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2022 In Reptile Paleontology
This list of fossil reptiles described in 2022 is a list of new taxa of fossil reptiles that were described during the year 2022, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to reptile paleontology that occurred in 2022. Squamates New taxa Research * A study aiming to determine whether the squamate fossil record contains reliable phylogenetic information in spite of its incompleteness is published by Woolley ''et al.'' (2022). * The first fossil material of scincomorph lizards from the Campanian Nenjiang Formation (Jilin, China) is described by Yang ''et al.'' (2022). * Vullo ''et al.'' (2022) reinterpret the fossil material of '' Jeddaherdan aleadonta'' as Quaternary in age, and consider it to be a fossil material of a member of the genus ''Uromastyx''. * First fossil material of galliwasp from Cuba reported to date is described from the Late Pleistocene of El Abrón Cave by Syromyatnikova & Aranda (2022), providing the first data on tooth and jaw morpho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the abs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cryptovaranoides
''Cryptovaranoides'' ("hidden lizard-like animal") is an extinct genus of lizard from the Late Triassic of England. It contains a single species, ''Cryptovaranoides microlanius''. It is represented by a holotype partial skeleton as well as referred isolated bones from Rhaetian-aged fissure fill-deposits in Cromhall Quarry, near Tortworth, Gloucestershire preserved alongside the common fossil rhynchocephalian '' Clevosaurus''. The type specimen had been collected in 1953, but was only described as a distinct taxon in 2022. Several traits such as braincase, neck vertebrae, skull architecture, and teeth arrangement support ''Cryptovaranoides''' classification as a squamate. ''Cryptovaranoides'' marks the earliest known occurrence of a crown group squamate, with previous fossils known only as early as the Middle Jurassic; the discovery of ''Cryptovaranoides'' pushes back the estimated origin of modern squamates by 35 million years. A phylogenetic analysis placed ''Cryptovaranoides' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scincoidea
Scincomorpha is an infraorder and clade of lizards including skinks (Scincidae) and their close relatives. These include the living families Cordylidae (girdled lizards), Gerrhosauridae (plated lizards), and Xantusiidae (night lizards), as well as many extinct taxa. Other roughly equivalent terms include the suborder Scinciformata, or the superfamily Scincoidea, though different authors use these terms in a broader or more restricted usage relative to true skinks. They first appear in the fossil record about 170 million years ago, during the Jurassic period.Evans, S.E. and Jones, M.E.H. (2010). "The Origin, Early History and Diversification of Lepidosauromorph Reptiles," pp. 27-44 in Bandyopadhyay, S. (ed.), ''New Aspects of Mesozoic Biodiversity'', 27 Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences 132./ref> The phylogeny below follows that of Alifanov in 2016. Image:Polyglyphanadon sternbergi - IMG 0694.jpg, '' Polyglyphanodon, Polyglyphanodon sternbergi'' File:Bronze Grass Skink (Mabuy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morrison Formation
The Morrison Formation is a distinctive sequence of Upper Jurassic sedimentary rock found in the western United States which has been the most fertile source of dinosaur fossils in North America. It is composed of mudstone, sandstone, siltstone, and limestone and is light gray, greenish gray, or red. Most of the fossils occur in the green siltstone beds and lower sandstones, relics of the rivers and floodplains of the Jurassic period. It is centered in Wyoming and Colorado, with outcrops in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho. Equivalent rocks under different names are found in Canada. It covers an area of 1.5 million square kilometers (600,000 square miles), although only a tiny fraction is exposed and accessible to geologists and paleontologists. Over 75% is still buried under the prairie to the east, and much of its western paleogeographic extent was eroded during exhumation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tithonian
In the geological timescale, the Tithonian is the latest age of the Late Jurassic Epoch and the uppermost stage of the Upper Jurassic Series. It spans the time between 152.1 ± 4 Ma and 145.0 ± 4 Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Kimmeridgian and followed by the Berriasian (part of the Cretaceous).See for a detailed version of the geologic timescale Gradstein ''et al.'' (2004) Stratigraphic definitions The Tithonian was introduced in scientific literature by German stratigrapher Albert Oppel in 1865. The name Tithonian is unusual in geological stage names because it is derived from Greek mythology. Tithonus was the son of Laomedon of Troy and fell in love with Eos, the Greek goddess of dawn. His name was chosen by Albert Oppel for this stratigraphical stage because the Tithonian finds itself hand in hand with the dawn of the Cretaceous. The base of the Tithonian stage is at the base of the ammonite biozone of '' Hybonoticeras hybonotum''. A global refer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Jurassic
