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Sphenacodon2
''Sphenacodon'' (meaning "wedge point tooth") is an extinct genus of synapsid that lived from about 300 to about 280 million years ago (Ma) during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods. Like the closely related ''Dimetrodon'', ''Sphenacodon'' was a carnivorous member of the Eupelycosauria family Sphenacodontidae. However, ''Sphenacodon'' had a low crest along its back, formed from blade-like bones on its vertebrae (neural spines) instead of the tall dorsal sail found in ''Dimetrodon''. Fossils of ''Sphenacodon'' are known from New Mexico and the Utah–Arizona border region in North America. Researchers currently recognize two species: ''Sphenacodon ferox'' (the type species) and ''Sphenacodon ferocior''. ''Sphenacodon ferocior'' can be up to 40% larger in overall size (at about long) compared to ''Sphenacodon ferox'' (at about ). In addition, the dorsal spines in ''Sphenacodon ferocior'' are proportionately 45% taller than in ''Sphenacodon ferox''. The recent discover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sphenacodon2
''Sphenacodon'' (meaning "wedge point tooth") is an extinct genus of synapsid that lived from about 300 to about 280 million years ago (Ma) during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods. Like the closely related ''Dimetrodon'', ''Sphenacodon'' was a carnivorous member of the Eupelycosauria family Sphenacodontidae. However, ''Sphenacodon'' had a low crest along its back, formed from blade-like bones on its vertebrae (neural spines) instead of the tall dorsal sail found in ''Dimetrodon''. Fossils of ''Sphenacodon'' are known from New Mexico and the Utah–Arizona border region in North America. Researchers currently recognize two species: ''Sphenacodon ferox'' (the type species) and ''Sphenacodon ferocior''. ''Sphenacodon ferocior'' can be up to 40% larger in overall size (at about long) compared to ''Sphenacodon ferox'' (at about ). In addition, the dorsal spines in ''Sphenacodon ferocior'' are proportionately 45% taller than in ''Sphenacodon ferox''. The recent discover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sphenacodon Scale
''Sphenacodon'' (meaning "wedge point tooth") is an extinct genus of synapsid that lived from about 300 to about 280 million years ago (Ma) during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods. Like the closely related ''Dimetrodon'', ''Sphenacodon'' was a carnivorous member of the Eupelycosauria family Sphenacodontidae. However, ''Sphenacodon'' had a low crest along its back, formed from blade-like bones on its vertebrae (neural spines) instead of the tall dorsal sail found in ''Dimetrodon''. Fossils of ''Sphenacodon'' are known from New Mexico and the Utah–Arizona border region in North America. Researchers currently recognize two species: ''Sphenacodon ferox'' (the type species) and ''Sphenacodon ferocior''. ''Sphenacodon ferocior'' can be up to 40% larger in overall size (at about long) compared to ''Sphenacodon ferox'' (at about ). In addition, the dorsal spines in ''Sphenacodon ferocior'' are proportionately 45% taller than in ''Sphenacodon ferox''. The recent discover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sphenacodon Ferox 1
''Sphenacodon'' (meaning "wedge point tooth") is an extinct genus of synapsid that lived from about 300 to about 280 million years ago (Ma) during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian periods. Like the closely related ''Dimetrodon'', ''Sphenacodon'' was a carnivorous member of the Eupelycosauria family Sphenacodontidae. However, ''Sphenacodon'' had a low crest along its back, formed from blade-like bones on its vertebrae (neural spines) instead of the tall dorsal sail found in ''Dimetrodon''. Fossils of ''Sphenacodon'' are known from New Mexico and the Utah–Arizona border region in North America. Researchers currently recognize two species: ''Sphenacodon ferox'' (the type species) and ''Sphenacodon ferocior''. ''Sphenacodon ferocior'' can be up to 40% larger in overall size (at about long) compared to ''Sphenacodon ferox'' (at about ). In addition, the dorsal spines in ''Sphenacodon ferocior'' are proportionately 45% taller than in ''Sphenacodon ferox''. The recent discover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dimetrodon
''Dimetrodon'' ( or ,) meaning "two measures of teeth,” is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid that lived during the Cisuralian (Early Permian), around 295–272 million years ago (Mya). It is a member of the family Sphenacodontidae. The most prominent feature of ''Dimetrodon'' is the large neural spine sail on its back formed by elongated spines extending from the vertebrae. It walked on four legs and had a tall, curved skull with large teeth of different sizes set along the jaws. Most fossils have been found in the Southwestern United States, the majority coming from a geological deposit called the Red Beds of Texas and Oklahoma. More recently, its fossils have been found in Germany. Over a dozen species have been named since the genus was first erected in 1878. ''Dimetrodon'' is often mistaken for a dinosaur or as a contemporary of dinosaurs in popular culture, but it became extinct some 40 million years before the first appearance of dinosaurs. Reptile-li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sphenacodontidae
Sphenacodontidae (Greek: "wedge point tooth family") is an extinct family of small to large, advanced, carnivorous, Late Pennsylvanian to middle Permian pelycosaurs. The most recent one, ''Dimetrodon angelensis'', is from the late Kungurian or early Roadian San Angelo Formation. However, given the notorious incompleteness of the fossil record, a recent study concluded that the Sphenacodontidae may have become extinct as recently as the early Capitanian. Primitive forms were generally small (60 cm to 1 meter), but during the later part of the early Permian these animals grew progressively larger (up to 3 meters or more), to become the top predators of their environments. Sphenacodontid fossils are so far known only from North America and Europe. Characteristics The skull is long, deep and narrow, an adaptation for strong jaw muscles. The front teeth are large and dagger-like, whereas the teeth in the sides and rear of the jaw are much smaller (hence the name of the well-kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pennsylvanian (geology)
