Posts treating: "Mammalia"
Thursday, 21 May 2015
The Disillusioned Taxonomist [2015-05-21 19:53:00]
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(244 visits) 
US,LI,NI,CA
Here's a selection of photographs from my visit to Toronto Zoo in June 2014. All photographs taken at Toronto Zoo, Ontario, Canada by Mo Hassan. Those not in captivity are indicated in the caption, otherwise it's safe to assume they are captive.Wild North American red squirrelTamiasciurus hudsonicus (Erxleben, 1777)Sciuridae; Rodentia; Mammalia; ChordataGiant pandaAiluropoda melanoleuca (David, 1869)Ursidae; Carnivora; Mammalia; ChordataHuon, or Matschie's, tree kangarooDendrolagus [...]
There are a few wildlife parks and zoos that specialise in one sort of animal or habitat or another. Many of these are among my favourite institutions in the UK: I've blogged about Crocodiles of the World in Oxfordshire (here), which holds over half of the world's crocodilian species. There is Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent which specialises in wild cats, and of course the nine Wildfowl and Wetland Trust reserves in the UK, which specialise in ducks, geese, swans, screamers, and [...]
The Disillusioned Taxonomist [2015-03-29 20:36:00]
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(143 visits) GB,,AU,LK,MG
Welcome back, here are some more photos taken at London Zoo last April.Atlantic mudskipperPeriophthalmus barbarus (Linnaeus, 1766)Gobiidae; Perciformes; Actinopterygii; ChordataMade famous by that Guinness advert, which makes out we all came from mudskippers, which is obviously not true. Mudskippers are specialised gobies that live in tropical mangroves, where water level fluctuates throughout the day, often leaving these fish stranded on land. They can "skip" using their pectoral fins, [...]
I have a new paper out today in PeerJ: “Ecological correlates to cranial morphology in leporids (Mammalia, Lagomorpha)”, with coauthors Brian Kraatz, Emma Sherratt, and Nick Bumacod. Get it free here. I know, I know, I have fallen from grace. First Aquilops, now rabbits. And, and…skulls! I know what you’re thinking: that maybe I’m not just
I've been visiting Paradise Wildlife Park in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, since I was an ickle kid. It has always been one of my favourite zoos, with some unusual animals you wouldn't usually seen in zoos. It remains the only place where I have seen the very rare Owston's civets, for example.Eurasian nuthatchSitta europaea caesia Wolf, 1810Sittidae; Passeriformes; Aves; ChordataWild at Paradise Wildlife Park, Hertfordshire; March 2014The Park is set in woodland, attracting various wild birds. I [...]
I thought I'd resuscitate this blog with some photo essays of memorable places I've been in 2014. The first of these is RSPB Rye Meads in Hoddesdon, east Hertfordshire. I have been visiting this nature reserve since 2006, and since it is my closest RSPB reserve now that I live in east Herts, I visit fairly regularly.Rye Meads is a wetland reserve part owned by RSPB and Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, and is close to London, with trains from Liverpool Street stopping at Rye House station, a [...]
New Specimens of the Rare Taeniodont Wortmania (Mammalia: Eutheria) from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Comments on the Phylogeny and Functional Morphology of “Archaic” Mammals
Authors:
Thomas E. Williamson and Stephen L. Brusatte
Abstract:
Background
Taeniodonta is a clade of Late Cretaceous – Paleogene mammals remarkable for their relatively extreme cranial,
New Hypsodont Tillodont (Mammalia, Tillodontia) from the Early Eocene of India
Authors:
1. Kenneth D. Rose (a)
2. Kishor Kumar (b)
3. Rajendra S. Rana (c)
4. Ashok Sahni (d)
5. Thierry Smith (e)
Affiliations:
a. Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA
b. Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology,
Some time last fall I sat down and sketched out a drawing of Remingtonocetus, after Bajpai et al. (2011) was published. This new study described a new, nearly complete (and beautifully preserved) skull of Remingtonocetus harudiensis from India. The remingtonocetids are possible one of the only monophyletic groups of archaeocetes, and all appear to be relatively small-bodied, with ridiculously big heads and long rostra, very tiny and dorsally placed orbits, heterodont dentitions, and long tails. [...]
After the SVPCA conference in Lyme Regis ended, I decided to visit a tiny but amazingly well-stocked little zoo about ten minutes away from the town by car. Despite this, the zoo is in Devon, while Lyme is in Dorset. Obviously, although it had escaped my attention, Lyme is very close to the border between the two counties.Anyway, I arrived too early to get entry to Axe Valley Bird and Animal Park, near the town of Axminster in, as we have already established, Devon (albeit almost in Dorset). [...]
