One of the first new releases of 2010 is the Liopleurodon from Safari’s rapidly growing and excellent quality Wild Safari line. This is Safari’s first replica of the infamous Jurassic sea monster, originally made famous for its appearance in Walking with Dinosaurs over a decade ago. Despite the many years that have passed, companies continue to use the WWD depiction as a standard template for their figures (see previous reviews of the WWD, Procon and Chap Mei Liopleurodon figures). So, let’s see if the 2010 Wild Safari Liopleurodon breaks the mold.

Starting with the head, there are some excellent details. The long narrow head and jaws show some excellent details. The dentition is based on the most recent reconstructions of the skull of Liopleurodon. Older reconstructions show the teeth splayed out in a ‘rosette’, this is based on the condition seen in preserved pliosaur fossils. However, this is a preservational artifact that results from squashing and compression of the fossils; in life the teeth were implanted more vertically, as captured in the Safari figure. The size of the teeth differs along the jaws, large dangerous-looking fangs are positioned towards the tip. These are separated by gaps in the upper and lower jaws that correspond to other teeth, again this is based on the fossil material. One can easily imagine the tight interlocking teeth when the jaws when they are closed. As in living reptiles, the jaws and mandibular symphysis (where the left and right parts of the jaw meet) are visible from below. The mandibular symphysis is slightly expanded and the snout is expanded in places too,  just as it is in the fossil material.

The beady red eyes with black pupils are oriented up and outwards as they were in life, ready to spot the next unfortunate meal. The external nares (nostrils) are situated close to the eyes and on the palate, inside the mouth, even the internal nares are visible. There is also a fleshy tongue. The two large temporal fenestrae are visible at the back of the skull separated by a midline crest, these housed the bone-crushing jaw muscles and may have been even more bulky in life.

Pliosaur skeletons were built to minimize the flexibility of the main body: the Safari Liopleurodon reflects nicely, it appears appropriately strong and sturdy. The muscular regions that covering the large plate-like girdles are visible below. These are particularly obvious in the pelvic region, which was probably a little smoother in life. The neck and tail are curved which adds dynamicity to the posture. There is cloacal opening behind the pubis bone, an anatomical feature often overlooked (or perhaps puposefully omitted?) in many dinosaur figures. The tail is quite short and the head is quite large compared with other Liopleurodon figures.

The limbs are all positioned in a relatively passive position. Where they meet the body they are deep to accommodate the strong swimming muscles used to propel it through the water. Other figures often make this region far to thin. The rear flippers are slightly larger than the front ones. This is accurate and typical of most pliosaurs. In contrast, the front flippers are usually largest in the long necked plesiosaurs and elasmosaurids..

With regard to coloration, Safari have jumped onto the Walking With Dinosaurs bandwagon. Although it would be nice to see a more original colour scheme, one cannot complain too much as the striking pattern of deep blue and white works extremely well, even if it is not unique. The underside is completely white so the animal is nicely countershaded. The texture of plesiosaur skin is unknown; the surface of the Wild Safari Liopleurodon is moderately stippled giving the impression of small scales.

At only 16 cm long this is a small and affordable piece. It is also such a popular species that I predict  it will be one of Safari’s bestsellers. Look out for a future blog post where I will outline the design process for this figure.

Thanks to DansDinosaurs.com for providing the Dinosaur Toy Blog with a review copy of this figure.

This figure is now available from Dan on Ebay here.

Ever since Walking with Dinosaurs came out a decade ago, Liopleurodon has been famous. However, this Liopleurodon figure was made a good ten years before walking with dinosaurs, so, luckily for us collectors, it wasn’t “inspired” by the WwD version like every other liopleurodon on the market today (I’m looking at you, procon and safari….).

(Herbert, here, is about the same size as the schleich “herman” figure)

This Liopleurodon is twenty years old. For being such an aged figure, it has stood the test of time very well. The sculpt is fantastic. The eyes and the nostrils are placed far up on the snout, just as they should be. The rear flippers are larger and thicker than the front ones, just as they should be; many companies even today still get that wrong. The flippers are also all pointing backwards, with slight wrinkles behind each one. The teeth are randomly sized and fang like, just like they were on actual pliosaur skulls- I wonder why most companies make them all uniformly sized and placed. The teeth also extend a little bit past the end of the jaws, that’s always a plus! The tail is long, straight, and tapering. The body is nice and straight too; it wouldn’t have been able to curve itself much in real life. The head has a very gentle expression, partially due to the fact that, just like all other invictas, this figure has a closed mouth.

