Last summer PNSO released a wave of Triassic, Chinese marine reptiles that included the already reviewed Guanlingsaurus and Guizhouichthyosaurus. Now it’s finally time to look at the last one, the Dinocephalosaurus. Dinocephalosaurus was described in 2003, but it generated significant buzz when a new specimen was announced in 2024 that basically doubled the known size of the thing. Dinocephalosaurus was...
It’s yet another hot summer day and the last thing that Cameron would care to do is move a single muscle of his ten ton body. That’s because he’s been beating the heat by lounging comfortably in a shallow pool, with his huge head resting on the muddy bank, his titanic trunk half submerged in the cool brown water, and...
My absolute gratitude to Happy Hen Toys for generously sending this little figure of a cute fish for me to review here. You can pick up this figure, and many others like it from there as well. While I adore a number of prehistoric fish (like that silly Sacabambaspis that became a meme a few years ago), there is but...
Review and photos by Frey, edited by Suspsy Introduction A large, bipedal theropod with short arms, two‑fingered hands, a deep skull lined with dozens of sharp teeth, and highly developed sensory capabilities—if you guessed a tyrannosaurid, you would be correct. But not a tyrannosaurine. This review focuses on Albertosaurus sarcophagus, the larger of the two recognized albertosaurines. Its species name,...
Guanlingsaurus is a genus of late Triassic ichthyosaur from China. It is a member of the Shastasauridae family and for a time it was assigned to the Shastasaurus genus. It is known from the Xiaowa Formation and lived alongside Guizhouichthyosaurus, which was also once assigned to Shastasaurus. PNSO has made models of both genera. I previously reviewed the Guizhouichthyosaurus and...
The China-Canada Dinosaur Project was a series of paleontological expeditions carried out by Chinese and Canadian scientists between 1986 and 1991. In 1993, a travelling exhibition called the Dinosaur Project World Tour was launched to promote all of their findings. I went to see it in Toronto that year, and it was a truly fantastic experience for a young dinosaur...
In the birdwatching hobby there exists something known as a “spark bird”, the species that sparked your interest in birds and got you into bird watching. Although I am a birder, I do not have a spark bird, but when it comes to the dinosaur toy hobby, I do have spark dinosaur figures: the feathered Carnegie Collection toys released in...
Coronosaurus brinkmani is a species of late Cretaceous centrosaurine that was described in 2005 as a species of Centrosaurus and later reclassified as its own genus in 2012. Not everyone agrees with the reclassification however, and there are those that still consider Coronosaurus to actually be a species of Centrosaurus. Since Centrosaurus is one of my favorite ceratopsians I was...
Standing tall atop the sloping ridge that overlooks the north side of the lake, with the sun beaming down generously on her, Judith surveys the activity going on below. At the bottom of the ridge, next to the water and directly before her, a huge crocodilian is dozing peacefully. Further down the shore, a family group of fellow ceratopsians (but...
Hailing from the Wahweap Formation of the Grand Staircase in Utah, Lythronax, the “gore king,” is one of the more recently discovered North American tyrannosaurids. It is estimated to have been up to 8 metres in length and 2.5 tons in weight, making it comparable in size to the better known Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus and significantly smaller than Tyrannosaurus rex, of course. Lythronax...
Stellasaurus is a centrosaurine that lived in North America around 75 million years ago. Its name of course means “star lizard,” and it was bestowed upon this particular species both for the shape of its frill and as a homage to the late, great David Bowie. It lived alongside its fellow centrosaurine Einiosaurus, the hadrosaurs Hypacrosaurus and Maiasaura, the ankylosaurs Edmontonia and...
In the wake of PNSO’s run of ceratopsians it appears as though they’ve moved on to a new succession of prehistoric animal figures, marine reptiles. Not just any marine reptiles though, Triassic marine reptiles known from China. This has dashed the hopes of those wishing for a new Mosasaurus or long-necked plesiosaur and those who focus solely on dinosaurs are...
