Edaphosaurus was a sail-backed genus of synapsid that lived during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods in what is now the famous Texas Red Beds in North America. Remains have also been found in West Virginia, Ohio, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Fragmentary remains found in Germany have also been attributed to Edaphosaurus. The Texas Red Beds are also known...
If you grew up between the 1960’s and 1990’s you no doubt had at least a few Diener brand erasers in your toybox or backpack. They were ubiquitous through the latter half of the 20th century. Launching in 1955 with Disney themed pencil-top erasers, Diener Industries would go on to produce novelty erasers representing all manner of animals, mythological creatures,...
The Tully Monster. Tullimonstrum gregarium. What was it? Ever since fossils of this marine predator were first discovered in the Mason Creek formation by amateur collector Francis Tully, paleontologists have been baffled trying to decipher its phylogenetic placement and relationships. It has bounced back and forth between invertebrate and vertebrate and at one time or another has been linked to...
Aurora seemed to be quite an interesting line. Though showing most of the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in the form of movie monsters, they still provide great figures with articulation and scenery to match. Their models were later reissued by Revell, allowing people to get a selection of their models again. Here, we look at their rendition of Dimetrodon....
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy. Ever since it was discovered by Francis Tully in 1955, Tullimonstrum has both intrigued and confused. The animal’s common name, “Tully Monster,” is a reference to its confusing collection of body parts. With its bizarre appendage ending in a claw-like mouth and simple eyes at the end of stalks, this doesn’t look...
While prehistoric animals like Tyrannosaurus, Pteranodon, or woolly mammoths dominate the mainstream media and public imagination they are to be fair, kind of boring. Hear me out, I love my giant reptiles and Pleisotocene megafauna as much as the rest of you but let’s be honest, they’re all fairly straightforward. We can easily classify these more charismatic critters within the...
Summer melts us here since weeks, so time for another wet review…. Today I want you to introduce you to one of those creatures everybody knows, but knows almost nothing about, a jellyfish. Jellyfish are a very very old group of animals, they date back to the famous Ediacarian, more than 600 mya. Fossils are very rare as jellyfish are...
“I dig these things.” Dr. Robert Bakker was speaking more literally than figuratively when making the above statement regarding the genus in question (he has excavated numerous fossils of this particular animal), but there is also a genuine seal of approval in there from the esteemed paleontologist. What is this toy that receives such high praise? It is Dusty the...
Review and photographs by bmathison1972, edited by Dinotoyblog Arthropleura armata is an extinct species of millipede that lived in North America and Europe during the Carboniferous Period. Millipede figures are rare in toy/model/figure form, and if you have all your fingers intact, you can count on one hand the number of such figures available! Today, for my first ever review...
Review and photographs by Indohyus, edited by Suspsy Trilobites. Next to ammonites, they are one of the most well-known fossil groups. Known throughout the world from thousands of species, from the tiny to the giant and from spiny to burrowing, no one can deny their fame. From the Cambrian to the Permian, trilobites radiated across the globe, allowing them to...
Review and photographs by Indohyus, edited by Suspsy In my last review, I mentioned how Palaeozoic creatures are rarely produced in toy form. There is, however, a group that is even rarer: prehistoric invertebrates. Outside of toob sets and the Bullyland figures, they are incredibly hard to find immortalized in plastic. Once again, Kaiyodo is here to give us some...
Review and photos by Lanthanotus, edited by Suspsy Greens, stems, and leaves, but no teeth, no blood, no gore . . . no wonder plants seldom provide more than background for movies or our dinosaur collections. Day of the Triffids (1962) is the classic plant horror film par excellence, where seemingly harmless plants attack and kill humans and charge to...
