex. South Dakota perhapsdeserves two state fossils – that’s how rich it is in prehistoric life.

Tennessee - Pterotrigonia (bivalve), 1998. I previously recommended itfor Ohio, but failing that I’d volunteer Dunkleosteus to represent theVolunteer State, fertile ground for Devonian marine organisms, should aseparate vertebrate state fossil nomination occur. Just the same mosasaursand sea turtles, or Cenozoic megafauna like Camelops and Harlan’s GroundSloth (Mylodon) are possible too.

Texas - Paluxysaurus = Pleurocoelus nanus, 2009. Whether it’ssuperpterosaur Quetzalcoatlus, supercroc Deinosuchus, pelycosaurDimetrodon, dirktooth catMegantereon, or amarine monster likeBrachauchenius ,Texas had some ofthe best fossils youcould dream of. So you see, there are many possible stars in the The LoneStar State. The width of the state allowed this artist plenty of room to mountthe sauropod formerly known as Astrodon (named after the HoustonAstros…just kidding) and that beat Maryland’s very similar remains to thestate fossil punch.

Utah - Allosaurus fragilis, 1988. The Beehive State is very much theDinosaur State, harboring fossils spanning the entire Mesozoic Era. WhileUtahraptor was five years away from being discovered when Utah electedtheir state fossil, Allosaurus, was far more common, better understood andlikely more successful, in evolutionary and iconic terms.

Vermont – Delphinapterus leucas, 1993. Vermont translates from Frenchliterally to its nickname “Green Mountain”, the name shared by the moun-tain range in the state giving no hint of its somewhat uneventful geologicpast. The state fossil is a Pleistocene beluga whale because the earlier rockscontain no fossils and there are zero deposits from the Jurassic on back-wards to the Devonian, when the state was covered in a shallow sea.

Virginia - Chesapecten jeffersonius (scallop), 1993. The Old DominionState paints a broad picture of prehistory, with brachiopods, gastropods andtrilobites being far cooler choices than the state fossil scallop. Virginia evenhad evidence of dinosaurs, but like Maryland, whale and shark traces areabundant in the state’s Coastal Plain.

Washington – Mammuthus columbi (Columbian Mammoth), 1998. Withnot much to choose from and no dinosaurs, the Evergreen State unremark-ably chose a mammoth, just like Nebraska did 30 years before. The remainsof prehistoric cetaceans resembling modern river dolphins are plentifularound the Olympic Peninsula; they would have made more interesting statefossils.

Washington D.C. - See District of Columbia.

West Virginia - Megalonyx jeffersonii, 2008. Cave deposits in theMountain State yield the usual Quaternary mastodons and mammoths, sogood on WV for selecting a different state fossil – Jefferson’s Ground Sloth.No Mesozoic age rocks mean there are no dinosaurs to be found.

Wisconsin - Calymene celebra (trilobite), 1986. I won’t badger anybodyto change its state fossil, as it is slim pickins in the Badger State when itcomes to decent candidates. Paleozoic fossils are well represented with thestate’s Mesozoic deposits yielding not a single vertebrate fossil.

Wyoming - Knightia (fish), 1987. The Equality State is home to all sortsof dinosaurs and reptiles and a lousy sardine-like fish got selected onlybecause Kemmerer is the “Fossil Fish Capital of the World”. Why notEocene rhino Uintatherium? Early bat Icaronycteris? Pachycephalosauruswyomingensis? Not all prehistoric animals are evolved equal!

Canada’s Provincial (and Territorial) Fossils. Since the Great White Northbegan the process in 2002, only one province has adopted a fossil in thesame spirit America has with state fossils by an Act of House of Assembly:Nova Scotia’s Hylonomus lyelli, the world’s oldest known reptile knownfrom the Carboniferous period. If Canada does not get around to at least afew of these suggestions sometime during the 2010s, this process could takedecades.

Alberta – Alberta’s Cretaceous sediments are legendary. You may thinkAlbertosaurus may get the nod, but the abundant ceratopsid genusCentrosaurus will probably win the title.

British Columbia -- Five years since the campaign started for BC’sprovincial fossil, an arthropod from the Burgess Shale, the hard to classifybut abundant Marrella, is getting the most support beating out even thegreat Elasmosaurus and Cretaceous ammonite Canadoceras.

