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Nemegtosauridae
Nemegtosauridae is a Scientific classification, family of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs based on their diplodocidae, diplodocid-like skulls. Only three species are known: ''Nemegtosaurus'', ''Quaesitosaurus'' and possibly ''Tapuiasaurus'', each from the Cretaceous. History of classification Due to the diplodocid-like nature of the taxa placed in Nemegtosauridae, the systematic position of this family in Sauropoda was disputed until recently. McIntosh (1990) included both these animals in the family Diplodocidae, subfamily Dicraeosauridae, Dicraeosaurinae, as they resemble the skull of ''Dicraeosaurus'', although differing in certain details. Although the skull of ''Nemegtosaurus'' was found in the same formation as the headless skeleton of ''Opisthocoelicaudia'', McIntosh (1990) kept ''Nemegtosaurus'' in Diplodocoidea while keeping ''Opisthocoelicaudia'' separate from the former, a position reiterated by Upchurch (1995, 1999), and Upchurch et al. (2004). A cladistics, cladisti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titanosaur
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thriving at the time of the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. This group includes some of the largest land animals known to have ever existed, such as ''Patagotitan''—estimated at long with a weight of —and the comparably-sized ''Argentinosaurus'' and ''Puertasaurus'' from the same region. The group's name alludes to the mythological Titans of ancient Greek mythology, via the type genus (now considered a '' nomen dubium)'' ''Titanosaurus''. Together with the brachiosaurids and relatives, titanosaurs make up the larger sauropod clade Titanosauriformes. Titanosaurs have long been a poorly-known group, and the relationships between titanosaur species are still not well-understood. Description Titanosauria have the largest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titanosauria
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thriving at the time of the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. This group includes some of the largest land animals known to have ever existed, such as ''Patagotitan''—estimated at long with a weight of —and the comparably-sized ''Argentinosaurus'' and ''Puertasaurus'' from the same region. The group's name alludes to the mythological Titans of ancient Greek mythology, via the type genus (now considered a ''nomen dubium)'' ''Titanosaurus''. Together with the brachiosaurids and relatives, titanosaurs make up the larger sauropod clade Titanosauriformes. Titanosaurs have long been a poorly-known group, and the relationships between titanosaur species are still not well-understood. Description Titanosauria have the largest ran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nemegtosaurus
''Nemegtosaurus'' (meaning 'Reptile from the Nemegt') was a sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now Mongolia. It was named after the Nemegt Basin in the Gobi Desert, where the remains — a single skull — were found. The skull resembles diplodocoids in being long and low, with pencil-shaped teeth. However, recent work has shown that ''Nemegtosaurus'' is in fact a titanosaur, closely related to animals such as ''Saltasaurus'', ''Alamosaurus'' and ''Rapetosaurus''. Discovery and taxonomy The skull of ''Nemegtosaurus'' comes from the same beds as the titanosaur ''Opisthocoelicaudia'', which is known from a skeleton lacking the neck and skull. Originally, the referral of ''Nemegtosaurus'' to Diplodocoidea and ''Opisthocoelicaudia'' to Camarasauridae argued that the two represented different species. Both of these genera represent advanced titanosaurians, however, raising the possibility that the two are in fact the same animal. Relocation of the ''Nemegtosa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nemegtosaurus Skull Reconstruction
''Nemegtosaurus'' (meaning 'Reptile from the Nemegt') was a sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), Period of what is now Mongolia. It was named after the Nemegt Basin in the Gobi Desert, where the remains — a single skull — were found. The skull resembles diplodocoids in being long and low, with pencil-shaped teeth. However, recent work has shown that ''Nemegtosaurus'' is in fact a titanosaur, closely related to animals such as ''Saltasaurus'', ''Alamosaurus'' and ''Rapetosaurus''. Discovery and taxonomy The skull of ''Nemegtosaurus'' comes from the same beds as the titanosaur ''Opisthocoelicaudia'', which is known from a skeleton lacking the neck and skull. Originally, the referral of ''Nemegtosaurus'' to Diplodocoidea and ''Opisthocoelicaudia'' to Camarasauridae argued that the two represented different species. Both of these genera represent advanced titanosaurians, however, raising the possibility that the two are in fact the same animal. Relocation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bonitasaura
''Bonitasaura'' is a titanosaurian dinosaur hailing from uppermost layers of the Late Cretaceous (Santonian) Bajo de la Carpa Formation, Neuquén Group of the eastern Neuquén Basin, located in Río Negro Province, Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. The remains, consisting of a partial sub-adult skeleton jumbled in a small area of fluvial sandstone, including lower jaw with teeth, partial vertebrae series and limb bones, were described by Sebastian Apesteguía in 2004. The genus name ''Bonitasaura'' refers to the fossil quarry's name, "La Bonita", while the name of the type species, ''B. salgadoi'', pays homage to Leonardo Salgado, a renowned Argentine paleontologist.Gallina, P. A. (2011)Notes on the axial skeleton of the titanosaur Bonitasaura salgadoi (Dinosauria-Sauropoda).''Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências'', ''83''(1), 235-246. Description ''Bonitasaura'' measured in length, and had a skull similar to another group of sauropods, the diplodocids. The lower jaw ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quaesitosaurus
