Lyme Regis Fossil Festival Cancelled for this Year

The Lyme Regis Fossil Festival that was scheduled to run over the first Bank Holiday weekend of May, has been cancelled.  Unfortunately, what would have been the fourth festival has been pulled due to lack of sponsorship for this event.

Lyme Regis Fossil Festival

Plans are already in place to continue the festival and to make the event bigger in 2009, themed around the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the English scientist who influenced scientific thought through his theory of evolution.

Everything Dinosaur has been involved with this event since its inception,  helping to organise the event and participating with the events down at the Lyme Regis sea front and at nearby Charmouth on the “Jurassic” Dorset coast.

Past programmes have involved experts from the Natural History museum running fossil roadshows and identifying local finds, as well as events to mark the redevelopment of this part of the coast and the Lyme Regis coastal protection scheme.

Fossil Hunting in Dorset

Team members from Everything Dinosaur will no doubt be down in Dorset over the next few months and we will of course post further updates as progress on the 2009 events is made.

So roll on 2009.

In the meantime, visit Everything Dinosaur’s award-winning website: Everything Dinosaur.

Trade Shows – Everything Dinosaur Team Members being asked for Advice

Team members at Everything Dinosaur are often asked by parents and teachers to recommend a model or a set of models for a young dinosaur fan.  There are certainly lots of models to choose from and as a result the choice of a model can be a little confusing.

Many parents and teachers want to purchase dinosaur models that are reasonably accurate, that come with correct and scientifically based information and of course can help encourage creative play.  There are so many dinosaur sets around these days, but many are poorly designed and are simply not accurate.  Some of the team members at Everything Dinosaur are asked to advise on hang tag information, to write information notes to accompany models and such like.  Recent visits to a couple of trade fairs demonstrated clearly how many items purporting to depict prehistoric animals are available but they are simply not accurate.  It is a great shame to us (and also a source of immense frustration); when we see a model or an item such as a child’s dinner service, all nicely designed but the information provided is simply not correct.  Many adults purchase dinosaur and prehistoric animal merchandise in the belief that they are helping educate and encourage their children, but it saddens us when we see items and merchandise that contain information that are simply not accurate.

A Triceratops Spotted at a Trade Fair

Coming face to face with Triceratops at a trade fair.  Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

To view Everything Dinosaur’s range of prehistoric animal models: Dinosaur Models and Toys.

We do appreciate that to employ palaeontologists and museum staff to check and research data can be expensive but when the packaging, design and tooling costs are considered any expense in checking information would be relatively small.  Many of the wholesalers and retailers of such items are ignorant of this, they claim that their products are educational and talk openly about the information and facts that are included with their products.  However, as palaeontology is such a fluid science it can be difficult to keep up with the latest research and findings.  Many items have spelling mistakes, incorrect fact sheets and so on, which is a shame as young children have such an enthusiasm and are so keen to learn and absorb information.  We openly admit, we can make mistakes from time to time.  On numerous occasions the error of our ways has been pointed out by a well-informed young person and we do understand the appearance of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals can be open to interpretation.  For example, in many instances the posture of a model has to be compromised due to the difficulties in being able to sculpt and design an animal that can stand up.  The theropods are the worst, getting an allosaur or a tyrannosaur model to be stable when they are bipedal and difficult to balance with big heads and long tails, for instance.  This problem is solved by making the feet disproportionately bigger, or by putting the animal in a more stable posture “kangaroo style” as we call it.

We try and advise manufacturers and many approach us to pick our collective brains over prototypes and design concepts.  One of the interesting things that has begun to happen over the last 12 months or so is that our team members have been actively sought out by the MDs of companies to help and assist with design processes and packaging.  Having been to two trade fairs in 48-hours we have come back with a few new product ideas and suggestions and a lot of requests for assistance and help with other dinosaur and prehistoric animal related products.

The Most Popular Prehistoric Animals – Everything Dinosaur Survey Results

The fierce carnivore Tyrannosaurus rex is children’s favourite dinosaur, although Stegosaurus is catching up according to a survey published by the team at Everything Dinosaur, the specialist educational toy company.

Using information gathered from dinosaur drawing workshops with schoolchildren, as well as product sales and viewings from the company’s website Everything Dinosaur Website, a top ten list of popular prehistoric animals has been compiled. Not surprisingly, the ferocious Tyrannosaurus rex tops the chart but the gentle plant eater Stegosaurus has replaced Velociraptor in the number two position.

Prehistoric Mammals are well represented in the list with the Sabre-toothed cat and the Woolly Mammoth continuing to be popular.  With the appearance of a Sabre-toothed cat (Smilodon) in the next episode of the Primeval television programme on ITV1 (Saturday 26th January), the Smilodon is expected to be boosted further in popularity.

The Top Ten Best Selling/Most Popular Prehistoric Animals

1. Tyrannosaurus rex

2. Stegosaurus

3. Velociraptor

4. Triceratops

5. Pteranodon

6. Sabre-toothed Cat

7. Woolly Mammoth

8. Diplodocus

9. Spinosaurus

10. Giganotosaurus

Survey Source: Everything Dinosaur 2007