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Puertasaurus
''Puertasaurus'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous Period. It is known from a single specimen recovered from sedimentary rocks of the Cerro Fortaleza Formation in southwestern Patagonia, Argentina, which probably is Campanian or Maastrichtian in age. The only species is ''Puertasaurus reuili''. Described by the paleontologist Fernando Novas and colleagues in 2005, it was named in honor of Pablo Puerta and Santiago Reuil, who discovered and prepared the specimen. It consists of four well-preserved vertebrae, including one cervical, one dorsal, and two caudal vertebrae. ''Puertasaurus'' is a member of Titanosauria, the dominant group of sauropods during the Cretaceous. ''Puertasaurus'' was a very large animal. Its size is difficult to estimate due to the scarcity of its remains, but current estimates place it around long and in mass. The largest of the four preserved bones is the dorsal vertebra, which at wide is the broa ... [...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] |
Dreadnoughtus
''Dreadnoughtus'' is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur containing a single species, ''Dreadnoughtus schrani''. ''D. schrani'' is known from two partial skeletons discovered in Upper Cretaceous (Campanian to Maastrichtian; approximately 76–70 Ma) rocks of the Cerro Fortaleza Formation in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is one of the largest terrestrial vertebrates known, with the immature type specimen reaching in total body length and possessing the greatest mass of any land animal that can be calculated with reasonable certainty. ''D. schrani'' is known from more complete skeletons than any other gigantic titanosaurian. Drexel University paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara, who discovered the species, chose the name ''Dreadnoughtus'', which means “fears nothing", stating “I think it’s time the herbivores get their due for being the toughest creatures in an environment." Discovery and study American palaeontologist Kenneth Lacovara discovered the remains in th ... [...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] |
Fernando Novas
Fernando Emilio Novas (born 1960) is an Argentine paleontologist working for the Comparative Anatomy Department of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Novas, Fernando E. Novas holds a PhD in . Working for the CONICET, he described or co-described many s, among them '' Abelis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinosaur Size
Size is an important aspect of dinosaur paleontology, of interest to both the general public and professional scientists. Dinosaurs show some of the most extreme variations in size of any land animal group, ranging from tiny hummingbirds, which can weigh as little as two grams, to the extinct titanosaurs, which could weigh as much as . The latest evidence suggests that dinosaurs' average size varied through the Triassic, early Jurassic, late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and dinosaurs probably only became widespread during the early or mid Jurassic. Predatory theropod dinosaurs, which occupied most terrestrial carnivore niches during the Mesozoic, most often fall into the category when sorted by estimated weight into categories based on order of magnitude, whereas recent predatory carnivoran mammals peak in the range of . The mode of Mesozoic dinosaur body masses is between one and ten metric tonnes. This contrasts sharply with the size of Cenozoic mammals, estimated by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cerro Fortaleza Formation
The Cerro Fortaleza Formation, in older literature described as Pari Aike Formation, is a Late Cretaceous geologic formation of Campanian to Maastrichtian age (although it has formerly been reported to be Cenomanian to Santonian)Varela et al., 2012 of the Austral Basin in southern Patagonia, Argentina. Description The sandstones of the formation were deposited in a fluvial environment. The formation has an estimated thickness of and overlies the Anita Formation, while it is overlain by the La Irene Formation.Marenssi et al., 2003, p.406 These formations are considered Campanian & Maastrichtian in age, respectively,Marenssi et al., 2003, p.406Varela et al., 2012 making the Cerro Fortaleza Formation aged between them. The giant titanosaurs ''Puertasaurus'' and '' Dreadnoughtus'', the megaraptoran ''Orkoraptor'', '' Austrocheirus isasii'', and the ornithopod ''Talenkauen'' have been recovered from the formation alongside turtles and crocodiles.Novas et al., 2008 See also * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pari Aike Formation
The Cerro Fortaleza Formation, in older literature described as Pari Aike Formation, is a Late Cretaceous geologic formation of Campanian to Maastrichtian age (although it has formerly been reported to be Cenomanian to Santonian)Varela et al., 2012 of the Austral Basin in southern Patagonia, Argentina. Description The sandstones of the formation were deposited in a fluvial environment. The formation has an estimated thickness of and overlies the Anita Formation, while it is overlain by the La Irene Formation.Marenssi et al., 2003, p.406 These formations are considered Campanian & Maastrichtian in age, respectively,Marenssi et al., 2003, p.406Varela et al., 2012 making the Cerro Fortaleza Formation aged between them. The giant titanosaurs ''Puertasaurus'' and ''Dreadnoughtus'', the megaraptoran ''Orkoraptor'', '' Austrocheirus isasii'', and the ornithopod ''Talenkauen'' have been recovered from the formation alongside turtles and crocodiles.Novas et al., 2008 See also * Li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Hornos
Los Hornos is a town in La Plata Partido, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Los Hornos belongs to the ''Greater La Plata'' urban conglomerate. Its name, (Spanish for "the rickovens" or "the furnaces"), refers to the several brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ... factories that were located in the area at the end of the 19th century, and which supplied the bricks for many of the buildings in the nascent city of La Plata. The area was heavily settled by Italian immigrants, and became renowned for its many family orchards. The town has a distinct personality and atmosphere. In Los Hornos we can find the municipal cemetery, a protected local landmark, and the Parish St. Benjamin. Populated places in Buenos Aires Province La Plata Partido {{BuenosAiresAR-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
Santa Cruz Province ( es, Provincia de Santa Cruz, , 'Holy Cross') is a province of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut Province to the north, and Chile to the west and south, with an Atlantic coast on its east. Santa Cruz is the second-largest province of the country (after Buenos Aires Province), and the least densely populated in mainland Argentina. The indigenous people of the province are the Tehuelches, who despite European exploration from the 16th century onwards, retained independence until the late 19th century. Soon after the Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s, the area was organised as the Territory of Santa Cruz, named after its original capital in Puerto Santa Cruz. The capital moved to Rio Gallegos in 1888 and has remained there ever since. Immigrants from various European countries came to the territory in the late 19th and early 20th century during a gold rush. Santa Cruz became a province of Argentina in 1957. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caudal Vertebra
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic irregular bone whose complex structure is composed primarily of bone, and secondarily of hyaline cartilage. They show variation in the proportion contributed by these two tissue types; such variations correlate on one hand with the cerebral/caudal rank (i.e., location within the backbone), and on the other with phylogenetic differences among the vertebrate taxa. The basic configuration of a vertebra varies, but the bone is its ''body'', with the central part of the body constituting the ''centrum''. The upper (closer to) and lower (further from), respectively, the cranium and its central nervous system surfaces of the vertebra body support attachment to the intervertebral discs. The posterior part of a vertebra forms a vertebral arch (in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several examples, but explicitly designated as the holotype. Under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), a holotype is one of several kinds of name-bearing types. In the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) and ICZN, the definitions of types are similar in intent but not identical in terminology or underlying concept. For example, the holotype for the butterfly '' Plebejus idas longinus'' is a preserved specimen of that subspecies, held by the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. In botany, an isotype is a duplicate of the holotype, where holotype and isotypes are often pieces from the same individual plant or samples from the same gathering. A holotype is not necessarily "typ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
