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Elasmosaurus Skeleton
''Elasmosaurus'' () is a genus of plesiosaur that lived in North America during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, at about 80.6 to 77million years ago. The first specimen was discovered in 1867 near Fort Wallace, Kansas, US, and was sent to the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, who named it ''E.platyurus'' in 1868. The generic name means "thin-plate reptile", and the specific name means "flat-tailed". Cope originally reconstructed the skeleton of ''Elasmosaurus'' with the skull at the end of the tail, an error which was made light of by the paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, and became part of their "Bone Wars" rivalry. Only one incomplete ''Elasmosaurus'' skeleton is definitely known, consisting of a fragmentary skull, the spine, and now lost pectoral and pelvic girdles, and a single species is recognized today; other species are now considered invalid or have been moved to other genera. A fragmentary specimen from Germany may belong to this genus. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Aus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vertebrae
Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal segment and the particular species. The basic configuration of a vertebra varies; the vertebral body (also ''centrum'') is of bone and bears the load of the vertebral column. The upper and lower surfaces of the vertebra body give attachment to the intervertebral discs. The posterior part of a vertebra forms a vertebral arch, in eleven parts, consisting of two pedicles (pedicle of vertebral arch), two laminae, and seven process (anatomy), processes. The laminae give attachment to the ligamenta flava (ligaments of the spine). There are vertebral notches formed from the shape of the pedicles, which form the intervertebral foramina when the vertebrae articulation (anatomy), articulate. These foramina are the entry and exit conduits for the spi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John LeConte
John LeConte (December 4, 1818 – April 29, 1891) was an American scientist and academic. He served as president of the University of California from 1869 to 1870 and from 1875 to 1881. Biography LeConte was born in Liberty County, Georgia, to Louis Le Conte, patriarch of the noted LeConte family. He attended Franklin College at the University of Georgia where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Literary Society and graduated in 1838. His younger brother Joseph LeConte also attended the university. Like many of his immediate relatives, LeConte studied medicine at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons and earned his M.D. in 1842. During this time, LeConte married Eleanor Josephine Graham. He practiced medicine until 1846 when he returned to the University of Georgia as a professor of physics and chemistry and taught there until 1855. His next academic position was at the University of South Carolina as professor of physics and chemistry from 1856 until 1869. In March 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
McAllaster, Kansas
McAllaster is a ghost town in Logan County, Kansas, United States. History McAllaster was platted in 1887. The McAllaster post office was discontinued in 1953. One house is all that remains of this former community. Paleontology McAllaster is mainly known for its mound bearing its name, the McAllaster Butte, where the first known fossils of the famous plesiosaur ''Elasmosaurus'' were discovered in 1867. Other fossils possibly belonging to this latter have been discovered since, and the locality is dated to the Campanian stage of the Upper Cretaceous. See also * List of ghost towns in Kansas This is an incomplete list of ghost towns in the state of Kansas. Causes Many reasons exist as to why a community becomes abandoned (or nearly so). *Transportation: With the development of major highways and interstates, people were willing ... References Further reading Unincorporated communities in Logan County, Kansas Unincorporated communities in Kansas Populated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF Railway, BNSF, with which it shares a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western United States, Western, Midwestern United States, Midwestern and West South Central states, West South Central United States. Founded in 1862, the original Union Pacific Rail Road was part of the first transcontinental railroad project, later known as the Overland Route (Union Pacific Railroad), Overland Route. Over the next century, UP absorbed the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the Western Pacific Railroad, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. In 1995, the Union Pacific merged with Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, completing its reach into the Upper Midwest. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kansas
Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, in turn named after the Kaw people, Kansa people. Its List of capitals in the United States, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its List of cities in Kansas, most populous city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita; however, the largest urban area is the bi-state Kansas City metropolitan area split between Kansas and Missouri. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Plains Indians, Indigenous tribes. The first settlement of non-indigenous people in Kansas occurred in 1827 at Fort Leavenworth. The pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the Slavery in the United States, slavery debate. When it was officially opened to settlement by the U.S. governm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Officers At Fort Wallace
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," from Latin ''officium'' "a service, a duty" the late Latin from ''officiarius'', meaning "official." Examples Ceremonial and other contexts *Officer, and/or Grand Officer, are both a grade, class, or rank of within certain chivalric orders and orders of merit, e.g. Legion of Honour (France), Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Holy See), Order of the British Empire ( UK), Order of Leopold (Belgium) *Great Officer of State * Merchant marine officer or licensed mariner *Officer of arms *Officer in The Salvation Army, and other state decorations Corporations *Bank officer *Corporate officer, a corporate title **Chief executive officer (CEO) **Chief financial officer (CFO) **Chief operating officer (COO) *Executive officer Education *Chief academic o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Interior Seaway
The Western Interior Seaway (also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, the North American Inland Sea, or the Western Interior Sea) was a large inland sea (geology), inland sea that existed roughly over the present-day Great Plains of North America, splitting the continent into two landmasses, i.e. Laramidia to the west and Appalachia (landmass), Appalachia to the east. The ancient sea, which existed for 34 million years from the early Late Cretaceous (100 Year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma) to the earliest Paleocene (66 Ma), connected the Gulf of Mexico (then a marginal sea of the Central American Seaway) to the Arctic Ocean. At its largest extent, the seaway was deep, wide and over long. Origin and geology By the late Cretaceous, Eurasia and the Americas had separated along the south Atlantic, and subduction on the west coast of the Americas had commenced, resulting in the Laramide orogeny, the early phase of growth of the modern Rocky Mountains. The Western Interior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Shale
The Pierre Shale is a geologic formation or series in the Upper Cretaceous which occurs east of the Rocky Mountains in the Great Plains, from Pembina Valley in Canada to New Mexico. The Pierre Shale was described by Fielding Bradford Meek, Meek and Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, Hayden in 1862 in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences (Philadelphia). They described it as a dark-gray shale, fossiliferous, with veins and seams of gypsum, and concretions of iron oxide. The Pierre Shale is about 3,138 feet (956m) thick at the type locality. It overlies the Niobrara Chalk, Niobrara division and underlies the Fox Hills beds. It was named for an occurrence near Fort Pierre, South Dakota, Fort Pierre on the Missouri River in South Dakota. The Pierre Shale is of marine origin and was deposited in the Western Interior Seaway. It is correlative with other marine shales that occur farther west, such as the Bearpaw Shale Formation, Bearpaw Shale, Mancos Shale and the Lewis Shale. It corre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gastroliths
A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. In other species the rocks are ingested and pass through the digestive system and are frequently replaced. The grain size depends upon the size of the animal and the gastrolith's role in digestion. Other species use gastroliths as ballast.Rondeau, et aLarval Anurans Adjust Buoyancy in Response to Substrate IngestionCopeia: February 2005, Vol. 2005, No. 1, pp. 188–195. Particles ranging in size from sand to cobble have been documented. Etymology Gastrolith comes from the Ancient Greek γαστήρ (''gastēr''), meaning "stomach", and λίθος (''lithos''), meaning "stone". Occurrence Among living vertebrates, gastroliths are common among crocodiles, alligators, herbivorous birds, seals and sea lions. Domestic fowl require access to ''grit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invertebrates
Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum Vertebrata, i.e. vertebrates. Well-known phyla of invertebrates include arthropods, molluscs, annelids, echinoderms, flatworms, cnidarians, and sponges. The majority of animal species are invertebrates; one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many invertebrate taxa have a greater number and diversity of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata. Invertebrates vary widely in size, from 10 μm (0.0004 in) myxozoans to the 9–10 m (30–33 ft) colossal squid. Some so-called invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata, are actually sister chordate subphyla to Vertebrata, being more closely related to vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the "invertebrates" paraphyletic, so the term has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elasmosauridae
Elasmosauridae, often called elasmosaurs or elasmosaurids, is an extinct family of plesiosaurs that lived from the Hauterivian stage of the Early Cretaceous to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period (c. 130 to 66 mya). The taxon was initially erected in 1869 by Edward Drinker Cope to include the type genus '' Elasmosaurus'' with the related '' Cimoliasaurus'', although he did not argued in detail why. Over the following years, many authors recognized this classification on the basis of predominantly postcranial features, becoming one of the three groups in which plesiosaurs were often classified during the 19th century, along with the Pliosauridae and the Plesiosauridae. However, most of these traits led to many genera since recognized as belonging to other plesiosaur families being classified as elasmosaurids. Another family historically considered as distinct, the Cimoliasauridae, has since 2009 been recognized as a junior synonym of the Elasmosauridae. Along ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
