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Sauroctonus
''Sauroctonus'' (from el, σαῦρος , 'lizard' and el, κτόνος , 'murderer') is an extinct genus of therapsids. ''Sauroctonus progressus'' was a large (2 m long) gorgonopsid that lived in the Late Permian epoch before the Permian-Triassic extinction event that wiped out many life forms on Earth (259-254 million years ago). Its fossils have been found in the Usili Formation ( Songea Group) of Tanzania and the Sokolki Assemblage Zone of the Volga Basin of Russia. Description ''Sauroctonus's'' flattened, triangular skull was about long, with a parietal eye, a primitive character, on the crown. The upper and lower jaw each contained one pair of massive canine teeth (the upper pair was larger); the other teeth were smaller, but were also sharp and pointed. In addition, minute, blunt teeth were present on the palatine bones. The lower jaw was widened to form a kind of chin. The long, lightly built, five-toed limbs bore a resemblance to mammals' limbs, but despite its ...
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Gorgonopsia
Gorgonopsia (from the Greek Gorgon, a mythological beast, and 'aspect') is an extinct clade of sabre-toothed therapsids from the Middle to Upper Permian roughly 265 to 252 million years ago. They are characterised by a long and narrow skull, as well as elongated upper and sometimes lower canine teeth and incisors which were likely used as slashing and stabbing weapons. Postcanine teeth are generally reduced or absent. For hunting large prey, they possibly used a bite-and-retreat tactic, ambushing and taking a debilitating bite out of the target, and following it at a safe distance before its injuries exhausted it, whereupon the gorgonopsian would grapple the animal and deliver a killing bite. They would have had an exorbitant gape, possibly in excess of 90°, without having to unhinge the jaw. They markedly increased in size as time went on, growing from small skull lengths of in the Middle Permian to bear-like proportions of up to in the Upper Permian. The latest gorgonopsia ...
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Gorgonopsid
Gorgonopsia (from the Greek Gorgon, a mythological beast, and 'aspect') is an extinct clade of sabre-toothed therapsids from the Middle to Upper Permian roughly 265 to 252 million years ago. They are characterised by a long and narrow skull, as well as elongated upper and sometimes lower canine teeth and incisors which were likely used as slashing and stabbing weapons. Postcanine teeth are generally reduced or absent. For hunting large prey, they possibly used a bite-and-retreat tactic, ambushing and taking a debilitating bite out of the target, and following it at a safe distance before its injuries exhausted it, whereupon the gorgonopsian would grapple the animal and deliver a killing bite. They would have had an exorbitant gape, possibly in excess of 90°, without having to unhinge the jaw. They markedly increased in size as time went on, growing from small skull lengths of in the Middle Permian to bear-like proportions of up to in the Upper Permian. The latest gorgono ...
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Inostrancevia
''Inostrancevia'' is an extinct genus of carnivorous therapsids, containing the largest members of gorgonopsians, predators characterized by long, saber-tooth-like canines. The various species inhabited European Russia during the Upper Tatarian (Vyatskian), a Russian regional stage equivalent to the Wuchiapingian and Changhsingian stage of the Late Permian period, dating from approximately 259 to 252.3 million years ago. The genus name was described posthumously, after the Bolshevik Revolution, by the Russian paleontologist Vladimir P. Amalitsky in 1922, in honor of geologist Aleksandr Inostrantsev. The first fossils attributed to ''I. alexandri'' are found in Arkhangelsk Oblast, near the Northern Dvina at the end of the 19th century, making it the first gorgonopsian known from Russia, the only place outside Africa where they are officially recognized. Some fossils of the species in question are among the most complete remains of gorgonopsians ever identified to date, the ...
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Usili Formation
The Usili Formation is a Late Permian geologic formation in Tanzania. It preserves fossils of many terrestrial vertebrates from the Permian, including temnospondyls, pareiasaurs, therapsids and the archosauromorph ''Aenigmastropheus''. History of study One of the first to study rocks of the Usili Formation was British geologist G. M. Stockley. In 1932, Stockley explored the geology of the Ruhuhu Basin in Tanzania. He called a series of layers dating from the Late Carboniferous to the Middle Triassic of the Songea Series and divided it into eight units labelled K1-K8. Stockley was also the first to describe fossils from these rocks, naming an older layer the "Lower Bone Bed" and a younger layer the "Upper Bone Bed". In 1957, paleontologist Alan J. Charig described many more fossils from the upper bone beds in his Ph.D. thesis for the University of Cambridge.Charig, A. J. (1957). New Triassic archosaurs from Tanganyika, including ''Mandasuchus'' and ''Teleocrater'': Dissertati ...
