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Fukuisaurus Described

June 4, 2013, 11:40 am
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Only one large scale paper has actually been written about Fukuisaurus. Perhaps the minimal material, though there is some more material now than there was when initially described, has led to the lack of published research concerning Fukuisaurus. That paper, unfortunately, is published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology; meaning that without a subscription it is virtually unreadable in its entirety. If you have a subscription or would like to buy the article it can be found here. If you do not have a subscription or wish to buy the article, you do not have to, of course. Remember that the description of the genus was conducted with only two bones of the skull; a right maxilla and jugal. Since that time, when it was described as a "non-hadrosaurid iguanodontian", more skull material has been collected and the lack of kinetic movement in the skull through fusion and other characters in a cladistic analysis (no published version of this information appears to be available) showed it to actually be a basal hadrosaur. The fact that this information is not known to be published means it may be someone's research that is still in progress or an as yet peer reviewed study that has assigned it. Hopefully a reference to this assertion will be found at some point and it will not continue on as hearsay one way or another.
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Fukuisaurus and its Jaw

June 5, 2013, 12:20 pm
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It is strange how little of Fukuisaurus has been recovered. It is also strange how pictures of the bones are not in circulation; this is no doubt in part due to the exclusivity of JVP articles and the images used therein.The jaw fragments used in the description are present in the model, as casts of course, on exhibit in Fukui Prefecture's museum and we can therefore see them there. They present as expected; as typical hadrosaurine or iguanodontid jaw bones would be expected. Really, the descriptive material is minimal, but consistent with the types of dinosaurs that Fukuisaurus is reported to be related to. The extrapolations, thumb spikes, hadrosaurine body head and posture, are within reason given the diagnosis and description; however, what really needs to be done is more excavation. The only thing that will truly cement the placement and validity of Fukuisaurus is more evidence that attests to the certainty of the current taxonomic placement of the animal. Ideally an entire skeleton may be found, but for now I think that the cause for the skeleton would be furthered by even smaller associated numbers of material such as an entire skull or bits of forelimbs and/or hindlimbs discovered near known skull elements. More expeditions, digging, and a little luck will go a long way and can only be seen in time though.
Model near the skeletal model in Fukui Prefecture's museum


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Fukuisaurus for Everyone

June 6, 2013, 11:16 am
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The wary kind are more dangerous it seems.
Fukuisaurus, unlike Fukuiraptor, has a pretty good following in areas other than video games. It lacks, to my knowledge, the animatronic version of the animal, but it makes up for it in toys and models as well as in an appearance in not only the Dinosaur King games but also the animated series. Fukuisaurus has a small model on display, but it makes an appearance as a static model as well as a skeletal model (which are always fun with dinosaurs). Additionally, there are quite a few references in dinosaur encyclopedias and other dinosaur books which are interesting to read. One book that I did not expect to come across in my travels this week was the Standard Catalog of World Coins. Apparently if one had the desire to order money online, or travel to Japan and buy a 500 Yen coin there, one would be able to get a coin that has Fukuisaurus and Fukuiraptor both on it. It was designed as a local autonomy commemorative coin in 2010 for Fukui Prefecture; think of it as a similar program to the state quarters in the US (I am sure some other nations do the same sorts of things with their money now and then).

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More Mimics

June 7, 2013, 7:25 am
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Photo by Scott Anselmo
Many mimics exist in the extant species list including spiders that appear as ants, birds that sound like other objects, and the list could continue all day long really. Mimics in the fossil record undoubtedly exist. The problem with finding mimics is that behavior and body forms that mimic other species are not things that fossilize; body forms that mimic definitely have a better chance than behavior being preserved of course. It is therefore a little interesting and at some points strange that so many dinosaurs are named mimics. Struthiomimus, Ornithomimus and this week's dinosaur, Suchomimus, are just a few examples. Suchomimus tenerensis (referred to alternatively at times as Baryonyx tenerensis) simply means "Crocodile mimic from Tenere [Desert of Niger]" and is considered a Baryonychinae Spinosaurid. To add to the confusion inherent in the morphology of the animal (its body is equal parts Spinosaurus and Baryonyx as well as features unique to its own named genus) Suchomimus may also be synonymous with Cristatusaurus, another Nigerian Spinosaurid. This is going to be a conundrum of a dinosaur this week and I will spend a good amount of time highlighting what made some think it was a new species of Baryonyx, how it is similar to its northern neighbor Spinosaurus, and what makes Suchomimus a Suchomimus. These types of weeks are some of my favorites because we have to get deep into the science and history of the animal in question. Stay tuned!
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Comparing the Family

