Mosasaurini
Mosasaurini is a extinct tribe of mosasaurine mosasaurs who lived during the Late Cretaceous and whose fossils have been found in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Oceania, with questionable occurrences in Asia. They are highly derived mosasaurs, containing genera like ''Plotosaurus'', having unique adaptations to fast swimming speeds, or ''Mosasaurus'', which is among the largest known marine reptiles. Description The Mosasaurini form a clade of derived mosasaurine. The tribe contains one of the largest known mosasaur species, ''Mosasaurus hoffmannii'', measuring over in length, but such a size is unusual within the tribe and even within the genus ''Mosasaurus'' in himself. Other large representatives are around long (like ''Plotosaurus'', ''Eremiasaurus'', ''Mosasaurus conodon'' and ''Mosasaurus beaugei'') while others are even smaller, in a range of around long (like ''Mosasaurus missouriensis''). Classification The tribe was erected by Russell in 196 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mosasaurus
''Mosasaurus'' (; "lizard of the Meuse River") is the type genus (defining example) of the mosasaurs, an extinct group of aquatic squamate reptiles. It lived from about 82 to 66 million years ago during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. The earliest fossils of ''Mosasaurus'' known to science were found as skulls in a chalk quarry near the Dutch city of Maastricht in the late 18th century, which were initially thought to have been the bones of crocodiles or whales. One skull discovered around 1780, and which was seized by France during the French Revolutionary Wars for its scientific value, was famously nicknamed the "great animal of Maastricht". In 1808, naturalist Georges Cuvier concluded that it belonged to a giant marine lizard with similarities to monitor lizards but otherwise unlike any known living animal. This concept was revolutionary at the time and helped support the then-developing ideas of extinction. Cuvier did not designate a scientifi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eremiasaurus
''Eremiasaurus'' is a genus of extinct genus of Cretaceous marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Mosasaurini tribe (within the Mosasaurinae) and is exclusively known from the Maastrichtian phosphates of the Ouled Abdoun Basin in Morocco. ''Eremiasaurus'' means "desert lizard", referring to the arid climate of present-day Morocco where its fossils were recovered. One species is known, ''E. heterodontus'', whose specific name refers to high degree of heterodonty exhibited compared to other species of mosasaur. It was a medium-sized mosasaur, with the largest specimen measuring around in length. Description ''Eremaiasaurus'' is known from two specimens UALVP 51744 and OCP DEK/GE 112, both designated as syntype specimens due to the fact that UALVP 51744 lacks precise locality data. The syntype specimen UALVP 51744 belongs to an individual about long, consisting of a nearly complete skull, vertebral column and isolated pieces of the appen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mosasaurinae
The Mosasaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "mosasaurines" and their fossils have been recovered from every continent except for South America. The lineage first appears in the Turonian and thrived until the K-Pg mass extinction at the end of the Maastrichtian. They ranged in size from some of the smallest known mosasaurs (''Carinodens'', 3–3.5 meters), to medium-sized taxa (''Clidastes'', 6+ meters), to the largest of the mosasaurs (''Mosasaurus hoffmannii'') potentially reaching about 13 m in length. Many genera of mosasaurines were either piscivorous or generalists, preying on fish and other marine reptiles, but one lineage, the Globidensini, evolved specialized crushing teeth, adapting to a diet of ammonites and/or marine turtles. Though represented by relatively small forms throughout the Turonian and Santonian, such as ''Clidastes'', the lineage diver ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Plesiotylosaurus
''Plesiotylosaurus'', meaning "near ''Tylosaurus''", is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Mosasaurinae subfamily, alongside genera like ''Mosasaurus'' and ''Prognathodon''. The genus contains one species, ''Plesiotylosaurus crassidens'', recovered from deposits of Middle Maastrichtian age in the Moreno Formation in California. Though it is classified as a mosasaurine mosasaur, and not closely related to ''Tylosaurus'', the name is not entirely misplaced as a number of cranial features found in the relatively intact holotype skull suggest some degree of convergent evolution with tylosaurine mosasaurs. Description ''Plesiotylosaurus'' was a relatively large mosasaur. The holotype, LACM 2759, consists of a poorly preserved and partially distorted yet almost complete skull and mandibles collected from the Panoche Hills in the Moreno Formation, California. The lower jaw of the holotype skull measures in length, wh ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mosasaur
Mosasaurs (from Latin ''Mosa'' meaning the 'Meuse', and Greek ' meaning 'lizard') comprise a group of extinct, large marine reptiles from the Late Cretaceous. Their first fossil remains were discovered in a limestone quarry at Maastricht on the Meuse in 1764. They belong to the order Squamata, which includes lizards and snakes. Mosasaurs probably evolved from an extinct group of aquatic lizards known as aigialosaurs in the Earliest Late Cretaceous with 42 described genera. During the last 20 million years of the Cretaceous period (Turonian–Maastrichtian ages), with the extinction of the ichthyosaurs and pliosaurs, mosasaurs became the dominant marine predators. They themselves became extinct as a result of the K-Pg event at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. Description Mosasaurs breathed air, were powerful swimmers, and were well-adapted to living in the warm, shallow inland seas prevalent during the Late Cretaceous period. Mosasaurs were so ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Radius (bone)
The radius or radial bone is one of the two large bones of the forearm, the other being the ulna. It extends from the lateral side of the elbow to the thumb side of the wrist and runs parallel to the ulna. The ulna is usually slightly longer than the radius, but the radius is thicker. Therefore the radius is considered to be the larger of the two. It is a long bone, prism-shaped and slightly curved longitudinally. The radius is part of two joints: the elbow and the wrist. At the elbow, it joins with the capitulum of the humerus, and in a separate region, with the ulna at the radial notch. At the wrist, the radius forms a joint with the ulna bone. The corresponding bone in the lower leg is the fibula. Structure The long narrow medullary cavity is enclosed in a strong wall of compact bone. It is thickest along the interosseous border and thinnest at the extremities, same over the cup-shaped articular surface (fovea) of the head. The trabeculae of the spongy tissue are some ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ulna
The ulna (''pl''. ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone found in the forearm that stretches from the elbow to the smallest finger, and when in anatomical position, is found on the medial side of the forearm. That is, the ulna is on the same side of the forearm as the little finger. It runs parallel to the radius, the other long bone in the forearm. The ulna is usually slightly longer than the radius, but the radius is thicker. Therefore, the radius is considered to be the larger of the two. Structure The ulna is a long bone found in the forearm that stretches from the elbow to the smallest finger, and when in anatomical position, is found on the medial side of the forearm. It is broader close to the elbow, and narrows as it approaches the wrist. Close to the elbow, the ulna has a bony process, the olecranon process, a hook-like structure that fits into the olecranon fossa of the humerus. This prevents hyperextension and forms a hinge joint with the trochlea of the humerus. There is ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Intercarpal Joints
The intercarpal joints (joints of the carpal bones of the wrist) can be subdivided into three sets of joints (also called ''articulations''): Those of the proximal row of carpal bones, those of the distal row of carpal bones, and those of the two rows with each other. Articulations The bones in each carpal row interlock with each other and each row can therefore be considered a single joint. In the proximal row a limited degree of mobility is possible, but the bones of the distal row are connected to each other and to the metacarpus, metacarpal bones by strong ligaments that make this row and the metacarpus a functional entity. Platzer 2004, p 130 Proximal row The joints of the proximal row are arthrodial joints, The scaphoid, lunate, and triquetrum are connected by dorsal, volar, and interosseous ligaments. The dorsal intercarpal ligament are two in number and placed transversely behind the bones of the first row; they connect the scaphoid and lunate, and the lunate and tr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Foramen
In anatomy and osteology, a foramen (; in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary '. plural foramina, or foramens ) is an open hole that is present in extant or extinct s. Foramina inside the of typically allow , [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Connecticut after Bridgeport and Stamford and the principal municipality of Greater New Haven, which had a total 2020 population of 864,835. New Haven was one of the first planned cities in the U.S. A year after its founding by English Puritans in 1638, eight streets were laid out in a four-by-four grid, creating the "Nine Square Plan". The central common block is the New Haven Green, a square at the center of Downtown New Haven. The Green is now a National Historic Landmark, and the "Nine Square Plan" is recognized by the American Planning Association as a National Planning Landmark. New Haven is the home of Yale University, New Haven's biggest taxpayer ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sister Group
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and taxon B are sister groups to each other. Taxa A and B, together with any other extant or extinct descendants of their most recent common ancestor (MRCA), form a monophyletic group, the clade AB. Clade AB and taxon C are also sister groups. Taxa A, B, and C, together with all other descendants of their MRCA form the clade ABC. The whole clade ABC is itself a subtree of a larger tree which offers yet more sister group relationships, both among the leaves and among larger, more deeply rooted clades. The tree structure shown connects through its root to the rest of the universal tree of life. In cladistic standards, taxa A, B, and C may represent specimens, species, genera, or any other taxonomic units. If A and B are at the same taxonomic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Plotosaurus LACM CIT 2750
''Plotosaurus'' ("swimmer lizard") is an extinct genus of mosasaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Fresno County, California. Originally named '' Kolposaurus'' (meaning "bay lizard") by Berkeley paleontologist Charles Lewis Camp in 1942, it was changed to ''Plotosaurus'' in 1951 when Camp discovered the name had already been assigned to a type of nothosaur. Discovery and naming The earliest described specimens of ''Plotosaurus'' were discovered in the early 20th century from Moreno Formation deposits along the San Joaquin Valley, California. The first was a pair of caudal vertebrae collected during 1918 or 1920 by an Oakland resident named Herman G. Walker while exploring the Panoche Hills. They were donated to the University of California, Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology under the catalog UCMP 36050. In June 1936, a high school student from Gustine named Allan Bennison found three vertebrae next to a hadrosaur fossil in shale hills near Patterson, two of which ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |