Saniwa
''Saniwa'' is an extinct genus of varanid lizard that lived during the Eocene epoch. It is known from well-preserved fossils found in the Bridger and Green River Formations of Wyoming, United States. The type species ''S. ensidens'' was described in 1870 as the first fossil lizard known from North America. A second species, ''S.'' ''orsmaelensis'', is recognised from remains found in Europe. It is a close relative of '' Varanus'', the genus that includes monitor lizards. Description ''Saniwa'' measured . Like other varanid lizards, ''Saniwa'' had a long, pointed snout and nostrils placed farther back in the skull than most lizards and a tail that was almost twice as long as the body. Although similar in appearance to extant monitor lizards, ''Saniwa'' had many primitive traits, including teeth on its palate, a jugal bone beneath the eye that extended farther forward, and a suture between the frontal and parietal bones that was straight rather than curved. A study in 2018 by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Varanidae
The Varanidae are a family of lizards in the superfamily Varanoidea and order Anguimorpha. The family, a group of carnivorous and frugivorous lizards, includes the living genus '' Varanus'' and a number of extinct genera more closely related to ''Varanus'' than to the earless monitor lizard (''Lanthanotus''). ''Varanus'' includes the Komodo dragon (the largest living lizard), crocodile monitor, savannah monitor, the goannas of Australia and Southeast Asia, and various other species with a similarly distinctive appearance. Their closest living relatives are the earless monitor lizard and Chinese crocodile lizard. The oldest members of the family are known from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Taxonomy The Varanidae were defined (using morphological characteristics) by Estes, de Queiroz and Gauthier (1988) as the clade containing the most recent common ancestor of '' Lanthanotus'' and ''Varanus'' and all of its descendants. A similar definition was formulated by Conrad ' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bridger Formation
The Bridger Formation is a Formation (geology), geologic formation in southwestern Wyoming. It preserves fossils dating back to the Bridgerian and Uintan North American land mammal age, stages of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period. The formation was named by American geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden for Fort Bridger, which had itself been named for mountain man Jim Bridger. The Bridger Wilderness covers much of the Bridger Formation's area. History Before colonization, the lands making up the Bridger Formation had been inhabited by the Crow Nation, Apsáalooke, Bannock people, Bannock, Eastern Shoshone, Arapaho, Hinono'eino, Sioux, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Cheyenne, Só'taeo'o, Cheyenne, Tsétsêhéstâhese, and Ute people, Ute nations. European settlers began to settle the area around the Bridger Formation in the 19th century, beginning with the establishment of the Oregon Trail in 1830. Fort Bridger – for which the formation would later be named – was established in 184 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parietal Eye
A parietal eye (third eye, pineal eye) is a part of the epithalamus in some vertebrates. The eye is at the top of the head; is photoreceptive; and is associated with the pineal gland, which regulates circadian rhythmicity and hormone production for thermoregulation. The hole that contains the eye is known as the pineal foramen or parietal foramen, because it is often enclosed by the parietal bones. The parietal eye was discovered by Franz Leydig, in 1872, from work with lizards. Discovery Franz Leydig, a professor of zoology at the University of Tübingen, dissected four species of European lizards—the slow worm ('' Anguis fragilis'') and three species of '' Lacerta''. in 1872; He found cup-like protrusions under the middles of their brains. He believed the protrusions to be glandular and called them frontal organs (German ''Stirnorgan''). In 1886, Walter Baldwin Spencer, an anatomist at the University of Oxford, reported the results of his dissection of 29 species of li ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Monitor Lizard
Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus ''Varanus,'' the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and West African Nile monitor, one species is also found in south America as an invasive species. About 80 species are recognized. Monitor lizards have long necks, powerful tails and claws, and well-developed limbs. The adult length of extant species ranges from in some species such as ''Dampier Peninsula monitor, Varanus sparnus'', to over in the case of the Komodo dragon, though the extinct megalania (''Varanus priscus'') may have reached lengths of more than . Most monitor species are terrestrial locomotion, terrestrial, but many are also arboreal or semiaquatic. While most monitor lizards are carnivorous, eating smaller reptiles, fish, birds, insects, small mammals, and eggs, a few species also eat fruit and vegetation. Etymology The genus, generic name ''Varanus'' is derived from the Arabic (language), Arabic word ''waral'' [St ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Palate
The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separated. The palate is divided into two parts, the anterior, bony hard palate and the posterior, fleshy soft palate (or velum). Structure Innervation The maxillary nerve branch of the trigeminal nerve supplies sensory innervation to the palate. Development The hard palate forms before birth. Variation If the fusion is incomplete, a cleft palate results. Function in humans When functioning in conjunction with other parts of the mouth, the palate produces certain sounds, particularly velar, palatal, palatalized, postalveolar, alveolopalatal, and uvular consonants. History Etymology The English synonyms palate and palatum, and also the related adjective palatine (as in palatine bone), are all from the Latin ''palatum' ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jugal
