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Protorosaurs
Protorosauria is an extinct, likely paraphyletic group of basal archosauromorph reptiles from the latest Middle Permian (Capitanian stage) to the end of the Late Triassic (Rhaetian stage) of Asia, Europe and North America. It was named by the English anatomist and paleontologist Thomas Henry Huxley in 1871 as an order, originally to solely contain ''Protorosaurus''. Other names which were once considered equivalent to Protorosauria include Prolacertiformes and Prolacertilia. Protorosaurs are distinguished by their long necks formed by elongated cervical vertebrae, which have ribs that extend backward to the vertebrae behind them. Protorosaurs also have a gap between the quadrate bones and the jugal bones in the back of the skull near the jaw joint, making their skulls resemble those of lizards. While previously thought to be monophyletic, the group is now thought to consist of various groups of basal archosauromorph reptiles that lie outside Crocopoda, though some recent studies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinocephalosaurus Orientalis
''Dinocephalosaurus'' (meaning "terrible-headed reptile") is a genus of long necked, aquatic protorosaur that inhabited the Triassic seas of China. The genus contains the type and only known species, ''D. orientalis'', which was named by Chun Li in 2003. Unlike other long-necked protorosaurs (which form a group known as the tanystropheids), ''Dinocephalosaurus'' convergently evolved a long neck not through elongation of individual neck vertebrae, but through the addition of neck vertebrae that each had a moderate length. As indicated by phylogenetic analyses, it belonged in a separate lineage that also included at least its closest relative ''Pectodens'', which was named the Dinocephalosauridae in 2021. Like tanystropheids, however, ''Dinocephalosaurus'' probably used its long neck to hunt, utilizing the fang-like teeth of its jaws to ensnare prey; proposals that it employed suction feeding have not been universally accepted. It was probably a marine animal by necessity, as sug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanystropheus
''Tanystropheus'' (~ 'long' + 'hinged') is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile which lived during the Triassic period, Triassic Period in Europe, Asia, and North America. It is recognisable by its extremely elongated neck, longer than the torso and tail combined. The neck was composed of 13 vertebrae strengthened by extensive cervical ribs. ''Tanystropheus'' is one of the most well-described non-Archosauriformes, archosauriform archosauromorphs, known from numerous fossils, including nearly complete skeletons. Some species within the genus may have reached a total length of , making ''Tanystropheus'' the longest non-archosauriform archosauromorph as well. ''Tanystropheus'' is the namesake of the family Tanystropheidae, a clade collecting many long-necked Triassic archosauromorphs previously described as "Protorosauria, protorosaurs" or "Prolacertiformes, prolacertiforms". ''Tanystropheus'' contains at least two valid species as well as fossils which cannot be referred to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanystropheidae
Tanystropheidae is an extinct family (biology), family of archosauromorph reptiles that lived throughout the Triassic Period, often considered to be "protorosaurs". They are characterized by their long, stiff necks formed from elongated cervical vertebrae with very long cervical ribs. Members of the group include both terrestrial and aquatic forms. While some tanystropheids were small lizard-like animals, other tanystropheids such as ''Tanystropheus'' were large animals that had necks that were several meters long, longer than the rest of their bodies. Tanystropheids are known from Europe, Asia (Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia), North America and probably South America (Brazil). The presence of tanystropheids in Europe and China indicate that they lived along much of the coastline of the Tethys Ocean. However, species in western North America are found in terrestrial deposits, suggesting that as a group, tanystropheids were ecologically diverse. Relationships among tanystropheid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protorosaurus
''Protorosaurus'' (from , 'earlier' and , 'lizard') is an extinct genus of reptile. Members of the genus lived during the late Permian period in what is now Germany and Great Britain. Once believed to have been an ancestor to lizards, ''Protorosaurus'' is now known to be one of the oldest and most primitive members of Archosauromorpha, the group that would eventually lead to archosaurs such as crocodilians and dinosaurs. Description ''Protorosaurus'' grew up to in length, and was a slender, lizard-like animal, vaguely resembling a monitor lizard, with long legs and a long neck. History ''Protorosaurus'' was one of the first fossil reptiles to be described, being initially described in Latin in 1710 by from a specimen found in Thuringia in Germany, who considered the animal to be a crocodile, and most similar to the Nile crocodile (''C. niloticus''). Over a century later, in publications in 1830 and 1832 Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer, Hermann von Meyer recognised ''Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mecistotrachelos
