Science counts around 25 species of recent crocodile species and all – maybe with the exception of the African Dwarf Crocodile – live an aquatic life and use the land mainly to bask and nest. In their long history the group we accept as “crocodiles” has seen quite a variety of crocodilian forms, not few of them terrestrial more than aquatic, a trait that showed off in their morphology.
The “Ridgeheaded Mekosuchine” represents a comparably small crocodilian of around1.5 metres length. Why Yowie marketed the figure as “Ridgeheaded Mekosuchine” remains their secret, in fact the information sheet that came with the figure specifies it as Trilophosuchus rackhami, which I think is not more or less difficult to spell than “Ridgeheaded Mekosuchine”. But well, the child got a name and that makes it much easier to judge how the figure fares not only as a toy, but also as an accurate representation of the animal.
Trilophosuchus rackhami lived during the Miocene in Queensland and is known from the rich fossil beds of Riversleigh where it was found along extinct marsupials, platypus and other strange inhabitants of old Australia. It had a short and deep skull, large eyes, light body and long legs and most likely lived terrestrial, some scientists deem it to be arboreal. So, excuse all those wateredge images, I looked all this up when I returned from Australia and anyway, it is a nice backdrop.
Yowie`s figure may not be the most detailed model, but it is reasonably true to our scientific knowledge of the species and shows clearly crocodilian traits. The head is nicely sculpted and even boasts a play feature. If the left frontleg of the figure is moved, the mouth opens and closes, so the croc can munch on some poor prey. The figure is 9 cm long and 3 cm high at the snout.
As with a lot of Yowie figures, this may not hit every collector`s taste, but it is – to my best knowledge – once again the only figure to represent this interesting species. Retired since more or less 20 years your best way to find Yowies is a worldwide search on ebay.
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