The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[Halichoeres]

A few Late Paleozoic vertebrates:


Toy Monster Lystrosaurus (Jurassic World Captivz)
Scale: 1:15 or so for an average specimen
Released: 2022
Late Permian to Early Triassic
On the one hand, I'm glad the JW franchise is introducing the public to Lystrosaurus, on the other hand I wish it were a better design. As Lystrosaurus, this works at any scale from about 1:12 to about 1:35, depending on species. But it works even better as one of the kannemeyeriiform dicynodonts from later in the Triassic. It's a better Placerias, for example, than Lystrosaurus, based on the proportions of its skull. As Placerias, it works pretty nicely in 1:45 to 1:35 scale (I could swear somebody else pointed this out on the forum before, but I can't find it now, so apologies if that was you). Anyway, I think this is the nicest-looking JW Lystrosaurus, although I probably would also have gone for the larger Mattel action figure if it had ever appeared in a store near me. I'm definitely still keeping my Kaiyodo Dinotales version but for making a dicynodont at all, NBCUniversal and ToyMonster can have a bit of my money.


With the slightly earlier dicynodont Endothiodon and the slightly later archosauromorph Garjainia.


Oumcraft Orodus
Scale: 1:40 - 1:45
Designer: Oammararak Suchimonsri
Released: 2022
Late Carboniferous to Early Permian
This was included in the Devonian section of the Life... game, but although there are some teeth referred to the genus from the Devonian, it's more typical of later in the Paleozoic. It's named "mountain tooth" after its long, gently-sloped teeth, but there are also some really nice body fossils, including one at the Field Museum here in Chicago. This figure got a little bit scuffed in transit, and I would bet it didn't come in green, but still cool to have a figure of one of the earliest large true sharks.


Scales nicely with this contemporary definitely-not-a-true-shark. It's one of the larger Oumcraft game miniatures.


Scale: 1:1
Designer: Oammararak Suchimonsri
Released: 2022
Early Carboniferous and possibly Late Devonian
In the 1980s, some beautifully preserved fossils from Scotland referable to Clydagnathus finally showed the world what conodonts looked like; until then we only had their tiny, bizarre teeth. A very cool and important taxon to have a figure of. Not sure what the name means--"gnathus" means "jaw," but the other half, maybe after someone named Clyde? Please don't quote me on that.


Scale: 1:1
Sculptor: Book-Rat on DeviantArt
Completed: 2022
Early Carboniferous
I first encountered Book-Rat on Twitter a few years ago when they posted a one-of-a-kind Lunaspis figure, which I offered to buy. They declined, saying it was one of their favorite pieces. Then I saw they'd also made themselves a Harpagofututor pair, and I asked to buy that model too. They said they wanted to keep it but offered to make me another, so here we are.


Harpagofututor is known from a bunch of specimens of both sexes. The males have these insane cephalic claspers (the antler-looking things), which give the genus its name: "grappling-hook copulator."


The males also had pelvic claspers, which the model unfortunately lacks. I didn't notice until I got it in hand. Not the end of the world.


Book-Rat went with a gill cover, which is possible, but it might have had open gills slits like a shark. The fossils aren't clear on this point as far as I know.


The female.


With the tiny Clydagnathus, and the less-tiny Cooperoceras.


And in the cabinet with Falcatus from the same formation. Making slow progress on a Bear Gulch display.

@DustyWren the process was pretty easy. I just send the artist a message, and in this case they already knew a lot about fish, so I didn't provide much guidance. I mean, I just asked for a copy of a model they had already made on their own. I should have checked the pelvic claspers, but oh well. Book-Rat expressed a sentiment along the lines of it being refreshing to work on fish because everyone is always commissioning dinosaurs. I'm working on another commission with a different artist, who checks in a lot on details, which is nice and probably the way it should really go. That one should be ready in a couple months.

[ceratopsian]

My guess re Clydagnathus is that it relates to the famous and iconic River Clyde.  But as I don't know where in Scotland the fossils come from.....

I'm very impressed with the artistic qualities of your Harpagofututor pair.  And I can't say that I ever expected to see "fututor" anywhere other than in one of the extremely scurrilous epigrams of Martial!

[Flaffy]

Been looking for the Captivz Lystrosaurus since it was revealed. Where did you get yours @Halichoeres ?
I agree it's the best rendition of the JW Lystrosaurus design. Definitely more screen accurate than even the larger Mattel toy.

[Gwangi]

That Lystrosaurus is surprisingly decent. I've never come across the Captivz toys so have written them off but they do represent some of the better JW merchandise. I have the mini Lystrosaurus and I guess that will have to do because I haven't found the larger Maisie set yet.

The Harpagofututor pair is an epic piece. Congrats! At first glance I thought they were some type of cod, because the support rods looked like barbels.

[Leyster]

Great acquisitions,  Book-Rat is an amazing artist, I love every single one of their dinosaurs.

[Faelrin]

I may have to pick up that Captivz Lystrosaurus at some point (ebay or whatever), but at least I luckily managed to get my hands on the Mattel one which better suits much of my collection for the meantime. Those custom fish are absolutely beautiful. I haven't seen anything like those "antlers" before on fish either. Pretty interesting.

@Flaffy @Gwangi  There's one sale on ebay right now:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/404032477516?hash=item5e1236594c:g:3lMAAOSwxHFjgN7N

There's another one for sale here: https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m76338235045/

Unfortunately the cheapest Mattel Maisie, Beta, and Lystrosaurus set is going for over $40 (with or without shipping) on ebay, but at least it is much much cheaper then the third party seller on Amazon atm. Honestly considering other retailers shipments of this set was canceled (I'm not even sure if anywhere except Amazon got it in stock, which is where I got mine before they sold out?), I'd probably avoid sitting on it, even if it does mean shelling out double or triple the price, if one can afford to do so. I'm fully expecting it to get worse over time.

[Flaffy]

@Faelrin Thanks for the heads up, but unforunately the seller doesnt ship to the UK.

As for the Mattel Lystrosaurus... It'd be nice to have sure, but I'm at that point where I wouldn't shelf out an excessive amount for a Jurassic toy. There's plenty of other figures from various companies and artists that are frankly much better made (and painted) than Mattel's recent offerings. And hey who knows, maybe Mattel will rerelease the Lystrosaurus  in a new coat of paint years down the line, like they plan to do with the Scutosaurus IIRC.

[Faelrin]

@Flaffy Wait the Scutosaurus is finally getting a repaint? That's great news for anyone that missed out on the original back in 2020.

[Gwangi]

Thanks for the heads up @Faelrin, that's not a bad price for it. I shouldn't be buying myself stuff at this time of year but I'm mulling that one over.

[Concavenator]

I didn't know about Harpagofututor before, what a weird fish. And that model looks stunning.

[Dusty Wren]

Wow, that Harpagofututor pair is so cool! Beautiful sculpting and painting on those figures. And the cephalic claspers are wild. I've never seen that feature on a fish (though, admittedly, my knowledge of fish is limited). Are there any living species that have something like that? 

[Halichoeres]

Thanks for visiting, everyone! Sorry for the slow response, been an unexpectedly busy couple of days (though not in a bad way).

My guess re Clydagnathus is that it relates to the famous and iconic River Clyde.  But as I don't know where in Scotland the fossils come from.....

I'm very impressed with the artistic qualities of your Harpagofututor pair.  And I can't say that I ever expected to see "fututor" anywhere other than in one of the extremely scurrilous epigrams of Martial!

You were not far off, at least in terms of rivers with Celtic names! I was able to find the original description of Clydagnathus teeth, and it turns out they were found in Wales along the River Clydach near Gilwern. However, those were only teeth, and the body fossils were found in Edinburgh more than a decade later. In the course of finding this out, I learned about the Forth of Firth, which is fun to say.

And now I want to read some scurrilous epigrams.

Been looking for the Captivz Lystrosaurus since it was revealed. Where did you get yours @Halichoeres ?
I agree it's the best rendition of the JW Lystrosaurus design. Definitely more screen accurate than even the larger Mattel toy.

I got mine from eBay. I bought one Captivz egg at a Walmart earlier this year, and got a rex, which, ugh. So I decided that was a bad way to try for the few that I might want. I rarely buy JW stuff from eBay because I don't want to encourage scalpers. But for blind-packed figures I think there's a legitimate case that re-sellers are actually providing some value. Anyway, if there's anything you want from a US eBay seller, let me know and I'd be happy to forward it.

That Lystrosaurus is surprisingly decent. I've never come across the Captivz toys so have written them off but they do represent some of the better JW merchandise. I have the mini Lystrosaurus and I guess that will have to do because I haven't found the larger Maisie set yet.

