Press Releases - Part 101

13 05, 2014

Frequently Asked Questions? Providing Helpful Advice

By Mike|2024-04-12T15:45:51+01:00May 13th, 2014|Categories: Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Press Releases|0 Comments

Preparing New Images for the Everything Dinosaur School Site

One of the more challenging projects today was how to create some visuals for use on that part of Everything Dinosaur’s new school website dedicated to frequently asked questions. Team members respond quickly to all the enquiries we receive from teachers and museum staff, however, we thought it would be a good idea for the new school website, to have a dedicated page or two related to those questions we get frequently asked (FAQs). With this in mind, we set about creating some banners that could be used on the “FAQs” page.

Lots of ideas were put forward but in the end we decided the simplest thing to do would be to use some of the thousands of fossils we have in our warehouse to make a “question mark”.

Belemnites Help to Make Up a Question Mark

A question mark made from belemnite fossils.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

These calcite guards, the preserved remains of Middle Jurassic belemnites, proved to be just the job for creating a question mark for use on the new website. The word belemnite comes from the Greek for “dart” and if you examine the picture closely you can see the reason for this name.

Onwards and upwards with our new dinosaurs for school website.

A Replica of a Belemnite (CollectA)

CollectA Age of Dinosaurs Popular Size Belemnite model.

To see replicas of ammonites, belemnites and other prehistoric animals, take a look at the CollectA Prehistoric World section of the Everything Dinosaur website: CollectA Prehistoric Life.

10 05, 2014

Artwork Prepared for New School Site

By Mike|2023-03-13T09:25:38+00:00May 10th, 2014|Categories: Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Press Releases|0 Comments

Everything Dinosaur’s New School Site Coming Along Nicely

Team members at Everything Dinosaur have been busy sorting through and setting aside the pictures of all the company’s dinosaur themed activities in museums, educational events and dinosaur workshops in schools. A number of new visuals are required for the new and improved “dinosaur teaching” website that is currently being worked on. The website is much bigger than the existing site and we are keen to include as many photographs of our work in schools and museums as we possibly can.

Everything Dinosaur

One of the Banner Visuals for the “Dinosaur Teaching” Website

So many events, so many activities, so many photographs.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The site is slowly and surely coming together. It will provide teachers, home-schoolers and museum staff with lots more information about who we are and what we do. In addition, there will be lots of free downloads of teaching materials to help with teaching about dinosaurs, fossils and evolution in schools and other establishments. Hopefully the new site will be ready soon.

Visit the award-winning and user-friendly Everything Dinosaur website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

8 05, 2014

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

By Mike|2023-03-13T09:05:07+00:00May 8th, 2014|Categories: Famous Figures, Main Page, Press Releases|0 Comments

Happy Birthday Sir David!

Today, May 8th is the birthday of the naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. His contribution to natural history programme making has been immense and he remains an inspiration to us all. We at Everything Dinosaur have put together a commemorative banner to celebrate the birthday of one of Britain’s greatest broadcasters.

Sir David Attenborough

Happy Birthday Sir David Attenborough

Many Happy Returns!

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

On behalf of everyone at Everything Dinosaur, we wish Sir David, a very happy birthday.

4 05, 2014

Fossil Fun at Wiltshire Museum

By Mike|2023-03-13T07:51:47+00:00May 4th, 2014|Categories: Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Press Releases|0 Comments

Fantastic Fossil Fun at Wiltshire Museum

In the beautiful town of Devizes (Wiltshire), lies a little gem of a museum which houses an amazing collection of ancient artefacts associated with this historic county of south-western England. The chalk downlands of this part of the UK have provided archaeologists with a huge collection of Stone Age and Bronze Age relics and the museum itself boasts many fine examples including gold from the time that Stonehenge was built.

Fossil Fun

Wiltshire is the home of many historic, ancient monuments and visitors to locations such as the West Kennet Long Barrow, the Neolithic stone circle at Avebury and of course Stonehenge itself can learn a lot about the people who built these structures during a visit to the Wiltshire Museum.

Wiltshire Museum, is located in the heart of Devizes about ten miles to the north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge, now a World Heritage Site. Within its walls, the extensive collection traces human history in this part of the world over the last half a million years or so.

A New Exhibition

However, a new exhibition housed in the temporary gallery space takes visitors further back in time as it explores fossils and prehistoric animals, many of which would have been familiar to our ancient ancestors. Wiltshire itself, borders Dorset and team members at Everything Dinosaur recall talking to farmers in the area who have ploughed up evidence of strange marine creatures that once lived in a tropical sea that covered much of Europe. A number of Mesozoic aged fossils are on display along with more recent finds that bring to life the Stone Age and depict animals that made up part of the prehistoric landscape.

