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Palaeoryctidae
Palaeoryctidae or Palaeoryctoidea ("old/stony digger", from Greek: ὀρύκτης, ''oryctes'') is an extinct group of relatively non-specialized non-placental eutherian mammals that lived in North America during the late Cretaceous and took part in the first placental evolutionary radiation together with other early mammals such as the leptictids. Some sources classified the Palaeoryctidae as a superfamily. Description From a near-complete skull of the genus '' Palaeoryctes'' found in New Mexico, it is known that palaeoryctids were small, shrew-like insectivores with an elongated snout similar to that of the Lepticids. However, in contrast to the latter, little is known about palaeoryctids postcranial anatomy (the skeleton without the skull). Where the leptictids were short-lived, the paleoryctids seem to have been ancestors of Eocene species. While their dental morphology still indicate a mostly insectivorous diet, it, to some extent, also relate to Eocene carnivores such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family (taxonomy), 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superfamily (biology)
In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. While older approaches to taxonomic classification were phenomenological, forming groups on the basis of similarities in appearance, organic structure and behaviour, methods based on genetic analysis have opened the road to cladistics. A given rank subsumes under it less general categories, that is, more specific descriptions of life forms. Above it, each rank is classified within more general categories of organisms and groups of organisms related to each other through inheritance of traits or features from common ancestors. The rank of any ''species'' and the description of its ''genus'' is ''basic''; which means that to identify a particular organism, it is usually not necessary to specify ranks other than these first two. Consider a particular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zalambdalestidae
Zalambdalestidae is a clade of Asian eutherians occurring during the Late Cretaceous. Once classified as Glires, features like epipubic bones and various cranial elements have identified these animals as outside of Placentalia, representing thus a specialised clade of non-placental eutherians without any living descendants, and potentially rather different from modern placentals in at least reproductive anatomy. Taxonomy The exact position of Zalambdalestidae within Eutheria varies, though they are generally agreed to be more basal than zhelestids. Currently, the clade includes the genera ''Zalambdalestes'', '' Alymlestes'', '' Anchilestes'', '' Barunlestes'', '' Kulbeckia'', '' Zhangolestes'' and '' Zofialestes''. Palaeobiology Zalambdaltestids were insectivores, having zalambdodont molars much as various modern insectivorous species. They are uniquely suited to a saltatorial, cursorial lifestyle, bearing long, semi-digitigrade limbs and a spinal column similar to that of mode ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pantolestidae
Pantolestidae is an extinct family of semi-aquatic, non-placental eutherian mammals. Forming the core of the equally extinct suborder Pantolesta, the pantolestids evolved as a series of increasingly otter-like forms, ranging from the Middle Paleocene (60 mya) '' Bessoecetor'' to the Late Eocene (Ergilian) (50-33 mya) '' Gobiopithecus'' and '' Kiinkerishella''. They first appear in North America, whence they spread to Europe.Jehle 2005 Description The pantolestids were fish predators with a body length of about and a tail about long. The anatomy of these archaic "insectivorous" mammals is best known through well-preserved Middle Eocene ''Buxolestes'' specimens found at Messel in Germany and a few other less complete specimens,Agustí 2002, p 5 such as the ''Palaeosinopa'' found at Fossil Butte in Wyoming, estimated to have reached body weights of up to , making them relatively large early mammals. They had moderately strong canines and multi-cusped cutting teeth supporte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kennalestidae
''Kennalestes'' is an extinct genus of insectivorous mammal resembling a shrew that was described in 1968.Z. Kielan-Jaworowska. 1968. New Upper Cretaceous multituberculate genera from Bayn Dzak, Gobi Desert. ''Palaeontologia Polonica'' The type species is ''K. gobiensis'' and it was a common mammal in Mongolia during the Cretaceous period, found in both the Bayan Mandahu Formation and Djadochta Formation. It was found in Mongolia during the Campanian, so it might've fallen victim to such predators as ''Velociraptor'', ''Oviraptor'' and ''Archaeornithoides ''Archaeornithoides'' is a genus of maniraptoran theropod dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Discovery and naming In 1965, a Polish-Mongolian paleontological expedition found a fossil of a small dinosaur at Bayn Dzak, Mongolia. In 19 ...''. References Extinct animals of Asia Leptictids Cretaceous mammals Fossil taxa described in 1968 Prehistoric mammal genera {{cretaceous-mammal-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eutheria
