Velocipes

Velocipes (meaning "quick foot") is a saurischian dinosaur genus from the Late Triassic that may have been a theropod. Its fossils were found in the Norian-age Lissauer Breccia of southern Poland.
Upon discovery, "Velocipes" was thought to have been a coelurosaur, but more recent studies have shown that "Velocipes" was probably a basal theropod or dinosauriform.
History and taxonomy.
The type species, "V. guerichi", was first described by Huene in 1932 as a coelurosaur, based on the proximal portion of a very poorly preserved fibula that was discovered in the Lissauer Breccia of southern Poland by Georg Gürich around 1898. The bone was damaged during the Second World War and was thought to have been destroyed until it was rediscovered in 2012. In 1956, von Huene placed "Velocipes" in the Halticosauridae, which has since become monotypic to only include "Halticosaurus". In 1984, Samuel Paul Welles considered "Velocipes" to be synonymous with "Liliensternus".
A later paper, published in 2000 by Rauhut and Hungerbuhler, claimed that the only specimen of this animal was not well preserved enough to be confidently identified as part of a fibula, and classified the genus as an "indeterminate vertebrate". In 2004, Ronald Tykoski and Timothy Rowe listed "Velocipes" as a possible ceratosaur or coelophysoid. Weishampel "et al." (2004) also listed "Velocipes" as a possible ceratosaur.
However, an SVP abstract reviewing putative dinosauriform remains from the Triassic of southern Poland confirmed the original theropod classification of "Velocipes" by von Huene, which was elaborated in detail in a 2016 paper. The authors considered "Velocipes" to have been a basal theropod or a neotheropod.
Paleoecology.
"Velocipes" would have been contemporaneous with the aetosaur genus "Kocurypelta", an indeterminate species of lungfish and an indeterminate species of stem-turtle from the Proterochersidae family.


Aegicetus

Aegicetus is an extinct genus of protocetid whale based on a partial skull with much of an associated postcranial skeleton discovered in Egypt. It lived around 35 million years ago (during the Late Eocene), making it the youngest known protocetid to date. "Aegicetus" was discovered in 2007 at Wadi El Hitan (Gehannam Formation) as a relatively complete skeleton and a partial second specimen. They were assigned to a new genus and species in 2019 by Philip D. Gingerich "et al."
"Aegicetus" is reported to have been intermediate in form and functionally transitional in having a larger and more powerful vertebral column of a tail-powered swimmer. It differs from "Peregocetus" by lacking a firm sacroiliac joint and from "Rodhocetus" by having smaller hind feet, indicating it were less capable of moving on land and relied less on its hind limbs to propel through the water.


Eboda diakonoffi

Eboda diakonoffi is a species of moth of the family Tortricidae.
It is native to Indonesia and Papua New Guinea,
It has been recorded from Fergusson Island of the D'Entrecasteaux Islands archipelago, and the Admiralty Islands, of Papua New Guinea; and from Sulawesi of Indonesia .


Rafaelnymphes

Rafaelnymphes is an extinct genus of lacewing in the family Nymphidae known from a fossil found in South America. The genus contains a single species, Rafaelnymphes cratoensis.
History and classification.
When first described, "R. cratoensis" was known from a single fossil adult which is a compression-impression fossil preserved in layers of soft sedimentary rock. Along with other well-preserved insect fossils, the "R. cratoensis" specimen was collected from layers of the Upper Aptian Crato Formation. The formation is composed of unweathered grey and oxidized yellow limestones, which preserved numerous insects, fish, birds and reptiles as a notable lagerstätten. The area is a preserved inland lake or one of a series of lakes, though the nature as a fresh or salt-water body is uncertain. The depth of the basin has been suggested as either shallow or fairly deep. The basin formed near the center of the supercontinent Gondwana during the early part of the diversification of flowering plants.
The "R. cratoensis" holotype specimen was preserved in the Wyoming Dinosaur Center-Crato collection when first studied. The fossil was described by an international team of paleontologists led by Justine Myskowiak in a 2016 paper. The genus name is a combination of Rafael, a patronym honoring Rafael Martins-Neto who specialized in insects of the Crato Formation and "nymphes", taken from the family name Nymphidae. They coined the specific epithet "cratoensis" in reference to the type locality the Crato Formation.
"R. cratoensis" is one of several neuropteran species described from the Crato Formation. Other species include the nymphid "Araripenymphes seldoni", the ithonid "Principiala incerta" and the kalligrammatids "Makarkinia adamsi" and "Makarkinia kerneri".
Description.
The single fossil has a full body length of approximately , and is mostly complete, being fossilized upside down with the legs upwards. The antennae, parts of the legs and the genitalia were not preserved. Additionally, details of the upper body, such as the presence of ocelli could not be determined. The head is rectangular in outline with the large compound eyes positioned on the sides. The preserved sections of the legs are slender and attached to the long prothorax. The long forewings are a dark brown coloring with area and spots that are a slightly darkener tone, possibly preserved color patterning. There are small trichosors present along the apical rear edges of the forewings, and as typical for the family, nygmata are not present on any of the wings. The forewings and hindwings are preserved overlapping each other, obscuring detail of the hindwing venation.


Cerro El Veladero

The Cerro El Veladero is a mountain in the state of Guerrero to the north of Acapulco.
Location.
The Cerro El Veladero is southwest of El Veladero (Veladero Morelos), northwest of Carabalí and northeast of Pueblo Nuevo.
The mountain has an elevation of .
It was the site of the Battle of El Veladero during the Mexican War of Independence.
Park.
The mountain is protected by the Parque nacional El Veladero, created in 1980 with an area of almost .
The park was created with the goal of improving the environment of the area known as the amphitheater of Acapulco Bay and the Cerro Veladero, which has historical importance.
Vegetation is medium frest with isolated oaks.
Fauna include songbirds, osprey, iguana and boa.


Mont Bessou viewing tower

The Mont Bessou viewing tower is a purpose-built panoramic tower, north of the town of Meymac in the Corrèze department of the Limousin (region) of France
Location.
The tower is situated in the Forest of Mirambel, on the raised south-eastern edge of the Plateau de Millevaches. It is set in an area of woodland belonging jointly to the department of Corrèze and the commune of Meymac, at an altitude of approximately 1000 metres. It overlooks and affords wide vistas across the lower area between the plateau and the Cantal mountains. Both the town of Meymac and the more distant and larger town of Ussel are easily visible.
History.
The tower was planned on the initiative of the departmental and regional councils. The consulting architect was François Bonnin. It was opened on 17 June 2005.
Construction.
The construction of the tower was deliberately planned as a bringing together of modern design and traditional local materials. It is built of Douglas fir, braced with steel cables, and is triangular in plan. 188 steps and six intervening landings, take the visitor to the main viewing platform, which is above the ground.


Barameda

Barameda (Indigenous Australian language: "fish trap" is a genus of rhizodont lobe-finned fish which lived during the Tournaisian stage near the start of the Carboniferous period in Australia; fossils of the genus have been reported from the Snowy Plains Formation. While many Paleozoic sarcopterygan fishes are identified by their fleshy lobe fins, fused skull cases and basal qualities, the primary identifier of most "Barameda" fossils comes from their large rooted fangs, usually in length, and where the order Rhizodontida and family Rhizodontidae gain their name. The largest member of this genus, "Barameda decipiens", reached an estimated length of over , rivaling another large rhizodont in size, "Rhizodus". Species of "Barameda" were obligate carnivores, preying on freshwater invertebrates, early fish, and possibly early tetrapods to sustain its massive length.
Description.
The "Barameda" has an extremely elongated and thick body typical of Carboniferous rhizodonts, built for powerful swimming, and out-powering any prey larger than itself. It is covered with durable cosmoid scales all along its body, with thick bony plates covering its head and operculum (gill flaps), a tightly fused Skull roof, and extremely prominent, sharp fangs, devoid of serrations or cutting edges. It had an advanced lateral line system that was elaborated along its pectoral girdle, larger pectoral fins than pelvic fins, with deeply over-lapping scales along its fins, turning the pectoral fin into a large paddle. Its anal fins and secondary dorsal fins form a functional part of its tail.
Hunting and diet.
"Barameda" would ambush other fishes and possibly early tetrapods, although there is no evidence of these in the Mansfield deposits. It probably employed a "grab and drag" strategy using the highly pronounced fangs at their premaxillae to snag slippery prey and either thrash them at the top of the water, or drag them down and pin them under water. This hunting behavior is common amongst living members of Sarcopterygii when hunting air-breathing prey and slippery, fast moving prey. Its mandibles also rotated inwards towards each other when biting prey, securing any prey item caught from escaping. "Barameda" most likely used this mechanism to subdue any evasive prey that whose struggling could allow them to escape.
Natural threats.
"Barameda" was a higher trophic level predator who preyed upon a large variety of species, with no predators other than its larger relative "Rhizodus". Tropical sharks during the Carboniferous were smaller than most lobefins and posed little threat to healthy adult individuals, and any large eugeneodonts such as the "Parahelicoprion" were restricted to open or deep-sea environments, thus isolated from larger members of Rhizodontidae.


Keeleaspis

Keeleaspis is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine arthropods, the trilobites. It lived during the late Atdabanian stage, which lasted from 530 to 524 million years ago during the early part of the Cambrian Period.


Pseudomegaloolithus

Pseudomegaloolithus is an oogenus of fossil Megaloolithid egg from Morocco. It is known from eggshell fragments which are distinguished from other Megaloolithid eggs because of its thin shells, fan-shaped eggshell units, and the structure of the nodes and ridges on the eggshell surface. Some egg fragments from India, France, and Peru (some of which had previously been classified as "Megaloolithus pseudomamillare") may actually represent specimens of "Pseudomegaloolithus".


Austroceratites

Austroceratites is a genus of extinct shelled cephalopods that lived during the Triassic, included in ammonoid order Ceratitida. Within the Ceratitida, "Autroceratites" belongs in the family Ceratitidae and subfamily Ceratitinae.
Ceratitidae, in which "Austroceratites" is placed, is a mid Triassic family that has left evolute to involute, stoutly ribbed, discoidal shells with ceratitic sutures.


