Ah, Nanotyrannus. It has maybe been probably the most divisive dinosaur of all of them, the one probably to spark intense dialogue, heated arguments, and outright vitriol amongst members of the paleontology neighborhood. It’s been doing so for many years now, with one facet contending that it’s its personal beast, its personal pygmy tyrant, its personal legitimate taxon, and the opposite facet countering that it’s merely a younger Tyrannosaurus rex.
Again in 2022, Safari Ltd. launched a toy referred to as Nanotyrannus to tie in with the 2020 Dino Dana movie, which may at the moment be considered here on YouTube. Spoiler alert: if you happen to fast-forward to 1:12:49 (that’s what I did), you’ll see that the animal seems to be a T. rex juvenile. The toy is sculpted in a strolling pose with its head raised and the mouth open. The arms are dangling downward as typical. The left leg is stepping ahead whereas the fitting one is prolonged again and the tail is swaying barely to the fitting. It measures 19.5 cm lengthy and stands 7 cm tall. Stands very effectively by itself too.
The primary color right here is medium brown with gentle brown for the underbelly and the soles of the toes and really darkish gray claws. Small white spots adorn the again of the neck and enormous white stripes run down the torso and tail. The pinnacle options gentle orange eyes, black nostrils, pink mucosal lining, off white enamel, and, unusually, darkish purple for the within of the mouth. That’s a cool contact.
Total, it’s fairly near what’s shown in the movie, besides the stripes aren’t as elaborate. And whereas it’s a believable color scheme, it’s admittedly a bit bland in comparison with different Safari tyrannosaurs.
The pores and skin texture consists of small rounded scales throughout. Thick wrinkles are seen on the neck and flanks and there are rows of scutes masking the palms and toes. There are additionally spherical osteoderms on the torso, legs, and tail, which is a bit uncommon for a tyrannosaur these days.
The claws and enamel are pretty pointy like on most Safari theropods and the within of the mouth is detailed, though it may be onerous to make out as a result of darkish purple. The highest of the snout, the premaxilla, and the maxillas are lined in hummocks and there are small, relatively flat postorbitals across the eyes. No lips and no feathers, identical to within the film. Though unusually, each the hatchling and grownup T. rexes in the identical film have numerous feathers on them. That doesn’t actually make plenty of sense, does it? Or was the “Nano” purported to be affected by an abnormally excessive case of moulting?
This toy is claimed to have been based mostly on the famous “Jane” specimen, which many paleontologists have lengthy thought-about to be a juvenile T. rex. In evaluating this toy to the skeletal restoration, we are able to see that the top does certainly bear a really sturdy likeness, with a protracted and comparatively slender snout. Nonetheless, the very muscular legs and tail don’t look like fairly lengthy and lanky sufficient. Because of this, this toy appears to be like considerably stockier and fewer swish than Jane.
And that brings us to the looming query: ought to this toy actually be thought-about a Nanotyrannus, or ought to it’s thought-about a juvenile king tyrant? As I discussed on the very starting, the controversy has been happening for a really very long time now, with an incredible many arguments for and towards the validity of the pygmy tyrant. And to be completely sincere, which I at all times am, I actually don’t really feel like summarising all of them right here. As an alternative, I’d strongly suggest buying a duplicate of paleontologist/paleoartist Mark Witton’s 2025 ebook King Tyrant: A Natural History of Tyrannosaurus rex for a superb dialogue of the opposing arguments up till this 12 months. Certainly, I strongly suggest buying it, interval, because it’s a really terrific tome on tyrants.
Nonetheless . . . simply this previous week, a paper was published in Nature which describes NCSM 40000, nicknamed “Bloody Mary,” of the well-known Duelling Dinosaurs specimen. And lo and behold, the authors have come to the conclusion that sure, Nanotyrannus is certainly for actual. By performing a histological evaluation of the limb bones, they discovered that Bloody Mary was round 20 years of age, and whereas it hadn’t fairly stopped rising, there was merely no approach it might have grown right into a 12 metre lengthy, 8-10+ ton dreadnought. Extra controversially, they argue that there have been actually two species of the pocket predator: N. lancensis and N. lethaeus, represented by Bloody Mary and Jane respectively. Different paleontologists have expressed skepticism about this, although. And, in fact, the legitimacy of Nanotyrannus now throws a lot of what we thought we knew about T. rex‘s development phases into doubt and disarray. To not point out debunking the Dino Dana film. Such is science!
Total, I feel that this can be a first rate toy. Its color scheme is on the mundane facet and its limb proportions are off, however it’s well-sculpted, it stands up nice, its pose makes for straightforward imaginative play, and it’s extra correct and way more reasonably priced than the PNSO version. Plus it’s more likely to turn out to be extra of an in-demand merchandise for tyrannosaur fanatics in gentle of the truth that Nanotyrannus has lastly been proven to be the true deal. Welcome again, little tyrant, welcome again.
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