Dinosaur Collector News

Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropods and the largest marine phylum. Molluscs include gastropods, cephalopods, and bivalves. The cephalopods, the most advanced class of mollusks, include ammonoids, belemnites as well as the octopus and squid. Nautiloids are the early forms. They get short shrift in the toy companies.

- Randy Knol

In the Ordovician, primitive nautiloids became the dominant predators, feeding on trilobites and small arthropods from the seabed. These Orthocerida were slender, cylindrical orthocones with very long body chambers. The large 40-foot Cameroceras is commonly portrayed as the top predator for the Ordovician. CollectA is the leader in cephalopod figures. They have Cameroceras included in their Mini Prehistoric Marine Animals box. The company Colorata created a Cameroceras in their paleozoic Creatures release. The related Tomy Michelinoceras, a conjoined pair from their out-of-production “Dinosaur Train” release, are an original configuration, are festive in color and anthropomorphic to appeal to children. The CollectA Orthoceras had ventral siphuncle, ten tentacles equal-sized that were splayed to seize prey, and a dorsal hood in common with the living Nautilus. The shell is banded tan and brown. It is the new king of the Ordovician seas.

Pleuoceras is an Early Jurassic Ammonite. The Ammonites were tenarmed shelled cephalopods. In the Early Jurassic, they were relatively small and were prey for ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. The CollectA figure is large, the coiled shell is ribbed, and the 10 arms are caught in some frantic action. The shell is ivory and brown and the skin ochre brown. When you get yours, pose it in the water column. It is a little smaller than the Wild Safari Ammonite, which may be Pleuoceras. Both are a good size for gaming. They work well with Submarine Safari or Antimatter Games Deep War scenarios.