Bianchengichthys
''Bianchengichthys'' is an extinct genus of maxillate placoderm fish from the late Silurian Period. Its fossils have been recovered from Yunnan Province, China, and it is represented by only one species: ''Bianchengichthys micros''. Description ''Bianchengichthys'' is a small, somewhat dorsoventrally compressed placoderm fish. The mandible (made from dermal bone) of this genus differs from ''Entelognathus'' and ''Qilinyu''—two other maxillate placoderms from late Silurian China−in that the oral lamina is broad and carries a row of tooth-like denticles, though the marginal flange is toothless. The pectoral fin, preceded by two small spines on its thoracic shield, is lobate in shape and situated along by a 'fringe' of scales similar to those of ''Lepidotrichia'' in bony fishes. Similarly to other maxillate placoderms, its eyes are anteriorly orientated and very close to its mouth. Evolutionary significance ''Bianchengichthys mandible bears physical resemblance to both its r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bianchengichthys Micros
''Bianchengichthys'' is an extinct genus of Maxilla, maxillate placoderm fish from the late Silurian Period. Its fossils have been recovered from Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China, China, and it is represented by monospecific, only one species: ''Bianchengichthys micros''. Description ''Bianchengichthys'' is a small, somewhat dorsoventrally compressed placoderm fish. The mandible (made from dermal bone) of this genus differs from ''Entelognathus'' and ''Qilinyu''—two other maxillate placoderms from late Silurian China−in that the oral lamina is broad and carries a row of tooth-like Denticle (tooth feature), denticles, though the marginal flange is toothless. The pectoral fin, preceded by two small spines on its thoracic shield, is lobate in shape and situated along by a 'fringe' of scales similar to those of ''Lepidotrichia'' in bony fishes. Similarly to other maxillate placoderms, its eyes are anteriorly orientated and very close to its mouth. Evolutionary signifi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Qilinyu
''Qilinyu rostrata'' is a "maxillate" placoderm from the late Ludlow epoch of Qujing, Yunnan, 419 million years ago.Zhu, Min, et al. "A Silurian maxillate placoderm illuminates jaw evolution." Science 354.6310 (2016): 334-336/ref> Specimens and taxonomy The holotype and paratype of ''Q. rostrata'' are two exquisitely preserved specimens both featuring a domed cranium and a curved rostrum presenting a "dolphin-like profile." The researchers' cladistic diagram shows ''Q. rostrata'' as the sister taxon of ''Entelognathus'', ''Janusiscus'' and the crown gnathostomes (i.e., bony and cartilaginous fishes and their descendants). Evolutionary significance ''Qilinyu rostrata'', together with ''Entelognathus'', demonstrates additional evidence that modern gnathostomes evolved from placoderms.Long, John A. "The first jaws." Science 354.6310 (2016): 280-281. See also * ''Entelognathus'' * ''Bianchengichthys'' * ''Silurolepis ''Silurolepis platydorsalis'' is an extinct species ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Entelognathus
''Entelognathus primordialis'' (“primordial complete jaw”) is a maxillate placoderm from the late Silurian (Ludlow epoch) of Qujing, Yunnan, 419 million years ago. A team led by Min Zhu of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing discovered the intact, articulated fossil in rock formations at Xiaoxiang reservoir. Specimen and taxonomy The holotype of ''E. primordialis'' is the uncrushed and mostly intact anterior half of an individual with the articulating head and trunk armor preserved in three dimensions. The holotype is about long, and the live animal is estimated to have been over long. In overall form, the animal resembles primitive arthrodires, but the anatomy of the jaws strongly suggests the anatomies of bony fish and tetrapods. Specifically, this is the first stem gnathostome with dermal marginal jaw bones. These bones are the premaxilla, maxilla, and dentary. Most known placoderms had simple beak-like jaw ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Late Silurian
The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozoic Era. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by a few million years. The base of the Silurian is set at a series of major Ordovician–Silurian extinction events when up to 60% of marine genera were wiped out. One important event in this period was the initial establishment of terrestrial life in what is known as the Silurian-Devonian Terrestrial Revolution: vascular plants emerged from more primitive land plants, dikaryan fungi started expanding and diversifying along with glomeromycotan fungi, and three groups of arthropods (myriapods, arachnids and hexapods) became fully terrestrialized. A significant evolutionary milestone during t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Actinopterygii
Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or horny spines (rays), as opposed to the fleshy, lobed fins that characterize the class Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish). These actinopterygian fin rays attach directly to the proximal or basal skeletal elements, the radials, which represent the link or connection between these fins and the internal skeleton (e.g., pelvic and pectoral girdles). By species count, actinopterygians dominate the vertebrates, and they constitute nearly 99% of the over 30,000 species of fish. They are ubiquitous throughout freshwater and marine environments from the deep sea to the highest mountain streams. Extant species can range in size from ''Paedocypris'', at , to the massive ocean sunfish, at , and the long-bodied oarfish, at . The vast majority of Actinopt ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eugnathostomata
Gnathostomata (; from Greek: (') "jaw" + (') "mouth") are the jawed vertebrates. Gnathostome diversity comprises roughly 60,000 species, which accounts for 99% of all living vertebrates, including humans. In addition to opposing jaws, living gnathostomes have true teeth (a characteristic which has subsequently been lost in some), paired appendages (pectoral and pelvic fins, arms, legs, wings, etc.), the elastomeric protein of elastin, and a horizontal semicircular canal of the inner ear, along with physiological and cellular anatomical characters such as the myelin sheaths of neurons, and an adaptive immune system that has the discrete lymphoid organs of spleen and thymus, and uses V(D)J recombination to create antigen recognition sites, rather than using genetic recombination in the variable lymphocyte receptor gene. It is now assumed that Gnathostomata evolved from ancestors that already possessed a pair of both pectoral and pelvic fins. Until recently these ancestors, know ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Xiaoxi Formation , Jiangxi
{{geodis ...
