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Sphaerospongia
''Sphaerospongia'' is an extinct genus of organism found in marine beds of Devonian age. Its classification is enigmatic, but it is typically placed among the sponges or the receptaculites. The organism has a surface covered with hexagonal plates, and some early taxonomists placed it among the echinoderms. It is found in close association with the horn coral ''Tabulophyllum ''Tabulophyllum'' is an extinct genus of horn coral belonging to the order Stariidae and family Kyphophyllidae. Specimens have been found in Devonian beds in Australia North America, and most other major areas of Devonian outcrops. The genus ... traversensis'' in the Onate Formation of New Mexico, US, where it provides a substrate for the coral. References Paleozoic life Sponges {{Sponge-stub ...
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Onate Formation
The Onate Formation is a geologic formation that is exposed in most of the highlands of south-central New Mexico. It preserves fossils dating back to the middle Devonian period. Description At the type section, the Onate Formation consists of about of orange yellow-weathering dolomitic siltstone with shales and sandstone. Elsewhere the thickness is more typically . The base of the formation is a profound regional unconformity, so that the formation rest on either the Fusselman Formation or the Montoya Group. It is overlain by the Sly Gap Formation and thins to the north and south. The formation is interpreted as having been deposited on a shallow shelf environment deepening to a euxenic basin to the south. Fossils The formation contains the fossil brachiopod ''Spirifer acuminatu'', as well as crinoids and bryozoans. The brachiopod assemblage includes 34 genera and 41 species. Conodonts are rare but a few tabulate corals, ichnofossils, and the receptaculid ''Sphaer ...
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Tabulophyllum
''Tabulophyllum'' is an extinct genus of horn coral belonging to the order Stariidae and family Kyphophyllidae. Specimens have been found in Devonian beds in Australia North America, and most other major areas of Devonian outcrops. The genus was highly adaptable to a variety of substrates, including muddy, sandy, and firm substrates. The genus had a low- magnesium calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ... skeleton and may have flourished in times of "calcite seas". There is evidence from fossil reefs in the Onate Formation of New Mexico, US that the genus favored the receptaculitid '' Sphaerospongia'' as a firm substrate for growth. Species *''T. buccinum'' Sorauf 1998 *''T. carinatum'' Zhen 1995 *''T. curtum'' Sorauf 1998 *''T. levorsoni'' Sorauf 1998 *''T ...
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Extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds ( taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryote globally, and possibly many times more if microorganisms, like bacteria, are included. Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, dod ...
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Genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. '' Panthera leo'' (lion) and '' Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus ''Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together (i.e. phylogenetic analysis should c ...
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Devonian
The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied. The first significant adaptive radiation of life on dry land occurred during the Devonian. Free-sporing vascular plants began to spread across dry land, forming extensive forests which covered the continents. By the middle of the Devonian, several groups of plants had evolved leaves and true roots, and by the end of the period the first seed-bearing plants appeared. The arthropod groups of myriapods, arachnids and hexapods also became well-established early in this period, after starting their expansion to land at least from the Ordovician period. Fish reached substantial diversity during this time, leading the Devonian to often be dubbed the Age of Fishes. The placoderms began domina ...
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Porifera
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. Sponges were first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the last common ancestor of all animals, making them the sister group of all other animals. Etymology The term ''sponge'' derives from the Ancient Greek word ( 'sponge'). Overview Sponges are similar to other animals in that they are multicellula ...
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Receptaculites
''Receptaculites'' is the name-bearing genus for an extinct group of conspicuous benthic marine genera, the receptaculitids (formally Receptaculitaceae or Receptaculitidae), that lived from the Early Ordovician through the Permian period, peaking in the Middle Ordovician. The group's phylogenetic origin has long been obscure, with some arguing that they were calcareous algae, probably of the order Dasycladales.Byrnes, J.G. 1968. Notes on the nature and environmental significance of the Receptaculitaceae. Lethaia, vol. 1, p. 368-381. Receptaculitids lived in warm, shallow seas, but consensus disagreeing. They have been described from all continents except Antarctica. In some areas they were important reef-formers, and they also occur as isolated specimens. ''Receptaculites'' and its relatives have a double-spiral, radiating pattern of rhombus-shaped plates supported by spindle-like objects called meroms. Fossils can usually be identified by the intersecting patterns of clockwise ...
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Echinoderm
An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the sea lilies or "stone lilies". Adult echinoderms are found on the sea bed at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone. The phylum contains about 7,000 living species, making it the second-largest grouping of deuterostomes, after the chordates. Echinoderms are the largest entirely marine phylum. The first definitive echinoderms appeared near the start of the Cambrian. The echinoderms are important both ecologically and geologically. Ecologically, there are few other groupings so abundant in the biotic desert of the deep sea, as well as shallower oceans. Most echinoderms are able to reproduce asexually and regenerate tissue, organs, and limbs; in some cases, they can undergo complete regeneration from a single limb. ...
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Horn Coral
The rugosa, also called the tetracorallia or horn coral, are an extinct order of solitary and colonial corals that were abundant in Middle Ordovician to Late Permian seas. Solitary rugosans (e.g., '' Caninia'', '' Lophophyllidium'', '' Neozaphrentis'', '' Streptelasma'') are often referred to as horn corals because of a unique horn-shaped chamber with a wrinkled, or rugose, wall. Some solitary rugosans reached nearly a meter in length. However, some species of rugose corals could form large colonies (e.g., '' Lithostrotion''). When radiating septa were present, they were usually in multiples of four, hence ''Tetracoralla'' in contrast to modern ''Hexacoralla'', colonial polyps generally with sixfold symmetry. Rugose corals have a skeleton made of calcite that is often fossilized. Like modern corals (Scleractinia), rugose corals were invariably benthic, living on the sea floor or in a reef-framework. Some symbiotic rugose corals were endobionts of Stromatoporoidea, especially i ...
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New Mexico
) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English language, English, Spanish language, Spanish (New Mexican Spanish, New Mexican), Navajo language, Navajo, Keres language, Keres, Zuni language, Zuni , Governor = , Lieutenant Governor = , Legislature = New Mexico Legislature , Upperhouse = New Mexico Senate, Senate , Lowerhouse = New Mexico House of Representatives, House of Representatives , Judiciary = New Mexico Supreme Court , Senators = * * , Representative = * * * , postal_code = NM , TradAbbreviation = N.M., N.Mex. , area_rank = 5th , area_total_sq_mi = 121,591 , area_total_km2 = 314,915 , area_land_sq_mi = 121,298 , area_land_km2 = 314,161 , area_water_sq_mi = 292 , area_water_km2 = 757 , area_water_percent = 0.24 , ...
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Paleozoic Life
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ''zōḗ'' (), "life", meaning "ancient life" ). It is the longest of the Phanerozoic eras, lasting from , and is subdivided into six geologic periods (from oldest to youngest): # Cambrian # Ordovician # Silurian # Devonian # Carboniferous # Permian The Paleozoic comes after the Neoproterozoic Era of the Proterozoic Eon and is followed by the Mesozoic Era. The Paleozoic was a time of dramatic geological, climatic, and evolutionary change. The Cambrian witnessed the most rapid and widespread diversification of life in Earth's history, known as the Cambrian explosion, in which most modern phyla first appeared. Arthropods, molluscs, fish, amphibians, reptiles, and synapsids all evolved during the Paleozoic. Life began in the ocean b ...
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