Merlis Serpentinites

The Merlis Serpentinites are an aligned group of small serpentinite outcrops in the northwestern French Massif Central. Their parent rocks were peridotites from the upper mantle.
Type locality.
The serpentinites are named after their type locality, the little hamlet "Merlis" (also written "Merly") near Vayres in the Haute-Vienne department.
Geography and geology.
The biggest outcrop of these serpentinites is situated east of "Merlis", where the rock was once mined in two quarries. In map view it forms a crescent opening to the west, which measures just over a kilometre in longitudinal and 400 meters in latitudinal direction. Starting from the type locality several outcrops follow like beads on a string in a westerly direction, for example at "Puytreillard" west of Vayres, "Les Soumagnes" and "Bonnefont" northwest of Vayres, "Bellevue" southwest of "Saint-Gervais", "Gélisant" southeast of Verneuil and "Le Cluzeau" near Massignac. Immediately north of the type locality are three small separate occurrences.
Serpentinite bodies can also be found southeast of "Merlis", like near Saint-Bazile and Oradour-sur-Vayres, Champagnac-la-Rivière (with six small bodies), "La Martinie" (south of Champagnac-la-Rivière), "La Boissonnie" and "Lageyrat" (west of Châlus) and "La Rougerie" (east of Dournazac). Slightly off-set to the northwest are two occurrences near Cussac.
It is possible to prolong the southeastern branch farther to the SSW including the serpentinites from "Chevalerie" (west of La Coquille), "Comboux" (southwest of Saint-Jory-de-Chalais) and "Le Suquet" (northwest of Saint-Martin-de-Fressengeas). The chain ends with the metaharzburgite of "La Rebière" (southeast of Saint-Martin-de-Fressengeas), which still shows its original magmatic foliation and also most of its original mineralogy.
The western branch is about 13 kilometers long, whereas the southeastern branch measures 38 kilometers.
All the serpentinite bodies are found within the Lower Gneiss Unit (LGU), a basement thrust nappe of the northwestern Massif central. The type locality and the western branch are tectonically emplaced in the lower plagioclase-bearing paragneisses. These outcrops are spatially very close to the northern edge of the Chéronnac Leucogranite, a Pennsylvanian leucogranite with a very pronounced, east-west-striking foliation. The only exception are the serpentinites from "Les Soumagnes" and "Bonnefont" situated somewhat farther north and which are already associated with leptynitic gneisses. The southeastern branch generally overlies leptynitic augen gneisses folded into the paragneisses.
Lithology and mineralogy.
The Merlis serpentinites are ultrabasic rocks with very low SiO2-contents of about 40% (weight percent) and a very high MgO-contents of 35%. They also tie up within their minerals a lot of water (over 13%). Most likely they are derived from hydrated mantle rocks, probably harzburgites or lherzolites. This is underlined by the presence of the metaharzburgite from "La Rebière" in the south. According to the degree of deformation and metamorphism the rocks can take on very different appearances. Generally one is able to distinguish two end member types:
Massive serpentinite.
The massive, dark green to black serpentinites most closely resemble their peridotitic protoliths. The comparatively weakly deformed metaharzburgite from "La Rebière" for instance weathers with the typical orange-brown colour of peridotites and under the microscope still shows crystals defining a hypersthene peridotite (olivine, orthopyroxene (hypersthene), spinel and salitic-diopsidic clinopyroxene). Massive serpentinites to the north exhibit bronzite, augite and brown spinel.
The massive serpentinites disintegrate into blocks bounded by straight to slightly curved joint surfaces coated with silky serpentine minerals. Often these surfaces are slickensided and represent therefore movement planes (faults). In the interior of these rocks one can discern mainly black (changing to grey on the exterior) vein networks exhibiting a metallic luster due to magnetite. They are contrasted by light green, 2 to 10 millimeter-sized rectangular to oval areas completely composed of bastitized pyroxenes. Recognizable are furthermore 0.5 to 3 millimeter long, grey to black crystals of spinel rimmed by light grey magnesium-rich chlorite.
Strongly deformed and serpentinized rocks appear marble-like due to interchanging dark green and light green areas. Crosscutting veins are mainly mineralized by serpentine minerals (like cross fibers of chrysotile) and magnetite.
Under the microscope the following minerals can be identified:
Porphyroblasts of the parent rocks appear only ghost-like as they have been replaced by a fibrous mesh of tremolite-actinolite, Mg-chlorite, serpentine minerals and talc (bastitization). Magnetite substituted for the original chromium spinel.
The serpentinite from "Puytreillard" is a banded variety with interchanging centimeter-scale dark and light layers. The dark bands are composed of completely pseudomorphosed olivine (replaced by antigorite, reddish iddingsite, Mg-chlorite and magnetite), whereas the light bands consist of tremolite fibers, Mg-chlorite and magnetite. The parent rock of this banded variety most likely was a pyroxenite enclosing cumulate layers of dunite.
Foliated serpentinites.
With increasing serpentinization knot-like clusters of colourless, magnesium-rich chlorite, meshes of serpentine minerals, and felt-like aggregates of colourless amphiboles (tremolite), talc, anthophyllite and pargasite occur.
In foliated serpentinites newly formed chlorite is more common. Chlorite grows in leaf-like layers paralleling the regional foliation. This process can even lead to chlorite schists observable at "La Rougerie", Cussac, "Lageyrat", "La Boissonie" and Champagnac-la-Rivière. These chlorite schists are cross-cut in places by asbestos veins and coated by chalcedony or quartz.
Parent rocks.
For the Merlis serpentinites the following parent rocks can be deduced:
In some places even a stratigraphic succession can be recognized starting with peridotites (now massive serpentinites) at the base followed by magnesium-rich peridotites (now retromorphosed to chlorite and tremolite schists) and finishing with gabbros (now medium-grained amphibolites) at the top.
Possibly the parent rocks underwent postmagmatic alterations before being metamorphosed.
Chemical composition.
As an example follows the average composition of massive Merlis serpentinites:
Remarkable the high contents in chromium and nickel amongst the trace elements.
Metamorphism.
The parent rocks were serpentinized during the Variscan regional metamorphism which took place about 400 to 350 million years BP. In the Limousin the main metamorphism was mediovariscan and of the Barrovian type with medium pressure and medium to high temperature conditions (MP/MT metamorphism). It is responsible for the regional foliation. The parent rocks, which had formed under high temperatures and relatively high pressures, underwent retrograde metamorphism in several stages right down to chlorite schists as an end product. The chloritization seems to be general and can be seen to affect other basement rocks (i.e. granites and granodiorites) in the Limousin.
Regional geological context.
The Merlis serpentinites are tectonically emplaced as sheared lenses within paragneisses, leptynitic gneisses and augengneisses.
These bodies generally strike ESE to SSE (N 120 to N 150) in the northern branch, with a medium dip angle between 30 and 60°. In the southern branch the foliation then swings into a southwesterly direction (N 045) with a rather flat dip of about 30° to the Southeast (running parallel to the La Coquille Fault Zone).
All the occurrences in the North were strongly deformed – the only exception being the metaharzburgite at "La Rebière" as the southernmost outcrop. This metaharzburgite might be associated with the close by, by far less metamorphicThiviers-Payzac Unit – thus escaping the stronger metamorphism in the North.
As mentioned above the western branch of serpentinites lies spatially close to the Chéronnac Leucogranite. The southern branch overlies the leptynitic augengneisses, which in turn are thrust over the mica schists of the Parautochthonous Micaschist Unit (PMU) or the Saint-Mathieu Leucogranite.
In a wider perspective all the serpentinites rim the so-called Saint-Mathieu Dome, a dome-like basement uplift of the northwestern Massif Central. This uplift has pushed up the Parautochthonous Micaschist Unit – structurally the lowermost nappe unit below the Lower Gneiss Unit – on its eastern side.
Because of their high water contents (13 weight %) serpentinites are tectonically highly mobile rocks. Their spatial arrangement thus underlines major thrust planes bringing these mantle rocks into higher crustal levels.


Rhamphorhynchus

Rhamphorhynchus (, "beak snout") is a genus of long-tailed pterosaurs in the Jurassic period. Less specialized than contemporary, short-tailed pterodactyloid pterosaurs such as "Pterodactylus", it had a long tail, stiffened with ligaments, which ended in a characteristic soft-tissue tail vane. The mouth of "Rhamphorhynchus" housed needle-like teeth, which were angled forward, with a curved, sharp, beak-like tip lacking teeth, indicating a diet mainly of fish; indeed, fish and cephalopod remains are frequently found in "Rhamphorhynchus" abdominal contents, as well as in their coprolites.
Although fragmentary fossil remains possibly belonging to "Rhamphorhynchus" have been found in England, Tanzania, and Spain, the best preserved specimens come from the Solnhofen limestone of Bavaria, Germany. Many of these fossils preserve not only the bones but impressions of soft tissues, such as wing membranes. Scattered teeth believed to belong to "Rhamphorhynchus" have been found in Portugal as well.
History and classification.
The classification and taxonomy of "Rhamphorhynchus", like many pterosaur species known since the Victorian era, is complex, with a long history of reclassification under a variety of names, often for the same specimens.
The first named specimen of "Rhamphorhynchus" was brought to the attention of Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring by the collector Georg Graf zu Münster in 1825. Von Sömmerring concluded that it belonged to an ancient bird. When further preparation uncovered teeth, Graf zu Münster sent a cast to Professor Georg August Goldfuss, who recognised it as a pterosaur. Like most pterosaurs described in the mid 19th century, "Rhamphorhynchus" was originally considered to be a species of "Pterodactylus". However, at the time, many scientists incorrectly considered "Ornithocephalus" to be the valid name for "Pterodactylus". This specimen of "Rhamphorhynchus" was therefore originally named "Ornithocephalus Münsteri". This was first mentioned in 1830 by Graf zu Münster himself. However, the description making the name valid was given by Goldfuss in an 1831 follow-up to Münster's short paper. Note that the ICZN later ruled that non-standard Latin characters, such as "ü", would not be allowed in scientific names, and the spelling "münsteri" was emended to "muensteri" by Richard Lydekker in 1888.
In 1839, Münster described another specimen that he considered to belong to "Ornithocephalus" (i.e. "Pterodactylus"), with a distinctive long tail. He named it "Ornithocephalus longicaudus", meaning "long tail", to differentiate it from the specimens with short tails (the true specimens of "Pterodactylus").
In 1845, Hermann von Meyer officially emended the original species "Ornithocephalus münsteri" to "Pterodactylus münsteri", since the name "Pterodactylus" had been by that point recognized as having priority over "Ornithocephalus". In a subsequent 1846 paper describing a new species of long-tailed 'pterodactyl', von Meyer decided that the long-tailed forms of "Pterodactylus" were different enough from the short-tailed forms to warrant placement in a subgenus, and he named his new species "Pterodactylus (Rhamphorhynchus) gemmingi" after a specimen owned by collector Captain Carl Eming von Gemming that was later by von Gemming sold for three hundred guilders to the Teylers Museum in Haarlem. It was not until 1847 that von Meyer elevated "Rhamphorhynchus" to a full-fledged genus, and officially included in it both long-tailed species of "Pterodactylus" known at the time, "R. longicaudus" (the original species preserving a long tail) and "R. gemmingi". The type species of "Rhamphorhynchus" is "R. longicaudus"; its type specimen or holotype also was sold to the Teylers Museum, where it still resides as TM 6924.
The original species, "Pterodactylus münsteri", remained misclassified until a re-evaluation was published by Richard Owen in an 1861 book, in which he renamed it as "Rhamphorhynchus münsteri". The type specimen of "R. muensteri", described by Münster and Goldfuss, was lost during World War II. If available, a new specimen, or neotype, is designated as the type specimen if the original is lost or deemed too poorly preserved. Peter Wellnhofer declined to designate a neotype in his 1975 review of the genus, because a number of high-quality casts of the original specimen were still available in museum collections. These can serve as plastotypes.
By the 1990s (and following Wellnhofer's consolidation of many previously named species), about five species of "Rhamphorhynchus" were recognized from the Solnhofen limestone of Germany, with a few others having been named from Africa, Spain, and the UK based on fragmentary remains. Most of the Solnhofen species were differentiated based on their relative size, and size-related features, such as the relative length of the skull.
In 1995, pterosaur researcher Chris Bennett published an extensive review of the currently recognized German species. Bennett concluded that all the supposedly distinct German species were actually different year-classes of a single species, "R. muensteri", representing distinct age groups, with the smaller species being juveniles and the larger adults. Bennett's paper did not cover the British and African species, though he suggested that these should be considered indeterminate members of the family Rhamphorhynchidae and not necessarily species of "Rhamphorhynchus" itself. Despite the reduction of the genus to a single species, the type species remains "R. longicaudus".
In 2015, a new species of "Rhamphorhynchus, R. etchesi" was named for associated remains of a left and right wing from the Kimmeridge Clay in the United Kingdom, the name commemorates the discoverer, Steve Etches, a local collector of the fossils of the Kimmerage Clay. It is distinguished from other species of "Rhamphorhynchus" by "the unique length ratio between wing phalanx 1 and wing phalanx 2"
Phylogeny.
The cladogram of below is the result of a large phylogenetic analysis published by Brian Andres & Timothy Myers in 2013. The species "R. muensteri" was recovered within the family Rhamphorhynchidae, sister taxon to both "Cacibupteryx" and "Nesodactylus".
Description.
The largest known specimen of "Rhamphorhynchus muensteri" (catalog number BMNH 37002) measures long with a wingspan of .
Skull.
Contrary to a 1927 report by pterosaur researcher Ferdinand Broili, "Rhamphorhynchus" lacked any bony or soft tissue crest, as seen in several species of contemporary small pterodactyloid pterosaurs. Broili claimed to have found a two-millimeter-tall crest made of thin bone that ran much of the skull's length in one "Rhamphorhynchus" specimen, evidenced by an impression in the surrounding rock and a few small fragments of the crest itself. However, subsequent examination of this specimen by Wellnhofer in 1975 and Bennett in 2002 using both visible and ultraviolet light found no trace of a crest; both concluded that Broili was mistaken. The supposed crest, they concluded, was simply an artifact of preservation. The teeth of "Rhamphorhynchus" intermesh when the jaw is closed and are suggestive of a piscivorous diet. There are twenty teeth in the upper jaws and fourteen in the lower jaws.
Paleobiology.
Life history.
Traditionally, the large size variation between specimens of "Rhamphorhynchus" has been taken to represent species variation. However, in a 1995 paper, Bennett argued that these "species" actually represent year-classes of a single species, "Rhamphorhynchus muensteri", from flaplings to adults. Following from this interpretation, Bennett found several notable changes that occurred in "R. muensteri" as the animal aged.
Juvenile "Rhamphorhynchus" had relatively short skulls with large eyes, and the toothless beak-like tips of the jaws were shorter in juveniles than adults, with rounded, blunt lower jaw tips eventually becoming slender and pointed as the animals grew. Adult "Rhamphorhynchus" also developed a strong upward "hook" at the end of the lower jaw. The number of teeth remained constant from juvenile to adult, though the teeth became relatively shorter and stockier as the animals grew, possibly to accommodate larger and more powerful prey. The pelvic and pectoral girdles fused as the animals aged, with full pectoral fusion attained by one year of age.
The shape of the tail vane also changed across various age classes of "Rhamphorhynchus". In juveniles, the vane was shallow relative to the tail and roughly oval, or "lancet-shaped". As growth progressed, the tail vane became diamond-shaped, and finally triangular in the largest individuals.
The smallest known "Rhamphorhynchus" specimen has a wingspan of only 290 millimeters; however, it is likely that even such a small individual was capable of flight. Bennett examined two possibilities for hatchlings: that they were altricial, requiring some period of parental care before leaving the nest, or that they were precocial, hatching with sufficient size and ability for flight. If precocious, Bennett suggested that clutches would be small, with only one or two eggs laid per clutch, to compensate for the relatively large size of the hatchings. Bennett did not speculate on which possibility was more likely, though the discovery of a pterosaur embryo ("Avgodectes") with strongly ossified bones suggests that pterosaurs in general were precocial, able to fly soon after hatching with minimal parental care. This theory was contested by a histological study of "Rhamphorhynchus" that showed the initial rapid growth was followed by a prolonged period of slow growth.
In 2020, published ontogenetic analyses indicated that "Rhamphorynchus" could fly soon after hatching, supporting the theory of precociality in the species. It has also been suggested that juveniles may have occupied different sequential niches throughout their growth as they matured.
Metabolism.
Having determined that "Rhamphorhynchus" specimens fit into discrete year-classes, Bennett was able to estimate the growth rate during one year by comparing the size of one-year-old specimens with two-year-old specimens. He found that the average growth rate during the first year of life for "Rhamphorhynchus" was 130% to 173%, slightly faster than the growth rate in alligators. Growth likely slowed considerably after sexual maturity, so it would have taken more than three years to attain maximum adult size.
This growth rate is much slower than the rate seen in large pterodactyloid pterosaurs, such as "Pteranodon", which attained near-adult size within the first year of life. Additionally, pterodactyloids had "determinate growth", meaning that the animals reached a fixed maximum adult size and stopped growing. Previous assumptions of rapid growth rate in rhamphorhynchoids were based on the assumption that they needed to be warm-blooded to sustain active flight. Warm-blooded animals, like modern birds and bats, normally show rapid growth to adult size and determinate growth. Because there is no evidence for either in "Rhamphorhynchus", Bennett considered his findings consistent with an ectothermic metabolism, though he recommended more studies needed to be done. Cold-blooded "Rhamphorhynchus", Bennett suggested, may have basked in the sun or worked their muscles to accumulate enough energy for bouts of flight, and cooled to ambient temperature when not active to save energy, like modern reptiles.
Swimming.
Though "Rhamphorhynchus" is often depicted as an aerial piscivore, recent evidence suggests that, much like most modern aquatic birds, it probably foraged while swimming. Like several pteranodontians it has hatchet-shaped deltopectoral crests, a short torso and short legs, all features associated with water based launching in pterosaurs. Its feet are broad and large, being useful for propulsion, and the predicted floating position is adequate by pterosaur standards. The animal's ability to swim may account for the genus' generally excellent fossil record, being in a position where preservation would be much easier.
Sexual dimorphism.
Both Koh Ting-Pong and Peter Wellnhofer recognized two distinct groups among adult "Rhamphorhynchus muensteri", differentiated by the proportions of the neck, wing, and hind limbs, but particularly in the ratio of skull to humerus length. Both researchers noted that these two groups of specimens were found in roughly a 1:1 ratio, and interpreted them as different sexes. Bennett tested for sexual dimorphism in "Rhamphorhynchus" by using a statistical analysis, and found that the specimens did indeed group together into small-headed and large-headed sets. However, without any known variation in the actual form of the bones or soft tissue (morphological differences), he found the case for sexual dimorphism inconclusive.
Head orientation.
In 2003, a team of researchers led by Lawrence Witmer studied the brain anatomy of several types of pterosaurs, including "Rhamphorhynchus muensteri", using endocasts of the brain they retrieved by performing CAT scans of fossil skulls. Using comparisons to modern animals, they were able to estimate various physical attributes of pterosaurs, including relative head orientation during flight and coordination of the wing membrane muscles. Witmer and his team found that "Rhamphorhynchus" held its head parallel to the ground due to the orientation of the "osseous labyrinth" of the inner ear, which helps animals detect balance. In contrast, pterodactyloid pterosaurs, such as "Anhanguera", appear to have normally held their heads at a downward angle, both in flight and while on the ground.
Daily activity patterns.
Comparisons between the scleral rings of "Rhamphorhynchus" and modern birds and reptiles suggest that it may have been nocturnal, and may have had activity patterns similar to those of modern nocturnal seabirds. This may also indicate niche partitioning with contemporary pterosaurs inferred to be diurnal, such as "Scaphognathus" and "Pterodactylus".
Ecology.
Several limestone slabs have been discovered in which fossils of "Rhamphorhynchus" are found in close association with the ganoid fish "Aspidorhynchus". In one of these specimens, the jaws of an "Aspidorhynchus" pass through the wings of the "Rhamphorhynchus" specimen. The "Rhamphorhynchus" also has the remains of a small fish, possibly "Leptolepides", in its throat. This slab, cataloged as WDC CSG 255, may represent two levels of predation; one by "Rhamphorhynchus" and one by "Aspidorhynchus". In a 2012 description of WDC CSG 255, researchers proposed that the "Rhamphorhynchus" individual had just caught a "Leptolepides" while it was swimming. As the "Leptolepides" was travelling down its pharynx, a large "Aspidorhynchus" would have attacked from below the water, accidentally puncturing the left wing membrane of the "Rhamphorhynchus" with its sharp rostrum in the process. The teeth in its snout were ensnared in the fibrous tissue of the wing membrane, and as the fish thrashed to release itself the left wing of "Rhamphorhynchus" was pulled backward into the distorted position seen in the fossil. The encounter resulted in the death of both individuals, most likely because the two animals sank into an anoxic layer in the water body, depriving the fish of oxygen. The two may have been preserved together as the weight of the head of "Aspidorhynchus" held down the much lighter body of "Rhamphorhynchus".
"Odontorhynchus".
"Odontorhynchus" "aculeatus" was based on a skull with lower jaws that is now lost. This set of jaws supposedly differed in having two teeth united at the tip of the lower jaw, and none at the tip of the upper jaw. The skull was , making it a small form. Stolley, who described the specimen in 1936, argued that "R. longicaudus" also should be reclassified in the genus "Odontorhynchus". Both Koh and Wellnhofer rejected this idea, arguing instead that "Odontorhynchus" was a junior synonym of "R. longicaudus". Bennett agreed with their assessments, and included both "Odontorhynchus" and "R. longicaudus" as synonyms of "R. muensteri".