June 8, 2013, 7:56 am
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Scott Hartman does wonderful things and today, this image, is exactly what we are looking for. Not only does it present the known remains of Suchomimus, our dinosaur in question this week, but it also shows the known evidence of its extended family. The skulls alone are very good examples of why these three animals have been placed in the same lineage. "Lumpers", those in favor of placing fossil specimens in as few species as possible through comparisons between currently separated species, could use these sets of remains to make a rather strong argument for a growth series, given only the amount and types of bones that exist and comparing them to one another. The major difference between the three that would be most difficult to reconcile would of course be the dorsal neural spines of Spinosaurus. The skulls are all similarly shaped, however, and the hands and forelimbs that we have for Baryonyx as well as Suchomimus are very similar. Hindlimb evidence is missing for Spinosaurus and Baryonyx, though we have a very little amount of Baryonyx material, whereas it is quite well documented in Suchomimus; pelvic elements of Suchomimus and Baryonyx are well represented. The majority of the vertebrae are absent in all three species and ribs and gastralia are only well evidenced in Suchomimus though some do exist in association with Baryonyx remains.

The first thing anyone notices with regard to Spinosaurs like Baryonyx and Subhomimus is the posture. The reason that people always notice the posture is because it is always the same in mounted specimens, casts, and models. Hindlimbs are slightly bent, tail straight out, torso angled downward and forward, with the mouth agape and the forelimbs splayed open, palms of the hands facing one another. The constantly used posture leads to confusion over the type of animal on display. Baryonyx being more widely known than Suchomimus, many Suchomimus skeletons are misnamed and mistaken as Baryonyx. Similar posture as well as similar body composition probably means similar behavior and diet.
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Friendly but Terrible

June 9, 2013, 6:48 am
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Even if Suchomimus was a fisherman and would not terrorize humans unless they intruded on its territory, it is a terribly vicious looking dinosaur. Suchomimus does, however, have a pretty good amount of popularity and sway with kids, which tends to be the rule rather than the exception when we are talking about the bigger more frightening looking dinosaurs. This popularity has, thankfully, lead to the creation of kid friendly information pages like the ones at Enchanted Learning and KidsDinos. There are some cartoons, some models/toys, and a multitude of books mention and/or discuss Suchomimus. In terms of the coloring pages I like to share on Sundays, there are a few that are interesting. One that I discovered is rather strange, but it is also the best one; many if not all of the other black and white images are of Spinosaurus, Baryonyx, or are not intended to be coloring pages. The size comparison chart at the Natural History Museum of London fact page could probably be used for coloring also. One other thing that should be noted on this family related day, is that there are many Suchomimus skeleton casts in museums; a trip to the museum and a picnic are great family activities of course. Some museums have a permanent display of Suchomimus while others, such as the Sternberg here in Hays, KS. had one on display while they housed the Giants: African Dinosaurs exhibition that has been traveling between museums since 2011; it was housed in the Sternberg during the summer of 2012 and I missed it due to my moving in and then settling in, total bummer.
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Suchomimus in Action

June 10, 2013, 10:17 am
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Suchomimus pops up in a lot of cartoons I have found; or clips anyway. It has also shown up in a couple of older video games. Not many of the cartoon clips get more dramatic than the one included here. That is some violent cartoon action; it is probably still not considered mature or even teen because the violence is between dinosaurs, but it is still pretty violent for a kids' show. Violence kind of drives television though, and I love a good action movie or creature fight (Godzilla was the best movie ever when I was 7), so I am not really complaining. The only drawback to these video games and cartoons, however, is that they are not informative past a certain point. Dinosaur King gives some facts before the fighting is illustrated and sometimes video games also give a small amount of facts, but what we are really lacking here is a good documentary style video. There really is not much in that vein. Enjoy the cartoon fight, however, it is fun to watch.
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Prowling for Beachgoers

June 11, 2013, 11:21 am
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©Walter Myers (www.arcadiastreet.com)
A number of papers have been written about research focusing on Suchomimus. Whether it is comparing the furcula of Suchomimus and Tyrannosaurus or announcing its discovery to the world (scroll down just a bit to the 2nd Sereno paper), Suchomimus has seen a bit of ink. It even appears in a respectable number of books. Fairly universal in the papers and the books is the consensus that Suchomimus is a unique genus with traits that set it apart from Baryonyx and other spinosaurs, but there are detractors to every hypothesis. This only proves that more evidence is needed to genuinely place Suchomimus beyond any doubt. More expeditions and research (and therefore money raising!) will have to be undertaken in order for that to happen. However, until that time, the beach going and probably quite piscivorous Suchomimus will continue to be one of the best represented and mildly debated spinosaurs in the family.
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Jaws and Families

