Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Dinos

OrnithischiaWikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Ornithischia or Predentata is an order of beaked, herbivorous dinosaurs. The name ornithischia is derived from the Greek ornitheos (?????e???) meaning 'of a bird' and ischion (?s????) meaning 'hip joint'. They are known as the 'bird-hipped' dinosaurs because of their bird-like hip structure, even though birds actually descended from the 'lizard-hipped' dinosaurs (the saurischians). Being herbivores that sometimes lived in herds, they were more numerous than the saurischians. They were prey animals for the theropods and were smaller than the sauropods.

Characteristics
The Dinosauria superorder was divided into the two orders Ornithischia and Saurischia by Harry Seeley in 1887. This division, which has generally been accepted, is based on the evolution of the pelvis into a more bird-like structure (although birds did not descend from these dinosaurs), details in the vertebrae and armor and the possession of a 'predentary' bone. The predentary is an extra bone in the front of the lower jaw, which extends the dentary (the main lower jaw bone). The predentary coincides with the premaxilla in the upper jaw. Together they form a beak-like apparatus used to clip off plant material.

The ornithischian pubis bone points downward and toward the tail (backwards), parallel with the ischium, with a forward-pointing process to support the abdomen. This makes a four-pronged pelvic structure. In contrast to this, the saurischian pubis points downward and towards the head (forwards), as in ancestral lizard types. Ornithischians also had smaller holes in front of their eye sockets (antorbital fenestrae) than saurischians, and a wider, more stable pelvis. A bird-like pubis arrangement, parallel to the vertebral column, independently evolved three times in dinosaur evolution, namely in the ornithischians, the therizinosauroids and in bird-like dromaeosaurids.

Classification
Taxonomy
Linnaean ranks after Benton (2004),

Order Ornithischia

Family Pisanosauridae
Family Fabrosauridae
Suborder Thyreophora - (armored dinosaurs)

Family Scelidosauridae
Infraorder Stegosauria
Infraorder Ankylosauria
Suborder Cerapoda

Family Heterodontosauridae
Infraorder Ornithopoda

Family Hypsilophodontidae*
Family Hadrosauridae - (duck-billed dinosaurs)
Infraorder Pachycephalosauria
Infraorder Ceratopsia - (horned dinosaurs)

Phylogeny
The ornithischians are divided in the two clades: the first are the Thyreophora and the second the Cerapoda. The Thyreophora include the Stegosauria (like the armored Stegosaurus) and the Ankylosauria (like Ankylosaurus). The Cerapoda include the Marginocephalia (Ceratopsia like the frilled ceratopsidae and Pachycephalosauria) and the Ornithopoda (among which duck-bills (hadrosaurs) such as Edmontosaurus). The Cerapoda are a relatively recent grouping (Sereno, 1986), and may conceivably be identical to (synonymous with) the older group, Ornithopoda: most of these divisions are not true by definition.

Ornithischia|-?Pisanosaurus
`--+-?Fabrosauridae `--Genasauria |--Thyreophora | |--Scutellosaurus | `--Thyreophoroidea | |--Emausaurus | `--Eurypoda | |--Stegosauria | `--Ankylosauromorpha | |--Scelidosaurus | `--Ankylosauria `--Cerapoda |--Stormbergia |--Agilisaurus |--Hexinlusaurus |--Heterodontosauridae `--+--Ornithopoda `--Marginocephalia |--Pachycephalosauria `--Ceratopsia(basal Cerapoda after Butler, 2005)

References

Butler, R.J. 2005. The 'fabrosaurid' ornithischian dinosaurs of the Upper Elliot Formation (Lower Jurassic) of South Africa and Lesotho. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 145(2):175-218.
Sereno, P.C. 1986. Phylogeny of the bird-hipped dinosaurs (order Ornithischia). National Geographic Research 2(2):234-256.


SaurischiaWikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Saurischia (from the Greek sauros (sa????) meaning 'lizard' and ischion (?s????) meaning 'hip joint') is one of the two orders/branches of dinosaurs. In 1888, Harry Seeley classified dinosaurs into two great orders, based on their hip structure. Saurischians ('lizard-hipped') are distinguished from the ornithischians ('bird-hipped') by retaining the ancestral configuration of bones in the hip. All carnivorous dinosaurs (the theropods) are saurischians, as are one of the two great lineages of herbivorous dinosaurs, the sauropodomorphs. At the end of the Cretaceous Period, all non-avian saurischians became extinct. This is referred to as the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.

The saurischian lineage diverged from the ornithischians in the late Triassic Period, and retained a three-pronged pelvic structure, with the pubis pointed forward, until some advanced forms in the group Maniraptora reversed this, in parallel with the ornithischian condition. The ornithischians evolved a new hip structure, with the pubis rotating caudally, to become parallel with the ischium, often also with a forward-pointing process, giving a four-pronged structure. This hip structure is similar to that of birds, and so ornithischians are termed 'bird-hipped' dinosaurs, while the saurischians are 'lizard-hipped'. The true bird-hip possessed by modern birds evolved independently in the lizard-hipped theropods in the Jurassic Period, an example of convergent evolution.

While Seeley's classification has stood the test of time, there is a minority theory, first popularized by Robert Bakker in The Dinosaur Heresies that separates the theropods into their own group and places the two great groups of herbivorous dinosaurs (the sauropodomorphs and ornithischians) together in a separate group he named the Phytodinosauria ('plant dinosaurs') (Bakker), or Ornithischiformes (Cooper).

Taxonomy
Classification

Order Saurischia

Eoraptor
Guaibasaurus
Infraorder Herrerasauria
Suborder Sauropodomorpha

Infraorder Prosauropoda
Infraorder Sauropoda
Suborder Theropoda

Infraorder Carnosauria
Infraorder Ceratosauria
Infraorder Deinonychosauria
Infraorder Ornithomimosauria
Infraorder Oviraptorosauria
Additionally, the genera Teyuwasu and Agnosphitys may represent early saurischians, or more primitive non-dinosaurs.

DinosaurWikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. At the end of the Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago, a catastrophic extinction event ended the dominance of dinosaurs on land. One group of dinosaurs is known to have survived to the present day: taxonomists believe modern birds are direct descendants of theropod dinosaurs.

Since the first dinosaur fossils were recognized in the early nineteenth century, mounted dinosaur skeletons have become major attractions at museums around the world. Dinosaurs have become a part of world culture and remain consistently popular among children and adults. They have been featured in best-selling books and films, and new discoveries are regularly covered by the media.

The term dinosaur is sometimes used informally to describe other prehistoric reptiles, such as the pelycosaur Dimetrodon, the winged pterosaurs, and the aquatic ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, although none of these were dinosaurs.

What is a dinosaur?
From the point of view of cladistics (the method of classifying organisms most commonly used by scientists) birds are dinosaurs; but in ordinary speech the word "dinosaur" does not include birds. For clarity, this article will use "dinosaur" as a synonym for "non-avian dinosaur", and "bird" as a synonym for "avian dinosaur" (meaning any animal that evolved from the common ancestor of Archaeopteryx and modern birds). The term "non-avian dinosaur" will be used for emphasis as needed.
Non-avian dinosaurs can be generally described as terrestrial archosaurs with limbs held erect beneath the body, that existed from the Carnian faunal stage of the Late Triassic to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous. This excludes many prehistoric animals that are popularly conceived as dinosaurs. Examples include: marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, and plesiosaurs, which were neither terrestrial nor archosaurs; pterosaurs, which were not terrestrial; and Dimetrodon, a Permian animal more closely related to mammals. Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates of the Mesozoic, especially the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Other groups of animals were restricted in size and niches; mammals, for example, rarely exceeded the size of a cat, and were generally rodent-sized carnivores of small prey. One notable exception is Repenomamus giganticus, a triconodont weighing between and that is known to have eaten small dinosaurs like young Psittacosaurus.

Dinosaurs were an extremely varied group of animals; according to a 2006 study, over 500 dinosaur genera have been identified with certainty so far, and the total number of genera preserved in the fossil record has been estimated at around 1,850, nearly 75% of which remain to be discovered. An earlier study predicted that about 3,400 dinosaur genera existed, including many which would not have been preserved in the fossil record. Some were herbivorous, others carnivorous. Some dinosaurs were bipeds, some were quadrupeds, and others, such as Ammosaurus and Iguanodon, could walk just as easily on two or four legs. Many had bony armor, or cranial modifications like horns and crests. Although known for large size, many dinosaurs were human-sized or smaller. Dinosaur remains have been found on every continent on Earth, including Antarctica. Despite their diversity and dominance, however, as noted, dinosaurs (with the exception of birds) did not spread into aquatic or aerial niches.