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Rubidgea
''Rubidgea'' is a genus of Gorgonopsia, gorgonopsid from the upper Permian of South Africa and Tanzania, containing the species ''Rubidgea atrox''. The generic name ''Rubidgea'' is sometimes believed to be derived from the surname of renowned Karoo paleontologist, Professor Bruce Rubidge, who has contributed to much of the research conducted on therapsids of the Karoo Supergroup, Karoo Basin. However, this generic name was actually erected in honor of Rubidge's paternal grandfather, Sydney Rubidge, who was a renowned fossil hunter. Its species name ''atrox'' is derived from Latin, meaning “fierce, savage, terrible”. ''Rubidgea'' is part of the gorgonopsian subfamily Rubidgeinae, a Derived (phylogenetics), derived group of large-bodied gorgonopsians restricted to the Late Permian (Lopingian). The subfamily Rubidgeinae first appeared in the Tropidostoma Assemblage Zone, ''Tropidostoma'' Assemblage Zone. They reached their highest diversity in the ''Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone, ...
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List Of Therapsids
This list of therapsids is an attempt to create a comprehensive listing of all genera that have ever been included in the Therapsida excluding mammals and purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted genera, but also genera that are now considered invalid, doubtful ('' nomina dubia''), or were not formally published (''nomina nuda''), as well as junior synonyms of more established names, and genera that are no longer considered therapsids. The list currently contains 510 generic names. Naming conventions and terminology Naming conventions and terminology follow the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Technical terms used include: * Junior synonym: A name which describes the same taxon as a previously published name. If two or more genera are formally designated and the type specimens are later assigned to the same genus, the first to be published (in chronological order) is the senior synonym, and all other instances are junior synonyms. Senior synon ...
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Type Species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen(s). Article 67.1 A similar concept is used for suprageneric groups and called a type genus. In botanical nomenclature, these terms have no formal standing under the code of nomenclature, but are sometimes borrowed from zoological nomenclature. In botany, the type of a genus name is a specimen (or, rarely, an illustration) which is also the type of a species name. The species name that has that type can also be referred to as the type of the genus name. Names of genus and family ranks, the various subdivisions of those ranks, and some higher-rank names based on genus names, have such types.
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Limb (anatomy)
A limb (from the Old English ''lim'', meaning "body part") or leg is a jointed, muscled appendage that tetrapod vertebrates use for weight-bearing and terrestrial locomotion such as walking, running and jumping, for paddle-swimming, or for grasping and climbing. The distalmost portion of a limb is known as its extremity. The limbs' bony endoskeleton, known as the appendicular skeleton, is homologous among all tetrapods. All tetrapods have four limbs that are organized into two bilaterally symmetrical pairs, with one pair at each end of the torso. The cranial pair are known as the forelimbs or ''front legs'', and the caudal pair the hindlimbs or ''back legs''. In animals with more upright posture (mainly hominid primates, particularly humans), the forelimbs and hindlimbs are often called upper and lower limbs, respectively. The fore-/upper limbs are connected to the thoracic cage via the shoulder girdles, and the hind-/lower limbs are connected to the pelvis via the hip ...
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Lopingian Genus First Appearances
The Lopingian is the uppermost series/last epoch of the Permian. It is the last epoch of the Paleozoic. The Lopingian was preceded by the Guadalupian and followed by the Early Triassic. The Lopingian is often synonymous with the informal terms late Permian or upper Permian. The name was introduced by Amadeus William Grabau in 1931 and derives from Leping, Jiangxi in China. It consists of two stages/ ages. The earlier is the Wuchiapingian and the later is the Changhsingian. The International Chronostratigraphic Chart (v2018/07) provides a numerical age of 259.1 ±0.5 Ma. If a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) has been approved, the lower boundary of the earliest stage determines numerical age of an epoch. The GSSP for the Wuchiapingian In the geologic timescale, the Wuchiapingian or Wujiapingian (from in the Liangshan area of Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province) is an age or stage of the Permian. It is also the lower or earlier of two subdivisions of the Lopingian ...
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Fossils Of Russia
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the absolute ...
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Prehistoric Synapsids Of Europe
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared 5000 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing spreading to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at very different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilisation, and ancient Egypt were the first civilizations to develop their own scripts and to keep historical records, with their neighbors following. Most other civilizations reached the end of prehistory during the following Iron Age. T ...
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Fossils Of Tanzania
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved in amber, hair, petrified wood and DNA remnants. The totality of fossils is known as the ''fossil record''. Paleontology is the study of fossils: their age, method of formation, and evolutionary significance. Specimens are usually considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. The oldest fossils are around 3.48 billion years old to 4.1 billion years old. Early edition, published online before print. The observation in the 19th century that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led to the recognition of a geological timescale and the relative ages of different fossils. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed scientists to quantitatively measure the absolute ...
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