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Showing results for tags 'middle triassic'.
Found 4 results
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From the album MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Keichousaurus Fossil Guizhou Xingyi China Middle Triassic (~210 million years ago) Keichousaurus is a genus of marine reptile in the pachypleurosaur family which went extinct at the close of the Triassic in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. The name derives from Kweichow (now Guizhou Province) in China where the first fossil specimen was discovered in 1957. They are among the most common sauropterygian fossils recovered and are often found as nearly complete, articulated skeletons, making them popular among collectors. Keichousaurus, and the pachypleurosaur family broadly, are sometimes classified within Nothosauroidea, but are otherwise listed as a separate, more primitive lineage within Sauropterygia. Keichousaurus, like all sauropterygians, was highly adapted to the aquatic environment. Individuals of this genus ranged up to 2.7 m in length, and had both long necks and long tails, with elongated, five-toed feet. The pointed head and sharp teeth in this genus also indicate that they were fish-eaters. Some recovered specimens feature an especially developed ulna suggesting they may have spent some time on land or in marshes. In addition fossil evidence suggest also a pair of fossilized pregnant marine reptiles called Keichousaurus hui, show they had a mobile pelvis to give birth to live young rather than laying eggs. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Superorder: †Sauropterygia Order: †Nothosauroidea Family: †Keichousauridae Genus: †Keichousaurus -
From the album MY FOSSIL Collection - Dpaul7
Keichousaurus Fossil Guizhou Xingyi China Middle Triassic (~210 million years ago) Keichousaurus is a genus of marine reptile in the pachypleurosaur family which went extinct at the close of the Triassic in the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. The name derives from Kweichow (now Guizhou Province) in China where the first fossil specimen was discovered in 1957. They are among the most common sauropterygian fossils recovered and are often found as nearly complete, articulated skeletons, making them popular among collectors. Keichousaurus, and the pachypleurosaur family broadly, are sometimes classified within Nothosauroidea, but are otherwise listed as a separate, more primitive lineage within Sauropterygia. Keichousaurus, like all sauropterygians, was highly adapted to the aquatic environment. Individuals of this genus ranged up to 2.7 m in length, and had both long necks and long tails, with elongated, five-toed feet. The pointed head and sharp teeth in this genus also indicate that they were fish-eaters. Some recovered specimens feature an especially developed ulna suggesting they may have spent some time on land or in marshes. In addition fossil evidence suggest also a pair of fossilized pregnant marine reptiles called Keichousaurus hui, show they had a mobile pelvis to give birth to live young rather than laying eggs. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Superorder: †Sauropterygia Order: †Nothosauroidea Family: †Keichousauridae Genus: †Keichousaurus -
A new article regarding a new fossil turtle: http://newsdesk.si.edu/releases/smithsonian-scientist-and-collaborator-discover-key-link-turtle-evolution It's no surprise that we have been looking for a missing link reptile that would provide morphological evidence to support DNA analyses linking turtles with lepidosaurs and archosaurs rather than pareiasaurs, and Pappochelys fills a gap in the fossil record by pushing the origin of turtles back 240 million years ago.
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A new paper for anyone interested in the early evolution of lepidosaurs: Marc E.H. Jones, Cajsa Lisa Anderson, Christy A. Hipsley, Johannes Müller, Susan E. Evans and Rainer R. Schoch, 2013 Integration of molecules and new fossils supports a Triassic origin for Lepidosauria (lizards, snakes, and tuatara). BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013, 13:208 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-208 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/13/208/abstract The rhynchocephalian jaw bone from Germany points to the first appearance of lepidosaurs in the Early-Middle Triassic, making Diphydontosaurus the second oldest lepidosaur known to science. This discovery also highlights a huge deficit in the knowledge of early lepidosaurs (the putative Triassic squamate Tikiguana was thought to be of Triassic age, but a recent analysis places it as an agamid, meaning that the only known fossil of Tikiguana was actually reworked from late Cenozoic deposits into Triassic deposits judging from its preservation and hence Tikiguana is not from the Triassic, but instead from the Cenozoic). We've got some Triassic squamate hunt to do. Maybe there are some enigmatic diapsids from the Early-Middle Triassic that could be closely related to modern squamates and tuataras.
