Prehistoric Times - 2017 Summer

SAVE OFFLINE

PT #122 covers_PT #73 covers 7/4/17 9:29 AM Page 1

PT #122 covers_PT #73 covers 7/4/17 9:29 AM Page 2

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 1

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 2

Writers in This Issue:

www.prehistorict

Randy Knol

Steve Kelley

Mike Fredericks

Phil Hore

John Gurche

Tracy Ford

John R. Lavas

Sylvia Czerkas

Allen Debus

Artists in this issue:

imes.com

Now, turn your head to the left and cough.

Mike Fredericks

John Goodier

John C Womack

Todd Mills

Fabio Pastori

Aaron Natera

Ryan McMurry

Nina Carbutt

Tracy Ford

Jacek Major

Eivind Bovor

John Sibbick

Russel J Hawley

Jeffrey Nevens

John Gurche

Mike Landry

Wade Carmen

Henry Sharpe

Curtis Lanaghan

Meg Bernstein

Luke Dickey

Douglas Henderson James Kuether Luis Rey Roz Gibson Kevin Hedgpeth

Please Subscribe today!

Tyler Greenfield Elliot Smith

Quentin Brendel

Jim Martinez

John K Patterson

Giovanni De Benedictis

David Stow

Kurt Miller

Diane Ramic

Warren “Tyler” Tufts

John F Davies

Nick Paradimitriou Clinton Harris

David Hicks

Subscribe Today! Visit our web site and use your credit card (through Paypal only) to

subscribe, resubscribe or buy back issues www.prehistorictimes.com Join the Prehistoric Times group for free on Facebook All payments in U.S. funds. Credit card payment through our site only Or mail your check/MO/cash to our address. Subscription Information below: Prehistoric Times • 145 Bayline Circle • Folsom, CA • 95630-8077 Table of Contents Prehistoric Times No. 122 Summer 2017 $35 U.S. Only (one year, 4 issues) third class postage. $40 U. S. first class postage and Canada $50 South of the border & across the Atlantic

My Life as Paleo Artist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gurche. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Burian’s Age of Amphibia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lavas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

$55 Across the Pacific

Edmontosaurus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Publisher/Editor: Mike Fredericks 145 Bayline Circle, Folsom, Ca 95630-8077

How to Draw Dinosaurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

(916) 985-7986 between 8-5 PST M-F business hours only please.

Collectors Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fredericks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

FAX (916) 985-2481 [email protected]

www.prehistorictimes.com

Don’t forget PT is also available as an app for your phone or computer Advertising: Full page - $150 b&w - $400 color; 1/2 pg - $100 b&w - $300 color;

Dinosaur Collector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Knol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Silent Roar (Dino Movies) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Czerkas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 What’s New in Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fredericks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Kronosaurus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Summer Vacation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fredericks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

1/4 pg - $75 b&w - $200 color

New Millennial Paleoimagery . . . . . . . . . . . Debus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 PT logo by William Stout Redone above by Thomas Miller Front cover graphic design by Juan Carlos Alonso

4

Mesozoic Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fredericks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Aurora Prehistoric Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 3

FROM THE EDITOR

From the blazing approval from the state Senate and the governor. hot inferno known In February 2017 paleontologists Jamie Jordan and as California, it’s time for another PT! I sit in my aircondiSarah Moore were visiting a site in Ewhurst, Surrey, tioned office with a fan blowing in my face and am still sweatEngland when they came across a block of compacted ing a little as I write. Sorry for the drips on your mag. EWW! clay that had formed a hard boulder. They split this block I first thank all of the writers of this issue who work so hard open and found a layer of associated bones and knew it and diligently for PT while I merely belittle and criticize them was a skeleton of a dinosaur. Fossils Galore Museum with derogatory remarks. volunteers travelled down and helped with the excavaFirst off, he is a hard-headed man and he is brutally handtion and preparation of the blocks. Once they were some and she is terminally pretty. Phil Hore tells us all about cleaned and broken down into movable pieces Jamie and Edmontosaurus and Kronosaurus (a fellow countryman of Sarah were able to identify that the bones were from a his) with a little SciFi thrown in for fun. We are delighted type of Ornithopod, plant eating dinosaur. Seven big to have the amazing Sylvia Czerkas, who tells us the fasciScientists have found the fossilized imprint of blocks full of bones were excavated, from the nating story of the silent filmmaker Major Herbert M skin from several different tyrannosaurs lately. No Wienerberger quarry, and needed to be broken down, Dawley who created some of the first dinosaur movies; a sign of feathers so far; only very rough, scaly skin. cleaned and preserved, by the Fossils Galore really interesting article we are proud to present for you. Be Museum volunteers with Jamie and Sarah, ready for sure to pick up the beautiful book and DVD advertised at the end of the article. transport back to Fossils Galore Museum in March, Cambridgeshire. The preparation Next, he had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude. They say he was ruthless; said he laboratory has been built around the dinosaur as the blocks are so large. There is a is crude. I’m talking about our Allen Debus, of course, who is back with part one of windowed area for the public to observe the volunteers carefully exposing more a fun article about a history of paleoimagery. Eager for action and hot for the game, bones. Jamie and Sarah have been able to examine the bones and have now deterall the way from New Zealand, John R. Lavas is back with his latest on the amazing mined that the dinosaur is a new type of Iguanodon and has been named Indie. Indie art of Zdenek Burian including rarely seen art. He knows all the right people and lived during the Cretaceous period, 132 Million Years ago and stood around 3 meters Steve Kelley is back showing off his huge Aurora Prehistoric Scenes collection. tall, 10 meters long and weighed 4.5 tons. Indie would have been prey for one of I think you all will know who I’m talking about when I say he threw outrageous England’s largest predators, Baryonyx, a relative of Spinosaurus. Fossils Galore parties and paid heavenly bills, our Tracy Ford presents us with his 100th “How to Museum is a not for profit organization that strives to save paleontologist specimens Draw Dinosaurs” article. That’s right, I said one hundred. That’s something to be realfrom being lost or destroyed. The museum receives no government funding and relies ly proud of Tracy and we are proud of you, my friend. Out every evening' until it was on visitors to keep the organization going. Website: www.fossilsgalore.com light, our Randy Knol offers up reviews of many of the latest prehistoric animal figMOVING?? PLEASE let us know your new address when you plan to move. The ures on the market today like he does every issue. magazine is NOT forwarded and it costs us to resend the magazine later to your new And for our front cover story, the coming attraction, the drop of a name, the one and “digs.” Also, if you subscribed to PT by sending your payment anywhere except only John Gurche actually contacted me, and offered to write his life story as a pale- directly to us, please know that we only received a small percentage of that payment. oartist for little ‘ole PT. This really blew my mind, the fact that an overfed, long-haired The people you sent the payment to got the majority of your money. When you (hopeleaping gnome like moi would be honored by such a respected paleoartist as John. But fully) renew your subscription, PLEASE do it by sending your payment directly to us. there I was. I told him I would have to think about it -- for about 1/1000th of a sec- We are a small business and could really use your support. Thanks so much to many ond!! I think you will recognize a lot of his iconic imagery but all the black and white of you who have started renewing directly with us. Would the rest of you please stop illustrations are work he did for the first Jurassic Park your automatic renewal with an internet submovie and have never been published before. Thanks scription service? We sure thank you! A beautiful 110 million-yearJohn. Part 2 appears in our next issue. ARTISTS! PT does not pay for submissions And finally, blowin' and burnin' and blinded by thirst, I, old fossil of a nodosaur was but many artists whose work is seen in found in a mine in Alberta and your PT editor, do my fair share of writing in this issue Prehistoric Times get paying work from other too. Thanks also to JC Alonso for graphics work and Carl is the best-preserved specimen of sources. Please send jpg files of your artwork Masthay for help with editing. So, there you have it - Life its kind. scanned at 300 DPI resolution. Send as an in the fast lane of PT. It will surely make you lose your approx 4” jpg with your name in the title of mind. the image--example--Triceratops by John Ya know, I’m looking on Pinterest and Deviantart at all Smith.jpg to our e-mail address or send good of the amazing prehistoric animal art there and I say to copies (that you don’t need returned and that myself, “Self, why don’t these artists send their artwork to aren’t larger than our 9 x 12 scanner bed) to our PT?” But you know what, I am so lucky that I have all of mailing address in California. We need your art you talented people that DO send your beautiful artwork and info. For #123 Ceratosaurus & azhto PT. Fact is, I really had more Krono and Edmonto art darchid pterosaurs (Sep 10, 2017) For #124 for this issue than I could fit but I worked very hard to Dinosaurs of Romania and Hateg Island & pretty much get it all in here. I know how fortunate I am Sea Scorpions (Dec 10 2017) Thank you! to have your support and I respect that and do my best to honor your hard work. Need I say it again? Yes, I do. Thank you all so very much. From artists, to advertisers to people that send us the latest paleonews to the people that buy the magazine, you make this magazine possible. I just sit back and take most of the credit for it, HA! My overheated state of California may soon have a state dinosaur. Lawmakers in the state Assembly voted to make a duck-billed dinosaur called Augustynolophus morrisi the official dinosaur of California. Fossilized remains Will Augustynolophus morrisi of the creature have been found become the official dinosaur of only in California. Seven other California? states and Washington, D.C., already have state dinosaurs. California already has 33 state insignia including a state lichen

! c o l o r s p r o u d ly T P r u o y r a e W t d in o s a u r s ! M a n y D if f e r e n

— lace lichen — and a state fabric, denim. The Augustynolophus won’t be the Golden State’s first prehistoric emblem — the saber-toothed cat is already the official state fossil. The bill also requires

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Original 1950s Marx Toys Kronosaurus with great marbling in the plastic.

MANY MORE DINOSAUR DESIGNS AVAILABLE TOO! ALL COLORS OF SHIRTS PLUS CAPS, MAGNETS, WATER BOTTLES, MUGS, BAGS, GLASSES AND MORE! AVAILABLE ON-LINE AT WWW.CAFEPRESS.COM/PRETIMES 5

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 4

MESOZOIC

Love the new issue. Seeing the Prehistoric Scenes kits makes me ask myself, "Why the &@$# didn't I take better care of them?!?" Would not have opened the kits had I foreknowledge they'd be worth a mint. I like the Prehistorix Plateosaurus. Envisioned a plateosaur PS kit in my modeling days. I wish that Aurora had put out a Diplodocus and made the Allosaurus the same size as T. rex. Well, maybe in a parallel universe. How about a Prehistoric Scenes animated film? Fans of PS kits like us would love to see that movie. Wade Carmen, Cleveland, Tn.

MAIL

Dear Mike: Prehistoric Times seems to be the only magazine dedicated to prehistory; Discovery and Scientific American run articles on various prehistoric subjects (including humans - is that archaeology, anthropology or paleontology in that case?) and occasionally have issues dedicated to paleontology, but that’s the extent of it. Prehistoric Times covers all three eras, very cool! The other advantage your magazine has is that it also talks to the collector of ‘prehistoricana’. For example, a while back the magazine reviewed a tabletop game called “Triassic Terror”. This looked interesting so I went down to the local gaming store and picked it up. The game is enjoyable (I replaced the cheap “Chinasaurs” with Schleich minis, a big improvement), but I wouldn’t have known about the game if I hadn’t read about it in the magazine. Keep up the good work! sincerely, Suzanne Grant, Rohnert Park, Ca. Hello Mike, I am enclosing my payment for another year of great dinosaur news. Keeping up with the latest dinosaur figures from all the best companies has my collection bursting at the seams. Lovin’ it! Thanks, Rae Zabit, Goshen, Ct

we went to print. Subsequent investigation by Burian enthusiast Jan Kopecky revealed that it was painted in 1936 as one of a dozen images (e.g. see attached, courtesy of Jan) for the book V zemi otravenych sipu ( = In the land of poisoned arrows) authored by Czech traveller/writer Bohumil Pospisil. This was first published by Touzimsky & Moravec (T&M) in 1936 as part of year 4 of the series S puskou a lassem (T&M released many adventure novels illustrated by Burian as well as palaeontological texts authored by Josef Augusta, and illustrated by Burian, up to 1948). The primate image was also published in

Burian artworks

the magazine Pionyrska stezka (third year, issue 5, 1972/73) in a feature on Czech explorers, written by J. Fencl. With thanks to Jan Kopecky, John Lavas, New Zealand Hey Mike, thought I'd share a funny story with you: when I went to pick up my first issue of PT from the Source in MN I asked how they were selling. The clerk told me that more than half of the first order had been bought by store employees! I thought that was pretty funny. Keep 'em coming! Peter Tornquist, Hopkins, MN Very inconsiderate of the employees to deprive the people of MN of their fair share of PT. Hopefully the store will raise its order of magazines to give the good people of MN a fighting chance to obtain their own copy of the magazine - editor

Mike, PT is the apex English language dinosaur magazine. Quite a few other magazines, including National Geographic, dip into the topic and others feature eye catching dino covA Dino-crostic Sonnet Letter For ers or there are one shot speMesozoic Mail cials but PT is THE mag to go As I have said previously in the magazine, Carl Masthay helps me with Dear Prehistoric Times: Hey, how are to. Jeff Segal, Bensalem, PA some of the editing of PT. He recently sent me this newspaper clipping you? from Nov. 10, 1962 in the World-Herald, now called Omaha World-Herald of Omaha, Nebraska showing a friend of his, Johnny Masengarb, who was I bought your magazine for the first Dear Mike, regarding the 11 at the time. Johnny likes dinosaurs, the article read and had no trouble time. painting of the giant primate of pronouncing their tongue-twister names. Johnny’s display which is picNever realized what I was missing. New Guinean native folklore in tured was part of some fifty displays for the Midwest Hobbyrama held at the article on Burian's palaeoOf the multitudes I have seen, you are the Civic Center in St. Paul, Mn. that year. Johnny is seen holding up his themed sci fi art (PT # 121, Fig. built Palmer mastodon plastic model kit and on his diorama base are toy Surely “Tyrannosaurs Rex” above 10), I did not have a publication dinosaur figures by Marx, MPC and Ajax. All other dinosaur publications! reference for this image when 6

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 5

Dead Kronosaurus ©John Goodier

PT writer Allen Debus sent us this photo of artwork that his and wife Diane’s grandson did using a “How to Draw Prehistoric Animals book.” His name is Tyler Dennis and he will be 4 years old in July. He loves Legos, super heroes, monsters, dinosaurs, and is just learning to read. Usually, I just glaze over pages.

Jim Martinez’s Edmontosaurus sculpture

Reading the content this time, I’m impressed. Perusing and enjoying the artwork. One can feel the illustrated love and Enthusiasm of fans and experts. This magazine will also become the Reading property of another fan! You just know my grandson will love it too.

Edmontosaurus regalis © Henry Sharpe

Juan Perez, Corpus Cristi, Texas

Edmontosaurus © Luke Dickey Edmontosaurus © Eivind Bovor Edmontosaurus © Mike Landry

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

7

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 6

The PT DinoStore

Vintage dinosaur collectibles for sale from PT magazine 18. hollow dinos 1. “Dinosaur Collectibles” price guide co-written and signed by PT editor $49 1. Collectibles 2. Linde 1950s Coffee Premium plastic dinosaur figs 7 from Austria. $12ea. book 3. Rare 8th Linde figure to complete above set: Rare Rhamphorhynchus $45 4. Marx orig. sm/med 50s/ 60s dinosaur toy figs (green, brown, gray) $5 5. Marx orig. Krono, T-rex (pot-belly or slender) $39, Brontosaurus $34 6. Marx original second series dinos/mammals $12 each, set of 8 - $79 7. Marx 45mm cavemen (6 diff) $7 ea Marx 6” cavemen (6 diff) $15 ea. 8. Multiple (MPC) dinosaur plastic figures many colors $5-10 each (inquire) 9. JH Miller waxy plastic 50s Dimetrodon, Tricer, Sloth, Mammoth/Mastodon or 10. Sinclair banks Stego $49 (all have damage) JH Miller Bronto (complete) $69. 19. SRG 10. Sinclair 1960s green plastic 10” brontosaur bank $19 11. Sinclair 1934 Dinosaur book $25 & Sinclair1964 Worlds Fair booklet $15 16. Sinclair bagged set 12. Sinclair 60s color Hardback “The Exciting World of Dinosaurs” $44 13. Sinclair hollow dinosaurs ‘64 NY World’s Fair dinos - many @$35 27. Palmer 14. Sinclair hollow NY Worlds Fair Brontosaurus looks backward $76 15. Sinclair album and complete stamps set 1935 $40 or 1959 $30 16. Sinclair 60s solid Worlds Fair dinos (6 diff.) (bagged set $129) 27. Palmer 17. Sinclair Oil 1960s dino chrome metal tray $534. 18. Hollow, dimestore plastic dinos, 60s/70s six different $8 each (see photo) 34. Wm Otto 11. 1934 Book 2&3. Linde 19. SRG Small metal dinosaurs T. rex, Tricer, Tracho, Bronto or Stego $35. bronze La Brea tarpit saberSRG sm. Caveman, Dimetrodon, pterosaur or Plesiosaur $49 ea. tooth cat SRG Large metal Stegosaurus, Trachodon, Bronto, Tricer or T. rex $59 each 20. Nabisco silver prehistoric mammal cereal premiums 60s $10 ea. All 8 $75 13. Sinclair hollow dinosaurs 21. Nabisco/Fritos dinosaur premiums, gray (60s) $5 each,50s green & red $10 22. Nabisco 1950s cereal mailaway dino wheel guide for toy figures $49 23. ROM (Royal Ontario Museum)plastic dinosaur figs. $15 ea, Pteranodon $25 24. View Master Prehistoric Animals 1960s comp. 3 reels/booklet $24 25. Teach Me About Prehistoric Animals Flash cards (boxed) 1960s $39 33. Abbeon 26. Brooke Bonde 60s dinosaur trading album w/ set of cards attached $44 20. Nabisco cereal prehistoric Corythosaur 27. Palmer 1960s Mastodon skeleton or Brontosaurus skeleton $49 each - boxed mammals 28. Marx Linemar 1960s 1” metal dinos. T. rex, Stegosaurus or Brontosaurus $19 ea. 29. Golden Funtime 1960s Dinosaur punch out (unpunched in book) $89 30.Timpo (England) 50/60s plastic 4” Dimetrodon (black or brown) or Triceratops $35 8. MPC 31. Dinosauriana-The Essential Guide to Collectible Dinosaurs disc $25 Multiple dinos 32. RARE Norcrest brand 6”1960s Tyrannosaurus bone china porcelain figure. $59 33. Abbeon 60s Japan porcelain Corythosaurus, Protoceratops, Dimetrodon $45 34. Wm Otto La Brea tar pits bronze Smilodon sabertooth cat $79 PT back issues 31, 41, 42, 52, 66, 74-76, 78, 93-102, 104-121 $9 each or $13 each foreign. (PT issue prices include shipping) Please add $6 shipping in U.S. • Call or e-mail me about condition.

