New Addition to the Carnegie Collectibles Model Range, Ammonites and the Ascent of Man

Safari Ltd, those clever figure and model manufacturers have given Everything Dinosaur a peek around the curtain as it were and sent our team members details of the company’s new product releases for 2014.  Back in early September, Everything Dinosaur released details of some of the new additions to the Wild Safari Dinos and Prehistoric Life range of models and what exciting news it was, with the likes of a Suchomimus, a Pachyrhinosaurus and a Monolophosaurus being added to this not to scale range.

To read more about the new for 2014 Wild Safari Dinos model releases: New Prehistoric Animal Models from Safari Ltd.

Prehistoric Animal Releases

Now we can reveal details of further new prehistoric animal models being released next year and let’s start with a new addition to the Carnegie Scale Model Dinosaur Collectibles – Tyrannosaurus rex.

Carnegie Scale Model Collectible T. rex Model Available in 2014

New for 2014 a new model of the “Tyrant Lizard King”!

Picture credit: Safari Ltd

Tyrannosaurus rex Model

Measuring a fraction over nineteen centimetres long and with a head height of just below fourteen centimetres this new T. rex model is bound to get collectors and young dinosaur fans roaring with delight.  We have a red headed model Tyrannosaurus rex to look forward to.  The “red head” theory springs from the debate between two distinguished palaeontologists Bob Bakker who proposed that this dinosaur was an active predator and Jack Horner who proposed the theory that T. rex was an obligate scavenger.

Jack Horner postulated that fully grown, mature individuals probably did not need to do much hunting.  They could simple sniff out a recent kill made by another predator with T. rex’s tremendous sense of smell and then bully the other unfortunate carnivores into surrendering their dinner.  The bright red colouration on the head, would have emphasised the ferocity of a T. rex to other dinosaurs (Dinosauria probably had excellent colour vision), so T. rex could have gained an easy meal without having to hunt for itself.

A Close up of that Ferocious Red Head

Exciting News for 2014.

Picture credit: Safari Ltd

A New Ammonite Model

With the retirement of the Museum Line ammonite model, fans of prehistoric cephalopods may have been worried about how they were going to show what these extinct marine creatures actually looked like.  Safari Ltd have stepped in to plug the gap and will be releasing an ammonite model as part of their Wild Safari Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life replica series.  The ammonite model measures over thirteen centimetres in length and the deeply ribbed shell has an impressive diameter of six and a half centimetres.

New  Ammonite Model for 2014

Large eyes, deeply ribbed shell perhaps a model of a Pavlovia spp?

Picture credit: Safari Ltd

The Safari Ltd ammonite model is definitely a predator, with its large eyes and with its two longest tentacles striking out to grab prey.  The replica is posed in the typical attack pose of a cephalopod, the same pose is seen in octopi, squid and cuttlefish today as they strike out at prey.

Another exciting development is the introduction of a set of five models that show part of the story of our own evolution (hominin evolution).  Safari Ltd have created five early human figures ranging from an Australopithecine (A. afarensis), to our species H. sapiens via H. habilis (handy man), H. erectus (upright man), to a Neanderthal and then to us.

The Evolution of Man (and Woman)

Tracing our evolution.

Picture credit: Safari Ltd

Evolution of Mankind Model Set

These models are going to prove “handy” no pun intended H. habilis, what with the theory of evolution forming part of the teaching curriculum in the United Kingdom.  Bullyland of Germany used to have a set showing the “Ascent of Man”, but this six model series was officially retired a long time ago.  The hominin figures range in size from 6.75 cm in height to 7.25 cm and they are intended to be sold as a blister pack (a set of models).

These are exciting times for Safari Ltd and Everything Dinosaur we look forward to hearing more about these new figures.

In the meantime, to view the range of Safari Ltd models stocked by Everything Dinosaur: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Figures.

Leading Toy Magazine Interviews Everything Dinosaur about the Dinosaur Toy Market

Team members at Everything Dinosaur have been brushing up their dinosaur knowledge in readiness for an interview with a journalist who writes for one of the leading toy industry magazines.  With so much media interest in all things dinosaur at the moment, the magazine is producing an article about dinosaur and prehistoric animal toys, so naturally Everything Dinosaur was contacted and asked to participate.  Fortunately for us, these were telephone interviews so no make-up required.

