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Estemmenosuchid
Estemmenosuchidae is an extinct family of large, very early herbivorous therapsids that flourished during the Guadalupian period. They are distinguished by horn-like structures, probably for display or agonistic behavior. Apart from the best known genus, ''Estemmenosuchus'', the group is poorly known. To date, their fossils are known only from the Perm region of Russia (a region referred to by Russian paleontologists as the Cis-Urals). Description Estemmenosuchids are among the most distinctive of the Permian tetrapods. The high and massive skull is equipped with a number of horns projecting both upwards and outwards, which were probably used for intra-specific display. The incisors and canine teeth are large, but those at the side are reduced, with a serrated apex, and may have helped to break up plant material, although they were too small to be of much use. The body is large and bulky, indicating a large digestive tract for digesting volumes of plant food. The skull superficia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinocephalia
Dinocephalians (terrible heads) are a clade of large-bodied early therapsids that flourished in the Early and Middle Permian between 279.5 and 260 million years ago (Ma), but became extinct during the Capitanian mass extinction event. Dinocephalians included herbivorous, carnivorous, and omnivorous forms. Many species had thickened skulls with many knobs and bony projections. Dinocephalians were the first non-mammalian therapsids to be scientifically described and their fossils are known from Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania. Description Apart from the Biarmosuchians, the dinocephalians are the least advanced therapsids, although still uniquely specialised in their own way. They retain a number of primitive characteristics (e.g. no secondary palate, small dentary) shared with their pelycosaur ancestors, although they are also more advanced in possessing therapsid adaptations like the expansion of the ilium and more erect limbs. They include carniv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estemmenosuchus
''Estemmenosuchus'' (meaning "crowned crocodile" in Greek) is an extinct genus of large, early omnivorous therapsid. It is believed and interpreted to have lived during the middle part of the Middle Permian around 267 million years ago. The two species, ''E. uralensis'' and ''E. mirabilis'', are characterised by distinctive horn-like structures, which were probably used for intra-specific display. Both species of ''Estemmenosuchus'' are from the Perm (or Cis-Urals) region of Russia. Two other estemmenosuchids, ''Anoplosuchus'' and ''Zopherosuchus'', are now considered females of the species ''E. uralensis''. There were many complete and incomplete skeletons found together. Description ''Estemmenosuchus'' could reach a body length of more than . Its skull was long and massive, up to in length, and possessed several sets of large horns, somewhat similar to the antlers of a moose, growing upward and outward from the sides and top of the head. The animal had a sprawling post ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tapinocephalia
The Tapinocephalia are one of the major groups of dinocephalian therapsids and the major herbivorous group. Tapinocephalia has been found to consist of three clades: Styracocephalidae, Titanosuchidae, and the very successful Tapinocephalidae. Notable tapinocephalians include '' Moschops'', '' Tapinocephalus'', and '' Titanosuchus''. Description Unlike anteosaurs and estemmenosuchids, tapinocephalians are primarily an African group. The estemmenosuchids and pareiasaurs may have occupied this paleo-bovine niche in the north. Only one tapinocephalian, '' Ulemosaurus'', is known from Russia. Earlier tapinocephalians were carnivorous or omnivorous. One such group was Titanosuchidae, which consisted of long-tailed predators that hunted herbivorous therapsids Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estemmenosuchus Mirabilis
''Estemmenosuchus'' (meaning "crowned crocodile" in Greek) is an extinct genus of large, early omnivorous therapsid. It is believed and interpreted to have lived during the middle part of the Middle Permian around 267 million years ago. The two species, ''E. uralensis'' and ''E. mirabilis'', are characterised by distinctive horn-like structures, which were probably used for intra-specific display. Both species of ''Estemmenosuchus'' are from the Perm (or Cis-Urals) region of Russia. Two other estemmenosuchids, ''Anoplosuchus'' and ''Zopherosuchus'', are now considered females of the species ''E. uralensis''. There were many complete and incomplete skeletons found together. Description ''Estemmenosuchus'' could reach a body length of more than . Its skull was long and massive, up to in length, and possessed several sets of large horns, somewhat similar to the antlers of a moose, growing upward and outward from the sides and top of the head. The animal had a sprawling posture as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anteosaur
Anteosaurs are a group of large, primitive carnivorous dinocephalian therapsids with large canines and incisors and short limbs, that are known from the Middle Permian of South Africa, Russia, China, and Brazil. Some grew very large, with skulls long, and were the largest predators of their time. They died out at the end of the Middle Permian, possibly as a result of the extinction of the herbivorous Tapinocephalia on which they may have fed. Description The Anteosauria are distinguished from the Tapinocephalia by a number of features, such as very large canines, cheek teeth with bulbous crowns, and an upturning of the premaxilla, so that the front of mouth curves strongly upwards. There is a tendency especially in more advanced forms such as '' Anteosaurus'' towards thickening of the bones of the top of the skull, indicating head-butting behaviour. There is a large canal for the pineal organ (third eye); probably tied in with the animal's diurnal and seasonal cycles. The shou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Styracocephalus
''Styracocephalus platyrhynchus'' ('spike head') is an extinct species of tapinocephalian therapsids that lived during the Guadalupian epoch. ''Styracocephalus''s head ornament meant that it could be recognised from a distance. The most striking feature of ''Styracocephalus'' are the large backward-protruding tabular horns. The crest stuck upwards and backwards, but there is some variation in its shape, and this suggests that it changed throughout life and that it may be sexually dimorphic. ''Styracocephalus'' was a herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ... that may have been fully terrestrial or partly aquatic like the modern hippopotamus. It may have evolved from the estemmenosuchids. Its remains are known from South Africa but it probably had a wider ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caseidae
