Not used for Contest 2013

[Federreptil]

A return after 10 years: Horrible Horn Horde 2.0



This is the direct comparison to the winning design of the 2014 dinosaur toy forum diorama contest 10 years ago. Many members of the Triceratops herd were already there.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDcDGAckI4EBPFi7feEcuNFH4Jwe6WmUSloSYUL5_iHMr_I1qDl7S5oUBnY5jQc_GZURkDSamIo9j3WeHuj9IRaX4dS9Q8G51qfq6TyAgRiFDUJthqTe5R_nhVaLfbhtiHzixU/s1600/Trike_fuer_Blog_0032-final.jpg]Horrible Horn Horde 2024[/url]



The Pectinodons are no longer fighting over a carcass, but have discovered more rewarding prey. The two Quetzalcoatlus pterodactyls on the elevated plateau sit here unseen in the background, and the flyer from the previous scene has now landed.



The Pectinodons are no longer frantic caricatures, but now possess a natural grace. They are a 3D print by David Krentz and are a larger version of the small raptors from an earlier scene.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwOv5AEi4CwpTAlOffxo_zlSn89Z79vGW4beVDkE3yBVsKgkNIT9l4WLRrU9meh13q2Kfgy_x1kuuZIOKO4k0A4IyMu5Xlf43L1l4b-5Z5omNxaRHzI0ZtFj1CbW83ZTdjkBZJ/s1600/Troodon-Test_93442069.jpg]The old Troodons[/url]



The main group on the right is deliberately very similar to the constellation from 10 years ago. Only at the end has a new Triceratops with long horn decorations been added. These extremely long horns can be seen on many new models in recent years.



However, the fact that the shape of the horns should change with the age of the triceratops is often overlooked. Jack Horner established the rule that in young years the horns are still bent upwards and tend to point downwards over the years, until they would have to point downwards in old animals. The manufacturers of the models interpret this very freely, showing the most diverse horn shapes, including curved ones. Particularly confusing are the deeply profiled, grained horn surfaces, which are supposed to represent aging. This is probably more due to fossil finds and not to a living, smooth keratin cover of the bones.



An old cow lies breathing heavily in the middle of the herd. The calf approaches, confused.



Perhaps the old animal's migration has come to an end here.



The Ankylosaurus has also returned to the scene, even if it is barely noticeable among the trees at the edge. In most overviews, it has even fallen out of the picture.



The Pectinodons are more in the foreground, even if they still keep a respectful distance from the herd.



But the sick Triceratops cow is too tempting. So the raptor dinosaurs wait for their chance.



Whether the old cow will ever get back on its feet is uncertain.



But the raptors can wait. Why take an unnecessary risk?



A scuffle between two alpha animals is probably one of the most common images that comes to mind when thinking of horned dinosaurs. Right after the deadly duel between the adult triceratops and the tyrannosaurus. The horns are used like stabbing weapons and injure the opponent with their tips.



There are indications that the horned shields were not only worn for display purposes. In fact, however, a clash with deeply wedged horns is a likely form of confrontation. Otherwise, the bones in the horns would be far too fragile to break. Just as the shield is far too thin to effectively protect the body. So the imposing horns are usually more about show value, to impress competitors or the opposite sex.



More horned dinosaurs are pushing into the scene. So there will be a second photo series.

[thomasw100]

Just a remark about the horn structure that you discuss. If we look at fingernails of humans (which are also made of keratin) as they age, one can certainly observe that they become rougher and more cracked. Therefore I could envisage something similar happening to horns.

[bmathison1972]

wow I want your background/habitat for my diorama images 

You are already putting a lot of work into your "Mathison Museum of Natural History - Prehistoric Edition" with the backgrounds to the individual figures. A three-dimensional background would certainly be an improvement. Although, given the length of time for the animals shown, it would probably have to be several different settings. If you are serious about this, I could put together a shopping list for you that would help you get started faster.

That would be nice, thanks, but please take your time and at your convenience, no rush.

