2023 Year-End Gathering

We had an amazing time admiring Andy’s always-growing, impressive collection, rekindling old friendships and making new ones. Thanks for having us Andy, and congrats on your beautiful new home!

(Photo credit: Andy Chua)

First Gathering after Covid!

It’s been quite a while since we were able to gather, and I look the opportunity of a fellow collector who was visiting Singapore and wanted to view my collection to also do a last-minute shout out to our community. We chatted late into the night and I believe all of us missed each other’s fellowship greatly. Thanks for coming folks!

Tatler feature

It is such a lovely gift to end the year, when Singapore Fossil Collectors is featured in the prestigious Tatler magazine. This is a fascinating exposé into the mysterious and enigmatic world of high-end fossil collecting. The full article is available here. Thank you Tatler Hong Kong for the shout-out, and here’s to a much better year ahead everyone. Happy new year!

Mothership video!

As a special bonus, Mothership even produced a cute video featuring three founding members of Singapore Fossil Collectors and our geeky collections. Enjoy!

Singapore Fossil Collectors on Mothership!

Mothership just published this great article covering the work that The Fossil Collector does to bring paleontology and a love for natural history to schools. You guys have truly mastered the art of storytelling, capturing the nuts and bolts of the hobby in such a fun way, while inspiring others to get started. Since the article came out, we’ve received many new members to our Facebook group Singapore Fossil Collectors, as well as a few queries from institutions that have reached out to invite us to deliver our presentations to their members! The breadth of your readership is really something too. Thank you so much!!!

Jurassic World Café

This global Covid-19 pandemic has frozen all year-end travel plans, and event organisers have pull out all stops to entertain Singaporeans. For some reason, dinosaurs have featured heavily such as with the new Changi Jurassic Mile and the year-end decorations at Changi Airport Terminal 3. Another interesting pop-up restaurant from Nov 6, 2020 to Jan 3, 2021 has been at ION Orchard. We visited it and were delighted to see the same Jurassic World movie display raptor, together with a decent mechandising (toys) shelves. The food was priced reasonably and tasted ok, with cute names such as Fossil Excavation Cake, Jurassic World Burger, and Volcano Curry. Catch the great views with the kids during the school holidays!

The largest egg in the world

The largest bird that ever lived, the genus Aepyornis or elephant bird was a ratite with up to seven species and the largest egg of any oviparous animal. The Malagasy often used its shells to transport water and rum. Aepyornis was 3 metres tall, weighed half a ton, and was indigenous to Madagascar, the fourth-largest island in the world. The first human settlers only arrived on Madagascar around 500 B.C., long after it split from India 88 million years ago. This animal or its remains may have inspired legends such as told by explorer Marco Polo, who first described in 1298 a bird that looked like an eagle, but “incomparably greater in size; being so large and strong as to seize an elephant with its talons.” Aepyornis became extinct about a thousand years ago. This collection includes a composite egg from Madagascar dating back to the 17^th Century or earlier, as well as a set of two legs in immaculate condition belonging to a single specimen of Mullerornis from the Quaternary period, with each leg comprising of a tibia, a tarsus, and a femur.

Home & Decor feature

I’m a big fan of Home & Decor magazine, so when The Fossil Collector was featured it was such a dream come true! Here’s the original feature.

This is a reprint in the Straits Times with the text intact.

And this is a re-print in The Peak magazine.

Thanks so much guys!

The Fossil Collector featured in High Net Worth

High Net Worth is an online publication that “seeks to redefine ‘worth’ by focusing on people—shaped by stories, values, qualities—and the impact that they make on the world”.

When HNW approached me to share about the ‘fossil collecting, I was delighted that the journalist Eumund Tan was not only curious to understand my collection, but took pains to understand the ‘Whys’ of fossils and paleontology for me. His inquiry into the passion of fossil collectors was refreshing, and this is one of the first interviews that I went in some detail on my views around evolution and religion.

Hope you all enjoy the article!

Introducing: The African T-Rex!

One of my favourite dinosaurs is the Carcharodontosaurus (Greekˌkɑːrkəroʊˌdɒntoʊˈsɔːrəs/karcharo (“jagged”), also known as the “African T-Rex”. It existed between 100 and 94 million years ago, during the Cenomanian stages of the mid-Cretaceous Period 110 to 93 million years ago. Originally called Megalosaurus saharicus, Ernst Stromer von Reichenbach renamed it after the shark genus Carcharodon due to the resemblance of its razor sharp, serrated teeth to the Great White Shark, the only extant Carcharodon member. This more primitive predator was in fact a carnosaur closely related to Giganotosaurus, rather than a close relative of T. rex. At up to 14 metres long, the Carch may have been slightly bigger than Tyrannosaurus which measured up to 12.3 metres long, but not quite as large as the largest carnivorous dinosaur of all time – Spinosaurus, with whom it likely came into conflict with in a battle of epic proportions. This pristine specimen is a right mandible of Carcharodontosaurus saharicus from the Kem Kem Formation of Morocco.