Definition
The taxon Dinosauria was formally named in 1842 by English palaeontologist Richard Owen, who used it to refer to the "distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles" that were then being recognized in England and around the world. The term is derived from the Greek words de???? (deinos meaning "terrible", "fearsome", or "formidable") and sa??a (saura meaning "lizard" or "reptile"). Though the taxonomic name has often been interpreted as a reference to dinosaurs' teeth, claws, and other fearsome characteristics, Owen intended it merely to evoke their size and majesty.

Distinguishing features
While recent discoveries have made it more difficult to present a universally agreed-upon list of dinosaurs' distinguishing features, nearly all dinosaurs discovered so far share certain modifications to the ancestral archosaurian skeleton. Although some later groups of dinosaurs featured further modified versions of these traits, they are considered typical across Dinosauria; the earliest dinosaurs had them and passed them on to all their descendants. Such common features across a taxonomic group are called synapomorphies.
Dinosaur synapomorphies include an elongated crest on the humerus, or upper arm bone, to accommodate the attachment of deltopectoral muscles; a shelf at the rear of the ilium, or main hip bone; a tibia, or shin bone, featuring a broad lower edge and a flange pointing out and to the rear; and an ascending projection on the astragalus, one of the ankle bones, which secures it to the tibia.

A variety of other skeletal features were shared by many dinosaurs. However, because they were either common to other groups of archosaurs or were not present in all early dinosaurs, these features are not considered to be synapomorphies. For example, as diapsid reptiles, dinosaurs ancestrally had two pairs of temporal fenestrae (openings in the skull behind the eyes), and as members of the diapsid group Archosauria, had additional openings in the snout and lower jaw. Additionally, several characteristics once thought to be synapomorphies are now known to have appeared before dinosaurs, or were absent in the earliest dinosaurs and independently evolved by different dinosaur groups. These include an elongated scapula, or shoulder blade; a sacrum composed of three or more fused vertebrae (three are found in some other archosaurs, but only two in are found in Herrerasaurus); and an acetabulum, or hip socket, with a hole at the center of its inside surface (closed in Saturnalia, for example). Another difficulty of determining distinctly dinosaurian features is that early dinosaurs and other archosaurs from the Late Triassic are often poorly known and were similar in many ways; these animals have sometimes been misidentified in the literature.

Dinosaurs stood erect in a manner similar to most modern mammals, but distinct from most other reptiles, whose limbs sprawl out to either side. Their posture was due to the development of a laterally-facing recess in the pelvis (usually an open socket) and a corresponding inwardly-facing distinct head on the femur. Their erect posture enabled dinosaurs to breathe easily while moving, which likely permitted stamina and activity levels that surpassed those of "sprawling" reptiles. Erect limbs probably also helped support the evolution of large size by reducing bending stresses on limbs. Some non-dinosaurian archosaurs, including rauisuchians, also had erect limbs but achieved this by a "pillar erect" configuration of the hip joint, where instead of having a projection from the femur insert on a socket on the hip, the upper pelvic bone was rotated to form an overhanging shelf.

Phylogenetic definition
Under phylogenetic taxonomy, dinosaurs are usually defined as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Triceratops and modern birds. It has also been suggested that Dinosauria be defined as all the descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Megalosaurus and Iguanodon, because these were two of the three genera cited by Richard Owen when he recognized the Dinosauria.
There is an almost universal consensus among paleontologists that birds are the descendants of theropod dinosaurs. Using the strict cladistical definition that all descendants of a single common ancestor are related, modern birds are dinosaurs and dinosaurs are, therefore, not extinct. Modern birds are classified by most paleontologists as belonging to the subgroup Maniraptora, which are coelurosaurs, which are theropods, which are saurischians, which are dinosaurs.

However, referring to birds as 'avian dinosaurs' and to all other dinosaurs as 'non-avian dinosaurs' is cumbersome. Birds are still referred to as birds, at least in popular usage and among ornithologists. It is also technically correct to refer to dinosaurs as a distinct group under the older Linnaean classification system, which accepts paraphyletic taxa that exclude some descendants of a single common ancestor. Paleontologists mostly use cladistics, which classifies birds as dinosaurs, but some biologists of the older generation do not.

ArchosaurWikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Archosaurs (Greek for 'ruling lizards') are a group of diapsid reptiles that is represented today by birds and crocodiles and which also included the dinosaurs.
There is some debate about when archosaurs first appeared. Those who classify the Permian reptiles Archosaurus rossicus and / or Protorosaurus speneri as true archosaurs maintain that archosaurs first appeared in the late Permian. Those who classify both Archosaurus rossicus and Protorosaurus speneri as archosauriformes (not true archosaurs but very closely related) maintain that archosaurs first evolved from Archosauriform ancestors during the Olenekian (early Triassic Period).

Distinguishing characteristics
The simplest and most widely-agreed synapomorphies of archosaurs are:

Teeth set in sockets, which makes them less likely to be torn loose during feeding. This feature is responsible for the name "thecodonts" ("socket teeth"), which paleontologists used to apply to all or most archosaurs.
Preorbital fenestrae (openings in the skull in front of the eyes but behind the nostrils), which reduced the weight of the skull, a useful feature since most early archosaurs had long, heavy skulls, rather like those of modern crocodilians. The preorbital fenestrae (sometimes called anteorbital fenestrae) are often larger than the orbits (eye sockets).
Mandibular fenestrae (small openings in the jaw bones), which may have reduced the weight of the jaw slightly.
A fourth trochanter (ridge for attaching muscles) on the femur. This seemingly insignificant detail may have made the evolution of dinosaurs possible (all early dinosaurs and many later ones were bipeds), and may also be connected with the ability of the archosaurs or their immediate ancestors to survive the catastrophic Permian-Triassic extinction event.

Archosaur takeover in the Triassic
Mammal-like reptiles were the dominant land vertebrates throughout the Permian, but most perished in the Permian-Triassic extinction event. Lystrosaurus (a herbivorous mammal-like reptile) was the only large land animal to survive the event, becoming the most populous land animal on the planet for a time.
But archosaurs quickly became the dominant land vertebrates in the early Triassic. The two most commonly-suggested explanations for this are:


Archosaurs made quicker progress than mammal-like reptiles towards erect limbs, and this gave them greater stamina by avoiding Carrier's constraint. This is unconvincing since Archosaurs became dominant while they still had sprawling or semi-erect limbs, similar to those of Lystrosaurus and other mammal-like reptiles.
The early Triassic was predominantly arid, because most of the earth's land was concentrated in the supercontinent Pangaea. Archosaurs were probably better at conserving water than mammal-like reptiles:
Modern diapsids (lizards, snakes, crocodilians, birds) excrete uric acid, which can be excreted as a paste. It is reasonable to suppose that archosaurs (diapsids and ancestors of crocodilians, dinosaurs and birds) also excreted uric acid, and therefore were good at conserving water. The aglandular (glandless) skins of diapsids would also have helped to conserve water.
Modern mammals excrete urea, which requires a lot of water to keep it dissolved. Their skins also contain many glands, which also lose water. Assuming that mammal-like reptiles had similar features, as argued e.g. in Palaeos , they were at a disadvantage in a mainly arid world. The same well-respected site points out that "for much of Australia's Plio-Pleistocene history, where conditions were probably similar, the largest terrestrial predators were not mammals but gigantic varanid lizards (Megalania) and land crocs."

Main types of archosaurs
Since the 1970s scientists have classified archosaurs mainly on the basis of their ankles. The earliest archosaurs had "primitive mesotarsal" ankles: the astragalus and calcaneum were fixed to the tibia and fibula by sutures and the joint bent about the contact between these bones and the foot.


The Crurotarsi appeared early in the Triassic. In their ankles the astragalus was joined to the tibia by a suture and the joint rotated round a peg on the astragalus which fitted into a socket in the calcaneum. Early "crurotarsans" still walked with sprawling limbs, but some later "crurotarsans" developed fully erect limbs (most notably the Rauisuchia). And modern crocodilians are "crurotarsans" which can walk with their limbs sprawling or erect depending on how much of a hurry they are in.


Euparkeria and the Ornithosuchidae had "reversed crurotarsal" ankles, with a peg on the calcaneum and socket on the astragalus.


The earliest fossils of Ornithodira ("bird necks") appear in the Carnian age of the late Triassic, but it is hard to see how they could have evolved from the "crurotarsans" - possibly they actually evolved much earlier, or perhaps they evolved from the last of the "primitive mesotarsal" archosaurs. Ornithodires' "advanced mesotarsal" ankle had a very large astragalus and very small calcaneum, and could only move in one plane, like a simple hinge. This arrangement was only suitable for animals with erect limbs, but provided more stability when the animals were running. The ornothodires differed from other archosaurs in other ways: they were lightly-built and usually small, their necks were long and had an S-shaped curve, their skulls were much more lightly built, and many ornothodires were completely bipedal. The archosaurian fourth trochanter on the femur may have made it easier for ornothodires to become bipeds, because it provided more leverage for the thigh muscles. In the late Triassic the ornithodires diversified to produce pterosaurs and dinosaurs.

DiapsidWikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Diapsids ("two arches") are a group of reptiles that developed two holes (temporal fenestra) in each side of their skulls, about 300 million years ago during the late Carboniferous period. Living diapsids are extremely diverse, and include all crocodiles, lizards, snakes, tuatara, and possibly even turtles. Under modern classification systems, even birds are considered diapsids, since they evolved from diapsid ancestors and are nested within the diapsid clade. While some diapsids have lost either one hole (lizards), or both holes (snakes), or even have a heavily restructured skull (modern birds), they are still classified as diapsids based on their ancestry. There are at least 7,925 species of diapsid reptile existing in environments around the world today (over 14,600 when birds are included).
Characteristics
The name Diapsida means "two arches", and diapsids are traditionally classified based on their two ancestral skull openings (or fenestrae) above and below the eye. This arrangement allows for the attachment of larger, stronger jaw muscles, and enables the jaw to open more widely. A more obscure ancestral characteristic is a relatively long lower arm bone (the radius), compared to the upper arm bone (humerus).
Systematics
Diapsids were originally classified as one of four subclasses of the class Reptilia, all of which were based on the number and arrangement of openings in the skull. The other three subclasses were Synapsida (one opening low on the skull, for the "mammal-like reptiles"), Anapsida (no skull opening, including turtles and their relatives), and Euryapsida (one opening high on the skull, including many prehistoric marine reptiles). With the advent of phylogenetic nomenclature, this system of classification was heavily modified. The Synapsids today are often not considered true reptiles, while the Euryapsida was found to be an unnatural assemblage of diapsids that had lost one of their skull openings. Some studies have suggested that this is the case in turtles as well, and that turtles are actually heavily modified diapsids, which would leave only some prehistoric forms in the Anapsida. In phylogenetic systems, birds (descendants of traditional diapsid reptiles) are also considered to be members of this group.
Well known extinct diapsid groups include the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, and many more obscure lineages. The classification of most of the early groups is fluid and subject to change.

Taxonomy

Subclass DIAPSIDA

Order Araeoscelidia
Order Avicephala
Order Thalattosauria
Order Younginiformes
Superorder Ichthyopterygia (ichthyosaurs)
Infraclass Lepidosauromorpha

Order Eolacertilia
Superorder Lepidosauria (tuatara, lizards, amphisbaenians and snakes)
Superorder Sauropterygia (plesiosaurs and relatives)
Infraclass Archosauromorpha

Order Aetosauria
Order Choristodera
Order Phytosauria
Order Prolacertiformes
Order Pterosauria
Order Rauisuchia
Order Rhynchosauria
Order Trilophosauria
Superorder Crocodylomorpha (crocodiles and extinct relatives)
Superorder Dinosauria

Phylogeny

Diapsida|--Araeoscelida |-?Sphodrosaurus |-?Palacrodon |-?Omphalosaurus
`--+--Avicephala `--Neodiapsida |--Apsisaurus `--Eosuchia |-?Younginiformes `--+-?Claudiosaurus |-?Ichthyopterygia `--Sauria |-?Thalattosauriformes |--Lepidosauromorpha `--Archosauromorpha

ReptileWikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Reptiles are air-breathing, cold-blooded vertebrates that have scaly bodies as opposed to hair or feathers; they represent an intermediate position in evolutionary development between amphibians and warm-blooded vertebrates, the birds and mammals. They are tetrapods and amniotes whose embryos are surrounded by an amniotic membrane, and members of the class Sauropsida inhabiting every continent with the exception of Antarctica. Today they are represented by four orders:

Crocodilia (crocodiles, gharials, caimans and alligators): 23 species
Sphenodontia (tuataras from New Zealand): 2 species
Squamata (lizards, snakes and amphisbaenids ("worm-lizards"): approximately 7,900 species
Testudines (turtles and tortoises): approximately 300 species
The majority of reptile species are oviparous (egg-laying) although certain species of squamates are capable of giving live birth. This is achieved, either through ovoviviparity (egg retention), or viviparity (offspring born without use of calcified eggs). Many of the viviparous species feed their fetuses through various forms of placenta analogous to those of mammals with some providing initial care for their hatchlings.

Classification
History of classification
From the classical standpoint, reptiles included all the amniotes except birds and mammals. Thus reptiles were defined as the set of animals that includes crocodiles, alligators, tuatara, lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians and turtles, grouped together as the class Reptilia (Latin repere, "to creep"). This is still the usual definition of the term. However, in recent years, many taxonomists have begun to insist that taxa should be monophyletic, that is, groups should include all descendants of a particular form. The reptiles as defined above would be paraphyletic, since they exclude both birds and mammals, although these also developed from the original reptile. Colin Tudge writes:


Mammals are a clade, and therefore the cladists are happy to acknowledge the traditional taxon Mammalia; and birds, too, are a clade, universally ascribed to the formal taxon Aves. Mammalia and Aves are, in fact, subclades within the grand clade of the Amniota. But the traditional class reptilia is not a clade. It is just a section of the clade Amniota: the section that is left after the Mammalia and Aves have been hived off. It cannot be defined by synamorphies, as is the proper way. It is instead defined by a combination of the features it has and the features it lacks: reptiles are the amniotes that lack fur or feathers. At best, the cladists suggest, we could say that the traditional Reptila are 'non-avian, non-mammalian amniotes'.

By the same token, the traditional class Amphibia becomes Amphibia*, because some ancient amphibian or other gave rise to all the amniotes; and the phylum Crustacea becomes Crustacea*, because it may have given rise to the insects and myriapods (centipedes and millipedes). If we believe, as some (but not all) zoologists do, that myriapods gave rise to insects, then they should be called Myriapoda*....by this convention Reptilia without an asterisk is synonymous with Amniota, and includes birds and mammals, whereas Reptilia* means non-avian, non-mammalian amniotes.
The terms "Sauropsida" ("Lizard Faces") and "Theropsida" ("Beast Faces") were coined in 1916 by E.S. Goodrich to distinguish between lizards, birds, and their relatives on one hand (Sauropsida) and mammals and their extinct relatives (Theropsida) on the other. This division is supported by the nature of the hearts and blood vessels in each group, and other features such as the structure of the forebrain. According to Goodrich both lineages evolved from an earlier stem group, the Protosauria ("First Lizards") which included some Paleozoic amphibians as well as early reptiles.

In 1956 D.M.S. Watson observed that the first two groups diverged very early in reptilian history, and so he divided Goodrich's Protosauria among them. He also reinterpreted the Sauropsida and Theropsida to exclude birds and mammals respectively. Thus his Sauropsida included Procolophonia, Eosuchia, Millerosauria, Chelonia (turtles), Squamata (lizards and snakes), Rhynchocephalia, Crocodilia, "thecodonts" (paraphyletic basal Archosauria), non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and sauropyterygians.

This classification supplemented, but was never as popular as, the classification of the reptiles (according to Romer's classic Vertebrate Paleontology) into four subclasses according to the positioning of temporal fenestrae, openings in the sides of the skull behind the eyes. Those divisions were:


Anapsida - no fenestrae
Synapsida - one low fenestra (no longer considered true reptiles)
Euryapsida - one high fenestra (now included within Diapsida)
Diapsida - two fenestrae
All of the above but Synapsida fall under Sauropsida.

Taxonomy
Classification to order level, after Benton, 2004.

Series Amniota

Class Synapsida

Order Pelycosauria*
Order Therapsida

Class Mammalia
Class Sauropsida

Subclass Anapsida

Order Testudines (turtles)
Subclass Diapsida

Order Araeoscelidia
Order Younginiformes
Infraclass Ichthyosauria
Infraclass Lepidosauromorpha

Superorder Sauropterygia

Order Placodontia
Order Nothosauroidea
Order Plesiosauria
Superorder Lepidosauria

Order Sphenodontida (tuatara)
Order Squamata (lizards & snakes)
Infraclass Archosauromorpha

Order Prolacertiformes
Division Archosauria

Subdivision Crurotarsi

Superorder Crocodylomorpha

Order Crocodylia
Subdivision Avemetatarsalia

Infradivision Ornithodira

Order Pterosauria
Superorder Dinosauria

Order Saurischia

Class Aves
Order Ornithischia

Phylogeny
The cladogram presented here illustrates the "family tree" of reptiles, and follows a simplified version of the relationships found by Laurin and Gauthier (1996), presented as part of the Tree of Life Web Project.