Xiaoxi (小溪; lit. brook) may refer to: *Towns named Xiaoxi (小溪镇) ** Xiaoxi, Wuhe County, in Wuhe County, Anhui **Xiaoxi, Pinghe County, Fujian *Xiaoxi Township (小溪乡) **Xiaoxi Township, Yongshun County, in Yongshun County, Hunan **Xiaoxi Township, Yudu County, in Yudu County Yudu County (, ) is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Ganzhou, located in the south of Jiangxi province, China. It is located in the east of Ganzhou City. It is adjacent to Ruijin City to the east, Huichang County ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ludlow Epoch
In the geological timescale, the Ludlow Epoch (from 427.4 ± 0.5 million years ago to 423.0 ± 2.3 million years ago) occurred during the Silurian Period, after the end of the Homerian Age. It is named for the town of Ludlow in Shropshire, England. The Ludlow Epoch is subdivided into two stages: Gorstian and Ludfordian. Paleontology Arthropods See also *Ludlow Group References Ludlow epoch, Silurian geochronology, *03 Geological epochs Ludlow first appearances, {{geochronology-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sandstones
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) because they are the most resistant minerals to weathering processes at the Earth's surface. Like uncemented sand, sandstone may be any color due to impurities within the minerals, but the most common colors are tan, brown, yellow, red, grey, pink, white, and black. Since sandstone beds often form highly visible cliffs and other topographic features, certain colors of sandstone have been strongly identified with certain regions. Rock formations that are primarily composed of sandstone usually allow the percolation of water and other fluids and are porous enough to store large quantities, making them valuable aquifers and petroleum reservoirs. Quartz-bearing sandstone can be changed into quartzite through metamorphism, usually related to te ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Common Ancestor
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all life on Earth, according to modern evolutionary biology. Common descent is an effect of speciation, in which multiple species derive from a single ancestral population. The more recent the ancestral population two species have in common, the more closely are they related. The most recent common ancestor of all currently living organisms is the last universal ancestor, which lived about 3.9 billion years ago. The two earliest pieces of evidence for life on Earth are graphite found to be biogenic in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks discovered in western Greenland and microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. All currently living organisms on Earth shar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Siltstones
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, pp.381-382 Although its permeability and porosity is relatively low, siltstone is sometimes a tight gas reservoir rock, an unconventional reservoir for natural gas that requires hydraulic fracturing for economic gas production. Siltstone was prized in ancient Egypt for manufacturing statuary and cosmetic palettes. The siltstone quarried at Wadi Hammamat was a hard, fine-grained siltstone that resisted flaking and was almost ideal for such uses. Description There is not complete agreement on the definition of siltstone. One definition is that siltstone is mudrock (clastic sedimentary rock containing at least 50% clay and silt) in which at least 2/3 of the clay and silt fraction is composed of silt-sized particles. Silt is defined as gr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mudstones
Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, W. H. Freeman, 2nd ed, 529 pp. The term ''mudstone'' is also used to describe carbonate rocks (limestone or dolomite) that are composed predominantly of carbonate mud. However, in most contexts, the term refers to siliciclastic mudstone, composed mostly of silicate minerals. The NASA Curiosity rover has found deposits of mudstone on Mars that contain organic substances such as propane, benzene and toluene. Definition There is not a single definition of mudstone that has gained general acceptance,Boggs 2006, p.143 though there is wide agreement that mudstones are fine-grained sedimentary rocks, composed mostly of silicate grains with a grain size less than . Individual grains this size are too small to be distingui ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |