All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
About Mike
Mike runs Everything Dinosaur, a UK-based mail order company specialising in the sale of dinosaur and prehistoric animal models, He works alongside Sue, and between them they have become the "go to guys" for museum quality prehistoric animal models and figures. An avid fossil collector and reader of dinosaur books, Mike researchers and writes articles about palaeontology, fossil discoveries, research and of course, dinosaur and prehistoric animal models.
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.
We received the following bulletin from Royal Mail with regards to their on-going cyber incident yesterday afternoon (30th January). It seems that Royal Mail in collaboration with UK authorities including the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, have been working around the clock to find a work around after the Royal Mail cyber incident first reported on the 12th January.
Royal Mail Cyber Incident
Progress has been made, here is the full statement from Royal Mail:
Royal Mail cyber incident statement.
Everything Dinosaur
We at Everything Dinosaur can confirm that last night and this morning we have started to despatch international parcels with a tracked or tracked and signed service or just the signed for service. By 3.30pm GMT (31st of January), all parcels that were held and had tracked, tracked/signed or just signed shipping have been sent out.
Where we have been able to upgrade standard airmail parcels, we have and these have been sent out as well. This just leaves those standard airmail parcels that we were not able to upgrade being delayed by this current cyber incident.
We thank all those customers who have been affected by this for their patience.
At this difficult time, we would like to assure all our customers that we continue to implement contingency plans to minimise any delays to the despatch of parcels.
Please note, international customers based in the EU are not affected, our deliveries to EU customers have continued to operate as normal as Everything Dinosaur uses a different courier network for parcel deliveries to the European Union.
International tracked parcels can now be despatched.
International tracked and signed parcels can now be despatched.
International signed parcels can now be despatched.
A significant proportion of those Everything Dinosaur customers who had purchased an item and paid for standard international airmail shipping have had their parcels upgraded free of charge to a tracked and/or signed service to permit their order to be sent out.
Only international standard airmail parcels are currently being held and cannot be despatched.
A new pterosaur species has been described based on a superbly preserved specimen found in Upper Jurassic limestone deposits in Bavaria (southern Germany). The fully articulated specimen displays a unique dentition that suggests this flying reptile fed like a modern-day flamingo, sieving water through its jaws to trap small invertebrates as it waded or possibly swam in a shallow lagoon.
A life reconstruction of the newly described pterosaur Balaenognathus maeuseri. Picture credit: Megan Jacobs
Picture credit: Megan Jacobs
Balaenognathus maeuseri
The pterosaur has been classified as a ctenochasmatid, a group of short-tailed pterodactyloids characterised by specialised teeth adapted for filter feeding. Fossils of these relatively small flying reptiles (most with wingspans less than 3 metres), have been found in Europe, America and China, in rocks dating from the Upper Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. The new pterosaur has been named Balaenognathus maeuseri, the genus name derives from the scientific name for the Bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) and the Latin for jaw, as it is thought that these two unrelated species shared a common feeding strategy. The specific epithet honours a co-author of the paper Matthias Mäuser who sadly passed away before publication.
The fossilised bones of Balaenognathus maeuseri found in the slab of limestone (Upper Jurassic laminated limestones at Wattendorf, Bavaria in Southern Germany). Picture credit: PalZ.
Lead author of the study, published in Paläontologische Zeitschrift (PalZ), Professor David Martill from the University of Portsmouth School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences commented:
“The nearly complete skeleton was found in a very finely layered limestone that preserves fossils beautifully.”
Unique Pterosaur Dentition
The fossil (specimen number NKMB P2011-63), is remarkable for its completeness, unusual dentition and hints of the preservation of soft tissues, including wing membranes. The delicate jaws contain at least 480 fine teeth.”
Professor Martill added:
“The jaws of this pterosaur are really long and lined with small fine, hooked teeth, with tiny spaces between them like a nit comb. The long jaw is curved upwards like an avocet and at the end it flares out like a spoonbill. There are no teeth at the end of its mouth, but there are teeth all the way along both jaws right to the back of its smile.”
