Clades & Grades – Page 3

Vault tales 169 – Clades – Arthrodira

It has been quite a while since I did a Clades post, and this one will be featuring a group that has lots of figures...but mostly one species. It is (as stated in the title) the placoderm group Arthrodira. Although pretty diverse overall, the most familiar would of course be Dunkleosteus, a giant predator of Devonian seas worldwide. But of course it lived alongside several relatives in those seas--the Arthrodira (as described in my database as a grade) includes the…

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December 21, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 149 – Clades – Salamandroidea

It's been a while, but here we are with a new Clades post. Since then, I have been reorganizing my database and how the clades are organized. So when this one came up--'Salamanders'--I realized that I could break that down a little bit. Especially because there are a fair number and this post was going to get hard to handle. So I split things up, into Cryptobranchoidea and Salamandroidea (there's a 3rd grouping, Sirenoidea, but no figures exist so far.…

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October 12, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 128 – Clades – Monotremes

Back again with another Clades post! Earlier this week we looked at a group of so-called primitive fish. This time around, it will be some so-called primitive mammals, the monotremes. As a group, they are (probably? maybe?) the most basal living group of mammals. At the very least, they are united by some shared characteristics--like other mammals they produce milk for their young, but they're young are born from eggs! This may be their most familiar trait. It turns out…

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July 23, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 127 – Clades – Chondrostei

I am back with another Clades post. This one is exciting because it features one of my favorite fish groups! It's also daunting because I have a lot of representatives of this group (unlike most of the ones I've done) which means more to say. And also trying to sort out photo presentation... As it says in the title, it is the clade Chondrostei, the modern sturgeons and paddlefish (and of course a variety of fossil relatives...none of which are…

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July 20, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 112 – Clades – Pliosaurs

Part of the fun of doing these clades ones is learning more about the models I have! Here we some that only show up as one example in my collection--the CollectA Rhomalaeosaurus which is not quite a pliosaurid but is a pliosauroid; the CollectA Attenborosaurus, a long-necked pliosaur that I originally thought was a plesiosaur; the Feves Peloneustes recently discussed here; and the Innovative Kids Brachauchenius from their Gone Extinct book. So we are back with another Clades discussion--one that,…

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May 28, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 109 – Clades – “Stegocephalia”

We'll work the photos from furthest back in the fossil record. This is a 3D printed Tiktaalik from Shapeways--sadly no longer available. The file didn't print quite right (there are gaps on the underside). It's about 1:23 scale with the guy there. The rear limbs were not published when the model was made, so they are too weak. But I am still glad to have it. So we're back with another 'clades' post, and this one is a very unique…

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May 18, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 104 – Clades – Gorgonopsia

The gorgonopsian gang, from my collection at least. There are probably a few other more elaborate models and kits. These figures are very not to scale We're back to another clades post--this time it's one where I actually have a number of models, from a group that I actively collect. It's the group of synapsids called Gorgonopsia--a group of reptile-looking Permian tetrapods that, being part of Therapsida, are more closely related to mammals. They, along with related groups, were often…

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April 30, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault tales 87 – Clades – Protosuchia

It's been a long time since the Random Number Generator picked a clade instead of a figure, but here we are. And while as a group it's a little more in my normal wheelhouse...it's not exactly a group with a lot of figures! As with many groups and their listings in my personal database, sometimes the groupings are more convenience than truly taxonomic. But this time around, it's sort of valid? Protosuchia, a group of early Mesozoic crocodyliformes. As a…

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March 2, 2020

Clades & Grades / FigureTales

Vault Tales 14 – Clades – Porifera

What is this? Well, this is the first random pick of something beyond 'just' a figure; among other things I've also given the option of looking at various shelves or taxonomic groups. I have preferred to use the phrase 'clades' when talking about these although I may not always follow strictly to the monophyletic meaning that implies. Sometimes they are convenience, and their level of specificness (a real word, I checked) may depend on how they fit my collecting (fish…

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June 20, 2019