The Curious Compendium 2023-2025: The end!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Mixed sharks again: Basking, zebra, pyjama, lantern, birdbeak dogfish, and a sevengill shark!

Pyjama sharks! These distinctive sharks live in South African waters (specifically kelp forests) and are known for their unique appearance. They are also known for their unique hunting technique reminiscent of crocs- a death roll is used to dismember or otherwise open prey items for eating. This is an oviparous species- meaning that they lay "mermaid purses" or encapsulated egg cases that their embryos develop inside.

[Sim]

The basking sharks look like they're doing a surprise emoji face!  What is the figure on the right in the bottom set of figures?

[Saarlooswolfhound]

This sevengill by Discovery Science

[Sim]

Thanks P.!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

You bet! @Sim

More fish variety!

Yellow perch are a fish that while they are brightly colored, the green, yellow, and orange hues paired with their striping help them camoflage. These predators  have a wide taste palate which makes them adaptable to nearly any body of water as long as there is food to support them; because of this they are also a prey item for a variety of predators including walleye, bass, and various water birds. They can live 8-11 years and reproduce successfully for most of those years. Because of their long life, habitat adaptability, and are open to eating just about anything, they have become a very popular aquaculture species for the food market.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

And the very last group of sharks! *I know, I foolishly put my Toymany sawshark with my sawfish... I will fix that!*


Chimaera sharks (also known as ghost sharks or ratfish) are a deep sea species related to sharks but actually are elasmobranchs; they diverged from the shark lineage about 400 million years ago. They have a single gill opening, permanent tooth plates used to crush food, and males have appendages called tentaculum that they use to clasp females for mating. this group of animals is difficult to assess populations and study because of their deep sea home being at least 200-2,600 meters below the surface and are often only seen due to bycatch by trawling fishermen.

And only 3 presentations are left for this category (I feel like it lasted forever for some reason...)

[sbell]

Because taxonomy matters...All sharks, rays and chimaera are Chondricthyes

Chimaera are holocephalans (and include a lot of our favorite weird prehistoric 'sharks')

Sharks and rays are elasmobranchs

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Ah, thanks for clarifying!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I decided to just finish the last 3 off for aquatics and take a small break (to enjoy spring break). I will start the next category next week!



Sculpin are a bottom dwelling fish- they lack a swim bladder which enables them to sit on the bottom. There are species for fresh and saltwater habitats. Their mottled coloration and flattened body types make them excellent ambush predators and their large head/mouth enables them to eat prey items nearly as large as themselves.


Blue-spotted ribbontail ray are highly distinctive given their appearance. The blue spots aren't caused by pigment, but instead by nanostructures (as is the case with nearly blue animal out there). Unlike other ray species, these guys rarely burrow/hide in the substrate.


The goliath tigerfish is the largest of the tigerfish family and can reach sizes of 154 lbs/70 kgs and 5 ft/1.5 meters long! These are fierce predators, they have even been observed fighting small crocodiles. This species has a double hinged jaw which enables them to open it wider for prey.

[sbell]

I highly recommend picking up the Takara tigerfish. Either color, they're a much better representation of the fish!

[bmathison1972]

I highly recommend picking up the Takara tigerfish. Either color, they're a much better representation of the fish!

I did! And I agree!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I just looked up your reviee of them- I didn't realize these existed! I will definitely be hunting them down at some point. Thank you both!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

The aquatics page of my website is now ready for viewing! https://thecuriouscompendium.wixsite.com/curiouscompendium/aquatic-collection

[K907]

The aquatics page of my website is now ready for viewing! https://thecuriouscompendium.wixsite.com/curiouscompendium/aquatic-collection

Wow beautiful!! Such a diverse aquatic collection!!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

Thank you very much @K907!

[Saarlooswolfhound]

And now we embark into the past! This is the last "large" category to present. And since these are all long extinct species, I am changing the method of presentation. I won't present facts with them since at the end of the day we truly don't know any hard truths, but instead will try to present a personal thought or two along with the photos. I hope you all enjoy this category as it has increasingly become a exciting group of animals to learn more about. This was a long hibernated group in my collection as I just didn't have space/means to buy these often more expensive models, but about 4 or 5 years ago I finally caved and this group has grown immensely.

To kick off, I have the oldest animals in my collection!


For me, these very early species are so intriguing for their bizarre features. I recently read Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould and I really enjoyed learning about these animals, the famed Burgess Shale, and the discovery, current understanding, and historical significance of these ancient weirdos.

[Saarlooswolfhound]

My next batch!


These hail way back to a primeval era for me. When I was just a kid 6-7 I remember every Saturday morning my older siblings and I would wake up and go pile on top of Mom and Dad in their bed to watch Prehistoric Planet episodes on the Discovery Kids channel (these were the BBC Walking with Dinosaur episodes recut and narrated by Ben Stiller to be lighter and more comedic, only really cutting out the bits of true carnage and the finer points of animal reproduction posed in the originals). I LOVED them! And I distinctly remember the ocean focused episode and the ammonites it briefly covered. Fast forward a short time and I remember being thrilled when I discovered naulituses were a living animal from a book in my school class. I am still fascinated by these things and adore them! You can imagine my thrill when these unique animals were featured in Apptletv+'s Prehistoric Planet series, all these years later! So yeah, this whole group of oddities are amazing and full of intrigue, if you don't know- go google "ammonite shell types" under images and it'll blow your mind!

[sbell]

Lovely figures -- I'm surprised you don't have the wide variety of weirder ammonites from CollectA!

Or the truly odd Nipponites from Kaiyodo.

Or is this just the conventional ammonites?

[Saarlooswolfhound]

I am sorely behind on the "big 6" models, but those are definitely on the wishlist from CollectA! I just got the orthoceras randomly with my much more rare k&m/pv haul from recently. And the Japanese models can be harder to find for myself, but within the last year or so I have one ebay seller I like to use. I just haven't come across any of those in his inventory. But again, they're on the list! **I need to post my wishlist here but its enormous and easily described az overwhelming... despite my chipping away at it**

[Gwangi]

I am sorely behind on the "big 6" models, but those are definitely on the wishlist from CollectA! I just got the orthoceras randomly with my much more rare k&m/pv haul from recently. And the Japanese models can be harder to find for myself, but within the last year or so I have one ebay seller I like to use. I just haven't come across any of those in his inventory. But again, they're on the list! **I need to post my wishlist here but its enormous and easily described az overwhelming... despite my chipping away at it**

Ain't that just the way? I can't keep up with my wish list, it grows too fast. That's why I don't mind small or slow reveals from companies. In fact, they could all take a couple years off, I wouldn't mind.