I am not picky about a certain plant being in the same time period as the animal; most of my posts are actually extant animals (not sure if you know, but I do a daily post on the Animal Toy Forum; I only post here too when it happens to be a prehistoric critter).

I nice scene with trees in the background could cover a lot of options. Maybe I can make one with pine and one with deciduous, or a mix? Thoughts? Feel free to PM me, and we can share emails if you'd rather chat outside of the forum (email is easier for me)

[Federreptil]

Just a remark about the horn structure that you discuss. If we look at fingernails of humans (which are also made of keratin) as they age, one can certainly observe that they become rougher and more cracked. Therefore I could envisage something similar happening to horns.

An interesting thought. I will think about it. However, a quick image search on cow horns, antelope and deer antlers seems to indicate that smooth surfaces definitely represent health and vitality, and that cracked structures tend to develop in the case of illness, old age and subsequent drying processes. Therefore, for me it is also a matter of taste on the part of the manufacturer. It is noticeable that the latest models from PNSO favor extremely smooth surfaces, that a cracked texture is part of all models based on the JP Francise – such as those from Nanmu and Papo. The "children's brands" like Mojö or Schleich are extreme, and here the spectacular seems to be in the foreground and the direct connection to the fossils.

[Federreptil]

wow I want your background/habitat for my diorama images 

You are already putting a lot of work into your "Mathison Museum of Natural History - Prehistoric Edition" with the backgrounds to the individual figures. A three-dimensional background would certainly be an improvement. Although, given the length of time for the animals shown, it would probably have to be several different settings. If you are serious about this, I could put together a shopping list for you that would help you get started faster.

That would be nice, thanks, but please take your time and at your convenience, no rush.

I am not picky about a certain plant being in the same time period as the animal; most of my posts are actually extant animals (not sure if you know, but I do a daily post on the Animal Toy Forum; I only post here too when it happens to be a prehistoric critter).

I nice scene with trees in the background could cover a lot of options. Maybe I can make one with pine and one with deciduous, or a mix? Thoughts? Feel free to PM me, and we can share emails if you'd rather chat outside of the forum (email is easier for me)

I'll send a PM for details. As a quick thought, a scene with conifers would be best for the Cretaceous, especially for representatives of the northern hemisphere. More universal would be a setting with ferns and palm-like plants and palms and cycads, that could be used from the Triassic onwards.

Here there is a good combination possibility from individual fern plants from the model railroad construction, the heads of palm trees from the architecture construction for the ground cover and bushes and individual diorama plants from Indonesia. Unfortunately, my best conifers come from Europe or Germany. I don't yet know where to get them in the USA.

The new Haolonggood Argentinosauruas would probably blow up any diorama photo box.

[Federreptil]

66 million years ago in North America:



A herd of Alamosaurus crosses a fern savannah. It has taken so long for sauropods to finally appear in dioramas. So here is another photo gallery.



The maniraptors are not disturbed by the presence of the giants.



While hunting for small mammals, they startle some birds in the bushes.



They hunt in flocks and don't disdain small snacks.



The gentle giants are accompanied by a flock of nyctosaurs.



The female Tarannosaurus is ready to reproduce. We have no idea how it will continue.



How do two giant predators get their cloacae together? Does he have a penis like some ducks today to help him? Does he need his short forearms to hold on? Or to make her feel comfortable? The sensitive snouts are hardly any help now.



A small flock of birds circles above the fern thicket. The little ankylosaurs had better stay under cover.



This is an unlikely encounter, because the Alamosaurus tend to concentrate in the south, while the migrations of the Torosaurus take them as far north as this.



Torosaurus first appeared in the popular consciousness as an alternative to the ubiquitous triceratops in the BBC television documentary "Walking with the Dinosaurs" in the late 1990s. The first models of these dinosaurs were added to the herd here.



This is surely a random encounter. The two herds probably did not migrate together.



Without extensive migrations, the titanosauruses would hardly have been able to satisfy their enormous hunger. It will probably be a long time before sauropods appear here again.

