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Bastetodon
''Bastetodon'' (meaning "Bastet tooth") is an extinct genus of carnivorous hyaenodont mammals from the Early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation of Egypt. The genus contains single species, ''B. syrtos'', which was originally assigned to the genus '' Pterodon''. Discovery and naming In 1999, paleontologist Patricia A. Holroyd described a partial right maxilla from 'Quarry M' of the Jebel Qatrani Formation near the Faiyum Oasis of Egypt as belonging to a new species of ''Pterodon'', ''P. syrtos''. The specific name, ''syrtos'', is a Greek word meaning "carried along by a stream", referencing the preservation of the holotype in a point bar depositional environment. In 2025, Al-Ashqar et al. revised the record of African species assigned to ''Pterodon'', a historic wastebasket taxon. As in previous analyses, they observed that the species referred to this genus form a polyphyletic assemblage. Based on a more recently-collected complete skull from 'Quarry I', they established a new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jebel Qatrani Formation
The Jebel Qatrani Formation (also Gebel Qatrani, Gabal Qatrani or Djebel Qatrani) is a geologic formation located in the Faiyum Governorate of central Egypt. It is exposed between the Jebel Qatrani escarpment and the Qasr el Sagha escarpment, north of Birket Qarun lake near Faiyum. The formation conformably overlies the Qasr el Sagha Formation and is topped by the Widan el Faras Basalt. The age of the formation has been subject to debate, but the most recent research indicates that it covers both the latest parts of the Eocene and the Early Oligocene, spanning over the boundary between these two time periods. The geology and fauna of this formation gives a good idea of the environment and animals present during this time period. Research suggests that the Jebel Qatrani Formation featured a mix of subtropical to tropical forest, lowland swamps and marshes, ponds and rivers that would empty northward into the Tethys Sea. This is supported by the presence of water-dependent fauna inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pterodon (mammal)
''Pterodon'' (Ancient Greek: (wing) + (tooth) meaning "wing tooth") is an extinct genus of hyaenodont in the family Hyainailouridae, containing two species. The type species ''Pterodon dasyuroides'' is known exclusively from the late Eocene to the earliest Oligocene of western Europe. The genus was first erected by the French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1839, who said that Georges Cuvier presented one of its fossils to a conference in 1828 but died before he could make a formal description of it. It was the second hyaenodont genus with taxonomic validity after ''Hyaenodon'', but this resulted in taxonomic confusion over the validities of the two genera by other taxonomists. Although the taxonomic status of ''Pterodon'' was revised during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it became a wastebasket taxon for other hyaenodont species found in Africa and Asia. Today, only the type species is recognized as belonging to the genus while just one is pending reass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2025 In Paleomammalogy
This article records new taxa of fossil mammals of every kind that are scheduled to be described during the year 2025, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of mammals that are scheduled to occur in the year 2025. Afrotherians Proboscideans Proboscidean research * Dooley et al. (2025) reevaluate the affinities of mastodon fossil material from Oregon and Washington (United States), Alberta (Canada) and Hidalgo and Jalisco (Mexico), extending known geographical range of ''Mammut pacificus'', and providing probable evidence of presence of both ''M. pacificus'' and ''M. americanum'' in close geographical proximity. * Jukar, Millhouse & Carrano (2025) revise the fossil material attributed to '' Amebelodon floridanus'', assign a neotype specimen of this species and support its placement in the genus ''Amebelodon''. * Luna et al. (2025) study mandibular lesions in two specimens of ''Notiomastodon platensis'' from the Pleistocene strata from Argenti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyainailourinae
Hyainailourinae ("hyena-like Felidae, cats") is a Paraphyly, paraphyletic subfamily of Hyaenodonta, hyaenodonts from extinct paraphyletic family Hyainailouridae. They arose during the Bartonian, Middle Eocene in Africa, and persisted well into the Late Miocene. Fossils of this group have been found in Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. General characteristics Hyainailourins are characterized by long skulls, slender jaws, slim bodies, and a plantigrade stance. They generally ranged in size from 30 to 140 cm at the shoulder. While some measured as much as 1.4 m high at the shoulder with head-body length up to 3.2 m and weighed up to 500 kg, most were in the 5–15 kg range, equivalent to a mid-sized dog. The anatomy of their skulls show that they had a particularly acute sense of smell, while their teeth were adapted for shearing, rather than crushing. Classification and phylogeny Taxonomy References {{Taxonbar, from=Q34463832 Hyaenodonts Cenozoic mamm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PeerJ
