Everything Dinosaur team members have been busy making preparations for the imminent arrival of the Rebor Deinosuchus 1:35 scale replicas in the estuary and swamp colour schemes. These prehistoric crocodile figures are expected in stock at Everything Dinosaur later this week.
Rebor 1:35 Adult Deinosuchus hatcheri Museum Class Replica Deluxe Pack Meta Swamp version with the remains of the Appalachiosaurus. This prehistoric crocodilian replica is due into stock at Everything Dinosaur later this week (February 2023).
Rebor Deinosuchus
The two models, the Rebor 1:35 scale Adult Deinosuchus hatcheri Museum Class Replica Deluxe Pack Meta Swamp version (pictured above) and the Rebor 1:35 scale Adult Deinosuchus hatcheri Museum Class Replica Deluxe Pack Meta Estuary version (pictured below), measure 45 cm long.
The actual box that each model is packed in is smaller, the tail of this prehistoric crocodilian is detached and to construct the figure the tail piece has to be inserted into the body of the model.
The Rebor 1:35 Adult Deinosuchus hatcheri Museum Class Replica Deluxe Pack Meta Estuary version. Each Deinosuchus replica is supplied with the head and torso of an unfortunate Appalachiosaurus theropod.
Articulated Jaws and Poseable Tails
Each Rebor Deinosuchus replica has an articulated jaw, and the tip of the tail is poseable. In addition, each model is supplied with a gory accessory, the head and neck of a recently deceased tyrannosaur (Appalachiosaurus). The meat-eating dinosaur could have been attacked by the Deinosuchus, or perhaps the unfortunate theropod drowned and the carcase had been discovered by the crocodile.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented that the new Rebor Deinosuchus models would be in stock shortly and as soon as these superb figures arrived, team members would get busy alerting customers.
Everything Dinosaur team members have commissioned a new scale drawing of the fearsome Late Cretaceous crocodilian Deinosuchus. This illustration will feature in the company’s updated Deinosuchus fact sheet.
Team members at Everything Dinosaur have prepared a Gallimimus scale drawing as they await the arrival of new for 2023 Schleich dinosaur figures. Five new dinosaur models are expected, namely, Tarbosaurus, Monolophosaurus, Edmontosaurus, the armoured dinosaur Gastonia and the ornithomimid Gallimimus.
A Gallimimus scale drawing. Team members prepare for the arrival of the new Schleich Gallimimus dinosaur model by commissioning a Gallimimus scale drawing. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Schleich Dinosaur Models
A spokesperson for Everything Dinosaur explained that these new for 2023 Schleich dinosaur models were due to arrive at the company’s warehouse shortly. Everything Dinosaur already has fact sheets for the Tarbosaurus, Monolophosaurus, Edmontosaurus and Gastonia figures.
The new for 2023 Schleich dinosaur models. Tarbosaurus (top left), Monolophosaurus (top right). Bottom row Gallimimus (left), Edmontosaurus (centre) and Gastonia (right).
Gallimimus Scale Drawing
The scale drawing will provide a visual representation of the size of Gallimimus (G. bullatus). It is known from several complete skeletons and skulls representing juveniles to fully-grown adults. The fleet-footed dinosaur (although with shorter hind legs, it was probably not as swift a runner as smaller ornithomimids such as Struthiomimus or Sinornithomimus), will be in stock at Everything Dinosaur in a few days.
Gallimimus is estimated to have measured up to six metres long, it stood two metres tall at the hip and palaeontologists estimate that it weighed around 450 kilograms.
Everything Dinosaur has resumed the despatch of International Standard Airmail (untracked parcels) from today (6th February 2023). A cyber incident at Royal Mail had resulted in the suspension of many international mail services from the UK. Over the last few days, Royal Mail has been implementing solutions and international standard airmail parcels can now be despatched.
All international orders from Everything Dinosaur can now be sent out.
Everything Dinosaur team members have taken steps to help minimise disruption for customers. All international orders can now be despatched. Overseas deliveries of parcels will be subject to delays as the mail network clears the backlog. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Royal Mail Statement
On Friday (3rd of February) Royal Mail issued a statement updating Everything Dinosaur on the progress that had been made to resolve this issue.
The Royal Mail Statement
“We continue to make progress in exporting an increasing number of items to a growing number of international destinations. We are using alternative solutions and systems, which are not affected by the recent cyber incident and have been successfully despatching parcels and letters which were in our network before the cyber incident and our services which have recently reopened. As a result of this progress and the continuing growth in capability of our alternative export solutions we have announced the restoration of many international export services.”
Everything Dinosaur
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur confirmed that team members had prepared some international standard airmail parcels for despatch on Friday evening (3rd February) with the remaining parcels, some of which had been delayed since this incident was first reported in the middle of January, being made ready for despatch today.
To read more about Everything Dinosaur’s shipping policy: Shipping Policy.
All customers whose parcels had been affected have been emailed to confirm that their order will be sent out.
The Everything Dinosaur spokesperson stated:
“We have put into operation contingency plans that have helped us to ensure that parcels could be sent overseas as soon as we had Royal Mail’s permission to do so. We would like to take this opportunity to apologise to that small minority of our customers who have been affected by the Royal Mail delays.”
Everything Dinosaur has received a delivery of new Mojo Fun prehistoric animal models and figures and the new colour variant of the Mojo Fun Entelodont Daeodon is now in stock. This brown-coloured replica of an ancient relative of modern pigs (even-toed ungulates), replaces the earlier Mojo Fun Daeodon figure which was predominantly grey.
The new colour variant Mojo Fun Entelodont Daeodon model.
Mojo Fun Entelodont Daeodon
The sculpt is the same, but the colour scheme has changed, and this figure has already proved to be popular with model collectors and fans of prehistoric animals. The carefully painted model has the typical large skull of an entelodont, and the open mouth pose allows the large and robust teeth to be highlighted.
The model measures just under 13 cm in length and that impressive shoulder hump is approximately 8 cm off the ground.
Mojo Fun Entelodont Daeodon model held in the hand. The hand helps to give a scale to this prehistoric animal figure.
“Prehistoric Times” magazine (issue 144 winter 2023) is reviewed by team members at Everything Dinosaur and what a jam-packed edition it is! Canadian artist Julius Csotonyi provided the illustrations for a new publication that features 1,200 dinosaurs. This immense volume was written by Evan Johnson-Ransom and in an interview Julius explains that virtually all the illustrations contained in the book were especially commissioned and new. Magazine editor Mike Fredericks conducts an interview with the artist and this piece is accompanied by many examples of Julius’s work.
The front cover artwork is supplied by Daniel Navarro, and it features the Chinese tyrannosauroid Dilong. Dilong is one of the featured prehistoric animals in issue 143, the other being the super-sized, prehistoric snake Titanoboa.
The front cover image of the latest edition of the quarterly publication “Prehistoric Times”.
David Navarro also provided the artwork to be found on the back cover of the magazine, a stunning illustration of a T. rex family feeding on the carcase of a mosasaur.
Tracy Lee Ford
Inside the magazine Tracy Lee Ford concludes his series on how to illustrate dinosaur integumentary coverings with an examination of the feathers and bristles associated with ornithischian dinosaurs. John Lavas continues his profile of the highly influential Czech artist Zdeněk Burian. In this issue, he focuses on the projects and volume of work produced by Burian from the end of war until his death in 1981. Look out for the stunning gouache prints contained within this in-depth article.
Randy Knol and Mike Fredericks bring us up to date with new model introductions from CollectA and Safari Ltd, the editor has had a busy month as he also interviews palaeoartist John Conway about his new book “A History of Painting (with Dinosaurs).” John explains that he wanted to create an art book that explores how famous painters from the past, each with their very own painting style, would have depicted dinosaurs. The article includes numerous examples such as a portrait of Lambeosaurus done in the style of Pablo Picasso and a stunning pterosaur reflecting the impressionist painters such as Monet.
Titanoboa
As well as covering Dilong, Phil Hore presents a short history of Titanoboa and proposes that amongst the enormous reptiles that existed in north-eastern Columbia during the Palaeocene, the most fearsome predator of all might have been a giant, prehistoric turtle. Reader submitted artwork is prevalent including illustrations by Esther Van Hulson, James Gurney and M. Elliott Massion who also contributes a drawing to the Dilong article.
The recently introduced Rebor museum-quality Titanoboa maquette is also featured in the Titanoboa article.
The Rebor Titanoboa Museum Class Maquette Monty Resurgent. An image of this model features in a Titanoboa article in “Prehistoric Times” magazine issue 144.
To view the range of Rebor prehistoric animal figures in stock at Everything Dinosaur, including Titanoboa figures (whilst stocks last): Rebor Replicas and Figures.
Mike Howgate follows up his article from issue 142 and examines the casting in bronze of a pair of European bison by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, prior to the creation of the famous Crystal Palace prehistoric animal sculptures. This provides a convenient segue into the extensive Mesozoic Media section providing reviews on lots of new prehistoric animal publications including the “Art and Science of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs” by Mark Witton and Ellinor Michael. Amongst the cornucopia of new publications, Mike Fredericks explores new fiction, reviewing “Liopleurodon: The Master of the Deep” by M. B. Zucker as well as two new publications from Gregory S. Paul and published by Princeton University Press which documents Mesozoic Sea Reptiles and Pterosaurs respectively.
The front cover of The Princeton Field Guide to Mesozoic Sea Reptiles by Gregory S. Paul, a comprehensive overview of Mesozoic marine reptiles. This excellent publication is reviewed in the latest issue of “Prehistoric Times”. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Our congratulations to the team behind “Prehistoric Times” and to all the contributors to issue 144.
As part of the recent Mojo Fun prehistoric and extinct model range delivery to our warehouse, Everything Dinosaur received fresh stock of the popular Mojo Fun Deinotherium model. Recently, this prehistoric elephant figure has been given a new colour scheme, this new version replaces the older, darker grey colour variant replica.
Mojo Fun prehistoric animal model (Deinotherium).
Mojo Fun Deinotherium Model
The Mojo Fun Deinotherium model is just one of several prehistoric mammals that are included in the company’s “Prehistoric Life” model range.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:
“From time to time, a manufacturer will change the paint specification of a model and a new colour variant will be introduced. This is something that lots of model manufacturers do, it helps to freshen up a product range without having to go to the expense of developing a completely new figure.”
Mojo Fun prehistoric and extinct Deinotherium model. The Deinotherium model has been given a new colour scheme by the manufacturer.
A baby Torosaurus model is going to be reunited with the adult Torosaurus in a model set thanks to efforts from Everything Dinosaur. A customer had recently purchased the PNSO Torosaurus model set (Aubrey and Dabei), but unfortunately, the baby Torosaurus figure (Dabei) was missing from the set.
Having been alerted to the problem, team members at Everything Dinosaur set about finding a baby Torosaurus model and despatching this figure to their American customer.
The PNSO baby Torosaurus model, which is now on its way to a customer in the USA. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
A Busy Period for PNSO Model Sales
Usually, this oversight at the factory would be easily corrected, team members could simply despatch a baby Torosaurus model from their own warehouse. However, due to an extremely busy Christmas period for PNSO model sales, the PNSO Torosaurus Aubrey and Dabei set had sold out.
A shipment of PNSO models due to arrive shortly at Everything Dinosaur did contain more Torosaurus model sets, but team members decided to try and resolve this problem for the customer as quickly as they could.
With PNSO’s collaboration, a Dabei Torosaurus model was sourced from the next scheduled factory production run and rushed over to the UK.
The PNSO Torosaurus dinosaur models (Aubrey and Dabei) in lateral view.
Baby Torosaurus Model
A cyber incident at Royal Mail had temporarily suspended all Royal Mail international mail being sent out to the USA from the UK. The announcement of a resolution to the problem coincided with the arrival of the baby Torosaurus model at Everything Dinosaur’s offices. Team members were able to contact the customer and arrange to despatch the parcel containing the dinosaur model.
