The Dinosaurs of North America
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New Materials of Chalicotherium Brevirostris (Perissodactyla, Chalicotheriidae)
Geobios 45 (2012) 369–376 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Original article New materials of Chalicotherium brevirostris (Perissodactyla, Chalicotheriidae) § from the Tunggur Formation, Inner Mongolia Yan Liu *, Zhaoqun Zhang Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrate, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 142, Xizhimenwai Street, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, PR China A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Chalicotherium brevirostris was named by Colbert based on a skull lacking mandibles from the late Middle Received 23 March 2011 Miocene Tunggur Formation, Tunggur, Inner Mongolia, China. Here we describe new mandibular Accepted 6 October 2011 materials collected from the same area. In contrast to previous expectations, the new mandibular Available online 14 July 2012 materials show a long snout, long diastema, a three lower incisors and a canine. C. brevirostris shows some sexual dimorphism and intraspecific variation in morphologic characters. The new materials differ Keywords: from previously described C. cf. brevirostris from Cixian County (Hebei Province) and the Tsaidam Basin, Tunggur which may represent a different, new species close to C. brevirostris. The diagnosis of C. brevirostris is Middle Miocene revised. Chalicotheriinae Chalicotherium ß 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved. 1. Abbreviations progress in understanding the Tunggur geology and paleontology (Qiu et al., 1988). The most important result of this expedition so far is -
Dinosaur Wars Program Transcript
Page 1 Dinosaur Wars Program Transcript Narrator: For more than a century, Americans have had a love affair with dinosaurs. Extinct for millions of years, they were barely known until giant, fossil bones were discovered in the mid-nineteenth century. Two American scientists, Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, led the way to many of these discoveries, at the forefront of the young field of paleontology. Jacques Gauthier, Paleontologist: Every iconic dinosaur every kid grows up with, apatosaurus, triceratops, stegosaurus, allosaurus, these guys went out into the American West and they found that stuff. Narrator: Cope and Marsh shed light on the deep past in a way no one had ever been able to do before. They unearthed more than 130 dinosaur species and some of the first fossil evidence supporting Darwin’s new theory of evolution. Mark Jaffe, Writer: Unfortunately there was a more sordid element, too, which was their insatiable hatred for each other, which often just baffled and exasperated everyone around them. Peter Dodson, Paleontologist: They began life as friends. Then things unraveled… and unraveled in quite a spectacular way. Narrator: Cope and Marsh locked horns for decades, in one of the most bitter scientific rivalries in American history. Constantly vying for leadership in their young field, they competed ruthlessly to secure gigantic bones in the American West. They put American science on the world stage and nearly destroyed one another in the process. Page 2 In the summer of 1868, a small group of scientists boarded a Union Pacific train for a sightseeing excursion through the heart of the newly-opened American West. -
The World at the Time of Messel: Conference Volume
T. Lehmann & S.F.K. Schaal (eds) The World at the Time of Messel - Conference Volume Time at the The World The World at the Time of Messel: Puzzles in Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment and the History of Early Primates 22nd International Senckenberg Conference 2011 Frankfurt am Main, 15th - 19th November 2011 ISBN 978-3-929907-86-5 Conference Volume SENCKENBERG Gesellschaft für Naturforschung THOMAS LEHMANN & STEPHAN F.K. SCHAAL (eds) The World at the Time of Messel: Puzzles in Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment, and the History of Early Primates 22nd International Senckenberg Conference Frankfurt am Main, 15th – 19th November 2011 Conference Volume Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung IMPRINT The World at the Time of Messel: Puzzles in Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment, and the History of Early Primates 22nd International Senckenberg Conference 15th – 19th November 2011, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Conference Volume Publisher PROF. DR. DR. H.C. VOLKER MOSBRUGGER Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany Editors DR. THOMAS LEHMANN & DR. STEPHAN F.K. SCHAAL Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany [email protected]; [email protected] Language editors JOSEPH E.B. HOGAN & DR. KRISTER T. SMITH Layout JULIANE EBERHARDT & ANIKA VOGEL Cover Illustration EVELINE JUNQUEIRA Print Rhein-Main-Geschäftsdrucke, Hofheim-Wallau, Germany Citation LEHMANN, T. & SCHAAL, S.F.K. (eds) (2011). The World at the Time of Messel: Puzzles in Palaeobiology, Palaeoenvironment, and the History of Early Primates. 22nd International Senckenberg Conference. 15th – 19th November 2011, Frankfurt am Main. Conference Volume. Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt am Main. pp. 203. -