Mike Fredericks Prehistoric Times 145 Bayline Cir. Folsom, California 95630-8077 (916) 985-7986 29. 1960s Golden [email protected]

32. Norcrest 1960s 6” porcelain T. rex

17. Sinclair chrome tray 1960s 27. Marx Linemar tiny metal T. rex, bronto & Stego

Dinosaur funtime punch out in book

25. Flash cards

22. 1950s Nabisco cereal dino wheel guide 13. Sinclair 1960s hardback

21. Nabisco dinos

30. Timpo Dimetrodon or Triceratops

31. Dinosauriana disc 26. Brooke Bond 25. 60’s Viewmaster 7. 6 inch Marx large cavemen

23. ROM plastic dinos 16. Sinclair 1959 Oil dino stamps & album

8

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 7

Living in the Past: My life as a Paleoartist

John’s “Tower of Time” in the Paleontology Exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

By John Gurche (all artwork © John Gurche)

One day in early September, 1979, I left my parents’ home in the suburbs of Kansas City in my beat up, packed-to-the-gills Volkswagen, headed for Washington, D.C. As my mom watched me drive away, flames shot out of my tailpipe. She went inside and cried. Despite a few breakdowns along the way, I made it to Washington. I was moving there in the hope of working for the Smithsonian Institution. I had 500 dollars. The previous year, I had paid a visit to the Office of Exhibits while I was at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum doing research for my master’s thesis. I had then returned to Lawrence, Kansas and finished my master’s degree in anthropology. The following spring, I took over teaching one of my advisor’s classes while he was on sabbatical, with the plan of starting work on my PhD afterwards. One day I got a call from the exhibits people at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. Would I be interested in bidding on a mural project for a new paleo-hall there? In retrospect I was lucky. The paintings I had shown the exhibits people weren’t really that good. But I didn’t know that at the time, so I had blithely walked into the exhibits office and told them what I wanted to do. I was interested. In fact I was so interested that I tabled my plans for work on a PhD and moved to the DC area before I even knew I had the job. I was determined to make it work. Once in the Washington area, I found a group house that was among the cheapest rentals in the area. I bid low on the Smithsonian project, and I got the job of painting the background for a diorama in the new Transition to Land Hall. I started the mural the following spring. It was a heady time, working at the nat-

John Gurche’s pre-production design for T. rex in Jurassic Park

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

ural history museum, meeting people there, and absolutely starving. Ah, the bohemian life of an artist. The painting was the background for a Devonian diorama. The viewer is situated in the bed of a stream which is drying up, leaving only pools. A lobe-finned fish has just left its pool and is waddling downstream in search of a larger one. The painting features the primitive amphibian Ichthyostega, which was then thought to have five toes on each foot (It is now known to have seven digits on its hind foot.) I did not get to design the painting, I was simply to execute it. I was excited, nevertheless. Devonian trees! Devonian clouds! Devonian mud! The dinosaur hall at that time was closed for a re-do, but the public could see it through a small window in the rotunda. I was always peering through the window at the dinosaur skeletons under plastic sheeting, thinking: “I’ve got to work in there.” My second Smithsonian job allowed me to do just that. This was the task of depicting major features in the history of life in a thirty-foot tall, two-foot wide painting, to go on one of the six sides of “The Tower of Time.” Needless to say, the dimensions of the painting imposed an artificial linearity on the subject. At the top, there is a disproportionate emphasis on the evolution of humans, and for that, I take the blame; human evolution is, for me, the most fascinating part of the tree.

The design for this painting necessarily had to be much more complicated than my Devonian background, and the exhibits folks weren’t sure exactly what they wanted. I was thrilled to have the task of coming up with the Early pre-production art for Jurassic Park. design myself. In those days I was constantly scribbling designs on napkins and the backs of envelopes, at the dinner table, in the subway, everywhere. These found their way into drawings I would present at meetings with exhibits people and scientists. I was reading a lot about the history of life, and gobbling up new information as fast as the scientists could feed it to me. Most of the paleontologists I worked with were delightful people. Paleontologist Nick Hotton made a strong impression on me by sleeping through the first such meeting and

9

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 8

whistling through the second. An early version of the “Tower of Time” design shows an early hominin with a sort of glow emitted from its brain area. I was trying to symbolize the coming of a human-like awareness, but it was a little heavy-handed on my part. When Nick saw that he said: “Hey, what’s Carlos Castaneda doing in here?” I painted the Tower of Time painting in sections laid horizontally on sawhorses in the in-progress dinosaur hall. I was thrilled to realize my dream of working there, but parts of the hall were being demolished while I was working, creating a huge amount of noise and dust. As their work got closer to where I was painting, it got louder and dustier. Eventually they built a room of polyethylene sheeting for me, and that kept most of the dust out. I was determined to make this painting a cut above any I had ever done, so it was done very meticulously, For me that means slow. Toward the end of the project, I was working some long hours. I smuggled a sleeping bag into the museum, and I painted nearly around the clock, sleeping four hours in twenty-four. My sleeping bag was hidden behind an exhibit case, and occasionally I was awakened by the echoing footsteps of a museum guard passing nearby on patrol. When the painting was finished, I nearly destroyed it. The Smithsonian wanted a protective coating on it. I wanted to avoid glare, so I experimented with matte coatings for acrylic paintings. I chose one that worked well in tests and coated the painting with it. As I watched it dry, frosted-white zebra stripes appeared up and down the painting.

Daspletosaurus vs. Styracosaurus selected for the cover of Robert Bakker's The Dinosaur Heresies (1986)

In 1985 I was asked to do a cover painting for a new popular book on dinosaurs; The Dinosaur Heresies, by Bob Bakker. This book represented the first major popularization of some new ideas about dinosaurs, many of them the author’s. Dinosaurs were given an upgrade from slow and stupid to active and social. Warm-blooded metabolisms were suggested, and the dinosaur-bird connection was emphasized. I wanted to highlight as many of these ideas as possible. It seemed to require a very active scene. I tried to imagine being at a vantage point close to a fight between some of the larger of these animals. It must have been like standing next to a train wreck! Taking a cue from Bob, I chose a confrontation between a Daspletosaurus and a Styracosaurus. I couldn’t depict the sounds and the motion, but I could imply them. The animals are kicking up a tremenSpooky Jurassic Park dous amount of dust. The postures are pre-production art of not stable ones, so they imply motion; “Raptors.” the Styracosaurus’s front feet are both off the ground, and the Daspletosaurus is balancing on one foot, while fending off the Styracosaurus’s lunge with the other foot. This last was to give it a birdlike defensive posture, as I wanted to highlight the theropod-bird connection. I gave the Daspletosaurus coloring like that of a black-capped chickadee. I made models of both dinosaurs, so that I could choose the nuances of lighting for the painting. I used an air-compressor to blow dust on the models. This was in the summer-time, and it was hot. A Smithsonian friend came over that day, but I was in the basement, and couldn’t hear his shouts over the air compressor. When he came downstairs, I was down there in my underwear making dust storms, with my model dinosaurs hung by wires from the ceilAllosaurus and ing, and a bright light to simulate sunBrachiosaurus light. The things we do for art.

I was devastated, but even more than that, I was exhausted. We did some tests of possible ways to fix it; then I went home and slept for fourteen hours. The next day, as I was walking to the subway, I had a strange feeling that something I couldn’t see was walking beside me; something powerful that meant me well. Was it God? Actually, it was more like a benevolent version of the invisible id-monster from the classic old science fiction movie The Forbidden Planet. At any rate, we managed to fix the painting (www.gurche.com) just in time for thanksgiving, and it appeared as a fold-out in the December, 1981 Smithsonian Magazine. The experience of painting the Tower of Time taught me how strong the role of the subconscious can be in making art. There is a repeating motif that I somehow failed to see until years after the painting was completed; five blue arches. The Smithsonian jobs and some 10

more minor ones led to other work. The starvation continued for a few years; I have memories of hugging radiators as I ran out of heating oil, wearing coats indoors, etc. One night I was out of food and, searching the cupboards I found a shortening-andflour pie crust stick from a pie-making session months before. That was dinner that night. But work continued to trickle in. This included doing all of the art for a book by British author John Reader, entitled The Rise of Life. I started charging a little more.

This project led to more dinosaur work, some of it relating to new ideas about dinosaur social behavior. One adventure involved creating a hadrosaur in-the-nest scene for the cover of Discover Magazine in early 1987. I had made models of hatchlings and the mother dinosaur’s head, and my then girlfriend (now wife) Patti and I had built a large dinosaur nest to put them in, but something was missing. The mother was supposed to be feeding her babies regurgitated berries. We Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 9

had the berries, but we didn’t have enough slime. This procedure could not have been done neatly. Patti went to a nearby grocery store and found the perfect thing: Mrs. Schlorer’s Ham Glaze. I’m almost certain that the people at Mrs. Schlorer’s did not have dinosaur regurgitate in mind when they made it, but it was perfect. I did notice, however, that once this story got out, they declined to launch a new marketing campaign based on it.

about this. We saw two different skeletons. He saw angles between the tail vertebrae that suggested the tail was ground-bound. To me, it looked like it would have been up off the ground, the way some scientists had recently proposed. I ended up painting the postage stamp Stegosaurus with a tail in the raised position. In 1990 a couple of great projects came my way. In the summer, Patti and I drove around the country visiting friends and looking for a place to live that was on a more human scale than Washington, D.C. When we returned home, there was a message on my answering machine from Amblin Entertainment. I didn’t know who Amblin was, but I returned the call. “You know, Steven Spielberg’s movie company,” they said.” Oh, that Amblin Entertainment. It turned out that Spielberg was going to make a movie called Jurassic Park. They told me he had seen the Dinosaur Heresies cover, and had said: “Get that guy on board.”

National Geographic proved to be the hardest nut for me to crack. But I kept trying, and one day in 1988, senior art editor Howard Paine called be in to discuss a project. The result was a project with a charmed life. We’re doing a story about extinction, he said, and we’re thinking of dinosaurs for a poster, but we’re not exactly sure what we want. I was thrilled (I’ll tell you what you want, I was thinking). Tyrannosaurus rex I told him about an idea I had wanted, for a long design art for Jurassic time, to paint. He liked the sound of it and asked me Park to draw it. On seeing the drawing, he loved it and told me to paint it. The painting depicts a herd of the largest dinosaurs then I first worked on the Tyrannosaurus segment of the movie, making drawknown, called ultrasaurs by some paleontologists. ings of anatomy and guessing at range of motion at Deinonychus pack attack! We are close enough that the closest of these garthe joints. But this was early in the film’s creation, gantuan animals runs right up off the top of the page; and they wanted more than that. For the next segwe see only their massive legs. Cruising the herd’s ment of the work, the Velociraptor segment, they perimeter are two Allosaurus individuals, looking asked me to try to depict the animal as a character. into the herd for an opportunity. In a protected posiThis wasn’t too difficult. I had always imagined tion within the herd, we see a baby ultrasaur. Velociraptor as a kind of nasty-tempered, evil Arguments have been made for this kind of protecsmelling chicken with switchblades. It was not too tive positioning, based on sauropod trackways. hard to tweak the coloring a bit and put an evil Several weeks after I turned it in, I got a call telling me it had made the cover. It went on to win a gold medal from the Society of Illustrators. Gee, I thought, working for National Geographic is great! And easy! I have, at this writing, done work for twelve issues, and it has never been as easy as that first project. Also in 1988, I was asked by the US Postal Service to create art for four dinosaur stamps. I was already neck-deep in the National Geographic project, so I almost turned it down. Eventually I replied in the affirmative, but only if I could work very small (the usual stamp art is five times the size of a stamp). How small, they asked. I told them I would work at a scale of 1.5 times the stamps’ size. It worked out, and somewhere within the vast holdings of the USPS are my teensy paintings of Apatosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus and the dinosaur cousin Pteranodon. There was a big fuss about the US Postal Service calling Moody Jurassic Park Apatosaurus by its old name: pre-production art. Brontosaurus. Our own postal service undermining the education of our children! The flap inspired Stephen Jay Gould to write an essay called: Bully for Brontosaurus. This was my first opportunity to paint a Stegosaurus, and I wanted to get it right, so I talked with several paleontologists about it. There was new work that suggested that Stegosaurus held its tail up off the ground. Smithsonian paleontologist Nick Hotton didn’t buy it. One day he and I stood over the ‘road kill’ Stegosaurus skeleton that was on display in their dinosaur hall, talking

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

gleam in the animal’s eye, so that it conveyed that sort of character. They were still working out plot segments then, and wanted input, so I began to explore some fun possibilities. I did a number of drawings depicting Velociraptors trying to get into the Jurassic Park visitor’s center, where the humans were trapped. In these drawings, the power is out, so there are lots of shadows among dinosaur skeletons, some of them wrapped in plastic sheeting in storage rooms. At that time, I shared an office with artist Mary Parrish, and it was in a large fossil storage area in the bowels of the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. In the evening they would turn most of the lights off in this area, so it was a spooky environment, perfect for imagining that something might be hiding there. I did a number of drawings based on that space. This was in October, with Halloween approaching, and I think this helped the mood of the drawings. Eventually I went to California to watch some of the filming and meet Steven Spielberg. I showed him and his people a number of designs for a Jurassic Park movie poster. It was great fun, even though I saw several of my ideas perish on the set when they couldn’t get things to look the way they wanted them too. I was accidentally responsible for the least scientific detail of the dinosaurs’ anatomy. The story unfolded like this: Late one afternoon, Rick Carter, the art director I most often worked with, called me to brainstorm a little. He told me that he wanted a

11

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 10

scene where the paleontologist, Dr. Grant, gets a group of people out of a difficult situation by virtue of some special knowledge he has. I said, OK, lets say we have seen two male theropods facing off earlier in the movie, and males of this species have some sort of inflatable structure that they inflate as a display of aggressive intent. One of them does so, and the other is scared off. Then, later in the movie, let’s say the humans are cornered by this same kind of dinosaur. At the last moment, Grant sees an umbrella in the corner which has a color pattern like that of the theropod’s gismo. He grabs it and opens it, and the dinosaur is scared off. Rick liked it, but I never heard any more about it until I visited the set. There was the Dilophosaurus, with an erectable neck frill. The plot segment had been cut, but the anatomy stayed. I painted a poster design for the movie, but there were debates about using a simple logo approach instead, which would visually tie the movie to various Jurassic Park paraphernalia for sale. One day when my poster painting was nearly completed, Spielberg called me and said that he wanted to use it; could I finish it and send it? I worked long hours that weekend to finish it, but by Monday, the marketing people had gained control, and they went with the simple logo approach. I tried to get a hold of Spielberg, but he is surrounded by guard dogs whose job it is to make sure you don’t get a hold of him. Well, that, I guess, is showbiz. In 1989/1990, the American Museum of Natural History made plans to create a remarkable new dinosaur skeletal mount in their rotunda. This was a large sauropod (Barosaurus) mother rearing up on her hind legs in answer to a marauding Allosaurus, who was trying to get at her baby, which cow-

Hadrosaur egg nest hill

ered behind her. They commissioned me to do a companion painting, with fleshed out dinosaurs. It was a spectacular mount. On the day it opened to the public, one of the lesser New York papers published a story, for which they had asked six paleontologists if this huge sauropod could have actually reared on its hind legs the way the AMNH had depicted it. They reported that five of the paleontologists said: no. I asked Smithsonian paleontologist Hans Sues if a Barosaurus could have done that, and he said yes….but only once.

A little later, Hans helped me with another project. National Geographic wanted to run a big story about the revolution in ideas about dinosaurs. I was to depict as many of these ideas as possible in five paintings. In the end, some of these paintings depicted new ideas about dinosaur social behavior, including parenting and agonistic behavior. One painting depicted some of the newly discovered earliest known dinosaurs. Another depicted dinosaurs found in a surprising region: north of the Arctic Circle, meaning that these hadrosaurs and tyrannosaurs either migrated south during the colder months, or were able to stay there during the time of perpetual darkness. It was a heady project to be involved in. Only four of the paintings were used in the magazine. The fifth, a painting of two male Stigimolochs facing off, is probably my favorite.

Concludes in the Fall issue of Prehistoric Times magazine

John’s Velociraptor design for Jurassic Park in the early days of preproduction.

12

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 11

nance via key stages in their evolution, as depicted in paintings by Zden k Zdenek Burian. Once more I thank my fellow Burian enthusiasts Jan Kopecky and Paul McFarland. 2. Publication 1. Introduction At some stage during the Devonian Period, primeval lobe-finned bony fishes initiated what is possibly the single most important evolutionary transition in the course of vertebrate history; they left the embrace of the water to venture onto the unknown terrain. It is believed that in the late Devonian the first amphibians arose from rhipidistian fishes that had used their limblike fins to progress overland (Fig. 3). Exactly why the rhipidistians had adopted such behaviour remains unclear, but what is known is that the osteological changes which accompanied the transition from swimming to terrestrial locomotion in amphibians laid the foundation for all succeeding tetrapod evolution, including those of reptiles, birds, and mammals. The subsequent colonisation of terrestrial environments by amphibians was only possible due to the previous land invasion by plants during the Silurian Period (PT # 119). Prior to that time, terrestrial environments were simply too barren and inhospitable to support vertebrate life. Just as the Devonian is known as the Age of Fishes (PT # 120), so the late Carboniferous to the early Permian is referred to by European palaeontologists as the Age of Amphibia (however 20thC American palaeontologists generally did not recognise this age, with such doyens as Alfred S. Romer and Edwin H. Colbert only noting the ages of Fishes [or Bony fishes], Reptiles and Mammals). Two environments that remained largely beyond amphibian colonisation (other than cooler latitudes) were the semi-arid/arid and upland regions, the realms of which had to await the appearance of the reptilian amniotic egg which enabled reptiles to inhabit areas that had been denied to their predecessors. That story will begin in PT # 123.

Burian did not paint many amphibians during his career, and I am aware of fewer than 20 paintings that were published in the west. However, this is not surprising given that our knowledge of amphibian palaeo-diversity has increased markedly since Burian’s era. Ironically, Burian’s very first ‘formal’ palaeo-themed painting (1935) depicted Permian amphibians (Fig. 2) as compiled for The Great Illustrated Natural History of all Three

Meantime this article will review the amphibians’ rise to domi-

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

13

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 12

Kingdoms. His other amphibian images were completed in collaboration with the palaeontologist Josef Augusta (19031968) of Charles University (Prague) and, following Augusta’s death, with his successor Zdenek Špinar (1916-1995). Although Špinar was an international authority in herpetology who specialised in fossil frogs (Czech deposits being known for their finely-preserved anurans), possibly as few as two of Burian’s extinct anuran paintings were published in the west. The likely reason for this paucity is due to the fact that today’s anuran morphology was established very early on in their evolution. Earlier in this series I noted how Burian was directed by Špinar to produce increasingly stylised reconstructions compared to those he had completed under Augusta. However this distinction isn’t as marked in his amphibians. Having said that, two Špinar era images (Diplovertebron and Seymouria) give the impression of having been completed hastily and without consideration to aesthetics, a criticism that is never applicable to his Augustanian era works. The following is a list of Burian’s published amphibian paintings, which may not be exhaustive. As was the case with Burian’s Palaeozoic marine invertebrate scenes (PT # 120), his amphibian paintings emphasise fossils from his native Czechoslovakia (= Cz), several of which were described by Czech palaeontologist/zoologist/geologist Antonin Jan Fric (sometimes rendered as Fritsch; 1832-1913). Andrias scheuchzeri, Archegosaurus, Branchiosaurus salamandroides Cz (X3), Cheliderpeton (= Chelyderpeton) Cz, Diplovertebron Cz, Discosauriscus Cz (X2), Dolichosoma longissimum Cz (X2), Gephyrostegus Cz, Ichthyostega stensioei (X2), Letoverpeton (= junior synonym of Discosauriscus) Cz, Mastodonsaurus giganteus (X2),

14

Metoposaurus, Microbrachis pelikani Cz (X2), Palaeobatrachus Cz, Seymouria, Solenodonsaurus Cz (X2),Triadobatrachus, and Urocordylus scalaris Cz (X2). 3. The Rise of the Amphibia Because amphibians today comprise a very subordinate portion of the Earth’s vertebrates, it is difficult to appreciate the diversity and dominance that they achieved during the Palaeozoic. This was a time when amphibians ruled virtually all nonarid, low-lying equatorial regions and were represented by types that not only resembled living salamanders, frogs and toads, but included others that appeared to closely mimic the morphologies of lizards, snakes, and even crocodilians (although in each case, the resemblance was superficial). Although amphibians never reached the dimensions of the largest Mesozoic reptiles, they did include mega-faunal representatives (e.g. the Brazilian temnospondyl Prionosuchus may have reached 9 m in length, and occupied the niche now held by crocodilians). In spite of this evolutionary radiation, amphibians always remained closely wedded to water due to their egg-laying habits (amphibian eggs are surrounded by a soft membrane that requires external water for support and moisture retention) and their obligatory juvenile tadpole stages, as well as their inability (as adults) to survive arid conditions. None-the-less, when amphibians first colonised the land, they embarked upon an unprecedented evolutionary path that was laid for all subsequent vertebrates. And although they faced major issues in adopting a new mode of life, the transition from extracting oxygen from water via gills to breathing air via lungs was not one of them. This was due to the fact that early lobe-finned fish had

Concluding on Page 50

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 13

Payment Received. Transmission incoming from Time Inc. Entertainment:

Edmontosaurus

“Experienced by Phil Hore adventurer Mike [email protected] Hatcher has taken on the expedition of a lifetime—to survive a year by himself deep within the Mesozoic. More than just reality TV, while testing new technologies for future visitors of the past—like Mike’s base © Kurt Miller www.kmistudio.com camp, the secured environmental habitat called the Compound—he will face the challenges of this new world alone, with only the dozen state-of-the-art microcameras tracking his progress at all times for companionship.

Statue © Quentin Brendel

stumps of plants still standing. The sky above is dark, with black, pregnant clouds seemingly so low their bellies touch the tops of what trees there are. “Day ???: Mike in his solar-powered 4x4 Quest has been touring the sights of western Laurasia. . . .” The camera pulls in close to Mike behind the steering wheel peering through a pair of binoculars. Outside the car the rain is torrential. “One of the first jobs I completed on arrival was to place many seismic detectors about the region.” © James Kuether

Thanks to the sponsorship of Time Inc. and the Imago Mundi Society, join us now as Mike Hatcher lives through . . . Mesozoic Days.” The image begins high in the air, revealing a landscape seemingly being crushed by the weight of the dark, dense clouds above. Sheets of rain move and flow like an enormous flock of birds as the wind pushes and sways the droplets around. Slowing down, the image approaches a large hill crowned by small bushes. Much of the vegetation has been crushed, with only a few of the thicker © John Sibbick www.johnsibbick.com

© Jacek Major

© Eivind Bovor

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

15

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 14

© Clinton Harris

“The initial report about the climate of this region said there was a rainy season, but I never expected this.” Water streams down the windows of the truck, and the front view is left clear only by a struggling windscreen wiper. “If I had only relied on the video monitors stationed around the area as a warning system or simply need to know what was happening, I would never have seen anything through this rain.” The vision zooms, focuses, and catches large shapes splashing through the mud and pooling water. Dakota © Henry Sharpe

© Douglas Henderson www.douglashendersonehi.com © Aaron Natera aaronnatera@ gmail.com

© Russell J Hawley

Mike lowers his glasses and looks directly into the floating camera. “There was a thought these sensors could be something of an early warning system to alert me if something big and toothy was approaching the Compound, giving me a chance to deal with any issue before it got too close to home.” He then gestures with his hand forward, and the camera’s IA reads this as a command to pan about. The image takes a while to focus through the sheeting rain, but even out of focus numerous large shapes can be seen marching side by side. 16

© Curtis Lanaghan

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 15

“But thanks to the seismic warning system, I was given enough forewarning to not only investigate, but also catch what has to be one of the most spectacular natural events of any time.”

© Jeffrey Nevens

With the rain sheeting down and cutting down it takes some time for the scene to come into focus. Water was rivuleting down the scaly skin and scute-like armor bumps. A river of flesh, driven together by fear of the storm above and the lie of the land, rolls forward like a tide, with those behind relentlessly driving those in front forward, The honking and bleating of the migrating horde of hadrosaurs is deafening and, added to the heavy rain, creates an otherworldly sound. Mike is almost yelling above the din so that the camera’s mics can pick up what © John Sibbick www.johnsibbick.com

I looked at the meteorological information for these distant lands, and it has shown something unusual. For years we have known that not all dinosaurs migrated from these winter regions, that some remained and held out during the short polar days and long, cool nights.

It would seem winter has come early, and the plant life that should have had a few more months to blossom and grow has been covered under a small but devastating blanket of snow. Some time ago I received a report about volcanic activity along what would likely be Iceland today, and the ash coming from this has had a dimming effect on the atmosphere, cooling things down and reducing plant growth.

he is saying. “I noticed about a week ago that there were a few more of these duckbilled dinosaurs moving about the region. The herds here have always had a presence, but they were small, family groups of a few dozen adults with a handful of youngest, ranging from semiadults to animals that I imagine could not be older than a year by their size.” One of the small remote cameras flies forward, skimming barely over the © Warren “Tyler” Tufts

Facing these sorts of conditions, those great hadrosaur herds of the north have slowly been forced south, and as their numbers increased, they have had a devastating effect on the flora of the Todd Mills new lands they entered, forcing the herds that normally live there to join them in moving farther and farther south to find more and more new sources of food. The channeling effect of mountains and hunting packs of theropods has forced these herds to join together, and now there are so many of them that, likely a plague of locusts, they just have to keep moving south to find more food. Edmontosaurus – an update It’s not often we take the opportunity to review a species, but because Edmontosaurus is one of the most important dinosaurs in paleontology, it’s well worth a second look. Not a lot of kids out there would claim Edmontosaurus as their favorite dinosaur (though a few do mention Parasaurolophus), but the sheer volume of fossils from this hadrosaur makes it scientifically one of the most important.

low vegetation to create a sense of speed and size as it soon approaches the outskirts of the megaherd. Trudging side by side, hundreds of animals stomp through the countryside, churning the ground into a muddy morass. “More animals than I thought possible. It’s been like this for a few hours now, and they just keep coming. I would have thought this was part of some sort of migration, that these animals were moving south for the winter. Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

©Giovanni De Benedictis [email protected]

Edmontosaurus was a successful, Late Cretaceous hadrosaur that roamed the swamps and pine forests of the North American continent. Joseph Leidy described some teeth in 1856 as Trachodon, though it wasn’t until 1883 that the world 17

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 16

finally knew what a “duck-billed dinosaur” looked like when E.D. Cope described the first hadrosaur skull. Things grew somewhat stagnant with the group, but a series of reviews of all the hadrosaur bits and pieces named over the years saw the end of Trachodon, Anatotitan, and several others, many of which have been placed into one of the two edmontosaurs, E. regalis and E. annectens.

© Ryan McMurry

We also got a look at the true size of a dinosaur because between Dakota’s vertebrae were large pads of cartilage, increasing the natural length of the animal over original estimates. It’s anticipated that further scans will reveal internal organs, but the problem is that the nodule is thick and made of iron carbonate, making it extremely hard to scan and prepare.

© Nick Papadimitriou

We also dealt with dinosaur mummies a few issues back, and part of the great wealth of Edmontosaurus fossils are mummies. The most complete of these is “Dakota” (MRF-03) though it’s not really a mummy as many reports claim. Dakota is a little weirder than that because, before its burial and the fossilization process began, the body had lain in the sun and dried out, preserving the high level of detail that Dakota is famous for. This edmontosaur’s secrets were revealed by the CT scanner run by NASA/Boeing; the same machine used to inspect parts previously used on the shuttle because it’s the only one big enough to fit the slabs in. These scans show Dakota had a striped skin pattern and that the size of the hadrosaur’s muscles, especially around the tail and rear legs, was far larger than anyone had predicted. “Not only does this make edmontosaurs look a lot bulkier, it also indicates they would’ve moved differently too. Muscle equals power, and Dakota’s new ‘buff ’ physique tells us this dinosaur was capable of running at a fair clip and may have even possessed a real nasty

Important Announcement!

kick [PT no. 118].”

For some time the future of this amazing fossil was up in the air, with North Dakota struggling to find the cash to keep the specimen in the state it was named after. Good news, recently the North Dakota Heritage Center has announced they have completed a $3 million deal with its owner, and Dakota will remain in the state. A paper released this year notes that Dakota “retains soft-tissue replacement structures and associated organic compounds” and shows the “preserved skin thickness varies across the body . . . but [ranges] 2.5 to 3.5 mm in depth. . . [with] a cell-like texture within and constrained by the skin, revealing two distinct regions.” Our own skin has three layers, the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis, which isn’t really part of the skin, but is the layer that helps connect the skin to the muscles and bones underneath. It’s likely Dakota’s layers were “early carbonate growth preserving the original tissue texture of the dinosaur skin [“Mineralized softtissue structure and chemistry in a mummified hadrosaur from the Hell Creek Formation, North Dakota”].” Pathologic conditions Another reason for the importance of Edmontosaurus is we know much about their day-to-day life. A survey of the numerous fossils has revealed that they often contain tumors (such as those from metastatic cancer), as well as suffering from osteochondrosis (the surface pitting on the regions where the bones articulate with each other). This could be caused by trauma or a genetic disposition with the latter being a strong possibility because

Dinosaur Playsets

An Illustrated Guide to the Prehistoric Playsets of Marx and MPC NEW 2017 Expanded Edition is NOW AVAILABLE! Response to this book has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are sorry to say that this book is now completely SOLD OUT! Rather than printing up a new batch of copies, author Jeff Pfeiffer has created an Expanded Edition to his first book. All of the information from the first volume is here but with the addition of many new and improved photos and a new chapter devoted to the prehistoric figures from such “easily confused with Marx” companies as Ajax, Nabisco, TimMee, and Ja-Ru! Playsets and other items that were not available during the production of the first volume are included as well! This new edition features over 250 full color photographs, encompassing even more boxed playsets, carded sets, and bagged sets than before! The new addition will be available this fall or early winter. If you would like to be put on the waiting list, contact Jeff Pfeiffer - [email protected]

W NO BLE A L I A V A

Perhaps the most endearing of dinosaur collectibles to many people are the lines of figures and playsets produced by the Louis Marx Toy Company. The figures have attained a near iconic status among collectors of dinosaur toys and memorabilia. Frequently considered something of a “baby sister” to the Marx dinosaur line is the series of prehistoric figures and playsets put out by the Multiple Products Corporation (MPC) at roughly the same time period. Often confused with one another, the dinosaur output of these two companies has shaped the perception of what these prehistoric beasts were like in the minds of generations of children and adults. Author Jeff Pfeiffer has been an avid collector of Marx and MPC prehistoric playsets for over a decade. In that time he has amassed an extensive collection of playsets from both companies. His passion for dinosaurs began in childhood, when he was given his first set of MPC dinosaur figures as a birthday present, and continues to the present day. Jeff presents Dinosaur Playsets to devotees of the dinosaurs of Marx and MPC as an indispensable tool in their own collecting passions!

The book is available from the author for $44.99 + $3 shipping & handling, copies can be purchased by sending payment via PayPal to the author at [email protected] (and please use the "send money to friends and family" option). And for those of you without PayPal the book can also be found on Amazon (please select the "purchase from third-party sellers" option.)" As a special offer, if you purchased the first edition of “Dinosaur Playsets”, you can buy this expanded edition at a 30% discount at the price of only $30 + $3 shipping, as a way of saying "thank you" to all those who supported and purchased the first edition of this book. No PayPal? Jeff also accepts money orders (email for details). 18

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 17

these sorts of pathologic conditions are seen mostly in hadrosaurs.

© Nina Carbutt

Another remarkable edmontosaur is “Survey,” which contains obvious bite marks across its face. These show signs of healing and makes Survey similar to another famous edmontosaur in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. This specimen clearly had a nip taken out of its tail by a hungry carnivore that also shows signs of mending, and so if nothing else, we know theropods like T. rex weren’t just the scavengers they’re sometimes portrayed as. There are also reports of mummified dinosaur facial skin with a healed wound above the eye, most likely caused by a failed theropod attack. Although the wound may have been caused by something else, apparently there is a bite mark on the skull directly under this skin. Proof that tyrannosaurs were the likely culprit came just a few years ago when another healed bite was found on an edmontosaur’s tail, only this time the tip of a tooth from a juvenile tyrannosaur was still present, proving that T. rex was not just a scavenger. Another change might be occurring to the idea that these hadrosaurs migrated. For years the theory that Edmontosaurus migrated from their northern territories during winter was a staple of many articles and documentaries, but some researchers are starting to rethink the idea because their research indicates the calories used to travel such long distances would be enormous. Edmontosaurus “would have to be as energy efficient as a bird.

No land animal travels that far today.” Perhaps in refutation of this idea, the scan of Dakota that revealed Edmontosaurus was a lot bulkier than previously believed could also indicate they bulked up during the good times, and this stored mass fueled their long migration. There is also a small chance the home range of Edmontosaurus was far greater than anyone ever expected. A fossil tooth out of marine sediments from the Antarctica territory facing South America was possibly from “a hadrosaurine species with affinities to the teeth of the widespread North © Tyler Greenfield America genus Edmontosaurus [“Frozen in Time: Prehistoric Life in Antarctica”].” The marine fossils found in the same rocks are suggestive that the hadrosaur body may have been washed to this location from somewhere else, though it’s doubtful it could have traveled all the way from Laurasia in the north. The discovery of two more Gondwana hadrosaur species in Argentina (Secernosaurus and Willinakaqe [‘southern duckmimic’ in Mapudùngun: willi ‘south’, iná ‘mimic’, kaqe ‘duck’]) makes it likely the Antarctica fossils were related to them. Either way, this likely means the Antarctic fossil was from a hadrosaur related only to Edmontosaurus.

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 18

How to Draw Dinosaurs By Tracy Lee Ford

[email protected]

Ceratosaurus Marsh believed the type specimen of Ceratosaurus nasicornis MARSH, 1884 (Holotype: USNM 4735) was closer to birds based on its fused metatarsals. However, he misinterpreted the fused left metatarsals as being true fused metatarsals. The right metatarsals are unfused and are typical of Figure 1. Ceratosaurus nasicornis fused metatarsals (USNM 4735). A, Lateral (external) view. B, Anterior view. C, Posterior view. D, Lateral (internal) view. (All after Gilmore 1920.)

It was a rough and tumble time: Part 1 This is my one-hundredth article for Prehistoric Times. I never guessed I’d be writing this long for PT and would have thought I’d have run out of things to write about, but I haven’t. Paleontology keeps moving along. The very first article I wrote for Prehistoric Times was about the feet of sauropods. That was something I had thought about long before I wrote the article. The problem as I saw it back then was that there were many good artists illustrating dinosaurs, and they’d depict the majority of the animal well, except for the feet. They’d put five claws on the front foot, but the only toe that had a claw was the thumb (digit I, and some later sauropods even lacked that one claw). Archosauromorphs only have 3 claws on their front feet, digits I to III, whereas digits IV and V lack claws altogether; just look at the front foot of a crocodilian. I asked Mike Fredericks at the 1996 Dinofest that was held in Arizona if I could start a series of How to Draw Dinosaurs. He said yes, and my long line of articles had begun. I’ve decided that for this issue I’d talk about a huge subject, so huge it’ll take up more than one article. I’ve written about this subject before and will go over it again—paleopathologic conditions! It was a rough and tumble world during the age of the the theropod pes, with each metatarsal slightly moving against each other as dinosaurs. Paleopathologic conditions can be caused for numerous reasons: the animal walked, acting like a shock absorber so to speak. The fused fighting, tripping, disease, to metatarsals are pathologic, broname a few. Not all dinosaurs ken, healed with extra bone were pristine; they had cuts, growth, and that is why they are scrapes, welts, bruises, and fesfused. The proximal end of the tering wounds. Not all dinosaurs third metatarsal is also slightly were affected the same way, and offset and may have fused to its some pathologic conditions are upper metatarsal. I believe the unique to different dinosaur animal must have had a limp clades. What got me started when it walked. Also, it had a looking at paleopathologic conpathologic left ulna (personal ditions, rather I should say who observation) (Figure 1). got me started, was my good Allosaurus friend Darren Tanke. He asked me if I could help him gather Allosaurus has numerous articles on pathologic condipathologic conditions: broken tions for a project he was workribs, vertebrae, limbs, toes, and ing on, on both extinct and so forth. One specimen has a extant animals. He and Bruce huge phalange at metatarsal III, Rothschild did finally publish which has an extra amount of their findings in a New Mexico bone growth (UUVP 1657, from Museum of Natural History the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry). Bulletin, no. 20 (“Dinosores: an Famous allosaur specimens have annotated bibliography of several pathologic conditions: dinosaur palaeopathology and Big Al, Big Al 2, and so on, related topics: 1838-2001,” 96 USNM 2315, Labrosaurus pp). Even today, when I go to ferox’s left dentary is missing its museums, I will look for pathotip teeth and has a U-shaped logic conditions. In this issue gouge, which may have been I’ll be going over specific Figure 2. Allosaurus fragilis (Labrosaurus ferox) lower jaw (USNM 2315). A, from a hit from a stegosaur spike. theropods and clades and in the Lateral view. B, Close-up of gouged-out tip in external view. C, Close-up of gouged- In fact, I believe Labrosaurus end focus on the Tyrannosaurus out tip in internal view. (A to C, T.L. Ford.) D, Drawing of skull of (USNM 4734) ferox belongs to the Allosaurus “Stan.” fragilis (topotype) USNM 4734 Allosaurus fragilis topotype, and Labrosaurus ferox lower jaw (USNM 2315). 20

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 19

Stan, you’ll notice the teeth (as does Madsen and Wells extend farther than they 2000). I’ve matched the lower should. Many believe the teeth jaw (USNM 2315) with the are misplaced through taphonskull of (USNM 4734) (with omy; I however do not. In fact, the help of Mike Brettone of the upper teeth and one Surman), and they match well. of the lower teeth have an USNM 4734 also has other erupting tooth pushing against pathologic conditions, some of the extended tooth. These teeth which weren’t on the mounted cannot be pushed in farther. specimen because its broken What could have caused this? I ribs were not on display (Mike believe Stan starved to death, Brett-Surman, pers. comm.) and I’ve been researching this (Figure 2). A really weirdoff and on for a decade. The looking scapula may have also parietal has been bitten off, been hit by a stegosaur spike, and there is one tooth-sized and there are broken gastralia (Figure 3). Ken Carpenter et al. hole (Figure 5). That was a (2005) have described an major muscle attachment place allosaur with evidence of the for not only the jaw muscles tail spike hitting a caudal verbut also for the neck. A portion tebra (UMNH 10781) (Figure of those muscles were bitten 4). Bakker et al. (2009) reportoff, and that missing muscle ed on an Allosaurus pelvis part would have inhibited its with a deep, penetrating muscle strength, including the wound caused by an adult ability to eat. A few years ago Stegosaurus. Decades ago I when I was visiting the New started research on both Mexico Museum of Natural Ceratosaurus and Allosaurus at Figure 3. Allosaurus fragilis pathologic conditions. A, Scapula of USNM 4734 (after History, I was looking over the Smithsonian Institution. Gilmore 1920). B, Pathologic pedal UUVP 1657 (after Madsen 1976). C, Pathologic mid- their cast of Stan, and I then Because they were on display, caudal vertebra, UUVP 3771 (after Madsen 1976). noticed that some of the cerviit was very difficult to get close cal neural spine and postzyto the specimens, but now that the type specimens are off display, I hope to gapophysis/epipophysis were also bitten off along with the parietal (Figure return to the Smithsonian and finally finish my research on the paleopatho- 6). Stan lived long enough from this fight for the bones to smooth out, but logic conditions, along with one more specimen that I’ve been working on not long enough for them to be infected. for a very long time: Stan. My website http://www.paleofile.com has a list of Paleozoic and Mesozoic animals with pathologic conditions. The list is under the Miscellaneous button, then under paleopathologies.

Tyrannosaurus rex “Stan” But before I get to describing that individual, Tyrannosaurus was a violent animal that would fight its own kind, over what we can only speculate. One thing they are now known for (thanks to Darren Tanke et al. ) is face biting (tyrannosaurids in general). They’d bite all over each over on the nasals, jaws (front and back), cheeks, parietal bone, mandible, and so on. They have been found with broken ribs (Sue has a tyrannosaur tooth in one of her ribs), vertebrae, and limbs. Some holes have been shown to be from a disease, but others show perfect tooth marks. Stan has several pathologic conditions: broken ribs, ankylosed or fused cervicals, bitten and broken parietal, anomalous openings in the right jugal and surangular (Molnar 2001), tooth marks (?) or holes on the jugal and surangular (also possibly made by manual claws). If you look at the jaws of

Both my volumes of “How to Draw Dinosaurs” are available on Amazon.com, my “Generic Dinosaur Skull a Day Calendar” (2 volumes), and my novel “Dinosaur Isle.” And also available only at Amazon.com is Mike Fredericks’ and my new dinosaur coloring book for all ages, “What Color were Dinosaurs? The Prehistoric Times Coloring Book.”

NEXT PAGE

Figure 4. Allosaurus caudal vertebra with stegosaur spike hitting it. A, Lateral view. B, Anterior view. C, Cutaway view. D, Dorsal view. (All after Ken Carpenter et al. 2005.)

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

21

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 20

Figure 5. “Stan”’s pathologic parietal. A, Upper front view of skull. B, Close-up of anterior view. C, Posterior view. D, Dorsal view. E, Ventral view. F, Close-up of anterior view. G, Close-up of posterior view. (All by T.L. Ford.)

Don't forget to visit my two websites; my original Dinohunter (http://www.dinohunter.info) and Paleofile (http://www.paleofile.com). Paleofile has several areas and an easy index (just click on the name, and it will take you to the systematic list), or you can go directly to the systematic list (eggs and ichnology included). Click on the name in the list, and it will take you to a more compressive listing: genus, species, etymology, holotype (lecto-, para, etc.), locality, horizon (formation), biostratigraphy (faunal zone if known), age, material, and referred material. There will be two faunal lists, one in which you can check your area or any area in the world to see what animals were found there and the other will be ages. If you're interested in Biostratigraphy, you can see which animals lived with which at that time from around the world.

Figure 6. Stan’s pathologic neck. A, Close-up of front view. B, Lateral view (A and B, T.L. Ford.) C, Normal Tyrannosaurus rex showing jaw and neck muscles. D, Stan’s pathologic jaw and neck muscles. 22

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 21

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

23

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 22

Dinosauriana,

The Essential Guide to Collectible, Figural Toy and Model Dinosaurs

With over 9000 full color photos and a wealth of information on dinosaur and prehistoric animal collectibles from the 20th century by expert Joe DeMarco and a half dozen other experts, this ely v i s n e t disc allows you to also become the x E w o ed N t expert with just a touch of a d p U your computer mouse. Pick up your copy of this computer disc direct from the author. Please note it is a PDF format so you must have Adobe Reader. The disc sells for $25 including shipping. Contact Joe at [email protected]. Joe accepts Paypal.

24

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:25 AM Page 23

LEFT: Pat Schaeffer found an old salesmen’s

catalog that advertised the now rare Skelatura: Tyrannosaur rex model kit by Multiple Models/Toymakers of the early 60s. The kit included a cardboard “skeleton” skin, cloth and paint. When finished it stood 22” tall. The series also included a gorilla kit and an elephant kit.

By Mike Fredericks

y ABOVE: John Lavas who writes all of our

Burian articles and lives in New Zealand bought these beautiful bronze(?) Protoceratops dinosaur figures in Prague, Czech Republic in 1992.

ABOVE: Our Sinclair Oil collectible this time is a 1950s

Santa Claus with his Dino the dinosaur-pulled sleigh Christmas toy/candy box. At least a half dozen dinosaurs pull Santa’s sleigh down the chimney in the box’s artwork. It is unknown exactly what the boxes held.

ABOVE & BELOW: This is pretty cool. It is a wooden puzzle

ABOVE: A presumed Sinclair Oil collectible is this desktop paper weight made up of a metal “Brontosaurus” dinosaur figure screwed onto a base of petrified wood with nice marbling. Unfortunately it has no wording on it. RIGHT: Perhaps the rarest of the Kleinwelka Saurierpark (Germany) figures is this bubblegum pink Iguanodon made for factory personnel only. The story is that less than 50 exist. Note the glossy finish and far better texture. These do not have the Saurierpark inscription or any text on their bellies. Collection Robert Telleria

with beautiful images of the original Battat Boston Museum of Science dinosaur figures. It reads, "Battat 2001" and is 17 RIGHT: “A Creature of the Lost in x 11 in. It also includes art of a skeleton of the dinosaur World” it reads on this statuette on the opposite side. I’m not sure of its value but the actual of a Brachiosaurus presented as a Battat figures have skyrocketed in price. Collection of Fred gift from Producer Waterson R. Snyder Rothacker. The artist did not sign the statuette, but I'd like to believe it was Willis O'Brien. Collection of Bruce Thomson

LEFT & ABOVE: Bob is looking for anyone who knows

or owns the other pieces in the sets with these 2 figurines. The unlabeled Brontops, probably 1960s, is the only one known in ceramic. Contact Robert Telleria- [email protected] Right: Jeff Pfeiffer’s super rare miniature Marx Flintstones playset of the 1960s. All of the dinosaurs and figures are hand-painted.

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

25

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 24

Dinosaur Collector News

lower body. This model looks fast and active. It will match up well with the giant squid and sharks from the Safari Itd marine collection. Tylosaurus was a dominant predator of the Western Interior Seaway during the Late Cretaceous. The genus was among the largest of the mosasaurs. It was originally portrayed with a flat snake-like tail and crest. The crest fell out of favor years ago, but this is the first model with a tail fluke. This provides a great teaching moment to explain to students how we make progress [email protected] in science as we gather more information. The open mouth allows you to see www.dinosaurcollectorsitea.com the second set of teeth in the upper palate. There is the elongated snout after the last teeth perhaps used to ram and stun prey. The top is a deep yellow with a lighter shade for the belly. The black striping gives it a serpentine cast. This is currently the most accurate figure you can get, and would make an excellent addition to your collection. The current trend in the prehistoric figures CollectA always does interesting feathered theropods. Typically, an market continues to lean toward smaller figures. ornithomimosaur gets no respect. They are not big, and mostly have no It seems only a few years back when Safari Ltd started marketing small figteeth, and they all look alike. CollectA has given us ures in their Dino Toobs. Kaiyodo had their resin colCollectA Deinocherus and an ornithomimosaur we can respect. Originally, lectables, the UHA series, but now every major comStruthio plus Mojo Deinocheirus was known only from two arms with Velociraptor pany has its own mini figures. Last year we had the giant claws. It was enough for Michael Palin to do a excellent mini figures from CollectA plus Papo and Walking with Monsters TV episode of a scaled-up Schleich released their down sized versions too. This Struthiomimus with giant claws. My generation grew year we have seen Mojo, GeoWorld, Kinto and PNSO up knowing Struthiomimus from our Marx playsets. market their mini figures. It was not an exciting animal and looked very fragWild Safari had a big release this year (not small figile. More recently Gallimimus was the best known ures). The biggest of the lot is a new Diplodocus. It member of the family thanks to Jurassic Park. They looks agile and huge at the same time. Safari Ltd. has pretty much looked the same. In 2012 CollectA had experience with Diplodocus, releasing four difreleased a Deluxe Deinocheirus based ferent figures in older series. Bob Bakker described on reconstructions assuming a close Wild Safari Diplodocus Diplodocus as the skinny Apatosaurus. I recall from my convergence with other ornithomiearly school year’s dino factoids that Diplodocus was the mosaurs. Everyone thought it was a longest dinosaur. Things change; every year a bigger or plausible avian style model. longer sauropod is found. Diplodocus has the advantage Paleontology is an ever changing sciin being a well-known fossil. A medium to low browser, ence. The next year the rest of the body it lived in the fern prairies with the other sauropods and was found and it looked nothing like also Stegosaurus and Allosaurus. Camarasaurus, what we expected. So now we have a Diplodocus and Apatosaurus were the most common sauropods of the new updated figure, at least until the next fossil is found. Note if you have North American Late Jurassic. Not that many companies have produced the original figure, it is a guaranteed rare collectable. The revised figure is Diplodocus; perhaps it is too hard to differentiate from the better-known large, feathered, with short bipedal legs, a short tail and has three large Apatosaurus. The legs are columnar with meticulous attention to the claws. claws. Instead of a sharp beak like an ornithomimosaur, it has a duckbill like The Wild Safari reproduction is long and slender, with a neck held in the a hadrosaur. It has a big hump on its back. forward, neutral, position. The triangular head is detailed CollectA has retained a brown plumage suitable GeoWorld Jurassic and has an open mouth with teeth in the front and nosfor a ground bird with blue along the back. The Action trils at the tip. The back has a fleshy fringe from the back tail is long with display feathers at the tip. Blue of the skull going almost to the tip of the tail. The whip display feathers on the forelimbs are like those like tail is a homage to the first Safari Ltd Diplodocus. It of other theropods. The thin legs are mounted curves over itself as if caught flexing. It is a commentary on a base. There is a short crest at the back of on dinosaurs, that the only thing a 2017 figure has in the head. The bare face is red and white sugcommon with the 1980’s reconstruction is the tail. This is gesting a cassowary. The animal is a mystery; my first choice for a sauropod to collect in 2017. what did it eat? Fish scales were found in the Wild Safari replaced two retired marine reptile figures; stomach of one animal. The size and claws Kronosaurus (our featured animal in this issue) and Tylosaurus this year. would have made it risky prey. Maybe when you are that big, you eat whatKronosaurus was a top marine predator in the Early Cretaceous. It was big, ever you want and everything you can find. but the early fossils were ambiguous and scientists overestimated the size. Last year’s CollectA standard Struthiomimus was a late shipper but worth It was still a whale-sized animal feeding on giant the wait. It is no contest: definitely my favorite squid and other marine predators. It has name recogornithomimosaur. When I set it next to my poor old Wild Safari Kronosaurus and nition because Marx and MPC included a very diverTylosaurus Marx figure, it is like comparing a living animal to gent, even for the time, toy figure of Kronosaurus in a plucked corpse. This small figure has a delicate their sets. Liopleurodon has been in the public eye look, like a bird. The brown dino fuzz covers the since the Walking with Dinosaurs TV special and has body, becoming tan on the belly. The narrow body, over-shadowed Kronosaurus. Compared to the earlithin legs and small feet are supported by a base as er Safari Ltd Kronosaurus, this model is sleeker with you would expect for an animal that depends on more details in the mouth, which has a sculpted speed for defense. The forearms have pale display tongue. The teeth are individually modeled, with the feathers and three flat claws. The small head has its front five teeth having a fanged appearance. The beak open to show the toothless jaws. This is visuskull is longer and it tapers. The tail is short. It has ally one of the most striking CollectA figures. four flippers with the back two slightly larger. The “They move in herds”, to quote Jurassic Park, and top coloring is a dark muddy black with an off- white you should get enough to have a herd. I plan to

by Randy Knol

26

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 25

start a herd. done in shades of brown, darker on top and lighter below. GeoWorld Embotherium Mojo, like CollectA, shares the Procon The reconstruction is respectable, and I found it novel to legacy. We do not see much of them in North have an herbivore with a movable mouth. It is a childAmerica although anecdotally I hear they are friendly figure. The latest release from GeoWorld is Dr. Steve Hunters’ common in Europe. They released 10 Mojo Minis, sold in individual blister packs. The Little Dinosaurs. The 12 collectables come in anonymous small figures, Velociraptor, Brachiosaurus, surprise packets like Kaiyodo UHA figures. The small figSpinosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, ures are in the style of the larger Jurassic figures but origiParasaurolophus, T-rex, Smilodon, Woolly Mammoth and Ankylosaurus nal sculpts similar to the Papo tube figures. They are a nice addition to the would have been familiar to a Marx playset. mini market. They appear to be a smaller version of the The Jurassic Hunters are the best known of the GeoWorld PNSO Tujiangosaurus large Mojo set. I found it nostalgic that the dinosaurs but I think the best Hunters are the least known, feathered Velociraptor is tipped with the same their prehistoric animal line. Embolotherium was a shade of blue as the CollectA Deinocheirus. Mongolian brontothere related to Brontotherium of North GeoWorld produces several sets of dinosaur America. It had a brief cameo in “Ice Age”, an animated and prehistoric animal figures. The Jurassic movie that generated a few premiums, the Burger King verAction set have articulated figures. They are sion being the most common. It actually lived in the sold in an A-frame package with a display background, collector card and Eocene; one the first large mammals. It is generally included in the same information packet. I carefully opened the bottom of the A-frame and fold- family as horses, tapirs and rhinos. This is one of my favorite GeoWorld figed the front of the package over the back. This left a rectangular and shal- ures. Known from skulls, the body is reconstructed based on fossils of relalow base in front of the display sheet that could tives. This reconstruction follows a rhino morph plan be filled with sand. You have an instant diorama with folds of rhino skin at the shoulders and hips. The for display. The Jurassic Action Parasaurolophus head has a fan shaped ram just before the nostrils. In has seven articulations, the four legs at the hip real life, the ram was hollow and may have been part of and shoulder, the tail, neck and mouth. The rubthe nasal complex for sound. It is a unique prehistoric bery vinyl makes a more robust toy than the mammal for our prehistoric mammal collectors. I got Hasbro Jurassic Park figures. It has potential for mine from Dean Walker’s Dejankins.com, the purveystop-motion fans. While GeoWorld has varied or of the unique and hard to find prehistoric animal 3 Recur dinosaur figs. Tyrannosaurus, the color of its figures, this Parasaurolophus is figures. Triceratops & Ankylosaurus

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

27

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 26

28

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 27

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

29

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 28

30

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 29

Continues on Page 54

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

31

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 30

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 31

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 32

What’s New in review

By Mike Fredericks I have much to review so let’s get started, shall we? My children have grown up around so much prehistoric animal related items that they really could not care less about dinosaurs. However, my daughter has said that Parasaurolophus is her favorite dinosaur. Masterpiece Models is a very cool company that offers many resin model kits for sale on the subject of SciFi and military and more. As I told you in the last issue, they have now started to sell dinosaur related kits - Beautiful dinosaur kits, and one of them is a very large, 1/10th scale Parasaurolophus. Parasaurolophus (pronounced either PARR- a-saw-ROL-o-fus or PARR-a -SAWR-o -LOH-fus) means "near crested lizard.” It is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur that lived in what is now North America during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 75 million years ago. It was a herbivore that walked both as a biped and a quadruped. Three species are recognized: P. walkeri (the type species), P. tubicen, and the short-crested P. cyrtocristatus. Remains are known from Alberta, Canada, as well as New Mexico and Utah. The genus was first described in 1922 by William Parks from a skull and partial skeleton found in Alberta. Parasaurolophus was a hadrosaurid, “duck-billed” dinosaur known for its large, elaborate cranial crest, which at its largest forms a long curved tube projecting upwards and back from the skull. It is one of the rarer hadrosaurids, known from only a handful of specimens; none of them complete. Its large “horn” could have been used to help regulate its core temperature, make noises for other Paras to hear or portray differences in sexes and ages, or all of the above. In life, this huge, two and half ton animal was 30 feet long. I actually received three new dinosaur resin models from Masterpiece Models, all sculpted by well known dinosaur sculptor Darren McDonald. At 1/10th scale, like I said, this is a large model. Also like I said, Para probably could have walked on both two or four legs. Most all older representations of this dinosaur had it up on two legs but today it is more commonly shown on all fours, as Darren did here. Darren’s Para has rather delicate front legs yet powerful looking back legs. I once asked Darren how he got such realistic skin detail on his dinosaur sculptures. Of course if he told me he would have to kill me so I let that go. But, I am always most impressed with the detail in his skin patterns, as I am here. To me, this Parasaurolophus seems to take a tentative step forward sniffing the air and using its keen hearing for the hint of any predator. I love it. At 38 inches long and 14.5 inches tall, this nine piece model is a real bargain at only $129.99. Be sure and check out Masterpiecemodels.com The second dinosaur model sculpted by Darren McDonald and sold by Masterpiece Models that I received is Pentaceratops sternbergi. This 21 foot long ceratopsian dinosaur lived in the same place (New Mexico) and at about the same time (around 75 million years ago) as Parasaurolophus. I wonder if they ever met. Pentaceratops (five horned face) fossils were first discovered in 1921. About a dozen skulls and skeletons have been uncovered, so that most bones are known. Pentaceratops was almost twenty feet 34

long, and has been estimated to have weighed around five tons. It had a fairly short nose horn, two long brow horns, and long horns on the jugal bones too. Its skull had a very long frill with triangular hornlets on the edge. It would have been amazing to see in life. Masterpiece Models’ resin Penta kit is large at two feet long and 15.5 inches tall. Penta, to me has a more confident look than Para and why not? He is well armored in the front with sharp horns for defense. He looks ready to lurch forward. The model is made up of about a dozen, super detailed parts and unlike the Parasaurolophus actually includes a realistic ground base. Both of the main body pieces of the Parasaurolophus and the Pentaceratops are cast hollow for weight reduction. The price at Masterpiecemodels.com is only $159.99 for this huge dinosaur model kit. The third model for my review from Masterpiece Models was also sculpted by Darren McDonald and is a 1/9th scale Tyrannosaurus rex skull. A real T. rex skull was about six feet long. This beautiful resin model is about six inches long so it fits nicely for display on your shelf. Now, if you asked me what my favorite dinosaur is, I would be hard pressed to name anything except T. rex. The animal was just so awesome. I don’t have to tell you anything about this apex Cretaceous predator except for some new scientific information that was recently reported. There’s been plenty of debate over just how much hunting Tyrannosaurus did, as opposed to how much scavenging it did, but a new discovery shows that, however this huge beast was able to find its food, its bite was truly horrific, making bones explode and disintegrate. According to new computer data, a living T. rex would have had roughly 8,000 pounds of biting force at its disposal. That’s four tons coming down on you, but it’s also not the whole story. Its long, coneshaped teeth, measured an impressive 431,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. With that kind of force, a T. rex bite wouldn’t just have snapped bones, it could have created the catastrophic explosion of some bone structures. So, there was practically nothing a T-Rex couldn’t eat, and it would likely have consumed not just the flesh of its prey, but also the bones and the marrow within them. This two piece skull model is accurate and realistic and cast in a dark bone color, but of course, you can paint it any color you want. Price is only $39.99. Such a deal! Masterpiece Models offers many dinosaur skull models including a larger 1/5th scale T. rex skull. All orders are cast to order so allow 15 days for delivery. Please check out masterpiecemodels.com and Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 33

see their ad on page #37 of this issue to get 10% off on your purchase.

A Protoceratops also arrived for review. Owner Mark Kreiss says, “this Protoceratops is a re-release of the old Primeval Plastics (which is now known as "AroarA.") Steve Ross, owner of AroarA/Primeval Plastics contacted me and asked if I wanted to remold this kit and release it. Always looking to make a buck, I said "What's in it for me?" ... I mean I said, "Why yes, of course I'll do it." The original release of this kit sold well. As that was years ago, I am sure that a lot of folks missed out on the opportunity to get one. The box graphics are courtesy of my overThe resin Protoceratops model must be assembled and seas partner, Bill Voyce. Retro instructions by Bill Voyce and Steve Ross. The original sculpt is by painted. Chris Lynch.” “Also we re-released the Moschops and the Dunkleosteus. Up and coming we have a Cryolophosaurus replacement head for the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes Allosaurus, a Diablosaurus replacement head for the PS Styracosaurus/Triceratops, a Therizinosaurus kit using the PS Allosaurus Body, the long awaited Marsh, and The Neanderthal Woman! FINALLY, Bruno the Neanderthal Man has a mate!” Protoceratops, meaning "First Horned Face" is a genus of sheep-sized (1.8 m long) herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur, from the Upper Cretaceous Period (Campanian stage) of what is now Mongolia. It was a member of the Protoceratopsidae, a group of early horned dinosaurs. Unlike later ceratopsians, however, it was a much smaller creature that lacked well-developed horns and retained some primitive traits not seen in later genera. Protoceratops had a large neck frill which was likely used as a display site to impress other members of the species. Other hypotheses about its function include protection of the neck and anchoring of jaw muscles, but the fragility of the frill and the poor leverage offered by possible attachment sites here makes these ideas implausible. Described by Walter W. Granger and W.K. Gregory in 1923, Protoceratops was initially believed to be an ancestor of the North American ceratopsians. Researchers currently distinguish two species of Protoceratops (P. andrewsi and P. hellenikorhinus), based in part by their respective sizes. In the 1920s, Roy Chapman Andrews discovered fossilized eggs in Mongolia that were interpreted as belonging to this dinosaur, but which turned out to be those of Oviraptor. Included is a nice resin ground base with egg nest (with separate eggs) that fits next to other Prehistoric Scenes models to create a huge scene. The retro instruction is well done, illustrated as if this was an original Aurora Recur Quetzalcoatlus

Recur Majungatholus

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

styrene model kit in which every body part is made up of two hollow parts. The actual model is resin, not hollow and not made up of two parts per piece. This is great but may be confusing to model builders not in on the fun. A name plate is included. The adult Protoceratops is well detailed in the Aurora style of the seventies. A baby Proto is also included. Look, I know Protoceratops didn't have horns or spikes or sharp teeth but this Mongolian herd animal is a very interesting dinosaur and makes for a beautiful model kit.

