CambrianCrusader's Collection of Curiosities!

[TheCambrianCrusader]

Hi all!
Been collecting for a looong time and Ive managed to amass quite the collection over the years.
So much so that I like to think I'm curating my own little mini museum. And it ain't just dinos but all sorts of extinct critters from all across the Phanerozoic. While the Mesozoic does take up most of my collection I especially love collecting all the wacky experiments from the Paleozoic.
So why not take a look?

[TheCambrianCrusader]

That's most of them, but there's more around my apartment.
Thinking I might highlight them all individually if there's interest. And also hopefully get a better camera too cuz my phone's camera is kinda poop.

[Halichoeres]

A phone camera can be pretty good if you use it right! RobinGoodFellow had some good tips in this thread: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=3562.0

You have a great collection! How do you decide who goes where?

[Concavenator]

Neat collection, interesting combination of old and new stuff.

How do you decide who goes where?

I was wondering the same.

[TheCambrianCrusader]

Honestly just kinda wherever something can fit lmao  .

I've thought about arranging them by chronology but I kinda like how my bookshelf ended up looking.

[Halichoeres]

Totally valid!

Like you, I enjoy the Mesozoic, but get way more excited about the alien-ness of the Paleozoic.

[SidB]

Hi all!
Been collecting for a looong time and Ive managed to amass quite the collection over the years.
So much so that I like to think I'm curating my own little mini museum. And it ain't just dinos but all sorts of extinct critters from all across the Phanerozoic. While the Mesozoic does take up most of my collection I especially love collecting all the wacky experiments from the Paleozoic.
So why not take a look?

Space, the final frontier for us collectors. Just a thought, @TheCambrianCrusader , but you could benefit from installing more shelves into that white shelf unit. That would open up a fair bit of space for your figures at a very low cost and without gobbling up more room space itself.

[TheCambrianCrusader]

S @SidB definitely an idea but atm I have some more important things to spending on/saving up for. The collection is taking a bit of a backseat rn as I'm getting used to living on my own for the first time since college (along with the economy being scary rn) but thats def an idea for the future!

In any event I have gotten a couple new figures!

First up the Safari Malawisaurus dixeyi!

This guy's really cool. Sauropods have always been a group that I wanted to have more figures of but never really did because of size/space reasons but with Malawisaurus being a modest (for a sauropod) 11-15m a smaller figure is more welcome. I'm really glad that Safari made this taxa as its one of the most complete titanosaurs known. Complete with skull material! I actually just got to see a mounted skeleton at the Fernbank museum a few weeks ago where I picked this model up.

Next up the Kaiyodo Axelrodichthys!

Coelacanths are always being touted as living fossils and are often included in toy lines and media about paleontology however they are ALWAYS represented by or heavily on the modern Latimeria. I've always hated the use of the phrase "living fossil" as it completely ignores the staggering diversity clades like coelacanths used to possess. But here comes Kaiyodo with, as far as I'm aware, the only coelacanth figure that actually represents a prehistoric coelacanth! I'm not super knowledgeable about Axelrodichthys and I'm not sure which species this figure is meant to represent but I do know it seems that this was a taxa that was comfortable in saltwater, brackish water, and freshwater so this seems like a good color scheme to represent it with. Much better than the other available color scheme based on Latimeria.

And lastly the Kaiyodo Cladoselache!




I already owned both the Safari and the other Kaiyodo Cladoselache models, but this might just be my favorite fossil Chondrichthyan so I couldn't pass up another one! An extremely basal Chondrichthyan Cladoselache is extremely important to our understanding of the evolution of sharks, rays, and chimaeras as it already possesses the basic shark bauplan so early in their evolution despite not being close relatives of actual sharks. With its streamlined build, strongly keeled caudal peduncle, and lunate caudal fin it likely would have been an active pursuit predator reminiscent of the makos and blue sharks around today only way back in the Devonian ~360mya. A number of taxa are named but I'm pretty confident the Kaiyodo figure represents Cladoselache fyleri as its arguably the best known and aligns pretty well to the fossils to my untrained eye but if anyone knows better than feel free to correct me! I'm not sure what species the Safari model is meant to represent as its anatomy is well a little wonky. I like both but the Kaiyodos are definitely superior. My original copy suffered a shelf dived and broke off a piece of its pectoral and caudal fin so I had the urge to get a new one. Won't be replacing my old one though, in my eyes it looks like it got into a tussle with another of its kind so its staying .

[Halichoeres]

Kaiyodo's fish are unmatched.

FWIW, at the time the figure was released, the genus Axelrodichthys contained only one species: A. araripensis.