Masracetus
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Masracetus
''Masracetus'' (from Arabic ''Masr'', "Egypt", and Greek ''ketos'', "whale") is an extinct genus of basilosaurid ancient whale known from the Late Eocene (Priabonian, ) of Egypt. ''Masracetus'' was briefly described in an addendum by and is known from just an assemblage of vertebrae and a poorly reconstructed skull from 1908. The lumbar vertebrae are large but relatively short (anteroposteriorly) compared to those of other archaeocetes; the diameter is almost the same as for ''Basilosaurus isis'' but the length is less than half of the latter. ''Masracetus'' is larger than ''Cynthiacetus'', but it is suggested that the former might be synonymized as a junior synonym with the latter. The species name honours Richard Markgraf, palaeontologist Ernst Stromer's fossil collector, who collected the type specimen in 1905. ''Masracetus''' type locality is the Birket Qarun Formation in Dimê (, paleocoordinates ) north of lake Birket Qarun, but specimens have also been found in the Q ...
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Archaeoceti
Archaeoceti ("ancient whales"), or Zeuglodontes in older literature, is a paraphyletic group of primitive cetaceans that lived from the Early Eocene to the late Oligocene (). Representing the earliest cetacean radiation, they include the initial amphibious stages in cetacean evolution, thus are the ancestors of both modern cetacean suborders, Mysticeti and Odontoceti. This initial diversification occurred in the shallow waters that separated India and Asia , resulting in some 30 species adapted to a fully oceanic life. Echolocation and filter-feeding evolved during a second radiation . All archaeocetes from the Ypresian (56–47.8 mya) and most from the Lutetian (47.8–41.3 mya) are known exclusively from Indo-Pakistan, but Bartonian (41.3–38.0 mya) and Priabonian (38.0–33.9 mya) genera are known from across Earth, including North America, Egypt, New Zealand, and Europe. Although no consensus exists regarding the mode of locomotion of which cetaceans were capable during ...
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Cynthiacetus
''Cynthiacetus'' is an extinct genus of basilosaurid early whale that lived during the Late Eocene (Bartonian-Priabonian, .) Specimens have been found in the southeastern United States and Peru ( Otuma Formation). Description ''Cynthiacetus'' was named after the town of Cynthia, Mississippi, close to where the type specimen for the species ''C. maxwelli'' was discovered. The skull of ''C. maxwelli'' was similar in size and morphology to that of ''Basilosaurus cetoides'', but ''Cynthiacetus'' lacked the elongated vertebrae of ''Basilosaurus''. erected the genus to avoid the ''nomen dubium'' ''Pontogeneus'' (which was based on poorly described and now vanished specimens). ''Cynthiacetus'' was smaller than ''Masracetus ''Masracetus'' (from Arabic ''Masr'', "Egypt", and Greek ''ketos'', "whale") is an extinct genus of basilosaurid ancient whale known from the Late Eocene (Priabonian, ) of Egypt. ''Masracetus'' was briefly described in an addendum by and is k ...''. The ...
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Basilosauridae
Basilosauridae is a family of extinct cetaceans. They lived during the middle to the early late Eocene and are known from all continents, including Antarctica. They were probably the first fully aquatic cetaceans.Buono M, Fordyce R.E., Marx F.G., Fernández M.S. & Reguero M. (2019). "Eocene Antarctica: a window into the earliest history of modern whales". ''Advances in Polar Science'' 30(3): p. 293-302. doi10.13679/j.advps.2019.0005/ref> The group is noted to be a paraphyletic assemblage of stem group whales from which the monophyletic Neoceti are derived. Characteristics Basilosaurids ranged in size from and were fairly similar to modern cetaceans in overall body form and function. Some genera tend to show signs of convergent evolution with mosasaurs by having long serpentine body shape, which suggests that this body plan seems to have been rather successful. Basilosaurid forelimbs have broad and fan-shaped scapulae attached to a humerus, radius, and ulna which are flatte ...
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Type Species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen(s). Article 67.1 A similar concept is used for suprageneric groups and called a type genus. In botanical nomenclature, these terms have no formal standing under the code of nomenclature, but are sometimes borrowed from zoological nomenclature. In botany, the type of a genus name is a specimen (or, rarely, an illustration) which is also the type of a species name. The species name that has that type can also be referred to as the type of the genus name. Names of genus and family ranks, the various subdivisions of those ranks, and some higher-rank names based on genus names, have such types.
