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Stratodus
''Stratodus'' is a genus of giant prehistoric aulopiform fish found in Cretaceous-aged marine strata of Kansas, Alabama, Morocco, Israel, and Niger, South Dakota, Jordan. It has also been found in the Tamaguélelt Formation of Mali, dating to the Lower Eocene, indicating that ''Stratodus'' survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. This sleek fish has an upper jaw filled with multiple rows of tiny teeth and was the largest aulopiform, reaching 5 meters in length. History of Discovery ''Stratodus'' was initially described by Edward Drinker Cope in Kansas during 1872, naming the type species ''S. apicalis'', and described a second species in 1877, ''S. oxypogon'', both species being assigned to the family Stratodontidae. ''S. oxypogon'' is now often considered a synonym of ''S. apicalis'', and the family was shifted from Stratodontidae to Dercetidae, but now has gone back to Stratodontidae. For the 19th and 20th centuries, ''Stratodus'' was only known from poor fossi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic. The name is derived from the Latin ''creta'', "chalk", which is abundant in the latter half of the period. It is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation ''Kreide''. The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now- extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. The world was ice free, and forests extended to the poles. During this time, new groups of mammals and birds appeared. During the Early Cretaceous, flowering plants appeared and began to rapidly diversify, becoming the dominant group of plants across the Earth b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of 19. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son's scientific aspirations. Cope married his cousin and had one child; the family moved from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years. Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West, prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sequential Hermaphroditism
Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is a type of hermaphroditism that occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs when the individual changes its sex at some point in its life. In particular, a sequential hermaphrodite produces eggs (female gametes) and sperm (male gametes) at different stages in life. Species that can undergo these changes from one sex to another do so as a normal event within their reproductive cycle that is usually cued by either social structure or the achievement of a certain age or size. In animals, the different types of change are male to female (protandry or protandrous hermaphroditism), female to male (protogyny or protogynous hermaphroditism), bidirectional (serial or bidirectional hermaphroditism). Both protogynous and protandrous hermaphroditism allow the organism to switch between functional male and functional female. Bidirectional hermaphrodites have the capacity for sex change in either directi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billfish
The term billfish refers to a group of saltwater predatory fish characterised by prominent pointed bills (rostra), and by their large size; some are longer than . Extant billfish include sailfish and marlin, which make up the family Istiophoridae; and swordfish, sole member of the family Xiphiidae. They are apex predators which feed on a wide variety of smaller fish, crustaceans and cephalopods. These two families are sometimes classified as belonging to the order Istiophoriformes, a group which originated around 71 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous, with the two families diverging around 15 million years ago in the Late Miocene. However, they are also classified as being closely related to the mackerels and tuna within the suborder Scombroidei of the order Perciformes. However, the 5th edition of the ''Fishes of the World'' does recognise the Istiophoriformes as a valid order, albeit including the Sphyraenidae, the barracudas. Billfish are pelagic and highly migrato ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe and Asia from the "New World" of the Americas in the European perception of the World. The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and North and South America to the west. As one component of the interconnected World Ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south (other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica). The Atlantic Ocean is divided in two parts, by the Equatorial Counter Current, with the North(ern) Atlantic Ocean and the South(ern) Atlantic Ocean split at about 8°N. Scientific explorations of the A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cosmopolitan Distribution
In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. Such a taxon, usually a species, is said to exhibit cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitism. The extreme opposite of a cosmopolitan species is an endemic one, being found only in a single geographical location. Qualification The caveat “in appropriate habitat” is used to qualify the term "cosmopolitan distribution", excluding in most instances polar regions, extreme altitudes, oceans, deserts, or small, isolated islands. For example, the housefly is highly cosmopolitan, yet is neither oceanic nor polar in its distribution. Related terms and concepts The term pandemism also is in use, but not all authors are consistent in the sense in which they use the term; some speak of pandemism mainly in referring to diseases and pandemics, and some as a term intermediate between endemism and cosmopolitanism, in effect regarding pandemism as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scute
A scute or scutum (Latin: ''scutum''; plural: ''scuta'' "shield") is a bony external plate or scale overlaid with horn, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians, and the feet of birds. The term is also used to describe the anterior portion of the mesonotum in insects as well as some arachnids (e.g., the family Ixodidae, the scale ticks). Properties Scutes are similar to scales and serve the same function. Unlike the scales of lizards and snakes, which are formed from the epidermis, scutes are formed in the lower vascular layer of the skin and the epidermal element is only the top surface . Forming in the living dermis, the scutes produce a horny outer layer that is superficially similar to that of scales. Scutes will usually not overlap as snake scales (but see the pangolin). The outer keratin layer is shed piecemeal, and not in one continuous layer of skin as seen in snakes or lizards. The dermal base may contain bone and produce dermal armour. Scutes with a bony ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anguilliformity
Anguilliformity is a morphological pattern in fishes, named for and typified by the eels. Anguilliform fish have a long, slender body, and travel by anguilliform motion. The caudal fin is often emphasized, with the other fins reduced, absent, or fused with the caudal fin. Anguilliformity has evolved independently in many groups, including among others: * Anguilliformes, the eels * Synbranchiformes, the swamp eels * Clariidae, the airbreathing catfishes * Dipnoi, the lungfishes * Cobitidae, the loaches * Gymnotidae, the knifefishes, including the electric eel ''Electrophorus electricus ''Electrophorus electricus'' is the best-known species of electric eel. It is a South American electric fish. Until the discovery of two additional species in 2019, the genus was classified as the monotypic, with this species the only one in the ...'' References Fish anatomy {{Vertebrate anatomy-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harrana
Harrana (named after Qasr Kharana, an archeological Umayyad desert palace in the area) is part of the Jordan eastern plateau some 60 kilometers southeast of Amman city. *Al-Hunjul, Nasfat Gh. The Geology of Qasr Al Harrana: Map Sheet No. 3253-II. Jordan: Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Natural Resources Authority, Geology Directorate, Geological Mapping Division, 2001. OCLC 51536994 The area is largely uninhabited except for seasonal Bedouin sheep and camel herders who bring their livestock to the area during December through April. Harrana's climate, much like most of Jordan, is influenced by the moderate Mediterranean climate from the west, the very hot Sahara's climate from the east, and the cold European climate from the north. Though arid, the area is rich in animal life. Birds, owls, rodents, rabbits, foxes, occasional wolves and hyenas, snakes, and lizards are some of the animals that take refuge in Harrana. A variety of flowering plants bloom during late winter and early sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oacoma, South Dakota
Oacoma is a town in Lyman County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 386 at the 2020 census. Oacoma is located on the west bank of the Missouri River, across from Chamberlain. History On September 17, 1804, Lewis and Clark camped on the west bank of the Missouri River near American Island where Oacoma is now located. During the remainder of the 19th century the area was a stopping off place for explorers, fur traders and steamboat men. The township of Oacoma was laid out in 1891 as the county seat for the newly formed Lyman County; the seat was transferred to Kennebec in 1922. The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad arrived to Oacoma in 1905 and Oacoma was known as a "banking post-village". In the 21st century, it is a rest stop for travelers on Interstate 90. Geography Oacoma is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. American Crow Creek, a tributary to the Missouri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
