Today we’re looking at Mattel’s latest fragmentary dinosaur that you’ve never heard of, Minqaria, a late Cretaceous lambeosaur. Until the announcement of this toy I had never heard of this dinosaur. Mattel’s odd assortment of obscure animals has introduced me to a lot of things I’ve never heard of, and I’m thankful for it!
Although only known from a partial skull (right maxilla, left dentary, and braincase), Minqaria is a neat little hadrosaur. It comes from the Ouled Abdoun Basin of Morocco, which preserves the remains of a unique assortment of animals. They include the large abelisaurid, Chenanisaurus, a small unnamed Titanosaur, the remains of multiple azhdarchids, and several small hadrosaurs like Minqaria itself. These dinosaurs would have lived right at the end of the Cretaceous and the Ouled Abdoun Basin preserves fossils from the Eocene as well.
Unfortunately, a lot of the fossil remains from the Ouled Abdoun Basin are fragmentary, but the remains of Minqaria and related hadrosaurs were significant in that they presented the first hadrosaur remains found in Africa. During the late Cretaceous, Northern Africa was an island, and Minqaria and kin’s closest relatives lived in Europe, suggesting that lambeosaurs reached Africa via oceanic dispersal. This is all very interesting stuff that I probably wouldn’t have known if Mattel didn’t make a toy of this genus. What’s more, it goes to show you that fragmentary dinosaurs can still be interesting and of value.
Minqaria bata is literally Arabic for “duck beak”, not the most creative name but it has a ring to it. Minqaria is estimated to have only reached a length of 11’ (3.5 meters) and a weight of 550 lbs. (250 kg). It lived alongside the related Ajnabia, which reached a similar size. Mattel’s Minqaria measures 8.5” (21.59 cm) and stands 3” (7.62 cm) tall at the hips, putting it at about 1/15 in scale.
The Mattel Minqaria stands in a quadrupedal pose with the forelimbs bent and hips and tail held high. It’s articulated at the base of the neck so that the head can be lowered close to ground level, as though it were grazing. The limbs can rotate at their shoulders and hips, and you can actually get the figure to stand in a bipedal pose that I think looks better than the quadrupedal one, which looks somewhat awkward.
The toy is conservative in design but cartoonish looking. The mouth is cheek-less and wide, with a downward turn at the ends. It makes the toy look annoyed and almost put me off to getting it. The crest is speculative but in keeping with other restorations of Minqaria and its close relatives. The toy’s weirdest attribute is by far it’s three toed, camel-like hooves on the forelimbs. Two digits support its weight, and the third digit is small and sharply curved. I swear, Mattel is deliberately trolling the paleo-community with weird ornithopod hands.
For finer details we get some small pebbly scales over the face and neck, larger and coarser scales over the body, and wrinkling on the lower limbs and belly, and fine ridges on the crest. Scutes run down the toes, as usual, but they begin at the knees, which is weird. Crocodilian like armored plates run along the back with osteoderms embedded in them. The face has saggy, chubby cheeks. The cheeks, along with the stretched mouth, add to its annoyed appearance. I think Minqaria would like to speak with the manager!
The toy is slate blue colored with a pumpkin colored crest. There’s a cream colored patch on the throat and a few pumpkin colored stripes on the back. The eyes are lime green with black pupils. The beak and claws are not painted and while the paintjob doesn’t have much going on I still like it.
The Mattel Minqaria is an odd and kind of ugly looking fellow that I was hesitant to purchase but it also represents an obscure dinosaur that lived in an interesting time and place, and its ugliness imbues it with some charm too. It has personality. The Mattel Minqaria should be available wherever Jurassic World toys are sold. I’ve seen it at both Target and Walmart.
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