''PeerJ'' is an open access peer-reviewed scientific mega journal covering research in the biological and medical sciences. It officially launched in June 2012, started accepting submissions on December 3, 2012, and published its first articles on February 12, 2013. In 2024, the firm was acquired by traditional research publisher Taylor & Francis. Overview PeerJ was originally published by a company of the same name that was co-founded by CEO Jason Hoyt (formerly at Mendeley) and publisher Peter Binfield (formerly at '' PLOS One''), with initial financial backing of US$950,000 from O'Reilly Media's O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and later funding from Sage Publishing. The firm is a member of CrossRef, CLOCKSS, ORCID, and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association. The company's offices are in Corte Madera (California, USA), and London (England, UK). Submitted research is judged solely on scientific and methodological soundness (as at '' PLoS ONE''), with a facility f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. ''Panthera leo'' (lion) and ''Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus ''Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together (i.e. Phylogeneti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Egyptian Mythology
Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion. Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain a complete account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, whereas the earliest periods of time were linear. Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew '' maat'', the fundamental order of the universe. Amongst the most important episodes from the mythic past are the creation myths, in which t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogenetic Analyses
In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as Computational phylogenetics, phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data and observed heritable traits of DNA sequences, protein amino acid sequences, and Morphology (biology), morphology. The results are a phylogenetic tree—a diagram depicting the hypothesis, hypothetical relationships among the organisms, reflecting their inferred evolutionary history. The tips of a phylogenetic tree represent the observed entities, which can be living Taxon, taxa or fossils. A phylogenetic diagram can be rooted or unrooted. A rooted tree diagram indicates the hypothetical common ancestor of the taxa represented on the tree. An unrooted tree diagram (a network) makes no assumption about directionality of character state transformation, and does not show the origin or "root" of the taxa in questi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geobios
Geobios is an academic journal published bimonthly by the publishing house Elsevier. Geobios is an international journal of paleontology, focusing on the areas of palaeobiology, palaeoecology, palaeobiogeography, stratigraphy and biogeochemistry. Geobios is indexed and abstracted in: Science Citation Index, ISI, Bulletin signalétique, PASCAL, Geo Abstracts, Biological Abstracts, The Geoscience Database, Referativnyi Zhurnal, SciSearch, Research Alert and Current Contents/Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences. Description Articles are published only in English, following a standard peer-review process (usually involving 3 reviewers) supervised by an associate-editor through the journal's submission website. Articles are published both in print and in electronic format on the Geobios ScienceDirect website. History Geobios was first published in 1968 by the Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 (, UCBL) is one of the three public universities of Lyo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from Ancient Greek (''olígos'') 'few' and (''kainós'') 'new', and refers to the sparsity of Neontology, extant forms of Mollusca, molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period. The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of the tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major chang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sister Taxon
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and taxon B are sister groups to each other. Taxa A and B, together with any other extant or extinct descendants of their most recent common ancestor (MRCA), form a monophyletic group, the clade AB. Clade AB and taxon C are also sister groups. Taxa A, B, and C, together with all other descendants of their MRCA form the clade ABC. The whole clade ABC is itself a subtree of a larger tree which offers yet more sister group relationships, both among the leaves and among larger, more deeply rooted clades. The tree structure shown connects through its root to the rest of the universal tree of life. In cladistic standards, taxa A, B, and C may represent specimens, species, genera, or any other taxonomic units. If A and B are at the same taxonomic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wastebasket Taxon
Wastebasket taxon (also called a wastebin taxon, dustbin taxon or catch-all taxon) is a term used by some taxonomists to refer to a taxon that has the purpose of classifying organisms that do not fit anywhere else. They are typically defined by either their designated members' often superficial similarity to each other, or their ''lack'' of one or more distinct character states or by their ''not'' belonging to one or more other taxa. Wastebasket taxa are by definition either paraphyletic or polyphyletic, and are therefore not considered valid taxa under strict cladistic rules of taxonomy. The name of a wastebasket taxon may in some cases be retained as the designation of an evolutionary grade, however. Examples There are many examples of paraphyletic groups, but true "wastebasket" taxa are those that are known not to, and perhaps not intended to, represent natural groups, but are nevertheless used as convenient groups of organisms. The acritarchs are perhaps the most famous ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
