Protarchaeopteryx is a genus of turkey-sized feathered theropod dinosaur from China. Known from the Jianshangou bed of the Yixian Formation, it lived during the early Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous, approximately 124.6 million years ago. It was probably a herbivore or omnivore, although its hands were very similar to those of small carnivorous dinosaurs. It appears to be one of the most basal members of the Oviraptorosauria, closely related to Incisivosaurus, or a taxon slightly less closely related to birds than oviraptorosaurs were.
Sphenodontidae is a family within the reptile group Rhynchocephalia, comprising taxa most closely related to the living tuatara. Historically the taxa included within Sphenodontidae have varied greatly between analyses, and the group has lacked a formal definition. Cynosphenodon from the Jurassic of Mexico has consistently been recovered as a close relative of the tuatara in most analyses, with the clade containing the two and other very close relatives of the tuatara often called Sphenodontinae. The herbivorous Eilenodontinae, otherwise considered part of Opisthodontia, is considered to be part of this family in many recent studies as the sister group to Sphenodontinae. The earliest Sphenodontines are known from the Early Jurassic of North America, with other remains known from the Late Jurassic of Europe, the Late Cretaceous and possibly Paleocene of South America and the Miocene-recent of New Zealand. Sphenodontines are characterised by a complete lower temporal bar caused by the fusion of a forward directed process (extension) of the quadrate/quadratojugal and the jugal, which was an adaptation for reducing stress in the skull during hard biting. Other synapomorphies of Sphenodontinae include the presence of nasal foramina, a posterodorsal process of the coronoid of the lower jaw, the present of caniniform successional teeth at the front of the jaws, the presence of flanges on the posterior parts of teeth at back of the lower jaw, and an expanded radial condyle on the humerus. Like modern tuatara, members of Sphenodontinae were likely generalists with a carnivorous/insectivorous diet.
The brown-throated sloth is a species of three-toed sloth found in the Neotropical realm of Central and South America.
The three-toed or three-fingered sloths are arboreal neotropical mammals. They are the only members of the genus Bradypus and the family Bradypodidae. The five living species of three-toed sloths are the brown-throated sloth, the maned sloth, the pale-throated sloth, the southern maned sloth, and the pygmy three-toed sloth. In complete contrast to past morphological studies, which tended to place Bradypus as the sister group to all other folivorans, molecular studies place them nested within the sloth superfamily Megatherioidea, making them the only surviving members of that radiation.
Guloninae is a subfamily of the mammal family Mustelidae distributed across Eurasia and the Americas. It includes martens and the fisher, tayra and wolverine. These genera were formerly included within a paraphyletic definition of the mustelid subfamily Mustelinae.
Cryptoclididae is a family of medium-sized plesiosaurs that existed from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. They had long necks, broad and short skulls and densely packed teeth. They fed on small soft-bodied preys such as small fish and crustaceans. The earliest members of the family appeared during the early Bajocian, and they represented the dominant group of long-necked plesiosaurs during the latter half of the Jurassic.
Bouliachelys is an extinct genus of sea turtle from Cretaceous Australia. It was originally described as a member of Protostegidae. In 2013 study it was considered to be a member of Dermochelyoidae, although later studies consider it as a protostegid again.
The Xitun Formation is a palaeontological formation which is named after Xitun village in Qujing, a location in South China. This formation includes many remains of fossilized fish and plants of the Early Devonian period. It was originally referred to as the Xitun Member of the Cuifengshan Formation.
Atoposauridae is a family of crocodile-line archosaurs belonging to Neosuchia. The majority of the family are known from Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous marine deposits in France, Portugal, and Bavaria in southern Germany. The discovery of the genus Aprosuchus, however, extends the duration of the lineage to the end of the Cretaceous in Romania.
Isisfordia is an extinct genus of crocodyliform closely related to crocodilians that lived in Australia during the Middle Cretaceous (Albian–Cenomanian).
Fugusuchus is an extinct genus of archosauriform, probably the basal-most member of the family Erythrosuchidae. The genus is known from a single fossil from the middle Early Triassic Heshanggou Formation in Shanxi, China. The partial skeleton consists of an incomplete skull, parts of the right forelimb, and an intercentrum. The skeleton, known as GMB V 313, is currently in the Geological Museum of China in Beijing.
Lindsay E. Zanno is an American vertebrate paleontologist and a leading expert on theropod dinosaurs and Cretaceous paleoecosystems. She is the Head of Paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University.
Unenlagiidae is a proposed family of eumaniraptoran paravians that includes the subfamilies Unenlagiinae and possibly Halszkaraptorinae. Fossils of both subfamilies have been found in both Gondwanan and Laurasian deposits. The biology of the group suggests that some members were semiaquatic specialists.
Plesiogulo is a genus of prehistoric carnivore that lived from Miocene to Pliocene of Africa, Eurasia and North America. An ancestral relationship to the wolverine was once suggested, but it is no longer considered likely. However, some authorities still consider it a member of the Guloninae.
Obama nungara is a species of land planarian in the family Geoplanidae. It is native to South America, but has been introduced in Europe.
Lessemsauridae is a clade of early sauropodiform dinosaurs that lived in the Triassic and Jurassic of Argentina, South Africa and possibly Lesotho. A phylogenetic analysis performed by Apaldetti and colleagues in 2018 recovered a new clade of sauropodiforms uniting Lessemsaurus, Antetonitrus, and Ingentia which they named Lessemsauridae. It is a node-based taxon, defined as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Lessemsaurus sauropoides and Antetonitrus ingenipes. Depending on the definition of Sauropoda, Lessemsauridae is either one of the most basal sauropod taxa, or a sister taxon of Sauropoda. An additional member of the clade was named later in 2018, Ledumahadi. A 2021 study by Pol and colleagues also assigned the genera Kholumolumo and Meroktenos to the group.
Santanmantis is an extinct genus of mantises, the sole genus in the family Santanmantidae. The only species, Santanmantis axelrodi, is known from the Crato Formation of Brazil, dating to the late Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous. It is amongst the most primitive known lineages of mantis. Like other mantises, the forelegs are modified into spined raptorial appendages. When describing a new specimen in 2017, Hörnig, Haug and Haug proposed that the second set of legs also had spines similar to the forelegs, and also served a raptorial function, but that they were not visible in the fossil due to being broken off. However a response to this paper criticised this assumption, finding that it had little evidence from the fossil itself or from living mantises.
The Naobaogou Formation is a geological formation in the Daqing Mountains of China. It is likely of Lopingian age. It consists of three rhythms of sediment, labelled members I-III primarily of purple siltstone, but each with a thick basal conglomerate bed. It is notable for its fossil content, producing one of the most diverse Late Permian vertebrate faunas outside Russia and South Africa.
TheSloth Conservation Foundation (SloCo) is a non-profit organisation based in Costa Rica that is dedicated to the protection of sloths living in wild and human-modified habitats through research, education and community-based conservation. SloCo was founded in 2017 by sloth researcher Dr. Rebecca Cliffe.
Attenborolimulus is an extinct genus of horseshoe crab with one known species: Attenborolimulus superspinosus. This genus is known from the Petropavlovka formation, dating to the Olenekian age, and is named after David Attenborough for his work in conservation and science communication.
