Mathison Museum of Natural History - Prehistoric Edition

[stargatedalek]

The open ocean fish set is still my favourite Colorata set.

[bmathison1972]

Species: †Ceraurinella typa Cooper, 1953

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Kaiyodo
Series: The Study Room
Year of Production: 2004
Size/Scale: Base 6.5 cm long. Body length (excl. appendages) approx. 4.5. Using pygidium as a metric (n=1.5 cm), scale comes to approx. 2.5:1
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Unique
Miscellaneous Notes: The figure is made of resin and the trilobite is permanently affixed to its base.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Middle Ordovician of present-day Canada
Habitat: Marine, benthic
Diet: Presumably scavenger or predator on soft-bodied benthic invertebrates
IUCN Status (at time of posting): N/A [prehistoric]
Miscellaneous Notes: I had difficulty finding information on this species, including helpful metrics to calculate its scale.

[Halichoeres]

Sad they never made a Triassic set. Could you imagine...

UGH I dream of it often.

Best set Colorata ever made.

  Not the Fossil fish box?

That's a beautiful set, and I own it, but 1) all or most of the species in it are available in another format, and 2) it is a bit of a misnomer. "Living fossil fish" I could see, but if I'm buying a "fossil fish" box I want it to be actual extinct fish.

Sorry to derail the thread, Blaine! I love that Ceraurinella, it's one of the very few non-fish resins I own.

[bmathison1972]

Species: †Anomalocaris canadensis Whiteaves, 1892

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Takara Tomy A.R.T.S.
Series: The Great Old Sea
Year of Production: 2020
Size/Scale: Body length (excl. appendages) approx. 9.5 cm for a scale of 1:3.6-1:4
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the fourth time we've seen A. canadensis in the Museum. Minimal assembly is required and the final product has some articulations. Interestingly, this is one of the most accurate representations of this species available! The Great Old Sea collection, or variations of it, are released almost annually and an Anomalocaris was also released in 2022 (and possibly again since then, I've lost track). I am not sure whether or not it is the same sculpt with a repaint, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Early to mid-Cambrian of present-day Canada
Habitat: Marine, pelagic
Diet: Presumably soft-bodied marine invertebrates
IUCN Status (at time of posting): N/A [prehistoric]
Miscellaneous Notes: Anomalocaris canadensis is believed to have been a pelagic predator. It moved through the water column by undulating the flexible flaps along the side of its body. With each flap slightly sloped below the next one posterior to it, it allowed the line of flaps to function as a single long lateral fin, maximizing efficiency. Model reconstructions show this mode of swimming to be intrinsically stable.

[bmathison1972]

Species: †Lingwulong shenqi Xu et al., 2018

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: PNSO
Series: Prehistoric Animal Models
Year of Production: 2022
Size/Scale: Total figure length approx. 49.0 cm. Using front right tibia as a metric (n=3.0 cm) scale comes to approx. 1:37.5 (see below)
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Unique
Miscellaneous Notes: The scale above is calculated based on the front right tibia using the illustration in the original description. The species was described from individuals of different developmental stages so the scale above, assuming I did it right to begin with, should be taken with caution. It's probably fine for the advertised scale of 1:35.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Early to Middle Jurassic (late Toarcian-Bajocian) of present-day East Asia
Habitat: Open coniferous and fern woodlands and adjacent riparian areas
Diet: Plants
IUCN Status (at time of posting): N/A [prehistoric]
Miscellaneous Notes: Lingwulong shenqi is believed to be one of the oldest known diplocodoids. It is currently placed basal in the family Dicraeosauridae and split from a shared ancestor with Dicraeosaurus and Amargasaurus in the late Toarcian (Jurassic) roughly 174 MYA.

[bmathison1972]

Species: †Shringasaurus indicus Sengupta et al., 2017

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Safari Ltd.
Series: Wild Safari Prehistoric World
Year of Production: 2020
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 17.5 cm for a scale of 1:17-1:23. Using femur as a metric (n=1.2 cm), scale comes to approx. 1:22.5.
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the second commercially-available figure of this species; the first was actually by forum member Jetoar for his Paleo-Creatures line. It has since been made, at least twice I believe, by Mattel for the Jurassic World line.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Middle Triassic (Anisian) of present-day India
Habitat: Semi-arid anabranching fluvial floodplains and adjacent open woodlands
Diet: Browser of vegetation, probably with a focus on leaves rather than stems or shoots
IUCN Status (at time of posting): N/A [prehistoric]
Miscellaneous Notes: Shringasaurus indicus is believed to have lived in large, multigenerational groups consisting of both sexes. The reptile is thought to have been sexually dimorphic and the supraorbital horns are believed to have belonged to only to one sex, presumably the male but we really don't know.