''Quaesitosaurus'' (meaning "extraordinary lizard") is a genus of nemegtosaurid sauropod containing only the type species, ''Q. orientalis'', described in 1983. It lived from 72 to 71 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous epoch in the Barun Goyot Formation. With long, low and horse-like with frontally located peg-teeth, the skull of ''Quaesitosaurus'' is similar enough to the skull of ''Diplodocus'' and its kin to have prompted informed speculation that the missing body was built like those of diplodocids. Discovery and naming During the Combined Soviet-Mongolian Paleontological Expeditions in 1971, an isolated, incomplete sauropod skull and nearly complete mandible were unearthed at a fossil site in the Upper Cretaceous bluffs of the Barun Goyot Formation near Shar Tsav, Mongolia. The fossils were later transported to the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (then the USSR Academy of Sciences) where they were catalogued as PIN 3906/2. The specimen wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tapuiasaurus
''Tapuiasaurus'' (meaning " Tapuia lizard") is a genus of titanosaur which lived during the Lower Cretaceous period (Aptian age) in what is now Minas Gerais, Brazil. Its fossils, including a partial skeleton with a nearly complete skull, have been recovered from the Quiricó Formation of the São Francisco Basin in Minas Gerais, eastern Brazil. This genus was named by Hussam Zaher, Diego Pol, Alberto B. Carvalho, Paulo M. Nascimento, Claudio Riccomini, Peter Larson, Rubén Juárez Valieri, Ricardo Pires Domingues, Nelson Jorge da Silva Jr. and Diógenes de Almeida Campos in 2011, and the type species is ''Tapuiasaurus macedoi''. Classification ''Tapuiasaurus'' was originally assigned to Nemegtosauridae by its original describers, but two subsequent cladistic analyses have recovered it as only distantly related to ''Nemegtosaurus'', with Wilson ''et al.'' (2016) recovering the genus outside the Lithostrotia, and Carballido ''et al.'' (2017) recovering it as closely relate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tapuiasaurus Skull Reconstruction
''Tapuiasaurus'' (meaning " Tapuia lizard") is a genus of titanosaur which lived during the Lower Cretaceous period (Aptian age) in what is now Minas Gerais, Brazil. Its fossils, including a partial skeleton with a nearly complete skull, have been recovered from the Quiricó Formation of the São Francisco Basin in Minas Gerais, eastern Brazil. This genus was named by Hussam Zaher, Diego Pol, Alberto B. Carvalho, Paulo M. Nascimento, Claudio Riccomini, Peter Larson, Rubén Juárez Valieri, Ricardo Pires Domingues, Nelson Jorge da Silva Jr. and Diógenes de Almeida Campos in 2011, and the type species is ''Tapuiasaurus macedoi''. Classification ''Tapuiasaurus'' was originally assigned to Nemegtosauridae by its original describers, but two subsequent cladistic analyses have recovered it as only distantly related to ''Nemegtosaurus'', with Wilson ''et al.'' (2016) recovering the genus outside the Lithostrotia, and Carballido ''et al.'' (2017) recovering it as closely relate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their body), and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land. Well-known genera include ''Brachiosaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Apatosaurus'' and ''Brontosaurus''. The oldest known unequivocal sauropod dinosaurs are known from the Early Jurassic. ''Isanosaurus'' and ''Antetonitrus'' were originally described as Triassic sauropods, but their age, and in the case of ''Antetonitrus'' also its sauropod status, were subsequently questioned. Sauropod-like sauropodomorph tracks from the Fleming Fjord Formation (Greenland) might, however, indicate the occurrence of the group in the Late Triassic. By the Late Jurassic (150 million yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, the equivalent Latin term ''cladus'' (plural ''cladi'') is often used in taxonomical literature. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers in the west and deserts, tablelands and steppes to the east. Patagonia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and many bodies of water that connect them, such as the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and the Drake Passage to the south. The Colorado and Barrancas rivers, which run from the Andes to the Atlantic, are commonly considered the northern limit of Argentine Patagonia. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is sometimes included as part of Patagonia. Most geographers and historians locate the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia at Huincul Fault, in Araucanía Region.Manuel Enrique Schilling; Richard WalterCarlson; AndrésTassara; Rommulo Vieira Conceição; Gustavo Walter Bertotto; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saltasaurus
''Saltasaurus'' (which means "lizard from Salta") is a genus of saltasaurid dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous period of Argentina. Small among sauropods, though still heavy by the standards of modern creatures, ''Saltasaurus'' was characterized by a short neck and stubby limbs. It was the first genus of sauropod known to possess armour of bony plates embedded in its skin. Such small bony plates, called osteoderms, have since been found on other titanosaurians. Discovery The fossils of ''Saltasaurus'' were excavated by José Bonaparte, Martín Vince and Juan C. Leal between 1975 and 1977 at the Estancia "El Brete". The find was in 1977 reported in the scientific literature. ''Saltasaurus'' was named and described by Bonaparte and Jaime E. Powell in 1980. The type species is ''Saltasaurus loricatus''. Its generic name is derived from Salta Province, the region of north-west Argentina where the first fossils were recovered. The specific name means "protected by small armoured plat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
