Some team members at Everything Dinosaur were given the opportunity to explain what the company was up to and how the business is progressing yesterday. They were asked to contribute a piece to a daily, national UK newspaper, as a follow up article written about Everything Dinosaur last year.
Below is what we came up with, after a bit of coaching and assistance from the journalist.
Our Proposed Article
With tales of an economic downturn and difficult business conditions it makes a change to hear about an unusual but successful, small British firm that is bucking the current trend for bad news.Sales at Everything Dinosaur are up and the specialist retailer of dinosaur themed toys and games has recently had to expand its warehouse and take on more help with packing orders to cope with demand.
Everything Dinosaur
For the people behind Everything Dinosaur, the last 12 months have been exceptionally busy, as the company has expanded, developing more products, growing export sales and becoming established as a supplier of prehistoric animal teaching materials to schools and colleges.
Everything Dinosaur has customers all over the world.One of the company’s latest projects is to support teachers in Soweto, providing lesson plans and dinosaur information to South African school children.The team have even sent dinosaurs to the North Pole!
“Our success is down to a number of factors, everyone works very hard, we always look after our customers and we are prepared to take advice, after all, we were business novices when we started, but then the majority of people starting their own business arenovices too;” commented Sue, who with her partner Mike, set the company up four years ago.
The company’s unusual blend of parents, teachers and dinosaur experts are currently gearing themselves up for the busy Christmas period, but Mike has just recently taken time out to assist with the development of a new children’s story book using dinosaur models to help teach reading skills.
Mike and some of the Models used in the Children’s Story Book
Despite difficult trading conditions, the team at Everything Dinosaur are optimistic about the future and have plans to expand the company further by developing a bespoke dinosaur party themed website.Here’s one group of dinosaurs that are not likely to be going extinct!
Introducing the first of our new products in preparation for the Autumn and Christmas season (yes, indeed it is that time again). Our testers have been busy looking at potential new products for the Autumn season and after such favourable reviews from young dinosaur fans and their parents we have added this new product to our shop with the minimum of delay.
Dinosaurs in a tin, a simple concept, a dozen, sturdy plastic prehistoric animal models packed into a handy dinosaur storage tin, with its own carrying handle. We promise to add a good mix of prehistoric animals into each tin and the whole box makes a super birthday or Christmas gift, for that young dinosaur fan. It is a super dinosaur model set.
Dinosaurs in a Tin from Everything Dinosaur
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
This particular item has proved very popular in our testing programmes, the children found the models a big hit and loved the colourful tin box that carries them. As for the adults, they liked the novelty and the emphasis on encouraging creative and imaginative play.
This product is just one of our “assorted dinosaurs range”, to learn more and to see what is available from the parents and teachers of Everything Dinosaur, click onto the link below.
Launched today is the new, updated and improved website from Everything Dinosaur, providing even more help and support for on line shoppers looking for dinosaurs and prehistoric animal themed merchandise.
Everything Dinosaur Website
As well as all the established features expected by our many thousands of customers, the strong emphasis on personal security, staff on standby to assist with enquiries, Dino search facilities and so on, there are new features and improvements to the Everything Dinosaur shop.
The shop has been extensively upgraded with a more user friendly layout to assist with selection and to make the shopping experience more convenient. As always the emphasis has been placed on providing a helpful site with all the security and peace of mind expected from a long established mail order business.
The Dinosaur Party cakes section has been enlarged with more information, downloads and recipes to help with preparing dinosaur themed party food.
New Dinosaur Products
New products will be coming soon, in fact we intend to have a whole range of new models, plus dinosaur dressing up items, hats, lunchboxes, new back packs – far too many new, fun things for us to mention here. Best keep an watch on our website for developments, or subscribe to our customer newsletter to find out more.
If you require further information regarding new products, or indeed the improvements made to our website you are welcome to contact us:
As team members at Everything Dinosaur get sent lots of letters, drawings, pictures and posters of dinosaurs from fans of prehistoric animals we thought it would be a good idea if we had somewhere in the warehouse where we could display them. We have just added another big notice board to one of the walls in our warehouse. We shall dedicate this space to displaying all the dinosaur and prehistoric animal themed material that we receive from school children and other young fans of all things dinosaur.
Stacy chose to draw a green, armoured dinosaur with a very spiky tail. An example of a drawing that will be pinned to Everything Dinosaur’s new message board. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
The notice board is quite large, but we suspect that with all our visits to schools to teach about dinosaurs and with our ever growing mail bag we shall soon need a bigger notice board!
As always, our hard-working and dedicated team members promise to respond to all those that require a reply.
Despite the risk of another major landslide around the Lyme Regis area, the summer weather is bringing record crowds to the southern coast of England and in particular to go fossil hunting on the beaches that make up the Jurassic Coast. There has been an increase in the number of walkers taking advantage of the fine weather to explore the cliff top walks and officials at the Dorset council have urged everyone who uses the cliff top walks and trails to take notice of the safety signs that have been erected. Parts of the cliff remain unstable and walkers are urged not to go too close to the edge and to avoid sections of the path that have been marked.
