A Swiss company which produces outdoor clothing and equipment named itself „Mammut“ after the iconic Mammoth, probably because the prehistoric giants were as well equipped against cold and rainy weather conditions as you are supposed to be if you wear a Mammut product. The company even leads a black mammoth in their logo.
Interpreting fossils is never an easy task. Unless the animal was complete when found, or very well preserved, it can be hard to tell what an animal looked like. Prehistoric animals can be revised over and over as new information comes in about them. One animal that has been altered several times is Palorchestes, which was thought to be a kangaroo relative, then more tapir based as a result of the rostrum, and more recently, similar to a giant ground sloth.
2020 has been a bumper year for the Palaeozoic, Therapsids and minor creatures of the Mesozoic, but this has come at the expense of Cenozoic species, at least among the major toy lines, and the mammals only made half of this list. CollectA produced Megalodon, and Papo brought out the only mammal of 2020 from the major toy producers.
I am sure most collectors are aware that Bullyland has produced an interesting collection of prehistoric mega fauna, mammals, and terror birds. One overlooked mammal by most toy lines has been the Irish elk. It was nice to see a company take a chance on an animal that rarely sees any toy love.
