|
Galerie De Paléontologie Et D'anatomie Comparée
The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy (in French, ''galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée'') is a part of the French National Museum of Natural History (''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'', MNHN). It is situated in the '' Jardin des plantes'' in Paris near the Gare d'Austerlitz. The Gallery of Comparative Anatomy (occupying the ground floor), holds nearly a thousand skeletons and interprets their organization and classification. The Gallery of Paleontology (occupying the first and second floor) presents a famous collection of fossil vertebrates, fossil invertebrates and fossil plants. Among the most appreciated pieces by the public is worth mentioning a series of dinosaur skeleton casts (''Diplodocus'', '' Iguanodon'', '' Allosaurus'', '' Carnotaurus'', '' Tarbosaurus'', '' Unenlagia'', '' Dromaeosaurus'', '' Bambiraptor'') but also a ''Tyrannosaurus'' skull (cast of specimen AMNH 5027), an authentic skull of ''Triceratops'', an authentic '' Comps ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleontology
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] |
Dromaeosaurus
''Dromaeosaurus'' (, "running lizard") is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous period (middle late Campanian and Maastrichtian), sometime between 80 and 69 million years ago, in Alberta, Canada and the western United States. The type species is ''Dromaeosaurus albertensis'', which was described by William Diller Matthew and Barnum Brown in 1922. Its fossils were unearthed in the Dinosaur Park Formation. Teeth attributed to this genus have been found in the Prince Creek Formation. ''Dromaeosaurus'' is the type genus of both Dromaeosauridae and Dromaeosaurinae, which include many genera with similar characteristics to ''Dromaeosaurus'' such as possibly its closest relative '' Dakotaraptor''. ''Dromaeosaurus'' was heavily built, more so than other dromaeosaurs that are similar in size, like ''Velociraptor''. Discovery and naming Despite receiving widespread attention in popular books on dinosaurs, and the usage of a complete mounted skel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panthera Leo Spelaea
''Panthera spelaea'', also known as the Eurasian cave lion, European cave lion or steppe lion, is an extinct ''Panthera'' species that most likely evolved in Europe after the third Cromerian interglacial stage, less than 600,000 years ago. Phylogenetic analysis of fossil bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ... samples revealed that it was highly distinct and genetically isolated from the modern lion (''Panthera leo'') occurring in Africa and Asia. Analysis of Morphology (biology), morphological differences and mitochondrial data support the Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic recognition of ''Panthera spelaea'' as a distinct species that Genetic divergence, genetically diverged from the lion about . Nuclear genome, Nuclear genomic evidence shows a more recent split approx ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cave Bear
The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word "cave" and the scientific name ''spelaeus'' are used because fossils of this species were mostly found in caves. This reflects the views of experts that cave bears may have spent more time in caves than the brown bear, which uses caves only for hibernation. Taxonomy Cave bear skeletons were first described in 1774 by Johann Friedrich Esper, in his book ''Newly Discovered Zoolites of Unknown Four Footed Animals''. While scientists at the time considered that the skeletons could belong to apes, canids, felids, or even dragons or unicorns, Esper postulated that they actually belonged to polar bears. Twenty years later, Johann Christian Rosenmüller, an anatomist at Leipzig University, gave the species its binomial name. The bones were so numerous that most researcher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thalassocnus
''Thalassocnus'' is an extinct genus of semiaquatic ground sloths from the Miocene and Pliocene of the Pacific South American coast. It is monotypic within the subfamily Thalassocninae. The five species—''T. antiquus'', ''T. natans'', ''T. littoralis'', ''T. carolomartini'', and ''T. yuacensis''—represent a chronospecies, a population gradually adapting to marine life in one direct lineage. They are the only known aquatic sloths, but they may have also been adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle. They have been found in the Pisco Formation of Peru, the Tafna Formation of Argentina, and the Bahía Inglesa, Coquimbo, and Horcón formations of Chile. Thalassocninae has been placed in both the families Megatheriidae and Nothrotheriidae. ''Thalassocnus'' evolved several marine adaptations over the course of 4 million years, such as dense and heavy bones to counteract buoyancy, the internal nostrils migrating farther into the head to help with breathing while completely submerge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megatherium
