Photographs by PhilSauria
Paraceratherium, also commonly known as Indricotherium or Baluchitherium, was a genus of gigantic hornless rhinoceros-like mammals, belonging to the family of the Hyracodontidae. Their fossils have been found in many parts of Asia, including Kazakhstan, Pakistan, India, Mongolia, and China. It lived from the middle Oligocene to the early Miocene, roughly from 30 to 20 million years ago, when this region of Asia was covered in lush subtropical forests and woodlands.
This is Collecta Paraceratherium, a heavy beauty of a prehistoric creature figure! It is 15,5 cm tall and 18 cm long. All painted in tan with some darker, amlost lavender stripes outlining the main muscle strands and ribcage, it has been sculpted in an authentic, posture. Maybe it looks out for the rest of the herd, pausing for a while, or chews up some food.
The head is held in an almost right ankle to the forceful neck. The lips show up neatly detailed folds. It looks as if this animal is smiling like a comic figure when you watch it from the right perspective. The auricles face backwards, which makes the head look quite vividly. The next move of the auricles could be forward, fawning annoying flies away. The eyes look forward, staring directly at the reviewer and making him laugh. On the one hand it´s a very credible and natural mien, on the other hand this looks somewhat dull. But have you ever watched a giraffe chewing?
Collecta sculptors did well transferring the heavy build of the original, yet the legs seem to be a little too slender. One would expect thicker limbs for an animal this size – Paraceratherium after all was 5,5 metres high and 7-8 metres long and weighed 11-15 tons. Nonetheless the legs are not too thin, they are only a distractive detail and it could as well be I´m wrong with my hypothesis. The sixteen toes reveal grey tips, affectionally painted in one of the only four colours Collecta got by with for this model.
I recommend this model of the biggest landliving mammal of all times to every collector. It is authentic, affordable and a welcome alternation to the dominant dinosaur figure zoo. As far as heaviness and power are concerned, this Paraceratherium catches up with Triceratops kin or even smaller sauropods.
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Nice new photos. This toy is decent enough, but I’d love to see CollectA release a new version. Perhaps even one with a trunk and large ears as Donald Prothero has suggested.
Le he puesto la mejor puntuación, a pesar de no estar bien acabado,por el motivo de que es uno de los pocos Paraceratherium que ha hecho una empresa de dinosaurios y animales prehistóricos de juguete y eso lo he tomado en cuenta como coleccionista. Inconvenientes, muchos, no está bien acabado, el material es endeble, es un plástico rÃgido, y si es como se ha dicho un antepasado de los rinocerontes, deberÃa de tener tres pezuñas en cada dedo, ¡no cuatro pezuñas!y la cola esta mal acabada, además debÃan de haber sido un poco aplicados al haber puesto el final la cola de color negro o marrón, como la tienen los rinocerontes y la mayorÃa de los mamÃferos con pezuñas ya triláctidos como pesidorodáctilos.
I didn’t realize it had such a long neck.