On May 26, Canadian Post Authority issued the second set of
dinosaur stamps. Similar to
the first issue (
2015)
this one also contain Mini-Sheet of 5 stamps, Booklet
with 10 self adhesive stamps and uncut sheet with 7
mini-sheets.
The
stylish stamps depict each animal as a
reflection in the eye of a predator or in the eye of one of their own
species.
"We work
with experts in the field from the Canadian Museum of Nature to select
dinosaurs that have been discovered in Canada," said Canada Post's
media manager Phil Legault. "As with most stamp sets, we also try to
select dinos that would make
the most stunning and interesting images and represent as many
different regions of Canada as possible".

Even though the set name is "Dinosaurs
of Canada", not all of the prehistoric animals
featured on this year’s
stamps are actually dinosaurs, but 2 fit the bill.
The first is
Acrotholus audeti,
which roamed Alberta’s
Badlands about 84 million years ago. The second, the small, feathered
Troodon inequalis,
inhabited the same area some 9 million years later.
The creatures on the 3 remaining stamps are: the
Comox Valley
Elasmosaur is plesiosaurus (marine
reptilie) hunted in the waters off what is now Vancouver
Island (British Columbia) more
than 80 million years ago.
Cypretherium
coarctatum nicknamed “Terminator Pig”,
bared its menacing teeth to stalk prey on the floodplains of
Saskatchewan some 35 million years ago. Finally,
Dimetrodon
borealis mammal-like reptiles lived on
the arid landscape of Prince Edward Island about 270 million years ago
and went extinct some 40 million
years before the dinosaurs.
A stylized Dimetrodon, half living creature and half bony skeleton,
roams a ferny forest on the booklet’s front cover.
Acrotholus is an extinct genus of fully domed
pachycephalosaurid dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Deadhorse
Coulee Member of the Milk River Formation (latest Santonian stage) of
southern Alberta, Canada. It contains a single species, Acrotholus
audeti. Acrotholus means ‘high dome,’ referring to its dome-shaped
skull, which is composed of solid bone over 10 cm thick. The species
name ‘audeti’ honors Alberta rancher Roy Audet, on whose land the best
specimen was discovered in 2008. According to the scientists,
Acrotholus represents the oldest bone-headed dinosaur in North America,
and possibly the world. The dinosaur walked on two legs and had a
greatly thickened, domed skull above its eyes, which was used for
display to other members of its species, and may have also been used in
head-butting contests.
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Troodon
inequalis *
Troodon
is a genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaurs known definitively
from the Campanian age of the Cretaceous period (about 77 mya), though
possible additional species are known from later in the Campanian and
also from the early Maastrichtian age. It includes at least one
species, Troodon formosus, though many fossils, possibly representing
several species have been classified in this genus. These species
ranged widely, with fossil remains recovered from as far north as
Alaska and as far south as Wyoming and even possibly Texas and New
Mexico. Discovered in 1855, T. formosus was among the first dinosaurs
found in North America.
The genus name is Greek for "wounding tooth", referring to the teeth,
which were different from those of most other theropods known at the
time of their discovery. The teeth bear prominent, apically oriented
serrations. These "wounding" serrations, however, are morphometrically
more similar to those of herbivorous reptiles, and suggest a possibly
omnivorous diet. A partial Troodon skeleton has been discovered with
preserved puncture marks. |
Comox
Valley
Elasmosaur
Elasmosaurus
is a genus of plesiosaur with an extremely long neck that lived in the
Late Cretaceous period , 80.5 million years ago.
"The Elasmosaur,
whose fossil is displayed in the Courtenay
and District Museum and
Paleontology Centre, along with a full-sized replica that
hangs from
the ceiling, was discovered in the fall of 1988. It was the
first Elasmosaur recorded in British Columbia — the first of its kind
west of the Canadian Rockies.
Local resident Mike Trask and his 12-year-old daughter
Heather were out
prospecting for fossils along the Puntledge River just west of the
city.
Here is how the Courtenay Museum tells the
story: "Mike was advancing in the lead, kneeling every few
meters to examine a particular fossil and to mark it with chalk, for
later extraction by Heather following close behind.