Prehistorix Resin Plateosaurus

prehistorix.wixsite.com/prehistorix For a long time, you have seen advertisements here in PT for the company Geoworld. Geoworld creates a huge collection of prehistoric animal figures under the “Dr. Steve Hunters” name as well as many skeletal figures, egg excavation kits, dino dig excavation kits as well as other science kits, and much more. Now, even more has come out for 2017.

Geoworld sent us a Dr Steve Hunters Jurassic Action Parasaurolophus action figure. The figure is well done and beautifully boxed. The catalog on the back of the box says collect all 24. Each includes a scientific data leaflet, one action trading card and a ready to cut diorama inside to place your dinosaur on. Dr Steve Hunters also offers a prehistoric mammal line. We received a beautiful Eobasileus and a Hipparion. There are 18 to collect and each includes a fact card. And lastly, we received a nice “Little Dinosaurs” bagged dinosaur figure of a 2” Spinosaurus. Collect all 12. In 2014, Ankyl Toys launched its brand Recur to produce products of static animal models consisting of four series; dinosaurs, wild animals, sea animals and farm animals. “Quality, Safety, Love, Nature and Happiness” is their design idea. Recur seeks to develop children’s understanding of nature and life and show them that to care for nature is Recur Mammoth v e r y important.

Geoworld Eobasileus Geoworld Parasaurolophus

We were sent several of R e c u r ’s original design, soft plastic, prehistoric animal toys from the manufacturer. The fairly large figures are made of soft and safe plastic that's squeezable and slightly bendable. These figures are very accurate looking and realistic in appearance. Some look better than others but all are very well done. I love the woolly mammoth we received as well as the Ouranosaurus, Majungatholus, Quetzalcoatlus, and a feathered “Velocisaurus” (which must be a translation problem for Velociraptor.) 35

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 34

Collect them yourself, plus get your little ones into the world of dinosaurs with the Recur soft figurine toy series. Like I said, they are made of soft and safe plastic so you'll never worry about your child when they are playing with Recur toys. Scientifically accurate, designed and painted with extreme detail, they'll love playing with their dinosaurs and they might even learn something too. (each figure includes an informative tag.) And of course you adult prehistoric animal collectors will enjoy these figures too. You can order yours on-line at several locations but you can’t go wrong with Dejankins.com that carries the entire Recur line. We find dinosaurs so appealing from generation after generation. Whatever it is, Top Trumps Dinosaurs card game has got it in bucketloads. Full of beautiful, realistic and dramatic

Top Trumps Dinosaur Card game © Top Trumps 2017

illustrations, Brachiosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Velociraptor, and Triceratops are all featured. If you don't know your Archaeopteryx from your Euoplocephalus you need this Top Trumps pack now! This entertaining and educational card game brings your favorite Dinosaurs to life. Play Top Trumps anytime, anywhere, with as many people as you like. Find out the killer rating for a Tyrannosaurus rex, the length of a Centrosaurus and the weight of a Protoceratops in this edition of Top Trumps - Dinosaurs. The classic game of “War” becomes a dinosaur game. Simply choose your best dino stat, beat your opponent’s card and win the entire deck. It includes an easy-to-carry plastic case so there is no limit to gameplay. Prepare to outsmart your opponents, discover new and exciting facts and duel your way to becoming the Top Trump.

Prehis

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 35

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 36

Kronosaurus

By Phil Hore [email protected]

er environment they are released in. Normally operating in pairs, the Submersible Drone, numbered SD-119, has been alone for the last three years, slowly making its way from the original drop zone to what would be the future Pacific.” A small pod on the large machine opens, and the view zooms in as the small microcamera that had been filming the scene drops into the cavity. The scene switches to the onboard front camera on SD119 as it drops under a breaking wave. The image switches to a group of workers huddling around a large tabletop computer screen showing a map and scrolling figures. One figure touches the screen, sideswipes it away, and then pinches and zooms into the next map. They then double-tap the screen, and a GIN-site icon appears over the spot.

© Douglas Henderson www.douglashendersonehi.com

Kronosaurus vs Woolungosaurus! Transmission incoming from Time Inc. Entertainment: The view of a sunset over a rolling stretch of ocean fills the screen, with a flock of pterosaurs wheeling in and out of the light. The roar of the waves goes quiet as a deep, familiar voice begins to explain: “With so much time to cover and so many locations, Time Inc. and the Imago Mundi Society have developed a series of remote vehicles that can be released and spend their operating life documenting whatever time, whatevKronosaurus and elasmosaurs © Fabio Pastori

© Roz Gibson

“120 million years into the future, a team of Imago Mundi technician’s geo-calculated where the fossil found in 1982 would be created in the distant past and programed SD-119 and its mate SD-452 to seek out this location and film the incident captured in the fossil.” The video shows the vehicle dropping lower. “SD-119 levels out at a depth bordering two documented ocean-light horizons known as twilight and midnight, or the dysphotic and the aphotic zone, where sunlight and darkness meet. Although this uses up the submersible’s power at a faster rate and requires more frequent recharging, for the most part it keeps the vehicle out of danger because most marine predators lay in wait below the euphotic, or sunlight, zone and strike at silhouetted shapes above.” Above, a large school of fish zips and darts from side to side, matching the slow, rhythmic beating of the massive shark’s tail they are following. The predator neither sees nor seems to care about the vehicle; it just moves on, a figure of menace piercing the few shafts of sunlight that manage to penetrate this deep.

© John Sibbick www.johnsibbick.com 38

“Over the next three weeks SD-119 porpoises its way south across the Tethys Sea, recharging during the middle of the day and using the twilight of morning and evening to travel—times most Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 37

© Eivind Bovor

© Clinton Harris and the marine predators they support. This is especially true for the enormous marine reptiles that patrol these waters because the warm conditions help to fuel their cold-blooded bodies. “Except for Antarctica, modern Australia is the driest continent on earth, its red heart a furnace of deserts and sand. Only the very edges are habitable to most life, but in this time those very same deserts lay under oceans teaming with life of every kind, and it’s here that one of the most remarkable encounters ever studied in the fossil records occurred, and SD-119 has arrived to record this amazing natural event.” Ahead of the vehicle, a small pod of elasmosaurs swims along, with their long necks and small heads seemingly unnaturally snaking through the water as these predators scan for fish. © Luis Rey https://luisvrey.wordpress.com dangerous when predators use the tricky light conditions the most to hunt.” One of the vehicle’s microcameras soars high into the sky and picks up the submersible below as it enters through the wide heads of northern Gondwana and moves into the shallows of the large inland sea that lies over what will be modern Australia. The glittering surface of the Eromanga Sea is wide, shallow, and warm, the perfect conditions for huge quantities of fish

“Resembling nothing alive today, these elasmosaurs, a local species called Woolungasaurus, have famously been referred to as looking like a snake pulled through the body of a turtle.” The front paddles of the animal take long, powerful strokes through the water, while their forward flippers twist and occasionally beat directly up and down, helping to change direction and keep the front of the body from dropping. “Onboard sensors have been scanning the various elasmosaurs populating the area until SD-119 located the animal that most closely matches the © Roz Gibson

© Mike Landry

© Elliot Smith

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

39

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 38

© Diane Ramic

© David Stow

Harvard exhibit - the world’s only mounted Kronosaurus, at 42feet-long to understand that the differences between the summer and winter solar radiation levels affect the formation of fossils. This has allowed Time Inc. to drop its probes close enough to the events recorded in the paleontological record to produce a stunning, firsthand account of some of the world’s most famous fossils.” The microcamera moves to center on the probe as the machine breaches the surface and releases two more cameras. One takes to the air, but the second drops into the sea and starts sending back images from a new angle. This one reveals how close the submersible has remained to the rear of the elasmosaur.

© John K Patterson

© Elliott Smith fossil bones it has in its records. With the original specimen tagged, it then began following the animal closely, documenting the life of the animal.” In images of the elasmosaurs flowing in and out of a coral reef, one shows its small head and numerous teeth snapping around the body of a large fish. The view then switches to what seems to be the identical animal, resting on the surface, taking long deep breaths, just before, with a snap of motion, it reacts to some unseen danger and drops under the surface. “Great advances in radiometric dating have allowed paleontologists to close the dating of fossil formations from millions and thousands of years to months and even weeks. The breakthrough came when physicists began © David Hicks

John C Womack

“The same online sensors that have helped track our Woolungasaurus have been scanning the waters around the region, looking for the star of our story today, and recently it hit on a sonar signature identical to the one SD-119 had been programed to look for.” Once more the camera view pulls back and catches motion

40

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 39

under the elasmosaur pod. The camera zooms in and frames an enormous head with huge, sharp, fang-like teeth jutting out of it. The predator’s eyes are firmly fixed on the animals swimming high above and, with a single push of its forward flippers, levers itself off the seafloor. “Kronosaurus, named after the Greek Titan who ate his own children, never has there been a predator so fearsome. Its enormous flippers and well-muscled body have created a T. rex-sized, enormous, powerful killer.” The predator starts beating at the water faster, and it builds up tremendous speed. As the Kronosaurus emerges from the deep, its body becomes clearer. “A dull grey back gives this predator some camouflage to those above looking below, while the skin on its light-colored belly is partly used as a display signal during mating.” Within a very short distance the pliosaur streaks to the surface like a missile and, when only a few dozen feet from the surface, gathers its flippers in, streamlining its body. The camera begins to track its passage and zoom out, for the first time revealing the pliosaur target, the Woolungasaurus. This it hits with its enormous head, folding the longer but flimsier elasmosaur in the middle. Both animals breach the surface and quickly drop back into the sea in a slash of water and flailing limbs. The view immediately switches to the view from SD-119, which had remained in the wake of the Woolungasaurus, which is looking at something in the distance and never sees the pliosaur as it streaks out of the deep and rams its victim. The view changes again to the microcamera flying above the sea, and in an explosion at slow motion, the sea’s calm surface explodes as the Kronosaurus erupts skyward, with the small elasmosaur’s body wrapped around the predator’s enormous skull. Although wounded, the Woolungasaurus immediately tries to swim away, but the experienced Kronosaurus is having none of it. Regaining its wits, the pliosaur does a slow turn and, with the elasmosaur’s long neck lying just before its snout, opens its enormous mouth, revealing dozens of knife-sized teeth. These it drops onto the neck and head of the Woolungasaurus with a thunderclap as both jaws come back together.

© Jeffrey Nevens

Woolungasaurus’s lost head and neck. Head first, this slowly spirals its way down to the sea floor, and the camera watches it until it’s lost in the growing gloom. “It’s amazing to think that this lost morsel will be quickly covered in sediment and then in around 120 million years time will be found again, and the wounds on its skull will reveal its method of death in the deepest, darkest past.”

Monsters of the deep In 1960 a fossil was unearthed in Richmond, Queensland, that would have been over 30 feet in length at its death, and what a gruesome death it appears to have been. In many ways Woolungasaurus was a typical plesiosaur; its small head, long neck, broad flippers, and sharp teeth show that it was an effective predator, yet the skull revealed the clear signs that something even larger had bitten it. This leads to the question, what sort of creature could have killed a plesiosaur? In 1899 a local resident of Hughenden, Andrew Crombie, discovered a fossil jaw fragment with six large, conical teeth in the dark Queensland soil. Realizing he may have found something special, the farmer sent the fossil to the Queensland Museum. The museum’s director, Heber Longman, named the specimen Kronosaurus queenslandicus after the state and Kronos, the father of the Greek god Zeus. In 1936 reporters from the Courier-Mail visited the museum and recorded: “In a workroom nearby was half a ton of fossil— only a small part of the head of a pliosaur, a terrible reptilian monster, half crocodile, half fish, which basked in the Cretaceous seas of Western Queensland aeons before the stone of Thebes was quarried from the Nubian crag, and Genghis Khan hammered at the brazen gates of Samarcand and, compared with this monster, the modern crocodile, our sole survival from the Jurassic, would be as harmless as a frill lizard. The pliosaur measured about 40 ft., and his complete head would be about 9 ft. long. Mr. Longman has appropriately named him Kronosaurus… Lord Of The Jurassic.” Thirty years later more material was found in the region, including part of a large, broad skull. Later a team from of Museum University’s Harvard Comparative Zoology visited Australia to collect the continent’s wildlife. Their shopping list included “specimens of the kangaroo, the wombat, the Tasmanian devil, and the Tasmanian wolf.” The last of course was just a few years from total extinction, and it’s doubtful there were many individual thylacines still alive in the wilds of the

The body of the elasmosaur shudders once © Wade Carmen and then goes limp, yet the pliosaur does not release its grip. Instead it drops its right-side flippers in toward its body and makes a few powerful beats with those on its country. left. This begins to rotate the Kronosaurus’s body and, thanks to the power When the Americans returned home, they left behind a graduate student of its bite and its great weight, tears the head and neck from the in paleontology, William Edward Schevill (pronounced /sheh-VILL/, a Woolungasaurus’s body. Yet, when it opens its deliberately respelled name from German ©Giovanni De Benedictis mouth again and flicks its head, a move to Schwill ‘swelling’), who organized a local flick that separated piece deeper into its team with the anthropologist Captain [email protected] mouth, a sudden wave knocks the pliosaur’s Guildford de Taliga to head into central body enough that it drops the morsel, which Queensland. Local institutions (like the quickly slips under the surface. Unworried, the Australian Museum) were invited along, but predator just takes another bite of the elasmoney for such expeditions was short at the mosaur’s body and repeats the maneuver, teartime, and so they said no but wished everyone ing away a flipper and a large chunk of flesh, the best of luck. which it successfully flips into its mouth and The expedition arrived in Richmond and swallows. found a few fossils, including a partial The view changes again, this time to the Kronosaurus snout, which was pointed out to the follows it as submersible them by the local Stevens family. The Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

41

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 40

Stevenses had found the fossil earlier and even removed a large tooth with a hammer to show their friends. The expedition also met Ralph William Thomas, who told them about a location on his property, Army Downs, full of large bones. Thomas was a veteran of the First World War and received the farm from an army land ballot after the war.

© Nick Papadimitriou

What they discovered was the most complete specimen of Kronosaurus ever found, all locked inside limestone nodules weighing 6 tons. Much of the specimen was articulated, though there was some damage by erosion. The immediate issue the team had was getting the enormous fossils home because, at the time, central Queensland was akin to being on the moon. Luckily the expedition had “the Maniac,” a man who loved explosives, and he dynamited the nodules into 86 manageable pieces. Again the lack of funds enters the story. Upon arrival in the USA, preparation of the skull was begun, a job that took 2 years. The museum could not afford any more work, and so the rest of the fossil would not be ready for display until 1956, after the museum received a donation from the Godfreys, a Boston family who had a long fascination with sea monsters (today called cryptozoologists). With the specimen finally about to be unveiled, interest grew in Queensland about the Harvard Kronosaurus, especially because a lot of information being released by the Americans had cut out the Australians involved in its discovery. By this time the USA had hundreds of impressive fossils, but Australia really had only one, and it was now being displayed outside of the country. This created some resentment Down Under, and the June 6th edition of the Courier-Mail released an article on the newly displayed specimen, pointing out: “Queensland University has sent a firm reminder to America that the man who ‘discovered’ and named the world's biggest marine reptile was a Queenslander.” This bitterness, along with the length of time it took to prep the fossil, led to the spread of many rumors and myths. The Harvard team was considered incompetent for the amount of time it took by some, and when Australian paleontologists finally got a look at the specimen, they noted there were too many bones in the fossil and a lot of reconstruction. This led to the nickname “plastersaurus.”

for scientific research.” I hope that this will help end the “controversy” though as a proud Australian I must admit it would be nice to get one of our greatest fossil treasures back here someday (may I suggest that it be “loaned” to the National Dinosaur Museum?). Sixty years later, and it’s not like we have that many more great finds after all. In 1989 the 93-year-old Ralph Thomas explained to his wife “I want to see my animal” and traveled to Harvard to see his Kronosaurus for the first time since it left his property. At the museum he was reunited with William Schevill, whom he thought had died during the Second World War. Dr. Schevill also believed the same thing about Ralph, and together they inspected Queensland’s monster of the deep. Kronosaurus was a pliosaur, a group of marine reptiles with stocky bodies and enormous, croc-like heads lined with interlocking teeth. The first three of these on either side of the jaw were nearly 12-inch-long fangs, making them longer than Smilodon’s famous saber teeth. The rest were 5 inches and round, a totally different shape from other pliosaur teeth, which are more of a pyramid shape. This round shape meant the teeth lacked a cutting edge, a feature seen on most predator teeth. This indicates that Kronosaurus may have killed by biting, crushing, and holding onto its prey, not by biting and lacerating with cuts and gashes to the body. It would then swallow large chunks of flesh, torn off its victim perhaps after a croc-like death roll. They also used stomach stones to process the meat, and the presence of gastroliths further strengthens the name Kronosaurus. Kronos was the Titan who was supposed to eat his own son Zeus but instead was tricked into swallowing the Omphalos stone in a baby’s blanket, leaving Zeus alive to plot his revenge. Originally believed to be 43 feet long and weighing 11 tons, this size has been whittled down recently to around 35 feet. The pelvis and shoulders were robust, and the flippers were large and rigid, an indication that they were powerful swimmers, capable of tremendous bursts of speed. Their skulls also indicate these predators looked up and so likely hid in the deep and, when prey swam overhead, used their flippers to build up speed and swim up and ram their victims senseless.