[thomasw100]

Nice herd. Now I understand why Haolonggood Alamosaurus is already sold out.

[Federreptil]

Nice herd. Now I understand why Haolonggood Alamosaurus is already sold out.

not just because of me 

[Federreptil]

66 million years ago in North America:



Another look at the mixed herd of Edmontosaurus and Pachycephalosaurus. More pictures from the first post on the great migrations of herbivores from the far north to the south of Laramidia.



The small birds above the heads of the dinosaurs are hardly noticeable. Although there was probably already a dense bird population. But this is only preserved if there are such extraordinary preservation conditions as in the Jehol formation in China.



A variant of how small raptors are made.



In the background, you can see the young animal in distress while the main part of the herd flees.



A snake lies in the thicket while a mammal struts over the deadwood trunk.



A view of the herd from the pterosaur's perspective.



The Quetzalcoatlus floats lazily over the treetops.



Elevated rock plateaus are ideal safe resting places for the pterosaurs.



A bird in the branches of the first early deciduous trees.



A pack of nanotyrants chases a young quetzalcoatlus, which has to gain height again.

[Federreptil]

The Horrible Horn Herd 2.0 – Part 2 – gets, as promised, a second series of pictures.



Time to take a look at the "second row" in the background.



In the background, a younger animal challenges the older ones to shift the hierarchy within the herd.



A small mammal scurries through the undergrowth.



The younger trees have to withstand more intense grazing and may even be uprooted before they have reached the necessary height and strength. That is why the savannah's forest cover remains sparse and light.



A zealous flock of birds prances on the backs of the horned lizards.



A new raptor pack: another representative of Dromaeosauridae in the Hell Creek formation is the Acheroraptors.



They are significantly smaller than their larger relatives, the Dakotaraptors.



An overview of the entire scene with the entire herd of triceratops. Here it is again the pectinodons that are approaching the ailing animal in the center.



The horned dinosaurs from the perspective of a pterosaur that is doing another lap,...



... before it turns away.

[Federreptil]

North America 66 million years ago – and once again the herd of triceratops in this setup.



This time it begins with a view of the second row in the background.



In the process, this young animal encounters a turtle.



On the opposite side, the torosaurs have set themselves up.



The pachycephalosaurs keep to themselves, not going on migrations with the horned dinosaurs here.



Instead, they live in small groups in seclusion in the forests.



Snakes and large frogs camouflage themselves in the greenery.



The female triceratops in the foreground was still the matriarch of the herd 10 years ago, but in the meantime, other large animals have joined it.



The torosaur with the flat shell is one of the oldest models and finally got its own herd this year. And after 10 years, the smaller models are finally allowed to run along when the torosaurs are allowed to be a species of their own again with young and adolescent animals.



The old Schleich model was never particularly impressive and was already inaccurate in 1999. So it, together with the Toyway WWD model from 1999, is only used to fill the background. After all, Torosaurus models are still as rare as the original bones from which they were modeled.



Nimble mammals scurry through the undergrowth in search of food.



A zoom out of the scene reveals more and more animals.



Finally, another overview of the encounter between the two horned dinosaur herds.

[Federreptil]

I probably went a bit overboard with the flood of images from the Hell Creek Formation. So here are some of the books that were lying by my bed during the planning stage, which I eagerly browsed through in the hope of being able to clarify some questions. I am happy to admit that my studies are far from over.



At the beginning, there were the descriptions in "Saurian – A Field Guide to Hell Creek" by Tom Parker, Chris Masna, R. J. Palmer, which vividly illustrate the different local habitats. Originally, the creators explored the environment for their video game "Saurian" and created the basics for the scenery. Fortunately, they did it very thoroughly and in the book it's even more beautiful than in the game ; )



The other two books are actually about the Hell Creek landscape after the comet hit, but "The Last Days Of The Dinosaurs" by Riley Black and "Otherlands" by Thomas Halliday offer beautiful descriptions of a complete and complex ecosystem.



