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Taghanic Event
The Taghanic event (Taghanic unconformity, Taghanic crisis or Taghanic onlap) was an extinction event that occurred about 386 million years ago during the Givetian faunal stage of the Middle Devonian geologic period in the Paleozoic era. It was caused by Hypoxia (environmental), hypoxia from an anoxic event. The event had a period in which dissolved oxygen in the Earth's oceans was depleted. The Taghanic event caused a very high death rate of corals. The loss of the coral reefs caused a high loss of animals that lived in and around the reefs. The extinction rate has been estimated between 28.5% and 36%, making it the 8th largest extinction event recorded. The reduced oxygen levels resulted from a period of global warming caused by Milankovitch cycles. In the Taghanic event sea levels were higher. After the Taghanic Event, sea life recovered in the Frasnian faunal stage starting 382.7 million years ago. The Taghanic event was followed by the Kellwasser event (372 ma) and the Hangenb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Devonian
In the geological timescale, the Middle Devonian epoch (from 393.3 ± 1.2 million years ago to 382.7 ± 1.6 million years ago) occurred during the Devonian period, after the end of the Emsian age. The Middle Devonian epoch is subdivided into two stages: Eifelian and Givetian. Life in the Middle Devonian In the middle Devonian the armored jawless fish known as ostracoderms were declining in diversity and instead the jawed fish were thriving and increasing in diversity in both the oceans and freshwater. The shallow, warm, oxygen-depleted waters of Devonian inland lakes, surrounded by primitive plants, provided the environment necessary for certain early fish to develop essential characteristics such as well developed lungs, ability to crawl out of the water and onto the land for short periods of time, possibly in search of food which would be developed by the tetrapods later in the Late Devonian which are descendents of these early fish. The earliest forest grew in the Middle De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Sponges
Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and are one of the most ancient members of macrobenthos, with many historical species being important reef-building organisms. Sponges are multicellular organisms consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells, and usually have tube-like bodies full of pores and channels that allow water to circulate through them. They have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. They do not have complex 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, usually via flagella movements of the so-called "collar cells". S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West Virginia to its southwest, Ohio and the Ohio River to its west, Lake Erie and New York (state), New York to its north, the Delaware River and New Jersey to its east, and the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario to its northwest via Lake Erie. Pennsylvania's most populous city is Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 through a royal land grant to William Penn, the son of William Penn (Royal Navy officer), the state's namesake. Before that, between 1638 and 1655, a southeast portion of the state was part of New Sweden, a Swedish Empire, Swedish colony. Established as a haven for religious and political tolerance, the B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York (state)
New York, also called New York State, is a U.S. state, state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. New York is the List of U.S. states and territories by population, fourth-most populous state in the United States, with nearly 20 million residents, and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 27th-largest state by area, with a total area of . New York has Geography of New York (state), a varied geography. The southeastern part of the state, known as Downstate New York, Downstate, encompasses New York City, the List of U.S. cities by population, most populous city in the United States; Long Island, with approximately 40% of the state's population, the nation's most populous island; and the cities, suburbs, and wealthy enclaves of the lower Hudson Valley. These areas are the center of the expansive New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcellus Formation
The Marcellus Formation or the Marcellus Shale is a Middle Devonian age unit of sedimentary rock found in eastern North America. Named for a distinctive outcrop near the village of Marcellus, New York, it extends throughout much of the Appalachian Basin. The unit name usage by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) includes ''Marcellus Shale'' and ''Marcellus Formation''.See unit names marked by an asterisk aGeolex/ref> The term "Marcellus Shale" is the preferred name throughout most of the Appalachian region, although the term "Marcellus Formation" is also acceptable within the State of Pennsylvania. The unit was first described and named as the "Marcellus shales" by J. Hall in 1839. Description The Marcellus consists predominantly of black shale and a few limestone beds and concentrations of iron pyrite ( Fe S2) and siderite (Fe CO3). Like most shales, it tends to split easily along the bedding plane, a property known as fissility. Lighter colored shales in the uppe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tully Formation