Everything Dinosaur Interviewed

The interviewer wanted to know which dinosaurs were popular at the moment, we were able to draw on figures compiled as a result of our annual prehistoric animal survey which provides a top ten of children’s favourite prehistoric monsters.  In addition, we were able to point out some trends in sales and touch upon our role in schools conducting dinosaur themed workshops with school children as part of our commitment to teaching science in schools.

Why are Dinosaurs So Popular?

One of the questions asked was – “Why are dinosaurs so popular?”  That’s quite a tough question to answer, especially when you consider that we have customers from three years to eighty-three years of age and we get letters, emails, drawings and such like sent into us from all over the world.  However, we gave it a try and came up with the following response:

Like many things, when it actually comes to studying dinosaurs the simple answer is no one really knows.  Most people young and old are fascinated with monsters imagined or otherwise.  Psychologists when asked, often refer to the fact that  many dinosaurs were large and very frightening but since children very quickly learn that most of the Dinosauria are extinct and they can’t harm them, dinosaurs are sort of safe monsters.

The spokesperson went onto add:

Our  view at Everything Dinosaur is as follows, some dinosaurs were spectacular and amazing, we show children in schools some of the fossils that we have and we get the wide-eyes and jaw-dropping look.  Some of the carnivorous dinosaurs  like T. rex were so big that they could swallow you whole, a child could sit inside the stomach of a Triceratops stretch out their arms as wide as they can and the could not touch its ribs on either side.  We just think dinosaurs are amazing and lots of other people do too.”

Everything Dinosaur

We are not sure when the feature will be published, but we are looking forward to seeing our contribution.

To visit Everything Dinosaur’s user-friendly website: Everything Dinosaur.

Checking on Our Progress after Nine Months

Six months ago, we looked at the progress team members at Everything Dinosaur had made towards the targets set at the start of the year regarding the company’s social media activities.  At the start of 2013, we set out a number of predictions as to what we thought was going to happen over the next twelve months or so.  As well as trying to predict news stories about fossil discoveries and dinosaurs, our team members set out some targets for themselves to see how things develop on the various social media platforms.

Everything Dinosaur

Specifically, we set ourselves the following challenges at the beginning of the year:

• Six hundred and fifty Ezine articles approved and published
• One Thousand Facebook likes on Everything Dinosaur’s Facebook Page
• Ezine Challenge completed 365 articles approved and published since February 25th 2012
• 300,000 Video Views on Everything Dinosaur’s YouTube Channel
• Everything Dinosaur to join Pinterest with 1,000 re-pins

All to be completed by the end of this year, so nine months in, how are we doing?

• Six hundred and fifty Ezine Articles approved and published

Ezine articles published is currently standing at 550, we have slowed down our submission rate after being advised by our technical assistants who know about organic listings and search like.  With the changes made to some indexing on the major search engines we have reduced our article submission rate.  It is unlikely that we will reach the 650 article target set, but we can be excused for this, after all, we are only following the advice of experts.

• One Thousand Facebook likes on Everything Dinosaur’s Facebook Page

Everything Dinosaur on Social Media

Everything Dinosaur continues to publish lots of pictures, links, illustrations and other material on the company’s Facebook page.   We are always keen to hear from our customers, we respond to every question and reply to messages,  we even publish some of the pictures sent into us by very young dinosaur fans.  To date we have 625 “likes” which is quite a healthy level and we are grateful to everyone who has contributed.

If you want to give Everything Dinosaur a “like” to help us towards our target of 1,000 likes by the end of the year just click the Facebook logo:

Click the logo to visit our Facebook page.

We are delighted to hear from fellow fossil collectors, teachers and all round dinosaur enthusiasts, we really appreciate your input.

• Ezine Challenge completed 365 articles approved and published since February 25th 2012

It was hard work but we were able to achieve our target of writing 365 articles in exactly 365 days.  This challenge was set back on February 25th 2012 and we completed it with about a month to spare.

• Three Hundred Thousand Video Views on our YouTube Channel

We have put up over sixty videos to date, most of them reviews of new model releases and  we have already far exceeded the original target of 300,000 video reviews.  Back in March when we looked at our progress it was suggested we should have a target of 500,000 video reviews by the end of 2013, this target may well be reached by the end of this month, so perhaps a target of 600,00 should be set.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s channel on YouTube: Everything Dinosaur on YouTube.

• Everything Dinosaur to join Pinterest and to have 1,000 Picture Pins

We joined Pinterest back in January, we have really enjoyed seeing and re-pinning all the amazing fossil pictures and dinosaur themed illustrations on Pinterest.  Here too, we have started to pin up more examples from our customers, we are grateful for all the correspondence that we receive and yes, we do read them all.  So far, we have pinned up over like 1125 pictures and images.  We have already passed the thousand pins target set at the beginning of the year, it was muted that a target of two thousand should be set, but with the Christmas sales period approaching we can’t see us getting near this particular target, still, we can only try our best.

To visit our Pinterest pages, simply click on the Pin It logo below:

Click to visit Everything Dinosaur’s Pinterest pages.

Just as always, we remain dedicated to our customers and enthusiastic about our social media work.   Let’s see how close or how far over the targets the team members at Everything Dinosaur can be by the end of the year.

For fans of dinosaur toys and prehistoric animal models you are welcome to peruse the extensive stock available for sale on Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Visit Everything Dinosaur.

Three New Dinosaurs for the Wild Safari Dinos Model Range

Everything Dinosaur team members can reveal that following a meeting with staff from Safari Ltd we can talk about some of the new model releases for 2014.  Safari Ltd are going to be adding around seventy or so new lines to their model range next year, not all of them dinosaurs or prehistoric animals of course but there are certainly going to be some excellent new additions to the company’s highly regarded prehistoric animal replicas portfolio.

Wild Safari Dinos

Let’s focus on the not to scale Wild Safari Dinos model series for the time being.  First up there is a very detailed Pachyrhinosaurus model being added to this range.  In 2012, Safari Ltd added the horned dinosaur Vagaceratops, this year we have the much admired Diabloceratops and in 2014 Safari Ltd want to keep up the trend of adding a ceratopsian by launching a model of “Thick Nosed Lizard”.

A Monolophosaurus Dinosaur Model

Next comes the Wild Safari Dinos Monolophosaurus, and it is a lovely interpretation of this Chinese theropod.  The single crest on the snout is painted a muted red colour and there is lots of detail to admire in this replica.

Wild Safari Dinos Monolophosaurus

Middle Jurassic theropod dinosaur.  The new for 2014 Wild Safari Dinos Monolophosaurus model.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

The Spinosaurid Suchomimus

A new version of the spinosaurid Suchomimus completes the first of the new prehistoric animal models that Everything Dinosaur team members have been privy to.  The Suchomimus is depicted in a typical “dinosaur fishing pose” and the models we saw were painted a lovely, deep blue colour.

We will post up pictures and more details when we have permission to do so, but from what we have seen Safari Ltd are going to have some super new additions to their dinosaur models in 2014.  Everything Dinosaur has already committed to stocks and we are optimistic that these items will be on line in our web store in the spring.

To view the range of Safari Ltd prehistoric animal figures in stock at Everything Dinosaur: Prehistoric World Models and Figures.

The Misleading Sabre-Toothed Tiger  – How did Sabre-Toothed Cats become Tigers?

As team members are busy helping out at an exhibition featuring Ice Age creatures, it seems appropriate this weekend to raise the issue of the misleading term often applied to Sabre-toothed cats.  These extinct predators are often referred to as “Sabre-toothed tigers”, although such animals are not related to modern, extant tigers.

Smilodon

Smilodon fatalis – Sabre-Toothed Cat

Not a tiger!