}} }} }}

|label2=Romeriida |2=
}}
}}
}}
}}
}}
}}
}}
Evolution
Hylonomus is the oldest-known reptile, and was about 8 to 12 inches (20 to 30 cm) long. Westlothiana has been suggested as the oldest reptile, but is for the moment considered to be more related to amphibians than amniotes. Petrolacosaurus and Mesosaurus are other examples. The earliest reptiles were found in the swamp forests of the Carboniferous, but were largely overshadowed by bigger labyrinthodont amphibians such as Proterogynrius. It was only after the small ice age at the end of the Carboniferous that the reptiles grew to big sizes, producing species such as Edaphosaurus and Dimetrodon.The first true "reptiles" (Sauropsids) are categorized as Anapsids, having a solid skull with holes only for nose, eyes, spinal cord, etc. Turtles are believed by some to be surviving Anapsids, as they also share this skull structure; but this point has become contentious lately, with some arguing that turtles reverted to this primitive state in order to improve their armor. Both sides have strong evidence, and the conflict has yet to be resolved.Shortly after the first reptiles, two branches split off, one leading to the Anapsids, which did not develop holes in their skulls. The other group, Diapsida, possessed a pair of holes in their skulls behind the eyes, along with a second pair located higher on the skull. The Diapsida split yet again into two lineages, the lepidosaurs (which contain modern snakes, lizards and tuataras, as well as, debatably, the extinct sea reptiles of the Mesozoic) and the archosaurs (today represented by only crocodilians and birds, but also containing pterosaurs and dinosaurs).The earliest, solid-skulled amniotes also gave rise to a separate line, the Synapsida. Synapsids developed a pair of holes in their skulls behind the eyes (similar to the diapsids), which were used to both lighten the skull and increase the space for jaw muscles. The synapsids eventually evolved into mammals, and are often referred to as mammal-like reptiles, though they are not true members of Sauropsida. (A preferable term is "stem-mammals".)

Systems
CirculatoryMost reptiles have closed circulation via a three-chamber heart consisting of two atria and one, variably-partitioned ventricle. There is usually one pair of aortic arches. In spite of this, because of the fluid dynamics of blood flow through the heart, there is little mixing of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood in the three-chamber heart. Furthermore, the blood flow can be altered to shunt either deoxygenated blood to the body or oxygenated blood to the lungs, which gives the animal greater control over its blood flow, allowing more effective thermoregulation and longer diving times for aquatic species. There are some interesting exceptions among reptiles. For instance, crocodilians have an anatomically four-chambered heart that is capable of becoming a functionally three-chamber heart during dives (Mazzotti, 1989 pg 47). Also, it has been discovered that some snake and lizard species (e.g., monitor lizards and pythons) have three-chamber hearts that become functional four-chamber hearts during contraction. This is made possible by a muscular ridge that subdivides the ventricle during ventricular diastole and completely divides it during ventricular systole. Because of this ridge, some of these squamates are capable of producing ventricular pressure differentials that are equivalent to those seen in mammalian and avian hearts (Wang et al, 2003).
Respiratory
All reptiles breathe using lungs. Aquatic turtles have developed more permeable skin, and some species have modified their cloaca to increase the area for gas exchange (Orenstein, 2001). Even with these adaptations, breathing is never fully accomplished without lungs. Lung ventilation is accomplished differently in each main reptile group. In squamates the lungs are ventilated almost exclusively by the axial musculature. This is also the same musculature that is used during locomotion. Because of this constraint, most squamates are forced to hold their breath during intense runs. Some, however, have found a way around it. Varanids, and a few other lizard species, employ buccal pumping as a complement to their normal "axial breathing." This allows the animals to completely fill their lungs during intense locomotion, and thus remain aerobically active for a long time. Tegu lizards are known to possess a proto-diaphragm, which separates the pulmonary cavity from the visceral cavity. While not actually capable of movement, it does allow for greater lung inflation, by taking the weight of the viscera off the lungs (Klein et al, 2003). Crocodilians actually have a muscular diaphragm that is analogous to the mammalian diaphragm. The difference is that the muscles for the crocodilian diaphragm pull the pubis (part of the pelvis, which is movable in crocodilians) back, which brings the liver down, thus freeing space for the lungs to expand. This type of diaphragmatic setup has been referred to as the "hepatic piston."How Turtles & Tortoises breathe has been the subject of much study. To date, only a few species have been studied thoroughly enough to get an idea of how turtles do it. The results indicate that turtles & tortoises have found a variety of solutions to this problem. The problem is that most turtle shells are rigid and do not allow for the type of expansion and contraction that other amniotes use to ventilate their lungs. Some turtles such as the Indian flapshell (Lissemys punctata) have a sheet of muscle that envelopes the lungs. When it contracts, the turtle can exhale. When at rest, the turtle can retract the limbs into the body cavity and force air out of the lungs. When the turtle protracts its limbs, the pressure inside the lungs is reduced, and the turtle can suck air in. Turtle lungs are attached to the inside of the top of the shell (carapace), with the bottom of the lungs attached (via connective tissue) to the rest of the viscera. By using a series of special muscles (roughly equivalent to a diaphragm), turtles are capable of pushing their viscera up and down, resulting in effective respiration, since many of these muscles have attachment points in conjunction with their forelimbs (indeed, many of the muscles expand into the limb pockets during contraction). Breathing during locomotion has been studied in three species, and they show different patterns. Adult female green sea turtles do not breathe as they crutch along their nesting beaches. They hold their breath during terrestrial locomotion and breathe in bouts as they rest. North American box turtles breathe continuously during locomotion, and the ventilation cycle is not coordinated with the limb movements (Landberg et al., 2003). They are probably using their abdominal muscles to breathe during locomotion. The last species to have been studied is red-eared sliders, which also breathe during locomotion, but they had smaller breaths during locomotion than during small pauses between locomotor bouts, indicating that there may be mechanical interference between the limb movements and the breathing apparatus. Box turtles have also been observed to breathe while completely sealed up inside their shells (ibid).Most reptiles lack a secondary palate, meaning that they must hold their breath while swallowing. Crocodilians have evolved a bony secondary palate that allows them to continue breathing while remaining submerged (and protect their brains from getting kicked in by struggling prey). Skinks (family Scincidae) also have evolved a bony secondary palate, to varying degrees. Snakes took a different approach and extended their trachea instead. Their tracheal extension sticks out like a fleshy straw, and allows these animals to swallow large prey without suffering from asphyxiation.
Excretory
Excretion is performed mainly by two small kidneys. In diapsids uric acid is the main nitrogenous waste product; turtles, like mammals, mainly excrete urea. Unlike the kidneys of mammals and birds, reptile kidneys are unable to produce liquid urine more concentrated than their body fluid. This is because they lack a specialized structure present in the nephrons of birds and mammals, called a Loop of Henle. Because of this, many reptiles use the colon to aid in the reabsorption of water. Some are also able to take up water stored in the bladder. Excess salts are also excreted by nasal and lingual salt-glands in some reptiles.
Nervous
The reptilian nervous system contains the same basic part of the amphibian brain, but the reptile cerebrum and cerebellum are slightly larger. Most typical sense organs are well developed with certain exceptions most notably the snakes lack of external ears (middle and inner ears are present). All reptilians have advanced visual depth perception compared to other animals.
There are twelve pairs of cranial nerves.
Reproductive
Most reptiles reproduce sexually, though some are capable of asexual reproduction. All reproductive activity occurs with the cloaca, the single exit/entrance at the base of the tail where waste is also eliminated. Tuataras lack copulatory organs, so the male and female simply press their cloacas together as the male excretes sperm. Most reptiles, however, have copulatory organs, which are usually retracted or inverted and stored inside the body. In turtles and crocodilians, the male has a single median penis, while squamtes including snakes and lizards possess a pair of hemipenes. Most reptiles lay amniotic eggs covered with leathery or calcareous shells. An amnion, chorion and allantois are present during embryonic life. There are no larval stages of development. Viviparity and ovovivparity have only evolved in Squamates, and a substantial fraction of the species utilize this mode of reprduction, including all boas and most vipers. The degree of viviparity varies: some species simply retain the eggs until just before hatching, others provide maternal nourishment to supplement the yolk, while still others lack any yolk and provide all nutrients via a placenta.

Asexual reproduction has been identified in squamates in six families of lizards and one snake. In some species of squamates, a population of females are able to produce a unisexual diploid clone of the mother. This asexual reproduction called parthenogenesis occurs in several species of gecko, and is particularly widespread in the teiids (especially Aspidocelis) and lacertids (Lacerta) In captivity Komodo dragons (varanidae) have reproduced by parthenogenesis.Parthenogenetic species are also suspected to occur among chameleons, agamids, xantusiids, and typhlopids.
Notes

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Heterokonts

Heterokont
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


The heterokonts or stramenopiles are a major line of eukaryotes presently containing about 10,500 known species. Most are algae, ranging from the giant multicellular kelp to the unicellular diatoms, which are a primary component of plankton. Other notable members of the Stramenopila include the (generally parasitic) oomycetes, including Phytophthora of Irish potato famine fame and Pythium which causes seed rot and damping off.

