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Andrewsarchus
''Andrewsarchus'' () is an extinct genus of mammal that lived during the middle Eocene epoch in what is now Inner Mongolia, China. Only one species is usually recognized, ''A. mongoliensis'', known from a single skull of great size discovered in 1923 during the expeditions to Central Asia by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Generally classified as a mesonychid since its original description, most recent studies classify it as an artiodactyl. One study specifically classifies ''Andrewsarchus'' as a member of the clade Cetancodontamorpha, closely related to entelodonts, hippos and cetaceans (members of the infraorder that includes the whales). Taxonomy The only known skull was found at a locality in the lower levels of the middle Eocene Irdin Manha Formation of Inner Mongolia, by the paleontological assistant Kan Chuen Pao during the spring of the second year (1923) of the Central Asiatic Expeditions (CAE) of the AMNH, led by the explorer and naturalist Roy Chapm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesonychia
Mesonychia ("middle claws") is an extinct taxon of small- to large-sized carnivorous ungulates related to artiodactyls. Mesonychids first appeared in the early Paleocene, went into a sharp decline at the end of the Eocene, and died out entirely when the last genus, ''Mongolestes'', became extinct in the early Oligocene. In Asia, the record of their history suggests they grew gradually larger and more predatory over time, then shifted to scavenging and bone-crushing lifestyles before the group became extinct. Mesonychids probably originated in China, where the most primitive mesonychid, ''Yangtanglestes'', is known from the early Paleocene. They were also most diverse in Asia, where they occur in all major Paleocene faunas. Since other predators, such as creodonts and Carnivora, were either rare or absent in these animal communities, mesonychids most likely dominated the large predator niche in the Paleocene of eastern Asia. One genus, ''Dissacus'', had successfully spread to Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesonychid
Mesonychia ("middle claws") is an extinct taxon of small- to large-sized carnivorous ungulates related to artiodactyls. Mesonychids first appeared in the early Paleocene, went into a sharp decline at the end of the Eocene, and died out entirely when the last genus, ''Mongolestes'', became extinct in the early Oligocene. In Asia, the record of their history suggests they grew gradually larger and more predatory over time, then shifted to scavenging and bone-crushing lifestyles before the group became extinct. Mesonychids probably originated in China, where the most primitive mesonychid, ''Yangtanglestes'', is known from the early Paleocene. They were also most diverse in Asia, where they occur in all major Paleocene faunas. Since other predators, such as creodonts and Carnivora, were either rare or absent in these animal communities, mesonychids most likely dominated the large predator niche in the Paleocene of eastern Asia. One genus, ''Dissacus'', had successfully spread to Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entelodont
Entelodontidae, the entelodonts, are an extinct family of pig-like artiodactyls (even-toed ungulates) which inhabited the Northern Hemisphere (Asia, Europe, and North America) from the late Eocene to the Middle Miocene epochs, about 38-19 million years ago. Their large heads, low snouts, narrow gait, and proposed omnivorous diet inspires comparisons to suids (true pigs) and tayassuids (peccaries), and historically they have been considered closely related to these families purely on a morphological basis. However, studies which combine morphological and molecular (genetic) data on artiodactyls instead suggest that entelodonts are cetancodontamorphs, more closely related to hippos and cetaceans than to pigs or other ungulates. Description Entelodonts could get quite large, and in many cases are the largest mammals in their respective ecosystems. The largest entelodont known from a complete skeleton was ''Daeodon'', a North American entelodont which could reach an estimated we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn") and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the ''Grande Coupure'' (the "Great Break" in continuity) or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay. As with other geologic periods, the strata that define the start and end of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cetancodontamorpha
Cetancodontamorpha is a total clade of artiodactyls defined, according to Spaulding ''et al''., as Whippomorpha "plus all extinct taxa more closely related to extant members of Whippomorpha than to any other living species". Attempts have been made to rename the clade Whippomorpha to Cetancodonta, but the former maintains precedent. Whippomorpha is the crown clade containing Cetacea (whales, dolphins, etc.) and hippopotamuses. According to Spaulding ''et al''., members of the whippomorph stem group (i.e., "stem-whippomorphs") include such taxa as the family Entelodontidae and the genus ''Andrewsarchus ''Andrewsarchus'' () is an extinct genus of mammal that lived during the middle Eocene epoch in what is now Inner Mongolia, China. Only one species is usually recognized, ''A. mongoliensis'', known from a single skull of great size discovered in ...''. References Cetruminantia Phylogenetics Taxa described in 2009 {{eventoedungulate-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cetacodontamorpha
