Having been described in 1908 and being the eponymous ankylosaurid, Ankylosaurus has lengthy been a staple of dinosaur toys. Initially recognized from relatively fragmentary materials, reconstructions of this dinosaur traditionally developed from Stegosaurus-like earlier than the tail-club was recognized, to the model that was made acquainted by Rudolph Zallinger’s 1947 Age of Reptiles mural and the 1964 World’s Honest mannequin, with their nodosaur-like spikes, sprawling limbs, and dragging tail-clubs. These turned the premise for a lot of depictions of Ankylosaurus, together with toys, till extra full, nearer family members had been discovered for reference. Sadly, the Jurassic Park/World franchise has carried many of those inaccuracies over to the current day.
That leads us to the topic of this assessment, the small Bullyland Ankylosaurus which was apparently produced in 1987, a time the place ankylosaurids had been higher recognized, but this nonetheless regarded like a throwback to the Sixties. The limbs are clearly very sprawling, giving it a squat posture, and the tail is lowered in order that the membership nearly touches the bottom. The osteoderms lining the flanks will not be as pointy and nodosaur (particularly Edmontonia)-like as within the older depictions, however I think that was merely to make the determine much less harmful for teenagers to deal with.
A relatively unusual function is that the tail-club solely consists of two massive, paired osteoderms, although an entire membership was recognized by 1910, exhibiting that it had two smaller osteoderms on the tip too. I believe the World’s Honest mannequin might have had an identical membership, however I can’t discover good photographs of it, so it’s tough to check. Both manner, it’s relatively simplified in comparison with the true deal, and the tail itself additionally appears to be too quick and thick. The size of the tail appears just like early depictions of Scolosaurus, which for some motive was depicted with a really quick tail and a tail-club with spikes on it. The tail of the primary recognized specimen of that dinosaur solely preserved the basal a part of the tail, which presumably led to this interpretation.
The cranium of Ankylosaurus was additionally fully recognized from a really early stage, which implies it ought to be pretty appropriate right here, proper? Nicely, form of; it appears to have the proper variety of horns and bumps in kind of the proper locations, they’re simply pointing in wildly completely different instructions from what’s recognized from the fossils. Whereas the horns behind the eyes and on the “cheeks” pointed backwards and up and down in the true animal, respectively, right here they level to the edges and nearly in direction of the entrance! The higher horns additionally appear to be bigger than the decrease, although the other was true. The neck additionally lacks the cervical half-ring armour, however their precise configuration has lengthy been unsure, with the newest publication suggesting two had been current, as in shut family members. The truth is, this determine barely even has a neck…
Aside from the plain inaccuracies, the determine is immediately recognisable as an ankylosaur, however maybe not clearly as Ankylosaurus itself, not having the proper form of the top or tail-club. Like among the different small Bullyland figures, there may be additionally one thing mammalian about it which is tough to explain, maybe it’s the pudgy form and expressive eyes. Its pose seems prefer it’s fortunately waddling alongside, and the physique does look sufficiently broad. The general texture additionally appears appropriately scaled and osteoderm-covered.
The determine is 8 cm from snout to tail-club tip, and it’s solely about 2.5 cm tall. As most of the different small Bullyland figures, and in contrast to most different dinosaur toys, the determine may be very darkish, nearly black or darkish gray. The one paint appears to be the yellow eyes with black pupils that look again, giving it an lovely look from the aspect, however a derpy look from the entrance. I ought to be aware that that is apparently solely certainly one of numerous color variants, there being not less than a light greyish and reddish brown model as nicely.
So to sum up, I believe it is a fairly cute determine reflecting some fascinating historic developments in Ankylosaurus restorations. Whereas after all removed from anatomically correct, I believe outdated toys that mirror older hypotheses after they had been nonetheless related are not less than worthy for this, not like these which might be simply inaccurate on account of a complete disregard of present science (*cough* Jurassic World *cough*). And, wanting on the final image, who can resist that side-eyed smirk anyway?
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