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Rhacheosaurini
Metriorhynchidae is an extinct family of specialized, aquatic metriorhynchoid crocodyliforms from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous period (Bajocian to early Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. The name Metriorhynchidae was coined by the Austrian zoologist Leopold Fitzinger in 1843.Fitzinger LJFJ. 1843. ''Systema Reptilium''. Wien: Braumüller et Seidel, 106 pp. The group contains two subfamilies, the Metriorhynchinae and the Geosaurinae. They represent the most marine adapted of all archosaurs. Description Metriorhynchids are fully aquatic crocodyliforms. Their forelimbs were small and paddle-like, and unlike living crocodylians, they lost their osteoderms ("armour scutes"). Their body shape maximised hydrodynamy (swimming efficiency), as they did have a shark-like tail fluke. Like ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, metriorhynchids developed smooth, scaleless skin. However, unlike those marine reptiles, they were poikilothermic with little to no endothermi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cricosaurus
''Cricosaurus'' is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliforms of the Late Jurassic. belonging to the family Metriorhynchidae. The genus was established by Johann Andreas Wagner in 1858 for three skulls from the Tithonian (Late Jurassic) of Germany. The name ''Cricosaurus'' means "Ring lizard", and is derived from the Greek '- ("ring") and -' ("lizard"). It was a relatively small reptile, with ''C. suevicus'' and ''C. araucanensis'' measuring and in total body length, respectively. Discovery ''Cricosaurus'' was first named by Wagner in 1858,Wagner A. 1858. Zur Kenntniss der Saurier aus den lithographischen Schiefern. ''Abhandlungen der Mathemat.-Physikalischen Classe der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften'' 8: 415-528. as a reclassification of a specimen he had previously described in 1852 ("Stenosaurus" ''elegans'', "Stenosaurus" being a misspelling of ''Steneosaurus'').Wagner A. 1852. Neu-aufgefundene Saurier-Überreste aus dem lithographischen Schiefern und ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maledictosuchus
''Maledictosuchus'' is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform belonging to the family Metriorhynchidae. It is the most basal member of the Rhacheosaurini Tribe with a relatively short body length, measuring based on the type specimen. Distribution Genus includes two species: the type species ''M. riclaensis'', described on the basis of fossils found in Ricla, Spain, and ''M. nuyivijanan'', known from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Sabinal Formation ( Tlaxiaco Basin, Oaxaca, Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...). References Prehistoric pseudosuchian genera Prehistoric marine crocodylomorphs Middle Jurassic crocodylomorphs Late Jurassic crocodylomorphs Fossils of Spain Fossils of Mexico {{paleo-archosaur-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plesiosuchus
''Plesiosuchus'' is an extinct genus of geosaurine metriorhynchid crocodyliform known from the Late Jurassic (late Kimmeridgian to early Tithonian stage) of Dorset, England and possibly also Spain. It contains a single species, ''Plesiosuchus manselii''. Discovery The type and referred specimens of ''Plesiosuchus'' were discovered by John Clavell Mansel-Pleydell in the 1860s alongside the remains of several other large-bodied marine reptiles along the coast of Dorset. Mansel-Pleydell gave these remains to the British Museum (now in the Natural History Museum) in 1866. Part of the holotype of ''P. manselii'' (NHMUK PV OR40103a) was first described by John Hulke in 1869. He referred it to ''Steneosaurus rostro-minor'' Geoffroy (1825), alongside '' Dakosaurus maximus'' and other specimens. Initially, the skull (NHMUK PV OR40103) was believed to be pliosaurian; it was the preparator Mr Davies that suggested a crocodylian nature for the skull. In 1870, Hulke de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enalioetes
''Enalioetes'' is an extinct genus of metriorhynchid thalattosuchian from the Early Cretaceous Stadthagen Formation of Germany. The type species is ''E. schroederi''. Prior to its description in 2024, it was known under the informal names '' Enaliosuchus'' "schroederi" and '' Cricosaurus'' "schroederi". Discovery and naming The holotype, which consists of much of the skull as well as parts of the neck, was discovered no later than 1916 in the Stadthagen Formation in Engelbostel, Germany. At the time of its discovery, the fossil material was thought to have belonged to a type of ichthyosaur by its discoverer, a government architect by the name of D. Hapke. Hapke then turned the fossils over to Prussian paleontologist Henry Schroeder in 1916, who proceeded to prepare and describe the material. Some years prior, in 1883, Ernst Koken described another metriorhynchid from the Stadthagen Formation, which he named '' Enaliosuchus macrospondylus''.Koken E. (1883). Die reptilian der ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Family (biology)
Family (, : ) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family—or whether a described family should be acknowledged—is established and decided upon by active taxonomists. There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to a lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suchodus
