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Eozygodon
''Eozygodon'' is an extinct genus of proboscidean in the family Mammutidae. It is a monotypic genus that contains the single species ''E. morotoensis'', named in 1983. It is known from the Early Miocene of Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Namibia) and well as possibly the Middle Miocene of China. It is considered a primitive member of the family, retaining a long lower jaw (longirostrine) with lower tusks. The upper tusks are small, and are only slightly divergent from each other. The skull of the young adult (around 24-26 years old in African elephant tooth wear equivalent years) AM 02 from Auchas, Namibia, was around the size of that of a 10 year old American mastodon,Tassy, P. 2018Remarks on the cranium of ''Eozygodon morotoensis'' (Proboscidea, Mammalia) from the early Miocene of Africa, and the question of the monophyly of Elephantimorpha Revue Paléobiologie, Genève, 37:593-607. around in maximum length. Some authors suggest that ''Eozygodon'' could be less closely related to othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammutidae
Mammutidae is an extinct family of proboscideans belonging to Elephantimorpha. It is best known for the mastodons (genus ''Mammut''), which inhabited North America from the Late Miocene (around 8 million years ago) until their extinction at the beginning of the Holocene, around 11,000 years ago. The earliest fossils of the group are known from the Late Oligocene of Africa, around 24 million years ago, and fossils of the group have also been found across Eurasia. The name "mastodon" derives from Greek, "nipple" and "tooth", referring to their characteristic teeth. Description Mammutids are characterised by their zygodont molars, where pairs of parallel cusps are merged into sharp-sided riges, which are morphologically conservative and differ little between mammutid species.'''' Like other members of Elephantimorpha, mammutids exhibited horizontal tooth replacement like modern elephants. Some authors have argued that horizontal tooth replacement evolved in parallel in mammu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proboscidea
Proboscidea (; , ) is a taxonomic order of afrotherian mammals containing one living family (Elephantidae) and several extinct families. First described by J. Illiger in 1811, it encompasses the elephants and their close relatives. Three living species of elephant are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. Extinct members of Proboscidea include the deinotheres, mastodons, gomphotheres and stegodonts. The family Elephantidae also contains several extinct groups, including mammoths and '' Palaeoloxodon''. Proboscideans include some of the largest known land mammals, with the elephant '' Palaeoloxodon namadicus'' and mastodon ''"Mammut" borsoni'' suggested to have body masses surpassing , rivalling or exceeding paraceratheres (the otherwise largest known land mammals) in size. The largest extant proboscidean is the African bush elephant, with a world record of size of at the shoulder and . In addition to thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Miocene
The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages: the Aquitanian age, Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 annum, Ma to 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma (million years ago). It was preceded by the Oligocene epoch. As the climate started to get cooler, the landscape started to change. New mammals evolved to replace the extinct animals of the Oligocene epoch. The first members of the hyena and weasel family started to evolve to replace the extinct ''Hyaenodon'', entelodonts and bear-dogs. The chalicotheres survived the Oligocene epoch. A new genus of entelodont called ''Daeodon'' evolved in order to adapt to the new habitats and hunt the new prey animals of the Early Miocene epoch; it quickly became the top predator of North America. But it became extinct due to competition from ''Amphicyon'', a newcomer from Eurasia. ''Amphicyon'' bested ''Daeodon'' because the bear-dog's la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elephantida
Elephantimorpha is a clade of proboscideans that contains the Mammutidae (mastodons), as well as Elephantida ( amebelodonts, choerolophodonts, gomphotheres, stegodontids and elephantids). All members of Elephantimorpha have the horizontal tooth replacement typical of modern elephants, where the cheek teeth progressively migrate forwards in the jaw like a conveyor belt. This a distinctive characteristic of this group (synapomorphy) and is not found in more primitive non-elephantimorph Elephantiformes. Members of Elephantida are distinguished from mammutids by the reduced angular process of the lower jaw. Like modern elephants, the ancestor of Elephantimorpha was likely capable of communicating via infrasonic calls. While early elephantimorphs generally had lower jaws where the fused front part (the mandibular symphysis) was greatly elongated with well developed lower tusks/incisors, from the Late Miocene onwards, many groups convergently developed brevirostrine (shortened) low ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prehistoric Placental Genera
Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing having spread to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently. It is based on an old conception of history that without written records there could be no history. The most common conception today is that history is based on evidence, however the concept of prehistory hasn't been completely discarded. In the early Bronze Age, Sumer in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley Civilis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaeontologia Electronica
