Gobioolithus Minor Section
''Gobioolithus'' is an oogenus of fossil bird egg native to Mongolia. They are small, smooth-shelled, and elongated eggs that were first discovered in the 1960s and early 70s during a series of fossil-hunting expeditions in the Gobi desert. Two oospecies have been described: ''Gobioolithus minor'' and ''G. major''. The eggs were probably laid in colonial nesting sites on the banks of rivers and lakes. ''G. minor'' is unusual because it frequently is found with embryonic skeletons of the enantiornithine bird ''Gobipipus''. These embryos have well-developed wings, which suggest they would be able to fly very soon after hatching, unlike most modern birds. Description ''Gobioolithus'' eggs are small and smooth-shelled. They are asymmetrically shaped, similar to many modern bird eggs, with one end pointier than the other. The two oospecies are distinguished mainly by their size: ''G. major'' ranges from 50 to 53.5 mm long and 25 to 32 mm across, with an eggshell thickne ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Campanian
The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campanian spans the time from 83.6 (± 0.2) to 72.1 (± 0.2) million years ago. It is preceded by the Santonian and it is followed by the Maastrichtian. The Campanian was an age when a worldwide sea level rise covered many coastal areas. The morphology of some of these areas has been preserved: it is an unconformity beneath a cover of marine sedimentary rocks. Etymology The Campanian was introduced in scientific literature by Henri Coquand in 1857. It is named after the French village of Champagne in the department of Charente-Maritime. The original type locality was a series of outcrop near the village of Aubeterre-sur-Dronne in the same region. Definition The base of the Campanian Stage is defined as a place in the stratigraphic col ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Little Tern
The little tern (''Sternula albifrons'') is a seabird of the family Laridae. It was formerly placed into the genus ''Sterna'', which now is restricted to the large white terns. The genus name is a diminutive of '' Sterna'', "tern". The specific ''albifrons'' is from Latin ''albus'', "white", and "frons", ''forehead''. The former North American (''S. a. antillarum'') and Red Sea ''S. a. saundersi'' subspecies are now considered to be separate species, the least tern (''Sternula antillarum'') and Saunders's tern (''Sternula saundersi''). This bird breeds on the coasts and inland waterways of temperate and tropical Europe and Asia. It is strongly migratory, wintering in the subtropical and tropical oceans as far south as South Africa and Australia. There are three subspecies, the nominate ''albifrons'' occurring in Europe to North Africa and western Asia; ''guineae'' of western and central Africa; and ''sinensis'' of East Asia (SE Russia to Japan, SE Asia, Philippines) and t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nemegt Basin
The Nemegt Basin is a geographical area in the northwestern Gobi Desert, in Ömnögovi Province, southern Mongolia. It is known locally as the "Valley of the Dragons", since it is a source of many fossil finds, including dinosaurs, dinosaur eggs, and trace fossils. Geology The main geological formations in the area are the Nemegt Formation, Barun Goyot Formation The Barun Goyot Formation (also known as Baruungoyot Formation or West Goyot Formation) is a geological formation dating to the Late Cretaceous Period. It is located within and is widely represented in the Gobi Desert Basin, in the Ömnögovi ..., and Djadochta Formation, in order of age, from youngest (most superficial) to oldest (deepest). References Depressions of Mongolia Gobi Desert Basins of Asia {{Mongolia-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Djadokhta Formation
The Djadochta Formation (sometimes transcribed and also known as Djadokhta, Djadokata, or Dzhadokhtskaya) is a highly fossiliferous geological formation situated in Central Asia, Gobi Desert, dating from the Late Cretaceous period, about 75 million to 71 million years ago. The type locality is the Bayn Dzak locality, famously known as the Flaming Cliffs. Dinosaur, mammal, and other reptile remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. Excavation history The Djadochta Formation was first documented and explored—though only a single locality—during paleontological expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History in 1922–1925, which were part of the Central Asiatic Expeditions. The expeditions were led by Roy Chapman Andrews, in company of Walter Willis Granger as chief paleontologist and field team. The team did extensive exploration at the Bayn Dzak (formerly Shabarakh Usu) region, which they nicknamed Flaming Cliffs given that at suns ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Barun Goyot Formation
The Barun Goyot Formation (also known as Baruungoyot Formation or West Goyot Formation) is a geological formation dating to the Late Cretaceous Period. It is located within and is widely represented in the Gobi Desert Basin, in the Ömnögovi Province of Mongolia. Description It was previously known as the Lower Nemegt Beds occurring beneath the Nemegt Formation and above the Djadokhta Formation. It has been suggested that the Djadokhta and Barun Goyot Formations are lower and upper parts, respectively, of the same lithological unit and the boundary between the two does not exist. The stratotype of the Barun Goyot Formation is the Khulsan locality, east of Nemegt. At Nemegt, only the uppermost barungoyotian beds are visible. The ''Red Beds of Khermeen Tsav'' are also considered part of the Barun Goyot Formation. It is approximately in thickness,Gradzinski, R.; & Jerzykiewicz, T. (1974). Sedimentation of the Barun Goyot formation. Palaeontologica Polonica, 30, 111-146. and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Paleognath
Palaeognathae (; ) is a infraclass of birds, called paleognaths, within the class Aves of the clade Archosauria. It is one of the two extant infraclasses of birds, the other being Neognathae, both of which form Neornithes. Palaeognathae contains five extant branches of flightless lineages (plus two extinct clades), termed ratites, and one flying lineage, the Neotropic tinamous.Wetmore, A. (1960) A Classification for Birds of the World. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution) 139: 1–37. There are 47 species of tinamous, five of kiwis (''Apteryx''), three of cassowaries (''Casuarius''), one of emus (''Dromaius'') (another became extinct in historic times), two of rheas (''Rhea'') and two of ostrich (''Struthio'').Clements, J. C. ''et al''. (2010) Recent research has indicated that paleognaths are monophyletic but the traditional taxonomic split between flightless and flighted forms is incorrect; tinamous are within the ratite radiatio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Neognath
Neognathae (; ) is a infraclass of birds, called neognaths, within the class Aves of the clade Archosauria. Neognathae includes the majority of living birds; the exceptions being the tinamous and the flightless ratites, which belong instead to the sister taxon Palaeognathae. There are nearly 10,000 living species of neognaths. The earliest fossils are known from the very end of the Cretaceous but molecular clocks suggest that neognaths originated sometime in the first half of the Late Cretaceous, about 90 million years ago. Since then, they have undergone adaptive radiation, producing the diversity of form, function, and behavior that exists today. Neognathae includes the order Passeriformes (perching birds), one of the largest orders of land vertebrates, containing some 60% of living birds. Passeriformes is twice as species-rich as Rodentia and about five times as species-rich as Chiroptera (bats), which are the two largest orders of mammals. Neognathae also contains some ver ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parvoolithus
''Parvoolithus'' is an oogenus of Mongolian fossil eggs from the Campanian Barun Goyot Formation. They are known from a single small, smooth egg, which cannot be assigned to any known oofamily. It is very similar to the eggs of modern birds in many aspects; in fact, a cladistic analysis by Zelenitsky and Therrien found it to be a sister taxon to the guinea fowl (genus ''Numida''), indicating that they represent the eggs of birds, rather than a non-avialan theropod.Zelenitsky, D.K. and Therrien, F. (2008). Phylogenetic analysis of reproductive traits of maniraptoran theropods and its implications for egg parataxonomy. ''Palaeontology'', 51(4): 807–816 References Bibliography * K. E. Mikhailov. 1996. New genera of fossil eggs from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. Paleontological Journal 30(2):246-248 Egg fossils Late Cretaceous animals of Asia Campanian life Cretaceous Mongolia Fossils of Mongolia Barun Goyot Formation Fossil parataxa described in 1996 {{eggshell-s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Protoceratopsidovum
''Protoceratopsidovum'' is an oogenus of dinosaur egg from Mongolia. Despite its name (which means "eggs of '' Protoceratops''"Zelenitsky, D., and Currie, P. (2004) "A Cladistic Analysis of Theropod Ootaxa." ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.'' Vol. 24, Supplement 003: Abstracts of Papers Sixty-Fourth Annual Meeting Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Adams Mark Hotel Denver, Colorado November 3–6.), it does not represent the eggs of a protoceratopsid, but rather the eggs of maniraptoran theropods.Carpenter, K. 1999. Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs: A Look at Dinosaur Reproduction (Life of the Past). Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.Zelenitsky, D. K. And Therrien, F. (2008),Phylogenetic Analysis Of Reproductive Traits Of Maniraptoran Theropods And Its Implications For Egg Parataxonomy" ''Palaeontology'', 51: 807–816. Description ''Protoceratopsidovum'' eggs are extremely abundant in the Djadokhta and Barun Goyot Formations.Mikhailov, K.E. (2000). "Eg ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Troodon
''Troodon'' ( ; ''Troödon'' in older sources) is a wastebasket taxon and a dubious genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaurs known definitively from the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous period (about 77 mya). It includes at least one species, ''Troodon formosus'', known from Montana. Discovered in October 1855, ''T. formosus'' was among the first dinosaurs found in North America, although it was thought to be a lizard until 1877. Several well-known troodontid specimens from the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta were once believed to be members of this genus. However, recent analyses in 2017 have found the genus to be undiagnostic and referred some of these specimens to the genus '' Stenonychosaurus'' (long believed to be synonymous with ''Troodon'') and others to the genus '' Latenivenatrix''. The genus name is Ancient Greek for "wounding tooth", referring to the teeth, which were different from those of most other theropods known at the time of their discovery. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Prismatoolithus
''Prismatoolithus'' is an oogenus of dinosaur egg from the Cretaceous (Hauterivian-Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interv ...) and possibly also the earliest Paleocene. They likely belonged to troodontidsMateus, I, H Mateus, MT Antunes, O Mateus, P Taquet, V Ribeiro, G Manuppella. 1998. Upper Jurassic theropod dinosaur embryos from Lourinhã (Portugal). Memórias da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa 37, 101-110 References Dinosaur reproduction Egg fossils Fossils of Canada Paleontology in Alberta Fossils of China Fossils of France Fossils of Japan Fossils of Mexico Fossils of Morocco Fossils of Spain Tremp Formation Fossils of the United States Paleontology in Montana Paleontology in New Mexico Paleontology in Utah Milk River Formation ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Neognath
Neognathae (; ) is a infraclass of birds, called neognaths, within the class Aves of the clade Archosauria. Neognathae includes the majority of living birds; the exceptions being the tinamous and the flightless ratites, which belong instead to the sister taxon Palaeognathae. There are nearly 10,000 living species of neognaths. The earliest fossils are known from the very end of the Cretaceous but molecular clocks suggest that neognaths originated sometime in the first half of the Late Cretaceous, about 90 million years ago. Since then, they have undergone adaptive radiation, producing the diversity of form, function, and behavior that exists today. Neognathae includes the order Passeriformes (perching birds), one of the largest orders of land vertebrates, containing some 60% of living birds. Passeriformes is twice as species-rich as Rodentia and about five times as species-rich as Chiroptera (bats), which are the two largest orders of mammals. Neognathae also contains some ver ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |