Marshall Islands 2015 "Dinosaur Bones"

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Issue Date	15.01.2015
ID	Michel: 3450-3453; Scott: 1102a-d; Stanley Gibbons: 3315-3318; Yvert et Tellier: 3359-22362; Category: pR
Design	D. Zoe Seemel, Artwork: Bryan Kneale
Stamps in set	4
Value	c34 - Triceratops c34 - Stegosaurus c34 - Protoceratops c34 - Tyrannosaurus
Emission/Type	commemorative
Places of issue	Majuro
Size (width x height)	stamps: 10 mm x 31 mm Sheet: 184 mm x 152 mm
Layout	Sheet of 16 stamps (4 strips of 4 stamps)
Products	none
Paper	unwatermarked gummed paper
Perforation	13.50 x 13.50
Print Technique	Black, cyan, magenta, yellow by offset lithography
Printed by	Pioneer Printing, Cheyenne, Wyoming, U.S.A.
Quantity
Issuing Authority	Marshall Islands Postal Service.

In March 2015, the Marshall Islands Postal Service introduced at their on-line store the set of four stamps showing "Dinosaur Bones", while the official issue day was announced as January 15^th, 2015. The stamps were printed in a sheet of five strips.

These stamps designs were based on the artworks created by Bryan Kneale, who painted the set of six images "Dinosaur Bones" in 1990. Kneale's paintings were originally published on the cachets of Fleetwood's First Day Cover for the "150th Anniversary of Dinosaurs' Identification by Sir Richard Owens" stamps of the Royal Mail in 1991.

Bryan Kneale was born in 1930 on the Isle of Man and attended Douglas School of Art (1946-47) and the Royal Academy Schools, London (1948-1949). Kneale was initially a figurative painter, but started making sculpture after attending a welding course in 1960. Since the mid-1980s Kneale's major source of inspiration has been the skeletons and joints of animals he studied and drew at the Natural History Museum in London. In an interview to "Tate" website, Kneale related his fascination to a sculptural interest in structure and form:
I have always found in all my work it is the connections, the articulation of form which has been of particular importance to me, rather than the development of sculptural mass. The endless invention in nature of bony structures from minute tiny insects and animals to colossal forms of dinosaur bones … has always fascinated me.

Between 1989 and 2018 the Marshall Islands outsource the production of their stamps to the USA-based company, Unicover Corporation (discontinued in 2018).

Unicover Corporation was privately owned, they have had a wide-reaching artwork originals business. Their principal subsidiary, Unicover World Trade Corporation, was markets postage stamps in North America for various postal administrations from around the globe.
One of the subsidiary companies of Unicover was Fleetwood (acquired by Mystic in 2007). Fleetwood was FDC maker company, since 1929, who create unique cachets for their covers, based on the artwork collection of Unicover Corporation.

Dinosaur bones on FDC of Fleetwood with stamps of Great Britain 1991



The following text was written on the reverse side of FDCs produced by the Fleetwood company in 1991, with some notes added by the author of this website.

More than one hundred and forty-five million years ago, giants roamed the tropical expanses of a young earth caught in the perpetual summer of the Mesozoic Era. From small, chicken-sized creatures to behemoths weighing more than seventy tons, dinosaurs existed as stalking carnivores or browsing herbivores, and their titanic clashes as predator and prey thundered across the primordial plains. Extinct for eons, dinosaurs continue to captivate imaginations and stimulate vital scientific research.


Triceratops lived and died during the Late Cretaceous Period - more than 136 million years ago.

Triceratops on stamps of Marshall Islands 2015, MiNr.: 3450, Scott: 1102a.

A large bony frill which partially encircled its neck separated the creature's massive body and elongated head. Two long, bony horns measuring more than three feet in length jutted from its forehead, while another short horn curved slightly up from its snout. The weight of its heavy body was borne by stout hind legs and shorter forelegs, which suggested a bipedal ancestor. Paleontologists have estimated that the Triceratops weighed eight to nine tons and supported its enormous bulk by browsing continuously, for this dinosaur - like so many others of formidable appearance- was an herbivore. Its beak-like mouth ripped fibrous vegetation such as palm fronds, while its teeth sheared through the stringy pulp and chopped it finely to allow for easy mastication. Scientists believe that the Triceratops grazed and travelled in groups or herds which provided additional protection from hungry predators such as the Tyrannosaurus rex. A latecomer to the Age of Dinosaurs, this species was also among the last of the reptilian giants to become extinct.