Here is a selection to help you understand what makes the subtropics special and what conditions are important today. In addition, a book about the Serengeti, which is probably the most species-rich natural biotope on Earth today, as an analogy for the Cretaceous. The tropical rainforest is not an appropriate analogy at all, even though the climate in the Cretaceous was warmer than it is today. Today's conditions would not have favored dinosaurs of the size and distribution found in this biotope.



I am still wondering whether the way of life of a Tyrannosaurus Rex could be compared to the way a tiger lives today? Perhaps the solitary way of life is also a question of population density in the former Hell Creek Formation? Tigers hunt collectively when there is a higher density of prey, and all can feed their fill. The territories of solitary animals become larger and larger when there is less potential prey.



Birds are an important part of this year's setting for the diorama. A good reason to look into the birds of the Mesozoic. Even though, of course, only modern birds are available for the models. But hopefully the painting can create a certain strangeness here.



I have only just begun to delve into the questions of climate zones and geobotany and will have to deepen my knowledge. Even though it is becoming increasingly clear that analogies from the modern world are not always easy to apply here.



The same applies to primeval flora. I still have huge gaps in my knowledge and a lot to discover and understand. It's also not easy to get from a quick glance at fossils to large forests and savannahs. There is a lot to be done here.

[Tattu]

That's quite an impressive amount of background research for a single diorama—hats off to you for tackling such a mountain of books! A few of these have piqued my interest, and I'll definitely add them to my reading list for the coming year. On a side note, Valmik Thapar's Tiger Fire actually has two more parts, Winged Fire and Animal Fire, if you're interested. I've skimmed through them, and they're both fantastic reads.

[Libraraptor]

Hey, @Federreptil, what an impressive collection of books and what an impressive amount of research went into your dioramas. Wow.

[Federreptil]

Since the end of last year's competition with the Gobi Diorama, preparations began for this year's Hell Creek Diorama. Here is a selection of pictures from the preparation period. From the end of February until June, some scenes and the new protagonists were tested in the mixed forest on a small table. More pictures can be found on the German blog: http://heinwerken.blogspot.com/?view=magazine



The vegetation should be more familiar to the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere with conifers, a few deciduous trees and flowering plants. In addition, there are some new trees here that are much more realistic in their details.



Many new models of Tyrannosaurus Rex have been released in the 10 years since the Horrible Horne Horde. For example, there are some adult PNSO "Andrea" and "Cameron" figures for Hell Creek, as well as a group of young animals that are actually much too big and cute.



The figures are still wearing the manufacturer's original clothing and, as seen here, are showing their teeth. They will get lips for the final shots, even if they are improvised with masking tape and superglue.



The scene with the Quetzalcoatlus flyers gets a new victim from Rebor.



The large Triceratops cow from Favorite was already the heroine of the herd 10 years ago. Meanwhile, the Torosaurus gets its own appearance. Only the eye motif with the decorative shield should disappear, because it should not look like something from an arts and crafts store.



The first appearance of the sauropods. The height of the trees is spot on. But actually, the Alamosaurus in the forest was probably just an exception.



If a Quetzalcoatlus is already the height of a giraffe, you can see here how big the difference in height is compared to the titanosaurians. This means that the tree tops also have to grow considerably.



Here are two Alamosaurus models from Haolonggood. The smaller brothers of PNSO are already here, but the paint job is not right yet. The rest of the herd comes from Everything Dinosaur in England and is still on its way here.



The raptors from Kaiodo are also still waiting for a more discreet feather coat. The other small predatory dinosaurs are still unpainted 3D prints.



The Tethisaurs from Wildpast will be used as Thescelosaurus. Here they are stored under the first olive tree, which will stand as a sclerophyllous tree in the savannah.



Did the young really move around with their adult parents? A topic seen in "dinosaur documentaries" but actually rather unlikely.



The Ankylosaurus will remain a loner. Here it is the PNSO version.



Since the adult T-Rex should not appear as a loner after all, "Kiss" from Rebor will get a twin brother in June.