Apparently, the only reason invicta started to paint their dinosaur figures was to compete with other companies producing lesser-quality but very colorful painted figures. For apparently having the paint just thrown on it in order for it to sell better, this Liopleurodon’s paint job is surprisingly nice. I’ve heard that the paint applications on other painted invicta figures have been crude and obscure a lot of skin detail; I guess it’s good that there wasn’t much skin detail on this one to begin with! The figure does suffer some problems with paint though; the teeth aren’t painted very well and the paint flakes off easily ( a few moves around my marine reptile shelf gave him some scuffs on his belly – the paint on painted invicta figures seems nearly as delicate as the paint on bullyland’s figures!). The colors, as you can see, are a nice greenish blue on the back with a creamy belly. Where the blue meets the cream, there is a mottled pattern. The eyes are black with a tiny white dot in them to simulate light reflecting off the eye. The paint on the rest of the figure is extremely shiny by itself (no white dots needed!), and it makes it look wet. The teeth are plaint white. As if you didn’t already know, this figure was first made in a light green unpainted plastic, while this one is made of a more rubbery transparent plastic.

This Liopleurodon has held the title of best pliosaur figure for twenty years- it seems as though it only might (might!) be outcompeted next year by Safari Ltd’s new Liopleurodon. Whether this is or not, this figure will always remain a classic that’s great in any collection!

Sometimes available on Ebay here

Ñam, ñam... ¿me pareció ver un lindo gatito?

Desde pequeño me fascina todo lo relacionado con los dinosaurios.  Recuerdo que alguien me regaló un librito que hablaba de ese tema.  Era muy divertido, al pasar las páginas surgían dinosaurios en tres dimensiones y te explicaba cómo era cada uno de ellos.

Seguramente ese librito sea el que más veces he leído en mi vida.  Bueno, eso  y la composición de los champús y desodorantes, que si no tengo algo para leer cuando voy al WC, no me sale nada, parece que no sé cagar de memoria…

Me leí ese librito tantas veces que, cuando pude elegir mis lecturas, siempre trataba de aprender algo sobre los dinosaurios.  Ahí fue cuando me enteré de que “dinosaurio” significaba “lagarto terrible“, por ejemplo, aunque ya lo había olvidado.

Aquí mi pequeño homenaje a esos bichos que tanto me gustaron.

Así de memoria y tantísimos años después, todavía recuerdo casi todos los nombres de los dinosaurios que salían en ese pequeño libro infantil.  Pterodáctilo, Tiranosaurio Rey, Estegosaurio,  Braquiosaurio, Ictiosaurio,  Plesiosaurio, Iguanodonte y Triceratops.  Seguro que se me olvida alguno, pero no había muchos más.

Primero, un poquito de historia.

Esto son las edades de La Tierra (clic para ampliar)

Esto ha sido la historia geológica de nuestro planeta.  Hay que ampliar el periodo Fanerozoico para entender de qué estamos hablando:

Los dinosaurios tuvieron su momento de reinado (clic para ampliar)

Pues eso.  Los hombres nunca coincidimos con los dinosaurios, cada uno en su momento y en su lugar, porque incluso los continentes eran distintos a los actuales.

Os presento al Triceratops (clic para ampliar)

Pues en esa época, en el mesozoico, es cuando hubo dinosaurios.  Y eran unos bichos increíbles.  Mi favorito (los niños siempre tenemos favoritos ¿no?) era el Triceratops.

Este simpático bichejo podía llegar a pesar como cuatro elefantes actuales.  Era herbívoro (imaginad la cantidad de plantas que se tenía que zampar… ¡¡y los zurullos que soltaría después serían apocalípticos!!) y tenía una boquita parecida a la de las tortugas.  Con sus tres cuernos (de ahí viene su nombre) se defendía bastante bien de los dinosaurios depredadores, que debían tener bastantes malas pulgas.

Pero al Triceratops eso no le importaba.  Él comía y tomaba el sol plácidamente.  Ni siquiera tenía que preocuparse de las caries, porque comía tanto que gastaba sus dientes rápidamente pero ¡le salían otros nuevos!

Menudo aliento tendría éste... (clic para ampliar)

En el otro lado de la balanza estaba el Tiranosaurio Rey, también conocido como T-Rex, muy famoso después de la película Parque Jurásico.

El T-Rex corría que se las pelaba, aunque los científicos no se ponen de acuerdo en si podría llegar hasta los 70 km/h o “sólo” unos 45 km/h.  Teniendo en cuenta que los atletas velocistas actuales difícilmente superan los 40 km/h, creo que ya era suficiente.

Además, podía pesar hasta 8 toneladas, más de dos veces lo que un elefante actual.  Imaginad un bicho que pese más del doble que un elefante corriendo más deprisa (quizá MUCHO más deprisa) que el campeón olímpico de los 100 metros lisos.  ¿No da miedo sólo de pensarlo? Los dinosaurios eran asombrosos…

Otro que siempre llevaba prisa (clic para ampliar)

Todavía más grande y más rápido que el T-Rex era el Spinosaurus.

Probablemente llegase a superar las 10 toneladas de peso y los 10 metros de altura.  Tenía una espina dorsal muy peculiar que le servía para calentar o enfriar rápidamente su sangre.

Vivió en lo que ahora serían los territorios centroafricanos y podría haberse alimentado principalmente de peces y carroña.  Pero si tenía que cazar, lo hacía.  Y a pocos dinosaurios les habría gustado que sus fauces (muy parecidas a las de los cocodrilos) les dieran un mordisquito.

¿Un cocodrilo normal? Quizá no... (clic para ampliar)

Y, hablando de fauces de cocodrilo, aquí tenemos al Sarcosuchus Imperator.  Puede parecer un cocodrilo normal y corriente, pero no.  Mientras que un cocodrilo actual puede pesar una tonelada y medir 7 metros, que ya está bien, el Imperator podía pesar 10 toneladas y medir más de 12 metros.

Este bicho vivió en lo que ahora es el desierto del Sahara.  Cuando él lo habitaba, se trataba de una zona cubierta por la selva y los pantanos.

Asombra ver lo poco que han evolucionado los cocodrilos ¿verdad? Parece que la evolución, de vez en cuando, encuentra un “modelo” para una especie y dice “esto me ha quedado muy bien, ¿para qué cambiarlo?”.  Los cocodrilos tienen 250 millones de años de antigüedad, desde el principio del periodo Mesozoico que puse arriba, mientras que el Homo Sapiens apenas llega al medio millón de años.  Así que, cuando vuelvas a mirar a un cocodrilo, muéstrale un respeto.  Para ellos somos apenas unos recién llegados…

Un hombre, un tiburón blanco y un megalodon (clic para ampliar)

Y si hablamos de animales antiguos y perfectos, aunque no sean dinosaurios, hay que hablar de los tiburones.  400 millones de años avalan su diseño perfecto.  ¿Por qué son perfectos?  Sobrevivieron a las grandes extinciones masivas del Paleozoico y del Mesozoico, ¿hacen falta más motivos? Por supuesto, convivieron con los dinosaurios en la era mesozoica, y ahí fue donde más se desarrollaron.

Al revés de lo que se piensa normalmente al hablar de dinosaurios, los tiburones antiguos no eran muy grandes.  Bueno, los hubo de todos los tamaños, pero lo normal es que fuesen de tamaños cercanos al actual.

El Megalodón, que se muestra en la imagen y que podía llegar a las 30 toneladas de peso y 20 metros de longitud, no vivió en la época de los dinosaurios sino durante el Neógeno, una de las últimas y más recientes etapas del Fanerozoico (nuestra era actual).

Pero tuvo parientes que sí vivieron durante la época de los dinosaurios, como el Orthacanthus.

Este tiburón podía llegar a medir 4 metros de longitud y sembró el pánico en los pantanos de América del Norte y Europa, por lo que se le conoce como “el terror de los pantanos”.

¿Parece manso? Pues no te engañes (clic para ampliar)

Pero quien seguro que no tenía miedo (de hecho no se le conocen depredadores) era el Liopleurodón.

Con un tamaño que podría oscilar en torno a los 25 metros,  más que un edificio de 7 plantas, este dinosaurio era un coloso de los mares.   Nadie le tosía.  Por eso es considerado un súper-carnívoro, por no tener depredadores.  Y tiene el récord de ser el carnívoro más grande del que se tenga constancia de su existencia en La Tierra.