The late Jurassic Period produced one of the dinosaur era's most unusual creatures- the Stegosaurus.

Stegosaurus on stamps of Marshall Islands 2015, MiNr.: 3451, Scott: 1102b.

It developed as a biped, but through the eons it reverted to a quadruped, thus accounting for its high haunches and short forelegs. Measuring approximately twenty feet in length, the Stegosaurus was armoured - with two offset rows of large, triangular, horn-covered bony plates along its back and two pairs of long, pointed bony spikes at the end of its tail. This battle-ready, ponderous body completely dwarfed the creature's comically-small head and suggested a pugnacious nature. But the Stegosaurus was a peaceably-natured dinosaur which grazed on soft vegetation and counted on its formidable appearance to ward off predators. Closer examination of Stegosaurus fossils in the late 1970s revealed that the bony plates contained a network of canals which probably contained blood vessels. Many scientists now speculate that the vessels served as a convective heat-loss system, enabling the dinosaur to control its own body temperature. Such startling information suggests that dinosaurs were warm-blooded creatures - not cold-blooded like modern reptiles - and add extra dimension to the continuing quest to explain their mass extinction.


Protoceratops was one of the most primitive species of dinosaur.

Protoceratops on stamps of Marshall Islands 2015, MiNr.: 3452, Scott: 1102c.

A predecessor of later great horned dinosaurs, the Protoceratops was slightly larger than the modern alligator and probably evolved - like so many other herbivores - from a bipedal ancestor. The Protoceratops' large head was partially encircled by a bony frill which protected its vulnerable neck area from a predator's deadly attack, but this dinosaur lacked the sharp horns which gave its Triceratops descendents their fierce and combative appearance. A beak-like mouth suited its vegetarian diet, but the creature possessed only a few teeth in its upper jaw and probably eschewed fibrous palm fronds in favour of tender, easily masticated shoots. The animal's well-developed tail contained long vertical spines, indicating to some researchers a partially-aquatic lifestyle. Like other larger herbivores, the Protoceratops travelled in groups or herds. In recent decades, scientists have uncovered more than eighty individual specimens in all stages of development - from whole, unbroken eggs complete with intact embryo to older animals at the end of their lifecycle. These valuable finds - many of them unearthed in Mongolia - will in time produce priceless additional data on this ancient creature. The Protoceratops was one of the Dinosaur Era's first species and one of science's most fertile sources for paleontologic research.


In 1842 British anatomist Sir Richard Owen coined the word dinosaur from two Greek words meaning "terrible lizard." Although dinosaurs were not lizards, the term aptly applied to the best known and most fearsome of all dinosaurs - the Tyrannosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus on stamps of Marshall Islands 2015, MiNr.: 3453, Scott: 1102d.

Its name meant "tyrant lizard," and this ravenous meat-eater conducted an unrivalled reign of terror as master of the Mesozoic Era. Towering twenty feet above the ground, the Tyrannosaurus possessed an enormous head and six-inch, dagger-like teeth which slashed into prey with merciless efficiency. Its short forelimbs served little function other than grasping objects at close range, and the behemoth's long tail acted as a counter-balance for its cumbersome body. While the Tyrannosaurus was undoubtedly the most powerful and dangerous dinosaur, it was also one of the rarest. Scientists estimated that one hundred square miles of territory served as the habitat for only one Tyrannosaurus. Its remains are generally uncovered in the same deposits as the remains of its most likely prey - the more plentiful great armoured dinosaurs such as Triceratops and Protoceratops. Millions of years after the last Tyrannosaurus died, this terrifying creature continues to stimulate scientific investigation and linger in the mythological fantasies of mankind.

Products and associated philatelic items

Stamps-Sheet

References:

• Technical details and short press releases:
  Marshall Islands Stamp Catalog (this website does not exist anymore), Unicover (this article does not exist anymore),
  colnect.
• Bryan Kneale:
  Wikipedia, Interview to "Tate" website (this article does not exist anymore).
• Descriptions of the dinosaurs:
  Web Archive

Acknowledgements:

• Many thanks to Dr. Peter Voice, PhD Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Western Michigan University, USA, for reviewing of a draft of this article.

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