2011 | Everything Dinosaur Blog

12 04, 2011

Dinosaurs and Spaceflight Rare Dinosaur Fossils Sent into Outer Space

By Mike|2024-04-21T09:59:59+01:00April 12th, 2011|Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

The First Dinosaurs in Space

As today, April 12th is the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight, we at Everything Dinosaur thought it best to catch the mood by discussing briefly dinosaurs in space. Yes, dinosaurs have been into space, at least the fossils of two dinosaurs that is.

Dinosaurs and Spaceflight

On this day in 1961 Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, became the first human in space and the first to orbit the Earth. His space craft, called Vostok 1 made the historic 108 minute venture into space on this day fifty years ago. The flight took place in the morning with a launch around 9am local time. This would have meant that this epic journey, the start of the space race between the USA and the Soviet Union, began in the early hours of the morning in the United Kingdom around 6am. We suspect that this event was not widely known until the evening. After all, there was not the blanket news media that we have today around half a century ago.

However, dinosaurs have made it into space, but not until the mid 1980s, where as part of the United States space programme a fossil of an ornithopod called Maiasaura (Maiasaura peeblesorum) went up into space. Maiasaura was a large hadrosaur (member of the hadrosaurine group of duck-billed dinosaurs – distinguished by their lack of adornments and head crests). It was discovered by the American palaeontologist John Horner in 1978 and officially named a year later.

The remains of this dinosaur have been found in western Montana, in the Late Cretaceous rocks of the Two Medicine Formation. Few dinosaurs left traces behind providing clues as to how these animals lived and behaved, however, Maiasaura is a definite exception to this. Over 200 individual skeletons have been unearthed to date, from hatch-lings right up to mature adults. Jack Horner and his team discovered a Maiasaura nesting site that has yielded a great deal of information about how this type of dinosaur raised its young.

“Good Mother Lizard”

It seems that Maiasaura looked after its babies (the name means “Good Mother Lizard”), very apt in this dinosaur’s case. Fossils recovered from the nesting site, show that these animals made nest mounds out of mud, and may have covered any eggs laid with vegetation to keep them warm. Hatch-lings that have been fossilised show teeth wear but their legs are not fully formed (undeveloped legs is feature seen in the chicks of many birds). This indicates that the babies were fed at the nest, as they were unable to forage for themselves. It can be surmised from this data that the parents looked after the youngsters to a degree. The nesting site seems to have been vast, with many thousands of animals at the site, this indicates that Maiasaura lived in large herds, or at least congregated at communal nesting sites.

An Illustration of Maiasaura

Dinosaurs and spaceflight. Maiasaura fossils have been into space.

“Good Mother Lizard”. Maisaura fossils have been sent into space. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Maiasaura’s other claim to fame is that this dinosaur was the first to be taken up into space. A piece of fossilised bone from a baby Maiasaura along with a piece of Maiasaura eggshell was taken into space by astronaut Loren Acton on a NASA mission in 1985. Not a bad record for Maiasaura, being totally unknown just 7 years earlier, and then the first dinosaur in space. The second dinosaur to travel in space was the skull of a Coelophysis, (Triassic theropod). The skull was sent into space on the US space shuttle Endeavour on 22nd January 1998. It travelled to the Mir space station, one of a number of trips made by space shuttles to the orbiting station in the Shuttle-Mir programme.

For models of ornithopods including many members of the hadrosaur lineage: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Figures.

The Reptilia Class in Space

Dinosaurs were not the first representatives of the Class Reptilia to travel in space. Tortoises were used in some of the research programmes as manned space flight was being developed. The first tortoise in space was launched by the Soviet Union in September 1968, as part of the research programme monitoring the potential effect of long space flight on humans.

Tortoises were ideal “guinea pigs” for such experiments, due to their ability to survive hostile conditions and to live on little food and water, characteristics recognised by early explorers on Earth, who often sailed with tortoises and turtles on board ship to provide a source of fresh meat into the journey. We have no record of what happened to this particular tortoise after the capsule in which it had travelled returned to Earth.

As far as we can tell no adult birds have been sent up into space. Chicken embryos were sent up into space as part of an experiment kit to test the development of chicks in zero gravity by the Americans in 1989. This particular experiment had been scheduled to take place three years earlier but it was lost when the space shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after launch on January 28th 1986. Other fertilised bird’s eggs have been sent into space on subsequent occasions, no birds as far as our research shows. It would be fascinating to find out how birds cope with zero gravity. Effectively, once in motion they would not need to flap their wings, perhaps they could use their wings to stabilise themselves as they were subjected to zero G.

