Microleo

Microleo attenboroughi is a very small species of the Thylacoleonidae family from the Early Miocene of Australia, living in the wet forest that dominated Riversleigh about 18 million years ago. The genus Microleo is currently known from a broken palate and two pieces of jaw, containing some teeth and roots that correspond to those found in other species of thylacoleonids. The shape and structure of the blade-like P3 tooth, a premolar, distinguished the species as a new genus. It was found in Early Miocene-aged deposits of the Riversleigh fossil site in Queensland, regarded as one of the most significant palaeontological sites yet discovered, and named for the naturalist David Attenborough in appreciation of his support for its heritage listing.
The anatomy of "Microleo" suggests the genus is basal to all the known thylacoleonids, known as the marsupial lions, although its relative size prompted a discover to describe it as the "feisty" kitten of the family.
Taxonomy.
The description of a new species and genus was published in 2016. The type is currently the only known species of "Microleo", a genus allied with the family Thylacoleonidae, and viewed as basal to the group. The thylacoleonids are represented in the later fossil records of Australia, powerful predatory marsupial species that existed throughout the Miocene to the Pleistocene.
The arrangement of the monotypic genus within the family may be summarised as:
The specific epithet "attenboroughi" commemorates the enthusiasm and support provided by David Attenborough, a well known broadcaster of natural history, that increased the recognition of the species type location, the Riversleigh World Heritage Area, a fossil site he described as one of the four most important. The genus name combines "micro", Ancient Greek for small, and "leo", Latin for lion, to describe the tiny size of the new marsupial as a "small lion".
The cranial features of the specimen, while largely incomplete, lead the authors of the description to propose a reassessment of the placement of the family Thylacoleonidae, but conserve its previously recognised alliance within the vombatomorphian clade.
Description.
A very small and probably arboreal species of thylacoleonid that existed during the Early Miocene at Riversleigh. The species was considered to be tiny, when compared with the previously known thylacoleonid weight range of 2 to 130 kilograms, and described as being similar in size to a ring-tailed possum ("Pseudocheirus" species).
The carnivorous animal lived in a period around 18 million years ago in the wet forested environment, preying on a rich variety of the fauna that was present in the same period.
The type specimen is an incomplete palate that revealed the dentition associated with the family, the knife-edged bicuspid P3 tooth and molars that were adapted to killing and consuming animals, The material examined also included a lower molar. The morphology of the premolar deduced from the impression at the palate was proposed to separate the sister taxon as separate and previously unknown genus.
The holotype material is composed of the partial remains of the left maxillary, still set with the direct evidence of the second and third molar (M2–M3), roots for third premolar (P3) to M1, the impression of the alveoli at M4, and the root at the arch of the cheek. A partial right maxillary is also described, preserved inset with P3–M2 and revealing the alveoli for M1 and P1–2. Another specimen, the left M3, was included as a paratype for the original description of "Microleo attenboroughi".
The weight of "M. attenboroughi" is estimated to have been around , the smallest of the family, but a larger predator amongst the contemporary vertebrate fauna of the earlier Miocene. The premolars of the species are sharpened and elongated, these pointed and knife edge teeth and basin like molars are characteristic of the family.
When describing the new species for a press release, the palaeontologist and leading author Anna Gillespie was quoted as saying, ""Microleo attenboroughi" would have been more like the cute but still feisty kitten of the family [Thylacoleonidae."
Distribution.
Known from the site within the Riversleigh formations identified as "Neville's Garden Site", a deposit rich in other fossil species. Studies of this site have produced a radiometric date range to the time of deposition as around eighteen million years before present (18.24±0.29 Ma and 17.85±0.13 Ma). The Riversleigh fossil area is a small region in the northeast of the Australian continent. The specimen was excavated and revealed from what was a pool of water at the time of deposition, one of many formed in the regions limestone formations, in a forest with very high rainfall and mild climate. The climate and ecology of the region, now an arid open woodland and grass dominated habitat, was comparable to the rainforests of modern Borneo. The Riversleigh fauna contains other species of thylacoleonid genera, two larger predators that inhabited the area at the same time. These related predators may have competed with "M. attenbouroughi" for similar prey, but the smaller size of the animal probably allowed access to higher parts of the forest canopy. The species was likely to have hunted for the variety of insects, birds and lizards that occupied the upper storey of its habitat, while remaining out of reach of larger predators that included relations like the "Wakaleo" species.


Naolinco volcanic field

Naolinco volcanic field is a volcanic field in Veracruz, Mexico. It lies in the region of the cities of Jalapa and Naolinco, and the town of Naolinco lies in the field.
Geologic context.
The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt is best known for calc-alkaline volcanoes such as Pico de Orizaba and Popocatepetl stratovolcanoes as well as calderas and pyroclastic cones; however it also features scattered alkali basalt volcanism. It lies at an angle to the Middle America Trench unlike the more typical volcanic arcs of Central America; some theories consider the belt to be independent from the trench. In its eastern region lies the Cofre de Perote and a group of volcanoes including the Naolinco Volcanic Field.
Sometimes it and some neighbouring monogenetic volcanoes such as those at Cofre de Perote are included into a "Xalapa volcanic field", which would have about 50 volcanic centres. Despite their location, they are most likely unrelated to Cofre de Perote itself.
The field.
The Naolinco Volcanic Field lies in the Sierra de Chiconquiaco. It includes the volcanic cones of Cerro Acatlan, which is the largest cone in the field, Cerro el Hoyo, two Cerro Gordo cones, Cerro Organo and Pueblo Viejo. The cone Rincon de Chapultepec has a crater wide. The individual centres appear to be aligned in a northeast-southwest direction. Lava flows from Naolinco volcanoes have flowed south. Pyroclastic material is also found in the area.
Eruptive history.
Potassium-argon dating of the field has yielded ages of 1.2 and 0.82 million years ago. Volcanic products at Naolinco are mainly basaltic.
The most recent activity at Naolinco occurred at Rincon de Chapultepec, which erupted the Coacotzintla lava flow 2,980 years before present. This lava flow reached a length of and a surface area of ; the total volume of lava is about . Two other lava flows were erupted by the cone, one of which is buried by scoria.
Future eruptions of Naolinco, especially very voluminous ones, may endanger towns and cities in the area, although most of them would affect the sparsely populated Naolinco valley unless fairly long.


Anomocephalus

Anomocephalus is an extinct genus of primitive anomodonts and belongs to the clade Anomocephaloidea. The name is said to be derived from the Greek word "anomos" meaning lawless and "cephalos" meaning head. The proper word for head in Greek is however κεφαλή ("kephalē"). It is primitive in that it retains a complete set of teeth in both jaws, in contrast to its descendants, the dicynodonts, whose dentition is reduced to only a single pair of tusks (and in many cases no teeth at all), with their jaws covered by a horny beak similar to that of a modern tortoise. However, they are in no way closely related.
Its discovery in 1999 from the earliest terrestrial rocks of Gondwana (from Williston in the Karoo of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa) has shown that this group of herbivores originated in Gondwana; not Laurasia, as had previously been supposed. It lived 260 million years ago during the Permian Period, in arid areas with rivers and lakes - almost like parts of modern-day Namibia or Botswana. It is most closely related to "Tiarajudens" from Brazil.
Geology and paleoenvironment.
"Anomocephalus" was discovered at the base of the Beaufort Group, which is a geographical stratum that consists of mostly sandstone and shales that have been deposited in the Karoo Basin. The Beaufort Group dominated most of the basin with fluvial sedimentation, which is carried by streams and rivers that were most likely formed by ice masses such as glaciers. The climate at this time during the Mid to Late Permian became warm and semi-arid with seasonal rainfall. The central region of the basin is thought to have been drained by semi-permanent lakes and fine-grained meander belts.
History and discovery.
"Anomocephalus" was collected from a locality near Williston at the base of the Beaufort Group in the Karoo Basin, which is located within the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It was discovered during the continued program of B. Rubidge to determine the lateral extent of the "Eodicynodon" (an extinct dicynodont therapsid) Assemblage Zone. It was first described by Modesto in 1999 and is known only by a partial skull with distinctive dentition and was preserved in hard mud rock.
The discovery of "Anomocephalus" and its phylogenetic position provided compelling evidence that anomodonts initially diversified in Gondwana. This conflicts with previous suggestions that anomodonts were freely dispersing between the northern and southern regions of the Late Permian Pangea or that therapsids first evolved in Euramerica and then moved to Gondwana when climate became favorable. Additionally, the basal phylogenetic position of "Anomocephalus" suggests that herbivory was acquired initially by the anomodonts of Gondwana.
Description.
Skull.
The premaxilla contains a deep alveolar portion with room for two teeth and the maxilla is slightly elongated in comparison to other anomodonts. On the posterior portion of the maxilla, the characteristic anomodont curvature is seen in the zygomatic arch. The nasal, prefrontal, and lacrimal resemble in both form and position those of other more basal anomodonts. Additionally, the jugal has a greater marginal exposure than other anomodonts and it tapers posteriorly. The dorsal lamella of the quadratojugal more closely resembles dicynodonts than basal anomodonts. The postorbital bone tapers ventrally and is visibly flat and curved. Like in other anomodonts, the dentary is dorsoventrally deep, and the squamosal is triradiate as suggested by the ventral and anterior processes.
Dentition.
"Anomocephalus" possess five upper incisors that have an ovoid-shaped crown when observed from the occlusal view. The dentition of the maxilla begins as tiny peg-like elements that become buccolingually wide and mesiodistally short. Six teeth are located on the pterygoid/ epipterygoid with four additional empty/damaged alveoli which suggests that there were at least ten teeth that made up the right palatal dentition. These palatal teeth have long, curved roots and the crowns are rectangular with an occlusal basin. There are two "in situ" lower incisiforms that are followed by two displaced lower teeth, the second of these teeth is transversally expanded and shows a saddle-like crown just like the palatal teeth. Additionally, there are three posterior lower teeth on the dentary with an unerupted, replacement tooth evident below the last lower tooth, which is evidence of at least a second wave of tooth replacement.
Post-cranial skeleton.
Although a post-cranial skeleton was not found with the partial skull of "Anomocephalus", its sister taxa "Tiarajudens eccentricus" was discovered in 2011 with a partial left pectoral girdle and its left limb, an isolated left tibia with the pes, and foot elements. Of the axial elements, only two fragmentary ribs of parallel margin were found with no clear curvature and the most complete fragment was 8 mm wide and 86 mm long. The humerus that was found with "T. eccentricus" is approximately 177 mm in length and displayed well-expanded proximal and distal portions. The radius is 128 mm in length with expanded, flat proximal and distal surfaces, and the ulna is more robust than the radius and slightly longer at 137 mm. The pes showed five partial digits and they were all robust with arthrodial joints between the distal metatarsals and proximal phalanges as well as between the phalanges. Additionally, 15 left and three right gastralia were preserved as long, thin, and delicate bones.
Paleobiology.
"Anomocephalus" exhibits palatal teeth and the morphology of the teeth is consistent with a high-fiber herbivorous diet. Cisneros and colleagues suggested that "Anomocephalus" had an incipient propaliny during the occlusions due to the longitudinal dimensions of each facet of the quadrate being twice as large as the transversal dimension. They suggest that this would allow for forward and backward movement of the lower jaw during chewing. Propaliny is also suggested to be linked to improved capability for processing plant material.


