HOME
*





Prosantosaurus
''Prosantosaurus'' is a monotypic genus of pachypleurosaurian sauropterygian containing the single species ''Prosantosaurus scheffoldi'' discovered in Canton Grison of Switzerland. The genus is named after the Prosanto Formation near the Ducan mountains, where the skeletons were found, and the species for Beat Scheffold, a scientific illustrator from Zurich who contributed prominently to the research of the Triassic marine reptiles. Discovery Six skeletons of the species have been discovered within lime and marlstone sediments of the Upper Prosanto Formation in the Ducanfurgga southeast of Davos, Canton Grisons, at about 2700 m above sea level. They have been dated to the very early Ladinian of the Triassic period. Today, the Ducan mountains are located about northeast of Mount San Giorgio, a UNESCO world heritage site where other pachypleurosauria were found. In the past, the two locations have been up to apart from each other. The skeletons are accessible in the palae ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Pachypleurosaur
left, 220px, '' Pachypleurosaurus'' Pachypleurosauria is an extinct clade of primitive sauropterygian reptiles that vaguely resembled aquatic lizards, and were limited to the Triassic period. They were elongate animals, ranging in size from , with small heads, long necks, paddle-like limbs, and long, deep tails. The limb girdles are greatly reduced, so it is unlikely these animals could move about on land. The widely spaced peg-like teeth project at the front of the jaws, indicating that these animals fed on fish. In the species '' Prosantosaurus'', it was observed that they fed on small fishes and crustaceans which they devoured entirely and that its teeth regrew after they broke off. This was the first observation of tooth replacement in a European pachypleurosaur, the only other discovery of such an event was made in China. Classification Pachypleurosaurs were originally and are often still included within the Nothosauroidea (Carroll 1988, Benton 2004). In some more rece ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several examples, but explicitly designated as the holotype. Under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), a holotype is one of several kinds of name-bearing types. In the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) and ICZN, the definitions of types are similar in intent but not identical in terminology or underlying concept. For example, the holotype for the butterfly '' Plebejus idas longinus'' is a preserved specimen of that subspecies, held by the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. In botany, an isotype is a duplicate of the holotype, where holotype and isotypes are often pieces from the same individual plant or samples from the same gathering. A holotype is not necessaril ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

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 fossils to classify organisms and study their interactions with each other and their environments (their paleoecology). Paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuvier's work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek (, "old, ancient"), (, (gen. ), "being, creature"), and (, "speech, thought, study"). Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of anatomically modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a wide range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics, and enginee ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Fossil Taxa Described In 2022
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the absol ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Fossils Of Switzerland
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the absolute ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Triassic Reptiles
The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period of the Mesozoic Era. Both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events. The Triassic Period is subdivided into three epochs: Early Triassic, Middle Triassic and Late Triassic. The Triassic began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, which left the Earth's biosphere impoverished; it was well into the middle of the Triassic before life recovered its former diversity. Three categories of organisms can be distinguished in the Triassic record: survivors from the extinction event, new groups that flourished briefly, and other new groups that went on to dominate the Mesozoic Era. Reptiles, especially archosaurs, were the chief terrestrial vertebrates during this time. A specialized subgroup of archosaurs ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Neusticosaurus
''Neusticosaurus'' (sometimes misspelled ''Neuticosaurus'') ("swimming lizard"), is an extinct genus of marine reptile belonging to the pachypleurosaurs, from Italy, Switzerland and Germany. ''Neusticosaurus'' was one of the smallest nothosaurs and probably fed on small fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% .... References *Seeley, H.G. (1882). On ''Neusticosaurus pusillus'' (Fraas), an amphibious reptile having affinities with the terrestrial Nothosauria and with the marine Plesiosauria. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 38:350–366. Nothosaurs Triassic sauropterygians Middle Triassic reptiles of Europe Taxa named by Harry Seeley Fossil taxa described in 1882 Sauropterygian genera {{triassic-reptile-stub ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Anarosaurus
