User:Abyssal/Portal:Neogene

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Neogene Portal

Introduction

Read more...

Show new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article on the Neogene world and its legacies

Protomycena is an extinct monotypic genus of gilled fungus in the Mycenaceae family, of order Agaricales. At present it contains the single species Protomycena electra, known from a single specimen collected in an amber mine in the Cordillera Septentrional area of the Dominican Republic. The fruit body of the fungus has a convex cap that is 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter, with distantly spaced gills on the underside. The curved stipe is smooth and cylindrical, measuring 0.75 mm (0.030 in) thick by 10 mm (0.39 in) long, and lacks a ring. It resembles extant (currently living) species of the genus Mycena. Protomycena is one of only five known agaric fungus species known in the fossil record and the second to be described from Dominican amber. (see more...)

More articles...

edit

Did you know?

... that the extinct sweat bee genus Oligochlora contains six species all known from the Dominican amber deposits on Hispaniola?
... that the fossil horse Scaphohippus became extinct when tectonic barriers between the Great Plains and Great Basin of North America disappeared about 13 million years ago?
... that the only male "sweat bee" to have been documented from Dominican amber is the type specimen for the extinct Eickwortapis?
... that unlike living rorqual whales, the late Miocene genus Plesiobalaenoptera was probably not capable of ram feeding?
... that a fossil flower of the extinct palm Roystonea palaea shows damage possibly made by a bat or bird?

More DYKs...

Need help?

Do you have a question about Abyssal/Portal:Neogene that you can't find the answer to?

Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.

edit

Selected image

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

More pictures...

edit

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

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...)

More articles...

edit