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Saurornitholestine
Eudromaeosauria ( ; "true dromaeosaurs") is a subgroup of terrestrial dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs. They were small to large-sized predators that flourished during the Cretaceous Period. Eudromaeosaur fossils are known almost exclusively from the northern hemisphere. They first appeared in the early Cretaceous Period and survived until the end of the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage, Ma). The earliest known definitive eudromaeosaur is the probable dromaeosaurine '' Yurgovuchia'', from the Cedar Mountain Formation, dated to 139 million years ago. However, the earlier (143-million-year-old) fossils such as those of ''Nuthetes'' and several indeterminate teeth dating to the Kimmeridgian stage may represent eudromaeosaurs. While other dromaeosaurids filled a variety of specialized ecological niches, mainly those of small predators or specialized piscivores, eudromaeosaurs functioned as hypercarnivores and are suggested to have been predators of medium- to large-sized prey. Asi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eudromaeosauria
Eudromaeosauria (International Phonetic Alphabet, ; "true dromaeosaurs") is a subgroup of terrestrial Dromaeosauridae, dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs. They were small to large-sized predators that flourished during the Cretaceous Period (geology), Period. Eudromaeosaur fossils are known almost exclusively from the northern hemisphere. They first appeared in the early Cretaceous Period and survived until the end of the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage, Ma). The earliest known definitive eudromaeosaur is the probable dromaeosaurine ''Yurgovuchia'', from the Cedar Mountain Formation, dated to 139 million years ago. However, the earlier (143-million-year-old) fossils such as those of ''Nuthetes'' and several indeterminate teeth dating to the Kimmeridgian stage may represent eudromaeosaurs. While other dromaeosaurids filled a variety of specialized ecological niches, mainly those of small predators or specialized piscivores, eudromaeosaurs functioned as hypercarnivores and are sug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bambiraptor
''Bambiraptor'' is a Late Cretaceous, 72-million-year-old, bird-like dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur described by scientists at the University of Kansas, Yale University, and the University of New Orleans. The holotype fossil is less than one meter long, although this specimen appears to be a juvenile, and it is possible that ''Bambiraptor'' is a juvenile '' Saurornitholestes''. It is even suspected that the type specimen is a chimera, based on the fact that "there are elements of three different similarly sized lower legs included in the holotype." Because of its small size, it was named ''Bambiraptor feinbergi'', after the popular Disney movie character (the name literally translates to "Bambi thief") and the surname of the wealthy family who bought and lent the specimen to the new Graves Museum of Natural History in Florida. Discovery The ''Bambiraptor'' skeleton was discovered in 1995 by 14-year-old fossil hunter Wes Linster, who was looking for dinosaur bones with his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Cretaceous
The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 Megaannum#SI prefix multipliers, Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Proposals for the exact age of the Barremian–Aptian boundary ranged from 126 to 117 Ma until recently (as of 2019), but based on drillholes in Svalbard the defining Anoxic event#Cretaceous, early Aptian Oceanic Anoxic Event 1a (OAE1a) was dated to 123.1±0.3 Ma, limiting the possible range for the boundary to c. 122–121 Ma. There is a possible link between this anoxic event and a series of Early Cretaceous large igneous provinces (LIP). The Ontong Java Plateau, Ontong Java-Manihiki Plateau, Manihiki-Hikurangi Plateau, Hikurangi large igneous province, emplaced in the South Pacific at c. 120 Ma, is by far the largest LIP in Earth's history. The Onto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuthetes
''Nuthetes'' is the name given to a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur, either a dromaeosaurid or a tyrannosauroid, known only from fossil teeth and jaw fragments found in rocks of the middle Berriasian (Early Cretaceous) age in the Cherty Freshwater Member of the Lulworth Formation in England and also the Angeac-Charente bonebed in France. If it was a dromaeosaurid, ''Nuthetes'' would have been a small predator. Discovery and naming The holotype, DORCM G 913, was collected by Charles Willcox, an amateur paleontologist living at Swanage, from the Feather Quarry near Durlston Bay in a marine deposition of Cherty Freshwater Member of the Lulworth Formation, dating from the middle Berriasian. It consists of an about three inch long left dentary fragment with nine teeth. The holotype was once thought to be lost but was rediscovered during the 1970s in the Dorset County Museum. Later several other teeth and specimen BMNH 48207, another dentary fragment from a somewhat smal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unenlagia
''Unenlagia'' (meaning "half-bird" in Latinized Mapudungun) is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous period. The genus ''Unenlagia'' has been assigned two species: ''U. comahuensis'', the type species described by Novas and Puerta in 1997, and ''U. paynemili'', described by Calvo ''et al.'' in 2004. Discovery and naming In 1996 in the Neuquén province of Argentina a skeleton of a theropod was discovered in the Sierra del Portezuelo and reported the same year. In 1997 Fernando Emilio Novas and Pablo Puerta named and described ''Unenlagia comahuensis''. The generic name is derived from Mapuche ''uñùm'', 'bird', and ''llag'', 'half', in reference to the fact that the describers considered the species to be a link between birds and more basal theropods. The specific name refers to the Comahue, the region the find was made. The holotype specimen, MCF PVPH 78, was uncovered in layers of the Portezuelo Formation dating ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passer