Mystriosaurus

Mystriosaurus is an extinct genus of teleosaurid crocodyliform from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian). Fossil specimens have been found in the Whitby Mudstone of England and Posidonia Shale of Germany. The only known species, "M. laurillardi", exceeded in length.
A 2019 phylogenetic analysis found "Mystriosaurus" to be distinct from "Steneosaurus".


List of volcanoes in South Africa

This is a list of active, dormant and extinct volcanoes in South Africa.
Worcester[ Western Cape] | type : mountain | aux cord
35”47 | S| O


Cryptocynodon

Cryptocynodon is an extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid from the Cistecephalus Assemblage Zone of the Beaufort Group in South Africa,


Ernst Erhard Schmid

Ernst Erhard Friedrich Wilhelm Schmid (22 May 1815 in Hildburghausen – 16 February 1885 in Jena) was a German paleontologist. He was the son of law professor Karl Ernst Schmid (1774–1852).
He studied natural sciences at the universities of Jena and Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1839. In 1843 he became an associate professor at Jena, where with Matthias Jakob Schleiden, he founded a physiological institute. At the institute he dealt with subjects that included mineralogy, geology, chemistry and physics. In 1856 he was appointed a professor of natural sciences at the University of Jena.
In 1848 the ichthyopterygian species "Tholodus schmidi" was named in his honor by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer.
Published works.
With Matthias Jacob Schleiden, he was co-author of an encyclopedia of theoretical science titled: "Encyclopädie der gesammten theoretischen Naturwissenschaften" (1850). Other significant works by Schmid are:


Waschberg Formation

The Waschberg Formation is a geologic formation in Austria. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period.


