Johann Jakob Kaup

Johann Jakob von Kaup (10 April 1803 – 4 July 1873) was a German naturalist. A proponent of natural philosophy, he believed in an innate mathematical order in nature and he attempted biological classifications based on the Quinarian system. Kaup is also known for having coined popular prehistoric taxa like "Pterosauria" and "Machairodus".
Biography.
He was born at Darmstadt. After studying at Göttingen and Heidelberg he spent two years at Leiden, where his attention was specially devoted to the amphibians and fishes. He then returned to Darmstadt as an assistant in the grand ducal museum, of which in 1840 he became inspector. In 1829 he published "Skizze zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der europäischen Thierwelt", in which he regarded the animal world as developed from lower to higher forms, from the amphibians through the birds to the beasts of prey; but subsequently he repudiated this work as a youthful indiscretion, and on the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species" he declared himself against its doctrines. The extensive fossil deposits in the neighbourhood of Darmstadt gave him ample opportunities for palaeontological inquiries, and he gained considerable reputation by his "Beiträge zur näheren Kenntniss der urweltlichen Säugethiere" (1855–1862). He also wrote "Classification der Säugethiere und Vögel" (1844), and, with Heinrich Georg Bronn, "Die Gavial-artigen Reste aus dem Lias" (1842–1844). He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1862.
He died at Darmstadt.
Mastodon fossil.
A particularly important incident in the history of paleontology involves Kaup. In 1854 he bought the American mastodon found in 1799 in Orange County, New York. This is the mastodon immortalized in Charles Willson Peale's painting of the 1801 excavation (painting executed between 1806 and 1808). This mastodon was on display for many years in Peale's Museum and is currently on display in Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany This mastodon is the first complete example found in the United States, and may be only the second fossil animal ever mounted for display.


Elephant Rock (Iceland)

Elephant Rock is a natural rock near Heimaey island, Iceland.
It was formed in a volcanic eruption.
References.


Potamosiren

Potamosiren is an extinct genus of manatee from the Middle Miocene (Laventan) Honda Group of Colombia.
Phylogeny.
A 2014 cladistic analysis of extinct sirenians recovers "Potamosiren" as a close relative of modern manatees.


Chaupijanca

Chaupijanca or Chaupi Janca (possibly from Quechua "chawpi" central, middle, "hanka" snowcapped ridge or peak; ice, "central ridge (or peak)") is a mountain in the Huallanca (or Chaupijanca) mountain range in the Andes of Peru. It is located in the Ancash Region, Bolognesi Province, in the districts of Huallanca and Huasta.


Mount Stephen trilobite beds

The Mount Stephen trilobite beds (UNSM locality 14s) are a series of fossil strata on Mount Stephen, British Columbia that contain exceptionally preserved fossil material. Part of the same stratigraphic unit as the Burgess Shale, many non-mineralized parts (such as anomalocarid claws, sponges, and trilobite legs) are preserved; in addition, a high density of trilobite fossils is present.
History.
The trilobite beds were the first Burgess shale locality to be discovered.
The richness of fossils in the Field area was first identified by workers associated with the construction of the Trans-Canada railway, which had (somewhat controversially) been routed through the Kicking Horse valley. Richard McConnell, of the Geological Survey of Canada, was pointed to the beds by a railway worker whilst mapping the geology around the railway line in September 1886. Several unusual fossils were subsequently described from this site, including sponges, worms, and the appendages of the unusual "Anomalocaris", identified at that time as the bodies of crabs. These fossils prompted Charles Doolittle Walcott to make forays into the area, and led to his discovery of the Walcott Quarry on Fossil Ridge.
Stratigraphy.
The trilobite beds are in the Campsite Cliff member, and contain the marker trilobite "Ogygopsis".


List of earthquakes in Romania

This is a list of earthquakes in Romania, including any notable historical earthquakes that have epicenters within the current boundaries of Romania, or which caused significant effects in this area.
Seismic hazard.
The seismicity of Romania is clustered in several epicentral zones: Vrancea, Făgăraș-Câmpulung, Banat, Crișana, Maramureș and Southern Dobrogea. Other epicentral zones of local importance can be found in Transylvania, in the area of Jibou and Târnava River, in northern and western part of Oltenia, in northern Moldavia and in the Wallachian Plain. The Vrancea seismogenic zone is the most important among these seismic zones, having in mind the energy, the extent of the macroseismic effects and the persistent and confined character of the earthquakes that occur in this area. Basically, Vrancea area is responsible for over 90% of all earthquakes in Romania, releasing over 95% of the seismic energy. Two belts of moderate and shallower seismicity are emphasized in the other regions of the country: one along the Southern Carpathians and the eastern edge of the Pannonian Basin, the other along the Eastern Carpathians that extends towards SE on the Peceneaga–Camena line.
During the last 1,000 years, according to historical data, it is thought that 17 earthquakes with 7 and over magnitude have occurred, which suggests a mean for unleashing the energy of every 58 years. Statistically, the magnitude 6 and over earthquakes in the Vrancea area occur approximately every 10 years, magnitude 7 every 33 years, while those with 7.5 magnitude every 80 years.
Earthquakes.
Earthquakes listed in the following tables include only M6.0+ events or earthquakes with significant material damage or casualties. All seismic events are shown in detail in the ROMPLUS catalog of the National Institute for Earth Physics. It collected information from the catalog of Constantinescu and Mîrza (1980) for the period 984–1997. After 1997, the catalog was permanently filled and updated with data on seismic events produced in Romania and around national borders.


Atuq Wachana (Ayacucho)

Atuq Wachana (Quechua "atuq" fox, "wacha" birth, to give birth, "-na" a suffix, "where the fox is born", erroneously also spelled "Atcchuachana") is a mountain in the Andes of Peru, about high. It is situated in the Ayacucho Region, Cangallo Province, Totos District, northwest of Totos.


Basilodon

Basilodon is an extinct genus of dicynodont therapsid. The type species "B. woodwardi" was originally named in 1921 as "Dicynodon woodwardi". Fossils have been found in the "Cistecephalus" Assemblage Zone and "Dicynodon" Assemblage Zone of the Balfour Formation of the Beaufort Group in South Africa.


Riccardo Levi-Setti

Riccardo Levi-Setti (July 11, 1927 – November 8, 2018) was an Italian emeritus professor of physics and paleontology at the University of Chicago and a Holocaust survivor.
Early life and education.
Riccardo was born in Milan in 1927 to Paolo and Gilda Levi, a decorated lieutenant colonel in the Italian army of World War I and a Venetian aristocrat. His family fled to Pavia after Benito Mussolini ordered a crackdown on Jews in his hometown. As a result of migration, he obtained his doctorate in physics from the University of Pavia in 1952 and then was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to go to the United States.
Career.
Riccardo joined University of Chicago in 1956, upon invitation from Enrico Fermi. There he started his career as an assistant professor of particle physics and by 1963 was promoted to tenure professor. He contributed to the discovery of neutral kaon decay, for which James Cronin was awarded with the Nobel Prize a year later. Riccardo became full professor in 1965, and in 1970s had shifted his research toward ion microscopy. From 1992 to 2000 Riccardo had served as director of the Enrico Fermi Institute, a department of the University of Chicago Medical Center where he was a pioneer in biology and biomedicine.
Levi-Setti spent some time at CERN in 1963 as a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow.
In 2011 he, along with Roger Hildebrand, participated in the ceremony of the opening of the Enrico Fermi time capsule.
In 1975 he wrote a book called "Trilobites", which was reissued in 1993. In 2014 his third book, called "The Trilobite Book: A Visual Journey", was published.
Death and legacy.
Riccardo had died from natural causes on November 8, 2018, after a brief stay at Montgomery Place, Chicago. After his death, his findings were donated to various museums, including the Field Museum and the American Museum of Natural History as well as Manuels River Hibernia Interpretation Center in Newfoundland, Canada.
His name also present at the exhibit at Manuels River, Newfoundland, Canada. In 2000, an asteroid orbiting between Jupiter and Mars was given his name as 45700 Levi-Setti.
Personal life.
Riccardo was married to Nika Semkoff Levi-Setti, a former teacher at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and former public relations manager of the Field Museum of Natural History. Together with first wife, Katharine Gould Straight, he had two sons, Emile and Matteo, who were born in 1965 and 1968 respectively. He also had two grandchildren, Allegra and Colette.


Ancylotherium

Ancylotherium (from Greek, meaning "hooked beast") is an extinct genus of the family Chalicotheriidae, subfamily Schizotheriinae, endemic to Europe, Asia, and Africa during the Late Miocene-Early Pleistocene (9.0—1.8 mya), existing for approximately .
Taxonomy.
"Ancylotherium" was named by Gaudry (1863) and was assigned to Chalicotheriidae by Carroll (1988); and to Schizotheriinae by Geraads et al. (2007).
Description.
At high at the shoulder and a weight of , "Ancylotherium" was relatively large, and was built rather like a goat. While it had long forelimbs and short hind limbs like other chalicotheres, it did not walk on its knuckles. It was similar to the North American genus "Moropus".
Environment.
"Ancylotherium's" habitat was the savannahs of Eurasia, East and South Africa. As an herbivore, it evolved to browse on vegetation on the trees in the grassy savannahs of Africa. "Ancylotherium's" closest relatives are the other perissodactyls, or "odd-toed" ungulates, including the extinct brontotheres and modern-day mammals such as horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses.
Fossil distribution.
Fossil remains of "Ancylotherium" have been found at many of the hominid fossil sites in Plio-Pleistocene Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania, including sites in Laetoli, Olduvai and Omo. Furthermore, Miocene era fossils sites are located in Afghanistan, Greece, Kenya, former Serbia and Montenegro and Turkey.


Te Paepae o Aotea

Te Paepae o Aotea, also known the Volkner Rocks (named after Carl Sylvius Völkner), are a group of andesitic rock stacks and pinnacles located northwest of Whakaari/White Island in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty. They reach 113 metres above sea level, while the saddle separating them from Whakaari/White Island is over 200 metres deep.
The Te Paepae o Aotea Marine Reserve was established around them in 2006. The area is popular with divers, due to good visibility (35–40 m), spectacular scenery and colourful marine life.


William Diller Matthew

William Diller Matthew FRS (February 19, 1871 – September 24, 1930) was a vertebrate paleontologist who worked primarily on mammal fossils, although he also published a few early papers on mineralogy, petrological geology, one on botany, one on trilobites, and he described "Tetraceratops insignis", which was much later suggested to be the oldest known (Early Permian) therapsid.
Matthew was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of George Frederic Matthew and Katherine (Diller) Matthew. His father was an amateur geologist and paleontologist who instilled his son with an abiding interest in the earth sciences. Matthew received an A.B. at the University of New Brunswick in 1889 and then earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1894.
Matthew was curator of the American Museum of Natural History from the mid-1890s to 1927, and director of the University of California Museum of Paleontology from 1927 to 1930. He was the father of Margaret Matthew, a noted artist, illustrator, and sculptor who specialized in visualizing extinct species.
Asia hypothesis.
Matthew believed that the first humans had originated in Asia, he visited Asia by taking part in the Central Asiatic expeditions. Matthew was also well known for his deeply influential 1915 article "Climate and evolution", Matthews theory was that climate change was how organisms came to live where we find them today in opposition to the theory of continental drift. His basic premise was that cyclical changes in global climate along with the prevailing tendency for mammals to disperse from north to south account for the odd geographic patterns of living mammals, he believed that humans and many other groups of modern mammals first evolved in the northern areas of the globe, especially central Asia because of the shifting climatic circumstances, Matthew firmly placed hominid origins in central Asia as he thought that the high plateau of Tibet was the forcing ground of mammalian evolution.


Man on the Hill (MOTH)

The Man on the Hill (MOTH) locality of northwestern Canada has fossils that are very well preserved and have had a profound impact on the understanding of vertebrate evolution. The geology of the MOTH locality consists of fine, alternating laminae of light grey argillaceous limestone, or calcareous shale, and dark grey silt to sand-rich calcareous shale, as observed in thin section, and the characterization of the lithology for the vertebrate-bearing strata as an interlaminated argillaceous limestone and calcareous shale. The abundance of cryptic trace fossils and the presence of pyrite suggest that the intra-shelf topographic sag at MOTH had restricted circulation and was generally hypoxic (Zorn et al. 2005).
The MOTH locality (62°32' N, 127°45' W) is located in the Central Mackenzie Mountains, approximately 70 km northeast of Tungsten, Northwest Territories, Canada (Hanke 2008). The MOTH locality was named after a pile of rocks resembling a human sitting on a ridge (Man-on-the-Hill) (Adrain & Wilson 1994). The locality is on the southwest limb of the Grizzly Bear anticline in rocks which are thought to be transitional between the Road River Formation and the Delorme Group (Adrain & Wilson 1994). Gabrielse et al. (1973) provided the original description of the structural geology, lithological features, and associated invertebrate and vertebrate fossils in the measured section at MOTH. The marine rocks preserved in the Mackenzie Mountains were deposited in spatially extensive sedimentary units, including the Whittaker, Delorme, and Road River formations (Perry 1984; Morrow & Geldsetzer 1988) that fringed the western margin of Laurussia (the combined Laurentian and Baltic regions) during the Late Silurian and Early Devonian (Copeland 1978; Chatterton & Perry 1983).


Emyduranus

Emyduranus is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid from the Permian Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone and the Teekloof Formation of the Beaufort Group, South Africa.


Cerro Cosapilla

Cerro Cosapilla is a mountain in the Andes of Chile. It has a height of 5200 metres.


Muyelensaurus

Muyelensaurus (meaning "Muyelen lizard", after an indigenous name for the Colorado River in Argentina) is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina. It was more slender than other titanosaurs. Fossils have been recovered from the Plottier Formation in the Neuquén province of Patagonia. The type species is "M. pecheni". The name "Muyelensaurus" first appeared in a 2007 paper by Argentine paleontologists Jorge Calvo of the Universidad Nacional del Comahue and Bernardo González Riga of the Laboratorio de Paleovertebrados, and Brazilian paleontologist Juan Porfiri of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
Classification.
The cladogram below follows Franca "et al." (2016), placing "Muyelensaurus" as a basal lithostrotian.
The cladogram below follows Mocho "et al." (2019), this time placing "Muyelensaurus" within Rinconsauria.


Lithoptila

Lithoptila abdounensis is an extinct species of seabird that lived during the Late Paleocene (Thanetian) of Morocco. It is a distant relative of the tropicbirds.


Berberosaurus

Berberosaurus (meaning "Berber lizard", in reference to the Berbers of Morocco) is a genus of neotheropod dinosaur, possibly a ceratosaur, from the Early Toarcian-age (Lower Jurassic) Azilal Formation found in the High Atlas of Toundoute, Ouarzazate, Morocco. The type species of the genus "Berberosaurus" is "B. liassicus", in reference to the Lias epoch. "Berberosaurus" might be the oldest known ceratosaur, and is based on partial postcranial remains.
Classification.
Ronan Allain and colleagues, who described "Berberosaurus", performed a phylogenetic analysis and found their new genus to be the most basal known abelisauroid, more derived than "Elaphrosaurus", "Ceratosaurus", and "Spinostropheus", but less so than "Xenotarsosaurus" and abelisaurians. "Berberosaurus" is distinguished from other theropods by anatomical details found in its vertebrae, metacarpals, and hindlimb bones. Its assignment as an abelisauroid pushes back the record of this group and shows that it had diversified by the Early Jurassic. However, Carrano and Sampson (2008) found it to be a basal ceratosaur outside Neoceratosauria instead. Subsequently, the analysis of Xu "et al." (2009) recovered it as a dilophosaurid in unresolved polytomy with "Dilophosaurus wetherilli", ""Dilophosaurus" sinensis", "Dracovenator" and "Cryolophosaurus". The phylogenetic analysis performed by Ezcurra, Agnolin and Novas (2010) recovered "Berberosaurus" in unresolved polytomy with "Ceratosaurus" and Abelisauroidea, while the 2018 description of the basal ceratosaur "Saltriovenator" places "Berberosaurus" as the sister taxon to that genus.
Discovery and history.
The remains of "Berberosaurus" were discovered during a series of expeditions to the High Atlas beginning in the early 2000s. It is based on an associated partial postcranial skeleton of a subadult individual cataloged in the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Marrakech; bones from this skeleton include a neck vertebra, part of the sacrum, a metacarpal, a femur, and parts of a tibia and both fibulae. Part of another femur has been assigned to the genus as well. Its remains were found in bone beds in mudflow deposits. Later tectonic activity has affected the bones.
Paleoecology and paleobiology.
"Berberosaurus", like other ceratosaurians, was a bipedal carnivore. It was of moderate size; its estimated femur length of is comparable to femur lengths given by Gregory S. Paul for animals like "Elaphrosaurus" () and "Dilophosaurus" (). Its remains were found with those of the early sauropod "Tazoudasaurus". Also from the Early Jurassic of the High Atlas, but from another formation, are the fossils of another, smaller theropod (currently in preparation). It's been estimated to be 5.1 meters (16.7 ft) long and 220 kg (485 lbs) in weight.


Cerro Amaculla

Cerro Amaculla is a mountain in the Andes of Chile. It has a height of .


Fezouata Formation

The Upper and Lower Fezouata Formations of Morocco are Burgess shale-type deposits dating to the Early Ordovician, filling an important preservational window between the common Cambrian Lagerstätten and the Late Ordovician Soom Shale. Found fossilized fauna were numerous organisms previously thought to have died out after the mid-Cambrian.
Biota.
Over 1500 non-mineralized specimens, representing 50 distinct taxa that have a composition similar to earlier Burgess Shale type biotas, have been recovered from the formations in addition to a less abundant shelly fauna. The make-up of the community varies significantly through the stratigraphic sequence, with both abundances and faunal composition changing as time progresses. Small (1–3 mm wide) burrows are present in the sediment, but major burrowing is absent; this may suggest a paucity of oxygen in the water or sediment. Particularly notable is the presence of bryozoa and graptolites, forms that are absent in the Cambrian period. Diverse echinoderms indicate a normal range of salinity, and the overall shelly assemblage is not significantly different from the normal shelly fauna expected in open Ordovician waters. The non-mineralized cohort contains a range of forms familiar from the Burgess Shale: Demosponges, lobopods, barnacles, annelids, anomalocaridids (e.g. "Aegirocassis"), possible halkieriids, marrellomorphs, paleoscolecid worms, naraoiids, skaniids as well as the expected "problematica". Other Ordovician oddballs are also present, including mitrates, machaeridia, cheloniellids and horseshoe crabs in abundance.
Depositional setting.
The fossiliferous strata were deposited just above storm wave base (offshore to lower shoreface transition), at between water depth. Organisms were likely buried in situ. Because of its placement above storm wave base, storms would have mobilized sediment that could be quickly deposited, trapping animals and leading to their preservation. Consequently, the assemblage is dominated by benthic organisms.
Preservation.
Fossils of the Fezouata Formation, which are usually squashed flat (although some do retain some degree of their original three-dimensionality) are often coated with a dusting of pyrite, and tin; this aspect of the fossil preservation is very similar to that at Chengjiang. Non-mineralized appendages are often preserved. While the formation as a whole is over thick, only two intervals, and thick, provide exceptional preservation. Both of these intervals are located near the top of the lower formation, corresponding to the "Araneograptus murrayi" and "Hunnegraptus copiosus" graptolite zones respectively.
Location and stratigraphy.
The fossils occur within an area of , in southeast Morocco's Draa Valley, north of Zagora. Stratigraphically productive layers are found through a -thick column of rock that spans the Tremadocian and Floian epochs. Two stratigraphic intervals of the formation are fossiliferous: the lower is Late Tremadocian and sits above the base of the formation; the upper, at , is mid-Floian in age.
History.
The Lagerstätten were first identified in the late 1990s when a local fossil collector, Ben Moula, showed some of the finds to a PhD student who was then working in the area.


Bacubirito meteorite

The Bacubirito meteorite is the largest meteorite found in Mexico, the third largest in the Americas and the sixth largest in the world. Found in 1863 by the geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey in the village of Ranchito near the town of Sinaloa de Leyva, it is an iron meteorite weighing between 20 and 22 tonnes. It measures 4.25 meters long, 2 meters wide, and 1.75 meters high.
In 1959 the meteorite was moved from its original site to the Centro Cívico Constitución, in Culiacán. In 1992 it was again moved to the Centro de Ciencias de Sinaloa, where it is currently on display.
Bibliography.
"The great Bacubirito meteorite" (J. British Astron. Assoc. 83, 380-382, 1973)


Friedrich August von Quenstedt

Friedrich August von Quenstedt (July 10, 1809 – December 21, 1889), was a German geologist and palaeontologist.
Life.
Von Quenstedt was born at Eisleben in Saxony, and educated at the Humboldt University of Berlin. After a period as assistant in the mineralogical museum, he was appointed associate professor (1837) and then professor (1841) of mineralogy and geognosy at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.
Work.
His earlier work related chiefly to crystallography and mineralogy, on which subjects he published text-books that were widely used. However, he also became distinguished for his researches on palaeontology, and especially for those on the fossils of the Jurassic system.
In 1845, he devised a trinomial system of nomenclature for Jurassic ammonites, which has caused some difficulty for later taxonomists. He investigated series of ammonite fossils which appeared to represent the coiled and uncoiled forms of similar shells, and considered that they arose as 'pathological' forms. He also wrote several articles on pterodactyls.
Five genera were named in his honour: the bivalve mollusc genus "Quenstedtia" Morris & Lycett 1854 and the (homonymous) coelenterate genus "Quenstedtia" Rominger 1876, coelenterate genus "Quenstedtiphyllia" Melnikova 1975, ammonite genus "Quenstedtoceras Hyatt", 1876, and crinoid genus "Quenstedticrinus" Klikushin 1987. Also the specific epithet of "Proganochelys quenstedti" was named after him.
The mineral quenstedtite was named in his honour by G. Linck in 1888.
When Maria von Linden wrote her first paper on the mineral deposits in the River Hürbe it was read at Karlsruhe's geological society (by a man) in 1890. The paper was noticed by Quenstedt who supported her ambitions. Linden went on to be the first woman in Germany to be called a professor.
Chief publications.
His chief publications were:
Other references.
Obituary by WT Blanford, "Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc." vol. xlvi. pp. 51–52,1890.


Chachacumani (Canchis)

Chachacumani (possibly from Quechua "chachakuma" a medical plant, "-ni" an Aymara suffix to indicate ownership, "the one with the "chachakuma" plant) is a mountain in the Vilcanota mountain range in the Andes of Peru, about high. It is located in the Cusco Region, Canchis Province, San Pablo District. Chachacumani lies southwest of Jampatune and Pomanota and southeast of Ojecunca. The Pomanota River, an important tributary of the Vilcanota River, flows along its southern slope.


Cimbrophlebia

Cimbrophlebia is an extinct genus of Mecoptera which existed from the Jurassic to the Eocene period.
Species.
The genus "Cimbrophlebia" contains the species:


Nevado Las Agujas

Nevado Las Agujas (Spanish for "The Snowy Needles") is a pyramidal peak in the Andes Mountains of Futrono, in Chile, close to the border with Argentina. With an elevation of , it has a prominence of above the surrounding terrain. Together with Cerro Chihuío, it forms the granitic mountain massif of Nevados Las Agujas, which geologically belongs to the North Patagonian Batholith.


Eogeophilus

Eogeophilus ("dawn earth lover") is an extinct genus of geophilid centipede that was discovered in the Nusplingen Limestone of Germany.<ref name="schweigertdietl1997"/ It is a monotypic genus, with only type species Eogeophilus jurassicus known.<ref name="fossilworks"/
Etymology.
The genus was named for its close relationship and similarities to the extant "Geophilus". The specific epithet is derived from the Jurassic, which is in turn named after the Jura Mountain Range.


Pajarito Mountains (Chile)

The Pajarito Mountains (Sierra Pajaritos) are a small mountain range in the Atacama Desert of Chile on the west coast of South America. Together with Paico Peak (Cerro El Paico) they divide the Algarrobal Basin into two hydrological units.


Missinabi Formation

The Missinabi Formation is a Late Pleistocene geologic formation in Ontario. It preserves fossils of mastodon.


Tuve landslide

The Tuve landslide was a large landslide in Tuve, Gothenburg, Sweden on November 30, 1977. Some 67 houses were destroyed, killing 9, injuring about 60 and making around 600 people homeless. The slide began at 16.05 and lasted 5–6 minutes. The slide affected 270 000 square meters (27 hectares). About 600 people lived in the area; of these, approximately 200 were in the area at the time of the slide. About 100 needed help by rescue workers. It was the most severe landslide in the modern history of Sweden.
Close to one kilometer of the nearby road was destroyed. It is estimated that three to four million cubic meters of soil were involved in the slide and further would not have fertility to grow crops. The total economic cost of the slide has been estimated to 140 million SEK (15 million EUR, 22 million USD).
Cause.
The slide was caused by heavy rain and an unstable slope.
Aftermath.
After the slide it was concluded that many areas were built without a proper prior geotechnical investigation. It was decided to chart up the stability of built-up areas of municipalities.


Kubanochoerus

Kubanochoerus is an extinct genus of large, long-legged suid artiodactyl mammal from the Miocene of Eurasia and Africa.
Taxonomy.
The genera "Libycochoerus" and "Megalochoerus" were once assigned to "Kubanochoerus" but are now considered distinct based on dental and minor cranial details.
The putative paraceratheriid genus "Caucasotherium", described from the Caucasus on the basis of a bone fragment with four incisors, is actually a synonym of the Middle Miocene "Kubanochoerus gigas".
Description.
The largest species, the aptly named "K. gigas", grew to be up at the shoulder, and probably weighed up to in life. The heads of these pigs were unmistakable, with small eyebrow horns, and a large horn emanating from the forehead of the males. It is speculated that the males used their forehead horns for jousting with each other.


Chilean Coast Range

The Chilean Coastal Range () is a mountain range that runs from north to south along the Pacific coast of South America parallel to the Andean Mountains, extending from Morro de Arica in the north to Taitao Peninsula, where it ends at the Chile Triple Junction, in the south. The range has a strong influence on the climate of Chile since it produces a rain shadow to the east. Because of this the vegetation growing on the seaward slopes is much more exuberant than in the interior. Compared to the coastal lowlands and the Intermediate Depression, it is sparsely populated with land use varying from protected areas to grazing and silviculture. The range is present in all Chilean regions, except for Coquimbo Region and Magallanes Region.
Geography.
Like the Andes, the coastal range becomes progressively lower with increasing latitude. The range begins at Morro de Arica in the north and reaches its highest point, of 3114 m, in Sierra Vicuña Mackenna in the Antofagasta Region. Between Copiapó and Aconcagua rivers, in the so-called Norte Chico region, the range fuses with the Andes. Just north of Santiago the range separates from the Andes but comes close to it again near Paine, a southern suburb of Santiago, and San Fernando. From Santiago south the range loses height until reaching the Bío-Bío River, beyond which the Nahuelbuta range emerges which reaches about 1500 m in its central parts. South of Nahuelbuta Range, in the Araucanía Region, the coastal range is replaced by a flatland area. South of Toltén River the range rises again as the Cordillera de Mahuidanchi. Beyond the heights of Corral this range changes into Cordillera Pelada. From Chacao Channel south the range is penetrated by the sea creating islands and peninsulas. Chiloé Island, the largest of these, has two ranges: Cordillera del Piuchén from Chacao Channel to Cucao Lake and Pirulil Range in the southern half. South of Chiloé the portions of the range above sea level form the Guaitecas and the Chonos Archipelagos. The southern extreme of the range forms the Taitao Peninsula and its sub-peninsula Tres Montes.
The range can be divided in several minor ranges. Some of these ranges and their boundaries are:
Geology.
The range has no single structural or lithological origin but is the result of the alignment of horst, forearc highs and upthrusted blocks along Chile's coast. The range was separated from the Andes during the Tertiary rise of the Andes due to the subsidence of the Intermediate Depression.
The range is made of different lithological units. From Valparaíso Region to Lanalhue Fault the bedrock is largely made up of the Coastal Batholith of central Chile. These igneous rocks were once part of a proto-Andean magmatic belt. South of Lanalhue Fault most of the range is made up by the Bahía Mansa Metamorphic Complex which is made up of medium grade metamorphic rocks including schists. The analogous granites of the northern part of the coast range are placed inside the Andes in this latitudes.
During the Miocene regions of the Chilean Coast Range hosted several volcanoes. At present it does not show any sign of volcanic activity.
The northern part of the Chilean Coast Range contains a series of iron ore deposits known as the Chilean Iron Belt which are aligned along the Atacama Fault.


Bavarisauridae

Bavarisauridae is an extinct family of basal lizards found in the Solnhofen limestone near Bavaria, Germany. Two genera are recognized: "Bavarisaurus" and "Schoenesmahl". Up until 2017, "Bavarisaurus" was the only genus in the family, and it might be the only true bavarisaurus since "Schoenesmahl" might have instead been part of the Eichstaettisauridae.


Sekwitubulus annulatus


Rocky Ridge Formation

The Rocky Ridge Formation is a volcanic formation cropping out in Newfoundland.


Ojos del Caburgua

Ojos del Caburgua is a waterfall located 15 kilometers east of Pucón and four kilometers south of Caburgua Lake in the region of Aracaunía in southern Chile.


Gunnar Henningsmoen

Gunnar Henningsmoen (17 September 1919 – 23 April 1996) was a Norwegian palaeontologist. He was born in Kristiania, as a son of the Colonel Nils H. Henningsmoen. In 1962 he married Kari Egede Larssen.
He became a student in 1939 and graduated with the cand. real. degree from the University of Oslo in 1946. During the Second World War he had spent some time in exile in Sweden, after the University of Oslo was closed. He was hired as a curator at the Palaeontological Museum in 1948 and promoted to head curator in 1956. He took the dr.philos. degree in 1957 with the thesis "The trilobite family Olenidae". He was the secretary-general of the International Commission on Stratigraphy from 1960 to 1965, a visiting professor at the University of Kansas from 1966 to 1967 and a professor at the University of Oslo from 1967. In addition to his academic publications, he is known for the popular release "Trilobitter" in 1977.
He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1965. He was a board member of the Norwegian Geological Survey from 1947 to 1952, and edited the journal "Norsk Geologisk Tidsskrift" in 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1970. He died in April 1996.


Quasillites

Quasillites is a fossil genus of ostracod from the Devonian and Carboniferous Periods.
Description.
"Quasillites" is distinguished from other ostracodes by the presence of a "medial spot" on each valve. The surface of each valve is covered in longitudinal, bifurcating ridges, which curve and resemble a finger print. The ribs and spines on the carapace are in front of the posterior margin, and are similar to those of other ostracods such as "Bufina", "Parabufina", and "Healdia". In fact, this comparison can also be drawn for all Quasillitids to other Healdiids. The muscle scars on each valve is circular in shape, and some specimens have smaller secondary scars.
Distribution.
Devonian examples of "Quasillites", such as "Q. lobatus", "Q. obliquus", "Q. subobliquus", and "Q. angulatus", are known from shales and claystones in northern New York, Eastern Ohio, central Pennsylvania. Other species such as "Q. fromelennensis" and a second informal species can also be found in Limestones of northern France, near the city of Calais. This genus has also been found in the Lower Carboniferous edge of the Illinois Basin; in central Indiana.


Massetognathus

Massetognathus ( ; Greek for "chewing muscle jaw") is an extinct genus of plant-eating traversodontid cynodonts. They lived during the Triassic Period about 235 million years ago, and are known from the Chañares Formation in Argentina and the Santa Maria Formation in Brazil.
Description.
"Massetognathus" species measured to about in length with an estimated weight between . "Massetognathus" was the smaller, plant-eating equivalent of the better-known "Cynognathus" with incisors, fang-like canines and flat-topped molars covered by low ridges, an adaptation for grinding tough plant stems, roots, and other plant materials. It had a low and flattened skull indicating that the specimen had a relatively shorter and broader snout than larger specimens. It was a fox sized animal with claws on its feet and a long dog-like tail. Like most cynodonts, there is some evidence that they laid eggs, were warm blooded, as indicated by the detailed structure of the bones, and had a body covered by hair.
Skull.
"Massetognathus" was a medium-sized cynodont, which documents different ontogenetic stages. It had the largest size of any cynodont in the Chañares assemblage with an approximate skull length ranging from the smallest being to the largest . The Middle Triassic "Probainognathus" and "Massetognathus" are the earliest non-mammalian cynodonts in the fossil record that show the initial steps of several phylogenetic transformations of the quadrate and can be characterized by several features: The rotation of the dorsal plate relative to the trochlea exhibits a progressively greater rotation more closely related to mammals, squamosal contact and medial expansion of the squamosal were crucial factors in the transforming the quadrate and the articulation of the cranium. The maxillae extend far out dorsally (with a downward slope) to a point about opposite the lower margins of the orbits, then curving downward and inward, present a broad ventral surface lateral to the tooth rows. The skull is low and the orbits face more dorsally than laterally with the nasals and frontals laying flat on top of the skull. In contrast to other cynodonts, the squamosal descends ventrally.
Species.
At least 4 different species of "Massetognathus" has been discovered so far.
The type species, "M. pascuali", is the best-known species of the genus and is arguably considered to be the only valid species for Chañares gomphodonts while the others are considered junior synonyms. Named by Alfred Romer, the specific name is in honor of Dr. Rosendo Pascual, Professor of Paleontology in the Universidad de la Plata, who accompanied his expedition during his stay in Western Argentina.
"M. teruggi" is known to be the most common species of Chañares cynodonts. Named after the scientist and writer Dr. Mario Teruggi by Romer. "M. teruggi" skulls on average are approximately 45 percent larger than the skulls of "M. pascuali" and had a more defined sagittal crest. The dentary is less sharp and had 15 maxillaries compared to the 12 "M. pascuali" had.
"M. ochagaviae" is known to be the most common species from the Santa Maria Formation, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Named after Mário Costa Barberena. It had a higher skull and mandible, slightly dorsally pointed dentary ventral border under the coronoid process, and less post canines compared to the other three species.
"M. major" is known for having the largest skull out of the 4 species that can reach up to 204 mm. It had a distinctively narrow snout with the teeth being less curved compared to its sister taxa. There is a complete loss of the parietal foramen. "Megagomphodon oligodens" may have been derived from this species.
Discovery.
In 1967, American paleontologist Alfred Romer named three new species under the genus: "Massetognathus pascuali", "M. teruggi", and "M. major" during his expedition in western Argentina. In 1981, Brazilian paleontologist Mário Costa Barberena named the fourth species, "Massetognathus ochagaviae" on the basis of a specimen from the Santa Maria Formation in Brazil. After the discovery of "M. pascuali" and "M. teruggi", Romer first believed that these skulls were representing growth stages due to the larger size of "M. teruggi". However, after collecting multiple skull samples, they clearly sorted into two size groups, rather than showing growth stages of a single species. The size difference is also considerably greater between the two than that expected in sex differences which gave Romer another reason to believe that they were dealing with two species of a single genus.
Classification.
"Massetognathus" is classified as a cynodont in the superfamily Tritylodontoidea, the family Traversodontidae, and the subfamily Massetognathinae. Other members of Massetognathinae include the South African "Dadadon" and the Brazilian "Santacruzodon". The cladogram is showing the phylogenetic position of "Massetognathus" and Massetognathinae within Traversodontidae.
Paleobiology.
Diet.
There are four upper and three lower triangular incisors of modest size with canines that are relatively less developed. There are two rows of cheek teeth that are close together and diverge posteriorly. A short diastema separates the cheek teeth and canines. There is no significant contrast between the premolars and molars. There are generally 12 maxillary teeth. It has been established that "Massetognathus" with multi-cuspate post canines adapted to herbivory, moved the lower jaw posteriorly and dorsally during the power stroke of the occlusion. "Massetognathus" is the only cynodont from the Chañares Formation with clear adaptations for herbivory, with basined, labiolingually expanded upper and lower post-canines, ensuring a rudimentary dental occlusion, feeding on ground level vegetation or on the lower branches of taller plants and shrubs.
Predation.
Medium-sized predators likely fed preferably on juvenile "Massetognathus" and dicynodonts. Additionally, the slightly larger "Chanaresuchus" and "Pseudolagosuchus" also preyed on individual "Massetognathus" that were not fully grown. "Luperosuchus" and an unnamed paracrocodylomorph represent the top predators in the Chañares Formation. They preyed on all the other members in the fauna, including fully grown dicynodonts and "Massetognathus". Considering the abundance of the herbivorous cynodont "Massetognathus", it is clear that this taxon represents the main food resource in the Chañares assemblage. Only a few forms were capable of preying on fully grown "Massetognathus"; therefore, a high predation pressure on infant, juvenile and sub-adults is expected, and this, together with a high reproductive rate, may explain the overwhelming abundance of "Massetognathus" bones preserved.
Paleoecology.
"Massetognathus" faunas from the middle to upper Triassic is best documented in the Santa Maria Formation in Brazil and the Chañares Formation in western Argentina. Chañares fauna was dominated by herbivorous small to medium-sized taxa. In a trophic reconstruction of the environment, 55% of the specimens were herbivorous and 45% were faunivorous. All the herbivores are therapsids, and the most abundant by far is "Massetognathus", representing 83.7% of all herbivorous specimens. One of the hallmarks of the Chañares assemblage is the numerical dominance of traversodontid cynodonts; with "Massetognathus pascuali" representing 62.3% of the cynodont sample and 46.0% of all amniote remains recovered. Additionally, the number of sectorial-toothed cynodonts is approximately half as abundant as "Massetognathus" in the fauna. "Massetognathus" records suggest a gregarious habit and have been reported to live in burrows with other specimens.
Chañares Formation.
The Chañares Formation, where Romer first discovered "Massetognathus" crops out in the Ischigualasto-Villa Union Basin, which is formed along the western margin of South America during the breakup of Gondwana. Up to 4000 m of non-marine Triassic strata are preserved within the Ischigualasto-Villa Únion Basin. The Chañares Formation represented an extremely thick accumulation of volcanic tuffs that were deposited in wither eolian or lacustrine settings. The lack of stratification prompted Romer to further conclude that deposition in water was unlikely. Instead, Romer envisioned the Chañares landscape “with tremendous quantities of volcanic ash in "Pompeii"-like fashion”. The formation included deposits of muddy streams transporting abundant volcanic detritus. Ash-flow sheets potentially were emplaced as mass flows on sub "alluvial" surfaces and in lakes that occupied the Ischigualasto-Villa Únion Basin.
Taphonomy.
Tetrapod fossils have been found only in the lower lithologic unit of the Chañares Formation, where they are preserved almost exclusively within carbonate concretions. Fossilized bone preserved in concretion shows some of the best form of preservation, with dark brown bone surfaces exhibiting virtually no evidence of macroscopic weathering. The fossil accumulations of the Chañares assemblage are considered to be the product of two different taphonomic pathways: attritional accumulation associated with natural deaths of individuals by predation, disease and old age, and mass mortality of animals associated with volcanic events. In the mass mortality event, there is a clear bias towards preservation of individuals representing smaller-sized to mid-sized taxa such as "Massetognathus". The mass mortality assemblage, with a large quantity of complete or partially articulated skeletons, shows some post-mortem sorting, followed by rapid burial that prevent the carcasses from being scavenged, crushed by species or exposed to weathering.
In the lower lithologic unit of the Chañares Formation, the matrix that encompasses the fossils were in a copious amount of volcanic ash indicating the possibility that lethal volcanic processes led to the demise of the fauna. Volcanic reactions could have also led to the landscape flooding and damming of local rivers also resulting in volcanism being the cause of mass mortality in the Chañares Formation.


Borophagus hilli

Borophagus hilli is an extinct species of the genus "Borophagus" of the subfamily Borophaginae, a group of canids endemic to North America from the Late Miocene until the Pliocene.
Overview.
"Borophagus hilli" was named by C. S. Johnston in 1939. Though not the most massive borophagine by size or weight, it had a more highly evolved capacity to crunch bone than earlier, larger genera such as "Epicyon", which seems to be an evolutionary trend of the group (Turner, 2004). During the Pliocene epoch, "Borophagus" began being displaced by "Canis" genera such as "Canis edwardii" and later by "Canis dirus". Early species of "Borophagus" were placed in the genus Osteoborus until recently, but the genera are now considered synonyms. "Borophagus hilli" possibly led a hyena-like lifestyle scavenging carcasses of recently dead animals.
Taxonomy.
Typical features of this genus are a bulging forehead and powerful jaws; it was probably a scavenger. Its crushing premolar teeth and strong jaw muscles would have been used to crack open bone, much like the hyena of the Old World. The adult animal is estimated to have been about 80 cm in length, similar to a coyote, although it was much more powerfully built.
Recombination.
"Borophagus hilli" was synonymized subjectively with "Borophagus direptor" by Kurten and Anderson in 1980 as well as synonymous with "Osteoborus crassapineatus", "Osteoborus progressus". It was recombined as "Borophagus hilli" by Xiaoming Wang et al. in 1999.
Fossil distribution.
"Borophagus hilli" fossil specimens are widespread from east central Florida to southeastern Washington, from Idaho to New Mexico to Texas. Specimens were also found as far south as the Cuscatlán Formation of El Salvador.


