The Curious Compendium: Prehistoric Edition - The end of an era! (or many, really)

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Hello!

I have been a member here for a bit now but have not presented my collection yet. To try and keep it short, I have a website called https://thecuriouscompendium.wixsite.com/curiouscompendium that I use to present my entire collection (I collect extant and extinct species). I also have a Facebook and Instagram page for anyone interested! It has been undergoing an overhaul for the last 2 years and I have finally gotten to rephotographing and working on the prehistorics category so I thought I could present those here as well.

A brief history of mine- I collect anything that catches my fancy but as a kid I had to keep the prehistorics to a minimum for monetary and space reasons. So it was put on the backburner for years minus my very favorite species like Spinosaurus. A few years ago I inherited my brother's Paposaur collection and had promised him to keep it going as best I could. But about 4 or 5 years ago, I finally caved on not actively collecting prehistorics and have grown them quite a lot! I will try to post one group of figures each weekday (as I can) until I get through them all.

To kick off, I have the oldest animals in my collection!


For me, these very early species are so intriguing for their bizarre features. I recently read Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould and I really enjoyed learning about these animals, the famed Burgess Shale, and the discovery, current understanding, and historical significance of these ancient weirdos.

[BlueKrono]

Good to see you here! Those of us on the ATF know your extant animal collection is staggering. I'm excited to see your prehistorics!

[Libraraptor]

On  my PC, the link is dead. What can I do about it?

[Saarlooswolfhound]

@BlueKrono, great to see you here too! I am excited to show my prehistorics collection here.

On  my PC, the link is dead. What can I do about it?

Sorry about that! I think I fixed it- let me know if you have any more trouble with it.

https://thecuriouscompendium.wixsite.com/curiouscompendium

[Concavenator]

Having a website dedicated to your collection is a whole new level, compared to most of us who just have our own threads!

Great collection as far as I can see.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Ha, yes I agree! I knew it would be a big project when I started it but coming from zero web design experience there has been a steep learning curve! I decided to just commit to it because I have been a long term collector (I have had animal figures in my life since I was three, but got "serious" when I was about thirteen). I have been a long term member of STS and got questions all the time about certain models I have and comparison photos with other figures. So this has helped a lot with that! My last good number was nearing 5,000 pieces but this was about 3 or 4 years ago. Then due to various life changes and several moves, I just haven't been very good about updating and keeping track of that figure. Once I complete the website renovation (nearing completion after about 2 years of work!) I am planning to do a "census" to see how much the curation has grown since.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

My next batch!


These hail way back to a primeval era for me. When I was just a kid 6-7 I remember every Saturday morning my older siblings and I would wake up and go pile on top of Mom and Dad in their bed to watch Prehistoric Planet episodes on the Discovery Kids channel (these were the BBC Walking with Dinosaur episodes recut and narrated by Ben Stiller to be lighter and more comedic, only really cutting out the bits of true carnage and the finer points of animal reproduction posed in the originals). I LOVED them! And I distinctly remember the ocean focused episode and the ammonites it briefly covered. Fast forward a short time and I remember being thrilled when I discovered naulituses were a living animal from a book in my school class. I am still fascinated by these things and adore them! You can imagine my thrill when these unique animals were featured in Apptletv+'s Prehistoric Planet series, all these years later! So yeah, this whole group of oddities are amazing and full of intrigue, if you don't know- go google "ammonite shell types" under images and it'll blow your mind!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Next up!


I don't have quite the same sentimental attachment to these species, but fish in general fascinate me and that extends from coelacanths and modern sharks to mawsoniid coelacanths (like this axelrodichthys) and prehistoric alien looking sharks!

[Halichoeres]

I like what I'm seeing so far! Fish and invertebrates are some of my favorite figures. Have you found that the pectoral fins of your Axelrodichthys don't stay put?

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Thank you! And yes, I have had the figure for years but just recently put a small dab of glue on its inserts for the pectoral fins because I didn't want to lose them (its a miracle they didn't get lost during my moves over the last few years).

[Faelrin]

Hard to believe how much heavy lifting both that Safari Prehistoric Sharks toob, and Kaiyodo Dinotales have done for prehistoric fish after all this time. Much like Play Visions with prehistoric amphibians, exceptions aside.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

They really did- We can only hope to see more of the same in the future from any company. But I would enjoy such releases anyhow!

I forgot to mention, one of my favorite professors in college was someone who worked quite a bit with helicoprion as it was a locally found species (one of few in the area I grew up, in Southeastern Idaho). Dr. Leif Tapanila (at the time) had quite a few incredible tooth whorls in the museum collection on campus! They were pretty special to see in person.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Another group of early animal oddities!


What comes to mind for these would be about turtles and their relatives. From what I was taught in college in my comparative evolution class is how problematic they are to classify! And also, how many times things have evolved to look like turtles (a lot- surprisingly!). Maybe some day something will be discovered that better explains how turtles and friends came to be.

[BlueKrono]

I would recommend the book "Turtles as Hopeful Monsters" by Olivier Rieppel.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I love book suggestions- Thank you so much!

[Faelrin]

I have all of these except the Henodus? on the left, and the middle brown guy above it (with the blue spots), below the Play Visions Eryops.

[SBell]

I have all of these except the Henodus? on the left, and the middle brown guy above it (with the blue spots), below the Play Visions Eryops.

You mean the Play Visions Henodus and Placodus?

[Faelrin]

S @SidB Thanks. I guess that's what those would be.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I love these next weird animals-


Again, it wasn't until college that I learned just odd and mysterious these guys are. Everything from how they could have hair, dorsal humps, or what their sails might have looked like- for both dimetrodon and edaphosaurus I love how utterly unconventional they might have been!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

More old world weirdos!



This image pretty much encapsulates my interest in this period. Just so many oddities and strange body plans that I can't help but want to learn as much as I can.

From the placerias (some will eventually become repaint projects) that I will never forget first seeing in WWD episode 1, to scutosaurus who to me looks like a Star Wars animal, or even the moose-like estemmenosuchus! My very favorites are the gorgonopsids, but really, I love anything from the pre- Mesozoic!