Cetancodontamorpha is a total clade of artiodactyls defined, according to Spaulding ''et al''., as Whippomorpha "plus all extinct taxa more closely related to extant members of Whippomorpha than to any other living species". Attempts have been made to rename the clade Whippomorpha to Cetancodonta, but the former maintains precedent. Whippomorpha is the crown clade containing Cetacea (whales, dolphins, etc.) and hippopotamuses. According to Spaulding ''et al''., members of the whippomorph stem group (i.e., "stem-whippomorphs") include such taxa as the family Entelodontidae and the genus ''Andrewsarchus ''Andrewsarchus'' () is an extinct genus of mammal that lived during the middle Eocene epoch in what is now Inner Mongolia, China. Only one species is usually recognized, ''A. mongoliensis'', known from a single skull of great size discovered in ...''. References Cetruminantia Phylogenetics Taxa described in 2009 {{eventoedungulate-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn") and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope Carbon-13, 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope Carbon-12, 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the ''Grande Coupure'' (the "Great Break" in continuity) or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Popigai impact structure, Siberia and in what is now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Museum Of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 interconnected buildings housing 45 permanent exhibition halls, in addition to a planetarium and a library. The museum collections contain over 34 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artifacts, as well as specialized collections for frozen tissue and genomic and astrophysical data, of which only a small fraction can be displayed at any given time. The museum occupies more than . AMNH has a full-time scientific staff of 225, sponsors over 120 special field expeditions each year, and averages about five million visits annually. The AMNH is a private 501(c)(3) organization. Its mission statement is: "To discover, interpret, and disseminate—through scientific research and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roy Chapman Andrews
Roy Chapman Andrews (January 26, 1884 – March 11, 1960) was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History. He led a series of expeditions through the politically disturbed China of the early 20th century into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia. The expeditions made important discoveries and brought the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs to the museum. Chapman's popular writing about his adventures made him famous. Biography Early life and education Andrews was born on January 26, 1884, in Beloit, Wisconsin. As a child, he explored forests, fields, and waters nearby, developing marksmanship skills. He taught himself taxidermy and used funds from this hobby to pay tuition to Beloit College. After graduating, Andrews applied for work at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He so much wanted to work there that after being told that there were no openings at his level, Andrews accepted a job as a jani ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artiodactyl
The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly. By contrast, odd-toed ungulates bear weight on an odd number of the five toes. Another difference between the two is that many other even-toed ungulates (with the exception of Suina) digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine as the odd-toed ungulates do. Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) evolved from even-toed ungulates, and are therefore often classified under the same taxonomic branch because a species cannot outgrow its evolutionary ancestry; some modern taxonomists combine the two under the name Cetartiodactyla , while others opt to include cetaceans in the already-existing Artiodactyla. The roughly 270 land-based even-toed ungulate species include pigs, peccaries, hippopota ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cetartiodactyla
The even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla , ) are ungulates—hoofed animals—which bear weight equally on two (an even number) of their five toes: the third and fourth. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly. By contrast, odd-toed ungulates bear weight on an odd number of the five toes. Another difference between the two is that many other even-toed ungulates (with the exception of Suina) digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine as the odd-toed ungulates do. Cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) evolved from even-toed ungulates, and are therefore often classified under the same taxonomic branch because a species cannot outgrow its evolutionary ancestry; some modern taxonomists combine the two under the name Cetartiodactyla , while others opt to include cetaceans in the already-existing Artiodactyla. The roughly 270 land-based even-toed ungulate species include pigs, peccaries, hippopota ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whippomorpha
Whippomorpha or Cetancodonta is a group of animals that contains all living cetaceans (whales, dolphins, etc.) and hippopotamuses, as well as their extinct relatives, i.e. Entelodont, Entelodonts and Andrewsarchus. All Whippomorphs are descendants of the last common ancestor of ''Hippopotamus amphibius'' and ''Common bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus''. This makes it a crown group. Whippomorpha is a suborder within the order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates). The placement of Whippomorpha within Artiodactyla is a matter of some contention, as hippopotamuses were previously considered to be more closely related to Suidae (pigs) and Tayassuidae (peccaries). Most contemporary scientific Phylogenetics, phylogenetic and Morphology (biology), morphological research studies link hippopotamuses with cetaceans, and Genetic analysis, genetic evidence has overwhelmingly supported an Evolution, evolutionary relationship between Hippopotamidae and Cetacea. Modern Whippomorphs all share a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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