Ngaoundere Plateau

The Ngaoundéré Plateau is a highland area in the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. It contains Tchabal Nganha, a large volcano, and many other recent volcanic structures.
Location.
The plateau is between the forested south and savannah north of Cameroon.
Ngaoundéré, the capital of the Adamawa region is located on the plateau.
It lies over the Ngaoundere fault zone, which was reactivated in the Cretaceous.
The Ngaoundere fault belongs the Central African Fault Zone. In this region the asthenosphere upwells from a depth of about 190 km to about 120 km in a relatively narrow belt.
Formation.
The plateau was formed by flows of basaltic lavas that filled two broad valleys eroded into the Precambrian basement, followed by further flows that built up the plateau.
There are many trachyte and phonolite plugs across the plateau, and lines of cinder cones from the most recent eruptions.
The plateau contains Tchabal Nganha, a large stratovolcano of basanitic to trachytic composition.
Nganha is about 1,000 m high. It developed in four main events: eruption of numerous basaltic flows which form the bulk of the mountain; deposit of voluminous breccias, most of which were deeply eroded; eruption of trachytes and phonolites as thick flows; and finally basaltic activity in the summit area. Rocks date from 9.8 to 7 million years ago.
Related volcanic zones.
Although considered by many geologists to be part of the Cameroon Volcanic Line, the silicic volcanism of the Ngaoundere plateau is younger (11-9  million years old) than silicic volcanism in the Western Highlands, with much more alkaline basalts than in the western part of the line. This has been cited as evidence that the line is not caused by movement of the plate over a hotspot.
To the east of Ngaoundere and Wakwa there is quaternary volcanic activity consisting of scoria cones and lava flows, maars, and tuff cones. One lava flow in this area has been dated to 0.9 million years ago.
Some of the volcanoes may be from the Holocene period.


Galbula hylochoreutes

Galbula hylochoreutes is an extinct species of jacamar, small birds of the order Piciformes. It was discovered in the La Victoria Formation of the Honda Group, at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in modern Colombia, in deposits dated to the Laventan period (Middle Miocene, from 13.8 to 11.8 million years ago).
Description.
The species was described from one end of right humerus. Despite the poor of this record, it has distinctive features that permit the classification as a distinct species: the head of the humerus is larger than the modern jacamars ("Galbula"), so its overall size would also somewhat higher, the tubercle of the head is robust and the insertion of the humeral-scapular-caudal muscle is very large, indicating a strong development of the muscles of his chest and arms, giving great aerobatic skills, so similar to the birds of the family Tyrannidae (tyrant, flycatchers, earwigs) and Meropidae (bee-eaters), which led to their scientific name of "G. hylochoreutes", which in Greek means "dancer of the forests", referring to the jungle environment in which the bird would have lived. Its general appearance would have been similar to the paradise jacamar, "Galbula dea".


Pandemonium Creek slide

The Pandemonium Creek slide occurred in 1959 in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada near the valley of the Atnarko River. It was a debris avalanche consisting of 5 million m3 that travelled about 9 km and is thought to have reached speeds of up to 100 m/s.


Kayserops

Kayserops is a trilobite in the order Phacopida (family Acastidae), that existed during the lower Devonian in what is now Germany. It was described by Delo in 1935, and the type species is "Kayserops kochi", which was originally described under the genus "Cryphaeus" by Kayser in 1883. The generic name is derived from the name of the species' author. The type locality was the Rhenish Massif.


Pristis aquitanicus

Pristis aquitanicus is an extinct species of sawfish in the family Pristidae. It lived in the Neogene period in France, Portugal, Florida, and India. It lived in marine, bays, and estuaries. It was a nektobenthic carnivore.


Lumkuia

Lumkuia is an extinct genus of cynodonts, fossils of which have been found in the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group in the South African Karoo Basin that date back to the early Middle Triassic. It contains a single species, Lumkuia fuzzi, which was named in 2001 on the basis of the holotype specimen BP/1/2669, which can now be found at the Bernard Price Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa. The genus has been placed in its own family, Lumkuiidae. "Lumkuia" is not as common as other cynodonts from the same locality such as "Diademodon" and "Trirachodon".
Description.
The postcanines are similar to those of the later chiniquodontids, but the secondary palate is quite short in comparison, and the genus lacks the angulation of the ventral cranial margin seen in chiniquodontids. "Lumkuia" can be seen as more derived than other contemporary cynodonts such as "Cynognathus" with the crowns of its teeth high and narrow and having inwardly curving tops.
Classification.
"Lumkuia" was first described in 2001 by the palaeontologists James A. Hopson and James W. Kitching, who considered it to be the most basal member of Probainognathia. This placement has been supported by several later studies, though others alternatively place it outside the clade formed by Cynognathia and Probainognathia. Previously, early probainognathians were only known from younger strata in South America that were deposited in the late Middle and Late Triassic.


Pircas Negras Pass

The Pircas Negras Pass (Spanish: Paso Pircas Negras) is a pass over the Andes mountains which connects Argentina and Chile. The border crossing between Argentina and Chile is at AMSL.


Diplorrhina

Diplorrhina Hawle and Corda (1847) is a genus of trilobite belonging to Order Agnostida. It lived during the early Middle Cambrian (Amgan and Mayan stages) in what are now the Czech Republic and the North Siberian plateau. as in members of the family Peronopsidae it lacks a preglabellar furrow. Both cephalon and pygidium lack spines. It is difficult to distinguish "Diplorrhina" from many other peronopsids.
Taxonomy.
The ancestor of "Diplorrhina" is most likely one of the Siberian species of the genus "Archaeagnostus". "D. recta" is the most primitive species and it gave rise to "D. cuneifera", which was in turn ancestral to "Diplorrhina triplicata".
Description.
Both border and border furrow of the cephalon are relatively narrow. The transglabellar furrow is straight or curved slightly towards posterior. The posterior glabellar lobe is parallel sided, has two pairs of lateral furrows and small basal lobes; there is no median node. The pygidial border is flattened and wide with posterolateral angles, but no spines. The pygidal lobes reach the median node but do not cross the axis. The distance between the pygidial axis and border furrow is short or sometimes touching.
Differences with "Peronopis".
"Diplorrhina" differs from members of the subgenus "Peronopsis (Peronopsis)" in the better developed transaxial furrows, better developed lateral furrows of the glabella, larger basal lobes, and in the trend towards the formation of a transverse depression of the axis.


Chiriunuyoc

Chiriunuyoc (possibly from Quechua "chiri" cold, "unu" water, -yuq a suffix to indicate ownership, "the one with cold water") is a mountain in the Vilcanota mountain range in the Andes of Peru, about high. It is situated in the Cusco Region, Quispicanchi Province, Marcapata District, east of the lake Singrenacocha. Chiriunuyoc lies northwest of the mountains Aquichua, Quinsachata and Quehuesiri.


Miocallicebus

Miocallicebus is an extinct genus of New World monkeys from the Middle Miocene (Laventan in the South American land mammal ages; 13.8 to 11.8 mya). Its remains have been found at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in the Honda Group of Colombia. The type species is "M. villaviejai".
Etymology.
"Miocallicebus" is derived from the Greek name for the modern genus of titis, "Callicebus", with the prefix "Mio" for Miocene. The species epithet refers to Villavieja, a village close to where the fossil remains were found.
Description.
Fossils of "Miocallicebus" were discovered in 1997 during a field study executed by researchers of the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University. The specimen consists of a right maxillary fragment preserving a root of M1, a complete M2, and a badly damaged M3, discovered at the "Bolivia Site" in the Tatacoa Desert of Huila, south-central Colombia. The genus has not been found in the "Monkey Beds" of La Venta. The fossil remains were uncovered just above the Tatacoa Sandstone Beds of the La Victoria Formation, which has been dated to the Laventan with a range from 13.86 to 12.38 mya.
The estimated weight for "Miocallicebus", considered similar to but much larger than the extant genus "Callicebus", is .
The evolutionary split between Pitheciidae of "Cebupithecia" from the Honda Group and "Callicebus", including "Miocallicebus", has been placed at 15.2 mya.
Habitat.
The Honda Group, and more precisely the "Monkey Beds", are the richest site for fossil primates in South America. It has been argued that the monkeys of the Honda Group were living in habitat that was in contact with the Amazon and Orinoco Basins, and that La Venta itself was probably seasonally dry forest.


Blasensandstein

The Blasensandstein is a Carnian geologic member in Bavaria, Germany. It is part of the Hassberge Formation. Fossil theropod tracks have been reported from the formation.


