The Second World War was something of a second extinction for dinosaurs and other prehistoric life, as a great many valuable fossil collections in Britain, France, and Germany were inadvertantly destroyed over the course of the conflict. Among them were the holotype specimens of Aegyptosaurus, Bahariasaurus, Spinosaurus, Stomatosuchus, and what was then thought to be Carcharodontosaurus, all reduced to rubble by a British bombing raid on the German city of Munich in 1944. Luckily, paleontologist Ernst Stromer, who had described all the specimens, managed to preserve his notes, drawings, and photographs of the bones.
Eighty-one years later, a paper was published in which it was determined that the Carcharodontosaurus holotype differed drastically from a neotype specimen discovered in Morocco during the 1990s. As a result, the former was redescribed as Tameryraptor markgrafi. The specific name honours paleontologist Richard Markgraf, who originally discovered the bones in Egypt back in 1914.
This brings us to Mayer the Tameryraptor. Released in 2025, he is sculpted striding along with his right foot stepping forward, his head turned to the left, and his tail swinging to the right. He is rearing up tall and majestically, as though to sniff the air or survey the landscape. He stands very well on his own two feet, and that’s a relief given that the support rod included with him doesn’t rest smoothly against his chest. The round base keeps coming into contact with his right foot.
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Mayer measures 11.5 cm tall and 24 cm long, which means he is the smallest among his PNSO carcharodontosaur brethren at the present time. And indeed, while Tameryraptor was a big theropod, it was far from a super heavyweight one. It is estimated to have been around 10 metres long and 4.7 tons in mass.
The main colour on Mayer is olive green with greenish grey on his back, light brown and pink on his underbelly, medium brown hands and feet, and dark brown claws. Dark brown is used for the markings on his sides and the large stripe running down his head, back, and tail. His head features light orange streaks, teal eyes, a glossy pink mouth, and off white teeth. It’s a good colour scheme, and suitable for a big predator living in a wetland environment.
Mayer’s body follows the standard carcharodontosaur design: a long tail, powerful hind limbs, small, short arms ending in three digits, and a large, but relatively narrow torso. And as usual, it is covered in very fine, rounded scales, along with a generous amount of folds and wrinkles, and scutes covering the feet.
Mayer’s skull is similarly narrow, with prominent brow ridges and a sloping snout covered in very large scales around the maxilla region. There is also the small, pointy, horn-like protrusion atop the snout. It’s a far cry from the famous full-on horn of Ceratosaurus, but still, it’s something that no other known carcharodontosaur possesses.
On that note, Mayer enjoys the distinction of being the very first PNSO carcharodontosaur to feature lips. His small but sharp teeth are completely concealed when his mouth is closed, yet still look formidable when it is open to its maximum angle of nearly 40 degrees. Great sculpting job on the interior of the mouth too. Tameryraptor appears to have been the apex land predator of its environment, with sauropods like Aegyptosaurus and Paralititan as its main food source. It also would have encountered Spinosaurus, with potentially ugly results.
The accompanying booklet includes a series of toy photos, a detailed skeletal drawing, and a brief how-to-draw section. The poster is yet again an image of the toy, superimposed in a dark forest setting.
Mayer the PNSO Tameryraptor is a solid toy all around. Top notch detail, dynamic appearance, and presently the one plastic representation of the species. Certainly well worth the purchase.
All articles on the Dinosaur Toy Blog are written without the use of ‘AI’
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