Stegosaurus gets a New Look – Stegosaurus Model from Schleich

To celebrate 130 years since the naming and scientific description of Stegosaurus, Schleich of Germany have introduced a new model of this famous dinosaur.  The new 1:40 scale model of Stegosaurus (based on a Stegosaurus stenops), incorporates the latest scientific thinking about this huge Jurassic herbivore.  The animal is depicted with a more hunched back than previous models and this latest version depicts greater mobility in the shoulders, helping to give this animal a less corpulent look than earlier models. It is a superb Stegosaurus model from Schleich.

The 1:40 Scale Model of Stegosaurus

Picture courtesy of Everything Dinosaur

Stegosaurus Model from Schleich

The trend to place the biggest and broadest of the plates over the pelvic area is continued and the plates are given a red hue in recognition of theories about their use.  On closer examination the fossil plates reveal that they were made of quite thin honey-combed bone full of blood vessels.  This type of bone structure would have limited use in defence and the plates seem to be placed too high up the back to protect a Stegosaur from attack.  Could they have been used as a thermo regulator?   Such large herbivores would have lived out on the fern plains and on the conifer scrub land, the ability to control body temperature may have been extremely useful as there would have been little shelter for such a large creature on the Jurassic flat lands.  A quick blast of heat from the early morning sun could have warmed up Stegosaurus enough to give it the edge over any early morning marauding allosaurs, and in the heat of the day turning into the any breeze passing between the rows of plates would have cooled Stegosaurus, just like African elephant’s ears.

Stegosaurus Plates

The plates may also have been used as a display board.  Rivals could be intimidated, or predators put off by the Stegosaur flushing blood into its plates to turn them bright red in an aggressive display.  A 25 foot Stegosaurus stenops stomping around flashing its blood-red plates and swishing its tail would probably have deterred all but the most determined carnivores.

To see the model of Stegosaurus: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Stegosaurus stenops

Stegosaurus stenops means (narrow faced roof lizard), Marsh, the American palaeontologist who named and described this animal wanted to emphasis the narrow, almost delicate jaws of this species.  The model seems to have captured this feature very well.  There are over 50 specimens of this Stegosaur known, the majority of these having been recovered from the famous Morrison Formation exposures that cover much of the remoter parts of Utah and Colorado.  In recognition of the amount of Stegosaur material recovered from this area, Stegosaurus stenops was made the state fossil of Colorado.  The decree was passed by Colorado state in 1982 and Stegosaurus is celebrating its silver jubilee this year.

Ironically, S. stenops is not the biggest Stegosaur known, that honour goes to another Stegosaur from the Morrison formation – Stegosaurus armatus.  This animal was believed to have grown to exceed 30 feet in length and like stenops was armed with four tail spikes but its back plates were not as broad.

Dinosaur Fossils Saves U.S. Agriculture

Many farmers and growers in Europe and the USA are facing tough times as changes to agricultural support payments and reduced subsidies take effect.  During the 1970s and 1980s farmers received extensive support from Governments, they were encouraged to become more efficient and to increase production.  Now things have changed and the emphasis is on world prices for agricultural commodities and payments to support environmental initiatives.

Falling Incomes

Farmers have seen their incomes fall, and to help increase their revenues many have diversified, moving away from raising livestock and growing crops into all sorts of enterprises such as Bed & Breakfasts, maize mazes and other tourist attractions.

For the ranchers on the bad lands of Montana and South Dakota they have another potential source of revenue – Dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Fossils

The enthusiasm for quality dinosaur fossils from museums and the numerous private collectors has led to an alarmingly increase in the prices paid for fossils.  With their cattle peacefully grazing over what is the Hell Creek geological formation, some ranchers have taken to selling the dinosaur fossils they find on their lands or even opening up their farms to “Dinosaur Tourism”.  Helped by the likes of “Paleo Pete” – Peter Larson and his team from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research many ranchers have shed their reserve and welcomed visitors to view and purchase their finds.

Hell Creek Formation

The Hell Creek formation dates from the very end of the Cretaceous period and has provided many prehistoric animal fossils.  As well as fish, turtles and crocodilians the formation has also yielded many dinosaur specimens such as duck-bills, ankylosaurs and ceratopsids.

The really big bucks can be earned if a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil is unearthed.  However, with the big money can come big problems.  Pete Larson knows all about the disputes over ownership and fossil rights that can arise.  His team were responsible for the finding of the most complete and largest T. rex known to date.  This fossil nicknamed “Sue” after Sue Hendrickson who first discovered it, was at the centre of a fierce dispute over ownership.