The 1:35 scale PNSO Torosaurus models (Aubrey and Dabei). The adult Torosaurus figure has an articulated lower jaw. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur thanked the customer for their patience and commented:
“We had not come across this problem before, and with no more PNSO Torosaurus sets in our warehouse we had to wait until the next factory production run before a baby Torosaurus figure could be rushed over to the UK. Our thanks to our chums at PNSO for helping with this, the baby dinosaur will soon be reunited with its mother.”
A team of international scientists including researchers from the University of Birmingham have published a paper on the brain and cranial nerves of fish that lived approximately 319 million years ago. The team’s findings are shedding light on vertebrate brain evolution.
The Late Carboniferous (early Pennsylvanian subperiod), fish fossil was discovered in a layer of soapstone adjacent to a coal seam at the Mountain Fourfoot coal mine in Lancashire and the specimen was first scientifically described in 1925. The fish, named Coccocephalus wildi, would have measured around 20 cm in length and it lived in what was an ancient estuary. It is only known from this single fossil and only the skull and jaws were recovered.
The fossilised skull of Coccocephalus wildi. The fish is facing to the right, with the jaws visible in the lower right portion of the fossil. The eye socket is the circular, bumpy feature above the jaws. Picture credit: Jeremy Marble, University of Michigan News.
Vertebrate Brain Evolution
Coccocephalus was a member of the Class Actinopterygii, also known as the ray-finned fishes. The skull fossil was sent on loan from Manchester Museum to the University of Michigan and subsequent CT scans of the skull revealed the surprising discovery of the intact brain and associated nerves.
Senior author Sam Giles, (University of Birmingham), commented:
“This unexpected find of a three-dimensionally preserved vertebrate brain gives us a startling insight into the neural anatomy of ray-finned fish. It tells us a more complicated pattern of brain evolution than suggested by living species alone, allowing us to better define how and when present day bony fishes evolved.”
University of Michigan palaeontologist Matt Friedman examines CT scan images of an exceptionally preserved, brain of the Late Carboniferous ray-finned fish Coccocephalus wildi. Picture credit: Jeremy Marble, University of Michigan News.
Rapidly Buried
When the fish died, it was probably buried rapidly in sediment containing very little oxygen. The lack of oxygen prevented the soft brain tissue from decaying. Whilst brain cases can reveal the shape and structure of vertebrate brains, this remarkable fossil preserved the brain tissue of a prehistoric fish.
Soft tissues such as the brain normally decay quickly and very rarely fossilise. But when this fish died, the soft tissues of its brain and cranial nerves were replaced during the fossilisation process with a dense mineral that preserved, in astonishing detail, their three-dimensional structure.
This discovery provides palaeontologists with a window into the evolution and development of the brains of ray-finned fishes, a highly successful group of back-boned animals estimated to represent more than fifty percent of all living vertebrate species.
Life reconstruction of the ray-finned fish Coccocephalus wildi showing location and shape of brain and cranial nerves. Picture credit: Márcio L. Castro.
A study of the jaws and teeth of C. wildi suggest that it was carnivorous, likely feeding on small invertebrates. The CT scans revealed that the brain had bilateral symmetry, like the brains of modern ray-finned fishes, but significantly, the brain of Coccocephalus folds inward, unlike in all living ray-finned fishes, in which the brain folds outward.
The fossil captures a time before a signature feature of ray-finned fish brains evolved, providing an indication of when this trait evolved.
Co-author of the paper, published in the journal “Nature”, Matt Friedman (University of Michigan) explained:
“An important conclusion is that these kinds of soft parts can be preserved, and they may be preserved in fossils that we’ve had for a long time—this is a fossil that’s been known for over 100 years.”
Everything Dinosaur acknowledges the assistance of a media release from the University of Birmingham in the compilation of this article.
The scientific paper: “Exceptional fossil preservation and evolution of the ray-finned fish brain” by Rodrigo T. Figueroa, Danielle Goodvin, Matthew A. Kolmann, Michael I. Coates, Abigail M. Caron, Matt Friedman and Sam Giles published in Nature.