Tentative line reconstruction of the skull. Picture credit: PalZ
Bizarre Hook-like Tooth Crown
The tips of the jaw are devoid of teeth, which would have permitted plankton and invertebrate-rich water to rush into the long jaw. The hundreds of teeth would have acted as a sieve helping to strain out food. Many of the teeth have a hook-like expansion on the tip of the crown, a bizarre and unique tooth morphology.
Explaining the significance of these strange teeth, Professor Martill stated:
“What’s even more remarkable is some of the teeth have a hook on the end, which we’ve never seen before in a pterosaur ever. These small hooks would have been used to catch the tiny shrimp the pterosaur likely fed on – making sure they went down its throat and weren’t squeezed between the teeth.”
Fig 7 shows UV images of the teeth (A) teeth close to the tip of the jaw (B) close-up of the crown tips of the teeth of the left jaw showing the hook-like teeth with the hooks highlighted by white arrows. Image (C) the middle teeth. Picture credit: PalZ.
A New Pterosaur
The discovery was made accidentally while scientists were excavating a large block of limestone containing crocodilian fossil remains.
Professor Martill explained:
“This was a rather serendipitous find of a well-preserved skeleton with near perfect articulation, which suggests the carcass must have been at a very early stage of decay with all joints, including their ligaments, still viable. It must have been buried in sediment almost as soon as it had died.”
Most members of the Ctenochasmatidae family seem to have been the pterosaur equivalent of wading shore birds, although some genera were perhaps adapted to habitats further inland and have truly bizarre shaped jaws leaving palaeontologists perplexed as to what they ate.
Only one other known pterosaur had more teeth than Balaenognathus. It is another ctenochasmatid and it is called Pterodaustro guinazui and its fossils are known from the Lower Cretaceous of Argentina. Both Pterodaustro and Balaenognathus were likely filter feeders although the arrangement of their teeth differs. Balaenognathus had teeth in the upper and lower jaw which are the mirror image of each other, whilst P. guinazui had very reduced teeth in the upper jaw and up to a 1,000 densely packed, bristle-like teeth in the lower jaw.
The Balaenognathus maeuseri specimen viewed under UV (ultra violet) light. Picture credit: PalZ.
New Pterosaur Species – Unique Feeding Mechanism
The teeth of Balaenognathus suggest a feeding strategy that involved the animal either wading through water or swimming, using its spoon-shaped beak to funnel water into its mouth, this water was then strained through its teeth to trap prey. The researchers propose that Balaenognathus fed on shrimps and copepods filling a similar ecological niche as extant ducks, shorebirds and flamingos.
Commenting on the sad passing of Matthias Mäuser, Professor Martill said:
“Matthias was a friendly and warm-hearted colleague of a kind that can be scarcely found. In order to preserve his memory, we named the pterosaur in his honour.”
Everything Dinosaur acknowledges the assistance of a media release from the University of Portsmouth in the compilation of this article.
The scientific paper:
The scientific paper: “A new pterodactyloid pterosaur with a unique filter‑feeding apparatus from the Late Jurassic of Germany” by David M. Martill, Eberhard Frey, Helmut Tischlinger, Matthias Mäuser, Héctor E. Rivera‑Sylva and Steven U. Vidovic published in Paläontologische Zeitschrift (PalZ).
The certificate acknowledging the 2023 Platinum Trusted Service Award to Everything Dinosaur has been downloaded and prepared. Everything Dinosaur can display this certificate in their offices and use it in company correspondence.
Everything Dinosaur’s Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award certificate.
Platinum Trusted Service Award
Feefo is a leading global customer reviews and insights platform on a mission to empower its clients to fully understand how their customers experience their product or service. The highest accolade offered by Feefo, the Platinum Trusted Service award, was introduced in 2020 and Everything Dinosaur has won the Platinum Trusted Service award every year that it has been available. Everything Dinosaur has been awarded top marks by Feefo four years in a row.