Phantomosaurus

Phantomosaurus is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur, which existed during the late Anisian stage of the Middle Triassic. It would have been around 6 metres long, with a skull of 50 cm.
Fossils of the species "Phantomosaurus neubigi" have been found in southern Germany. It was discovered and named in 1997 by Sander in the rocks of the Upper Muschelkalk.
More recently, in 2005, the braincase was studied by Maisch and Matzke. They found it to be unique among all known ichthyosaurs in terms of braincase morphology. Despite its close relation to many other ichthyosaurs, in particular "Cymbospondylus, Phantomosaurus" appears to have a very primitive braincase which resembles other diapsids more than other ichthyosaurs.
Morphology.
"Phantomosaurus" is known from a partial skull, the lower jaw, some of the vertebrae and ribs (pictured) and the hind fin.
Hind fin.
The hind fin is very long and slender, with elongated femur, tibia and fibula. These features suggest a long but not particularly powerful limb, which would have generated a reasonable quantity of lift. Presumably the fore fins also generated lift, or the ichthyosaur would have found itself permanently heading downwards.
Vertebrae and ribs.
The anterior centrum of each vertebra has two symmetrical hollows in, possibly to aid buoyancy. The vertebrae also have ventro-lateral keels, for reasons unknown. Each zygapophysis is very long and extends a long way posteriorly - their articulatory facets are almost totally horizontal.
Lower jaw.
The lower jaw is around 40 cm long and has many conical teeth for spearing fish. On the lateral surface, the articular is anterior to the suprangular.
Skull and braincase.
The skull is mostly disarticulated. Bones we have found are: left quadratojugal, postfrontal, supratemporal, postorbital, basioccipital and both tubera basioccipitalia, the parabasisphenoid, the otic capsule containing both opisthotic and prootic bones, exoccipital, supraoccipital and pterygoid.
Quadratojugal.
This is very similar in shape to the quadratojugals of other large cymbospondylid ichthyosaurs, hence its classification as related to them. It was originally mistaken for the quadrate bone.
Postfrontal, supratemporal and postorbital.
The postfrontal and supratemporal together form the border of the upper temporal fenestra, but unusually, the postorbital has no contact with this fenestra. Again, it is similar to "Cymbospondylus" and not to "Shastasaurus" or "Mikadocephalus" in this respect.
Basioccipital.
As is common in basal ichthyosaurs, the basioccipital can be divided into two sections, the condylus occipitalis and the area extracondylaris. The condylus occipitalis is flattened dorsoventrally, and was probably concave, with a rather saddle-like shape. In this respect it closely resembles that of "Cymbospondylus," and probably had an articulation with the atlas vertebra which was more flexible than some ichthyosaurs. Anterior to this part of the bone, the surface is very flat with a slight concavity. The area extracondylaris has high lateral margins which become well-formed tubera basioccipitalia. These are laterally sutured to the opisthotics and extend as far as these bones posteriorly, and about 8 mm in front of the condylus anteriorly. Each tuber basioccipitalis is 13 mm in length, 10 mm in width, and rises at least 8 mm above the ventral surface of the basioccipital at the highest point. In life they would have been partially covered by the pterygoid, and also by a layer of cartilage. They would not have been attached to much of the otic capsule.
Parabasisphenoid.
This is only partly preserved, with the cultriform process almost entirely missing. Part of its base is still attached, indicating that it would have been around 15 mm wide at the most posterior point, and not strongly set off from the basal plate of the parasphenoid. This is considered primitive in ichthyosaurs. The basal plate of the parabasisphenoid is roughly rectangular and has the processi basipterygoidei projecting from it. Only the left one of these can be observed due to the left pterygoid disarticulation - in life they would have been attached. The pterygoid has strong facets on the upper surface where this attachment would have taken place. The basal plate was wider than its length of 27 mm, but the actual width cannot be measured as the right pterygoid is still articulated in the natural position. The suture between parabasisphenoid and basioccipital was straight. It is probable that the parabasisphenoid was in contact with the prootic bone, but it was definitely not attached to the opisthotic. Two small foramina, resembling slits, are immediately anterior to the parabasisphenoid-basioccipital suture. They extend anteriorly as canals into the bone and are probably the entrances of the cerebral carotid arteries, although positioned unusually far posteriorly.
Opisthotic bones.
These are the most unusual of the braincase bones, and were previously misidentified as stapes. While they are not stapes, it is difficult to be certain what they are. As mentioned, they are sutured to the tubera basioccipitalia, and so could not have moved freely, meaning that they were not bones for the transmission of sound in this manner. Medially, they are sutured to the posterodorsal margins of the tubera basioccipitalia by a strongly serrate and partially intergrown suture. The posterior surface of this forms a steeply inclined trough running from the suture to the distal extremity of the paraoccipital process. The ventral margin of this trough is formed by a narrow ridge which also divides the posterior and anterior surfaces of the bone. There is another ridge dividing the dorsal third of the bone from this posterior surface. The anterior surface is concave and widens towards the contact with the prootic. This contact must have been tight and strongly sutured, although this has not been preserved. Inside the bones there are many irregular cavities, which could have been part of the membranous inner ear labyrinth. The paraoccipital process is unusually long for an ichthyosaur, around 25 mm, but the entire opisthotic is only 38 mm long. It is also compressed anteroposteriorly, giving it a flattened shape. The medial portion of the opisthotic is also strikingly ossified, which does not resemble many other ichthyosaurs. The exoccipital and opisthotic are tightly connected, which means that, in fact, the foramen metoticum is completely enclosed by these two bones. No other ichthyosaur has this feature. There is another small foramen, probably the foramen nervi hypoglossi, exiting through the exoccipital.
Prootic bones.
These are very badly preserved, and little more than a tight spongy mass of bone remains of each. However, two conclusions can be made - they were tightly sutured to the opisthotic bones and they were unusually well ossified. In an articulated skull they would have been covered by the pterygoid.
Exoccipitals.
As mentioned, these bones were fused without suture to the opisthotic and formed the posterior margin of the foramen metoticum. Apart from this, they were fairly normal for an ichthyosaur, forming two pillars of bone between the basioccipital and the supraoccipital around the foramen occipitale magnum. Their sutures between these two bones were straight and there was little coossification, indicating why the supraoccipital is detached.
Supraoccipital.
The anterior surface of this bone is concave both transversely and dorsoventrally. It has two well-developed foramina endolymphatica, one on each dorsolateral extremity of the concave anterior surface. The dorsal margin is thickened and expanded. Contact with the parietals was probably not strong, hence the unfinished appearance of the dorsal surface. The most unusual feature was that the dorsal surface also had two thick ossifications, with smooth surfaces and wide bases, which cannot be part of the parietal bone. This demonstrates the existence of paired ossifications between the supraoccipital and the parietal, which can only be homologous to the postparietals of basal amniotes. There may be something similar in some species of "Cymbospondylus."
Pterygoid.
This is not part of the braincase, but was closely attached to it by several features (see above). The left is better preserved, but disarticulated from the braincase, whereas the right is still attached to the braincase. The palatal ramus is a thin but wide plate of bone, with a ridge reinforcing the medial margin. It also formed the lateral margin of a small interpterygoid fenestra. The basicranial facet is concave and elliptical in shape, anteroposteriorly elongated. Posteromedially to this, a small and pointed process is present, only 5 mm in length. This is in direct contrast to "Cymbospondylus," which had a very prominent and well-developed posteromedial process. The quadrate ramus had a concave medial surface, but is not otherwise well preserved. In the articulated state, the pterygoid covered the entire lateral margin of the parabasisphenoid and at least part of the tuber basioccipitale.
Comparison to related species.
In general, the braincase, otic capsules and other parts of the skull more closely resemble basal diapsids such as "Youngina" than they do other ichthyosaurs, especially later and more derived forms such as "Ichthyosaurus" and "Ophthalmosaurus." These plesiomorphies suggest that classifying ichthyosaurs based on braincase structure is not accurate. However, few other complete braincases have been found from basal ichthyosaurs and so it is difficult to tell.


Bruno Granier

Bruno R.C. Granier is Professor of Geology at the University of Brest (France) (also locally referred to as the Université de Bretagne Occidentale), a post he held in 2004. He is the author of over 90 scientific papers.
He is also editor of the open access electronic journal "Carnets de Géologie", associate editor of "PALAIOS" and the manager of the internet website Geoscience e-Journals.
From 2007 to 2011 he was president of the French Committee of Stratigraphy; accordingly, he organized the 4th French meeting on Stratigraphy, STRATI2010.
His fields of interest are sequence stratigraphy, carbonate sedimentology, diagenesis, stratigraphy, rock-typing and micropaleontology (particularly on the study of fossil calcareous algae). He teaches undergraduate courses in field geology, sedimentology and micropaleontology.


Ignacius

Ignacius is a genus of extinct mammal from the early Cenozoic era. This genus is present in the fossil record from around 62-33 Ma (late Torrejonian-Chadronian North American Land Mammals Ages). The earliest known specimens of "Ignacius" come from the Torrejonian of the Fort Union Formation, Wyoming and the most recent known specimen of "Ignacius" was found in the Medicine Pole Hills (Chadron Formation) of North Dakota. "Ignacius" is one of ten genera within the family Paromomyidae, the longest living family of any plesiadapiforms, persisting for around 30 Ma during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs. The analyses of postcranial fossils by paleontologists suggest that members of the family Paromomyidae, including the genus "Ignacius", most likely possessed adaptations for arboreality.
Taxonomy.
There are currently four valid species within the genus "Ignacius": "I. frugivorus", "I. fremontensis", "I. clarkforkensis", and "I. graybullianus". There are also at least two undescribed species of "Ignacius" from the Arctic of Canada. The type species for the genus "Ignacius" is "I. frugivorus" and was found at the Mason Pocket locality in Colorado. The holotype specimen (AMNH 17368), published in 1921 by Matthew and Granger, consists of an upper jaw with the canine, fourth premolar, first molar, and second molar.
The genus "Ignacius" is situated within the family Paromomyidae and the order Plesiadapiformes. The relationship between plesiadapiforms and the modern group Euarchonta (Dermoptera, Scandentia, and Primates) is still under debate by paleontologists with some suggesting a closer relationship with primates, and others suggesting a closer relationship with dermopterans.
The genus "Ignacius" was found to be synonymous with the closely related genus, Phenacolemur, by G.G. Simpson in 1935 but revived by Bown and Rose in 1976.
Description.
"Ignacius", along with the other plesiadapiforms, possess large, procumbent lower incisors convergent with those found in rodents, however, unlike rodents, the incisors of plesiadapiforms were not continuously growing. Most species of "Ignacius" have a 1.0.1.3 lower dental formula although some specimens retain a small P3. Compared with other paromomyids, "Ignacius" has small P4s in relation to M1s with relatively low crowned upper and lower molars. The lower molars have reduced cusps, forming an almost continuous crest along the talonid basin. The jaw of "Ignacius" is deep in comparison to tooth crown height, a feature distinct to this genus. Upper molars possess strong crests in a distinct ‘v’ shape between the paracone and metacone.
Species.
"Ignacius" "frugivorus" was the first species of Ignacius to be described in 1921. "Ignacius frugivorus" and "I. fremontensis" are the oldest species of "Ignacius", both found in the Shotgun Local fauna of the Fort Union formation, Wyoming. The youngest known specimen of "Ignacius" was found in the Chadron formation of North Dakota and is represented by a single P4 (2). There is not enough material to identify this specimen to the species level. "Ignacius frugivorus" and "I. fremontensis" are distinguishable from one another based primarily on the size of lower fourth premolars. "Ignacius fremontensis" displays a significantly smaller P4 in relation to M1 when compared to I. frugivorus. "Ignacius clarkforkensis" is the largest described species in the genus and differs from other species in the retention of a single rooted P2 (5). "Ignacius graybullianus" has more quadrangular upper molars whereas the other three species are more triangular. Strong v-shaped postparacone/prematacone cristae are present in "I. graybullianus". These cristae are less obliquely oriented in the other three taxa.
Paleoenvironment and geographic range.
"Ignacius" occupied a broad geographic range during the early Cenozoic era in North America, ranging from Texas, to the Canadian Arctic. During the early Cenozoic, North America experienced multiple climatic changes with the warmest mean annual temperatures (around 16oC, 60oF) occurring during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) at around 55 Ma. During the Eocene Climatic Optimum (c. 53 Ma) there was a correlated diversification of flora creating a complex, warm-temperate to subtropical habitat over much of interior North America. The environment of Arctic Canada would have represented a temperate environment with winter temperatures rarely dropping below freezing. The late Cretaceous and early Tertiary saw a diversification of angiosperms providing the opportunity for arboreal mammals to utilize the fruit, seed, exudate, and flower resources of these plants. The environment of interior North America, extending into the Canadian Arctic, would have provided habitable ecosystems for these arboreal mammals to thrive and diversify.
Functional morphology.
Analysis of postcranial fossils of "Ignacius" suggest they were specialized for vertical climbing and clinging on tree trunks as well as for more agile arboreality than seen in other plesiadapiforms. Some researchers have also hypothesized based on analysis of hand bone morphology, that they possessed gliding adaptations like those of modern-day flying lemurs (Order Dermoptera). Further anatomical analysis of cranial synapomorphies, also suggest a close relationship between dermopterans and plesiadapiforms.
Evidence for vertical climbing can be seen in the morphology of the humerus, femur, and tarsal bones which are consistent with increased flexibility of the shoulder, elbow, hip, knee, and ankle joints. These features also suggest powerful flexion of the digits for grasping large tree trunks as well as small diameter support branches. The features listed above are seen in many plesiadapiforms, but some anatomical features set paromomyids apart in being more adept for arboreal living. Flexible lumbar vertebrae as well as increased surface area on the innominate and femur for the origin and insertion of gluteal muscles, suggest paromomyids were capable of powerful bounding across tree branches.
The large, procumbent incisors and reduced shearing crests of Paromomyids, especially "Ignacius" and "Phenacolemur", suggest a diet specialized for feeding on exudates, comparable to the adaptions seen in extant callitrichine primates and "Petaurus", a marsupial sugar-glider.


