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Paleohistologist
Paleohistology is the study of the microstructure of fossilized skeletal tissues, offering insights into the biology, growth patterns, and physiology of extinct organisms. Despite the decay of organic components, the inorganic elements of bone preserve critical structures such as osteocyte lacunae, vascular canals, and collagen fibers. This highly specialized field within paleontology yields insights into the lives of extinct animals, including growth history and age at death. History The microscopic study of biological tissues traces back to 1828 when Henry Witham and William Nicol pioneered techniques for examining petrified tree trunks under a microscope. Subsequently, Louis Agassiz applied these methods to fossil vertebrates. In 1849, John Thomas Quekett published a seminal paper detailing the histological structure of bone across various vertebrate groups, laying the foundation for further research. Gideon Mantell made significant contributions to paleohistology in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Bone Histology Of Shuvuuia And Confuciusornis
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, and enable mobility. Bones come in a variety of shapes and sizes and have complex internal and external structures. They are lightweight yet strong and hard and serve multiple functions. Bone tissue (osseous tissue), which is also called bone in the uncountable sense of that word, is hard tissue, a type of specialised connective tissue. It has a honeycomb-like matrix internally, which helps to give the bone rigidity. Bone tissue is made up of different types of bone cells. Osteoblasts and osteocytes are involved in the formation and mineralisation of bone; osteoclasts are involved in the resorption of bone tissue. Modified (flattened) osteoblasts become the lining cells that form a protective layer on the bone surface. The mineralised matrix ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Henry Witham
Henry Thomas Maire Witham FRSE FGS (9 June 1779–1844) was a British landowner remembered as an amateur palaeontologist and mineralogist. He was an early researcher into the internal structure of paleobotany, fossil plants. Life He was born Henry Silvertop, the son of John Silvertop of Minsteracres in Northumberland. His mother was Catherine Lawson of Brough. He was a compulsive gambler and ran up debts of £105,000 (a huge sum in the 1820s) and was forced to sell off much of his property to settle his debts. From 1826 to 1832, he lived in Edinburgh at 14 Great King Street. During his time in Edinburgh (in 1827), he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, his proposer being Thomas Allan (mineralogist), Thomas Allan. Though having no botanical training, he applied William Nicol (geologist), William Nicol's method of examining fossils and rocks under the microscope by slicing them into thin sections. Nicol's first published account of this process is contai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Resin
A resin is a solid or highly viscous liquid that can be converted into a polymer. Resins may be biological or synthetic in origin, but are typically harvested from plants. Resins are mixtures of organic compounds, predominantly terpenes. Common resins include amber, hashish, frankincense, myrrh and the animal-derived resin, shellac. Resins are used in varnishes, adhesives, food additives, incenses and perfumes. Resins protect plants from insects and pathogens, and are secreted in response to injury. Resins repel herbivores, insects, and pathogens, while the volatile natural phenol, phenolic compounds may attract benefactors such as predators of insects that attack the plant. Composition Most plant resins are composed of terpenes. Specific components are alpha-Pinene, alpha-pinene, pinene, beta-pinene, carene, delta-3 carene, and sabinene, the monocyclic terpenes limonene and terpinolene, and smaller amounts of the tricyclic sesquiterpenes, longifolene, caryophyllene, and cad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Tissue (biology)
In biology, tissue is an assembly of similar cells and their extracellular matrix from the same embryonic origin that together carry out a specific function. Tissues occupy a Biological organisation#Levels, biological organizational level between cell (biology), cells and a complete organ (biology), organ. Accordingly, organs are formed by the functional grouping together of multiple tissues. The English word "tissue" Morphological derivation, derives from the French word "", the past participle of the verb tisser, "to weave". The study of tissues is known as histology or, in connection with disease, as histopathology. Xavier Bichat is considered as the "Father of Histology". Plant histology is Studied Space Shuttle designs, studied in both plant anatomy and Plant physiology, physiology. The classical tools for studying tissues are the Microtome#Applications, paraffin block in which tissue is embedded and then sectioned, the staining, histological stain, and the Microscope, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Pelorosaurus
''Pelorosaurus'' ( ; meaning "monstrous lizard") is a genus of Titanosauriformes, titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur. Remains referred to ''Pelorosaurus'' date from the Early Cretaceous period, about 140–125 million years ago, and have been found in England and Portugal. Thomas R. Holtz Jr., Thomas Holtz estimated its length at 24 meters (79 feet). The name ''Pelorosaurus'' was one of the first to be given to any sauropod. Many species have been assigned to the genus historically, but most are currently considered to belong to other genera. Problematically, the first named species of ''Pelorosaurus'', ''P. conybeari'', is a junior synonym of ''Cetiosaurus brevis''. History ''Pelorosaurus'' was one of the first sauropod, sauropods to be identified as a dinosaur, although it was not the first to be discovered. Richard Owen had discovered ''Cetiosaurus'' in 1841 but had incorrectly identified it as a gigantic sea-going crocodile-like reptile. Mantell identified ''Pelorosaurus'' as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Hylaeosaurus
''Hylaeosaurus'' ( ; Greek: / "belonging to the forest" and / "lizard") is a herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur that lived about 136 million years ago, in the late Valanginian stage of the early Cretaceous period of England. It was found in the Grinstead Clay. ''Hylaeosaurus'' was one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered, in 1832 by Gideon Mantell. In 1842 it was one of the three dinosaurs Richard Owen based the Dinosauria on, the others being ''Iguanodon'' and ''Megalosaurus''. Four species were named in the genus, but only the type species ''Hylaeosaurus armatus'' is today considered valid. Only limited remains have been found of ''Hylaeosaurus'' and much of its anatomy is unknown. It might have been a basal nodosaurid, although a recent cladistic analysis recovers it as a basal ankylosaurid. ''Hylaeosaurus'' was about five metres long. It was an armoured dinosaur that carried at least three long spines on its shoulder. History of discovery The first ''Hylaeosauru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Thin Section
In optical mineralogy and petrography, a thin section (or petrographic thin section) is a thin slice of a rock or mineral sample, prepared in a laboratory, for use with a polarizing petrographic microscope, electron microscope and electron microprobe. A thin sliver of rock is cut from the sample with a diamond saw and ground optically flat. It is then mounted on a glass slide and then ground smooth using progressively finer abrasive grit until the sample is only 30 μm thick. The method uses the Michel-Lévy interference colour chart to determine thickness, typically using quartz as the thickness gauge because it is one of the most abundant minerals. When placed between two polarizing filters set at right angles to each other, the optical properties of the minerals in the thin section alter the colour and intensity of the light as seen by the viewer. As different minerals have different optical properties, most rock forming minerals can be easily identified. Plagioclase ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutionary history, evolution of dinosaurs is a subject of active research. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya and their dominance continued throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs, Evolution of birds, having evolved from earlier Theropoda, 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 taxonomy (biology), taxonomic, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Gideon Mantell
Gideon Algernon Mantell Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons, MRCS Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (3 February 1790 – 10 November 1852) was an English obstetrician, geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist. His attempts to reconstruct the structure and life of ''Iguanodon'' began the scientific study of dinosaurs: in 1822 he was responsible for the discovery (and the eventual identification) of the first fossil teeth, and later much of the skeleton, of ''Iguanodon''. Mantell's work on the Cretaceous of southern England was also important. Early life and medical career Mantell was born in Lewes, Sussex as the fifth-born child of Thomas Mantell, a shoemaker, and Sarah Austen. He was raised in a small cottage in St. Mary's Lane with his two sisters and four brothers. As a youth, he showed a particular interest in the field of geology. He explored pits and quarries in the surrounding areas, discovering ammonites, shells of sea urchins, fish bones, coral, and worn-out ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Vertebrate
Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebrata with some 65,000 species, by far the largest ranked grouping in the phylum Chordata. The vertebrates include mammals, birds, amphibians, and various classes of fish and reptiles. The fish include the jawless Agnatha, and the jawed Gnathostomata. The jawed fish include both the Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous fish and the Osteichthyes, bony fish. Bony fish include the Sarcopterygii, lobe-finned fish, which gave rise to the tetrapods, the animals with four limbs. Despite their success, vertebrates still only make up less than five percent of all described animal species. The first vertebrates appeared in the Cambrian explosion some 518 million years ago. Jawed vertebrates evolved in the Ordovician, followed by bony fishes in the Devonian. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Histological
Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures visible without a microscope. Although one may divide microscopic anatomy into ''organology'', the study of organs, ''histology'', the study of tissues, and ''cytology'', the study of cell (biology), cells, modern usage places all of these topics under the field of histology. In medicine, histopathology is the branch of histology that includes the microscopic identification and study of diseased tissue. In the field of paleontology, the term paleohistology refers to the histology of fossil organisms. Biological tissues Animal tissue classification There are four basic types of animal tissues: muscle tissue, nervous tissue, connective tissue, and epithelial tissue. All animal tissues are considered to be subtypes of these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
John Thomas Quekett
John Thomas Quekett (11 August 1815 – 20 August 1861) was an English microscopist and histologist. Quekett studied medicine at the London Hospital in 1831. He became a licentiate of the Apothecaries' Company and a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1839, along with his brother Edwin John Quekett) co-founded the Royal Microscopical Society. Quekett served as the society's secretary from 1841 to 1860. In 1843 he was appointed assistant conservator of the Hunterian Museum, and in 1856 conservator of the museum and professor of histology on the retirement of professor Richard Owen. Biography Quekett, born at Langport, Somerset, on 11 August 1815, was the youngest son of William Quekett and Mary, daughter of John Bartlett. The father was at Cockermouth grammar school with William and Christopher Wordsworth, and from 1790 till his death in 1842 was master of Langport grammar school. He educated his sons at home, and each of them was encouraged to collect specimens in s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
