Dinosaurs

Our first dinosaurs live in our water world. You can find the following examples:

• Liopleurodon, a typical pliosaur that hunted other large marine animals with its sharp teeth. It lived in Europe around 165 million years before our era. It was about 7 metres long and weighed around 5 tonnes.
• Albertosaurus, a massively built dinosaur with a large head and short torso. It was native to North America, around 70 million years before our era. It was about 8 metres long.
• Triceratops, the best known and largest representative of the Ceratopsidae family, which was widespread in the Cretaceous period. It had the typical three horns, up to one metre long, which were used in defence against predatory dinosaurs. The powerful neck shield protected against neck bites. Its geographical distribution was in North America. The dinosaur was about 9 metres long and weighed around 6 tonnes.
• Deinonychus, a fast and agile bipedal predatory dinosaur, was certainly one of the most dangerous threats to its environment, as it possessed two razor-sharp, dagger-like claws about 13 cm long. It also lived in North America, around 123-110 million years before our era. At a length of around 3.5 metres, it weighed about 70 kg.
• Oviraptor, one of the most popular dinosaurs, but not much is known about it, as almost all depictions are based on one well-preserved skeleton. It lived in North America and Mongolia around 76 – 72 million years ago. It was about 2 metres long.
• Eryops, a huge amphibian with a ponderous body and widely splayed legs. Its physique suggests that it lurked in the water for prey in a similar way to crocodiles. It was found in North America around 300 million years ago and was around 2 metres long and weighed around 90 kg.
• Tanystropheus, in which the neck was longer than the rest of the body and tail combined. However, the neck consisted of only 9 – 12 elongated vertebrae, which is why the neck was probably relatively immobile. It lived in Europe around 230 million years before our era. It was around 6 metres in length when fully grown and weighed about 150 kg.
• Velociraptor, a small, fast, two-legged predatory dinosaur from Asia and Africa. It lived around 85 – 76 million years before our era and was about 2 metres long.
• Troodon, a dinosaur that lived in Europe around 76 – 66 million years before our era. In relation to its body mass, it probably had one of the largest brains of all dinosaurs. It was about 2 metres long.
• Meganeura, a distant relative of today’s dragonfly, was one of the largest flying insects that ever lived on earth. They owed their size to the fact that there were no birds or pterosaurs at that time and that the oxygen content of the air was significantly higher than it is today. They lived in Europe around 300 million years before our time. The wingspan was about 70 cm and the weight was about 500 g.

The prehistoric creatures have been handcrafted in Germany to a high scientific standard.

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