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Megalosauroids
Megalosauroidea (meaning 'great/big lizard forms') is a Taxonomic rank, superfamily (or clade) of Tetanurae, tetanuran theropod dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period. The group is defined as ''Megalosaurus, Megalosaurus bucklandii'' and all taxa sharing a more recent common ancestor with it than with ''Allosaurus fragilis'' or ''Passer domesticus''. Members of the group include ''Spinosaurus'', ''Megalosaurus'', and ''Torvosaurus''. They are possibly paraphyletic in nature. Classification The name Spinosauroidea is sometimes used in place of Megalosauroidea. The superfamily Spinosauroidea was named in 1915 by Ernst Stromer. It is a synonym of Megalosauroidea in almost all modern phylogenetic analyses, and it is therefore redundant. Spinosauroidea was defined as a clade in 1998 by Paul Sereno as the node clade containing the common ancestor of ''Spinosaurus'' and ''Torvosaurus'' and all its descendants. Thomas Holtz in 2004 defined a branch cla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is the subject of active research. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya; their dominance continued throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch, and are the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 mya. Dinosaurs can therefore be divided into avian dinosaurs—birds—and the extinct non-avian dinosaurs, which are all dinosaurs other than birds. Dinosaurs are varied from taxonomic, morphological and ecological standpoints. Birds, at over 10,700 living species ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetanurae
Tetanurae (/ˌtɛtəˈnjuːriː/ or "stiff tails") is a clade that includes most Theropoda, theropod dinosaurs, including Megalosauroidea, megalosauroids, Allosauroidea, allosauroids, Tyrannosauroidea, tyrannosauroids, Ornithomimosauria, ornithomimosaurs, Compsognathidae, compsognathids and maniraptorans (including birds). Tetanurans are defined as all theropods more closely related to modern birds than to ''Ceratosaurus'' and contain the majority of predatory dinosaur diversity. Tetanurae likely diverged from its sister group, Ceratosauria, during the late Triassic. Tetanurae first appeared in the fossil record by the Early Jurassic about 190 mya and by the Middle Jurassic had become globally distributed. The group was named by Jacques Gauthier in 1986 and originally had two main subgroups: Carnosauria and Coelurosauria, the clade containing birds and related dinosaurs such as compsognathids, tyrannosaurids, ornithomimosaurs, and maniraptorans. The original Carnosauria was a pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sciurumimus
''Sciurumimus'' (" Squirrel-mimic," named for its tail's resemblance to that of the tree squirrel, ''Sciurus'') is an extinct genus of tetanuran theropod from the Late Jurassic of Germany. It is known from a single juvenile specimen representing the type species, ''Sciurumimus albersdoerferi'', which was found in a limestone quarry close to Painten in Lower Bavaria. The specimen was preserved with traces of feather-like filaments. The ''Sciurumimus'' specimen was first announced in 2011 in an informal presentation, but not formally described and named until the following year. Although originally classified as a basal megalosauroid, later phylogenetic analyses dispute this placement, suggesting it was a basal member of the Orionides. Description ''Sciurumimus'' is known from a single holotype fossil that is exceptionally well-preserved, with full skeleton in complete articulation along with fine details of soft tissue. It is comparable in size and proportions to the juvenile c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megalosauridae
Megalosauridae is a monophyletic family of carnivorous theropod dinosaurs within the group Megalosauroidea. Appearing in the Middle Jurassic, megalosaurids were among the first major radiation of large theropod dinosaurs. They were a relatively primitive group of basal tetanurans containing two main subfamilies, Megalosaurinae and Afrovenatorinae, along with the basal genus '' Eustreptospondylus'', an unresolved taxon which differs from both subfamilies. The defining megalosaurid, '' Megalosaurus bucklandii'', was first named and described in 1824 by William Buckland after multiple finds in Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, UK. ''Megalosaurus'' was the first formally described dinosaur and was the basis for the establishment of the clade Dinosauria. It is also one of the largest known Middle Jurassic carnivorous dinosaurs, with the best-preserved femur at 805 mm and a proposed body mass of around 943 kg. Megalosauridae has mainly been recognized as a European group of dinos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piatnitzkysauridae
Piatnitzkysauridae is an extinct family of megalosauroid or basal Allosauroid dinosaurs. It only consists of three known dinosaur genera: ''Condorraptor'', '' Marshosaurus'', and '' Piatnitzkysaurus.'' The most complete and well known member of this family is ''Piatnitzkysaurus'', which also gives the family its name. Description So far all known piatnitzkysaurids have only been found in Jurassic deposits of the western hemisphere/New world. ''Piatnitzkysaurus'' and ''Condorraptor'' hail from the Cañadón Asfalto Formation of Argentina, which has been dated from the Toarcian epoch of the Early Jurassic to the Bathonian epoch of the Middle Jurassic (approximately 179 to 168 million years ago). ''Marshosaurus'' was found in the Morrison Formation of the United States, which was dated to the Kimmeridgian epoch of the Late Jurassic. Piatnitzkysaurids were among the first large theropods present in South America, and are evidence for a radiation of basal tetanurans in the middle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spinosauridae
The Spinosauridae (or spinosaurids) are a clade or family of tetanuran theropod dinosaurs comprising ten to seventeen known genera. They came into prominence during the Cretaceous period. Spinosaurid fossils have been recovered worldwide, including Africa, Europe, South America and Asia. Their remains have generally been attributed to the Early to Mid Cretaceous. Spinosaurids were large bipedal carnivores. Their crocodilian-like skulls were long, low and narrow, bearing conical teeth with reduced or absent serrations. The tips of their upper and lower jaws fanned out into a spoon-shaped structure similar to a rosette, behind which there was a notch in the upper jaw that the expanded tip of the lower jaw fit into. The nostrils of spinosaurids were retracted to a position further back on the head than in most other theropods, and they had bony crests on their heads along the midline of their skulls. Their robust shoulders wielded stocky forelimbs, with three-fingered hands that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Nopcsa Von Felső-Szilvás
Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás (also Baron Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás, Baron Nopcsa, Ferenc Nopcsa, báró felsőszilvási Nopcsa Ferenc, Baron Franz Nopcsa, and Franz Baron Nopcsa; May 3, 1877 – April 25, 1933) was a Hungarian aristocrat, adventurer, scholar, geologist, paleontologist and albanologist. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of paleobiology, and first described the theory of insular dwarfism. He was also a specialist on Albanian studies and completed the first geological map of northern Albania. The essay, first published on Elsie's website, is the basis for the "Introduction" to Nopcsa's memoirs titled ''Traveler, Scholar, Political Adventurer'' (2014) edited by Robert Elsie. Life Nopcsa was born in 1877 in Déva, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary (today Deva, Romania), to the Hungarian Nopcsa aristocratic family of Romanian origin. He was the son of , a member of the Hungarian Parliament. In 1895 Nopcsa's younger sister Ilona discovered d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxonomic Rank
In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. While older approaches to taxonomic classification were phenomenological, forming groups on the basis of similarities in appearance, organic structure and behaviour, methods based on genetic analysis have opened the road to cladistics. A given rank subsumes under it less general categories, that is, more specific descriptions of life forms. Above it, each rank is classified within more general categories of organisms and groups of organisms related to each other through inheritance of traits or features from common ancestors. The rank of any ''species'' and the description of its ''genus'' is ''basic''; which means that to identify a particular organism, it is usually not necessary to specify ranks other than these first two. Consider a particu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, the equivalent Latin term ''cladus'' (plural ''cladi'') is often used in taxonomical literature. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic. Some of the relationships between org ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megalosaurus
''Megalosaurus'' (meaning "great lizard", from Greek , ', meaning 'big', 'tall' or 'great' and , ', meaning 'lizard') is an extinct genus of large carnivorous theropod dinosaurs of the Middle Jurassic period (Bathonian stage, 166 million years ago) of Southern England. Although fossils from other areas have been assigned to the genus, the only certain remains of ''Megalosaurus'' come from Oxfordshire and date to the late Middle Jurassic. ''Megalosaurus'' was, in 1824, the first genus of non-avian dinosaur to be validly named. The type species is ''Megalosaurus bucklandii'', named in 1827. In 1842, ''Megalosaurus'' was one of three genera on which Richard Owen based his Dinosauria. On Owen's directions a model was made as one of the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, which greatly increased the public interest for prehistoric reptiles. Over fifty other species would eventually be classified under the genus; at first, this was because so few types of dinosaur had been identified, but the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allosaurus Fragilis
''Allosaurus'' () is a genus of large carnosaurian theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic epoch ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian). The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard" alluding to its unique (at the time of its discovery) concave vertebrae. It is derived from the Greek (') ("different, other") and (') ("lizard / generic reptile"). The first fossil remains that could definitively be ascribed to this genus were described in 1877 by paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh. As one of the first well-known theropod dinosaurs, it has long attracted attention outside of paleontological circles. ''Allosaurus'' was a large bipedal predator. Its skull was light, robust and equipped with dozens of sharp, serrated teeth. It averaged in length for ''A. fragilis'', with the largest specimens estimated as being long. Relative to the large and powerful hindlimbs, its three-fingered forelimbs were small, and the body was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passer Domesticus
The house sparrow (''Passer domesticus'') is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pale brown and grey, and males have brighter black, white, and brown markings. One of about 25 species in the genus '' Passer'', the house sparrow is native to most of Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, and a large part of Asia. Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird. The house sparrow is strongly associated with human habitation, and can live in urban or rural settings. Though found in widely varied habitats and climates, it typically avoids extensive woodlands, grasslands, and deserts away from human development. It feeds mostly on the seeds of grains and weeds, but it is an opportunistic eater and commonly eats insects and many ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_immature_Udaipur.jpg "Click for more on -> Passer Domesticus")