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Stupendemys
''Stupendemys'' is an extinct genus of freshwater side-necked turtle, belonging to the family Podocnemididae. It is the largest freshwater turtle known to have existed, with a carapace over 2 meters long. Its fossils have been found in northern South America, in rocks dating from the Middle Miocene to the very start of the Pliocene, about 13 to 5 million years ago. Male specimens are known to have possessed bony horns growing from the front edges of the shell and the discovery of the fossil of a young adult shows that the carapace of these turtles flattens with age. A fossil skull described in 2021 indicates that ''Stupendemys'' was a generalist feeder. History and naming ''Stupendemys'' was first named in 1976 by Roger C. Wood based on specimen MCNC-244, the medial portion of a large sized carapace with associated left femur, scapulacoracoid and a cervical vertebra. Wood also described several other specimens he referred to ''Stupendemys'', which includes MCZ(P)-4376. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caninemys
''Caninemys'' is an extinct genus of large freshwater Pleurodira, side-necked turtle, belonging to the family Podocnemididae. Its fossils have been found in Brazil and Colombia, in rocks dating back from the middle to late Miocene. Discovery and naming The type specimen of ''Caninemys'', a well preserved skull (DNPM-MCT 1496-R), was found in 1962 in Acre State, Brazil by Llewellyn Ivor Price. Originally mentioned by Lapparent de Broin (1993) alongside several shell fragments similar to ''Stupendemys'', it was concluded that the data was not sufficient enough to refer the skull to the massive podocnemid, especially in the light of other similarly sized turtle remains from Miocene South America. In 2009 Meylan, Gaffney and De Almeida Campos described ''Caninemys'' on the basis of the skull alone, not including the shell fragments mentioned by de Broin due to the possibility of a chimeric combination. They do however consider it very probable that LACM 141498, a lower jaw, belongs t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Podocnemididae
Podocnemididae is a family of pleurodire (side-necked) turtles, once widely distributed. Most of its 20 genera and 30 species are now extinct. Seven of its eight surviving species are native to South America: the genus ''Peltocephalus'', with only one species (''P. dumerilianus'', the big-headed Amazon River turtle); and the genus ''Podocnemis'', with six living species of South American side-necked river turtles. There is also one genus native to Madagascar: ''Erymnochelys'', the Madagascan big-headed turtle, whose single species ''E. madagascariensis''. Like other pleurodire turtles, podocs have a "side-necked" defensive posture, turning the head sideways to hide it under the shell. Another characteristic of pleurodires is that the pelvis is fused to the shell which prevents pelvic motion, making it difficult to walk on land. Podocnemididae turtles live in aquatic environments and have shells streamlined to aid in swimming. Taxonomy and systematics According to Ferreira et ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urumaco Formation
The Urumaco Formation is a formation in Venezuela that includes deposits from the Late Miocene. It is the site of several "giant forms": the turtles, crocodiles, sloths and rodents of Urumaco are among the largest of their groups. Location The Urumaco formation is located in the Urumaco region in the Caribbean coastal Falcón state. The deposits date from 10 to 5.3 million years ago and the Urumaco formation was deposited in an area with large rivers, swamps, estuaries, lagoons and shallow coastal seas. These conditions in the Late Miocene contrast strongly with the current dry environment in the area today. Fauna Cartilaginous fish There are 21 known species of cartilaginous fishes from the Urumaco Formation, belonging to the orders Lamniformes, Carcharhiniformes, Myliobatiformes and Rajiformes. ''Carcharhinus caquetius'' is an endemic species of predator shark from Urumaco. A large number of well-preserved fossils of the sawfish ''Pristis rostra'' have been found in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. However, only about 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses) are given a two-part name, a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature, also sometimes i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical conservation, and the study of world culture and history. The National Geographic Society's logo is a yellow portrait frame—rectangular in shape—which appears on the margins surrounding the front covers of its magazines and as its television channel logo. Through National Geographic Partners (a joint venture with The Walt Disney Company), the Society operates the magazine, TV channels, a website, worldwide events, and other media operations. Overview The National Geographic Society was founded on 13 January 1888 "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge". It is governed by a board of trustees whose 33 members include distinguished educators, business executives, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Victoria Formation
The Honda Group ( es, Grupo Honda, Tsh, Ngh) is a geological group of the Upper and Middle Magdalena Basins and the adjacent Central and Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The group, in older literature also defined as formation, is in its present-day type section in the Tatacoa Desert in the department of Huila subdivided into two main formations; La Victoria and Villavieja. The group was originally defined in and named after Honda, Tolima, but has been redefined based on the many fossil finds in the Tatacoa Desert, to the south. In the original type section of its occurrence, the thick group is subdivided into three formations, from old to young; Cambrás, San Antonio and Los Limones. The group dates to the Neogene period; in its broadest definition from the Late Oligocene to Late Miocene, and in the redefined type section restricted to the Laventan age of the South American Land Mammal Ages (SALMA), equivalent to the Middle Miocene Serravallian epoch. The Honda Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tatacoa Desert
The Tatacoa Desert is the second largest arid zone in Colombia after the Guajira Peninsula. It occupies more than 330 square kilometers. This region is located north of Huila Department, 38 km from the city of Neiva in Colombia and from Natagaima in Tolima. It is renowned as a rich deposit of fossils and a tourist destination. The Tatacoa Desert has two distinctive colors: ocher in the area of Cuzco and gray in the Los Hoyos area. The Tatacoa, or the Valley of Sorrows, as it was called in 1538 by the conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, is not a desert, but a tropical dry forest. The name "Tatacoa" also given by the Spanish, refers to its rattlesnakes. During the Tertiary Period, it was wetter, with thousands of flowers and trees, but has been gradually drying up to become an arid zone. Geography The Tatacoa covers 330 square kilometers around the town of Villavieja. The area is heavily eroded and crossed by dry canyons that develop transiently in the winter months ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuela to the east and northeast, Brazil to the southeast, Ecuador and Peru to the south and southwest, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and Panama to the northwest. Colombia is divided into 32 departments and the Capital District of Bogotá, the country's largest city. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometers (440,831 sq mi), and has a population of 52 million. Colombia's cultural heritage—including language, religion, cuisine, and art—reflects its history as a Spanish colony, fusing cultural elements brought by immigration from Europe and the Middle East, with those brought by enslaved Africans, as well as with those of the various Amerindian civilizations that predate colonization. Spanish is th ... [...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] |
Paratype
In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Often there is more than one paratype. Paratypes are usually held in museum research collections. The exact meaning of the term ''paratype'' when it is used in zoology is not the same as the meaning when it is used in botany. In both cases however, this term is used in conjunction with ''holotype''. Zoology In zoological nomenclature, a paratype is officially defined as "Each specimen of a type series other than the holotype.", ''International Code of Zoological Nomenclature'' In turn, this definition relies on the definition of a "type series". A type series is the material (specimens of organisms) that was cited in the original publication of the new species or subspecies, and was not excluded from being type material by the author (th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the seventh most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populous city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 26 States of Brazil, states and the Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. It is the largest country to have Portuguese language, Portuguese as an List of territorial entities where Portuguese is an official language, official language and the only one in the Americas; one of the most Multiculturalism, multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass Immigration to Brazil, immigration from around the world; and the most populous Catholic Church by country, Roman Catholic-majority country. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a Coastline of Brazi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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