Darwinian Drama from Titan Books

And so the new book showcasing the extraordinary talents of Julius Csotonyi arrives at our offices and we have been given the task of writing a review. This may be a new publication from Titan Books, but we are very familiar with the artwork. Visitors to such prestigious establishments such as the Royal Tyrrell Museum (Alberta, Canada), the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County we have also seen the digital renderings of Julius Csotonyi. He has been commissioned on numerous occasions to create dioramas and prehistoric scenes to help bring to life the museum exhibits, to literally put flesh onto the bones of long extinct creatures and help visitors to learn more about prehistoric life that once roamed our planet or swam in ancient Earth seas. Fossils are the remains of extinct animals preserved for scientists to study, it is artists such as Mr Csotonyi who are given the job of bringing these long dead organisms back and showing them as breathing, living animals.

The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi

This book contains a number of the most famous and well-known illustrations and sets out to give the reader an insight into the motivation and creative style that permits the artist to imagine and recreate such amazing detailed pictures of animals from the past. The full title of this publication is “The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi – Dinosaurs, Sabre-Tooths and Beyond”, although there is a heavy bias towards illustrations of Mesozoic vertebrates, especially the Dinosauria.

Laid out by Geological Eras

After the short introduction by Dr. D. C. Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum and a preamble from Dr. Robert Bakker that outlines how Julius with his scientific background (he studied microbiology), is able to capture moments of prehistory with his artwork, there is a lengthy interview with the artist. Entitled “In Conversation”, the artist’s early inspirations and his progression towards becoming one of the most pre-eminent palaeoartists is mapped out. The rest of the book is dedicated to displaying the vivid digital artwork and illustrations that now grace some of the world’s most prestigious natural history museums. The book follows a loose chronological order starting with the Palaeozoic Era, then moving on into the Mesozoic before concluding with some of Julius Csotonyi’s illustrations inspired by Cenozoic life. The largest portion of the book is dedicated to illustrating Mesozoic creatures. However, within each section the layout of the animals and the subject areas are not in chronological order. You can expect to find a dramatic recreation of a flooded Devonian forest complete with sparring Placoderms up against a mural depicting the Permian mass extinction event.

Fantastic Prehistoric Images

The star of this book is obviously the artwork. The text is kept to a minimum except for cursory explanations of image content and some notes related to the images themselves. There are special features on prehistoric animals that have been commissioned as part of a larger body of work. For example, the artist discusses the scientific evidence that was used to recreate his image of Tiktaalik, an early Tetrapod. There is also a special feature on the Chinese feathered dinosaur Guanlong, plus some exquisite drawings and digital artwork as the fossil evidence is brought to life.

Dinosaurs are the Stars

Whether it is their size or scale, or perhaps because the dinosaur galleries tend to be the most popular areas of natural history museums, the book features a lot of dinosaur illustrations. A huge array of different types of dinosaur are contained within this book, from a lovely montage of the horns and frills of the Ceratopsidae to dioramas featuring fearsome Tyrannosaurs. In the book, there are a number of fold out sections which when folded out show a complete mural that Julius has painted. These beautiful illustrations permit the reader to appreciate some of the size and magnitude of individual commissions. Fossils are brought to life as the animals themselves and their environment is depicted.

Concluding with the Cenozoic

The book concludes with a section dedicated to illustrations of prehistoric mammals from the Cenozoic. There are highly detailed digital images of giant Arctic camels, ancient whales as well as those Sabre-Toothed Cats promised in the full title. This part of the book also contains some lovely pencil drawings of Mammoths, Mastodons and ancient ungulates. The 156 pages are very much dedicated to highlighting the often breathtaking artwork of Julius Csotonyi, however, there is a helpful glossary at the back along with a geological timescale that helps put the illustrations into context.

Would we recommend this Publication?

Ever since Julius first began serious scientific illustration back in 1998, he has been regarded as one of the foremost in his field. He combines scientific knowledge with a vivid imagination to create stunning visual masterpieces. This book is highly recommended, as it celebrates his artwork, especially that created in the digital medium and dinosaur fans, scientists and general art lovers will all enjoy leafing through its glossy pages.

As fall approaches, many people start searching for the perfect Halloween costume. Kids want to get attention while trick-or-treating. Adults want to be the life of the Halloween party.

