Just one month left in the year. The world is awash in Star Wars, and the excitement is incomparable to last summer's Jurassic World, making me feel a bit "Jurras-sick" (Jurassic/sick of it)... I apologize for the pun. By the way, there are still people who mistakenly refer to it as "Jurassic Park," but it's difficult to correct them.

This time's Treasure House is about "mammal-like reptiles," which were put on the back burner because I spent three installments discussing "Jurassic World." But before that...

I'd like to introduce "the JW merchandise I acquired afterwards." First, the definitive figures: Indominus Rex VS T-Rex. These were part of a Blu-ray gift set released in America and are surprisingly realistic (Photo 1).

The T-Rex even has the scars on its neck from the raptor attack in the first movie (it's supposed to be the same individual). The Blu-ray doesn't have Japanese subtitles, but I was so dazzled by the figures that I bought it from Sekaimon. (Photo 2) shows a 1/43 die-cast mini-car (foreground) of the "Jurassic Park" vehicle, a Jeep Wrangler, found abandoned in the movie. The quality is toy-grade, but when faced with such a nostalgic item, my rule of not buying vehicle models goes out the window. The larger one is a 1993 Kenner toy packed with gimmicks.

Now to the main topic. In a book I read this year called "Creatures of the Carboniferous and Permian Periods" (Gijutsu Hyoron Sha, 2014), there was a shocking passage...
" (Current science textbooks now state that) mammals did not evolve from reptiles." I had a vague awareness of the theory that mammals and reptiles each evolved separately from amphibians, but I never imagined that this would be common knowledge for elementary school students today. And most importantly, the familiar term "mammal-like reptile" is no longer used because they are not considered reptiles. This is a bit sad...
The author is Ken Tsuchiya, a science writer who is now as active as Ryuichi Kaneko was, or even more so.
Now that I think about it, the latest editions of educational encyclopedias no longer feature the term "mammal-like reptile," replacing it with "synapsid." Synapsids, along with anapsids and diapsids, have long been a standard set of illustrations in encyclopedias showing the classification of reptiles by their temporal fenestrae, and they used to be positioned as the ancestors of mammals. However, they have now been promoted to one of the two major lineages of amniotes. The other is reptiles. Synapsids (including mammals) VS Reptiles... it somehow doesn't feel balanced or quite right.

However, in issues 17 and 18 of "A Journey through 4.6 Billion Years of Earth" (published last year) about the birth of amniotes, the authors use terms like "mammal-like reptiles (synapsids)" or "synapsids, formerly known as mammal-like reptiles," indicating that there is still some confusion. In any case, it's only a matter of time before the familiar term "mammal-like reptile" disappears. To bid farewell, here's a collection of mammal-like reptile figures. This may be the last time I can call these figures mammal-like reptiles...

*As I wrote this, I realized that repeatedly using the lengthy phrase "mammal-like reptile" can be a bit irritating.

(Photo 3) MARX figures from the 1950s, believed to be the oldest mammal-like reptile figures. Sphenacodon, Dimetrodon, Cynognathus, Moschops.

Dimetrodon is arguably the most famous mammal-like reptile, and the number of its figures is probably second only to that of the Tyrannosaurus, making it impossible to line them all up here. So, instead, I'll introduce some skeletal figures, which are surprisingly rare (Photo 4).

On the left is a roughly 5cm figure, based on a prize from Meiji's "Dinosaur Country Chocolate" (Treasure House Vol. 44). It's quite well-made, and I liked how it turned out after I painted it. In the back is a Burger King premium version of the "Bone Age" toy series from 1988. On the right is an unidentified cheap toy. And in the upper left is DOM's unfinished wood dinosaur (Treasure House Vol. 11).

Compared to Dimetrodon, a big star in the world of ancient creatures, even if I gathered every Edaphosaurus in my house, this is all I'd have (Photo 5).

It's quite sad. SAFARI, Marushin, STARLUX, and American-made erasers.

As I mentioned in a previous issue (Treasure House Vol. 64), the 1/20 garage kits from "Aomurasaki Products" are exquisitely made, so I'll show them individually again: Ophiacodon (Photo 6), Cotylorhynchus (Photo 7), Inostrancevia (Photo 8), and Stahleckeria (Photo 9).

This is a one-of-a-kind treasure. A 1990 work by sculptor Takeshi Tokiwa. An artistic Dimetrodon and Cynognathus. (Photo 10)

The "World's Oldest Dinosaur Exhibition" held in 2010 was more of a Cructarsian (this new name is commonly used in modern educational encyclopedias; in older ones, it was "Thecodonts"?) exhibition than a dinosaur one, but it also included some unfamiliar mammal-like reptiles from Argentina. These are the limited-edition goods from that event (Photo 11).

A reconstructed model of Exaeretodon, an Exaeretodon from a gashapon, and a reconstruction and skeleton of Ischigualastia. And a rather eerie Exaeretodon plushie.

Other mammal-like reptile figures (Photo 12)

Cynognathus (STARLUX), Eotitanosuchus (Honehone Zaurus), Inostrancevia (SAFARI), Lystrosaurus/Dimetrodon/Tokoro Saurus (Choco Saurus), Sphenacodon/Dimetrodon (SHREDDIES), and the inexplicably popular Moschops (PLAYSKOOL) (unknown) (unknown). The plushie in the back is a Dicynodon from the "Animals of the World from the Cambrian Period" series. Please also see the Lycaenops and Estemmenosuchus from the previous "New Treasure House" JP series.

*After writing this, I thought that Ryuichi Kaneko's 1988 book "Mammal-like Reptiles - The Unknown Ancestors of Humans" (Asahi Sensho) is still the only book on mammal-like reptiles. True to Kaneko-san's style, it delves deeply into the subject and already touches upon today's "separate lineage from reptiles" theory. However, the catchphrase on the obi, "Humans were once reptiles," feels a bit empty...

With this, I bid farewell to "mammal-like reptiles" forever, but I'll also introduce the few Mesozoic mammal figures I have.

(Photo 13) The two on the left are Henkelotherium from the Late Jurassic. One is a prize toy from "Genshoku Chikyū Daishinka Zukan" linked to an NHK program in 2004, and the other is from "Kyōryū Daizukan," re-released as a gashapon with a diorama in 2006 (Yujin). On the right is an Alphadon from the Late Cretaceous, a figure from the movie "Walking with Dinosaurs."