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Quetzalcoatlus is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Maastrichtian age of North America. Its name comes from the Aztec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl. The type species is Q. northropi, named by Douglas Lawson in 1975. The genus also includes the smaller species Q. lawsoni, which was known for many years as an unnamed species, before being named by Brian Andres and Wann Langston Jr. (posthumously) in 2021. Q. northropi has gained fame as a candidate for the largest flying animal ever discovered.
John Robert Horner is an American paleontologist most famous for describing Maiasaura, providing the first clear evidence that some dinosaurs cared for their young. In addition to his paleontological discoveries, Horner served as the technical advisor for the first five Jurassic Park films, had a cameo appearance in Jurassic World, and served as a partial inspiration for one of the lead characters of the franchise, Dr. Alan Grant. Horner studied at the University of Montana, although he did not complete his degree due to undiagnosed dyslexia, and was awarded a Doctorate in Science honoris causa. He retired from Montana State University on July 1, 2016, although he claims to have been pushed out of the Museum of the Rockies after having married an undergraduate student and now teaches as a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University.
Dilophosaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North America during the Early Jurassic, about 186 million years ago. Three skeletons were discovered in northern Arizona in 1940, and the two best preserved were collected in 1942. The most complete specimen became the holotype of a new species in the genus Megalosaurus, named M. wetherilli by Samuel P. Welles in 1954. Welles found a larger skeleton belonging to the same species in 1964. Realizing it bore crests on its skull, he assigned the species to the new genus Dilophosaurus in 1970, as Dilophosaurus wetherilli. The genus name means "two-crested lizard", and the species name honors John Wetherill, a Navajo councilor. Further specimens have since been found, including an infant. Fossil footprints have also been attributed to the animal, including resting traces. Another species, Dilophosaurus sinensis from China, was named in 1993, but was later found to belong to the genus Sinosaurus.
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Plotosaurus is an extinct genus of mosasaurs who lived during the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in what is now North America. Only one species is recognized, P. bennisoni, described by Berkeley paleontologist Charles Lewis Camp in 1942 from fossils discovered in California. Originally named Kolposaurus, it was changed to Plotosaurus in 1951 when Camp discovered that the name had already been assigned to a type of nothosaur. Unlike other mosasaurids, Plotosaurus possesses a morphology converging with those of ichthyosaurs, suggesting a much more advanced swimming adaptation than some of its close relatives.
Mesadactylus is an extinct genus of pterosaur from the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian-age Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Colorado, United States. The genus was named in 1989 by James Jensen and Kevin Padian. The type species is Mesadactylus ornithosphyos.
Thecodontia, now considered an obsolete taxonomic grouping, was formerly used to describe a diverse "order" of early archosaurian reptiles that first appeared in the latest Permian period and flourished until the end of the Triassic period. All of them were built somewhat like crocodiles but with shorter skulls, more erect pose and usually somewhat lighter. The group includes the ancestors of dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodilians, as well as a number of extinct forms that did not give rise to any descendants. The term thecodont is still used as an anatomical description of the tooth morphology seen in these species and others.
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Frank Elmer Peabody, was an American palaeontologist noted for his research on fossil trackways and reptile and amphibian skeletal structure.
Armand de Ricqlès is a French paleontologist best known for his work in bone histology and its implications for the growth of dinosaurs (e.g.).
Vivian de Buffrénil is a French histologist and paleobiologist who has worked at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris from 1982 to 2021. His doctorate (1980) and his doctorat d'état (1990), a diploma now replaced by the habilitation, were supervised by Armand de Ricqlès. His main fields of interest include basic histological descriptions, growth dynamics as recorded in bone growth marks, and adaptation of the tetrapod skeleton to a secondarily aquatic lifestyle. He is also interested in life history and population dynamics of exploited or threatened reptile taxa, especially among Varanidae and Crocodilia. He has published at least 92 papers, including 76 research papers, 10 reports on exploited or threatened species, and six popular papers.
References
- 1 2 "Our Staff". ncseweb.org. National Center for Science Education. Archived from the original on 2007-05-13. Retrieved 2018-10-31.
- ↑ Decision, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District et al.
- ↑ Horner, John R.; Ricqlès, Armand de; Padian, Kevin (1999). "Variation in dinosaur skeletochronology indicators: implications for age assessment and physiology". Paleobiology. 25 (3): 295–304. doi:10.1017/S0094837300021308. ISSN 0094-8373. S2CID 88428612.
- ↑ de RICQLÈS, ARMAND J.; PADIAN, KEVIN; HORNER, JOHN R.; FRANCILLON-VIEILLOT, HÉLÈNE (1 July 2000). "Palaeohistology of the bones of pterosaurs (Reptilia: Archosauria): anatomy, ontogeny, and biomechanical implications". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 129 (3): 349–385. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2000.tb00016.x . ISSN 0024-4082.
- ↑ de Ricqlès, Armand; Padian, Kevin; Knoll, Fabien; Horner, John R. (1 April 2008). "On the origin of high growth rates in archosaurs and their ancient relatives: Complementary histological studies on Triassic archosauriforms and the problem of a "phylogenetic signal" in bone histology". Annales de Paléontologie. 94 (2): 57–76. doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2008.03.002. ISSN 0753-3969.
- ↑ Buffrénil, Vivian de; Zylberberg, Louise; Ricqlès, Armand J. de; Padian, Kevin; Laurin, Michel; Quilhac, Alexandra (2021). Vertebrate Skeletal Histology and Paleohistology (1st ed.). Boca Raton, Fl: CRC Press. p. xii + 825. doi:10.1201/9781351189590. ISBN 978-1351189576. S2CID 236406115.
- ↑ Expert Report from Kevin Padian, Paleontologist Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine ( submitted as part of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District )
- ↑ "Sagan Prize Recipients". wonderfest.org. 2011. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
- ↑ AAAS - 2007 Fellows Archived 2008-01-12 at the Wayback Machine
