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Wareolestes Rex
''Wareolestes rex'' ("Ware's Brigand king") is a mammaliaform from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) rocks of England and Scotland. It was originally known from isolated teeth from England, before a more complete jaw with teeth was found in the Kilmaluag Formation of Skye, Scotland. Etymology ''Wareolestes rex'' was named by Eric Freeman, who named it for Dr. Martin Ware "in recognition of this major contribution" to Freeman's successful work. The second part of the generic name, ''lestes'', comes from the Greek for ''brigand''. The species name ''rex'', Latin for ''king'', is both in recognition of the relatively large size of this Mesozoic mammaliaform, and a pun on the name of Mr E. J. King. Discovery ''Wareolestes rex'' was first found in and named from the Forest Marble Formation of Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, England. The holotype is a single molar tooth, originally described as a lower molar, but later argued to be an upper molar.Hahn G., Sigogneau-Russell D. and Gogefroit P. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bathonian
In the geologic timescale the Bathonian is an age (geology), age and stage (stratigraphy), stage of the Middle Jurassic. It lasted from approximately 168.2 ±1.2 annum, Ma to around 165.3 ±1.1 Ma (million years ago). The Bathonian Age succeeds the Bajocian Age and precedes the Callovian Age. Stratigraphic definitions The Bathonian Stage takes its name from Bath, Somerset, Bath, a spa town in England built on Jurassic limestone (the Latinized form of the town name is ''Bathonium''). The name was introduced in scientific literature by Belgian geologist Jean Baptiste Julien d'Omalius d'Halloy, d'Omalius d'Halloy in 1843. The original type locality (geology), type locality was located near Bath. The French palaeontologist Alcide d'Orbigny was in 1852 the first to define the exact length of the stage. The base of the Bathonian is at the first appearance of ammonite species ''Parkinsonia (ammonite), Parkinsonia (Gonolkites) convergens'' in the stratigraphic column. The global referen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammalia
A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle ear bones. These characteristics distinguish them from reptiles and birds, from which their ancestors diverged in the Carboniferous Period over 300 million years ago. Around 6,640 extant species of mammals have been described and divided into 27 orders. The study of mammals is called mammalogy. The largest orders of mammals, by number of species, are the rodents, bats, and eulipotyphlans (including hedgehogs, moles and shrews). The next three are the primates (including humans, monkeys and lemurs), the even-toed ungulates (including pigs, camels, and whales), and the Carnivora (including cats, dogs, and seals). Mammals are the only living members of Synapsida; this clade, together with Sauropsida (reptiles and birds), constitut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evolution Of Mammals
The evolution of mammals has passed through many stages since the first appearance of their synapsid ancestors in the Pennsylvanian (geology), Pennsylvanian sub-period of the late Carboniferous period. By the mid-Triassic, there were many synapsid species that looked like mammals. The lineage leading to today's mammals split up in the Jurassic; synapsids from this period include ''Dryolestes'', more closely related to extant placentals and marsupials than to monotremes, as well as ''Ambondro mahabo, Ambondro'', more closely related to monotremes. Later on, the eutherian and metatherian lineages separated; the metatherians are the animals more closely related to the marsupials, while the eutherians are those more closely related to the placentals. Since ''Juramaia'', the earliest known eutherian, lived 160 million years ago in the Jurassic, this divergence must have occurred in the same period. After the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs (bi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hadrocodium
''Hadrocodium wui'' is an extinct mammaliaform that lived during the Sinemurian stage of the Early Jurassic approximately in the Lufeng Formation in what is now the Yunnan province in south-western China (, paleocoordinates ). It is considered as the closest relative of the class Mammalia. The fossil of this mouse-like, paper-clip sized animal was discovered in 1985 but was then interpreted as a juvenile morganucodontid. ''Hadrocodium'' remained undescribed until 2001; since then its large brain and advanced ear structure have greatly influenced the interpretation of the earliest stages of mammalian evolution, as these mammalian characters could previously be traced only to some . ''Hadrocodium'' is known only from a skull long, and its body would have measured long in total and weighed up to , making it one of the smallest Mesozoic mammaliaforms. The specimen is thought to have been that of a mature adult. The name ''Hadrocodium'' alludes to its large cranial cavity, de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Docodonta