The Pennsylvanian ( , also known as Upper Carboniferous or Late Carboniferous) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS geologic timescale, the younger of two period (geology), subperiods (or upper of two system (stratigraphy), subsystems) of the Carboniferous Period. It lasted from roughly . As with most other geochronology, geochronologic units, the stratum, rock beds that define the Pennsylvanian are well identified, but the exact date of the start and end are uncertain by a few hundred thousand years. The Pennsylvanian is named after the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, where the coal-productive beds of this age are widespread. The division between Pennsylvanian and Mississippian (geology), Mississippian comes from North American stratigraphy. In North America, where the early Carboniferous beds are primarily marine limestones, the Pennsylvanian was in the past treated as a full-fledged geologic period between the Mississippian and the Permian. In parts of Europe, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pangaea
Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million years ago, and began to break apart about 200 million years ago, at the end of the Triassic and beginning of the Jurassic. In contrast to the present Earth and its distribution of continental mass, Pangaea was centred on the equator and surrounded by the superocean Panthalassa and the Paleo-Tethys Ocean, Paleo-Tethys and subsequent Tethys Ocean, Tethys Oceans. Pangaea is the most recent supercontinent to have existed and the first to be reconstructed by geologists. Origin of the concept The name "Pangaea" is derived from Ancient Greek ''pan'' (, "all, entire, whole") and ''Gaia (mythology), Gaia'' or Gaea (, "Mother goddess, Mother Earth, land"). The concept that the continents once formed a contiguous land mass was hypothesised, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhynchocephalia
Rhynchocephalia (; ) is an order of lizard-like reptiles that includes only one living species, the tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') of New Zealand. Despite its current lack of diversity, during the Mesozoic rhynchocephalians were a diverse group including a wide array of morphologically distinct forms. The oldest record of the group is dated to the Middle Triassic around 238 to 240 million years ago, and they had achieved a worldwide distribution by the Early Jurassic. Most rhynchocephalians belong to the group Sphenodontia ('wedge-teeth'). Their closest living relatives are lizards and snakes in the order Squamata, with the two orders being grouped together in the superorder Lepidosauria. Many of the niches occupied by lizards today were held by sphenodontians during the Triassic and Jurassic, although lizard diversity began to overtake sphenodontian diversity in the Cretaceous, and they had disappeared almost entirely by the beginning of the Cenozoic. While the modern tuat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prehistoric Trackways National Monument
Prehistoric Trackways National Monument is a national monument in the Robledo Mountains of Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States, near the city of Las Cruces. The monument's Paleozoic Era fossils are on of land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. It became the 100th active U.S. national monument when it was designated on March 30, 2009. Fossils The Prehistoric Trackways National Monument site includes a major deposit of Paleozoic Era fossilized footprints in fossil mega-trackways of land animals, sea creatures, and insects. These are known as trace fossils or ichnofossils. There are also fossilized plants and petrified wood present, as well as plenty of marine invertebrate fossils including brachiopods, gastropods, cephalopods, bivalves, and echinoderms. Much of the fossilized material originated during the Permian Period and is around 280 million years old. Some of the animals who may have left tracks in the Robledo Mountains include ''Dimetrodon'', ''Eryo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ctenospondylus
''Ctenospondylus'' ("comb vertebra") is an extinct genus of sphenacodontid synapsid Species were about three meters (ten feet) long. The genus is known only from the 'Seymouran' Land Vertebrate Faunachron, which is equivalent to the upper part of the Artinskian stage and the lowermost Kungurian stage of the Early Permian. Its fossils were found in the U.S. states of Ohio and Texas. It was a carnivore and preyed upon animals close to its size. ''Ctenospondylus'' had a long tail, short back spines, and a very deep yet narrow skull with massive jaws that had sharp teeth. Because of its large size, it was probably the apex predator in its environment, and might have competed with other predators like ''Dimetrodon'' for food. A sphenacodontid, it was a close relative of ''Dimetrodon''. In 1936, Alfred Sherwood Romer named the type species ''Ctenospondylus casei''. The generic name, from Greek κτείς, ''kteis'', "comb", and σφόνδυλος, ''sphondylos'', "vertebra", refe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or hair, and three middle ear bones. These characteristics distinguish them from reptiles (including birds) from which they diverged in the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. Around 6,400 extant species of mammals have been described divided into 29 orders. The largest orders, in terms of number of species, are the rodents, bats, and Eulipotyphla (hedgehogs, moles, shrews, and others). The next three are the Primates (including humans, apes, monkeys, and others), the Artiodactyla ( cetaceans and even-toed ungulates), and the Carnivora (cats, dogs, seals, and others). In terms of cladistics, which reflects evolutionary history, mammals are the only living members of the Synapsida (synapsids); this clade, together with Saur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Therapsids
Therapsida is a major group of eupelycosaurian synapsids that includes mammals, their ancestors and relatives. Many of the traits today seen as unique to mammals had their origin within early therapsids, including limbs that were oriented more underneath the body, as opposed to the sprawling posture of many reptiles and salamanders. Therapsids evolved from "pelycosaurs", specifically within the Sphenacodontia, more than 279.5 million years ago. They replaced the "pelycosaurs" as the dominant large land animals in the Middle Permian through to the Early Triassic. In the aftermath of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, therapsids declined in relative importance to the rapidly diversifying reptiles during the Middle Triassic. The therapsids include the cynodonts, the group that gave rise to mammals ( Mammaliaformes) in the Late Triassic, around 225 million years ago. Of the non-mammalian therapsids, only cynodonts survived beyond the end of the Triassic, with the only othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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