While I do admire the Yowie line for it’s variety, several have given me headaches for being based off species known off bits and pieces, a leg bone or a finger. Fortunately, this isn’t the case for all, and here we have one such case, Woolungasaurus, an elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the early Cretaceous of Queensland, Australia. Known from a partial...
The Mesozoic saw the rise of the dinosaurs to dominance, as they were the largest and most successful animals around. But naturally, they weren’t the only creatures around, as this era saw the rise of birds and mammals. They were often small, especially during the Jurassic period, but they set the stage for their eventual take over once the dinosaurs...
Australia has a wide array of species throughout the different periods and epochs. This has resulted in many different genus’ being constructed from the many pieces that had been found. Some have been erected from only a few pieces. Here, we see one such example, Rapator, a Mid-Cretaceous theropod known from a single metacarpal. The fact a figure made from...
Ah, Yowie! It’s a great company, educating people on animals old and new, along with how their environments changed or can be saved. The prehistoric line really opens the eyes to many species most will never have heard of, learning something new. Many species, however, are based on very limited material, so can cause headaches when trying to assess them....
I do like Yowie for it’s diversity, especially among the animals of Gondwanaland. What I often get irritated about is that a proportion of them are based on very limited fossil material. I have reviewed several already, all named. This one, however, is not. This is the Giralia Pterosaur, an as yet unnamed pterosaur from Australia, being one of the...
Some of the hardest prehistoric animal groups to find are birds, second to sharks. The light weight bones are subject to breaking easily, so it’s usually only in lagerstatten. There are features that can indicate a bird, and so identify them as that and not a dinosaur. One such example is Nanantius, an ancient sea bird from Australia. Though only...
The titans of Greek myth were beings of great strength and power, so it is no surprise that prehistoric creatures of great size and strength were named after them. The leader of this group during their golden age, according to legend, was Kronos, the father of Zeus, and a mighty marine monster was named after him: Kronosaurus, a 30 ft...
I adore lines like Yowie for bringing out models of animals that are comparatively rare in terms of being immortalised in plastic. Animals from the Paleogene and Eocene are rare. Extinct turtle species are rare. And yet Yowie made a figure of an animal that fits both criteria, the Tingamarra Soft-Shelled Turtle. Though it doesn’t list a name for this...
A lot of fossil species are erected by the slimmest of evidence, be it a toe bone, vertebrae or something else. This can make it very hard to discern where they fit into the scheme of life. This review’s subject, Serendipaceratops, is such an example, known only from a single leg bone, the ulna specifically. It’s similarity to Leptoceratops led...
Fossil discoveries can often turn up in the most unlikely places. From quarries to Chinese medicine shops, fossils may appear where least expected. This was the case for the species Umoonasaurus, better known as Eric the Pliosaur. The bones of this animal had not only fossilized, but opalized, making them appear like jewels, hence why they were nearly sold to...
Speculation makes up a lot of palaeontology. Often it’s behaviour, or diet, but sometimes it can be what the entire creature actually looked like, based on the fragments of bone found. Many a species has been erected based on the tiniest fragments. Here, we see one such example: Fulgurotherium, a dinosaur species based off a opalized femur from the Griman...
Across the globe, the bones of mighty giants of the ancient world are waiting to be found. The largest of the land animals are the Titanosaurs, giant sauropods found across the globe. Here, we examine one early titan from Australia, Austrosaurus, a 5 metre tall sauropod found in the Albian rocks of Queensland. This was made by Yowie, in their...
