Carnivorous Dinosaur Figures Kit | Meat-Eating Dinosaur Set

The carnivores are the ones children want, and that is a teaching advantage rather than a problem. Attention is already there; the job is to attach something to it.

What this set attaches is evidence. Pointed teeth for tearing, claws, a heavy jaw, eyes set forward on the skull for judging distance to prey. Every one of those is a feature a child can find on the model with a finger, and together they make a coherent argument about how the animal lived.

Used alongside the herbivore set, the two collections become a genuine sorting task with a rule that has to be inferred rather than remembered. Children separate a mixed pile and — the important part — justify each decision. “Sharp teeth, so it ate meat.”

Forward-facing eyes are worth pointing out to older children: predators look forward, prey animals look sideways. It holds for the dinosaurs and it holds for the lion and the zebra in the African set, which is when a child realises a rule can travel.

• Teeth, claws and jaw modelled as findable evidence
• Forward-facing predator eyes — a rule that transfers to modern animals
• Completes the diet-sorting activity with the herbivore set
• Solid, washable mouldings for small-world and sand play
• Recommended ages 3–8
• 21-piece set: Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Pachycephalosaurus, Spinosaurus and Ceratosaurus — two of each, an adult and a young — plus 10 trees and stones and an instruction sheet
• Figures graded 24.5×14.5 cm down to 5×2 cm; adult-and-young pairs invite size comparison
• Storage box included — the set stays a complete set

Buy these dinosaur toys alongside the herbivorous kit. Links to the African animal kit for the predator-and-prey comparison.