IGUANOSTALGIA

In The News: Trailer release for Walking With Dinosaurs II (2025)

It's been a very busy month for me (as I'll explain in a future post) though most recently - and to the excitement of just about the entire paleo-community - the first official trailers for Walking With Dinosaurs II have been released throughout this week! There is much to unpack, but for the time being here are my opinions on some of the new species we've seen so far: Carcharodontosaurus: We very briefly see a standown between two carcharodontosaurid theropods, most likely Carcharodontosaurus itself. Those hooked claws and the facial details all look great!

Spinosaurus: A bold decision indeed for any documentary to feature an animal notorious for so many anatomical changes throughout its history. Spinosaurus features heavily in the trailers and the models shown follow the "modern" look for the animal, complete with the 2022 crocodilian style paddle-shaped tail. Though it's one of the more historically "inconsistent" dinosaurs, we now have quite a lot of the skeleton preserved. I'm pretty fond of how WWD's Spinos look. A great blend of blend of weirdness and believability.

Triceratops: The lighting/CGI looks good, though the texture of the Trike's face is a bit odd (but still within what we know about its integument).

Edmontosaurus regalis: It's exciting to see the regalis species of Edmontosaurus appearing in a documentary! The more well known E. annectans of the Hell Creek Formation starred in the original Walking With Dinosaurs (1999) and Prehistoric Planet (2022/23) though E. regalis is unique in its own right. For starters, it has extensive soft tissues preserved around the skull and neck, sporting a rooster-like fleshy comb atop its head. Another detail I noticed when slowing down the trailer: forward-facing eyes! It is a very recent discovery for Edmontosaurus from last year, and one of the more unsettling...

Speaking of Hell Creek, the azdarchid (Quetzalcoatlus?) looks great! The anatomy is pretty much on-point, complete with that eery stilt-walking stance signature of large pterosaurs.

"He's right behind me, isn't he?"

Tyrannosaurus: While Rex seen back in 1999 was iconic and memorable, I think it's safe to say that the 2025 design is an upgrade (considering the original WWD Rex had some design elements that were last-minute afterthoughts).

I always loved the color scheme of the 1999 Rex, but looking back, the design is just rough.

I'm liking the new Rex (though the lips look a little off when the mouth is closed) and hopefully this means Torosaurus gets to return as well.

Lusotitan: A species that was confirmed last year but we didn't get a good look until now. Overall great looking sauropods (and no, I won't address the nasal structures seen in the trailer..).

Titanosaurs: More sauropods! I'm excited to find out what these ones are specifically. My wager is that they're Paralititan given that the environment is similar to those seen with the Carchs and the Spinos. The armored texture on the shoulders and back is a nice touch.

Utahraptor: Not much to say other than it looks stunning! The head is accurately rectangular (compared to other, more slender dromaeosaurids) and the body is stocky and muscular. I also like the patterning on the face and plumage. And it's got me really excited to a summertime job that I'll have to write about soon!

Happy (belated) 200th Birthday to Iguanodon! On February 10th, 1825, Iguanodon was scientifically described based on remains found by Mary Ann & Gideon Mantell. The posterchild of scientific change and the cultural trends of dinosaurs in artwork, Iguanodon is of course the inspiration of this very blog. Iguanodon was first mentioned in literature two months before its grand scientific debut, in a local newspaper:

Celebrating The Lost World, 100 years later!

On February 8th, 1925, the first major film featuring dinosaurs was presented to the public for the first time. The Lost World, an adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1912 novel of the same name, featured the stop-motion saurians of Willis O’Brian (who’d later work on King Kong) who pioneered special effects in cinematography. The animals seen in the film, while outdated anatomically, move rather dynamically: running around, gruesomely attacking each other to the bewilderment and excitement of 1920s audiences. To this day, The Lost World has some of the most adaptations of any dinosaur media.

Paleoart in the Wild: Prehistoric Council Patches (Boy Scouts of America)

While cleaning my basement, I came across something I ordered online years ago and forgot about: a full set of 2017 National Jamboree patches from EBay! For those who haven’t been in the BSA, the National Jamboree is a nationwide gathering of Scouts in the U.S. that takes place every four years.

In Scouting, it’s a pretty big deal, and it’s an opportunity for Councils (regional scout groups) to show off their latest patch designs. The Utah National Parks Council is no slouch and, looking at their items on EBay, has a tradition of creating paleo-themed patches; the ones I show here is but the tip of the iceberg!

The above patch is absolutely wonderful, a Smilodon with its iconic “pouncing with mouth-open” look is sure to spice up any uniform; this patch, shaped different from the rest, is a lodge flap - so unlike the others it can be worn on a scout’s uniform chest pocket.

The centerpiece is very nice, though the poor Altmuehlopterus seems a bit lost flying over an arid desert rather than a coastline. This pterosaur is actually a piece by Dmitry Bogandov, though I suppose it’s under Creative Commons license.

A Pteranodon, one that almost anyone has seen at least once, originally illustrated by Joe Tucciarone - whose artwork seemed to be everywhere online before the stock imagery of the PAPO T. rex or AI generated monsters.

A diving rhamphorynchoid pterosaur that I vaguely remember seeing in a book somewhere (a possible John Sibbick piece?) and an azdarchid similar to the “Titanopteryx” I remember seeing in a Luis V. Rey book as a kid.

Hard to make out the exact species, but I’m in love with this feathered raptor. The anatomy is pretty on-point, and I enjoy the thought of a pack of these banana-colored oversized canaries tackling large prey.

One of my favorites of the set is this Cearadactylus (seemingly another Tucciarone piece, but recolored). The curvature of the pterosaur’s wings with the Council’s title is satisfying and dark stormy colors are a perfect backdrop (reminiscent of John Conway’s pterosaurs). Very nice stuff. The same can’t be said for…

This. A keuhneosaurid (a type of flying lizard-like reptile), which was the Triassic equivalent of Draco volans. So much to unpack here between the flailing dislocated limbs, the crazy muppet-like maw, and posed as if were falling out of the sky. Understandably, patch embroidery doesn’t allow for exact detail but it isn’t really an excuse for the result of this.

In The News: First look at Walking With Dinosaurs II (2025)

Earlier this month, BBC released the first images of the upcoming return of the hit series, Walking with Dinosaurs, which was first announced back in June of 2024. While it's easy to compare upcoming dinosaur projects to other successful paleomedia, large productions like Prehistoric Planet (2022) and Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) set the bar high in terms of what people expect from a modern dinosaur documentary. Walking with Dinosaurs II is it's own project, over 20 years after the first series, and we still have much to see.

So far the models, in my opinion, are looking really nice. They're the best Albertosaurus I've seen on screen (no shrinkwrapping or reused Tyrannosaurus models here). The lips look a bit odd from some angles (though they properly cover the teeth) but overall the skull is very accurate. This is perhaps due to artist Henry Sharpe being involved in production. The Pachyrhinosaurus looks great as well (and it's unique enough from the design of the P. canadensis seen in Prehistoric Planet), though it's hard to determine the exact species.

Walking With Dinosaurs is set to be six episodes long, each with a length of 60 minutes.

"Arriving in 2025, each episode of Walking With Dinosaurs will tell the dramatic story of an individual dinosaur whose remains are currently being unearthed by the world’s leading dinosaur hunters. Thanks to cutting-edge science, experts can reveal how the creatures lived, hunted, fought, and died more accurately than ever before." - The Hollywood Reporter

So far we've only seen these two species, though other dinosaurs have been mentioned to be featured in the series:

"Other stories being told include that of the herbivore Lusotitan, which lived in Portugal, and would have been seeking a mate; the Spinosaurus, the largest carnivorous dinosaur so far discovered, found in Morocco; and a Triceratops in North America, which the programme will show trying to battle a Tyrannosaurus." - Hannah Roberts, PA Entertainment Reporter, Yahoo! News

My name is Andrew Knight, a self-practiced artist from Vermont with a passion for all manner of extinct life. Here, on Iguanostalgia, I review the media that defined my dinosaur-crazed childhood.

Despite growing up in a region so devoid of dinosaur remains, my childhood was filled with all sorts of prehistoric imagery - be it Jurassic Park or Dinotopia, Disney’s Dinosaur or the Land Before Time - dinosaurs were everywhere if you knew where to look.

My upbringing took place in the early 2000s and there was mostly paleoart lingering from the “Dinosaur Renaissance”, which was a trend in science spanning from the 1970s to the 1990s. It was a time when the image of sluggish, swamp-dwelling behemoths were becoming replaced with new art of active, warm-blooded animals that were just as dynamic and fascinating as modern species.