| Gomphochelys Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Testudines |
| Suborder: | Cryptodira |
| Family: | Dermatemydidae |
| Genus: | † Gomphochelys Bourque et. al., 2015 |
| Type species | |
| Gomphochelys nanus | |
Gomphochelys is an extinct genus of dermatemydid that lived in Wyoming during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. It is known from a single species, G. nanus. [1]
The Eocene is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek Ἠώς and καινός and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.
The Paleogene Period is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 Ma to the beginning of the Neogene Period 23.03 Ma. It is the first period of the Cenozoic Era and is divided into the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene epochs. The earlier term Tertiary Period was used to define the time now covered by the Paleogene Period and subsequent Neogene Period; despite no longer being recognized as a formal stratigraphic term, "Tertiary" still sometimes remains in informal use. Paleogene is often abbreviated "Pg", although the United States Geological Survey uses the abbreviation "Pe" for the Paleogene on the Survey's geologic maps.
The Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), alternatively ”Eocene thermal maximum 1 (ETM1)“ and formerly known as the "Initial Eocene" or “Late Paleocene thermal maximum", was a geologically brief time interval characterized by a 5–8 °C global average temperature rise and massive input of carbon into the ocean and atmosphere. The event began, now formally codified, at the precise time boundary between the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs. The exact age and duration of the PETM remain uncertain, but it occurred around 55.8 million years ago (Ma) and lasted about 200 thousand years (Ka).
The Dermatemydidae are a family of turtles. The family was named by John Edward Gray in 1870, and its only extant genus is Dermatemys.
The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bighorn Mountains on the east, and the Owl Creek Mountains and Bridger Mountains on the south. It is drained to the north by tributaries of the Bighorn River, which enters the basin from the south, through a gap between the Owl Creek and Bridger Mountains, as the Wind River, and becomes the Bighorn as it enters the basin. The region is semi-arid, receiving only 6–10 in (15–25 cm) of rain annually.
The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes in three basins along the present-day Green River in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The sediments are deposited in very fine layers, a dark layer during the growing season and a light-hue inorganic layer in the dry season. Each pair of layers is called a varve and represents one year. The sediments of the Green River Formation present a continuous record of six million years. The mean thickness of a varve here is 0.18 mm, with a minimum thickness of 0.014 mm and maximum of 9.8 mm.
Miacis is an extinct genus of placental mammals from clade Carnivoraformes, that lived in North America from the early to middle Eocene.
Miacoidea is a former paraphyletic superfamily of extinct placental mammals that lived during the Paleocene and Eocene epochs, about 66-33,9 million years ago. This group had been traditionally divided into two families of primitive carnivorous mammals: Miacidae and Viverravidae. These mammals were basal to order Carnivora, the crown-group within the Carnivoramorpha.
Teilhardina was an early marmoset-like primate that lived in Europe, North America and Asia during the Early Eocene epoch, about 56-47 million years ago. The paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson is credited with naming it after the French paleontologist, Jesuit and philosopher Teilhard de Chardin.
Didymictis is an extinct genus of placental mammals from extinct subfamily Didymictinae within extinct family Viverravidae, that lived in North America and Europe from the late Paleocene to middle Eocene.
Philip Dean Gingerich is an American paleontologist and educator. He is a Professor Emeritus of Geology, Biology, and Anthropology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and directed the Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan (UMMP) from 1981-2010. His research focus is on vertebrate paleontology, especially the Paleocene-Eocene transition and early Cenozoic mammals. His primary research focus is on the origin of modern orders of mammals and he is a leading expert on the evolution of primates and whales. Gingerich was among the experts who analyzed the skeleton of Darwinius masillae.
Ectocion is an extinct genus of placental mammals of the family Phenacodontidae. The genus was earlier classified as Gidleyina and Prosthecion It reached 6 to 12 kg and was similar in size and morphology to Copecion. Both these herbivorous ungulates likely occupied similar ecological niches.
Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM-2), also called H-1 or Elmo, was a transient period of global warming that occurred around 54 Ma. It was the second major hyperthermal that punctuated long-term warming from the Late Paleocene through the Early Eocene.
The Willwood Formation is a sedimentary sequence deposited during the late Paleocene to early Eocene, or Clarkforkian, Wasatchian and Bridgerian in the NALMA classification.
Suzanniwana is an extinct genus of iguanian lizards that lived in western North America during the earliest Eocene, approximately 56 million years ago. Two species are known from the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming: the type species S. patriciana named in 2009, and the species S. revenanta named in 2013. Suzanniwana lived during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, a brief period of global warming that resulted in warmer and drier conditions in the Bighorn Basin. It likely stemmed from a lineage that had migrated into the basin from regions farther to the south, following a latitudinal band of constant climatic conditions that moved northward as the planet warmed. Suzanniwana shares many skeletal features with modern casquehead lizards of the family Corytophanidae and may be a stem-corytophanid. It also closely resembles Geiseltaliellus, an iguanian from the middle Eocene Messel pit in Germany.
Anolbanolis is an extinct genus of iguanian lizards that lived in the Bighorn Basin of what is now Wyoming during the earliest Eocene. The type species A. banalis was named by paleontologist Krister Smith in 2009 from a collection of isolated skull fragments found in a layer of the Willwood Formation that dates to a brief period of global warming called the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) about 56 million years ago. The genus name Anolbanolis means "poor anole" from the Greek anolbos and the name Anolis, in reference to the scrappy nature of known fossil material and its close resemblance to lizards in the genus Anolis. Smith suggested that Anolbanolis may be a close relative of Anolis or Polychrus, which are common today in Central and South America but not found as far north as Wyoming, fitting with the idea that the Bighorn Basin was warmer and wetter in the Eocene than it is currently. According to Smith, the species name banalis is a reference to it being a "banal" lizard in the Willwood, being "quite abundant in the type locality," and not unusual because "the discovery of Eocene boreal fossil members of living subtropical and tropical clades is becoming commonplace." In 2011 Smith named a second species of Anolbanolis, A. geminus, which lived in the Bighorn Basin shortly after the PETM and was about 50 percent larger than A. banalis. Smith concluded on the basis of features in A. geminus that Anolbanolis is more closely related to Anolis than it is to Polychrus.
Bownomomys was an early marmoset-like primate that lived in North America during the Early Eocene epoch, about 56-50 million years ago.
Wyonycteris is a genus of small mammals that existed in the late Paleocene and early Eocene epochs. The type species is Wyonycteris chalix, which lived in Wyoming during the Clarkforkian North American Land Mammal Age of the Paleocene and was originally proposed to be an early form of insectivorous bat. Later re-examination of the material has put this alliance in doubt, and the genus has instead been proposed as belonging to the subfamily Placentidentinae, within the family Nyctitheriidae. Similar fossil material of the same time period found in Europe was later discovered and described as new species, Wyonycteris richardi.
Azygonyx was a small tillodont mammal, likely the size of a cat to raccoon, that lived in North America during the Paleocene and Eocene in the early part of the Cenozoic Era. The only fossils that have been recovered are from the Willwood and Fort Union Formations in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, United States, and date to the Clarkforkian to Wasatchian, about 56 to 50 million years ago. Fifty-six collections that have been recovered thus far include the remains of Azygonyx. Azygonyx survived the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum along with other mammals like Phenacodus and Ectocion, both of which were ground-dwelling mammals. Azygonyx probably was a generalist terrestrial mammal that may have roamed around the ground, but was also capable of climbing trees.
Palaeonictinae is an extinct subfamily of placental mammals from extinct family Oxyaenidae, that lived from the late Paleocene to early Eocene of Europe and North America.
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