Docodonta is an Order (biology), order of extinct Mesozoic Mammaliaformes, mammaliaforms (advanced cynodonts closely related to true Crown group, crown-group mammals). They were among the most common mammaliaforms of their time, persisting from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous across the continent of Laurasia (modern-day North America, Europe, and Asia). They are distinguished from other early mammaliaforms by their relatively complex Molar (tooth), molar teeth. Docodontan teeth have been described as "pseudotribosphenic": a cusp on the inner half of the upper molar grinds into a basin on the front half of the lower molar, like a Mortar and pestle, mortar-and-pestle. This is a case of convergent evolution with the Tribosphenic molar, tribosphenic teeth of therian mammals. There is much uncertainty for how docodontan teeth developed from their simpler ancestors. Their closest relatives may have been certain Triassic "Symmetrodonta, symmetrodonts", namely ''Woutersia'', an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haramiyida
Haramiyida is a possibly Paraphyly, paraphyletic order of Mammaliaformes, mammaliaform cynodonts or mammals of controversial taxonomic affinites. Their teeth, which are by far the most common remains, resemble those of the multituberculates. However, based on ''Haramiyavia'', the jaw is less derived; and at the level of evolution of earlier basal mammals like ''Morganucodon'' and ''Kuehneotherium'', with a groove for Ossicles, ear ossicles on the dentary. Some authors have placed them in a clade with Multituberculata dubbed Allotheria within Mammalia. Other studies have disputed this and suggested the Haramiyida were not crown group mammals, but were part of an earlier offshoot of Mammaliaformes instead, either closely related or unrelated to Multituberculates. It is also disputed whether the Late Triassic species are closely related to the Jurassic and Cretaceous members belonging to Euharamiyida, Euharamiyida/Eleutherodontida, as some phylogenetic studies recover the two groups a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morganucodonta
Morganucodonta ("Glamorgan teeth") is an extinct Order (biology), order of basal Mammaliaformes, a group including crown-group mammals (Mammalia) and their close relatives. Their remains have been found in Southern Africa, Western Europe, North America, India and China. The morganucodontans were probably insectivorous and nocturnal, though like eutriconodonts some species attained large sizes and were carnivorous. Nocturnality is believed to have evolved in the earliest mammals in the Triassic (called the nocturnal bottleneck) as a specialisation that allowed them to exploit a safer, night-time niche, while most larger predators were likely to have been active during the day (though some dinosaurs, for example, were nocturnal as well). Anatomy and biology Morganucodontans had a double jaw articulation made up of the dentary-squamosal joint as well as a quadrate-articular one. This implies that they also retained one of their postdentary bones: the articular. There is a trough a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinoconodon
''Sinoconodon'' is an extinct genus of mammaliamorphs that appears in the fossil record of the Lufeng Formation of China in the Sinemurian stage of the Early Jurassic period, about 193 million years ago. While sharing many plesiomorphic traits with other non-mammaliaform cynodonts, it possessed a special, secondarily evolved jaw joint between the dentary and the squamosal bones, which in more derived taxa would replace the primitive tetrapod one between the articular and quadrate bones. The presence of a dentary-squamosal joint is a trait historically used to define mammals. Description This animal had skull of which suggest a presacral body length of and weight about due to the similar parameters to the European hedgehog. ''Sinoconodon'' closely resembled early mammaliaforms like ''Morganucodon'', but it is regarded as more basal, differing substantially from ''Morganucodon'' in its dentition and growth habits. Like most other non-mammalian tetrapods, such as reptiles and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adelobasileus
''Adelobasileus'' is a genus of mammaliamorph cynodonts from the Late Triassic (Carnian to Rhaetian), about 225 - 220 million years ago. It is known only from a partial skull recovered from the Tecovas Formation in western Texas and partial specimen fossils from the Chinle Formation in Arizona, Southern United States. The species name is ''Adelobasileus cromptoni''. ''Adelobasileus'' predates and descends from the non-mammalian cynodonts Tritylodontidae and Tritheledontidae by 10 million years. Distinct cranial features, especially the housing of the cochlea, suggest that ''Adelobasileus'' is a transitional form in the character transformation from non-mammaliaform cynodonts to mammaliaforms. For this reason, it is thought to be a close relative of the common ancestor of all modern mammals. Though formerly classified as a mammal by trait-based taxonomy, it is outside the crown group In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