The Tully Formation is a geologic unit in the Appalachian Basin. The Tully was deposited as a carbonate rich mud, in a shallow sea at the end of the Middle Devonian. Outcrops for the Tully are found in New York State and Pennsylvania. It is also found subsurface in western Maryland and northern West Virginia. A number of fossil remains from marine organisms may be found in Tully outcrops. Description The Tully is primary made up of limestone. There there are also layers with much higher clay contend resulting in a calcareous shale. To the east the Tully becomes siliciclastic Siliciclastic (or ''siliclastic'') rocks are clastic noncarbonate sedimentary rocks that are composed primarily of silicate minerals, such as quartz or clay minerals. Siliciclastic rock types include mudrock, sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic .... This is due to sediments being washed in from the Acadian Mountains to the east. By the time the Tully was being deposited the Appalachian Basin had been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaeobiogeographic
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area. Phytogeography is the branch of biogeography that studies the distribution of plants. Zoogeography is the branch that studies distribution of animals. Mycogeography is the branch that studies distribution of fungi, such as mushrooms. Knowledge of spatial variation in the numbers and types of organisms is as vital to us today as it was to our early human ancestors, as we adapt to heterogeneous but geographically predictable environments. Biogeography is an integrative field of inquiry that unites concepts and information from ecology, evolutionary biology, taxonomy, geology, physical geography, palaeontology, and climatology. Modern biogeographic research combines information and ideas from many fields, from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faunal
Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and ''funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoologists and paleontologists use ''fauna'' to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess Shale fauna". Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics. Etymology ''Fauna'' comes from the name Fauna, a Roman goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god Faunus, and the related forest spirits called Fauns. All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god Pan, and ''panis'' is the Modern Greek equivalent of fauna (πανίς or rather πανίδα). ''Fauna'' is also the word for a boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Red Sandstone Continent
Laurasia () was the more northern of two large landmasses that formed part of the Pangaea supercontinent from around ( Mya), the other being Gondwana. It separated from Gondwana (beginning in the late Triassic period) during the breakup of Pangaea, drifting further north after the split and finally broke apart with the opening of the North Atlantic Ocean 56 Mya. The name is a portmanteau of Laurentia and Eurasia. Laurentia, Avalonia, Baltica, and a series of smaller terranes, collided in the Caledonian orogeny c. 400 Mya to form Laurussia. Laurussia then collided with Gondwana to form Pangaea. Kazakhstania and Siberia were then added to Pangaea 290–300 Mya to form Laurasia. Laurasia finally became an independent continental mass when Pangaea broke up into Gondwana and Laurasia. Terminology and origin of the concept Laurentia, the Palaeozoic core of North America and continental fragments that now make up part of Europe, collided with Baltica and Avalonia in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thamnopora Boloniensis
''Thamnopora boloniensis'' is an extinct species of tabulate coral. Its name was ''Favosites ''Favosites'' is an extinct genus of tabulate coral characterized by polygonal closely packed corallites (giving it the common name "honeycomb coral"). The walls between corallites are pierced by pores known as mural pores which allowed transfe ... boloniensis''. References Tabulata Fossil taxa described in 1877 Carboniferous animals of Asia {{paleo-hexacorallia-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rugosa
The Rugosa or rugose corals are an extinct Class (biology), class of solitary and Colony (biology), colonial corals that were abundant in Middle Ordovician to Late Permian seas. Solitary rugosans (e.g., ''Caninia (genus), Caninia'', ''Lophophyllidium'', ''Neozaphrentis'', ''Streptelasma'') are often referred to as ''horn corals'' because of a unique horn-shaped chamber with a wrinkled, or wiktionary:rugose, rugose, wall. Some solitary rugosans reached nearly a meter (3 ft 3 in) 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 ''Tetracorallia'' in contrast to modern ''Hexacorallia'', 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tabulata
Tabulata, commonly known as tabulate corals, is a class of extinct corals. They are almost always colonial, forming colonies of individual hexagonal cells known as corallites defined by a skeleton of calcite, similar in appearance to a honeycomb. Adjacent cells are joined by small pores. Their distinguishing feature is their well-developed horizontal internal partitions (''tabulae'') within each cell, but reduced or absent vertical internal partitions ( ''septa''). They are usually smaller than rugose corals, but vary considerably in shape, from flat to conical to spherical. Around 300 species have been described. Among the most common tabulate corals in the fossil record are '' Aulopora'', '' Favosites'', '' Halysites'', '' Heliolites'', '' Pleurodictyum'', ''Sarcinula'' and '' Syringopora''. Tabulate corals with massive skeletons often contain endobiotic symbionts, such as cornulitids and '' Chaetosalpinx''. Like rugose corals, they lived entirely during the Paleozoic, being ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
