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Placerias Hesternus
''Placerias'' (meaning 'broad body') is an extinct genus of dicynodonts that lived during the Carnian to the Norian age of the Triassic Period (230–215 million years ago). ''Placerias'' belongs to a group of dicynodonts called Kannemeyeriiformes, which was the last known group of dicynodonts before the taxon became extinct at the end of the Triassic. Description ''Placerias'' was one of the largest herbivores in the Late Triassic, weighing up to . The largest skull found had a length of ''.'' ''Placerias'' had a powerful neck, strong legs, and barrel-shaped body with possible ecological and evolutionary parallels with the modern hippopotamus, spending much of its time during the wet season wallowing in the water and chewing at bankside vegetation. ''Placerias'' was closely related to '' Ischigualastia'' and similar in appearance. ''Placerias'' used its beak to slice through thick branches and roots with two short tusks that could be used for defence and for intra-specific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carnian
The Carnian (less commonly, Karnian) is the lowermost stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Upper Triassic series (stratigraphy), Series (or earliest age (geology), age of the Late Triassic Epoch (reference date), Epoch). It lasted from 237 to 227.3 megaannum, million years ago (Ma). The Carnian is preceded by the Ladinian and is followed by the Norian. Its boundaries are not characterized by major extinctions or biotic turnovers, but a climatic event (known as the Carnian pluvial episode characterized by substantial rainfall) occurred during the Carnian and seems to be associated with important extinctions or biotic radiations. Another extinction occurred at the Carnian-Norian boundary, ending the Carnian age. Stratigraphic definitions The Carnian was named in 1869 by Johann August Georg Edmund Mojsisovics von Mojsvar, Mojsisovics. It is unclear if it was named after the Carnic Alps or after the Austrian region of Carinthia (state), Carinthia (''Kärnten'' in German) or after th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petrified Forest National Park
Petrified Forest National Park is a national park of the United States in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about , encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The park's headquarters is about east of Holbrook along Interstate 40 (I-40), which parallels the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon, the Puerco River, and historic U.S. Route 66, all crossing the park roughly east–west. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962. The park received 644,922 recreational visitors in 2018. Averaging about in elevation, the park has a dry windy climate with temperatures that vary from summer highs of about to winter lows well below freezing. More than 400 species of plants, dominated by grasses such as bunchgrass, blue grama, and sacaton, are found in the park. Fau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pentasaurus
''Pentasaurus'' is an extinct genus of dicynodont Dicynodontia is an extinct clade of anomodonts, an extinct type of non-mammalian therapsid. Dicynodonts were herbivores that typically bore a pair of tusks, hence their name, which means 'two dog tooth'. Members of the group possessed a horny, t ... of the family Stahleckeriidae, closely related to the well known ''Placerias''. It was found in the Lower Elliot Formation of South Africa, dated to the Norian of the Late Triassic period. The genus contains the Type species, type and only species, ''Pentasaurus goggai''. ''Pentasaurus'' is named after the ichnogenus ''Pentasauropus'', Ichnite, fossil footprints that were originally described from the lower Elliot Formation in 1970 decades before the body fossils of ''Pentasaurus'' itself were recognised. ''Pentasauropus'' footprints were likely made by dicynodonts, and in South Africa ''Pentasaurus'' itself was the likely trackmaker. The name reflects the fact that a large dicyn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lisowicia
''Lisowicia'' is an extinct genus of giant dicynodont synapsid that lived in what is now Poland during the late Norian or earliest Rhaetian age of the Late Triassic Period, about 210–205 million years ago. ''Lisowicia'' is the largest known dicynodont, as well as the largest non-mammalian synapsid, reaching about long, standing up to tall at the hips and weighing around , comparable in size to modern elephants. It was also one of the last dicynodonts, living shortly before their extinction at the end of the Triassic period. Fossils of a giant dicynodont were known from Poland since 2008, but ''Lisowicia'' was not named and officially described as a new species until late 2018. ''Lisowicia'' is unique amongst dicynodonts for its erect posture, with all four limbs held upright directly under its body. This is similar to the limbs of living mammals and dinosaurs, but unlike the sprawling and semi-erect postures typical of all other dicynodonts (and indeed all other non-mammalian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the southwest, and Tennessee to the west. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th-largest and List of U.S. states and territories by population, 9th-most populous of the List of states and territories of the United States, United States. Along with South Carolina, it makes up the Carolinas region of the East Coast of the United States, East Coast. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the state had a population of 10,439,388. Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh is the state's List of capitals in the United States, capital and Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte is its List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous and one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. The Charl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pekin Formation