Bulbasaurus

Bulbasaurus (meaning "bulbous reptile") is an extinct genus of dicynodont that is known from the Lopingian epoch of the Late Permian period of what is now South Africa, containing the type and only species B. phylloxyron. It was formerly considered as belonging to "Tropidostoma"; however, due to numerous differences from "Tropidostoma" in terms of skull morphology and size, it has been reclassified the earliest known member of the family Geikiidae, and the only member of the group known from the "Tropidostoma" Assemblage Zone. Within the Geikiidae, it has been placed close to "Aulacocephalodon", although a more basal position is not implausible.
"Bulbasaurus" was not directly named after the Pokémon Bulbasaur, but rather after its nasal bosses, which are unusually bulbous among geikiids; however, the describers noted that the similarity in name "may not be entirely coincidental." Additionally, the specific name of the type species means "leaf razor" (similar to the Pokémon move "Razor Leaf", a technique Bulbasaur can learn), which is most directly a reference to its keratin-covered jaws. Other distinguishing characteristics of "Bulbasaurus" among the geikiids include the hook-like beak, very large tusks, and absence of bossing on the prefrontal bone.
Discovery and naming.
The holotype specimen of "Bulbasaurus" was found by Roger M.H. Smith in the Vredelus locality, which is located at an altitude of , in the district of Fraserburg, Northern Cape, South Africa. This locality is part of what is known as the "Tropidostoma" Assemblage Zone, which belongs to the Lopingian (upper Permian) Hoedemaker Member of the Middle Teekloof Formation. The "Tropidostoma" AZ is named after the oudenodontid "Tropidostoma", which occurs commonly at the site. The holotype itself, which is catalogued as SAM-PK-K11235, is a partially complete skull that is missing the left subtemporal and both postorbital bars. It was discovered lying right-side-up in a bed of grey siltstone with embedded micrite nodules, and there were no associated remains from the rest of the skeleton. "Head-only" preservation is common in therapsid fossils of the Hoedemaker Member, because the specimens were probably left out in the open and became disarticulated before being rapidly buried by flash floods.
Other referred specimens include the nearly-complete skull CGP/1/938 (from the Wilgerbosch Kloof locality in Fraserburg), the complete skull CGP/1/949 (also from Wilgerbosch Kloof), the complete skull with associated lower jaws and postcranial remains CGP/1/970 (from the Blaauwkrans locality in Beaufort West, Western Cape), the complete but crushed skull CGP/1/2263 (locality unknown), the crushed skull with lower jaws SAM-PK-K10106 (from the Paalhuisberg locality in Beaufort West), and the complete juvenile skull with lower laws SAM-PK-K10587 (from the Doornhoek locality in Beaufort West). All of these specimens are either held at the Iziko Museums in Cape Town or the Council for Geoscience in Praetoria. Before being referred to the new genus "Bulbasaurus", they were initially treated as specimens of "Tropidostoma" in collections.
"Bulbasaurus" was described by Christian Kammerer and Smith in 2017. The description states that the generic name combines the Latin "bulbus", referring to the very large and bulbous nasal bosses, with the common suffix "-saurus". As for the specific name "phylloxyron", meaning literally "leaf razor", it is derived from the Greek and , and apparently refers to the keratinous covering on the premaxilla, maxilla, and palate that would have been used to shear plant material. Thus, as published, the name of "Bulbasaurus" does not directly refer to Pokémon, or specifically the similarly-named Bulbasaur. However, Kammerer noted that "if one wished to read between the lines concerning certain similarities, I wouldn't stop them", and later added that "similarities between this species and certain other squat, tusked quadrupeds may not be entirely coincidental."
Description.
Premaxilla, maxilla, and palate.
At the front of the upper jaw of "Bulbasaurus", the tips of the fused premaxillae are strongly hook-like, much more so than "Tropidostoma" and other dicynodonts but not as much as "Dinanomodon". Also unlike "Tropidostoma", the flattened front face of the premaxillae bear a tall, narrow, prominent ridge; "Aulacephalodon" also has a similar ridge, albeit broader and not as sharp. The back of the premaxillae narrow and extend between the roughened bosses on the nasal bones. Viewed from underneath, the bone is roughly pentagonal; the bottom surface bears two ridges near the front, as well as an additional ridge extending backward from where the two forward ridges end, which gradually becomes taller and wider. These ridges are separated by depressions in the bone of roughly equal depth, which is like other geikiids but unlike "Tropidostoma". At the outer extremities of the premaxillae, low and roughened ridges are located near the base of the tusks.
Further back on the interior of the upper jaw, the palatine bones are exposed as a palatine pad, which is very roughened and would have been covered in keratin, although the portion where they contact the premaxillae is smooth and sloping. The back portion of the palatines are thinner than the rest of the bone, but it is still thicker than that of either "Tropidostoma" or "Oudenodon", instead resembling "Aulacephalodon" more closely. The pterygoid bones are robust in contrast to "Tropidostoma", and bear ridges that converge into a tall, blade-like process known as the . The pterygoids also project outwards in rod-like structures to meet the quadrate bones.
Compared to other dicynodonts, the maxillary tusk of "Bulbasaurus" was massive; the holotype skull, which is long, has a tusk diameter. Only "Aulacephalodon" has comparably large tusks proportionally, but these belong to adult specimens much larger than "Bulbasaurus" (in juveniles the size of "Bulbasaurus", the tusks are still erupting). The root of the tusk bulges outwards from the surface of the maxilla due to its large size. Extensive pitting on the surface of the maxilla is suggestive of some kind of keratinous covering, which has also been inferred for other dicynodonts. Unlike other geikiids and most other cryptodontian dicynodonts, there is no ridge behind the tusk, although mature "Aulacephalodon" also lack this ridge.
Nasal and orbital rim.
The nasal bones, which form the roof the snout, bear a pair of enlarged bosses of bone as in other cryptodontians. In contrast to the small, oval-shaped, relatively narrow, and smooth-textured bosses of "Tropidostoma", the roughened bosses of "Bulbasaurus" are very large and nearly form a single continuous boss (although a narrow strip of the premaxilla extends backwards between the bosses). "Aulacephalodon" and "Pelanomodon" also have large and roughened bosses, but they are separated in part by the nasals. At the back of the bosses, a slight indentation wrapping around the top and sides of the skull separates them from the eye socket, typical of cryptodontians except for "Odontocyclops". The suture between the nasals and the frontal bones is slightly raised relative to the rest of the skull; the same raised suture is also seen in "Aulacephalodon" and "Pelanomodon".
Typical of geikiids, the interorbital region between the eyes was quite broad. The lacrimal bones, prefrontal bones, frontal bones, and jugal bones form the margin of the eye socket, with the portion comprised by the lacrimals having an orbital ridge that is better-developed and more raised. Unlike other cryptodontians, there is no evidence of a second set of bosses on the prefrontals, although their surfaces are somewhat thickened. A relatively deep midline depression (mildly developed in "Tropidostoma" and "Oudenodon", but absent in other geikiids) is visible on the frontals, which are situated largely between the eyes and form roughened edges where they contributes to the rims of the eye sockets. There appears to be no separation of the postfrontal bones from the frontals, which is probably an adult characteristic as in "Aulacephalodon". The elongate jugals form part of the zygoma, or bony cheek, and ends at the temporal fenestra. It also forms part of the temporal and postorbital bars; "Pelanomodon" differs from "Bulbasaurus" in having small bosses on the latter portions of the jugals.
Postorbital skull.
Most of the postorbital bar is made up of the postorbital bones, which are very robust relative to other cryptodontians as in other geikiids. However, compared to other geikiids, the postorbital bar of "Bulbasaurus" is relatively smooth and free of bosses. The sides of the postorbitals, which would have anchored jaw musculature, are very concave. Near the back, the postorbitals curve and converge to form a somewhat pinched intertemporal bar that overlaps the parietal bones to varying extents. The squamosal bones also contribute to the postorbital bar; its back edge along the postorbital bar is somewhat twisted in "Bulbasaurus", which is seen in other cryptodontians but is taken to an extreme by "Aulacephalodon" and "Pelanomodon", where the bone has become entirely twisted such that the interior faces outwards. Projections of the squamosal bones partially surround the posttemporal fenestrae on the rear of the skull, like "Aulacephalodon", "Pelanomodon", "Oudenodon", and "Tropidostoma".
As for the underlying parietals themselves, they are slightly concave. In front of the parietals are the small midline preparietal bones, which are relatively broad and have a rounded tip, as in "Aulacephalodon" and "Pelanomodon" but in contrast to "Tropidostoma". The pineal foramen is bordered by the preparietals and parietals, and it is surrounded by a simple ridge instead of being on a raised boss like either the large rhaciocephalids and "Endothiodon" or some large specimens belonging to "Aulacephalodon". On the braincase, no sutures are visible, suggesting that the bones are very fused. The occipital bones are likewise very fused. The contribution of the supraoccipital bones to the back of the skull is unusually extensive and occupies much of the area not part of the squamosals above the level of the foramen magnum. Also unusual are the smaller elements at the back of the skull, namely the postparietals and tabulars. The postparietals are not part of the continuous flat surface at the back of the skull, instead forming a sharp divot; additionally, a strong midline crest is present on the postparietals and do not extend onto other bones. Meanwhile, the tabulars are wider than they are long.
Mandible and postcrania.
The mandible of "Bulbasaurus" was largely similar to "Aulacephalodon". At the front of the mandible, the two toothless dentary bones fuse at the front to form a continuous beak with a sharp, pointed tip. The somewhat convex front surface of this junction, or the dentary symphysis, is separated from the sides of the dentaries by sharp ridges, a condition also seen in "Pelanomodon" and "Geikia" but not seen in "Aulacephalodon". Overall, the dentary was tall and robust, the symphysis more so than the rest of the bone. Located at the mid-height of the dentaries are the mandibular fenestrae, which are small and oval, and bordered on top by a dentary shelf that expands into a boss. Asides from the skull, the other portions of "Bulbasaurus" have not been prepared in depth. The ribs are gently curved and are bicipital in that they have two heads. On the humerus, the deltopectoral crest was robust and strongly separated.
Ontogeny.
Most skulls referred to "Bulbasaurus" are long, with two skulls (CGP/1/2263 and SAM-PK-K10587) being smaller at and respectively. The larger skulls generally belong to mature specimens. While the CGP/1/2263's size is largely due to compression, SAM-PK-K10587 seems to be a genuinely immature individual. Notably, it differs from other specimens in having a shorter and less hooked snout; relatively smaller but still completely erupted tusks; less developed nasal bosses that are more separated by the premaxilla; a narrower interorbital region between the eyes; a wider intertemporal region at the back of the skull; relatively weak depressions in the interorbital and intertemporal regions; no overlap of the parietals by the postorbitals; and minimal twisting of the squamosal on the postorbital bar.
These differences are most likely due to growth, as similar transformations are also seen in "Aulacephalodon". However, the latter (and all other geikiids where the growth sequence is known) differs from "Bulbasaurus" in that the degree of overlap of the parietals by the postorbitals does not change; instead, the parietals themselves simply become wider. In this respect, "Bulbasaurus" retains the ancestral cryptodontian condition, which is also seen in rhachiocephalids as well as "Oudenodon", "Tropidostoma", and other oudenodontids. Overall, the relatively small "Bulbasaurus" provides evidence that the growth sequence of large geikiids such as "Aulacephalodon" did not develop along with their size, but rather was already present ancestrally and was retained as geikiids grew.
Classification.
In 2017, "Bulbasaurus" was assigned to the Geikiidae clade of dicynodonts on account of its prominent nasal-frontal ridge, its relatively wide interorbital region, and its twisted squamosal on the postorbital bar. This assignment was supported by a phylogenetic analysis based on that conducted by Kammerer "et al." in 2011, which found it as the closest relative of "Aulacephalodon" on the basis of it lacking a ridge behind its tusk (which is ontogenetically influenced). However, this assignment is somewhat questionable, and forcing "Bulbasaurus" as a basal geikiid outside of the Geikiinae ("Aulacephalodon", "Geikia", and "Pelanomodon") only requires one additional evolutionary step. Overall, the Cryptodontia (including the Geikiidae) were very unstable, suggesting that current datasets may not be able to sufficiently evaluate their relationships. An excerpt from the consensus of two phylogenetic trees, illustrating the relationships between cryptodontians, is shown below.
"Tropidostoma", the genus "Bulbasaurus" was originally assigned to, exhibits two distinct morphologies - a robust morph with short snout and large tusks, and a gracile morph with long snout and small tusks, which probably represents sexual dimorphism as in other dicynodonts. However, "Bulbasaurus" matches neither of those morphologies; it differs from the genus "Tropidostoma" as a whole in many respects (addressed above). Additionally, even the holotype of "Tropidostoma" (which is probably immature judging by the unerupted tusks) is larger than adult specimens of "Bulbasaurus", which further warrants their separation. The same is true of "Bulbasaurus" and "Aulacephalodon", in addition to their differing boss morphologies and different interorbital widths. "Bulbasaurus" also differs from the problematic specimens BP/1/763 (assigned once to its own genus, "Proaulacocephalodon", or to a juvenile "Aulacephalodon") and TM 1480 (assigned once to "Dicynodon hartzenbergi") by its larger tusks and wider interorbital region, among other characteristics. These specimens are additionally from the younger "Cistecephalus" assemblage zone.
Paleoecology.
Although the "Tropidostoma" Assemblage Zone, from where "Bulbasaurus" hails, is named after the oudenodontid "Tropidostoma", "Tropidostoma" is only the third most common dicynodont in this assemblage zone. Most common is the small "Diictodon", over 2000 specimens of which are known from the "Tropidostoma" AZ alone. Also more common than "Tropidostoma" is "Pristerodon". Other dicynodonts present include "Cistecephalus", "Dicynodontoides", "Emydops", "Endothiodon", "Oudenodon", "Palemydops", and "Rhachiocephalus". Notable in the "Tropidostoma" AZ is the lack of geikiid and dicynodontoid dicynodonts ("Dicynodontoides" is a diictodont), which is unusual since they must have already diverged from their ancestral lineages by this time; "Bulbasaurus" happens to fill the former gap.
The "Tropidostoma" AZ also records the gradual diversification of therocephalians and gorgonopsians. Therocephalians present include "Hofmeyria", "Ictidosuchoides" (most common), "Ictidosuchops", "Ictidosuchus", and "Lycideops"; gorgonopsids present include "Aelurognathus", "Aelurosaurus", "Aloposaurus", "Cyonosaurus", "Gorgonops" (most common), "Lycaenops", and "Scymnognathus". Within the Karoo Supergroup, cynodonts also first appear within the "Tropidostoma" AZ; they include "Abdalodon" (formerly assigned to "Procynosuchus") and "Charassognathus". Rarer members of the "Tropidostoma" AZ assemblage include the burnetiamorphs "Lobalopex" and "Lophorhinus"; parareptiles "Pareiasaurus" and "Saurorictus"; the archosauromorph "Younginia"; and the temnospondyl "Rhinesuchus".
"Bulbasaurus" was probably buried on floodplains surrounding a meandering river up to wide and with point bars up to in diameter. This river flowed from the southern mountains northeast onto an alluvial fan some wide. The water flow in the rivers was seasonally dependent, but there was probably flowing water year-round. About every 30,000 years, the river banks were breached by flooding, leaving overbank deposits and a series of small, isolated ponds.


Bomu oil field

The Bomu oil field is an oil field located in Gokana Local Government Area of the Eastern Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The discovery well was spuded in February 1958 and discovered 265 ft of gas sands and 165 feet of oil bearing sands of the Agbada formation. Production began in 1959 and the first stage of a 12 inch pipeline connecting Bomu to the town of Bonny through Anam was completed in the same year.
Prior to the Nigerian Civil War, production reached 75,000 barrels per day with 26 oil producing wells and 3 water producing wells. In 1970, a blow-out occurred in one of the production wells at Bomu leading to the destruction of vegetation and farm crops.


Paradolichopithecus

Paradolichopithecus is an extinct genus of cercopithecine monkey once found throughout Eurasia. The type species, "P. arvernensis", was a very large monkey, comparable in size to a mandrill. The genus was most closely related to macaques, sharing a very similar cranial morphology. The fossils attributed to "Paradolichopithecus" are known from the Early Pliocene to the Early Pleistocene of Europe (France, Spain, Greece, Romania, and possibly Serbia) and Asia (Tadjikistan and China). The East Asian fossil genus "Procynocephalus" is considered by some to represent a senior synonym of "Paradolichopithecus."
"Paradolichopithecus" was a terrestrial monkey generally believed to have developed a large body size as a response to predator pressure. Despite its close relation to macaques, it also shared a number of postcranial features with baboons. Its ankle joints also show a remarkable similarity with that of the hominid "Australopithecus", and it has led to the idea that "Paradolichopithecus" may frequently have moved in a bipedal stance.


