Thursday, March 3, 2011

Radical Taxonomic Act by the Airfix Model Company

In 1979, the Airfix model company made a bold statement by rechristening the early Permian pelycosaur Dimetrodon as a dinosaur. What we now call the "Airfix Wars" raged throughout the eighties, resulting in rancorous disputes at toy fairs and SVP meetings alike which occasionally descended into fisticuffs.

Airfix Dinosaurs Ad 1979
Shared by combomphotos at Flickr.

I post this today not to reopen old wounds, but to remind the world of past mistakes so they might never happen again. Let's keep our toymakers out of taxonomy.

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