''Mecistotrachelos'' is an extinction, extinct genus of gliding reptile from the Late Triassic of Virginia. It is generally interpreted as an Archosauromorpha, archosauromorph, distantly related to Crocodilia, crocodylians and dinosaurs. The type and only known species is ''M. apeoros''. This Specific name (zoology), specific name translates to "soaring longest neck", in reference to its gliding habits and long neck. This superficially lizard-like animal was able to spread its lengthened ribs and glide on wing-like membranes. ''Mecistotrachelos'' had a much longer neck than other gliding reptiles of the Triassic such as ''Icarosaurus'' and ''Kuehneosaurus''. It was probably an arboreal insectivore. Discovery ''Mecistotrachelos'' is known from several fossil specimens excavated from the Solite quarry from the Cow Branch Formation on the Virginia-North Carolina border. Only two of these have been formally described in a scientific journal. The first fossil was found in 1994 and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trachelosauridae
Trachelosauridae (also known as Dinocephalosauridae) is an extinct clade of archosauromorph reptiles that lived throughout the Triassic period. Like their close relatives the tanystropheids, they were " protorosaur"-grade archosauromorphs characterized by their long necks. Unlike tanystropheids, which lengthen their neck primarily by elongating the individual cervical (neck) vertebrae, trachelosaurids achieved their long necks by the addition of more vertebrae. The most extreme example of this trend was '' Dinocephalosaurus'', which had at least 32 vertebrae in the neck alone, far more than the 13 neck vertebrae of ''Tanystropheus''. Trachelosaurids are known from Europe (Poland, Germany, Austria, Netherlands) and China. Some members of the family (i.e. ''Dinocephalosaurus'') were solely marine animals with paddle-like limbs, inhabiting the coastlines of the Tethys Ocean. ''Dinocephalosaurus'' was so specialized for aquatic life that it evolved to be viviparous (live-bearing), th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czatkowiella
''Czatkowiella'' is an extinct genus of long-necked archosauromorph known from Early Triassic (Olenekian age) rocks of Czatkowice 1, Poland. It was first named by Magdalena Borsuk−Białynicka and Susan E. Evans in 2009 and the type species is ''Czatkowiella harae''. Phylogeny Cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ... after Borsuk−Białynicka & Evans (2009). Cladogram after Spiekman ''et al.'' 2021: References Archosauromorpha Prehistoric reptile genera Olenekian genera Early Triassic reptiles of Europe Fossils of Poland Fossil taxa described in 2009 {{triassic-reptile-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basal (phylogenetics)
In phylogenetics, basal is the direction of the ''base'' (or root) of a phylogenetic tree#Rooted tree, rooted phylogenetic tree or cladogram. The term may be more strictly applied only to nodes adjacent to the root, or more loosely applied to nodes regarded as being close to the root. Note that extant taxa that lie on branches connecting directly to the root are not more closely related to the root than any other extant taxa. While there must always be two or more equally "basal" clades sprouting from the root of every cladogram, those clades may differ widely in taxonomic rank, Phylogenetic diversity, species diversity, or both. If ''C'' is a basal clade within ''D'' that has the lowest rank of all basal clades within ''D'', ''C'' may be described as ''the'' basal taxon of that rank within ''D''. The concept of a 'key innovation' implies some degree of correlation between evolutionary innovation and cladogenesis, diversification. However, such a correlation does not make a given ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinct
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and recover. As a species' potential Range (biology), range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxon, Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the Fossil, fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. Over five billion species are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryotes globally, possibly many times more if microorganisms are included. Notable extinct animal species include Dinosaur, non-avian dinosaurs, Machairodontinae, saber-toothed cats, and mammoths. Through evolution, species arise through the process of specia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraphyly
Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic grouping (a clade) includes a common ancestor and ''all'' of its descendants. The terms are commonly used in phylogenetics (a subfield of biology) and in the tree model of historical linguistics. Paraphyletic groups are identified by a combination of synapomorphies and symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic. The term received currency during the debates of the 1960s and 1970s accompanying the rise of cladistics, having been coined by zoologist Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia (reptiles), which is paraphyletic with respect to birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles and all descendants of that ancest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Permian
The Guadalupian is the second and middle series/epoch of the Permian. The Guadalupian was preceded by the Cisuralian and followed by the Lopingian. It is named after the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and Texas, and dates between 272.95 ± 0.5 – 259.1 ± 0.4 Mya. The series saw the rise of the therapsids, a minor extinction event called Olson's Extinction and a significant mass extinction called the end-Capitanian extinction event. The Guadalupian is also known as the Middle Permian. Name and background The Guadalupian is the second and middle series or epoch of the Permian. Previously called Middle Permian, the name of this epoch is part of a revision of Permian stratigraphy for standard global correlation. The name "Guadalupian" was first proposed in the early 1900s, and approved by the International Subcommission on Permian Stratigraphy in 1996. References to the Middle Permian still exist. The Guadalupian was preceded by the Cisuralian and followed by the Lopingian. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