''Anarosaurus'' is an extinct genus of pachypleurosaurs that lived in the Middle Triassic period (Anisian) and has been found in the Jena Formation and the Karlstadt Formation of Germany and the Winterswijk Quarry ( Lower Muschelkalk) of The Netherlands. Two species are known: ''A. pumilio'' (the type species) and ''A. heterodontus''. The holotype of ''A. pumilio'' was originally housed at the Institut und Museum fur Geologie und Palaontologie, Georg-August-Universitat, Gottingen, but can no longer be located today because it was lost or destroyed during World War II. ''Anarosaurus'' was a small reptile with an estimated body length of . See also * List of plesiosaurs This list of plesiosaurs is a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the order Plesiosauria, excluding purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera that are now considered inv ... References Triassic plesiosaurs Extinct animals of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Rostrum (anatomy)
Rostrum (from Latin ', meaning ''beak'') is a term used in anatomy for a number of phylogenetically unrelated structures in different groups of animals. Invertebrates * In crustaceans, the rostrum is the forward extension of the carapace in front of the eyes. It is generally a rigid structure, but can be connected by a hinged joint, as seen in Leptostraca. * Among insects, the rostrum is the name for the piercing mouthparts of the order Hemiptera as well as those of the snow scorpionflies, among many others. The long snout of weevils is also called a rostrum. * Gastropod molluscs have a rostrum or proboscis. * Cephalopod molluscs have hard beak-like mouthparts referred to as the rostrum. File:Washington DC Zoo - Macrobrachium rosenbergii 6.jpg, Crustacean: the rostrum of the shrimp '' Macrobrachium rosenbergii'' is serrated along both edges. File:Gminatus australis with Beetle.jpg, Insect: assassin bug piercing its prey with its rostrum File:Architeuthis beak.jpg, Ceph ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Calvaria (skull)
The calvaria is the top part of the skull. It is the upper part of the neurocranium and covers the cranial cavity containing the brain. It forms the main component of the skull roof. The calvaria is made up of the superior portions of the frontal bone, occipital bone, and parietal bones. In the human skull, the sutures between the bones normally remain flexible during the first few years of postnatal development, and fontanelles are palpable. Premature complete ossification of these sutures is called craniosynostosis. In Latin, the word ''calvaria'' is used as a feminine noun with plural ''calvariae''; however, many medical texts list the word as ''calvarium'', a neuter Latin noun with plural ''calvaria''. Structure The outer surface of the skull possesses a number of landmarks. The point at which the frontal bone and the two parietal bones meet is known as "Bregma". The point at which the two parietal bones and the occipital bone meet is known as "Lambda". Not only do the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can be treated as a subphylum under the clade Mandibulata. It is now well accepted that the hexapods emerged deep in the Crustacean group, with the completed group referred to as Pancrustacea. Some crustaceans ( Remipedia, Cephalocarida, Branchiopoda) are more closely related to insects and the other hexapods than they are to certain other crustaceans. The 67,000 described species range in size from '' Stygotantulus stocki'' at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to and a mass of . Like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they moult to grow. They are distinguished from other groups of arthropods, such as insects, myriapods and chelicerates, by the possession of biramous (two-parted) l ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Carnivore
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other soft tissues) whether through hunting or scavenging. Nomenclature Mammal order The technical term for mammals in the order Carnivora is ''carnivoran'', and they are so-named because most member species in the group have a carnivorous diet, but the similarity of the name of the order and the name of the diet causes confusion. Many but not all carnivorans are meat eaters; a few, such as the large and small cats (felidae) are ''obligate'' carnivores (see below). Other classes of carnivore are highly variable. The Ursids, for example: While the Arctic polar bear eats meat almost exclusively (more than 90% of its diet is meat), almost all other bear species are omnivorous, and one species, the giant panda, is nearly exclusively herbiv ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]