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Ancalagon (worm)
''Ancalagon minor'' is an extinct priapulid worm known from the Cambrian Burgess Shale. Because it superficially resembles the modern-day internal parasites known as the acanthocephalids or "spiny-headed worms," ''A. minor'' was once thought to be, or once thought to resemble the hypothetical free-living ancestor of acanthocephalids. Two specimens of ''Ancalagon'' are known from the Greater Phyllopod bed, where they comprise < 0.01% of the community. Along with the other Cambrian worms such as '' Ottoia'', '', '', '' Fieldia'', '' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paleoart
Paleoart (also spelled palaeoart, paleo-art, or paleo art) is any original artistic work that attempts to depict prehistoric life according to scientific evidence. Ansón, Fernández & Ramos (2015) pp. 28–34. Works of paleoart may be representations of fossil remains or imagined depictions of the living creatures and their ecosystems. While paleoart is typically defined as being scientifically informed, it is often the basis of depictions of prehistoric animals in popular culture, which in turn influences public perception of and fuels interest in these organisms. The word paleoart is also used in an informal sense as a name for prehistoric art, most often cave paintings. The term "paleoart"–which is a compound of ''paleo'', the Ancient Greek word for "old", and "art"–was introduced in the late 1980s by Mark Hallett for art that depicts subjects related to paleontology, Hallett (1987) pp. 97–113. but is considered to have originated as a visual tradition in early 1800s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the Setting (narrative), setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Midgard, Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is the oecumene (i.e. the human-inhabited world, or the central continent of Earth) in Tolkien's imagined mythopoeia, mythological past. Tolkien's most widely read works, ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', are set entirely in Middle-earth. "Middle-earth" has also become Metonym, a short-hand term for Tolkien's legendarium, his large body of fantasy writings, and for the entirety of his fictional world. Middle-earth is the main continent of Cosmology of Tolkien's legendarium#Spherical-earth cosmology, Earth (Arda) in an imaginary period of the past, ending with Tolkien's Third Age, about 6,000 years ago. Tolkien's tales of Middle-earth mostly focus on the north-west of the continent. This region is suggestive of Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burgess Shale Animals
Burgess may refer to: People and fictional characters * Burgess (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Burgess (given name), a list of people Places Canada * Mount Burgess, a mountain in Yoho National Park, British Columbia England * Burgess Park, a park in London * Burgess Field, a nature reserve in Oxford *Burgess Hill, a town and parish in West Sussex United States * Burgess, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Burgess, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Burgess, South Carolina, an unincorporated community * Burgess, Virginia, an unincorporated community * Burgess Township, Bond County, Illinois, a township * Burgess Branch, a tributary of the Missisquoi River in Vermont Other uses *Burgess (title), a political official or representative *Burgess Company, an American airplane manufacturer * Burgess GAA, an athletic club in Ireland See also * Burgess House (other), several buildings named * Burgess model, or Concentric zone model ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian Genus Extinctions
The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordovician Period 486.85 Ma. Most of the continents lay in the southern hemisphere surrounded by the vast Panthalassa Ocean. The assembly of Gondwana during the Ediacaran and early Cambrian led to the development of new convergent plate boundaries and continental-margin arc magmatism along its margins that helped drive up global temperatures. Laurentia lay across the equator, separated from Gondwana by the opening Iapetus Ocean. The Cambrian marked a profound change in life on Earth; prior to the Period, the majority of living organisms were small, unicellular and poorly preserved. Complex, multicellular organisms gradually became more common during the Ediacaran, but it was not until the Cambrian that fossil diversity seems to rapidly increa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priapulida
Priapulida (priapulid worms, from Gr. πριάπος, ''priāpos'' ' Priapus' + Lat. ''-ul-'', diminutive), sometimes referred to as penis worms, is a phylum of unsegmented marine worms. The name of the phylum relates to the Greek god of fertility, because their general shape and their extensible spiny introvert (eversible) proboscis may resemble the shape of a human penis. They live in the mud, except for a few tropical meiobenthic species which live in medium- to coarse-grained sands, and are found in comparatively shallow waters to deep waters and no warmer than 12–13°C. Some species show a remarkable tolerance for hydrogen sulfide, anoxia and low salinity. ''Halicryptus spinulosus'' appears to prefer brackish shallow waters. They can be quite abundant in some areas. In an Alaskan bay as many as 85 adult individuals of '' Priapulus caudatus'' per square meter has been recorded, while the density of its larvae can be as high as 58,000 per square meter (5,390 per square foot). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burgess Shale Fossils
The fossils of the Burgess Shale, like the Burgess Shale itself, are fossils that formed around 505 million years ago in the mid-Cambrian, Cambrian period. They were discovered in Canada in 1886, and Charles Doolittle Walcott collected over 65,000 specimens in a series of field trips up to the alpine site from 1909 to 1924. After a period of neglect from the 1930s to the early 1960s, new excavations and re-examinations of Walcott's collection continue to reveal new species, and statistical analysis suggests that additional discoveries will continue for the foreseeable future. Stephen Jay Gould's 1989 book ''Wonderful Life (book), Wonderful Life'' describes the history of discovery up to the early 1980s, although his analysis of the implications for evolution has been contested. The fossil beds are in a series of shale layers, averaging and totalling about in thickness. These layers were deposited against the face of a high undersea limestone cliff. All these features were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesonychidae
Mesonychidae (meaning "middle claws") is an extinct family of small to large-sized omnivorous- carnivorous mammals. They were endemic to North America and Eurasia during the Early Paleocene to the Early Oligocene, and were the earliest group of large carnivorous mammals in Asia. Once considered a sister-taxon to artiodactyls, recent evidence now suggests no close connection to any living mammal. Mesonychid taxonomy has long been disputed and they have captured popular imagination as " wolves on hooves", animals that combine features of both ungulates and carnivores. Skulls and teeth have similar features to early whales, and the family was long thought to be the ancestors of cetaceans. Recent fossil discoveries have overturned this idea; the consensus is that whales are highly derived artiodactyls. Some researchers now consider the family a sister group either to whales or to artiodactyls, close relatives rather than direct ancestors. Other studies define Mesonychia a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ankalagon
''Ankalagon saurognathus'' is an extinct carnivorous mammal of the family (biology), family Mesonychidae, endemic to North America during the Paleocene epoch (63.3—60.2 Myr, mya), existing for approximately . Known from the Paleocene Nacimiento Formation of New Mexico, ''Ankalagon'' is the largest Mesonychidae, mesonychid known from the Paleocene of North America, and it provides the best evidence for sexual dimorphism in mesonychids. Taxonomy The generic name refers to the dragon Dragon (Middle-earth), Ancalagon, who was mentioned in ''The Silmarillion'' by J. R. R. Tolkien. In ''The Silmarillion'', Ancalagon was described as being one of the more powerful servants of the malevolent being, Morgoth, having been bred to be the fiercest, mightiest, and largest dragon in all of Middle-earth. According to Tolkien, "Ancalagon" translates from Sindarin as being ''anc'' 'jaw', ''alag'' 'impetuous'. The species name, "''saurognathus''," translates as "lizard jaw." Leigh Van Valen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Conway Morris
Simon Conway Morris (born 1951) is an English palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist, and astrobiologist known for his study of the fossils of the Burgess Shale and the Cambrian explosion. The results of these discoveries were celebrated in Stephen Jay Gould's 1989 book '' Wonderful Life''. Conway Morris's own book on the subject, ''The Crucible of Creation'' (1998), however, is critical of Gould's presentation and interpretation. Conway Morris, a Christian, holds to theistic views of biological evolution. He has held the Chair of Evolutionary Palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge since 1995. Biography Early years Conway Morris was born on 6 November 1951. A native of Carshalton, Surrey, he was brought up in London, England. and went on to study geology at Bristol University, achieving a First Class Honours degree. He then moved to Cambridge University and completed a PhD at St John's College under Harry Blackmore Whittington. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proboscis
A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular arthropod mouthparts, mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a proboscis is an elongated nose or snout. Etymology First attested in English in 1609 from Latin , the latinisation (literature), latinisation of the Ancient Greek (), which comes from () 'forth, forward, before' + (), 'to feed, to nourish'. The plural as derived from the Greek is , but in English the plural form ''proboscises'' occurs frequently. Invertebrates The most common usage is to refer to the tubular feeding and sucking organ of certain invertebrates such as insects (e.g., Insect mouthparts#Proboscis, moths, butterflies, and mosquitoes), worms (including Acanthocephala, Nemertea, proboscis worms) and gastropod molluscs. Acanthocephala The Acanthocephala, the thorny-headed worms or spiny-headed worms, are characterized by the pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Legendarium
Tolkien's legendarium is the body of J. R. R. Tolkien's mythopoeic writing, unpublished in his lifetime, that forms the background to his ''The Lord of the Rings'', and which his son Christopher summarized in his compilation of ''The Silmarillion'' and documented in his 12-volume series ''The History of Middle-earth''. The legendarium's origins reach back to 1914, when Tolkien began writing poems and story sketches, drawing maps, and inventing languages and names as a private project to create a mythology for England. The earliest story, "The Voyage of Earendel, the Evening Star", is from 1914; he revised and rewrote the legendarium stories for most of his adult life. ''The Hobbit'' (1937), Tolkien's first published novel, was not originally part of the larger mythology but became linked to it. Both ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' (1954 and 1955) are set in the Third Age of Middle-earth, while virtually all of his earlier writing had been set in the first t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dragon (Middle-earth)
J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium features dragons based on those of European legend, but going beyond them in having personalities of their own, such as the wily Smaug, who has features of both Fafnir and the ''Beowulf'' dragon. Dragons appear in the early stories of '' The Book of Lost Tales'', including the mechanical war-dragons of '' The Fall of Gondolin''. Tolkien went on to create Smaug, a powerful and terrifying adversary, in ''The Hobbit''. Dragons are only mentioned in passing in ''The Lord of the Rings''. Tolkien's conception of the dragon has been adopted both in games loosely based on his Middle-earth writings, and by other fantasy authors. Several taxa have been named after Tolkien's dragons, including both extinct and living species. Several taxa, including girdled lizards, shield bugs, and ants, carry the name ''Smaug''. Development Dragons are already present in '' The Book of Lost Tales''. Tolkien had been fascinated with dragons since chi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