Rupite

Rupite (, ) is a village which includes a small mountainous protected area in the southeastern part of Blagoevgrad Province, Bulgaria, 10-12 kilometres northeast of Petrich, inside Petrich Municipality, on the right bank of the Struma River. It is best known as the place where the Bulgarian medium Baba Vanga lived and was buried. The area is in fact the crater of an extinct volcano, its appearance being shaped by the volcanic hill of Kozhuh, the thermal springs and Pchelina Hill. The village has 1,124 inhabitants.
Rupite is a protected area, which is situated at a distance of about 10 km from Petrich and 2 km from the village of Rupite, at the eastern foot of the extinct volcano Kozhuh Mountain (281 meters altitude). The hill was built by volcanic rocks. Its name comes from the fact that it looks like a mantle (kozhuh in Bulgarian). In 1962 a part of the locality of Kozhuh – 0.4 hectares – was declared a natural landmark.
The protected area of Rupite is famous for its healing mineral springs with a temperature of 74° C and capacity of up to 35 l/sec. The climate in the locality is transitional-Mediterranean, which is a reason for the presence of Mediterranean grass vegetation and some thermoliphic animal species. The natural by-river forest consists mainly of White Poplar (Populus Alba).
The protected areas of Rupite and Kozhuh Mountain are homes to various snake species. Here you can see the relatively rare species – Cat Snake (Telescopus fallax). There are 201 bird species in the Rupite area, including various Mediterranean species, which can rarely be seen in other places in our country. Via Aristotelis passes through this area. This is one of the two basic bird migration routes through the territory of the country. In the region visitors can see species, such as the Large Olive Warbler (Нippolais Olivetorum), White-headed Shrike (Lanius nubicus) and Black-headed Shrike (Lanius minor). During the migration and the wintering period here stays the globally endangered species Small Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygmaeus).
The remains of an ancient town, existing within the period from 4th century BC to the 6th century AD are located along the south slopes and at the foot of the volcanic hill Kozhuh. According to explorers, this was the main town of the Thracian tribe Sints – Heraclea Sintica.
The memorial temple “St. Petka of Bulgaria”, built in 1994 is situated in the locality of Rupite. The locality is mostly famous as a place related to the prophet Vanga, and by this it attracts thousands of worshippers and tourists. Vangeliya Gushterova (1911 – 1996), is the full name of the prophet, was famous around the whole world with her multiple prophecies which had come true. According to a legend, Vanga lost her sight in her early childhood years in a storm, but during the accident she had a vision, which gave her the unique abilities. In the last years of her life, Vanga lived in a small house in the Rupite, because according to her relatives she considered the area an energy source and collected her powers from it. The church was built by monetary means, provided by Vanga, and it is notable for its wall paintings. They were made by the famous Bulgarian artist Svetlin Rusev and they are quite realistic, which differentiates them from the Orthodox canon. Despite the fact that the temple was not built according to the rules of the Orthodox church, it attracts thousands of worshippers and tourists because of its connection with Grandmother Vanga.
Nature.
The landscape of Rupite is dominated by the eminence of Kozhuh (Кожух, "fur coat", taking its name from its shape resembling a fur coat thrown on) situated to the west. Although it is only 281 m high, it rises like a high mountain from the low and flat Petrich Plain. The eminence, which is part of the outskirts of the extinct volcano, consists of three small summits, of which the middle one is the highest. Volcanic rocks and rock pyramids can be observed at the foot of Kozhuh. Due to the eminence's interesting origin (often called "the only volcano in Bulgaria") and the abundance of rare species of the Bulgarian flora and fauna, Kozhuh is a proclaimed natural landmark since 1962. Remains of an ancient town called "Petra", were discovered at the southwestern foot of Kozhuh. In 2002, the scientists came across the proof of their identification of the city: a Latin inscription, dated 308 AD, of an imperial appeal addressed to the local urban citizens of Heraclea Sintica. Thus ended the years-long argument between Greece and Bulgaria about where Heraclea Sintica actually was.
Apart from the eminence, Rupite is also known for the curative hot springs issuing in the area, with a temperature of 71-78 °C and an average discharge of 35 l/s. The climate in Rupite is very specific, transitional between continental and Mediterranean and featuring hot dry summers and mild winters, which is one of the reasons for the variety of rare plant species, 13 of which are endangered in Bulgaria. 201 bird species inhabit the area, including a number of species typical for the Mediterranean that are not present in other areas of the country. Almost all of the snake species that can be observed in Bulgaria can be found in Rupite, as well as four species of tortoises and other animals that prefer relatively high temperatures.
Population.
The village of Rupite had 926 inhabitants at the end of 2019, up from 626 inhabitants in 1934 but down from 1,248 people in 1985. The population is declining since Fall of Communism. Nearly all inhabitants are ethnic Bulgarians (99.6%).
Church.
The Church of St Petka was constructed at a site chosen by Baba Vanga in 1992 and has since then become a place of worship for many people and a renowned tourist attraction. The icons were created by the noted artist Svetlin Rusev and were not generally approved by the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for being too realistic and not conforming to the canons. The house of Vanga can be seen nearby and a new monastery is currently under construction.
Honour.
Rupite Glacier on Smith Island, South Shetland Islands is named after Rupite.


Argonauticeras

Argonauticeras is an extinct ammonoid cephalopod genus that lived during the latter part of the Early Cretaceous, included in the Lytoceratida and found in lower and possibly middle Aptian marine sediments. It has been thought of as a subgenus of "Ammonoceratites".
"Argonauticeras" produced an evolute shell with a trapezoidal whorl section, slightly impressed inner rim (or dorsum), a somewhat flattened outer rim (venter) and broadly arched sides, covered with fine, weakly crinkled ribs.


Cerro de la Loma Larga

Cerro de la Loma Larga (literal English: "Long Hill Mountain"), or Loma Larga (short version), is a lower extension of the Sierra Madre Oriental, particularly of Cerro de las Mitras. located in the Monterrey, Nuevo León metropolitan area.
The hill has long been considered the natural division of the now adjacent cities of Monterrey and San Pedro Garza García. The Diana Cazadora statue marking the division of Monterrey and San Pedro Garza García was placed along a busy avenue (Gonzalitos) crossing over the hill. In the early 2000s, the state government completed the Loma Larga Tunnel, which burrows under the mountain to connect Monterrey to San Pedro Garza García.
For its length of about , it is flanked on its northern side by the Santa Catarina River, and on its southern side, the Sierra Madre Oriental in almost full height.
Nearby geological features make it a relatively unremarkable slope. Residential and commercial development has been built over most of the mountain. The Basílica de Guadalupe is also located on the hill, among other churches.
Loma Larga is used for some broadcasting. XHRL-FM and XET-AM, among other stations, maintain facilities on the mountain. Other stations use Cerro del Mirador, located to the west.
Some other well-known mountains or elevations of the area are Cerro de la Silla, Cerro de las Mitras, the Sierra Madre Oriental and Cerro de Chipinque with its famous M-shaped figure, the Cerro del Topo Chico, Cerro del Obispado and La Huasteca.


Georgetown, Ascension Island

Georgetown is the capital and chief settlement of Ascension Island, in the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, situated on the west coast of the island.
The town is centred on St Mary's Church, part of the Anglican Diocese of St Helena and the former Exiles Club, built as a Royal Marines barracks at the time of Napoleon's exile to Saint Helena in the early 19th century. The town is named after King George III, who reigned at the time the island was claimed for Britain and garrisoned by the Admiralty in 1815. As well as the church, there is a pier, an athletics track, a small supermarket, Royal Mail post office, snackbar, hotel, police station, Georgetown Hospital, dental surgery and a library. There is no school however and pupils travel to Two Boats village, 3 miles inland.
Naval history.
A naval base was established at Georgetown in 1816 due to British concerns that the French might make use of the island to attempt a rescue of their exiled former Emperor. Following Napoleon's death in 1821, the settlement found a new role as a supply, maintenance and victualling base for the West Africa Squadron. Local tufa was used for building, but everything else had to be imported (including seeds, vegetables and fruit trees, all of which were cultivated on Green Mountain to supplement the locally-available diet of turtle meat). By 1829 a small jetty had been constructed as well as several buildings on what is now the Regent Square area, close to the sea (including a hospital – the West Africa Squadron was notoriously prone to sickness).
In June 1829 a Lieutenant of the Royal Engineers, Henry Brandreth, arrived on Ascension with a remit to survey the facilities there and make recommendations for their improvement. He condemned what he found as, for the most part, 'miserable tenements ... inhabited by vermin'. Together with the local commandant, he recommended re-establishing the settlement a little way back from the sea on the elevated plateau which Georgetown occupies today. Having returned to England to oversee the supply and manufacture of certain items for the island, he returned in 1830 to begin work on this project. A key innovation was the construction of St George's Water Tank, which can still be seen today: water was channelled to it from the mountain top, as well as from every roof in Georgetown, and from here it was fed by a windpump into a header tank for distribution to local buildings (and, via a pipeline, to the pierhead for transfer to ships). The Marine Barracks building also dates from this period, as do several other buildings including Georgetown's hospital, which continues to fulfil the purpose for which it was built.
The site of the old settlement, closer to the sea, was then used for storage and maintenance (the surviving Main Storehouse of 1848 was once claimed to be the largest building in the southern hemisphere). Before long, to meet the demands of an increasingly steam-powered navy, coaling facilities were built, and in 1862 a 'steam factory' housing metalworkers, a machine shop and smelting works, was established. Georgetown continued to serve as a strategic base for the Navy through the 20th century, though after 1899 the site was increasingly administered by the Eastern Telegraph Company. When in 1922 the Board of the Admiralty ceded Ascension Island to the Colonial Office, an exchange of correspondence indicates that one thing its officials wished to preserve was their annual gift of turtle soup from Georgetown (an annual perquisite apparently enjoyed since 1816).
Forts.
On 22 October 1815 HMS "Peruvian" and HMS "Zenobia" anchored in the roadstead off Georgetown to claim the island for the British Crown. Once ashore, one of the first tasks undertaken by the sailors was to set up a pair of cannons on the promontory in the harbour to provide some defence. This battery became known as Fort Cockburn (renamed in the middle of the century Fort Thornton).
A second fort was established on a site called Goat Hill further to the west in around 1860 (Fort Hayes) and a third, Fort Bedford, on the hill overlooking the town called Cross Hill. Fort Bedford, which dates from 1903, still has some Victorian cannons, as well as a pair of BL 5.5 inch Mark I naval guns that were originally fitted to . These guns were used to repel a German attack by "U-124" on 9 December 1941 during World War II with surprisingly great success as the Germans did not approach the island again. Fort Hayes until recently housed the museum of the Ascension Island Heritage Society.
Present-day Georgetown.
The town is a centre of culture on Ascension. It usually hosts local athletics events as well as being the start of the annual dew pond race from sea level to the highest point on the island on Green Mountain. Ascension Day activities (to celebrate the discovery of Ascension) are either hosted here or in nearby Two Boats village. the population was about 450. Nearby Long Beach is an important nesting ground for the giant Green turtle.