''Suchodus'' is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform from the Middle to Late Jurassic period of England and France. It measured between in total body length. Taxonomy and phylogeny In the 2000s, phylogenetic analysis has shown that ''Suchodus'' is a distinct metriorhynchid genus.Young, Mark T., and Marco Brandalise de Andrade, 2009. "What is ''Geosaurus ''Geosaurus'' is an extinct genus of marine crocodyliform within the family Metriorhynchidae, that lived during the Late Jurassic and the Early Cretaceous. ''Geosaurus'' was a carnivore that spent much, if not all, its life out at sea. No ''Geosa ...''? Redescription of ''Geosaurus giganteus'' (Thalattosuchia: Metriorhynchidae) from the Upper Jurassic of Bayern, Germany." ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'', 157: 551-585.Young, Mark T., Brusatte, Stephen L., Ruta, M., Andrade, Marco B. 2009. "The evolution of Metriorhynchoidea (Mesoeucrocodylia, Thalattosuchia): an integrated approach using geometrics morphomet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles William Andrews
Charles William Andrews (30 October 1866 – 25 May 1924) F.R.S., was a British palaeontologist whose career as a vertebrate paleontologist, both as a curator and in the field, was spent in the services of the British Museum, Department of Geology. Biography Andrews was born in Hampstead, Middlesex . A graduate of the University of London, Andrews was awarded an assistant's position at the British Museum, after a competitive exam, in 1892. His first concerns were with fossil birds, and he described '' Aepyornis titan'', the extinct "Elephant Bird" of Madagascar (1894). He noticed the connections among widely separated flightless rails of Mauritius, the Chatham Islands and New Zealand and deduced that their flightless character had been independently evolved on the spot. Alfred Nicholson Leeds' gifts to the British Museum of Jurassic marine reptiles from the Oxford Clay of Peterborough elicited his interest in plesiosaurs and other sea-reptiles which culminated in a catal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and recover. As a species' potential Range (biology), range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxon, Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the Fossil, fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. Over five billion species are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryotes globally, possibly many times more if microorganisms are included. Notable extinct animal species include Dinosaur, non-avian dinosaurs, Machairodontinae, saber-toothed cats, and mammoths. Through evolution, species arise through the process of specia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Jurassic
The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relatively rare, but geological formations containing land animal fossils include the Forest Marble Formation in England, the Kilmaluag Formation in Scotland,British Geological Survey. 2011Stratigraphic framework for the Middle Jurassic strata of Great Britain and the adjoining continental shelf: research report RR/11/06 British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham. the Calcaire de Caen of France, the Daohugou Beds in China, the Itat Formation in Russia, the Tiouraren Formation of Niger, and the Isalo III Formation of western Madagascar. Rocks of the Middle Jurassic were formerly (until about 1980s) in Europe called ''Dogger'' or ''Brown Jurassic''. Paleogeography During the Middle Jurassic Epoch, Pangaea began to separate into Laurasia and Gond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metriorhynchoid
Metriorhynchoidea is an extinct superfamily (biology), superfamily of thalattosuchian crocodyliforms from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous (Toarcian - Valanginian, possibly as late as early Aptian) of Europe, North America and South America. Metriorhynchids are fully aquatic crocodyliforms. Named by Leopold Fitzinger, Fitzinger, in 1843, it contains the basal taxa like ''Teleidosaurus'', ''Zoneait'' and ''Eoneustes'' and the family Metriorhynchidae. An unnamed taxon is known from Chile. Phylogeny Metriorhynchoidea is a stem-based taxon defined in the ''PhyloCode'' by Mark T. Young and colleagues in 2024 as "the largest clade within Thalattosuchia containing ''Metriorhynchus brevirostris'', but not ''Teleosaurus cadomensis'' and ''Macrospondylus bollensis''". The more derived clade Euthalattosuchia was named by Young and colleagues in 2024 to contain those thalattosuchians with both cranial and postcranial adaptations to a fully marine lifestye. It is defined in the ''P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodyliform
Crocodyliformes is a clade of Crurotarsi, crurotarsan archosaurs, the group often traditionally referred to as "crocodilians". They are the first members of Crocodylomorpha to possess many of the features that define later relatives. They are the only pseudosuchians to survive the K-Pg extinction event. In 1988, James M. Clark argued that traditional names for well-known groups of animals should be restricted to their crown clades, that is, used only for natural groups comprising all living members of any given lineage and descendants of their closest common ancestor. This posed a problem for the crocodilians, because the name Crocodylia, while used in various ways by various scientists, had always included not only living crocodilians but many of their extinct ancestors known only from the fossil record.Benton, M.J. and Clark, J.M. (1988). "Archosaur phylogeny and the relationships of the Crocodylia." Pp. 295–338 in Benton, M.J. (ed.), ''The phylogeny and classification of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
