Carnegie, Bataar, Archaeoptyrx and Plesiosaurs

[Mike Bonham <bonham@jade.ab.ca>]

jpoling@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu asked:
>    Second:  anybody know if the Ceratopsian and Stegosaur in the Bataar
> model/toy collection are the same species as those in the Carnegie model/toy
> collection?

I bought my kids the Stegosaurus and Triceratops models offered by Battat
(not Bataar -- that's a country, and Tarbosaurus bataar is a species of
asian tyrannosaur!)

The dog-tag that comes with the Battat stegosaur calls it Stegosaurus
ungulatus and says it differs from the more widely-represented and familiar
Stegosaurus stenops, in having eight spikes in the tail (four on each side)
more slender dorsal plates, and a more gracile build.

The Battat ceratopsian is labeled Triceratops horridus.

My kids also have the Carnegie Collection's Stegosaurus and Triceratops.
I don't think they give the complete species names (I can't remember from
the dog-tags that they came with, the kids have lost them).  The Carnegie
Stegosaurus would almost certainly be S. stenops, with four spikes.  The
differences between them is a striking example of the difference between
new and old thinking on stegosaur articulation and morphology: the
Carnegie one is fat, has plates in two rows, a tail that droops near to
the ground (but not dragging), and upward-pointing spikes; the Battat one
is slender (almost `bony'), with a single row of plates, a straight tail
held high, and sideways-pointing spikes.

The two Triceratops may be intended to be the same species.  The Carnegie one
is pretty good (better than the Stegosaurus); the Battat one very good.
Again, the Battat one looks much leaner.  The armor-like pelvis is outlined
in the skin over the rump, and the neck frill is thinner in section.
The brow horns on the Carnegie Triceratops are straighter and shorter than
those on the Battat model, whose horns have a Brahma-bull-like twist.
The skin texture on all the Carnegie models is bumpy and deeply-folded
looking, while the Battat skin texture seems more realistic and reminds me
of the fold lines in elephant skin.

The scale of the entire Battat model series is listed as 1/40.
The Carnegie models are very similar in size so they may be 1/40 too.
----
Mike Bonham     bonham@jade.ab.ca               Jade Simulations International
``Perfection is achieved, not when there is no longer anything to add, but
  when there is no longer anything to take away.'' (like this .signature?)