Tony Wheble, the CEO at Feefo, commented:
“This year has been a difficult one for so many businesses. I’m delighted to recognise thousands of our clients that have overcome various challenges to provide such high levels of customer service and satisfaction.”
Everything Dinosaur Has Won the Platinum Trusted Service Award Four Years in a Row
Everything Dinosaur has won the prestigious Feefo Platinum Trusted Service award ever year that it has been offered. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Mr Wheble added:
“The Trusted Service Awards have always been about recognising companies that go way beyond the norm in customer service and in turn receive great feedback from delighted customers.”
Safari Ltd dinosaur models and the Mojo Fun Woolly Mammoth replica feature in the latest Everything Dinosaur customer newsletter. Everything Dinosaur team members like to keep customers informed about new products and company developments and a customer newsletter is emailed periodically. In the latest e-news mailing the Dino Dana Zuul armoured dinosaur replica is highlighted.
The Dino Dana Zuul armoured dinosaur features in the latest Everything Dinosaur customer newsletter. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Everything Dinosaur Customer Newsletter
The latest Everything Dinosaur customer newsletter also features the Dino Dana dwarf tyrannosaur replica Nanotyrannus and the colourful bone-headed dinosaur model Stygimoloch (Dino Dana Stygimoloch).
To request a subscription to Everything Dinosaur’s free customer newsletter simply: Email Everything Dinosaur.
Two new Safari Ltd Dino Dana models feature in the latest Everything Dinosaur customer newsletter. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Wild Safari Prehistoric World Albertosaurus and a Mojo Fun Woolly Mammoth
The other two models to feature in our January newsletter (2023), is the recently arrived Wild Safari Prehistoric World Albertosaurus dinosaur model and the Mojo Fun Woolly Mammoth figure.
The Wild Safari Prehistoric World Albertosaurus (left) and a new Mojo Fun Woolly Mammoth model (right). Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
To view the extensive range of Safari Ltd dinosaur and other prehistoric animal models in stock at Everything Dinosaur: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Figures.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:
“We send out newsletters to customers so that they can be kept informed about new additions to our stock and updated on developments at Everything Dinosaur. Our newsletter is free, and we do not share customer emails with anyone else, so our customers can have the assurance that they will not find themselves receiving lots of emails from companies that they never subscribed to”.
Mojo Fun Woolly Mammoth
Joining the Safari Ltd models in our latest newsletter is the Mojo Fun Woolly Mammoth model, an Ice Age figure that has received praise from model collectors since its introduction.
The Mojo Fun Woolly Mammoth model is available from Everything Dinosaur.
Following on from yesterday’s blog post about the international cyber incident at Royal Mail team members can provide an update.
At 10:16am (GMT) on the 26th January, Everything Dinosaur received the following statement from the Managing Director of Royal Mail International, Antony Harvey.
Royal Mail issued an update about their on-going cyber incident in the morning of 26th January (2023). Everything Dinosaur has published the Royal Mail statement in full.
International Cyber Incident
The cyber incident, believed to be a ransom ware attack was reported on 12th January (2023), Everything Dinosaur has been unable to send out certain parcels to its international customers, however, customers in the European Union have been unaffected.
Royal Mail has been making progress and implementing measures to mitigate the damage to their networks caused by this attack.
In summary, this is what this latest bulletin means for Everything Dinosaur customers:
International Tracked & Signed service as well as the International Signed service parcels can now be despatched.
Delivery likely to take longer than usual.
Customers may notice a different tracking information as items leave the UK.
We have been asked not to submit any new Tracked or Standard International Airmail parcels into the network for the moment.
Further updates on the Tracked and Standard International Airmail services will be provided in the coming days.
A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:
“We continue to do our best to inform our customers about the current difficulties at Royal Mail. Contingency plans have been put into operation to allow us to continue to despatch parcels overseas, however, for a small number of our customers, parcels have been delayed to permit Royal Mail to resolve this problem. We hope to send out all these parcels in the very near future and we would like to apologise to our customers for any delay in delivery.”
To visit Everything Dinosaur’s user-friendly and award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.