June 12, 2013, 7:48 am
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©Scott Anselmo, right maxilla
Suchomimus was a well equipped dinosaur. As a smaller spinosaur it was still equipped with a dorsal ridge (sail, hump, flap, etc), though the anatomical feature on Suchomimus was clearly much smaller than on on Spinosaurus. The dorsal ridges, neural spines, of the vertebrae that formed this proposed feature were short but evident and were confined to the lumbar-sacral vertebrae. That simply means the ridge was above the hips of Suchomimus. Problematic points with this ridge are that the skeleton shown to posses this is thought to be a subadult, meaning that perhaps a radiation of growth during and after this stage of life may have elongated the ridge extensively (thus making Suchomimus a young Spinosaurus and nothing more); however, this idea has not been published or extensively researched as far as I can tell. The more likely synonymization of Suchomimus has always been with regard to the genus Baryonyx.

The hand claws and much of the general shape of the animals are what have tied them closely together. However, Sereno et al (1998) detailed characters that were unique to Suchomimus and separated the two genera. One such character was the number of teeth. Baryonyx possessed 96 teeth in its jaws while Suchomimus houses approximately 130. Our mouths are not designed anything like these giant fish seines. Despite the image of spinosaur mouths as tooth lined nets do not forget that some of the diet of Suchomimus and others in the family tree probably came from carrion as well as fresh caught fish. What is the notch for in the jaw though?

©Scott Anselmo,mandible
That notch in the jaw was far from vacant. In fact, a number of the largest teeth in the mandible fit snugly into the groove of the maxilla at that point. The teeth in the maxilla are correspondingly small where the mandible teeth are oversized; Suchomimus would have a horrendous dental problem if there were large teeth at the top and bottom where the notch is. The notch is not just a random feature of the bone either. The anterior portion of the notch consists of the posterior ventral edge of the premaxilla and the posterior edge of the notch is made from the anterior most section of the maxilla itself. Essentially that means that it is the point at which two bones of the jaw meet but do not form an even edge the entire length of the jaw; the bulbous indentation of the notch is found mainly in the premaxilla however. We see this in other spinosaurs but also in a more basal family; the Dilophosauridae. Are the two families more closely related than we think at present or is there an evolutionary jolt that caused two very separate families to develop similar jaw anatomy (though not overall skull shape)?

Reference for the day:
Sereno, P.C.; Beck, A.L.; Dutheil, D.B.; Gado, B.; Larsson, H.C.E.; Lyon, G.H.; Marcot, J.D.; Rauhut, O.W.M.; Sadleir, R.W.; Sidor, C.A.; Varricchio, D.D.; Wilson, G.P; and Wilson, J.A. (1998). "A long-snouted predatory dinosaur from Africa and the evolution of spinosaurids". Science 282 (5392): 1298–1302
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Statues and Electronics

June 13, 2013, 7:45 am
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From the Jurassic Park Wiki, artist uncredited
There are a lot of Suchomimus out there in the world. There are statues and video games and many other popular culture pieces. One was shared on the Facebook page at the beginning of the week as well. There are a ton of different references for video games and toys and even some books and magazines that are geared more toward an audience that already possesses some knowledge of dinosaurs and their workings; magazines are, as opposed to journals, always more general in the assumed knowledge of the reader of course. Some of the best references outside the statuary and literary worlds are the video games. Toys looked to as models of dinosaurs are spotty in their accuracy and those that are accurate are good for modelling and playing around but they suffer the curse of being static. One of the benefits of having the electronic media we have in this day is that we can see Suchomimus models interacting with other dinosaur models and even hunting/fishing. Sometimes these are somewhat unlikely, but artistic license and knowledge of modifying existing models to have a Suchomimus is enough for me to overlook that.


