User:Abyssal/Prehistory of North America

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The Prehistory of North America Portal

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Selected article on prehistoric North America

Styracosaurus (/stɪˌrækəˈsɔːrəs/ stə-RAK-ə-SOR-əs; meaning "spiked lizard" from the Ancient Greek styrax/στύραξ "spike at the butt-end of a spear-shaft" and sauros/σαῦρος "lizard") was a genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period (Campanian stage), about 75.5 to 75 million years ago. It had four to six long horns extending from its neck frill, a smaller horn on each of its cheeks, and a single horn protruding from its nose, which may have been up to 60 centimetres (2 ft) long and 15 centimetres (6 in) wide. The function or functions of the horns and frills have been debated for many years.

Styracosaurus was a relatively large dinosaur, reaching lengths of 5.5 metres (18 ft) and weighing nearly 3 tons. It stood about 1.8 meters (6 ft) tall. Styracosaurus possessed four short legs and a bulky body. Its tail was rather short. The skull had a beak and shearing cheek teeth arranged in continuous dental batteries, suggesting that the animal sliced up plants. Like other ceratopsians, this dinosaur may have been a herd animal, traveling in large groups, as suggested by bonebeds.

Named by Lawrence Lambe in 1913, Styracosaurus is a member of the Centrosaurinae. One species, S. albertensis, is currently assigned to Styracosaurus. Other species assigned to the genus have since been reassigned elsewhere. (see more...)

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Selected article on the prehistory of North America in science, culture and economics

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 the extinct witch-hazel Langeria is named for American philosopher Susanne Langer?
... that the extinct Miocene hickory Carya washingtonensis is known from over 50 nuts found as a rodent cache within a petrified stump?
... that the 60 million years old Carmelo Formation (pictured) is made out of thousands of layers of volcanic pebbles, sandstone and mudstone with fossils?
... that the Late Eocene marine Hoko River Formation is noted for producing crab, gastropod, cephalopod, and wood fossils?
... that an early nineteenth-century Native American man refused to ascend Spanish Hill because he feared a spirit that "made holes through Indians' bodies"?

... that Okmulgee State Park (pictured) in Oklahoma is one of only a few places in the world where the fossil coral Gymnophyllum wardi is found?
... that the extinct mantidfly Dicromantispa electromexicana was described from a solitary male insect?
...that the earliest fossil reef formations that show high biodiversity, containing the earliest corals, form the mid-Ordovician Chazy Formation, reaching from Tennessee to Labrador?
... that the Sterling Hill Mining Museum (pictured) and the nearby Franklin Mine together have over 345 minerals, including 90 that fluoresce and 35 that are found nowhere else?
... that Aquilops ("eagle face") is the most ancient definite neoceratopsian discovered in North America?

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Various views of a Pliocene shell of the lightning whelk Busycon contrarium from La Belle, Florida, USA. The specimen is 24 cm long.
Photo credit: H. Zell