It’s been quite a while since my last post. A lot has been going on, mostly research-related, which is good. Just last week I was in San Diego where I participated in the Sixth Triennial Conference of Secondary Adaptation of Tetrapods to Life in Water held at San Diego State University. The meeting was a great opportunity to see colleagues as well as making new acquaintances, hat tip to the host committee: Annalisa Berta, Tom Deméré and Eric Ekdale for such a great meeting! The week before [...]
Non Triassic per se but still relevent and extremely cool and important...
Meng, J., Wang, Y., and C. Li. 2011. Transitional mammalian middle ear from a new Cretaceous Jehol eutriconodont. Nature 472:181-185. doi:10.1038/nature09921
Abstract - The transference of post-dentary jaw elements to the cranium of mammals as auditory ossicles is one of the central topics in evolutionary biology
Los más asiduos a Aragosaurus, sabéis que además de los dinosaurios, le damos duro a las asociaciones de mamiferos del Mesozoico de España, especialmente en Teruel. Se trata de un grupo complicado y cuyos restos son extremadamente escasos. Para los frikis que quieran hacerse una biblioteca de mamíferos del Mesozoico, os dejamos una referencia clásica. Se trata del American Mesozoic Mammalia de Simpson. Un auténtico clásico.Se puede descargar en Open Library
Fin whale skull (and rest of skeleton)Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758)Balaenopteridae; Cetartiodactyla; Mammalia; ChordataCambridge Zoology Museumphotograph taken June 2008The answer to the question I posed a month ago now, that is. That 'fossilised leather belt' is actually a preserved part of the aorta of the very same fin whale whose more anterior bones you can see above. The whale washed up in Sussex on the south coast of England in 1865 (see the University of Cambridge's page about [...]
Liu, J., and P. Olsen. 2010. The Phylogenetic Relationships of Eucynodontia (Amniota: Synapsida). Journal of Mammalian Evolution. Published online April 13 2010. doi: 10.1007/s10914-010-9136-8
Abstract - The phylogeny of Eucynodontia is an important topic in vertebrate paleontology and is the foundation for understanding the origin of mammals. However, consensus on the phylogeny of
The sweet spot of a biological hammer: the centre of percussion of glyptodont (Mammalia: Xenarthra) tail clubs. 2009. R. Ernesto Blanco, et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 167: 3971-3978.imageAbstract: The importance of the centre of percussion (CP) of some hand-held sporting equipment (such as tennis rackets and baseball bats) for athletic performance is well known. In order to avoid injuries it
Another virtual point goes to J. Velez-Juarbe for guessing that the skull belongs to a caenolestid.Dusky shrew opossumCaenolestes fuliginosus Tomes, 1863Caenolestidae; Paucituberculata; Mammalia; ChordataCambridge Zoology MuseumJune 2008The caenolestids, shrew opossums, rat opossums, or flap-lips (!) are a family of three extant genera (Caenolestes, Lestoros and Rhyncholestes) in their own order of marsupials, the Paucituberculata. Shrew opossums, as I prefer to call them, are restricted to [...]
You've done it again! Indeed, the skull from the previous post has been correctly identified by J. Velez-Juarbe:Ganges river dolphinPlatanista gangetica (Lebeck, 1801)Platanistidae; Cetartiodactyla; Mammalia; ChordataCambridge Zoology MuseumJune 2008It's those overgrown squamosals (part of the jaw) that give it away as one of the two members of the Platanistidae. The Ganges river dolphin is one of three truly freshwater dolphins currently extant. The franciscana (Pontoporia blainvillei) of [...]
Odocoileus virginianusI took these at Mount Storm Lake, West Virginia a few weeks
Ante todo enhorabuena Juan, y también a ti Gloria. Después de un largo camino "pensando siempre en las musarañas" lo habéis conseguido. Recuerdo con mucho cariño mi época en Zaragoza mirando dientes de micro. Por eso se lo duro que es, y por eso admiro más vuestro trabajo.Os adjunto lo que han colgado en Aragosaurus al respecto:Ayer Jueves 11 de Junio, nuestro aragosaurero Juan Rofes defendió brillantemente su tesis doctoral obteniendo la máxima calificación de Sobresaliente Cum Laude [...]
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