The internet is full of good Halloween costume ideas, but some of them seem to require you to be either a seamstress or a welder in order to complete your costume. If you’re looking for a do-it-yourself costume that’s easy and original, you’ll need to go back to the Stone Age and check out these dinosaur costume ideas.

Hoodies are your friend when it comes to Halloween costume ideas. Because they include a built-in hat, they’re versatile and can be turned into everything from horns to (worn without your arms in the sleeves) an impromptu hooded cape. A hoodie (or a hooded sweatshirt) can be a huge help in creating a dinosaur costume. If you can find a green hoodie, more power to you. If not, that’s OK. Your dinosaur can be any color you’d like.

Besides a hoodie, you’ll need the following for your dinosaur costume: felt (in a color that contrasts well with your hoodie), scissors, and a hot glue gun. The first step is to cut out matching triangles that will be the spines along your dinosaur’s back. When you’re sizing up your “spines” to figure out how large they should be, add an extra inch or two at the base of each triangle (this will give it room to attach to the hoodie). Also cut out a long, narrow triangle to make your dinosaur’s tale.

To make each spine, glue two triangles together, leaving that extra inch or so unglued at the base of the spine. Having two triangles glued together will help the spines stand up better. Once they’ve dried, start at the top of the hoodie (on the hood) and glue the first “spine” to your hoodie via the extra material you left unglued.

That material will be spread out and glued on each side of the triangle; this will help keep it upright. Glue them in a straight line with a couple of inches between each one-all the way down the back of your hoodie. At the bottom/back of your hoodie, glue the dinosaur’s “tail” to the underside so that it will hang out and down behind the wearer.

You can wear the costume as-is, or you can get even more detailed with it. Additional options are to cut contrasting-color triangles and glue them on each side of the existing spines in order to really make them pop. Want to turn your hood into an entire dinosaur head? With white and black felt, make dinosaur eyes and glue them to each side. For a ferocious look, glue white triangles all around the inside edge of the hood. Pull the hood down over your face and you’re an instant carnivore.

The fun thing about this dinosaur costume idea is that it can be paired with any sort of clothing and shoes. Because it’s such a fun and casual costume, it works with anything. Kick back, have fun, and enter a few costume contests-why not?

Oh No! My Little Monster Wants a Dinosaur Themed Party

It is a nightmare scenario for every parent. Your little monster has set his/her heart on having a dinosaur themed party and the day is rapidly approaching and you don’t know quite what to do. We have written a number of helpful articles on this very subject, this piece will provide further information about how to tackle that difficult issue of the party food. Many parents and guardians that we talk to, simply rush out on the morning of the party and buy as much pre-packaged and ready-made party food as they can. This can be very expensive and whilst this may be one option, in this article we provide a simple and cheap idea for a savoury dinosaur themed dish so that you can create your own delightful dinosaur feast.

Planning – The Key to Creative Dinosaur Party Food

You don’t have to be a Jamie Oliver or Heston Blumenthal to create an imaginative spread for a dinosaur themed party such as a child’s birthday party or some other event. The key to successful party food is planning, a few minutes thinking about and jotting down what you intend to do and what type of food you want to present can help to lower stress levels considerably. More importantly, in these difficult times, it can help you to stick to a budget and not go overboard in terms of expense. For young dinosaur fans at a birthday party, remember you are in control when it comes to the catering, as the parent or guardian you want to do you best for your young palaeontologist and you will come up trumps with a little thought about what you will do prior to the big day.

Firstly, you have total control over how much food you are going to need as you control the invites. Invitations can be produced cheaply by making them yourself, or by purchasing some party invites from a shop. If you are having a dinosaur themed party you can “theme up” plain invitations by simply purchasing a pack of dinosaur stickers and putting them on. Remember to have an RSVP element to your invite, this way you can keep tabs on numbers. With an idea of how many children are going to attend, this gives you a handle on how much food you are going to need. Remember to always make a little extra, just in case you get one or two extras coming along, and don’t forget that your guests may have a little sister or brother that might want something to eat as well. Best to put some light bites to one side for the parents too.