La película Parque Jurásico también se pusieron de moda los dinosaurios que cazaban en manada, como si fuesen lobos.  En concreto, los velocirraptores.  Lo que no me explico es por qué cambiaron el aspecto de los velocirraptores.  En la película, apararentaban tener más de dos metros de longitud y pinta de T-Rex en pequeño, realmente no eran así.

Velocirraptor en la película

Aspecto real de un velocirraptor

En realidad, los velocirraptores (por cierto, “veloci-raptor” significa “ladrón ágil”) eran pequeños dinosaurios de medio metro de altura, muy rápidos y ágiles, y armados con una uña en forma de hoz de mas de 6 cm con la que podrían causar heridas mortales a sus presas.

Pero ni siquiera está claro que el velocirraptor cazase en manada, porque sus restos siempre se han encontrado solitarios.  Eso es algo típico de otro tipo de dinosaurios, los Deinonichus.

Los Deinonichus sí que cazaban en manada y eran grandecitos. Y eran muy peligrosos.

Supongo que Steven Spielberg pensó que las plumas no le daban el aspecto fiero que requería la película, así que las suprimió por escamas.  Por lo demás, estos eran los auténticos velocirraptores que salen en la película, tanto por aspecto como por comportamiento de manada.

El Quetzalcoatlus, un jumbo del cretácico (clic para ampliar)

Dominada la tierra y los mares, a los dinosaurios sólo se les resistía el aire… ¡¡no!! También lo controlaban.  Poderosos lagartos voladores surcaban las alturas de todo el planeta.

El Queztalcoatlus podía medir entre 12 a 18 metros desde el extremo de un ala hasta el otro extremo.  Aquí una muestra:

El Queztalcoatlus no tenía dientes.  Había muchos lagartos voladores que sí los tenían, como era el caso del lagarto con el que yo había jugado tantas veces en el librito que me regalaron, el Pterodáctilo.

Ese lagarto se podía considerar el abuelo del gran Queztalcoatlus ya que fue de una era anterior del Mesozoico.

Un Pterodáctilo en acción (clic para ampliar)

Este animal podía medir unos dos metros de punta a punta de cada ala.  De algún modo, era un nuevo concepto en la evolución: se buscaba la ligereza en vez de grandes y pesados huesos que sirviesen como armadura.  Así, el Pterodáctilo no superaba los 2 kg de peso, todo a base de comer gusanos y pequeños peces.  Era característica su forma de andar cuando estaba posado en superficie, apoyándose en sus manos como los primates.

Leer sobre estos reptiles es muy divertido.  Da la sensación de que son los que más capacidad de adaptación tenían de todas las especies conocidas: volaban, nadaban, corrían a grandes velocidades, eran enormes, podían ser muy pequeños, los había con dientes, sin dientes, con plumas, con escamas… había de todo.

Pero si uno se asombra leyendo cosas sobre los dinosaurios, verlos en persona debía ser algo difícil de olvidar.  Cuando estuve en el museo de Ciencias Naturales de Berlín y tuve la oportunidad de ver de cerca un esqueleto de Braquiosaurio y otro de Diplodocus, pude comprobar lo majestuosos y espectaculares que podían llegar a ser.  Aquí la foto:

Yo junto a un Braquiosaurio y un Diplodocus en el museo de Berlín (clic para ampliar)

Aquí un bonito Braquiosaurio (clic para ampliar)

Estos animales convivieron en el Jurásico (un periodo del Mesozoico) durante millones de años.

Los Braquiosaurios podían llegar a los 13 metros de altura (casi como un edificio de 4 plantas) y unos 25 metros de largo, pesando incluso 90 toneladas, es decir, como 23 elefantes modernos.  La selva temblaba cuando este gigante caminaba entre los árboles, comiendo entre sus copas al estilo de las jirafas de hoy día.

Los Diplodocus son unos dinosaurios muy bien conocidos.  De hecho, son los dinosaurios más largos de los que existen esqueletos completos, como el de Berlín.  La forma de su columna vertebral les impedía levantar su largo cuello hacia los árboles, obligándoles a andar en un equilibrio entre su larguísima cola y su cuello.   De todas maneras, podían levantar sus patas delanteras y sujetarse sobre las traseras (como un perrito cuando pide algo) y así también podían comer de las copas de los árboles.  Aunque eran mucho más pequeños que los Braquiosaurios (podían pesar hasta 16 toneladas), su longitud total era aún mayor, llegando a los 27 metros.

