User:Abyssal/Prehistory of North America

{ {{Portal maintenance status|date

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

The Prehistory of North America Portal

Introduction

Read more...

Show new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article on prehistoric North America

McAbee Fossil Beds, British Columbia.Type locality of Macabeemyrma

Macabeemyrma is an extinct genus of bulldog ants in the subfamily Myrmeciinae containing the single species Macabeemyrma ovata, described in 2006 from Ypresian stage (Early Eocene) deposits of British Columbia, Canada. Only a single specimen is known; a holotype queen found preserved as a compression fossil. The specimen had no wings and small portions of its legs and eyes were faintly preserved. It was a large ant, reaching 25 millimetres (0.98 in) in length. This ants' behaviour would have been similar to that of extant Myrmeciinae ants, such as foraging singly in search for arthropod prey and nesting in soil or in trees. Macabeemyrma shows similarities to extinct ants in the genus Ypresiomyrma, and to the living Nothomyrmecia macrops, but has not been conclusively assigned to any tribe, instead generally regarded as incertae sedis within Myrmeciinae. However, the sole specimen lacks definitive traits, and its classification in Myrmeciinae, and even its identity as an ant, has been challenged. (see more...)

More articles...

Need help?

Do you have a question about Abyssal/Prehistory of North America that you can't find the answer to?

Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.

edit

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...)

More articles...

edit

Did you know?

... that the extinct ant Anochetus exstinctus was described from only two of the three fossils known to the species author?
... that the Lake Murray Meteorite, discovered in 1933, is the largest Class IIAB octahedrite found in Oklahoma and the fifth largest found in the world?
... that Archiinocellia is noted to be the only snakefly fossil genus from British Columbia and one of only two from Canada?
... that the Triassic archosaur Poposaurus walked on two legs like some dinosaurs, but was more closely related to crocodiles?
... that the Klondike Mountain Formation has fossil hot springs and is a lagerstätten?

... that Siats, named after a man-eating monster, is the geologically youngest North American allosauroid yet discovered?
... that the extinct Miocene redwood, Sequoiadendron chaneyi, is the probable ancestor to the giant sequoias in California?
... that the extinct genus Paleopanax is one of the oldest reliable records for the ginseng family?
... that excessive nutrients from volcanoes caused the loss of oxygen in the Western Interior Seaway which linked the Caribbean to the Arctic?
... that at the inauguration of the sixth Aztec Templo Mayor in 1487 (scale model pictured), thousands of prisoners of war were ritually sacrificed, bathing the steps of the pyramid in blood?