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Hovasaurus Boulei
''Hovasaurus'' is an extinct genus of diapsid reptile belonging to the order Eosuchia. It lived in what is now Madagascar during the Late Permian and Early Triassic, being a survivor of the Permian–Triassic extinction event and the paleontologically youngest member of the Tangasauridae. Fossils have been found in the Permian Lower and Triassic Middle Sakamena Formations of the Sakamena Group, where it is amongst the commonest fossils. Its morphology suggests an aquatic ecology. Description ''Hovasaurus'' resembled a slender lizard, two thirds of total length was taken up by its long tail. It had snout-vent length up to long, with long tail. It was well adapted to an aquatic life, with the tail being laterally flattened like that of a sea snake. Some stones have been found in the abdomen of fossil ''Hovasaurus'', indicating the creatures swallowed these for ballast, preventing them from floating to the surface when hunting fish. Paleoenvironment The Lower Sakamamena F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Piveteau
Jean Piveteau (23 September 1899 – 7 March 1991) was a distinguished French vertebrate paleontologist. He was elected to the French Academy of Sciences in 1956 and served as the institute's president in 1973. References External links Members of the French Academy of Sciences at Google Books
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Aquatic Animal
An aquatic animal is any animal, whether invertebrate or vertebrate, that lives in water for most or all of its lifetime. Many insects such as mosquitoes, mayflies, dragonflies and caddisflies have aquatic larvae, with winged adults. Aquatic animals may breathe air or extract oxygen from water through specialised organs called gills, or directly through the skin. Natural environments and the animals that live in them can be categorized as aquatic (water) or terrestrial (land). This designation is polyphyletic. Description The term aquatic can be applied to animals that live in either fresh water or salt water. However, the adjective marine is most commonly used for animals that live in saltwater, i.e. in oceans, seas, etc. Aquatic animals (especially freshwater animals) are often of special concern to conservationists because of the fragility of their environments. Aquatic animals are subject to pressure from overfishing, destructive fishing, marine pollution, hunting, and cli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weigeltisauridae
Weigeltisauridae is a family of gliding neodiapsid reptiles that lived during the Late Permian, between 258 and 252 million years ago. Fossils of weigeltisaurids have been found in Madagascar, Germany, Great Britain, and Russia. A possible weigeltisaurid, '' Wapitisaurus'', been found in Early Triassic strata in North America, but its poor preservation makes referral to the group questionable. They are characterized by long, hollow rod-shaped bones extending from the torso that probably supported wing-like membranes. Similar membranes are also found in several other extinct reptiles such as kuehneosaurids and ''Mecistotrachelos'', as well as living gliding lizards, although each group evolved these structures independently. Skeleton The skulls and jaws of weigeltisaurids are ornamented with horns and tubercles, including chameleon-like frills. The torso and limbs are slender. The skeletons of weigeltisaurds are lightened by large air spaces (skeletal pneumaticity) within the bone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barasaurus
''Barasaurus'' is an extinct genus of owenettid procolophonoid parareptile known from the late Late Permian and early Early Triassic of Madagascar. It contains a single species, ''Barasaurus besairiei''. Discovery ''Barasaurus besairiei'', the type species of the ''Barasaurus'', was first described and named by the French paleontologist Jean Piveteau in 1955 on the basis of the holotype MNHN P1, a natural mold of a nearly complete skeleton, missing only the tail and distal limb reposited in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris. The holotype was collected from the Lower Sakamena Formation of the Sakamena Group at the Ranohira locality of Morondava Basin, Fianarantsoa, dating to the Lopingian stage of the late Late Permian period. The generic name honors the Bara people, indigenous to the Ranohira region of Madagascar, and is derived from ''sauros'', meaning "lizard" in Ancient Greek. The specific name, ''besairiei'', honors Henri Michel-Edouard Besairie, a French ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Procolophonidae
Procolophonidae is an extinct family of small, lizard-like parareptiles known from the Late Permian to Late Triassic that were distributed across Pangaea, having been reported from Europe, North America, China, South Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia. The most primitive procolophonids were likely insectiovous or omnivorous, more derived members of the clade developed bicusped molars, and were likely herbivorous feeding on high fiber vegetation or durophagous omnivores. Many members of the group are noted for spines projecting from the quadratojugal bone of the skull, which likely served a defensive purpose as well as possibly also for display. At least some taxa were likely fossorial burrowers. While diverse during the Early and Middle Triassic, they had very low diversity during the Late Triassic, and were extinct by the beginning of the Jurassic. Phylogeny Below is a cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a dia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaeoniscoid
Palaeoniscidae is an extinct family of ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii) ascribed to the order Palaeonisciformes. The family includes the genus '' Palaeoniscum'' and potentially other Palaeozoic and Mesozoic early actinopterygian genera. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek words παλαιός (''palaiós'', ancient) and ὀνίσκος (''oniskos'', 'cod-fish' or woodlouse). Historic background The family was first named "Palaeoniscini" by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1846, and "Palaeonisciden" by Carl Vogt in 1851. Later, the family name was standardized to Palaeoniscidae. The authorship of the family Palaeoniscidae is variably attributed to either Bonaparte or Vogt in the literature. Vogt ascribed the following genera to Palaeoniscidae: ''Palaeoniscum'', ''Platysomus'' (misspelled as ''Platysemius''), ''Amblypterus'', '' Eurynotus'', '' Pygopterus'', and ''Acrolepis''. With the exception of ''Palaeoniscum'', these genera were later placed in separate families ( Platys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lepidopteris
''Lepidopteris'' ("scaly fern") is a form genus for leaves of Late Permian to Late Triassic Period Pteridospermatophyta, or seed ferns, which lived from around 260 to 200 million years ago in what is now Australia, Antarctica, India, South America, South Africa, Russia and China. Nine species are currently recognized. ''Lepidopteris'' was a common and widespread seed fern, which survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event but succumbed to the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. ''Lepidopteris callipteroides'' is especially common between the first two episodes of Permian-Triassic extinction event, and ''L. ottonis'' forms a comparable acme zone immediate before the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. ''Lepidopteris'' would persist into the Early Jurassic in Patagonia, represented by the species ''Lepidopteris scassoi.'' Description In the form generic system of paleobotany ''Lepidopteris'' is used only for leaves, which are fern-like with pinnules attached to the rac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glossopteris
''Glossopteris'' tymology: from Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glôssa, " tongue ") + πτερίς (pterís, " fern ")is the largest and best-known genus of the extinct Permian order of seed ferns known as Glossopteridales (also known as Arberiales, Ottokariales, or Dictyopteridiales). The genus ''Glossopteris'' refers only to leaves, within a framework of form genera used in paleobotany. (For likely reproductive organs see Glossopteridaceae.) Species of ''Glossopteris'' were the dominant trees of the middle- to high-latitude lowland vegetation across the supercontinent Gondwana during the Permian Period. ''Glossopteris'' fossils were critical in recognizing former connections between the various fragments of Gondwana: South America, Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. History The Glossopteridales arose in the Southern Hemisphere around the beginning of the Permian Period (), but became extinct during the end-Permian (Changhsingian) mass extinction. The putat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equisetales
Equisetales is an order of subclass Equisetidae with only one living family, Equisetaceae, containing the genus ''Equisetum'' (horsetails). Classification In the molecular phylogenetic classification of Smith et al. in 2006, Equisetales, in its present circumscription, was held to be the sole member of class Equisetopsida. The linear sequence of Christenhusz et al. (2011), intended for compatibility with the classification of Chase and Reveal (2009) which placed all land plants in Equisetopsida, made it the sole member of subclass Equisetidae, equivalent to Smith's Equisetopsida. The placement of Equisetales in subclass Equisetidae has subsequently been followed in the classifications of Christenhusz and Chase (2014) and PPG I (2016). The fossil record includes additional extinct species in Equisetaceae and the extinct families Calamitaceae, Archaeocalamitaceae and Phyllothecaceae The prehistoric family Phyllothecaceae, of the plant order Equisetales, was erected in 1828, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. The lake is shared among four countries—Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, and Zambia, with Tanzania (46%) and DRC (40%) possessing the majority of the lake. It drains into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean. Etymology "Tanganika" was the name of the lake that Henry Morton Stanley encountered when he was at Ujiji in 1876. The name first originated from the Bembe language when they arrived in South Kivu around the 7th century, they discovered the lake and started calling it “êtanga ‘ya’ni’â” which means “a big river” in their Bantu language. Stanley found also other names for the lake among different ethnic groups, like the Kimana, the Yemba and the Msaga. An alt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