Together it is much easier to spread the annoying Quetzalcoatlus blackheads over the carcass.



The color scheme of "Kiss" will be transferred to other T-rexes. The little ones and adolescents will get a slightly different plumage. The adolescents will even be given additional proto-feathers.



The latest guests in the test setup are the Edmontosauria and Pachycephalosauria, both already as a mixed herd. The Edmontosauria are a mixture of PNSO and Haolonggood with some finely painted young. Most of the Pachycephalosauria were already there 10 years ago and were given a uniform painting back then.



The three painted Anzus from Shapeways are allowed to move from the Gobi Desert to Hell Creek.



Another view from above of the Edmontosaurs in the colorful autumn forest.

[Federreptil]

And now for something completely different
Under foreign sails



In the first considerations, it is so seductive when the Spinosaurus with its dorsal sail encounters a Ouranosaurus herd. Because these herbivores also lived in North Africa and also had a dorsal sail. No one knows exactly why both species developed these sails in this place, then it seems that there must have been at least one good reason why these sails were created if two species do it at the same time.

But it doesn't work, because both species probably missed each other by 10 to 20 million years. That's a period of time in which the entire development of humans – from our ape-like ancestors to us – could have taken place about five times.



There is a suitable fish-catcher that belongs to the time of the Ouranosaurus: the Suchomimus. It is a relative of Spinosaurus, but it did not yet have a dorsal sail. This means that these dorsal sails remain a mystery. Even if these extreme extensions of the dorsal vertebrae were attachment points for muscles and Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus were the Quasimodos among dinosaurs with gigantic humps, this does not necessarily make more sense.

[thomasw100]

I recognize the Haolonggood Ouranosaurus, but what are the other Ouranosaurus?

[Federreptil]

I recognize the Haolonggood Ouranosaurus, but what are the other Ouranosaurus?

The other smaller Ouranosaurus is the Battat Version from 1994

[Federreptil]

Evolution in the toy world



These two figures are 20 years apart. The Ouranosaurus on the right is from the Schleich replica series from 2003 and, according to the pendant, was even scientifically museumbased. The model shows a dinosaur picture that could already be found in dinosaur books in children's rooms in the 1960s. The figure with spindly limbs has the familiar kangaroo posture for upright dinosaurs, a flat duck bill and the dorsal sail that a Spinosaurus could have carried. Seen in this light, nothing is correct except for the spelling of the name.
Ouranosaurus to the left of Haolonggood is from 2023 and, in contrast, shows what is probably the best representation of an early Cretaceous Iguanodon to date. It replaces the Ouranosaurus by Battat, which until then was still the best representation of this herbivore since 1994.

So it is all the more surprising that Schleich presented this interpretation, which was already completely outdated at the time, almost ten years later after Battat, in order to obviously be able to participate in the dinosaur boom that followed the Jurassic Park films. Someone must have dug very deep indeed to come up with this as a scientific account. But it also shows that Schleich thought even then that there should be no place for science in a child's room. Just as they prefer to sell colorful dragons and fantasy figures rather than dinosaurs today, 20 years ago the old chestnuts from their own childhood were obviously enough.

[Federreptil]

A small snack



Niger, North Africa, about 100 million years ago. A herbivore like the iguanodont Ouranosaurus has many enemies here. The Carcharadontosaurus and the giant crocodile Sacrosuchus are just two examples.



Even if the herbivore protected itself in herds and these still moved around together with sauropods. But for the predator, the Nigersaurus was already a more manageable size than its earlier relatives such as the Diplodocus.







Nevertheless, the predator would have had an easier time attacking in a pack and pouncing on isolated young animals. These big duels between adult predators and herbivores are probably reserved for today's video games.



What is missing from this picture are small predators and pterosaurs, which would try to get their share of the carcass. Many of the large predators were necessary to break open the prey, but would also only take "fillet pieces". The smaller carnivores would be responsible for the complete utilization...



... before insects and worms would ensure that we would no longer be able to find a fossilized fossil here today.