Chloroplasts
Heterokont algae are chromists with chloroplasts surrounded by four membranes, which are counted from the outermost to the innermost membrane. The first membrane is continuous with the host's chloroplast endoplasmic reticulum, or cER. The second membrane presents a barrier between the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum and the primary endosymbiont or chloroplast, which represents the next two membranes, within which the thylakoid membranes are found. This arrangement of membranes suggest that heterokont chloroplasts were obtained from the reduction of a symbiotic red algal eukaryote, which had arisen by evolutionary divergence from the monophyletic primary endosymbiotic ancestor that is thought to have given rise to all eukaryotic photoautotrophs. The chloroplasts characteristically contain chlorophyll a and chlorophyll c, and usually the accessory pigment fucoxanthin, giving them a golden-brown or brownish-green color.
Most basal heterokonts are colorless, suggesting they diverged before aqcuisition of chloroplasts within the group. However, fucoxanthin-containing chloroplasts are also found among the haptophytes, and evidence suggests that the two groups have a common ancestry, as well as possible a common phylogenetic history with cryptomonads. In this case the ancestral heterokont was an alga, and all colorless groups arose through loss of the secondary endosymbiont and hence its chloroplast.

Motile cells
Many heterokonts are unicellular flagellates, and most others produce flagellate cells at some point in their life-cycle, for instance as gametes or zoospores. The name heterokont refers to the characteristic form of these cells, which typically have two unequal flagella. The anterior or tinsel flagellum is covered with lateral bristles or mastigonemes, while the other flagellum is whiplash, smooth and usually shorter, or sometimes reduced to a basal body. The flagella are inserted subapically or laterally, and are usually supported by four microtubule roots in a distinctive pattern.
Mastigonemes are manufactured from glycoproteins in the cell's endoplasmic reticulum before being transported to its surface. When the tinsel flagellum moves, these create a backwards current, pulling the cell through the water or bringing in food. The mastigonemes have a peculiar tripartite structure, which may be taken as the defining characteristic of the group, thereby including a few protists that do not produce cells with the typical heterokont form. They have been lost in a few lines, most notably the diatoms.

Classification
As noted above, classification varies considerably. Originally the heterokont algae were treated as two divisions, first within the kingdom Plantae and later the Protista:
Division Chrysophyta
Class Chrysophyceae (golden algae)
Class Bacillariophyceae (diatoms)
Division Phaeophyta (brown algae)

In this scheme, however, the Chrysophyceae are paraphyletic to both other groups. As a result, various members have been given their own classes and often divisions. Recent systems often treat these as classes within a single division, called the Heterokontophyta, Chromophyta or Ochrophyta. This is not universal, however - for instance Round et al. treat the diatoms as a division.

The discovery that oomycetes and hypochytrids are related to these algae, rather than fungi as previously thought, has led many authors to include them among the heterokonts. Should it turn out that they evolved from colored ancestors, the group would be paraphyletic in their absence. Once again, however, usage varies. David J. Patterson named this extended group the stramenopiles, characterized by the presence of tripartite mastigonemes, mitochondria with tubular cristae, and open mitosis. He used the stramenopiles as a prototype for a classification without Linnaean ranks. Their composition has been essentially stable, but their use within ranked systems varies.

The origin of the name stramenopile is explained by Adl and coauthors:


Regarding the spelling of stramenopile, it was originally spelled stramenopile. The Latin word for ‘‘straw’’ is stramine-us, -a, -um, adj. [stramen], made of straw—thus, it should have been spelled straminopile. However, Patterson (1989) clearly stated that this is a common name (hence, lower case, not capitalized) and as a common name, it can be spelled as Patterson chooses. If he had stipulated that the name was a formal name, governed by rules of nomenclature, then his spelling would have been an orthogonal mutation and one would simply correct the spelling in subsequent publications (e.g. Straminopiles). But, it was not Patterson’s desire to use the term in a formal sense. Thus, if we use it in a formal sense, it must be formally described (and in addition, in Latin, if it is to be used botanically). However, and here is the strange part of this, many people liked the name, but wanted it to be used formally. So they capitalized the first letter, and made it Stramenopiles; others corrected the Latin spelling to Straminopiles.
Thomas Cavalier-Smith treats the heterokonts as identical in composition with the stramenopiles; this is the definition followed here. He has proposed placing them in a separate kingdom Chromalveolata, together with the haptophytes, cryptomonads and alveolates. This is one of the most common revisions to the five-kingdom system, but has not been generally adopted, partly because some biologists doubt their monophyly. A few treat the Chromalveolata as identical in composition with the heterokonts, or list them as a kingdom Stramenopila.

References
Further reading

Fletcher, R.L.1987. Seaweeds of the British Isles. Volume 3 Fucophyceae (Phaeophyceae) Part 1. British Museum (Natural History, London. ISBN 0 565 00992 3

External links

Tree of Life Web Project: Stramenopiles
Penn State University: Stramenopila (also Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta)

Opisthokonts

Unikont
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Unikont is a eukaryotic cell with a single flagellum, at least ancestrally. Current research suggests that a unikont was the ancestor of opisthokonts (animals, fungi and related forms) and Amoebozoa, and a bikont (a eukaryotic cell with two flagella) was the ancestor of Archaeplastida (plants and relatives), Excavata, Rhizaria, and Chromalveolata. The unikonts also have a triple-gene fusion that is lacking in the
bikonts, and a single centriole (Cavalier-Smith, 2002, 2006). (Some unikonts have two centrioles but their origins are developmentally different than in the bikonts, indicating convergent evolution (Cavalier-Smith 2006). The three genes that are fused together in the unikonts but not bacteria or bikonts encode enzymes for synthesis of the pyrimidine nucleotides: carbamoyl phosphate synthase, dihydroorotase, aspartate carbamoyltransferase (Cavalier-Smith 2006). This must have involved a double fusion, a rare pair of events, further supporting the shared ancestry of Opisthokonta and Amoebozoa.

References

Cavalier-Smith, Thomas (2002). "The phagotrophic origin of eukaryotes and phylogenetic classification of Protozoa". International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 52 (2): 297–354. Retrieved on 2007-06-08.

Cavalier-Smith, Thomas (2006). "Protist phylogeny and the high-level classification of Protozoa". European Journal of Protistology 39 (4): 338-348.

Stechmann, Alexandra; Cavalier-Smith, Thomas (2003). "The root of the eukaryote tree pinpointed". Current Biology 13 (17): R665-R666.

Opisthokont
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

The opisthokonts (Greek: οπίσθω- (opisthō-) = "rear, posterior" + κοντός (kontos) = "pole" i.e. flagellum) are a broad group of eukaryotes, including both the animal and fungus kingdoms, together with the phylum Choanozoa of the protist kingdom. Both genetic and ultrastructural studies strongly support that opisthokonts form a monophyletic group. One common characteristic is that flagellate cells, such as most animal sperm and chytrid spores, propel themselves with a single posterior flagellum. This gives the groups its name. In contrast, flagellate cells in other eukaryote groups propel themselves with one or more anterior flagella. The close relationship between animals and fungi was suggested by Cavalier-Smith in 1987, who used the informal name opisthokonta (the formal name has been used for the chytrids), and was confirmed by later genetic studies. Early phylogenies placed them near the plants and other groups that have mitochondria with flat cristae, but this character varies. Cavalier-Smith and Stechmann argue that the uniciliate eukaryotes such as opisthokonts and Amoebozoa, collectively called unikonts, split off from the
other biciliate eukaryotes, called bikonts, shortly after they evolved.

See also

Unikonts and bikonts
Choanozoa

References

Cavalier-Smith, T. (1987). Evolutionary biology of Fungi. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Wainwright, P.O.; et al. (1993). "Monophyletic origins of the metazoa: an evolutionary link with fungi". Science 260 340-342.
Stechmann, A.; Cavalier-Smith, T. (2002). "Rooting the eukaryote tree by using a derived gene fusion". Science 297 89–91.

Bikont
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

A Bikont is a eukaryotic cell with two flagella. Another shared trait of bikonts is the fusion of two genes into a single unit: the genes for thymidylate synthase (TS) and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) encode a single protein with two functions (Cavalier-Smith, 2006). The genes are separately translated in unikonts. Some research suggests that a unikont (a eukaryotic cell with a single flagellum) was the ancestor of opisthokonts (Animals, Fungi and related forms) and Amoebozoa, and a bikont was the ancestor of Archaeplastida (Plants and relatives), Excavata, Rhizaria, and Chromalveolata. Cavalier-Smith has suggested that Apusozoa, which are typically considered incertae sedis, are in fact bikonts.

