|
Allosaur
''Allosaurus'' () is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard" alluding to its unique (at the time of its discovery) concave vertebrae. It is derived from the Greek (') ("different, other") and (') ("lizard / generic reptile"). The first fossil remains that could definitively be ascribed to this genus were described in 1877 by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh. As one of the first well-known theropod dinosaurs, it has long attracted attention outside of paleontological circles. ''Allosaurus'' was a large bipedal predator. Its skull was light, robust and equipped with dozens of sharp, serrated teeth. It averaged in length for ''A. fragilis'', with the largest specimens estimated as being long. Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, its three-fingered forelimbs were small, and the body was bal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allosaurid
Allosauridae is a family of medium to large bipedal, carnivorous allosauroid theropod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic. Allosauridae is a fairly old taxonomic group, having been first named by the American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878. Allosaurids are characterized by an astragalus with a restriction of the ascending process to the lateral part of the bone, a larger medial than lateral condyle, and a horizontal groove across the face of the condyles. Description Allosaurids have a general anatomy typical of other neotheropod dinosaurs, contributing to the difficulty in defining the family's membership. A typical 8m specimen of ''Allosaurus fragilis'' had a skull of about 0.85m. The premaxilla has five teeth and the maxilla usually around 16. The dentary also typically has 16 teeth. All teeth are serrated and continuously replaced throughout the life of the animal. Allosaurid skulls are characterized by two sets of crests formed by the nasal and lacrimal bones r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnosauria
Carnosauria is an extinct large group of predatory dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Starting from the 1990s, scientists have discovered some very large carnosaurs in the carcharodontosaurid family, such as '' Giganotosaurus'', '' Mapusaurus'', '' Carcharodontosaurus'' and '' Tyrannotitan'' which are among the largest known predatory dinosaurs. While it originally contained a wide assortment of giant theropods that were not closely related, the group has since been defined to encompass only the allosaurs and their closest kin. However, with the description and publication in 2019 of ''Asfaltovenator vialidadi'', a basal allosauroid curiously displaying both primitive and derived features seen in Tetanurae, the new phylogenetic analysis has found Megalosauroidea to be a basal grade of carnosaurs in respect to Allosauroidea; thus significantly expanding Carnosauria's inclusiveness towards its original context. Distinctive characteristics of ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnosaurian
Carnosauria is an extinct large group of predatory dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Starting from the 1990s, scientists have discovered some very large carnosaurs in the carcharodontosaurid family, such as ''Giganotosaurus'', ''Mapusaurus'', ''Carcharodontosaurus'' and ''Tyrannotitan'' which are among the largest known predatory dinosaurs. While it originally contained a wide assortment of giant theropods that were not closely related, the group has since been defined to encompass only the allosaurs and their closest kin. However, with the description and publication in 2019 of ''Asfaltovenator vialidadi'', a basal allosauroid curiously displaying both primitive and derived features seen in Tetanurae, the new phylogenetic analysis has found Megalosauroidea to be a basal grade of carnosaurs in respect to Allosauroidea; thus significantly expanding Carnosauria's inclusiveness towards its original context. Distinctive characteristics of carnos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theropoda
Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved to become herbivores and omnivores. Theropods first appeared during the Carnian age of the late Triassic period 231.4 million years ago ( Ma) and included all the large terrestrial carnivores from the Early Jurassic until at least the close of the Cretaceous, about 66 Ma. In the Jurassic, birds evolved from small specialized coelurosaurian theropods, and are today represented by about 10,500 living species. Biology Diet and teeth Theropods exhibit a wide range of diets, from insectivores to herbivores and carnivores. Strict carnivory has always been considered the ancestral diet for theropods as a group, and a wider variety of diets was historically considered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1995 In Paleontology
Molluscs Bivalves Arthropods Newly named arachnids Newly named insects Fish Newly named bony fish Archosauromorphs Newly named dinosaurs * Fossil hunters working on behalf of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum discover a large coprolite from a theropod dinosaur in Maastrichtian strata. In 1997 it is sent to coprolite specialist Karen Chin, who determines that this specimen of fossilized feces was attributable to ''Tyrannosaurus rex''. One year later, in 1998, Karen Chin and others publish a joint paper in ''Nature'' announcing the finding. * Paul Sereno lead an expedition to the Kem Kem region of southeastern Morocco. Among the fossils discovered is a partial skull of '' Carcharodontosaurus saharicus''. Significantly, it preserves a "complete and undistorted braincase" which would later be described in detail along with the structure of the inner ear of ''C. saharicus'' by Hans C. E. Larsson in 2001."Introduction," Chure (2001). Pg. 20. Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saurophaganax
