Steropodon Galmani
''Steropodon'' is a genus of prehistoric monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. It contains a single species, ''Steropodon galmani'', that lived about 105 to 93.3 million years ago (mya) in the Early to Late Cretaceous period. It is one of the oldest monotremes discovered, and is one of the oldest Australian mammal discoveries. Taxonomy The dentition of ''Steropodon'' is somewhat similar to that of therians—the placentals and the marsupials—specifically the presence of the tribosphenic molar tooth which was thought to be exclusive to therians since the Cretaceous. This, along with the tribosphenic molar discoveries of monotreme-relatives ''Ausktribosphenos'' and ''Ambondro mahabo'' of which the latter evolved in the Jurassic, led to the conclusion that the molar evolved independently in the two lineages. This inspired the creation of the subclasses Australosphenida—the monotremes and extinct relatives—and Tribosphenida—placentals and marsupials. However, given this classif ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Albian
The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0.9 Ma (million years ago). The Albian is preceded by the Aptian and followed by the Cenomanian. Stratigraphic definitions The Albian Stage was first proposed in 1842 by Alcide d'Orbigny. It was named after Alba, the Latin name for River Aube in France. A Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP), ratified by the IUGS in 2016, defines the base of the Albian as the first occurrence of the planktonic foraminiferan '' Microhedbergella renilaevis'' at the Col de Pré-Guittard section, Arnayon, Drôme, France. The top of the Albian Stage (the base of the Cenomanian Stage and Upper Cretaceous Series) is defined as the place where the foram species '' Rotalipora globotruncanoides'' first appears in the stratigraphic column. The Albia ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ambondro Mahabo
''Ambondro mahabo'' is a mammal from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Isalo III Formation (about 167 million years ago) of Madagascar. The only described species of the genus ''Ambondro'', it is known from a fragmentary lower jaw with three teeth, interpreted as the last premolar and the first two molars. The premolar consists of a central cusp with one or two smaller cusps and a cingulum (shelf) on the inner, or lingual, side of the tooth. The molars also have such a lingual cingulum. They consist of two groups of cusps: a trigonid of three cusps at the front and a talonid with a main cusp, a smaller cusp, and a crest at the back. Features of the talonid suggest that ''Ambondro'' had tribosphenic molars, the basic arrangement of molar features also present in marsupial and placental mammals. It is the oldest known mammal with putatively tribosphenic teeth; at the time of its discovery it antedated the second oldest example by about 25 million years. Upon its description in 1999, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lightning Ridge, New South Wales
Lightning Ridge is a small outback town in north-western New South Wales, Australia. Part of Walgett Shire, Lightning Ridge is situated near the southern border of Queensland, about east of the Castlereagh Highway. The Lightning Ridge area is a centre of the mining of black opal and other opal gemstones. Indigenous inhabitants The traditional owners of the land around Lightning Ridge are the Yuwaalaraay people. Yuwaalayaay (also known as ''Yuwalyai, Euahlayi, Yuwaaliyaay, Gamilaraay, Kamilaroi, Yuwaaliyaayi'') is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken on Yuwaalayaay country. It is closely related to the Gamilaraay and Yuwaalaraay languages. The Yuwaalayaay language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of the Shire of Balonne, including the town of Dirranbandi as well as the border town of Goodooga extending to Walgett and the Narran Lakes in New South Wales.' After they were displaced by the establishment of colonial pastoral stations, ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Molar (tooth)
The molars or molar teeth are large, flat teeth at the back of the mouth. They are more developed in mammals. They are used primarily to grind food during chewing. The name ''molar'' derives from Latin, ''molaris dens'', meaning "millstone tooth", from ''mola'', millstone and ''dens'', tooth. Molars show a great deal of diversity in size and shape across mammal groups. The third molar of humans is sometimes vestigial. Human anatomy In humans, the molar teeth have either four or five cusps. Adult humans have 12 molars, in four groups of three at the back of the mouth. The third, rearmost molar in each group is called a wisdom tooth. It is the last tooth to appear, breaking through the front of the gum at about the age of 20, although this varies from individual to individual. Race can also affect the age at which this occurs, with statistical variations between groups. In some cases, it may not even erupt at all. The human mouth contains upper (maxillary) and lower (mandib ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Opal
Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are considered minerals. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl, and basalt. The name ''opal'' is believed to be derived from the Sanskrit word (), which means 'jewel', and later the Greek derivative (), which means 'to see a change in color'. There are two broad classes of opal: precious and common. Precious opal displays play-of-color ( iridescence); common opal does not. Play-of-color is defined as "a pseudo chromatic optical effect resulting in flashes of colored light from certain minerals, as they are turned in white light." The internal structure of precious opal causes it to di ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Steropodon Jaw
''Steropodon'' is a genus of prehistoric monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. It contains a single species, ''Steropodon galmani'', that lived about 105 to 93.3 million years ago (mya) in the Early to Late Cretaceous period. It is one of the oldest monotremes discovered, and is one of the oldest Australian mammal discoveries. Taxonomy The dentition of ''Steropodon'' is somewhat similar to that of therians—the placentals and the marsupials—specifically the presence of the tribosphenic molar tooth which was thought to be exclusive to therians since the Cretaceous. This, along with the tribosphenic molar discoveries of monotreme-relatives ''Ausktribosphenos'' and ''Ambondro mahabo'' of which the latter evolved in the Jurassic, led to the conclusion that the molar evolved independently in the two lineages. This inspired the creation of the subclasses Australosphenida—the monotremes and extinct relatives—and Tribosphenida—placentals and marsupials. However, given this classifi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ornithorhynchidae
The Ornithorhynchidae are one of the two extant families in the order Monotremata, and contain the platypus and its extinct relatives. The other family is the Tachyglossidae, or echidnas. Within the Ornithorhynchidae are the genera '' Monotrematum'', ''Obdurodon'', and ''Ornithorhynchus'': *Family Ornithorhynchidae **Genus † ''Monotrematum'' ***†'' Monotrematum sudamericanum'' **Genus †''Obdurodon'' — an ancient branch of the platypus family ***†''Obdurodon dicksoni'' ***†''Obdurodon insignis'' ***†''Obdurodon tharalkooschild'' **Genus ''Ornithorhynchus'' ***''Ornithorhynchus anatinus'' (the modern platypus) Another two genera, ''Steropodon'' and ''Teinolophos'', were originally thought to belong to the Ornithorhynchidae. However, they were both placed into a new family, the Steropodontidae. This decision was made based on differences in the dentary recovered from the Griman Creek Formation, Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, Australia. This dentary is the holot ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stem-group
In phylogenetics, the crown group or crown assemblage is a collection of species composed of the living representatives of the collection, the most recent common ancestor of the collection, and all descendants of the most recent common ancestor. It is thus a way of defining a clade, a group consisting of a species and all its extant or extinct descendants. For example, Neornithes (birds) can be defined as a crown group, which includes the most recent common ancestor of all modern birds, and all of its extant or extinct descendants. The concept was developed by Willi Hennig, the formulator of phylogenetic systematics, as a way of classifying living organisms relative to their extinct relatives in his "Die Stammesgeschichte der Insekten", and the "crown" and "stem" group terminology was coined by R. P. S. Jefferies in 1979. Though formulated in the 1970s, the term was not commonly used until its reintroduction in 2000 by Graham Budd and Sören Jensen. Contents of the crown gr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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CSIRO Publishing
CSIRO Publishing is an Australian-based science and technology publisher. It publishes books, journals and magazines across a range of scientific disciplines, including agriculture, chemistry, plant and animal sciences, natural history and environmental management. It also produces interactive learning modules for primary school students and provides writing workshops for researchers. CSIRO Publishing operates within the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). It was established as a stand-alone business unit in 1995. Books CSIRO Publishing publishes books in a number of categories, including: * Animals: behaviour; birds; domesticated; ecology and management; field guides; fish; genetics and evolution; health and welfare; invasive; invertebrates; mammals and marsupials; reproduction and physiology; reptiles and amphibians; and wildlife. * Built Environment: architecture; building; codes and standards; engineering; landscape architecture; and pla ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Griman Creek Formation
The Griman Creek Formation is a geological formation in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, Australia whose strata date back to the Albian-Cenomanian of the Early-Late Cretaceous.Bell et al., 2019 It is most notable being a major source of opal, found near the town of Lightning Ridge, New South Wales. Alongside the opal opalised fossils are also found, including those of dinosaurs and primitive monotremes.Weishampel ''et al.'', 2004, pp.573-574 Description As a whole, the formation primarily consists of thinly bedded medium to fine sandstone, siltstone and mudstone, with sporadic coal seams. In the vicinity of Lightning Ridge, it is divided up into two informal members the underlying Wallangulla Sandstone Member which primarily consists of red fine grained sandstone, light siltstone and grey claystone and is up to thick while the overlying Coocoran Claystone consists of about 10 metres of claystone. The contact between the two units is sudden and unconformable. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mandible
In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone of the skull (discounting the ossicles of the middle ear). It is connected to the temporal bones by the temporomandibular joints. The bone is formed prenatal development, in the fetus from a fusion of the left and right mandibular prominences, and the point where these sides join, the mandibular symphysis, is still visible as a faint ridge in the midline. Like other symphyses in the body, this is a midline articulation where the bones are joined by fibrocartilage, but this articulation fuses together in early childhood.Illustrated Anatomy of the Head and Neck, Fehrenbach and Herring, Elsevier, 2012, p. 59 The word "mandible" derives from the Latin word ''mandibula'', "jawbone" (literally "one used for chewing"), from ''wikt:mandere ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Teinolophos
''Teinolophos'' is a prehistoric species of monotreme, or egg-laying mammal, from the Teinolophidae. It is known from four specimens, each consisting of a partial lower jawbone collected from the Wonthaggi Formation at Flat Rocks, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It lived during the late Barremian age of the Lower Cretaceous. The species name honours the artist Peter Trusler. The genus name, ''Teinolophos'', means "extended ridge", a reference to its tooth structure. Originally, ''Teinolophos'' was thought to be a pantotheria, eupantothere. Further research revealed similarities to ''Steropodon'', except in size: the animal was around 10 cm long. It is often listed as a Steropodontidae, steropodontid, though it may be more basal.Thomas H. Rich, James A. Hopson, Pamela G. Gill, Peter Trusler, Sally Rogers-Davidson, Steve Morton, Richard L. Cifelli, David Pickering, Lesley Kool, Karen Siu, Flame A. Burgmann, Tim Senden, Alistair R. Evans, Barbara E. Wagstaff, Doris ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |