Dunkleosteus figure to scale with average adult male

Sizing Up Our Dinosaur Collection Part 2: What Scale is the Dunkleosteus (2007) from Safari Ltd.

The second in an occasional series in which I explore the scale of the miniature figures in my prehistoric animal collection.

I should make it clear at the outset, the Dunkleosteus was neither a dinosaur, nor did it live during the Cretaceous period. It was a prehistoric fish that lived some two hundred million years before the Cretaceous period during what is called the Devonian Age.

Safari Ltd. Dunkleosteus with most recent extrapolation overlaid

Dunkleosteus (2007) figure from Safari Ltd.

While our site is called 'Cretaceous Days' and primarily focuses on that period, like most collectors of prehistoric figures, the breadth of our collection extends beyond a single clade (Dinosauria) and geological period. We therefore reserve the right, from time to time, to be able to include and discuss ancient creatures from other animal groups and geological periods.

In my previous post, I mentioned that one method of calculating a figure's scale is to divide the length of the full-size animal by the length of the miniature, with the result being its scale. The Dunkleosteus (2007) figure from Safari Ltd (whose length is easily measured), would seem to be a good candidate for this straightforward approach. This method, however, can be problematic for a variety of reasons, and the Dunkleosteus figure serves as a perfect example of these challenges.

The Dunkleosteus was an ancient armored fish known as a placoderm, characterized by heavy bony plates around its head and shoulder area. These bony plates preserved well, yielding numerous fossil remains of the fish, which have been discovered over the years. Unfortunately, the rest of the animal's skeletal cartilage did not fare as well, leaving little information about the Dunkleosteus' body from its shoulders aft to its tail. Due to this lack of fossil evidence, paleontologists must rely on comparative anatomy of known fishes to make educated guesses about the appearance of the Dunkleosteus, as well as to estimate its overall length. This estimation has varied widely over the last 20 years. According to Wikipedia, the most recent estimate places it between 4.1 and 5 meters, while previous estimates have reached as long as 10 meters.

Using the longest estimate of ten meters for your calculations produces a resulting scale of 1:55 (1000 cm / 18 cm = 1:55.5 ), while using the shortest estimated length of 4.1 meters produces a resulting scale of 1:23 (410 cm / 18 cm = 22.7). While on the surface, each of these may seem reasonable, under closer scrutiny, you will realize both calculations produce skull and shoulder dimensions substantially larger than the largest fossil specimens yet discovered. Because of this, in the case of the Dunkleosteus (2007) from Safari Ltd., it is more appropriate to use known measurements of the skull and shoulder area (in this case of the well documented CMNH 5768) to calculate its scale, rather than the estimated full body lengths achieved through comparative analysis and extrapolation.

Safari Ltd. Dunkleosteus with most recent extrapolation overlaid

Scale drawing of CMNH 5768 by Yoofilos@yoofilos superimposed on Safari Ltd. Dunkleosteus (2007) figure

With this in mind, using my method I have concluded that the Safari Ltd 2007 Dunkleosteus figure is approximately 1/20th the size of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH) 5768. This means that the life-size animal was approximately 20 times larger than the Safari Ltd figure, giving the Dunkleosteus miniature a scale of 1:20 when compared to the museum specimen.

From Royal

CD Scale Sheet for Dunkleosteous (2007) from Safari Ltd.

It is worth noting, nearly twenty years on from it's original release, the Safari Ltd figure, while dramatically different in silhouette from the most recent extrapolations is very similar in length.


Posted on 24-03-06 by Stunt Kitty Films in dinosaurs
Card image cap
About Stunt Kitty Films

We've been making films off and on now for more than twenty years.


Have you watched one of our films recently?

UFO Over NoHo

You will see flying saucers