''Saurophaganax'' ("lord of lizard-eaters") is a genus of large allosaurid dinosaur from the Morrison Formation of Late Jurassic (latest Kimmeridgian age, about 151 million years ago) Oklahoma, United States.Turner, C.E. and Peterson, F., (1999). "Biostratigraphy of dinosaurs in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the Western Interior, U.S.A." Pp. 77–114 in Gillette, D.D. (ed.), ''Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah''. Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 99-1. Some paleontologists consider it to be a junior synonym and species of ''Allosaurus'' (as ''A. maximus''). ''Saurophaganax'' represents a very large Morrison allosaurid characterized by horizontal laminae at the bases of the dorsal neural spines above the transverse processes, and "meat-chopper" chevrons. It was the largest terrestrial carnivore of North America during the Late Jurassic, reaching in length and in body mass. Discovery and naming In 1931 and 1932, John Willis Stovall uncovered remains of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1878 In Paleontology
Arthropods Newly named arachnids Newly named insects Archosauromorphs O. W. Lucas recovers more material which would be referred to ''Laelaps trihedrodon'' from Morrison Formation strata near Garden Park, Colorado."Introduction," Chure (2001) page 11. Newly named pseudosuchians Newly named dinosaurs Plesiosaurs Newly named plesiosaurs Synapsids Non-mammalian Footnotes References * {{cite book , last=Chure , first=Daniel J. , year=2001 , chapter=On the type and referred material of ''Laelaps trihedrodon'' Cope 1877 (Dinosauria: Theropoda) , editor=Tanke, Darren , editor2=Carpenter, Kenneth , title=Mesozoic Vertebrate Life , publisher=Indiana University Press , location=Bloomington and Indianapolis , page10–18, isbn=0-253-33907-3 , url=https://archive.org/details/mesozoicvertebra0000unse/page/10 1870s in paleontology Paleontology, 1878 In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1877 In Paleontology
Arthropods Newly named insects Fish Non-dinosaurian reptiles Dinosaurs ''Laelaps trihedrodon'', Cope criticizes ''Dryptosaurus'' O. W. Lucas collected the first remains of what would later in the year be named ''Laelaps trihedrodon'' from Quarry I of the Saurian Hill at Garden Park, Colorado."Introduction," Chure (2001) page 11. Edward Drinker Cope would describe the material later in the year in a short paper titled "On a carnivorous dinosaurian from the Dakota beds of Colorado."Cope (1887) pages 805-806. The "Dakota beds" he references are actually Morrison Formation strata. Cope claims to have a skeleton of unspecified completeness on which to establish the new species, but only describes a partial dentary which has 5 successional teeth, 2 functional teeth, and one tooth missing from its socket. All of the preceding material has since been lost to science with the exception of 5 broken, partial tooth crowns."Description of 5780," Chure (2001) page 11. From the now missi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biped
Bipedalism is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped , meaning 'two feet' (from Latin ''bis'' 'double' and ''pes'' 'foot'). Types of bipedal movement include walking, running, and hopping. Several groups of modern species are habitual bipeds whose normal method of locomotion is two-legged. In the Triassic period some groups of archosaurs (a group that includes crocodiles and dinosaurs) developed bipedalism; among the dinosaurs, all the early forms and many later groups were habitual or exclusive bipeds; the birds are members of a clade of exclusively bipedal dinosaurs, the theropods. Within mammals, habitual bipedalism has evolved multiple times, with the macropods, kangaroo rats and mice, springhare, hopping mice, pangolins and hominin apes (australopithecines, including humans) as well as various other extinct groups evolving the tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Othniel Charles Marsh
Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among his legacies are the discovery or description of dozens of new species and theories on the origins of birds. Born into a modest family, Marsh was able to afford higher education thanks to the generosity of his wealthy uncle George Peabody. After graduating from Yale College in 1860 he travelled the world, studying anatomy, mineralogy and geology. He obtained a teaching position at Yale upon his return. From the 1870s to 1890s, he competed with rival paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in a period of frenzied Western American expeditions known as the Bone Wars. Marsh's greatest legacy is the collection of Mesozoic reptiles, Cretaceous birds, and Mesozoic and Tertiary mammals that now constitute the backbone of the collections of Yale's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1997 In Paleontology
Plants Cycadophytes Cycadophyte research *Hopkins and Johnson briefly report the first occurrence of cycad leaves from the Eocene Okanagan Highlands Klondike Mountain Formation which will later be identified to the family Zamiaceae. Angiosperms Fungi newly named Arthropoda Insects Plesiosaurs Newly Named Plesiosaurs Archosauromorphs Pterosaurs Newly Named Pterosaurs Non-avian dinosauromorphs * Paleontologist Karen Chin received a coprolite that was excavated during 1995 from strata dating back to the Maastrichtian in Saskatchewan, Canada. The specimen was about 17 inches (44 cm) long and contained fragments of bone. Due to its size, contents and age, the coprolite was believed to have been the remains of ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' feces. This discovery was announced in a 1998 paper published in the journal ''Nature''. * A Saharan expedition under the leadership of Paul Sereno yielded fruit when a team member stumbled on the bones and skull of '' Nigersaur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology). Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek (, "old, ancient"), (, (gen. ), "being, creature"), and (, "speech, thought, study"). Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of anatomically modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics, and engineeri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Carnosauria")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Saurophaganax")
.jpg "Click for more on -> Othniel Charles Marsh")