The fossil was forcibly removed from the Black Hills Institute by the FBI as part of a legal dispute that lasted many years.  “Sue” was eventually auctioned at Sotherby’s in October 1997 for the sum of $8.36 million dollars.

Dinosaurs Save Ranchers

With big prices being paid for the best finds, some of the ranchers are able to support their farming activities by selling fossils or by taking a percentage of the profits made on sales of specimens recovered from their land.

Tyrannosaurus rex specimens can fetch jaw-dropping prices at auction.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Some ranchers have adopted a very unorthodox approach to making money from palaeontology.  One of the team members at Everything Dinosaur recalls a story being about a rancher who was offering tourists the chance to work on the excavation of dinosaur at a dig site on his land.

We don’t know whether the story is true or apocryphal but parties of excited tourists would arrive at the site, work all day, carefully picking away at the matrix surrounding the specimen with brushes and small picks.  Then in the evening the proprietor would cover up the fossil once more, in readiness for the next day’s excavation.

It must be a funny way to earn a living, but when the land around you is only suitable for grazing livestock, yet underneath your feet there may be an extremely valuable dinosaur awaiting discovery…

For replicas and models of Tyrannosaurus rex and other Late Cretaceous dinosaurs: PNSO Models and Replicas.

Is Tarbosaurus actually a Tyrannosaurus rex in Disguise?

We get many e-mails and letters from dinosaur enthusiasts all over the world asking us lots of questions about prehistoric animals.  It is hard work but we do try to respond to them all and provide what information we can.

An example of this was when we received a phone call asking about Tarbosaurus, could we provide a little more information on this animal.

Tarbosaurus or to give this animal its full name Tarbosaurus bataar (means Alarming reptile) is a member of the Tyrannosauroidea family.  Fossils of this large meat-eater were first unearthed in 1948 by a Russian led expedition to Mongolia, however, it was another 7 years before Tarbosaurus was officially named and described.  So Tarbosaurus bataar (alarming reptile from Bataar) was named and described in 1955.  It was a Russian palaeontologist – Evgeny Maleev, who was at the fore-front of Russian theropod studies who was given the honour of naming Tarbosaurus and publishing a scientific paper on it.

Confusing Tarbosaurus for Tyrannosaurus

At the time the west led by the USA and the Soviet Union were in the middle of the “cold war”.  NATO had been formed in 1948 to counter the Soviet threat and in response 1955 saw the formation of Soviet led military alliance, the Warsaw Pact.  Tensions were running high between the two ideologies, relations were distinctly cold and often hostile between these two superpowers.  Unfortunately, dinosaurs may have become pawns used by both sides in their political manoeuvring.  Tyrannosaurus rex was the most famous dinosaur of all and reputed to be the biggest meat-eater known at the time.  T. rex heralded from the Western USA (although we now know it lived in Canada as well).

The Russians were delighted when they too had discovered a huge meat-eater, just about as big and as fierce as T. rex.  The state sponsored Palaeontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow had their own star attraction – a huge meat-eating dinosaur, just like Tyrannosaurus rex!

More Fossils Found

In the 1950s a number of fossils of Tarbosaurus were found, again in Mongolia but discoveries were also made at sites in Western and Southern China.  It seemed that Tarbosaurus was quite widely distributed, dominating the Late Cretaceous of Asia as the region’s top predator.

Today, scientists are divided as to whether Tarbosaurus is a genus in is own right or whether it should be classified as a Tyrannosaurus.  Close study of the fossils show that it was very closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex, so closely related that it may, indeed be a sub-species of T. rex.  The name Tyrannosaurus bataar has been proposed, and indeed some textbooks have started to use this name, dropping Tarbosaurus.

Analysis of the skulls show that there are subtle differences, enough to warrant giving Tarbosaurus a separate genus, but more finds may prove conclusive in this debate.

The argument as to whether Tarbosaurus is actually a Tyrannosaurus rex is confused further by studies of the first fossils of Tarbosaurus.  It seems that some of the earliest finds were of a juvenile and at the time the Russian scientists thought they had actually discovered two meat-eating dinosaurs.

Tarbosaurus Anatomically Similar to T. rex

For sure, it seems that Tarbosaurus was anatomically very similar to T. rex.  It was certainly a very impressive looking animal, reaching lengths of up to 40 feet and weighing perhaps as much as 5 Tonnes.  It lived during the Maastrichtian stage (70 mya to 65 mya), of the Cretaceous, at the very end of the age of Dinosaurs, although it may have been around for about 2 million years before the U.S. Tyrannosaurus rex showed up.

As fossils have been found at a number of sites in Asia, we know that it was very widely distributed living in forested regions as well as semi-arid and desert areas.  Recent comparative studies between Tarbosaurus and T. rex have led scientists to believe that there may have been other subtle differences between these huge carnivores.

The biggest Tarbosaurus so far discovered seems to be slightly smaller than the biggest T. rex, it also seems slightly lighter built.  This could be because it had evolved into a more nimble hunter than T. rex to catch the different prey animals that lived with it in Asia (mostly duck-bills). The difference in skeletal size could also reflect the fact that Tarbosaurus lived in a harsher environment, or perhaps its just because nobody has yet found a really big Tarbosaurus fossil!

Some scientists have also speculated that the arms of Tarbosaurus were proportionately smaller than T. rex’s; the debate looks set to continue.  Surprisingly, despite the changes made to T. rex displays around the world as palaeontologists re-design them to show the animal with its tail off the ground, the Tarbosaurus display at the Palaeontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which depicts an adult Tarbosaurus and a juvenile has yet to be updated.

The display, in what may be the biggest palaeontological collection in the world, still shows these animals with their tails firmly on the ground.

The Tyrannosaurus family tree is still very unclear.  Recent discoveries in Portugal indicate that the tyrannosaurs evolved in Europe during the late Jurassic and it took them millions of years before they moved to the top of the food chain.

A new poster has just come up which depicts a number of members of the tyrannosaur family and attempts to put them into a family tree.

Tyrannosaur Evolution Family Tree

Picture courtesy of Everything Dinosaur

Visit the Everything Dinosaur website: Everything Dinosaur – Dinosaur Toys, Models and Gifts.

New Schleich Parasaurolophus

Schleich the German based model manufacturers have added three new dinosaurs to their Saurus range of 1:40 scale model prehistoric animals.   The models are of a Stegosaurus, the duck-billed Parasaurolophus and a new Tyrannosaurus rex.  Each model is hand-painted and based on research from palaeontologists.  Today, we announce a new Parasaurolophus model from Schleich.

New Parasaurolophus 1:40 scale Model from Schleich

Picture courtesy of Everything Dinosaur

Dinosaur Models: Prehistoric Animal and Dinosaur Models.

We had the opportunity recently to put some questions about the new Saurus range models to the designers at Schleich, for example we wanted to know why Parasaurolophus had been given a spotted coat.  A great deal of thought goes into the colours used by the artists, the black spots on a tan skin tone support a theory held by some palaeontologists about the lifestyle of this large herbivore.

Parasaurolophus Model from Schleich.

The large backward pointing crest may have been used as part of an “ice-breaker” system for travelling through forests.  In the dinosaur’s backbone there is an unusual feature, a notch just between the shoulders.  This notch was placed just where the tip of the crest would have rested.  Scientists have put forward the hypothesis that Parasaurolophus may have used the crest to push its way through woodland and undergrowth.  Anchored into the notch, the crest would have acted like a plough or an ice-breaker on the bow of ship, parting the leaves and branches making it easier for this dinosaur to move.

It is certainly, an interesting theory, compared to the hadrosaur,Corythosaurus, fewer Parasaurolophus fossils have been found indicating that Corythosaurus may have lived near water (where there is a greater likelihood of fossilisation occurring), whereas, Parasaurolophus may have preferred a forest habitat.

To read an article about a baby Parasaurolophus fossil: Most Complete Fossilised Baby Parasaurolophus Discovered.

A Woodland Habitat

If Parasaurolophus spent most of its time in woodland, then a spotted coat would help break up it’s outline and would provide effective camouflage, just as a Leopard’s spots would do.  This big spotted animal would be difficult to see in dense forests and if they travelled in a group the spotted pattern would make it difficult for predators to single out individuals.

The previous Schleich Saurus model of Parasaurolophus showed the animal rearing up onto its hind legs.  We know that duck-billed dinosaurs such as Parasaurolophus were capable of walking on two legs.  They may have adopted this stance to reach higher branches so they could feed or to escape quickly from predators such as Daspletosaurus, Gorgosaurus or Albertaceratops.  Close analysis of the bones in the shoulder area (scapula and coracoid) so large scars where big muscles were attached.  Parasaurolophus had strong muscular front legs so it has been speculated that this animals spent most of its time as a quadruped – hence the new model from Schleich depicts it in this pose.