Un Diplodocus dándose un paseo (clic para ampliar)

Hay muchos, muchísimos más dinosaurios distintos.  El Iguanodonte (que servía de sustento a otros muchos dinosaurios carnívoros, era una especie de “menú andante” del Cretácico), el Enigmosaurus (nos hacemos la idea de lo difícil que resultó reconstruirlo, con ese nombre…), el Gallimimus (“imitador de gallina”, una gallina de más de 400 kg, eso sí), el Lanasaurus (“lagarto lanudo” ¿una especie de “ovejasaurio”?), etc.

Esto no pretendía ser una recopilación de todos los tipos de dinosaurios conocidos, sino sólo un pequeño homenaje a quienes fueron los reyes de este planeta durante millones de años.  Con la extinción masiva de finales del Mesozoico les llegó su hora y ahora somos los humanos quienes tenemos la batuta de mando.  La historia nos enseña que los cataclismos se repiten una y otra vez sobre La Tierra, acabando con casi todas las especies conocidas.  La gran duda es si la siguiente gran extinción la provocaremos nosotros.  Y si sobrevirá alguna especie.  Pero eso es otra historia…

Fuentes: Wikipedia, Wikimedia, kh0rne.

Some days it’s exceptionally difficult to drag myself out of my warm bed and plod to work only to hear time after time that the economy is peril and we are all going to eat dirt sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you knew that you were going to come to visit me and that’s all we’d discuss would you look forward to it? What’s the point of you coming to see me? I can tell you what it’s NOT. It’s not for me to “poor mouth” and drag you down even more.

In the trail of 9/11, it was decided since business was in the tank and everyone –including me- was scared senseless about another terror attack, it wasn’t the best time to ask for a new opportunity but to focus on what gave us hope. Hope is defined as a feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.   I chatted with someone about this earlier in the week and they asked “but isn’t that providing false hope?” Absolutely not. I’m not saying that we should fill each other with hot air and then you, as a job seeker, leave only to know that I’m full of shizzle. Go back up a couple of lines and re-read the definition of hope and you’ve got your answer..it’s what is “wanted”, not what will “actually happen”. It’d be totally different if I said, “I WILL find you a job and it’ll be the most awesomest gig on the plant and you’ll make more money and then you’ll come to my office and we’ll hug and sing songs while eating donuts and laughing at the non-job-havers.” Believe me, if I could predict the job market, I wouldn’t be at my desk tapping away at this article. Charlie and I would be flying to Candy Mountain and I’d take my diamond encrusted helicopter to avoid the silly Liopleurodon. (What? You don’t know what a Liopleurodon is??? 31 million viewers can’t be wrong)

We are experiencing a similar of catastrophe now.  Lost jobs, lost homes, a plummeting stock market, election of a new US president, the war in Iraq, the crisis in Detroit, etc. Seriously..It’s never a good time to discuss it, especially during the regular business day. The amount of time you and I spend discussing how horrible things are, we’ve wasted a significant amount of energy that could have been spent on helping you find a job. Post 9/11 I focused on you, the job seeker, and hoped to be the one silver lining.  The fact that I presented something positive rather than calling to say how horrible everything was, enabled all of us to grow personally and professionally.  In that, I was extending our relationship beyond the “recruiter/pimp/handler” to the “partner or consultant” and in a lot of cases “friend”.  I hear over and over from job seekers that other recruiters they meet are complaining about the economy and how bad it is.  I’m not going to lie and tell you it’s not bad. I’ve found if we change the focus and pinpoint the positive aspects of searching for a job and how we can eventually help each other. Then you and I can end our meeting with a better feeling than when you walked through the door. Does “feeling better” really matter when you don’t have a job? In my opinion, yep, it does. It’s sort of like being in love for the first time. Every thing smells good, food taste better, there’s less hair on that mole, traffic isn’t really that bad, Tom Cruise really makes sense about Scientology, etc. You get the picture. The next meeting or phone call you have with an employer will sound better if you are on an uptick. True dat.

The job seekers that I’m trying to help today aren’t getting called as much as they normally have been. I’m doing all I can to strengthen our relationship when it needs it the most. Plus, I’m stingy. I need it too. It helps lessen the urge to punch my co-workers and/or drink a liter of Stoli at the end of the day. I have faith that it will be remembered when the market takes an up-tick.