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument: a Proposal
a frMrfxteaC Tincted Sfatei. 'Hattattat 'Pa'16, Service Cover: FOSSIL SLAB FROM THE AGATE QUARRIES Courtesy University of Nebraska State Museum ANCIENT LIFE AT THE AGATE SITE Illustration by Charles R. Knight Courtesy Chicago Natural History Museum PROPOSED AGATE FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT NEBRASKA August 1963 Department of the Interior National Park Service Midwest Region Omaha, Nebraska Created in I8U9, the Department of the Interior— America's Department of Natural Resources—is concerned with the management, conservation, and development of the Nation's water, wildlife, mineral, forest, and park and recreational resources. It also has major responsibilities for Indian and Territorial affairs. As the Nation's principal conservation agency, the Department works to assure that nonrenewable re sources are developed and used wisely, that park and recreational resources make their full contri bution to the progress, prosperity, and security of the United States—now and in the future. CONTENTS Page Introduction 1 The Setting 3 Geologic History 7 Fossil Collecting History 23 The Cook Family - Early Pioneers of the West 29 Significance 33 Suitability 35 Feasibility 38 Conclusions and Recommendations 39 Proposed Development and Use kl The Proposed Area and Its Administration k6 Acknowledgements k7 Bibliography kQ Fifteen Million Years Ago in Western Nebraska From an illustration by Erwin Christinas Courtesy Natural History Magazine INTRODUCTION The Agate Springs Fossil Quarries site located in Sioux County, Nebraska, is world renowned for its rich concentrations of the fossil remains of mammals that lived fifteen million years ago. A study of this site was made by the Midwest Region, National Park Service in the fall of i960, and a preliminary report prepared. -
Unit-V Evolution of Horse
UNIT-V EVOLUTION OF HORSE Horses (Equus) are odd-toed hooped mammals belong- ing to the order Perissodactyla. Horse evolution is a straight line evolution and is a suitable example for orthogenesis. It started from Eocene period. The entire evolutionary sequence of horse history is recorded in North America. " Place of Origin The place of origin of horse is North America. From here, horses migrated to Europe and Asia. By the end of Pleis- tocene period, horses became extinct in the motherland (N. America). The horses now living in N. America are the de- scendants of migrants from other continents. Time of Origin The horse evolution started some 58 million years ago, m the beginning of Eocene period of Coenozoic era. The modem horse Equus originated in Pleistocene period about 2 million years ago. Evolutionary Trends The fossils of horses that lived in different periods, show that the body parts exhibited progressive changes towards a particular direction. These directional changes are called evo- lutionary trends. The evolutionary trends of horse evolution are summarized below: 1. Increase in size. 2. Increase in the length of limbs. 3. Increase in the length of the neck. 4. Increase in the length of preorbital region (face). 5. Increase in the length and size of III digit. 6. Increase in the size and complexity of brain. 7. Molarization of premolars. Olfactory bulb Hyracotherium Mesohippus Equus Fig.: Evolution of brain in horse. 8. Development of high crowns in premolars and molars. 9. Change of plantigrade gait to unguligrade gait. 10. Formation of diastema. 11. Disappearance of lateral digits. -
Skeleton of the Oligocene (30 Million-Year-Old) Horse, Mesohippus, Is a Featured Exhibit at the New North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora
Skeleton of the Oligocene (30 million-year-old) horse, Mesohippus, is a featured exhibit at the new North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora By John W. Hoganson Developers of the recently opened North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame contacted me about having a fossil exhibit in the new Hall in Medora. Of course, what would be more appropriate than an exhibit interpreting the evolution of the horse? Most people are under the false impression that horses did not inhabit North America until they were introduced by the Spaniards during the early days of conquest. But horses are indigenous to North America. Fossil remains of the earliest horse, referred to as Hyracotherium (or sometimes Eohippus), have been recovered from early Eocene (about 50 million years old) rocks in North America. In fact, they were some of the most abundant mammals that lived during that time. The fossil record of horses in North Dakota extends back to the Oligocene, about 30 million years ago, when the diminutive horse, Mesohippus roamed western North Dakota. Mesohippus was tiny, about the size of a sheep. The adults were only about 20 inches tall at the shoulder. They also had three toes on each foot compared to the modern horse Equus that has one. Mesohippus was also probably more of a browsing herbivore compared to the modern grazing horse. We have found many Mesohippus fossils in North Dakota but no complete skeletons. Consequently, the Mesohippus skeleton on exhibit at the Cowboy Hall of Fame is an exact cast replica. We have also found the remains of 50,000-year-old horses in North Dakota indicating that horses lived here during the last Ice Age. -
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A couple of partially-feathered creatures about the The Outside Story size of a turkey pop out of a stand of ferns. By the water you spot a flock of bigger animals, lean and predatory, catching fish. And then an even bigger pair of animals, each longer than a car, with ostentatious crests on their heads, stalk out of the heat haze. The fish-catchers dart aside, but the new pair have just come to drink. We can only speculate what a walk through Jurassic New England would be like, but the fossil record leaves many hints. According to Matthew Inabinett, one of the Beneski Museum of Natural History’s senior docents and a student of vertebrate paleontology, dinosaur footprints found in the sedimentary rock of the Connecticut Valley reveal much about these animals and their environment. At the time, the land that we know as New England was further south, close to where Cuba is now. A system of rift basins that cradled lakes ran right through our region, from North Carolina to Nova Scotia. As reliable sources of water, with plants for the herbivores and fish for the carnivores, the lakes would have been havens of life. While most of the fossil footprints found in New England so far are in the lower Connecticut Valley, Dinosaur Tracks they provide a window into a world that extended throughout the region. According to Inabinett, the By: Rachel Marie Sargent tracks generally fall into four groupings. He explained that these names are for the tracks, not Imagine taking a walk through a part of New the dinosaurs that made them, since, “it’s very England you’ve never seen—how it was 190 million difficult, if not impossible, to match a footprint to a years ago. -
The Origin and Early Evolution of Dinosaurs
Biol. Rev. (2010), 85, pp. 55–110. 55 doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.2009.00094.x The origin and early evolution of dinosaurs Max C. Langer1∗,MartinD.Ezcurra2, Jonathas S. Bittencourt1 and Fernando E. Novas2,3 1Departamento de Biologia, FFCLRP, Universidade de S˜ao Paulo; Av. Bandeirantes 3900, Ribeir˜ao Preto-SP, Brazil 2Laboratorio de Anatomia Comparada y Evoluci´on de los Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘‘Bernardino Rivadavia’’, Avda. Angel Gallardo 470, Cdad. de Buenos Aires, Argentina 3CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cient´ıficas y T´ecnicas); Avda. Rivadavia 1917 - Cdad. de Buenos Aires, Argentina (Received 28 November 2008; revised 09 July 2009; accepted 14 July 2009) ABSTRACT The oldest unequivocal records of Dinosauria were unearthed from Late Triassic rocks (approximately 230 Ma) accumulated over extensional rift basins in southwestern Pangea. The better known of these are Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis, Pisanosaurus mertii, Eoraptor lunensis,andPanphagia protos from the Ischigualasto Formation, Argentina, and Staurikosaurus pricei and Saturnalia tupiniquim from the Santa Maria Formation, Brazil. No uncontroversial dinosaur body fossils are known from older strata, but the Middle Triassic origin of the lineage may be inferred from both the footprint record and its sister-group relation to Ladinian basal dinosauromorphs. These include the typical Marasuchus lilloensis, more basal forms such as Lagerpeton and Dromomeron, as well as silesaurids: a possibly monophyletic group composed of Mid-Late Triassic forms that may represent immediate sister taxa to dinosaurs. The first phylogenetic definition to fit the current understanding of Dinosauria as a node-based taxon solely composed of mutually exclusive Saurischia and Ornithischia was given as ‘‘all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of birds and Triceratops’’. -
At Carowinds
at Carowinds EDUCATOR’S GUIDE CLASSROOM LESSON PLANS & FIELD TRIP ACTIVITIES Table of Contents at Carowinds Introduction The Field Trip ................................... 2 The Educator’s Guide ....................... 3 Field Trip Activity .................................. 4 Lesson Plans Lesson 1: Form and Function ........... 6 Lesson 2: Dinosaur Detectives ....... 10 Lesson 3: Mesozoic Math .............. 14 Lesson 4: Fossil Stories.................. 22 Games & Puzzles Crossword Puzzles ......................... 29 Logic Puzzles ................................. 32 Word Searches ............................... 37 Answer Keys ...................................... 39 Additional Resources © 2012 Dinosaurs Unearthed Recommended Reading ................. 44 All rights reserved. Except for educational fair use, no portion of this guide may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any Dinosaur Data ................................ 45 means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other without Discovering Dinosaurs .................... 52 explicit prior permission from Dinosaurs Unearthed. Multiple copies may only be made by or for the teacher for class use. Glossary .............................................. 54 Content co-created by TurnKey Education, Inc. and Dinosaurs Unearthed, 2012 Standards www.turnkeyeducation.net www.dinosaursunearthed.com Curriculum Standards .................... 59 Introduction The Field Trip From the time of the first exhibition unveiled in 1854 at the Crystal -