Tempa Rossa oil field

The Tempa Rossa oil field is an oil field located in the Southern Apennines in Italy. It was discovered in 1989 and developed by Total S.A. It is expected to begin production in 2016 and will produce oil and gas. The total proven reserves of the Tempa Rossa oil field are around 200 million barrels (29.3×106 tonnes), and peak production is expected to be around of oil.
On March 18, 2013, Total finalized an agreement to sell 25% of its shares in the oil field to Mitsui E&P Italia A S.r.l.


Agbami Field

Agbami Field is an oil field in Nigeria. Discovered in late 1998, it was the second major deepwater oil field discovered off the Niger Delta, the first being Bonga Field by Shell.
The field is located in nearly 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) of water off the central Niger Delta. The operator of the field is Star Deep Water Limited, an affiliate of Chevron. Also involved in the field are Famfa Oil, an indigenous oil company owned by the Alakija Family of Lagos, Petrobras (Brazil), Statoil, and NNPC (the national oil company of Nigeria).
Geology.
Most of the reserves are in lower and middle Miocene deepwater turbiditic sandstones and reserves are estimated at 900 MM barrels with upside to perhaps 1.5 B making it either the biggest or second biggest (to Bonga) deepwater field in Nigeria. Its crude oil quality is high API gravity in the high 40s (very flowable) and the crude is sweet (low sulfur). The trap is mainly anticlinal 4-way rollover but internally the doubly plunging anticline is cored by a small reverse fault and upwardly diapiric mobile shale or mud. The northwestern portion of the field is overthrusted at shallow levels.
Production.
Production began in 2008 at over with peak production estimated to be at approximately 250,000 bls/d. The Floating Production unit is the length of three football fields and cost over $US1.2 billion to build.
Philanthropy.
The Agbami scholarship scheme is fully
sponsored by all companies involved in the
Agbami oil field. The scheme pays
engineering students ₦100,000 while medical
students get paid ₦200,000 on some selected
conditions. The scholarship is administered by dragnet-solutions.


Geranosaurus

Geranosaurus (meaning "crane reptile") is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Early Jurassic. It is known only from crushed fragments of the skull, a single jaw bone with nine tooth stubs and limb elements discovered in the Clarens Formation, South Africa in 1871. Because of the limited remains, it is considered a "nomen dubium". It is classified as an ornithischian based on the jaw, probably a heterodontosaurid. It was around tall and around long when fully grown.
The type species, G. atavus, was described by Robert Broom in 1911. The genus name is derived from Greek "geranos", "crane", a reference to the crane-like hind-limb. The specific name means "ancestor" in Latin. The limb elements have inventory number SAM 1871.


List of earthquakes in Tanzania

This is a list of earthquakes in Tanzania:
References.
Sources


Willi Ziegler

Willi Ziegler (born 13 March 1929 in the neighborhood of Villingen in Hungen, Hessen; died 8 August 2002) was a German paleontologist.
Works.
In 1969, he described the conodont genus "Protognathodus".
In 1984, with Charles A. Sandberg, he described the conodont genus "Alternognathus".
In 2002, with IA Bardashev and K Weddige, he described the conodont genus "Eolinguipolygnathus".
Awards and tributes.
In 1998, he received the Goethe-Plakette des Landes Hessen, the highest award by the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts in Hesse, Germany.
He was also a recipient of the Pander Medal, awarded by the Pander Society, for researches in conodonts paleontology.
The conodont genus name "Zieglerodina" and the conodont species name "Lochriea ziegleri" are tributes to W. Ziegler.


Glyptotherium

Glyptotherium is an extinct genus of glyptodont, a group of extinct mammals related to the armadillos living from the Middle to Late Pleistocene, approximately 1.8 million to 12,000 years ago (AEO). The genus is considered an example of North American megafauna, of which most have become extinct. "Glyptotherium" may have been wiped out by changing climate or human interference.
Description.
Like its living relative, the armadillo, "Glyptotherium" had a shell which covered its entire body, similar to a turtle. However, unlike the carapace of a turtle, the "Glyptotherium" shell was made up of hundreds of small hexagonal scales. Some species grew up to long and its armor may have weighed up to a ton.
Paleoecology.
Remains of "Glyptotherium" species have been found in tropical and subtropical regions of Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, and the southern United States; from Florida and South Carolina to Arizona. There is no direct evidence of humans preying on this North American glyptodont. "Smilodon" may have occasionally preyed upon "Glyptotherium", based on a skull from one "Glyptotherium" fossil recovered from Pleistocene deposits in Arizona bearing the distinctive elliptical puncture marks that best match those of the machairodont cat, indicating that the predator successfully risked biting into bone to kill the armored herbivore, the only option for a predator intent on hunting such heavily armored animals. The "Glyptotherium" in question was a juvenile, with a still-developing head shield, making it far more vulnerable to the cat's attack. "Glyptotherium" was named by Osborn in 1903, assigned to Glyptodontinae by Downing and White in 1995 and to Glyptodontidae by Osborn (1903), Brown (1912), Carroll (1988), Cisneros (2005) and Mead et al. (2007).


Allia Bay

The Allia Bay is a region on the east side of Lake Turkana in Kenya. The site is known for yielding its first hominid fossils in 1982 with further findings to this day, all of which have been identified as part of "Australopithecus anamensis" but possibly related to "Australopithecus afarensis". Notable people with findings at Allia Bay include Richard Leakey, Meave Leakey, Craig Feibel, Ian McDougall, Alan Walker.
Geography.
The geographic coordinates of Allia Bay are 3°35′4″N, 36°16′4″E. As a set of isolate exposures it forms the southernmost region of Koobi Fora. One of its distinct features is the "c."4.2 Ma "bone bed", which was likely a channel of the ancestral Omo River.
Findings.
All of the specimens were found to be 3.9 to 4.4 million years old and were dated using 3 main methods: argon-argon dating, potassium-argon dating, and magnetostratigraphy. Leakey, Feibel, McDougall, and Walker were involved in the discovery of 12 new specimens, presumed to be a new species within the genus "Australopithecus". The new species was thought to be a possible ancestor of "Australopithecus afarensis" and a sister species of "Ardipithecus ramidus". The 12 specimens found at Allia Bay were in conjunction with an additional nine that were found at Kanapoi in Kenya; these two sites' findings are the basis of a new, singular species within "Australopithecus," for which the first Kanapoi specimen is the holotype, and the later Kanapoi and Allia Bay findings are paratypes. The Allia Bay specimens, listed in the table below, were found in or under the Moiti Tuff and have a mean age of 3.89 million years
The method by which these specimens were named is concurrent with those found at Kanapoi: KNM-ER stands for Kenya National Museum - East Rudolf, where Rudolf is the lesser known, alternative name for Lake Turkana.


Niassodon

Niassodon is an extinct genus of kingoriid dicynodont therapsid known from the Late Permian of Niassa Province, northern Mozambique. It contains a single species, Niassodon mfumukasi.
Discovery.
"Niassodon" was first described and named by Rui Castanhinha, Ricardo Araújo, Luís C. Júnior, Kenneth D. Angielczyk, Gabriel G. Martins, Rui M. S. Martins, Claudine Chaouiya, Felix Beckmann and Fabian Wilde in 2013 and the type species is "Niassodon mfumukasi". The generic name combines the word "Niassa", meaning "lake" in Chiyao and the name of the northwestern province in Mozambique where "Niassodon" was found, with "odontos", meaning "tooth" in Ancient Greek. The specific name, "Mfumukasi" means "queen" in Nyanja, in honor of the members of the local Nyanja matriarchal society and all Mozambican women.
"Niassodon" is known solely from the holotype ML1620, a partial skeleton which is temporarily housed at the Museu da Lourinhã, Portugal, and will be returned to the Museu Nacional de Geologia, Maputo, Mozambique. The holotype consists of a complete skull, a mandible, series of 19 dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebrae, ribs, both ilia and a partial femur, from a single individual. It was discovered and collected during a 2009 expedition in the Metangula Graben, under the supervision of Projecto PalNiassa. ML1620 came from an unnamed fossiliferous unit located near Tulo, a small village situated along the Metangula-Cóbue road. The fossil bed is composed of a grey mudstone with abundant septaria-like calcareous concretions, dating to the Late Permian.


Lars Werdelin

Lars Werdelin, born 1955, is a Swedish paleontologist specializing in the evolution of mammalian carnivores. One area of interest has been the evolutionary interaction of carnivores and hominins in Africa.
He received his Ph.D. from Stockholm University in 1981.


Achucallani (Puno)

Achucallani or Achuqallani (Aymara "achuqalla" weasel, "-ni" a suffix to indicate ownership, "the one with a weasel (or weasels)", Hispanicized spelling "Achoccallane") is a mountain in the Andes of Peru, about high. It is located in the Puno Region, Melgar Province, Ayaviri District.


