MuiscasaurusMuiscasaurus is an extinct genus of ophthalmosaurid Ichthyosaur that lived in modern Colombia during the Early Cretaceous. The only known species is the type Muiscasaurus catheti. The fossils of Muiscasaurus were found in the Paja Formation, whose sediments are exposed near the town of Villa de Leyva in Boyacá Department. These remains were found in 2010 in the middle of a limestone concretion, known as the Arcillolitas abigarradas Member, dating from the Barremian to Aptian epochs of the Lower Cretaceous.
Solnhofen LimestoneThe Solnhofen Limestone or Solnhofen Plattenkalk, formally known as the Altmühltal Formation, is a Jurassic Konservat-Lagerstätte that preserves a rare assemblage of fossilized organisms, including highly detailed imprints of soft bodied organisms such as sea jellies. The most familiar fossils of the Solnhofen Plattenkalk include the early feathered theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx preserved in such detail that they are among the most famous and most beautiful fossils in the world.
Carnian pluvial episodeThe Carnian pluvial episode (CPE), often called the Carnian pluvial event, was an interval of major change in global climate that was synchronous with significant changes in Earth's biota both in the sea and on land. It occurred during the latter part of the Carnian Stage, a subdivision of the late Triassic period, and lasted for perhaps 1-2 million years (around 234-232 million years ago).
GigantothermyGigantothermy (sometimes called ectothermic homeothermy or inertial homeothermy) is a phenomenon with significance in biology and paleontology, whereby large, bulky ectothermic animals are more easily able to maintain a constant, relatively high body temperature than smaller animals by virtue of their smaller surface-area-to-volume ratio. A bigger animal has proportionately less of its body close to the outside environment than a smaller animal of otherwise similar shape, and so it gains heat from, or loses heat to, the environment much more slowly.
Blue LiasThe Blue Lias is a geological formation in southern, eastern and western England and parts of South Wales, part of the Lias Group. The Blue Lias consists of a sequence of limestone and shale layers, laid down in latest Triassic and early Jurassic times, between 195 and 200 million years ago. The Blue Lias is famous for its fossils, especially ammonites. Its age corresponds to the Rhaetian to lower Sinemurian stages of the geological timescale, thus fully including the Hettangian stage.
KyhytysukaKyhytysuka (kɨhɨtɨˈsuka) is an extinct genus of ophthalmosaurian ichthyosaur from Early Cretaceous Colombia. The animal was previously assigned to the genus Platypterygius, but given its own genus in 2021. Kyhytysuka was a mid-sized ophthalmosaurian with heterodont dentition and several adaptations suggesting that it was a macropredatory vertebrate hunter living in shallow waters. It contains a single species, Kyhytysuka sachicarum.cite journal |last1=Cortés |first1=D. |last2=Maxwell |first2=E.
MelanosomeA melanosome is an organelle found in animal cells and is the site for synthesis, storage and transport of melanin, the most common light-absorbing pigment found in the animal kingdom. Melanosomes are responsible for color and photoprotection in animal cells and tissues. Melanosomes are synthesised in the skin in melanocyte cells, as well as the eye in choroidal melanocytes and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells. In lower vertebrates, they are found in melanophores or chromatophores.
PliosaurusPliosaurus (meaning 'more lizard') is an extinct genus of thalassophonean pliosaurid known from the Kimmeridgian and Tithonian stages (Late Jurassic) of Europe and South America. Their diet would have included fish, cephalopods, and marine reptiles. This genus has contained many species in the past but recent reviews found only six (P. brachydeirus (type species), P. carpenteri, P. funkei, P. kevani, P. rossicus and P. westburyensis) to be valid, while the validity of two additional species awaits a petition to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
RhaetianThe Rhaetian is the latest age of the Triassic Period (in geochronology) or the uppermost stage of the Triassic System (in chronostratigraphy). It was preceded by the Norian and succeeded by the Hettangian (the lowermost stage or earliest age of the Jurassic). The base of the Rhaetian lacks a formal GSSP, though candidate sections include Steinbergkogel in Austria (since 2007) and Pignola-Abriola in Italy (since 2016). The end of the Rhaetian (and the base of the overlying Hettangian Stage) is more well-defined.
Fish locomotionFish locomotion is the various types of animal locomotion used by fish, principally by swimming. This is achieved in different groups of fish by a variety of mechanisms of propulsion, most often by wave-like lateral flexions of the fish's body and tail in the water, and in various specialised fish by motions of the fins.
