Review and images by bmathison1972; edited by Suspsy
Ampelosaurus atacis is a titanosaur described in 1995 from fossils from the Late Cretaceous (Early Maastrichtian) of present day France. Interestingly, in 2012 morphometric studies of titanosaur fossils from the area showed the presence of a second, currently undescribed species of titanosaur, bringing into question historic reconstructions of the animal (a little...
Review and images by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
OK, here we are folks. My first review on the Dinosaur Toy Blog that is, well, actually a dinosaur! My previous reviews have consisted of a primate, a tortoise, and a bunch of invertebrates. I have to admit, despite collecting a wide variety of eukaryotic taxa, dinosaurs are the largest group for...
Review and images by bmathison1972; edited by Suspsy
Callichimaera perlexa is an enigmatic crustacean from the Middle Cretaceous. Fossils have been found in the Churuvita Group in Colombia and the Frontier Formation in the United States. C. perlexa evolved during the Cretaceous Crab Revolution, which was a major diversification of ‘true’ crabs during the Cretaceous. The curious crab has a...
Review and images by bmathison1972; edited by Suspsy
In 2023, CollectA added Anomalocaris canadensis to its growing collection of Paleozoic invertebrates, following fellow arthropod Redlichia and mollusks Passaloteuthis, Pleuroceras, Orthoceras, Cooperoceras, and Pravitoceras (not to mention an extant nautilus and horseshoe crab). At this point A. canadensis probably doesn’t need much of an introduction on the Blog (I myself...
Review and images by bmathison1972; edited by Suspsy
Signatustudio is a line of animal replicas made by artist J. Miguel Aparicio out of Spain. Most of his models are in the 1:20 scale and represent the fauna of Eurasia, including the Iberian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, Tibetan Plateau, and Euro-Siberian regions. He also has produced several prehistoric birds and mammals from...
Review and images by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
Opabinia regalis is an enigmatic arthropod (or arthropod-like animal) from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale Lagerstätte of present-day British Columbia. It was a benthic predator, scouring the bottom of the Cambrian Seas for soft-bodied prey nearly 505 million years ago. The phylogenetic relationships of O. regalis are far from resolved. Historically, it...
Review and images by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
Today we are going to look at the history of the enigmatic Cambrian animal Hallucigenia sparsa, by comparing an older, outdated model with one depicting the most recent concept of this species.
Hallucigenia sparsa was first described by Charles Doolittle Walcott as a polychaete worm in the genus Canadia. It was not...
Review and photos by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
Today, we will be looking at an overview of the Cambrian Creatures Mini Model collection released by Favorite Co. Ltd. in 2016. It consists of eight smaller models representing primarily Cambrian invertebrates along with one chordate. All the species presented have been found in the Burgess Shale deposits in North America. For...
Review and photos by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
Today we are looking at Anomalocaris canadensis from the 2020 Takara Tomy A.R.T.S. set called The Great Old Sea. It is one of three figures in the set; the others being the trilobite Olenoides serratus and a coelacanth (which I presume is extant?). This is not the first review of Anomalocaris on the Dinosaur Toy Blog, not even...
Review and images by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
In 1967, Disney released a feature-length animated movie of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book series. One of the most iconic characters from that film was the singing and dancing orangutan, King Louie. Interestingly, Louie never appeared in any of Kipling’s original works. And why would he? The characters in Kipling’s stories were animals...
Review and photos by bmathison1972, edited by Suspsy
This is a review of the Anomalocaris figure in the Dino Mecard line by the Korean company Sono Kong, in conjunction with Choirock. Figures in this line appear to be based on a TV show and corresponding card game, similar to Dinosaur King or Pokemon. I must admit, I collected this figure...
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...