Lyme Regis
Photograph taken in 2009, showing visitors to Lyme Regis and Charmouth. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
If fossil hunting on the beach, tourists are advised to stay well clear of the bottom of the cliffs and to take the advice of local coast guards and coast watchers with regards to tides and times.
Everything Dinosaur Scores 100% in Open University Fossil Study
Palaeontology as a science is always moving forwards, a new dinosaur species is named and described approximately every 6-8 weeks for example, and new methods and techniques are being used all the time to help scientists discover more about existing fossil finds.
With this in mind, it was decided that some of the team members at Everything Dinosaur should take a quick refresher course in fossils or a related subject – but which course to choose as there are a number available. Eventually it was agreed that some team members should sign up for a science short course with the Open University. Team members had studied with the Open University before, the courses offered are of a high standard and the flexible study programme fitted in with the busy schedules of staff.
The particular course chosen was S193 – Fossils and the History of Life. Drawing on expertise from within the Open University as well as from a number of other university Earth Science departments and British museums, the course would help team members refresh their memories over fossils and an overview of Life on Earth.
This course explains how organisms become fossilised, helps students to identify the common fossils they are likely to find in the UK, and shows them where they fit into the story of evolution. The course books also cover (in colour) spectacular fossils such as dinosaurs and other vertebrates; rare fossils that have soft parts preserved; human evolution; mass extinctions, and other key events in the evolution of life.
Everything Dinosaur
A set of replica fossils are provided on which students can learn to make and record observations on specimens. The course encourages people to think critically about reconstructions of prehistoric animals and plants, and the environments in which they lived.
As well as the course materials and course handbook, the study materials also included a hardback copy of the excellent book “Atlas of the Prehistoric World” and a DVD of a programme related to the subject.
Tyrannosaurus rex tooth a replica supplied by Everything Dinosaur. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.
There were two options that could be followed, a fast track option where the course had to be completed within 10 weeks or a longer format where the same work had to be covered but at a more leisurely pace. The course was both enjoyable and helpful and, as with all good courses there was a formal assessment at the end.
Candidates were challenged throughout the course with questions set to test understanding and learning. At the end of the course there was an on-line examination consisting of a set of tricky questions designed to test candidate’s knowledge.
It is pleasing to note that we received our results yesterday, team Everything Dinosaur scored 100% with all answers wholly correct and no partially correct answers.
So top marks to Everything Dinosaur, the course itself is not to a degree standard but it does provide a useful refresher and is an excellent course for people to study who have a passing interest in Earth Sciences. Besides, other team members are studying Geology with the Open University, this exam result sets the standard for them to beat.
The extremely rare Bullyland Prehistoric World range, a set of 1:24 scale models made by Bullyland of Germany includes the Bullyland ancient horse model and these figures have been in the news streams of a number of model collector forums recently. This range, largely retired this year, is going to be increasingly difficult to acquire and as a result model prices have rocketed. However, we at Everything Dinosaur don’t believe in exploiting the rarity of a model or replica by demanding high buying prices for such figures, we would rather help genuine model collectors complete their collections.
Bullyland Ancient Horse
Take for example, the prehistoric model horse (58360 – Anchitherium). This model is quite small it measures a fraction under ten centimetres in length. We have come across models on auction sites being offered for sale at very over inflated prices, this is not the way that we at Everything Dinosaur like to do business, so our prices for such models even the most rare will always be reasonable and fair.
Dinosaur Cookie Cutters – Make Dinosaur Shaped Biscuits and Snacks
Ideal for making Tyrannosaurus rex or Triceratops shaped snacks for dinosaur parties, a strong, sturdy set of dinosaur shaped cookie cutters, great for baking, school projects or even for cutting out shapes when working with clay. A metal dinosaur shaped cookie cutter set, ideal for young, hungry palaeontologists! The set includes four super prehistoric animal shaped biscuit cutters – T. rex, Triceratops, the long-necked Diplodocus and a super plated Stegosaurus.
Make Meal Times into Dinosaur Times
Dinosaur Cookie Cutters ideal for a dinosaur party!
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Just what you need to make your dinosaur party a “roaring” success.
Euro 2008 – Who has the most Prehistoric Animal Genera?
Just for a little bit of fun, todays’ article attempts to link the start of the European football championships with geology and palaeontology. Some of our staff members have been in the office today, trying to avoid hearing about the start of the European football championships. With no home country participation, the championships may well pass us by but there are sixteen teams in the tournament all aiming to do what the Greeks did in the last tournament held in 2004 and become the champions of Europe.