References

Thomas Cavalier-Smith (2006). "Protist phylogeny and the high-level classification of Protozoa". European Journal of Protistology 39 (4): 338-348.

Alexandra Stechmann and Thomas Cavalier-Smith (2003). "The root of the eukaryote tree pinpointed". Current Biology 13 (17):

Choanozoa
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Choanozoa (Greek: χόανος (choanos) = "funnel" + ζῶον (zōon) = "animal") is the name of a phylum of protists that belongs to the line of opisthokonts. Most appear closer to the animals than to the fungi, and they are of great interest to biologists studying animal origins. The chytrids have also been included among the Protista, but are now more often placed among the Fungi. It has been suggested that the nucleariids are in fact a sister group to the fungi, and that the rest of the classes form a monophyletic or paraphyletic sister group to the animals.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Mostly Fish

Hagfish
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Hagfish are marine craniates of the class Myxini, also known as Hyperotreti. Myxini is the only class in the clade Craniata that does not also belong to the subphylum Vertebrata. Despite their name, there is some debate about whether they are strictly fish (as there is for lampreys), since they belong to a much more primitive lineage than any other group that is commonly defined fish (Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes). Their unusual feeding habits and slime-producing capabilities have led members of the scientific and popular media to dub the hagfish as the most "disgusting" of all sea creatures.

Chondrichthyes
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

myxine

noun
type genus of the Myxinidae (typical hagfishes)

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Myxine

\Myx"ine\, n. (Zo["o]l.) A genus of marsipobranchs, including the hagfish. See Hag, 4.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.


The Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fishes are jawed fish with paired fins, paired nostrils, scales, two-chambered hearts, and skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. They are divided into two subclasses: Elasmobranchii (sharks, rays and skates) and Holocephali (chimaera, sometimes called ghost sharks).

Osteichthyes are a taxonomic superclass of fish, also called bony fish that includes the ray-finned fish (Actinopterygii) and lobe finned fish (Sarcopterygii). The split between these two classes occurred around 440 mya.

In most classification systems the Osteichthyes are paraphyletic with land vertebrates. That means that the nearest common ancenstor of all Osteichthyes includes tetrapods amongst its descendants. Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish) are monophyletic, but the inclusion of Sarcopterygii in Osteichthyes causes Osteichthyes to be paraphyletic.

Most bony-fish belong to the Actinopterygii; there are only eight living species of lobe finned fish (Sarcopterygii) including the lungfish and coelacanths.(Some species of lobe-finned fish have jointed bones.)

They are traditionally treated as a class of vertebrates, with subclasses Actinopterygii and Sarcopterygii, but some newer schemes divide them into several separate classes.

The vast majority of fish are osteichthyes, and most of these are fit for human consumption. Osteichthyes are the most various group of vertebrates, consisting of over 29,000 species, making them the largest class of vertebrates in existence today.

Teleostomi
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Teleostomi is a clade of jawed vertebrates that includes the tetrapods, bony fish, and the wholly extinct acanthodian fish. Key characters of this group include an operculum and a single pair of respiratory openings, features which were lost or modified in some later representatives. The teleostomes include all jawed vertebrates except the chondrichthyans and the placoderms.

The clade Teleostomi should not be confused with the similar-sounding fish clade Teleostei.

Taxonomy and phylogeny
Subphylum Vertebrata
+-(unranked) Gnathostomatomorpha
+-Infraphylum Gnathostomata
+-Class Placodermi
- extinct (armored gnathostomes)
+Microphylum Eugnathostomata (true jawed vertebrates)
+-Class Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish)
+-(unranked) Teleostomi (Acanthodii & Osteichthyes)
+-Class Acanthodii - extinct ("spiny sharks")
+Superclass Osteichthyes (bony fish)
+ +-Class Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
+ +-Class Sarcopterygii (lobe-finned fish)
+Superclass Tetrapoda
+-Class Amphibia (amphibians)
+(unranked) Amniota (amniotic egg)
+-Class Sauropsida (reptiles or sauropsids)
+-Class Aves (birds)
+-Class Synapsida
+-Class Mammalia (mammals) Note: lines show evolutionary relationships.

Teleostei is one of three infraclasses in class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes. This diverse group, which arose in the Triassic period , includes 20,000 extant species in about 40 orders. The other two infraclasses, Holostei and Chondrostei, are paraphyletic.


DICTIONARY
Hyperotreti

Hyperotreta \Hy`per*o*tre"ta\, n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. ? the plate + ? perforated.] (Zo["o]l.) An order of marsipobranchs, including the Myxine or hagfish and the genus Bdellostoma. They have barbels around the mouth, one tooth on the plate, and a communication between the nasal aperture and the throat. See Hagfish. [Written also Hyperotreti.]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

gnathostomata

noun
comprising all vertebrates with upper and lower jaws

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Gnathostomata

Gnathostoma \Gna*thos"to*ma\, n. pl. [NL., from Gr. ? the jaw + ?, ?, the mouth.] (Zo["o]l.) A comprehensive division of vertebrates, including all that have distinct jaws, in contrast with the leptocardians and marsipobranchs (Cyclostoma), which lack them. [Written also Gnathostomata.]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.


Teleostomi

\Te"le*os`to*mi\, n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. ? complete + ? mouth.] (Zo["o]l.) An extensive division of fishes including the ordinary fishes (Teleostei) and the ganoids.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.


Os·te·ich·thy·es /??sti'?k?i?iz/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[os-tee-ik-thee-eez] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun the class comprising the bony fishes.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: < NL < Gk osté(on) bone (see oste-) + ichthýes fish (pl. of ichthy¯´s)]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This osteichthyes

noun
a class of fish having a skeleton composed of bone in addition to cartilage

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

chondrichthyes

noun
cartilaginous fishes

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: Chon·drich·thy·es
Pronunciation: kän-'drik-thE-"Ez
Function: noun plural
: a class comprising cartilaginous fishes with well-developed jaws and including the sharks, skates, rays, chimeras, and extinct related forms —compare CYCLOSTOMATA

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.

cyclostomata

noun
primitive jawless aquatic vertebrate: lampreys; hagfishes

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: Cy·clo·sto·ma·ta
Pronunciation: "sI-klO-'stO-m&t-&, "sik-lO-, -'stäm-&t-&
Function: noun plural
: a class or other taxon of primitive vertebrates that have a large jawless sucking mouth, no limbs or paired fins, a wholly cartilaginous skeleton with persistent notochord, and 6 to 14 pairs of gill pouches and that include the lampreys and the hagfishes —compare CHONDRICHTHYES

Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Cyclostomata

\Cy`clo*stom"a*ta\ (s?`kl?-st?m"?-t?), Cyclostoma\Cy*clos"to*ma\ (s?-kl?s"t?-m?), n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. ky`klos circle + sto`ma, -atos mouth.] (Zo["o]l.) A division of Bryozoa, in which the cells have circular apertures.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

sarcopterygian (sär-kop't?-rij'e-?n) Pronunciation Key
See lobe-finned fish.

ac·ti·nop·te·ryg·i·an /?ækt??n?pt?'r?d?i?n/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ak-tuh-nop-tuh-rij-ee-uhn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. belonging or pertaining to the Actinopterygii, a group of bony fishes.
–noun 2. an actinopterygian fish.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: < NL Actinopterygi(i) (pl.) (actino- actino- + Gk pterýgi(on) fin, equiv. to pteryg- (s. of ptéryx wing) + -ion dim. suffix) + -an]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Marsipobranch

\Mar"si*po*branch`\, n. (Zo["o]l.) One of the Marsipobranchia.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Marsipobranchia

\Mar"si*po*bran"chi*a\, n. pl. [NL., fr. Gr. ? a pouch + ? a gill.] (Zo["o]l.) A class of Vertebrata, lower than fishes, characterized by their purselike gill cavities, cartilaginous skeletons, absence of limbs, and a suckerlike mouth destitute of jaws. It includes the lampreys and hagfishes. See Cyclostoma, and Lamprey. Called also Marsipobranchiata, and Marsipobranchii.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

elasmobranchii

noun
sharks; rays; dogfishes; skates

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry: Elas·mo·bran·chii
Pronunciation: i-"laz-m&-'bra[ng]-kE-"I
Function: noun plural
synonym of CHONDRICHTHYES

holocephali

noun
chimaeras and extinct forms

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Holocephali

\Hol`o*ceph"a*li\, n. pl. [NL., from Gr. "o`los whole + ? head.] (Zo["o]l.) An order of elasmobranch fishes, including, among living species, only the chim[ae]ras; -- called also Holocephala. See Chim[ae]ra; also Illustration in Appendix.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Acanthostega

Acanthostega
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Acanthostega is an extinct tetrapod genus, among the first vertebrate animals to have recognizable limbs. It appeared in the Upper Devonian (Famennian) about 360 million years ago, and was anatomically intermediate between lobe-finned fishes and the first tetrapods fully capable of coming onto land.

