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Brachiosaurus Model
Description:
Until recently Brachiosaurus was the largest known dinosaur, and
made famous by the movie "Jurassic Park". It is very tall (40
feet!) and very heavy - more than 12 elephants! Unlike most of
the other long-necked dinosaurs, Brachiosaurus was specifically
designed to reach high into treetops to gather its meals. It had
front legs that were longer than its hind legs which pointed its
long neck upward. It had a shorter tail than most other big
long-necked dinosaurs. It is possible that some specimens of
Brachiosaurus reached heights exceeding 50 feet and weighed as
much as 80 tons; in fact, it may never have stopped growing as
long as it lived, which may have been over 100 years! It had,
like other typical sauropods, peg-like teeth in a head that
seemed very small for such a large creature. Studies about how
much these creatures needed to eat and how such a small head
could ingest enough food to fuel such a large body have
concluded that a full grown Brachiosaurus would have needed to
eat 440 pounds (200 kg) of food every day - if it was
warm-blooded as many scientists believe. Some scientists have
stated that these huge, small-headed creatures would have needed
to eat every waking moment in order to provide enough food to
keep such a large body alive. Brachiosaurus, like other
sauropods, seemed to have every adaptation needed for continuous
eating, including having nostrils on the top of its head, so
breathing would not interfere with eating. In order to
facilitate the processing of food, which it could not chew with
its teeth, Brachiosaurus swallowed stones that the dinosaur kept
in its gizzard similar to that found in a chicken. The tough
plant fibers would spend time in the gizzard stewing and being
ground up by the stones. It probably traveled in herds, the
sheer size of the adults protecting the young from predators.
Item#:
brachiosaurus-skull-vds314-va
Pachycephalosaurus Model
Description:
This was a real bonehead. The skull of Pachycephalosaurus was 8
inches thick on top. For years, scientists thought it was used
primarily for head-butting contests, sort of like mountain goats
do today, but recent studies of the skeletons of related
dinosaurs show that its neck might have broken if it tried that.
A skeleton of the Pachycephalosaurus has never been found, so
most of what is known about it is only from the skull and its
close relatives. There are several strange characteristics, in
addition to its thick skull. It lived at the very end of the
dinosaur age, when most dinosaurs were fairly advanced, yet it
still had five fingers, a primitive characteristic. Also, the
shape of its teeth was somewhat primitive, similar to those of
the Stegosaurus which had lived over 100 million years earlier.
These were clearly plant-eater teeth, but it also had front
teeth that could have been used like a meat-eater.
Item#: pachycephalosaurus-model-vds309-va
Styracosaurus
Description:
Styracosaurus is an ancestor of the Triceratops. It lived about
10 million years before its more famous relative. Not as large
as Triceratops, Styracosaurus had a row of long spikes around
its frill. It also had a long horn between its eyes and nose.
This plant eater was designed to chew up the very tough leaves
of low-growing plants. The long spikes and horn would have made
it difficult for the predators of that time, such as the early
tyrannosaur, Albertosaurus, to take on an adult Styracosaurus.
This creature had the typical features of the ceratopsian
dinosaurs - a beak that would have been used to cut the leaves
from the plants and a row of densely packed teeth to chew them
into pulp. There are several theories as to the use of the
spikes on the frill of Styracosaurus. In addition to a defensive
weapon, they may have served to make the creature look larger
and more formidable or they may have been brightly colored for
display during mating rituals.
Styracosaurus Model
Description: Magnificently detailed to scale and scientifically accurate, this model was constructed from solid polyresin and then hand-painted with an acrylic resiin for a natural and long-lasting life-like finish.
Item#: styracosaurus-model-vds303-va
Triceratops Model Skull and Jaws
Description: One
of the top three on everyone's favorite dinosaur list,
Triceratops is a very common dinosaur which lived at the very
end of the Age of Dinosaurs. It had a huge frilled head with
horns over each eye that could reach over 4 feet long.
Triceratops had a third, smaller horn on its nose. These would
be fearsome weapons against a predator. Triceratops is one of
the most common dinosaur fossils found. More than 50 skulls have
been found. Within the genus, at least 7 species have been
identified. The ceratopsian family is one of the most successful
and varied of the Late Cretaceous. Triceratops is the largest
member of this family, reaching the size of a school bus.
Triceratops was a herd animal; it is believed that large groups
roamed North America. Their large, horny beaks and long rows of
teeth were well designed for chewing the tough, low growing
plants of the Late Cretaceous. It was likely the main predator
of these animals was T. rex. A number of skeletons show bite and
chew marks that match the teeth of T. rex. Horns and frills
seemed to vary among individuals within the species. Some frills
were very broad, others narrow. The nasal horn shows the most
variance among individual specimens, no two being the same. The
material that covered its horns in life would have added
significantly to the length of the fossilized bone.
Item#: triceratops-model-skull-jaw-vds202-va
Tyrannosaurus Model
Description:
Probably the most famous of all dinosaurs, T. rex was probably
the fiercest meat eater that ever lived. At more than 40 feet
tall, it was huge and had the most powerful head of any
dinosaur. It also had the biggest teeth of any dinosaur - teeth
that were not only sharp and cutting edged, but also thick and
strong, capable of crushing bones. After many millions of years
of evolution, nature arrived at T. rex, an almost perfect
killing machine. It was capable of running at great speed to
catch other dinosaurs (or anything it wanted to eat). It had
large feet to help it run quickly through the swampy environment
in which it lived, maybe as fast as 35 mph. Although it had very
short arms, they were very strong. But it didn't need its arms
to be an effective and efficient killer. It had enormous
strength in its jaws; it could bite right through the frill of a
Triceratops or into the back of a hadrosaur. In fact, the only
thing that a T. rex had to fear was another T. rex. Most of the
scars and wounds found on fossil bones of these great creatures
seem to come from others of its kind. T. rex is very well known,
with more than 30 individual specimens having been found. Less
than half of these had any significant amount of the fossil, but
it still gives us a very good picture of these creatures.
Item#: tyrannosaurus-model-vds301-va
