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Hybodonts
Hybodontiformes, commonly called hybodonts, are an extinct group of shark-like chondrichthyans, which existed from the late Devonian to the Late Cretaceous. They form the group of Elasmobranchii closest to neoselachians, the clade of modern sharks and rays. Hybodonts were named and are distinguished based on their conical tooth shape. They are also noted for the presence of a spine on each of their two dorsal fins. They were abundant in marine and freshwater environments during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, but were rare in open marine environments by the end of the Jurassic, having been largely replaced by modern sharks, though they were still common in freshwater and marginal marine habitats. They survived until the end of the Cretaceous, before going extinct. Etymology The term hybodont comes from the Greek word ''ὕβος'' or ''ὑβός'' meaning hump or hump-backed and ''ὀδούς, ὀδοντ'' meaning tooth. This name was given based on their conical compr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he received a PhD at Erlangen and a medical degree in Munich. After studying with Georges Cuvier and Alexander von Humboldt in Paris, Agassiz was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Neuchâtel. He emigrated to the United States in 1847 after visiting Harvard University. He went on to become professor of zoology and geology at Harvard, to head its Lawrence Scientific School, and to found its Museum of Comparative Zoology. Agassiz is known for observational data gathering and analysis. He made institutional and scientific contributions to zoology, geology, and related areas, including multivolume research books running to thousands of pages. He is particularly known for his contributions to ichthyological classific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acrodus
''Acrodus'' (from el, άκρος , 'high' and el, ὀδούς 'tooth') is an extinct genus of cartilaginous fish from the Permian to Paleocene periods.Johnson, G., 1981. Hybondontoidei (Chondrichthyes) from the Witchita- Albany Group (Early Permian) of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 1:1.Fossils (Smithsonian Handbooks) by David Ward (Page 199) ''Acrodus anningiae'' was named by Louis Agassiz Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz ( ; ) FRS (For) FRSE (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) was a Swiss-born American biologist and geologist who is recognized as a scholar of Earth's natural history. Spending his early life in Switzerland, he rec ... in honor of the pioneering English paleontologist Mary Anning. Species *''Acrodus acuminatus'' *''Acrodus acutus'' *''Acrodus alexandrae'' *''Acrodus alpinus'' *''Acrodus anningiae'' *''Acrodus angustissimus'' *''Acrodus braunii'' *''Acrodus (Acronemus) bicarenatus *''Acrodus cuneocostatus'' *''Acrodus dolloi'' *''Acrodus fal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strophodus
''Strophodus'' is an extinct genus of hybodonts known from the Triassic to Cretaceous. It has heavily rounded, durophagous teeth. It has long been confused with ''Asteracanthus'' due to the fin spines of the latter being found associated with the teeth of ''Strophodus.'' However, both genera can now be reliably be distinguished base on the morphology of both the fin spines and teeth. Species After * ''S. reticulatus'' Agassiz, 1838 Middle-Late Jurassic (Bathonian–Tithonian) England, France, Germany, Hungary and Switzerland. A similar form ''S. cf. reticulatus'' is known from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland * ''S. smithwoodwardi'' (Peyer, 1946) Early Jurassic (Toarcian) Switzerland * ''S. dunaii'' (Szabó & Főzy (2020) Middle Jurassic (Aalenian), Hungary * ''S. tenuis'' Agassiz, 1838 Middle Jurassic (Aalenian-Bathonian) Germany, England * ''S. longidens'' Agassiz, 1838 Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) France * ''S. magnus'' Agassiz, 1838 Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) France, In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heterocercal
Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as seen in sharks. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the spine and are supported only by muscles. Their principal function is to help the fish swim. Fins located in different places on the fish serve different purposes such as moving forward, turning, keeping an upright position or stopping. Most fish use fins when swimming, flying fish use pectoral fins for gliding, and frogfish use them for crawling. Fins can also be used for other purposes; male sharks and mosquitofish use a modified fin to deliver sperm, thresher sharks use their caudal fin to stun prey, reef stonefish have spines in their dorsal fins that inject venom, anglerfish use the first spine of their dorsal fin like a fishing rod to lure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Durophagy
Durophagy is the eating behavior of animals that consume hard-shelled or exoskeleton bearing organisms, such as corals, shelled mollusks, or crabs. It is mostly used to describe fish, but is also used when describing reptiles, including fossil turtles, placodonts and invertebrates, as well as "bone-crushing" mammalian carnivores such as hyenas. Durophagy requires special adaptions, such as blunt, strong teeth and a heavy jaw. Bite force is necessary to overcome the physical constraints of consuming more durable prey and gain a competitive advantage over other organisms by gaining access to more diverse or exclusive food resources earlier in life. Those with greater bite forces require less time to consume certain prey items as a greater bite force can increase the net rate of energy intake when foraging and enhance fitness in durophagous species. In the order Carnivora there are two dietary categories of durophagy; bonecrackers and bamboo eaters. Bonecrackers are exemplified by h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lagerstätte
