Animal Toy Blog – Page 56

Hippopotamus, male 1996 (Wild Life by Schleich)

4.7 (3 votes)

Today will offer another look at this iconic member of the African safari, the hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius). Hippos were historically proposed to be relatives of pigs due to molar patterns; however molecular evidence reveals that cetaceans are the closest extant relatives of hippos. These two groups form a clade that diverged from ruminants 60 million years ago and shared a common ancestor over 54 million years ago, with anthracotheres being the stem lineage that hippos evolved from.

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Sturgeon (Red Rose Tea, Endangered North American Animals Series IV, by Wade Ceramics)

Name(s): Acipenser Brand: Uncategorised Classification: Fish, Sturgeon & paddlefish Type: Ceramic, Figurine Range: Asia, Europe, North America

4 (2 votes)

Here’s something a little different, and not an actual toy, but worth taking a look at anyway. This is a ceramic sturgeon by Wade Ceramics, a pottery manufacturer operating out of Stoke-on-Trent, England. Wade Ceramics got its start in the 1950’s and produced ceramic figurines up until 2018. In 1967 Wade Ceramics entered a partnership with the American Rose Red Tea company who started including Wade figures in their boxes of tea.

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Common Octopus (Minatureplanet Vol. 15 by Eikoh)

Name(s): common octopus, Octopus, Octopus vulgaris Brand: Eikoh, Miniatureplanet Classification: Mollusks Type: Figurine Range: Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean

2 (3 votes)

Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972

Octopuses are remarkable animals: They have 3 hearts, blue blood, are able to squeeze into tiny spaces that are larger than its beak, change colour and sometimes texture to match their surroundings, and their most remarkable feature: intelligence. Compared to the other invertebrates, the octopus outsmarts all of them due to it having the largest brain-to-body ratio and the common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) has around half a billion neurons, two thirds of it are located in the 8 arms of the animal.

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Cinereous Vulture (Bullyland)

Name(s): Aegypius, Aegypius monachus, cinereous vulture Brand: Bullyland Classification: Birds, Birds of Prey Type: Figurine Range: Asia, Europe

4.4 (5 votes)

Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972

The cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) is one of the largest raptorial birds of Europe, with wingspans reaching close to 3 metres. It is also known as the black vulture (despite not being black at all, but at least considerably darker than other vultures) and in my home country Germany it is usually called monk vulture, for its head appears like it wears a tonsure.

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Polar Bear, cub (Wild Life by Schleich)

Name(s): polar bear, Ursus, Ursus maritimus Brand: Schleich Classification: Bears, Carnivorans, Mammals Type: Baby Animal, Figurine

4.8 (4 votes)

So, here we are, the final review of my “Winter Wonderland” series, and we conclude with perhaps the greatest of mammals to walk the ice and snow of the world: the polar bear (Ursus maritimus). These hypercarnivourous bears roam the Arctic circle, hunting prey on the snowy tundra, the largest of the bears.

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Peacock (Wild Animals by Papo)

Name(s): Indian peafowl, Pavo, Pavo cristatus Brand: Papo Classification: Birds, Landfowl Type: Figurine Range: Asia

4.5 (6 votes)

Review and images by Lanthanotus; edited by bmathison1972

It is said Charles Darwin wrote in letters to his few friends, that he gets sick thinking about the flamboyant and useless plumage of the Indian peacock, it just would not fit into his view on the evolutionary process. Today, 160 years after the publication of The Origin of Species, we know that the ‘fittest’ may not necessarily need to be the biggest, strongest or fastest, sometimes you just need to be good with the chicks; sorry, but I guess you can see it’s just the point in this case.

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Life Cycle of an Earthworm (Safariology by Safari Ltd.)

Name(s): Lumbricus Brand: Safari Ltd., Safariology Classification: Annelids Type: Baby Animal, Figurine, Life Cycles Range: Cosmopolitan

4.4 (5 votes)

Earthworms! Everyone is familiar with them in some capacity, whether they represent those vermiform creatures that come out onto the sidewalk after a rain storm, to your favorite bait used for fishing, to your garden partners in the compost heap, to the snack you see the robin plucking from the ground!

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Fallow Deer (Early Learning Centre)

Name(s): Dama, Dama dama, fallow deer Brand: Early Learning Centre Classification: Deer, Mammals Type: Figurine

3 (2 votes)

The “Winter Wonderland” shows many animals adapted to the cold, be it as a result of Bergman’s rule or for animals that change based on the season. Here, we see an example of the latter, the fallow deer (Dama dama), a Eurasian deer, found across Europe and introduced across the globe.

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Sharks of the World Deluxe Box Set (Colorata)

4.2 (5 votes)

Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972

Sharks are master hunters. They have inhabited the world’s oceans since the Silurian period and are still standing strong today, even though their population is dwindling due to human greed. They have a basic body plan of a streamlined body, having cartilage rather than bone for their skeletal structure, external gill slits on either sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head.

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Blue Shark (Monterey Bay Aquarium Collection by Safari Ltd.)

Name(s): blue shark, Prionace, Prionace glauca Brand: Monterey Bay Aquarium, Safari Ltd. Classification: Fish, Sharks, Rays & Kin Type: Figurine Range: Cosmopolitan

5 (3 votes)

Sharks are, generally speaking, the living embodiment of efficiency and elegance. Most of this is owed to the sleek, aerodynamic body plan possessed by the majority of shark species, but one shark takes these classic shark attributes to the next level. The blue shark (Prionace glauca) has refined the efficiency and elegance of sharks like no other, with its long, trim, lithe body.

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Japanese Giant Mantis (Diversity of Life on Earth – Japanese Giant Mantis by Bandai)

Name(s): Japanese giant mantis, Tenodera, Tenodera aridifolia Brand: Bandai/Bandai Spirits, Diversity of Life on Earth Classification: Arthropods, Insects, Orthopteroids Type: Figurine Range: Asia

5 (2 votes)

The Japanese giant mantis (Tenodera aridifolia) is a large mantid distributed in Japan, Taiwan, and China. There has been some confusion on the taxonomic identity of this species, as the Chinese mantis (T. sinensis), which is more familiar to most casual observers and non-specialists, was originally described as a subspecies of T.

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Manta Ray, 2013 (Sea Life by Schleich)

Name(s): Mobula, Mobula alfredi, reef manta ray Brand: Schleich Classification: Fish, Sharks, Rays & Kin Type: Figurine Range: Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Oceania, Pacific Ocean

4 (2 votes)

Review and images by JimoAi; edited by bmathison1972

In the warm seas of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a small part of the reef got dark as it is obscured by a diamond-shaped shadow, the entity which casted the shadow flaps her wing-like pectoral fins to propel herself through the water as she opens her mouth to feed on krill and zooplankton.

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