Top favourite prehistoric animals

[Newt]

@Halichoeres - a life-sized resin astrapothere skull would make a sweet centerpiece for a South American-themed aquarium. I can just imagine a school of rummynoses darting through the eye sockets, corydoras using the nasal opening as a cave... More sensible than the Tyrannosaurus skulls every pet store carries, anyhow.

[Lynx]

Pinacosaurus and it's relatives. Nothing else except maybe Spinosaurus and Ceratosaurus.

[Sim]

My favourite prehistoric animals have had some changes since I last posted in this thread.  The first 11 never change, but after that there tends to be changes.  Below are my favourite prehistoric animals right now.

1. Velociraptor mongoliensis
2. Rhamphorhynchus muensteri
3. Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis
4. Saurornithoides mongoliensis
5. Thalassomedon haningtoni
6. Buitreraptor gonzalezorum
7. Baryonyx walkeri
8. Stegosaurus stenops
9. Sinornithosaurus millenii
10. Deinonychus antirrhopus
11. Linheraptor exquisitus
12. Utahraptor ostrommaysi
13. Suchomimus tenerensis
14. Dromaeosaurus albertensis
15. Cymbospondylus petrinus
16. Scaphognathus crassirostris
17. Eoraptor lunensis
18. Eudimorphodon ranzii

With regards to the new additions...  Suchomimus is so cool, it's a baryonychine almost the same size as Tyrannosaurus, and another thing I like about it is it's the most completely known spinosaurid.  Cymbospondylus petrinus has always been my favourite ichthyosaur, I find it impressive and charming.

[Sim]

Actually, I overlooked that number 5 in my list changed.  It's the elasmosaurid position that has gone back to Thalassomedon, the elasmosaurid that I had as a favourite when I started this thread.  I didn't write anything about it at the time, so I will now.  Thalassomedon became a favourite of mine again when I got the CollectA Thalassomedon.  The figure made me realise Thalassomedon does have the qualities which make it my favourite plesiosauroid.  The qualities that make Thalassomedon Thalassomedon.

[HD-man]

  For those who don't know, there's a thread for posting your favorite artworks of these species: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=10177.0

[Halichoeres]

What does Thalassomedon have that Styxosaurus doesn't? I'm not especially kmowledgeable about elasmosaurids.

[Sim]

Styxosaurus and Thalassomedon have different postcranial proportions, as is shown in the image below.

  (Image source)

Their heads look different too, Styxosaurus seems to have a bump on its snout and proportionally bigger teeth in the front of the mouth.

[Halichoeres]

Thanks!

[Sim]

Currently my favourite prehistoric animals are as follows:

1. Velociraptor mongoliensis
2. Rhamphorhynchus muensteri
3. Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis
4. Saurornithoides mongoliensis
5. Thalassomedon haningtoni
6. Buitreraptor gonzalezorum
7. Baryonyx walkeri
8. Stegosaurus stenops
9. Sinornithosaurus millenii
10. Deinonychus antirrhopus
11. Linheraptor exquisitus
12. Suchomimus tenerensis
13. Utahraptor ostrommaysi
14. Torvosaurus tanneri
15. Dromaeosaurus albertensis
16. Cymbospondylus petrinus
17. Scaphognathus crassirostris
18. Apatosaurus louisae
19. Eoraptor lunensis
20. Dilophosaurus wetherilli
21. Cryolophosaurus ellioti
22. Tuojiangosaurus multispinus
23. Chasmosaurus belli
24. Barosaurus lentus
25. Coelophysis bauri
26. Eudimorphodon ranzii
27. Kentrosaurus aethiopicus
28. Supersaurus vivianae
29. Medusaceratops lokii
30. Styracosaurus albertensis
31. Pentaceratops sternbergii

For why I like the new additions:
I find Apatosaurus interesting with its monstrous neck, tail whip and powerful build, and large size!  Apatosaurus lousiae specifically because it's the species in an impressive mounted skeleton in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and it's also the species the Papo Apatosaurus represents and I love that figure.
I find Dilophosaurus and Cryolophosaurus very interesting in form and with regards to the lives they led.
For some time there was a tie for my favourite ceratopian, with Chasmosaurus and Styracosaurus both claiming that position.  But now Chasmosaurus belli has risen up and become my favourite.  I find it captivating.  My other favourite ceratopians, as shown in the above list, are Medusaceratops, Styracosaurus and Pentaceratops.  I find their form interesting too.
I find the different forms of diplodocids in the Morrison Formation interesting, and Barosaurus achieves a pleasing form for me, with its extremely long neck and shorter tail compared to Diplodocus.  Supersaurus vivianae does too, although it surprisingly looks quite different to Barosaurus when the two are compared.  I'm not normally interested in fragmentary species, but Supersaurus vivianae has enough known for it to appeal to me.

[Torvosaurus]

1. Ceratosaurus nasicornis
2. short-faced bear (Arctodus simus)
3. Udanoceratops tschizhovi
4. titanosaurs
5. all protoceratids
6. all terror birds
7. all prehistoric cats, of course.
8. everything else

The first three are in order of  preference, the rest aren't in any particular order, btw.

Torvo