"Suddenly, as she examined a fossil that her father had just outlined,
Heather noticed a group of concretions rising from the exposed shale
less than a meter away. Upon further excavation, both she and Mike were
astonished to discover a group of fossilized bones from some great
beast, as-yet unknown and extinct since the end of the Age of
Dinosaurs". Within a year of the marine reptile's discovery,
the museum set about to excavate the rest of the animal with staff and
numerous volunteers. Dr. Rolf Ludvigsen led the excavation
with about 40 volunteers. Dr. Elizabeth Nicholls of the Royal Tyrrell
Museum presided over identification and preparation. The
Courtenay Museum is excited about their ancient creature being chosen
by Canada Post for a stamp. "We're very excited about this
news. It's a tribute to Mike Trask's Elasmosaur discovery in 1988 and
to other significant fossil discoveries made in the Comox Valley," said
museum executive director Deborah Griffiths. " Comox
Valley Echo
|
Cypretherium
,
nicknamed “Terminator Pig”
Cypretherium
coarctatum is an extinct entelodont from the Chadronian strata of the
Cypress Hills Formation in Saskatchewan.
Entelodonts
sometimes facetiously termed hell pigs or terminator pigs are
an extinct family of pig-like omnivores of the forests and plains of
North America, Europe, and Asia from the middle Eocene to early Miocene
epochs (37.2—16.3 million years ago), existing for about 21 million
years.
Entelodonts lived in the forests and plains where they were the apex
predators, consuming carrion and live animals and rounding off their
diets with plants and tubers. They would have hunted large
animals, dispatching them with a bite from their jaws. Some
fossil remains of these other animals have been found with the bite
marks of entelodonts on them. Like modern-day pigs, they were
omnivores, eating both meat and plants, but their adaptations show a
bias towards live prey and carrion. They were most likely opportunists,
mainly eating live animals, but not rejecting carrion and roots and
tubers in times of drought. . |
Dimetrodon
Dimetrodon
borealis, formerly known as Bathygnathus borealis, is an
extinct mammal-like reptiles that walked on four
legs and were known primarily
for their large "sails," which arced along their spines. The creatures
were top predators in the early Premian era, between 295 and 272
million years ago, and went extinct some 40 million years before the
dinosaurs.Dimetrodons
are often mistaken for dinosaurs but are actually more closely related
to mammals. A
partial skull bone from Prince Edward Island in Canada is the only
known fossil of Bathygnathus. The skull was discovered around 1845
during the course of a well excavation in Spring Brook in the New
London area.
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About
design
team
The stamp design
work is being done by Subplot Design Inc. (Vancouver), that
included Roy White, Matthew Clark, Steph Gibson
and Liz Wurzinger, while the actual
illustrations are being done by Ukraine-based professional
artist Sergey Krasovskiy,
who is well known for his dinosaur paintings.
Although Krasovskiy’s
work has
graced the pages of many textbooks and
popular magazines, including National Geographic, these are his first
stamps. “When I start an illustration, I visualize it in a
magazine,” explains Krasovskiy. “I couldn’t do the same with a small
stamp, so I printed a stamp-sized frame to actually see the size I was
working with.”
Steph Gibson came up with the idea of showing the
reflection of the creature through the eyes of another. Each eye is a
unique frame, so it helps to create an interesting storyline for the
stamp. Who’s watching? Predator? Prey? They inspire the imagination
without having to depict an entire scene,” says Roy White.
"I looked at extreme
close-ups of reflections in real eyes, so I could replicate
the look with realism" says Sergey Krasovskiy.
The captivating design presented some unusual challenges. The creature
needed to appear as a reflection on a curved surface, making
it difficult to balance the distortion in the perspective with the very
technical – and scientifically accurate – details. For White, the Dinos
of Canada issue comes together best when all of the products are side
by side. “The repeating eye motif comes roaring back on the uncut press
sheet as the eye of a hungry Tyrannosaurus rex and as the frame for a
single stamp among seven other souvenir sheets.” “It’s not just an illustration
to me,” adds Krasovskiy, “I enjoy the process. I hope that it reflects
in my work, and that the audience feels that passion.”
Here are some sketches
provided by the illustrator, Sergey Krasovskiy.
On the beginning of
his work Castoroides
giant beaver
(extinct genus of enormous beavers that lived in North America
during the Pleistocene) was planed. Later on the "beaver"
replaced by Acrotholus.
On the beginning of his work, Sergey drawn the animals
itself. First just grey forms, later on in color.
The next step was to draw eyes and the animals inside.
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Finally Acrotholus was depicting on stamp instead of
the gigant beaver.

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Early versions of the stamps (still with the beaver)
After many Skype calls an images exchange, illustrations
for Canada's Post are finalize.
Products
Acknowledge: Many thanks to Mr. Sergey
Krasovskiy, the illustrator of these stamps for very nice conversation
on facebook and for share his sketches.
Latest
update 22.10.2017
Any feedback, comments or even complaints
are welcome: admin@paleophilatelie.eu (you
can email me on ENglish, DEutsch, or RUssian)