The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene.
Physeteroidea is a superfamily that includes three extant species of whales: the sperm whale, in the genus Physeter, and the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale, in the genus Kogia. In the past, these genera have sometimes been united in a single family, the Physeteridae, with the two Kogia species in the subfamily Kogiinae; however, recent practice is to allocate the genus Kogia to its own family, the Kogiidae, leaving the Physeteridae as a monotypic family, although additional fossil representatives of both families are known.
A lagerstätte is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These formations may have resulted from carcass burial in an anoxic environment with minimal bacteria, thus delaying the decomposition of both gross and fine biological features until long after a durable impression was created in the surrounding matrix. Lagerstätten span geological time from the Neoproterozoic era to the present.
Metaxytherium is an extinct genus of dugong that lived from the Oligocene until the end of the Pliocene. Fossil remains have been found in Africa, Europe, North America and South America. Generally marine seagrass specialists, they inhabited the warm and shallow waters of the Paratethys, Mediterranean, Caribbean Sea and Pacific coastline. American species of Metaxytherium are considered to be ancestral to the North Pacific family Hydrodamalinae, which includes the giant Steller's sea cow.
Piscogavialis is an extinct monospecific genus of gryposuchine gavialid crocodylian. The only species yet known is P. jugaliperforatus. Fossils of Piscogavialis have been found from the Mio-Pliocene Pisco Formation of the Sacaco Basin in southern Peru in 1998, where it coexisted with the much smaller gavialid Sacacosuchus.
Spicules are structural elements found in most sponges. The meshing of many spicules serves as the sponge's skeleton and thus it provides structural support and potentially defense against predators.
Gryposuchinae is an extinct subfamily of gavialid crocodylians. Gryposuchines lived mainly in the Miocene of South America. However, "Ikanogavialis" papuensis may have survived more recently, into the Late Pleistocene/Holocene. Most were long-snouted coastal forms. The group was named in 2007 and includes genera such as Gryposuchus and Aktiogavialis, although a 2018 study indicates that the group might be paraphyletic and rather an evolutionary grade towards the gharial.
Cirratulidae is a family of marine polychaete worms. Members of the family are found worldwide, mostly living in mud or rock crevices. Most are deposit feeders, but some graze on algae or are suspension feeders. Although subject to multiple revisions over time, cirratulids are among the few polychaete clades with a verified fossil record.
Biomineralising polychaetes are polychaetes that produce minerals to harden or stiffen their own tissues (biomineralize).
Piscobalaena is an extinct genus of cetaceans, which lived from the Middle to Late Miocene epochs in Peru and Florida. Its fossils have been found in the Pisco Formation of Peru and the Bone Valley Formation of Florida. At least some individuals of this diminutive whale were preyed on by the shark O. megalodon.
Dodecaceria is a genus of marine polychaete worms in the family Cirratulidae. It's also one of the very few polychaete genera with a verified fossil record.
The Pisco Formation is a geologic formation located in Peru, on the southern coastal desert of Ica and Arequipa. The approximately 640 metres (2,100 ft) thick formation was deposited in the Pisco Basin, spanning an age from the Middle Miocene up to the Early Pleistocene, roughly from 15 to 2 Ma. The tuffaceous sandstones, diatomaceous siltstones, conglomerates and dolomites were deposited in a lagoonal to near-shore environment, in bays similar to other Pacific South American formations as the Bahía Inglesa and Coquimbo Formations of Chile.
Scaphokogia is an extinct genus of pygmy sperm whales that lived off the coasts of Mexico and Peru, South America during the Late Miocene to Late Pliocene. Two species have currently been described: the type species S. cochlearis and S. totajpe. Fossils of Scaphokogia have been found in the Tirabuzon Formation of Baja California and the Pisco Formation of Peru. Scaphokogia existed about 5 million years ago, and were relatively rare animals.
This list of fossil fishes described in 2017 is a list of new taxa of jawless vertebrates, placoderms, acanthodians, fossil cartilaginous fishes, bony fishes and other fishes of every kind that are scheduled to be described during the year 2017, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleontology of fishes that are scheduled to occur in the year 2017. The list only includes taxa at the level of genus or species.
This paleomammalogy list records new fossil mammal taxa that were described during the year 2017, as well as notes other significant paleomammalogy discoveries and events which occurred during that year.
Madeira began to form more than 100 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous, although most of the island has formed in the last 66 million years of the Cenozoic, particularly in the Miocene and Pliocene. The island is an example of hotspot volcanism, with mainly mafic volcanic and igneous rocks, together with smaller deposits of limestone, lignite and other sediments that record its long-running uplift.
Pisco Basin is a sedimentary basin extending over 300 kilometres (190 mi) in southwestern Peru. The basin has a 2 kilometres (6,600 ft) thick sedimentary fill, which is about half the thickness of more northern foreland basins in Peru.
Diplochaetetes is an extinct genus of marine polychaete worms in the family Cirratulidae. It was initially described as a tabulate coral, and later classified as a sponge. Later studies provided significant evidence that Diplochaetetes fossils are bioconstructions attributable to cirratulid polychaetes due to their strong similarity with modern Dodecaceria aggregates. Both fossil Diplochaetetes and recent Dodecaceria bioconstructions retain identical double-phased biomineralization characteristics, but the possible synonymity of these genera is currently subject to debate.
Diplochaetetes longitubus is an extinct species of cirratulid polychaete within the genus Diplochaetetes known from Namibian sedimentary rocks dating back to the Eocene. It was initially described as a tabulate coral, but research carried out on present-day Dodecaceria aggregates and Diplochaetetes mexicanus fossils from the pacific coasts of the Americas has led researchers to classify the entire genus as cirratulid polychaetes. For many decades, they've also been erroneously attributed to sponges.