''Palaeontologia Electronica'' is a triannual peer-reviewed open-access scientific journal published by Coquina Press covering paleontology. It was established in 1998 and is the oldest fully open-access electronic journal of paleontology. The journal is sponsored by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the Paleontological Society, the Palaeontological Association, and thWestern Interior Paleontological Society The editors-in-chief are Julien Louys (Griffith University) and Andrew Bush (University of Connecticut). In 2000, the first taxonomic names published electronically under new rules in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature were published in the journal by Scott et al. for three new species of fossil foraminifera: '' Eggerella matsunoi'', '' Haplophragmoides hatai'', and '' Haplophragmoides nishikizawensis''. Abstracting and indexing The journal is abstracted and indexed in: *Biological Abstracts *BIOSIS Previews *Current Contents/Physical, Chemical & Earth Scie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Browsing (herbivory)
Browsing is a type of herbivory in which a herbivore (or, more narrowly defined, a folivore) feeds on leaves, soft Shoot (botany), shoots, or fruits of high-growing, generally woody plants such as shrubs. This is contrasted with Grazing (behaviour), grazing, usually associated with animals feeding on grass or other lower vegetations. Alternatively, grazers are animals eating mainly grass, and browsers are animals eating mainly non-grasses, which include both woody and herbaceous Dicotyledon, dicots. In either case, an example of this dichotomy are goats (which are primarily browsers) and Domestic sheep, sheep (which are primarily grazers). Browse The plant material eaten is known as ''browse'' and is in nature taken directly from the plant, though owners of livestock such as goats and deer may cut twigs or branches for feeding to their stock. In temperate regions, owners take browse before leaf fall, then dry and store it as a winter feed supplement. In time of drought, herdsme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biological Specimen
A biological specimen (also called a biospecimen) is a biological laboratory specimen held by a biorepository for research. Such a specimen would be taken by sampling so as to be representative of any other specimen taken from the source of the specimen. When biological specimens are stored, ideally they remain equivalent to freshly-collected specimens for the purposes of research. Human biological specimens are stored in a type of biorepository called a biobank, and the science of preserving biological specimens is most active in the field of biobanking. Quality control Setting broad standards for quality of biological specimens was initially an underdeveloped aspect of biobank growth. There is currently discussion on what standards should be in place and who should manage those standards. Since many organizations set their own standards and since biobanks are necessarily used by multiple organizations and typically are driven towards expansion, the harmonization of standa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Africa
East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the region is recognized in the United Nations Statistics Division United Nations geoscheme for Africa, scheme as encompassing 18 sovereign states and 4 territories. It includes the Horn of Africa to the North and Southeastern Africa to the south. Definitions In a narrow sense, particularly in English-speaking contexts, East Africa refers to the area comprising Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, largely due to their shared history under the Omani Empire and as parts of the British East Africa Protectorate and German East Africa. Further extending East Africa's definition, the Horn of Africa—comprising Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia—stands out as a distinct geopolitical entity within East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesowear
Mesowear is a method, used in different branches and fields of biology. This method can apply to both extant and extinct animals, according to the scope of the study. Mesowear is based on studying an animal's tooth wearing fingerprint. In brief, each animal has special feeding habits, which cause unique tooth wearing. Rough feeds cause serious tooth abrasion, while smooth one triggers moderate abrasion, so browsers have teeth with moderate abrasion and grazers have teeth with rough abrasion. Scoring systems can quantify tooth abrasion observations and ease comparisons between individuals. Mesowear definition The mesowear method or tooth wear scoring method is a quick and inexpensive process of determining the lifelong diet of a taxon ( grazer or browser) and was first introduced in the year 2000. The mesowear technique can be extended to extinct and also extant animals. Mesowear analyses require large sample populations (>20), which can be problematic for some localities, but the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraphyletic
Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic grouping (a clade) includes a common ancestor and ''all'' of its descendants. The terms are commonly used in phylogenetics (a subfield of biology) and in the tree model of historical linguistics. Paraphyletic groups are identified by a combination of synapomorphies and symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic. The term received currency during the debates of the 1960s and 1970s accompanying the rise of cladistics, having been coined by zoologist Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia (reptiles), which is paraphyletic with respect to birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles and all descendants of that ancestor exc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skull
The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent parts: the neurocranium and the facial skeleton, which evolved from the first pharyngeal arch. The skull forms the frontmost portion of the axial skeleton and is a product of cephalization and vesicular enlargement of the brain, with several special senses structures such as the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and, in fish, specialized tactile organs such as barbels near the mouth. The skull is composed of three types of bone: cranial bones, facial bones and ossicles, which is made up of a number of fused flat and irregular bones. The cranial bones are joined at firm fibrous junctions called sutures and contains many foramina, fossae, processes, and sinuses. In zoology, the openings in the skull are called fenestrae, the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
