|
Palaeotheriidae
Palaeotheriidae is an extinct family of herbivorous perissodactyl mammals related to equids. They ranged across Europe and Asia from the Eocene through to the early Oligocene 55–33 Ma, existing for approximately . Living in dense forests, they ate soft leaves, shoots, berries, and leaf matter picked up from the forest floor. Morphology Palaeothere sizes ranged from at the shoulder, and weighed an estimated .S. Legendre. 1988. Les communautes de mammiferes du Paleogene (Eocene superieur et Oligocene) d'Europe occidentale: structure, milieux et evolution. Ph.D. thesis, Universite des Sciences et Techniques du Languedoc, Montpellier, France. 2 volumes. 1-265 Extinction Evidence suggests that the palaeotheriidae went extinct in Eurasia during the Early Oligocene, approximately 33 Ma, as part of a faunal turnover event known as the Grande Coupure. The Eocene-Oligocene transition marked a significant global cooling event caused by the onset of Antarctic glaciation. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perissodactyl
Odd-toed ungulates, mammals which constitute the taxonomic order Perissodactyla (, ), are animals—ungulates—who have reduced the weight-bearing toes to three (rhinoceroses and tapirs, with tapirs still using four toes on the front legs) or one (equines, third toe) of the five original toes. The non-weight-bearing toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or positioned posteriorly. By contrast, the even-toed ungulates bear most of their weight equally on four or two (an even number) of the five toes: their third and fourth toes. Another difference between the two is that odd-toed ungulates digest plant cellulose in their intestines rather than in one or more stomach chambers as even-toed ungulates, with the exception of Suina, do. The order includes about 17 species divided into three families: Equidae (horses, asses, and zebras), Rhinocerotidae (rhinoceroses), and Tapiridae (tapirs). Despite their very different appearances, they were recognized as related families ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propalaeotherium Hassiacum - Naturmuseum Senckenberg - DSC02245
''Propalaeotherium'' was an early genus of perissodactyl endemic to Europe and Asia during the early Eocene. There are currently six recognised species within the genus, with ''P. isselanum'' as the type species (named by Georges Cuvier in 1824). Taxonomy ''Propalaeotherium'' was named by Paul Gervais; its name means "before ''Palaeotherium''". It was considered a member of Palaeotheriidae by Hooker (1986). A 2004 study found it to be an equid instead. A 2016 study lumped the genus back within the Palaeotheriidae. The species ''P. parvulum'' and ''P. messelensis'' have been alternately assigned to the equid genus '' Eurohippus''. Description ''Propalaeotherium'' was a small animal, ranging from 30–60 cm at the shoulder (2.9 to 5.9 hands), and weighing just . It looked similar to small tapirs. It had no hooves, but instead several small nail-like hooflets. The well-preserved Messel fossils showed their herbivory, specifically their preference to eat berries and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propalaeotherium
''Propalaeotherium'' was an early genus of perissodactyl endemic to Europe and Asia during the early Eocene. There are currently six recognised species within the genus, with ''P. isselanum'' as the type species (named by Georges Cuvier in 1824). Taxonomy ''Propalaeotherium'' was named by Paul Gervais; its name means "before ''Palaeotherium''". It was considered a member of Palaeotheriidae by Hooker (1986). A 2004 study found it to be an equid instead. A 2016 study lumped the genus back within the Palaeotheriidae. The species ''P. parvulum'' and ''P. messelensis'' have been alternately assigned to the equid genus '' Eurohippus''. Description ''Propalaeotherium'' was a small animal, ranging from 30–60 cm at the shoulder (2.9 to 5.9 hands), and weighing just . It looked similar to small tapirs. It had no hooves, but instead several small nail-like hooflets. The well-preserved Messel fossils showed their herbivory, specifically their preference to eat berries and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palaeotherium
''Palaeotherium'' (Ancient Greek for 'old beast') is an extinct genus of perissodactyl ungulate known from the Mid Eocene to earliest Oligocene of Europe. First described by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1804, ''Palaeotherium'' was among the first Paleogene mammals to be described. Taxonomy ''Palaeotherium'' belongs to the family Palaeotheriidae, a group proposed to consist of two subfamilies, the Palaeotheriinae representing ''Palaeotherium'' and the Plagiolophinae containing the closely related '' Plagiolophus''. Although at times proposed to be ancestral to modern horses the palaeotheres are now considered a sister taxon to the Equidae, and not part of the same lineage. The species and subspecies referable to ''Palaeotherium'' are a subject of debate, due in part to the diversity of species within the genus. Species and subspecies are mainly assigned based on dental and cranial characteristics. Description ''Palaeotherium'' was a diverse genus of herbivorous periss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Equid
