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Armour (zoology)
Armor or armour in animals is a rigid cuticle or exoskeleton that provides exterior protection against attack by predators, formed as part of the body (rather than the behavioural utilization of external objects for protection) usually through the thickening and hardening of superficial tissues, outgrowths or skin secretions. It is often found in prey species that are too slow or clumsy to outrun predators, or those that would stand their ground and fight, thus needing to protect vital organs against claw, talon or bite injuries. Composition Armoured structures are usually composed of hardened mineral deposits, chitin, bone, or keratin. Species with armour Armour is evident in numerous animal species from both current and prehistoric times. Dinosaurs such as '' Ankylosaurus'', as well as other Thyreophora (armoured dinosaurs such as Ankylosauria and Stegosauria), grew thick plate-like armour on their bodies as well as offensive armour appendages such as the thagomizer or a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmontonia American Museum Of Natural History
''Edmontonia'' is a genus of Panoplosaurini, panoplosaurin nodosauridae, nodosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), Period. It is part of the Nodosauridae, a family within Ankylosauria. It is named after the Edmonton Formation (now the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in Canada), the unit of rock where it was found. Description Size and general build ''Edmontonia'' was bulky, broad and tank-like. Its length has been estimated at 6.6 m (22 ft). In 2010, Gregory S. Paul considered both main ''Edmontonia'' species, ''E. longiceps'' and ''E. rugosidens'', to be equally long at six metres and weigh three tonnes.Paul, G.S., 2010, ''The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs'', Princeton University Press p. 238 ''Edmontonia'' had small, oval ridged bony plates on its back and head and many sharp spikes along its sides. The four largest spikes jutted out from the shoulders on each side, the second of which was split into subspines in ''E. rugosidens'' specimens. Its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strongylocentrotus Purpuratus 1
''Strongylocentrotus'' is a genus of sea urchins in the family Strongylocentrotidae The Strongylocentrotidae are a family (biology), family of sea urchins in the order (biology), order Camarodonta. Genera References Strongylocentrotidae, Echinoderm families {{echinoidea-stub ... containing several species. Species The World Register of Marine Species includes: See also * '' Flabesymbios commensalis'' References External links The sea urchin ''Strongylocentrotus purpuratus'' genomic data basefrom California Institute of Technology Echinoidea genera {{Echinoidea-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saltasaurus
''Saltasaurus'' (which means "lizard from Salta") is a genus of saltasaurid dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period of Argentina. Small among sauropods, though still heavy by the standards of modern creatures, ''Saltasaurus'' was characterized by a short neck and stubby limbs. It was the first genus of sauropod known to possess Armour (zoology), armour of bony plates embedded in its skin. Such small bony plates, called osteoderms, have since been found on other titanosaurians. Discovery The fossils of ''Saltasaurus'' were excavated by José Bonaparte, Martín Vince and Juan C. Leal between 1975 and 1977 at the Estancia "El Brete". The find was in 1977 reported in the scientific literature. ''Saltasaurus'' was named and described by Bonaparte and Jaime E. Powell in 1980. The type species is ''Saltasaurus loricatus''. Its generic name is derived from Salta Province, the region of north-west Argentina where the first fossils were recovered. The specific name (zoolo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their body), and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land. Well-known genera include '' Apatosaurus'', '' Argentinosaurus'', '' Alamosaurus'', ''Brachiosaurus'', '' Camarasaurus'', '' Diplodocus,'' and '' Mamenchisaurus''. The oldest known unequivocal sauropod dinosaurs are known from the Early Jurassic. '' Isanosaurus'' and '' Antetonitrus'' were originally described as Triassic sauropods, but their age, and in the case of ''Antetonitrus'' also its sauropod status, were subsequently questioned. Sauropod-like sauropodomorph tracks from the Fleming Fjord Formation (Greenland) might, however, indicate the occurrence of the g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceratopsian
Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Asia and Europe, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Late Jurassic of Asia. The earliest known ceratopsian, '' Yinlong downsi'', lived between 161.2 and 155.7 million years ago.Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2011) ''Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages,'Winter 2010 Appendix./ref> The last ceratopsian species, '' Triceratops prorsus'', became extinct during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, . ''Triceratops'' is by far the best-known ceratopsian to the general public. It is traditional for ceratopsian genus names to end in "''-ceratops''", although this is not always the case. One of the first named genera was '' Ceratops'' itself, which lent its name to the group, although it is considered a ''nomen dubium'' today as its fossil remains have no disti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osteoderm
Osteoderms are bony deposits forming scales, plates, or other structures based in the dermis. Osteoderms are found in many groups of extant and extinct reptiles and amphibians, including lizards, crocodilians, frogs, temnospondyls (extinct amphibians), various groups of dinosaurs (most notably ankylosaurs and stegosaurians), phytosaurs, aetosaurs, placodonts, and hupehsuchians (marine reptiles with possible ichthyosaur affinities). Osteoderms are uncommon in mammals, although they have occurred in many xenarthrans (armadillos and the extinct glyptodonts and mylodontid ground sloths). The heavy, bony osteoderms have evolved independently in many different lineages. The armadillo osteoderm is believed to develop in subcutaneous dermal tissues. These varied structures should be thought of as anatomical analogues, not homologues, and do not necessarily indicate monophyly. The structures are however derived from scutes, common to all classes of amniotes and are an exampl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Club (anatomy)
In zoology, a tail club is a bony mass at the end of the tail of some dinosaurs and of some mammals, most notably the Ankylosauridae, ankylosaurids and the glyptodonts, as well as meiolaniid turtles. It is thought that this was a form of defensive Armour (zoology), armour or weapon that was used to defend against predators, much in the same way as a thagomizer, possessed by stegosaurids, though at least in glyptodonts it is hypothesized it was used in Display (zoology), fighting for mating rights. Among dinosaurs, the club was present mainly in ankylosaurids, although Sauropoda, sauropods like ''Shunosaurus'' and ''Kotasaurus'' also possessed a tail club. Victoria Arbour has established that ankylosaurid tails could generate enough force to break bone during impacts. In a separate study, Arbour suggested tail clubs as well as large armoured herbivores as a whole evolve when animals are too large to hide and too small to avoid predation by size alone. Morphology In ankylosaurid di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thagomizer
A thagomizer () is the distinctive arrangement of spike-shaped osteoderms on the tails of some stegosaurian dinosaurs. These spikes are believed to have been a defensive measure against predators. The arrangement of spikes originally had no distinct name. Cartoonist Gary Larson invented the name "thagomizer" in 1982 as a joke in his comic strip ''The Far Side'', and it was gradually adopted as an informal term sometimes used within scientific circles, research, and education. Etymology The term ''thagomizer'' was coined by Gary Larson in jest. In a 1982 ''The Far Side'' comic, a group of cavemen are taught by a caveman lecturer that the spikes on a stegosaur's tail were named "after the late Thag Simmons". The term was picked up initially by Kenneth Carpenter, then a paleontologist at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, who used the term when describing a fossil at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting in 1993. ''Thagomizer'' has since been adopted as an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plate (anatomy)
A plate in animal anatomy may refer to several things: Flat bones (examples: bony plates, dermal plates) of vertebrates * an appendage of the Stegosauria group of dinosaurs * articulated armoured plates covering the head of thorax of Placodermi (literally "plate-skinned"), an extinct class of prehistoric fish (including skull, thoracic and tooth plates) * bony shields of the Ostracoderms (armored jawless fishes) such as the dermal head armour of members of the class Pteraspidomorphi that include dorsal, ventral, rostral and pineal plates * plates of a carapace, such as the dermal plates of the shell of a turtle * dermal plates partly or completely covering the body of the fish in the order Gasterosteiformes that includes the sticklebacks and relatives * plates of dermal bones of the armadillo * Zygomatic plate, a bony plate derived from the flattened front part of the zygomatic arch (cheekbone) in rodent anatomy Other flat structures * hairy plate-like keratin scales of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stegosauria
Stegosauria is a group of Herbivore, herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous Period (geology), periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Europe and Asia), Africa and South America. Their geographical origins are unclear; the earliest unequivocal stegosaurian, ''Bashanosaurus primitivus'', was found in the Bathonian Shaximiao Formation of China. Stegosaurians were armored dinosaurs (thyreophorans). Originally, they did not differ much from more primitive members of that group, being small, low-slung, running animals protected by armored scutes. An early evolutionary innovation was the development of spikes as defensive weapons. Later species, belonging to a subgroup called the Stegosauridae, became larger, and developed long hindlimbs that no longer allowed them to run. This increased the importance of active defence by the thagomizer, which could ward off even large predators becau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ankylosauria
Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the clade Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are known to have first appeared in North Africa during the Middle Jurassic, and persisted until the end of the Late Cretaceous. The two main families of ankylosaurians, Nodosauridae and Ankylosauridae primarily originated from the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Europe and Asia), but the more basal Parankylosauria originated from southern Gondwana (South America, Australia and Antarctica) during the Cretaceous. Ankylosauria was first named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1923.Osborn, H. F. (1923). "Two Lower Cretaceous dinosaurs of Mongolia." ''American Museum Novitates'', 95: 1–1/ref> In the Linnaean classification system, the group is usually considered either a suborder or an infraorder. It is contained within the group ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