A Savoury Dinosaur Themed Dish – Hatching Dinos (Baked Potatoes Dinosaur Nests)

Impress your guests (and the mums and dads) with this simple, fool-proof recipe for making a dish that resembles a nest of hatching dinosaurs – just like you see on the dinosaur themed documentaries and in the films at the cinema. Surprisingly, there are no eggs in this particular recipe, we use baked potatoes and hot dog sausages instead.

This recipe requires the following ingredients:

* Small, white potatoes (try to get even sized potatoes, roughly oval in shape

* Hot-dog sausages, the sort that you can buy in a tin and boil to cook, although most pork sausages seem to work fine

* Salad cream or mayonnaise

* Tomato sauce

* One red and one green pepper

* Butter and a little salt

* A little lettuce/salad

Total time – ninety minutes (including cooking time)

Aim to use one potato for each guest with a 10-20% surplus to cover second helpings and such like. A successful dinosaur themed party means preparing a range of food (don’t forget to check nut allergies) and this dish is designed to provide each guest with their own dinosaur hatchling to consume with one or two other hatching dinos prepared to cater for second helpings and so on. For example, with twelve party guests I have made sixteen potato dinosaur eggs and this seems to work well.

First turn the oven on to 180 degrees Celsius or gas mark 6 to allow it to warm up. Then wash the potatoes, give them a scrub with a small scrubbing-brush to remove all signs of dirt and blemishes. When washed, wipe dry and then smear on a little butter or butter-like spread and give them a quick dash of salt. This will help the skins crisp up nice and crunchy. Then wrap each one in a small piece of tin foil, if you have any metal skewers, stick a skewer into each potato, through the foil so that the skewer penetrates right through the potato. The metal skewer will conduct heat right to the centre of the baked potato and it will cook much quicker.

Place the potatoes onto a metal baking tray and place onto the middle shelf of your hot oven. Remember to use oven gloves, it does not bode well if the party host has burnt fingers.

Small potatoes will take about sixty to seventy minutes to bake. You can check that they are cooked by picking them up (with the oven gloves of course), then should feel soft and the skewer can be removed easily from the baked spud.

Before the baked potatoes are finished, start the hot dog sausages, cook them in a pan of boiling water, or if using port sausages simply grill them. You will need one sausage for every two baked potatoes. When the sausages are cooked, cut a wedge shape out of each end of a sausage to make a mouth. Using the red pepper and a sharp knife cut a sliver of pepper to resemble a tongue push it inside the dinosaur’s “mouth”, do this at both ends of the sausage. Then cut the sausage in half to make two baby dinosaur heads. Cut tiny slits, above the mouth, slightly further back and to the side. These are going to be the eyes, cut out slivers of green peppers and put these in the slits, we found that little diamond-shaped pieces looked the best.

Now it is simply a case of putting the baby dinosaurs into their potato nests. Cut a cross in the top of each baked potato, make it large enough to stuff in a hot dog sausage. Open up the potatoes using a fork and place some mayonnaise (light mayonnaise is healthier) in the middle, add a squeeze of tomato sauce.

To finish your dinosaur nest, push a sausage half into each baked potato cross, place these “eggs” onto a serving platter, a plate covered in foil will suffice. Surround these hatching dinosaurs with some nesting materials, add some salad leaves and there you have it, your completed dinosaur nest ready for the young palaeontologists to tuck in.

This dish is easy to make, looks great and provides a relatively healthy alternative to pies and baked pastries.

River Narmada is the major river of centaral India originating from Maikal ranges of Satpura hills, near Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh. It passes throgh Madhya pradesh, Maharastra and Gujrat before joining the sea in gulf of Cambay. This area was once the part of Gondwana plate and stores several fossil records starting from Pre-Cambarian period to Pleistocene period of Cenozoic era. Several dinosaurian fossils have been discoverd by various workers from Lameta formations of Cretaceous and upper cretaceous periods in Narmada valley.

The first Dinosaur fossil was discovered by R. Lydeckkar in 1877 near Jabalpur. This was named as Titanosaur meaing ‘ Gaint lizard. ‘ Later it was renamed as Isiosaur. some othe rincomplete fossils like lametosaur and other fossils were discovered along river Narmada. Until 1982-84 when Dr. Shrivastava from Geological survey of India and his team discovered a major fossil of Dinosaur belonging to cornivorous group of Sauropods. This was discovered from lamta formations in Raiholi village of Gujrat. It was Later named by the team of Scientists from America as Rajausaurus narmanednsis.

This was the prince of dinosaurs as it bore a horn on its fore head. Several nestling sites of dinosaurs have also been discovered from various places like Dhar, Jabalpur, and Mandla districts of Madhya Pradesh. Recently a team of Professors and research scholars (Dr. Ravi Upadhyay, Dr. K. W. Shah, Mrs Sharad Trivedi Upadhyay, Mukesh Dwivedi and Wasim Khan) from Government Narmada college, Hoshangabad discovered several fossils of Dinosaurs and eggs from Siddhaghat near Patai village of Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh. One of the fossil was found to be of 43 feet. Several fossilized bonees of 8 to 10 feet and eggs have been discivered from this site. Impressiond of feathers and wings of 5-8 feet were also observed from the site supporting the evidences of Flying dinosaurs.

Most of the fossils were found to be belonging from Cretaceous to upper cretaceous period. Some palnt fossils were also discovered from this region. a new site of dinosaur is also identified by the author at Hoshangabad. The fossilized bones are of medium sized Dinosaur. The Valley is rich in Fossils so there are possibilities of finding more fossils of Dinosaurs fossils from this valley. A report has been submitted for conservation and further research on Dinosaurs to the Government.

Known from fossils found in Upper Cretaceous sediments from China, Russia and Mongolia, Velociraptor is one of the most popular of prehistoric animals and it features regularly in Everything Dinosaur’s annual survey of the top ten most popular dinosaurs amongst children.

This dinosaur’s fame can be attributed to a number of factors, firstly, its appearance in the “Jurassic Park” film franchise and also for its deserved reputation for being a particularly fearsome, carnivorous dinosaur. It is no surprise then, when Schleich the model maker based in Germany, adds a second Velociraptor replica to its “World of History Prehistoric Life” model range.

Small Predator

Perhaps the best known of all the Dromaeosaurids, Velociraptor, or to use its scientific name Velociraptor mongoliensis, was formally named and described back in 1924. This year marks the ninetieth anniversary of the scientific description of “the speedy robber”, a dinosaur that measured around two metres in length and weighed approximately fifteen kilogrammes when fully grown – about the size of a Thanksgiving turkey.

Colourful, Hand-painted Replica

The Schleich Velociraptor has been painted a light green colour with flashes of blood-red along its back and flanks. Although most palaeontologists now believe that this little dinosaur was covered in a coat of downy feathers, Schleich have chosen to augment their model with just a row of filaments running down the arms. There has been fossil evidence presented to suggest that this meat-eater probably did have a row of feathers along the forearm, but there are no feathers depicted elsewhere on this model. Velociraptor from Schleich has a very reptilian appearance as a result.

Unusual Posture

This dinosaur is balanced on its three front toes, that is digits numbered two, three and four, with the first toe touching the ground behind the foot. This is an unusual posture, many palaeontologists believe that the first toe was too small to touch the ground. In addition, that terrible killing toe claw (the second toe) is placed firmly on the ground and not raised as depicted in other Velociraptor replicas. Schleich may have chosen this stance as a compromise, attempting to reflect a little bit of the known posture of this dinosaur with its long, straight tail sticking out behind it with the need to ensure the model stands up and balances. The second toe claw is larger than the rest of the toe claws, which does accurately reflect the fossil evidence.

Articulated Jaw and Moveable Arms

Unlike Schleich’s earlier Velociraptor model, this replica has moveable arms. The dinosaur’s arms can be moved, this will prove popular with young dinosaur fans and enhance this model’s play value. In addition, the lower jaw is articulated so this replica can be posed either mouth closed or mouth open, or indeed, anywhere in between.

Well Painted

The Velociraptor is very well painted and the skin texture has been skilfully crafted and there is a lot of detail to admire, especially around the head and the neck. All in all, an intriguing replica which will prove, no doubt, to be very popular amongst young dinosaur fans.

Collecta Juvenile T. rex Dinosaur Model Reviewed

Tyrannosaurus rex may be the most famous of all the dinosaurs, but figures of baby Tyrannosaurs are few and far between. Collecta, based in the Far East, have produced a not to scale replica of a young Tyrannosaur for their dinosaur and prehistoric animal model series and what a good figure it is too.

The model measures around nine centimetres in length from its short, stubby snout to the tip of its striped tail and it stands a little over five centimetres tall. The model has been sculpted to give the impression that this youngster was feathered. Palaeontologists believe that warm-blooded (endothermic) animals like T. rex may have been covered in insulating feathers to help keep them warm.

Long Legs

Standing on its long legs this youngster was a lot more agiile than the adult animal. It probably had to be as it would have been on the menu for other Late Cretaceous predators even members of its own family and siblings. The model is supported on a base, this permits the three-toes of the feet to be roughly in proportion with the rest of the body, although since no Tyrannosaurus rex baby skeleton has ever been found the body proportions are approximate. Some fragmentary fossil material from the Hell Creek Formation of the western United States and part of the vertebrate fossil collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (California) has been ascribed to a baby T. rex, but a number of scientists have questioned whether these fossils do indeed represent a juvenile of the species.

Distal Growth Used to Create Dinosaur Model

The scientific concept of distal growth has been used to create this Colleca dinosaur model. The animal has been given relatively long limbs in proportion to its head and body. As an adult, the body proportions of T. rex would have been very different.

A Camouflaged Predator

The model has been painted with green and brown stripes with a white “V” shape on the nape of the neck and the back, in front of the hips. The head is mostly brown but with a reddish tinge behind the eyes. The colouration would have helped to camouflage this young dinosaur and prevent it from being spotted by predators.

Excellent Dinosaur Replica

The baby Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur is an excellent addition to the Collecta model range. It works well with the 1:40 scale adult T. rex model which can be found in the Deluxe model series. We hope that this manufacturer goes on to make more baby dinosaur models.

My challenging question to you, ” Are you a techno dinosaur”? A what? I meet business owners face to face every day. While there are millions of people online, there are still business owners not using the internet to leverage their business. Millions are working with cloud computing, but the techno dinosaurs are doing business with their head in the cloud.

How to recognize a techno dinosaur?

They really don’t use the computer as a tool to run the business. What, you’re surprised, maybe you’re not and you know someone like this. Let me paint a picture of a techno dinosaur. There is very little they can do over the web, never mind posting a picture to Facebook. Word, Microsoft Office just a not too familiar term. Techno dinosaurs are being hauled into the 21st century kicking and screaming. They can barely use spell check let alone operate the latest cell phone to access email. And email access, wow let’s not go there!

Taking your business to the cloud!

I love showing a techno dinosaur how to operate technology savvy tools, scheduling, invoicing, and connecting to and creating an email list. There are so many ways a business can deliver, and capture value online successfully. One example is the recent invasion of bricks-and-clicks model, customers shop online and pick up their order at a local store. A brilliant use of the extending the function of the business model.

My favorite project to date was working with a client who had a product she was unable to make enough to keep up with the demand. Her desire was to teach others how to make the product. She created a DVD and hosted it for sale on her website. She really made a great production. She visually produced a tutorial to show others how to make the product. This was pre-YouTube mania and sold thousand of copies.

What I absolutely know is that the internet is here to stay, but the important thing is there’s always room for improvement. No matter what your business model, I have learned and seen how businesses have leveraged the internet and technology to learn, grow and conduct business in creative ways. Maybe you’re not up to date on all the techno savvy tools, and don’t consider yourself a techno dinosaur.

The same rules apply to your business whether you are operating offline or online channels. Take a minute and review the systems and areas where you want your business to grow. Can you increase sales without overwhelming your distribution channels? Yes, everything can be controlled, solutions can be created to manage the business in many ways. Do you know a techno dinosaur? Give them my number, I’m a specialist at creating a step-by step map into the 21st century.

Review of Issue 101 of Prehistoric Times Magazine

Prehistoric Times, the dinosaur fan and model collectors magazine starts its next one hundred issues with an edition that balances the latest dinosaur replica news, fossil finds and discoveries with some thoughtful retrospectives on the inspirational artwork of Charles R Knight, a countdown of the top ten dinosaur cinema battles of all time and a wonderful insight into the attempts of fans of the original King Kong film to recreate a lost scene from the movie. Dinosaur model collectors and makers will find much to interest the in this quarterly publication.

