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Mistralazhdarcho
''Mistralazhdarcho'' is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Campanian and Maastrichtian ages of the Late Cretaceous period in what is now France. A rich fossil site was discovered in 1992 by paleontologist Xavier Valentin at Velaux–La Bastide Neuve, in the south of France. Pterosaur fossil remains would be subsequently uncovered in the site. They were found in a layer of the Aix-en-Provence Basin at Velaux–La Bastide Neuve and consist of a partial skeleton that includes the skull. These remains would later be made the holotype specimen of the new genus and type species ''Mistralazhdarcho maggii'', named and described in 2018 by Valentin, along with paleontologists Romain Vullo, Géraldine Garcia, Pascal Godefroit, and Aude Cincotta. The generic name combines the mistral, a typical northern wind from the area, and the related genus ''Azhdarcho''. The specific name honors Jean-Pierre Maggi, the mayor of Velaux, who supported the La Bastide Neuve paleontologic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aerotitan
''Aerotitan'' is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Argentina. Its only remains, which consist of a partial snout, were found in the Allen Formation of the Neuquén Basin in northern Patagonia. This specimen was made the holotype of ''Aerotitan sudamericanus'' by paleontologist Fernando Novas and colleagues. The generic name combines the Greek word ἀήρ, meaning "air" and Titan, alluding to the pterosaur's large size. The specific name is a reference to its origin, South America. ''Aerotitan'' is the first pterosaur belonging the family Azhdarchidae that was found in South America. A wingspan of at least has been estimated for this pterosaur. Within Azhdarchidae, the genus '' Mistralazhdarcho'' from France seems to have been the closest relative of ''Aerotitan'', based on numerous phylogenetic analyses that have recovered them together in a clade. Discovery and naming The only specimen of '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Azhdarchid
Azhdarchidae (from the Persian word , , a dragon-like creature in Persian mythology) is a family of pterosaurs known primarily from the Late Cretaceous Period, though an isolated vertebra apparently from an azhdarchid is known from the Early Cretaceous as well (late Berriasian age, about 140 million years ago). Azhdarchids include some of the largest flying animals discovered, but smaller cat-size members have also been found. Originally considered a sub-family of Pteranodontidae, Nesov (1984) named the Azhdarchinae to include the pterosaurs '' Azhdarcho'', ''Quetzalcoatlus'', and ''Titanopteryx'' (now known as '' Arambourgiania''). They were among the last known surviving members of the pterosaurs, and were a rather successful group with a worldwide distribution. Previously it was thought that by the end of the Cretaceous, most pterosaur families except for the Azhdarchidae disappeared from the fossil record, but recent studies indicate a wealth of pterosaurian fauna, including ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2018 In Archosaur Paleontology
The year 2018 in archosaur paleontology was eventful. Archosaurs include the only living dinosaur group — birds — and the reptile crocodilians, plus all extinct dinosaurs, extinct crocodilian relatives, and pterosaurs. Archosaur palaeontology is the scientific study of those animals, especially as they existed before the Holocene Epoch began about 11,700 years ago. The year 2018 in paleontology included various significant developments regarding archosaurs. This article records new taxa of fossil archosaurs of every kind that have been binomial nomenclature, described during the year 2018, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of archosaurs that occurred in the year 2018. General research * A study on the Morphology (biology), morphology of dorsal vertebrae of extant and fossil archosaurs, and on its implications for inferring lung structure in non-avian Dinosauriformes, dinosauriform archosaurs, is published by Brocklehurst, Schachner & ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alanqa
''Alanqa'' is a genus of Azhdarchoidea, azhdarchoid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) of what is now the Kem Kem Group of southeastern Morocco. The name ''Alanqa'' comes from the Arabic language, Arabic word العنقاء ''al-Anqa, ‘Anqā’'', for a mythical bird of Arabian culture. Discovery Aided by local villagers, a team of paleontologists had been excavating at several locations in the Kem Kem Beds during April, and November to December 2008, uncovering remains of several different pterosaurs. The material was fragmentary, and the type locality for ''Alanqa'' is Aferdou N'Chaft, near the village of Begaa and to the north-east of Taouz. Description ''Alanqa'' is known only from five fragments of the front upper and lower jaws, and possibly a neck vertebra, representing the single type species ''Alanqa saharica''. Two of these fragments were first described, but not named, by Peter Wellnhofer, Wellnhofer and Éric Buffetaut, Bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 outcrops 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metacarpal
In human anatomy, the metacarpal bones or metacarpus, also known as the "palm bones", are the appendicular bones that form the intermediate part of the hand between the phalanges (fingers) and the carpal bones ( wrist bones), which articulate with the forearm. The metacarpal bones are homologous to the metatarsal bones in the foot. Structure The metacarpals form a transverse arch to which the rigid row of distal carpal bones are fixed. The peripheral metacarpals (those of the thumb and little finger) form the sides of the cup of the palmar gutter and as they are brought together they deepen this concavity. The index metacarpal is the most firmly fixed, while the thumb metacarpal articulates with the trapezium and acts independently from the others. The middle metacarpals are tightly united to the carpus by intrinsic interlocking bone elements at their bases. The ring metacarpal is somewhat more mobile while the fifth metacarpal is semi-independent.Tubiana ''et al'' 1998, p ... [...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] |
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] |
Sandstone
Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar, because they are the most resistant minerals to the weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be imparted any color by impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Because sandstone beds can form highly visible cliffs and other topography, topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have become strongly identified with certain regions, such as the red rock deserts of Arches National Park and other areas of the Southwestern United States, American Southwest. Rock formations composed of sandstone usually allow the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autapomorphy
In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a Synapomorphy, derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or Outgroup (cladistics), outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to the focal taxon (which may be a species, family (biology), family or in general any clade). It can therefore be considered as an apomorphy in relation to a single taxon. The word ''autapomorphy'', introduced in 1950 by German entomology, entomologist Willi Hennig, is derived from the Greek language, Greek words αὐτός, ''autos'' "self"; ἀπό, ''apo'' "away from"; and μορφή, ''morphḗ'' = "shape". Discussion Because autapomorphies are only present in a single taxon, they do not convey information about relationship. Therefore, autapomorphies are not useful to infer phylogenetic relationships. However, autapomorphy, like synapomorphy and plesiomorphy is a relative concept depending on the ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