Then there are the people that build the Suchomimus, or other dinosaurs, from the ground up as much as is possible without building their own wireframes and code. These are always fun to see and interesting because the tools are set and it takes a lot of ingenuity and ability to accurately use them to create a known dinosaur. I have a healthy respect for the Spore creators that post fairly nice creatures they molded. I picked the one I think is the best out of a very big list, for a dinosaur in Spore, of Suchomimus models:


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You and Your Strange Teeth

June 14, 2013, 1:31 pm
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©Nobu Tamura
The "Different Toothed Lizard", or Heterodontosaurus tucki, was a small, about the size of a golden retriever, mostly herbivorous ornithischian. Possessing three forms of teeth, leaf and stem stripping teeth at the front of the mouth, large canine shaped tusks behind these and tall square grinding and chewing teeth in the rear of the mouth, it is likely that Heterodontosaurus had a varied diet. The front teeth are designed to tear and strip plant matter more than anything else and was the most likely use for them. The tusks  have been indicated as fulfilling display purposes as well as being used to break open more difficult to get into food sources, such as termite mounds. A fleshy cheek is proposed to have existed to help the rearmost teeth do their job of grinding and crushing food items. Additionally, the hands of Heterodontosaurus were special in that they had five fingers and seem to have had opposable digits, giving them hands much like ours which can manipulate and hold food items. Heterodontosaurus was discovered in South African and is an early Jurassic dinosaur (existing approximately 199 million years ago). It has quite a few characters that resemble more advanced dinosaurs but also has many older characters which we will discuss.
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Heterodontosaurus Tusks!

June 15, 2013, 8:26 am
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Does sexual dimorphism exist in Heterodontosaurus specimens? The tusks may be a good indication of sexual dimorphism if many more specimens of varying ages (developmentally not geologically) are recovered. Tusks in extant animals, in addition to serving dietary and defensive purposes, are sometimes used to differentiate between sexes. Males with bigger tusks could be seen as older, fitter, or just more handsome in general to the females that are usually impressed by such ornamentations. The tusks of Heterodontosaurus are not enormous though they are a decent and respectable size for a dog sized ornithischian. In a range from warthog to walrus they are much closer to warthog sized teeth. Their position in the skull allows them to have been used in intraspecific rivalries, interspecific fighting, and even to crack open the tougher staples of the Heterodontosaurus diet such as termite mounds.

The skull even appears to have adapted to seating the tusks within the mouth, mostly, as opposed to the way tusks in most extant animals are situated. Picture a walrus or a warthog, even an elephant's tusks and how they protrude from the skull and mouth in a way in which they are never actually concealed by lips, cheeks, or any other fleshy anatomy. The tusks of the Heterodontosaurus were modest enough that they could have been concealed within the cavity of the cheek provided it was stretched that far forward on the skull. Those little tusks even appear to have a position within the junction of the maxilla and premaxilla to accommodate them. Biting down on something seated in that notch with the tusk piercing it from the other side could have caused great trauma, to the limbs of other animals especially, or destruction, in the case of the termite mounds mentioned before. There would have been great risk to the Heterodontosaurus itself, however. Much like any other animal with a tusk it risked breaking the tusk when using it for any activity. Unlike mammals, however, dinosaurs have batteries of teeth, so it is plausible, though perhaps unknown at this time to my knowledge, that the tusks of Heterodontosaurus could have been regrown if broken.
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Little Dinosaur for Little Kids

June 16, 2013, 9:35 am
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Heterodontosaurus was a little dinosaur. Little kids like little dinosaurs, but that is not all of the appeal. The appeal is also that it is just an interesting little dinosaur and there is a lot of information out there for kids. It is always nice to have a lot of information out there to share on kid friendlyfact pages. Sadly, today, there is not a really good coloring page. However, there is this really neat looking Steve Bledsoe drawing, but I did not ask permission to post, so you only get a link today. Get out there and enjoy Father's Day. Doodle your own Heterodontosaurus with dad and if you like, send it over this way and I will post it. I would like to make a folder (and continuous blog post) for all the drawings kids do, that would be nice.
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Scary Flesh

June 17, 2013, 7:08 am
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The fleshed model of Heterodontosaurus that you my see in timelapse images of the construction of the model is a little frightening. The horror of it is no doubt due in part to the rather mammalian appearance of the model at first glance. Actually watching the video takes away from the creepiness of the model a tiny bit, but only because you get to see the feathering and skin details get placed on the model. It should also be made apparent that the model in that video is actually of a different genus of dinosaur related to Heterodontosaurus (Pegomastax africanus is depicted by the model). While a different dinosaur it is closely related to Heterodontosaurus and provides the only fleshed out model that accurately represents the family at the time being; hopefully better models of Heterodontosaurus will be created independently at some point. For that time being, however, enjoy, or at least try to not be freaked out by, this Heterodontosaurid model being created:


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Heterodontosaurus on the Newsstand

June 18, 2013, 7:53 am
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Artist uncredited
Heterodontosaurus has been dormant for a while in research circles it appears. While the 1970's have given us literature resources concerning Heterodontosaurus, not much has been published since that time about this genus specifically. There have been other studies done on other heterodontosaurids, but we are not interested in that today. Of particular note today is a 1976 article on a skeleton of Heterodontosaurus which describes a great deal of the anatomy of the dinosaur as it was a complete skeleton. Complete skeletons, I do not think we really need to mention, are few and far between for dinosaurs in the grand scheme of things, and such a find and the paper detailing it are therefore of great importance to the science. However, the article was published in Nature and, while Nature is a premier publication even now, that means that your options for procuring the article pretty much come down to going to a library big enough to have old copies of a myriad of different magazines or shelling out some money (you can buy the article for $32 or "rent" it for $2.99). The naming article written by Crompton and Charig is also published in Nature and can therefore be obtained in the same fashion. Interestingly, both articles consider Heterodontosaurus to be a Late Triassic rather than Early Jurassic dinosaur.

More recently two articles have been published, still a small number considering the research done on other organisms, that detail cranial anatomy as well as morphology. These are good papers and, the paper on juvenile cranial anatomy I can say for certain, because it is a JVP article so I could access it and read it, is quite informative and not a bad read at all. The other paper, focusing on morphology and cranial anatomy is available through Wiley's publication of the Zoological Journal of the Linnaen Society. The article was published in 2011 and was inspired by notes and illustrations of Alan Charig that were passed on to the lead author David Norman after Charig's passing in 1997. That makes it a touching story behind an interesting anatomical discussion I think.
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Everything is Bland

June 19, 2013, 7:34 am
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Heterodontosaurus, aside from the tusks and other two types of teeth, is a very typical little dinosaur. Heterodontosaurus was small enough to be compared to a modern retriever and would have been susceptible to attacks from larger dinosaurs but also animals as small as Coelophysis (not that Coelophysis was the smallest predatory dinosaur ever). The little tusks, or fangs as they have been alternately described, would have come into play in predator-prey situations. Undoubtedly the tusks could be used as defensive weaponry against attackers; however, the idea that the tusks represent a characteristic of a sexually dimorphic tradition in Heterodontosaurus means that the females of the species (or males if we reverse the assumption of dimorphism) were much less able to defend themselves in terms of anatomical weaponry.

In terms of where those little tusks/fangs were seated in the skull we are talking about the caudal body of the premaxilla. The bone itself is adjusted so that the teeth sit comfortably into the notch, or diastema, that is formed by this adaptation of the bone. The maxilla itself joins the premaxilla in a way that forms the caudal wall of the diastema where the tusks are situated. The skull is actually, despite the images shared showing the skull earlier in the week, not as exaggerated as we have assumed. Reconstructed in three dimensions, this formation in the skull that houses the tusks is really little more than a narrowing of the solid oral cavity in the area where the teeth are pronounced upward into the mouth. See below:
From The Dinosauria
Reference to check out today:
Weishampel, D. B. and Witmer, L. M. (1990). Heterodontosauridae. in Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., & Osmólska, H. (Eds.). Pgs. 486-497. The Dinosauria. Univ of California Press.

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Vaguely Popular

June 20, 2013, 7:24 am
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Kind of a big Iguana until you get to the head
Heterodontosaurus is only popular in a few circles. Good days bring us links from all over the internet; those were mostly the days when I was first getting this list of animals started however as I was discussing giants of the dinosaur world such as Triceratops. We have seen that Heterodontosaurus appears in museums as models, book chapters, and even that it is popular enough that children's websites have fact pages dedicated to the little dinosaurs. They have even caught on to the feather craze (I say craze because it seems to me that every single dinosaur is slowly developing feathers or quills the past two or three years regardless of what is definitively known about the animal in question). I am not against them having quills or feathers, I just really enjoy the older illustrations that show it more as a dinosaur from my childhood. Regardless, Heterodontosaurus is one of those dinosaurs that is nondescript enough that it shows up in random tubes and dollar store packages of dinosaurs as the skinny little creature with fangs that may be Coelophysis or Heterodontosaurus or even a Hypsilophodont. This week that dinosaur is Heterodontosaurus, but they are probably all equally correct answers. It has also been modeled many times over in Spore. Sometimes with the prominent teeth showing and sometimes with the teeth modeled correctly. I think we have to admit that the teeth make it a more formidable dinosaur when they are showing. There we have a good summary for the week of Heterodontosaurus: typical non-scary dinosaur unless you can see those teeth, then it gets a little more respect. That is probably exactly how it lived its life as well; minding its own business until it had to get mean.