Cardiocorax

Cardiocorax is an extinct genus of elasmosaurid known from the Late Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian stage) Mocuio Formation of Namibe Province, southern Angola. It contains a single species, Cardiocorax mukulu.
Discovery.
"Cardiocorax" is known from the holotype MGUAN PA103 which consists of a complete pectoral and pelvic girdle, five neck and one back vertebrae, a partial forelimb including the humerus, radius bone, ulna and isolated phalanges, and several dorsal ribs. A second specimen was also referred to the species, MGAUN PA270, a more complete articulated pelvic girdle and a single hind limb. Both specimens are housed at the Museu de Geologia da Universidade Agostinho Neto in Luanda. The specimens were discovered at Bench 19 locality, about 7 meters from each other, in Bentiaba of the Namibe Province. They were collected from the Mocuio Formation of the Sāo Nicolau Group of Namibe Basin, dating to the early Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous, 71.40–71.64 million years ago.
Etymology.
"Cardiocorax" was first named by Ricardo Araújo, Michael J. Polcyn, Anne S. Schulp, Octávio Mateus, Louis L. Jacobs, A. Olímpio Gonçalves and M.-L. Morais in 2015 and the type species is "Cardiocorax mukulu". The generic name is derived from Latinised Greek "Kardia", meaning "heart", plus "corax", meaning "raven/crow" which is also the source of the name "coracoid", in reference to the heart-shaped fenestra between the coracoids which is unique to this genus. The specific name comes from the word "mukulu" in Angolan Bantu dialects, which means "ancestor".
Phylogeny.
"Cardiocorax" is a relatively distinctive elasmosaurid, possessing four unique traits, i.e. autapomorphies. Notably, it shows a reduced dorsal blade of the scapula, a feature unique among elasmosaurids, but convergent with the related cryptoclidid plesiosaurs. This trait indicates a longitudinal protraction-retraction limb cycle rowing style with simple pitch rotation at the glenohumeral articulation - a style unique to "Cardiocorax". Araújo "et al." (2015) tested the phylogenetic position of the genus using a modified version of Ketchum & Benson (2010) data-set, as well as a second data-set from Vincent "et al." (2011) which was found to be consistent with the former. The cladogram below follows their results.


Dalgaranga crater

Dalgaranga crater is a small meteorite impact crater located on Dalgaranga pastoral station 75 km northwest of Mount Magnet (or north of Yalgoo) in Western Australia. It is only 24 m in diameter and 3 m deep, making it Australia's smallest impact crater (with exception of the smallest members of the Henbury crater field). Though discovered in 1921, it was not reported in the scientific literature until 1938. The bedrock at the site is weathered Archaean granite of the Yilgarn Craton. The discovery of fragments of mesosiderite stony-iron meteorite around the crater confirms an impact origin, making this crater unique as the only one known to have been produced by a mesosiderite projectile.
Description.
Asymmetries in the crater structure and the ejecta blanket imply that the projectile impacted at low angle from the south-southeast. The age is not accurately constrained but must be young because it is so well preserved for its small size, and the meteorite fragments have not weathered away; some authors suggest an age of as young as 3000 years.
Discovery.
The crater was discovered by an Aboriginal stockman named Billy Seward in 1921. The meteorites were found shortly after by Gerard Wellard, the station manager, when Seward took him to the site. It was not until 1923 that meteorite fragments were sent to the Western Australian Museum.


Oxycerites

Oxycerites is an extinct ammonoid cephalopod belonging to the haploceratoid family, Oppeliidae, that lived during the Middle Jurassic.
Shells of "Oxycerites" are involute, compressed and generally smooth with a sharply rounded venter on the outer rim, deeply impressed dorsum on the inner rim, and a small umbilicus.
The living chamber takes up slightly more than half a whorl. "Oxycerites" grew to a diameter of at least 17.5 cm, about 7 inches.
"Oppelia" and "Oecotraustes" are similar and closely related forms. "Oppelia" is smoother, "Oecotraustes" more strongly ribbed
Distribution.
Jurassic of Argentina, France, Germany, Iran, Madagascar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom


Lasasaurus

Lasasaurus is an extinct genus of procolophonid parareptile known from the Early Triassic Middle Sakamena Formation, of northern Madagascar.


Lieuwe Dirk Boonstra

Lieuwe Dirk Boonstra (1905 – 1975) was a South African palaeontologist whose work focused on the mammal-like reptiles of the Middle ("Tapinocephalus" Assemblage Zone) and Late Permian, whose fossil remains are common in the South African Karoo. He was the author of a large number of papers on Therapsids and Pareiasaurs, and described and revised a number of species.
Work.
In 1927 Boonstra was appointed Assistant Palaeontologist of the South African Museum and promoted to Palaeontologist in 1931. He remained at the museum until his retirement in 1972. He was the sole curator of the museum's Karoo vertebrate fossil collection for 45 years.
Awards.
He was awarded the Queen Victoria Scholarship by the University of Stellenbosch and received the Havenga prize for Biology from Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns in 1959.
Publications.
Volume 64 of the "Annals of the South African Museum" (1974) was dedicated to Boonstra. The 88 publications and books he wrote between 1928 and 1969 are listed in it.


Lapampasaurus

Lapampasaurus is an extinct genus of hadrosaurid known from the Late Cretaceous Allen Formation (late Campanian or early Maastrichtian stage) of La Pampa Province, Argentina. It contains a single species, Lapampasaurus cholinoi.
The generic name refers to the Argentine province of La Pampa. The specific name honours the late collector José Cholino. The material includes cervical, dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebrae, the forelimb girdle, and the partial hindlimb.


Rocas Alijos

Rocas Alijos, or Escollos Alijos () are a group of tiny, steep and barren volcanic islets or above-water (as well as below-water) rocks in the Pacific Ocean at . They are part of Comondú municipality of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, and situated about west of the mainland. The total surface area is .
The group consists of three principal rocks and numerous smaller ones. South Rock, the largest of the group, is high, with a diameter of only (position ). Middle Rock is high and about in diameter. North Rock, north of South Rock, is high, with a diameter of .
The rocks in between those are either submerged or so low that they are barely visible among the heavily breaking waves.
The rocks have been known since the early Spanish history of Mexico; they can be found on a map from 1598. The first description is from 1704, by pirate John Clipperton. The first exact description was made by a Spanish sailor in 1791. South Rock was climbed for the first time in 1990 by an expedition (October 31 through November 7, 1990) under the leadership of Robert Schmieder, who edited a monograph about the rocks.
The group is located at the transition zone between two major biologic provinces, at a latitude where the Pacific Current turns westward to form the North Pacific trans-oceanic current. The rocks are nesting sites of many seabirds.
The two other Mexican island groups in the Pacific Ocean that are not on the continental shelf are Guadalupe Island and Revillagigedo Islands.
Fauna.
The breeding marine avifauna of Alijos Rocks currently consists of Leach's storm-petrel (a presumed breeder, probably a few pairs), red-billed tropicbird (14 birds), masked booby (100), and sooty tern (250). The magnificent frigatebird is a regular winter visitor but probably does not breed. The Laysan albatross is currently an annual visitor to Alijos Rocks during its winter breeding season, and may start to nest there in the near future.


Tuhua Orogeny

The Tuhua orogeny was a regional orogeny between 370 and 330 million years ago, now preserved in the Fiordland region of New Zealand. Early Paleozoic rocks such as Ordovician greywacke, slate and paragneiss in the Buller terrane, weakly metamorphosed greenschist and sub-greenschist rocks, Cambrian mafic volcanics, Ordovician limestone and Silurian clastic rocks were all deformed and metamorphosed. In addition, between 380 and 250 million years ago, metasediments reached amphibolite grade in the sequence of metamorphic facies.
In 1978, G.W. Grindley proposed that the Tuhua orogeny emplaced the Central Belt as a stack of nappe formations, with recumbent folding, thrusting and axial plane schistosity. The first rocks to be affected, like the Silurian Baton Formation and the Constant Gneiss were later intruded by the Tuhua Intrusive Group granitoids in the second phase of the orogeny during the Devonian.


Durango volcanic field

Durango volcanic field is a volcanic field in north-central Mexico, east of the Sierra Madre Occidental. The field covers a surface area of .
The volcanic field is located in the Tepehuano terrane. Volcanism in the area was accompanied by tectonic extension. There are around hundred cones in the field. Some volcanic rocks have been affected by faulting; buried faults are also found. The San Luis-Tepehuanes fault system is associated with the field. The whole field is covered by lavas, which are about thick and reach a total volume of . Magma ascent has been controlled by northwest-trending faults. Volcanism in the wider territory was related to the subduction of the Farallon plate until 29 mya. Later tectonic changes caused a start of more alkaline volcanism.
The volcanoes have erupted basanite. The main components of the rocks at La Breña-El Jagüey are clinopyroxene, ilmenite, olivine, plagioclase and titanomagnetite, with rocks sporting variable textures. The participation of water in the formation process of these magmas is debatable; the rocks may have been influenced by sediments from the uppermost part of the subducting Farallon slab. These rocks are of mafic intraplate geochemistry. The rocks contain mantle xenoliths.
The most prominent volcanic centres of the field are the La Breña-El Jagüey maars. They form intersected craters and the larger Brena crater has cinder cones within. The diameter of the Brena maar is and Jagüey , rising above a high lava plain. Each maar is surrounded by a tuff ring high. Jaguey presently holds a permanent lake and the formation of both maars was probably influenced by groundwater. Jaguey maar likely formed first, with the Brena maar forming eruption generating surge fields. The formation of the maars has partly buried some neighbouring cinder cones. Other cones in the field may date back to Pliocene-Pleistocene times given their state of degradation; one K-Ar date is 0.8 mya.
These two maars may be the most recent eruption products of the field, likely of Holocene age given the unvegetated appearance of the lava flows. The field is an inhospitable terrain.


Lahimia

Lahimia ("carnivore") is a genus of extinct hyaenodont mammals, known from the Selandian stage (middle Paleocene) of Africa.
Phylogeny.
The phylogenetic relationships of genus "Lahimia" are shown in the following cladogram.


