Dinosaurs weren’t the first giant plant-eaters to roam the Earth; that frontier was pioneered first among vertebrates by the dicynodonts, a group of tusked therapsids (the clade which includes modern mammals) which survived the Permian Mass Extinction and lasted to the end of the Triassic period. They ranged widely in size and distribution, from the diminutive Diictodon, to the pervasive Lystrosaurus, to giants like Lisowicia and Kannemeyeria.
Type: 3D print
Review: Tyrannosaurus (3D Print by Mike Eischen)
3.8 (23 votes)
This unique independently-produced model is a delightful throwback to older days of dinosaur art and collecting.
One of the various treats we have in this modern-day bounty of dinosaur collectibles is the increasingly easy access to many of the tools and supplies needed to produce toys, allowing a number of independent artists to pursue their own ideal collectibles where established company brands have passed over.
Review: Dunkleosteus (Like Hobby by ThinkArt)
4.3 (8 votes)
If somebody has heard of just one Paleozoic fish, it’s probably Dunkleosteus, designated yesterday as Ohio’s official state fossil fish! Toy companies have made more than a dozen different versions over the years, and several higher-end models exist as well. Earlier this year, a Thai studio called Like Hobby/ThinkArt released one of the latter.
Review: Dimetrodon (Paleozoo)
2.6 (5 votes)
If there’s a Paleozoic animal that people can reliably recognize, it’s Dimetrodon, even if they’re apt to think of it as a contemporary of dinosaurs. As of this writing, the Dinosaur Toy Blog has 24 reviews tagged ‘Dimetrodon,’ and that’s not even half of what has been produced over the decades.
Review: Mandageria [sarcopterygian] (Paleozoo)
4.3 (6 votes)
About 300 kilometers from Sydney lies the town of Canowindra, New South Wales. In the 1950s a road worker in Canowindra chanced upon some fossils, and in the 1990s paleontologists started working on the site in earnest, eventually revealing one of the world’s finest assemblages of freshwater animals from the Late Devonian.
Review: Tiktaalik (Paleozoo)
4 (6 votes)
It’s easy to think of evolution as a linear process, where one species in the fossil record gives rise to the next in an ever-improving, ever-ascending ladder. But the reality is messier. It’s more like a bush with lots of dead-end branches–any one specimen is unlikely to be our direct ancestor, but many of the transitional forms we find in the fossil record would have been, at least, pretty close relatives of our direct ancestors.
Review: Remigolepis (Paleozoo)
4.2 (5 votes)
At first glance, the Late Devonian Gogo Reef might have looked roughly similar to a modern reef: colorful, lively, with piles of calcified stationary organisms hosting all sorts of swimming and crawling creatures. But look a little closer, and the reef isn’t made of scleractinian corals, but instead composed mostly of sponges, mats of algae, and rugose and tabulate corals.
Review: Bothriolepis (Paleozoo)
4.2 (5 votes)
The Dinosaur Toy Blog is more active than it has ever been. This year, to date, we’re averaging a review every day – January 2016 was our most prolific month ever with 30 reviews in as many days. For this I can take no credit but must instead extend my sincerest gratitude to the many blog authors and guest reviewers who have kept the blog full of life, as events in my own life (work and more work) make it increasingly difficult to find the time to contribute reviews myself.