Hope is contagious. Hope is like yeast and baking powder

It has an energy that makes most things rise. If you want to know

if you are good for others, ask yourself how much hope you’ve

given them. It’s it’s there you will find your answer

Sr. Macrina Weiderkehr

Pliosaurs again! This time we will sample Procon’s offering which is a Liopleurodon.

This is the second plesiosaur produced by Procon, the first one being the elasmosaurid Hydrotherosaurus (reviewed here), but this is their first pliosaur. Procon are tending to divide collectors with their new lines. On the pro side they are particularly diverse and cover a wide range of often overlooked species. They are also all pretty small (they are not to scale to each other), which makes them cheap. These factors combine to make them highly collectible. On the other hand, many (in my opinion, most) of the Procon sculpts just don’t push the right buttons, they are often cartoony in appearance and quite crudely made. Procon seems to straddle the boundary between rubber Chinasaurs on one hand and museum quality replicas on the other, not really fitting into either category comfortably, but extending into both from figure to figure. In balance though, I look at Procon in a very positive light and I hope they succeed and produce more figures in the future. Having preempted that procon figures include hits and misses, you will be pleased to hear that the Liopleurodon is one of the hits.

At 18 cm long it is the smallest pliosaur we have reviewed so far. The proportions are accurate: there is a distinct but short neck and the body is short. The only major anatomical details I can fault are the position of the flippers – the front limbs are pulled downwards and forwards pushing the boundaries of what was physically possible, similarly the hind limbs are pulled back rather far. But the shape of the flippers is well done.

The head is nicely detailed – obviously influenced by the Liopleurodon in Walking with Dinosaurs and therefore similar to the Toyway Liopleurodon (reviewed here). It differs in that the mouth is closed and so the teeth (which are individually sculpted) interlock in a neat mesh – this is the only pliosaur figure with the teeth occluded in this way and it is very impressively done. The nostrils are retracted near to the eyes which are red with black pupils facing upwards – it looks a little subdued! There is a fold of skin extending along the side of the neck and hanging down on the side of the body between the flippers. There is no reason to think pliosaurs had this feature but it is subtly done. The backbone is raised so the back is arched.

The colour scheme is beautifully done with deep blue and contrasting white patches on the back and sides and a white belly. This, too, is obviously based on WWD, presumably a conscious decision to help punters recognise and identify with the beasty. Although it looks nice, I would have rather seen Procon do something more original. To their credit though, they at least added a unique peachy hue on the underside of the jaws and on the sides of the body, these work very well.

Overall, I’m very happy with this figure and I am very sure that it will be one of Procon’s bestsellers, if not the best.

Available here for just $4.95

Like this toy? Tell like-minded folks what you think at the Dinosaur Toy Forum.

Con sus 25 metros y una boca de 3 metros de longitud, El Liopleurodon Ferox es el carnívoro mas grande que jamas ha existido, se cree que era el rey de los mares en tiempos prehistóricos. Este depredador era el mayor de los plesiosauros conocidos. Estos reptiles marinos son primos de los dinosaurios que dominaban la Tierra en el periodo que fue desde 208 hasta hace 65 millones de años. Los restos de estos animales son relativamente comunes y suelen hallarse bien conservados en los diferentes depósitos marinos en los que se han encontrado.

Era un nadador muy ágil, pese a su gigantesco tamaño. Se parecía un poco a las ballenas actuales, tenía un cuerpo musculoso e hidrodinámico, con aletas muy potentes. Era capaz de perseguir a sus presas por los mares del Jurásico a gran velocidad, e incluso es posible que pudiera sumergirse a gran profundidad sin dificultades para perseguir a una presa.

Este gigantesco animal probablemente “volaba” por el mar, tal y como hacen las tortugas marinas de hoy en día. Para avanzar, empujaba hacia abajo las aletas delanteras, y para aumentar la velocidad accionaba hacia atrás las traseras. Este monstruo marino podía mantener una persecución durante largo tiempo, y conseguir su presa cuando esta disminuía el ritmo debido al cansancio.

Descrito por Sauvage en el año 1874, el Liopleurodon ferox típico tenía un cráneo de más de 1,5 metros de largo. Su impresionante dentadura estaba formada por dientes del tamaño de un machete, con unas mandíbulas lo suficientemente fuertes como para triturar los huesos de sus presas. Son precisamente estos dientes característicos los que dan nombre a este dinosaurio; Liopleurodon significa “dientes de caras lisas”.