Ambondro mahabo

Ambondro mahabo is a mammal from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Isalo III Formation (about 167 million years ago) of Madagascar. The only described species of the genus Ambondro, it is known from a fragmentary lower jaw with three teeth, interpreted as the last premolar and the first two molars. The premolar consists of a central cusp with one or two smaller cusps and a cingulum (shelf) on the inner, or lingual, side of the tooth. The molars also have such a lingual cingulum. They consist of two groups of cusps: a trigonid of three cusps at the front and a talonid with a main cusp, a smaller cusp, and a crest at the back. Features of the talonid suggest that "Ambondro" had tribosphenic molars, the basic arrangement of molar features also present in marsupial and placental mammals. It is the oldest known mammal with putatively tribosphenic teeth; at the time of its discovery it antedated the second oldest example by about 25 million years.
Upon its description in 1999, "Ambondro" was interpreted as a primitive relative of Tribosphenida (marsupials, placentals, and their extinct tribosphenic-toothed relatives). In 2001, however, an alternative suggestion was published that united it with the Cretaceous Australian "Ausktribosphenos" and the monotremes (the echidnas, the platypus, and their extinct relatives) into the clade Australosphenida, which would have acquired tribosphenic molars independently from marsupials and placentals. The Jurassic Argentinean "Asfaltomylos" and "Henosferus" and the Cretaceous Australian "Bishops" were later added to Australosphenida, and new work on wear in australosphenidan teeth has called into question whether these animals, including "Ambondro", did have tribosphenic teeth. Other paleontologists have challenged this concept of Australosphenida, and instead proposed that "Ambondro" is not closely related to "Ausktribosphenos" plus monotremes, or that monotremes are not australosphenidans and that the remaining australosphenidans are related to placentals.
Discovery and context.
"Ambondro mahabo" was described by a team led by John Flynn in a 1999 paper in "Nature". The scientific name derives from the village of Ambondromahabo, close to which the fossil was found. It is known from the Bathonian (middle Jurassic, about 167 million years ago) of the Mahajanga Basin in northwestern Madagascar, in the Isalo III unit, the youngest of the three rock layers that make up the Isalo "Group". This unit has also yielded crocodyliform and plesiosaur teeth and remains of the sauropod "Lapparentosaurus".
Description.
"Ambondro" was described on the basis of a fragmentary right mandible (lower jaw) with three teeth in it (Figure 1), interpreted as the last premolar (p-last) and the first two molars (m1 and m2). It is in the collection of the University of Antananarivo as specimen UA 10602. Relative to other primitive mammals, it is small. Each of the teeth has a prominent cingulum (shelf) on the inner (lingual) side. The p-last has a strong central cusp. There is a cuspule (small cusp) on the back of the tooth and probably another on the inner front corner. This tooth resembles the molars of symmetrodonts, a group of primitive mammals, but the back cusp is smaller than the metaconid of symmetrodonts.
The front half of the m1 and m2 consists of the trigonid, a group of three cusps forming a triangle: the paraconid at the front on the inner side, protoconid in the middle on the outer (labial) side, and metaconid at the back on the inner side (see Figure 2). The three cusps form a right angle with each other at the protoconid, so that the trigonid is described as "open". The paraconid is higher than the metaconid. At the front margin, a cingulum is present that is divided into two small cusps. Unlike in various early tribosphenic mammals and close relatives, there is no additional cuspule behind the metaconid. At the back of the trigonid, the crest known as the distal metacristid is located relatively close to the outer side of the tooth and is continuous with another crest, the cristid obliqua, which is in turn connected to the back of the tooth.
The talonid, another group of cusps, makes up the back of the tooth. It is wider than long and contains a well-developed cusp, the hypoconid, on the outer side and a depression, the talonid basin, in the middle. The cristid obliqua connects to the hypoconid. The smaller hypoconulid cusp is present towards the inner side of the tooth, and the hypoconid and hypoconulid are connected by a cutting edge which is suggestive of the presence of a metacone cusp on the upper molars. Further towards the inner side, a crest, the entocristid, rims the talonid basin; on m1, it is swollen and on m2, it contains two small cuspules, but a distinct entoconid cusp is absent. This entocristid is continuous with the lingual cingulum.
Wear facets are areas of a tooth that show evidence of contact with a tooth in the opposing jaw when the teeth are brought together (known as occlusion). Flynn and colleagues identified two wear facets at the front and back margins of the talonid basin; they argue that these wear facets suggest the presence of a protocone (another cusp on the outer side of the tooth) on the upper molars. In a 2005 paper on "Asfaltomylos", a related primitive mammal from Argentina, Thomas Martin and Oliver Rauhut disputed the presence of these wear facets within the talonid basin in "Ambondro" and instead identified wear facets on the cusps and crests surrounding the basin. They proposed that wear in the australosphenidan talonid occurs mainly on the rims, not in the talonid basin itself, and that australosphenidans may not have had a functional protocone.
Interpretations.
In their paper, Flynn and colleagues described "Ambondro" as the oldest mammal with tribosphenic molars—the basic molar type of metatherian (marsupials and their extinct relatives) and eutherian (placentals and their extinct relatives) mammals, characterized by the protocone cusp on the upper molars contacting the talonid basin on the lower molars in chewing. The discovery of "Ambondro" was thought to extend the known temporal range of tribosphenic mammals 25 million years further into the past. Consequently, Flynn and colleagues argued against the prevailing view that tribosphenic mammals originated on the northern continents (Laurasia), and instead proposed that their origin lies in the south (Gondwana). They cited the retention of a distal metacristid and an "open" trigonid as characters separating "Ambondro" from more modern tribosphenidans.
In 2001, Zhe-Xi Luo and colleagues alternatively proposed that a tribosphenic molar pattern had arisen twice (compare Figure 3, top)—once giving rise to the marsupials and placentals (Boreosphenida), and once producing "Ambondro", the Cretaceous Australian "Ausktribosphenos", and the living monotremes, which first appeared in the Cretaceous (united as Australosphenida). They characterized Australosphenida by the shared presence of a cingulum on the outer front corner of the lower molars, a short and broad talonid, a relatively low trigonid, and a triangulated last lower premolar.
Also in 2001, Denise Sigogneau-Russell and colleagues in their description of the earliest Laurasian tribosphenic mammal, "Tribactonodon", agreed with the relationship between "Ausktribosphenos" and monotremes, but argued that "Ambondro" was closer to Laurasian tribosphenidans than to "Ausktribosphenos" and monotremes. As evidence against the integrity of Australosphenida, they cited the presence of lingual cingula in various non-australosphenidan mammals; the presence of two cusps in the anterior cingulum in "Ambondro" as well as some boreosphenidans; the different appearance of the premolar in "Ambondro" (flat) and "Ausktribosphenos" (squared); and the contrast between the talonids of "Ambondro" (with a well-developed hypoconid on the labial side) and "Ausktribosphenos" (squared).
The next year, Luo and colleagues published a more thorough analysis confirming their previous conclusion and adding the Cretaceous Australian "Bishops" to Australosphenida. They mentioned the condition of the hypoconulid, which is inclined forward, rather than backward as in boreosphenidans, as an additional australosphenidan character and noted that "Ausktribosphenos" and monotremes were united, to the exclusion of "Ambondro", by the presence of a V-shaped notch in the distal metacristid. In the same year, "Asfaltomylos" was described from the Jurassic of Argentina as another australosphenidan. In contrast to "Ambondro", this animal lacked a distal metacristid and did not have as well-developed a lingual cingulum.
However, in 2003 Michael Woodburne and colleagues revised the phylogenetic analysis published by Luo and colleagues, making several changes to the data, particularly in the monotremes. Their results (Figure 3, bottom) challenged the division between Australosphenida and Boreosphenida, as proposed by Luo et al. Instead, they excluded monotremes from Australosphenida and placed the remaining australosphenidans close to Eutheria, with "Ambondro" most closely related to "Asfaltomylos". In 2007, Guillermo Rougier and colleagues described another australosphenidan, "Henosferus", from the Jurassic of Argentina; they argued against a relationship between Eutheria and Australosphenida (Figure 3, top), but were ambivalent about the placement of monotremes within Australosphenida. Based in part on Martin and Rauhut's earlier work on wear facets in australosphenidans, they questioned the presence of a true functional protocone on the upper molars of non-monotreme australosphenidans—none of which are known from upper teeth—and consequently suggested that australosphenidans may not, after all, have had truly tribosphenic teeth.


Parapopanoceras

Parapopanoceras is a ceratitid ammonite with a small, smooth, very involute and moderately globose shell that lived during the middle Triassic.
"Parapopanoceras" normally has 6 to 7 whorls in its phragmocone, seldom as much as nine, with a body chamber 1-1.5 whorls in length. The suture is ceratitic with phylloid (leaf-like) saddles and subdivided lobes. The siphuncle begins at a central or subcentral position and in most species becomes ventral at the end of the second whorl. In all species septal nacks are short retrochoanitic (point adapically) in the first whorl, are transitory in the second whorl, and become prochoanitic (point adorally) in the third whorl and thereafter. Closely related "Stenopopanoceras" differs in that its siphuncle starts off ventral.
"Parapopanoceras" was named by Haug in 1994. The type species is "Popanoceras verneuili" Mojsisovics 1886. Related genera include "Amphipopanoceras" and "Stenopopanoceras".
Distribution.
Fossils have been found in Svalbard, Jan Mayen, British Columbia, the Russian Federation, and possibly Papua New Guinea.


Tariccoia

Tariccoia is a genus of small to average size (between and long) marine arthropods in the Liwiidae Family, that lived during the late Ordovician period. Fossil remains of "Tariccoia" were collected from Sardinia, Italy. "Tariccoia" looks like a large, soft agnostid trilobite. It has a headshield (or cephalon) wider than the tailshield (pygidium), and in between them three (or four?) thoracic body segments (somites). The genus is monotypic, its sole species being Tariccoia arrusensis.
Etymology.
The name of the genus references the Sardinian paleontologist M. Taricco. The species was named after the Riu is Arrus Member, the deposit in which it was found.
Description.
"Tariccoia arrusensis" is between 2.5 and 6 cm along the axis, almost half a wide as long. The dorsal exoskeleton consists of a cephalon, a pygidium and two or three thoracic somites with articulating half-rings, all non-calcified. The cephalon is sub-semicircular, widest near the rounded genal angles. The cephalon is wider than the pygidium. Eyes are absent. Antennas are not known. The body is constricted at the two or three thoracic somites, so the animal gives the impression to have a waist. The pygidium is widest before midlength. The pygidium has a mid-ridge.
Distribution.
"T. arrusensis" has been collected from the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian to Katian) Riu is Arrus Member, Monte Argentu Formation, Sardinia, Italy.
Habitat.
"Tariccoia arrusensis" was probably a marine bottom dweller.


Ictidosaurus

Ictidosaurus was a therapsid genus found in the Abrahamskraal Formation of South Africa, which lived during the middle Permian period. Fossils of the type species were found in the "Tapinocephalus" (Capitanian age, 265.8-260.4 Ma), and the base of the "Eodicynodon" (Wordian age, 268-265.8 Ma) assembly zones, of the Karoo Basin. Older classifications of the species, along with many other specimens found in the Iziko South African Museum archives, were originally classified within therocephalian family names, in this case the Ictidosauridae, which has been reclassified as belonging to the Scylacosauridae. The type species is "I. angusticeps".
Description.
Type specimen.
The holotype was of the "Ictidosaurus angusticeps" labeled SAM-PK-630 (NMQR 2910), found in the Tapinocephalus assembly zone. The skull measured 168 mm from snout to posterior of the left mandible, 41 mm across the skull in-between the canines, and 41 mm in height , and has been heavily disturbed by fracturing, reshaping of bone structures, and distortions, with the right side being the most well preserved of the skull. 16 to 17 teeth were identified on one side, and 10 on the other, with non being palatal. The upper dentition comprises of six cylindrical incisors, one distal tip of a precanine, a large canine, and 18 lateral convex single cone postcanine (9 on each side), the first one of which is separated from the canine by diastema. Serrations on the teeth can be found on three of the incisors, on the posterior of the canine, and the anterior and posterior of the left side third postcanine tooth, which is in prosses of tooth eruption. The large number of postcanines is attributed to the length of the skull. The nasal process of the premaxilla reaches the level of the posterior borders of the nares. The species have many features in common with other early and more primitive Therocephalians, such as serated teeth, three lower incisors, a sloping mentum and lose symphysis, but it is set apart by its small marginal maxillary precanine, as well as the 6 upper incisors.
Known specimens.
At present, there are only two collections with this fossil, located in South Africa. The specimens of these collections, holotype SAM-PK-630 (NMQR 2910) and SAM-PK-77957 (AMNH 5527), both have the anterior portions of their snouts and mandibles in occlusion, making cranial anatomy unknown. Despite this, the cranium have been used for differentiating "I. angusticeps" from "Glanosuchus macrops" by "I. angusticeps" having precanine (confirmed by CAT-scan).
Distribution.
The specimens found would have lived during the Permian South Africa, some 265 to 259 Ma. The two specimens known are from a river delta plain and a terrestrial depositional environment, with the type locality being near Beaufort West (32.3° S, 22.6° E), Western Cape, South Africa. This locality was, during the Permian, positioned at what today is the Drake Passage (60.0° S, 34.1° W), in-between South America and Antarctica.


Teinolophos

Teinolophos is a prehistoric species of monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. It is known from four specimens, each consisting of a partial lower jawbone collected from the Wonthaggi Formation at Flat Rocks, Victoria, Australia. It lived during the Aptian age of the Lower Cretaceous.
The species name honours the artist Peter Trusler. The genus name, "Teinolophos", means "extended ridge", a reference to its tooth structure.
Originally, "Teinolophos" was thought to be a eupantothere. Further research revealed similarities to "Steropodon", except in size: the animal was around 10 cm long. It is usually listed as a steropodontid, though it may be more basal.
The holotype is a partial left dentary known as NMV P208231. An age of approximately 123 million years makes this the earliest known monotreme. The lower molar is broadly similar in morphology to the m2 of "Steropodon". The trigonid is compressed and the talonid has no basin. The dentary is about one sixth the size of "Steropodon", and wear facets indicate an "orthal" occlusion with the upper molars.
Description.
Jaw.
The construction of the lower jaw differs from existing monotremes. Among the contrasts are the condyle, which is well above the tooth row (instead of at about the same height); and the ascending ramus, which is also higher. Also different is that "Teinolophos" probably had a strong bite. A unique feature for known toothed monotremes is that the trigonid is tall, while the talonid is set much lower. This is more like the general mammalian arrangement. The molar is double-rooted, which is plesiomorphic when compared to ornithorhynchids, but is a shared characteristic with "Steropodon" and "Kollikodon". Subsequent monotreme molars are multi-rooted.
Unlike modern monotremes, "Teinolophos" lacked a beak.
Ears.
Unlike modern monotremes, which have suspended ear bones much like placentals and marsupials, "Teinolophos" still had them connected to the jaw via the Meckel's cartilage. This reinforces the idea that the modern ear condition evolved independently among monotremes and therians.


Retz Formation

The Retz Formation is a geologic formation in Austria. It preserves fossils of "Metaxytherium krahuletzi", dating back to the Burdigalian stage of the Miocene period.


Alfred W. Crompton

Alfred Walter "Fuzz" Crompton (born 21 February 1927 in Durban) is a South African paleontologist and zoologist.
Crompton studied at the University of Stellenbosch and obtained a bachelor's degree in 1947 and a masters in 1949, in zoology. He completed his PhD at Cambridge University in 1953.
From 1954 to 1956 Crompton curated the national paleontological museum at Bloemfontein, and from 1956 to 1964 directed the South African Museum in Cape Town, where he also lectured at the university. From 1964 to 1970 he was a professor of biology and geology at Yale University, and then from 1970 to 1976 he directed the Peabody Museum of Natural History. From 1970 to 1982 he directed the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, and from 1970 until 1985 was a Professor at Harvard University ("Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology"). Between 1985 and 2005 Crompton was named the emeritus "Fisher Professor of Natural History".
In 1976/77 and 1983/64 Crompton was a Guggenheim Fellow. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1969) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2011 he received the Romer-Simpson-Medal.


Conoclypus

Conoclypus - from the Greek words (= cone) + (= disc) - is a genus of sea urchins belonging to the family Conoclypeidae.
Description.
These fossil echinoderms are characterized by a conical calcareous structure. They were slow-moving semi-infaunal detritivore, living in the late Eocene until the Miocene.
Distribution.
Species of this genus have been found in Miocene of Austria and in Eocene of Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Pakistan.


Principal Cordillera

Principal Cordillera () is the Andean mountain range that makes up the boundary between Central Chile and neighbouring areas of Argentina. It is also a continental divide between the Atlantic and the Pacific watersheds. It extends in a north-south direction in the Argentine provinces of La Rioja, San Juan and Mendoza and the Chilean regions of Valparaíso, Santiago, O'Higgins and Maule. To the east of the Principal Cordillera lies the Frontal Cordillera which is fully in Argentina. Aconcagua, the tallest mountain outside Asia, lies in the Principal Cordillera.
Geological history.
What is today the Principal Cordillera was once a depression that accumulated sediments. Lava flows from ancient volcanoes also found their way to the depression. Today these sequences of sedimentary and volcanic rock can be observed high in the Andes, implying their basin was closed and uplifted by tectonic inversion. The said rocks are grouped in the Abanico and Farellones Formation. Tectonic inversion took place 21 to 16 million years (Ma) ago, yet the associated pulse of uplift continued until about 8 Ma ago. The Miocene continental divide was about 20 km to the west of the modern water divide that makes up the Argentina–Chile border. Subsequent river incision shifted the divide to the east leaving old flattish surfaces hanging. Compression and uplift in this part of the Andes has continued into the present. The Principal Cordillera had risen to heights that allowed for the development of valley glaciers about 1 Ma ago.


Pterospondylus

Pterospondylus (meaning "winged vertebra") is a dubious genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Triassic. It was a coelophysoid theropod which lived in what is now Germany (Trossingen Formation). The type species, "Pterospondylus trielbae", (derived from "Tri", in reference to the Triassic period, and "Elba", for the Elbe River area), was described by Jaekel in 1913-14 for a single back vertebra. Sometimes, it is aligned with "Procompsognathus", or even considered to be synonymous with it, despite being based on a vertebra that is twice the size of the corresponding bone in "Procompsognathus".


Arnioceras

Arnioceras is an extinct genus of large, evolute, discoidal ammonite from the Lower Jurassic. The shell is normally coiled so that all whorls are exposed. Sides bear strong sharp ribs that are straight until reaching the ventrolateral edge where they swing forward and fade. The rim (venter) is keeled and free of grooves.
"Arnioceras", named by Alpheus Hyatt, is included in the arietitid family of the Psiloceratoidea, an ammonitid supefamily. Its distribution is fairly worldwide, having been found in Europe, south Asia, and North and South America.


Chemnitz petrified forest

The Chemnitz petrified forest is a petrified forest in Chemnitz, Germany.
Most of the trunks are exhibited in the Museum of Natural History in Chemnitz inside of Kulturkaufhaus Tietz , including slices of trunks with polished edges. A small collection can be seen also on Zeißstraße. From April 4, 2008, to Fall 2011, an excavation in Hilbersdorf was held to find and research more trunks. Their researchers discovered, amongst others, "Arthropitys bistriata", a type of Calamites, giant horsetails that are ancestors of modern horsetails, found on this location with never seen multiple branches. Many more plants and animals from this excavation are still in an ongoing research. This exceptional find received the 2010 Fossil of the Year award of the German Paleontological Society. It was integrated into the permanent exhibition.
History.
Petrified trunks of tree ferns, seed ferns, conifers as well as Cordaitales and different species of Calamites.
The primeval plants were repeatedly discovered from the 17th century ongoing till today and mostly at Hilbersdorf, today a district of Chemnitz. In the mid-18th century, gemstone prospector David Frenzel (1691-1772) found numerous examples of this wood in the hills in and around Chemnitz. One of his 1751 finds is one of the few petrified wood specimens still possessing its roots. Later a collector, the Hilbersdorf contractor Güldner, bequeathed some of the petrified logs to King Albert Museum in Chemnitz. The first director of the Museum, Johann Traugott Sterzel, took over the investigation of the findings. The Sterzeleanum in the museum (the petrified forest display) is dedicated to him.
Creation of the petrified forest.
The petrified forest was formed in connection with the eruption of the Zeisigwald volcano in the lower Permian and dates back about 291 million years. The trees were uprooted or snapped off by the eruption and the amount of tephra, much like the trees caught in the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The trunks were then covered with hot tephra. In the following of years, the silicic acid included in the tephra ensured the fossilization of Permian plants, preserving them until today.
Fauna.
The varanopid "Ascendonanus " As well as reptiles, amphibians, gastropods and arthropods are known from the forest.


Bonaparte Basin

The Bonaparte Basin is a sedimentary basin in Western Australia and the Northern Territory of Australia. Its total area is approximately , most of which is offshore.
The sedimentary basin emerges at the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf and extends into the ocean in the waters of the gulf and the Timor Sea. It partially overlays the Pine Creek Orogen and the Fitzmaurice Basin. It is bounded on the north by the Timor Trough, on the west by the Browse Basin and on the northeast by the Money Shoals Basin.
In the sedimentary basin the rock strata is about thick on land, and over thick under the ocean. The basin originated from the Cambrian period to the Cenozoic era, 540 to 360 million years ago. Limestone, sandstone, mudstone, basalt, coal and glacial sediments are embedded in the basin. It contains several oil and natural gas fields amounting to 18% of Australia's known reserves of natural gas. Total estimated reserves are of oil and of gas.
The sedimentary basin partially overlays the Kalkaindji province, the Birrindudu Basin and Wolfe Basin.
The Bonaparte Basin has deposits of lead, zinc, iron, gold and smaller coal deposits on land, mineralised in sandstone deposits. There were studies on petroleum and natural gas, which have resulted in oil and gas-producing wells and two undersea pipelines to the Northern Territory.


Panthera shawi

Panthera shawi is an extinct prehistoric cat, of which a single canine tooth was excavated in Sterkfontein cave in South Africa by Robert Broom in the 1940s. Broom described it in 1948 using the scientific name "Felis shawi".
It is thought to be the oldest known "Panthera" species in Africa.
Description.
The canine tooth is about long and considerably larger and thicker at the base than of a modern lion. The tooth crown measures at the base and is long.


Randa rockslides

In April and May 1991, two consecutive rockslides occurred from a cliff above the town of Randa in the Matter valley of Switzerland. The rockslides released a cumulative volume of approximately 30 million cubic meters of debris, with each of the rockslide stages occurring over several hours. Slide debris buried key regional transportation lines including the road and railway leading to Zermatt, and dammed the Mattervispa river which eventually flooded a portion of the town of Randa upstream. There were no fatalities resulting from either of the rockslide events, though livestock, farmhouses and holiday homes were destroyed.
Geological situation.
The Matter valley in the region of Randa exhibits classical morphology of glacial erosion, with steep rock walls and a wide valley bottom creating the common U-shaped form. Cliffs adjacent to the valley are exceptionally high, rising vertically some 800 m, while the nearby peaks of the Weisshorn and Dom sit 3000 m above the town of Randa.
Crystalline rocks of the slide source region belong to the Siviez–Mischabel nappe and primarily include a competent orthogneiss in the lower half of the slope overlain by highly jointed paragneisses and schists (Willenberg et al., 2008a). Foliation dips gently to the west / southwest (into the slope at the rockslide), cutting across the north-south trending Matter valley.
The site of the 1991 rockslides sits on a nose of rock on the western wall of the Matter valley, which has been significantly incised to the south by the Bis glacier. To the south and west of the eventual rockslides, an older progressive slope instability had developed leaving a noticeable scarp and debris cone. This scarp would eventually be cut by the 1991 rockslides.
Rockslides of 1991.
The 1991 rockslides at Randa consisted of two separate collapse events on April 18 and May 9, which released in total a cumulative volume of approximately 30 million cubic meters of rock. The elevation of the top of the scarp is 2320 m (7610 ft), while the elevation of deposit toe is 1320 m (4330 ft).
Accelerating occurrences of small rockfalls from the cliff in the decades preceding the slides gave indication of deeper movements, and fallen debris had eventually destroyed much of the forest beneath the cliff (Sartori et al., 2003). Precursory events noted immediately prior to the April, 1991 rockslide included explosive ruptures of rock slabs and new forceful water discharges from the face (Schindler et al., 1993).
April 18, 1991: This primary rockslide event occurred over the span of a few hours time, producing a large steep debris cone and a thick layer of dust over the valley. The rockslide consisted of a progressive succession of smaller collapses and block failures involving first the lower and more competent orthogneiss, followed by retrogressive collapse of the highly jointed paragneiss above (Schindler et al., 1993). The total volume released during this rockslide phase was estimated to be 22 million cubic meters. Had this volume been released instantaneously, a devastating rock avalanche and far reaching deposit would have resulted. A lesser failure followed on April 22.
May 9, 1991: Monitoring of deformation and microseismic activity led to accurate anticipation of this follow up rockslide event. The rockslide again occurred in a progressive manner over the course of a few hours, involving many small volume collapse events mostly within the upper paragneiss material (Schindler et al., 1993). These failures resulted in retreat and reduced the inclination of the upper part of the rockslide scarp. The total volume released in this second phase was estimated to be 7 million cubic meters.
No one trigger can be conclusively assigned as responsible for the Randa rockslides of 1991. The area has experienced a long history of moderate seismicity, but no significant earthquakes immediately preceded the failures. A warm period producing ample snow melt occurred in the days prior to the April rockslide, and water could be seen emanating from springs on the rock face. Further, a period of rapid cooling occurred just one day before the April slide. However, it is unknown if this series of events combined to act as an exceptional trigger, or if they were rather part of the normal seasonal climatic and hydraulic cycles (Sartori et al., 2003).
Damage and remediation.
The road and rail line through the Matter valley are important tourist routes for visitors to the Matterhorn region. These transportation avenues were both interrupted by the April 18 rockslide. The May 9 event further cemented the problem. The rail line was buried for 800 m, while 200 m of the road was covered (Quanterra.org). The road and rail line have both since been re-routed to circumnavigate the rockslide deposit.
The rockslide debris also dammed the Mattervispa river, a problem that was again compounded by the second event. Work digging through the blockage was begun immediately, but heavy rain and snow melt eventually resulted in flooding of a portion of the town of Randa upstream. A channel was eventually cut and the water receded. The Swiss army had deployed a floating bridge in anticipation of the flooding, which successfully allowed the road upstream of the deposit to remain open. A nearly 4 km long bypass tunnel was then bored into the wall beneath the cliff to prevent any future floods.
Continued movement.
Several million cubic meters of rock above and behind the scarp of the 1991 rockslides remains unstable today, moving towards the valley at rates up to 2 cm per year. This situation is not considered to be a critical hazard at the moment, but movements are carefully monitored and studied.
Monitoring and geoscience.
The Randa rockslide has long been the site of intensive geological, geotechnical, and geophysical research. Following the April, 1991 failure, monitoring instrumentation was installed that helped successfully predict the impending May rockslide. The site has since been monitored by Valais Kantonal authorities.
Since 2001, researchers from the Department of Earth Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH, Zurich) have conducted studies into the cause and nature of the ongoing deformations. New monitoring and exploration techniques, combined with traditional geological investigations have revealed important insights into the process of progressive failure driving the current instability (Eberhardt et al., 2004; Heincke et al., 2006; Spillmann et al., 2007a,b; Willenberg et al., 2008a,b; Gischig et al., 2009; Moore et al., 2010; Burjanek et al., 2010; Gischig et al., 2011a,b,c; Moore et al., 2011a,b).


Thrihnukagigur

Þríhnúkagígur (, anglicized as Thrihnukagigur, literally translated as "Three Peaks Crater") is a dormant volcano in the volcanic system of Brennisteinsfjöll near Reykjavík, Iceland. Covering a area and a depth of , it has not erupted in the past 4000 years. It was discovered in 1974 by cave explorer Árni B Stefánsson, and opened for tourism in 2012. It is the only volcano in the world where visitors can take an elevator and safely descend into the magma chamber. The magma that would normally fill the chamber and become sealed is believed to have drained away, to the bewilderment of most scientists, revealing the rift beneath the surface.
In August 2015, the members of the Icelandic band Kaleo and fourteen support staff descended into the volcano's magma chamber and recorded a live rendition of the band's song "Way Down We Go".
In 2016, the Secret Solstice music festival announced that alternative rock musician Chino Moreno of Deftones will perform the first ever public concert inside the magma chamber of a volcano.


Stenaulorhynchus

Stenaulorhynchus (possibly meaning "narrow tube beak") is an extinct genus of hyperodapedontid rhynchosaur known from the Middle Triassic (late Anisian stage) deposits of Tanganyika Territory, Tanzania. It was found in the Lifua Member of the Manda Formation in the Karoo Supergroup. It was named and first described by Sidney Henry Haughton in 1932. The type species is "Stenaulorhynchus stockleyi", a beaked herbivore measuring 1–6 meters in length.
Description.
Dentition.
The teeth of "Stenaulorhynchus" were conical, pointed, and composed mostly of dentine, although new unworn teeth may have had a thin layer of enamel. They were set deeply into and fused with the jaw bones. They are arranged with two-to-several rows of teeth on top and only a few on bottom. The middle row of maxillary teeth only occupied the posterior third of the jaw while the other rows extended all the way forwards and sometimes down the crest of the jaw. The teeth at the front of the mouth, by the beak, were smaller with larger teeth in the middle portion of the jaw. The lower teeth included one raised row of buccal teeth and several rows running diagonally on the medial and lingual portions. The teeth continued to grow throughout the animals life but, unlike with reptiles, the new teeth formed at the back of the tooth row. That happened within the groove on the surface of the lower jaw and three grooves on the maxilla. The lateral As they grew in, the teeth moved forward in the jaw through a combination of growth and remodeling. Instead of occluding their teeth together, "Stenaulorhynchus" had teeth that occluded against bone, which would wear the teeth down. Over time, the surfaces of the jaw bones would erode as well, causing the maxillary grooves to become shallower and more rounded.
Cranial.
Some of the cranial features of "Stenaulorhynchus" include afrontal bone that is broader than it is long, the presence of a pineal foramen and a lack of ornamention on the jugal bone. Their postorbital The occipital condyles are significantly anterior to the quadrates and the quadrate and articular fit tightly together to form a jaw joint that wouldn't have allowed for much rotation. They area also known for their beak, formed at the front of their upper and lower jaws.
Postcranial.
The dorsal vertebrae have a centrum that is taller than it is wide and slightly amphicoelous in shape. The parapophyses and prezygapophyses are distinct that have articular surfaces about 30 degrees above horizontal. The caudal vertebrae have tall neural spines and the second cervical rib has a backwards pointing spine. Their ischium fans out towards the rear of the animal.
The humerus is robust. At the proximal end, the shaft is bent backwards and expanded along the coronal plane. The distal humerus has a flat posterior surface and a curved ectepicondylar groove. The radius and ulna are the same length.
The femur is circular in cross-section and, as with the humerus, the proximal end is bent backwards. Both ends of the femur are expanded and the proximal end has no neck and a prominent greater trochanter. The distal end has thickened condyles with a groove on the lateral side.
Paleobiology.
Microscopic analysis of thin-sections of bone have shown that "Stenaulorhynchus" had an determinant growth pattern, reaching 2/3 of their adult size within one year. The rate of bone deposition in the tibia and femur were 7-10 times higher within that year than in years 2-5. After 5 years of age, less than 1 micron of bone a day was deposited. It would have grown slower than archosauriformes, the South American rhynchosaur species, saurischian dinosaurs, and birds. "Stenaulorhynchus" continued to grow teeth throughout its life.Juveniles started out with three rows of upper teeth, with only one lateral to the main groove running along the upper surface of the maxilla. By the time they were adults, "Stenaulorhynchus" had several rows of maxillary teeth, one or more of which were lateral to the main maxillary groove. Older teeth would wear down with use and be resorbed where they contacted other teeth.
"Stenaulorhynchus" may have been adapted for scratch-digging.
Discovery.
The fossils were collected in 1930 by the British geologist G. M. Stockley during a survey commissioned by the Tanganyika Geological Survey Department. The goal was to better understand the “economic possibilities” of the Ruhaha Basin within Tanganyika Territory. He primarily collected fossils that had weathered out of the rock on the surface. The fossil collection was then described by Sidney Henry Haughton. While "Stenaulorhynchus" is the dominant vertebrate in the Manda beds, they also included a Dicynodont and vertebrae from an unidentified Theropod.
The specimens weren’t all correctly labeled since bones from different localities fit together. More surprisingly, a coprolite was mislabeled as a maxillary fragment. Haughton also described a species which he named "Stenaulorhynchus major," which he said differed primarily in size, based on a distal left and right humerus fragments. Those specimens were later identified as "Stagonosuchus nyassicus", a suchian archosaur from the same locality and horizon.
Classification.
"Stenaulorhynchus" shares characteristics with other early rhynchosaurs, including their ankylothecodont dentition (teeth within deep sockets and fused to the bone) and precision-shear bite. They also have double-bladed dentaries and grooves on the upper surface of the maxilla. One of the differences between them is that "Stenaulorhynchus" had smaller maxillary teeth with a larger gap between the tooth rows. "Stenaulorhynchus" is differentiated from the later "Hyperadapedon" by its more lateral eyes, more forward braincase, and longer lower jaw with the teeth located more anteriorly. Hyperadapedons also lack the double-bladed dentary that the early genera have. The only absolute synapomorphy between all the rhynchosaurs is that the dentary is at least half the total length of the jaw.
Stenaulorhynchinae, a subfamily of rhynchosaurs including "Stenaulorhhynchus", has been proposed. Based on an analysis of morphological characteristics, one study defines it as including all taxa that are more closely related to "Stenaulorhynchus stockleyi" than "Hyperodapedon gordoni". The defining traits include having many teeth on the tongue side of the maxilla and a reduced size of the maxillary occlusal teeth allowing more teeth per row.
"Stenaulorhynchus" has also been labeled as a sister-taxa to the Brazilian genus "Brasinorhynchus" which also has three or more tooth rows medial to the main maxillary groove but lacks the centrum contribution to the parapophyses and diaphophyses.
Geology.
"Stenaulorhynchus" is found in the Upper Bone Bed in the Njalili locality, part of the Lifua Member of the Manda Formation. It is composed of proximal floodplain paleosol deposits. Articulated specimens of "Stenaulorhynchus" have been found, suggesting that they may have mummified before burial. The surface of the bed has been exposed by tributaries eroding away the rock. During the Triassic, the floodplain would have been covered by springs and ponds. Rises in precipitation and mean annual temperature may have led to an increase in perennial vegetation, as well.


Rhaetian sandstone

The Rhaetian sandstone or Rhatsandstein () is a geological formation in Germany. It dates back to the "Rhaetian - ?early Hettangian."


Kaikaifilusaurus

Kaikaifilusaurus is an extinct genus of rhynchocephalians in the family Sphenodontidae from the Late Cretaceous of South America. Fossils of the genus were found in Cenomanian sediments of the Candeleros Formation and Turonian layers of the Huincul Formation, both of the Neuquén Basin and the Albian strata of the Cerro Barcino Formation in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, all in Patagonia, Argentina. The genus contains two species, "K. minimus" and the type species "K. calvoi".
Etymology.
The genus name "Kaikaifilusaurus" is derived from the Greek "sauros", meaning "lizard" and "Kaikaifilu", coming from Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche. In their cosmology, Kai-Kai filú is the almighty giant reptile owner of the seas, a rival of Treng-Treng filú, "both creators of the lands through their continuous fight that causes the earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis and all the events that molded the earth where we live". The same etymology has been used for the mosasaur genus "Kaikaifilu" from the Lopez de Bertodano Formation of Antarctica.
Classification.
The present type species of "Kaikaifilusaurus", "K. calvoi", was described by Simón and Kellner in 2003, based on type specimen MPCHv 4, a mandible (left lower jaw) from the Candeleros Formation. In the same year, "Priosphenodon avelasi" was described by Apesteguía and Novas in 2003, based on type specimen MPCA 300, a partially articulated adult skeleton from the Cenomanian fluvial sandstones of the Candeleros Formation in the Neuquén Basin.
Gentil et al. in 2019 reassigned "P. avelasi" as a junior synonym of "Kaikaifilusaurus calvoi". Gentil et al. placed the second species of "Priosphenodon", "P. minimus", in 2014 described by Apesteguía and Carballido based on the type specimen MPEF-PV 3166, a skull (almost complete skull with attached jaws, from the Albian Cerro Barcino Formation of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, in the same genus of "Kaikaifilusaurus" as "K. minimus". Apesteguía and Carballido had considered "Kaikaifilusaurus" a nomen dubium.
The 2019 researchers described another specimen of "Kaikaifilusaurus"; MPCA-PV 808, an incomplete right dentary from the Turonian strata of the Huincul Formation of the Neuquén Basin.
Gentil et al. (2019) place the genus "Kaikaifilusaurus" in the subfamily Eilenodontinae of the order Sphenodontia.
Description.
The fossil of "Kaikaifilusaurus" sp. described by Gentil et al. in 2019 comprises a fragment of long preserving nine teeth, presenting an acrodont implantation and a nearly straight anteroposterior linear arrangement.
Adult specimens of "Kaikaifilusaurus" are estimated to reach in length, larger than previously known terrestrial sphenodontian.
Paleoecology.
The fossil record of "Kaikaifilusaurus" ranges from the Albian to the Turonian, straddling the boundary between the Early and Late Cretaceous. The oldest record (the "K. minimus" type locality) of the genus comes from the La Paloma Member of the Cerro Barcino Formation of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in north-central Patagonia, Argentina. During this time, the paleoclimate of the La Paloma Member of the formation was arid, and the depositional environment comprised a playa lake with debris flows system, dominated by pyroclastic deposits with intercalated dune sediments. The same member has provided fossils of "Chubutemys copelloi" and an indeterminate theropod.
The fossil remains of "Kaikaifilusaurus" from the Candeleros Formation hail from Cenomanian fluvial red sandstones and conglomerates. The formation comprises eolian and paleosol deposits, as well as sediments deposits in a braided river environment. Fossils of one of the largest theropods known, "Giganotosaurus carolinii" were found in this succession, as well as frogs, mammals and fish.
The youngest record of the genus occurs in the Huincul Formation, overlying the Candeleros Formation in Neuquén Basin. The formation represents an arid environment with ephemeral or seasonal streams. The same locality where "Kaikaifilusaurus" was found, has provided abundant fossils of lepisosteid fish, chelid turtles, lizards, neosuchian crocodyliforms, ornithopods, titanosaurian sauropods and diverse theropods including abelisaurids, carcharodontosaurids, and megaraptorans. The dinosaurs "Gualicho shinyae", "Argentinosaurus huinculensis", "Mapusaurus rosae", "Cathartesaura", "Ilokelesia", and "Skorpiovenator bustingorryi", come from this formation.


Henbury crater


Chawpi Chawpi

Chawpi Chawpi (Quechua "chawpi" central, middle, the reduplication indicates that there is a group or a complex of something, Hispanicized spelling "Chaupi Chaupi") is a mountain in the Wansu mountain range in the Andes of Peru, about high. It is situated in the Arequipa Region, La Unión Province, Puyca District. Chawpi Chawpi lies northwest of Ikmaqucha and southwest of the mountains Yuraq Punta and Tintaya.


Cordillera de Oncol

The Cordillera de Oncol (sometimes called Valdivian Coast Range) is a mountain range, located along the Pacific coast in southern Chile. It is part of the Chilean Coast Range System ("Cordillera de la Costa"). It was named for the city of Valdivia. The highest point of the range is Cerro Oncol, at 715 m.
Natural history.
The Valdivian Coastal Range has about 1 million acres (4,000 km²) of Valdivian temperate rain forests habitat, approximately one-quarter of which are protected.
The region has long been geographically isolated, making it a haven for endemic species. Some of the rare species that inhabit the Valdivian Coastal Range include the pudu (the smallest deer in the world), the common degu, the marine otter, and the monito del monte, or mountain monkey (actually a marsupial).


Hypasteroceras

Hypasteroceras is an extinct genus of cephalopod belonging to the Ammonite subclass.


Mals Heath

The Mals Heath () is located in South Tyrol, Italy; it is one of the largest ancient landslides and one of the most remarkable landscape features in the Alps. It is located in the Upper Vinschgau where a broad pass (the Reschen Pass) crosses the main Alpine divide into the Inn Valley (Austria). It extends from Glurns via Laatsch, Schleis, and Burgeis up to Plawenn. On the southern part is the village of Mals. The height difference of the heath varies from 900 m (Glurns) to 1,760 m (Plawenner Alm).
The landslide emerges from the small side valley of Plawenntal, and descends for 11 km to the head of Vinschgau proper. The volume of the debris fan is estimated at 1,650 million cubic metres. It had always been assumed to be an alluvial fan, built up by numerous floods and debris small flows. New research demonstrates that a lost mountain could have existed above the head of Plawenntal, with a summit at about 3,100m - the present highest peak on the perimeter being the Mittereck, 2,908 m. There are indications all around the perimeter of a catastrophic collapse, severing former ridges and valley heads (notably Vivanatal). The shape of the lost mountain can readily be reconstructed by projecting these truncated landforms until they meet up. The volume of the lost mountain (named Plawennspitz) is very close to that of Mals Heath. There is at present no evidence of when this event occurred, but probably soon after the last glacier melted, over 10,000 years ago. Similar events probably created large fans nearby at St. Valentin, and in the main Vinschgau, notably at Allitz-Laas (Gadriamure) where the lost mountain and vast debris cone are even larger. Other megafans in the Alps are likely to be catastrophic too (1).
The Mals Heath used to be a barren heath since it was so free draining. The debris fan dams a lake, Haidersee, which is now used as a source of irrigation water through a system of channels, and nearly all the heath is now cultivated and prosperous. The fan also displaces the main river, Adige, and the large tributary, Puni, to opposite sides of the valley. Disastrous floods still occur, destroying houses and even villages. The main road climbs the fan in broad zigzags, not the usual hairpins of an alpine pass, with several large wind turbines taking advantage of the smooth terrain and natural wind funnel.