|
Platyognathus
''Platyognathus'' is an extinct genus of protosuchian crocodylomorph. Fossils are known from the Early Jurassic Lower Lufeng Formation in Yunnan, China and belong to the type and only species, ''P. hsui''. Description The skull of ''Platyognathus'' is small, being about in length. The snout is narrow and shorter than the remainder of the skull, as indicated by the anterior position of the antorbital fenestra. Two teeth, dentaries 5 and 6, are enlarged into caniniforms in the lower jaw. Paired caniniform teeth are not seen in any other described crocodyliform taxa, but they have been recorded from an unidentified crocodyliform from the Lower Jurassic Kayenta Formation and from a protosuchid from the Lower Jurassic McCoy Brook Formation in Nova Scotia. History and classification Holotype ''Platyognathus'' was first named by Chung-Chien Young in 1944 on the basis of a partial lower jaw found from the Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Formation in 1939. The material was first m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Notochampsa
''Notochampsa'' is an extinct genus of protosuchian crocodylomorph. Fossils have been found from the lower Clarens Formation of the Karoo Supergroup in South Africa, dating back to the Pliensbachian stage of the Early Jurassic. ''Notochampsa'' comes from a period of relative fossil scarcity, and is the youngest known occurrence of a crocodylomorph (and vertebrate body fossil) from the Karoo Basin of South Africa. Taxonomy The genus was named in a paper published in 1904 by Robert Broom. The type species was named ''N. istedana'', and a second species, named ''N. longipes'', was also described. Later in 1924, ''N. longipes'' was given its own genus, ''Erythrochampsa''. In that paper, Sidney Haughton created the family Notochampsidae for ''Notochampsa''. Notochampsa was later used to include other genera of protosuchians such as '' Dyoplax'', ''Pedeticosaurus'', '' Platyognathus'', and '' Protosuchus'', and later '' Microchampsa'' and ''Orthosuchus''. ''Notochampsa'' had also once ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Jurassic
The Early Jurassic Epoch (geology), Epoch (in chronostratigraphy corresponding to the Lower Jurassic series (stratigraphy), Series) is the earliest of three epochs of the Jurassic Period. The Early Jurassic starts immediately after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event, 201.3 Ma (million years ago), and ends at the start of the Middle Jurassic 174.1 Ma. Certain rocks of marine origin of this age in Europe are called "Lias Group, Lias" and that name was used for the period, as well, in 19th-century geology. In southern Germany rocks of this age are called Black Jurassic. Origin of the name Lias There are two possible origins for the name Lias: the first reason is it was taken by a geologist from an England, English quarryman's dialect pronunciation of the word "layers"; secondly, sloops from north Cornwall, Cornish ports such as Bude would sail across the Bristol Channel to the Vale of Glamorgan to load up with rock from coastal limestone quarries (lias limestone from S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antorbital Fenestra
An antorbital fenestra (plural: fenestrae) is an opening in the skull that is in front of the eye sockets. This skull character is largely associated with archosauriforms, first appearing during the Triassic Period. Among extant archosaurs, birds still possess antorbital fenestrae, whereas crocodylians have lost them. The loss in crocodylians is believed to be related to the structural needs of their skulls for the bite force and feeding behaviours that they employ.Preushscoft, H., Witzel, U. 2002. Biomechanical Investigations on the Skulls of Reptiles and Mammals. Senckenbergiana Lethaea 82:207–222.Rayfield, E.J., Milner, A.C., Xuan, V.B., Young, P.G. 2007. Functional Morphology of Spinosaur "Crocodile Mimic" Dinosaurs. JVP. 27(4):892–901. In some archosaur species, the opening has closed but its location is still marked by a depression, or fossa, on the surface of the skull called the antorbital fossa. The antorbital fenestra houses a paranasal sinus that is confluent with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barnum Brown
Barnum Brown (February 12, 1873 – February 5, 1963), commonly referred to as Mr. Bones, was an American paleontologist. Named after the circus showman P. T. Barnum, he discovered the first documented remains of ''Tyrannosaurus'' during a career that made him one of the most famous fossil hunters working from the late Victorian era into the early 20th century. Fossil dinosaur expeditions Sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), Brown traversed the country bargaining and trading for fossils. His field was not limited to dinosaurs. He was known to collect or obtain anything of possible scientific value. Often, he simply sent money to have fossils shipped to the AMNH, and any new specimen of interest often resulted in a flurry of letters between the discoverer and Brown. After working a handful of years in Wyoming for AMNH in the late 1890s, Brown led an expedition to the Hell Creek Formation of southeastern Montana. There, in 1902, he discovered and exca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protosuchus
''Protosuchus'' is an extinct genus of carnivorous crocodylomorph from the Early Jurassic. The name ''Protosuchus'' means "first crocodile", and is among the earliest animals that resemble crocodilians. ''Protosuchus'' was about in length and about in weight. As an early crocodilian relative, its skull featured more crocodilian characteristics than its earlier ancestors; it had short jaws that broadened out at the base of the skull, providing a large surface to which its jaw muscles could attach. This increased the maximum gape of the animal's mouth and the force with which the jaws could be closed. The dentition of the animal also resembled modern crocodiles, including the teeth in the lower jaw that fitted into notches on either side of the upper jaw when the mouth was closed. It also possessed a powerful tail which later developed into a propulsion mechanism through water in its descendants. The body was covered and reinforced by osteoderms in a double row along the bac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudosuchia
Pseudosuchia is one of two major divisions of Archosauria, including living crocodilians and all archosaurs more closely related to crocodilians than to birds. Pseudosuchians are also informally known as "crocodilian-line archosaurs". Prior to 2011, the clade Pseudosuchia was often called Crurotarsi in reference to the crurotarsal ankle found in almost all members of the group, which traditionally included phytosaurs, ornithosuchids, and suchians. However, a major 2011 study of Triassic archosaur relations proposed that phytosaurs were not closely related to other traditional "crurotarsans", at least compared to "bird-line archosaurs" (Avemetatarsalians) such as pterosaurs and dinosaurs. As a result, the possession of a crurotarsal ankle was considered a plesiomorphic ("primitive") feature retained by pseudosuchians. Crurotarsi now refers to a broader group of reptiles including Pseudosuchia, Phytosauria, and Avemetatarsalia. Despite Pseudosuchia meaning "false crocodiles", th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pedeticosaurus
''Pedeticosaurus'' is an extinct genus of crocodylomorph from the Clarens Formation (Early Jurassic) of South Africa. The type species ''Pedeticosaurus leviseuri'' was named by Egbert Cornelis Nicolaas van Hoepen in 1915 on the basis of a mold of a mostly complete skeleton found in a quarry near Rosendal, Free State. The mold preserves most of the right half of the skeleton including the skull, ribs, dorsal vertebrae, forelimbs and hindlimbs, but not the tail. It is currently housed in the National Museum in Bloemfontein and cataloged as NMQR606. Taxonomy Van Hoepen originally established a new family for ''Pedeticosaurus'' called Pedeticosauridae, which he thought was closely related to the family Ornithosuchidae. In later years ''Pedeticosaurus'' was interpreted as either a member of Sphenosuchia or Protosuchia, both of which are groups of small-bodied Jurassic crocodylomorphs. Paleontologist A. D. Walker erected a new group called Pedeticosauria in 1968, which he named after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erythrochampsa
''Erythrochampsa'' ("red crocodile") is an extinct genus of protosuchian crocodylomorph. Fossils have been found from the Red Beds of the Stormberg Group, the youngest group of strata from the Karoo Supergroup outcropping in South Africa. Description Material from ''E. longipes'', the type (and only) species of ''Erythrochampsa'', was originally referred to the genus ''Notochampsa'' in 1904 along with specimens of another species named ''N. istedana''. However, certain features of material from this species, such as divided external nares, have been considered to be indications of a position within Pseudosuchia rather than Crocodilia as was originally supposed. Despite this, the material of ''N. longipes'' remained highly suggestive of a crocodilian, and thus the species was eventually placed within its own distinct genus, ''Erythrochampsa'', in 1924. It was placed in the family Notochampsidae, and was considered closely related to ''Notochampsa'', whose position within Croc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sphenosuchus
''Sphenosuchus'' ("wedge crocodile") is an extinct genus of crocodylomorph from the Early Jurassic Elliot Formation of South Africa, discovered and described early in the 20th century. The skull is preserved very well but other than elements of the forelimb and isolated parts of the hind limb, the ''Sphenosuchus'' material is incomplete. It was probably quadrupedal, but may have been a facultative biped. ''Sphenosuchus'' was first thoroughly described in 1972 by the British palaeontologist Alick Walker, in a paper in the journal ''Nature''. Walker suggested, based on detailed (but still preliminary at that time) studies of the skull of ''Sphenosuchus'' and modern birds, that crocodylomorphs and birds might share an immediate common ancestor. Walker recanted his hypothesis in 1985, but restated and elaborated on it (in essence 'de-recanting') in a monograph published in 1990, which provided the most comprehensive description and discussion of ''Sphenosuchus'' yet published. Bro ... [...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] |
Chung-Chien Young
Yang Zhongjian, also Yang Chung-chien (; 1 June 1897 – 15 January 1979), courtesy name Keqiang (), also known as C.C. (Chung Chien) Young, was a Chinese paleontologist and zoologist. He was one of China's foremost vertebrate paleontologists. He has been called the "Father of Chinese Vertebrate Paleontology". Biography Yang was born in Hua County, Shaanxi, China. He graduated from the Department of Geology of Peking University in 1923, and in 1927 received his doctorate from the University of Munich in Germany. In 1928 he worked for the Cenozoic Research Laboratory of the Geological Survey of China and took charge of excavations at the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian. He held professorial posts at the Geological Survey of China, Peking University, and Northwest University in Xi'an. Yang's scientific work was instrumental in the creation of China's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, which today houses one of the most important collections ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native English-speakers, and the province's population is 969,383 according to the 2021 Census. It is the most populous of Canada's Atlantic provinces. It is the country's second-most densely populated province and second-smallest province by area, both after Prince Edward Island. Its area of includes Cape Breton Island and 3,800 other coastal islands. The Nova Scotia peninsula is connected to the rest of North America by the Isthmus of Chignecto, on which the province's land border with New Brunswick is located. The province borders the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, and is separated from Prince Edward Island and the island of Newfoundland by the Northumberland and Cabot straits, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