The Pekin Formation is a Late Triassic (Carnian) geological Formation (geology), formation in North Carolina. The Pekin Formation is specific to the Sanford Sub-Basin of the Deep River Basin of North Carolina, although it may be equivalent to the Stockton Formation of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York (state), New York. The Pekin Formation was deposited in a rift basin along the Atlantic margin of North America during the breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea during the Late Triassic. The most common rocks in the Pekin Formation are red to brown sandstones, representing a terrestrial fluvial (riverine) and floodplain environment in a hot, humid climate. It has yielded both abundant plant and animal fossils, including some of the oldest potential dinosaur footprints in the world and the large predatory crocodylomorph ''Carnufex carolinensis''. Description and history On the surface, the Pekin Formation is exposed only as a long, narrow strip along the western edge of the Sanfor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mudstone
Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, W. H. Freeman, 2nd ed, 529 pp. The term ''mudstone'' is also used to describe carbonate rocks (limestone or dolomite) that are composed predominantly of carbonate mud. However, in most contexts, the term refers to siliciclastic mudstone, composed mostly of silicate minerals. The NASA Curiosity rover has found deposits of mudstone on Mars that contain organic substances such as propane, benzene and toluene. Definition There is not a single definition of mudstone that has gained general acceptance,Boggs 2006, p.143 though there is wide agreement that mudstones are fine-grained sedimentary rocks, composed mostly of silicate grains with a grain size less than . Individual grains this size are too small to be distinguished without a micros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Overbank
An overbank is an alluvial geological deposit consisting of sediment that has been deposited on the floodplain of a river or stream by flood waters that have broken through or overtopped the banks. The sediment is carried in suspension, and because it is carried outside of the main channel, away from faster flow, the sediment is typically fine-grained. An overbank deposit usually consists primarily of fine sand, silt and clay. Overbank deposits can be beneficial because they refresh valley soils. Overbank deposits can also be referred to as floodplain deposits. Examples include natural levees and crevasse splays. Geomorphology Floodplains are far wider than the channel they border, reaching widths of up to 100 kilometers, and their length is 10 times that. They are thin and roughly planar in shape. Unlike channel bars, which often build horizontally, overbank deposits build vertically. Depositional processes and facies Overbank deposits are fine-grained and accumulate ver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sedimentary Rock
Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or deposited at Earth's surface. Sedimentation is any process that causes these particles to settle in place. Geological detritus originates from weathering and erosion of existing rocks, or from the solidification of molten lava blobs erupted by volcanoes. The geological detritus is transported to the place of deposition by water, wind, ice or Mass wasting, mass movement, which are called agents of denudation. Biological detritus is formed by bodies and parts (mainly shells) of dead aquatic organisms, as well as their fecal mass, suspended in water and slowly piling up on the floor of water bodies (marine snow). Sedimentation may also occur when dissolved minerals precipitate from aqueous solution, water solution. The sedimentary rock cover of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, it is the state's first land-grant university and is the founding campus of the University of California system. Berkeley has an enrollment of more than 45,000 students. The university is organized around fifteen schools of study on the same campus, including the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry, College of Chemistry, the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, College of Engineering, UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science, College of Letters and Science, and the Haas School of Business. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was originally founded as par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Paul Welles
Samuel Paul Welles (November 9, 1909 – August 6, 1997) was an American palaeontologist. Welles was a research associate at the Museum of Palaeontology, University of California, Berkeley. He took part in excavations at the Placerias Quarry in 1930 and the ''Shonisaurus'' discoveries of 1954 and later, in what is now the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. He accumulated an extensive collection of fossils of marine reptiles, amphibians, and fish, as well as describing the dinosaur ''Dilophosaurus'' in 1954 and the elasmosaur Elasmosauridae, often called elasmosaurs or elasmosaurids, is an extinct family (biology), family of plesiosaurs that lived from the Hauterivian Stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Early Cretaceous to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceou ... '' Fresnosaurus'' in 1943. References American paleontologists 1909 births 1997 deaths University of California, Berkeley staff Scientists from California People from Gloucester, Massachusetts 20th-ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
