The best figure of every species, according to Halichoeres

[bmathison1972]

I'll be hitting up more @Jetoar Paleo-Creatures models in 2020, to fill in gaps. I will probably focus on his mammals and theraspids rather than dinosaurs.

[Halichoeres]

I'll be hitting up more @Jetoar Paleo-Creatures models in 2020, to fill in gaps. I will probably focus on his mammals and theraspids rather than dinosaurs.

He has quite a variety! The Repenomamus was a request from me

[Shonisaurus]

Hopefully Jetoar makes a paraceratherium in a large size. It is my favorite prehistoric mammal or a shonisaurus in a medium / large size is my favorite prehistoric animal. I am glad that you have made figures of cousins of tyrannosaurus and Paleozoic animals little known as the shringasaurus.

[ceratopsian]

I'll be hitting up more @Jetoar Paleo-Creatures models in 2020, to fill in gaps. I will probably focus on his mammals and theraspids rather than dinosaurs.

He has quite a variety! The Repenomamus was a request from me

@Halichoeres: Somehow I managed to miss the Repenomamus in the Paleo-Creatures list.  Thanks for flagging this up!  Well worth having - the fossil with the eaten dinosaur inside is so memorable.  I now have photos of my Lystrosaurus pair and will be posting them in my thread soon.

[Halichoeres]

Protostomes of the Paleozoic!


Paleocasts Glaphurochiton
Scale: about 1.5× life size
Sculptor: Patrick May
Upper Carboniferous-Early Permian
This is kind of a teaser, as it was included as a lagniappe with the purchase of a larger Paleocasts model (I've bought from Mr. May twice now, and each time I've gotten unexpected accessory animals). This is the only chiton in my collection, and one of only two non-cephalopod mollusks. I complain about the lack of fish in prehistoric toy lines, but invertebrates are far more neglected. So it's nice to get these as free bonuses! It also came with a Palaeolimulus and a Euproops, both of which I already had from when I bought May's Tullimonstrum.


These are my old ones; the new ones are in slightly different colors.



Scales reasonably well with Safari's discontinued Tricrepicephalus.



custom Paracalmonia cuspidata
Scale: 1:1
Sculptor: Vitor Silva
Middle Devonian
A while back I commissioned some models from Brazilian paleoartist Vitor Silva (together with forum members BlueKrono and Chad). Included was a little group of trilobites, including this itty-bitty Paracalmonia. It looks a little like a spindle; I guess the spikes on the fore and aft ends would make it a little harder to eat without having to make the whole body a lot bigger.


Metacryphaeus tuberculatus
Scale: 1:1
Sculptor: Vitor Silva
Middle Devonian
The only gripe I have about these is that you can't turn them over to look at their gills and legs, but honestly, Mr. Silva would have to charge way, way more for the work that would go into sculpting those appendages. These are beautiful even glued to the wood block.



Dalmanites accola
Scale: 1:1
Sculptor: Vitor Silva
Ordovician-Devonian (for the genus)
Distinguished from its neighbors by its glenal spines (the backswept spines at the rear lateral edges of the cephalon, or head segment).


Burmeisteria herschelii
Scale: 1:1
Sculptor: Vitor Silva
Silurian-Devonian (for the genus)
The big boy. In at least some species in this genus, the little nodules along the flank had spines growing from them. I'm not sure if that was a universal trait though.


The whole set. There is a brief interval in the Middle Devonian (Eifelian stage) when these 4 genera coexisted (I'm not 100% sure on the particular species). Really gorgeous piece to build a 1:1 Paleozoic display around. Silva has made a trilobite set very much like this before, but it isn't a cast. He makes these new from scratch for every customer.


With some other trilobites (Favorite Olenoides, Kaiyodo Triarthrus, Paleocasts Harpes, and Kaiyodo Ceraurinella). Regular visitors to this thread will know that I try to collect one version (sometimes two) of every Paleozoic and Mesozoic organism that it's possible to get in plastic. Finally, after more than 4 years of collecting, sometime this summer the non-dinosaurs in my collection surpassed the dinosaurs, even though dinosaurs only existed for about 37% of that interval (and even then, I mean, it wasn't like they were the only animals around). If I hadn't started branching out into new media like resins, 3D prints, and plush toys, dinosaurs would of course still have the upper hand.

[Megalosaurus]

Nice paleozoic creatures Tim.
The Glaphurochiton is an interesting creature.
I didn't imagine how small the Kaiyodo Ceraurinella is, but it is a great sculpture indeed.

[Bokisaurus]

Very nice collection of trilobites!

[ceratopsian]

It's always instructive to see something out of the ordinary and learn something new. Congratulations on a project come to fruition.

[bmathison1972]

Aw man, I'd love those trilobites!

[Halichoeres]

Thanks, everyone!

Aw man, I'd love those trilobites!

They were surprisingly affordable. I think Mr. Silva charges too little for his work.

[Libraraptor]

Impressive trilobites!

[Halichoeres]

Thank you!

And now, chordates of the Paleozoic! 


Paleo-Creatures Moschops capensis
Scale: 1:18
Sculptor: Jesús Toledo
Released: 2019
Middle Permian
One of those species that once upon a time was pretty popular to make into toys (Marx, MPC, then later Definitely Dinosaurs), but is now quite rare in figure form. Nice to have this burly goofball on the Permian shelf. 


Similar in scale to the Favorite Dimetrodon, although they were far from contemporaneous.


Custom Anisopleurodontis pricei
Scale: 1:15
Sculptor: Vitor Silva
Permian
This was the largest piece I ordered in my recent commission from Brazilian sculptor Vitor Silva. It's a beautiful piece reflecting recent discoveries about the eugeneodontids, those very strange Paleozoic chimeras (ratfishes). For example, whereas the modern chimeras have operculi (gill covers), these guys seem to have had externally visible gill slits, as sharks do. There's also a lateral keel on the caudal peduncle, good for maintaining the stability of a large pelagic predator (the Favorite Dunkleosteus also has this feature, which is one of the reasons I think it's the most well-thought-out Dunk on the market). 


The detail on the eyes and teeth is stunning.


Xenacanthus is a handy, and tasty, scale bar. 


Paleocasts Bandringa rayi
Scale: 1:12
Sculptor: Patrick May
Released: 2019
Upper Carboniferous
May's Etsy shop was on a pretty long hiatus, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it was because he had new things to show off. I was not disappointed! This very strange shark (and it is a true shark, unlike, for example, Anisopleurodontis) shows up abundantly as juvenile fossils in the Mazon Creek site (home of Tullimonstrum), but only rarely as an adult. The hypothesis is that the estuary environment was used as a nursery area by young sharks, which happens with some species today as well. This figure was accompanied by the little Permian chiton I showed in the previous post. Fantastic addition to my little Paleozoic display. 


With Kaiyodo's Xenacanthus for scale. The two genera overlapped in time, but of course the smaller shark was freshwater, so they wouldn't have often crossed paths while living. PS: for arthropod fans, the Paleocasts Etsy shop was briefly offering a beautiful Carboniferous millipede. I skipped it because it was pretty expensive and I wanted the shark more, but somebody seems to have snatched up the first copy.


One of three unspecified conodonts (Conodonta incertae sedis), another commission from Mr. Silva. Conodont elements, which seem to be isolated, often very complex, teeth, are extremely abundant in the fossil record--you can often tell which time slice you're looking at by which conodonts are present. But they don't seem to have any other mineralized body parts, so there are only about a dozen body fossils known. Most are from the Lower Carboniferous Granton site in Scotland, which are probably referable to Clydagnathus. 


Later, the Ordovician conodont animal Promissum pulchrum from South Africa was described, and surprised almost everyone by being a whopping 40 cm long, as opposed to a mere 55 mm for the Granton animals. 


Again, these wonderful sculpts aren't supposed to represent any particular conodont animal. Still, whereas they varied in size and tooth morphology, as far as we know they all kind of looked like this. 


All three together. If they represent the Granton animals, they're about 3× life size. If they represent Promissum, they're about 1:3.


Supposing they're at the large end of the known size range, they'd scale well with the Kaiyodo Pleurocystites.

[Ravonium]

One of those species that once upon a time was pretty popular to make into toys (Marx, MPC, then later Definitely Dinosaurs), but is now quite rare in figure form.

Hopefully Safari Ltd or CollectA change that next year 

[ZoPteryx]

Whoa!  Super jealous, those custom figures look amazing!  Do the conodonts have glass eyes?  And how did you decide on Anisopleurodontis?

[ceratopsian]

Beautiful additions.  Quite something to have a conodont in one's collection!

[Halichoeres]

One of those species that once upon a time was pretty popular to make into toys (Marx, MPC, then later Definitely Dinosaurs), but is now quite rare in figure form.

Hopefully Safari Ltd or CollectA change that next year 

One hopes! I'd be happy with any dinocephalian.

Whoa!  Super jealous, those custom figures look amazing!  Do the conodonts have glass eyes?  And how did you decide on Anisopleurodontis?

Thank you! I'm actually not sure if the eyes are glass. I think so, but I took these photographs right before my recent move, so these guys are now all boxed up and I can't double-check my memory. I'll report back when I get them unpacked. I chose Anisopleurodontis because Silva had made one before and posted it on his blog. I think he chose it the first time because it's one of the few named chondrichthyans found in Brazil. As a Brazilian artist, he definitely seems to concentrate his effort on local taxa unless someone commissions an animal from elsewhere. All of my requests were of things that show up in Brazilian rocks, and all but one (which I haven't shown yet) are animals he's made before.

Beautiful additions.  Quite something to have a conodont in one's collection!

Thank you! I despair of the regular toy companies making conodonts, so this seemed like my best option.

[SBell]

What does Silva charge for his custom figures? The Anisopleurodon, for example? If you don't mind my asking.

[Faelrin]

I feel like those conodonts would fit right in with the Tully Monster, on terms of how weird they look.

And that Moschops is really nice. I really hope other companies start producing figures of that one again.

[Libraraptor]

To put it bluntly: you have amazing  new additions!

[SBell]

I feel like those conodonts would fit right in with the Tully Monster, on terms of how weird they look.

And that Moschops is really nice. I really hope other companies start producing figures of that one again.

I'm just glad I got the Fauna Casts one while I could!