Claude Jourdan

Claude Jourdan (18 June 1803, in Heyrieux – 12 February 1873, in Lyon) was a French zoologist and paleontologist.
In Lyon he was a professor of zoology to the Faculté des sciences, and a professor of comparative anatomy at the École des Beaux-Arts. From 1832 to 1869 he was director of the Musée d'histoire naturelle - Guimet in Lyons.
As a zoologist, he conducted studies of living and extinct vertebrates, including Proboscidea (elephants and their ancestors). In 1840–48 he is credited with uncovering 2000 fossils at various excavation sites in France. As a taxonomist, he described "Acerodon", a genus of Old World fruit bats, and "Hemigalus", a monospecific genus associated with the banded palm civet, "Hemigalus derbyanus". He also classified the following mammal species:
In 1839 Jules Bourcier named the rufous-shafted woodstar, "Chaetocercus jourdanii", after him. It is sometimes referred to as "Jourdan's woodstar".


Point Lengua de Vaca

Point Lengua de Vaca is a headland on the coast of the Coquimbo Region south of the city of Coquimbo in Chile.


Hua Hum Pass

Hua Hum Pass ( ) is an international mountain pass in the Andes between Chile and Argentina. The pass takes its name from the Hua Hum River that flows from Argentina into Chile at the site of the border crossing. Even though the pass does not go through the continental divide, it crosses the highest peaks of the cordillera.
Geography.
The Hua Hum Pass is one of the lowest passes of the southern Andes at 659 meters above sea level, which means that unlike other nearby Chile-Argentina passes it never closes due to snow fall and is open year-round. The pass is used primarily for tourism as the Chilean 203-CH road is interrupted by Pirihueico Lake. A ferry equipped to transport vehicles as well as people may be taken to Puerto Fuy, on the other side of Pirihueico Lake. The ferry ride lasts approximately 2 hours.
It is the main pass of the Chilean Los Ríos Region to Neuquén Province in Argentina. The main cities on both sides of the pass are Panguipulli in Chile and San Martín de los Andes (45 km from the pass in Argentina).


Marsupipterus

Marsupipterus is a genus of prehistoric eurypterid with an uncertain classification. The genus contains one species, "M. sculpturatus", from the Silurian of England.


Western Gneiss Region

The Western Gneiss Region () is a large geological unit in Norway chiefly made of gneiss rock that formed through metamorphism during the Caledonian orogeny. It makes up a tectono-stratigraphic terrane of the Scandinavian Caledonides and is also part of the Baltic shield. The region extends across western Norway from Bergen to Trondheim as a Caledonian window, outliers of the Western Gneiss Region crop out as far north as the Lofoten archipelago. The rocks of the Western Gneiss Region are made up of variously deformed Precambrian basement, and cover rocks of autochthonous and para-autochthonous origin with evidence of medium to high grade metamorphism including ultra-high-pressure metamorphism.
Rocks of the Western Gneiss Region formed 1700 to 1600 million years ago in the Late Paleoproterozoic. What was to become the Western Gneiss Region was intruded by migmatites and granites during the Sveconorwegian orogeny.


Aenigmastropheus

Aenigmastropheus is an extinct genus of early archosauromorph reptiles known from the middle Late Permian Usili Formation of Songea District, southern Tanzania. It contains a single species, Aenigmastropheus parringtoni, known solely from UMZC T836, a partial postcranial skeleton of a mature individual. It was collected in 1933, and first described in 1956, as a "problematic reptile" due to its unique morphology. Therefore, a binomial name was erected for this specimen in 2014. "Aenigmastropheus" was probably fully terrestrial.
Discovery.
Fossils of "Aenigmastropheus" were first described by the British paleontologist Dr. Francis Rex Parrington in 1956, in an article titled as "A problematic reptile from the Upper Permian". Parrington reported collecting these remains in the Ruhuhu Valley in the Songea District of southern Tanzania in 1933, and considered them to come from a single individual. This specimen, UMZC T836, in currently housed at the University Museum of Zoology, in Cambridge, UK. UMZC T836 consists of a partial postcranial skeleton including five posterior cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae, the distal half of the right humerus, a fragment of probable left humeral shaft, the proximal end of the right ulna, and three indeterminate fragments of bone, one of which may represent a partial radius.
In his article, Parrington (1956) highlighted the apparent contrast between the primitive appearance of the forelimb bones and the more derived appearance of the vertebrae, resembling those of archosaurs. Thus, he concluded that the specimen did not bear close resemblances to any known synapsid, including the ones collected at the same locality, and suggested possible close affinities with archosaurs due to the vertebral morphology and the presence of hollow limb bones and an ectepicondylar groove on the humerus. Hughes (1963) subsequently noted similar vertebral morphology in some "pelycosaurian" synapsids and concluded that, as the combination of a derived vertebral column and a primitive limb structure occurs in proterosuchian archosauromorphs, UMZC T836 might possibly be a proterosuchian ancestor. Subsequent studies came to a similar conclusion, listing the specimen as a possible member of Proterosuchidae, however Gower and Sennikov (2000) noted that it still could possibly be archosaurian. Ezcurra, Butler and Gower (2013) indicated that UMZC T836 is an archosauromorph likely not referable to Archosauriformes, and thus not proterosuchian. "Aenigmastropheus" was first erected for UMZC T836 by Martín D. Ezcurra, Torsten M. Scheyer and Richard J. Butler in 2014 and the type species is "Aenigmastropheus parringtoni", following a re-description of this "problematic reptile". The generic name is derived from "aenigma", "enigmatic" in Latin, and "stropheus", "vertebra" in Greek, in allusion to the problematic taxonomic history of the holotype and only known specimen. The specific name, "parringtoni", honors Dr. Francis Rex Parrington for the discovery and initial description of UMZC T836, and for his contribution to the understanding of Permo-Triassic amniotes.
UMZC T836 was collected in fossil-bearing levels that correspond to locality B35 of Stockley (1932), which is located close to the road near the town of Ruanda in the Songea District, part of the “Lower Bone Bed” corresponding to his K6 horizon of the Songea Series. This outcrop is currently assigned to the upper part of the Usili Formation, formerly known as the Kawinga Formation, of the Songea Group of the Ruhuhu Basin. Recent studies have described this formation as a 260 meters thick fluviolacustrine succession made up of a lowermost conglomeratic interval that is approximately 5 meters thick, grading up into a trough cross-bedded, coarse-grained, sandstone-dominated interval that is 25–40 meters thick, overlain by massive nodular siltstone and laminated mudstone beds with minor ribbon sandstones forming the bulk of the succession. Sidor "et al." (2010) recognized only one tetrapod faunal assemblage in the Usili Formation, which includes, in addition to "Aenigmastropheus", temnospondyls, pareiasaurs, gorgonopsians, therocephalians, cynodonts, and dicynodonts. Based on UMZC catalogue and unpublished field notes of Parrington in UMZC collections, an isolated maxilla of a dicynodont listed as "cf. "Esoterodon" uniseries" (UMZC T969, now "Endothiodon"), as well as other dicynodont (UMZC T779, T1170) and gorgonopsid (UMZC T882, T883) remains, were collected at locality B35, along with UMZC T836.
Based on the possible presence of "Endothiodon", and the more recently described presence of the dicynodonts "Dicynodon huenei" and possibly "Katumbia parringtoni", the faunistic associations of Usili Formation appear to directly correlated with these of the Zambian Upper Madumabisa Mudstone. The well-supported correlation of the later with the rocks of the "Cistecephalus" Assemblage Zone in the South African Karoo Basin implies that the Usili Formation can be considered a lateral equivalent of this assemblage zone. Therefore, the Usili Formation spans the middle–late Wuchiapingian stage of the middle Late Permian, approximately 260–255 million years ago.
Description.
"Aenigmastropheus" is known solely from its holotype, a partial postcranial skeleton. The bones are mostly well preserved, but possess some damaged surfaces, some of which possibly result from preparation with acetic acid. The cortical bone has collapsed or has broken away, and some degree of post-mortem distortion is evident in a few areas of some bones, most notably in the vertebrae. Ezcurra "et al." (2014) agreed with Parrington (1956) that all the bones catalogued as UMZC T836 to belong to the same individual. This is supported by the congruent morphology and similar size of the five preserved vertebrae, as well as the right humerus and ulna. The ratio between certain measurements of the axial and appendicular elements also supports this interpretation.
"Aenigmastropheus" was a medium-sized archosauromorph saurian. Its unique combination of traits that complicates the assessment of its relationships, resulting in Parrington (1956) referring to it as a "problematic reptile", enable differentiating it from any other known amniotes. Its posterior cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae are notochordal, unlike in other basal archosauromorphs, but with well-developed anterior and posterior centrodiapophyseal and prezygodiapophyseal laminae and zygapophyses that are positioned close to each other medially, unlike in non-archosauromorph reptiles. In side view, its vertebrae have low neural arches with nearly triangular neural spines, unlike the enigmatic neodiapsid "Helveticosaurus zollingeri". The humerus of "Aenigmastropheus" has a thick posteroventral, diagonal ridge on the anterior surface of the shaft, an autapomorphy that is unique to this taxon among basal diapsids. The humerus also lacks entepicondylar (unlike non-archosauromorph reptiles) and ectepicondylar foramina, and shows strongly developed capitellum and trochlea (unlike "Helveticosaurus"). Finally, its olecranon process is strongly developed, forming a single ossification with the rest of the ulna, unlike other stem archosaurs and "Helveticosaurus".
Paleobiology.
Ezcurra "et al." (2014) performed bone histology on the remains of "Aenigmastropheus" in order to better understand the paleobiology of early archosauromorphs. As evident from the short period of fibrolamellar bone formation, "Aenigmastropheus" exhibited high growth rates during its early development. However, it was growing more slowly for most of its life, as indicated by the steady decrease in vascularization as well as the increase in spatial organization of the bone matrix up until the formation of lamellar-zonal bone. Ezcurra "et al." (2014) noted that the rapid growth during early development observed in "Aenigmastropheus" resembles those of "Prolacerta broomi" and the basal archosauriforms "Proterosuchus fergusi", "Erythrosuchus africanus" and "Chanaresuchus bonapartei", while extant lepidosauromorphs and the basal archosauromorphs "Trilophosaurus buettneri" and rhynchosaurs exhibit a slow overall growth pattern. This suggests that even among basal members of Archosauromorpha, diverse growth strategies were already present.
UMZC T836 was likely not a juvenile individual as it has closed neurocentral sutures, but possibly also not fully-grown, as in at least some elements like the fifth vertebra, the notochordal canal is still connected to the neural canal through an hourglass-shaped opening. Histology suggests that UMZC T836 may have reached skeletal maturity, as closely spaced growth marks are present in the lamellar-zonal bone of the outer part of the cortex. It is not known why the outermost thin layer of bone directly below the external bone surface does not show these marks, interpreted as an outer circumferential layer. If they are truly absent, not simply obscured, this would argue against such interpretation indicating that this individual had a prolonged period in life of several years as an adult in which it experienced unfavorable growth conditions, like nutritional shortage, drought or disease, leading to limited growth.
Ezcurra "et al." (2014) suggested a fully terrestrial mode of life for "Aenigmastropheus", as was already supported by gut content for its relative "Protorosaurus speneri". The ratio between the inner diameter and outer diameter of the humerus of "Aenigmastropheus" was found to be consistent with that of some bones of terrestrial basal archosauriforms, such as the humerus and tibia of "Euparkeria capensis" and the fibula of "Proterosuchus fergusi", while considerably smaller ratio is observed in aquatic and semi-aquatic animals. Furthermore, the strongly developed distal humeral condyles and olecranon process of the ulna also suggest a fully terrestrial mode of life.
Phylogeny.