El Liopleurodon aparecido en México -el mayor y más completo encontrado hasta ahora- ha hecho que se revisen estos datos; parece ser que un individuo adulto, comparado con el animal hallado, que era joven, podía llegar a medir cerca de 25 metros y tener un peso estimado de alrededor de 50 toneladas. Para hacernos una idea del tamaño que esto representa, recordemos que un cachalote adulto (mamífero, no reptil) de hoy en día que mida unos 22 metros de largo puede llegar a pesar unas 65 toneladas.

It’s time to continue our review of pliosaur figures – this time we will look at the Walking with Dinosaurs Liopleurodon by Toyway. The line has been out of production for some years and was only available locally for a short period of time so this line, and this rare figure in particular is quickly becoming a ‘holy grail’ for dinosaur collectors.

It is a spectacular figure and is by far the most accurate pliosaur toy reviewed so far. All of the Walking with Dinosaurs figures are almost perfectly symmetrical, which is a let down in most of the figures which are just ’standing around’ – this is not so much of an issue the aquatic Liopleurodon. The figure is 24cm long.

The triangular-shaped head is good – the eyes are in the correct place (so often in plesiosaurs they are positioned too far back) and the little external nares are retracted close to the eyes as they should be. There are other accurate details – the mandibular symphysis and tip of the rostrum is slightly expanded and the teeth are enlarged and slightly procumbent, there is even a short diastema (gap) in the tooth row where the premaxilla meets the maxilla. The mouth is slightly open but there is no detail in the mouth, no gullet or obvious tongue for example. The eyes are yellow and inexplicably framed above by what appears to be a delicate eyebrow – perhaps this is supposed to be a beautiful female? I’m sure I don’t need to explain that pliosaurs almost certainly never had eyebrows I guess it is supposed to be a ridge.

The neck is short but distinct and the body is long and quite narrow (rather too narrow actually) with four long broad flippers. The body region is actually deeper than wide, the opposite should be the case. There is a ridge running along the spine. The limbs are beautiful with a rounded anterior edge and a sharp crenulated trailing edge, perfect for producing lift. The hind limbs are noticeably larger as is typical among pliosaurs. The limbs are expanded where they meet the body accommodating all that strong musculature associated with swimming. The tail is short and laterally compressed slightly.

The texture is quite rough which contrasts with the smooth skinned pliosaurs previously reviewed here. The flippers appear cracked and the tummy area is covered in irregular large scales, all nice details. The colouration is taken directly from the Walking with Dinosaurs TV series – is is speckled deep blue and white on the back and all over the flippers, the tummy is countershaded in white. It is a stunning and distinctive colour scheme – one that has shamelessly been duplicated by the new Procon Liopleurodon (review coming soon…). The WWD Liopleurodon is an amazing figure and one of my favourites.

It is rare but sometimes available here

Do you collect dinosaur toys? Then join Dinosaur Toy Forum now!

This video is a response to gnad’s.

–nadj

My oldest daughter and all her friends are into this thing called “YOU TUBE”. It’s your videos on TV (or computer). So, people all over are video taping themselves and posting it on the internet. I think the first really funny one I saw was called “Yeah Toast”. It was hilarious! Since then I’ve watched it like 20 times! I’m like a You Tube Disciple now. Everywhere I go, whether I know them or not, I say, “Do you ever go to You Tube?” “Have you ever saw “YEAH TOAST”? Like an evening last week, my sister and I went out. We went to Chipotle’s and then to Cold Stone Creamery. While at Cold Stone, I did my thing. The girl who was waiting on us spelled out, “Y-e-a-h” and said “toast”? I said, “yeah”. And she said, “I’m gonna look it up right now in the back!” And so she did. Ten minutes later she comes back out laughing and says, “that’s going on my website!” We all laughed! And then on the way out we said goodbye to that girl, and as we were pushing on the door to leave, we turned around and yelled, “yeah toast!” To which the girl replied (even as she was waiting on other customers, “Yeah toast!!!” So funny! You must be a part of this. Click the link below to see what I mean.

Here’s what he’s saying:

verse 1: all around the country coast to coast, people always say what do you like most, I don’t wanna brag i don’t wanna boast, I always tell ‘em I like toast.

verse 2: i get up in the mornin’ bout six AM, have a little jelly have a little jam, take a piece of bread put it in the slot, push down the lever and the wires gets hot, i get toast.

verse 3: now there’s no secret to toasting perfection, there’s a dial on the side and you make your selection, push to the dark or the light and then, if it pops too soon press down again, make toast.

verse 4: when the first caveman drove in from the drags, didn’t know what would go with the bacon and the eggs, must have been a genius got it in his head, plug the toaster in the wall, buy a bag of bread, make toast.verse 5: oh wee, monsieur. bonjour. cool cat. uh huh croissante. du bagette. maurice a vaulzey. effeil tower. o wee maria. bagette vouze.

For those of you who love this, there is a live version where he sings an extra verse. You also get to see him “playing the drums” on a metal toaster with a fork and a spoon! LOL! Check it out on You Tube!

Some other funny titles totally G-rated: 1) “Charlie Bit My Finger” (A baby named Charlie with his toddler brother. The toddler keeps sticking his finger in Charlie’s mouth.), 2) “18 Wheels on a Big Rig” (This is from the same guy that did the “Yeah Toast” song. Basically, they are just counting the wheels, but they do it in a really funny way!) 3) “Iowa Interstate 80″ (This is so funny to me! It is a short song about traveling through Iowa on I-80….not much else but fields of corn!)

Other title that is PG-rated (to me) because of 2 crude word phrases in it (“frickin’” and “oh my g*d”): “Charlie the Unicorn” (Very silly and retro-looking. Two cheery, simple-minded unicorns are trying to get a reluctant, deep-voiced unicorn to go to Candy Mountain.) “Charlie the Unicorn” is funny because all my daughter’s friends are always talking like the two silly unicorns, “Charlie. Chaaaaaarrrrlie” and “Look, Charlie! It’s a magical Liopleurodon!” What’s a Liopleurodon anyway?

I didn’t know either so I looked it up! A Liopleurodon is an aquatic dinosaur (Greek for “smooth-sided teeth”) that lived in the oceans during the Late Jurassic Period. It was about 40 feet long and 25 tons! It ate fish and squids. Click here for more info on the Liopleurodon.

1)   Photo

2)   Links

 Official web page

3)   Name

Dinosaurios de México

4)   Informations

5)   Description

 Three values in sheet;
$ 6,50, ‘Muzzy’ ,
$ 7,50, ‘Sabinosaurio’,
$ 10,50 ‘Monstruo de Aramberri’.
 
Issue date: 29-th of September.
 
‘Muzzy’ is Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis,
Sabinosaurus is an hadrosaur,
the ‘Aramberri monster’ is a pliosaur, possibly Liopleurodon.
 
Only Sabinosaurus is a dinosaur.

6)   Additional links and info

·         Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis

A – info

C – publication link

B – Wikipedia

·         ‘Aramberri monster’  (pliosaur, possibly Liopleurodon)

A – info

B – publication link

C – Wikipedia ENG ITA 

My liopleurodon article has indeed boosted readership; although not by very much. However it is the most viewed article I have. Which is not saying much.

Anyway, I am still here, despite appearances, and I will try to update as soon as possible. I now have four-day weekends, so that should help…

This is partially a post, and partially an experiment. I recently, for one of my classes, had to do a biomechanical analysis of a Kronosaurus. This is a huge sea reptile from way back in the history of our planet. It was about 10 meters long, and pretty vicious. From my analysis I discovered that it couldn’t move too fast, or turn too quickly, but it didn’t need to. The sheer power of this creature, and its massive jaws were enough to catch anything it needed. But it wasn’t alone in those ancient seas; there were many huge predators.

And now for the experiment. People seem to be enthralled with these plesiosaurs. Take the liopleurodon. It is featured in a Youtube video that shot around the net about a year ago now, for no clear reason. And my brother happened to write a post about it and still gets multiple hits per day from searches for information on liopleurodons. So, the experiment is to see whether this post gets me more hits. If you’re reading this, you’re now just another number on my stats page. Congratulations! But don’t feel bad, you won’t leave here empty-handed. Here are a bunch of links about prehistoric animals. Including a picture of the specific Kronosaurus specimen that I analysed.

A Dinosaur Story
Wikipedia article on Liopleurodons
My Kronosaurus

And who knows? Maybe this is what the Loch Ness monster is!

So yeah! Woooo dinosaurs! I guess they don’t go bump, though. Maybe splash is more accurate.