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Volia
''Volia'' is an extinct monospecific genus of mekosuchine crocodylians from Fiji named in 2002.; ; 2002: An extinct Pleistocene endemic mekosuchine crocodylian from Fiji. ''Journal of vertebrate paleontology'', 22: 612–628. It was around long. Notwithstanding its comparatively small size, it was probably the apex predator of the Pleistocene ecosystems of Fiji. Fossils of ''Volia athollandersoni'', the type and currently only known species, have been found in the Voli-Voli and Wainibuku Caves of Viti Levu Island. The holotype is housed in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. ''V. athollandersoni'' and the other large reptiles of Fiji may have been exterminated by human hunting soon after Fiji was colonized by ancient Polynesians. Etyomology ''V. athollandersoni'' is named after the New Zealand archaeologist Atholl Anderson. Phylogeny A 2018 tip dating study by Lee & Yates simultaneously using morphological, molecular (DNA sequencing), and stratigr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mekosuchine
Mekosuchinae is an extinct clade of Crocodilia, crocodilians from the Cenozoic of Australasia. They first appear in the fossil record in the Eocene in Australia, and survived until the arrival of humans: in the Pleistocene in Australia and within the Holocene in the Pacific islands of Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Mekosuchine crocodiles are a diverse group. One of the last species, ''Mekosuchus, Mekosuchus inexpectatus'' from Holocene New Caledonia, may have been arboreal. The early Miocene species ''Harpacochampsa, Harpacochampsa camfieldensis'' may have resembled a false gharial. Another mekosuchine fossil, currently undescribed, has been found in Miocene deposits from New Zealand. One genus, ''Mekosuchus'', managed to spread to the islands of the Pacific; it is believed to have island-hopped across the Coral Sea, moving first to a now submerged island known as Chesterfield Islands, Greater Chesterfield Island, then New Caledonia and onwards. In the Pleistocene, ''Quinkana'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atholl Anderson
Atholl John Anderson (born 1943) is a New Zealand archaeologist who has worked extensively in New Zealand and the Pacific. His work is notable for its syntheses of history, biology, ethnography and archaeological evidence. He made a major contribution to the evidence given by the iwi (tribe) Ngāi Tahu to the Waitangi Tribunal. Early life Anderson was born in 1943 in Taranaki and is descended from Ngāi Tahu on Rakiura (Stewart Island). He grew up in Dunedin and Nelson. Education Anderson conducted a survey of archaeological sites in Tasman Bay for his Masters degree in geography from the University of Canterbury which he received in 1966. This masters thesis title was ''Maori occupation sites in back beach deposits around Tasman Bay''. He then completed a Diploma in Teaching and in 1968 became assistant principal of a school in Karamea on the West Coast of the South Island. In 1970 he began an MA in Anthropology at the University of Otago which he completed in 1973 with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mekosuchinae
Mekosuchinae is an extinct clade of crocodilians from the Cenozoic of Australasia. They first appear in the fossil record in the Eocene in Australia, and survived until the arrival of humans: in the Pleistocene in Australia and within the Holocene in the Pacific islands of Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Mekosuchine crocodiles are a diverse group. One of the last species, ''Mekosuchus inexpectatus'' from Holocene New Caledonia, may have been arboreal. The early Miocene species '' Harpacochampsa camfieldensis'' may have resembled a false gharial. Another mekosuchine fossil, currently undescribed, has been found in Miocene deposits from New Zealand. One genus, ''Mekosuchus'', managed to spread to the islands of the Pacific; it is believed to have island-hopped across the Coral Sea, moving first to a now submerged island known as Greater Chesterfield Island, then New Caledonia and onwards. In the Pleistocene, ''Quinkana'' was one of the top terrestrial predators of the Australian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Pleistocene
The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently defined as the time between c. 129,000 and c. 11,700 years ago. The Late Pleistocene equates to the proposed Tarantian Age of the geologic time scale, preceded by the officially ratified Chibanian (formerly known as Middle Pleistocene) and succeeded by the officially ratified Greenlandian. The estimated beginning of the Tarantian is the start of the Eemian interglacial period (Marine Isotope Stage 5). It is held to end with the termination of the Younger Dryas, some 10th millennium BC, 11,700 years ago when the Holocene Epoch began. The term Upper Pleistocene is currently in use as a provisional or "quasi-formal" designation by the International Union of Geological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asiatosuchus
''Asiatosuchus'' is an extinct genus of crocodyloid crocodilians that lived in Eurasia during the Paleogene. Many Paleogene crocodilians from Europe and Asia have been attributed to ''Asiatosuchus'' since the genus was named in 1940. These species have a generalized crocodilian morphology typified by flat, triangular skulls. The feature that traditionally united these species under the genus ''Asiatosuchus'' is a broad connection or symphysis between the two halves of the lower jaw. Recent studies of the evolutionary relationships of early crocodilians along with closer examinations of the morphology of fossil specimens suggest that only the first named species of ''Asiatosuchus'', ''A. grangeri'' from the Eocene of Mongolia, belongs in the genus. Most species are now regarded as ''nomina dubia'' or "dubious names", meaning that their type specimens lack the unique anatomical features necessary to justify their classification as distinct species. Other species such as ''"A." german ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prodiplocynodon
''Prodiplocynodon'' is an extinct genus of basal crocodyloid crocodylian. It is one of the only crocodyloids known from the Cretaceous and existed during the Maastrichtian stage. The only species of ''Prodiplocynodon'' is the type species ''P. langi'' from the Lance Formation of Wyoming, known only from a single holotype skull lacking the lower jaw. The skull was collected by the American Museum Expedition of 1892 from exposures near the Cheyenne River in Niobrara County. It was described by Charles C. Mook of the American Museum of Natural History in 1941. The generic name means "before ''Diplocynodon''" because Mook saw close similarities between the holotype skull and that of the alligatoroid ''Diplocynodon'' from the Eocene of Europe. Description Most of the cranial sutures that outline individual bones of the skull are not visible in the holotype, and are often obscured by cracks. However, the overall shape of ''Prodiplocynodon'' is similar to that of basal alligatoroids. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alligator White Background
An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains. Alligators first appeared during the Oligocene epoch about 37 million years ago. The name "alligator" is probably an anglicized form of ', the Spanish term for "the lizard", which early Spanish explorers and settlers in Florida called the alligator. Later English spellings of the name included ''allagarta'' and ''alagarto''. Evolution Alligators and caimans split in North America during the early Tertiary or late Cretaceous (about 53 million to about 65 million years ago). The Chinese alligator split from the American alligator about 33 million years ago and probably descended from a lineage that crossed the Bering land bridge during the Neogene. The moder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alligatoroidea
Alligatoroidea is one of three superfamilies of crocodylians, the other two being Crocodyloidea and Gavialoidea. Alligatoroidea evolved in the Late Cretaceous period, and consists of the alligators and caimans, as well as extinct members more closely related to the alligators than the two other groups. Evolution The superfamily Alligatoroidea is thought to have split from the crocodile-gharial lineage in the late Cretaceous, about 80 million years ago, but possibly as early as 100 million years ago based on molecular phylogenetics. ''Leidyosuchus'' of Alberta is the earliest known genus. Fossil alligatoroids have been found throughout Eurasia as land bridges across both the North Atlantic and the Bering Strait have connected North America to Eurasia during the Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene periods. Alligators and caimans split in North America during the early Tertiary or late Cretaceous (about 53 million to about 65 million years ago) and the latter reached South Ameri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to descendants, nor does it show how much they have changed, so many differing evolutionary trees can be consistent with the same cladogram. A cladogram uses lines that branch off in different directions ending at a clade, a group of organisms with a last common ancestor. There are many shapes of cladograms but they all have lines that branch off from other lines. The lines can be traced back to where they branch off. These branching off points represent a hypothetical ancestor (not an actual entity) which can be inferred to exhibit the traits shared among the terminal taxa above it. This hypothetical ancestor might then provide clues about the order of evolution of various features, adaptation, and other evolutionary narratives about ance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proceedings Of The Royal Society B
''Proceedings of the Royal Society'' is the main research journal of the Royal Society. The journal began in 1831 and was split into two series in 1905: * Series A: for papers in physical sciences and mathematics. * Series B: for papers in life sciences. Many landmark scientific discoveries are published in the Proceedings, making it one of the most historically significant science journals. The journal contains several articles written by the most celebrated names in science, such as Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Ernest Rutherford, Erwin Schrödinger, William Lawrence Bragg, Lord Kelvin, J.J. Thomson, James Clerk Maxwell, Dorothy Hodgkin and Stephen Hawking. In 2004, the Royal Society began ''The Journal of the Royal Society Interface'' for papers at the interface of physical sciences and life sciences. History The journal began in 1831 as a compilation of abstracts of papers in the ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'', the older Royal Society publication ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crocodylia
Crocodilia (or Crocodylia, both ) is an order of mostly large, predatory, semiaquatic reptiles, known as crocodilians. They first appeared 95 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian stage) and are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria. Members of the order's total group, the clade Pseudosuchia, appeared about 250 million years ago in the Early Triassic period, and diversified during the Mesozoic era. The order Crocodilia includes the true crocodiles (family Crocodylidae), the alligators and caimans (family Alligatoridae), and the gharial and false gharial (family Gavialidae). Although the term 'crocodiles' is sometimes used to refer to all of these, crocodilians is a less ambiguous vernacular term for members of this group. Large, solidly built, lizard-like reptiles, crocodilians have long flattened snouts, laterally compressed tails, and eyes, ears, and nostrils at the top of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossil
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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