Borealopelta (PNSO)

There are quite a number of fossils that stun the layman aswell as the professionell for their quality of preservation. Finds enclosed in Burmese amber, Chinese or German limestone come to mind, revealing large numbers of numerous species in outstanding quality. In common they have, that most of the species preserved are comparably small….

In 2017 the commercially exploited oil sands of Alberta revealed a dinosaur since known as “Suncor nodosaur”. No land animals have been found in the marine deposits before, so the upside down find was initially thought to be a plesiosaur. It turned out to be one of themost well preserved fossils of such kind of dinosaur and that size. In fact, the head and shoulder part looks, as if the animal was just asleep.

Borealopelta, meaning Northern Shield, is a Lower Cretaceous nodosaur of around 5.5 metres in total length. The stunning holotype fossil did not only allow for the precise reconstruction of the front part of the animal, but also revealed in detail how the keratin sheets of the horns and spikes extended, what the animal had for its last meal and what colors it wore. If you like to have a more thorough and technical look, just read the PDF .

The first Borealopelta figure was released by CollectA in 2018 and was heartly welcomed in the community. Will you welcome PNSO`s release aswell…. I dare think so….

PNSO`s Borealopelta goes by the name of Gavin for the very reason that every PNSO dinosaur model has a personal name. Why? Yeah,… who knows…. . Name aside, the figure measures 18.5 cm in direct line, rendering it roughly to a 1:30 scale. It stands 5.5 cm high over the hips and is almost 8 cm wide at the massive shoulder spikes.

The front of the figure is mirror-inverted compared to the fossil. Head turned to the right and lowered towards the ground, the figure depicts the animal in a calm walk, as if just looking for a fresh fern to munch on. PNSO`s Borealopelta is a true beauty. The sculpting detail is very intricate and sharp, the lower body decked in small scales with bigger scutes, the upper body and armor is basically perfectly true to the fossil. Naturally PNSO also followed the scientific findingy when choosing the color scheme. Reddish brown in darker and ligher hues on the top, reddish brown with greyish white dry brush on the flanks and greyish white on the belly.

What more could you want? You either like the look or you don`t, but as far as our knowledge of this nodosaur goes, this is what it looked like and PNSO did a perfect job on it.

If you wonder who did it better, CollectA or PNSO? CollectA`s model is much smaller in lenght and has a proportionally longer tail. For the size of the figure, CollectA did a great job and released an economically cheap but high quality and well researched toy to play with. It also has a charming feel in hand. The PNSO figure is more model than toy from it`s looks, however it is also durable and safe, but also costs two to three times the price of CollectA`s. If I had to moan about something on PNSO`s model, it would be the tail, which is appropriatly more muscular in the CollectA model. Other than that, both are great, but the PNSO Borealopelta is sure the better model for a collection and can easily rival a resin kit.