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Extinct Ancestors of Modern Animals
Extinct Ancestors of Modern Animals
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Extinct Ancestors of Modern Animals
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The giant rodent was found in Estado Falcon, Venezuela, it was a giant as can be seen in the paint compared to a human and to the largest rodent today the Capybara.
Credit to Jurassic Park Site V  *This image is copyright of its original author
https://www.foxnews.com/science/tennesse...-discovery
Tennessee scientists unearth fossils of prehistoric pig-like creatures in stunning discovery 
I know this thread is not perfect to post about this modern dinosaur (bird) but no choice.
 *This image is copyright of its original author Terror Bird display at The Museum of Natural History (German: Naturhistorisches Museum). Also known as the NHMW, a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. Phorusrhacidae AKA Terror Birds >>> http://bit.ly/2HC5x9Z  *This image is copyright of its original author Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds, are a clade of large carnivorous flightless birds that were the largest species of apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic era; their temporal range covers from 62 to 1.8 million years (Ma) ago. They ranged in height from 1–3 metres (3.3–9.8 ft) tall. Their closest modern-day relatives are believed to be the 80 cm-tall seriemas. Titanis walleri, one of the larger species, is also known in North America from Texas and Florida. This makes the phorusrhacids the only known large South American predator to migrate north during the Great American Interchange, which commenced after the Isthmus of Panama land bridge rose about 10 to 15 Ma. It was once believed that T. walleri became extinct in North America around the time of the arrival of humans, but subsequent datings of Titanis fossils provided no evidence for their survival after 1.8 Ma. Still, reports from Uruguay of new findings dating to 450,000 and 17,000 years ago, would imply that some phorusrhacids survived there until very recently (i.e., until the late Pleistocene); but this claim is debated.  *This image is copyright of its original author Terror Bird Skull Phorusrhacids may have even made their way into Africa; the genus Lavocatavis was recently discovered in Algeria, but its status as a true phorusrhacid is questioned. A possible European form, Eleutherornis, has also been identified, suggesting that this group had a wider geographical range in the Paleogene. The closely related bathornithids occupied a similar ecological niche in North America across the Eocene to Miocene; some, like Paracrax, reached similar sizes to the largest phorusrhacids. At least one analysis recovers Bathornis as sister taxa to phorusrhacids, on the basis of shared features in the jaws and coracoid, though this has been seriously contested, as these might have evolved independently for the same carnivorous, flightless lifestyle.
Credit to @paleontology
 *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
Fine art illustration of some species of extinct mammals of North America Species featured:
AMERICAN LION (Panthera leo atrox) ANCIENT BISON (Bison antiquus) COLUMBIA MAMMOTH (Mammuthus columbi) DIRE WOLF (Canis Dirus) HAGERMAN HORSE (Equus simplicidens) JEFFERSON’S GROUND SLOTH (Megalonyx jeffersonii) MASTODON (Mammut americanum) SABER-TOOTH CAT (Smilodon californicus) SHORT-FACED BEAR (Arctodus simus) WESTERN CAMEL (Camelops sp) 
A frozen puppy that was probably from the early dog race, or transitional wolf-dog, was found in Yakutia, Russian Far East: https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-ancient...6#pid95366
" Evolution is the single most important concept in all of biology. It is absolutely vital for understanding both the history of life on earth and why our modern organisms have their current traits and behaviors. Nevertheless, it is also one of the most misunderstood concepts in modern science. Much of the confusion stems from creationists’ faulty arguments, but even those who accept evolution often don’t really understand it.
We did not evolve from modern apes, but we share a common ancestor with them. In other words, if we back the clock up a few million years, we will find an ape-like ancestor whose populations split, and different groups went down different evolutionary paths. One group evolved into us, and another group evolved into chimps. So we and chimps share a great, great, great…great grandparent who went extinct a few million years ago, but we did not evolve from chimps, monkeys, or modern apes. "
Basilosaurus: ancestor of the extant whales. It was believed to be a reptile, hence the part "-saurus" of its name, when it was discovered at first at the Gulf Coast of the United States and described in 1834. 17 to 20 meters long, living from 42 to 33 millions years ago.
(12-19-2019, 03:22 PM)Spalea Wrote: " Evolution is the single most important concept in all of biology. It is absolutely vital for understanding both the history of life on earth and why our modern organisms have their current traits and behaviors. Nevertheless, it is also one of the most misunderstood concepts in modern science. Much of the confusion stems from creationists’ faulty arguments, but even those who accept evolution often don’t really understand it. It's missing the fact that we're also related to pigs: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/...udy-finds/, https://www.science.org.au/curious/peopl...s-and-pigs
" The biggest known Mawsonia specimen from Egypt and the new find from Brazil.
By Hyrotrioskjan on DeviantART. Mawsonia was a genus of prehistoric coelacanth fish, and the largest of this group, up to 4 meters long. It lived during the Cretaceous period (Albian and Cenomanian stages, about 99 to 112 million years ago). Fossils have been found in the Tegana and Aoufous Formations of Morocco, the Continental Intercalaire Formation of Algeria and Tunisia and the Ain el Guettar Formation of Tunisia, Africa, the Babouri Figuil Basin of Cameroon and the Bahia Group and Alcântara and Missão Velha Formations of Brazil, South America. Mawsonia was first described by British palaeontologist Arthur Smith Woodward in 1907. "
Archaeopteryx... Late Jurassic. For a long time it was thought to be the oldest direct ancestor of the modern birds. But it's a controverse even 150 years after its discovery... Perhaps it was an ancestor of the deynonichosauridae ( deinonychus ).
Depiction by Mark Witton. 
Megafauna and ecosystem function from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene
Abstract Large herbivores and carnivores (the megafauna) have been in a state of decline and extinction since the Late Pleistocene, both on land and more recently in the oceans. Much has been written on the timing and causes of these declines, but only recently has scientific attention focused on the consequences of these declines for ecosystem function. Here, we review progress in our understanding of how megafauna affect ecosystem physical and trophic structure, species composition, biogeochemistry, and climate, drawing on special features of PNAS and Ecography that have been published as a result of an international workshop on this topic held in Oxford in 2014. Insights emerging from this work have consequences for our understanding of changes in biosphere function since the Late Pleistocene and of the functioning of contemporary ecosystems, as well as offering a rationale and framework for scientifically informed restoration of megafaunal function where possible and appropriate.  *This image is copyright of its original author
" Rodhocetus
Art by Eldar Zakirov Rodhocetus (from Rodho, the geological anticline at the type locality, and cetus, Latin for whale) is an extinct genus of protocetid early whale known from the Lutetian (48.6 to 40.4 million years ago) of Pakistan. The best-known protocetid, Rodhocetus is known from two partial skeletons that taken together give a complete image of an Eocene whale that had short limbs with long hands and feet that were probably webbed and a sacrum that was immobile with four partially fused sacral vertebrae. It is one of several extinct whale genera that possess land mammal characteristics, thus demonstrating the evolutionary transition from land to sea. Through a principal components analysisGingerich 2003 demonstrated that Rodhocetus had trunk and limb proportions similar to the Russian desman, a foot-powered swimmer using its tail mainly as a rudder. From this Gingerich concluded that Rodhocetus was swimming mostly at the surface by alternate strokes of its hind feet, and that it was insulated by fur rather than blubber, as are Dorudon and modern cetaceans. " |
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