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Crocodylines
Crocodylinae is a subfamily of true crocodiles within the family Crocodylidae, and is the sister taxon to Osteolaeminae ( dwarf crocodiles and slender-snouted crocodiles). Taxonomy Crocodylinae was cladistically defined by Christopher Brochu in 1999 as ''Crocodylus niloticus'' (the Nile crocodile) and all crocodylians more closely related to it than to ''Osteolaemus tetraspis'' (the Dwarf crocodile). This is a stem-based definition, and is the sister taxon to Osteolaeminae. Crocodylinae contains the extant genus ''Crocodylus''. It is disputed as to whether is also includes '' Mecistops'' (slender-snouted crocodiles), or the extinct genus Voay. Phylogeny Some morphological studies have recovered '' Mecistops'' as a basal member of Crocodylinae, more closely related to ''Crocodylus'' than to '' Osteolaemus'' and the other members of Osteolaeminae, as shown in the cladogram below. The below cladogram is based on a 2021 study using paleogenomics that extracted DNA fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nile Crocodile
The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern, and southern regions of the continent, and lives in different types of aquatic environments such as lakes, rivers, swamps, and marshlands. In West Africa, it occurs along with two other crocodilians. Although capable of living in saline environments, this species is rarely found in saltwater, but occasionally inhabits deltas and brackish lakes. The range of this species once stretched northward throughout the Nile, as far north as the Nile Delta. On average, the adult male Nile crocodile is between in length and weighs including stomach stones. However, specimens exceeding in length and weighing up to have been recorded. It is the largest freshwater predator in Africa, and may be considered the second-largest extant reptile in the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodylidae
Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae) among other extinct taxa. Although they appear similar, crocodiles, alligators and the gharial belong to separate biological families. The gharial, with its narrow snout, is easier to distinguish, while morphological differences are more difficult to spot in crocodiles and alligators. The most obvious external differences are visible in the head, with crocodiles having narrower and longer heads, with a more V-shaped than a U-shaped snout compared to alligators and caimans. Another obvious trait is that the upper and lower jaws of the crocodiles are the same width, and the teeth in the l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
"Crocodylus" Gariepensis
''"Crocodylus" gariepensis'' is an extinct species of crocodile that lived in southern Africa during the Early Miocene about 17.5 million years ago (Ma). Fossils have been found along a bank of the Orange River in Namibia, near its border with South Africa. Classification and Phylogeny When the species was named in 2003, it was hypothesized to be ancestral to the living Nile crocodile, ''Crocodylus niloticus''. During this time the fossil record of ''C. niloticus'' was thought to extend back into the Late Miocene, meaning that ''"C." gariepensis'' could have been a direct precursor to the species. More recent studies propose that ''C. niloticus'' first appeared much more recently, making ''"C." gariepensis'' an unlikely ancestor of the Nile crocodile. Moreover, the most recent phylogenetic studies of crocodiles place ''"C." gariepensis'' in an evolutionary position outside other living species of ''Crocodylus'', far from the position of ''C. niloticus''. Indeed, the species appea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodylus Niloticus
''Crocodylus'' is a genus of true crocodiles in the family Crocodylidae. Taxonomy The generic name, ''Crocodylus'', was proposed by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768. ''Crocodylus'' contains 13–14 extant (living) species and 5 extinct species. There are additional extinct species attributed to the genus ''Crocodylus'' that studies have shown no longer belong, although they have not yet been reassigned to new genera. Extant species The 13–14 living species are: Fossils ''Crocodylus'' also includes five extinct species: * † '' Crocodylus anthropophagus'' is an extinct crocodile from Plio-Pleistocene of Tanzania. * † '' Crocodylus checchiai'' is an extinct crocodile from Late Miocene of Kenya. * † '' Crocodylus falconensis'' is an extinct crocodile from Early Pliocene of Venezuela. * † '' Crocodylus palaeindicus'' is an extinct crocodile the Miocene to the Pleistocene of southern Asia. * † '' Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni'' is an extinct crocodile from Plio-Ple ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodylus
''Crocodylus'' is a genus of true crocodiles in the family Crocodylidae. Taxonomy The generic name, ''Crocodylus'', was proposed by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in 1768. ''Crocodylus'' contains 13–14 extant (living) species and 5 extinct species. There are additional extinct species attributed to the genus ''Crocodylus'' that studies have shown no longer belong, although they have not yet been reassigned to new genera. Extant species The 13–14 living species are: Fossils ''Crocodylus'' also includes five extinct species: * † '' Crocodylus anthropophagus'' is an extinct crocodile from Plio-Pleistocene of Tanzania. * † '' Crocodylus checchiai'' is an extinct crocodile from Late Miocene of Kenya. * † '' Crocodylus falconensis'' is an extinct crocodile from Early Pliocene of Venezuela. * † '' Crocodylus palaeindicus'' is an extinct crocodile the Miocene to the Pleistocene of southern Asia. * † '' Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni'' is an extinct crocodile from Plio-Pleist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mecistops
