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Benthosuchus Korobkovi
''Benthosuchus'' (meaning "deep water crocodile") is an extinct genus of temnospondyl amphibian from the Early Triassic of Russia. It was primarily aquatic, living in rivers and lakes. Multiple species are known, with the largest reaching about 2.5 meters in length. Russian paleontologist Ivan Yefremov fremovcalled the genus ''Benthosaurus'' "deep water lizard" (from Ancient Greek βένθος (''benthos'') "depth, deep water") in his original 1929 description, "in view of its clearly indicated adaptation to life in deep water" shown by "the position of the orbits and the flatness of the skull." The type species ''B. sushkini'' honored his late teacher Petr Sushkin. The generic name was preoccupied by ''Benthosaurus'' Goode & Bean, 1886, a fish, and he renamed the genus ''Benthosuchus'' ("deep water crocodile") in 1937.Efremov, I. A. (1929). ''Benthosaurus sushkini'', ein neuer Labyrinthodont der permotriassischen Ablagerungen der Sharschenga Flusses. ''Bulletin of the Academ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Triassic
The Early Triassic is the first of three epochs of the Triassic Period of the geologic timescale. It spans the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). Rocks from this epoch are collectively known as the Lower Triassic Series, which is a unit in chronostratigraphy. The Early Triassic is the oldest epoch of the Mesozoic Era. It is preceded by the Lopingian Epoch (late Permian, Paleozoic Era) and followed by the Middle Triassic Epoch. The Early Triassic is divided into the Induan and Olenekian ages. The Induan is subdivided into the Griesbachian and Dienerian subages and the Olenekian is subdivided into the Smithian and Spathian subages. The Lower Triassic series is coeval with the Scythian Stage, which is today not included in the official timescales but can be found in older literature. In Europe, most of the Lower Triassic is composed of Buntsandstein, a lithostratigraphic unit of continental red beds. The Early Triassic and partly also the Middle Triassic span the in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraphyletic
In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic group (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 Synapomorphy and apomorphy, synapomorphies and symplesiomorphy, symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic. The term was coined by Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia (reptiles) which, as commonly named and traditionally defined, is paraphyletic with respect to mammals and birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhinesuchidae
Rhinesuchidae is a family of tetrapods that lived primarily in the Permian period. They belonged to the broad group Temnospondyli, a successful and diverse collection of semiaquatic tetrapods which modern amphibians are probably descended from. Rhinesuchids can be differentiated from other temnospondyls by details of their skulls, most notably the interior structure of their otic notches at the back of the skull. They were among the earliest-diverging members of the Stereospondyli, a subgroup of temnospondyls with flat heads and aquatic habits. Although more advanced stereospondyls evolved to reach worldwide distribution in the Triassic period, rhinesuchids primarily lived in the high-latitude environments of Gondwana (what is now South America and Africa) during the Guadalupian and Lopingian epochs of the Permian. The taxonomy of this family has been convoluted, with more than twenty species having been named in the past; a 2017 review recognized only eight of them (distributed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lydekkerina Huxleyi
''Lydekkerina'' is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyl. It is the type genus of the family Lydekkerinidae. Fossils have been collected from Early Triassic deposits in South Africa and Australia. The type species is '' L. huxleyi'', first described in 1889. While most other stereospondyls were semiaquatic, ''Lydekkerina'' was exclusively terrestrial. Description ''Lydekkerina'' was a relatively small temnospondyl, growing up to around in length. Skulls range in length from in the smallest known individual to up to in larger individuals. The skull is wedge-shaped and has a parabolic outline with convex lateral margins. Shallow pits cover the surface of the skull. Teeth line the palate as well as the jaws, and some skulls even bear large ectopterygoid tusks on the underside of the skull. ''Lydekkerina'' can be distinguished from other lydekkerinids on the basis of several skull characteristics. One such feature is the presence of vomerine shagreen, tiny bumps coveri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stereospondyli
The Stereospondyli are a group of extinct temnospondyl amphibians that existed primarily during the Mesozoic period. They are known from all seven continents and were common components of many Triassic ecosystems, likely filling a similar ecological niche to modern crocodilians prior to the diversification of pseudosuchian archosaurs. Classification and anatomy The group was first defined by Zittel (1888) on the recognition of the distinctive vertebral anatomy of the best known stereospondyls of the time, such as ''Mastodonsaurus'' and '' Metoposaurus''. The term 'stereospondylous' as a descriptor of vertebral anatomy was coined the following year by Fraas, referring to a vertebral position consisting largely or entirely of the intercentrum in addition to the neural arch. While the name 'Stereospondyli' is derived from the stereospondylous vertebral condition, there is a diversity of vertebral morphologies among stereospondyls, including the diplospondylous (' tupilakosaurid') c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to descendants, nor does it show how much they have changed, so many differing evolutionary trees can be consistent with the same cladogram. A cladogram uses lines that branch off in different directions ending at a clade, a group of organisms with a last common ancestor. There are many shapes of cladograms but they all have lines that branch off from other lines. The lines can be traced back to where they branch off. These branching off points represent a hypothetical ancestor (not an actual entity) which can be inferred to exhibit the traits shared among the terminal taxa above it. This hypothetical ancestor might then provide clues about the order of evolution of various features, adaptation, and other evolutionary narratives about ance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trematosauridae
