Esocidae is a family of fish in the order Esociformes, which contains pike, pickerel, and mudminnows. While the family traditionally only contained the genus Esox, recent genetic and paleontological research have recovered Novumbra and Dallia as members of the family Esocidae, being closer related to Esox than Umbra. Fossil specimens from the Mesozoic in North America have been assigned as two additional genera in this family.
Podocnemididae is a family of pleurodire (side-necked) turtles, once widely distributed. Most of its 20 genera and 30 species are now extinct. Seven of its eight surviving species are native to South America: the genus Peltocephalus, with only one species ; and the genus Podocnemis, with six living species of South American side-necked river turtles. There is also one genus native to Madagascar: Erymnochelys, the Madagascan big-headed turtle, whose single species E. madagascariensis.
Gunnera is the sole genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Gunneraceae, which contains 63 species. Some species in this genus, namely those in the subgenus Panke, have extremely large leaves. Species in the genus are variously native to Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Papuasia, Hawaii, insular Southeast Asia, Africa, and Madagascar. The stalks of some species are edible.
Scleropages is a genus of fish in the family Osteoglossidae found in Asia and Australia. All of these species are carnivorous and have great jumping ability. These species are highly valued as aquarium fish, particularly by those from Asian cultures. In 2003, a study redescribed several naturally occurring color varieties of S. formosus into four separate species. The majority of researchers dispute these redescriptions, arguing that the published data are insufficient to justify recognizing more than one Southeast Asian species of Scleropages and that divergent haplotypes used to distinguish the color strains into isolated species were found within a single color strain, contradicting the findings. They are considered monotypic, consisting of closely related haplotypes based on color. The ancestor of the Australian arowanas: S. jardinii and S. leichardti, diverged from the ancestor of the Asian arowanas about 140 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period. The morphological similarity of all seven species shows that little evolutionary change has taken place recently for these ancient fish. The genus had a much wider distribution during the early Cenozoic, with fossil remains known from the Paleocene of Niger and Belgium, and from the Eocene of China.
The Dreissenidae are a family of small freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve molluscs. They attach themselves to stones or to any other hard surface using a byssus. The shells of these bivalves are shaped somewhat like those of true mussels, and they also attach themselves to a hard substrate using a byssus, however this group is not at all closely related to true mussels, being more closely related to the venus clams (Veneridae).
Dicraeosauridae is a family of diplodocoid sauropods who are the sister group to Diplodocidae. Dicraeosaurids are a part of the Flagellicaudata, along with Diplodocidae. Dicraeosauridae includes genera such as Amargasaurus, Suuwassea, Dicraeosaurus, and Brachytrachelopan. Specimens of this family have been found in North America, Asia, Africa, and South America. In 2023, a dicraeosaurid fossil was discovered in India for the first time. Their temporal range is from the Early or Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. Few dicraeosaurids survived into the Cretaceous, the youngest of which was Amargasaurus.
The Unionidae are a family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionida, the bivalve molluscs sometimes known as river mussels, or simply as unionids.
Palaeoheterodonta is a subterclass of bivalve molluscs. It contains the extant orders Unionida and Trigoniida. They are distinguished by having the two halves of the shell be of equal size and shape, but by having the hinge teeth be in a single row, rather than separated into two groups, as they are in the clams and cockles.
Margaritiferidae is a family of medium-sized freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve molluscs in the order Unionida. It is the most threatened of all unionid families.
Margaritifera is a genus of freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve molluscs in the family Margaritiferidae, the freshwater pearl mussels.
Cumberlandia monodonta is a freshwater mussel endemic to the United States. Currently, C. monodonta is listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Lampsilis is a genus of freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the family Unionidae, the river mussels. There are over 100 species in the genus.
Margaritifera auricularia is a species of European freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Margaritiferidae, the freshwater pearl mussels. Formerly found throughout western and central Europe, the species is now critically endangered and is one of the rarest invertebrates worldwide, being confined to a few rivers in Spain and France. M. auricularia is commonly known as Spengler's freshwater mussel in honour of Lorenz Spengler, who first described this species.
Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater mollusc, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves that live in fresh water as opposed to salt water, which is the main habitat type for bivalves.
Axelrodichthys is an extinct genus of mawsoniid coelacanth from the Cretaceous of Africa, North and South America, and Europe. Several species are known, the remains of which were discovered in the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) of Brazil, North Africa, and possibly Mexico, as well as in the Upper Cretaceous of Morocco (Cenomanian), Madagascar and France. The Axelrodichthys of the Lower Cretaceous frequented both brackish and coastal marine waters while the most recent species lived exclusively in fresh waters. The French specimens are the last known fresh water coelacanths. Most of the species of this genus reached 1 metre to 2 metres in length. Axelrodichthys was named in 1986 by John G. Maisey in honor of the American ichthyologist Herbert R. Axelrod.
Valeriy Valeryevich Zyuganov (Russian: Зюганов Валерий Валерьевич, born 31 July 1955 in Yangiyo‘l city, is a Soviet and Russian biologist, and Doctor of Biological Sciences. He is the pupil and follower of professors V.V. Khlebovich,the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Yu. A. Labas.A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of SciencesArchived 2007-12-13 at the Wayback Machine
Cyclaxyridae are a family of beetles in the superfamily Cucujoidea. The only living genus is Cyclaxyra, with two species endemic to New Zealand. Other species have been named from fossils. They are also known as sooty mould beetles due to the association of Cyclaxyra with sooty mould. The extant species are mycophagous, feeding on spores, conidia, and hyphae.
Ginglymodi is a clade of ray-finned fish containing modern-day gars (Lepisosteidae) and their extinct relatives, including the family Lepidotidae and the orders Semionotiformes and Kyphosichthyiformes, and various other extinct taxa. Ginglymodi is one of the two major subgroups of the infraclass Holostei, the other one being Halecomorphi, which contains the bowfin and its fossil relatives.
Ambleminae is a subfamily of freshwater mussel in the family Unionidae. They are found throughout much of eastern North America south to Central America, although fossils are also known from Siberia. Some species have also been introduced to East Asia. They are the most speciose radiation of the Unionidae, with more than 300 species.
Parvaspina is a genus of freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the family Unionidae. It contains only two critically endangered species, both endemic to river basins in a small region of the southeastern United States.