There are currently two recognized species, K. queenslandicus and K. boyacensis, although the latter has enough dif© John F Davies ferences that it may be placed in another genus. It was found in 1977, when a Colombian farmer from Moniquirá discovered an almost complete skeleton All these facts are true at face value though unfair to those involved. As in his fields (what is it with Kronosaurus and farmers?). Although pliosaurs mentioned, the time was due to money, not incompetence, and almost every have been found worldwide, Kronosaurus likely called Gondwana home. complete fossil known has some sort of reconstruction somewhere. Large numbers have been found across Australia, though, being Australian, Certainly, there were far too many vertebrae, making the reconstruction far almost all are fragmentary and difficult to describe to one specific species larger than the animal was in life, but everyone makes mistakes. or another. The long-necked plesiosaur Woolungosaurus contains bite marks This anger is still around today, with some websites claiming: “The spec- from a pliosaur (most likely Kronosaurus), and this was the first direct eviimen was removed from Australia without licence, and without Australian dence of pliosaurs predating on plesiosaurs. Evolving in the Jurassic, the scientists or institutions being involved, a situation the local scientific com- pliosaurs were part of a large family, the Plesiosauria, themselves part of an munity has never been happy about. If further specimens come to light, they even larger family, the Pantestudines. This leaves a single living family will definitely remain in the country.” today, the turtles. Originally believed to be anapsids, molecular tests strongThis is clearly not true, and hopefully such remarks will dissipate. The ly favor turtles being placed close to the plesiosaurs. There are life-sized Queensland Museum was aware of the find, and when it was being packed models of Kronosaurus across Australia, the most obvious being at for export to the USA, it carried a letter from the man who’d named the Kronosaurus Korner in Queensland. I was also lucky enough to see the species. Longman wrote: “I have pleasure in stating that these specimens Harvard specimen and a second fossil held in storage at the Queensland collected by Mr W. E. Schevill for the Harvard University Museum are bona Museum. Standing next to them you get how big and powerful they were, fide natural history specimens, not obtained for commercial purposes, but and surely they must rank as one of the greatest predators of all time. 42

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 41

Cretaceo us Cl assif ieds Free to subscribers but must be updated each issue WANTED: Thinking of selling your dinosaur collection in whole or in part? Contact me first for options. I may just be interested. [email protected] or 412-901-8982

For Sale: Complete set of twenty 1950s Shreddies dinosaur premiums from UK: $400. I’m thinning out my 30+ year collection of vintage dinosaur figures and memorabilia. Also available are a complete set of original Timpo prehistoric figures, including the rare unbroken stegosaurus, which was never recast. Other available sets or figures include a few Messmore and Damon 1933 World’s Fair figures as well as the original decorative box they were sold in, World’s Fair triceratops bottle opener and WF brontosaur paperweight, Chialus, SRG, Cherilea, Alva, Brumm and other European metal flats, Sterling Lanier (Smithsonian) bronzes, William Otto prehistorics, Flintstone Hunting Party dinosaurs in various colors, a near complete set of rare Kaiyodo Dinoland figures, including the rare Quetzalcoatlus, and much more. Contact Larry at 703-5270910 or [email protected] WANTED: David Krentz's bronze pieces and 1/72 resin apatosaurus, Michael Trcic's 1/35 T-Rex from Meso-Zoo series, Tony McVey's Deinonychus "birdwatcher" Contact me at: [email protected]. For Sale or exchange: Australian dinosaur related figures and publications. Its not a vast collection, but includes figures that have never been released widely and obscure publications from Australia's small but perfectly formed scientific and dino enthusiast community. Please email me for a full list. [email protected] Wanted: I am looking to purchase a Sideshow Collectible Apatosaurus. There were two different sculptures released. Please let me know asap. My email is [email protected] For Sale: Large Collection of plastic prehistoric figure. Hundreds of different Marx, MPC, Invicta, Safari & other generic figures and accessories plus prehistoric related books and comic books $260.00. Issues of Prehistoric Times #60 - #99 - $240.00 Asking $499.99 for all. Please contact Gregory Flanagan, 268 7th St., Brooklyn, NY 11215, (718) 499-1939 Wanted: in the neverending quest to make our reference book "Dinosauriana - The Essential Guide to Collecting Toy, Figural and Model Dinosaurs" totally complete, we are looking for images of figures of the following: 1) IMAI Nessie figure 1969 2) Elgate dinosaurs 3) Bandai large vinyl T rex 1993 4) Gakken Allosaurus kit 5) Kokoro single dinos 6) Sapporo Boy 7) Nissin 8) Mesalands Dinosaur Museum bronzes 9) Wai Fong 10) Silver Dolphin 11) Equity Promotions 12) Doris Dotz set info 13) Argeal metal figures 14) Life-Like Hobby mini figures from "World of..." model kits 15) Magma Terra ceramics 16) Nagasakiya 17) Jurassic Stones chase Archaeopteryx 18) Bandai Great Animal Kaiser figures. Contact Joe DeMarco at [email protected] FOR SALE from FRANCE : WM OTTO La Brea Tar Pits (American cave bear, ancient bison, Smilodon, Colombian mammoth, Teratornis ), HENKEL / OVOMALTINE numerous figures including rare Scolosaurus, Pterichthys and Pteranodon , YOPLAIT (yellow scolosaur), STARLUX (possible complete set and many figures), very rare CAFE BOCA (= mini Starlux 35 millimeters : Brontotherium, Deinotherium, Baluchitherium, Saltoposuchus), PANINI, SCHLEICH (classics series), LINDE (several complete sets with the Rhamphorhynchus from Austria), BASEL MUSEUM Tsintaosaurus, WAGNER dinosaurs (like Shreddies), NABISCO cereals (complete sets of mammals & dinosaurs). Please contact me (Jean-Marie LEONARD) at: [email protected] WANTED: Bullyland Dire Wolf figure. If you have one I shall offer you a higher price. Contact: [email protected] Zdenek Burian souvenirs- Post cards, coffee mugs, posters and more! See website at- http://www.zdenekburian.com/en/ e-mail: [email protected] SHREDDIES FOR SALE - I have the following U.K. Nabisco Shreddies (1950’s) prehistoric animals for sale. A full set of 20 in perfect condition (white) $650. A full set of 20 in perfect condition except that the Tyrannosaurus has the usual Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

missing tip to the tail (mainly pale cream) $620. Single items all perfect except for Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Plateosaurus, Brontosaurus, Protoceratops, Palaeotherium, Mastodonsaurus, Tyrannosaurus (tip of tail missing), Woolly Rhinoceras, Iguanodon. $25 each. I can provide cream or white so please state preference and I have others with slight damage for $10 -20 each. The two time-wheels given with the ‘sendaway for’ sets $100. For Sale or Exchange: UK dinosaur toys and cards from the 1950's to the 1970's Timpo, Cherilea, Shreddies, etc. I will exchange for Sinclair, SRG, etc email [email protected] for my list. WANTED: offering $600 for the SRG large Neanderthal woman. Also looking for certain of the original descriptive cards that came with the SRG dinos. I am also interested in any magazines containing ads for SRG products. I have for sale some of the small SRG figures, including some of the rarer pieces. Please respond to [email protected] FOR SALE: Complete collection of Prehistoric Times #1 - 113 plus the next eight issues. Collection of Indian Artifact Magazines 1982 - 2012; all in binders. Complete collection of Dinosaurs The Encyclopedia Vol. 1 plus all seven supplements (Don Glut). Complete set of Dinosaurs (Atlas Addition) All 103 volumes in original binders plus 3-d glasses. Many books on dinosaurs, fossil and other dinosaur magazines. 80 volumes of National Geographic magazines that cover dinosaurs and origins of man. Complete collection of CollectA dinosaurs 2006 - 2014. All standard and deluxe models plus plants, all new. Please contact Bobby Goodman at 727-4247881 or email me at [email protected] if you are interested in anything. Prehistoric Planet Store. “The Museum Where You Can Purchase Every Exhibit”. We have over 1000 dinosaur skulls, skeletons, models, fossil, rock and mineral items at PrehistoricStore.com. Like our Facebook Page and post on our wall why you like dinosaurs.....We’ll enter you in our monthly drawing for a free replica dinosaur claw. https://www.facebook.com/prehistoricplanetstore.com. WANTED: Aurora Prehistoric Scenes model kit pink instructions from Canada (litho in Canada): Neanderthal man (729), Cave (732), Tar Pit (735), Cave Bear (738), Jungle Swamp (740), Three-Horned Dinosaur (741), Wooly Mammoth (743). Please send infos to: [email protected] 1000+ MODEL DINOSAURS shown in The Visual Guide to Scale Model Dinosaurs, 2012, softcover, 300 pages. Contact: eonepoch@aol .com Wanted: Louis Marx 6” cavemen, Miller dinosaurs, MPC World of Prehistoric Monsters playset, any MPC dinosaurs, Marx Prehistoric Times #3988 playset, Marx Prehistoric Mountain playset, Marx Prehistoric playset #3398 w/ waxy figures, Marx World of Dinosaurs Storage Box set, Marx #2650 Prehistoric playset (The holy grail) and Ajax dinosaurs. James J. Berger, 3515 Howard St., Park City, Il 60085 1-847-625-1807 For Sale : I'm downsizing a very large collection of various pieces amassed over 20 years of collecting. I have many unique and extremely hard to find dinosaurs and mammals that are no longer in production. Call and or e-mail for more information on what's available. [email protected] 513-737-6695 For Sale or trade: I offer all the large J H Miller prehistoric animals/dinosaurs, caveman, cavewoman and cave. I have many SRG, both large and small, including the caveman, a complete set of Linde dinos, complete set of Battat (Boston Museum) dinos, Castagna dinos, Alva Bronto, Marx, Chialu, Starlux and more. Call Jim Van Dyke 616-669-3897 [email protected] WANTED: RAY HARRYHAUSEN & STOP-MOTION RELATED 'ZINES Colossa #1 (1993) / Hollywood Horror Classics #4 (1996) Cinemagram #1 (1964) / Cinefantastique #2 (Mimeo - Apr 1967) Mystification #6 (1965) / Animals Magazine (Aug 1969) - British Wonder #2 (Summer 1989) / Box Office Vol. 90 #16 (Feb 6 1967) Spectre #18 (Mar/Apr 1968) / Photon #1, 7, 13 (1963, 1965, 1967) Vampire's Crypt #8 (Dec 1963) / Amazing Screen Horrors #6 (1966) Just Imagine #4 (1977) - British / Cosmos Aventuras #9 (May 1964) Ray Harryhausen Journal (1973) / Animation Journal #4 (May 1965) Stop-Motion Monsters of Filmland #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9 Japanese (1990’s) King Kong: Unauthorized Jewish Fractals in Philopatry (1996) Contact: Scott McRae ([email protected]) Wanted: PT issues 1-22 & later back issues no longer available through PT, Marx dinos in metallic green and gold, Pom Poms candy boxes w/ Aurora Prehistoric Scenes art on them, Revell Quick Snap tiny dinos Allosaurus and T. rex, SRG metal Dinychthys fish, Chialu (Italian composition) Brachuchenius & Pteranodon, La Brea (Wm Otto) T. rex, For Trade/Sale: vintage dinosaurs of most manufacturers. I’ve got a ton of old dinosaur figures for sale. I’m always buying pre-1970s dino collectibles --Please contact Mike Fredericks 145 Bayline Cir,

Folsom, Ca 95630-8077, (916) 985-7986 [email protected] WANTED: Prehistoric Times issues 79, 81, 83, and 84. Also looking for any books, magazines, and/or DVDs on whale evolution/extinct whales/dolphins, ancient marine reptiles, elephant evolution/extinct elephants, and shark evolution/extinct sharks. Will pay by money order only. Also looking for any information on fossils in Alabama, Mississippi, and the rest of the southeastern US. Please call 205-269-7054. For Sale: 3/4'” cloisonne lapel pin that states: REUNITE GONDWANALAND and depicts Pangea and Laurasia united in one huge continent. Only a limited number are available. $8 includes the pin and postage. Contact Lynne Dickman, (406) 728-5221, [email protected] Wanted: Hobby Trading Post (Nu-Card) DINOSAURS cards (B&W, post-card size) #'s 7, 13, 15, 28. I will gladly purchase these but I also have many duplicate cards available for trade. I would prefer "nice" condition cards (e.g., VG+ to Mint) without major creasing or other significant defects. Please contact me (Mike Riley) at: [email protected] or at 303-566-1267 (weekdays, 7:00 am to 4:00 pm, MDT). MODELERS: PT build up writer, Sean Kotz, now has a national hobby column on line at the Examiner. I am committed to bringing paleo models, sculptors and kits to the forefront on a regular basis, as well as all other forms of modeling from plastic kits to rocket ships. Go to www.examiner.com and search for "Model Building Examiner" or my name and bookmark or subscribe. You can also search on Facebook Playset Magazine Plastic heaven, America's best info on vintage playsets by Marx and others from the Atomic Era and Beyond. Battleground, Zorro, news, classifieds to buy, color glossy. Complete website listings too! www.playsetmagazine.com, email [email protected], or call (719) 634-7430 J H Miller repaired - your broken and incomplete vintage J H Miller plastic figures -expertly repaired. Ask for Nick Lamanec (484) 274-0315 TOP DOLLAR PAID for prehistoric animal postcards including diorama scenes, statues, fossils, museum displays, etc. I also would like to purchase prehistoric animal museum or excavation site brochures and posters. If you have vintage dinosaur or prehistoric animal books or photographs from the 1900's up to 1980 please let me know since I also collect these. I have lots for trade if that is preferable. Please contact Stephen Hubbell (253) 851-7036 or email me at [email protected]. PALEODIRECT.COM Your direct source for the finest and rarest fossil specimens along with tools and weapons of primitive man. With several thousand pages of fossils and primitive man artifacts displayed online, PaleoDirect.com is truly one of the largest online paleontological suppliers across the globe. Categories include a BROAD DIVERSITY of both INVERTEBRATE and VERTEBRATE fossils. We also specialize in genuine TOOLS and WEAPONS of PRIMITIVE HUMANS from the Lower PALEOLITHIC through the NEOLITHIC Periods up to and including the Iron Age. PALEO DIRECT, Inc. is a full-time, professional supplier and a member of the American Association of Paleontological Suppliers.We acquire specimens direct from the source regions of the world through exclusive affiliations with the diggers and their management as well as conduct several of our own international collecting expeditions each year. Furthermore, many of our rare specimens are prepared in-house by our own conservation facilities and staff. New material from around the world is constantly being added. If you wish to be added to our email list for when new specimens are updated to the website, please email or call us and let us know. PALEO DIRECT, INC. P. O. Box 160305 Altamonte Springs, FL 32716-0305 (407) 7741063 www.PaleoDirect.com [email protected] Supplying museums, educational facilities and collectors around the world.

PT Subscribers! Did you check the address label on your PT envelope? If the number after your address is 122, it is time to re-subscribe!

43

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 42

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 43

Announcing the PT Coloring Book for all ages of paleoartists! Tracy Lee Ford and Mike Fredericks have created over thirty all new illustrations of newly discovered dinosaurs for you to color. For only $9 (the price of a magazine) plus postage. Available ONLY at

Amazon.com

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

45

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 44

P l a n n i n g a S u m m e r Va c a t i o n o u t We s t ? At the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs For 150 million years, flying reptiles called pterosaurs ruled the skies. As the first vertebrates to fly under their own power, pterosaurs are evolutionary all-stars, with some sporting wingspans the size of small airplanes. This spring, keep your head in the clouds: the Pterosaurs exhibit is coming in for a landing at the California Academy of Sciences. Some pterosaurs had 33-foot wingspans, or technicolor crests or Fuzzy coats. Neither bird nor dinosaur, pterosaurs existed in an exotic order all their own. At the new pterosaur exhibit you journey through the Mesozoic with the largest flying animals that ever lived. Until they went extinct 66 Pterosaur million years ago, more than 150 striking species of exhibit in San pterosaur circled the globe, Francisco leaving tantalizing traces of their existence on every continent. Paleontologists and pint-sized explorers alike will dig this exhibit’s treasure trove of newly discovered fossils and dynamic dioramas, while amateur aerobats of all ages will earn their wings piloting pterosaurs through virtual prehistoric landscapes. Your PT editor visited this great exhibit for father’s day. I really enjoyed it and think you would too. All photos are mine or my daughter Lara’s. Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs is on view through January 7, 2018. Natural History Museum Los Angeles County The NHMLA’s new Dinosaur Hall is one of the most extraordinary dinosaur exhibits in the world, and the premier dinosaur experience in the western United States. Inside are more than 300 real fossils, and 20 complete dinosaurs and ancient sea creatures. One of the centerpieces of the exhibit is the T. rex growth series — the only trio of different aged T. rex specimens in the world. One of the great things about the Dinosaur Hall is how close the design lets you get to the fossils! Look a Triceratops in the eye, or walk under the neck of a 68-foot Mamenchisaurus that’s longer than a city bus! All 20 of the complete dinosaur and sea creature mounts have either never been on display before, or have been re-posed according to the latest research. Many were discovered in the last several years by the Museum’s in-house Dinosaur Institute. The exhibition is also packed with multi-media stations where you can “excavate” specimens and watch neverbefore-seen footage of a real dinosaur hunting expedition. and also EXTREME Mammals For over 200 million years, mammals have inhabited the Earth. In this epic evolutionary journey, mammals lived with—and even ate—dinosaurs, swam in the ocean, flew in the air, and became the fastest land animals of all time! Extreme Mammals: Odd Features. Unusual Creatures. Explore the evolutionary standouts and oddities from the largest to smallest, the speediest to sloth-like, and features such as oversized claws, fangs, snouts, and horns. Get ready to marvel at the bizarre, amazing, and extraordinary world of extinct and living mammals. While in Los Angeles, Ca. visit the world famous La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum with fossil lab. Take the excavator tour to get the inside story of the Fossil Lab, Lake Pit, Observation Pit, and Project 23. Free with Museum admission. Explore the La Brea Tar Pits to see scientists at work, uncovering new Ice Age fossils in the tar pits – new discoveries made right before your eyes. See Titans of the Ice Age: An all new, unforgettable 3D journey back in time that you won’t want to miss. On display are mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, giant sloths, and more, found at the La Brea Tar Pits. Plus “Ice Age Encounters” is a live, a 15-minute multi-media performance that brings the distant past to life and uncovers the mysteries of the extinct creatures who roamed Los Angeles over 10,000 years ago. Available Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The Nat - San Diego Natural History Museum Now on display From dinosaurs to mastodons, discover the rich fossil history of our region. In this major exhibition, created by the Museum, ponder a mystery, examine the strong fossil evidence from the Museum's collection, and use scientific tools to discover answers. Traveling through a 75-millionyear timeline, from the age of dinosaurs to the Ice Ages, experience an unfolding of the prehistory of southern California and Baja California, Mexico. Ultimate Dinosaurs February 25, 2017 through September 4, 2017

Extreme Mammals at Los Angeles Nat Hist Museum. Dr. Xiaoming Wang in foreground

Meet new and exotic dinosaurs from the other side of the world. Prehistory takes on 21st century technology when Ultimate Dinosaurs, an exhibition featuring 16 fully-articulated dinosaur specimens from locations in the Southern Hemisphere, opens at the NAT. From the tiny Eoraptor to the massive Giganotosaurus, Ultimate Dinosaurs is a fascinating study of species you haven’t met before. Also The Cerutti Mastodon Discovery through September 4, 2017 features artifacts and fossils discovered by Museum paleontologists that suggest humans were in North America approximately 115,000 years earlier than previously thought. In this display, visitors can see mastodon bones, molars, and a tusk alongside rocks scientists believe were used as hammers and anvils by early humans to break the bones, all culminating in an article published in the April 27 issue of the prestigious science journal Nature.

46

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 45

New-Millennial Paleoimagery (Part 1 of 2) By Allen A. Debus So it’s time to consider several newly minted terms like John Lavas’ 2017 “paleo fiction art” and paleofiction imagery” (i.e. made in reference to Zdenek Burian), and ponder whether paleo-people will make T. rex’s lip-s – “tick,” (True dino-philes might see what I did there. Maybe?) What’s new: absolutely so much! But you need perspective. In this 2-part installment, let’s explore how some commonly used PT conventions and terms link to the practice of paleo-image making.

been if his book had hurtled out of a space-time warp from the cosmic void, six decades ago - back in our limited mid-20th century state of knowledge! The new millennium has only just begun, but already we’ve witnessed significant strides in our depiction of prehistoric life, dinosaurs particularly. (And now paleontology shifts and rumbles so rapidly. In March 2017, we learned of a revised dinosaur phylogeny and rediagnosis linking clades: “theropods” with “ornithischia” into “ornithoscelida,” and “sauropodomorphs” with “herrerasauridae.”) On many levels we’ve gained vast new knowledge concerning how these extinct forms should be considered and depicted. So here I will comment on the current status of paleoimagery, focusing more on the ‘now’ instead of ‘then.’