''Passer'' is a genus of Old World sparrow, sparrows, also known as the true sparrows. The genus contains 28 species and includes the house sparrow and the Eurasian tree sparrow, two of the most common birds in the world. They are small birds with thick bills for eating seeds, and are mostly coloured grey or brown. Native to the Old World, some species have been introduced throughout the world. Taxonomy The genus ''Passer'' was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The type species was subsequently designated as the house sparrow (''Passer domesticus''). The name ''Passer'' is the Latin word for "sparrow." Species The genus contains 28 species: Besides these living species, there are questionable fossils from as long ago as the Early Miocene, and ''Passer predomesticus'', from the Middle Pleistocene. Description These sparrows are plump little brown or greyish birds, often with black, yellow or white markings. Typically long, they range ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microraptor
''Microraptor'' (Greek language, Greek, μικρός, ''mīkros'': "small"; Latin language, Latin, ''raptor'': "one who seizes") is a genus of small, four-winged dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. Numerous well-preserved fossil specimens have been recovered from Liaoning, China. They date from the early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation (Aptian stage), 125 to 120 million years ago. Three species have been named (''M. zhaoianus'', ''M. gui'', and ''M. hanqingi''), though further study has suggested that all of them represent variation in a single species, which is properly called ''M. zhaoianus''. ''Cryptovolans'', initially described as another four-winged dinosaur, is usually considered to be a synonym of ''Microraptor''. Like ''Archaeopteryx'', well-preserved fossils of ''Microraptor'' provide important evidence about the evolutionary relationship between birds and earlier dinosaurs. ''Microraptor'' had long pennaceous feathers that formed aerodynamic surfaces on the arms and tail but a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dromaeosaurus
''Dromaeosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of Dromaeosauridae, dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous period (middle late Campanian and Maastrichtian), sometime between 80 and 69 million years ago, in Alberta, Canada and the western United States. The type (biology), type species is ''Dromaeosaurus albertensis'', which was described by William Diller Matthew and Barnum Brown in 1922 in paleontology, 1922. Its fossils were unearthed in the Hell Creek Formation, Horseshoe Canyon Formation and Dinosaur Park Formation. Teeth attributed to this genus have been found in the Prince Creek Formation. ''Dromaeosaurus'' is the type genus of both Dromaeosauridae and Dromaeosaurinae, which include many genera with similar characteristics to ''Dromaeosaurus'' such as possibly its closest relative ''Dakotaraptor''. ''Dromaeosaurus'' was heavily built, more so than other dromaeosaurs that are similar in size, like ''Velociraptor''. Discovery and naming Despite receiving wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monophyletic
In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population), i.e. excludes non-descendants of that common ancestor # the grouping contains all the descendants of that common ancestor, without exception Monophyly is contrasted with paraphyly and polyphyly as shown in the second diagram. A ''paraphyletic'' grouping meets 1. but not 2., thus consisting of the descendants of a common ancestor, excepting one or more monophyletic subgroups. A '' polyphyletic'' grouping meets neither criterion, and instead serves to characterize convergent relationships of biological features rather than genetic relationships – for example, night-active primates, fruit trees, or aquatic insects. As such, these characteristic features of a polyphyletic grouping ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tyrannosauridae
Tyrannosauridae (or tyrannosaurids, meaning "tyrant lizards") is a family of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs that comprises two subfamilies containing up to fifteen genera, including the eponymous ''Tyrannosaurus''. The exact number of genera is controversial, with some experts recognizing as few as three. All of these animals lived near the end of the Cretaceous Period and their fossils have been found only in North America and Asia. Although descended from smaller ancestors, tyrannosaurids were almost always the largest predators in their respective ecosystems, putting them at the apex of the food chain. The largest species was ''Tyrannosaurus rex'', the most massive known terrestrial predator, which measured over in length and according to most modern estimates up to in weight. Tyrannosaurids were bipedal carnivores with massive skulls filled with large teeth. Despite their large size, their legs were long and proportioned for fast movement. In contrast, their arms were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barnum Brown
Barnum Brown (February 12, 1873 – February 5, 1963), commonly referred to as Mr. Bones, was an American paleontologist. He discovered the first documented remains of ''Tyrannosaurus'' during a career that made him one of the most famous fossil hunters working from the late Victorian era into the early 20th century. Family and early life Barnum Brown was born in Carbondale, Kansas on February 12, 1873 to William and Clara Silver Brown. Brown's parents moved to Kansas in 1859, traveling by covered wagon with their daughter, Melissa. Their second daughter, Alice Elizabeth, was born in 1860 in Osage County, Kansas, where the family would build a one-room cabin on top of a coal seam. William made a living in Kansas first by raising corn, hogs, and cattle, but the political turmoil of Bleeding Kansas in the late 1850s and 1860s led to arson and theft of crops and livestock; he supported the family by digging and selling coal, as well as hauling supplies for the government with a fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Diller Matthew
William Diller Matthew FRS (February 19, 1871 – September 24, 1930) was a vertebrate paleontologist who worked primarily on mammal fossils, although he also published a few early papers on mineralogy, petrological geology, one on botany, one on trilobites, and he described '' Tetraceratops insignis'', which was much later suggested to be the oldest known (Early Permian) therapsid. Matthew was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of George Frederic Matthew and Katherine (Diller) Matthew. His father was an amateur geologist and paleontologist who instilled his son with an abiding interest in the earth sciences. Matthew received an A.B. at the University of New Brunswick in 1889 and then earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1894. Matthew was curator of the American Museum of Natural History from the mid-1890s to 1927, and director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology from 1927 to 1930. He was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