11 04, 2011

Remarkable Dinosaur Balloon Art

By Mike|2024-04-21T10:00:27+01:00April 11th, 2011|Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|3 Comments

Dinosaur Balloon Art – Not as Easy as it Looks

Weekend took us to my niece’s birthday party (she is four today). During the fun, festivities and games, the entertainer did some balloon art. He made swords, teddy bears, giraffes and all sorts of animals for the children. Not wishing to be left out, one of the Everything Dinosaur team members who attended requested a dinosaur. Mr Dazzle (the name of the entertainer), explained that he could do dinosaur balloon art, but his repertoire would be slightly limited as he had thirty enthusiastic and very excited four-year olds to manage.

Dinosaur Balloon Art

True to his word, he produced a grey, long-necked dinosaur a few minutes later (see pic). It certainly had a long neck and legs and it was a very credible effort, not withstanding the fact that it had no tail.

Our Balloon Dinosaur

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Interesting that he choose to depict a sauropod as a grey animal. As the largest land living animal today (African elephant) is regarded as being grey by many observers, this may have “coloured” our perception as to the colour of the largest type of extinct terrestrial animal – Sauropoda. The colour of these herbivorous dinosaurs is very much open to speculation, but most illustrators do depict these large animals as coloured grey. Hatchlings, may have been very differently coloured from adults, perhaps camouflaged to enable them to hide in the undergrowth to avoid predation. Nice balloon dinosaur though, although a colleague said it reminded them of some of the bizarre Cambrian life forms preserved in the Burgess Shale deposits of British Columbia.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

10 04, 2011

Warm Weather Brings out the Alligators and Crocodiles

By Mike|2023-01-17T14:27:34+00:00April 10th, 2011|Animal News Stories, Main Page|0 Comments

Floridians Warned about Increased Alligator and Crocodile Activity

The warm weather over the last few days in Florida has led to state authorities issuing a number of warnings to Florida residents about the perils of getting up too close to those alligators and American crocodiles that have started to become more active. The authorities have warned of increasing alligator and crocodile activity.

Florida as two species of crocodilian, the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis ) and the much rarer American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus). These two protected species are regarded as dangerous to humans, although the American crocodile (found in the southern parts of Florida), has not been recorded as attacking humans and is generally regarded as a very shy animal. However, attacks on people have been logged elsewhere in this reptile’s geographical range, so authorities in the State urge residents to take extreme care when in these creature’s habitats.

Alligator and Crocodile Activity

As cold-blooded animals, American alligators and crocodiles have been largely inactive in the cold weather that has occurred over the last few months. However, with the onset of spring these reptiles will start to move more and there is the risk that they will run into contact with humans.

The Differences Between an Alligator and a Crocodile

Crocodile (top) and Alligator (bottom).

The onset of warm weather in the spring is when Florida’s alligators and crocodiles begin getting active, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reminds Floridians and visitors to be cautious when having fun in and around water.

The FWC has published a set of handy guidelines to ensure that humans and crocodilians can get along, the guidelines include:

1). Leave alligators and crocodiles alone. The danger of being injured by a provoked alligator is much higher than by an unprovoked one. Often if one of these reptiles is spotted on the waters edge basking in the sun, it will most probably move off on its own without being molested.

2). Never feed these animals, dispose of fish scraps from a fishing trip in the designated areas. It is illegal to feed these creatures. Alligators lose their natural fear of humans when fed, and become accustomed or attracted to people. Alligators that have been fed may be more likely to attack, and are more likely to become nuisance animals that must be destroyed.

3). Don’t swim at night. Alligators are more active at night or at dawn or dusk. At these times they are more likely to be feeding than during the heat of midday.

4). Do not swim in water that is known to contain large alligators, also do not swim outside of designated swimming areas. Alligators are most active during the summer months. Since this is the time of year when people are also likely to be in the water, areas known to contain alligators should be avoided.

5). Never let children play alone near water. Make sure children are supervised and in view.

6). Do not allow pets to go near water that is known to contain these reptiles. Dogs and other small pets are more likely to be attacked than humans because they resemble a natural prey item for the alligator. Therefore, pets can attract alligators to swim areas and create a danger for humans also.