The phylogenetic position of "Aenigmastropheus" was explored by Ezcurra "et al." (2014) using a newly constructed data matrix. It is mostly based on the data matrix published by Reisz "et al." (2009) with the re-description of "Apsisaurus witteri". Thirteen early saurian species, as well as "Aenigmastropheus", and 107 characters from Dilkes (1998), Müller (2004) and Senter (2004), as well as some new characters were added to the matrix, and some taxa were scored differently. The resultant data matrix includes 40 amniote taxa, scored based on 219 morphological traits. The cladogram recovered by Ezcurra "et al." (2014) was almost entirely consistent with that of Reisz "et al." (2009). "Aenigmastropheus" was recovered as a non-archosauriform archosauromorph, the sister taxon of "Protorosaurus speneri" from the Wuchiapingian of Germany. Its position within Archosauromorpha was supported by three unambiguous synapomorphies, with two possible synapomorphies supporting the position within Protorosauria. However, due to the fragmentary nature of the holotype of "Aenigmastropheus" which can be scored for less than 10% of the characters, under constrained topologies only one additional step is required to position "Aenigmastropheus" outside Archosauromorpha. A more robust version of the same analysis, published in 2016, found it to be one step away from "Protorosaurus" on the archosauromorph family tree, rather than forming a clade with it. The cladogram below shows the phylogenetic position of "Aenigmastropheus" among the Sauria following this analysis.


Roca Remolino

Roca Remolino (lit. "whirl rock") is a submarine mountain in Chacao Channel, Chile, notorious for being a major hazard for traffic along the channel. Roca Remolino does not show up during low tides. When there are strong tidal currents in Chacao Channel the rock creates a whirl effect, drawing objects to it. Roca Remolino first studied by Francisco Hudson in the 19th century and was studied again 2005 to see the feasibility of putting one of the planned Chacao Channel bridge's pillars on it.


Giuseppe Giovanni Antonio Meneghini

Giuseppe Giovanni Antonio Meneghini (30 July 1811, Padua – 29 January 1889, Pisa) was an Italian botanist, geologist and paleontologist.
Biography.
In 1834 he obtained his medical doctorate from the University of Padua, where during the following year, he became an assistant to the chair of botany. In 1839 he was appointed professor of preparatory sciences at Padua, a position he maintained up until 1848, when he was removed from his post due to his association with revolutionaries. In 1849 he became a professor of mineralogy and geology at the University of Pisa as well as director of the geological cabinet. At Pisa he replaced Leopoldo Pilla (1805–1848), who was killed in the battle of Curtatone. In 1874 the chair of mineralogy and geology was split into two entities, with Antonio D'Achiardi (1839–1902) receiving the chair of mineralogy, leaving Meneghini with the chair of geology.
He made contributions in his studies involving the geology of Tuscany, and on his research of fossils from all parts of Italy and Sardinia, including Cambrian Period trilobites found in Sardinia and ammonites uncovered in Lombardy and the Apennines.
In 1860 he became a member of the "Académie nationale des sciences". In 1874 he was elected president of the "Societa Toscana di Scienze Naturali", and for a period of time, also served as president of the Italian Geological Society. In 1886, he was named as a senator of the 16th legislature of the Kingdom of Italy.
The mineral meneghinite is named after him. In 1839 the botanical genus "Meneghinia" (family Boraginaceae) was named in his honor by Stephan Endlicher.


Cotahuasi Canyon

Cotahuasi Canyon (from Quechua Kutawasi), near the city of Arequipa in Peru, is one of the deepest canyons in the world. With a depth of approximately , it is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. The Cotahuasi River eroded the canyon between two mountain massifs: the Coropuna ( ) and the Solimana ( ). It extends from spurs of the snow-covered Solimana to the confluence with the Ocoña River near the village of .
The Cotahuasi River's source is Lake Wansuqucha, at more than above sea level. It receives the tributaries of the Wayllapaña River in the neighborhood of Pampamarka, to the north, and the Huarcaya near Tumipampa, to the west, and is later joined by the Maran River to form the Ocoña River, which ends at the Pacific Ocean.
Location.
Cotahuasi is located at the highest Andean point of Arequipa, in the south of Peru : UTM 683,370 & 790,415 East & 8’275,582 & 8’380,125 North. Between 14°40´22" & 15°35´27" south latitude, 72°19´15" & 73°18´08" west longitude.
This province is characterized by its steep relief: incised by rivers and gullies, ranging between 1,000 and 6,093 metres, with 19 ecological zones. As is the case with cultures all over the world, the people of highland Arequipa Province are also changing with the times. Nonetheless, the altitude and remoteness of this region mean that residents have retained many of the practices that are now no longer common in neighboring regions.
Access.
The only road leading to the canyon goes through Chuquibamba in the Condesuyos province, then Aplao in Castilla Province. It begins on the Panamerican Highway near Arequipa.
Four bus companies start daily from the Arequipa bus terminal, between 4 and 6 pm. The bus drive is 10–12 hours long, on a road which is unpaved after Chuquibamba. It also goes quite high, through a 4500m pass between Coropuna and Solimana.
Protected area.
The Cotahuasi Subbasin is a landscape park set up by a 2005 decree. It covers .
This natural reserve preserves an integrated environment where man and nature are living in close harmony, in a preserved cultural microcosm.
The difficult topographic conditions have generated specific landscapes like agricultural terraces.
Agriculture.
Organic agriculture includes many plants in the reserve : kiwicha, quinoa, mint, dark maize, llacon, fava, oca, beans, arveja (pea), chulpi maize, anise, tarwi. These products are meant to give priority to food supplies to the province. Therefore, very little is produced for export.
Food autonomy is reached thanks to ecological techniques, rational use of water, promotion of improved seeds, conservation of biodiversity, strengthening of producer associations, and complementary livestock breeding.
Tourism.
The Cotahuasi landscape reserve is a preserved area. The landscapes have a large biodiversity including many endemic medicinal plants : muña, retama, tara, coca, jara (malva sylvestris), ruda (ruta graveolens), kiwicha, yareta (azorella compacta).
The landscapes are quite many, from the rivers at the bottom of the canyon to the cold desert areas of the summits. There are 12 different ecosystems in Cotahuasi reserve.
There are also a number of Inca and pre-Inca works including the many agricultural terraces still in use today. The region is also rich with culture and traditions, preserved by ancient Andean people : weaving, colonial churches, Inca tracks, numerous festivals.


Meroktenos

Meroktenos is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period of what is now Lesotho.
Discovery and naming.
In 1959, François Ellenberger, Paul Ellenberger, Jean Fabre and Leonard Ginsburg discovered the type specimen, a thighbone or femur and other assorted bones, south of the village of Thabana Morena. In 1962 these were addressed in a thesis by D. Costedoat. The exact location the bones were recovered, is today unknown.
In 1993, François-Xavier Gauffre assigned the remains to a second species of "Melanorosaurus": "Melanorosaurus thabanensis". The description was provisional, and in 1997 the fossil was described in more detail in a publication by Jacques van Heerden and Peter Malcolm Galton. The specific name refers to the site Thabana-Morena in Lesotho.
Gauffre assumed that the specimen had been found in the Upper Elliot Formation dating from the Hettangian-Sinemurian and thus was about twenty million year younger than "Melanorosaurus readi". In 1996, he revised the date to the Lower Elliot Formation of the late Triassic in his non-published dissertation. He also referred the thighbone to a new genus and species "Thotobolosaurus". This remained a non-valid "nomen ex dissertatione", as the name would never be published; furthermore the type material of this species does not coincide with that of "M. thabanensis".
In 2016, "M. thabanensis" was appointed to the separate genus "Meroktenos" by Claire Peyre de Fabrègues and Ronan Allain. The genus name is a combination of ancient Greek μηρός, "meros" ("thigh") and κτῆνος, "ktènos" ("beast"). The "combinatio nova" thus becomes "Meroktenos thabanensis", the type species is the original "Melanorosaurus thabanensis".
The holotype, MNHN.F.LES 16, consists of a right thighbone (MNHN.F.LES16c), a portion of the right ilium, with a piece of a vertebral neural arch (MNHN.F.LES16a); a left pubic bone (MNHN.F.LES16b); and a second right metatarsal (MNHN.F.LES16d) associated with the skeleton. In 2016, a new specimen, MNHN.F.LES351, was referred to the species; consisting of a cervical vertebra, a left ulna and a, probably left, radius. It might have belonged to the same individual as the holotype, but this cannot be strictly proven.
Description.
"Meroktenos" has a femur length of around forty-eight centimeters, suggesting a body length of about four meters.
In 2016, a revised list of distinguishing traits was given. The blade height of the ilium, measured from the highest point of the antitrochanter to the upper edge of the blade is 60% of the total height of the ilium, including peduncles. The rear blade of the ilium is roughly triangular in side view. The femur is very compact with a robusticity index, length divided by the circumference of the shaft, of 2.09. The femur has a straight shaft in both side and front views. The femoral shaft is substantially wider transversely than it is wide in side view, with a ratio of 1.58. On the rear of the femoral shaft, the fourth trochanter is oriented obliquely, running from the upper and inner side to the lower and outer side.
Phylogeny.
In 2016, "Meroktenos" was placed in the Sauropodomorpha, in a basal position. According to a cladistic analysis, "Meroktenos" formed a polytomy with "Blikanasaurus" and more derived species, above "Aardonyx " in the evolutionary tree and below a polytomy including "Melanorosaurus" and "Antetonitrus".
Palaeobiology.
The relative transverse width of the femur, the eccentricity, is remarkably high for such a small animal. These proportions were known previously only from Sauropoda and explained as an adaptation to a very high absolute weight. Because the holotype probably was not a young animal and is unlikely to have attained giant proportions, the trait must have had a different function.