Caseidae are an Extinction, extinct Family (biology), family of Basal (phylogenetics), basal synapsids that lived from the Late Carboniferous to Middle Permian between about 300 and 265 million years ago. Fossils of these animals come from the south-central part of the United States (Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas), from various parts of Europe (European Russia, France, Germany, Sardinia, and Poland), and possibly from South Africa if the genus ''Eunotosaurus'' is indeed a caseid as some authors proposed in 2021. Caseids show great Taxonomy, taxonomic and morphological diversity. The most basal taxa were small Insectivore, insectivorous and Omnivore, omnivorous forms that lived mainly in the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian, such as ''Eocasea'', ''Callibrachion'', and ''Martensius''. This type of caseid persists until the Guadalupian, middle Permian with ''Phreatophasma'' and may be ''Eunotosaurus''. During the early Permian, the clade is mainly represented by many species that a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outgroup (cladistics)
In cladistics or phylogenetics, an outgroup is a more distantly related group of organisms that serves as a reference group when determining the evolutionary relationships of the ingroup, the set of organisms under study, and is distinct from sociological outgroups. The outgroup is used as a point of comparison for the ingroup and specifically allows for the phylogeny to be rooted. Because the polarity (direction) of character change can be determined only on a rooted phylogeny, the choice of outgroup is essential for understanding the evolution of traits along a phylogeny. History Although the concept of outgroups has been in use from the earliest days of cladistics, the term "outgroup" is thought to have been coined in the early 1970s at the American Museum of Natural History. Prior to the advent of the term, various other terms were used by evolutionary biologists, including "exgroup", "related group", and "outside groups". Choice of outgroup The chosen outgroup is hypothe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basal (phylogenetics)
In phylogenetics, basal is the direction of the ''base'' (or root) of a rooted phylogenetic tree or cladogram. The term may be more strictly applied only to nodes adjacent to the root, or more loosely applied to nodes regarded as being close to the root. Note that extant taxa that lie on branches connecting directly to the root are not more closely related to the root than any other extant taxa. While there must always be two or more equally "basal" clades sprouting from the root of every cladogram, those clades may differ widely in taxonomic rank, species diversity, or both. If ''C'' is a basal clade within ''D'' that has the lowest rank of all basal clades within ''D'', ''C'' may be described as ''the'' basal taxon of that rank within ''D''. The concept of a 'key innovation' implies some degree of correlation between evolutionary innovation and diversification. However, such a correlation does not make a given case predicable, so ancestral characters should not be imputed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gillian King
Gillian may refer to: Places * Gillian Settlement, Arkansas, an unincorporated community People Gillian (variant Jillian) is an English feminine given name, frequently shortened to Gill. It originates as a feminine form of the name Julian, Julio, Julius, and Julien. It is also in use as a surname. Notable people with the name include: First name * Gillian Alexy (born 1986), Australian actress * Gillian Allnutt (born 1949), English poet * Gillian Anderson (born 1968), American actress * Gillian Apps (born 1983), Canadian ice hockey player * Gillian Armstrong (born 1950), Australian film director * Gillian Attard (born 1983), Maltese actress * Gillian Avery (born 1926), British children's novelist and literary historian * Gillian Ayres (born 1930), English painter * Gillian Bailey (born 1955), British academic and actress * Gillian Barge (1940–2003), English actress * Gillian Baverstock (1931–2007), British author * Gillian Baxter, British writer * Gillian Beer (born 1935), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beaufort Group
The Beaufort Group is the third of the main subdivisions of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa. It is composed of a lower Adelaide Subgroup and an upper Tarkastad Subgroup. It follows conformably after the Ecca Group and unconformably underlies the Stormberg Group. Based on stratigraphic position, lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic correlations, palynological analyses, and other means of geological dating, the Beaufort Group rocks are considered to range between Middle Permian ( Wordian) to Early Triassic (Anisian) in age. Background During the period when sedimentation of the Beaufort Group rocks took place, the Ecca sea had retreated to the northeastern Karoo Basin. All sediment deposition at this time took place in a terrestrial, although in a predominantly fluvial or alluvial environment that was seasonally arid. This environment covered a vast area and deposition was influenced by a retroarc foreland basin. This foreland system was caused by crustal uplift ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megaherbivore
Megaherbivores (Greek μέγας megas "large" and Latin ''herbivora'' "herbivore") are large terrestrial herbivores that can exceed in weight. This polyphyletic group of megafauna includes elephants, rhinos, hippos, and giraffes. The largest bovids ( gaurs and American bisons) occasionally reach a weight of , but they are generally not considered to be megaherbivores. There are nine extant species of megaherbivores living in Africa and Asia. The African bush elephant is the largest extant species with bulls reaching a height of up to and a maximum weight of . All megaherbivores are keystone species in their environment. Their ecological role is to change the vegetative structure through feeding behavior, and seed dispersal. Megaherbivores like most large mammals are ''K-''selected species. They are characterized by their large size, invulnerability to predators, their impact on vegetation and their dietary tolerance. Megaherbivores have been around for over 300 million ye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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