Wiltshire Museum’s Fossil Exhibition 2014

Family orientated fossil exhibition at the Museum.

Picture credit: Wiltshire Museum

Life in the Ice Age

The friendly staff are on hand to guide visitors through life in the Ice Age and to explain a little more about the amazing prehistoric creatures whose fossils can be found in the sedimentary strata. The Wiltshire Museum is open seven days a week and the exhibition will run all through spring and into August. The Museum has recently been rated one of the top tourist attractions and places to see in Wiltshire on Trip Advisor.

To learn more about the range of prehistoric animal themed gifts stocked by Everything Dinosaur: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

To read an article from Everything Dinosaur about how the fossilised remains of a Jurassic marine creature was used in a remarkable and unexpected way: Ink from Jurassic Belemnite found in Wiltshire “re-writes” history.

1 05, 2014

How to Identify Which Fossil Find is Which

By Mike|2023-03-12T15:05:30+00:00May 1st, 2014|Categories: Dinosaur Fans, Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Everything Dinosaur Products, Photos of Everything Dinosaur Products, Press Releases, Teaching|0 Comments

Sorting out Fossil Finds Dinosaur Excavation Kits

The fossil finds dinosaur excavation kits that Everything Dinosaur supplies are certainly very popular. These kits include a digging tool, so that young dinosaur fans can excavate their own plastic dinosaur skeleton and experience what it is like to be a real palaeontologist. The digging tool included is very similar to one we actually use ourselves when working around fossil bone. There are four different types of dinosaur skeleton to collect. They are Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor, Stegosaurus and Triceratops.

Fossil Finds

Everything Dinosaur Fossil Finds

Everything Dinosaur creates a banner to promote Fossil Finds.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

These dinosaur fossil inspired kits are very popular with teachers who use them as teaching resources in schools as well as with mums and dads who use them at dinosaur themed party gifts. The square packaging makes them ideal for use in a pass the parcel game at a dinosaur inspired birthday party. However, the packaging on all four of the kits looks very similar and our team members at Everything Dinosaur thought it would be a good idea if we published a handy guide to identify which kit is which.

Identifying the Dinosaur

All the kits look the same from the front, this can lead to confusion as purchasers may not be sure which dinosaur fossil find they have.

A View of the Front of the Fossil Finds Packaging

Although there are four different dinosaur fossil finds in the series they all look the same from the front.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

All the fronts of the boxes feature a Tyrannosaurus rex themed fact. The fact states that this apex predator probably ate around seventy-five kilogrammes of meat a day, the equivalent of 1,500 sausages. Customers of Everything Dinosaur might think that all the fossil finds that they have bought feature the same skeleton inside. All is not lost, here is how to determine which dinosaur is actually in each kit.

For models and replicas of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

To determine which fossil find excavation kit you have, turn the box over and look at the back. In the bottom corner above the product’s bar code, the name of the dinosaur featured inside will be shown.

Turn the Kit over and Look at the Printing on the Back

The name of the dinosaur whose skeleton is featured in the kit can be seen just above the bar code.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We have highlighted in red where the dinosaur’s name is printed. All the kits have similar printing on the back of the box too, but the name of the dinosaur featured should be clearly displayed.

There is another way to check, if you look on the top of the box, illustrations of the four dinosaur skeletons in this series are shown. There should be a tick or mark in the circle next to the skeleton illustration to indicate which dinosaur is in the kit, although we at Everything Dinosaur recommend you check the printing on the back of the box as sometimes this “check mark” is difficult to make out.

The Top of the Box Should Provide Guidance as to Which Dinosaur is in Each Kit

A tick or mark in the white circle identifies the dinosaur skeleton in the box.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

In the picture above we have highlighted the “check mark” area to help customers find the information they are looking for.

To view the range of educational prehistoric animal themed skeleton kits available from Everything Dinosaur: Dinosaur Themed Toys and Gifts.

All the kits we supply in this fossil finds range are sent out with a dinosaur fact sheet which provides more information about the dinosaur the kit represents. Hopefully, this article will help our customers to sort out which fossil find kit is which and save any confusion when preparing a lesson plan for use in school or when getting ready for a dinosaur themed birthday party or some other event.