A Lagerstätte (, from ''Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These formations may have resulted from carcass burial in an anoxic environment with minimal bacteria, thus delaying the decomposition of both gross and fine biological features until long after a durable impression was created in the surrounding matrix. ''Lagerstätten'' span geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present. Worldwide, some of the best examples of near-perfect fossilization are the Cambrian Maotianshan shales and Burgess Shale, the Silurian Waukesha Biota, the Devonian Hunsrück Slates and Gogo Formation, the Carboniferous Mazon Creek, the Jurassic Posidonia Shale and Solnhofen Limestone, the Cretaceous Yixian, Santana, and Agua Nueva formations, the Eocene Green River Formation, the Miocene Foulden Maar and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chondrichthyes
Chondrichthyes (; ) is a class that contains the cartilaginous fishes that have skeletons primarily composed of cartilage. They can be contrasted with the Osteichthyes or ''bony fishes'', which have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. Chondrichthyes are jawed vertebrates with paired fins, paired nares, scales, and a heart with its chambers in series. Extant chondrichthyes range in size from the 10 cm (3.9 in) finless sleeper ray to the 10 m (32 ft) whale shark. The class is divided into two subclasses: Elasmobranchii (sharks, rays, skates, and sawfish) and Holocephali ( chimaeras, sometimes called ghost sharks, which are sometimes separated into their own class). Within the infraphylum Gnathostomata, cartilaginous fishes are distinct from all other jawed vertebrates. Anatomy Skeleton The skeleton is cartilaginous. The notochord is gradually replaced by a vertebral column during development, except in Holocephali, where the notochord stays intact. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cartilaginous
Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints as articular cartilage, and is a structural component of many body parts including the rib cage, the neck and the bronchial tubes, and the intervertebral discs. In other taxa, such as chondrichthyans, but also in cyclostomes, it may constitute a much greater proportion of the skeleton. It is not as hard and rigid as bone, but it is much stiffer and much less flexible than muscle. The matrix of cartilage is made up of glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans, collagen fibers and, sometimes, elastin. Because of its rigidity, cartilage often serves the purpose of holding tubes open in the body. Examples include the rings of the trachea, such as the cricoid cartilage and carina. Cartilage is composed of specialized cells called chondrocytes that produce a large amount of collagenous extracellular matrix, abundant ground substance that is rich in pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robustness (morphology)
In biology, robustness is used to describe a taxon with a stronger and heavier build ( morphology) when compared to a related gracile taxon. The terms are used in contrast to one another. The term is used by physical anthropologists and paleoanthropologists to refer to a big-boned and muscular body. For example, members of the genus '' Sapajus'' have robust body types and are called the robust capuchin monkeys while members of the genus '' Cebus'' have gracile body types and are called the gracile capuchin monkeys. Male and female members of the same species may display sexual dimorphism and have robust and gracile morphologies. The terms "robust" vs. "gracile" are used in the context of human evolution, to distinguish: *"robust" vs. "gracile" australopithecines, see ''Paranthropus ''Paranthropus'' is a genus of extinct hominin which contains two widely accepted species: '' P. robustus'' and '' P. boisei''. However, the validity of ''Paranthropus'' is contested, and it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hybodus Fraasi (fossil)
''Hybodus'' (from el, ύβος , 'crooked' and el, ὀδούς 'tooth') is an extinct genus of hybodont, a group of shark-like elasmobranchs that lived from the Late Devonian to the end of the Cretaceous. Species closely related to the type species ''Hybodus reticulatus'' lived during the Early Jurassic epoch. Numerous species have been assigned to ''Hybodus'' spanning a large period of time, and it is currently considered a wastebasket taxon that is 'broadly polyphyletic' and requires reexamination. The first fossilized teeth from ''Hybodus'' were found in England around 1845; since then teeth (and dorsal spines) have been recovered from Europe. During the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods, the hybodonts were especially successful and could be found in shallow seas around the world. For reasons that are not fully understood, the hybodonts became extinct near the end of the Late Cretaceous period. Description ''Hybodus'' species grew to about in length. It was not ve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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