Tasmanian Tiger, Australia

This is an informative postcard about the Tasmanian Tiger (thylacine) thought to be extinct...one of those sad stories...it used to be widespread on the island but then, yes humans came along and became their worst enemy. The last live recorded thylacine died in the Hobart zoo in 1936. There is still hope that the species managed to survive in the Tasmanian wilderness where humans only so rarely venture...fingers crossed :)

Thank you Kathryn for this postcard, I wanted to have one of these creatures on a postcard ever since I visited Tasmania and heard the story :)

Maxi-Cards - Giants of Patagonia, Serbia

This weekend i was blown away with this brilliant surprise from dear Ana - my thanks run to the heavens and back! heh :)))

Two years ago there was an exhibition in Beograd's Natural History Museum called 'Dinosaurs of Argentina - Giants of Patagonia',  that presented 40 complete skeletons of 15 different dinosaur species, some eggs, nests with youngs, and footprints. These maxi-cards show Gigantosaurus Carolinii and Herrerasaurus Ischigualastensis.

Gigantosaurus Carolinii lived around 97 million years ago during the early Cenomanian stage of the late Cretaceous Period (i wish i knew more about the earth's history...then this would make more sense :S). It is one of the largest known terrestrial carnivores - even slightly larger than the famous Tyrranosaurus! The first remains were found in 1993 in deposits of Patagonia, in southern Argentina. It could grow up to the length of 13m  and weighed probably between 7-13 tons. massive.

First remains of Herrerasaurus Ischigualastensis were found in NW Argentina in 1959 by an andean goatherd Herrera - hence the name! They belong to the late Ladinian Age/Middle Triassic (some 230 million years ago). This carnivore was smaller (3 to 6 meters) but surely just as scary..!

Well one learns something new every day :-D

Dinosaurs & Kotovasiya

 I have arranged a private swap with Maria from Russia - found a dinosaur card (for my slowly growing extinct species collection) and Kotovasiya (which could easily become my next collection!) i think the dinosaur card is very atmospheric; i like the fact that it depicts a scene, and the sepia tones have always been close to my heart :)

Kotovasiya cards are so cool! There is not a particular elaboration and/or grandness about them - they are simply cute and soothing to look at. what surprised me is that the card is soft to the touch too :)

The stamps Maria used is a complete set (on two cards) 'Culture of Russia People - National Hair Dress' - i think they are absolutely wonderful! i have consenquently checked russian mail & stamps online and discovered that they print some of the most amazing stamps i've ever seen :)