A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Basal Ornithischia (Reptilia, Dinosauria)
A PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF THE BASAL ORNITHISCHIA (REPTILIA, DINOSAURIA) Marc Richard Spencer A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE December 2007 Committee: Margaret M. Yacobucci, Advisor Don C. Steinker Daniel M. Pavuk © 2007 Marc Richard Spencer All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Margaret M. Yacobucci, Advisor The placement of Lesothosaurus diagnosticus and the Heterodontosauridae within the Ornithischia has been problematic. Historically, Lesothosaurus has been regarded as a basal ornithischian dinosaur, the sister taxon to the Genasauria. Recent phylogenetic analyses, however, have placed Lesothosaurus as a more derived ornithischian within the Genasauria. The Fabrosauridae, of which Lesothosaurus was considered a member, has never been phylogenetically corroborated and has been considered a paraphyletic assemblage. Prior to recent phylogenetic analyses, the problematic Heterodontosauridae was placed within the Ornithopoda as the sister taxon to the Euornithopoda. The heterodontosaurids have also been considered as the basal member of the Cerapoda (Ornithopoda + Marginocephalia), the sister taxon to the Marginocephalia, and as the sister taxon to the Genasauria. To reevaluate the placement of these taxa, along with other basal ornithischians and more derived subclades, a phylogenetic analysis of 19 taxonomic units, including two outgroup taxa, was performed. Analysis of 97 characters and their associated character states culled, modified, and/or rescored from published literature based on published descriptions, produced four most parsimonious trees. Consistency and retention indices were calculated and a bootstrap analysis was performed to determine the relative support for the resultant phylogeny. The Ornithischia was recovered with Pisanosaurus as its basalmost member. -
Florida State University Libraries
Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2017 Fossil Excavation, Museums, and Wyoming: American Paleontology, 1870-1915 Marlena Briane Cameron Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES FOSSIL EXCAVATION, MUSEUMS, AND WYOMING: AMERICAN PALEONTOLOGY, 1870-1915 By MARLENA BRIANE CAMERON A Thesis submitted to the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2017 Marlena Cameron defended this thesis on July 17, 2017. The members of the supervisory committee were: Ronald E. Doel Professor Directing Thesis Michael Ruse Committee Member Kristina Buhrman Committee Member Sandra Varry Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................................v 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1 2. THE BONE WARS ....................................................................................................................9 -
Titanosauriform Teeth from the Cretaceous of Japan
“main” — 2011/2/10 — 15:59 — page 247 — #1 Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (2011) 83(1): 247-265 (Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences) Printed version ISSN 0001-3765 / Online version ISSN 1678-2690 www.scielo.br/aabc Titanosauriform teeth from the Cretaceous of Japan HARUO SAEGUSA1 and YUKIMITSU TOMIDA2 1Museum of Nature and Human Activities, Hyogo, Yayoigaoka 6, Sanda, 669-1546, Japan 2National Museum of Nature and Science, 3-23-1 Hyakunin-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0073, Japan Manuscript received on October 25, 2010; accepted for publication on January 7, 2011 ABSTRACT Sauropod teeth from six localities in Japan were reexamined. Basal titanosauriforms were present in Japan during the Early Cretaceous before Aptian, and there is the possibility that the Brachiosauridae may have been included. Basal titanosauriforms with peg-like teeth were present during the “mid” Cretaceous, while the Titanosauria with peg-like teeth was present during the middle of Late Cretaceous. Recent excavations of Cretaceous sauropods in Asia showed that multiple lineages of sauropods lived throughout the Cretaceous in Asia. Japanese fossil records of sauropods are conformable with this hypothesis. Key words: Sauropod, Titanosauriforms, tooth, Cretaceous, Japan. INTRODUCTION humerus from the Upper Cretaceous Miyako Group at Moshi, Iwaizumi Town, Iwate Pref. (Hasegawa et al. Although more than twenty four dinosaur fossil local- 1991), all other localities provided fossil teeth (Tomida ities have been known in Japan (Azuma and Tomida et al. 2001, Tomida and Tsumura 2006, Saegusa et al. 1998, Kobayashi et al. 2006, Saegusa et al. 2008, Ohara 2008, Azuma and Shibata 2010).