''Mecistops'' is a genus of crocodiles, the slender-snouted crocodiles, native to sub-Saharan Africa. Taxonomy and etymology Traditionally placed in ''Crocodylus'', recent studies in DNA and morphology have shown that it is in fact basal to ''Crocodylus'', thus was moved its own genus. This genus itself was long considered to contain only one species, '' M. cataphractus'', but recent genetic analysis has revealed the existence of two species: the West African slender-snouted crocodile (''M. cataphractus'') and the Central African slender-snouted crocodile (''M. leptorhynchus''). Both species diverged during the Miocene (about 6.5–7.5 million years ago) and are separated by the Cameroon Volcanic Line. Phylogeny The cladogram below is based on two studies that combined morphological and molecular ( DNA sequencing) data. (Note that most morphological analyses find a closer relationship between ''Euthecodon'' and ''Brochuchus''.) Alternatively, other morphological studies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rimasuchus Lloydi
''Rimasuchus'' is an extinct genus of crocodile from the Miocene of Egypt and possibly Libya. Only one species - ''Rimasuchus lloydi'' - is currently known. It was previously thought to be a species of ''Crocodylus'', but is now thought to be more closely related to the modern African dwarf crocodiles (''Osteolaemus''). History and naming The first fossil of ''Rimasuchus'' an incomplete skull with associated mandible, was collected by lieutenant colonel Arthur H. Lloyd in the early 20th century in Wadi Moghara, Egypt. The holotype specimen, CGM 15597, was given to the Egyptian Geological Museum and described by Fourtau in 1920 under the name ''Crocodylus lloydi''. Other material includes an uncatalogued skull housed at the Natural History Museum, London (likewise from Wadi Moghara) and fossils found at Gebel Zelten in Libya. Eventually other skulls further south in Africa ended up being assigned to ''"Crocodylus" lloydi'' , with the oldest and southern-most material stemming fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Osteolaeminae
Osteolaeminae is a subfamily (biology), subfamily of true crocodiles within the family (biology), family Crocodylidae containing the Osteolaemus, dwarf crocodiles and Mecistops, slender-snouted crocodiles, and is the sister taxon to Crocodylinae. Taxonomy Osteolaeminae was named by Christopher Brochu in 2003 as a subfamily of Crocodylidae separate from Crocodylinae, and is cladistics, cladistically defined as ''Osteolaemus tetraspis'' (the Dwarf crocodile) and all crocodylians more closely related to it than to ''Crocodylus niloticus'' (the Nile crocodile). This is a stem-based taxon, stem-based definition, and is the sister taxon to Crocodylinae. Osteolaeminae contains the two extant taxon, extant genus, genera ''Osteolaemus'' and ''Mecistops'', along with several extinct genera, although the number of extant species within Osteolaeminae is currently in question. Phylogeny The cladogram below is based on two studies that combined morphology (biology), morphological, molecular (D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PeerJ
''PeerJ'' is an open access peer-reviewed scientific mega journal covering research in the biological and medical sciences. It is published by a company of the same name that was co-founded by CEO Jason Hoyt (formerly at Mendeley) and publisher Peter Binfield (formerly at '' PLOS One''), with initial financial backing of US$950,000 from O'Reilly Media's O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and later funding from Sage Publishing. PeerJ officially launched in June 2012, started accepting submissions on December 3, 2012, and published its first articles on February 12, 2013. The company is a member of CrossRef, CLOCKSS, ORCID, and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association. The company's offices are in Corte Madera (California, USA), and London (Great Britain). Submitted research is judged solely on scientific and methodological soundness (as at '' PLoS ONE''), with a facility for peer reviews to be published alongside each paper. Business model ''PeerJ'' uses a business model ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to descendants, nor does it show how much they have changed, so many differing evolutionary trees can be consistent with the same cladogram. A cladogram uses lines that branch off in different directions ending at a clade, a group of organisms with a last common ancestor. There are many shapes of cladograms but they all have lines that branch off from other lines. The lines can be traced back to where they branch off. These branching off points represent a hypothetical ancestor (not an actual entity) which can be inferred to exhibit the traits shared among the terminal taxa above it. This hypothetical ancestor might then provide clues about the order of evolution of various features, adaptation, and other evolutionary narratives about an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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