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Wamweracaudia
''Wamweracaudia'' is a large herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania, Africa, 155-145 million years ago. Discovery and naming During the German expeditions to the Tendaguru in German East Africa between 1909 and 1912, paleontologist Werner Janensch supervised the excavation of a sauropod tail at "Site G". In 1929, he referred this tail to ''Gigantosaurus robustus''.Janensch, W. 1929. "Material und Formengehalt in der Ausbeute der Tendaguru-Expedition", ''Palaeontographica'', Supplement 7, 1. Reihe, Teil 2: 1-34 In 1991, ''G. robustus'' was made the separate genus ''Janenschia''.Wild, R. 1991. "''Janenschia'' n. g. ''robusta'' (E. Fraas 1908) pro ''Tornieria robusta'' (E. Fraas 1908) (Reptilia, Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha). ''Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde, Serie B (Geologie und Paläontologie)'' 173: 1–4 Janensch had referred the tail based on personal observation of a series of finds of comparable material. During the Second W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mamenchisauridae
Mamenchisauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs belonging to Eusauropoda known from the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Asia and Africa. Some members of the group reached gigantic sizes, amongst the largest of all sauropods. Classification The family Mamenchisauridae was first erected by Chinese paleontologists Yang Zhongjian ("C.C. Young") and Zhao Xijin in 1972, in a paper describing ''Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis''.Young, C.C. and Zhao, X. (1972). "''Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis sp. nov.''". ''Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology Monographs'' Series A 8: 1-30. The most complete cladogram of Mamenchisauridae is presented by Moore ''et al.'', 2020, which includes several named species. Notably, some iterations of their analysis recover ''Euhelopus'' and kin, usually considered somphospondylians, as relatives of mamenchisaurids, mirroring earlier conceptions about the family. Topology A: Implied-weights analysis, Gonzàlez Riga dataset Topology B: T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tendaguru Formation
The Tendaguru Formation, or Tendaguru Beds are a highly fossiliferous formation and Lagerstätte located in the Lindi Region of southeastern Tanzania. The formation represents the oldest sedimentary unit of the Mandawa Basin, overlying Neoproterozoic basement, separating by a long hiatus and unconformity. The formation reaches a total sedimentary thickness of more than . The formation ranges in age from the late Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous, Oxfordian to Hauterivian stages, with the base of the formation possibly extending into the Callovian. The Tendaguru Formation is subdivided into six members; from oldest to youngest Lower Dinosaur Member, the ''Nerinella'' Member, the Middle Dinosaur Member, ''Indotrigonia africana'' Member, the Upper Dinosaur Member, and the ''Rutitrigonia bornhardti-schwarzi'' Member. The succession comprises a sequence of sandstones, shales, siltstones, conglomerates with minor oolitic limestones, deposited in an overall shallow marine to c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2019 In Archosaur Paleontology
This article records new taxa of fossil archosaurs of every kind that are scheduled described during the year 2019, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of archosaurs that are scheduled to occur in the year 2019. General research * A study on patterns of evolutionary integration among regions of the archosaur skull, based on data from extant and fossil taxa, is published by Felice ''et al.'' (2019). * A review of the biogeographic history of crocodyliforms, sauropod dinosaurs, nonavian theropod dinosaurs and mammals from the Mesozoic of Gondwana is published by Krause ''et al.'' (2019). * A study on the biogeography of Cretaceous terrestrial tetrapods, including terrestrial crocodyliforms, non-avian dinosaurs, birds and pterosaurs, is published by Kubo (2019). * A study on size and shape differences between brains and endocasts of extant American alligator and domestic chicken, and on its implications for inferring whether endocasts are a rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mamenchisaurus
''Mamenchisaurus'' (or spelling pronunciation ) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known for their remarkably long necks which made up nearly half the total body length. Numerous species have been assigned to the genus; however, many of these might be questionable. Fossils have been found in the Sichuan Basin and Yunnan, Yunnan Province in China. Several species are from the Shaximiao Formation, Upper Shaximiao Formation whose geologic age is uncertain. However, evidence suggests that this be no earlier than the Oxfordian (stage), Oxfordian stage of the Jurassic, Late Jurassic. ''M. sinocanadorum'' dates to the Oxfordian stage (158.7 to 161.2 Myr, mya) and ''M. anyuensis'' to the Aptian, Aptian stage of the Cretaceous, Early Cretaceous around 114.4 mya. Most species were medium- to large-size sauropods in length.Russell, D.A., Zheng, Z. (1993). "A large mamenchisaurid from the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, People Republic of China." ''Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences'', (30): 2082-2095. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janenschia
''Janenschia'' (named after Werner Janensch) is a large herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation of Lindi Region, Tanzania around 155 million years ago. Discovery and naming ''Janenschia'' has had a convoluted nomenclatural history. In 1907, Eberhard Fraas at "site P", nine hundred metres to the southeast of Tendaguru Hill, discovered two skeletons of gigantic sauropods. They were designated as "Skeleton A" and "Skeleton B". The fossils were transported to the collection of the ''Stuttgarter Naturaliensammlung'' in Stuttgart, Germany. Fraas in 1908 decided to name both skeletons as different species of one genus, ''Gigantosaurus''. Skeleton A became ''Gigantosaurus africanus'' and skeleton B became ''Gigantosaurus robustus''. The latter species was based on the holotype partial skeleton SMNS 12144, consisting of a right hindlimb. The specific name was inspired by the heavy build of the animal. While doing so, Fraas knew full well that the name ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quadruped
Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuor'' for "four", and ''pes'', ''pedis'' for "foot"). Quadruped animals are found among both vertebrates and invertebrates. Quadrupeds vs. tetrapods Although the words ‘quadruped’ and ‘tetrapod’ are both derived from terms meaning ‘four-footed’, they have distinct meanings. A tetrapod is any member of the taxonomic unit Tetrapoda (which is defined by descent from a specific four-limbed ancestor), whereas a quadruped actually uses four limbs for locomotion. Not all tetrapods are quadrupeds and not all entities that could be described as ‘quadrupedal’ are tetrapods. This last meaning includes certain artificial objects; almost all quadruped ''organisms'' are tetrapods (with the exception of some raptorial arthropods adapte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herbivore
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding. Horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, and other tough plant material. A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora that help them digest plant matter, which is more difficult to digest than animal prey. This flora is made up of cellulose-digesting protozoans or bacteria. Etymology Herbivore is the anglicized form of a modern Latin coinage, ''herbivora'', cited in Charles Lyell's 1830 '' Principles of Geology''.J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner, eds. (2000) ''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. 8, p. 155. Richard Owen employed the anglicized term in an 1854 work on fossil teeth and skeletons. ''Herbivora'' is derived from Latin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titanosauria
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thriving at the time of the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. This group includes some of the largest land animals known to have ever existed, such as ''Patagotitan''—estimated at long with a weight of —and the comparably-sized ''Argentinosaurus'' and ''Puertasaurus'' from the same region. The group's name alludes to the mythological Titans of ancient Greek mythology, via the type genus (now considered a ''nomen dubium)'' '' Titanosaurus''. Together with the brachiosaurids and relatives, titanosaurs make up the larger sauropod clade Titanosauriformes. Titanosaurs have long been a poorly-known group, and the relationships between titanosaur species are still not well-understood. Description Titanosauria have the largest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladistic
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived characteristics (synapomorphies'')'' that are not present in more distant groups and ancestors. However, from an empirical perspective, common ancestors are inferences based on a cladistic hypothesis of relationships of taxa whose character states can be observed. Theoretically, a last common ancestor and all its descendants constitute a (minimal) clade. Importantly, all descendants stay in their overarching ancestral clade. For example, if the terms ''worms'' or ''fishes'' were used within a ''strict'' cladistic framework, these terms would include humans. Many of these terms are normally used paraphyletically, outside of cladistics, e.g. as a ' grade', which are fruitless to precisely delineate, especially when including extinct species. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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