The Harpagofututor pair is an epic piece. Congrats! At first glance I thought they were some type of cod, because the support rods looked like barbels.

I actually got the Mattel mini too but it's so similar in scale to the Kaiyodo that I don't think I'll keep it. The Captivz one is considerably larger. Hope you can find a Maisie, or that Flaffy is right and the Lystrosaurus will get a re-release. I see what you mean about the rods, they're pretty flexible so I might repose them. But their general aspect ratio is also definitely similar to a rockling or other codlike fish.

Great acquisitions,  Book-Rat is an amazing artist, I love every single one of their dinosaurs.

Thank you! I find a few of their earliest pieces a bit rough, but they're consistently excellent these days. Naturally I'm most partial to their fish, crocodiles, and temnospondyls.

I didn't know about Harpagofututor before, what a weird fish. And that model looks stunning.

Glad I could introduce you to this weirdo!

Wow, that Harpagofututor pair is so cool! Beautiful sculpting and painting on those figures. And the cephalic claspers are wild. I've never seen that feature on a fish (though, admittedly, my knowledge of fish is limited). Are there any living species that have something like that? 

Yeah, I'm very happy with them. As for the claspers, I am actually not sure I know anything modern quite like this, but there are a few things that come close. Some modern chimaera males have a little club-shaped thing with what look like teeth on their head, also called a cephalic clasper. They seem to use it for gaining purchase during mating, but they still copulate with the pelvic claspers. http://www.prionace.it/chimaeramonstrosaENG.htm

And there's a weird family of fish called the priapiumfish that have their gonads near the chin and a jagged sort of grappling hook that they use during mating.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/meet-phallostethus-cuulong-the-fish-with-elaborate-multi-part-genitals-on-its-chin
The difference there is that the priapiumfish also has its pelvic girdle/fins up near the chin, which is very common in acanthomorphs. But Harpagofututor had its pelvic girdle farther back like a good chondrichthyan, so it wasn't using the antlers for fertilization directly. The antlers may well have been as much for visual display as for anything mechanical.

[ceratopsian]

Glad you were able to pin down the "Clyd" element.  As for the scurrilous epigrams - the English translations from Latin tend to be tamer than the original.

[Halichoeres]

Arthrodires of the Devonian! All of these are from Oumcraft, designed by Oammararak and released earlier this year. As with the rest of the series, several of them appear to be inspired by the Palaeopedia Tumblr blog by Anthony Pain, although others represent taxa never featured there.


Titanichthys
Scale: 1:80 - 1:100
Late Devonian
"Titan fish," an animal that rivaled Dunkleosteus in size, and might have been the first bulk suspension feeder (i.e., giant filterer of plankton). For the most part, I really like the tiny scale of the Life miniatures. They allow me a broad cross section of Paleozoic biodiversity without taking up too much space, and many are compatible with figures I already owned. This is one animal, though, that I would love to have a larger version of one day, something that would look at home with my Dunkleosteus figures.


With the much later Edestus, another genus I wouldn't mind having a larger (and more accurate) version of.


Phyllolepis
Scale: 1:12
Late Devonian
Phyllolepis was a freshwater arthrodire, probably a predator similar to a carpet shark, just a couple of hundred million years earlier. The name means "leaf scale," despite its not having any true scales that we know of. It's known from ancient rivers all over the Northern Hemisphere. It reminds me a bit of Drepanaspis if Drepanaspis had jaws and paired fins and jaws. This sort of half-circle head shape has evolved over and over again.


Austrophyllolepis
Scale: 1:15
Late Devonian
Lead author Gavin Young was kind enough to email me the pdf of the original description, which was paywalled in a journal that my employer doesn't subscribe to. So if anybody else wants that, let me know, but also good reminder that scientists mostly don't like paywalls and are usually overjoyed to have someone request to read their work. "Southern leaf scale" is a lot like Phyllolepis, but found in Australia. The sandy color scheme looks good for a river bottom.


Coccosteus
Scale: 1:10 - 1:15
Middle to Late Devonian
The well-known arthrodire that has informed Dunkleosteus reconstructions for decades (but these days, please look instead to Amazichthys). Like Phyllolepis and Bothriolepis, it's found in freshwater environments. The name means "berry bone," I'm not certain why, maybe due to the texture of the armor plates, which have little round tubercles all over. The "cocc-" part might be familiar from round (berry-shaped) bacteria. It's cool to have this in a nice small scale that works with existing figures. But I'm keeping my big 1:2 Ordovis Coccosteus.


