Review and images by bmathison1972; edited by Suspsy
Dreadnoughtus schrani is a titanosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian to Maastrichtian) of present-day South America. Remains of only two individuals have been described to date, both from the Cerro Fortaleza Formation in Argentina.
Kosmoceratops is a genus of Chasmosaurine that lived about 75 million years ago in what is now the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Park in Utah. This is where the Kaiparowits formation is located, a rock formation that during the Cretaceous was a jungle bordering the Western Interior Seaway.
Venturing the sea of unlicensed “3rd-party” dinosaur toys can bring interesting results. Sometimes one can find hidden gold; other times one finds something like this Stegosaurus figure, which is certainly among the more unusual takes I’ve seen of the famous roofed reptile (albeit probably not intentionally so).
W-Dragon has revealed their take on Otodus megalodon. Set for release in the second quarter of this year, it will retail for around $98 US, measures 45 cm long and 25 cm wide at the tips of its pectoral fins, and is composed of PVC with a resin base sculpted to look like jagged underwater rocks.
For many years, the only described spinosaur from the United Kingdom was the famous baryonychine Baryonyx. That finally changed in 2021 with the announcement of two additional species: Riparovenator milnerae and Ceratosuchops inferdios. Both were discovered in the Wessex Formation on the Isle of Wight, both are estimated to have been around 8.5 metres in length, and both have been determined to be more closely related to Suchomimus than Baryonyx.
Kaiyodo has revealed “The King of the Dinosaurs,” a 47 cm x 31 cm x 32.5 cm polystone statue mounted atop a wooden base. The world’s most famous and beloved prehistoric animal is posed majestically and menacingly with mouth wide open to reveal all the dentition and one foot placed atop the head of a defeated foe (I don’t reckon I need to specify names here).
Review and images by bmathison1972; edited by Suspsy
Prehistoric and primitive hominids are not rare in the animal toy market, but evolutionary sets of them are. The first, and probably the most popular, was called Evolution of Man, produced by Bullyland in 1999.
Megalosaurus isn’t a particularly awe inspiring animal as theropods go. It doesn’t have the strength and size of Tyrannosaurus, the bizarre adaptations of Spinosaurus, the horns of Carnotaurus, or even the rich fossil record of little ol’ Coelophysis.
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.
For 2024, Papo will be releasing three new dinosaurs. First we have the armoured French titanosaur Ampelosaurus. Looks like one of Papo’s better sauropods, although the colour scheme is nearly identical to that of the CollectA version.
Second up is Corythosaurus, the famous helmeted hadrosaur.
Nanuqsaurus (“polar bear lizard”) is a poorly understood Alaskan tyrannosaurine that lived around 68 to 70 million years ago. Although it is presently known only from fragments of skull and an array of teeth, it recently received a major boost of publicity in 2022 by appearing in the first season of the fabulous Apple TV series Prehistoric Planet.