Eutheria (; from Greek , 'good, right' and , 'beast'; ) is the clade consisting of all therian mammals that are more closely related to placentals than to marsupials. Eutherians are distinguished from noneutherians by various phenotypic traits of the feet, ankles, jaws and teeth. All extant eutherians lack epipubic bones, which are present in all other living mammals (marsupials and monotremes). This allows for expansion of the abdomen during pregnancy. The oldest-known eutherian species is '' Juramaia sinensis'', dated at from the early Late Jurassic ( Oxfordian) of China. Eutheria was named in 1872 by Theodore Gill; in 1880 Thomas Henry Huxley defined it to encompass a more broadly defined group than Placentalia. Characteristics Distinguishing features are: *an enlarged malleolus ("little hammer") at the bottom of the tibia, the larger of the two shin bones *the joint between the first metatarsal bone and the entocuneiform bone (the innermost of the three cuneiform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insectivora
The order Insectivora (from Latin ''insectum'' "insect" and ''vorare'' "to eat") is a now-abandoned biological grouping within the class of mammals. Some species have now been moved out, leaving the remaining ones in the order Eulipotyphla, within the larger clade Laurasiatheria, which makes up one of the most basic clades of placental mammals. History Before the era of widespread DNA sequencing, the grouping was used as a polyphyletic taxon for a variety of small to very small, relatively unspecialised mammals that feed upon insects. Since any primitive-looking fossil group of placental mammals was commonly assigned to this order for convenience, it was held to constitute the basal stock out of which other placental orders had evolved. Therefore, at its widest extent, the order Insectivora represented an evolutionary grade rather than a clade. Taxonomy has been refined in recent years, and treeshrews, elephant shrews, and colugos have now been placed in separate orders, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Incertae Sedis
' () or ''problematica'' is a term used for a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Alternatively, such groups are frequently referred to as "enigmatic taxa". In the system of open nomenclature, uncertainty at specific taxonomic levels is indicated by ' (of uncertain family), ' (of uncertain suborder), ' (of uncertain order) and similar terms. Examples *The fossil plant '' Paradinandra suecica'' could not be assigned to any family, but was placed ''incertae sedis'' within the order Ericales when described in 2001. * The fossil ''Gluteus minimus'', described in 1975, could not be assigned to any known animal phylum. The genus is therefore ''incertae sedis'' within the kingdom Animalia. * While it was unclear to which order the New World vultures (family Cathartidae) should be assigned, they were placed in Aves ''incertae sedis''. It was later agreed to place them in a separate order, Cathartiformes. * Bocage's longbill, ''Motacilla bocagii' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creodonta
Creodonta ("meat teeth") is a former order of extinct carnivorous placental mammals that lived from the early Paleocene to the late Miocene epochs in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Originally thought to be a single group of animals ancestral to the modern Carnivora, this order is now usually considered a polyphyletic assemblage of two different groups, the Oxyaenids and the Hyenodonts, not a natural group. Oxyaenids are first known from the Palaeocene of North America, while hyaenodonts hail from the Palaeocene of Africa. Creodonts were the dominant carnivorous mammals from , peaking in diversity and prevalence during the Eocene. The first large, obviously carnivorous mammals appeared with the radiation of the oxyaenids in the late Paleocene. During the Paleogene, "creodont" species were the most abundant terrestrial carnivores in the Old World. In Oligocene Africa, hyaenodonts were the dominant group of large flesh-eaters, persisting until the middle of the Miocene. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "dawn") and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope Carbon-13, 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope Carbon-12, 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the ''Grande Coupure'' (the "Great Break" in continuity) or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Popigai impact structure, Siberia and in what is now ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Postcranial
Postcrania (postcranium, adjective: postcranial) in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g. of dinosaurs or other extinct tetrapods, consist of partial or isolated skeletal elements; these are referred to as ''postcrania''. There is some disagreement over whether the skull and skeleton belong to the same or different animals. One example is the case of a Cretaceous sauropod skull of ''Nemegtosaurus'' found in association with the postcranial skeleton ''Opisthocoelicaudia ''Opisthocoelicaudia'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous Period discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The type species is ''Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii''. A well-preserved skeleton lacking only the head and neck wa ...''. In paleoanthropological studies, reconstruction of relationship between various species/remains is considered to be better supported by cranial characters rather than postcranial c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
