Fish with History! Lobe-fins, Ganoid scales, Bony Tongues, Cartilage skeletons!

[brontodocus]

Great paddlefish! And I can't wait for the Kaiyodo Aquatales Polyresin one to come out. And, yes, the squirting toy by Tchibo does not really count...

[sbell]

Great paddlefish! And I can't wait for the Kaiyodo Aquatales Polyresin one to come out. And, yes, the squirting toy by Tchibo does not really count...

It's still good to have! But not exactly a perfect representation!

I don't know if Kaiyodo is ever planning to release those figures--they should have been out over a year ago.

[sbell]

New fish to add! The closest thing to a figure of a paddlefish now. Painted this time of course. And on a base made by the kids!




I went with the brown colour, although the variation of the images I could find made it hard to settle, between greys, blues, green, pinks and browns.

Also the other ones, now on new bases. Rather than drill holes, I have used sculptors wax to hold them in place until I can find something a little less obvious.

Tropical gar


Green sturgeon


The knifefish hasn't changed.

[sbell]

I have so many new things, but this one was in the major wish list!




It's a Kaiyodo Aquatales Osteoglossum. Except...it's different than the one already pictured (colour and pose).

But it's still likely Osteoglossum bicirrhosum, although the greenish tinge could make it either species.

I'm just glad to finally have one of these fish for the Primitive Fishes!

[Jetoar]

Arrowana is amazing 

[sbell]

Just for fun, and to reinvigorate a topic (and maybe pick up a few I've missed in the last while) I recently took group pictures of my various 'ancient fishes' figures.

So I thought I'd put them here as well. As much to find out if anyone has anything else new that I need to chase, or has one that they wish to add to my collection  (for a price...). I also got in the mood to do it after all of the Yujin Freshwater Fish walkarounds. But mostly it amused me to do so.

I've reorganized by rough clades, Actinopterygians first, then Sacropterygians. I am also including my fossil species' figures because there aren't really that many, and they are nice after all.

ACTINOPTERYGII
CLADISTIA
Bichirs:

All of them are the saddled bichir Polypterus endlicheri, likely because of their popularity in Japan (the figures are also all Japanese) [and maybe this will change soon? Fingers crossed?]. For the record, these are my favorite fishes in the whole entire world. I have kept 7 different species over the years, and my fish tanks are never complete if I don't have at least one...



L-R: Kaiyodo ChocoPets albino bichir, Recent Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box, Kaiyodo normal color Chocopets bichir

CHONDROSTEI
Sturgeon:

The most diverse living group—and the most diverse in figures! The two figures reflect the potential scales depending on the size of the animals (the beluga sturgeon is roughly to scale with the small diver; the Lake sturgeon is a modest specimen in scale with the large diver, as examples)





L-R: Original Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Chinese Sturgeon; Kaiyodo Capsule Aquarium White Sturgeon; Replica Toy Fish 3" Lake Sturgeon; Replica Toy Fish 6" Shovelnose Sturgeon; Epoch 'Shark & Ray Series' Beluga Sturgeon; 3d-printed Green sturgeon; Recent Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Chinese Sturgeon

Paddlefish:

All are the American paddlefish Polyodon spathula. The diver is to scale with the 3D printed model.



Upper L-R: 3D printed model; Whittier Decoys wooden carving; Tchibo bath toy(!)

HOLOSTEI
Gars:

I have a surprising number of these, so I had to split them up!

First, the larger genus, Atractosteus. The diver is to scale with the larger models (using modern sizes—historically, much larger individuals were recorded)



Back row L-R: Wooden carved alligator gar model; 3D printed Tropical Gar; Recent Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Alligator gar
Front row L-R: Replica Toy Fish 3" juvenile alligator gar; Replica Toy Fish 3" Adult alligator gar; Replica Toy Fish 6" alligator gar

And a quick photo with the small figures to scale with a diver, for fun!



The next ones are a variety of Lepisosteus species, again, roughly to scale with the diver.



Back L-R: Wooden carved Shortnose gar, Wooden Carved Longnose gar
Front L-R: Replica Toy Fish 6" Longnose gar, Replica Toy Fish 3" longnose gar; Toba Aquarium Series 2 'living fossils' spotted gar

Plus, I have a few fossil ones!

A Paleocene gar (I received this as a spare when a designer was building a Paleocene display in a museum I managed). Suffice to say, this isn't one that can be bought just anywhere!



And, unlike today, gars used to be found outside of North and Central America. And Favorite captured that in their Hunting Spinosaurus desktop model:



The explorer is to scale assuming that the spinosaur is 'only' about 15 m long. The gar species is likely Dentilepisosteus kemkenensis given the size, place and time—Cretaceous Africa.

Bowfin:

Of all of the primitive fishes, this has proved to be one of the more maddeningly difficult animals to find in any form. Replica Toy Fish once hinted at a 6" model, but so far that has not happened. So I only have one Amia calva, clearly not to scale with the diver:



It is another Whittier Decoys wooden carving. It would be a medium sized specimen if it were alive.

OSTEOGLOSSOMORPHA
The Bonytongues!

The only one that I don't have at least one representative of is the butterflyfish. For now...

Pirarucu:

Roughly to scale with the swimmer, now—like the gars, they were likely capable of growing much larger at one time. There are several species of Arapaima but as far as I can tell, all of these are A. gigas; physically the species look very similar.



L-R, starting at the top: Recent Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Arapaima, Toba Aquarium Arapaima, Takara 'Amazon River set' Arapaima, Original Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Arapaima, Epoch 'Living Fossil Collection' Arapaima, Kaiyodo Capsule Aquarium Arapaima

Arowanas:

I have included them all crammed together—with a representative of at least one figure from each of the Australian, Asian (okay, a lot of those) and American species. The only one missing is an African Arowana Heterotis because nobody makes one. They are also related to Arapaima anyway. Like the Arapaima, I don't always chase after every Asian arowana anymore, because there are a lot of them! Even of the ones I have, there are variants (such as a Gold Kaiyodo Capsule figure, and a red Marmit figure).

And the diver is roughly to scale with the majority of them.



L-R,  (all Asian Arowana Scleropages formosus unless otherwise stated, but I will give the color as best as I can tell): Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box 2nd release Super Red; Marmit 'World of Tropical Fish' Yellow Tail; Yowies Spotted Saratoga Scleropages leichadrti; Yujin "Freshwater Fishes series' Red Crossback; Kaiyodo Aqualand Silver Arowana Osteoglossum bicirrhosum; Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box 3rd release Malayan Blue; Yujin 'Freshwater Fishes series' Gold Highback; Kaiyodo Capsule Aquarium Super Red; Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box 1st release green crossback; Toba Aquarium Series 2 'living fossils' (the color doesn't look like an obvious existing color variety).

Other osteoglossomorphs:

I have a representative of each of two of the other families of osteoglossids. The knife fish (Notopteridae) would be a large but to-scale figure; the elephant nose (Mormyridae) figure is ridiculously oversized!



L-R: 3D printed Clown Knifefish Chitala ornatus; 3D printed Double-Nose Elephant Fish Campylomormyrus rhynchophorus.

And for fun, a few extinct osteoglossomorphs, from the Cretaceous! These are part of the ichthyodectid family. The small one is to scale with the divers; the large one would be a modest-sized specimen!

Ichthyodectids



L-R: FaunaCasts Xiphactinus; Bandai 'Hungry Dinos' Cladocyclus (it is part of a diorama model, being eaten by a Pteranodon—the scale of the Pteranodon helped me determine what species this should be, as it was clearly an ichtyodectid!).

SARCOPTERYGII
DIPNOMORPHA:
Lungfishes

All roughly to scale with the people.



R-L: Original Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Australian lungfish; Epoch 'Living Fossil Collection' Australian lungfish; Toba Aquarium Series 2 'living fossils' Australian lungfish; Yowies Australian lungfish; Recent Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Australian lungfish (yes, they are all Australian lungfish...maybe that will change soon?)

ACTINISTIA
Coelacanths:

Small Latimeria chalumnae figures

These figures are the smaller ones of this species that I have, roughly to scale with the 1:29 Diver figures. The more recent Kaiyodo Deep-Sea Life figure is almost exactly the right scale.



L-R: Kaiyodo 'Deep Sea Odyssey' Coelacanth'; Kaiyodo 'CapsuleQ Deep Se Life' Coelacanth; 'Okinama Aquarium' Coelacanth; Colorata mini Coelacanth; Takara 'Deep Sea Fishes' Coelacanth

Large Coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae figures

All of these are to scale with the 1:13 diver; the large Safari Coelacanth would be roughly a full size animal. But a diver dressed like would die trying to swim with one. Just saying.



L-R: Epoch 'Living Fossil Collection'; Original Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Coelacanth; Safari 'Cryptozoology toob' Coelacanth (a toob I would otherwise not have bought); Safari WS Dinos Coelacanth (yes, it is officially part of the dinos series); Recent Colorata 'Fossil Fishes' box Coelacanth

And for fun, a small plush Coelacanth from Colorata:


Indonesian Coelacanth Latimeria menadoensis

The other living species, which has a few figures, such as a Takara repaint-version and the Kaiyodo Polystone. But I only have this one (a little large for the diver):



Colorata Museum Model Series Indonesian Coelacanth

Fossil coelacanths

Unlike the lungfish, there are a few 'fossil' coelacanth figures. Unfortunately, they are almost always painted more or less like modern ones. This makes no sense as their environments would have been much different, but so be it.

Axelrodicthys and Holophagus

Roughly to scale with the diver, maybe as smaller individuals



L-R: Kaiyodo Dinotales S1 Axelrodicthys; Original Famemaster Holophagus (was being eaten by an elasmosaur—hence no pelvic fins); Kaiyodo Dinotales S1v2 Axelrodicthys (with refreshing colour scheme); Re-release Famemaster Holophagus

Mawsonia

To scale (1:100) with the people (yes, it was huge)—and the spinosaur eating it (what is it with Spinosaurus eating all the cool fish? Also, where is the Bawitius version?)



Takara Tomy ARTS 2011 Dinosaur Expo series Mawsonia

Close up:


OTHER EXTINCT LOBE-FINS

The lobe-fins were much more varied in the Paleozoic, and there are a few figures to represent this (put in the right order, with a few more 'amphibian'-grade figures would give a good evolutionary sequence!). Not many (certainly not enough), but a few.

Rhizodonts



To scale with 1:40 man. Yowies Lost Kingdoms 'Duckabrook Rhizodont', probably Strepsodus

Osteolepiforms & basal Stegocephalian



To scale with 1:24 swimmer.
L-R: Kaiyodo Dinotales S6-A Eusthenopteron; Kaiyodo Dinotales S6-B Eusthenopteron ; Starlux Eusthenopteron; Shapeways 3D-printed Hyneria; Shapeways 3D-printed Tiktaalik

[stemturtle]

Your new photos of Fish with History! are a fantastic presentation, sbell. I like that you have identified the genus and the manufacturer.

Members interested in jawless and armored fishes can see Fishy encounter (of the prehistoric kind) on the Dinosaur Toy Forum.

[sbell]

Your new photos of Fish with History! are a fantastic presentation, sbell. I like that you have identified the genus and the manufacturer.

Members interested in jawless and armored fishes can see Fishy encounter (of the prehistoric kind) on the Dinosaur Toy Forum.

I knew there was one over there as well. I suppose I could put some of these there as well (and add on the other prehistoric fish that don't have living relatives!)

[Halichoeres]

Nice overview, SBell--planning to cover any elasmobranchs?

[Jetoar]

Your collection is awesome Sbell  .

[sbell]

Nice overview, SBell--planning to cover any elasmobranchs?

There's a separate thread for those! This one is more of a non-euteleost thread (a paraphyletic thread of course). I did originally try to include Elopomorpha as well, which would have just been anything preceeding Clupeomorpha, but they didn't really fit (and the taxonomy shifts too much to be useful for a toy forum thread anyway).

And Ill admit that while I have lots of elasmobranchs, I don't have near as many as some people. I mostly try to get representatives of species more than all of them (like in this thread...). Which is why missing out on the Neko Works Greenland shark still makes me sad.

[sbell]

I should have posted these before, but I...didn't. I just received the photos from Brandem.

First, Polypterus senegalus!



Second, Protopterus annectens



I know, right? And now you're all thinking, wait, how do I get one? Well, the good news is that you just keep in touch with me, because these are two of the first 3 Fishes that I am having made for the Fauna Figures store!

The third one is Pantodon buchholzi but I don't have a prototype photo yet (the fins are...awkward).

I will of course post more pictures when I have some. Like when I have them in hand! And details about getting them (and yes, there will be a first-run incentive for forum members when I know what that will be).

[sauroid]

very cool Sbell. what are they made of?

[sbell]

very cool Sbell. what are they made of?

They will be cast in a material called D45 which has some flexibility--not exactly play-worthy, but able to withstand some handling at least.

I am also not sure exactly how big they are! I never get the photos with a scale! But they should be in the 3-4" scale. I wanted them to match roughly to the Colorata sets. Roughly.

[brontodocus]

Wonderful models and great to see they are already available. Hehe, I know you've been thinking "why didn't they make a bowfin, too?".

[sbell]

Wonderful models and great to see they are already available. Hehe, I know you've been thinking "why didn't they make a bowfin, too?".

And a gar!?

But since no one else will do it...



I am doing it! This is the first run of our second wave of figures (the marbled lungfish is a special order...because my kids are picky...) but I am expecting them in hand early next week. And I am already getting a second batch made, because I'm pretty sure this batch is almost completely sold!

[brontodocus]

Hehe, what a coincidence! Great choice of models.

[sbell]

Hehe, what a coincidence! Great choice of models.

I thought so...!

[bmathison1972]

Yujin white-spotted conger:

[sbell]

Bandai saddled bichir