Aegyptopithecus

Aegyptopithecus ("Egyptian ape", from Greek "Αίγυπτος" "Egypt" and "πίθηκος" "ape") is an early fossil catarrhine that predates the divergence between hominoids (apes) and cercopithecids (Old World monkeys). It is known from a single species, Aegyptopithecus zeuxis, which lived around 38-29.5 million years ago in the early part of the Oligocene epoch. It likely resembled modern-day New World monkeys, and was about the same size as a modern howler monkey, which is about long. "Aegyptopithecus" fossils have been found in the Jebel Qatrani Formation of modern-day Egypt. "Aegyptopithecus" is believed to be a stem-catarrhine, a crucial link between Eocene and Miocene fossils.
"Aegyptopithecus zeuxis" has become one of the best known extinct primates based on craniodental and postcranial remains.
Discovery, age and taxonomy.
"Aegyptopithecus" was discovered by Elwyn Simons in 1966 in the Gabal Qatrani Formation, located in the Faiyum Governorate of central Egypt. "Aegyptopithecus zeuxis" fossils were originally thought to be between 35.4 and 33.3 million years old, based on initial analysis of the formation in which they were found. However, analysis by Erik Seiffert in 2006 concluded that the age of the Gabal Qatrani Formation should be revised. His assessment of more recent evidence indicates an age of between 30.2 and 29.5 million years ago.
If "Aegyptopithecus" is placed in its own genus, then there is one documented species named "A. zeuxis". The type specimen for the species is CGM26901. Its scientific name means "linking Egyptian ape".
There is controversy over whether or not "Aegyptopithecus" should be a genus on its own or whether it should be moved into the genus "Propliopithecus".
Morphology.
"Aegyptopithecus zeuxis" was a species that had a dental formula of 2:1:2:3 on both the upper and lower jaws, with the lower molars increasing in size posteriorly. The molars showed an adaptation called compartmentalizing shear, which is where the cutting edges involved in the buccal phase serve to surround basins in such a way that food is cut into fragments that are trapped and then ground during the lingual phase.
The canines of this species were sexually dimorphic. The ascending mandibular ramus of this species is relatively broad. The orbits are dorsally oriented and relatively small which suggested that this was a diurnal species. This species showed some postorbital constriction. The interorbital distance of "Aegyptopithecus zeuxis" is large much like that found in colobines.
A sagittal crest developed in older individuals and extends over the brow ridges. This species had an auditory region which is similar to that found in platyrrhines, having no bony tube and the tympanic fused to the lateral surface of the bulla.
The humerus has a head which faces posteriorly and is narrower than primates that practice suspensory behavior. The humerus also shares some features with extinct hominoids: a large medial epicondyle and a comparatively wide trochlea. This species had an ulna that compares to the extinct members of the genus "Alouatta".
On the foot bones, this species had a grasping hallux. "Aegyptopithecus zeuxis" shares characteristics with haplorrhines such as a fused mandibular and frontal symphyses, postorbital closure, and superior and inferior transverse tori.
Based on dental dimensions and femoral remains the body mass of "A. zeuxis" is estimated to be 6.708 kg.
The functional length of the femur is estimated to be 150 mm, which is larger than "Cebus apella" and smaller than "Alouatta seniculus".
Brain size.
In Egypt’s Fayum Depression a subadult female cranium, CGM 85785, was discovered by Rajeev Patnaik. This specimen’s cranial capacity was found to be 14.63 cm3 and reanalysis of a male endocast (CGM 40237) estimates a cranial capacity of 21.8 cm3. These estimates dispel earlier ones of approximately 30 cm3. These measurements give an estimated male to female endocranial ratio of approximately 1.5, indicating "A. zeuxis" to be a dimorphic species.
The olfactory bulb to endocranial volume ratio is considered to be on the lower end of the strepsirrhine spectrum, perhaps as a result of the organism’s rostrum.
In relation to other anthropoids, the frontal lobes of "A. zeuxis" are considered to be rather small but the olfactory bulbs are not considered to be small when taking into account the body size of "A. zeuxis".
Overall, the brain to body weight ratio of "A. zeuxis" is considered to be strepsirrhine-like and perhaps even non-primate like.
Behaviour.
"Aegyptopitheccus zeuxis" is thought to have been sexually dimorphic. Tooth size, craniofacial morphology, brain size, and body mass all indicate this. Due to "A. zeuxis" being sexually dimorphic, the social structure is thought to have been polygynous with intense competition for females.
Locomotion.
Three femoral remains were found in Quarry I (DPC 5262 and 8709) and Quarry M (DPC 2480). Paleomagnetic dating puts the sites at 33 Ma, consistent with the Oligocene epoch.
Based on estimated femoral neck angle (120-130 degrees) of aforementioned remains, the femur is similar to that of a quadrupedal anthropoid. The greater trochanter’s morphology is inconsistent with that of leaping primates, serving as further evidence of the animal’s quadrupedalism.
"Aegyptopithecus" is thought to have been an arboreal quadruped due to the distal articular region of the femur, which is deeper than that of “later” catarrhines. Also, based on overall femoral morphology, "A. zeuxis" is thought to have been robust.
The phalanges of the hands and feet suggest powerful grasping consistent with arboreal quadrupedalism.
In conjunction with the femur, the humerus suggests arboreal quadrupedalism. This is based on the pronounced brachialis flange and stabilizing muscles on brachial flexors rather than extensors.
In addition, the ulna and distal articular surface of the humerus indicate that" A. zeuxis" was not only an arboreal quadruped, but also large and slow. This is consistent with evidence extrapolated from femoral morphology.
Diet.
Studies in dental microwear and microsutures focusing on its molars, suggest that "Aegyptopithecus" was probably a frugivore. It is also possible that "Aegyptopithecus" ate hard objects on occasion.
Habitat.
"Aegyptopithecus" lived in the Fayum area of northern Egypt. Today, this area is semiarid and lacking in vegetation. At the time of "Aegyptopithecus’" existence, the Oligocene, this area was heavily vegetated, subtropical, had many trees and had seasonal rainfall.
External links.
by Jackson


Savannasaurus

Savannasaurus is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia. It contains one species, Savannasaurus elliottorum, named in 2016 by Stephen Poropat and colleagues. The holotype and only known specimen, originally nicknamed "Wade", is the most complete specimen of an Australian sauropod, and is held at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum. Dinosaurs known from contemporary rocks include its close relative "Diamantinasaurus" and the theropod "Australovenator"; associated teeth suggest that "Australovenator" may have fed on the holotype specimen.
At long, "Savannasaurus" was a medium-sized titanosaur. It is notable for its wide hips, which would have been over wide at their widest points. This would have distributed its body weight more evenly, along with a robust (upper arm bones) and possibly also the tall (ankle bone). Combined with a flexible vertebral column, these traits would have made "Savannasaurus" better at navigating the muddy ground of the floodplains that it lived on. Other titanosaur lineages also show some of these traits, which might have been independently acquired from similar environmental pressures.
Various traits suggest that "Savannasaurus" was an early-diverging (or basal) member of the Titanosauria, but not a member of the more specialized group Lithostrotia. Among these are the absence of in its vertebrae, which was one of the flexibility-enhancing traits that may have appeared in multiple titanosaur lineages. Palaeobiogeographic analyses suggest that the ancestors of "Savannasaurus" and "Diamantinasaurus" were from either Asia or one of the southern Gondwanan continents; regardless, they likely migrated to Australia through Antarctica around 105–100 million years ago.
Discovery and naming.
In March 2005, the first specimen of "Savannasaurus" was discovered by David Elliot, founder of Australian Age of Dinosaurs (AODF), along with his wife Judy and their children. The specimen, now catalogued as AODF 660, was found on the Belmont sheep station, northeast of Winton, Queensland; the site was given the number AODF 82, and is informally called the "Ho-Hum site". Excavations by the Queensland Museum and hundreds of volunteers unearthed the specimen in July and September of that year. A siltstone concretion containing the specimen was split along gypsum-filled fractures using jackhammers and chisels, with the pieces being marked to facilitate reassembly. Preparation of the specimen took around a decade, with air scribes and micro-jacks being used. Adhesives, such as superglue and araldite, were then used to put the pieces back together. The marks allowed the orientation of the specimen as it was found to be reconstructed, which informed a three-dimensional site map constructed with photogrammetry.
AODF 660 consists of around 40 bones: one (neck), the third through tenth (trunk), at least four (hip), and at least five (tail) ; cervical and (fragmentary) dorsal ribs; portions of the shoulder girdle, including a fragmentary , a left , and both sternal plates; parts of the forelimbs, including portions of both , a fragmentary , the left , and hand bones (the left first to fifth , the right fourth metacarpal, and two ); the fused hip bones, namely both the left and the right and ; foot bones (the left and right third ); and other fragments. One of the foot bones was originally thought to have belonged to a theropod, while the metacarpals were initially also interpreted as having come from the opposite hands. The specimen is the most complete sauropod specimen known from Australia, and represents approximately 20% to 25% of the animal.
The bones were preserved over an area of less than . While the dorsal vertebrae were not articulated, they were preserved in sequence in front of the hip bones, allowing for their identification. The ribs on the left side appear to have been crushed prior to fossilization, before all of them were fragmented further. The fifth dorsal vertebra and both humeri show signs of being trampled by other dinosaurs before fossilization, which may also explain the scattered bones; however, the bones were less scattered than other dinosaur specimens from contemporary rocks. A third excavation in September 2006 discovered no additional remains, but a partial from a caudal vertebra was found on the surface in 2013.
Having been nicknamed "Wade", AODF 660 was formally described and named in 2016 by Stephen Poropat and colleagues in a paper that also described a skull belonging to "Diamantinasaurus". They identified AODF 660 as the holotype of a new genus and species, "Savannasaurus elliotorum"; the generic name of "Savannasaurus", from Taíno "zavana" (the root of the word "savanna"), refers to the environment in which it was found, while the specific name "elliotorum" honours the Elliott family and their contributions to Australian palaeontology. The preliminary anatomical description of AODF 660 in this paper was supplemented in 2020 by another paper from many of the same authors, which provided a full description of its osteology.
Description.
"Savannasaurus" was a medium-sized titanosaur that measured about in length, with a weight of around and a shoulder height of around .
Vertebral column.
As with most other members of the Titanosauriformes, the vertebrae of "Savannasaurus" were camellate, or by small holes created by air sacs, and they lacked that allowed neighbouring vertebrae to interlock. The cervical and dorsal vertebrae of "Savannasaurus" were all , or having a centrum (vertebral body) that is convex in front and concave behind. All other members of Eusauropoda have opisthocoelous cervicals, and all other members of Macronaria have opisthocoelous dorsals. Unusually, the front articulating surface of one of the caudal centra was undulating, being concave in the upper half and convex in the lower half. Poropat and colleagues suggested this as a distinguishing characteristic of "Savannasaurus". The other caudals were , or having centra that are concave on both ends, which was also rare among titanosaurs save for "Baotianmansaurus" and "Dongyangosaurus".
The only known cervical vertebra of "Savannasaurus" is considered to have come from the rear of the neck due to its proportions. Unlike most titanosaurs but similar to the "ancestral" (plesiomorphic) condition among sauropods, the vertebra had a subtle keel running longitudinally along its bottom surface; "Mendozasaurus", "Overosaurus", "Austroposeidon", and "Rapetosaurus" also have such keels. There was a well-developed longitudinal , or excavation, along the side of the vertebra that extends for nearly its entire length, unlike in many titanosaurs where it was faint or absent altogether. In contrast to more specialized titanosaurs like the Saltasauridae, the (one of the rib articulations) was restricted to the front half of the centrum. Associated cervical rib fragments suggested that they were relatively long, extending for the length of at least three centra.
Like many titanosaurs, the articulating surfaces of the dorsal centra in "Savannasaurus" were shorter vertically than they were wide. The dorsals have weakly-developed ridges bordering the sides of their bottom faces, as in "Diamantinasaurus" and "Opisthocoelicaudia" (where they were better developed), but "Savannasaurus" lacks the keel on the bottom of the centra as in these species. Like most other members of the Somphospondyli, the sides of the centra bore teardrop-shaped pneumatic holes. The at the front of the centra known as the were connected by a sheet of bone (), the transprezygapophyseal
lamina; in the front dorsals, this sheet was V-shaped as in most titanosaurs, but it was basically flat in the rear dorsals unlike most other titanosaurs. Notably, the laminae in the dorsals of "Savannasaurus" were bilaterally asymmetric; the left side of the vertebrae would have been better reinforced by extra laminae. Also unlike "Opisthocoelicaudia", the dorsal neural spines on top of the centra increased in height towards the rear dorsals, were not split into two, and were taller than their corresponding articular surfaces.
In addition to the undulating articulating surface in one of the front caudal centra (caudal "A"), the two front caudals (caudals "A" and "B") of "Savannasaurus" have another distinguishing characteristic. Like the non-titanosaur somphospondylan "Padillasaurus", the front caudal centra had shallow pneumatic excavations on the sides surrounding small holes, whereas most members of the Somphospondyli have only the holes and not the excavations. This characteristic had previously been regarded as a distinguishing characteristic of the non-somphospondylan brachiosaurids. Two other caudal vertebrae (caudals "C" and "D") are known from further back in the tail. The centra of caudals B, C, and D were about the same length, suggesting that centrum length did not vary considerably. However, both articulating surfaces were wider than tall in caudal C, while the front one was taller than wide in caudal D, suggesting that it was further forward than caudal D. Like other titanosauriforms, the processes that enclose the neural canal—the pedicles—in caudals C and D were two-thirds the length of the centra, and were shifted forwards relative to the midline.
Shoulders and forelimbs.
Two distinguishing characteristics of "Savannasaurus" are found in the sternal plates. First, they were D-shaped with straight outer margins when viewed from the bottom, instead of being kidney-shaped as in other titanosaurs. Second, they lacked the long ridges that were present on the bottom surfaces among most members of Neosauropoda. In general, the bottom surfaces were devoid of the grooves and pits on the top surfaces which are indicative of cartilage coverings. However, like most other titanosaurs, the sternal plates would have been at least 65% as long as the humeri (in "Savannasaurus", the ratio was approximately 71%). The coracoid of "Savannasaurus" was oval-shaped in side view, unlike the characteristically quadrangular coracoids of saltasaurids, and the glenoid fossa on it (which articulated with the humerus) was much larger than that of "Diamantinasaurus". Unlike most titanosauriforms save for "Daxiatitan", "Ligabuesaurus", and "Sauroposeidon", the articulation with the scapula at the back of the bone was taller than the entire bone was long front to back.
Like "Diamantinasaurus", "Opisthocoelicaudia", and saltasaurids, the humerus of "Savannasaurus" was robust. The radius was twisted about its axis, with the long axes of the two ends being oriented in different planes, seen otherwise only in "Huabeisaurus", "Epachthosaurus", and "Rapetosaurus". The maximum width of its top end (33% of the bone's length) and the presence of a strong ridge at the rear outer corner (the interosseous ridge) were more typical. Like all neosauropods, the hand digits of "Savannasaurus" were arranged like a horseshoe. Like "Diamantinasaurus" and "Wintonotitan", the third metacarpals were the longest, followed by the second, first, fourth, and fifth. The third metacarpal was 49% the length of the radius, which was short for a titanosaur, but was at least 45% as in all macronarians. A distinguishing feature is that the bottom of the fourth metacarpal was hourglass-shaped, not trapezoidal or hexagonal. In life, the metacarpals would have been bound at the top and splayed at the bottom. The presence of phalanges is unusual; all titanosaurs but "Savannasaurus" and "Diamantinasaurus" had hands formed only by metacarpals. All digits but the first likely had phalanges, although their articulating surfaces on the bottoms of the metacarpals did not extend to the front as would be expected.
Pelvis and hindlimbs.
The most distinctive feature of "Savannasaurus" was the width of its pelvis—its sacrum was wide, and its fused ischium-pubis complex was at least wide. Its sternal plates were around wide to accommodate this. Although titanosaurs were wide-bodied in general, these proportions made "Savannasaurus" extremely wide-hipped, surpassed only by "Opisthocoelicaudia" and saltasaurines such as "Neuquensaurus". Other pelvic proportions in "Savannasaurus" were also unusual. The ischium's articulation on the pubis was 56% as high as the bone was long, higher than most titanosaurs. The ischium in "Savannasaurus" was relatively short, being 63% as long as the pubis; it was at least 70% as long in all other titanosaurs but "Rapetosaurus" (54%) and "Opisthocoelicaudia" (64%). A characteristic that distinguished "Savannasaurus" from every other sauropod is that the front-to-back length of the ischium was only 42% of the bone's width. On the ischium, the iliac peduncle, one of the processes surrounding the (hip joint), was only 32% of the bone's length, lower than most other sauropods. Furthermore, the front end of the ischium was 49% as wide as the bone was long; only "Diamantinasaurus" had a similarly high ratio (51%).
Another distinguishing characteristic of "Savannasaurus" is the presence of a subtle ridge that separates the front upper portion of the pubis from the rear plate. The ridge is parallel to another ridge just below the opening known as the ; this latter ridge corresponds to multiple ridges in "Diamantinasaurus". Also like "Diamantinasaurus", there was an expanded "boot" at the tip of the pubis. On the ischium, the ridge at the back which separated it from the pubis extended further to the side than "Diamantinasaurus", but less so than "Wintonotitan". Further below, in the ankle, the height of the astragalus was greater than its diameters either front-to-back or side-to-side, which is unusual among titanosauriforms. Two unusually low ratios in the astragalus are distinguishing features: the side-to-side diameter was 87% of the height, and the side-to-side diameter was 98% of the front-to-back diameter. Unlike "Diamantinasaurus", there was no shelf on the astragalus below where it would have articulated with the .
Classification.
For their 2016 description, Poropat and colleagues conducted a phylogenetic analysis to test the affinities of "Savannasaurus" and the new skull specimen of "Diamantinasaurus". They added these specimens to a dataset created by Philip Mannion (one of the co-authors of the description of "Savannasaurus") and colleagues for the 2013 redescription of "Lusotitan". The analysis placed "Savannasaurus" and "Diamantinasaurus" together in a clade (unified group) close to the root of Titanosauria, outside the derived (specialized) group Lithostrotia. Similar results were recovered by Rafael Royo-Torres and colleagues in their 2017 description of "Soriatitan"; Mannion and colleagues in their 2017 description of "Vouivria"; Alexander Averianov and Vladimir Efimov in their 2018 description of "Volgatitan"; Bernardo Gonzàlez Riga and colleagues in their 2018 redescription of "Mendozasaurus"; and Pedro Mocho and colleagues in their 2019 descriptions of an indeterminate lithostrotian and "Oceanotitan".
In 2020, Poropat and colleagues noted a number of features that support a position for "Savannasaurus" outside Lithostrotia: the horizontal transprezygapophyseal laminae, the lack of constriction in the vertebrae of the sacrum, the amphicoelous caudal centra, the pneumatic excavations on the front caudals, the D-shaped sternal plates, the presence of phalanges, and the lack of a longitudinal ridge on the side of the pubis. At the same time, the lack of hyposphene-hypantrum articulations in the dorsal and caudal vertebrae provides evidence against a more basal (non-specialized or rootward) position, given their presence in many non-titanosaur titanosauriforms and rarity among titanosaurs. Some titanosaurs also had these articulations; the basal "Andesaurus" and the lithostrotian "Epachthosaurus" had them in the dorsals, while the lithostrotians "Epachthosaurus", "Opisthocoelicaudia", "Volgatitan", and "Malawisaurus" had them in the caudals. However, Poropat and colleagues recognized the possibility that they could have been acquired independently multiple times among titanosaurs.
Nevertheless, other phylogenetic analyses based on Mannion and colleagues' 2013 dataset have found different results. Royo-Torres and colleagues repeated their 2017 analysis after removing a titanosauriform from the Cloverly Formation, "Chubutisaurus", and "Angolatitan"; they found instead that "Savannasaurus" and "Diamantinasaurus" were successively basal to a clade consisting of "Baotianmansaurus" and "Dongyanosaurus". "Savannasaurus" shared amphicoelous caudal centra with both genera, various features of vertebral laminae with "Baotianmansaurus", and unkeeled dorsal centra and the absent longitudinal ridge on the side of the pubis with "Dongyanosaurus". However, unlike "Savannasaurus", "Baotianmansaurus" had hyposphene-hypantrum articulations, and both genera had bifid dorsal neural spines (i.e., split into two).
Similarly, for a 2019 paper naming the new clade Colossosauria, Gonzàlez Riga and colleagues extended their 2018 phylogenetic analysis and found an unresolved polytomy of "Savannasaurus", "Baotianmansaurus", "Dongyanosaurus", and a clade of more derived titanosaurs. "Diamantinasaurus" was placed in a more derived position as the sister group of Lithostrotia. Also in 2019, Julian Silva Jr. and colleagues extended the 2018 analysis of Gonzàlez Riga and colleagues for their redescription of "Uberabatitan". They found "Savannasaurus" outside the Titanosauria in a polytomy with "Euhelopus", "Erketu", "Qiaowanlong", a clade of "Tangvayosaurus" and "Phuwiangosaurus", and more derived somphospondyls; they also found "Diamantinasaurus" and "Baotianmansaurus" to form a clade inside the Saltasauridae. Poropat and colleagues considered their results unusual in 2020. In their 2019 redescription of "Jiangshanosaurus" and "Dongyanosaurus", Mannion and colleagues found both "Savannasaurus" and "Diamantinasaurus" inside Saltasauridae by equally weighting characteristics in their dataset, but using implied weighting eliminated this result.
The phylogenetic tree from the analysis of Poropat and colleagues in 2016 is reproduced below, at left, with emphasis on relevant clades. An alternative tree by Royo-Torres and colleagues in 2017, from the analysis that removed the Cloverly titanosauriform, "Chubutisaurus", and "Angolatitan", is also shown at right.
Topology A: Poropat "et al." (2016)
Topology B: Royo-Torres "et al." (2017)
Palaeobiogeography.
As the southern supercontinent of Gondwana broke up during the Cretaceous period, dinosaur faunas became more diverse. Conventional hypotheses suggest that the faunas from the Gondwanan continents (including Australia) would be closely related, but mid-Cretaceous Australian dinosaurs have been found to be more closely related to their Laurasian (northern) counterparts in spite of the fact that Laurasia and Gondwana had already been separated by the Tethys Ocean for a significant span of time. In 2016, Poropat and colleagues tested this hypothesis by performing a palaeobiogeographic analysis using the results of their phylogenetic analysis. Using the modern geography of the continents, they found that the ancestors of the Australian sauropods "Savannasaurus", "Diamantinasaurus", and "Wintonotitan" were likely Asian. Incorporating Cretaceous geography suggested ancestral ranges also spanning the Gondwanan continents of South America, Africa, and Indo-Madagascar.
Combining their palaeobiogeographic analysis with time-calibrated phylogenies based on fossil age estimates, Poropat and colleagues inferred that somphospondylans and titanosaurs had attained a wide distribution across the world by the Barremian epoch, 131 to 125 million years ago, if not earlier. However, they ultimately diverged into a number of lineages ultimately with limited geographical ranges; they attributed this endemism to regional extinction events. They estimated that the "Savannasaurus"+"Diamantinasaurus" and "Wintonotitan" lineages had separately reached Australia no later than the late Albian epoch, 105 to 100 million years ago, but the exact timing depended on the models that they used. The oldest Australian titanosauriforms, "Austrosaurus" and the "Hughenden sauropod", date to this interval.
Although they acknowledged the possibility of sampling biases, Poropat and colleagues considered a late Albian dispersal likely because of the most probable dispersal route, which would have entailed beginning from South America and crossing through Antarctica to southeastern Australia. In the Aptian to early Albian epochs, this region of Australia would have been situated at a latitude of 70°S, with a cool, temperate climate. No sauropods have been found from these latitudes and environments, suggesting that they were adapted to warm climates and avoided these regions. Thus, they would likely have been unable to disperse across Antarctica until the late Albian, when global warming led to a smoother temperature gradient. Poropat and colleagues suggested that climate preferences could also explain the Laurasian affinities of Australian dinosaurs.
In 2020, Tai Kubo applied network analysis to a phylogenetic "supertree" of Australian dinosaurs. He found a strong connection between Australian dinosaur faunas and other Gondwanan dinosaurs, and identified Gondwanan Cretaceous dinosaurs as a distinct community. Thus, he suggested that most previous results identifying affinities between Australian and Laurasian dinosaurs were caused by insufficient sampling of Gondwanan dinosaurs and the phylogenetic instability of Australian dinosaurs. For instance, he pointed out that the megaraptoran "Australovenator" was thought to be an offshoot of an Asian lineage until more Gondwanan megaraptorans were found. While he suggested that the same was true of these sauropods, he also recognized the possibility that they had a different biogeographical history than smaller dinosaurs.
Paleobiology.
Like all titanosaurs, "Savannasaurus" was likely a "wide-gauge" sauropod, meaning that it would have stood and walked with its feet far apart from the midline. In 2020, Poropat and colleagues pointed to the width of its sternal plates and sacrum as evidence for a wide-gauge stance. The robust humerus of "Savannasaurus" was also considered a likely adaptation to a wide-gauge stance, which would have been convergently acquired with saltasaurines. They also suggested that the unusual form of the astragalus was also an adaptation to weight-bearing, but the absence of other hindlimb bones made this unclear. Yet, Poropat and colleagues also noted traits that would have increased the flexibility of the vertebral column, namely the absence of hyposphene-hypantrum articulations and the presence of prominent excavations (the centroprezygapophyseal fossae) below the transprezygapophyseal laminae. Both of these were shared with "Diamantinasaurus", but were otherwise rare among sauropods.
Poropat and colleagues noted that both "Savannasaurus" and "Diamantinasaurus" would have lived on a floodplain with clay-rich soil and high rainfall (see ), which would imply that the ground would occasionally become muddy and hazardous for large sauropods. They considered it possible that environmental pressures would have selected for individuals capable of navigating muddy ground, and that "Savannasaurus" might have spent more time near water than other sauropods. Flexible vertebrae (to escape bogs), barrel-like bodies similar to those of hippopotami, wide-gauge stance, and robust forelimbs (all to distribute its body weight) would all have been helpful for such a niche. They postulated that saltasaurines might have been subject to similar selective pressures, and so the "typical" titanosaur bodyplan may have been acquired convergently multiple times. While the same environment could also have selected for longer necks to provide easier access to water, Poropat and colleagues noted that "Savannasaurus" and "Diamantinasaurus" likely had relatively short necks, though overlapping cervical ribs might have improved stability in "Savannasaurus".
Palaeoenvironment.
The Belmont sheep station is part of the fossil-bearing rock units in the upper Winton Formation, which has been dated to around or just after the boundary between the Cenomanian and Turonian epochs of the Cretaceous—about 93.9 million years ago—based on uranium-lead dating of detritial zircons. It is the geologically youngest rock unit of the Mesozoic era in the Eromanga Basin. Six major facies, or distinct rock types, are found in the Winton Formation: two different types of sandstone-siltstone combinations (associated with meandering rivers, crevasse splays, and levees), mudstones (associated with oxbow lakes and ponds), sandy siltstones to silty mudstones (associated with tidal flats), plant-rich mudstone and coal (associated with swampy ground), intraformational conglomerates (associated with flooding). These rocks suggest that "Savannasaurus" lived on a freshwater floodplain covered in broad, meandering river channels with low-energy waterflow, which was subject to occasional flooding.
During the Cenomanian and Turonian, the Winton area had a latitude of around 50°S. Leaf fossils show that the climate was warm, with a mean annual temperature of , and wet, with a mean annual precipitation of over . Although the weather was seasonal, there was no extreme cycle between the wet season and dry season as is the case today. The growing season would have been eight to nine months long. However, weather patterns also appeared to have been cyclical on a multi-year basis, similar to the modern Pacific decadal oscillation; this may also have influenced the sporadic flooding. Conifers and angiosperms were the most common plants in the Winton Formation; conifers included the cypress "Austrosequoia", the araucarias "Araucaria" and "Emwadea", and the podocarp "Protophyllocladoxylon", while angiosperms included "Lovellea" and various unnamed forms. Other plants included the ferns "Phyllopteroides" and "Tempskya"; the liverwort "Marchantites"; the horsetail "Equisetites"; the bennettitaleans "Otozamites" and "Ptilophyllum"; and the ginkgoalean "Ginkgo".
"Savannasaurus" lived alongside a diverse vertebrate fauna in the upper Winton Formation. Contemporary dinosaurs included the sauropods "Diamantinasaurus matildae" and "Wintonotitan wattsi", the megaraptoran theropod "Australovenator wintonensis", and indeterminate ankylosaurians and hypsilophodonts. A tooth belonging to "Australovenator" was found near the "Savannasaurus" holotype, suggesting that its feeding was responsible for the specimen's disarticulation. Other archosaurs included the pterosaur "Ferrodraco lentoniT" and the crocodilian "Isisfordia duncani", along with other undescribed pterosaurs and crocodilians. Additional vertebrates known from the Winton Formation are chelid turtles; an indeterminate varanoid lizard; the lungfish "Metaceratodus ellioti" and "M. wollastoni"; and ray-finned fish including "Cladocyclus geddesi". Invertebrates were dominated by the bivalves "Alathyria jaqueti", "Hyridella goondiwindiensis", "Megalovirgus wintonensis", and "Prohyria macmichaeli", but also included the gastropod "Melanoides", dragonflies, scorpionflies, and oribatid mites known from trace fossils found in silicified wood.


