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Chubutinectes Carmeloi
''Chubutinectes'' (meaning "Chubut swimmer") is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Late Cretaceous La Colonia Formation of Argentina. The genus contains a single species, ''C. carmeloi'', known from a partial skeleton and associated gastroliths. Discovery and naming The ''Chubutinectes'' holotype specimen, MPEF-PV 5232, was discovered in 2009 within sediments of the La Colonia Formation on the Somún Curá plateau in Chubut Province, Argentina. The disarticulated specimen consists of cervical, pectoral, dorsal, sacral, and caudal vertebral centra and neural arches, various ribs, partial pectoral and pelvic girdles, fore- and hind-limb elements, and about 350 gastroliths. In 2023, O'Gorman and colleagues described ''Chubutinectes carmeloi'' as a new genus and species of elasmosaurid plesiosaur based on these fossil remains. The generic name, "''Chubutinectes''", combines a reference to the Argentinean province "Chubut", where the holotype was found, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Aus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelvis
The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an Anatomy, anatomical Trunk (anatomy), trunk, between the human abdomen, abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis or pelvic skeleton). The pelvic region of the trunk includes the bony pelvis, the pelvic cavity (the space enclosed by the bony pelvis), the pelvic floor, below the pelvic cavity, and the perineum, below the pelvic floor. The pelvic skeleton is formed in the area of the back, by the sacrum and the coccyx and anteriorly and to the left and right sides, by a pair of hip bones. The two hip bones connect the spine with the lower limbs. They are attached to the sacrum posteriorly, connected to each other anteriorly, and joined with the two femurs at the hip joints. The gap enclosed by the bony pelvis, called the pelvic cavity, is the section of the body underneath the abdomen and mainly consists of the reproductive organs and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrotherosaurus
''Hydrotherosaurus'' (meaning "fisherman lizard") is an extinct genus of elasmosauridae, elasmosaurid plesiosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage) Moreno Formation of Fresno County, California, USA. The only known species, ''H. alexandrae'', was named for Annie Montague Alexander in 1943 by Samuel Paul Welles. Discovery and naming The first remains of ''Hydrotherosaurus'' to be found were several vertebrae discovered by Frank C. Paiva on his own property in the Panoche Hills of Fresno County, California, which were taken to Berkeley, California, Berkeley in the spring of 1937 by W. M. Tucker, who was the Chairman of the Department of Geology of Fresno State College. Afterwards, Fresno State College and the University of California Museum of Paleontology organized a joint expedition which would uncover a nearly complete fossilized skeleton of the animal, with only parts of the skull, shoulder girdle, flippers and certain vertebral elements missing. This specimen, des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aphrosaurus
''Aphrosaurus'' was an extinct genus of plesiosaur from the Maastrichtian. The type species is ''Aphrosaurus furlongi'' (LACM 2748), named by Welles in 1943. The holotype specimen was discovered in the Moreno Formation in Fresno County, California in 1939 by rancher Frank C. Piava. A second specimen - LACM 2832 - was also found in the same formation and initially diagnosed as a juvenile of the same species, but has since been removed from the genus. Discovery In 1943, Samuel Welles described ''Aphrosaurus furlongi'' along with several other plesiosaurs from the same fossil assemblage in Fresno County, California. ''Aphrosaurus'' was found below a different juvenile species, '' Morenosaurus stocki'', within the Tierra Loma Member of the Panoche Hills. The Moreno Formation dates back to the early Maastrichtian, and is composed of depositional layers of turbidite, sandstone, and shale. It is part of the larger Chico Formation, which contacts the Panoche Formation and, during th ... [...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] |
Weddellonectia
Elasmosauridae, often called elasmosaurs or elasmosaurids, is an extinct family (biology), family of plesiosaurs that lived from the Hauterivian Stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Early Cretaceous to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period (c. 130 to 66 mya (unit), mya). The taxon was initially erected in 1869 by Edward Drinker Cope to include the type genus ''Elasmosaurus'' with the related ''Cimoliasaurus'', although he did not argued in detail why. Over the following years, many authors recognized this classification on the basis of predominantly postcranial features, becoming one of the three groups in which plesiosaurs were often classified during the 19th century, along with the Pliosauridae and the Plesiosauridae. However, most of these traits led to many genera since recognized as belonging to other plesiosaur families being classified as elasmosaurids. Another family historically considered as distinct, the Cimoliasauridae, has since 2009 b ... [...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] |
Marine Habitat
A marine habitat is a habitat that supports marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the seawater, saltwater that is in the sea (the term ''marine'' comes from the Latin ''mare'', meaning sea or ocean). A habitat is an ecological or Natural environment, environmental area inhabited by one or more living species.Abercrombie, M., Hickman, C.J. and Johnson, M.L. 1966.''A Dictionary of Biology.'' Penguin Reference Books, London The marine environment supports many kinds of these habitats. Marine habitats can be divided into coastal and open ocean habitats. Coastal habitats are found in the area that extends from as far as the tide comes in on the shoreline out to the edge of the continental shelf. Most marine life is found in coastal habitats, even though the shelf area occupies only seven percent of the total ocean area. Open ocean habitats are found in the deep ocean beyond the edge of the continental shelf. Alternatively, marine habitats can be divided into Pelagic zon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estuaries
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments and are an example of an ecotone. Estuaries are subject both to marine influences such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water, and to fluvial influences such as flows of freshwater and sediment. The mixing of seawater and freshwater provides high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea level began to rise about 10,000–12,000 years ago. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphology, geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns. They can have many different names, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kawanectes
''Kawanectes'' (meaning "Kawas swimmer") is a genus of elasmosauridae, elasmosaurid plesiosaur, a type of long-necked marine reptile, that lived in the marginal marine (probably estuary, estuarine) environment of Late Cretaceous Patagonia. It contains one species, ''K. lafquenianum'', described in 2016 by O'Gorman. Description Measuring long, ''Kawanectes'' was small for an elasmosaurid. It belongs to the "non-elongated" group of elasmosaurids, meaning that its cervical vertebrae are not extremely lengthened, neither do they show great variability in length. The MCS specimen preserves 15 cervical vertebrae and 15 thoracic vertebrae, dorsal vertebrae, while the holotype preserves 10 vertebra, caudal vertebrae; the true number of cervical and caudal vertebrae is unknown due to the incompleteness of the specimens. A combination of traits can be used to distinguish ''Kawanectes'' from all other elasmosaurids: the vertebra#structure, centra of the vertebrae are wider than they ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Specific Name (zoology)
In zoological nomenclature, the specific name (also specific epithet, species epithet, or epitheton) is the second part (the second name) within the scientific name of a species (a binomen). The first part of the name of a species is the name of the genus or the generic name. The rules and regulations governing the giving of a new species name are explained in the article species description. For example, the scientific name for humans is ''Homo sapiens'', which is the species name, consisting of two names: ''Homo'' is the " generic name" (the name of the genus) and ''sapiens'' is the "specific name". Etymology Historically, ''specific name'' referred to the combination of what are now called the generic and specific names. Carl Linnaeus, who formalized binomial nomenclature, made explicit distinctions between specific, generic, and trivial names. The generic name was that of the genus, the first in the binomial, the trivial name was the second name in the binomial, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Language
Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, Caucasus, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the list of languages by first written accounts, longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon. Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