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Although, the likes of S. fatalis and Smilodon populator are member of the Felidae (cat family) they are classified as members of the Machairodontinae, whilst extant tigers, lions, leopards, today’s “big cats” are ascribed to the Pantherinae.  Sabre-tooths are not closely related to tigers.

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented:

“Often these animals are referred to as Sabre-toothed tigers, we do use this terminology in order to assist customers with queries, orders and with product searches but the name is confusing and when asked we do our best to explain the differences between the machairodonts and other large felid predators.”

For dinosaur and prehistoric animal models and figures including Smilodon figures (whilst stocks last): Rebor Replicas and Models.

Sabre-Toothed Tiger?

How the term Sabre-tooth tiger came about, is something of a mystery.  Staff at Everything Dinosaur have discussed this, but none of us can provide a definitive answer.  However, a clue to the origin of the term may lie in a painting of a prehistoric cat.

Many of the Sabre-toothed cats were first scientifically studied and described in the mid 19th century, genera like the Machairodus which was erected in 1832 and Smilodon which was established in 1846.   Many leading figures in Victorian society were keen to champion the sciences, especially the relatively new sciences of palaeontology and geology.  As natural history museums were built to house ever-growing national collections, so fossils of prehistoric cats began to be put on display.

To help illustrate these exhibits a number of artists produced paintings in an attempt to depict these creatures.  The colouration of Sabre-tooth cats remains open to speculation, these predators lived in a variety of habitats from open plains, bush country and forested areas.  It is likely that a number of species had widely varying coats, perhaps even stripes like a tiger.

Lancelot Speed

One famous British artist and illustrator, Lancelot Speed (1860-1931) produced an illustration in 1905 that depicted Machairodus with stripes.  With all the big game hunting going on in what was now the Edwardian era, perhaps Speed was influenced by tiger hunting in India.  Whatever the reason, his magnificent picture depicting a striped Sabre-toothed cat might be the reason why the phrase “Sabre-toothed tiger caught on with the public.

Machairodus Illustrated by Lancelot Speed

The origins of the Sabre-toothed tiger?

The Sabre-toothed cat in the illustration is very much like a tiger, the artist has even given this big cat white flashes over the eyes reminiscent of a Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), the most numerous of all the tiger sub-species left on Earth today.  Perhaps it was popular depictions of striped Sabre-tooths such as the painting above that led to the adoption of the term “Sabre-toothed tiger”, even though it is scientifically inaccurate.

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

Happy Eighth Birthday Everything Dinosaur

Today marks the official birthday of Everything Dinosaur, our eighth birthday to be precise.  We had to come up with an official starting date many years ago and August 1st seemed as good as any we could think of.  Everything Dinosaur team members had been working on all sorts of dinosaur and prehistoric animal projects way before, but with all the forms and documents businesses have to fill in these days, a “start” date is often needed so this date became our official birthday.

Everything Dinosaur

Traditional gifts for an eighth anniversary are bronze and pottery, so we set about trawling the Everything Dinosaur photo archives for some appropriate images.  It’s amazing you can never find pictures of pottery dinosaurs when you need them.  Ironically, we have quite a few pictures of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals cast in bronze, but not a single pottery or china dinosaur amongst our vast image collection (that we could find anyway).

Bronze Albertosaurus from Canada

A bronze dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Happy Birthday Everything Dinosaur

As team members visit schools they often get the chance to view the dinosaur themed arts and crafts created by the children as they study prehistoric animals.  We have not come across a lot of pottery prehistoric animals but whilst working with a reception and year 1 class this spring, we were shown their collection of dinosaurs and other monsters that they had created in clay.  Not quite pottery dinosaurs but as close as we could get from our archives.

Clay Prehistoric Animals on Display at Primary School

Not quite pottery dinosaurs, but as close as we could get.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Perhaps we could cheat a bit and list some Chinese dinosaurs, although not made from pottery we could at least say that they come from China.  It would be a big list, there are so many new dinosaur discoveries coming out of China at the moment.  The Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing has more than 200,000 fossil vertebrate specimens, a good portion of these are dinosaurs and holotype material.  The museum was only established in 1957, we wonder if they have any images of pottery dinosaurs in their enormous collection?

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