Mathison Museum of Natural History

[Isidro]

In the document I use for my collection I had this bichir put to scale 1:10

[sbell]

In the document I use for my collection I had this bichir put to scale 1:10

I missed that! In my AT Blog post I had the same scale. I suppose technically 1:11 but 1:10 would be the approximate scale for collection purposes

Assuming a moderately big one at 75cm long (easily achievable in captivity or wild). The given max range to 100 cm seems like a rarity, or a conflation with the larger Polypterus congicus

[bmathison1972]

As I have explained, multiple times in this thread now, for fish I use Fishbase/SeaBase for calculating scale to maintain a standard. Not sure if it's complete or not, but that's where I get my fish scales. Ha, fish scales!

[bmathison1972]

Species: †Concavenator corcovatus Ortega et al., 2010

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Safari Ltd.
Series: Wild Safari Prehistoric World
Year of Production: 2020
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 17.0 cm for a scale of 1:29-1:35
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: This is Safari Ltd.'s second Concavenator, following the Carnegie Collection model from 2013.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Early Cretaceous (Barremian) of present-day Europe
Habitat: Subtropical wetlands and adjacent conifer and cycad woodlands
Diet: Small animals, including small mammals, reptiles, and other theropods
IUCN Status (at time of posting): N/A [prehistoric]
Miscellaneous Notes: The most interesting feature of C. corcovatus is the caudal hump formed by two extremely tall vertebrae. The function of this hump is now known but is believed to have been for intraspecific communication and recognition or possibly as a thermoregulator.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Pseudorhodeus tanago (Tanaka, 1909)
Common name(s): Tokyo bitterling

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Kaiyodo
Series: Chocoegg Animatales Series 3
Year of Production: 2000
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 6.0 cm for a scale of 1.2:1
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Very rare
Miscellaneous Notes: Assembly is required and the fish is removable from its base. The only other version of this species I am immediately aware of is also by Kaiyodo for the Natural Monuments of Japan collection in 2002. Both Kaiyodo figures were marketed as Tanakia tanago before the description of Pseudorhodeus in 2014.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Japan (Kantō Plain)
Habitat: Small, freshwater streams
Diet: Small freshwater invertebrates, algae
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Endangered
Miscellaneous Notes: Pseudorhodeus tanago is endemic to the Kantō Plain of Japan, where it lives in small, clear, freshwater streams. The Kantō Plain contains some of the countries most populous areas, including the capital city of Tokyo. As such, populations of Tokyo bitterling have dropped drastically due to human population and pollution. The species is now classified as a 'National Monument' in Japan giving it special protection.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Camponotus japonicus Mayr, 1866
Common name(s): Japanese carpenter ant

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Epoch
Series: Japanese Carpenter Ants
Year of Production: 2009
Size/Scale: Body length of queen approx. 4.5 cm for a scale of 2.6:1. Body length of workers approx. 4.0 cm for a scale of 6.6:1-2.6:1 depending on their caste function.
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the second time we've seen C. japonicus in the Museum. There are five components to this set: 1) queen, 2) worker carrying a larva, 3) worker carrying a mantis head, 4) worker carrying a coccinellid elytron, and 5) a pair of workers. The five workers in the set are not all the same sculpt. Interestingly, a couple of the workers are sculpted with ocelli (simple eyes) which workers in reality do not have.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: East and Southeast Asia to the Philippines and Japan
Habitat: Forests, forest edges, grasslands, parks and gardens; nests are made in logs and in the dead parts of standing trees
Diet: aphid honeydew, dead insects, pollen
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: Camponotus japonicus lives in colonies of a few hundred to a few thousand individuals. There is only one queen and several males, with the bulk of the colony being made up of workers of different sizes depending on their function. Usually, in the first year the colony is quite small, with about 10-20 workers. By the second year, the colony has on average 100 workers. But a mature colony can have upwards of a few thousand workers.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Neophoca cinerea (Péron, 1816)
Common name(s): Australian sealion

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Science and Nature
Series: Animals of Australia - Small
Year of Production: 2007
Size/Scale: Scale difficult to calculate but body length approx. 7.0 cm for a scale of 1:8.6-1:10
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: Other figures of this species were made by Bandai and Cadbury (for both the Australian and UK Yowies collections).