30 04, 2014

Colourful and Beautiful Dinosaur Soft Toys

By Mike|2024-05-02T06:16:16+01:00April 30th, 2014|Categories: Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Everything Dinosaur Products, Photos of Everything Dinosaur Products, Press Releases|0 Comments

Blue Tyrannosaurus rex, Green Stegosaurus and a Red Spinosaurus

Lots of happy customers who love the recently introduced colourful range of dinosaur soft toys. Team members have been receiving praise for this range of large dino themed plush and the accompanying baby dinosaurs that go with them.

Colourful Soft Toy Dinosaurs

Dinosaur soft toys available in two sizes.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Colourful Dinosaur Soft Toys

We are not sure whether its their super soft textures or perhaps it is the bright colours, after all, who can resist a crimson Spinosaurus. The large dino soft toys are around forty-eight centimetres in length, whilst the matching baby dinosaurs are in the region of thirty centimetres tall. Naturally, every dinosaur soft toy we sell at Everything Dinosaur is sent out with its very own dinosaur fact sheet telling you all about the dinosaur that the plush is based on.

To see the range of dinosaur soft toys available: Dinosaur Soft Toys.

To see the range of dinosaur themed clothing available: Dinosaur Themed Clothing.

That reminds us we must print off some more fact sheets about Stegosaurus.

Soft Toy Dinosaurs Proving Quite a Hit this Spring

Children playing with super soft dinosaurs. Lots of prehistoric animal soft toys to choose from.

We were told by one young dinosaur fan that her green Stegosaurus was very friendly, her brother liked the blue Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur soft toy best.

26 04, 2014

Everything Dinosaur Sponsors Prestigious and Important Model Contest

By Mike|2024-04-12T18:24:00+01:00April 26th, 2014|Categories: Dinosaur Fans, Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Press Releases|0 Comments

Everything Dinosaur Sponsors the 2014 Dinosaur Toy Forum Diorama Competition

Everything Dinosaur is proud to sponsor the 2014 Dinosaur Toy Forum Diorama contest, a chance for model makers and dinosaur fans to show off their skills in creating prehistoric scenes. This highly respected competition is open to all members of the Dinosaur Toy Forum and this annual contest attracts model makers from all over the world.

Everything Dinosaur

Can you Create a Prehistoric Scene?

Create a realistic Ice Age scene.

Commenting on this year’s showcase for aspiring Ray Harryhausen’s, Dr Adam Smith of the Dinosaur Toy Forum stated:

“It’s that time of year again! I’m delighted to announce The Dinosaur Toy Forum Diorama Contest 2014 sponsored by Everything Dinosaur! We have some wonderful prizes again this year courtesy of our generous sponsor.”

The rules and regulations for the 2014 contest are as follows:

Entry is free and all members of The Dinosaur Toy Forum, including staff, are invited to participate. Non-members wishing to enter are invited to register to the forum (this is free).
Dioramas have to feature prehistoric organisms, from Trilobita to Triceratops from Acanthocladia to Zosterophyllum, it does not matter, so long as its prehistoric.
The deadline for entries is Saturday 27th September 2014. Entries received after 00.00 hours GMT September 27th will be invalid.
One diorama per member. Once submitted it cannot be exchanged for an alternative entry.
Entries must be accompanied by a creative title.
Dioramas have to be new (never published on the web before) and you must have produced the diorama yourself. Stealing somebody else’s diorama will result in disqualification.
Photoshop is allowed, but the original photograph(s) must be your own.
Winners will be selected by a poll open to all Dinosaur Toy Forum members (there will be no professional judges), that will take place shortly after the closing date. There will be three winners in first, second and third place respectively (no joint positions), as selected by the poll. In the event of a tie for any position, a tie-break poll will be created. There will also be three non-prize winning honourable mentions.

Last Year’s Winning Entry – “Three Angry Chicks”

The winning entry last year.

Picture credit: federreptil (2013 contest sponsored by Safari Ltd)

A spokes person from Everything Dinosaur commented: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Models.

“We are pleased to be involved with this annual competition. It gives model fans of all ages the opportunity to get creative and to show how imaginative they can be. Behaviour is rarely preserved in the fossil record, so we will be fascinated to see what scenarios the contestants come up with. We wish everybody the very best of luck.”

Everything Dinosaur Sponsors Prestigious Model Contest

Proud to sponsor the competition.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view Everything Dinosaur’s range of prehistoric animal models:

How to Enter

-Entries will remain anonymous until the winners are announced. For this reason we request that entrants do not watermark or sign their entries.
-Entries should be submitted as a .jpg file 1000px wide.
-Entries should be sent via email as an attachment to [email protected]. The email title should read as follows: “dinosaur diorama contest 2014 – [forum username]”, and the email body should include the diorama title.