Description
It had eight digits on each hand and foot linked by webbing, it lacked wrists, and was generally poorly adapted to come onto land. Acanthostega also had a remarkably fish-like shoulder and forelimb. The front foot of Acanthostega could not bend forward at the elbow, and thus could not be brought into a weight-bearing position, appearing to be more suitable for paddling or for holding on to aquatic plants. It had lungs, but its ribs were too short to give support to its chest cavity out of water, and it also had gills which were internal and covered like those of fish, not external and naked like those of some modern amphibians which are almost wholly aquatic.

Therefore, paleontologists surmise that it probably lived in shallow, weed-choked swamps, the legs having evolved for some other purpose than walking on land. Jennifer A. Clack interprets this as showing that this was primarily an aquatic creature descended from fish that had never left the sea, and that tetrapods had evolved features which later proved useful for terrestrial life, rather than crawling onto land and then gaining legs and feet as had previously been surmised. At that period, for the first time, deciduous plants were flourishing and annually shedding leaves into the water, attracting small prey into warm oxygen-poor shallows that were difficult for larger fish to swim in. Clack remarks on how the lower jaw of Acanthostega shows a change from the jaws of fish which have two rows of teeth, with a large number of small teeth in the outer row, and two large fangs and some small teeth in the inner row. It differs, having a small number of larger teeth in the outer row and smaller teeth in the inner row, and she suggests that this change probably went with a shift in early tetrapods from feeding exclusively in water to feeding with the head above water or on land.

Research based on analysis of the suture morphology in its skull indicates that the species may have bitten directly on prey at or near the water's edge. Markey and Marshall compared the skull with the skulls of fish, which use suction feeding as the primary method of prey capture, and creatures known to have used the direct biting on prey typical of terrestrial animals. Their results indicate that Acanthostega was adapted for what they call terrestrial-style feeding, strongly supporting the hypothesis that the terrestrial mode of feeding first emerged in aquatic animals. If correct, this shows an animal specialized for hunting and living in shallow waters in the line between land and water.

Discovery
The fossilized remains are generally well preserved, with the famous fossil by which the significance of this species was discovered being found by Jennifer A. Clack in East Greenland in 1987, though fragments of the skull had been discovered in 1933 by Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh and Erik Jarvik.
Related species


Acanthostega is seen as part of widespread speciation in the late Devonian period, starting with purely aquatic lobe-finned fish, with their successors showing increased air breathing capability and related adaptions to the jaws and gills, as well as more muscular neck allowing freer movement of the head than fish have, and use of the fins to raise the body of the fish. These features are displayed by the earlier Tiktaalik, which like the Ichthyostega living around the same time as Acanthostega showed signs of greater abilities to move around on land, but is thought to have been primarily aquatic.
Sources

http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Acanthostega&contgroup=Terrestrial_Vertebrates
http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Units/150Tetrapoda/150.150.html#Acanthostega
http://faculty.uca.edu/~benw/biol4402/lecture8c/sld004.htm
http://gatito.valdosta.edu/fossil_pages/fossils_dev/a1.html
http://faculty.evansville.edu/de3/b39903/PDFs/12_Land_InvasionII.pdf
http://www.wfiu.indiana.edu/amos/library/scripts/acanthostega.html
http://theclacks.org.uk/jac/acanthostega.htm



Ichthyostega
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Ichthyostega (Greek: "fish roof") is an early tetrapod genus that lived in the Upper Devonian (Famennian) period, 367-362.5 million years ago, and the first to intermediate between fish and amphibians. Ichthyostega had legs but its limbs probably weren't used for walking as once believed, but were used instead to negotiate its way through the swamps of the time. It is sometimes referred to as an "amphibian", but it is not a true member. The first true amphibians appeared in the Carboniferous period.

History and systematics
In 1932 Gunnar Säve-Söderbergh described four Ichthyostega species from the Upper Devonian of East Greenland and one species belonging to the genus Ichthyostegopsis, I. wimani. These species could be synonymous (in which case only I. stensioei would remain), because their morphological differences are not very pronounced. The species differ in skull proportions, skull punctuation and skull bone patterns. The comparisons were done on 14 specimens collected in 1931 by the Danish East Greenland Expedition. Additional specimens were collected between 1933 and 1955.

The genus is closely related to Acanthostega gunnari, also from East Greenland. Ichthyostega's skull seems more fish-like than that of Acanthostega, but its girdle (shoulder and hip) morphology seems stronger and better adapted to land-life. Ichthyostega also had more supportive ribs and stronger vertebrae with more developed zygapophyses. The first tetrapods (who probably didn't walk on land) were Elginerpeton and Obruchevichthys.

Characteristics
Ichthyostega was about 1.5 meter long or 5 feet long and had seven digits on each hind foot. The exact number of digits on the hand is not yet known, but was probably about the same as on the foot. It had a fin containing fin rays on its tail.
Adaptations for land-life
Primitive tetrapods like Ichthyostega and Acanthostega differed from animals like Crossopterygians (for instance Eusthenopteron or Panderichthys) in that although Crossopterygians had lungs, they used their gills as the primary means of acquiring oxygen. Ichthyostega probably used lungs as its primary means of breathing. Primitive tetrapods had a special type of skin that helped them retain bodily fluids and deter desiccation, whereas Crossopterygians did not. Moreover, Crossopterygians used their body and tail to move about and their fins for balance while, Ichthyostega instead used its limbs for locomotion and its tail for balance.
The adult animals were so big and heavy (1.5 m or 4 ft) and poorly adapted for terrestrial locomotion that there probably wouldn't have been much benefit to their being on land. However, the massive ribcage is made up of overlapping ribs -- and compared to their ancestors, the body has a stronger skeletal structure, a more advanced spine, and forelimbs with possibly enough power to pull the body from the water. These anatomical modifications are clearly evolved to handle the lack of buoyancy experienced on land. The hindlimbs were smaller and so weak they couldn't have been able to bear the weight of an adult. Jennifer A. Clack suggests that Ichthyostega and relatives were spending time basking in the sun to raise their temperature, perhaps adopting a similar lifestyle to that of the Marine Iguana on Galapagos, seals or the Gharial -- mostly returning to water for food, to drink, to reproduce, or to cool down. In that case, they would need strong forelimbs to pull at least their anterior part out of the water, and a stronger ribcage and spine to support them while sunbathing on their abdomen like modern crocodiles. The juveniles, on the other hand, would have been able to move around on land much more easily.

Water was also still a requirement, because the gel-like eggs of the earliest terrestrial tetrapods couldn't survive out of water, so reproduction could not occur without it. Water was also needed for their larvae and external fertilization. Most land-dwelling vertebrates have since developed two methods of internal fertilization; either direct as seen in all amniotes and a few amphibians, or indirect for many salamanders by placing a spermatophore on the ground which then is picked up by the female salamander.

Ichthyostegoids (Elginerpeton, Acanthostega, Ichthyostega, etc.) were "succeeded" by temnospondyls and anthracosaurs, such as Eryops, an amphibian that truly developed the ability to walk on land. There is a gap of 20-30 million years between both groups. This gap, a classic in vertebrate paleontology, is known as Romer's Gap, after the American paleontologist Alfred Sherwood Romer. In 2002 a 350 million year old fossil named Pederpes finneyae was found. The ages, and relationship to other species is of course only an educated guess.

See also

Prehistoric amphibian
Prehistoric life

External links

Excellent site on early tetrapods
Course site
Course site
First Four-Legged Animals Inched Along
Getting a Leg Up on Land Scientific American Nov. 21, 2005, article by Jennifer A. Clack.

References

Blom, H. (2005) — Taxonomic Revision Of The Late Devonian Tetrapod Ichthyostega from East Greenland. Palaeontology, 48, Part 1:111–134
Westenberg, K. (1999) — From Fins to Feet. National Geographic, 195, 5:114–127


Eusthenopteron
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Eusthenopteron was a genus of lobe-finned fish which has attained an iconic status from its close relationships to tetrapods. Early depictions of this animal show it emerging onto land, however paleontologists now widely agree that it was a pelagic animal. The genus Eusthenopteron is known from several species that lived during the Late Devonian period, about 385 million years ago. Eusthenopteron was first described by J. F. Whiteaves in 1881, as part of a large collection of fishes from Miguasha, Quebec.