Piveteauia

Piveteauia is an extinct genus of prehistoric coelacanth fish which lived during the Lower Triassic period. The genus is named for twentieth century French vertebrate paleontologist Jean Piveteau. The type specimen was discovered in the Middle Sakamena Group in northwestern Madagascar by French paleoichthyologist Jean-Pierre Lehman.


Kinkonychelys

Kinkonychelys ("Lac Kinkony Study Area turtle") is an extinct genus of side-necked turtle which existed in Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous period. It contains the single species "Kinkonychelys rogersi", named in honor of its discoverer, Raymond R. Rogers. The genus and species are based on UA 9748, a nearly complete skull, which represents the first turtle skull described from the pre-Holocene era in Madagascar. A number of isolated skull and jaw bones have also been assigned to "K. rogersi". These specimens were found in rocks of the Maastrichtian-age Maevarano Formation in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar. Another specimen, FMNH PR 2446, is speculated to represent another species, currently known as "Kinkonychelys sp.", but consensus on its distinction from "K. rogersi" remains unclear.
The Maevarano Formation is a nonmarine rock formation that was deposited under a seasonal, semi-arid climate. A diverse vertebrate assemblage is known from the formation, including fishes, frogs, other turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodyliforms, dinosaurs, birds, and mammals. The rocks of the formation can be subdivided into several members. UA 9748 was found in a claystone bed from an unnamed upper member; this member has also produced abundant and well-preserved fossils of ray-finned fish, crocodyliforms, and dinosaurs. The other specimens assigned to "Kinkonychelys" were found in the older Anembalemba Formation.
"Kinkonychelys" is classified as a member of the Kurmademydini group in the family Bothremydidae, together with the late Cretaceous turtles "Sankuchemys" and "Kurmademys", from India. The classification of "Kinkonychelys" into this group has helped to support the theory that the island of Madagascar and the subcontinent India were connected to each other prior to the end of the late Cretaceous period.


Tasmaniosaurus

Tasmaniosaurus ('lizard from Tasmania', although this genus is not a true lizard) is an extinct genus of archosauromorph reptile known from the Knocklofty Formation (Early Triassic) of West Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. The type species is "T. triassicus". This genus is notable not only due to being one of the most complete Australian Triassic reptiles known, but also due to being a very close relative of Archosauriformes. Once believed to be a proterosuchid, this taxon is now believed to have been intermediate between advanced non-archosauriform archosauromorphs such as "Prolacerta", and basal archosauriforms such as "Proterosuchus". Features traditionally used to define Archosauria and later Archosauriformes, such as the presence of an antorbital fenestra and serrated teeth, are now known to have evolved prior to those groups due to their presence in "Tasmaniosaurus".
History and Classification.
First named as a "nomen nudum" in 1974, the genus received a formal description by paleontologists Charles Lewis Camp and Maxwell Banks in 1978. These descriptions considered it a proterosuchid archosaur. A redescription by British paleontologist Tony Thulborn in 1986 agreed with this interpretation. Since then, cladistic work has redefined the term "archosaur" to only include Avemetatarsalia (a lineage including pterosaurs and dinosaurs, such as modern birds) and Pseudosuchia (a lineage including modern crocodylians and their extinct relatives such as aetosaurs and raisuchids). As proterosuchids evolved prior to the split between these two groups, they are not considered archosaurs using this definition. In lieu of this revelation, the clade Archosauriformes is now used to encompass proterosuchids and archosaurs (as well as several other families) under one group. Archosauriformes is itself a component of Archosauromorpha, a broader clade which refers to all animals more closely related to archosaurs than to lepidosaurs, the other main group of reptiles including lizards, snakes, and tuataras.
During this transition, "Tasmaniosaurus" remained ignored. This was rectified when the genus received a thorough redescription by Martin Ezcurra in 2014. In 2016, Ezcurra also included the genus in his comprehensive analysis of Archosauromorphs, which indicated that proterosuchidae (as it was usually defined) was an invalid polyphyletic grouping. This analysis included a phylogenetic analysis which incorporated "Tasmaniosaurus" and found that it was not in fact a proterosuchid. Rather, it was found to be the sister taxon of Archosauriformes, meaning that it was the closest known relative of members of that clade without technically being part of it (as it was not closer to either proterosuchids or other archosauriforms).
Description.
"Tasmaniosaurus" is known from a single partial skeleton, UTGD (University of Tasmania School of Earth Sciences) 54655. This holotype specimen consists of various skull fragments, vertebrae, ribs, an interclavicle, and bones of the back legs. The specimen as a whole is jumbled and missing many elements, and some of the bones preserved within it have not been identified with absolute certainty. Even so, it is considered one of the most complete skeletons of any Triassic reptile unearthed in Australia. A few other bone fragments collected around Tasmania have been occasionally referred to this genus, but they are currently considered indeterminate and lost.
Skull and teeth.
Snout bones.
The premaxilla (a tooth-bearing bone forming the snout tip) was initially mistaken to be very short due to crushing. However, it was later found to be proportionally similar to that of most archosauriforms. It is rounded from the front and possesses a long and tall 'maxillary process' (rear extension). By comparing the orientation of this process with the tooth row, the snout tip was determined to be only slightly projected downwards, in contrast to the drastically hooked snout of putative proterosuchids. Although only a few teeth are preserved in the right premaxilla, a count of the tooth sockets helps estimates that 6 or 7 teeth were present in each premaxilla during life.
The maxilla (a tooth-bearing bone on the side of the snout) has a long tooth row and a tapering rear tip. The front tip also forms a tapering 'anterior process' which smoothly transitions into a triangular and upward-projecting 'ascending process'. This contrasts with proterosuchids, which have a less abruptly tapering anterior process, and erythrosuchids, which have a pillar-like ascending process. The shape of the upper edge of the maxilla indicates that "Tasmaniosaurus" had an antorbital fenestra, a hole in the side of the snout which seemingly characterizes archosauriforms. The presence of an antorbital fenestra supports the very close relation between "Tasmaniosaurus" and archosauriforms. As the skull bones are all preserved lying face down, it is difficult to assess whether an antorbital fossa (a depression which rings around the antorbital fenestra) was also present. The left maxilla preserves 14 teeth while the right preserves 9. An estimated 21 teeth were present in each maxilla during life. The lacrimal bone (in front of the orbit, or eye hole) is L-shaped and particularly similar to that of "Proterosuchus". On the medial (inside) face, a large tuberosity (bony bump) is present where the forward and downward extensions meet. A partial pterygoid bone (a tooth-bearing part of the roof of the mouth) is preserved in the specimen, and is almost identical to that of "Proterosuchus" and "Prolacerta". It preserves six or seven teeth, and likely represents the front part of the pterygoid.
Skull roof.
Several bones of the skull roof were also preserved connected to each other in the holotype. Camp & Banks considered these to be frontals, parietals, an interparietal, and postfrontals, all bones of the rear of the skull. Thulborn instead interpreted them as frontals, nasals, and postorbitals, on the upper side of the snout. Most recently, Ezcurra discussed both of these interpretations and concluded that Camp & Banks were correct in their identification of the bones. The frontals are long and unfused, and possess thin "finger-like" extensions which would have connected to the nasals. Each postfrontal, which formed the upper rear edge of the orbit, is similar to that of "Archosaurus" but the extent of its contact with the other bones is unclear. The parietals are unfused and have wide and concave outer edges, forming the inner edge of the upper temporal fenestrae (a pair of large holes on each side of the back of the head). The back of each parietal has a long bony rod which extends backwards and curves outwards (a posterolateral process), forming an angle of about 20 degrees with the midline of the skull. A large crescent shape interparietal lies at the back of the skull roof, between the posterolateral processes of the parietals, similar to proterosuchids. Two smaller bone fragments were also found near the skull roof and may have been a supraoccipital and epipterygoid (both bones of the braincase), although such an assignment is uncertain.
Lower jaw.
The dentaries (the main tooth-bearing bones of the lower jaw) are long, thin, and straight, similar to those of "Prolacerta" and "Protorosaurus" but contrasting with the robust and/or upwards-curving jaws of most basal archosauriforms. In fact, the tooth row at the very tip of the jaw slightly curves downward, forcing the first few teeth to project a bit forwards as well as upwards. The rear edge of each dentary has two tapering bony extensions, a short (but partially broken) 'posterodorsal process' on top and a much more prominent 'central posterior process' on the bottom. The dentaries are long enough that the front tip extends almost as far forward as the snout tip while the tooth row would extend almost as far back as the tooth row of the maxilla, both features unlike "Prolacerta" and "Proterosuchus". Only 5 teeth are preserved in the left dentary, but more than 22 were likely present in life. A thick left splenial (a bone of the inside and lower edge of the lower jaw), similar to that of "Proterosuchus", is also preserved.
Teeth.
The teeth of "Tasmaniosaurus" are ankylothecodont, meaning that they are both fused to the skull and jaw bones by thin ridges (ankylodont) as well as placed in deep sockets (thecodont). They are also serrated, similar to those of archosauriforms but unlike practically every other archosauromorph. Although not all of the teeth are preserved in good condition, those that are have a curved shape and are compressed from the side, making them knife-like, similar to most carnivorous archosauromorphs.
Spine and ribs.
Vertebrae.
The "Tasmaniosaurus" holotype preserves 2 presacral (pre-hip) vertebrae, one probably from near the transition between the neck and back and the other probably from mid-way down the back. The cervico-dorsal (neck-back) vertebra is slightly compressed with a shallow depression each side, and does not possess an opening for the spinal cord. Both the neural arch (the portion of the vertebra typically above the spinal cord) and neural spine (a plate-like extension on the top of the vertebra) are tall. The second preserved vertebra, a dorsal, is incomplete but similar to the cervico-dorsal. A curving table-like ridge (lamina) on the side of the vertebra extends forward (as a 'prezygodiapophyseal lamina') and then dips downwards (as a 'paradiapophyseal lamina') towards the front of the vertebra. Various other archosauromorphs also have prezygodiapophyseal laminae, but they are notably lacking in "Proterosuchus". On the other hand, the tip of the neural spine does not expand outwards in this vertebra, similar to the condition in "Proterosuchus". A few putative intercentra (small bones wedged between the lower part of the vertebrae) have also been reported in "Tasmaniosaurus".
Various caudal (tail) vertebrae from different parts of the tail have been preserved, some articulating with each other. Vertebrae believed to have been at the front of the tail are more simple than the dorsal vertebrae, but seem to retain neural spines. On the other hand, vertebrae towards the rear of the tail are very simple, lacking any distinguishable neural spines, articulating plates, or laminae. There are also several haemal arches (arch-like projections from the bottom of the tail vertebrae) which expand into plate-like structures, similar to those of "Proterosuchus".
Ribs and gastralia.
Various ribs have been preserved in the specimen, with some being incorrectly interpreted as other bones. The most complete rib gradually curves inwards, but it is unknown whether any of the ribs are holocephalous (connecting to the vertebrae with one joint) or dichocephalous (with two joints). Gastralia (belly ribs) are present, and correspond to three different forms which broaden towards the back of the body, similar to those of "Proterosuchus".
Other bones.
Interclavicle.
The only preserved portion of the front appendages in the "Tasmaniosaurus" holotype is the interclavicle, a large and thin bone which runs down the center of shoulder girdle. This bone is characteristic, as the front part ends in a wide, diamond-shaped structure, which smoothly transitions to the main shaft of the bone. This resembles the condition in some archosauromorphs (like "Prolacerta") but contrasts with most others (including "Proterosuchus"), which have a "T-shaped" interclavicle with a boxy front tip that abruptly transitions to the main shaft. Nevertheless, the front tip of this structure possesses a notch which is shallower than that of "Prolacerta", more similar to that of "Proterosuchus". The main shaft is very long and thin, with the thinnest section right behind the front structure.
Leg and foot bones.
The specimen preserves several bones of the back legs, including a poorly preserved bone which has sometimes been identified as either a fibula or a femur. On the one hand, it is seemingly thinner than the preserved tibiae, supporting its identification as a fibula. On the other hand, this quality may be due to crushing, and the fact that it is longer in length than the tibia supports its identification as a femur. The other two leg bones are more easily identifiable as both tibiae. They are more robust than those of "Proterosuchus" and have wide proximal (near) ends. There is a depression in the middle of the proximal end of each tibia, dividing that end into two low ridges: a cnemial crest and a ventral condyle. This is similar to the state of the tibiae of "Prolacerta".
Both back feet are preserved in the specimen, although jumbled and missing some bones. Each metatarsal V (the outermost main foot bone) has a hook-shaped proximal end. However, most of the other bones of the foot are difficult to evaluate. Some stout phalanges (toe bones) can be identified, as well as unguals (claws) which are dull and only slightly curved.
Paleobiology.
Brain.
The well-preserved skull roof of "Tasmaniosaurus" allowed for Ezcurra to reconstruct part of the creature's brain by means of a latex endocast. This endocast showed that the specimen's brain had large olfactory bulbs at the front, which lead into a thin olfactory tract in the middle and a somewhat wider cerebellum in the back. There are also wide and flat extensions at the front of the brain which are separated from the olfactory bulbs by a small groove. These extensions may have been the edge of additional non-brain organs (such as a Jacobson's organ) or alternatively another component of the olfactory bulbs, which would indicate that those parts of the brain were unusually large. Both of these interpretation have significant ramifications on the biology of this animal.
If they are a Jacobson's organ, then the notion that such an organ was not present in archosauromorphs can be proven false. This notion was originally formed due to the fact that neither crocodilians nor birds (the two extant groups of archosauromorphs) possess such an organ. However, Ezcurra notes that both of these groups have specialized modes of life which may have caused the organ to have been lost.
If they are parts of the olfactory bulbs, then "Tasmaniosaurus" would have had a superb sense of smell. It has been noted that aquatic animals have generally diminished olfactory capabilities compared to their terrestrial counterparts. Thus, this interpretation significantly lowers the likelihood that "Tasmaniosaurus" or its relatives (such as proterosuchids) were mainly aquatic. Other sources have also supported the idea that proterosuchids were terrestrial rather than aquatic or semiaquatic.
Diet.
The specimen of "Tasmaniosaurus" also preserved a bone from another animal: a maxilla complete with teeth. This maxilla was originally interpreted as belonging to a temnospondyl amphibian. It was believed to have been a piece of gut content, the only known example of such preserved in a "proterosuchid". However, Ezcurra noted that several aspects of the specimen's preservation makes this assignment uncertain at best. In addition, he noted that the maxilla had a relatively low number of teeth compared to temnospondyls, and that it also had an ascending process which may have been the front edge of an antorbital fenestra. These factors made it much more likely that the maxilla belonged to a small archosauriform or potentially even a juvenile specimen of "Tasmaniosaurus" itself. Identification to any particular group is uncertain, but according to Ezcurra it is unlikely that the creature which the bone belonged to was a meal of "Tasmaniosaurus". Nevertheless, the curved and serrated teeth of "Tasmaniosaurus" means that it is practically certain that it was a carnivore of some sort.


Oesling

The Oesling or Ösling () is a region covering the northern part of both the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm, within the greater Ardennes area that also covers parts of Belgium and France. The Oesling covers 32% of the territory of Luxembourg; to the south of the Oesling lies the Gutland (literally "Good Land"), which covers the remaining 68% of the Grand Duchy as well as the southern part of the Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm.
Features.
The region is characterised by hills and large deciduous forests. Almost all of Luxembourg's tallest hills are in the Oesling, particularly in the north and north-west, near the borders with Belgium and Germany. Its main hill chains are cut by scenic river valleys, most notable those of the Clerve, Our, upper Sauer, and Wiltz.
Towns and villages.
The Oesling is sparsely populated, with few larger towns; Clervaux, Vianden and Wiltz are the largest ones in the Luxembourgish part of the Oesling, of which only Wiltz has a population of over 4,816 people. The area is known for its hill-side villages, which rely upon the visitors that the tourist season brings.
History.
In the late 18th century, a popular, rural rising against the French Revolutionary forces was centered upon the Oesling area.
In World War II, the Battle of the Bulge was partly fought in the region in late 1944 and early 1945.
Regionalist pressures.
In the 2004 legislative election, the Free Party of Luxembourg, a small regionalist party based in the Oesling and led by local personality Jean Ersfeld, offered candidates, but none were elected. The party had difficulty in continuing to organize after the election.


English Harbour East Formation

The English Harbour East Formation is a formation cropping out in Newfoundland.


Nipponites

Nipponites is an extinct genus of heteromorph ammonites. The shells of "Nipponites" (primarily "N. mirabilis") form "ox-bow" bends, resulting in some of the most bizarre shapes seen among ammonites.
The ecology of "Nipponites", as with many other nostoceratids, is subject to much speculation.
Distribution.
Fossils of most species are found primarily in Upper Cretaceous strata of Japan. "N. mirabilis" is found in Coniacian-aged strata of Japan and possibly Turonian-aged strata in Madagascar. "N. bacchus" is found in Upper Cretaceous Hokkaido. Two species are found exclusively outside Japan, "N. sachalinensis", which is found in Upper Cretaceous strata of Sakhalin island, and Kamchatka peninsula, and "N. occidentalis", which is known from two shells found in the Turonian-aged Hornbrook Formation of Southern Oregon.


Kadovar

Kadovar is a volcanic island in Papua New Guinea north-east of the much larger island of New Guinea. The volcano erupted in January 2018 and the eruption is ongoing as of 2020. There were some heightened thermal phenomena in 1976.
Geography.
Kadovar is part of the Schouten Islands about north of the mouth of the Sepik River. It is long and wide. The village of Gewai is near the crater rim. Authorities had thought around 700 people lived on the island, but this number was related to the registered voters on the island and the actual number was found to be much higher during a re-settlement ordered after the volcano erupted in January 2018.
History.
The first recorded sighting by Europeans of Kadovar was by the Spanish navigator Yñigo Ortiz de Retez on 21 July 1545 when on board the carrack "San Juan" trying to return from Tidore to New Spain.
In 1700 smoke was reported, possibly from an eruption. There were further indications of possible imminent eruptions in 1976 and 1981. The island's inhabitants were evacuated to the nearby island of Blup Blup in 1976.
2018 eruption.
The island was again evacuated by boats and canoes immediately after an eruption began on 5 January 2018 that lasted several days and resulted in at least half of the island being covered in lava. The Rabaul Volcanological Observatory described "mild vulcanian activity from a vent at the southeast base of the cumulodome" and that "a fissure may be opening just inside of the western wall of the vent’s breach, descending down to at least sea level". According to the Australian bureau of the Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in Darwin, the ash cloud formed a plume as high as .


Laguna Verde (volcano)

Cerro Laguna Verde is one of the many stratovolcanoes that integrate a -long chain east of the Gran Salar de Atacama in Chile's II Region. The mountain is located west of Acamarachi (also known as Cerro de Pili) and north of the Aguas Calientes (Simbad) and Lascar stratovolcanoes.
The age of the volcano, which rises above the surrounding terrain is not known for certain. Earlier it was considered Pleistocene-Holocene. At some point in the past, the northern flank of the volcano collapsed. The resulting debris avalanche formed a lake in the Quebrada Portor from water dammed by the debris. The edifice has an estimated volume of .


Antapite

Antapite (possibly from Quechua "anta" copper, "p'iti" dividing by pulling powerfully to the extremes; gap, interruption) is a mountain in the Andes of Peru. It is located in Ayacucho Region, Cangallo Province, on the border of the districts of Paras and Totos. Antapite lies north of mount Ccerone. Mines in the Antapite region carry precious and base metals which contribute to the local and global economy.


Mount Darwin (Andes)

Mount Darwin () is a peak in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego forming part of the Cordillera Darwin, the southernmost range of the Andes, just to the north of the Beagle Channel.
Monte Darwin was for a long time considered as the highest peak in Tierra del Fuego, but that distinction corresponds to a nearby mountain unofficially named Monte Shipton (also somewhat confusingly referred to as "Darwin" or "Agostini-Darwin"), which is about high and is located at . Both peaks are best climbed in late December, January, February and March. Monte Shipton was first climbed in 1962 by Eric Shipton, E. Garcia, F. Vivanco and C. Marangunic.
Mount Darwin was given its name during the voyage of the "Beagle" by HMS "Beagle"'s captain Robert FitzRoy to celebrate Charles Darwin's 25th birthday on 12 February 1834. A year earlier FitzRoy had named an expanse of water to the southwest of the mountain the Darwin Sound to commemorate Darwin's quick wit and courage in saving them from being marooned when waves from a mass of ice splitting off a glacier threatened their boats.
The mountain is part of Alberto de Agostini National Park. It is formed of crystalline schists and has massive glaciers down its steep southern slopes.


Palaeoperenethis

Palaeoperenethis is an extinct monotypic genus of Nursery web spider family Pisauridae, and at present, it contains the single species Palaeoperenethis thaleri. The genus is solely known from the Early Eocene, Ypresian Okanagan Highlands deposits in the Cariboo region of British Columbia, Canada.
History and classification.
"Palaeoperenethis thaleri" is known only from one fossil, the holotype, number "ROM31304" consisting of part and counterpart impressions that is currently residing in the paleontological collections in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a single adult male individual preserved as a compression fossil in the fine-grained lacustrian rock and thus has been flattened from its dimensions in life. The compression specimen was mentioned in publication by Dr. Mark Wilson in his 1977 paper discussing the paleoecology of the Horsefly Lagerstätte fossil sites. "P. thaleri" was first studied by Paul A. Selden and David Penney, with their 2009 type description being published in the journal "Contributions to Natural History". The generic name was coined by P. Selden and D. Penney as a combination of the Greek word "palaios" meaning "ancient" and "Perenethis", a modern Nursery web spider genus. This is in reference to the age of the type specimen and the African-Asian genus which "Palaeoperenethis" is similar in appearance to. The specific epithet "thaleri" was designated by P. Selden and D. Penney in honor of the late Dr. Konrad Thaler, past president of the International Society of Arachnology.
Description.
Due to the incomplete nature of the type specimen, the carapace and opisthosoma are missing, the overall size of "Palaeoperenethis thaleri" not certain. The general shape of the carapace is indicated in the position and disposition of the legs which suggest a subcircular or polygonal carapace. The placement of "Palaeoperenethis" into Pisauridae is based on the shape and structure of the elongated pedipalps which have a brush of bristles along one edge. Several important characters of the family, such as nursery web construction and egg sack care, are not verifiable in the fossil. The presence of "Palaeoperenethis" in a lacustrine environment is another feature indicating a placement in Pisauridae. While bristles on the pedipalp are also known in the family Trechaleidae, other overall morphology found in "Palaeoperenethis" is much closer to Pisauridae. Though the morphology is similar to the modern genus "Perenethis" a direct relationship to the genus is unknown, however "Palaeoperenethis" is most similar to members of the subfamily Pisaurinae.


Araranca

Araranca (possibly from Quechua for a little lizard) is a mountain in the Cordillera Blanca in the Andes of Peru, about high. It is situated in the Ancash Region, Huaraz Province, Olleros District. Araranca lies southwest of Tuctu and northwest of Yanaraju. It lies north of the Araranca valley.


Bocatherium

Bocatherium is an extinct genus of tritylodonts from the Pliensbachian (Early Jurassic) of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is known only from a skull found at the Huizachal Canyon locality, "a Pliensbachian floodplain siltstone in the La Boca Formation".


Kjeragbolten

Kjeragbolten (English: "Kjerag Bolt") is a boulder on the mountain Kjerag in Sandnes municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The rock itself is a glacial deposit wedged in the mountain's crevasse. It is a popular tourist destination and is accessible without any climbing equipment. However, it is suspended above a deep abyss. It is also a popular site for BASE jumping. The boulder is just southwest of the village of Lysebotn, just south of the Lysefjorden.
Geology.
Rogaland lies in a weak tectonic zone, allowing the river to dig into the surrounding sandstone mountain. During the several ice ages known to have occurred in Scandinavia, Norway was completely covered in glaciers. Between the ice ages, the meltwater formed and reformed the valley up to 22 times. After the last ice age, global warming caused a rise in sea level, flooding the fjords. The boulder was deposited during the last glacial period, at around 50,000 B.C. As the Norwegian Glacier melted, it was accompanied by a rebound in rock formations as the ice was removed. In Kjeragbolten's case, the rebound was faster than the rising sea level, which wedged the rock into its current position.
Tourism.
Kjeragbolten has long been a famed photo op in the Kjerag trails. It was featured in the 2006 viral video "Where the Hell is Matt?" where traveler Matt Harding danced atop the precarious boulder. Because of its enormous popularity, long lines usually form with people who want to have a photo from the site. Expected waiting time can be anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour, especially when there are cruise ships in Stavanger.


Karl von Seebach

Karl Albert Ludwig von Seebach (13 August 1839, Weimar – 21 January 1880, Göttingen) was a German geologist known for his studies in the field of volcanology.
He studied geology and paleontology at Breslau as a pupil of Ferdinand von Roemer, with whom he took a scientific journey to Russia. He also studied at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin, where he was a student of Heinrich Ernst Beyrich. In 1862 he obtained his doctorate at Göttingen with a thesis on conch-fauna of the Weimar Triassic. In 1870 he became a full professor at Göttingen and subsequently chosen as the first director of the geological-palaeontological institute.
His earlier research dealt with stratigraphical geology and paleontology, and he dedicated much of his time to the preparation of a geological chart of the Kingdom of Hanover. In 1864 he embarked on a trip to Central America, where he investigated the volcanic phenomena of the region. In 1866 he had the opportunity to witness firsthand, volcanic eruptions in the Aegean Sea (Kameni islands, Santorini caldera).
Seebach's personal library was purchased for the geological-palaeontological institute at Göttingen shortly after his death. The mineral "seebachite" (synonym of chabazite) is named in his honor.


Mount Lado (South Sudan)

Mount Lado or Jebel Lado is an isolated hillock in Jubek State, South Sudan, about 13 km northwest of the White Nile and 28 km due north of the national capital Juba. The mountain was also called Mount Nyerkenyi.
The current name comes from Lado-lo-Möri, the Bari chief who controlled the surrounding area when British governor Charles George Gordon founded Lado, on the West Nile bank southeast of the mountain, as the capital of the Central Equatoria province.
The hill rises about 500 m above the flat alluvial plain to a peak altitude of 1006 meters, and dominates the landscape, being the only hill in a radius of 30 km (the nearest one being Jebel Kunufi to the southwest, with peak at 871 m). The hill is almond-shaped, about 4.7 km long and 3.6 km wide, with the long axis oriented north by northeast. The Koda River runs about 3 km south and 5 km southwest of its base. It is surrounded by several small villages, including Ludo Kenyi and Rombe Lako.


Chiromyoides

Chiromyoides is a small plesiadapid primatomorph that is known for its unusually robust upper and lower incisors, deep dentary, and comparatively small cheek teeth. Species of "Chiromyoides" are known from the middle Tiffanian through late Clarkforkian North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMA) of western North America, and from late Paleocene deposits in the Paris Basin, France.
The unique dental morphology of "Chiromyoides" has led several authors to propose a specialized ecological role for the genus. Gingerich (1976) hypothesized that "Chiromyoides" was a specialist on seeds, while Szalay and Delson (1979) and Beard et al. (2020) suggested that it may have consumed wood-boring insects in a manner similar to the aye-aye.
Origins and discovery.
The type species of "Chiromyoides", "C. campanicus", was originally described in 1916 from fragmentary craniodental material discovered in Cernay, France, with additional material also later found at Berru. Gingerich (1973) described the first North American species, "Chiromyoides caesor", from two upper incisors found in northern Wyoming. Several years later, he described three additional North American species, "C. major", "C. minor", and "C. potior", from isolated upper incisors found in northern Wyoming, southern Wyoming, and southern Colorado, respectively. Secord (2008) named "C. gingerichi" from material found in northern Wyoming and southern Montana, Burger and Honey (2008) named "C. gigas" from several incisors found in northern Colorado, and Beard et al. (2020) named "C. kesiwah" from material found at several localities in southwestern Wyoming. A second European species, "C. mauberti", was named by De Bast et al. (2018) from isolated teeth and several mandibular fragments found near Rivecourt, France.
Evolutionary relationships.
"Chiromyoides" is known only from isolated teeth, mandibular fragments, and maxillary fragments, and its relationships to other plesiadapiforms are not well understood. "Chiromyoides" is generally acknowledged to be a member of the family Plesiadapidae, along with "Plesiadapis", "Platychoerops", "Nannodectes", and "Pronothodectes". Recent phylogenetic analyses suggest that "Chiromyoides" is descended from "Plesiadapis", perhaps most closely related to "Plesiadapis walbeckensis" or "Plesiadapis tricuspidens".
Beard et al. (2020) found that species of "Chiromyoides" separated into two distinct clades: a more southern clade consisting of "C. gigas", "C. minor", and "C. kesiwah" from southern Wyoming and Colorado, and a northern clade including "C. major", "C. gingerichi", "C. campanicus", and "C. mauberti". "Chiromyoides caesor" formed a polytomy with the two main clades. "Chiromyoides potior" was not included in their analysis. The nesting of the European species "C. campanicus" and "C. mauberti" in the northern clade suggests that "Chiromyoides" dispersed into Europe from North America.
Age and biogeography.
The oldest specimens of "Chiromyoides" are "C. minor" from the Chappo Type Locality in Lincoln County, Wyoming, and an edentulous mandible from the Black Peaks region of southwest Texas that has been referred to either "C. minor" or an indeterminate species of "Chiromyoides". Both the Chappo locality and the Ray's Bonebed locality of southwest Texas where the edentulous mandible was found are arguably middle Tiffanian (Ti3) in age. "Chiromyoides caesor" and "C. kesiwah" come from slightly younger Tiffanian (Ti4) beds in the Bighorn Basin and Washakie Basin, respectively, while "C. potior", "C. gigas", "C. gingerichi", and "C. major" come from even younger Tiffanian and Clarkforkian deposits in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.
"Chiromyoides campanicus" comes from localities in the Paris Basin that appear to correlate with the late Tiffanian of North America, while "C. mauberti" occurs in somewhat younger strata that correlates with the North American Clarkforkian NALMA.


Simuna meteorite crater


Gaultois Granite

The Gaultois Granite is a formation cropping out in Newfoundland.


Eodindymene

Eodindymene is a genus of trilobites in the order Phacopida, that existed during the upper Ordovician in what is now Sweden. It was described by Kielan in 1960, and the type species in "Eodindymene pulchra", which was originally described under the genus "Dindymene" by Olin in 1906. The type locality was the Tretaspis Shale Formation in Scania.


Linzor

Volcán Linzor is a stratovolcano on the border between Bolivia and Chile. In its vicinity lie Laguna Colorada and Cerro del León.
Geology.
Regional.
Since the late Oligocene, subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South America Plate has caused volcanism on the western edge of South America, including the formation of the Central Volcanic Zone. The crust in the Central Andes contains both an upper felsic layer and a lower mafic layer and was partly assembled from numerous terranes during the Mesoproterozoic. The most important two form the Arequipa-Antofalla crustal domain.
Local.
Linzor volcano is part of the Central Volcanic Zone. The Andean Central Volcanic Zone has erupted large ignimbrites and lava flows. Dominant rocks are andesite and dacite. One part of the Central Volcanic Zone is the Altiplano-Puna volcanic complex, a system of ignimbrite sheets and lava domes that was active between 8.4 and 2.9 million years ago and is underpinned by a layer of partially molten crust. In the Linzor area, volcanism is represented by the 8.3 million years old Sifon ignimbrite, Cerro Chillahuita and Cerro Chao.
Linzor and other volcanoes in the neighbourhood are constructed by breccia, lava domes, lava flows, pyroclastic flows and breccia. The volcanoes are formed by basaltic andesite, andesite and dacite. Pyroxene andesite is the dominant component. The volcanoes are constructed on top of Miocene ignimbrites and are of Pleistocene-Holocene age. An Inca sanctuary has been found on Linzor.
Linzor is part of a north-south trending volcanic chain with San Pedro volcano which was heavily glaciated in the past. This chain is parallel to several Paleozoic faults in the region. The Rio Toconce, a tributary of the Rio Salado and ultimately of the Loa River, originates at the foot of Linzor.


Aubrac

Aubrac is a small village in the southern Massif Central of France. The name is also applied to the surrounding countryside, which is properly called L'Aubrac in French. The Aubrac region has been a member of the Natura 2000 network since August 2006. It straddles three "départements" (Cantal, Aveyron and Lozère) and three "régions" (Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon).
Geography, geology.
Aubrac is a volcanic and granitic plateau that extends over an area of 1,500 km2. The volcanic eruptions occurred between 6 and 9 million year ago and were of Hawaiian type with fluid lavas. There are therefore no individual volcanic cones. The volcanic zone occupies the west side while the other part of the plateau is formed of granite. The average altitude is about 1,200 meters with the highest point at 1,469 meters (Signal de Mailhebiau) in the south. All the region has been eroded by glaciers during three glacial periods. The Aubrac includes four glacial lakes: lac des Salhiens, lac de Saint-Andéol, lac de Souveyrols and lac de Born. In the south, the highest summits of the Aubrac dominate the Lot valley, which lies 1,000 m below.
Economy.
Bovine breeding is the main activity on the plateau. Aubrac has its own bovine species called "Aubrac", which is well adapted to the environment. The cows are bred for their meat while, before the 1960s, they were bred for their dairy products. The milk was made into cheese in "burons" or " mazucs ", which are small structures in the middle of the pastures. Today, the majority of these structures are in ruin. The "Laguiole" (pronounced "Layole") cheese is now only made by a dairy in the village of Laguiole and resembles Cantal cheese.
The region is also known for its knife industry. It is here that the Laguiole knife is made by around thirty local craftsmen. The factory of Forge de Laguiole was designed by Phillippe Starck.
History.
By 1000 BC, the Celts had occupied the region. In the period of Roman Gaul, Gaulish tribes called Gabalians (Lozère) and Rutènians (Aveyron) occupied the area. Julius Caesar stated that the Gabalians were survivors of the Battle of Alesia. Their capital Anderitum became Javols. The Rutenians, who may have come from the Danube delta and who gave their name to the Rouergue, became allied with Vercingetorix.
In the early Middle Ages, Grégory of Tours recorded an incident of a Pagan rite at the lake near Mount Hélanus. Later, a pilgrim of St. James, Adallard (a Flemish viscount), survived after a fight in the area; out of gratitude to God he built the Dômerie (hospital) at Aubrac. The village of Aubrac grew around the hospital.
The Dômerie was home to monks and the knights of the Order of Aubrac until the French Revolution. The monks fed and sheltered passing pilgrims, and rang a "Bell of the Lost" during times of snow. The rules of life at the Dômerie in Latin dating from the Middle Ages are available in an online version.
In the 11th century, a certain Gilbert, who married Tiburge, countess of Provence, appointed himself count of Gévaudan. This Gilbert had a daughter, Douce I, Countess of Provence, who was married to Ramon Berenguer, Count of Barcelona, and brought him all the rights to Gévaudan, Aubrac, and Carladès.
The rule of the counts of Barcelona in Gévaudan gave rise to a serious argument with the bishop of Mende, who considered himself lord and count of the country. After many local conflicts and the war between the lords of Armagnac's French kings Charles VII and Louis XI this country lost its true identity. However, the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela has always brought many visitors.
Culture.
Every last weekend of August, a literary festival takes place in Aubrac: Rencontres aubrac
References.
Medieval latin text


Huequi

Huequi () is a stratovolcano located in Los Lagos Region of Chile. It lies at the centre of Ayacara Peninsula and close to the Gulf of Ancud. It has an elevation of with a sharp summit and reportedly "smoked" in the 1950s and is made up from a lava dome complex situated in a depression of unclear origin, a postglacial lava dome Calle and a Pleistocene Porcelana volcano with Holocene parasitic cones.


Hybodus

Hybodus ("humped tooth") is an extinct genus of Chondrichthyans. First appearing towards the end of the Permian period, and disappearing during the Late Cretaceous, during the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods the hybodonts were especially successful and could be found in shallow seas across the world. For reasons that are not fully understood, the hybodonts became extinct near the end of the Late Cretaceous period.
Description.

"Hybodus" species grew to about in length, and are believed to have been opportunist predators. It was not very big, but had the classic streamlined shark shape, complete with two dorsal fins that would have helped it steer with precision. The mouth was not large, and rather than ruthlessly hunt large prey, "Hybodus", was capable of eating a wide range of foods. They had several distinct features that made them stand apart from other primitive sharks. Firstly, they had two different types of teeth, suggesting a wide diet. The sharper teeth would have been used to catch slippery prey, while the flatter teeth probably helped them crush shelled creatures. Secondly, they had a bony blade on their dorsal fin that probably served a defensive function. The males also possessed claspers, specialized organs that directly insert sperm into the female, and which are still present in modern sharks.
The youngest "Hybodus" fossils come from the Dinosaur Park Formation. They date from 68.6 to 66 million years ago.
The first fossilized teeth from "Hybodus" were found in England around 1845. Since then teeth (and dorsal spines) have been recovered from around the world.
Species.
Several "Hybodus" species, including "H. butleri", "H. rajkovichi", and "H. montanensis", were later reassigned to "Meristodonoides".


Lamarquesaurus

Lamarquesaurus is an extinct genus of sphenodontian from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Patagonia. It is known from a single species, Lamarquesaurus cabazai. This genus and species is represented by MML-PV-42, a well-preserved right maxillary bone (including 10 teeth of varying completeness). This bone was found at the Cerro Tortuga site near Lamarque, Argentina, which preserves fossils from the Cretaceous Allen Formation. The discoverer of the Cerro Tortuga locality, Tito Cabaza, is the namesake of the species.
Description.
The maxilla is in length; including missing portions it would have been about long if complete. The inner surface of the maxilla is deeply concave but the outer surface has several scattered pits as well as deep facets above the third and fifth teeth. These facets are reminiscent of those which sphenodonts possess on the lower jaw due to abrasion from teeth of the upper jaw, but this cannot be the case in "Lamarquesaurus"'s maxilla. This is because the lower jaw of sphenodonts contacts the inner edge of the maxilla when the mouth is closed; the outer surface of the maxilla would not be eroded by teeth because it never contacts the lower jaw. Therefore, these concavities (referred to as "false wear marks") must have had a different origin than true wear marks.
The outer surface of the maxilla of "Lamarquesaurus" also has a characteristic longitudinal ridge which is large and roughly-textured at the front part of the bone and forks into two ridges at the rear part of the bone. The teeth are widely spaced and roughly conical, with ridges on their outer surface and slanted wear facets on their inner surface. These wear facets indicate that "Lamarquesaurus" was an advanced sphenodont capable of propalinal (front-to-back) jaw movement. Although they do not closely resemble the wide, rectangular teeth of eilenodontine opisthodonts, there are no qualities which preclude a relationship between "Lamarquesaurus" and basal opisthodonts such as "Opisthias", or alternatively members of the family Sphenodontidae such as the modern tuatara ("Sphenodon"). "Lamarquesaurus"'s discovery bolsters the theory that eupropalinal sphenodonts continued to dominate the "small reptile" niche of South American ecosystems during the Cretaceous and early Cenozoic, while other sphenodonts went extinct and were replaced by lizards in the Northern Hemisphere.


Baurubatrachus

Baurubatrachus is an extinct genus of prehistoric frogs found in the Maastrichtian Marília Formation of Brazil, formerly considered to be related to the extant family Ceratophryidae. However, a detailed assessment of the anatomy and relationships of the single known fossil of "Baurubatrachus" demonstrated that it is not part of Ceratophryidae and might be part of a much ancient group of Neobatrachia.


Achistrum

Achistrum is an extinct genus of sea cucumber which existed in Poland during the Triassic period, and the United States during the Carboniferous period. It contains the species "Achistrum nicholsoni" and "Achistrum ludwigi".