Kaiyodo's Ichthyostega is a handy scale bar. The two phyllolepids differ in details of plate shape and proportion, but it's subtle. I imagine to people whose favorite group is dinosaurs, they look about as alike as carcharodontosaurids look to me.


Incisoscutum
Scale: 1:8 - 1:10
Late Devonian
"Cutting shield," maybe the most aptly named arthrodire there is. This is a saltwater fish from the famous GoGo Reef in Australia, which preserved soft tissue in nodules. That's part of how we know the ancestors of living jawed vertebrates had live young instead of external eggs: males of Incisoscutum have been found with pelvic claspers, while females have been found with intact embryos in their bodies. That means that our lineage, the mammals, had to go through at least one transition to egg-laying, and at least one re-evolution of a placenta. (It turns out placentas or placenta-like structures evolve all over the vertebrate tree.)


These are to scale, but the sarcopterygian was freshwater.


Turrisaspis
Scale: 1:5
Late Devonian
This spiky placoderm is known from pieces of the head and thoracic armor. It's reasonably abundant in Devonian marine rocks in Pennsylvania. The name means "tower shield," from the tall thoracic spike. This caltrop shape has evolved a few times too, lots of palate-piercing friends in the ocean trying not to get eaten.


Groenlandaspis is a close relative, to the extent that this Yowie figure really ought to look more lie the Life figure. Turrisaspis fossils are mostly pretty broken, but better preserved Groenlandaspis and Africanaspis specimens can give you a pretty reasonable idea of what it looks like.

As always, happy to accommodate requests for other photos/group shots if I can.

[BlueKrono]

In regards to Phyll and Austro:
::insert The Office meme saying "They're the same picture."::

[Gwangi]

Those Oumcraft fish are adorable.

[Faelrin]

How did I not know that the adorable Turrisaspis is found within the state of my current residence? Oh no I didn't get this one either. Will need to add it to my wishlist so I don't forget if/when I can do another haul of them (if they are still for sale). Could be a while though (I still need to pay you back for the shipping on my previous haul for starters).

[Halichoeres]

Thanks, everyone!

In regards to Phyll and Austro:
::insert The Office meme saying "They're the same picture."::

Ha ha, this is what I posted when I got the GR Toys Carcharodontosaurus:


The Pam screen shot is stably hosted, so you should feel free to use it around the forum.

How did I not know that the adorable Turrisaspis is found within the state of my current residence? Oh no I didn't get this one either. Will need to add it to my wishlist so I don't forget if/when I can do another haul of them (if they are still for sale). Could be a while though (I still need to pay you back for the shipping on my previous haul for starters).

Pennsylvania has an unbelievably rich Paleozoic fossil record--I doubt many people alive know all of the animals in it! Don't sweat the shipping, you've got bigger things to worry about.

I forgot to mention that the tiny Oumcraft Phyllolepis replaces my life-size TST Advance one, which definitely saves on space:

[Concavenator]

A larger Titanichthys would be nice, I would say it's a more interesting creature than Dunkleosteus, which everyone makes. It also reminds me of Dimetrodon overshadowing Edaphosaurus in popularity when I think the latter is quite a bit more interesting as well. From what I see, shouldn't the Oumcraft figure have proportionally longer pectoral fins? I've done a quick search and apparently most of the material attributed to this genus is quite fragmentary, though this 2017 paper claims the finding of an almost complete (and articulated) specimen.

When it comes to carcharodontosaurids looking very similar, it's a bit tricky. Generally I can see why you would say that, but remember most of this family's taxa have poor remains. The few members we have good remains of (Acrocanthosaurus, Concavenator, Meraxes and Neovenator) don't look that alike I would say. So the rest looking very similar is a consequence of their fragmentary status, kinda what happens with megaraptorans, albeit not that extreme of a case.

[Faelrin]

I suppose that is at least a pro of living here. I really ought to do some more research on this at some point. I'm familiar with some of our Cambrian period fauna, and of course I'm familiar with Devonian Hynerpeton and Hyneria being from here, and I believe some Dunkleosteus specimens were also found here as well, but that was the bulk of it.

And thanks for no rush on that. You are certainly right.