Aegisuchus

Aegisuchus is an extinct genus of giant, flat-headed crocodyliform within the family Aegyptosuchidae. It existed in what is now Morocco during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch. The type species "Aegisuchus witmeri" was named in 2012 by paleontologists Casey Holliday and Nicholas Gardner, who nicknamed it "Shieldcroc" for the shield-like shape of its skull. "A. witmeri" is known from a single partial skull including the braincase and skull roof.
Description.
"Aegisuchus" is known only from a partial braincase and skull roof cataloged as ROM 54530. It is diagnosed by several autapomorphies, or unique features. At the center of the skull table is a raised and rough-surfaced boss on the parietal bone that is shaped like a circle. On either side of this boss are holes called dorsotemporal fenestrae, and the surrounding bone is relatively smooth. The quadrate bone in the temporal region of the skull has a rectangular projection called the adductor tubercle, which served as an attachment for muscles that closed the jaw. At the front of the skull table, projections on the laterosphenoid bones called capitate processes face out to the side. This feature is also seen in the skulls of living gharials, but evolved independently in each group. Also on the front surface are two holes of the dorsotemporal fenestrae, which pass through the skull and open at the skull table. On the front surface, a ridge of bone or torus makes up the lateral edge of each hole. The back of the skull is wide, with large projections on the exoccipital bones that would have anchored large epaxial muscles in the top part of the neck.
Size.
At 40 cubic centimetres, the braincase of "Aegisuchus" is much larger in volume than that of any other crocodyliform. Based on the ratio of braincase to skull length in other crocodilians, the total skull length of "Aegisuchus" is estimated to have been in length. A similar ratio between braincase and body length puts "Aegisuchus" at long when based on the proportions of long-snouted gharials, or long when based on the proportions of short-snouted crocodiles. However, these proportions have been met with a lot of scrutiny, and it is more likely that "Aegisuchus" reached less than in length.
Integument.
The circular boss of roughened bone on the skull table is one of the most unusual features of "Aegisuchus". As in most crocodilians, the rough-surfaced region was probably covered in a thick skin that tightly adhered to the skull. Surrounding the boss, the smooth-surfaced region bears several deep parallel channels for blood vessels, suggesting that thicker, more complex skin tissue covered this region. Vascularization is not seen in any other crocodilian, and may have been unique to "Aegisuchus". Given that the blood vessel channels run into the braincase, the vascularized tissue may have served a thermoregulatory role by heating blood going to the brain and eyes. The central boss may have been used in mating displays, appearing as an eyespot. Modern crocodilians raise their heads out of the water as a social signal in mating displays; as a close relative of crocodilians, "Aegisuchus" likely had similar mating rituals.
Musculature.
The flattened shape of the skull of "Aegisuchus" suggests that it was an ambush predator resting at the surface of the water. Although only the back of the skull is known, other characteristics can be inferred from the closely related "Aegyptosuchus". "Aegisuchus" probably had eyes that faced directly upward, with no raised ridges surrounding the sockets. A strut of bone called the postorbital bar, which in most crocodilians is vertically oriented, would have been almost flat. The flattened skull of "Aegisuchus" required significant alteration to jaw muscles. The adductor muscles that close the jaw shifted to a more vertical orientation in "Aegisuchus". Muscles like the adductor mandibulae externus medialis, which are weak in most crocodilians, became more important as jaw closers and were greatly enlarged. The broad-surfaced occipital region at the back of the skull provides a large attachment area for the splenius capitis muscles of the neck. With a long flattened snout, "Aegisuchus" would have had great difficulty in raising its head and opening its mouth if it did not have large neck muscles. A depressed region in the lower part of the back of the skull suggests that the jaw adductor muscles were also large, facilitating jaw opening. A similar mechanism for lifting the head and opening the jaws is seen in the Late Triassic amphibian "Gerrothorax". "Aegisuchus" has a very flexible articulation between the skull and vertebral column, allowing a greater degree of skull elevation than other crocodilians.
Paleoenvironment.
During the Late Cretaceous, northern Africa was a humid region near the Tethys Ocean, a seaway between the southern continents of Gondwana and northern land masses of Laurasia. At this time, the Kem Kem Beds of Morocco were deposited in a freshwater delta system. "Aegisuchus" lived within this delta alongside fishes, turtles, snakes and varanid lizards, pterosaurs, and sauropod and theropod dinosaurs. Stomatosuchids are also known from the Kem Kem Beds, and probably shared a close ecological niche with "Aegisuchus" as river predators.
With its flattened skull, "Aegisuchus" was probably an ambush predator. Possible prey include coelacanths, lungfish, and bichirs, all of which have been found in the Kem Kem beds. As an opportunistic predator, "Aegisuchus" may also have preyed on land vertebrates such as reptiles. Aegisuchus could have potentially fallen prey to much larger predators such as Spinosaurus.
Biogeography.
The Late Cretaceous was an important time in crocodilian evolution because many land masses were breaking up. What is now Europe and Asia was drifting away from Africa to form the Tethys Ocean, while North America continued to separate from the rest of Laurasia as the Atlantic Ocean widened. With the presence of several early crocodilians like "Borealosuchus", North America is often hypothesized as the continent of origin for Crocodylia. However, the presence of agyptosuchids such as "Aegisuchus" in northern Africa suggests that early crocodilian evolution was focused instead around the Tethys Ocean. The agyptosuchids represent a highly specialized and highly endemic branch of crocodyliforms at a time when crocodilian diversity and geographic range were expanding.


