Discover Top Posts Tagged with #queue-a-suchus

Etjosuchus recurvidens life reconstruction, skeletal reconstruction, and skull reconstruction by LiterallyMiguel.

#etjosuchus recurvidens #etjosuchus #literallymiguel #palaeoart #paleoart #palaeontology #skeletal reconstruction #life reconstruction #triassic #loricata #omnigonde formation #namibia #queue-a-suchus

Paleoanthropologists have unearthed and examined a hominin partial skeleton that includes hand and foot bones unambiguously associated with

#paranthropus #paranthropus boisei #text #queue-a-suchus

Breugnathair elgolensis is a species of hook-toothed lizard that lived during the Middle Jurassic, about 167 million years ago.

Breugnathair elgolensis — a species of hook-toothed lizard that lived during the Middle Jurassic, about 167 million years ago — displays a mosaic of anatomical traits that is not present in living groups, with head and body proportions similar to monitor lizards and snake-like features of the teeth and jaws, alongside primitive traits shared with early-diverging groups such as geckos. Breugnathair elgolensis is one of the oldest relatively complete fossil lizards yet discovered. The ancient reptile had snake-like jaws and hook-like, curved teeth similar to those of modern-day pythons, paired with the short body and fully-formed limbs of a lizard. Nearly 41 cm (16 inches) long from head to tail, it was one of the largest lizards in its ecosystem, where it likely preyed on smaller lizards, early mammals, and other vertebrates, like young dinosaurs. “Snakes are remarkable animals that evolved long, limbless bodies from lizard-like ancestors,” said Dr. Roger Benson, Macaulay curator in the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. “Breugnathair elgolensis has snake-like features of the teeth and jaws, but in other ways, it is surprisingly primitive.” “This might be telling us that snake ancestors were very different to what we expected, or it could instead be evidence that snake-like predatory habits evolved separately in a primitive, extinct group.”

#breugnathair elgolensis #breugnathair #jurassic #text #palaeontology #isle of skye #queue-a-suchus

Anthracosaurus caught an insect by AtakDraws

#atakdraws #anthracosaurus #carboniferous #palaeontology #palaeoart #paleoart #queue-a-suchus

Paleontologists have identified the 410-million-year-old specimens of Spongiophyton nanum from the Ponta Grossa Formation in the Paraná Basi

Paleontologists have identified the 410-million-year-old specimens of Spongiophyton nanum from the Ponta Grossa Formation in the Paraná Basin of Brazil as one of the oldest and most widespread lichens from the fossil record. ... The earliest evidence of ancient land plants occurs as cryptospores by the Middle Ordovician (460 million years ago), while macrofossils of early vascular plants appear in Silurian deposits (443 to 420 million years ago). However, the role and presence of lichens during certain steps of the terrestrialization process remain unclear. “Spongiophyton nanum shows a similar combination of fungi and algae to modern lichens,” said Dr. Bruno Becker-Kerber from Harvard University. “Our findings show that lichens were not marginal organisms, but key pioneers in the transformation of Earth’s surface.” “They helped create the soil that allowed plants and animals to take hold and diversify on land.” ...

Morphology and internal structures of Spongiophyton nanum. Image credit: Becker-Kerber et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adw7879.

The team’s results suggest ancient lichens first evolved in the cold polar regions of the supercontinent Gondwana, in areas that correspond to modern-day South America and Africa. “Spongiophyton nanum is an extraordinary fossil with extraordinary preservation. It is essentially mummified with organic matter intact,” said Australian National University’s Professor Jochen Brocks. “The tough material in simple plants is cellulose. Lichens, on the other hand, are decidedly weird — they are composed of the same material that makes beetles and other insects tough — chitin.” “Chitin is loaded with the element nitrogen. When we analyzed Spongiophyton nanum, we got an enormous nitrogen signal, never seen before.”

#brazil #palaeobotany #spongiophyton nanum #ponta grossa formation #text #palaeontology #devonian #queue-a-suchus