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Prehistoric Cetacean Genera
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared 5000 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing spreading to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation, and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and to keep historical records, with their neighbors following. Most other civilizations reached the end of prehistory during the following Iron Age. T ...
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Fayum
Faiyum ( ar, الفيوم ' , borrowed from cop,  ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ or Ⲫⲓⲱⲙ ' from egy, pꜣ ym "the Sea, Lake") is a city in Middle Egypt. Located southwest of Cairo, in the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. Originally called Shedet in Egyptian, the Greeks called it in grc-koi, Κροκοδειλόπολις, Krokodilópolis, and later grc-byzantine, Ἀρσινόη, Arsinoë. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due to its strategic location. Name and etymology Originally founded by the ancient Egyptians as Shedet, its current name in English is also spelled as Fayum, Faiyum or Al Faiyūm. Faiyum was also previously officially named Madīnet Al Faiyūm (Arabic for ''The City of Faiyum''). The name Faiyum (and its spelling variations) may also refer to the Faiyum Oasis, although it is commonly used by Egyptians today to refer to the city. The modern name of the city comes from Coptic / ' (whence the proper name '), meaning ...
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Qattara Depression
The Qattara Depression ( ar, منخفض القطارة, Munḫafaḍ al-Qaṭṭārah) is a depression in northwestern Egypt, specifically in the Matruh Governorate. The depression is part of the Western Desert of Egypt. The Qattara Depression lies below sea level, and its bottom is covered with salt pans, sand dunes, and salt marshes. The depression extends between the latitudes of 28°35' and 30°25' north and the longitudes of 26°20' and 29°02' east.El Bassyony, Abdou. 1995. ''"Introduction to the geology of the Qattara Depression,"'' International Conference on the Studies and Achievements of Geosciences in Egypt, 69 (85-eoa) The Qattara Depression was created by the interplay of salt weathering and wind erosion. Some west of the depression lie the oases of Siwa in Egypt and Jaghbub in Libya in smaller but similar depressions. The Qattara Depression contains the second lowest point in Africa at an elevation of below sea level, the lowest point being Lake Assal in ...
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Birket Qarun
Lake Moeris ( grc, Μοῖρις, genitive Μοίριδος) is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Faiyum Oasis, southwest of Cairo, Egypt. In prehistory, it was a freshwater lake, with an area estimated to vary between and . It persists today as a smaller saltwater lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is below sea-level, and covers about . The lake and surrounding area is a protected area and has been designated as a Ramsar site since 2012. It is a source for tilapia and other fish from the local area. The prehistoric mammal ''Moeritherium'' was found in this area. History When the Mediterranean Sea was a hot dry hollow near the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the late Miocene, Faiyum was a dry hollow, and the Nile flowed past it at the bottom of a canyon (2,400 m deep or more where Cairo is now). After the Mediterranean reflooded at the end of the Miocene, the Nile canyon became an arm of the sea reaching inland farther than Aswan. Over geological ...
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Ernst Stromer
Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach (12 June 1871 in Nürnberg – 18 December 1952 in Erlangen) was a German paleontologist. He is best remembered for his expedition to Egypt, during which the first known remains of ''Spinosaurus'' were discovered. He described the following Cretaceous dinosaurs from Egypt: ''Aegyptosaurus'', ''Bahariasaurus'', '' Carcharodontosaurus'', and the enigmatic theropod, ''Spinosaurus aegyptiacus''. Stromer also described the giant crocodilian, ''Stomatosuchus''. The fossil bird genus ''Stromeria'' (now included in the genus ''Eremopezus'') and the sauropod ''Paralititan stromeri'' were named in his honor (by Kálmán Lambrecht in 1929 and Smith et al. 2001,Smith JB, Lamanna MC, Lacovara KJ, Dodson P, Smith JR, Poole JC, Giegengack R, Attia Y (June 2001). "A giant sauropod dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous mangrove deposit in Egypt". Science. 292 (5522): 1704–6. Bibcode:2001Sci...292.1704S. doi:10.1126/science.1060561. respectively). The m ...
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Birket Qarun Formation
Birket is a small town in Lolland Municipality, Denmark. It had a population of 214 residents in 2014. It is located 8 km east of Horslunde, 17 km northeast of Nakskov, 10 km northwest of Stokkemarke and 21 km northwest of Maribo. Birket Church Birket Church is located south of the little village of Birket, some northeast of Nakskov on the Danish island of Lolland. Its chancel was originally the nave of the brick Gothic church built in 1350. Lolland Municipality {{ZealandDK-stub ...
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