Trematosauridae are a family of large marine temnospondyl amphibians with many members. They first appeared during the Induan age of the Early Triassic, and existed until around the Carnian stage of the Late Triassic, although by then they were very rare. By the Middle Triassic they had become widespread throughout Laurasia and Gondwana with fossils being found in Europe, Asia, Madagascar, and Australia. They are one of the most derived families of the Trematosauroidea superfamily in that they are the only family that have fully marine lifestyles. Long, slender snouts that are characteristic of the trematosaurids, with some members having rostrums resembling those of modern-day gavials. Traditionally, two subfamilies within Trematosauridae can be identified, the relatively short-nosed Trematosaurinae and the long-nosed Lonchorhynchinae._A_third_subfamily,_Tertreminae.html" ;"title=".... A third subfamily, Tertreminae">.... A third subfamily, Tertreminae, was named in 2000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trematosauria
Trematosauria is one of two major groups of temnospondyl amphibians that survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event, the other (according to Yates and Warren 2000) being the Capitosauria. The trematosaurs were a diverse and important group that included many medium-sized to large forms that were semi-aquatic to totally aquatic. The group included long-snouted forms such as the Trematosauroidea, trematosauroids and short, broad-headed forms such as the Metoposauridae, metoposaurs.Brusatte, S. L., Butler R. J., Mateus O., & Steyer S. J. (2015). A new species of Metoposaurus from the Late Triassic of Portugal and comments on the systematics and biogeography of metoposaurid temnospondyls. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. e912988., 2015: Although most groups did not survive beyond the Triassic, one lineage, the Brachyopoidea, brachyopoids, continued until the Cretaceous period. Trematosauria is defined as all Stereospondyli, stereospondyls more closely related to ''Trematosauru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capitosauria
Capitosauria is an extinct group of large temnospondyl amphibians with simplified stereospondyl vertebrae. Mainly living as piscivores in lakes and rivers, the Capitosauria and its sister taxon Trematosauria were the only major labyrinthodonts that existed during the Mesozoic in ecological niches broadly similar to those of modern crocodiles, and some grew to very large sizes. At 6 meters in length, the Mid-Triassic '' Mastodonsaurus giganteus'' is not only thought to have been the largest capitosaur, but possibly also the largest amphibian to have lived. The latest known remains are from the Rhaetian of Germany and are referred to ''Cyclotosaurus''. Capitosauria was first named by Schoch and Milner (2000) and further described by Yates and Warren (2000), who assigned ''Lydekkerina'' and Mastodonsauroidea to it. It was described by Damiani (2001) under the name Mastodonsauroidea. In their phylogenetic analysis of temnospondyls, Ruta ''et al.'' (2007) placed ''Lydekkerina'' and it ... [...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] |
Wetlugasaurus
''Wetlugasaurus'' (meaning "Vetluga River lizard") is an extinct genus of Temnospondyli, temnospondyl amphibian from the Early Triassic (Olenekian) Charkabozh Formation, Charkabozh, Kzylsaiskaya Formation, Kzylsaiskaya, Petropavlovka Formation, Petropavlovka, Kamennyi Yar Formation, Kamennyi Yar and Vetluga Series Formations of northern Russia and Greenland. It had a long skull, and reached a total length of . References Further reading * ''The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia'' by Michael J. Benton, Mikhail A. Shishkin, David M. Unwin, and Evgenii N. Kurochkin. p. 35-59. * ''Bibliography Of Fossil Vertebrates 1934-1938'' by C. I. Camp Capitosaurs Prehistoric amphibian genera Triassic temnospondyls of Europe Olenekian life Fossils of Russia Fossil taxa described in 1930 {{triassic-animal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capitosaurid
Mastodonsauridae is a family of capitosauroid temnospondyls. Fossils belonging to this family have been found in North America, Greenland, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The family Capitosauridae is synonymous with Mastodonsauridae. Description Size Mastodonsaurids were generally large amphibians, with some length estimates ranging from 3 to 6 meters. Some genera, like ''Mastodonsaurus'' and ''Cyclotosaurus'' were specially large, reaching at least 4 meters or more. Other genera like ''Parotosuchus'' and ''Paracyclotosaurus'' only reached 2 meters or more in length, but it's still pretty large compared to modern-day amphibians. Distinguishing features Some mastodonsaurids including ''Parotosuchus'' were covered in a scaly skin, unlike the smooth skin of modern-day amphibians, and probably moved with an eel-like motion in the water. Another peculiar mastodonsaurid is ''Sclerothorax'', with unusual features including its elongated neural spines. The neural spines are tallest at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
