Since the discovery of the first nearly-complete dinosaur skeleton in 1858, dinosaurs have captured the imagination of scientists, writers, film-makers and the general public world wide. Although these pre-historic creatures have been extinct for millions of years, this discovery has virtually brought them back to life as they live on through films, books and scientific writings. With this set of ten dinosaur stamps, the South African Post Office is combining pre-history with modern technology by using the anaglyph method to create a three-dimensional effect.
In 1858, fossil hobbyist William Parker Foulke found the bones of an animal larger than an elephant. It was unlike anything he had seen before with features of both a lizard and a bird. The discovery of this pre-historic creature in Haddonfield, New Jersey in the USA had a major impact on the scientific world and changed our views of natural history forever. Dubbed Hadrosaurus foulkii, this dinosaur set the ball rolling for future discoveries.
Today, mounted dinosaur skeletons have become major attractions at museums around the world. Dinosaurs have become a part of world culture and are featured in best-selling books, films and in the media.
This set of self-adhesive dinosaur stamps is the first ever with a 3D effect to be issued by the South African Post Office. It will also be the first time that a pair of viewing glasses will be supplied with each stamp sheet and commemorative cover. The method used to create this effect, is known as an anaglyph. An anaglyph is a stereo image that requires special glasses with red and green (or blue) lenses for 3D viewing. To achieve the effect, two views of a picture are printed in two colours, usually red for the left eye and blue or green for the right eye.
The stamps were illustrated by Chantelle Basson, a second-year Graphic Design student at the Open Window Academy in Pretoria. Five of the stamps depict skeletons of different types of dinosaurs, while the other five stamps show images of what scientists believe these creatures most probably looked like. All the dinosaurs depicted on the stamps have an African connection. They are:
- Suchomimus: The word Suchomimus means ‘crocodile mimic’ and is derived from the dinosaur’s resemblance to crocodilians that ate mainly fish. Suchomimus was a large fish-eating animal, which is believed to have grown to about 12 metres long. It occurred along the riverbanks and lakeshores of inland Africa during the late Cetaceous period, which is the geological time period from about 144 to 65 million years ago.
- Afrovenator: Afrovenator means ‘African hunter’. It is a genus of megalosaurid theropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of northern Africa. It was a bipedal predator with sharp teeth and three claws on each hand. Judging from the one known skeleton, this dinosaur was approximately nine meters long from snout to tail tip. The skeleton was found in Niger and is housed at the University of Chicago.
- Heterodontosaurus: Heterodontosaurus means ‘different-toothed lizard’. It is a genus of small herbivorous dinosaur with prominent canine teeth and lived in Africa in the Early Jurassic, which is the geological time period from about 210 to140 million years ago. An interesting feature of this dinosaur, which gave rise to its name, is that it had three different types of teeth.
- Jobaria: Jobaria was a primtive, long-necked, long-tailed dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period. Its remains were discovered in the Sahara desert in 1997. Named after Jobar, a creature of local legends, this dinosaur is estimated to have been about 18 metres long.
- Ouranosaurus: Ouranosaurus, meaning “brave lizard” was an iguanodont that lived during the early Cretaceous period about 110 million years ago in Africa. Iguanodonts were herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the mid-Jurassic to Late Cretaceous periods. Ouranosaurus was about seven metres long and weighed about four tons. Two complete fossils were found in 1966. The animal was named in 1976 by French palaeontologist, Phillipe Taquet.