The Latest Update on the Royal Mail Cyber Incident (Wednesday 25th January)
Royal Mail has released a statement about its progress as it attempts to find a work around following the cyber incident, believed to be a malicious ransom ware attack.
Update from Royal Mail
Here is the Royal Mail update”
“Royal Mail has resumed the export of parcels from Northern Ireland to Ireland. This builds on the recent move to resume the export of international letters to all international destinations. Customers in Northern Ireland can now export parcels bound for Ireland into Northern Ireland Post Office branches. Online customers will be able to print labels on Royal Mail shipping systems from 7pm, Friday 20 January. These services are currently only available for customers based in Northern Ireland. They are not available for customers based in Great Britain where export restrictions continue to apply.”
Everything Dinosaur team members are keeping their international customers informed about the continuing cyber incident at Royal Mail (January 25th, 2023). Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
The update from Royal Mail added:
“We have now resumed international export despatches for all mail streams including parcels and letters across a growing number of international destinations. We are making good progress in despatching items that are already in our network across all of our services. Please note you may see less tracking information than usual as we continue to restore our services. At this time, we continue to ask customers not to submit new parcels for export, and we will update further on service resumption as soon as possible.”
Mitigating the Impact
In addition, Royal Mail has released the following statement about their on-going work to resolve this issue:
“Royal Mail continues to work with external experts, the security authorities and regulators to mitigate the impact of this cyber incident, with a focus on restoring all services for export letters and parcels. Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays. Domestic services remain unaffected.”
The Impact on Everything Dinosaur
Everything Dinosaur would like to assure its customers that only a small portion of their international orders have been affected by this issue. All deliveries to customers in the European Union are unaffected. Everything Dinosaur uses a separate and distinct delivery company for customers in the EU, part of our strategy to offer more customer choice and to reduce dependence on one single supplier.
Customers in North America, South America and Australasia have had their parcels sent by an alternative courier wherever possible, however, a small number of orders have had to be held back and they cannot be sent out until Royal Mail opens up the international mail routes such as airmail and tracked and signed.
A spokesperson for the UK-based, award-winning mail order company apologised to that small proportion of customers that had been affected and stated:
“We are sorry for any delays that have been caused due to the problems at Royal Mail. We want to assure the small number of our customers that have been affected that as soon as we have permission to resume despatch of parcels to Royal Mail we will do so and we have put extra resources on standby to ensure we send out parcels as quickly as possible.”
Everything Dinosaur wins Platinum Trusted Service Award for the fourth year running. Everything Dinosaur has an excellent record of providing customer service and has already put in contingency plans to minimise business disruption caused by the issues at Royal Mail. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
The new Wild Safari Prehistoric World Zuul dinosaur model is in stock at Everything Dinosaur. Team members have been busy contacting customers to let them know that this new armoured dinosaur model has arrived.
The Wild Safari Prehistoric World Zuul dinosaur model in lateral view.
Zuul Dinosaur Model
The Zuul dinosaur model is one of four new figures to come into Everything Dinosaur from the Safari Ltd range. The other three models are the Wild Safari Prehistoric World Albertosaurus, and in the sub-brand “Dino Dana” a Stygimoloch and a replica of the controversial dwarf tyrannosaur Nanotyrannus.
Four new dinosaur replicas into stock at Everything Dinosaur including an Albertosaurus (left), a Stygimoloch (centre), a replica of the controversial tyrannosaur Nanotyrannus (right), and (top) the Zuul dinosaur model. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
The Gatekeeper of Gozer
The genus name was inspired by a monster that appeared in the 1984 film “Ghostbusters”, the horned monster being Zuul the Gatekeeper of Gozer. The species epithet combines crus (Latin) for shin or shank, and vastator (Latin) for destroyer, in reference to the beautiful sledgehammer-like tail club that was the first part of the fossil specimen to be discovered.
The new Safari Ltd Zuul dinosaur model. A fantastic replica of a North American, Late Cretaceous ankylosaurid dinosaur.