The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age. In the past, ''Malm'' was also used to indicate the unit of geological time, but this usage is now discouraged to make a clear distinction between lithostratigraphic and geochronologic/chronostratigraphic units. Subdivisions The Late Jurassic is divided into three ages, which correspond with the three (faunal) stages of Upper Jurassic rock: Paleogeography During the Late Jurassic Epoch, Pangaea broke up into two supercontinents, Laurasia to the north, and Gondwana to the south. The result of this break-up was the spawning of the Atlantic Ocean. However, at this time, the Atlantic Ocean was relatively narrow. Life forms of the epoch This epoch is well known for many famous types of din ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gekkota
Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos are unique among lizards for their vocalisations, which differ from species to species. Most geckos in the family Gekkonidae use chirping or clicking sounds in their social interactions. Tokay geckos (''Gekko gecko'') are known for their loud mating calls, and some other species are capable of making hissing noises when alarmed or threatened. They are the most species-rich group of lizards, with about 1,500 different species worldwide. All geckos, except species in the family Eublepharidae lack eyelids; instead, the outer surface of the eyeball has a transparent membrane, the cornea. They have a fixed lens within each iris that enlarges in darkness to let in more light. Since they cannot blink, species without eyelids generally lick the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tienen Formation
The Tienen Formation ( nl, Formatie van Tienen; french: Formation de Tienen; abbreviation: Ti) is a geologic formation in the subsurface of northern Belgium. The formation crops out in the province of Hainaut and the Hesbaye region in the province of Limburg. It has a late Thanetian (Paleocene) to early Ypresian (Eocene) age. The Tienen Formation consists of clay with thin lignite layers and lithified wood, sand (sometimes with shells) and marl. It has a continental to lagoonal sedimentary facies. The formation is a lagerstätte for fossils of vertebrate animals. The Tienen Formation forms together with the older marine clays and sands of the Hannut Formation the Landen Group The Landen Group is a lithostratigraphic unit (a "group" of rock strata) in the Belgian subsurface. The group consists of two formations of Thanetian (late Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that .... The Tienen Formation is subdivided into four memb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neoanguimorpha
Neoanguimorpha is a clade of anguimorphs comprising Monstersauria (represented today by helodermatids) and Diploglossa (Xenosauridae and Anguioidea Diploglossa is a clade of neoanguimorphs represented by the families Xenosauridae, Diploglossidae, Anniellidae and Anguidae, the latter three placed in the superfamily Anguioidea. In the past the Chinese crocodile lizard was classified as a ...). Morphological studies in the past had classified helodermatids with the varanoids in the clade Platynota, while the Chinese crocodile lizard was classified as a xenosaurid. However molecular work found no support in these groupings and instead has found the helodermatids more related to Diploglossa, while the Chinese crocodile lizard and varanoids to form the clade Paleoanguimorpha. Below is the phylogeny of the neoanguimorph lineages after Pyron ''et al.'' (2013): See also * Paleoanguimorpha References Anguimorpha {{lizard-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crown Group
In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. It is thus a way of defining a clade, a group consisting of a species and all its extant or extinct descendants. For example, Neornithes (birds) can be defined as a crown group, which includes the most recent common ancestor of all modern birds, and all of its extant or extinct descendants. The concept was developed by Willi Hennig, the formulator of phylogenetic systematics, as a way of classifying living organisms relative to their extinct relatives in his "Die Stammesgeschichte der Insekten", and the "crown" and "stem" group terminology was coined by R. P. S. Jefferies in 1979. Though formulated in the 1970s, the term was not commonly used until its reintroduction in 2000 by Graham Budd and Sören Jensen. Contents of the crown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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