When I first began researching a ‘who’s who of paleoartists’ back in 1980, there weren’t as many individuals to delve into. And when I completed the “Paleo-art,” now a familiar term manuscript to a book, Paleoimagery: The Evolution coined by geologist Alexander D. of Dinosaurs in Art (2002), in early 2001, nearly 18 Winchell in 1870, became more comJack Arata's portrait of the timeless 'visionary paleyears ago, the number of described dinosaur genera monly used by dinosaur enthusiasts oartist' ... visualizing his marine paleo-charges in his was still modest by comparison to today’s annually during the 1990s and beyond. A relatmind's eye - translated onto canvas. (c. 1999). (Debus colswelling fossil ranks. Thanks, especially, to ed term, “paleoimagery,” (possibly lection) Prehistoric Times magazine and developments in vercoined by myself in c. 2000?) carries tebrate paleontology, many ‘new’ artists (and scientists) have come to the broader connotations. Paleontology is a highly visual science, and our fore. Although paleoart is a ‘survival of the fittest’ field, practicing is a labor enchantment with such imagery has fueled public fascination with prehisof love. Paleoartist Don LoRusso once said, toric life (particularly vertebrate forms), A very early example of "paleontology illustration," “You do it for the love of the art and the pernotably in television and movies. We may Plate LXV showing fossils & introducing tad of added sonal satisfaction of the finished piece.” (PT even discern a basic twofold overarching, hisartistic speculation, from Filippo Bonanni's Musaeum # 111, p.53) During new-millennial years so torical outline in “paleoart”- that revered, sciKircherianum (1709). far, the field attracted more talented paleoentifically oriented practice of visually and image makers than ever before, producing an realistically reconstructing extinct life forms, eye-popping, bewildering array of images pertaining to (1.) a traditional life-throughand sculptures along the way. Dino-science geological-time edifying theme, then (2.) and prehistoric animal art are thriving like transforming into visual imagery conforming never before (an escalation in popularity burto a “dinosaur renaissance” phase, which is geoning since the 1980s), in books, magaongoing, branching at an accelerated pace. In zines, museum exhibitions, toys, dino-docuhis article, “Dinosaur Renaissance: A Brief mentaries and many other forms, some of History of Paleoart,” Steve White adds, which would have been inconceivable “Paleoart is a rather unique scientific discidecades ago. pline in that many scientists are pretty solid artists, while a number of artists have It seems we’ve only just emerged into acquired serious scholarly reputations.” “paleontology’s artistic renaissance.” Yes, (Dinosaur Art: The World’s Greatest Paleoart, we’re way beyond the pioneering ‘era’ of 2012). Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, Charles Knight, Rudolph Zallinger, Neave Parker and Zdenek Burian, and well into a ‘renaissance’ phase heralded by Robert Bakker in 1969 with his sprinting deinonychosaur drawing. Yet fresh studies of their magnificent works continue to enthrall us. Over a century ago, would-be aspiring paleoartists had Frederik A. Lucas’ Animals of the Past (1901) to reflect upon. Today, we have Gregory S. Paul’s magisterial The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, 2nd ed. (2016), perhaps the paleobiological “CRC” (Handbook of Chemistry and Physics) equivalent for guiding paleoart restoration and reconstruction of dinosaurs. Imagine how startled we’d have Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Paleoimagery’s historical development is more complicated, diversified and variegated than what we see in the (narrower) paleoart realm. Prehistoric animal (and fantasy and science fictional dino-monster) paleoimagery has always been introduced via many levels of media and sophistication, for numerous purposes, while intended for a broad demographic. Yes, those plastic dinosaur toys, dino-monster films, or even your old Aurora dinomodel kits, for example, would qualify as ‘paleoimagery.’ With the care, consultation and precision invested in preparation of small figures these days, dino-toys, in fact can sometimes approximate museum-ready pale47

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 46

status of other media such as sculptures, and internet art - due to its “ephemeral,” digitized online nature. (pp.180-181) Note that this isn’t a criticism of the use of original Art historian Jane P. Davidson, restorations facilitated via use of who introduced another (titular) term computer digitization techniques in her 2008 book A History of (e.g. “digital paintings.”) In the matPaleontology Illustration, mentioned ter of internet postings, Davidson that when preparing a college course opines “… unless the art itself is digconcerning this field (novel for its ital and created solely for that webtime; no such courses existed in the site, then we may suggest that this is 1990s), a student commented that not paleontology illustration, but only “…she was astonished by how much a way to see it for a period of time.” ‘stuff was there.” (p.xiii) Yes, truly Yet there are highly popular facebook there was then, and continues to be, pages devoted to “paleoart” and so “much stuff ” to assimilate, making “paleoartists” where a continual, the task (a fun task nonetheless) diffifresh stream of images may be seen cult. This is in utter contrast to anothdaily. Many of these members might er academic W.J.T. Mitchell’s misnot accept that, when posted, their guided forecast (made shortly after Peggy Macnamara's (2001) new millennial art inspired by the FMNH's works are not “paleontology illustraannouncement of the landmark 1998 famed T. rex "Sue." (Debus collection) tion.” And while apparently accepting Chinese feathered dinosaur discoverthat table-top (indoor), albeit ‘scienies), that dinosaurs will become blasé’ and possibly boring in years followtifically accurate’ sculptures can fall within purview of paleontology illusing publication of his 1998 The Last Dinosaur Book. “How much mystique will remain when the creatures formerly known as dinosaurs take on their tration, she further states “… large-scale outdoor sculptures of dinosaurs … proper name of ‘early birds,’ and dinosaurology disappears to be replaced by may stretch the definition of scientific illustration somewhat, but there is no paleo-ornithology?” (p.25) Simply judging from the outpouring of new doubt that they reinforce the contention that sculptures of fossil restorations books reviewed in each new PT issue, nearly 20 years later, it seems the have become increasingly popular.” oart. Admittedly, in my 2002 book, I emphasized the more scientifically founded ‘paleoart’ end of the paleoimage spectrum.

“last” dinosaur book has yet to be published! Most dinophiles evidently have embraced the ‘feather revolution’ after all, (perhaps with the exception of paleoartist Raul Martin who seems less enamored, per remarks in 2012’s Dinosaur Art, p. 187). Permit this odd analogy that oldsters (like me) may appreciate. Indeed, isn’t it rather like the numbers of television cable stations and online networks which have arisen and multiplied over time since the mid-1960s – (e.g. unrelated to in context, but since the dinosaur renaissance dawn)? There are almost too many ‘shows’ available to watch now, as opposed to the late 60s when you only had ABC, NBC and CBS (or WGN if you lived in Chicago). And so it goes with the swelling ranks of “dinophiles,” paleoimage creators and favored dino-creatures, with new genera described every month! Today, just as there are so many more ‘channels’ than ever before to choose from or means for viewing live or pre-recorded programs and VLOGs, analogously, we seemingly have an embarrassment of riches in cases of newly published dinosaur genera, and paleoartists who frame their primeval visages. So, what is Davidson’s “paleontology illustration,” and how might it differ from, or ally with other commonly encountered terms like “restoration” and “reconstruction”? Davidson associates her 2008 term with an artistic striving for realism in depicted art showing fossils and prehistoric life restorations. Think, perhaps, of her “paleontology illustration” as the visual presentation of paleo-evidence, ideas, interpretation and realistic documentation of scientific visual data (including metadata) in various art media and forms (including lithographic engraving, photography, etc.) Davidson, doesn’t fully address theoretical or rhetorical notions surrounding many aspects of paleoart, however, as her book is presented as more or less a survey or historical outline of ‘stuff ’ that’s been published, or out there.

Whether they’re large or small, situated indoors or outdoors (scientifically rendered, or spirited do-it-yourself, home grown projects), such sculptures clearly are forms of paleoimagery. PT readers also realize that whereas large (outdoor) paleo-sculptures have been familiar for well over a century since the Victorian age, it is instead the smaller variety of sculptures (so often addressed in PT) that have only in recent years become so eminently popular, as fortified in Robert Telleria’s 2012 book, The Visual Guide to Scale Model Dinosaurs, and Telleria’s and Joe DeMarco’s CD, Dinosauriana: The Essential Guide to Collectible, Figural Toy and Model Dinosaurs. Due to its prevalence, one may even refer to a prehistoric animal sculptural art “industry,” perhaps instigated, to at least minor degree, by a certain 1995 book, Dinosaur Sculpting. But, despite W.J.T. Mitchell’s 1998 claim, other forms of sculptural iconography championed in his LDB, to me, don’t qualify as “paleoart” or even paleontology illustration; see his pp.264-275. A simple test may be applied. If the thing you’re looking at doesn’t remotely resemble something ‘prehistoric’ (yes, conceivably even that handy dinosaur-shaped cookie cutter would do!), then it’s truly difficult to categorize it as a kind of paleoimagery. Of course, everything is subjective, and such considerations may at times seem overly philosophical. Consider - when might a CAT scan of, say, a coprolite be regarded as paleoart? Humor aside though, paleoartist Tyler Keillor discusses how critical some CAT scans can be in “Digital Paleontology,” toward accurately restoring dinosaur crania. (See PT # 112, pp. 28-29.)

Sometimes, the fabric of scientific realism (which, historically, may seem like a moving target as paleontology evolves with new discoveries) may be extended, acquiring speculative or hypothetical tones, so often introduced and welcomed today as opposed to 200 years ago. LoRusso stated in PT # 111 (p.53), “…I try to follow the science as far as it will take me, then the artistic license comes in. What will make A mid 2000s restoration of non-tail dragging Davidson tends to draw the line (more or less this look realistic and lifelike as well as plausilike paleontologists did two centuries ago) at Piatnitzkysaurus, a 15-ft long theropod from Argentina. ble.” Let’s not forget that often paleoimagery (or (From booklet Dinosaurios Argentinos, p. 29). more fanciful representations, and questions 48

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 47

sometimes even paleoart) is deliberately speculative. In this vein, Luis Rey’s precocious fancifully colored, feathery dinosaurs, or even filmic, often fateful, metaphorical dino-monsters such as Ray Harryhausen’s ‘Rhedosaur,’ Jurassic Park’s “raptors” or Toho’s mutated dinodaikaiju monster, Godzilla, come to mind. According to Davidson, BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) strained the limits of what might be regarded as “paleontology illustration.” Yes, here we straddle the boundary where paleoimagery seems more “guided by fantasy,” falling out of favor with concepts of ‘traditional’ paleoart. (Davidson, p.156) Can a cgiA fictional late 19th century paleo-landscape Mesozoic scene from Camille operated dinosaur paleo-image teach us more about the science of Flammarion's "Le monde avant la creation de l'homme," considered a formerly accurate paleoart restoration. dinosaurs than a highly detailed coprolite CAT scan? It depends on research objective. At the very least, those lively, sometimes anthropomor- tioned Dinosaur Art (pp.92-93, 97, 100). phized “cgi” restorations do force us to think. And then there’s aforemenMeanwhile, tioned “paleo-fiction art”: that accompanying or used to promote science by the early fiction. 1990s, pale-

Paleoart, 2012)? Both are exercises in extrapolating hypothetical evolutionary pathways: both boldly reflect a similar ‘what if’ universe - representations of Gouldian contingency! For modern paleontologists and artists intrigued by prehistoric life and landscapes, freedom to speculate is a key lure into the profession. For example, in restoring life appearances of embryonic pterosaurs (Fossil News, Summer 2016, p.42), paleoartist Gareth Monger invented another descriptive term, “speculative paleoillustration,” for his article titled “Speculative Paleoart.” Much may be inferred from exceptionally preserved fossils - conveyed via paleoart--such as soft organ, internal anatomy (e.g. pneumatic respiratory structures). For further interesting perspective, see Todd Marshall’s entry in the aforemen-

A curious case in point might be Dougal Dixon’s illustrated “new dinosaurs” of 1988 (granted further evolutionary time because the asteroid never impacted 66 mya). How much less then is G. S. Paul’s a fantasy extrapolation, a 1989 illustration, “Dinosaurs of the Cenozoic on the Great Plains of the Neogene” (pp. 36-37 in Dinosaur Art: The World’s Greatest

ontologist Stephen J. Gould, a s t a u n c h admirer of Charles R. K n i g h t ’s a r t i s t r y, h a d become a vocal supporter of ‘paleontological iconog rap h y , ’ Dorsal view of Zell's Deinonychus showing detail of aesthetically pleasing e c h o e d tail feathering, quite speculative in dinosaurs generally at time of this model's t h r o u g h several of production. his popular essays on h o w (abstract) evolutionary ‘contingency’ might be effectively portrayed. Then there’s “paleo-fanart,” which I encountered on a Facebook posting in early 2017. The author of this original term had dismissed an artist’s furry “grizzly T. rex” that, he stated, couldn’t qualify as true “paleoart.” I suggest that instead this may have been an example of speculative paleoart, depending on the factors underlying its creation. But the question lingers; have we carved out a new paleoimagery niche for “paleo-fanart,” apart from paleoart? Are we not all in some capacity … “fans,” or at least paleo-aficionados? Do we now need terms Imaginary back yard confrontation between two feathered Mesozoic ani- to describe ourselves too, besides “dinosaurologist” which applies to mals: figures produced by Schleich (Therizinosaurus) and Otter Zell's (To Be Concluded next time …………….) some? Deinonychus mid-1980s sculpture. (Debus collection) Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

49

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 48

Concluding from Page 14 already developed lungs for air-breathing, as well as having retained gills (although amphibian lungs naturally assumed an ever increasing respiratory role). The major hurdle for amphibians was supporting their bodies on out of water (bodies supported by water require little structural bracing). On land the torso had to be carried off the ground and the internal organs housed in a strong rib cage. The backbone was strengthened as a bridge between the pectoral and pelvic girdles, and strong neck muscles were developed to hold the skull horizontal. The limb osteology and musculature changed radically; swimming involves sinuous side-to-side movements of the whole body (an action which can still be observed in the salamanders and lizards of today) but walking is an episodic movement that requires that the skull be separated from the pectoral girdle so as to permit unrestricted front limb movement. The earliest tetrapods still spent most of their time in water and continued to reproduce via an aquatic tadpole stage, but gradually they adopted keener terrestrial sensory abilities and became more efficient at water retention. One of the oldest known tetrapods is Ichthyostega from Greenland’s Devonian strata (Fig. 4) which shows a textbook mixture of fish and tetrapod features, the latter including the required separation between skull and pectoral girdle. However it retained a fish-like finned tail and the skull bones were arranged almost exactly as those of the lobe-finned fish Eusthenopteron (Fig. 3). And while the classical view held that the earliest tetrapods possessed five digits, research in the 1990s on Ichthyostega, Acanthostega (Greenland) and Tulerpeton (Russia) showed that they possessed as many as seven or eight. It appears that amphibians only ‘settled’ on five digits after colonising the land. Augusta discussed Palaeozoic amphibians using the classic designation ‘stegocephalians’ (originally named for their heavily-roofed skulls) but

50

many of these are now classified as temnospondyls. Unlike modern amphibians, the bodies of temnospondyls were often sheathed in fine scales or rods, which in some large forms developed into armour-like bony plates. The skulls were generally dorso-ventrally compressed, mostly of deltoid shape, and equipped with sharp teeth. Adults are thought to have subsisted on invertebrates while larger species possibly fed on fish. Temnospondyls such as Discosauriscus (Fig. 5) were a major component of Carboniferous communities and their lineage continued right through into the late Mesozoic. Other temnospondyls resembled sluggish crocodilians and developed long gharial-like snouts for catching fish. At least some Carboniferous temnospondyls produced tadpoles (as do today’s amphibians), the intricate fossils of which have been preserved in lacustrine black muds, even retaining traces of feathery gills. Other types of gillbearing branchiosaur tadpoles are believed to have been neotenous (= adults that retained juvenile characteristics) possibly so as to fully exploit an abundant food source such as aquatic invertebrates. One group of temnospondyls, the stereospondyls, abandoned the evolutionary trend from aquatic to semi-terrestrial habits by returning to a fully (or near-fully) aquatic existence. This was accompanied by a reversal of the skeletal changes that had evolved for land-dwelling habits, while their skulls were typically dorso-ventrally flattened with a cartilaginous brain-case (that contrasted with the ossified ones of anthracosaur and rhachitome amphibians). Some stereospondyls were amongst the largest amphibians; the ungainly Metoposaurus reached lengths of over 3 m and weighed around 450 kg (Burian depicted Metoposaurus - ironically on land - in a 1971 Triassic scene to be considered within a future article). The stereospondyls were amongst those amphibians which made the transition into the Mesozoic, becoming remarkably successful and surviving until the end of the Triassic. Two types of smaller amphibians from the Carboniferous and Permian were the nectrideans and the microsaurs. One of the strangest nectrideans was Diplocaulus which possessed long growths at the rear of the skull, like an aerofoil. This may have aided it to rise rapidly from resting while submerged, perhaps to seize an overhead fish. Microsaurs were long, slender-bodied lizard-like animals that included terrestrial Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 49

forms with sharp teeth and powerful jaws for crushing large insects and millipedes. Amongst these three groups were the ancestors of modern amphibians, although all early amphibians from the Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian are long extinct. Another Carboniferous lineage was the anthracosaurs, which possessed longer and narrower skulls than the other three groups, although they may have followed similar lifestyles and prey. Špinar believed that this group had given rise to the reptiles. 4. Amphibian habitats The well-watered and humid forests of the Carboniferous were an amphibian haven that played a major role in their successful diversification and rise to dominance (Fig. 1). The dense vegetation and warm waters not only provided ideal conditions for amphibian reproduction but also offered an abundance of readily-available food sources: the muddy pond and lake beds harboured worms, lamellibranchs and crustaceans; gastropods crawled amidst the submerged vegetation between which flitted numerous insect larvae; small fish abounded in the shallows, while around the shoreline swarmed a host of myriapods (especially millipedes), cockroaches, and arachnids (scorpions and spiders). Overhead the air hummed with the drone of flying insects including the giant dragonfly Meganeura that sported a wingspan of 65 cm. As ectotherms, early reptiles and amphibians were both largely restricted to the tropical/sub-tropical equatorial zones, as they avoided the cooler and upland latitudes (some types such as the small temnospondyl Cacops did frequent uplands, but probably never far from running streams). By the early Permian, amphibians had already begun to relinquish their dominant roles to the ascending reptiles. Climates became cooler, especially in tropical regions, and the northern hemisphere developed extensive deserts with scant vegetation. The tree ferns that had been a key feature of the Carboniferous forests (along with horsetails, club mosses, and cordaitaleans) no longer dominated and were replaced by gymnosperms such as Walchia. Josef Augusta eloquently evoked the atmosphere of the ‘Permo-Carboniferous’

forests (late Carboniferous/early Permian) in Prehistoric Animals (1956, p. 39): ”These primeval jungles with sunshine, moonlight, veils of mist, thrashing thunderstorms, and the beauty of the rising and setting sun, the homes of peculiar primitive flora and fauna, formed a striking contrast to the sandy wastes burned by the glare of the sun, and sparsely inhabited.” While reptilian morphology and reproductive habits were more suited to such changes, some amphibians responded to dry periods by burrowing into mud to assume a state of aestivation (torpor) and await the return of rain; these included Lysorophus and juvenile Diplocaulus. But fossil beds have revealed accumulations of numerous Lysorophus having congregated into shrinking pools before they succumbed to a delayed wet season (also see Fig. 7). Then the end of the Permian was subjected to the largest mass extinction of all time, being far more devastating than that which later marked the end of the Mesozoic. Fully half of all animal and plant families died out during the Permian extinction, which translated to around 90% of species. Although some amphibian lines survived into the Mesozoic (the temnospondyls only died out in the early Cretaceous) they were by then living in the Age of Reptiles (although formally having begun from the Triassic, in reality it became effective after the early Permian). The amphibian species that survive today (over 85% of which are frogs) are but a pale reflection of their Palaeozoic ancestors, and offer scant evidence of the remarkable evolutionary radiation upon which they had embarked during the Age of Amphibia.