The jugal is a skull bone found in most reptiles, amphibians and birds. In mammals, the jugal is often called the malar or zygomatic. It is connected to the quadratojugal and maxilla, as well as other bones, which may vary by species. Anatomy The jugal bone is located on either side of the skull in the circumorbital region. It is the origin of several masticatory muscles in the skull. The jugal and lacrimal bones are the only two remaining from the ancestral circumorbital series: the prefrontal, postfrontal, postorbital, jugal, and lacrimal bones. During development, the jugal bone originates from dermal bone. In dinosaurs This bone is considered key in the determination of general traits in cases in which the entire skull has not been found intact (for instance, as with dinosaurs in paleontology). In some dinosaur genera the jugal also forms part of the lower margin of either the antorbital fenestra or the infratemporal fenestra, or both. Most commonly, this bone artic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Frontal Bone
In the human skull, the frontal bone or sincipital bone is an unpaired bone which consists of two portions.'' Gray's Anatomy'' (1918) These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bony part of the forehead, part of the bony orbital cavity holding the eye, and part of the bony part of the nose respectively. The name comes from the Latin word ''frons'' (meaning "forehead"). Structure The frontal bone is made up of two main parts. These are the squamous part, and the orbital part. The squamous part marks the vertical, flat, and also the biggest part, and the main region of the forehead. The orbital part is the horizontal and second biggest region of the frontal bone. It enters into the formation of the roofs of the orbital and nasal cavities. Sometimes a third part is included as the nasal part of the frontal bone, and sometimes this is included with the squamous part. The nasal part is between the brow ridges, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Parietal Bone
The parietal bones ( ) are two bones in the skull which, when joined at a fibrous joint known as a cranial suture, form the sides and roof of the neurocranium. In humans, each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, and four angles. It is named from the Latin ''paries'' (''-ietis''), wall. Surfaces External The external surface [Fig. 1] is convex, smooth, and marked near the center by an eminence, the parietal eminence (''tuber parietale''), which indicates the point where ossification commenced. Crossing the middle of the bone in an arched direction are two curved lines, the superior and inferior temporal lines; the former gives attachment to the temporal fascia, and the latter indicates the upper limit of the muscular origin of the temporal muscle. Above these lines the bone is covered by a tough layer of fibrous tissue – the epicranial aponeurosis; below them it forms part of the temporal fossa, and affords attachment to the temporal mu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Senckenberg Nature Research Society
The Senckenberg Nature Research Society (, until 2008 ''Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft'') is a German scholarly society with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. Overview Its purpose is to conduct research in the natural sciences and make the results of nature research available to the public. The society was founded by Frankfurt citizens on 22 November 1817 on the initiative of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and is named for the physician, naturalist, botanist and philanthropist Johann Christian Senckenberg (1707–1772). It shares the Senckenberg name with the , founded by Senckenberg in 1763, but is a separate organisation. The Senckenberg Nature Research Society owns several research institutes and museums, such as the Naturmuseum Senckenberg and the Naturkundemuseum Görlitz.W. Kramer, ''Chronik der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft 1817–1966'', Senckenberg Buch, Vol. 46, 1967, pp. 159–571 See also *''Archiv für Molluskenkunde'', one of its ac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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American Museum Novitates
''American Museum Novitates'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Museum of Natural History. It was established in 1921. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2013 impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a type of journal ranking. Journals with higher impact factor values are considered more prestigious or important within their field. The Impact Factor of a journa ... of 1.636. References External links * Academic journals established in 1921 Open access journals American Museum of Natural History English-language journals Zoology journals Paleontology journals Geology journals Academic journals published by museums 1921 establishments in the United States {{paleontology-journal-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Journal Of Paleontology
The ''Journal of Paleontology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the field of paleontology. It is managed and published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Paleontological Society. Indexing The ''Journal of Paleontology'' is indexed in: *BIOSIS Previews *Science Citation Index *The Zoological Record *GeoRef __NOTOC__ The GeoRef database is a bibliographic database that indexes scientific literature in the geosciences, including geology. Coverage ranges from 1666 to the present for North American literature, and 1933 to the present for the rest of th ... References Paleontology journals Academic journals established in 1927 Academic journals published by learned and professional societies Cambridge University Press academic journals Bimonthly journals Paleontological Society {{paleo-journal-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |