In 1983, an English plumber and amateur fossil hunter named William Walker was digging in a clay quarry near Dorking, south of London. He picked up a large piece of rock, hit it with his hammer, and out fell an enormous claw! But when Walker got home, he realized that the very tip of the claw had broken off. He...
Life as a prehistoric predator, even one as powerful and ferocious as Smilodon fatalis, was far from easy or enjoyable. A recent study done on thousands of specimens collected in California found that 4.3% of them had sustained trauma to their backs and shoulders. This is most likely a result of them having to wrestle heavy game like bison and...
Review and photos by James Burnside, edited by Suspsy When CollectA announced its line of deluxe figures for 2018, the Ceratosaurus jumped out as a must-buy for me for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that it is a dinosaur species I am very fond of. This is partly because, despite being a large theropod from...
Review and photos by Bokisaurus, edited by Suspsy The family Proboscidea has a long and very diverse history. The group is perhaps most famous for their trunks and tusks, with some growing to astounding shapes and sizes. Today, only one family from this once mighty group remains: Elephantidae, consisting of only three species. When it comes to fame, one member...
The Permian Period gets neglected by toy companies, despite its huge assortment of outrageously strange animals. Maybe this is just because there aren’t any true dinosaurs. When we do get a Permian animal, it’s usually Dimetrodon, where we’re really spoiled for choice. Today we’ll look at Estemmenosuchus, a distant relation of Dimetrodon with anatomy that was just as strange. This...
Review and photos by Bokisaurus, edited by Suspsy Today, our little furry friend decided that he missed his Ice Age co-stars and so he decided to travel back to that time and meet up with one of the big stars! Love it or not, you have to admire the level of popularity and recognition that the woolly mammoth have achieved...
Normally when toy companies make juvenile dinosaurs, they just take known adult dinosaurs and make a smaller cuter version. Even respectable companies like Safari and CollectA have gone this route in the past. I typically don’t have any interest in these, but a fair number of taxa are known only from infant or juvenile remains. Sometimes they could conceivably belong...
For hours, Thorn has been wandering along the banks in search of a meal. Now, at long last, her eye catches sight of a telltale movement in the murky water. Immediately, she plunges into the river and sinks her teeth into the unsuspecting shark’s flesh. The shark retaliates with a vicious bite of its own, but Thorn ignores the pain...
Review and photos by Bokisaurus, edited by Suspsy In what would today be know as Europe, during the Early Cretaceous, vast floodplains dominate the landscape. Here, herds of dinosaurs can be seen going about their daily life. Near a waterhole, a mixed herd of dinosaurs has congregated to take advantage of the recent rainfalls that filled up the once dried...
Throughout Earth’s lengthy history, there have been many horrifying sea monsters. Titanic sharks. Nightmare whales. Bloodthirsty mosasaurs. Savage plesiosaurs. But long before any of those brutes evolved, there was the dreaded Dunkleosteus. Measuring at least six metres long, weighing over a ton, and equipped with bone-slicing jaws, this ginormous placoderm ranged throughout the waters of the Late Devonian and fed...
Review and photos by PhilSauria, edited by Suspsy While there is no shortage of Baryonyx figures available if you are looking to add one to your collection, this guy and most of his relatives tend to be overshadowed by the species that gave their family its name: Spinosaurus. That was an unusual dinosaur that would have attracted attention anyhow, but...
As CollectA enters their twelfth year of operation, their products continue to improve by leaps and bounds. Last year, they released a sterling Styracosaurus that utterly eclipsed the original one. Now it’s time to see what their new 2018 Deluxe Iguanodon is all about. Iguanodon is one of those legendary dinosaurs that requires little to no introduction, especially for regular...