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

51

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 50

Mesozoic Media by Mike Fredericks Dinosaur Playsets-An Illustrated Guide to the Prehistoric Playsets of Marx and MPC Expanded Edition by Jeffrey S. Pfeiffer, Paperback: 202 pages, Publisher: AuthorHouse ISBN-10: 1504913744, ISBN-13: 978-1504913744. As author Jeffrey Pfeiffer has been promising in his ad in PT, a new, expanded version of his book on prehistoric animal toys is here. I gave the first version of Jeff ’s book a rave review previously in PT. This new book has pretty much everything that book had plus much more. I’ll let the author himself tell you about it here: “The new book isn't that different from the first one; it's basically an expanded edition of it. All the info from the first one is there again (with some changes due to picture upgrades, mistakes that were pointed out or I discovered, etc.), so when you read it at first you may go "hey, this is just like the other one!" It's actually the book I wanted to do the first time but I ran short of my deadline & basically had to put it out unfinished, which is why I only made it a limited run. But there is lots of new stuff also, a new chapter covering Ajax, Nabisco, Tim-mee, Sinclair, JaRu, etc., and some items are re-arranged to flow better.” The first book was more of a purist encyclopedia on Marx and MPC brand dinosaur toy figures where this book covers all of those just as completely but adds a number of descriptions of many dinosaur toys from the same era that collectors have been known to get confused with Marx and MPC. It is packed with beautiful full color photos and tons of information making it the bible on the subject. Please check out Jeff ’s advertisement in this issue on page 18, which gives you all of the details to get a copy of your own. Jeff would prefer that you buy it directly from him, so be sure and ask him to sign it for you. Matriarch: Elephant vs. T-Rex Kindle Edition by Roz Gibson, 73 pages, Amazon Digital Services LLC. “What happens when the most deadly predator of the Cretaceous is pitted against the biggest land mammal of the human era? A group of unscrupulous broadcasters decide to find out, spiriting a Tyrannosaurus rex from its familiar territory 67 million years ago and releasing it on a modern African savanna in the midst of a drought. Their film of the resulting carnage should be worth a fortune. Caught in the filmmaker’s plans is an elephant matriarch, already struggling to keep her herd alive through the long dry season, who suddenly finds herself in a life or death battle with one of the most terrifying killers ever to walk the earth. Told almost entirely from the point-of-view of the Tyrannosaurus and the elephant matriarch, this is a dinosaur story unlike any you’ve read before.” So reads the description on Roz Gibson’s electronic kindle book on Amazon.com right now. Price is only ninety nine cents. Roz is an artist, as well as an author, whose prehistoric animal artwork has graced the pages of PT. Her short story e-book is action packed and written giving a lot of thought to the question of what would happen if these two animals met up on the fighting ring of the modern day African veldt. Don’t be too quick to think you know the outcome. Roz Gibson just might surprise you. It’s an original, action adventure you will enjoy. Horizon Alpha: Transport Seventeen In D.W. Vogel’s 52

first book of this series, the great spaceship Ark Horizon Alpha escaped a doomed Earth and went searching for a new home. The passengers landed on Teu Ceti e expecting paradise, but instead they discovered a planet stuck in its own version of the Mesozoic. After an action-packed trip through the deadly jungle of dinosaurs, the settlers were able to find a safe land high in the mountains, which is where we left them at the end of the book. Now D. W. Vogel’s much-anticipated sequel, Horizon Alpha: Predators of Eden, Transport Seventeen has arrived. Early in the book the colony receives a call for help from a girl they haven’t seen since the crash of their lander on the planet. They realize that they are not the only humans still alive, that another landing craft from their mother ship landed on the planet too, but, on an empty beach at the far edge of the continent. The survivors of Transport Seventeen huddle in terror and are about out of food. Caleb, our young hero from the first book and his group must leave the safety of their home to rescue the survivors. As they travel into the unexplored depths of the jungle, they face danger from above, from the darkness, and from the water. And soon they discover there are huge, “new” ‘saurs out there, ones that would scare even a T. rex. Somehow Caleb survived the dinosaur-like creatures in the first book. All seems safe and well in their mountain retreat but now he feels compelled to rescue his shipmates and to go through the same hell he went through before. Even though he is among the youngest of the search party, with his bravery and experience, he pretty much becomes the leader of the group on their march back to safety. Much like the first book, this is a rollicking ride that will entertain SciFi fans and dinosaur fans. These books would make great films. This is a fast-paced, fun read for the summer. Honestly, I had trouble putting both books down and read them quickly. Michael Crichton, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Jurassic Park, returns to the world of paleontology in this recently discovered novel—an action-packed adventure set in the Wild West during the golden age of fossil hunting. Yeah, I know he died almost a decade ago. What does that have to do with anything? Okay, apparently his wife found this manuscript of his and with a little help finished it and got it into print. Anyway, the year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America’s western territories even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country it is still illegal to teach evolution. Against this backdrop two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils, while deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars. Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled (fictional) William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to survive a summer in the west to win a bet against his arch-rival, William has joined world-renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But when the paranoid and secretive Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, he abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice. William is forced to join forces with Cope and soon stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. With this extraordinary treasure, however, comes exceptional danger, and William’s Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 51

newfound resilience will be tested in his struggle to protect his cache, which pits him against some of the West’s most notorious characters. And it is at this point in the book, when William becomes responsible for newly discovered fossils in the lawless west that the book really gets going. A page-turner that draws on both meticulously researched history and a vivid imagination, Dragon Teeth is based on the rivalry between real-life paleontologists Cope and Marsh, the “rock” stars of their era; with character William Johnson playing the hero only Michael Crichton could have imagined. A new Crichton book is a cause for celebration and this well done adventure is another notch on Crichton’s belt. Turtles as Hopeful Monsters: Origins and Evolution by Olivier Rieppel, Hardcover: 216 pages, Indiana University Press ISBN-10: 0253024757, ISBN-13: 978-0253024756. Where do turtles come from and how did they acquire shells? These questions have spurred heated debate and intense research for more than two hundred years. Brilliantly weaving evidence from the latest paleontological discoveries with an accessible and clear look at different theories of biological evolution and their proponents, Turtles as Hopeful Monsters tells the fascinating evolutionary story of the shelled reptiles. Paleontologist Olivier Rieppel is a Curator of Evolutionary Biology at the Field Museum in Chicago and traces the evolution of turtles from over 220 million years ago, examining closely the relationship of turtles to other reptiles and charting the development of the shell. Turtle issues fuel a debate between proponents of gradual evolutionary change versus

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

authors favoring change through bursts and leaps. This is the first book-length popular history of its type and is an indispensable resource for all those fascinated by this uniquely shaped reptile. Though this book may not win any awards for its odd title, it is a very interesting look at a prehistoric topic rarely covered. Weird Dinosaurs: The Strange New Fossils Challenging Everything We Thought We Knew by John Pickrell, Philip Currie (Foreword) Hardcover: 280 pages, Columbia University Press ISBN-10: 0231180985 ISBN13: 978-0231180986 From the outback of Australia to the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and the savanna of Madagascar, the award-winning science writer and dinosaur enthusiast John Pickrell covers new paleo finds around the world, speaking with the paleontologists who made the finds and have first hand stories about them. He reveals the dwarf dinosaurs unearthed by an eccentric Transylvanian baron; an aquatic, crocodile-snouted carnivore bigger than T. rex that once lurked in North African waterways; a Chinese dinosaur with wings like a bat; and a Patagonian sauropod so enormous it weighed more than two commercial jet airliners. You probably know which dinosaurs I am referring to. The stuff of adventure movies and scientific revolutions, Weird Dinosaurs covers the latest breakthroughs and new technologies that are transforming our understanding of the distant past and asks (and answers) the questions we all have about these amazing creatures of long ago. Pickrell opens a vivid portal to a brand-new age of fossil discovery, in which fossil hunters are routinely redefining what we know and how we think about prehistory's most iconic prehistoric animals. A little low on artwork but a fact-packed book, especially for those who can’t keep up with the latest paleonews.

53

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 52

54

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 53

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

55

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 54

56

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 55

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

57

Prehistoric PrehistoricTimes Times#122_Prehistoric #122_Prehistoric Times Times #73 #73 7/4/17 7/4/17 9:26 9:26 AM AM Page Page 56 56

Steve Steve Kelley Kelley and and his collection his collection

Aurora Prehistoric Aurora Scenes

Part 2 by Steve Steve Kelley by Theartwork artworkthat thatgraced gracedthe theAurora Aurora boxes boxes are are as as beloved beloved and and remembered remembered The as the actual models themselves. It is said that many who purchased the as the actual models themselves. It is said that many who purchased the models did so based solely on the beautiful artwork seen on the sides of the models did so based solely on the beautiful artwork seen on the sides of the boxes and and many many never never actually actually opened opened and and built built the the models models inside. inside. boxes Aurorahired hiredthe thebest bestcommercial commercial and and free-lance free-lance artists artists of of the the time time to to Aurora create the amazing Prehistoric box art. They included John create the amazing Prehistoric box art. They included John

58 58

Amendola, Amendola, James James Bama, Bama, Wayne Wayne Blickenstaff Blickenstaff and and Mort Mort Kustler. Kustler. In In 1970 1970 the the Aurora Aurora model model company company was was in in production production of of the the first first eight eight 1/13 1/13 scale scale model model kits kits in in their their "Monster "Monster Scenes" Scenes" series. series.Even Evenbefore beforethe thefirst first eight eight Monster Monster Scenes Scenes kits kits were were released, released, Aurora Aurora was was also also developing developingtheir their next next 1/13 1/13 scale scale model model series, series, the the "Prehistoric "Prehistoric Scenes" Scenes" kits. kits. The The Monster Monster models models quickly quickly became became popular popular with with kids kids and and young young adults, adults, but butto tothe thesursurprise prise of of those those at at Aurora Aurora itit also also quickly quickly became became very very controversial controversialand andsoon soon aa public public relations relations nightmare nightmare for for both both Aurora Aurora and and Nabisco Nabisco who whohad hadrecently recently acquired acquired Aurora Aurora in in aa merger. merger. Public Public outcry outcry over over the the graphically graphically dark dark and and gruesome gruesome content content of of the the Monster Monster Scenes Scenes model model line line became becamean anembarrassembarrassment ment for for Nabisco Nabisco who who began began putting putting pressure pressure on onAurora Aurora to to discontinue discontinuethe the While Nabisco was dealing with a huge backlash from line. parents and and line. While Nabisco was dealing with a huge backlash from parents groups groups who who were were upset upset over over the the graphic graphic and and gruesome gruesome nature nature of of the themodmodels, Aurora plugged along with their next 1/13 scale model series featuring els, Aurora plugged along with their next 1/13 scale model series featuring dinosaurs. dinosaurs. Aurora Aurora adopted adopted the the same same eight eight kit kit launch launch strategy strategyas astheir theirpreviprevious ousMonster MonsterScenes Scenesline. line. Aurora's Prehistoric Aurora's Prehistoric Scenes Scenes models models featured featured creatures, creatures, figures figures and and accessorized accessorized set set pieces pieces that that would would be be easy easy toto assemble and play assemble and play with, with, similar similar to to the the Monster Monster Scenes. Aurora based the Scenes. Aurora based the Prehistoric Scenes line Prehistoric Scenes line on the same design prinon the same design principles and ideas as the ciples and ideas as the Monster Scenes line Monster Scenes line using snap together using snap together assembly, interchangeassembly, interchangeable moving parts and able moving parts and packaging design. packaging design. From 1971 to 1975 From 1971 to 1975 The Aurora Prehistoric The Aurora Prehistoric Scenes model series Scenes model series Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017 Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 57

consisted of a total of seventeen different models. Each featured a unique snap together construction which meant no need to use messy glue and then waiting hours or days for the glue to dry before being able to paint, play with or display the model. Each model included a unique interlocking base that meant that the model builder could display certain models by "fitting" one model next to another. This was a great idea for a couple of reasons. First, it allowed the builder to create a growing diorama made up of multiple kits. Second, along with the continued popularity of dinosaurs it also created a need to purchase additional models if one wanted to continue the interlocking diorama feature of the Aurora brand Prehistoric Scenes kits. Each "PS" (Prehistoric Scenes) kit included a nameplate, a instruction manual and featured a variety of molded parts including moveable pieces like heads, arms and legs along with other optional pieces that allowed the builder to create different display positions for each model. For example the 25 piece “Sabertooth Tiger” kit included four extra legs for a total of eight different leg variations. The twenty eight piece “Giant Bird” kit included one extra leg, so you could build it either standing on two legs or on one, with one leg raised. The forty five piece “Cave” model kit released in 1971 includes walls and a roof along with weapons, bones, tools and a fire pit. The “Jungle Swamp” is a fifty eight piece kit that was released in 1972. It features many small parts including plants, animals, snakes and trees.

Each Prehistoric Scenes model was molded in bright colors to allow the builder to be able to snap the model together and instantly have the look of an already partially painted model. The twenty nine pieces in the Allosaurus kit came molded in green, the Woolly Mammoth’s twenty nine pieces are a combination of the body molded in brown while it's tusks, pins, nameplate and bases are molded in white. The “Flying Reptile’s” fifteen pieces were molded in orange while the twenty eight pieces of the “Giant Bird” are molded in metallic blue. The eight kits issued in 1971 all came with color instruction sheets, a thin timeline sheet and a montage picture of the other models on the side panel. The original eight kits released in 1971 included Allosaurus #736 (29 pieces) “Cave” #732 (45 pieces) “Cro-Magnon Man” #730 (21 pieces) “Cro-Magnon Woman” #731 (15 pieces) “Flying Reptile” #734 (15 pieces) “Neanderthal Man” #729 (31 pieces) “Sabertooth Tiger” #733 (25 pieces) “Tar Pit” #735 (24 pieces)

Jungle Swamp included inside. Of course only the Allosaurus model was actually in the box. The Allosaurus box also increased in size with the addition of a two part yellow base, with one section featuring Allosaurus footprints. The “Cave” model went through a similar change as the first series box art featured an Allosaurus in the background. The box size increased and the Allosaurus art was removed on the second series “Cave” release. The “Sabertooth Tiger” first series box artwork included a two headed snake which was removed from the box art for the 1972 second series release. The size of the box also increased due to the addition of two base pieces. Maybe the most valuable and hard to find of the various version releases is the second series re-release of the “Tar Pit.” For the 1972 second series release the “Tar Pit” box along with all of the other boxes increased in size, but over the years it's the 1972 larger box version of the Tar Pit that has not only become the harder of the two versions to find but the most difficult of any of the model variations to obtain. The “Cro-Magon Man” and Woman boxes also grew in size for 1972 and it's the larger '72 versions that have become harder to find now. The last model to experience a change in size and box art was the “Neanderthal Man.” The box art originally featured the “Neanderthal Man” about to toss a large rock onto the head of an Allosaurus that was also featured on the box. Again, due to confusion and complaints, the Allosaurus art was removed while the box size along with all the other first series increased for the second series release. The “Neanderthal Man” lettering on the side of the box was also moved down slightly to a lower position. Though is it unknown why all of the boxes from the first series increased in size when re-released in 1972, it was possibly a marketing ploy where the thought was that by producing a larger square box it would give the consumer the impression of getting even more for their money. The instruction sheets on the new kits for 1972 were now produced in black and white and the timeline sheets were replaced with a Make-A-Scene pamphlet. The 1972 second series six kits included “Cave Bear” #738 (30 pieces) “Giant Bird” #739 (28 pieces) “Jungle Swamp” #740 (58 pieces) “Spiked Dinosaur” #742 (26 pieces) “Three Horned Dinosaur” #741 (26 pieces) and “Woolly Mammoth” #743 (29 pieces) Aurora would skip a year of any new releases for 1973, so the same 14 PS kits were carried over from 1972.

In 1972 the next six kits were released plus some changes were made to a few of the first series box artwork. At the same time all of the first series boxes increased in size as they were re-released along with the new second series models. Pictures of the kits on the side panel were changed to display all fourteen of the kits that had been released. The box side panel displays seven kits on each side. A few boxart changes were made due to some parent’s confusion as to what was actually included in the box. The Allosaurus model had the “Sabertooth Tiger” art removed due to complaints that the box artwork gave the impression that both the Allosaurus and “Sabertooth” models were Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

59

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 58

The last three kits in the PS series were released in 1974. They are the “Armored Dinosaur” #744 (22 pieces) “Sailback Reptile“ #745 (37 pieces) Tyrannosaurus rex #746 (53 pieces) For 1974 all 17 PS kits are now pictured on the side panels of the boxes and a one page map displaying the layout of all of the kits except for the Tyrannosaurus rex replaces the Make-A-Scene pamphlet. The Tyrannosaurus rex model is a whopping 18" tall and 30" long making it the largest PS kit produced. It was molded in an orangish red color along with white glow in the dark eyes, teeth and claws. It also includes a cardboard scene backdrop and is the hardest and most expensive kit to obtain. Though it is considered by many to be the holy grail of all of the 17 PS kits, if you consider which model and variation is the most scarce then the 1972 larger box version of the “Tar Pit” would make most die hard collector’s holy grail list including mine. European and Canadian versions of the Prehistoric Scenes models are desired by many collectors due to slight variations in the text on the boxes and changes in the color of the instructions inside.

new box art now under the Monogram name. The reissues would not only get new box art, but new names. For example, Allosaurus became Dragon Dinosaur and then Fang; Flying Reptile became Pteranodon, “Pterosaurus” and then Klaw; Armored Dinosaur became Ankylosaurus and then Tank; Sail Back Reptile became Sail-Back Dinosaur, Dimetrodon and then SailBack; Spiked Dinosaur became Styracosaurus and then Spike; Three Horned Dinosaur became Triceratops and then Trike and Giant Woolly Mammoth became Tusk. In the early 90s Revell merged with Monogram and re-released a few of the PS kits now under the Revell brand with new artwork. Not all of the original Aurora Prehistoric Scenes models were re-released. Due to a train derailment when Monogram was moving the molds, model stock and other parts, many molds were severely damaged or lost and were scrapped as unusable. The name Aurora and manufacturing date is molded on the bottom of each model, which is an easy way to determine if a built or loose model is a first or second series produced version, or to determine if its an original

The Prehistoric Scenes model series were still being produced in 1977 when Aurora was bought out by Monogram, the second largest model company of the time. In 1979 Monogram reissued a select series of models from the previous Prehistoric Scenes line. Tyrannosaurus Rex, Three Horned Dinosaur, Woolly Mammoth and Spiked Dinosaur were all reissued with

Aurora or a later reissue. Another way to determine this is only if the model is unpainted. You can then see what color plastic the model was molded in though verifying the manufacturing date is still the easiest and best method. In 1994 Revell also produced 1/100 miniature 3" snap together versions of six of the original Aurora Prehistoric Scenes models called "Quick Snap Dino's": 1: Tyrannosaurus Rex #4636 2: Triceratops #4637 3: Styracosaurus #4638 4: Dimetrodon #4639 5: Allosaurus #4640 6: Pteranodon #4641 Why did Aurora not survive? There are many ideas and speculations, but its clear that a few known factors all helped in the decline of what was a pretty amazing model company. Sadly the controversy over the Monster Scenes line and rift it caused with Nabisco was a big factor. Whatever the reasons, it's still agreed by most collectors and enthusiasts that Aurora created some of the best and most beloved models to ever grace toy store shelves. Although there are many dinosaur models to choose from on the market today, the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes line is still seen as one of the most popular prehistoric models ever produced. Regardless that many of the Aurora dinosaur models are now viewed as not being very accurate based on what we know today, they are still highly sought after and cherished by collectors worldwide. There are a few web sites and books out there with additional information. Additionally, there are forums and sites including a Prehistoric Scenes Society Facebook group where collectors and enthusiasts can go to chat with, sell, trade and share photos of collections and stories with other collectors and enthusiasts like myself. Along with my large Prehistoric Scenes collection I also have a very large Star Trek collection and my wife Kristin has a very large Wizard of Oz collection which we display and show from time to time all over the U.S. Add to that our full time "day" jobs that keep us both busy, it's our ever growing collections and the thrill of the hunt that helps keep us both young at heart. 60

Prehistoric Times No.122 Summer 2017

Prehistoric Times #122_Prehistoric Times #73 7/4/17 9:26 AM Page 59

PT #122 covers_PT #73 covers 7/4/17 9:29 AM Page 4