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Garganoaetus
''Garganoaetus'' is an extinct genus of buteonin accipitrid bird of prey from the early Pliocene in Italy. ''G. freudenthali'' was comparable in size to a golden eagle; ''G. murivorus'' was hawk sized. Species of ''Garganoaetus'' would have lived alongside other Gargano island animals, such as large dormice '' Stertomys'' and '' Hattomys'' hamsters, the giant, long-skulled ''Deinogalerix'' moonrats, an otter, ''Prolagus ''Prolagus'' is an extinct genus of pika within the order Lagomorpha. Over 20 species of ''Prolagus'' have been named, beginning in the Early Miocene in Europe 20 million years ago, where it ranged widely for most of the epoch; by the end of the ...'' pikas, and the multi-horned artiodactyl '' Hoplitomeryx''. References Accipitridae Extinct birds of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1973 Pliocene birds Prehistoric bird genera {{Paleo-bird-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikrotia
''Mikrotia'' is an extinct rodent belonging to the Muridae. It lived during the upper Miocene (about 11.63 - 5 million years ago) and its fossil remains have been found in Italy (Gargano). The type species is ''M. magna'', although two other species (''M. maiuscula'' and ''M. parka'') are also known.M. Freudenthal. (1976). Rodent stratigraphy of some Miocene fissure fillings in Gargano (prov. Foggia, Italy). ''Scripta Geologica'' 37:1-23M. Freudenthal. (2006). ''Mikrotia'', ''nomen novum'' for ''Microtia'' Freudenthal 1976 (Mammalia, Rodentia). ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' 26(3):784 Description This animal, despite belonging to the Muridae, was much larger in size than its modern equivalents. The only known skull of the largest species, ''Mikrotia magna'', was about long. The three known species of the genus ''Mikrotia'' show an evolutionary tendency towards the development of hypsodontal molars (with a high crown) and in the increase of the number of dental lobes in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buteoninae
The Buteoninae are a subfamily of birds of prey which consists of medium to large, broad-winged species. They have large, powerful, hooked beaks for tearing flesh from their prey, strong legs, and powerful talons. They also have extremely keen eyesight to enable them to spot potential prey from a distance. This subfamily contains the buzzards (buteonine hawks) with great diversity in appearance and form and some appearing eagle-like, with at least 50 species included overall in the subfamily. At one time, several types were grouped, including large assemblages such as booted eagles, but modern studies using mitochondrial DNA clarified that this subfamily was smaller than formerly classified. Systematics The subfamily Buteoninae includes about 55 currently recognized species. Unlike many lineages of Accipitridae The Accipitridae is one of the three families within the order Accipitriformes, and is a family of small to large birds with strongly hooked bills and variable morpho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Accipitridae
The Accipitridae is one of the three families within the order Accipitriformes, and is a family of small to large birds with strongly hooked bills and variable morphology based on diet. They feed on a range of prey items from insects to medium-sized mammals, with a number feeding on carrion and a few feeding on fruit. The Accipitridae have a cosmopolitan distribution, being found on all the world's continents (except Antarctica) and a number of oceanic island groups. Some species are migratory. The family contains 255 species which are divided into 70 genera. Many well-known birds such as hawks, eagles, kites, harriers and Old World vultures are included in this group. The osprey is usually placed in a separate family (Pandionidae), as is the secretary bird (Sagittariidae), and the New World vultures are also usually now regarded as a separate family or order. Karyotype data indicate the accipitrids analysed are indeed a distinct monophyletic group. Systematics and phylogeny ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deinogalerix
''Deinogalerix'' (from Ancient Greek, "terrible/terror" + ''Galerix'') is an extinct genus of gymnure which lived in Italy in the Late Miocene, 7-10 million years ago. The genus was apparently endemic to what was then the island of Gargano, which is now a peninsula. The first specimens of ''Deinogalerix'' were first described in 1972. The genus is in the hedgehog subfamily of gymnures or moon-rats, which are not rats at all, but rather hairy, superficially rat-like relatives of the hedgehog lacking quills. ''Deinogalerix'' had a long, thin, conical face, small pointed ears, a lengthy, tapering tail and long hairs. ''Deinogalerix koenigswaldi''s skull was long and the entire body measured . It occupied the same ecological niche as dogs and cats today, except that it had more predators itself - such as the enormous barn owl '' Tyto gigantea''. It is believed that the species of ''Deinogalerix'' were insectivores, mostly feeding off invertebrates like beetles, dragonflies and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossil Taxa Described In 1973
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the absolute ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinct Birds Of Europe
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryote globally, and possibly many times more if microorganisms, like bacteria, are included. Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, dodos, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hoplitomeryx
''Hoplitomeryx'' is a genus of extinct deer-like ruminants which lived on the former Gargano Island during the Miocene and the Early Pliocene, now a peninsula on the east coast of South Italy. ''Hoplitomeryx'', also known as "prongdeer", had five horns and sabre-like upper canines similar to a modern musk deer. Its fossilized remains were retrieved from the late 1960s onwards from reworked reddish, massive or crudely stratified silty-sandy clays (terrae rossae), which partially fill the paleo-karstic fissures in the Mesozoic limestone substrate and that are on their turn overlain by Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene sediments of a subsequently marine, shallow water and terrigenous origin. In this way a buried paleokarst originated. The fauna from the paleokarst fillings is known as ''Mikrotia'' fauna after the endemic murid of the region (initially named "Microtia", with a c, but later corrected, because the genus ''Microtia'' was already occupied). Later, after the regression an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prolagus
''Prolagus'' is an extinct genus of pika within the order Lagomorpha. Over 20 species of ''Prolagus'' have been named, beginning in the Early Miocene in Europe 20 million years ago, where it ranged widely for most of the epoch; by the end of the Middle Pleistocene, it was confined to a single species, the Sardinian pika (''P. sardus''), on the Mediterranean islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and surrounding islands, where it survived into historical times. In Africa and Asia, the genus is known from the Miocene and Pliocene. The scientific name may mean "before hares" or "primitive hares" (''pro-'' meaning "before" and ''lagos'' meaning "hare"). Taxonomy ''Prolagus'' was first named by Auguste Pomel in 1853. ''Prolagus'' has been considered by most taxonomists to be a member of the pika family Ochotonidae, but distinct from living pikas, which all belong to the genus ''Ochotona.'' Erbaleva in 1988 suggested it represented the only member of the monotypic family Prolagidae due to it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moonrat
The moonrat (''Echinosorex gymnura'') is a southeast Asian species of mammal in the family Erinaceidae (hedgehogs and gymnures). It is the only species in the genus ''Echinosorex''. The moonrat is a fairly small, primarily carnivorous animal which, despite its name, is not closely related to rats or other rodents. The scientific name is sometimes given as ''Echinosorex gymnurus'', but this is incorrect. Description The moonrat has a distinct pungent odor with strong ammonia content, different from the musky smell of carnivorans. There are two subspecies: ''E. g. gymnura'' is found in Sumatra and the Thai-Malay Peninsula; ''E. g. alba'' is found in Borneo. In the former the head and frontal half of the body are white or grey-white; the remaining is mainly black. The latter subspecies is generally white (''alba'' means white in Latin), with a sparse scattering of black hairs; it appears totally white from a distance. Those from western Borneo tend to have a greater proportion of bl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. However, only about 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses) are given a two-part name, a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature, also sometimes i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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