For further guidance Everything Dinosaur recommends that The Dinosaur Toy Forum should be viewed and consulted or emails can be sent to the email address provided immediately above.

On behalf of Everything Dinosaur, just time to say good luck to every one.

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

Please note this contest is now closed.

14 04, 2014

Make Your Own Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

By Mike|2023-03-12T08:51:00+00:00April 14th, 2014|Categories: Dinosaur Fans, Educational Activities, Main Page, Press Releases|0 Comments

A Spring Holiday Activity Idea – Making Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

Here’s a simple and fun recipe aimed at young dinosaur fans, a recipe to make dinosaur chocolate nests. This is a great activity for the Easter or spring holidays.

Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

Dinosaur Chocolate Nests – What you Need

Ingredients – (makes a batch of about 8 to 10 dinosaur nests)

Plain or Milk cooking Chocolate 225 grammes (8oz)
Packet of Breakfast Cereal Cornflakes or Shredded Wheat variety
Packet of Sugar Coated Mini-chocolate Eggs
Pack of Small Cake Cases

A recipe to make dinosaur chocolate nests.

Make your own dinosaur chocolate nests.

How to Make the Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

1. Take the cooking chocolate out of its wrapper and snap it into small pieces into a heat-proof bowl. Then melt the chocolate over a pan of hot water (simmering). Putting the bowl in a microwave for 30 seconds (full power), will help to melt the chocolate if you are in a hurry and need to get the chocolate to melt more quickly.

2. Once melted remove from the heat (turn off the heat source) and give the chocolate a quick stir to ensure all the chocolate pieces have melted.

3. Put in the chosen breakfast cereal, a little at first then gradually add more until the chocolate/cereal mix takes on the appearance of twigs or wood in a nest.

4. Spoon enough of the chocolate/cereal mix into each of the cake cases, a table spoon is usually sufficient. Make a little indentation in the centre of each chocolate dinosaur next, this hollow is where the eggs will be placed.

5. Put two mini-chocolate eggs into the hollow formed at the centre of each nest. The chocolate being sticky, will ensure that the eggs stay in place. A pair of eggs per nest is all that is needed. Palaeontologists know that dinosaurs laid their eggs in twos (dinosaurs unlike birds had two ovipositors) – the egg laying apparatus of a dinosaur has been described as being like a “double barrelled shot-gun”.

6. Then leave the nests to harden and set, they should be ready to eat in under 2 hours.

Great for a Dinosaur Party – Dinosaur Chocolate Nests

Super dinosaur chocolate nests which are fun and easy to make.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view Everything Dinosaur’s huge range of products: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

Some Facts about dinosaur eggs (for all young, budding palaeontologists)

A). Dinosaur eggs were not as large as many people think, the largest dinosaur eggs known to science are about the size of a soccer ball. Some of the biggest dinosaur eggs have been ascribed to a genus of huge, long-necked dinosaur (titanosaur), whose fossils have been found in France. This dinosaur is called Hypselosaurus (the name means “high ridged lizard”. Hypselosaurus was named and described back in 1869, from fossils found in Provence, however, scientists are unsure as to whether the genus name can be established based on such fragmentary fossil evidence. The genus is now termed a nomen dubium, palaeontologists have doubts about its validity.

B). Dinosaur eggs were lots of different shapes, some were very round, some oval shaped, some even quite pointy at one end. The shape of the egg tells scientists a little about the dinosaur that laid them. Something like forty different types of dinosaur egg have now been identified by scientists.

C). The classification of fossil eggs is referred to as ootaxa, dinosaur eggs are classified in virtually the same way as other organisms are classified using the classical Linnaean method (after the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus 1707-1778), there are oofamilies, oogenera and oospecies.

D). Some dinosaurs were very attentive parents, incubating the eggs and protecting the nest. When the eggs hatched the parents brought food to the nest for the baby dinosaurs.

E). The oldest dinosaur eggs that contain the fossils of baby dinosaurs inside them were found in China and a report published on them in 2013. These eggs are around 190 million years old.

Dinosaur Fossilised Eggs (Hypselosaurus)

Fossilised Dinosaur Eggs but who laid them?

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Articles on dinosaur egg discoveries published by Everything Dinosaur:

X). Not the World’s Biggest Dinosaur Eggs!

Y). Treasure Trove of Dinosaur Eggs Discovered in India.

Z). School Children Make Dinosaur Egg Discovery.

12 04, 2014

“Ovi the Oviraptor” Finds a New Home

By Mike|2023-03-12T07:07:09+00:00April 12th, 2014|Categories: Everything Dinosaur News and Updates, Everything Dinosaur Products, Press Releases|0 Comments

Ovi the Oviraptor – Competition Entrants

The Everything Dinosaur win “Ovi the Oviraptor” soft toy competition has now closed. Our winning entry in the find a surname for “Ovi” has been announced and the prize, an Oviraptor soft toy, has already been despatched. The very cute and cuddly dinosaur soft toy should be with the lucky winner in few days or so.

Everything Dinosaur

We had lots of competition entries in the three weeks or so that we ran the competition. Team members at Everything Dinosaur adopted a soft toy in the office, the dinosaur soft toy represented Oviraptor with its big eyes and feather covered wings, trouble is, we could not agree on a surname for “Ovi” and so the idea for a competition came about.

A Very Cute and Cuddly Oviraptor Dinosaur Soft Toy

A very cute and cuddly dinosaur soft toy!

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Oviraptor

With “Ovi” looking for a new name and a new home we launched the competition in the run up to the Easter break. After all, Oviraptor means “egg thief” and although this Mongolian feathered dinosaur has been much maligned, as Easter is associated with eggs, we thought a contest involving the “egg thief dinosaur” was appropriate.

What a fantastic amount of entries we had, there are just far too many to give everyone a mention but we will list a few of the competition entrants here so that readers can get an idea of all the clever names that were put forward.

Dinosaur Names

Tony – Ovi – the heart thief, Flossy – Ovi Osborn (we had quite a few Ovi Osborn suggestions), Ovi Philips from Spencer, Pjotr suggested Ovi Eggsy, Ovi James – thanks Nicole, Tyler sent us two names Ovi Eggward and Ovi Dinozawr (dinosaur in Russian as we are reliably informed). Then we had Ovi Ovoid from Jane, Ovi Orzo from Skye, Ovi Kenovi from Lynne, Ovi Parity from Joe. Sam proposed Ovi Kenobi (we had a lot of these), then there was Ovi Buddy from Jason, Kyle gave us Ovi Raptor, Rosemary sent Ovi Gorgeous, we had so many clever competition entries.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s huge range of soft toy dinosaurs and prehistoric animals: Soft Toy Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals.

The winning entry, the one that was pulled out of one of our hard hats we use when working on fossil locations, was “Ovi Roy”. Why “Ovi Roy you might ask? The person responsible for leading the expedition to Mongolia which led to the discovery of the first Oviraptor fossils to be formally described was the famous American adventurer and naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews.

Far too many to list here but a big thank you to everyone who entered. We will come up with more competitions and free downloads in the future, in the meantime, here’s to Ovi Roy in his new home.

2 03, 2014

Longer Days and Low Tides Bring out Fossil Hunters

By Mike|2023-03-11T08:40:52+00:00March 2nd, 2014|Categories: Geology, Press Releases|0 Comments

Fossil Hunters Warned to Take Care when Visiting Dorset Beaches

With the longer days and the relatively calmer weather the southern coast of England has been experiencing recently, fossil hunters may be tempted to venture out onto the beach to look for fossils. However, team members at Everything Dinosaur are urging all would-be fossil hunters to take great care as they venture out to look for ancient remains of life that may have been washed out of cliffs as a result of the winter storms.

Fossil Hunters

A spokes person from the UK based dinosaur company stated:

“Although many people will be tempted to visit the Dorset coast and other coastal locations looking for fossils, we urge everybody to take precautions. Many of the cliffs remain extremely dangerous and land slides and rock falls are very common, it is best to stay away from the cliffs.”

Hazardous Conditions for Fossil Hunters

Dangerous conditions for beachcombers.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur/Brandon Lennon

Looking for Fossils

Over the next few weekends, thousands of amateur palaeontologists will been drawn to the area, encouraged by news of recent fossil discoveries but many will be unaware of the risks they are taking by climbing or searching too close to the falling cliffs. The arrow in the picture above shows a person stood next to a recent rock fall, this helps to provide a sense of scale for the landslide.

Richard Edmunds, a geologist who works for Dorset County Council stated that if people were sensible then fossil hunting on the beaches of Dorset can be a wonderful experience but he advised that it was best to stay away from the cliffs. He echoed the sentiments expressed by Everything Dinosaur team members.

The geologist went onto add:

“Yes, the fossils are coming out of the cliff-falls, but they are impossible to find in the mud. People do get stuck which is why we have a mud rescue team in the coastguard. It is best to look [for fossils] on the beach, where the sea has done all the hard work of cleaning the fossils.

For models and replicas of iconic fossil animals from the “Jurassic Coast” of Dorset: CollectA Age of Dinosaurs/Prehistoric Life Models.