Rhenopyrgus Temporal range: | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | |
Phylum: | |
Class: | |
Family: | |
Genus: | Rhenopyrgus Dehm, 1961 |
Rhenopyrgus is an extinct echinoderm in the class Edrioasteroidea, which existed during the Devonian in what is now France and Germany, the Ordovician in Iowa and Illinois, U.S.A.; and the Silurian of Argentina. It was described by Dehm in 1961, and the type species is R. coronaeformis, which was originally described by J. Rievers as a species in the genus Pyrgocystis , in 1961. A new species, R. piojoensis, was described by Colin D. Sumrall, Susana Heredia, Cecilia M. Rodríguez and Ana I. Mestre in 2012, from 116 specimens collected from the Los Espejos Formation in the Loma de Los Piojos locality near San José de Jáchal, Argentina. The species epithet refers to the locality where the specimens were collected from. [1] In 2019 another species, R. viviani, was described by researchers from the Natural History Museum, London, led by Tim Ewin. [2]
The group is hypothesised to have been mud-stickers, having part of the body sticking out of the mud, allowing it to feed higher up in the water. [2] [3]
Yunnanosaurus is an extinct genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived approximately 199 to 183 million years ago in what is now the Yunnan Province, in China, for which it was named. Yunnanosaurus was a large sized, moderately-built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore, that could also walk bipedally, and ranged in size from 7 meters (23 feet) long and 2 m (6.5 ft) high to 4 m (13 ft) high in the largest species.
Anabisetia is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of Patagonia, South America. It was a small bipedal herbivore, around 2 metres long.
Killikaike is an extinct genus of New World monkey. The genus includes one species, Killikaike blakei, that lived in Argentina during the Early Miocene.
The Anacleto Formation is a geologic formation with outcrops in the Argentine Patagonian provinces of Mendoza, Río Negro, and Neuquén. It is the youngest formation within the Neuquén Group and belongs to the Río Colorado Subgroup. Formerly that subgroup was treated as a formation, and the Anacleto Formation was known as the Anacleto Member.
Edrioasteroidea is an extinct class of echinoderms. The living animal would have resembled a pentamerously symmetrical disc or cushion. They were obligate encrusters and attached themselves to inorganic or biologic hard substrates. A 507 million years old species, Totiglobus spencensis, is actually the first known echinoderm adapted to live on a hard surface after the soft microbial mats that covered the seafloor were destroyed in the Cambrian substrate revolution.
Crinozoa is a subphylum of mostly sessile echinoderms, of which the crinoids, or sea lilies and feather stars, are the only extant members. Crinozoans have an extremely extensive fossil history.
Patagornis is a genus of extinct flightless predatory birds of the family Phorusrhacidae. Known as "terror birds", these lived in what is now Argentina during the Early and Middle Miocene; the Santa Cruz Formation in Patagonia contains numerous specimens. Patagornis was an agile, medium sized Patagornithine and was likely a pursuit predator.
Adeopapposaurus is a genus of plateosaurian dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Cañón del Colorado Formation of San Juan, Argentina. It was similar to Massospondylus. Four partial skeletons with two partial skulls are known.
Girvanella is a fossil thought to represent the calcified sheath of a filamentous cyanobacterium known from the Burgess Shale and other Cambrian fossil deposits. Specimens are also known from the Early Ordovician San Juan Formation, Argentina.
Camptostroma roddyi is an extinct echinoderm from the Bonnia-Olenellus Zone of the Early Cambrian Kinzers Formation near York and Lancaster, Southeastern Pennsylvania. It is the only known species in the genus Camptostroma, as other species referred to this genus "do not appear to be cogeneric."
Megapnosaurus is an extinct genus of coelophysid theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 188 million years ago during the early part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Africa. The species was a small to medium-sized, lightly built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore, that could grow up to 2.2 m (7.2 ft) long and weigh up to 13 kg (29 lb).
Salta Basin or Salta Rift Basin is a sedimentary basin located in the Argentine Northwest. The basin started to accumulate sediments in the Early Cretaceous (Neocomian) and at present it has sedimentary deposits reaching thicknesses of 5,000 metres (16,000 ft). The basin contains seven sub-basins: Tres Cruces, Lomas de Olmedo, Metán, Alemanía, Salfity, El Rey, Sey and Brealito. The basin environment has variously been described as a "foreland rift" and an "intra-continental rift". The basin developed under conditions of extensional tectonics and rift-associated volcanism.
The San Juan Formation is a geologic formation in Argentina. The formation comprising limestones, mudstones and marls was deposited in a shallow marine reefal environment and preserves many fossils dating back to the Ordovician period. The formation overlies the La Silla Formation and crops out in the Precordillera of San Juan Province.
Cincta is an extinct class of echinoderms that lived only in the Middle Cambrian epoch. Homostelea is a junior synonym. The classification of cinctans is controversial, but they are probably part of the echinoderm stem group.
Diploporita is an extinct class of blastozoan that ranged from the Ordovician to the Devonian. These echinoderms are identified by a specialized respiratory structure, called diplopores. Diplopores are a double pore system that sit within a depression on a single thecal (body) plate; each plate can contain numerous diplopore pairs.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 2020.
Kaikaifilusaurus is an extinct genus of rhynchocephalians in the family Sphenodontidae from the Late Cretaceous of South America. Fossils of the genus were found in Cenomanian sediments of the Candeleros Formation and Turonian layers of the Huincul Formation, both of the Neuquén Basin and the Albian strata of the Cerro Barcino Formation in the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, all in Patagonia, Argentina. The genus contains two species, K. minimus and the type species K. calvoi.
Yanjiahella biscarpa is an extinct species of Early Cambrian deuterostome which may represent the earliest stem group echinoderm.
Yorkicystis is a genus of edrioasteroid echinoderm that lived 510 million years ago in the Cambrian aged Kinzers Formation in what is now Pennsylvania. This genus is important as it provides some of the oldest evidence of echinoderms losing their hard mineralized outer skeletons. Yorkicystis also shows that some echinoderms lost their skeletons during the Cambrian, which is a greatly different time as to when most other species lost theirs.
Alkaidia is an extinct genus of sea stars which lived in the western Tethys Ocean from the Barremian to Cenomanian stages of the Cretaceous period. It was first described in 1998, and two species are currently assigned to it. The type species, A. sumralli, is known from both complete and fragmentary specimens collected in Texas, and fossils of an earlier species, A. megaungula, have been found in Morocco.