The front cover, shows part of the stunning painting of Tyrannosaurus rex in a confrontation with Triceratops. The artwork was created by Charles R Knight and the full mural can be seen in the Field Museum, Chicago. Charles R Knight was one of the most important and influential illustrators of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals in the latter part of the 19th and the first part of the 20th Centuries. His murals and other artwork can be seen still on display, providing a back drop to the fossil exhibits in a number of major natural history museums in the United States. Prehistoric Times pays tribute to his ground-breaking artistic endeavours and features an interview with Richard Milner author of a new book highlighting the great man’s contribution to prehistoric animal illustration.

Could Some Dinosaurs Climb Trees?

Amongst all the usual inclusions, letters from dinosaur fans and collectors, updates on new replicas and dinosaur models, plus some brief reports on the latest fossil discoveries there is the second part of the excellent “Tree Climbing Theropods” article written by Tracy Lee Ford. In this thoughtful piece, the author asks if some dinosaurs could perch, how did they get into the trees in the first place? In addition, there is a detailed feature on one of the best known Lambeosaurine Hadrosaurus – Corythosaurus, a dinosaur known as “Helmet Lizard”. This dinosaur was named “Helmet Lizard” after the bizarre, bony crest that stood on top of its head. There is also a special section featuring that Cretaceous, toothed sea-bird Hesperornis.

Most Popular Dinosaur Movie Battles

Tying in with the magazine’s social media activities there is a run down of the top ten dinosaur movie fights of all time as suggested by readers and the third part of the story of Invicta dinosaurs researched and written by the very talented English designer Anthony Beeson.

Packed with more things to excite a dinosaur than a palaeontologist’s rucksack after a visit to Lyme Regis at low tide, Prehistoric Times is an essential read for dinosaur fans and dinosaur model collectors.

Part of the Original King Kong Movie is Being Created

Worth a special mention is the fascinating but all too brief article on the dedicated work of a group of King Kong devotees who are busily re-creating one of the lost scenes that never made it from storyboard into the finished movie – the infamous “Spider Pit” scene. After being tossed into a ravine by the giant ape, the terrified men who have survived the fall; battle with an astonishing array of fearsome monsters. Having discussed the original 1933 film with colleagues, we think that the scene was never added to the final film as it was thought to be too shocking. I’m sure a number of science fiction film fans will be keen to see the finished result.

Hopefully, we will be hearing more about the work of the King Kong fans in future editions and for the time being issue 101 of Prehistoric Times has more than enough contained within it to keep even the most enthusiastic palaeontologist well satisfied.

A Dinosaur Themed Sensory Play Bin

For children at the Foundation Stage of their schooling, that is pupils between three and five years of age, one of the key aspects of the UK’s National Curriculum at that age is the exploration of materials and their properties. A dinosaur themed sensory play area with various materials and objects within it, including dinosaur models of different shapes, colours and sizes can help young children explore objects and learn about the world around them.

Why Dinosaur Models?

Children from a young age seem to have an affinity with prehistoric animals and especially dinosaurs. Many children at this age are fascinated by these, long extinct creatures and enjoy playing with dinosaur toys. A child’s natural curiosity at this age can be utilised to help them explore the properties of objects by creating an innovative play area that permits children to explore and understand different shapes and objects in a safe environment.

How to Build a Dinosaur Themed Sensory Play Area

Using a table which can be positioned in the area designated for play in the classroom or at home, take a plastic sheet or even news paper and cover the table. This protects the table from any damage that might occur, small scratches and such like. Then cover a large seed tray or box with a large plastic bag, a black bin liner is ideal and tape it down so that the box or tray is completely covered. This creates a “blank canvas” on which children can examine various dinosaur themed objects. We populated our sensory bin with some smooth pebbles and off cuts of material to provide contrasting texture. Some wooden blocks were added along with some twigs that had been gathered from the garden. Different types of dinosaur models were added, rubber ones, plastic ones, dinosaur toys of different shapes and sizes.

A Sensory Dinosaur World

The children enjoyed playing with their dinosaur world, but as they played we took time to look at the various objects and got the children to tell us how they felt, what colours could they see, was the object hard or soft? Such questions help young children from three to five years of age develop their vocabularies. By placing four chairs around the table we limited the number of children who could play and explore and this encouraged sharing of objects and creative play between the children, who were happy so share and swap their dinosaurs.

