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Halisaurus
''Halisaurus'' is an extinct genus of marine reptile belonging to the mosasaur family. The holotype, consisting of an angular and a basicranium fragment discovered near Hornerstown, New Jersey, already revealed a relatively unique combination of features and prompted a new genus to be described. It was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1869 and means "ocean lizard". It was renamed by Marsh to ''Baptosaurus'' in 1870, since he believed the name to already be preoccupied by the fish '' Halosaurus''. According to modern rules, a difference of a letter is enough and the substitute name is unneeded, making "''Baptosaurus''" a junior synonym. Since its description, more complete remains have been uncovered from fossil deposits throughout the world with particularly complete remains found in Morocco and the United States. The genus remains a key taxon in mosasaur systematics due to its unique set of features and as the most complete representative of its subfamily, the Halisaurinae. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halisaurinae
The Halisaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a group of Late Cretaceous marine lizards. They were small to medium-sized, ranging from just under 3 meters in ''Eonatator sternbergi'' to as much as 8 or 9 meters in ''Pluridens serpentis''. They tended to have relatively slender jaws and small, numerous teeth, suggesting a diet of small fish and other prey. Although the skeleton is primitive compared to other Mosasauridae in many respects, halisaurines had the distinctive hypocercal tail of other mosasaurids suggesting good swimming ability, and they persisted alongside other mosasaurs until the end of the Cretaceous. The earliest known remains of halisaurines occur in rocks of Santonian age and the subfamily persists until the latest Maastrichtian. Halisaurines are known from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, indicating a more or less global distribution in the Late Cretaceous. Four genera are currently recognized: ''Eonatator'', '' Halisaurus'', '' Phosphorosau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halisaurus Arambourgi Forelimb
''Halisaurus'' is an extinct genus of marine reptile belonging to the mosasaur family. The holotype, consisting of an angular and a basicranium fragment discovered near Hornerstown, New Jersey, already revealed a relatively unique combination of features and prompted a new genus to be described. It was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1869 and means "ocean lizard". It was renamed by Marsh to ''Baptosaurus'' in 1870, since he believed the name to already be preoccupied by the fish ''Halosaurus''. According to modern rules, a difference of a letter is enough and the substitute name is unneeded, making "''Baptosaurus''" a junior synonym. Since its description, more complete remains have been uncovered from fossil deposits throughout the world with particularly complete remains found in Morocco and the United States. The genus remains a key taxon in mosasaur systematics due to its unique set of features and as the most complete representative of its subfamily, the Halisaurinae. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halisaurus Arambourgi
''Halisaurus'' is an extinct genus of marine reptile belonging to the mosasaur family. The holotype, consisting of an angular and a basicranium fragment discovered near Hornerstown, New Jersey, already revealed a relatively unique combination of features and prompted a new genus to be described. It was named by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1869 and means "ocean lizard". It was renamed by Marsh to ''Baptosaurus'' in 1870, since he believed the name to already be preoccupied by the fish '' Halosaurus''. According to modern rules, a difference of a letter is enough and the substitute name is unneeded, making "''Baptosaurus''" a junior synonym. Since its description, more complete remains have been uncovered from fossil deposits throughout the world with particularly complete remains found in Morocco and the United States. The genus remains a key taxon in mosasaur systematics due to its unique set of features and as the most complete representative of its subfamily, the Halisaurinae. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eonatator
''Eonatator'' is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is a close relative of ''Halisaurus'', and part of the same subfamily, the Halisaurinae. It is known from the Late Cretaceous of North America, Colombia and Sweden. Originally, this taxon was included within ''Halisaurus'', but was placed in its own genus, which also led to the subfamily Halisaurinae being created for the two genera. Discovery and naming ''Eonatator'' is known from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk Formation ( Late Coniacian to Early Campanian) of Kansas, from the Eutaw Formation (Santonian) and Mooreville Chalk Formation ( Selma Group; Santonian-Lower Campanian) of Alabama (United States), from the Kristianstad Basin of southern Sweden (late early Campanian), and the unit Nivel de Lutitas y Arenas (Campanian) of the Olini Group in La Mesa, Colombia. The name ''Eonatator'' means "dawn swimmer" ( Greek ''eos'' = dawn + Latin ''natator'' = swimmer). Original ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phosphorosaurus
''Phosphorosaurus'' ("phosphate lizard") is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. ''Phosphorosaurus'' is classified within the Halisaurinae subfamily alongside the genera '' Pluridens'', ''Eonatator'' and ''Halisaurus''. Stratigraphically, ''Phosphorosaurus'' only occurs in the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Although treated as synonymous with ''Halisaurus'' in the past, recent studies recognize it as valid. Two species are known, ''Phosphorosaurus ortliebi'' from the Craie de Ciply Formation in Belgium, and ''P. ponpetelegans'' from the Hakobuchi Formation of Hokkaido in Japan. ''P. ponpetelegans'' is only known from the very earliest Maastrichtian, whilst ''P. ortliebi'' occurs throughout the Maastrichtian. Description With a length of around 3 m (10 ft), ''Phosphorosaurus'' was small compared to most other mosasaurs, but rather standard in size for a halisaurine. Analysis of ''Phosphorosaurus'' biology suggests that thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosasaur
Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Ancient Greek, Greek ' meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in 1764. They belong to the order Squamata, which includes lizards and snakes. Mosasaurs probably evolved from an extinct group of aquatic lizards known as Aigialosauridae, aigialosaurs in the Late Cretaceous, Earliest Late Cretaceous with 42 described genera. During the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous period (Turonian–Maastrichtian ages), with the extinction of the ichthyosaurs and Pliosauridae, pliosaurs, mosasaurs became the dominant marine predators. They themselves became extinct as a result of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, K-Pg event at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. Description Mosasaurs breathed air, were powerful swimmers, and were well-adapted to livi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plesioplatecarpus
''Plesioplatecarpus'' is an extinct genus of plioplatecarpine mosasaur known from the Late Cretaceous (middle Coniacian to middle Santonian stage) of the northern Gulf of Mexico and the Western Interior Basin of North America. It was a relatively medium-sized mosasaur, measuring long and weighing . History ''Plesioplatecarpus'' was originally named by Cope in 1874 as '' Clidastes planifrons'', and later it was reassigned to ''Platecarpus''. The name ''Plesioplatecarpus'' was erected by Takuya Konishi and Michael W. Caldwell in 2011 to incorporate ''Platecarpus planifrons'', which was found to be distinct from ''Platecarpus'' in a phylogenetic analysis. It is known from the holotype AMNH 1491, a nearly complete skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside .... M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2017 In Paleontology
Flora Cnidarians Research * Ou ''et al.'' (2017) consider early Cambrian species '' Galeaplumosus abilus'' and '' Chengjiangopenna wangii'' to be junior synonyms of ''Xianguangia sinica'', interpret fossils attributed to members of these species as parts of the same organism and consider ''X. sinica'' to be likely stem-cnidarian. * '' Pseudooides prima'' is interpreted as a cnidarian and a senior synonym of ''Hexaconularia sichuanensis'' by Duan ''et al.'' (2017). * Fossilized cnidarian medusae are described from the Cambrian Zabriskie Quartzite (California, United States) by Sappenfield, Tarhan & Droser (2017), representing the oldest macrofossil evidence of cnidarian medusae from the Phanerozoic reported so far. * A study on the morphology of phosphatic tubes of '' Sphenothallus'' from the Early Ordovician Fenxiang Formation ( China), as well as the Silurian and Early Devonian of Podolia (Ukraine), and its implications for the evolution of symmetry in the body plan of cnidari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosasaurinae
The Mosasaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "mosasaurines" and their fossils have been recovered from every continent except for South America. The lineage first appears in the Turonian and thrived until the K-Pg mass extinction at the end of the Maastrichtian. They ranged in size from some of the smallest known mosasaurs ('' Carinodens'', 3–3.5 meters), to medium-sized taxa ('' Clidastes'', 6+ meters), to the largest of the mosasaurs ('' Mosasaurus hoffmannii'') potentially reaching about 13 m in length. Many genera of mosasaurines were either piscivorous or generalists, preying on fish and other marine reptiles, but one lineage, the Globidensini, evolved specialized crushing teeth, adapting to a diet of ammonites and/or marine turtles. Though represented by relatively small forms throughout the Turonian and Santonian, such as '' Clidastes'', the lineage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plioplatecarpinae
Plioplatecarpinae is a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "plioplatecarpines" and have been recovered from all continents, though the occurrences in Australia remain questionable. The subfamily includes the genera '' Latoplatecarpus'', ''Platecarpus'', '' Plioplatecarpus'' and ''Plesioplatecarpus''. Plioplatecarpines were small to medium-sized mosasaurs that were comparatively fast and agile compared to mosasaurs of other subfamilies. The first plioplatecarpines appear in the Turonian and are among the oldest of mosasaurs, and the clade persists throughout the Maastrichtian, a period of approximately 24 million years. The subfamily was seemingly heavily affected during a poorly understood middle-Campanian mosasaur extinction event and its genera appear to have faced competition from mosasaurine mosasaurs during the Maastrichtian, leading to a decline in numbers and in diver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platecarpus
''Platecarpus'' ("flat wrist") is an extinct genus of aquatic lizards belonging to the mosasaur family, living around 84–81 million years ago during the middle Santonian to early Campanian, of the Late Cretaceous period. Fossils have been found in the United States and possible specimens in Belgium and Africa. A well-preserved specimen of ''Platecarpus'' shows that it fed on moderate-sized fish, and it has been hypothesized to have fed on squid, and ammonites as well. Like other mosasaurs, it was initially thought to have swum in an eel-like fashion, although another study suggests that it swam more like modern sharks. An exceptionally well-preserved specimen of ''P. tympaniticus'' known as LACM 128319 shows skin impressions, pigments around the nostrils, bronchial tubes, and the presence of a high-profile tail fluke, showing that it and other mosasaurs did not necessarily have an eel-like swimming method, but were more powerful, fast swimmers. It is held in the Natural Histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1967 In Paleontology
Paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fos ... Paleontology 7 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
