Importantly cute!

Cute and Precious

     I'm a sucker for cute things. A real over the top, squealing idiot when it comes to adorable animals, especially baby ones, and even MORE especially baby dinosaurs.
     I'm the type of sappy mess that "OOOs" and "SQUEEEs" at the cute things that strike me as particularly adorable, and will often slap my husband's arm repeatedly in excitement when I see a puppy.

     When I get the very rare and beautiful opportunity to see amazing baby dinosaur art, or the even more rare specimens, I'm a puddle of girly baby talk and scientific inquiries.

     Naturally, when Rebor started their baby dinosaur figurine collection, I was immediately demanding to own them all to anyone who would listen. These sweet little babies are detailed, small and have cute names like "hazelnut".

     THE BABY TRICERATOPS IS NAMED HAZELNUT, GUYS.

     LOOK AT HER FACE. LOOK AT IT.

     I don't expect you to believe me, but there's actually another reason why I think these cutey faces are so amazing to me, and that's their detail to scientific accuracy. Well, as close as you can be with the rarity of baby dinosaur specimens and keeping them cute and interesting enough to purchase.

     Understanding the growth pattern of dinosaurs is really fascinating. Did Triceratops hatch with horns? How big are baby t-rex? Did baby raptors have those killer claws? How fast did these guys grow? What features did they have to grow into?

     Baby dinosaur fossils are extremely rare, but they are treasures of understanding the growth development of dinosaurs. It is an unfortunate truth that the paleontology record of dinosaur species is riddled with controversies over whether or not certain species are their own actual stand along species, or just younger versions of others.

     Misclassifications do happen. It's the sad truth of any science.

     Jack Horner did a TED Talk on baby dinosaurs which is worth checking out. He talks about these crazy misclassifcations and the new discoveries of understanding and identifying baby and teenage dinosaurs. By cutting open fossilized bones, Dr. Horner's team is able to identify more juvenile bones by how "spongy" they are, meaning that the bone is still growing and is malleable.

     This is a great step for making strides in paleontology, but it does mean that some of our favorite species might not actually exist. 

     Sorry, Dracorex, you awesome nerdy dinosaur. 

     Dr. Horner is hilarious, and if you haven't had the pleasure of reading any of his books or hearing a lecture, I'd recommend it highly.

     I think I might start my collection with Hazelnut, because she's just too damn cute not to. I've recently vowed not to get anymore dinosaurs until I have a better place to put them, so I may have to hold off a little while before I add this cute little thing to my collection. 

     You can get these dinosaurs at everythingdinosaur.com, and are featured on Jurassic Collectibles on YouTube. I think all of the babies are like $10 plus shipping, which is really not bad at all. Rebor makes some good stuff.

     Also, please look at how cute Breeze is, sitting on his wittle butt. :3

• Hazelnut

• Melon

• Stan

• Breeze