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Aeolodontinae
Teleosauridae is a family of extinct typically marine crocodylomorphs similar to the modern gharial that lived during the Jurassic period. Teleosaurids were thalattosuchians closely related to the fully aquatic metriorhynchoids, but were less adapted to an open-ocean, pelagic lifestyle. The family was originally coined to include all the semi-aquatic (i.e. non-metriorhynchoid) thalattosuchians and was equivalent to the modern superfamily Teleosauroidea. However, as teleosauroid relationships and diversity was better studied in the 21st century, the division of teleosauroids into two distinct evolutionary lineages led to the establishment of Teleosauridae as a more restrictive family within the group, together with its sister family Machimosauridae. Amongst teleosauroids, teleosaurids were generally smaller and less common than machimosaurids, suggesting the two families occupied different niches, similar to modern species of crocodilians. However, teleosaurids were more diverse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bathysuchus
''Bathysuchus'' ("deep water crocodile") is an extinct genus of teleosaurid thalattosuchian from Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) deep water marine deposits in England and France. ''Bathysuchus'' displays features that suggest it was more pelagic than other teleosaurids (along with its close relatives within the Aeolodontinae), including smoother skull bones and reduced armour plating, similar to the fully marine metriorhynchids. This was possibly an adaptation to rising sea levels during the Kimmeridgian, as its earlier relatives such as ''Teleosaurus'' were suited for shallow coasts and lagoon environments. Description ''Bathysuchus'' is a very long-snouted (longirostrine) teleosaurid, currently known only from several snouts, the back of the skull, teeth, and a few osteoderms. It is distinguished from other derived teleosaurids in the following characteristics: strongly ventrally deflected anterior margin of the premaxilla; five premaxillary alveoli, the caudal-most being cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sericodon
''Sericodon'' is an extinct genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) of Germany and Switzerland. The genus contains a single species, ''S. jugleri''. ''Sericodon'' was placed in 'Clade T' (Aeolodontinae) and was found to be the sister taxon to ''Bathysuchus'', another teleosaurid. Taxonomy ''Sericodon'' was named for teeth from Late Jurassic deposits in Hanover, Germany, and Solothurn, Switzerland (Reuchenette Formation) by Hermann von Meyer in 1845.Meyer, H, (1845), Note on fossil reptiles: Neües Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie, Geologie und Palaontologie, 1845, p. 308-313. The genus was later synonymized with ''Steneosaurus'' by Steel (1973), but new work suggests it might be a distinct genus after all.Foffa D, Johnson MM, Young MT, Steel L, Brusatte SL. 2019. Revision of the Late Jurassic deep-water teleosauroid crocodylomorph ''Teleosaurus megarhinus'' Hulke, 1871 and evidence of pelagic adaptations in Teleosauroidea. PeerJ 7:e6646 http://doi.org/10.771 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toarcian
The Toarcian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, an age and stage in the Early or Lower Jurassic. It spans the time between 182.7 Ma (million years ago) and 174.1 Ma. It follows the Pliensbachian and is followed by the Aalenian. The Toarcian Age began with the Toarcian turnover, the extinction event that sets its fossil faunas apart from the previous Pliensbachian age. It is believed to have ended with a global cooling event known as the Comptum Cooling Event, although whether it represented a worldwide event is controversial. Stratigraphic definitions The Toarcian takes its name from the city of Thouars, just south of Saumur in the Loire Valley of France. The stage was introduced by French palaeontologist Alcide d'Orbigny in 1842, after examining rock strata of this age in a quarry near Thouars. In Europe this period is represented by the upper part of the Lias. The base of the Toarcian is defined as the place in the stratigraphic record where the ammonite genus '' Eoda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gharial
The gharial (''Gavialis gangeticus''), also known as gavial or fish-eating crocodile, is a crocodilian in the family Gavialidae and among the longest of all living crocodilians. Mature females are long, and males . Adult males have a distinct boss at the end of the snout, which resembles an earthenware pot known as a ''ghara'', hence the name "gharial". The gharial is well adapted to catching fish because of its long, narrow snout and 110 sharp, interlocking teeth. The gharial probably evolved in the northern Indian subcontinent. Fossil gharial remains were excavated in Pliocene deposits in the Sivalik Hills and the Narmada River valley. It currently inhabits rivers in the plains of the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. It is the most thoroughly aquatic crocodilian, and leaves the water only for basking and building nests on moist sandbanks. Adults mate at the end of the cold season. Females congregate in spring to dig nests, in which they lay 20–95 eggs. They guard t ... [...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 organisms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogenetics
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek language, Greek wikt:φυλή, φυλή/wikt:φῦλον, φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups of organisms. These relationships are determined by Computational phylogenetics, phylogenetic inference methods that focus on observed heritable traits, such as DNA sequences, Protein, protein Amino acid, amino acid sequences, or Morphology (biology), morphology. The result of such an analysis is a phylogenetic tree—a diagram containing a hypothesis of relationships that reflects the evolutionary history of a group of organisms. The tips of a phylogenetic tree can be living taxa or fossils, and represent the "end" or the present time in an evolutionary lineage. A phylogenetic diagram can be rooted or unrooted. A rooted tree diagram indicates the hypothetical common ancestor of the tree. An un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piscivores
A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that eats primarily fish. The name ''piscivore'' is derived . Piscivore is equivalent to the Greek-derived word ichthyophage, both of which mean "fish eater". Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted reptiles and synapsids evolved herbivory. Almost all predatory fishes (most sharks, tuna, billfishes, pikes etc.) are obligated piscivores. Some non-piscine aquatic animals, such as whales, sea lion and crocodilians, are not completely piscivorous, often also preying on invertebrates, marine mammals, waterbirds and even wading land animals in addition to fish; while others, such as the bulldog bat and gharial, are strictly dependent on fish for food. Some creatures, including cnidarians, octopuses, squid, spiders, cetaceans, grizzly bears, jaguars, wolves, snakes, turtles and sea gulls, may have fish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodilians
Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) and are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria. Members of the order's total group, the clade Pseudosuchia, appeared about 250 million years ago in the Early Triassic period, and diversified during the Mesozoic era. The order Crocodilia includes the true crocodiles (family Crocodylidae), the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), and the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae). Although the term 'crocodiles' is sometimes used to refer to all of these, crocodilians is a less ambiguous vernacular term for members of this group. Large, solidly built, lizard-like reptiles, crocodilians have long flattened snouts, laterally compressed tails, and eyes, ears, and nostrils at the top of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecological Niche
In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey). "The type and number of variables comprising the dimensions of an environmental niche vary from one species to another ndthe relative importance of particular environmental variables for a species may vary according to the geographic and biotic contexts". See also Chapter 2: Concepts of niches, pp. 7 ''ff'' A Grinnellian niche is determined by the habitat in which a species lives and its accompanying behavioral adaptations. An Eltonian niche emphasizes that a spec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machimosauridae
Machimosauridae is an extinct family of teleosauroid thalattosuchian crocodyliforms. Text was copied from this source, which is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License The family was first identified in 2016, when fossils of teleosauroid thalattosuchians, including an indeterminate close relative of ''Lemmysuchus'' and '' Machimosaurus'', were described from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of Morocco. The family was largely expanded in 2020 when the systematics of Teleosauroidea were re-reviewed. Members of this family generally were larger than the teleosaurids. Classification Machimosauridae is a diverse group of teleosauroids, phylogenetically defined as "the largest clade within Teleosauroidea containing ''Machimosaurus hugii'', but not '' Plagiophthalmosuchus gracilirostris'' and ''Teleosaurus cadomensis''." The members of the Machimosauridae share several unique characters among teleosauroids, which are: * dorsally oriented external na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teleosauroidea
Teleosauroidea is an extinct superfamily of thalattosuchian crocodyliforms living from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro .... References Thalattosuchians Animal superfamilies {{Paleo-archosaur-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superfamily (taxonomy)
Superfamily may refer to: *Protein superfamily ** Superfamily database * Superfamily (taxonomy), a taxonomic rank * Superfamily (linguistics), also known as macrofamily * Font superfamily, a large typographic family * Superfamily (band) Superfamily was a Norwegian pop rock band from Moss, Norway. The band is composed of Steven Ray Wilson (lead vocals), Kim Granholt (keytar, synthesizer), Martin Steffensen (guitar), and Richard Lorentz (drums). Anders Nielsen, Terje Krumins and HÃ ..., a Norwegian pop band * "Super Family", a group of comic characters {{Disambig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