Prehistoric Animal Genera
We have compiled a quick and very approximate comparative table of the sixteen finalists in this tournament to see which country could be heralded as the “European Champions” in terms of the number of different prehistoric animal genera and ancient human species found in that particular country. Everything Dinosaur staff have compiled a table using various information sources and calculated a ranking for each country participating in the European Championships. The number of dinosaur and prehistoric animal genera have been quickly assessed, weighted against the actual size of the country and correlated against the number of mentions each country has had in our own web log.
There is no real scientific method behind our research, the information has been compiled just as a little bit of fun whilst working in the office this afternoon. According to our study, and weighted analysis of each country, Croatia comes out with the lowest rank (16) of the countries that have qualified for the finals. There have been relatively few finds in what is quite a small European country. Austria and Switzerland, the joint hosts may not be fancied by many football analysts to make much of an impact in the actual football tournament, but under our brief, unscientific study the hosts fair very differently. Austria for example, comes out with a ranking of fifteenth, whilst Switzerland in contrast are ranked seventh – the equivalent of making the quarter finals.
Portugal, one of the favourites for the football trophy comes out with a high ranking under our study. This relatively small country has had a number of different prehistoric animal genera discovered within their national boundaries. Fossils of dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurs, Allosaurids and Iguanodontids have all been reported from Portugal. As a result, Portugal comes out ranked fifth under our analysis.
Surprise, surprise based on our very crude reckoning we have crowned Germany as European champions. Not only do the Germans have an excellent record in the European Championships, after all, they are one of the favourites to win the competition, but they also have made a huge contribution to palaeontology and geology. Many important fossil finds have been discovered in Germany, examples being the likes of Ichthyosaurs, Liliensternus, Paratypothorax and of course perhaps one of the most important fossil finds of all – Archaeopteryx.
European Championship Table 2008
European Champions – Prehistoric Animal Genera v Country Size (Weighted and Ranked)
Country size/km
Prehistoric Animal Genera
Examples of Genera
Mentions in Blog
Rank
Group A
Czech Republic
79,000
4
Edaphosaurus, Cave Bear
0
14
Switzerland
41,000
1
Plateosaurus
3
7
Turkey
783,000
8
Cave Bear
1
9
Portugal
92,000
4
Brachiosaurus, Dacentrurus
6
5
Group B
Austria
84,000
5
Rhabdodon, Struthiosaurus
1
15
Croatia
56,000
3
Neanderthal Man
0
16
Germany
357,000
21
Archaeopteryx, Juravenator
30
1
Poland
312,000
6
Sauropods, Ornithopods, Allosaurs*
0
10
Group C
Holland
41,000
3
Mammoths
3
13
Italy
301,000
12
Scipionyx, Eudimorphodon
3
11
Romania
238,000
7
Valdosaurus, Rhabdodon
2
12
France
551,000
18
Liliensternus, Dacentrurus, Plateosaurus
9
2
Group D
Greece
132,000
4
Cave Bear
4
6
Russia
17,098,000
7
Psittacosaurus, Dimetrodon
9
4
Sweden
450,000
3
Hypsilophondontids
0
8
Spain
505,000
13
Baryonyx, Pelicanimimus
6
3
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Note
A number of different types of prehistoric animal have been identified within Poland, many of the dinosaurs have been identified from fossilised footprints (trace fossils). The actual genera cannot be determined under these circumstances but the taxonomic family can usually be stated with a degree of certainty.
So based on our findings and this very rough and ready analysis, it looks like Germany will be champions with France the runners up. The Germans do have an advantage as they have a tradition of prehistoric animal model making which is perhaps why that country receives a lot of mentions in our blog. Nevertheless, Germany has a proud heritage of scientific discovery and as a nation can claim to have some very important palaeontological sites within their boundaries – sites such as Holzmaden and Solnhofen with their late Jurassic sediments as well as early Tertiary sites such as the quarries near Messel in southern Germany.
Some typical prehistoric animals from Germany:
Iguanodon, Plateosaurus, Emausaurus, ichthyosaurs, Europasaurus, Batrachotomus and of course Liliensternus which was named in honour after Hugo Rühle von Lilienstern, a German palaeontologist.
Help turn a child’s bedroom into their very own dinosaur land with these glow in the dark dinosaur wall stickers. A set of two glow in the dark dinosaur stickers, by day pictures of Triceratops, a horned dinosaur and a ferocious Tyrannosaurus rex, by night these stickers glow revealing the skeletons of these dinosaurs.
Twin Pack of Glow in the Dark Dinosaur Stickers
Glow in the Dark Wall Stickers that features a Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex.
Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur
Everything Dinosaur sends out this twin pack of glow in the dark stickers with a fact sheet for Triceratops and another fact sheet for T. rex so that young dinosaur fans can learn about these amazing prehistoric animals that roamed North America at the end of the age of the dinosaurs. The stickers measure 20 centimetres high each and they are easy to stick to the wall, helping to theme up a child’s bedroom into their very own dinosaur land.
To view more dinosaur bedroom accessories and other prehistoric animal themed toys and gifts, then visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.
