Back in early April, a commercial for the new Jurassic World Rebirth toys gave us our first taste of things to come, at least as far as the smaller Frenzy Pack figure assortment goes. One of those revealed was a small ornithopod, which immediately caught my interest. It turned out to be Iani, a small rhabdodontomorph that was only named back in 2023 (by Zanno et al). It’s also the first toy to be released of it. Despite the broad assortment from the new Rebirth line that interests me (like the Wild Roar Utahraptor, Aerial Ambush Quetzlacoatlus, Tail Thrasher Spinosaurus, etc), it was my first pick up from it, alongside its wave-mate the Edmontonia. It isn’t often Mattel makes an ornithopod, let alone any ornithischian dinosaur that isn’t a ceratopsian, pachycephalosaur, or thyreophoran (ankylosaurs and stegosaurs mostly). Most of the orrnithopod figures are of Parasaurolophus anyhow, with the occasional exception, such as Iani here.
As mentioned earlier, despite being named only two years ago, Iani smithi was first discovered back in 2014. For starters the genus “Iani” was named after the Roman God Ianus (or Janus), the god of transitions, time, beginnings, endings, etc, because of the changing biota during the middle of the Cretaceous period, and from where Iani was from. Whereas the specific name “smithi” was to honor paleontologist Joshua Aaron Smith and his contributions to the field in the region in which Iani was discovered. The area in which Iani was discovered from was none other then the Cedar Mountain Formation, in Utah, USA, and it lived during the Cenomanian, or the earliest part of the Late Cretaceous period, 99.5 million years ago. The Cedar Mountain Formation is home to a plethora of dinosaurs, with the most notable being the infamous Utahraptor, a dromaeosaurid named about a week after the theatrical release of the original 1993 Jurassic Park (which also has a figure in the Rebirth line as well, see Gwangi’s review of it). That said, Iani is particularly from the Mussentuchit Member, the last and latest member of the formation. It would have likely been contemporaries with ankylosaurs Animantarx, Cedarpelta, Peloroplites, neornithischians Eolambia, and Fona, sauropod Abydosaurus, and theropods Moros, and Siats. Mattel has also made figures of Moros and Siats in prior years, in addition to Gastonia, another ankylosaur from the cedar Mountain Formation, although it lived prior to Iani (and alongside the aforementioned Utahraptor).
Mattel’s little figure of Iani is nearly a 1:1 recreation of the reconstruction included in the paper that described it. The only aspects it gets incorrect is the shape of the head, which should be more oval or egg shaped, and not so square-like, the number of digits on the hands, and perhaps the shape of the feet. While the reconstruction for Iani includes a total of five digits for the hands, the figure only has four. There are only a few skeletal elements preserved in Iani as far as the hand goes, with two potential metacarpal, or hand bones (colored green as three and four in the paper’s reconstruction), and the makeup of a single digit (phalange and ungual/claw, colored in green as digit number three in the paper’s reconstruction). Its closest relative Tenontosaurus does however have five digits on the hands, and as the paper does mention that Iani was a transitional form from Tenontosaurus and future rhabdodontomorphs, it likely shared its anatomy in this aspect to some degree. It’s debatable if Iani would have had a claw on digit four, although the paper does include this aspect in the reconstruction. That said, its relative Tenontosaurus only had claws on the first two digits of the hands (more so with the fossil material from Tenontosaurus tilletti, as the hand material from T. dossi is rather incomplete in comparison; see both Hunt et al, 2021 and Winkler et al, 1996). One aspect of the hands that I like is the fleshy pads sculpted on the undersides of the digits, similar to the likes of Kulindadromeus (Godefroit et al, 2020), if not other dinosaurs.
Although the paper reconstructed Iani with four digits on the feet (with digit one being raised off the ground, similar to theropod dinosaurs), hind limb material is largely unknown for Iani, save for a right femur. However much like the hands, it is also known from its relative Tenontosaurus, which has such a foot shape. Compared to what Tenontosaurus tilletti feet looked like (and T. dossi to a lesser extent, due to the more limited remains), I don’t think the claw on digit one on this figure should be so curved though. The shape of the digits should probably be less uniform in size, with the middle digit (or number three) being the longest. The general proportions of the figure are close enough, with a sloping back, highest at the hips, and a long tail (although that aspect must also be inferred from Tenontosaurus if not other rhabdodontomorphs, as only the first seven caudal/tail vertebrae preserved).
Keen eyed readers will note that the sculptor has included a coat of simple feathers on the anterior half of the figure, with the posterior end being scaly, much like the paper’s reconstruction, or rather at least the silhouette outlining the skeletal material. While feathers and/or filaments are well known in a number of theropod dinosaurs, only a few ornithischian dinosaurs have been found with them. Those being the heterodontosaurid Tianyulong (holotype specimen STMN 26-3), the ceratopsian Psittacosaurus (specimen SMF R 4970), and the neornithischian Kulindadromeus (from a number of specimens). This sort of reconstruction appears to be most similar to that of Kulindadromeus, albeit simplified. For one thing it lacks the rectangle shaped scales on the top of the tail on the figure, among others, although it does to appear to have similarly shaped small round scales on the face, hands, underside of the arms, the legs, and tail, in addition to your typical theropod or bird-like feet scales on the feet. It’s also worth noting that a specimen assigned to Tenontosaurus (found in the Antlers Formation) held in the Perot Museum in Dallas, Texas, does have skin associated with it (a bit more on that here). The skin appears to preserve tiny round scales, similar to the many examples found among hadrosaurids (Edmontosaurus and more). The scales sculpted on the figure also seem to resemble this material more or less.
As with most of the Mattel Jurassic World figures in this size range, the paint apps are pretty limited (which seems to be impacting the rest of the mainline more as well, as time goes on). The claws are all unpainted as typical with this size range. The front half of the body is painted in a dark pine green color, covering most of the feathers on the sculpt, including the arms, while the rest of the figure is cast in an orange plastic, including the legs and tail. The beak is painted in the same green color as the feathers. The head is a navy blue color, and the eyes are yellow with a ring of purple around them. Despite the lack of paint, I find this pretty pleasing to the eye, perhaps in part due to the way the contrasting colors have been applied. The articulation is rather basic as well. There’s rotation at each of the limbs, a hinge allowing the neck to move up and down, and the typical rotation at the tail.
Overall I think this is a wonderful little figure of this recently named dinosaur. There are a few anatomical flaws sure, but that’s typical for these figures, and they aren’t intended, or marketed as being scientifically rigorous anyways. The coloration is simple, but it still stands out among the plethora of Mattel’s Jurassic World figures in my collection I’ve obtained over the years. A great, and unexpected addition to the line. I got this one (and the Edmontonia) at Walmart earlier this year (I think back in June). For those in the US, they may still be carrying them. It’s still in stock at Big Bad Toy Store as well.
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