Liopleurodon is Number 1

The top selling prehistoric animal model of 2008 is not a dinosaur, dinosaurs only represent a small portion of the large animal fossil record.  The team at Everything Dinosaur have monitored prehistoric animal model sales over the last few weeks leading up to the festive season and can announce today that the most popular prehistoric animal model is…

Liopleurodon.

A Picture of a Liopleurodon Model

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view the model and dinosaurs: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

Liopleurodon

The Liopleurodon model is an addition to our “Dinosaur Collection” series, a bit of misnomer as Liopleurodon was not a dinosaur but a marine reptile belonging to the pliosaur group, otherwise known as a short-necked plesiosaur.  This huge sea-going predator with teeth up to 18 inches long was a fearsome hunter and top of the food chain in the  Middle Jurassic.  Just how big this animal was is open to debate.  The relatively few remains of this creature have led scientists to deduce that there were at least two species, but lengths of 25 metres or more and weights in excess of 150 tonnes are speculative.

Still, this monster, often called the “largest predator of all time”, was capable of attacking and killing most other types of animal in the ocean and with teeth twice the size of a Tyrannosaurus rex’s it was very formidable.

The Business End of a Liopleurodon (Liopleurodon Model)

The fearsome Liopleurodon. The CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Liopleurodon model, A fantastic replica of a Jurassic pliosaur.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.