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Euelasmosaurida
Elasmosauridae is an extinct family (biology), family of plesiosaurs, often called elasmosaurs. They had the longest necks of the plesiosaurs and existed from the Hauterivian to the Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous, and represented one of the two groups of plesiosaurs present at the end of the Cretaceous alongside Polycotylidae. Their diet mainly consisted of crustaceans and molluscs. Description The earliest elasmosaurids were mid-sized, about . In the Late Cretaceous, elasmosaurids grew as large as , such as ''Styxosaurus'', ''Albertonectes'', and ''Thalassomedon''. Their necks were the longest of all the plesiosaurs, with anywhere between 32 and 76 (''Albertonectes'') cervical vertebrae. They weighed up to several tons. Classification Early three-family classification Though Cope had originally recognized ''Elasmosaurus'' as a plesiosaur, in an 1869 paper he placed it, with ''Cimoliasaurus'' and ''Crymocetus'', in a new order of sauropterygian reptiles. He named the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hauterivian
The Hauterivian is, in the geologic timescale, an age in the Early Cretaceous Epoch or a stage in the Lower Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 132.9 ± 2 Ma and 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago). The Hauterivian is preceded by the Valanginian and succeeded by the Barremian.See Gradstein ''et al.'' (2004) for a detailed geologic timescale Stratigraphic definitions The Hauterivian was introduced in scientific literature by Swiss geologist Eugène Renevier in 1873. It is named after the Swiss town of Hauterive at the shore of Lake Neuchâtel. The base of the Hauterivian is defined as the place in the stratigraphic column where the ammonite genus ''Acanthodiscus'' first appears. A reference profile for the base (a GSSP) was officially ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences in December of 2019, and is placed in La Charce, France. The top of the Hauterivian (the base of the Barremian) is at the first appearance of ammonite species ''Spitidiscus hugii'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