Eoraptor

Eoraptor () is a genus of small, lightly built, basal saurischian dinosaurs. One of the earliest-known dinosaurs, it lived approximately 231 to 228 million years ago, during the Late Triassic in Western Gondwana, in the region that is now northwestern Argentina. The type and only species, Eoraptor lunensis, was first described in 1993, and is known from an almost complete and well-preserved skeleton and several fragmentary ones. "Eoraptor" had multiple tooth shapes, which suggests that it was omnivorous.
History of discovery.
The bones of this primitive dinosaur were first discovered in 1991, by University of San Juan paleontologist Ricardo Martínez, during field work conducted by the University of Chicago and the University of San Juan. The holotype specimen "PVSJ 512" was discovered in muddy siltstone belonging to the Cancha de Bochas Member of the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina. The fossils in this formation were deposited in the Carnian stage of the Triassic period, approximately 235 to 228 million years ago. It took almost 12 months to collect the holotype, which was then shipped to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for preparation by William F. Simpson and Bob Masek. The fossil was first put on display in Chicago and was then returned to San Juan, Argentina, where it went on display at the Museum of Natural Sciences.
The genus "Eoraptor" was described and named by Paul Sereno, Catherine Forster, Raymond R. Rogers, and Alfredo M. Monetta in 1993. The name is derived from the Greek word () meaning 'dawn', a reference to its primitive nature, and the Latin word meaning 'plunderer', a reference to its presumed carnivorous nature and its grasping hand. The specific name "lunensis" is derived from the Latin words ('moon') and the suffix ('inhabitant'), a reference to its place of discovery: the ('Valley of the Moon'), so named for its arid, otherworldly appearance evocative of a lunar landscape. The type species "Eoraptor lunensis" literally means 'dawn plunderer from the Valley of the Moon'.
Description.
"Eoraptor" had a slender body that grew to about in length, with an estimated weight of about . It had a lightly built skull with a slightly enlarged external naris. As in early sauropodomorphs such as "Buriolestes" and "Pampadromaeus" and coelophysoids (which would appear millions of years later), "Eoraptor" had a kink in its upper jaws, between the maxilla and the premaxilla. Paul Sereno "et al". (2013) observed that the lower jaw had a mid-mandibular joint. It ran digitigrade, and upright on its hind legs. The femur of the holotype specimen PVSJ 512 is , and the tibia is , suggesting that it was a fast runner. Its forelimbs are only half the length of its hindlimbs, suggesting that it was bipedal. All of its long bones have hollow shafts. "Eoraptor" had five digits on each 'hand', the three longest of which ended in large claws and were presumably used to handle prey. Scientists have surmised that the fourth and fifth digits were too tiny to be of any use in hunting. The ilium is supported by three sacral vertebrae, unlike that of the coeval "Herrerasaurus" which is supported by only two sacrals, a basal trait. "Eoraptor" had vertebral centra that are hollow, a feature present in some of its ancestors.
Bonaparte (1996) interpreted the relatively large orbital opening in the skull as a juvenile trait. Ronald Tykoski agreed (2005) and suggested that certain skull features of the type specimen suggested that it was young, specifically, the skull bones are not completely fused, relatively large orbits, and a short snout. Paul Sereno "et al". (1993), supported the notion that "Eoraptor" was an adult specimen based on the closure of sutures in the vertebral column, and the partial fusion of the scapulocoracoid.
According to Sereno "et al". (1993), "Eoraptor" can be distinguished based on the fact that its premaxillary and anterior maxillary teeth are leaf-shaped, the external nares are slightly enlarged, and the premaxilla is observed to have a slender posterolateral process. Max Langer and Michael Benton (2006) noted that "Eoraptor" can be distinguished based on the fact that the proximal part of its fibula is extremely transversely compressed.
Classification.
In 1993 Paul Sereno and his colleagues described and named "Eoraptor", and determined it to be one of the earliest dinosaurs. Its age was determined by several factors, not least because it lacked the specialized features of any of the major groups of later dinosaurs, including its lack of specialized predatory features. In 1995, Sereno posited that "Eoraptor" is the earliest-recorded theropod, and is closest to "the hypothetical dinosaurian condition than any other dinosaurian subgroup." The precise placement of "Eoraptor" within Dinosauria has been unstable, with opinion often varying between a basal saurischian and a basal theropod. When it was first described by Sereno and Forster in 1993, it was regarded as a theropod, based on its "functionally tridactyl hand" and other anatomical features. In 2011, a study conducted by Hans-Dieter Sues, Sterling J. Nesbitt, David S. Berman and Amy C. Henrici featuring a description of "Daemonosaurus", also concluded that there is now enough fossil evidence to confidently classify "Eoraptor" as a theropod. The study noted that the "transitional suite of character states" of the recently discovered dinosaurs, "Daemonosaurus" and "Tawa" further support that "Eoraptor" is a basal theropod, and not a basal saurischian or a basal sauropodomorph. On the other hand, several studies from 2012 onward have recovered "Eoraptor" as an early sauropodomorph, rather than a theropod. The following phylogenetic tree illustrates the relationships of "Eoraptor" among the major theropod groups based on various studies conducted in the 2010s.
Philip Currie (1997) found "Eoraptor" anatomically closer to what would be considered the ancestral morphotype of both saurischian and ornithischian dinosaurs. In 2011, Martinez "et al." (the team that described "Eodromaeus)" found "Eoraptor" to be a basal sauropodomorph, with characteristic features from the group. Michael Benton expressed his hesitation to this, and claimed that it is "quite a shift" to remove "Eoraptor" from Theropoda and then place it in Sauropodomorpha. A subsequent study by Apaldetti, Martinez, Alcober, and Pol published in 2011 found "Eoraptor" to be a saurischian close to sauropodomorphs and theropods, though was unable to resolve which of the two branches, if either, it fell within. Sereno "et al". (2013) redescribed the holotype skeleton and concluded that "Eoraptor" was not a theropod but a basal sauropodomorph, consistent with the earlier observation made by Martinez "et al". (2011).
A large phylogenetic analysis of early dinosaurs by Matthew Baron, David Norman and Paul Barrett (2017) found "Eoraptor" to be the earliest diverging member of Theropoda, within the larger clade Ornithoscelida. A phylogenetic analysis published with the description of new "Buriolestes" remains in 2018, based on Langer "et al." (2017) placed "Eoraptor" in a clade of early sauropodomorphs, alongside "Buriolestes", "Panphagia", "Pampadromaeus", and "Saturnalia".
Paleobiology.
"Eoraptor" is thought to have been an omnivore, although its dentition is quite similar to that of "Buriolestes", which is considered faunivorous. It was a swift sprinter and, upon catching its prey, it would use claws and teeth to tear the prey apart. Unlike later, carnivorous dinosaurs, it lacked a sliding joint at the articulation of the lower jaw, with which to hold large prey. Furthermore, only some of its teeth were curved and saw-edged, unlike those in the mouths of later theropods. The heterodont dentition of "Eoraptor" consists of both serrated, recurved teeth in the upper jaw, like the teeth of theropods, and leaf-shaped teeth in the lower jaw, like the teeth of basal sauropodomorphs. "Eoraptor" had 4 teeth in the premaxilla and 18 teeth in the maxilla, a dental formula not dissimilar to that of "Herrerasaurus".
Paleoecology.
During the Late Triassic period, the Ischigualasto Formation was a volcanically active floodplain covered by forests, with a warm and humid climate, but subject to seasonal variations including strong rainfall. Vegetation consisted of ferns, horsetails, and giant conifers, which formed highland forests along the banks of rivers. "Herrerasaurus" remains appear to have been the most common among the carnivores of the Ischigualasto Formation. Sereno (1993) noted that "Eoraptor" was found in "close association" with therapsids, rauisuchians, archosaurs, "Saurosuchus" and the dinosaurs "Herrerasaurus" and "Pisanosaurus", all of whom lived in its paleoenvironment. Herbivores were represented by rhynchosaurs such as "Hyperodapedon"; aetosaurs; cynodonts like "Probelesodon", kannemeyeriid dicynodonts such as "Ischigualastia"; and traversodontids such as "Exaeretodon". These non-dinosaurian herbivores were much more abundant than early dinosaurs. Dinosaur fossils, including those of "Eoraptor" only represent approximately 6% of the total sample that has been recovered from the Ischigualasto Formation (Rogers "et al"., 1993), which suggests that dinosaurs were less numerous than other tetrapods.


Zaklodzie meteorite

The Zakłodzie meteorite is a stony-iron meteorite found in Poland in 1998. Its mass is . It is composed predominantly from enstatite and meteoric iron. Currently classified as an ungrouped enstatite achondrite its classification is still an ongoing scientific debate.
Naming and history.
The Zakłodzie meteorite was found beside a dirt road by Stanisław Jachymek who was searching for fossils and rocks. The site lies south of the village Zakłodzie (Lublin Voivodeship), after which the meteorite is named.
A fireball, which may well have been the Zakłodzie meteorite, was seen in the area of the find on 21 April 1897; its weathering is consistent with such an age. part slices were on sale at /g.
Mineralogy.
The meteorite is composed of 60% orthoenstatite, 20% meteoric iron, 10% troilite and 10% feldspar. Accessory minerals include schreibersite, oldhamite, alabandite, keilite and amphibole. The meteoric iron has a Nickel content of 16%. The mineral composition is similar to an enstatite chondrite with strongly metamorphosed chondrules. A second interpretation is that the textures are a result of cumulate crystallization or an impact-melt breccia. It's the type locality of two minerals: browneite (IMA 2012-008) and buseckite (IMA 2011-070).
Classification.
The meteorite was classified as an "ungrouped enstatite-rich meteorite" in 2000. In 2005 it was proposed that the meteorite was the product of magma crystallization and therefore an achondrite. The magma originated from the partial melt of an enstatite chondrite source. It was therefore proposed that the Zakłodzie meteorite should be classified as a "primitive enstatite achondrite". It was classified as an Aubrite-an (anomalous) in 2006. Currently the recommended classification is that the Zakłodzie meteorite is an ungrouped enstatite achondrite.
Some scientists propose that many aubrites and enstatite achondrites are in fact impact breccias or impact-melt breccias. The later being proposed for Zakłodzie and NWA 4301. The main arguments for this hypothesis are the relics of chondrules, the euhedral enstatites surrounded by meteoric iron and the occurrence of keilite. Keilite is possibly a product of reactions that take place when enstatite achondrites are melted and quenched (a quick decrease in temperature). This could happen during impact events on the surface of the parent body.


Algerites

Algerites is middle Cretaceous (Cenomanian) anisoceratid ammonoid with a close-coiled adult shell in which the whorls at that stage are in close contact, after starting off with openly coiled whorls, and in which every rib (a character of the family) has a pair of sharp ventral tubercles.
"Algerites", which is found in North Africa, named for the country of Algeria, is thought to be derived from "Idiohammites", also an anisoceratid. It ("Algerites") differs from "Allocrioceras" in that the later whorls come together in close contact where as in the latter they remain apart.
The Anisoceratidae to which this genus is assigned is included in the diverse heteromorphic superfamily Turrilitoidea.


Whitapodus

Whitapodus is an extinct genus of prehistoric bony fish that lived from the early to middle Eocene.


Orthogarantiana

Orthogarantiana is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil cephalopods, the ammonites. It lived during the Middle Jurassic.
Distribution.
Found only at Ile Crémieu, Oyster facies, France


Slatnik Formation

The Slatnik Formation (; ) is a stratigraphic unit in Slovenia. It was named after and defined near Mount Slatnik. The formation is defined as an alternating succession of hemipelagic limestone and resedimented limestone. It was deposited between the Upper Norian and the end of the Rhaetian.
The Slatnik Formation can be found in the Kobla Nappe and the Tolmin Nappe. It is underlain by the Bača Formation and overlain by the Krikov Formation.
The best outcrops of the formation are exposed at Mount Slatnik and Mount Kobla.


Townsend Observatory

Townsend Observatory, owned and administered by the University of Canterbury, was part of the Arts Centre of Christchurch, New Zealand and was open on clear Friday evenings. The building collapsed in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
History.
James Townsend was one of the Canterbury Pilgrims, having arrived on the "Cressy" in December 1850. In his retirement, he lived on Park Terrace, just north of the site of the Canterbury College. In 1891, he gifted his equatorial telescope to the college, as he wished to make it available to the community. Townsend's telescope was built by Thomas Cook & Son in 1864.
Triggered by Townsend's gift, the Astronomical Society of Christchurch made its funds of NZ£420 available to the college on the understanding that an observatory would be built. New Zealand was in a recession, and the college was reluctant to start a new building. Townsend died in November 1894 and did not see the observatory being started. In 1895, the decision was made to build a new biology building including a tower for the observatory. It was Benjamin Mountfort's last major design for the college and cost twice his estimate, but nonetheless was not lavish. In an editorial, the local newspaper, "The Press", called it "a small but picturesque looking structure".
There were maintenance problems with the roof and the original canvas and wooden dome structure had to be replaced in 1914. In the early 1940s, the same problems occurred and the telescope suffered damage, but it was not until 1950 that the roof was replaced.
The observatory was open to the public from 8pm to 10.30pm, during the non-daylight saving months from March to October.
The observatory was destroyed, and its historic Cooke 6" refractor telescope damaged when the part of the Arts Centre housing them collapsed as a result of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The University hopes to be able to restore the telescope.