Equidae (sometimes known as the horse family) is the taxonomic family of horses and related animals, including the extant horses, asses, and zebras, and many other species known only from fossils. All extant species are in the genus '' Equus'', which originated in North America. Equidae belongs to the order Perissodactyla, which includes the extant tapirs and rhinoceros, and several extinct families. The term equid refers to any member of this family, including any equine. Evolution The oldest known fossils assigned to Equidae were found in North America, and date from the early Eocene epoch, 54 million years ago. They were once assigned to the genus '' Hyracotherium'', but the type species of that genus is now regarded as a palaeothere. The other species have been split off into different genera. These early equids were fox-sized animals with three toes on the hind feet, and four on the front feet. They were herbivorous browsers on relatively soft plants, and already a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene–Oligocene Extinction Event
The Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, also called the Eocene-Oligocene transition or ''Grande Coupure'', is the transition between the end of the Eocene and the beginning of the Oligocene, an extinction event and faunal turnover occurring between 33.9 and 33.4 million years ago marked by large-scale extinction and floral and faunal turnover (although minor in comparison to the largest mass extinctions). Most of the affected organisms were marine or aquatic in nature. They included the last of the ancient ungulates, the " condylarths". This was a time of major climatic change, especially cooling, not clearly caused by any single major impact or volcanic event. Extended volcanic activity is one possible cause. Another speculation points to several large meteorite impacts near this time, including those of the Chesapeake Bay crater and the Popigai impact structure of central Siberia, which scattered debris perhaps as far as Europe. New dating of the Popigai meteor strengthens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago and the Russian Far East to the east. The continental landmass is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Africa to the west, the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and by Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean to the south. The division between Europe and Asia as two continents is a historical social construct, as many of their borders are over land; thus, in some parts of the world, Eurasia is recognized as the largest of the six, five, or four continents on Earth. In geology, Eurasia is often considered as a single rigid megablock. However, the rigidity of Eurasia is debated based on paleomagnetic data. Eurasia covers around , or around 36.2% of the Earth's total land area. It is also home to the lar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammals
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or hair, and three middle ear bones. These characteristics distinguish them from reptiles (including birds) from which they diverged in the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. Around 6,400 extant species of mammals have been described divided into 29 orders. The largest orders, in terms of number of species, are the rodents, bats, and Eulipotyphla ( hedgehogs, moles, shrews, and others). The next three are the Primates (including humans, apes, monkeys, and others), the Artiodactyla (cetaceans and even-toed ungulates), and the Carnivora ( cats, dogs, seals, and others). In terms of cladistics, which reflects evolutionary history, mammals are the only living members of the Synapsida (synapsids); this clade, together with S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " dawn") and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C. The end is set at a major extinction event called the ''Grande Coupure'' (the "Great Break" in continuity) or the Eocene–Oligocene extinction event, which may be related to the impact of one or more large bolides in Siberia and in what is now Chesapeake Bay. As with other geologic periods, the strata that define the start and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hampshire Basin
The Hampshire Basin is a geological basin of Palaeogene age in southern England, underlying parts of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, and Sussex. Like the London Basin to the northeast, it is filled with sands and clays of Paleocene and younger ages and it is surrounded by a broken rim of chalk hills of Cretaceous age. Extent The Hampshire Basin is the traditional name for the landward section of a basin underlying the northern English Channel and much of central southern England, known more fully as the Hampshire-Dieppe Basin. It stretches a little over 100 miles (160 km) from the Dorchester area in the west to Beachy Head in the east. Its southern boundary is marked by a monocline, the Purbeck Monocline, resulting in a near-vertical chalk ridge which forms the Purbeck Hills of Dorset, running under the sea from Old Harry Rocks to The Needles and the central spine of the Isle of Wight and continuing under the English Channel as the Wight- Bray monocline. The nort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plagiolophus Annectens
''Plagiolophus'' is the scientific name of two genera of organisms and may refer to: * ''Plagiolophus'' (plant), a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae * ''Plagiolophus'' (mammal), a genus of odd-toed ungulates in the family Pachynolophidae {{Genus disambiguation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.svg "Click for more on -> Eurasia")