Ictidosuchoides

Ictidosuchoides is an extinct genus of ictidosuchid therocephalians. Fossils have been found from the Karoo Basin in South Africa. The genus is known to have been one of the few therocephalians to have survived the Permian-Triassic extinction event in this area, although its numbers were quite low after the extinction.


Garrigatitan

Garrigatitan (meaning "garrigue giant", referring to a type of Mediterranean vegetation characterized by drought-resistant shrubs) is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of the Grès à Reptiles Formation in France. The genus contains a single species, "Garrigatitan meridionalis." The holotype specimen, belonging to a subadult animal, is estimated to be long, while the adult length is estimated at around .
Discovery and naming.
Between 2009 and 2012, excavations were carried out at Velaux-La Bastide Neuve by the "Palaios" Association and the University of Poitiers. During the excavations, the holotype of "Garrigatitan" was discovered and remains of "Atsinganosaurus velauciensis" were also present.
In 2020, the type species "Garrigatitan meridionalis" was named and described by Verónica Díez Díaz, Géraldine Garcia, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola, Benjamin Jentgen-Ceschino, Koen Stein, Pascal Godefroit and Xavier Valentin. The holotype, MMS / VBN.09.17, was found in a layer of sandstone of the "Begudian", the second level of the second series, dating back to the late Campanian. It consists of a sacrum belonging to an immature individual.
In addition, a number of other fossils have been assigned to the species. This concerns the specimens MMS / VBN.02.99: a cervical vertebra; MMS / VBN.09.A.016 and MMS / VBN.09.47: two humeri; MMS / VBN.12B.12a: a left ilium and MMS / VBN.12B.12b: a right ischial bone. Furthermore, fossils were allocated with reservation. They were the specimens MMS / VBN.12B.011: a neural spine; MMS / VBN.12.82: a right humerus; MMS.VBN.09.A.017: part of the right leg and MMS / VBN.00.13: a left femur. The assigned specimens come from the third level of the second series. The fossils were found in a lens with an area of 375 square meters and a thickness of . They were not associated and presumably represent different individuals and they are all part of the "Moulin Seigneurial de Velaux" collection.
Etymology.
The genus name is a combination of the Occitan "garriga", "dry thicket", and the Greek "titan", a member of a mythological family of giants. The species epithet "meridonalis" means "southern" in Latin.