San Pablo Guelatao

San Pablo Guelatao is a town and the seat of the Municipality of Guelatao de Juárez, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is part of the Ixtlán District in the Sierra Norte de Oaxaca region.
Guelatao, as it is often called, is in the foothills of the Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca System. It is about 55 km north of the city of Oaxaca
The town.
It is the birthplace of President Benito Juárez, whose parents were Zapotec peasants. He was the first indigenous president of Mexico. When he was born, Guelatao had a population of fewer than 100 people, and fell under the jurisdiction of the larger neighbouring town of Ixtlán. Juárez was baptised in the parish church at Ixtlán, which is now known as Ixtlán de Juárez in his honour. Guelatao became an independent municipality in 1824, after Mexico gained independence from Spain. The town has a small museum dedicated to Juárez.
XEGLO, a government-run indigenous community radio station that broadcasts in Zapotec, Mixe and Chinantec, is based in Guelatao.
Demographics.
In 2005 San Pablo Guelatao had 111 households, with a population of about 476 people. It is largely rural. The majority of the population are indigenous Zapotec.
The municipality.
The Municipality of Guelatao de Juárez (named for the president) has governing jurisdiction over the communities of Llano de la Cheta and Río Grande. It is part of the Ixtlán District. San Pablo Guelatao is the seat of the municipality.


Glanochthon

Glanochthon is an extinct genus of temnospondyl amphibian from the Early Permian of Germany. Fossils have been found from the Meisenheim Formation in the Saar–Nahe Basin.


Mistaken Point, Newfoundland and Labrador


Ligabueino

Ligabueino (meaning "Ligabue's little one") is a genus of noasaurid dinosaur named after its discoverer, Italian doctor Giancarlo Ligabue. It is known only from an extremely fragmentary specimen, measuring 79 cm (2.6 ft) long, found in the La Amarga Formation. In spite of initial reports that it was an adult, the unfused vertebrae indicate that the specimen was a juvenile. It was a theropod and lived during the Early Cretaceous Period (Barremian to early Aptian), in what is now Patagonia. Contrary to initial classifications that placed it as a member of the Noasauridae, Carrano and colleagues found in 2011 that it could only be placed with any confidence in the group Abelisauroidea.


Verulam Formation

The Verulam Formation is a geologic formation and Lagerstätte in Ontario, Canada. It preserves fossils dating back to the Katian stage of the Ordovician period, or Shermanian to Chatfieldian in the regional stratigraphy.
Description.
The Verulam Formation belongs to the Simcoe Group and overlies the Bobcaygeon Formation. Both the Bobcaygeon and Verulam Formations are composed of bioclastic wackestones, grainstones, and packstones interbedded with calcareous shales and siltstones. The Verulam contains more shale than the underlying Bobcaygeon Formation. Several hardgrounds have been documented in detail from the upper Bobcaygeon and lower Verulam. The paleoenvironments in which the Bobcaygeon and Verulam Formations were deposited have been interpreted as a proximal carbonate shelf that ranged in depth and proximity from shoal to shallow shelf in the Bobcaygeon and from deep shelf to shoal or shallow shelf in the Verulam Formation.
Fossil content.
The Verulam Formation and the underlying Bobcaygeon Formation have provided many fossils. Both formations form the Brechin Lagerstätte, a Lagerstätte of excellent preservation of numerous exceptionally preserved crinoid specimens with arms, stems, and attachment structures intact. Also ostracods, trilobites, bivalves, gastropods, cephalopods and other fossils were found in the formation.


Lentiarenium

Lentiarenium was an early sea cow from the Late Oligocene (Chattian) Linzer Sanden Formation of Austria.
Classification.
It was originally classified as a species of "Halitherium", "H. christolli", but was eventually recognized as generically distinct from the dugongid remains assigned to "H. schinzii", and renamed "Lentiarenium" in 2016.


Gelasene

Gelasene 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.


Buriolestes

Buriolestes is a genus of early sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Late Triassic Santa Maria Formation of the Paraná Basin in southern Brazil. It contains a single species, B. schultzi, named in 2016. The type specimen was found alongside a specimen of the lagerpetid dinosauromorph "Ixalerpeton".
Discovery and naming.
The holotype specimen, ULBRA-PVT280, was discovered in 2009 in the Buriol ravine in São João do Polêsine, Brazil. These rocks are part of the Santa Maria Formation, which dates to the Carnian epoch. The specimen consists of a single skeleton preserving parts of the skull, vertebrae, left forelimb, and left hindlimb. Another set of smaller bones is also present, which may belong to a juvenile or a different taxon altogether. Two individuals of "Ixalerpeton" were also preserved close by.
Additional remains were discovered in 2015 and published in 2018. These include a mostly complete skeleton, CAPPA/UFSM 0035, which preserves a complete skull and most bones apart from tail vertebrae. Additional dinosaur bones from the Buriol locality may also belong to "Buriolestes", but their assignment is uncertain. They include a femur (ULBRA-PVT289), a portion of an individual's hip and hindlimbs (ULBRA-PVT056), and a lone axis vertebra (CAPPA/UFSM 0179). These new finds have made "Buriolestes" among the most complete Triassic dinosaurs known, comparable to "Eoraptor", "Herrerasaurus", and "Coelophysis".
In 2016, the holotype specimen was described and given the generic name "Buriolestes," after the Buriol family; the suffix "-lestes" is Greek for "robber." The specific name honors palaeontologist Cezar Schultz. The well-preserved additional specimens were described in 2018, with the braincase of CAPPA/UFSM 0035 being described in more detail in 2020.
Description.
Although "Buriolestes" superficially resembles predatory theropod dinosaurs, with jaws lined by finely serrated and slightly curved teeth well-adapted to a carnivorous diet, it is in fact an early member of the otherwise-herbivorous Sauropodomorpha, the group that gave rise to the giant sauropods. Characteristically sauropodomorph traits seen in "Buriolestes" include a downturned jaw tip and a long deltopectoral crest on the humerus. However, "Buriolestes" also lacks a small head and enlarged nostrils, which are typical among sauropodomorphs, and the medial condyle on the end of its tibia projects backwards, a distinctive feature (autapomorphy) unique to this animal.
In "Buriolestes", the shaft of the pubis is straight, in contrast to later sauropodomorphs, where it has been modified into an expanded "apron," theropods, where it forms a "boot," and all ornithischians, where it is reversed and is parallel to the ischium. Additional traits differentiate "Buriolestes" from both later and contemporary sauropodomorphs: the front expansion (preacetabular ala) of the ilium is relatively tall, the outer edges of the pubis are bevelled, the trochanter of the femur forms a shelf, and the metatarsal of the fifth digit on the foot is relatively long.
Classification.
A phylogenetic analysis conducted in 2016 affirmed the sauropodomorph affinities of "Buriolestes". Part of the phylogenetic tree from the study is shown below.
Five variants of phylogenetic analyses published earlier were used along with the description of the new specimens in 2018. One of these analyses, based on Langer "et al." (2017) placed "Buriolestes" in a clade of early sauropodomorphs, alongside "Eoraptor", "Panphagia", "Pampadromaeus", and "Saturnalia". Another analysis, which used the dataset of "Buriolestes"' original description with the added parameter of implied weighting, placed it as the sister taxon to "Eoraptor", with the "Buriolestes"+"Eoraptor" clade sister to a clade connecting "Panphagia" and "Pampadromaeus". The other three analyses, which also corresponded to the original description's dataset, agreed with that study's placement of "Buriolestes" as the single most basal sauropodomorph.
Paleoecology.
The shape of the teeth of "Buriolestes" suggest that it was a carnivore which fed on small vertebrates and invertebrates, which provides evidence that sauropodomorphs - and likely all saurischians and dinosaurs as a whole - were ancestrally carnivorous, and that sauropodomorphs, ornithischians, and various groups of theropods independently became herbivorous.
The co-occurrence of "Buriolestes" and "Ixalerpeton" parallels the simultaneous presence of dinosaurs and non-dinosaur dinosauromorphs at other sites (such as the Ischigualasto and Chinle Formations), suggesting that, after their initial evolutionary radiation, dinosaurs did not rapidly replace their dinosauromorph precursors.


Challhua

Challhua (possibly from Quechua for "fish"), Wiksu or Huicsu (both names possibly from Quechua for "twisted, bent") is a mountain in the southern Cordillera Blanca in the Andes of Peru, about high (IGN Peru map cites an elevation of ). Challhua is located in the Ancash Region, Bolognesi Province, Aquia District and in the Recuay Province, Catac District. It is situated northeast of Caullaraju, west of Pastu Ruri and Tuco and south of Santun. One of the nearest places is the village of Wicso, located next to Callan creek, west of the mountain. This creek flows to the Pumapampa River, a right affluent of the Santa River.


Apatosuchus

Apatosuchus is an extinct genus of non-crocodylomorph loricatan pseudosuchian known from the Late Triassic of Germany. It is known from a partial holotype skull from the middle Stubensandstein (a deposit that dates back to the Norian stage and is part of the Löwenstein Formation) in Baden-Württemberg. The type species is Apatosuchus orbitoangulatus. "A. orbitoangulatus" was first described by German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene in 1932, who considered it a species of the theropod dinosaur "Halticosaurus". Some later studies proposed that it was an early crocodylomorph or "sphenosuchian" like "Saltoposuchus", another pseudosuchian from the middle Stubensandstein of Baden-Württemberg. The name "Apatosuchus" was erected for "H. orbitoangulatus" by Hans-Dieter Sues and Rainer R. Schoch in 2013 when it was realized that the known material represented a pseudosuchian archosaur rather than a dinosaur, as a result of further preparation of the specimen. "Apatosuchus" is now thought to be a basal member of the clade Loricata. "Apatosuchus" is much smaller in size than other basal loricatans such as "Teratosaurus " and "Batrachotomus".
Phylogeny.
A phylogenetic analysis performed by Sues & Schoch (2013) found "Apatosuchus" to be the sister taxon of the clade formed by "Batrachotomus" and more derived loricatans. This position was supported by two unambiguous synapomorphies: the presence of a ridge on the dorsal surface of squamosal along the edge of supratemporal fossa, and concaved rear portion of the nasals at the midline. The data matrix of Sues & Schoch (2013), a list of characteristics that was used in the analysis, was based on that of Nesbitt (2011), one of the most extensive on archosaurs. Below is a cladogram from the analysis.