Manitoba – The biggies would be Cretaceous marine life such asmosasaur Hainosaurus, squid Tusoteuthis, and bony fish Xiphactinus, butinvertebrates from Ordovician rocks from Lake Winnipeg may be victori-ous.

New Brunswick—Sharing a geologic record akin to Nova Scotia, youcould select a mastodon, Carboniferous insects, trilobite Paradoxides, andgoing back further to the Precambrian, the first stromatolite fossilArchaeozoon.

Newfoundland & Labrador—Home to Edicarans (enigmatic complexlife forms from around 655 million years ago). The spindle shaped varietyis most common thus would likely get the nod.

Northwest Territories –Paleontology from this region requires more sam-pling but it is represented by Precambrian Ediacaran fossils and marine lifethrough the Devonian.

Nunevut—The usual mollusks, trilobites and brachiopods should take abackseat to Tiktaalik roseae, the Devonian lobe finned fish that made globalheadlines in 2006. Neil Shubin called it a “fishapod”, a creature somewherebetween fish and amphibian, and a perfect transitional fossil.

Ontario—Ordovician fossils dominate Canada’s most populous province,including trilobites, brachiopods, graptolites, mollusks and crinoids.

Prince Edward Island—The majority of rocks here date to the PermianPeriod. Tracks named Ichniotherium appear to have been left by diadectids.

Quebec – Devonian lobefin fish Eusthenopteron foordi (from MiguashaPark) is probably the best known fossil from Quebec but the region is knownfor older marine fossils spanning the Paleozoic back to the Precambrian.

Saskatchewan—Alberta may be more famous for dinosaur fossils thanits neighboring province to the right which yields much of the sameCretaceous taxa, but it may be able to claim the most famous dinosaur of all,Tyrannosaurus, which will surely overshadow the variety of Tertiary mam-mals of the province.

Yukon—Ice Age or Pleistocene mammals are present here, many discov-ered in permafrost. I nominate Arctodus simus yukonensis though giantcamels which received some press for the area, evolved from NorthAmerican ancestors. Cretaceous dinosaur tracks are known from the RossRiver as well as fossil marine reptiles but the material is non-diagnostic. Note: Models and photos in this article are copyright Epoch Scale Models, 2015.



Generally speaking, a lot of planning goes into a dinosaur diorama pro-ject before any construction begins. In planning theAcrocanthosaurus/Sauropelta diorama, the amazing David Silva ofCreative Beast did almost all of the work for me.

Both of these models display real dynamic energy, with coiled bodies,lashing tails and expressive faces. They are designed with bases that fittogether and when this is done the story is told. A mother Sauropelta is des-perately trying to protect her baby and fend off a determined attack by anextremely vicious Acrocanthosaurus. In diorama storytelling, it doesn’t getmuch better than this! The kits are cleanly cast in resin with beautiful detailand fit throughout.

PART 1: ASSEMBLING THE DINOSAURS

As always, the parts must be washed in soapy water to remove any moldrelease material. I removed any casting seams or pour stubs, and glued theparts together with Super Glue. TIP: When a dinosaur has its lower jaw castseparately, I find that it is easier to paint the inside of the mouth now, beforeattaching the jaw. (I’ll get into painting a little later.)

Regardless of how well a model is cast, the seams must be dealt with sothat they are invisible under the paint. I use AvesFixit Sculpt to fill the seams. It is a two part puttythat is water soluble while curing, so that it can besmoothed and blended with a wet fingertip. Ireplaced the skin detail with RepliScale.

Once the dinos were assembled and the puttywas completely cured, I drilled a hole and inserteda “mounting rod” into the foot/leg that contacts thebase. This served to both anchor the dinosaur tothe base and provide a rod that will fit into thehandles and jigs that I use to hold the model dur-ing the painting process (Fig. 1). With the bigAcrocanthosaurus I used a ¼” diameter rod, with

the Sauropelta, only 1/8” diameter. TIP: Make the rod long enough and drilldeep enough to go through the resin base and into the wood as far as pos-sible without going through the bottom of the wood. This provides a verysolid anchor for the dinos.

PART 2: BUILDING THE DIORAMA BASE

I prefer to mount my dioramas on a wooden base with felt glued to thebottom. Determining the dimensions of the base depends on many factors.The size of the dino(s), their placement on the base, available display shelfarea, etc. In the case of this diorama, Mr. Silva has done most of the work.When the resin bases are placed together the layout is pretty much deter-mined. Mr. Silva has even provided a palm tree with separate fronds! But,not content to leave well enough alone, I decided to add some more groundwork to tie everything together.

STEPS FOR ADDING GROUNDWORK:

I now envision what I want the final look to be. I added some cast resin

rocks and shaped pieces of Styrofoam togive interest and contour to the scene(Fig. 2). I mixed up some paper macheand applied it to the base. This is the“ground”, so I shaped and contoured itto blend the resin bases together withthe wooden base (Fig. 3).

PAINTING THE BASE

I use acrylic (water based) hobbypaints for the base colors and the drybrushed highlights and then artist oilsfor the washes when I paint a dioramabase. The process of washes and drybrushing really make the details “pop”and adds a lot to the final look of thepiece. I chose as base colors, a niceearthy brown for the ground, a light tan for the rocks, a mustard yellow forthe tree trunk and a medium green for the palm fronds and plants.

APPLYING THE FOLIAGE

I often like to add some additional foliage to my dioramas. There are var-ious products available, some made of paper (Green Line from Germany)and others are photo etched metal (Scale Link from the UK). I prefer photoetch plants as they are more durable and take paint better.

STEPS FOR ADDING FOLIAGE

The plant is cut from the fret and glued to a piece of thin diameter wire(.026 flower wire works great) a couple of inches long. The key here is thatthe glue is flexible, so that when the stem is bent the plant won’t break off.I used a flexible, household glue called “GOOP”. TIP: For ease of painting,I lay out strips of modelingclay and stick the gluedplants into them. (Fig. 4)

Once again, I used a sys-tem of an acrylic base paint(forest green in this case),washes and dry brushing tobring out the detail.

I placed the foliage on thediorama where it looks right.I drilled a small hole for thewire and cut the wire so thatwhen placed in the hole and bent, it was the correct length for the plant to“look right”.

When all of this was done, I glued some crumbled bits of ground debrismade from bits of dried lichenand moss (available at craftstores) to tie it all together, andVOILA! A home for thedinosaurs (Fig. 5).

PART 3: PAINTING THEDINOSAURS

When painting dinosaurs, I usea combination of acrylic hobbypaint, artist oil paints and Com-Art transparent paints. I like artistoils because of how well they

blend, their long working time (because of their slow drying) and the amaz-ing variations in color that can be achieved with them. Layering the trans-parent paints with the airbrush also provides amazing variations in color.TIP: I find that it’s best not to handle the dinosaurs while painting. With bigand heavy dinosaurs, like the Acrocanthosaurus, I clamp the rod into anarticulated clamp which is attached to a heavy piece of wood (Fig. 2). Whenplaced in a “lazy Susan” turntable, painting is much easier. For smaller andlighter dinosaurs, like the Sauropelta, the rod is clamped in a large pin vise


Making a Diorama for Creative Beast Studio’sAcrocanthosaurus & Sauropelta Kits By Jan Harrison


(Fig. 6). I’ve made a wooden jig for holdingthe pin vise so that I can set the dino downwithout risking damage to the paint (Fig.7).

PAINTING THE SAUROPELTA ANDBABY

The basic scheme for the Sauropelta is agreen body, brown back armor with whitishspikes.

Prime with acrylic primer. If there are prob-lems with any of the seams, now is the time tofix them and re-prime. As the Sauropelta’sbody was to be green I chose Citadel AverlandSunset yellow for the base color.For its back, Citadel MournfangBrown. For the spikes I choseCitadel Karak Stone Off White.

Apply the wash: Using thinnedartist oils (all artist oils used areWindsor-Newton) I applied amix of Terre Verte and Sap Greenon the exposed skin areas andVan Dyke Brown on the back.This really brings out the detailbut will also darken the color ofthe base coat. I wiped off someof the excess wash, just leaving itin the crevices.

Painting the skin: Using a mix of Com-Art transparent Moss green andForest green I painted the exposed skin areas. I then added some Com-Arttransparent Shade to darken the green and sprayed this mix onto the lowerlegs & feet and into all of the deep contours to define the muscles, rib cageand folds in the skin. The transparent green works well with the yellow basecoats and allows the dark wash to show through (Fig. 6).

Painting the brown areas of the back, tail & head: I simply dry brushedthe brown with a lightened tone of the brown base color.

Painting the spikes and toe nails: I used artist oils for this but acrylicswould work as well. I mixed Raw Umber withTitanium White; just a tiny bit for the overall offwhite color of the spikes. Then, with a fine brush, Ipainted a thin line of straight Raw Umber where thespike enters the back. Now, with a small old brush(like a 2/0 for the big ones and a 10/0 for the smallones) – preferably one with the bristles splayed out alittle bit – lightly drag the Raw Umber up from thebase towards the tip of the spike. This creates theeffect of the dark root of the spike gradually lighten-ing to almost white at the tip (Fig. 7).

Painting the eyes: The eyes on this guy are verysmall. Using hobby paints, first I painted the wholeeyeball black and then a circle of yellow for the iris.Leave a line edge of black showing. Lastly, a smallblack dot for the pupil.

Painting the mouth: I made a fleshy pink mix fromCitadel Wazdakka Red and Citadel Zamesi Desertuntil the shade looked right and base coated themouth with this. I added a mix of more CitadelWazdakka Red and Citadel Khorne Red to the basecolor to darken it for use in the back of the throat andunder the tongue, etc. When all of this is dry, I coatedeverything with Future clear acrylic for a nice wetlook.

PAINTING THE ACROCANTHOSAURUS

The basic scheme for the Acrocanthosaurus is a

light beige under belly with a brownish/tan upper body that gradually dark-ens into a deeper, darker brown towards the spine, the hands and down the

legs to the feet and into a deep, reddish brown forthe spine and face.

Painting the mouth: As I mentioned above, I dothis before attaching the jaw. The mouth paintingprocess is the same as with the Sauropelta withthe addition of the teeth. I pained the teeth usingthe same method as used on the spikes of theSauropelta. Be sure to mask this off before spraypainting.

Prime with acrylic primer. If there are prob-lems with any of the seams, now is the time to fix them and re-prime. As theAcrocanthosaurus was to be a tannish/red scheme I used Polly Scale CSXTan for a light beige base color (Fig. 1).

Apply the wash: Once again, the basic process is the same as with theSauropelta. However, unlikethe Sauropelta, theAcrocanthosaurus skinchanges hue. Therefore, thecolor of the wash needs to cor-respond with the final skintone. I used Burnt Siennalightened quite a bit withwhite on the under belly andstraight Burnt Sienna on thesides, back, legs and feet. Forthe spine and face I addedsome Cadmium Red and VanDyke Brown to the mix (Fig.9).

Painting the skin: First, Ilightly over sprayed the under-belly with Liquitex

Transparent White. I then misted a light coat of Com-Art transparent Rosein the face area and along the raised spine. Then, using Com-Art transparentBurnt Sienna, I sprayed all the areas that will be the tannish/brown. Next,

adding some Com-Art transparent BurntUmber to darken the color, I sprayed theface, hands, lower legs, feet, and the spineall the way from the tip of the tail to thenose. I also used this mix to accentuate themuscles and skin folds. It also lightly mot-tled the sides and thighs (Fig. 10).

Detail painting of the face and spine: Imixed a palate of artist oils with CadmiumRed and Burnt Umber and painted the skindetail along the face and spine to create avery reddish final look (Fig. 11).

Painting the eyes: As before, the processis the same as with the Sauropelta. Sincethese eyes are bigger, I added a tiny bit of

red veining at the edges of the yellow iris.

Painting the claws: I used the same method and palateas the teeth and Sauropelta spikes only much darker. Ijust used more Raw Umber.

When the dinos were completely dry I sprayed a coatof clear, Testor’s semi-gloss lacquer over everything toprotect the paint. Some areas could be recoated with flator gloss per taste.

Now, place the dinos on the base, place your bets onwho wins and call it a day!

Feel free to contact me with any questions or com-ments at: [email protected]



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