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Diatomyidae
Diatomyidae is a family of hystricomorph rodents. It is represented by a single living species, ''Laonastes aenigmamus,'' native to Laos in Southeast Asia. Fossil species are known from the Oligocene and Miocene of Asia and eastern Europe. "Lazarus effect" Before ''Laonastes'' was discovered, the family Diatomyidae was known only from fossils. The family has a nearly continuous fossil range from Early Oligocene fossils of '' Fallomus'' from the Lower Chitarwata Formation (32.5 million years ago, Bugti Member, Bugti Hills,) in Balochistan, Pakistan, to Middle/Late Miocene fossils (11 Mya) of ''Diatomys''. Jenkins ''et al.''Jenkins, Paulina D.; Kilpatrick, C. William; Robinson, Mark F. & Timmins, Robert J. (2004): Morphological and molecular investigations of a new family, genus and species of rodent (Mammalia: Rodentia: Hystricognatha) from Lao PDR. ''Systematics and Biodiversity'' 2(4): 419-454. (HTML abstract). Erratum: ''Systematics and Biodiversity'' 3(3):343. reported ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laotian Rock Rat
The Laotian rock rat or ''kha-nyou'' (''Laonastes aenigmamus'', Lao: ຂະຍຸ), sometimes called the "rat-squirrel", is a species of rodent found in the Khammouan region of Laos. The species was first described in a 2005 article by Paulina Jenkins and coauthors, who considered the animal to be so distinct from all living rodents, they placed it in a new family, Laonastidae. It is in the monotypic genus ''Laonastes''. In 2006, the classification of the Laotian rock rat was disputed by Mary Dawson and coauthors. They suggested the rat belongs to the ancient fossil family Diatomyidae, which was thought to have been extinct for 11 million years, since the late Miocene. It would thereby represent a Lazarus species. The animals resemble large, dark rats with hairy, thick tails like those of a squirrel. Their skulls are very distinctive and have features that separate them from all other living mammals. Classification Upon their initial discovery, Jenkins and coauthors (2005) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laonastes Aenigmamus
The Laotian rock rat or ''kha-nyou'' (''Laonastes aenigmamus'', Lao: ຂະຍຸ), sometimes called the "rat-squirrel", is a species of rodent found in the Khammouan region of Laos. The species was first described in a 2005 article by Paulina Jenkins and coauthors, who considered the animal to be so distinct from all living rodents, they placed it in a new family, Laonastidae. It is in the monotypic genus ''Laonastes''. In 2006, the classification of the Laotian rock rat was disputed by Mary Dawson and coauthors. They suggested the rat belongs to the ancient fossil family Diatomyidae, which was thought to have been extinct for 11 million years, since the late Miocene. It would thereby represent a Lazarus species. The animals resemble large, dark rats with hairy, thick tails like those of a squirrel. Their skulls are very distinctive and have features that separate them from all other living mammals. Classification Upon their initial discovery, Jenkins and coauthors (2005) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laonastes
The Laotian rock rat or ''kha-nyou'' (''Laonastes aenigmamus'', Lao: ຂະຍຸ), sometimes called the "rat-squirrel", is a species of rodent found in the Khammouan region of Laos. The species was first described in a 2005 article by Paulina Jenkins and coauthors, who considered the animal to be so distinct from all living rodents, they placed it in a new family, Laonastidae. It is in the monotypic genus ''Laonastes''. In 2006, the classification of the Laotian rock rat was disputed by Mary Dawson and coauthors. They suggested the rat belongs to the ancient fossil family Diatomyidae, which was thought to have been extinct for 11 million years, since the late Miocene. It would thereby represent a Lazarus species. The animals resemble large, dark rats with hairy, thick tails like those of a squirrel. Their skulls are very distinctive and have features that separate them from all other living mammals. Classification Upon their initial discovery, Jenkins and coauthors (200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lazarus Taxon
In paleontology, a Lazarus taxon (plural ''taxa'') is a taxon that disappears for one or more periods from the fossil record, only to appear again later. Likewise in conservation biology and ecology, it can refer to species or populations that were thought to be extinct, and are rediscovered. The term Lazarus taxon was coined by Karl W. Flessa & David Jablonski in 1983 and was then expanded by Jablonski in 1986. Paul Wignall and Michael Benton defined Lazarus taxa as, "At times of biotic crisis many taxa go extinct, but others only temporarily disappeared from the fossil record, often for intervals measured in millions of years, before reappearing unchanged". Earlier work also supports the concept though without using the name Lazarus taxon, like work by Christopher R. C. Paul. The term refers to the story in the Christian biblical Gospel of John, in which Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead. Potential explanations Lazarus taxa are observational artifacts that app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morphology (biology)
Morphology is a branch of biology dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features. This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape, structure, colour, pattern, size), i.e. external morphology (or eidonomy), as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs, i.e. internal morphology (or anatomy). This is in contrast to physiology, which deals primarily with function. Morphology is a branch of life science dealing with the study of gross structure of an organism or taxon and its component parts. History The etymology of the word "morphology" is from the Ancient Greek (), meaning "form", and (), meaning "word, study, research". While the concept of form in biology, opposed to function, dates back to Aristotle (see Aristotle's biology), the field of morphology was developed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1790) and independently by the German anatomist and physiologist Karl Friedrich Burdach ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monito Del Monte
The monito del monte or colocolo opossum, ''Dromiciops gliroides'', also called ''chumaihuén'' in Mapudungun, is a diminutive marsupial native only to southwestern South America (Argentina and Chile). It is the only extant species in the ancient order Microbiotheria, and the sole New World representative of the superorder Australidelphia (all other New World marsupials are members of the paraphyletic Ameridelphia). The species is nocturnal and arboreal, and lives in thickets of South American mountain bamboo in the Valdivian temperate rain forests of the southern Andes, aided by its partially prehensile tail. It eats primarily insects and other small invertebrates, supplemented with fruit. Taxonomy and etymology ''Dromiciops gliroides'' is the sole extant member of the order Microbiotheria. It was first described by British zoologist Oldfield Thomas in 1894. The generic name ''Dromiciops'' is based on the resemblance of the monito del monte to the eastern pygmy possum (''Cerca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microbiotheriidae
Microbiotheriidae is a family of australidelphian marsupials represented by only one extant species, the monito del monte, and a number of extinct species known from fossils in South America, Western Antarctica, and northeastern Australia. Microbiotheriids were once thought to be members of the order Didelphimorphia (which contains the Virginia opossum); however, an accumulation of both anatomical and genetic evidence in recent years has led to the conclusion that microbiotheriids and other microbiotheres are not didelphids at all, but are instead most closely related to the Australasian marsupials; together, the microbiotheres and the Australian orders form the clade Australidelphia which are now thought to have first evolved in the South American region of Gondwana. Biogeography The oldest microbiotheriid and microbiothere currently recognised is ''Khasia cordillerensis'', based on fossil teeth from Early Palaeocene deposits at Tiupampa, Bolivia. Numerous genera are known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary R
Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also called the Blessed Virgin Mary * Mary Magdalene, devoted follower of Jesus * Mary of Bethany, follower of Jesus, considered by Western medieval tradition to be the same person as Mary Magdalene * Mary, mother of James * Mary of Clopas, follower of Jesus * Mary, mother of John Mark * Mary of Egypt, patron saint of penitents * Mary of Rome, a New Testament woman * Mary, mother of Zechariah and sister of Moses and Aaron; mostly known by the Hebrew name: Miriam * Mary the Jewess one of the reputed founders of alchemy, referred to by Zosimus. * Mary 2.0, Roman Catholic women's movement * Maryam (surah) "Mary", 19th surah (chapter) of the Qur'an Royalty * Mary, Countess of Blois (1200–1241), daughter of Walter of Avesnes and Margaret of Blois * M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coelacanth
The coelacanths ( ) are fish belonging to the order Actinistia that includes two extant species in the genus ''Latimeria'': the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (''Latimeria chalumnae''), primarily found near the Comoro Islands off the east coast of Africa, and the Indonesian coelacanth (''Latimeria menadoensis''). The name "coelacanth" originates from the Permian genus ''Coelacanthus'', which was the first scientifically named coelacanth. Coelacanths follow the oldest-known living lineage of Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish and tetrapods), which means they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (which includes amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) than to ray-finned fish. They are found along the coastline of Indonesia and in the Indian Ocean. The West Indian Ocean coelacanth is a critically endangered species. The oldest known coelacanth fossils are over 410 million years old. Coelacanths were thought to have become extinct in the Late Cretaceous, around 66 m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from the Ancient Greek (''olígos'', "few") and (''kainós'', "new"), and refers to the sparsity of extant forms of molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period. The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of the tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major changes during the Oligocene included a global expansion o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogenetic Tree
A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities based upon similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics. All life on Earth is part of a single phylogenetic tree, indicating common ancestry. In a ''rooted'' phylogenetic tree, each node with descendants represents the inferred most recent common ancestor of those descendants, and the edge lengths in some trees may be interpreted as time estimates. Each node is called a taxonomic unit. Internal nodes are generally called hypothetical taxonomic units, as they cannot be directly observed. Trees are useful in fields of biology such as bioinformatics, systematics, and phylogenetics. ''Unrooted'' trees illustrate only the relatedness of the leaf nodes and do not require the ancestral root to b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
