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Nemegtosaurid
Nemegtosauridae is a family of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs based on their diplodocid-like skulls. Only three species are known: ''Nemegtosaurus'', '' Quaesitosaurus'' and possibly ''Tapuiasaurus'', each from the Cretaceous. History of classification Due to the diplodocid-like nature of the taxa placed in Nemegtosauridae, the systematic position of this family in Sauropoda was disputed until recently. McIntosh (1990) included both these animals in the family Diplodocidae, subfamily Dicraeosaurinae, as they resemble the skull of ''Dicraeosaurus'', although differing in certain details. Although the skull of ''Nemegtosaurus'' was found in the same formation as the headless skeleton of ''Opisthocoelicaudia'', McIntosh (1990) kept ''Nemegtosaurus'' in Diplodocoidea while keeping ''Opisthocoelicaudia'' separate from the former, a position reiterated by Upchurch (1995, 1999), and Upchurch et al. (2004). A cladistic analysis published in 2002 transferred ''Nemegtosaurus'' and ''Opi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quaesitosaurus
''Quaesitosaurus'' (meaning "extraordinary lizard") is a genus of nemegtosaurid sauropod containing only the type species, ''Q. orientalis'', described in 1983. It lived from 72 to 71 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous epoch in the Barun Goyot Formation. With long, low and horse-like with frontally located peg-teeth, the skull of ''Quaesitosaurus'' is similar enough to the skull of ''Diplodocus'' and its kin to have prompted informed speculation that the missing body was built like those of diplodocids. Discovery and naming During the Combined Soviet-Mongolian Paleontological Expeditions in 1971, an isolated, incomplete sauropod skull and nearly complete mandible were unearthed at a fossil site in the Upper Cretaceous bluffs of the Barun Goyot Formation near Shar Tsav, Mongolia. The fossils were later transported to the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (then the USSR Academy of Sciences) where they were catalogued as PIN 3906/2. The specimen wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Museum Of Evolution Of Polish Academy Of Sciences
The Museum of Evolution of Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Muzeum Ewolucji Instytutu Paleobiologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk) is the display area of the natural history museum in Warsaw, Poland. It is the public front of the ''Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii '' or Zoology Museum and the ''Instytut Paleobiologii'' or Paleobiology Institute. It is based at the Palace of Culture and Science.https://warsawtour.pl/en/museum-of-evolution/ References External links * {{authority control Evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ... Natural history museums in Poland Institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of California Press
The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty of the University of California, established 25 years earlier in 1868, and has been officially headquartered at the university's flagship campus in Berkeley, California, since its inception. As the non-profit publishing arm of the University of California system, the UC Press is fully subsidized by the university and the State of California. A third of its authors are faculty members of the university. The press publishes over 250 new books and almost four dozen multi-issue journals annually, in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and maintains approximately 4,000 book titles in print. It is also the digital publisher of Collabra and Luminos open access (OA) initiatives. The University of California Press publishes in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saltasaurus
''Saltasaurus'' (which means "lizard from Salta") is a genus of saltasaurid dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous period of Argentina. Small among sauropods, though still heavy by the standards of modern creatures, ''Saltasaurus'' was characterized by a short neck and stubby limbs. It was the first genus of sauropod known to possess armour of bony plates embedded in its skin. Such small bony plates, called osteoderms, have since been found on other titanosaurians. Discovery The fossils of ''Saltasaurus'' were excavated by José Bonaparte, Martín Vince and Juan C. Leal between 1975 and 1977 at the Estancia "El Brete". The find was in 1977 reported in the scientific literature. ''Saltasaurus'' was named and described by Bonaparte and Jaime E. Powell in 1980. The type species is ''Saltasaurus loricatus''. Its generic name is derived from Salta Province, the region of north-west Argentina where the first fossils were recovered. The specific name means "protected by small armoured plat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, the equivalent Latin term ''cladus'' (plural ''cladi'') is often used in taxonomical literature. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bonitasaura
''Bonitasaura'' is a titanosaurian dinosaur hailing from uppermost layers of the Late Cretaceous (Santonian) Bajo de la Carpa Formation, Neuquén Group of the eastern Neuquén Basin, located in Río Negro Province, Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. The remains, consisting of a partial sub-adult skeleton jumbled in a small area of fluvial sandstone, including lower jaw with teeth, partial vertebrae series and limb bones, were described by Sebastian Apesteguía in 2004. The genus name ''Bonitasaura'' refers to the fossil quarry's name, "La Bonita", while the name of the type species, ''B. salgadoi'', pays homage to Leonardo Salgado, a renowned Argentine paleontologist.Gallina, P. A. (2011)Notes on the axial skeleton of the titanosaur Bonitasaura salgadoi (Dinosauria-Sauropoda).''Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências'', ''83''(1), 235-246. Description ''Bonitasaura'' measured in length, and had a skull similar to another group of sauropods, the diplodocids. The lower jaw ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patagonia
Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers in the west and deserts, tablelands and steppes to the east. Patagonia is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and many bodies of water that connect them, such as the Strait of Magellan, the Beagle Channel, and the Drake Passage to the south. The Colorado and Barrancas rivers, which run from the Andes to the Atlantic, are commonly considered the northern limit of Argentine Patagonia. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is sometimes included as part of Patagonia. Most geographers and historians locate the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia at Huincul Fault, in Araucanía Region.Manuel Enrique Schilling; Richard WalterCarlson; AndrésTassara; Rommulo Vieira Conceição; Gustavo Walter Bertotto; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titanosauria
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thriving at the time of the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. This group includes some of the largest land animals known to have ever existed, such as ''Patagotitan''—estimated at long with a weight of —and the comparably-sized ''Argentinosaurus'' and ''Puertasaurus'' from the same region. The group's name alludes to the mythological Titans of ancient Greek mythology, via the type genus (now considered a ''nomen dubium)'' ''Titanosaurus''. Together with the brachiosaurids and relatives, titanosaurs make up the larger sauropod clade Titanosauriformes. Titanosaurs have long been a poorly-known group, and the relationships between titanosaur species are still not well-understood. Description Titanosauria have the largest ran ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diplodocoidea
Diplodocoidea is a superfamily of sauropod dinosaurs, which included some of the longest animals of all time, including slender giants like ''Supersaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Apatosaurus'', and ''Amphicoelias''. Most had very long necks and long, whip-like tails; however, one family (the dicraeosaurids) are the only known sauropods to have re-evolved a short neck, presumably an adaptation for feeding low to the ground. This adaptation was taken to the extreme in the highly specialized sauropod ''Brachytrachelopan''. A study of snout shape and dental microwear in diplodocoids showed that the square snouts, large proportion of pits, and fine subparallel scratches in ''Apatosaurus'', ''Diplodocus'', ''Nigersaurus'', and ''Rebbachisaurus'' suggest ground-height nonselective browsing; the narrow snouts of ''Dicraeosaurus'', ''Suuwassea'', and ''Tornieria'' and the coarse scratches and gouges on the teeth of ''Dicraeosaurus'' suggest mid-height selective browsing in those taxa.John A. Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladistics
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived characteristics ( synapomorphies'')'' that are not present in more distant groups and ancestors. However, from an empirical perspective, common ancestors are inferences based on a cladistic hypothesis of relationships of taxa whose character states can be observed. Theoretically, a last common ancestor and all its descendants constitute a (minimal) clade. Importantly, all descendants stay in their overarching ancestral clade. For example, if the terms ''worms'' or ''fishes'' were used within a ''strict'' cladistic framework, these terms would include humans. Many of these terms are normally used paraphyletically, outside of cladistics, e.g. as a 'grade', which are fruitless to precisely delineate, especially when including extinct species. R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opisthocoelicaudia
''Opisthocoelicaudia'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the late Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous Period discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The type species is ''Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii''. A well-preserved skeleton lacking only the head and neck was unearthed in 1965 by Polish and Mongolian scientists, making ''Opisthocoelicaudia'' one of the best known sauropods from the Late Cretaceous. Tooth marks on this skeleton indicate that large carnivorous dinosaurs had fed on the wikt:carcass, carcass and possibly had carried away the now-missing parts. To date, only two additional, much less complete specimens are known, including part of a pectoral girdle, shoulder and a fragmentary tail. A relatively small sauropod, ''Opisthocoelicaudia'' measured about in length. Like other sauropods, it would have been characterised by a small head sitting on a very long neck and a barrel shaped trunk carried by four column-like legs. The name ''Opisthocoelicaudia'' means "posterior ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dicraeosaurus
''Dicraeosaurus'' (Gr. , ' "bifurcated, double-headed" + Gr. , ' "lizard") is a genus of diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Lindi Region, Tanzania during the late Jurassic period. The genus was named for the neural spines on the back of its neck. The first fossil was described by paleontologist Werner Janensch in 1914. Description Unlike most diplodocoids, ''Dicraeosaurus'' had a comparatively large head with a relatively short and wide neck. The neck contained 12 unusually short vertebrae, likely indicating a low-level browser of vegetation no more than off the ground. ''Dicraeosaurus'' also lacked the "whiplash" tail tip typical of diplodocoids. It was smaller than many other diplodocoids, at only in length and , though this still makes it among the larger known members of the family Dicraeosauridae. The genus is notable for the rather tall neural spines protruding from its vertebrae, which it is named for. They were not straight as in some members of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