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Running Through the Delta

June 21, 2013, 6:30 am
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©Nobu Tamura
Basal ceratosaurs, and advanced ceratosaurs, happen to be some of my favorite theropods. Unfortunately, some of them tend to be missing large portions of their remains; the same can be said of any group of dinosaurs of course. Large African theropods seem to be typically missing large portions of their remains, which is regrettable and sad. However, advances in understanding African theropods have really been quite well documented in the past 20 years or so. In 1996 Paul Sereno, spending a lot of time in African during the late 90's, was busy documenting some of these advances in our knowledge. Throughout the 90's teams he led dug out important fossils all over the southern hemisphere and around the equator, but in 1996 he published a paper that separated some of those remains from a genus that Ernst Stromer, in 1934, had assigned as Bahariasaurus. The separation was based on other remains that had been discovered by Sereno and his team and then compared with remains of Bahariasaurus and other African dinosaurs. The exact phylogenetic position of the separated species, now known as Deltadromeus agilis is still up to some debate, and the lack of cranial material does not aid the taxonomic struggle at all. The fact that Deltadromeus may still be a junior synonym to Bahariasaurus still lingers in the background also. For the time being it will be treated as an independent genus however.
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Speculative Craniums

June 22, 2013, 7:07 am
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The cranial elements of Deltadromeus are missing entirely. It is certainly not rare for skeletal elements of dinosaurs to be missing and skulls are high on the list of frequently AWOL skeletal elements. An interesting question of taphonomy can be posed when we consider this. What happens to all of those heads that are missing from the fossil record? Are heads washed away easily when the flesh is gone or are they dragged away by scavengers that do not wish to share the brains ("zombie" dinosaur scavengers)? Did heads get buried less frequently than other elements of the body? Whatever the reason, it has led to the recovery of Deltadromeus specimens made up entirely, to this point, of post-cranial material. Thus, all of the representations of the head of Deltadromeus are speculations based on presumably related taxa. Typically this means that the skulls are based on other ceratosaurs. This has led to a variety of ornamentation on the skulls of illustrated and mounted Deltadromeus. Typically a ridge of material has been placed above each orbit, similar to those seen in Ceratosaurus.

©Mineo Shiraishi
The cranial ornaments change over time. They are basically all very similar, but the positions, angles, and overall shape of the crests above the orbits change over time and between illustrators and model makers. This reflects not only personal preferences but changing hypotheses concerning the exact nature and potential construction of the skull of Deltadromeus. It is still not certain that Deltadromeus is a ceratosaur also and the skull may therefore have absolutely no ornamentation at all. It is even conceivable that Deltadromeus, as a very basal ceratosaur may lack crests on the skull entirely for that reason. Regardless, there are certain elements of the body of Deltadromeus that are known fairly well. These include the legs and the majority of the caudal vertebrae. The legs and caudal vertebrae are similar to those found in ceratosaurs, thereby aiding the justification that Deltadromeus is a ceratosaur. Seeing as how that is the best evidence and the best fit for known remains, that is where it is positioned in the dinosaur family tree, for now; the legs and may not be telling all there is to know about this interesting dinosaur.
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Running for Children

June 23, 2013, 6:46 am
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I suppose it is more likely that Deltadromeus would run after children rather than for children. If dinosaurs were around like in Dinotopia cancer runs would raise ridiculous amounts of money I bet though; I like to think dinosaurs had more stamina than the average person. Anyhow, Deltadromeus is a fairly kid friendly dinosaur. There are a number of child oriented fact pages online; About and Age of Dinosaurs have the best ones for today. Kids that cannot put down electronics can play some Dinosaur King with Deltadromeus or they can pick up the card game and play with Deltadromeus in a slightly less animated manner. Children that would rather use all of their imagination instead of letting the electronics do some of it for them could grab a Deltadromeus model/toy crafted by Safari LTD; though it is designed for the Carnegie collection which means that its up a little higher in the price world. The Safari LTD model is skull ornamentation free, another interpretation of what the skull may look like should we ever find one. If your young ones would rather read there is a book called Deltadromeus and other Shoreline Dinosaurs out there that they could pick up and read through. There are a lot of resources for kids to enjoy for Deltadromeus.
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