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Dzharatitanis
''Dzharatitanis'' (meaning "Dzharakuduk titan") is a genus of sauropod from the Bissekty Formation in Uzbekistan, dating to the Turonian age of the Late Cretaceous. The genus contains a single species, ''Dzharatitanis kingi,'' named after geologist Christopher King, who contributed to the Cretaceous geology of Asia. It is currently one of two known sauropods from the Bissekty Formation, alongside an indeterminate titanosaur. In its original publication it was considered to be a member of Rebbachisauridae, but later papers considered it to be a titanosaur. Discovery and naming The holotype was found in 1997 by Hans-Dieter Sues and David J. Ward during the URBAC (Uzbek/Russian/British/American/Canadian) expedition. It was classified as a titanosaur before being given a name on two occasions - firstly by Sues ''et al.'' (2015) and then by Averianov and Sues (2017). The genus ''Dzharatitanis'' was described in 2021 by Alexander Averianov and Hans-Dieter Sues. It was named after the D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2021 In Archosaur Paleontology
This article records new taxa of fossil archosaurs of every kind that are scheduled described during the year 2021, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of archosaurs that are scheduled to occur in the year 2021. General research * A study on the relationship between full potential joint mobility and the poses used during locomotion in extant American alligator and helmeted guineafowl, evaluating its implications for reconstructions of locomotion of extinct archosaurs, is published by Manafzadeh, Kambic & Gatesy (2021). * A study on the femoral shape variation and on the relationship between femoral morphology and locomotor habits in early archosaurs and non-archosaur archosauriforms is published by Pintore ''et al.'' (2021). * A study estimating moment arms for major pelvic limb muscles in extant and fossil archosaurs, aiming to investigate the idea that bird-line archosaurs switched from hip-based to knee-based locomotion between Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rebbachisauridae
Rebbachisauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs known from fragmentary fossil remains from the Cretaceous of South America, Africa, North America, Europe and possibly Central Asia. Taxonomy In 1990 sauropod specialist Jack McIntosh included the first known rebbachisaurid genus, the giant North African sauropod ''Rebbachisaurus'', in the family Diplodocidae, subfamily Dicraeosaurinae, on the basis of skeletal details. With the discovery in subsequent years of a number of additional genera, it was realised that ''Rebbachisaurus'' and its relatives constituted a distinct group of dinosaurs. In 1997 the Argentine paleontologist José Bonaparte described the family Rebbachisauridae, and in 2011 Whitlock defined two new subfamilies within the group: Nigersaurinae and Limaysaurinae. The cladogram of the Rebbachisauridae according to Carballido ''et al.'' (2012) is shown below: Cladogram after Fanti ''et al.'', 2015. Evolutionary relationships and characteristics Although a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bissekty Formation
The Bissekty Formation (sometimes referred to as Bissekt) is a geologic formation and Lagerstätte which crops out in the Kyzyl Kum desert of Uzbekistan, and dates to the Late Cretaceous Period. Laid down in the mid to late Turonian, it is dated to about 92 to 90 Ma (million years ago). Description The lithology of the sediment largely consists of cross bedded sandstones with interbeds of massive sandstone, well cemented intraformational conglomerate, siltstones and mudstones. Most of the fossils are found as clasts within the conglomerates. Fossil content The Bissekty Formation is characterised by a mix of marine, brackish, freshwater, and terrestrial animal fossils. This stands in contrast the strictly marine fossils found in the underlying Dzheirantui Formation, and indicates that the Bissekty was formed during the regression of a saltwater sea. The coastline expanded inland again in the upper portion of the Bissekty, represented by a proportional increase of fully aqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lognkosauria
Lognkosauria is a clade of giant long-necked sauropod dinosaurs within the clade Titanosauria. It includes some of the largest and heaviest dinosaurs known. Description Lognkosaurians can be distinguished from other titanosaurs by the wide and unusually thick cervical rib loops on their neck vertebrae, their extremely robust neck neural spines, the relatively narrow neural canal, and their huge vaulted neural arches. They also had very wide dorsal vertebrae with wing-like side processes, and extremely wide rib cages. Their dorsal side processes are also fairly in-line with the level of the neural canal, instead of being attached further up the neural arch as in lithostrotians. Skull material from ''Malawisaurus'', the sister taxon to Lognkosauria, indicates that lognkosaurians at least began with the big-nosed, rounded head shape of earlier titanosaurs and more basal macronarians. Classification Lognkosauria was defined as the clade encompassing the most recent common ancestor o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amazonsaurus
''Amazonsaurus'' ( , "Amazon lizard") is a genus of diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period of what is now South America. It would have been a large-bodied quadrupedal herbivore with a long neck and whiplash tail. Although more derived diplodocoids were some of the longest animals ever to exist, ''Amazonsaurus'' was probably not more than 12 meters (40 ft) long. Gregory S. Paul estimated in 2010 its weight at 5000 kg. Fossils of ''Amazonsaurus'', including some back and tail vertebrae, ribs, and fragments of the pelvis, are the only dinosaur remains identifiable at the generic level from the Itapecuru Formation of Maranhão. This geologic formation dates back to the Aptian through Albian epochs of the Early Cretaceous Period, or about 125 to 100 million years ago. ''Amazonsaurus'' was recovered in sediments which are interpreted by geologists as floodplain deposits near a river delta. Description The tall neural spines on the tail vertebrae i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rayososaurus
''Rayososaurus'' is a genus of plant-eating sauropod dinosaur of the superfamily Diplodocoidea. It was found in the Candeleros Formation, but was named ''Rayososaurus'' after the Rayoso Member, which later has been elevated to the older Rayoso Formation. The formations are located in the Neuquén Basin of northern Patagonia, Argentina. ''Rayososaurus'' lived during the Cenomanian epoch of the Late Cretaceous, about 99 to 96 million years ago.L. M. Ibiricu, G. A. Casal, M. C. Lamanna, R. D. Martínez, J. D. Harris and K. J. Lacovara. (2012). The southernmost records of Rebbachisauridae (Sauropoda: Diplodocoidea), from early Late Cretaceous deposits in central Patagonia. ''Cretaceous Research'' 34:220-232 The type species is ''R. agrioensis'', named by Argentinian paleontologist José Bonaparte in 1996.Bonaparte, J. (1996). "Cretaceous tetrapods of Argentina". ''Münchner Geowissenschaften Abhandlungen'' 30: 73-130. The species epithet ''agrioensis'' refers to the Agrio del Medio l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rebbachisaurus
''Rebbachisaurus'' (meaning " Aït Rebbach lizard") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the superfamily Diplodocoidea, that lived during the Late Cretaceous period in Africa and possibly also South America about 99-97 million years ago. Remains attributed to ''Rebbachisaurus'' have been found in Morocco, Niger, Algeria, Tunisia and possibly also Argentina (if ''Rayososaurus'' is the same animal as ''Rebbachisaurus''), although only the Moroccan remains can be referred to the genus without doubt. The discovery of ''Rayososaurus'', a South American sauropod nearly identical to ''Rebbachisaurus'' which may have actually have been the same animal as ''Rebbachisaurus'', supports the theory that there was still a land connection between Africa and South America during the Early Cretaceous, long after it was commonly thought the two continents had separated.Bonaparte, J. (1996). "Cretaceous tetrapods of Argentina". ''Münchner Geowissenschaften Abhandlungen'' 30: 73-130. History of discov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wessex Formation
The Wessex Formation is a fossil-rich English geological formation that dates from the Berriasian to Barremian stages (about 145–125 million years ago) of the Early Cretaceous. It forms part of the Wealden Group and underlies the younger Vectis Formation and overlies the Durlston Formation. The dominant lithology of this unit is mudstone with some interbedded sandstones. It is part of the strata of the Wessex Basin, exposed in both the Isle of Purbeck and the Isle of Wight. While the Purbeck sections are largely barren of vertebrate remains, the Isle of Wight sections are well known for producing the richest and most diverse fauna in Early Cretaceous Europe. Nomenclatural History The Wessex Formation has historically alternately been called the "Variegated Marls And Sandstones", a name used by W. J. Arkell in his 1947 map of the Isle of Purbeck as well as the "Wealden Marls" It was given its current formal name by Daley and Stewart in 1979 Stratigraphy and Lithology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lamina Of The Vertebral Arch
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic irregular bone whose complex structure is composed primarily of bone, and secondarily of hyaline cartilage. They show variation in the proportion contributed by these two tissue types; such variations correlate on one hand with the cerebral/caudal rank (i.e., location within the backbone), and on the other with phylogenetic differences among the vertebrate taxa. The basic configuration of a vertebra varies, but the bone is its ''body'', with the central part of the body constituting the ''centrum''. The upper (closer to) and lower (further from), respectively, the cranium and its central nervous system surfaces of the vertebra body support attachment to the intervertebral discs. The posterior part of a vertebra forms a vertebral arch ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger 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, Australia a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zapalasaurus
''Zapalasaurus'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur described by Leonardo Salgado, Ismar de Souza Carvalho and Alberto Garrido in 2006. It was named after the city of Zapala, which is approximately away from where the holotype was discovered. The type species, ''Zapalasaurus bonapartei'', was found in the La Amarga Formation of the Neuquén Basin, Neuquén Province, Argentina. It was a diplodocoid, a long-necked herbivore, and it lived during the Early Cretaceous. The authors conclude from examining the skeleton that "The record of ''Zapalasaurus bonapartei'' shows that, at least in the Neuquén Basin Neuquén Basin ( es, Cuenca Neuquina) is a sedimentary basin covering most of Neuquén Province in Argentina. The basin originated in the Jurassic and developed through alternating continental and marine conditions well into the Tertiary. The ba ..., basal diplodocoids were more diverse than previously thought." ''Zapalasaurus'' is assumed to have a long neck which would have been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demandasaurus
''Demandasaurus'' (meaning " Demanda lizard") is a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur from early Cretaceous (late Barremian – early Aptian stage) deposits of Spain. ''Demandasaurus'' is known from an incomplete but associated skeleton that includes cranial and postcranial remains. It was collected from the Castrillo de la Reina Formation in Burgos Province of Spain. It was first named by Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor, José Ignacio Canudo, Pedro Huerta, Diego Montero, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola and Leonardo Salgado in 2011 and the type species is ''Demandasaurus darwini''. Description It has a series of singular characteristics that allow this differentiation as a new genus and species. For example, teeth with a special ornamentation of ridges in its enamel, cervical vertebrae with bone structures that are not present in other dinosaurs, neural arches of the dorsal vertebrae crossed entirely by two pneumatic fossae. The rounded shape of its snout also contrasts with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