This was a very cheap resource to make, but it enabled children to explore objects, play creatively and we even had one small child sorting all the dinosaurs into the groups for us. This was a great way to introduce dinosaurs in schools in readiness for a Year 1 term topic.

Building your own Dinosaur Playmat

Creating your own prehistoric habitat for your dinosaur models and toys is quite easy and a lot of fun. With the Summer holidays approaching here is a super dinosaur themed craft idea to help the kids make the most of their free time and perhaps they might even learn something about prehistoric life back in the Age of Reptiles.

We have built a number of dinosaur play mats with young children to help us, we recommend this exercise for children from 5 years and upwards, although Mums, Dads and guardians may have to help when it comes to using scissors and such like. Building your own dinosaur land is an inexpensive and fun thing to do, the whole project can be completed in a few hours (allowing time for paint and glue to dry), and can be built at a fraction of the cost of buying a playmat or similar item from a toy store.

Starting with the Basics – Choosing a Base

First get your base, a solid base is always best as this will help with sticking objects onto it and make a firm platform for the dinosaur models and toys to stand on. Many toy forts and castles are supplied with a square, reinforced cardboard base and these make an ideal foundation for your dinosaur jungle and landscape. A quick visit to a high street charity shop can offer reward the canny shopper with the purchase of a cheap toy fort or castle base for just a few pence. It does not matter if this base is worn or damaged slightly, it will get painted over and have things stuck to it. Anyway dinosaurs were always churning up the ground and damaging the landscape, scientists even have a special word for this when they come across evidence of dinosaur activity in sediments – “dinoturbation”.

Alternatively, if the base from an old toy fort or castle is not available simply re-cycle some cardboard boxes to create the base for your dinosaur land. Take a large cardboard box (one with big sides is preferable), push in the base, so that it falls flat and paint the base green or sandy coloured, depending on the sort of habitat you wish to create.

A Cheat’s Way of Getting the Perfect Base for your Dinosaur Land

To avoid any printing on the cardboard showing through the paint, cover the whole base in strips of paper mache (strips of paper soaked in glue), allow to dry and then paint. To create a cheat’s folding dinosaur land simply take two equally sized boxes and lay them side by side leaving a small gap of about 3cm between them. Cover the whole lot in paper mache, including the join but only lightly in the area of the join. This allows you to build in a “hinge” into your model so the base can be folded up and put away when not needed. To avoid having to paint the model with several coats of paint to remove all trace of any print, simply don’t use printed material for the last layer of paper mache. For example, old photocopy paper (printed on one side only), is ideal for the final layer of paper mache. A lot of dinosaur landscapes have been created by raiding the re-cycle paper box from the office.

Creating your Landscape

Using other strips of newspaper or re-cycled paper you can build up a landscape so there are areas of different gradient on your model. Don’t over do this or there will not be any even ground to put your models on. You can build up some higher ground (suggest you do this on the back area of your model), by layering strips of thick card down on top of each other. Aim to produce raised areas that look a little square in appearance, at least that way you can be sure that dinosaur toys will stand up on them. Once you have landscaped your base you can use poster paints to paint the landscape green or sandy coloured. It is a good idea to paint a small pond towards the front of your model, as we know dinosaurs congregated around waterholes. Once the paint has dried you can add some details to the base by drawing some tufts of ferns and horsetails. Use a fine green marker pen for this, simply draw stick-like plants for the horsetails or simply “v” shapes to represent the ferns.

Dinosaur Landscapes – adding the First Plants

Surprisingly, if you were to travel back in time to the late Cretaceous of North America you would have recognised much of the vegetation. The dinosaurs that you encounter may look incongruous in such familiar woodland surroundings but you would have seen dinosaurs wandering in and out of groves of oak, sycamore, maple and ash trees. Ponds would have been covered in water lilies just like lakes today and you can add some lily pads to your dinosaur pond for that little bit of realism. Take some plain paper or card and colour in a small section with dark green paint or crayon. Then taking some small coins, draw round them to create an array of small circles. Cut them out and cut a nick in each circle, a simple triangular shape would suffice and there you have your lily pads waiting to be stuck to the surface of your pond. Your dinosaur landscape has its first plants, dinosaurs taking a drink at a waterhole with a water lily growing in it – a scene straight out of the late Cretaceous.