Category «Popular culture»

The Stewartby Pliosaur and the 1967 Liopleurodon reconstruction

Newman and Tarlo (1967) In 1967, Barney Newman and Lambert Beverley Tarlo authored a three-page short article in the popular magazine ‘Animals’, a short-lived periodical published weekly by Purnell from 1963 to, at least, 1967… I’m not sure when it eventually fizzled out. Their article entitled “A Giant Marine Reptile From Bedfordshire” provides an account of plesiosaur …

The Plesiosaur’s Neck book – 1 month retrospective

A month has passed since my new book, The Plesiosaur’s Neck, was published. So, it’s a good time to reflect on some of the events and reactions that followed its release. Firstly, it was exciting to see the book in the wild, particularly at the Heffers branch of Blackell’s in Oxford, where Adam Larkum was …

The Plesiosaur’s Neck book – pre-order!

The Plesiosaur’s Neck, a new children’s picture book written by Jonathan Emmett and myself, and illustrated by Adam Larkum, is now widely available – in the UK at least – for pre-order. Excitingly, last week The Plesiosaur’s Neck spent a whole day ranked number 1 in Amazon UK’s ‘Hot New Releases in Children’s Books on …

Did plesiosaurs have the hump?

Pick a random piece of plesiosaur paleoart and chances are the animal will be depicted with an arched back. A hump, almost. But did plesiosaurs really have the hump? This arched posture can be traced back in the scientific literature to Andrews’ 1910-13 seminal works on the marine reptiles from the Oxford Clay. He reconstructed …

Toys

There are many different plesiosaur toys, replicas, statues, and other commercially available models. Here is my collection. It isn’t quite exhaustive, but it’s getting there. Many of these are now out of production and have become rare collector items. Others are in production and available to buy today, and new figures are released every year, …

Crystal Palace

The Crystal Palace plesiosaurs The first ever life-size models of prehistoric animals were produced in the early 1850s by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins. They were revealed to the world at Crystal Palace in London, 1854, and today they grace the grounds at Sydenham Hill, where they are classified as Grade 1 listed buildings. The models represent …

Pop culture

The topic of plesiosaurs sometimes extends outside of the realm of science and into popular culture. Plesiosaurs first entered the public consciousness as early as the 1850s when life-size models of prehistoric animals were erected at Crystal Palace. Plesiosaurs have had guest appearances in movies, TV shows, and other fiction – more than you might …

Six years of new plesiosaur replicas (2012-2017)

It is hard to believe that the last time I wrote about plesiosaur toys here was in March 2011, over six years ago (https://plesiosauria.com/news/index.php/new-plesiosaur-replicas-for-2011/). Since then, many more new plesiosaur figures have hit the shelves, well, online stores – you’ll do well to find any of these toys in actual brick and mortar stores. The …