Patrick Quilty

Patrick Gerard Quilty (20 March 1939 – 26 August 2018) was an Australian geologist and paleontologist who specialised in the surface and subsurface earth sciences of Antarctica. The Quilty Nunataks are named for his initial service in Antarctica, at which time he was connected to the University of Wisconsin. He later continued his Antarctic service with the University of Tasmania, rising to the position of chief scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) of the Australian Department of the Environment.
On 18 June 2016, Quilty was awarded the Phillip Law Medal for his outstanding contribution to Antarctica and the Antarctic community. On 21 June 2020, he was posthumously awarded the Australian Antarctic Medal for outstanding service in Antarctic scientific research (especially in the fields of geology and palaeontology) and for his support of such research as head of the Australian Antarctic Division's science division between December 1980 and February 1999.


John Talbot Robinson

John Talbot Robinson FRSSAf (10 January 1923 – 12 October 2001) was a distinguished South African hominin paleontologist. His most famous discovery (with Robert Broom) was the nearly complete fossil skull of the hominin species "Australopithecus africanus", known as Mrs. Ples.
Education and career.
Robinson was born in Elliot, South Africa to Theodore Clement Robinson and Florence Harriett Robinson (née Selby), both descendants of the British 1820 Settlers. He attended the University of Cape Town where he obtained a BSc in zoology and bacteriology in 1943 and an MSc (zoology) in 1944, with a thesis on the giant girdled lizard ("Cordylus giganteus"). He contributed to two dissection manuals, one on the clawed frog ("Xenopus") and the other on the spiney dogfish shark ("Squalus").
He started his doctorate in marine biology in Cape Town and even went so far as to publish descriptions of new diatoms and copepods but he interrupted it by moving to the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria at the end of 1945 to take up the position of "assistant professional officer". He became the assistant to Anthonie Johannes Theodorus Janse, a Lepidoptera specialist (a moth specialist).
The pre-eminent paleontologist Robert Broom was working at the Transvaal Museum at that time and the museum felt that he needed a collection manager as Broom had gotten into the habit of merely memorising contextual information about fossil specimens instead of physically recording the provenance information systematically. It was the Canadian geologist H. B. S. Cooke who suggested that Robinson should assist Broom. This did not please Janse.
In April 1946 Robinson became the assistant to Robert Broom and he worked with him for four years until Broom's death in 1951. They focused on excavations at the caves of Sterkfontein (where they discovered "Mrs. Ples" a specimen of "Australopithecus africanus", in 1947), Swartkrans (which yielded several fossils of "Paranthropus robustus" and "Telanthropis capensis") and Kromdraai. They discovered over 300 specimens of early humans, the "Australopithecinae". Between 1946 and 1952 they jointly published twenty-three books and articles. After Broom's death, Robinson worked with C.K. Brain.
In 1955 Robinson completed his PhD in zoology at the University of Cape Town but with a dissertation "The Dentition of the Australopithecinae", published 1956 and arguably his most important work. He took over as head of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology and Physical Anthropology and eventually became assistant director of the Transvaal Museum.
In 1963 Robinson began a professorship in zoology and anthropology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he remained until his retirement in 1983. He taught courses in evolutionary theory and human origins, zoology and anthropology. He was director of the University of Wisconsin Zoological Museum from 1979 to 1981. Robinson continued to make trips back to South Africa to carry out research.
Significance of discoveries.
When Robinson first started collaborating with Broom in 1946 the scientific community was just beginning to accept the fossil ancestors of modern humans that had been found in South Africa but the nature of our early ancestors and the evolutionary trajectory from early primates to "australopithecines" to modern humans remained unknown. The only substantial "australopithecine" samples known at that time were excavated by Robinson and Broom since Louis Leakey did not find any fossils in Olduvai Gorge until 1959.
The discovery in 1947 of "Mrs Ples", an essentially complete adult "australopithecine" skull, led to the conclusion that "australopithecines" were ancestral to modern humans. Robinson went on to explain the biological adaptations of the "australopithecines" and put their morphological characteristics into a comprehensive picture of hominid adaptation and evolution. He also established the two lineages of hominids that had existed in the past.
Robinson made the first broad functional analysis of the postcranial anatomy of the "australopithecines" which established that "australopithecines" were committed bipeds. He published his finding in the book "Early Hominid Posture and Locomotion" (1976).
The presence of both "Paranthropus robustus" and "Telanthropis capensis" at Swartkrans provided the first evidence of the co-existence of two hominid species in the Pleistocene in Africa. This was later confirmed by other paleontological sites in Africa.
Personal life.
He died in Madison, Wisconsin in 2001. He was survived by his wife, Sybil Robinson who was Professor Emeritus of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Department of Theatre and Drama. Their two sons predeceased him.


Betasuchus

Betasuchus is a genus of theropod dinosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous Period. "Betasuchus" is, besides "Orthomerus", the only dinosaur genus named from remains found in the Netherlands and the only non-avian theropod found in the Maastrichtian Beds.
Discovery.
Its fossil, holotype BMNH 42997 (now NHM R 42997), a part of a right femur, 312 mm long, was found in the Netherlands near Maastricht, and originally described as a new species of "Megalosaurus" in 1883 by Harry Seeley: "M. bredai", honouring the late Dutch biologist and geologist Jacob Gijsbertus Samuël van Breda, a director of the Teylers Museum, who had collected the fossil at some time between 1820 and 1860 from the chalkstone quarry at the St Pietersberg. Van Breda did not excavate the remains himself but bought them from quarry workers who in this period dug stone from tunnels at several levels in the mountain; it is therefore impossible to determine the exact temporal horizon, apart from a general Maastrichtian; however all dinosaurian material from the formation that could be dated, stems from the latest Maastrichtian, 67-66 million years old. Only the top part of the femur has been conserved; of the distal end about eight centimetres are missing as the bone was cleanly cut in two when the chalk block containing it was sawed out. Other saw cuts damaged the head of the thigh bone. The fossil was part of his personal collection, not the museum's, and sold to the British Museum of Natural History after his death in 1867. In 1892 Belgian/Dutch/German paleontologist Johan Casimir Ubaghs referred some teeth — probably of mosasaurs — to "M. bredai". "Megalosaurus bredai" was in 1883 the first terrestrial vertebrate named from Maastrichtian layers.
A re-evaluation of the fossil by Friedrich von Huene in 1926, however, showed that it came from a genus distinct from "Megalosaurus" — which in the nineteenth and early twentieth century was a "wastebin taxon" where many unrelated carnivorous dinosaurs were lumped together. Von Huene thought that the fossil actually belonged to an ornithomimosaur, and gave it the provisional designation "Ornithomimidorum [sic] genus b" (in Latin: genus b of the ornithomimids), being the second of two "Megalosaurus" species he was reallocating to Ornithomimidae, the first being "M. lonzeensis" as "Ornithomimidorum genus a". "Ornithomimidorum" is sometimes mistakenly listed as a dinosaur genus name. Von Huene referred to this designation when he formally renamed "M. bredai" in 1932, calling it "Betasuchus" (or "B crocodile" in Greek).
In 2017 its length was estimated to be 4 meters (13 feet).
Phylogeny.
"Betasuchus" is known only from a single incomplete femur, so its exact relationships with other theropods have been difficult to determine. In 1972 Dale Russell confirmed Von Huene's opinion that "Betasuchus" was an ornithomimosaurid, but also considered the name a "nomen vanum": a failed emendation. Some workers in reference to the material still use "M. bredai" instead of "Betasuchus". David Norman in 1990 listed "Megalosaurus bredai" as a "nomen dubium".
Jean le Loeuff and Eric Buffetaut in 1991 concluded it was a small abelisaurid, close to "Tarascosaurus" and that it was distinct enough not to consider it a "nomen dubium": they mentioned a more narrow femoral neck, a lack of orientation of the femoral head towards the front, the lack of an opening, or foramen, under the lesser trochanter and that the anterior face is narrower. Furthermore, at the lower end the beginnings of an anterointernal crest are visible, seeming to be homologous to the supracondylar crest of the femur of "Carnotaurus". They rejected the placement within Ornithomimidae, partly because of the much higher position of the fourth trochanter on the back of the femur.
In 1997 "Betasuchus" was concluded by Carpenter, Russell and Baird to be related to "Dryptosaurus", a tyrannosauroid. In 2004 Tykoski and Rowe placed "Tarascosaurus" within the Abelisauroidea.


Cola de Zorro Formation

Cola de Zorro Formation () is a geological formation cropping out along the Argentina-Chile border and composed of volcano-sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks. It extends along the Andes between the latitudes of 36 and 39° S.
Description.
The formation overlies across an angular unconformity older sedimentary rocks of continental origin as well as dykes and plutons that intruded these sediments. The unconformity has an irregular form attesting to a topography that was flattened out by the deposition of the Cola de Zorro sediments. Cola de Zorro Formation was deposited in Pliocene and Pleistocene times. The formation interdigitates with lavas of old and eroded volcanoes. Lavas of modern volcanoes, like Antuco, unconformbly overlies the formations and dykes associated to modern volcanoes intrude it. In some localities the formation is covered by moraines.
The Cola de Zorro Formation is largely undeformed except from some minor tilting caused by block tectonics. The strata of Cola de Zorro Formation are sub-horizontal. The formation is dissected by fluvial and glacial erosion.
The formation is made up of tuff, volcanic breccia and volcanic agglomerate. The lavas are made up of andesite, trachyandesite, trachyte, basaltic andesite and basalt. Volcanic rocks of Cola de Zorro Formation belong to two magma series. Most volcanic rocks are part of a calc-alkaline magma series. Trachyandesites and trachytes of the Pino Hachado and Pichachén areas are alkaline.
The southwestern fringes of Cola de Zorro Formation were redefined in 1997 as being part of Malleco Formation by geologists Manuel Suárez and Carlos Emparan.


Orectoloboides

Orectoloboides is an extinct genus of wobbegong sharks (family Orectolobidae). It was described by Cappetta in 1977. A new species, "O. angulatus", was described from the Cenomanian age of Canada by Charlie J. Underwood and Stephen L. Cumbaa in 2010.
Species.
Two species formerly assigned to this genus, "O. glashoffi" and "O. pattersoni" , were transferred to the separate genus "Ornatoscyllium" by Underwood & Ward (2004).


Allqa Walusa

Allqa Walusa or Allqawalusa (Aymara and Quechua "allqa" multicolored, black and white or two-colored, "walusa, wallusa" a watery kind of potatoes, Hispanicized spelling "Alcabalusa") is a mountain in the Wansu mountain range in the Andes of Peru, about high. It is situated in the Apurímac Region, Antabamba Province, Oropesa District, and in the Arequipa Region, La Unión Province, Huaynacotas District.


Chicauma

Chicauma is a mountain range in central Chile. This locale is noted for the impact of a large meteor noted in a report from 1916. The range is also termed Alto de Chicauma or Sierra de Chicauma. A portion of the Chicauma has been added to the La Campana National Park.