User:Abyssal/Prehistory of North America

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The Prehistory of North America Portal

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Artist's restoration of Othnielosaurus.

Othnielosaurus is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur that lived about 155 to 148 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic-age Morrison Formation of the western United States. It is named in honor of famed paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, and was formerly assigned to the genus Laosaurus. This genus was coined to hold fossils formerly included in Othnielia, which is based on remains that may be too sparse to hold a name; as such, it is part of decades of research to untangle the taxonomy left behind by Marsh and his rival Edward Drinker Cope from the Bone Wars. Othnielosaurus has usually been classified as a hypsilophodont, a type of generalized small bipedal herbivore or omnivore, although recent research has called this and the existence of a distinct group of hypsilophodonts into question. (see more...)

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Petrified Forest National Park is a United States national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its large deposits of petrified wood, the park covers about 146 square miles (380 km²), encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962.

The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the park's rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the park's fossils since the early 20th century. (see more...)

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Did you know?

... that highlights from the history of hadrosaur research include the first dinosaur fossils to be mounted in a museum, the colossal Shantungosaurus, and Maiasaura nesting grounds in Montana?
... that the Michigan Geological Survey severed its university affiliations in the 1890s due to perceived disadvantages of those relationships, but became part of Western Michigan University in 2011?
... that Temple III at the Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala was the last pyramid ever built there?
... that lice from mummified guinea pigs and mites preserved in amber while feeding on spiders have provided evidence for researchers in the field of paleoparasitology?
... that Alexander Wetmore assessed the extinct Eonessa anaticula as being an ancient type of duck, possibly due to its fossil's resemblance to the modern Oxyura jamaicensis?

...that the fossil of Ichthyornis (pictured) discovered by Benjamin Franklin Mudge was the first bird recognized to possess teeth?
... that judging from sculptures discovered in the ancient Maya city of Río Azul, it is believed that the local elite was sacrificed after a takeover by Tikal?
... that highlights from the history of troodontid research include the discovery that troodontids (example pictured) were among the brainiest dinosaurs?
... that the extinct pine Pinus driftwoodensis was first described from a permineralized conifer cone in chert?
... that the extinct ant species Apterostigma electropilosum was described from a solitary fossil in amber?