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The Neogene Portal

Introduction

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Selected article on the Neogene world and its legacies

Modern horseshoe crabs.
Modern horseshoe crabs.
The subphylum (or phylum) Chelicerata constitutes one of the major subdivisions of the phylum (or superphylum) Arthropoda, and includes horseshoe crabs, scorpions, spiders, mites, harvestmen, ticks, and Solifugae. Like all arthropods, chelicerates have segmented bodies with jointed limbs, all covered in a cuticle made of chitin and proteins. The chelicerate bauplan consists of two tagmata, the cephalothorax and the abdomen. The group is named for their chelicerae, appendages near the mouth generally used to feed. The group has the open circulatory system typical of arthropods, in which a tube-like heart pumps blood through the hemocoel, which is the major body cavity.

Chelicerates were originally predators, but the group has diversified to use all the major feeding strategies. The guts of most modern chelicerates are too narrow for solid food, and they generally liquidize their food by grinding it with their chelicerae and pedipalps and flooding it with digestive enzymes. Most lay eggs that hatch as what look like miniature adults. In most chelicerate species the young have to fend for themselves, but in scorpions and some species of spider the females protect and feed their young.

The chelicerata originated as marine animals, possibly in the Cambrian period, but the first confirmed chelicerate fossils, eurypterids, date from 445 million years ago in the Late Ordovician period. The surviving marine species include the four species of xiphosurans (horseshoe crabs), and possibly the 1,300 species of pycnogonids (sea spiders), if the latter are chelicerates. (see more...)

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Holotype specimen of Oligochlora semirugosa preserved in amber.
Holotype specimen of Oligochlora semirugosa preserved in amber.

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Laelaps by Charles R. Knight.

The painting Laelaps by Charles R. Knight depicts two Dryptosaurus fighting.
Photo credit: User:Sergiodlarosa

Selected article on the Neogene in human science, culture and economics

Edward Drinker Cope (left) and Othniel Charles Marsh (right).
Edward Drinker Cope (left) and Othniel Charles Marsh (right).

The Bone Wars is the name given to a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. The two paleontologists used underhanded methods to out-compete the other in the field, resorting to bribery, theft, and destruction of bones. The scientists also attacked each other in scientific publications, attempting to ruin the other's credibility and cut off his funding.

Originally colleagues who were civil to each other, Cope and Marsh became bitter enemies after several personal slights between them. Their pursuit of bones led them west to rich bone beds in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. From 1877 to 1892, both paleontologists used their wealth and influence to finance their own expeditions and to procure services and fossils from dinosaur hunters. By the end of the Bone Wars, both men exhausted their funds in fueling their intense rivalry.

Cope and Marsh were financially and socially ruined by their efforts to disgrace each other, but their contributions to science and the field of paleontology were massive; the scientists left behind tons of unopened boxes of fossils on their deaths. The feud between the two men led to over 142 new species of dinosaurs being discovered and described. Several historical books and fictional adaptations have also been published about this period of intense paleontological activity. (see more...)

Topics

Geochronology - Neogene (Miocene - Pliocene)

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Major Neogene events -

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Stratigraphic units -

History - History of paleontology - Timeline of paleontology

Researchers -

Culture - Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology - Vertebrate Paleontology

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