7). Never capture or accept a baby alligator or crocodile as a pet. Capturing alligators is illegal and can be dangerous. Alligators do not become tame in captivity, and handling even small ones could result in a bite.

8). Seek medical advice immediately if you are bitten or scratched by an alligator or crocodile. Because of the environment in which they live, alligators’ mouths can harbour very dangerous bacteria (particularly Aeromonus hydrophila). Any bite or scratch, even a small one, should be examined by a doctor or trained medical staff.

More information on how to avoid alligator or crocodile encounters visit the FWC’s website.

In the meantime, for models of crocodilians visit this part of the Everything Dinosaur website: Mojo Fun Prehistoric Life Models.

9 04, 2011

Expanding Birthdays – New Additions to the Everything Dinosaur Product Range

By Mike|2024-04-21T10:01:07+01:00April 9th, 2011|Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

New Addition to the Everything Dinosaur Birthday Cards and Gift Wrap Range

At Everything Dinosaur, hardly a day goes by without some new product or other having been approved by our testers and getting added to our range. Today, the new Tyrannosaurus rex birthday card and matching wrapping paper have gone into our retail product lines.

To view the extensive selection of dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed toys and gifts in stock, visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

We already stock a variety of dinosaur themed cards but this new one, and the matching dinosaur gift wrap, appealed as they are so bright and colourful, after all, not many birthday cards depict an orange coloured T. rex.

The New Everything Dinosaur Birthday Card

A “Snappy” Birthday Card.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Everything Dinosaur

As one of our testers commented, the card and the brightly coloured wrapping paper made them “smile a lot”, so I guess we just had to include them. Another tester stated that the wrapping paper was particularly good quality and they liked being able to cut out the dinosaur shapes once the gift wrap had been opened.

Colourful Dinosaur Gift Wrap

Dinosaur gifts all wrapped up.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The wrapping paper measures a generous 50 cm by 70 cm and features brightly coloured dinosaurs such as Triceratops, Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus and of course T. rex. Both these new items fit in well with our existing gift wrap and dinosaur themed birthday card ranges.

We are confident these two new products will help add that special finishing touch to any young dinosaur fan’s birthday.

8 04, 2011

Suspected Ranavirus in the Office Pond Frog Population

By Mike|2023-03-06T16:03:38+00:00April 8th, 2011|Animal News Stories, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|0 Comments

Lethargic Frogs – We suspect Ranavirus Outbreak

Over the last couple of weeks, team members at Everything Dinosaur have observed some strange behaviour in the frog population around our offices. As many as seven individuals were counted at any one time in the office pond at the height of the spawning season and we logged a record amount of frogspawn laid this year. However, we have noticed some strange behaviour from the adult frogs. Three frogs (Common Frog – Rana temporaria) were extremely lethargic, almost in a stupor. The frogs seemed perfectly healthy but the were very slow to react to any disturbance and almost seemed to be in a trance.

The first frog, a little thin was moved away from the pond by a team member of Everything Dinosaur and placed in a safe and secure part of the yard, out of harm’s way in case one of the neighbourhood cats discovered it. The second frog, left the pond but took almost six hours to cross the small courtyard and seek shelter behind some fence panels. It was raining for much of this time, so the frog remained moist but we were all surprised to see the animal move so slowly and to expose itself to any predation in such a reckless manner. Some team members commented that this particular frog had a “deathwish”.

At first we put the strange behaviour we had observed down to the fact that the frogs were in poor condition after mating, but the third frog we have been observing is making us question whether or not there is something more serious going on.

This frog, has been observed for the best part of a week now, it barely moves from a small rocky area by the office pond, it is thin and lethargic, not frightened by our approach at all. It simply does not react. We think that this lethargy may be the result of viral infection. We are trying to observe this frog to see if we can spot any red blotches on the skin (erythema) or any bleeding (haemorrhaging), this and the drowsiness and lack of condition could indicate an outbreak of the dreaded Ranavirus.

If this is the case we will report our findings to froglife, the organisation that monitors the UK wild frog population.

Ranavirus was first found in the UK in the early 1980s. It is most common in south-east England but known from elsewhere in the UK. This virus could decimate the local population, there is no cure and for all we know if the adult frogs have caught the disease then this may have dangerous implications for the tadpoles in the pond.

We will keep monitoring the situation and if required, we will report this disease outbreak.

Fingers crossed that we have got this wrong.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

7 04, 2011

Dinosaur Teaching Topics – How to Name a Dinosaur

By Mike|2023-03-06T16:04:51+00:00April 7th, 2011|Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Main Page|1 Comment

Brontomerus mcintoshi Research Helps School Pupils Get to Grips with Palaeontology

Pupils at Sacred Heart Primary school, Blackburn, have been travelling back in time to visit the age of Dinosaurs in a range of teaching activities. The budding young palaeontologists in Miss De Piano’s Year Three class, were given the chance to name their very own prehistoric animal.

Students had been getting to grips with fearsome creatures such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptors as well as marvelling at peaceful plant eating giants such as the armoured Stegosaurus and the huge Diplodocus. This was part of the school’s science week events organised, to coincide with National Science and Engineering Week, by one of the school’s teachers – Mrs Smith. They were given the chance to look at some of the research carried out on a new species of long-necked dinosaur – Brontomerus mcintoshi. This dinosaur, fossils of which have been found in Utah, (United States), has only just been formally named and scientifically described.

In total, fragmentary remains of two dinosaurs were discovered in the same quarry, one adult and a much smaller juvenile. The name Brontomerus means “thunder thighs”, in recognition of an enlarged anterior portion of hip-bone associated with the remains of the smaller specimen. Scientists have suggested that the expanded hip bone served as an anchor for large leg muscles, giving this particular dinosaur very strong legs.

The Age of Dinosaurs

For the young scientists in Miss De Piano’s class the challenge set by Everything Dinosaur was to consider how animals change as they get older. If animals change as they grow, could they come up with an alternative name for Brontomerus once they had reviewed the fossil evidence?

The class was split into two groups for this part of the dinosaur teaching session, each group was given the task of answering questions on chickens, however, one group was asked to describe a chick, whilst the other portion of the class described an adult bird. Although each group was asked the same questions, it soon became clear to the pupils that a chick looks very different when compared to an older bird.

Based on this, and with an overview of the fossil evidence of Brontomerus provided by Everything Dinosaur, the class set about creating their own names for this type of dinosaur. All part of the fun when it comes to teaching about dinosaurs in school.

Organisms Change as they Grow

PNSO Aubrey and Dabei (Torosaurus dinosaur models)

The 1:35 scale PNSO Torosaurus models (Aubrey and Dabei). The adult Torosaurus figure has an articulated lower jaw. the adult Torosaurus is very different in appearance than the juvenile. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture Credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Torosaurus in the picture (above) is from the PNSO range of prehistoric animal figures.

To view this range: PNSO Age of Dinosaurs Figures.

The chicken was used in this dinosaur workshop to illustrate issues related to ontogeny (how organisms grow), helpful in explaining to the students differences in the fossil skeleton of the adult compared to the juvenile dinosaur.

The pupils worked on the theory that, if this plant-eating dinosaur really had very strong limbs, perhaps it could rear up onto its hind legs to help it to graze on parts of trees that other dinosaurs could not reach, just like a Gerenuk antelope in Africa does today.

A wide variety of alternative names were thought up, a few examples from the clever pupils were Two-legosaurus, Standuposaurus, Treeasaurus, Anteloposaurus and our personal favourite Vegesaurus.
It was a real pleasure visiting Sacred Heart Primary and helping the children with their dinosaur experiments and showing some of our fossils. Our thanks to all the students, teaching assistants and teachers who helped make the day so special.

6 04, 2011

The Itchy and Scratchy Show – Lice Plagued the Dinosaurs

By Mike|2023-03-06T16:48:23+00:00April 6th, 2011|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Dinosaur Fans, Main Page|1 Comment

The Tree of “Lice” – Parasites “Bugging” the Dinosaurs

Feathered dinosaurs and their non-feathered relatives were probably plagued by parasitic lice. For the short-armed tyrannosaurs and the even shorter-armed abelisaurids not being able to scratch themselves would have made life quite unpleasant for these animals during the Mesozoic. Perhaps extinction was a kindness after all, or maybe if the Dinosauria were weakened by parasites, this could help explain their demise sixty-six million years ago.

A new study carried out by an international team of researchers suggests that lice that plague those extant relatives of the Dinosauria (birds) and lice that associate themselves with mammalian hosts were diversifying quite merrily whilst dinosaurs still reigned supreme. This suggests that the Aves and Mammalia were also diversifying in the Age of Reptiles, a concept alien to many members of the public but the fossil record shows that for both mammals and birds many new genera were evolving long before the dinosaurs, Pterosauria and the marine reptiles became extinct.

Dinosaurs, just like other reptiles had their fair share of biting insects and parasitic bugs and tics, fossils found in Cretaceous amber indicate this. Indeed, some scientists have even cited the rise of parasites as a contributory factor leading to the demise of the dinosaurs.

To read an article on this: Did Bugs and Biting Insects Cause the Dinosaur Demise?

The lack of avian and mammalian fossils from the Mesozoic makes determining their speed of speciation (new species evolving), difficult. However, by studying lice, scientists can draw conclusions on the hosts that the lice associated with. Many lice only affect a single species. For instance, lice of many bird species have evolved special hooks that permit them to lodge themselves between the filaments in a feather, thus making them almost impossible to remove by preening.

If the host evolves, then the parasites evolve to in a process called co-speciation. Scientists used the fossil record for mammals and lice enabled scientists to build up a picture of the radiation of mammal species. As if lice can be seen diversifying into different types, then it can be assumed that they are evolving and adapting to exploit a new host that has also evolved.

The researchers built up a map of related lice fossils and noted that these creatures began to radiate much earlier than previously thought, around 115 million years ago (Early Cretaceous – Aptian faunal stage). The research work has been published in the scientific journal “Biology Letters”.

Lice Plagued the Dinosaurs

However, not wanting to put a fly into the ointment, sticking to the Arthropoda as it were, but there is an additional factor that needs to be considered. The Dinosauria were also diversifying at this time. New types of dinosaur – hadrosaurids, pachycephalosaurids and ceratopsians were evolving and indeed many dinosaurs were feathered (fossil evidence suggests this). Is it appropriate to assume that the lice were living on mammals and birds, the radiation of lice species could reflect increased diversity amongst the Dinosauria, after all, feathered dinosaurs would have been prone to parasites just as much as their avian cousins.

Either way, this work shows how relationships between a parasite and a host can help scientists to “plug” the gaps in the vertebrate fossil record. For us, it still does not explain how the short-armed theropods were able to scratch themselves, perhaps they scratched up against a tree (Baloo in the Jungle Book style), or maybe there were smaller birds and dinosaurs that provided a tic removing service just as we see today on tropical reefs with cleaner fish.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website for fantastic dinosaur and prehistoric animal toys and models: Everything Dinosaur.

6 04, 2011

Prehistoric Times – New Front Cover Issue 97

By Mike|2024-01-01T17:29:39+00:00April 6th, 2011|Magazine Reviews, Prehistoric Times|0 Comments

Prehistoric Times Front Cover (Issue 97)

Team members at Everything Dinosaur are looking forward to receiving their next copy of the dinosaur and model collectors magazine “Prehistoric Times”

Sneak Peek of the Front Cover of Issue 97

The front cover of the next edition of “Prehistoric Times”.

Picture credit: Mike Fredericks

“Prehistoric Times”

Everything Dinosaur team members would like to thank the magazine’s editor Mike Fredericks for sending an email that highlighted the rather gory, but extremely colourful front cover of issue number ninety-seven.

Visit the “Prehistoric Times” website to subscribe to this quarterly publication: Prehistoric Times Magazine.

5 04, 2011

Massachusetts “Mayfly” A Remarkable Fossil Discovery

By Mike|2023-03-07T07:49:23+00:00April 5th, 2011|Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal News Stories, Educational Activities, Main Page|0 Comments

Fossil Hunter Stumbles Upon Amazing Fossil Behind Shopping Centre

Fossils come in all shapes, forms and sizes. Palaeontologists group fossils into various categories, for example there are body fossils and trace fossils. Body fossils preserve something of the bodily remains of organisms, whereas trace fossils preserve evidence of the activity of animals, such as a fleeting impression made in soft mud by a flying insect from over 300 million years ago. Scientists report on a remarkable fossil discovery from the USA.

Remarkable Fossil Discovery

Some 300 million years ago, what was to become the U.S. state of Massachusetts in what is now the eastern United States, lay close to the equator, part of an enormous land mass that consisted of both what was to become Europe and the Americas (except South America). The land was dominated by dense swamps, roaming these lush environments were amphibians and the first types of reptiles.

The air was dominated by insects, the only creatures that had evolved to exploit an aerial way of life at the time. One such insect, an ancestor of today’s mayflies landed on the muddy edge of a body of water, probably a puddle or small pool, it then took off again, but it left the delicate impression of its body and marks in the mud where its thin legs stuck into the soft sediment.

Remarkably, this tiny impression was quickly covered in fine sediment, perhaps it rained and the water level rose, sweeping grains of mud into the imprint left by the insect. This trace of the fleeting resting place of an insect way back in the Carboniferous Period, was preserved as a fossil and stumbled upon by a keen fossil collector, who was looking for fossil bearing strata at the back of a shopping mall.

This primitive, ancestral mayfly fossil has become the oldest known full body impression of a flying insect, displacing the previous earliest discovered so far by some 30 million years or so.

Fossil Site Behind Shopping Mall

University undergraduate, Richard Knecht was looking for a fossil site, in a swampy area behind a shopping mall three years ago when he literally stumbled upon this amazing trace fossil. As he emerged from the swamp he came to a rock outcrop of the type he was looking for, and the Harvard University Museum worker states

“I grabbed a loose piece of rock on the outer edge of the outcrop and it was already naturally split as rocks tend to do as they weather. I opened it like a book and there were both halves [cast and mould] of the specimen.”

A spokesperson for Everything Dinosaur in the UK stated that this was like finding the slab and counter slab of a fossil, but to discovery such a perfectly preserved trace fossil of a flying insect is truly astonishing. As insects are soft bodied and very light they rarely fossilise. Trace fossils of these arthropods are extremely rare, especially anything dating as far back as the Carboniferous.

Ancient Fossil Insect

Commenting on the discovery, Conrad Labandeira, curator of palaeoentomology at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington said:

“Most fossil insects, when you look at them, you don’t really have a lot of surface detail. This is a very valuable type of preservation. You can actually view some of the movements of the appendages. This gives you some idea of the scope of movement of the legs… information that we don’t normally get from body fossils.”

The research team have been studying the fossil bearing site have had their findings to date published in the scientific journal “The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”. Insects preserved in amber is one thing, but to have such a superb trace fossil of a primitive mayfly is very exciting.

The oldest evidence of any kind of insects comes from a body fossil dating to the Devonian Period (approximately 418 million years old). The only other older insect specimen is one of a flightless insect, found by the same research team at the very same location as the mayfly trace fossil. A number of fascinating fossils have been found so far, including the tracks of a primitive reptile as well as numerous insect and plant fossils.

Richard Knecht, commenting on the fossil discoveries made so far stated:

“We have found a lot of interesting stuff, this [mayfly fossil] is just one of the characters coming out.”

For models and replicas of Palaeozoic creatures: Prehistoric Animal Models and Figures.

4 04, 2011

The Remarkable Shoshone Mountains Reptile

By Mike|2024-04-21T10:02:09+01:00April 4th, 2011|Dinosaur Fans, Educational Activities, Main Page|0 Comments

Shonisaurus – Giant of the Ichthyosauria

Team members at Everything Dinosaur received an email the other day with a request for more information on giant ichthyosaurs. There were certainly a number of very large members of the ichthyosaur family. The Ichthyosauria are a very diverse Order, evolving in the Early Triassic and surviving for over 140 million years before becoming extinct shortly before the end of the Cretaceous Period. There is the giant Cymbospondylus (pronounced Sim-bow-spon-die-lus), fossils of which have been found in North America and Europe. This gigantic marine reptile had a large body, an eel-like tail, a metre long head with large jaws. Cymbospondylus is the biggest marine reptile known from Late Triassic strata.

Shonisaurus

Perhaps our favourite large ichthyosaur is Shonisaurus (Shonisaurus popularis), a marine reptile that may reached lengths in excess of fifteen metres. The first fossils of this ichthyosaur were found by miners around the now deserted mining town of Berlin, Nevada in North America. The fossils were so plentiful that miners used them to decorate their dwellings and some of the large, flat vertebrae were even used as dinner plates! Reports of these fossils had been made from as early as 1869 but the miners were too busy digging for gold and silver to worry.

Shonisaurus popularis is the largest ichthyosaur to have been discovered to date in the United States and was believed to be the biggest in the world until fossils of a new species of ichthyosaur over 23 metres long were unearthed in Canada just a few years ago.

A Scale Drawing of Shonisaurus popularis

Giant ichthyosaur of the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

This ichthyosaur had a very deep body, and four, long, narrow equally sized flippers. Teeth were present only in the front of the jaw. This animal probably hunted cephalopods – ammonites, belemnites, squid and octopi.

For models and replicas of giant marine reptiles including ichthyosaurs: Models of Sea Monsters.