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Coastal southern Australia, from the Houtman Abrolhos Islands (Western Australia) to the Pages Islands (South Australia)
Habitat: Primarily off-shore islands; usually on sandy beaches but sometimes rocky shores and cliffs
Diet: Fish, cephalopods, crustaceans, little blue penguins (Eudyptula minor)
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Endangered
Miscellaneous Notes: Neophoca cinerea is the only extant member of its genus. The only other described species in Neophoca is the New Zealand sealion (N. palatina) which became extinct in the Pleistocene. Fossils of N. palatina were originally considered those of N. cinerea until the early 1980s when it was separated based on the short palate, lack of processes on the ethmoid bulla, and the very wide basiocciptal.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Cetorhinus maximus (Gunnerus, 1765)
Common name(s): basking shark

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: CollectA
Series: Sealife
Year of Production: 2021
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 22.0 cm for a scale of 1:31.8-1:69.1
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon to rare
Miscellaneous Notes: When I started the non-arthropod part of my collection, I bought the Safari Ltd. basking shark, but immediately replaced it with this CollectA version when it came out. In addition to having a nicer sculpt, texture, and paint job, it's also much larger than Safari's. The basking shark is the second largest extant shark after the whale shark (see below), so it's nice to have a larger figure of it.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Nearly cosmopolitan; rare in equatorial waters and apparently absent in the Indian Ocean
Habitat: Pelagic; at depths of 0-2,000 meters
Diet: Zooplankton, very small fish, small marine invertebrates
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Endangered
Miscellaneous Notes: After the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), the basking shark is the second largest species of extant shark and fish overall! According to Fishbase/Seabase, it matures at about 500-900 cm, with a common length of 700 cm. The largest recorded individual was 1,520 cm.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Chalcosoma moellenkampi Kolbe, 1900

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: F-toys
Series: World Insect Encyclopedia Vol. 5
Year of Production: 2010
Size/Scale: Body length (including horns) approx. 11.0 cm, within scale 1:1 for a major male
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the fourth time we've seen C. moellenkampi in the Museum. The World Insect Encyclopedia series is essentially the precursor to the Insect Hunter series. F-toys released C. moellenkampi in the 2014 Insect Hunter collection, but it was a new sculpt, slightly smaller than this one. I've stopped paying attention to the annual F-toys sets unless they introduce a new species, which they have not in quite a while, but it looks like C. moellenkampi was most recently produced in 2023, and that was probably a reissue of the smaller 2014 model.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Borneo
Habitat: Rainforests, palm plantations
Diet: Larvae develop in rotting logs; adults feed on tree sap
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: Like other large dynastines, only males possess the cephalic and pronotal horns. Apparently, C. moellenkampi is one of the more aggressive species, and breeders must keep males separated in terraria otherwise they will violently fight one another, resulting in physical injury!

[bmathison1972]

Species: Tyrannodoris luteolineata (Baba, 1936)
Common name(s): predatory sea slug

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Agatsuma Entertainment
Series: Amazing Creatures
Year of Production: 2011
Size/Scale: Body length (excluding open mouth) approx. 5.5 cm, within scale 1:1 for a smaller specimen or 1:2 for very large specimen.
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Unique
Miscellaneous Notes: The nudibranch is removable from its base.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Indo-Pacific
Habitat: Coral reefs
Diet: Other nudibranchs
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: Tyrannodoris luteolineata is a fast-moving, active predator of other nudibranchs in the family Polyceridae, notably members of the genera Tamba and Nembrotha.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Prosopocoilus astacoides (Hope, 1840)

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: K&M International
Series: Wild Republic - Insects Polyvinyl Bag
Year of Production: unknown
Size/Scale: Body length (incl. mandibles) approx. 14.5 cm for a scale of about 2:1 for a very large major male
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Unique (see below)
Miscellaneous Notes: This figure was not marketed at the species level. It is a community-based ID (I think first proposed by brontodocus) that I agree with based on the sculpture of the head and mandibles. If one was to accept this identification, it is currently unique for its species; however, just last week Bandai announced they will be releasing two versions of this species in December of this year as part of their growing Diversity of Life on Earth line.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Southern and Southeast Asia
Habitat: Tropical and subtropical hardwood forests
Diet: Larvae feed in decaying wood; adults presumably feed on sap and similar organic liquids
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: I had difficulty finding much information on this species. The Taiwanese subspecies P. a. blanchardi appears to be popular with breeders.

[Gwangi]

My kids have that one, and all the other insects that came in that bag.

[bmathison1972]

My kids have that one, and all the other insects that came in that bag.

I have most of them; I didn't retain the two with inaccurate colors (the silphid sculpt painted like a firefly and the carabid beetle sculpt painted like an emerald weevil). I also have both forms of the butterfly, the original monarch and the repaint as a morpho.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Megadyptes antipodes (Hombron & Jacquinot, 1841)
Common name(s): yellow-eyed penguin; hoiho

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Toymany
Series: 12PCS Realistic Penguin Figurines
Year of Production: 2023
Size/Scale: Accounting for the posture, height is approx. 6.0 cm for a scale of 1:10.3-1:13.2
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the second time we've seen M. antipodes in the Museum. The first time was the Yowie Group figure that has since been replaced with today's by Toymany. In fact, when I showcased the Yowie figure back in February of this year, I wrote: 'I might replace this figure with the 2023 version by Toymany if I can ever find it sold individually'. When Toymany started selling figures individually on their website, I snatched it up!