Anatomically, Eusthenopteron shares many unique features in common with the earliest known tetrapods. It shares a similar pattern of skull rooting bones with forms such as Ichthyostega and Acanthostega. Eusthenopteron, like other tetrapodomorph fishes, had internal nostrils, (or a choana) which are found only in land animals and sarcopterygians. It also had labyrinthodont teeth, characterized by infolded enamel, which characterizes all of the earliest known Tetrapods as well. Like other basal sarcopterygians, Eusthenopteron possessed a two-part cranium, which hinged at mid-length along an intracranial joint. Eusthenopteron's notoriety comes from the pattern of its fin endoskeleton, which bears a distinct humerus, ulna, and radius (in the fore-fin) and femur, tibia, and fibula (in the pelvic fin). This is the characteristic pattern seen in tetrapods. It is now known to be a general character of fossil sarcopterygian fins.


Eusthenopteron differs significantly from later Carboniferous tetrapods in the apparent absence of a recognized larval stage and a definitive metamorphosis. In even the smallest known specimen of Eusthenopteron foordi (at 29 mm), the lepidotrichia cover all of the fins, which does not happen until after metamorphosis in genera like Polyodon. This might indicate that Eusthenopteron developed directly, with the hatchling already attaining the general body form of the adult (Cote et. al, 2002).

See also

Tiktaalik, an even more tetrapod-like sarcopterygian.
Gogonasus

Panderichthys
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Panderichthys is a 90–130 cm long fish from the Late Devonian period (Frasnian epoch) of Latvia. It has a large tetrapod-like head. Panderichthys exhibits transitional features between lobe-finned fishes and early tetrapods such as Acanthostega. The evolution from fish to land dwelling tetrapods required many changes in physiology, most importantly the legs and their supporting structure, the girdles. Well preserved fossils of Panderichthys clearly show these transitional forms, making Panderichthys a rare and important find in the history of life.


Fish like Panderichthys were the ancestors of the first tetrapods, air-breathing, terrestrial animals from which the land vertebrates, including humans, are descended. The most notable characteristic of Panderichthys was its spiracle, a vertical tube used to breathe water through the top of its head, while its body was submerged in mud. This spiracle is a transitional organ that led, through evolution, to the development of the stirrup bone, one of the three bones (stirrup, hammer, and anvil) in the human middle ear.

Elpistostege
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Elpistostege is an extinct genus of tetrapod-like fish that lived in the Late Devonian period (Late Givetian to Early Frasnian). Fossils of skull and a part of the backbone have been found at Escuminac Formation in Quebec, Canada.

External links

Elpistostege at Palaeos
History of Elpistostege

Tiktaalik
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source


Tiktaalik is a genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fish from the late Devonian period, with many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals) . It is an example from several lines of ancient sarcopterygian fish developing adaptations to the oxygen-poor shallow-water habitats of its time , which led to the evolution of amphibians. Well preserved fossils were found in 2004 on Ellesmere Island in Nunavut, Canada.

Tiktaalik lived approximately 375 million years ago. Paleontologists suggest that it was an intermediate form between fish such as Panderichthys, which lived about 385 million years ago, and early tetrapods such as Acanthostega and Ichthyostega, which lived about 365 million years ago. Its mixture of fish and tetrapod characteristics led one of its discoverers, Neil Shubin, to characterize Tiktaalik as a "fishapod" .

Description
Tiktaalik appears to be a transitional form between fish and amphibian. Unlike many previous, more fishlike transitional fossils, Tiktaalik 'fins' have basic wrist bones and simple fingers, showing that they were weight bearing. Close examination of the joints show that although they probably were not used to walk, they were more than likely used to prop up the creature’s body, much like a pushup action. The bones of the fore fins show large muscle facets, suggesting that the fin was both muscular and had the ability to flex like a wrist joint. These wrist-like features were speculated to evolve, if not from land excursions, then as a useful adaptation to anchor the creature to the bottom in fast moving current.

A more robust ribcage is also a feature of Tiktaalik, which would have been very helpful in supporting the animal’s body if it did indeed venture from the water. Tiktaalik also lacked a characteristic that most fishes have - bony plates in the gill area that restrict lateral head movement. This means Tiktaalik is currently the earliest fish with a neck, which would give it more freedom in hunting prey either on land or in the shallows.

Also notable are the spiracles on the top of the head, which suggest the creature had primitive lungs as well as gills. This would have been useful in shallow water, where higher water temperature would lower oxygen content. This development may have led to the evolution of a more robust ribcage, a key evolutionary trait of land living creatures.


Tiktaalik is a transitional fossil; it is to tetrapods what Archaeopteryx is to birds.

Its mixture of both fish and tetrapod characteristics include these traits:


Fish

fish gills
fish scales
"Fishapod"

half-fish, half-tetrapod limb bones and joints, including a functional wrist joint and radiating, fish-like fins instead of toes
half-fish, half-tetrapod ear region

Tetrapod

tetrapod rib bones
tetrapod mobile neck
tetrapod lungs

Tiktaalik generally had the characteristics of a lobe-finned fish, but with front fins featuring arm-like skeletal structures more akin to a crocodile, including a shoulder, elbow, and wrist. The rear fins and tail have not yet been found. It had rows of sharp teeth of a predator fish, and its neck was able to move independently of its body, which is not possible in other fish. The animal also had a flat skull resembling a crocodile's; eyes on top of its head, suggesting it spent a lot of time looking up; a neck and ribs similar to those of tetrapods, with the latter being used to support its body and aid in breathing via lungs; well developed jaws suitable for catching prey; and a small gill slit called a spiracle that, in more derived animals, became an ear .

The fossils were found in the "Fram Formation", deposits of meandering stream systems near the Devonian equator, suggesting a benthic animal that lived on the bottom of shallow waters and perhaps even out of the water for short periods, with a skeleton indicating that it could support its body under the force of gravity whether in very shallow water or on land . At that period, for the first time, deciduous plants were flourishing and annually shedding leaves into the water, attracting small prey into warm oxygen-poor shallows that were difficult for larger fish to swim in. The discoverers said that in all likelihood, Tiktaalik flexed its proto-limbs primarily on the floor of streams and may have pulled itself onto the shore for brief periods . Neil Shubin and Ted Daeschler, the leaders of the team, have been searching Ellesmere Island for fossils since 1999. In an interview, Ted Daeschler stated that "we're making the hypothesis that this animal was specialized for living in shallow stream systems, perhaps swampy habitats, perhaps even to some of the ponds. And maybe occasionally, using its very specialized fins, for moving up overland. And that's what is particularly important here. The animal is developing features which will eventually allow animals to exploit land.

The name Tiktaalik is an Inuktitut word meaning "burbot", a shallow-water fish. The "fishapod" genus received this name after a suggestion by Inuit elders of Canada's Nunavut Territory, where the fossil was discovered .

Discovery
The three fossilized Tiktaalik skeletons were discovered in rock formed from late Devonian river sediments on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, in northern Canada. At the time of the species' existence, Ellesmere Island was part of the Laurentia continent, which was centered on the equator and had a warm climate.

The remarkable find was made by a paleontologist who noticed the skull sticking out of a cliff. On further inspection, the ancient animal was found to be in fantastic shape for a 383-million-year-old specimen .

The discovery was published in the April 6 2006 issue of Nature and quickly recognized as a classic example of a transitional form. Jennifer A. Clack, a Cambridge University expert on tetrapod evolution, said of Tiktaalik, "It's one of those things you can point to and say, 'I told you this would exist,' and there it is." According to a New Scientist article,

"After five years of digging on Ellesmere Island, in the far north of Nunavut, they hit pay dirt: a collection of several fish so beautifully preserved that their skeletons were still intact. As Shubin's team studied the species they saw to their excitement that it was exactly the missing intermediate they were looking for. 'We found something that really split the difference right down the middle,' says Daeschler."
Images: casts of Tiktaalik fossils
See also
Other lobe-finned fish found in fossils from the Devonian period:

Eusthenopteron
Panderichthys
Ichthyostega
Coelacanth
Gogonasus

References
External links

University of Chicago website dedicated to the discovery
Associated Press, Fossil shows how fish made the leap to land, Apr. 5, 2006.
Alok Jha, The Guardian, Discovered: the missing link that solves a mystery of evolution, Apr. 6, 2006.
BBC news, Arctic fossils mark move to land, Apr. 5, 2006.
NewsHour, Fossil Discovery, April 6, 2006. (Interview with Ted Daeschler)
Quirks and Quarks, Missing Link Fish Fossil, April 8, 2006. (Interview with Ted Daeschler)
Time Magazine, "Our Cousin the Fishapod", April 10,2006
Science Museum (London), "Fish fingers: how our limbs came from fins" April 6, 2006.
Harvard Gazette Missing link crawls out of muck
Video interview with Neil Shubin Tiktaalik: Fish out of Water
Video Building Tiktaalik



Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday January 03, 2008 at 17:33:13 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation