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Gargantuavis
''Gargantuavis'' is an extinct genus of large, primitive bird containing the single species ''Gargantuavis philoinos''. It is the only member of the monotypic family Gargantuaviidae. Its fossils were discovered in several formations dating to 73.5 and 71.5 million years ago in what is now northern Spain, southern France, and Romania. ''Gargantuavis'' is the largest known bird of the Mesozoic, a size ranging between the cassowary and the ostrich, and a mass of like modern ostriches, exemplifying the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs was not a necessary condition for the emergence of giant terrestrial birds. It was once thought to be closely related to modern birds, but the 2019 discovery of a pelvis from what was Hateg Island (present-day Romania) shows several primitive features. Its femur shows that it was a graviportal form rather than cursorial, not adapted for running. Due to fragmentary remains, many aspects of its biology and ecology are unknown, such as its diet. It c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Largest Prehistoric Animals
The largest prehistoric animals include both vertebrate and invertebrate species. Many of them are described below, along with their typical range of size (for the general dates of extinction, see the link to each). Many species mentioned might not actually be the largest representative of their clade due to the incompleteness of the fossil record and many of the sizes given are merely estimates since no complete specimen have been found. Their body mass, especially, is largely conjecture because soft tissue was rarely fossilized. Generally the size of extinct species was subject to energetic and biomechanical constraints. Non-mammalian synapsids (Synapsida) Caseasaurs (Caseasauria) The herbivorous ''Alierasaurus'' was the largest caseid and the largest amniote to have lived at the time, with an estimated length around . '' Cotylorhynchus hancocki'' is also large, with an estimated length and weight of at least and more than . Edaphosaurids (Edaphosauridae) The larges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia and Ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ankylosauria
Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are known to have first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, and persisted until the end of the Cretaceous Period. The two main families of Ankylosaurs, Nodosauridae and Ankylosauridae are primarily known from the Northern Hemisphere, but the more basal Parankylosauria are known from southern Gondwana during the Cretaceous. Ankylosauria was first named by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1923.Osborn, H. F. (1923). "Two Lower Cretaceous dinosaurs of Mongolia." ''American Museum Novitates'', 95: 1–1/ref> In the Linnaean classification system, the group is usually considered either a suborder or an infraorder. It is contained within the group Thyreophora, which also includes the stegosaurs, armored dinosaurs known for their combination of plate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Life Of Gargantua And Of Pantagruel
''The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel'' (french: La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel) is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, telling the adventures of two giants, Gargantua ( , ) and his son Pantagruel ( , ). The work is written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein, features much erudition, vulgarity, and wordplay, and is regularly compared with the works of William Shakespeare and James Joyce. Rabelais was a polyglot, and the work introduced "a great number of new and difficult words ..into the French language". The work was stigmatised as obscene by the censors of the Collège de la Sorbonne, and, within a social climate of increasing religious oppression in a lead up to the French Wars of Religion, it was treated with suspicion, and contemporaries avoided mentioning it.Le Cadet, Nicolas (2009) Marcel De Grève, La réception de Rabelais en Europe du XVIe au XVIIIe siècle', Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giant (mythology)
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 from Robert of Gloucester's chronicle. It is derived from the ''Gigantes'' ( grc-gre, Γίγαντες) of Greek mythology. Fairy tales such as '' Jack the Giant Killer'' have formed the modern perception of giants as dimwitted ogres, sometimes said to eat humans, while other giants tend to eat the livestock. The antagonist in ''Jack and the Beanstalk'' is often described as a giant. In some more recent portrayals, like those of Jonathan Swift and Roald Dahl, some giants are both intelligent and friendly. Literary and cultural analysis Giants appear in the folklore of cultures worldwide as they represent a relatively simple concept. Representing the human body enlarged to the point of being monstrous, giants evoke terror and remind humans ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus Name
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. ''Panthera leo'' (lion) and ''Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus ''Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together (i.e. Phylogenetics, phylogenet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cruzy
Cruzy (; Languedocien: ''Crusi'') is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. The mezzo-soprano Simone Couderc was born in Cruzy on 3 June 1911. Population See also *Communes of the Hérault department The following is a list of the 342 communes of the Hérault department of France. The communes cooperate in the following intercommunalities (as of 2020):Communes of Hérault {{Hérault-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Villespassans
Villespassans is a Communes of France, commune in the Hérault Departments of France, department in the Occitania (administrative region), Occitanie Regions of France, region in southern France. Geography Climate Villespassans has a mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification ''Csa''). The average annual temperature in Villespassans is . The average annual rainfall is with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Villespassans was on 6 August 2003; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 9 January 1985. Population See also *Communes of the Hérault department References Communes of Hérault {{Hérault-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fox-Amphoux
Fox-Amphoux (; oc, Fòs Amfós) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-eastern France. As with many smaller villages off the beaten track and closer to the coast, the village perché of Fox-Amphoux lives a quiet life. The old church tower behind the town square offers a 360° panorama of the surrounding countryside including a view of Mont Sainte Victoire to the west. The former hotel in the centre of the village offers bed and breakfast ('chambres d'hôtes'). Notable residents Paul Barras, president of the Directory and a major figure of the French Revolution, was born in Fox-Amphoux in 1755. Another notable resident was Christer Strömholm (1918-2002) a Swedish photographer, recipient of the 1997 Hasselblad Award, who had a house there. The artist René Lacroix (1948-2011) who was originally from Nice, moved to Fox-Amphoux in 2004 and had his atelier/gallery in the far end of the village, his works have been exhibited in Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synsacrum
The synsacrum is a skeletal structure of birds and other dinosaurs, in which the sacrum is extended by incorporation of additional fused or partially fused caudal or lumbar vertebrae and it can only be seen in birds. Some posterior thoracic vertebrae, the lumbar, sacral and a few anterior caudal vertebrae are fused to form a complex bone called synsacrum. The innominate bones are fused with the synsacrum to a greater or lesser extent, according to species, forming an avian pelvis. This forms a more extensive rigid structure than the pelvis of a mammal, fulfilling requirements for flight, locomotion and respiration. Posterior to the synsacrum there are a few free caudal vertebrae, the last of which is the pygostyle to which the long, stiff tail feathers are attached. The central section of the synsacrum is swollen to accommodate the glycogen body, an organ whose function is as yet unclear but which may be associated with balance. In terms of external morphology, the synsacrum cor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Var (department)
Var (, ) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. It takes its name from the river Var, which flowed along its eastern boundary, until the boundary was moved in 1860 and the department is no longer associated with the river. The Var department is bordered on the east by the department of Alpes-Maritimes, to the west by Bouches-du-Rhône, to the north of the river Verdon by the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and to the south by the Mediterranean Sea. It had a population of 1,076,711 in 2019.Populations légales 2019: 83 Var INSEE is the largest city and administrative capital ( |