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Southern New Zealand
Habitat: Coastal forests
Diet: Fish, marine invertebrates
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Endangered
Miscellaneous Notes: There are three subspecies of M. antipodes, the nominate subspecies (M. a. antipodes) and two extinct subspecies, the Waitaha penguin (M. a. waitaha), which was present on North Island, South Island, and Codfish Island, and Richdale's penguin (M. a. richdalei), which was endemic to the Chatham Islands. Megadyptes a. antipodes is believed to only have colonized mainland New Zealand in the last 200 years. It expanded its range from subantarctic islands to South Island to replace M. a. waitaha, which became extinct around 1300-1500 after Polynesian settlers arrived on the island.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Hexarthrius parryi Hope, 1842
Common name(s): giant fighting stag beetle

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Sega
Series: Mushi King - small series, standard
Year of Production: unknown
Size/Scale: Body length (including mandibles) approx. 5.4 cm for a scale of 1:1.7 for a large major male
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the third time we've seen H. parryi in the Museum. The Sega 'small standard series' were 10 sets of 10 figures each, for a total of 100 figures representing 65-75 species of Lucanidae and dynastine Scarabaeidae. The dates of release are currently unknown to me (c. 2008). The figures were produced in conjunction with Bandai and came with Pokemon-style playing cards. At the time of this writing, I think I have all but two of the species. For a review of the sets, please see the overview by forum member Beetle guy here.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Southeast Asia
Habitat: Tropical broadleaf forests
Diet: Larvae feed in rotting hardwoods; adults feed on tree sap and overripe fruit
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Not Evaluated
Miscellaneous Notes: Hexarthrius parryi is popular with breeders, but can be tricky to rear in terraria. If the diet of the adults is not supplemented with proteins, adult males and females may kill each other!

[bmathison1972]

Species: Carcharhinus falciformis (Müller & Henle, 1839)
Common name(s): silky shark; olive shark; ridgeback shark; sickle shark; sickle silk shark, others

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Safari Ltd.
Series: Wild Safari Sealife
Year of Production: 2023
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 14.5 cm for a scale of 1:15.1-24.1
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Rare
Miscellaneous Notes: This figure appears to be a standard-sized version of the 2019 Pelagic Fish TOOB silky shark.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Nearly worldwide in tropical and subtropical oceans and seas
Habitat: Epipelagic, pelagic; often on the edge of continental and insular shelves at depths of 0-4,000 meters (usual range 0-500 meters)
Diet: Bony fish, cephalopods, crustaceans
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Vulnerable
Miscellaneous Notes: Like many sharks, C. falciformis is viviparous, with females giving birth to 2-15 pups; newborn pups average 57-87 cm in length.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Zerene cesonia (Stoll, 1790)
Common name(s): southern dogface

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Toy Major
Series: Butterflies
Year of Production: 1996
Size/Scale: Wingspan approx. 6.5 cm, within scale 1:1
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Very rare
Miscellaneous Notes: This is the second time we've seen Z. cesonia in the Museum. The Toy Major butterflies are somewhat of an enigma. There are 12 sculpts, labeled A-L on the underside as well as the copyright year of 1996. Each sculpt has been painted multiple times, resulting in anywhere from 24-36 figures (maybe more?). Also, the different repaints may have been released over multiple years while retaining the 1996 mark. They were sold in sets of various numbers. They are not marketed at the species level, but most are painted to look like recognizable species (the identifications are mine or by other forum members).

The identification today is somewhat tenuous, and the figure can probably represent any number of pierids, including members of the genus Colias. I chose Zerene because of the size of the back eyespots and the infuscations near the base of the forewings, although it would have been nice if the black margins were more well-defined. Such as the case with many Toy Major butterflies, it clearly appears to have been influenced by an actual species, but misses specific characteristics. Several species produced by Toy Major have been produced by other companies of the same era (Club Earth, K&M International, early Safari Ltd., etc.), as these companies tend to copy one another, and it is sometimes difficult to determine who came first. K&M International also produced a figure of Z. cesonia, although in that figure the black margins of the wings are better demarcated.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Southern and western South America, north to southern United States; strays reaching most of the eastern and southern two-thirds of the US.
Habitat: Meadows, fields, forest edges, roadsides, disturbed areas
Diet: Larvae feed on several plants in the family Fabaceae (legumes), including Medicago (alfalfa), Amorpha (false indigo), Dalea (prairie clovers), Glycine (soybean), and Trifolium (clover). Adults take nectar from various flowers.
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Least Concern
Miscellaneous Notes: Zerene cesonia has three generations a year in the southern part of its range. In the northern part, which consists mostly of vagrants, migrants, and strays, there is only one generation.

[bmathison1972]

Species: †Kosmoceratops richardsoni Sampson et al., 2010

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Haolonggood
Series: 1:35 Science and Art Model
Year of Production: 2023
Size/Scale: Figure length approx. 12.5 cm. for a scale of 1:36
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: Like all of Haolonggood's dinosaur's to date, this Kosmoceratops comes in two colors, the other being 'red'. I rarely seek out a specific color with Haolonggood's dinosaurs and usually just go with whatever appeals to me at the time of purchase.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of present-day western North America (Laramidia)
Habitat: Wet alluvial plains and adjacent swamplands and lakelands
Diet: Plants
IUCN Status (at time of posting): N/A [prehistoric]
Miscellaneous Notes: There have been numerous phylogenetic analyses of the relationship between K. richardsoni and other chasmosaurine ceratopsids since it's description in 2010. It's generally accepted that Kosmoceratops and Vagaceratops are sister taxa in the Chasmosaurus lineage and may be directly descended from Chasmosaurus. Speciation may have occurred as populations migrated north to south.

[bmathison1972]

Species: Stonogobiops xanthorhinicus Hoese & Randall, 1982
Common name(s): yellownose prawn-goby

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Colorata
Series: Coral Reef Fish
Year of Production: 2015
Size/Scale: Base 6.3 cm long. Body length of fish approx. 3.2 cm for a scale of 1:1.9
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Unique
Miscellaneous Notes: This is at least the second release of this figure and set. I don't know the original year, but likely 2008 or 2009. It may have even been reissued between then and my set in 2015. The fish is removable from its base, which contains a symbiotic snapping shrimp in the genus Alpheus (see below). I had always assumed the shrimp was the red-banded snapping shrimp, A. randalli but in nature that shrimp is usually associated with gobies in the genus Amblyeleotris. In captivity, A. randalli partners with other gobies, however. With around 330 species in the genus Alpheus, getting a species name on the shrimp might not be possible.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: West Pacific
Habitat: Coral reefs, coastal slopes, sand flats; at depths of 3-45 meters (usual range 20-45 meters)
Diet: Zooplankton, small crustaceans
IUCN Status (at time of posting): Least Concern
Miscellaneous Notes: Stonogobiops xanthorhinicus and other prawn-gobies and shrimpgobies have a symbiotic relationship with snapping shrimp (also called pistol shrimp) in the family Alpheidae, especially members of the genus Alpheus. The goby and shrimp share a burrow together. The shrimp maintains the burrow and in turn gets to feed on food scraps from the fish. The shrimp is nearly blind and is very sensitive to movements of the fish, often keeping an antennae in constant contact with the fish. If the fish retreated into the burrow to avoid danger, this shrimp follows!

[bmathison1972]

Species: †Liopleurodon ferox Sauvage, 1873

About the Figure:
Manufacturer: Safari Ltd.
Series: Wild Safari Prehistoric World
Year of Production: 2010
Size/Scale: Body length approx. 17.5 cm for a scale of 1:27.4-1:45.8 (see below)
Frequency of species in toy/figure form (at time of posting): Uncommon
Miscellaneous Notes: Liopleurodon surged in popularity as toys and figures following an episode of Walking with Dinosaurs in 1999. That television depiction also spawned the color pattern we see here today, a that pattern was used for figures by Chap Mei, CollectA, Toyway, Geoworld, and Bullyland, to name a few. There have been very few figures of this species produced in the last 10-15 years. The scale above is calculated based on a body range of 4.8-8.0 meters.

About the Animal:
Geographic distribution: Middle (Callovian) to Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian); probably in most seas and oceans of the time
Habitat: Pelagic
Diet: Fish, cephalopods, smaller marine reptiles (see below)
IUCN Status (at time of posting): N/A [prehistoric]
Miscellaneous Notes: Stomach contents of L. ferox have revealed the presence of hooklets of teuthoid cephalopods, fish bones, and reptilian teeth. Three suggests of the diet of L. ferox have been proposed. One is that it feed primarily on squid, although since it's assumed the speed of Liopleurodon is much slower than squid, this would have been unlikely unless the pliosaur was an ambush predator, which it probably was not. Another theory is that L ferox was an opportunistic feeder. The third theory is that L. ferox fed on large predators of cephalopods, and that the hooklets are residual from the alimentary canal of the pliosaur's prey.