''Megatherium'' ( ; from Greek () 'great' + () 'beast') is an extinct genus of ground sloths endemic to South America that lived from the Early Pliocene through the end of the Pleistocene. It is best known for the elephant-sized type species ''M. americanum'', sometimes called the giant ground sloth, or the megathere, native to the Pampas through southern Bolivia during the Pleistocene. Various other smaller species belonging to the subgenus ''Pseudomegatherium'' are known from the Andes. ''Megatherium'' is part of the sloth family Megatheriidae, which also includes the similarly giant ''Eremotherium'', comparable in size to ''M. americanum,'' which was native to tropical South America, Central America and North America as far north as the southern United States. Only a few other land mammals equaled or exceeded ''M. americanum'' in size, such as large proboscideans (e.g., elephants) and the giant rhinoceros ''Paraceratherium''. ''Megatherium'' was first discovered in 1788 on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woolly Mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus subplanifrons'' in the early Pliocene. The woolly mammoth began to diverge from the steppe mammoth about 800,000 years ago in East Asia. Its closest extant relative is the Asian elephant. DNA studies show that the Columbian mammoth was a hybrid between woolly mammoths and another lineage descended from steppe mammoths. The appearance and behaviour of this species are among the best studied of any prehistoric animal because of the discovery of frozen carcasses in Siberia and North America, as well as skeletons, teeth, stomach contents, dung, and depiction from life in prehistoric cave paintings. Mammoth remains had long been known in Asia before they became known to Europeans in the 17th century. The origin of these remains was long a ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammuthus Meridionalis
''Mammuthus meridionalis'', or the southern mammoth, is an extinct species of mammoth native to Europe and Central Asia from the Gelasian stage of the Early Pleistocene, living from 2.5–0.8 mya. Taxonomy The taxonomy of extinct elephants was complicated by the early 20th century, and in 1942, Henry Fairfield Osborn's posthumous monograph on the Proboscidea was published, wherein he used various taxon names that had previously been proposed for mammoth species, including replacing ''Mammuthus'' with ''Mammonteus'', as he believed the former name to be invalidly published. Mammoth taxonomy was simplified by various researchers from the 1970s onwards, all species were retained in the genus ''Mammuthus'', and many proposed differences between species were instead interpreted as intraspecific variation. The name ''Archidiskodon meridionalis'' is retained by some Russian researchers. Evolution The earliest known members of Proboscidea, the clade which contains modern eleph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynthiacetus
''Cynthiacetus'' is an extinct genus of basilosaurid early whale that lived during the Late Eocene ( Bartonian-Priabonian, .) Specimens have been found in the southeastern United States and Peru ( Otuma Formation). Description ''Cynthiacetus'' was named after the town of Cynthia, Mississippi, close to where the type specimen for the species ''C. maxwelli'' was discovered. The skull of ''C. maxwelli'' was similar in size and morphology to that of ''Basilosaurus cetoides'', but ''Cynthiacetus'' lacked the elongated vertebrae of ''Basilosaurus''. erected the genus to avoid the ''nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...'' '' Pontogeneus'' (which was based on poorly described and now vanished specimens). ''Cynthiacetus'' was smaller than '' Masracetus''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarcosuchus
''Sarcosuchus'' (; ) is an extinct genus of crocodyliform and distant relative of living crocodilians that lived during the Early Cretaceous, from the late Hauterivian to the early Albian, 133 to 112 million years ago of what is now Africa and South America. The genus name comes from the Greek σάρξ (''sarx'') meaning flesh and σοῦχος (''souchus'') meaning crocodile. It was one of the largest crocodile-like reptiles, reaching an average estimate of and , but estimated to grow up to in body length and weigh up to . It is known from two species, ''S. imperator'' from the early Albian Elrhaz Formation of Niger and ''S. hartti'' from the Late Hauterivian of northeastern Brazil, other material is known from Morocco and Tunisia and possibly Libya and Mali. The first remains were discovered during several expeditions led by the French paleontologist Albert-Félix de Lapparent, spanning from 1946 to 1959, in the Sahara. These remains were fragments of the skull, vertebrae, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compsognathus
''Compsognathus'' (; Ancient Greek, Greek ''kompsos''/κομψός; "elegant", "refined" or "dainty", and ''gnathos''/γνάθος; "jaw") is a genus of small, bipedalism, bipedal, carnivore, carnivorous theropoda, theropod dinosaur. Members of its single species ''Compsognathus longipes'' could grow to around the size of a turkey (bird), turkey. They lived about 150 mya (unit), million years ago, during the Tithonian Stage (stratigraphy), age of the late Jurassic Period (geology), period, in what is now Europe. Paleontologists have found two well-preserved fossils, one in Germany in the 1850s and the second in France more than a century later. Today, ''C. longipes'' is the only recognized species, although the larger specimen discovered in France in the 1970s was once thought to belong to a separate species and named ''C. corallestris''. Many presentations still describe ''Compsognathus'' as "chicken-sized" dinosaurs because of the size of the German specimen, which is no ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triceratops
''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one of the last-known non-avian dinosaur genera, and became extinct in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago. The name ''Triceratops'', which literally means 'three-horned face', is derived from the Greek words () meaning 'three', () meaning 'horn', and () meaning 'face'. Bearing a large bony frill, three horns on the skull, and a large four-legged body, exhibiting convergent evolution with rhinoceroses and bovines, ''Triceratops'' is one of the most recognizable of all dinosaurs and the most well-known ceratopsid. It was also one of the largest, up to long and in body mass. It shared the landscape with and was most likely preyed upon by ''Tyrannosaurus'', though it is less certain that two adults did ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BisonsPoursuivisParDesLions.jpg "Click for more on -> Panthera Leo Spelaea")
