The word homo, the name of the biological genus to which humans belong, is Latin for "human". It was chosen originally by Carolus Linnaeus in his classification system. The word "human" is from the La ...
Myr is in common use where the term is often written, such as in the Earth sciences and cosmology. Myr is seen with mya, "million years ago". Together they make a reference system, one to a quantity, ...
The 20 specimens found as of 2007 include: the posterior part of a mandible in two pieces; a symphysis and several isolated teeth; three fragments of femora; a partial humerus; a proximal phalanx; and ...
All shrews are comparatively small, most no larger than a mouse. The largest species is the Asian house shrew (Suncus murinus) of tropical Asia, which is about 15 cm long and weighs around 100 grams; ...
Because both modern crocodilians and birds have four-chambered hearts (albeit modified in crocodilians), it is likely that this is a trait shared by all archosaurs, including all dinosaurs. While all ...
The taxon Dinosauria was formally named in 1842 by paleontologist Sir Richard Owen, who used it to refer to the "distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles" that were then being recognized in Eng ...
Main articles: Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, Alvarez hypothesis and Chicxulub craterArtist's impression of an asteroid striking Earth at the end of the CretaceousEvidence for impact In 1980, a team ...
The K–Pg extinction event was severe, global, rapid, and selective. In terms of severity, the event eliminated a vast number of species. Based on marine fossils, it is estimated that 75% or more of a ...
In a landmark paper published in 1982, Jack Sepkoski and David M. Raup identified five mass extinctions. They were originally identified as outliers to a general trend of decreasing extinction rates d ...
After an extinction at the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary, another radiation occurred, which established the taxa that would dominate the Palaeozoic.During this radiation, the total number of orders dou ...
Main article: Evolutionary history of lifeGeologists as long ago as William Buckland (1784–1856) realised that a dramatic step-change in the fossil record occurred around the base of what we now call ...
There are three or four significant ice ages during the late Neoproterozoic. Of these, the Marinoan was the most significant, and the Sturtian glaciations were also truly widespread. Even the leading ...
Isotopic evidence points to a global Hirnantian positive shift in marine carbonate 18O, and at nearly the same time a shift in 13C in organic and inorganic carbon. This evidence is further aided by th ...
Douglas Mawson (1882–1958), an Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer, spent much of his career studying the Neoproterozoic stratigraphy of South Australia where he identified thick and extensiv ...
At the onset of the Neoproterozoic the supercontinent Rodinia, which had assembled during the late Mesoproterozoic, straddled the equator. During the Tonian, rifting commenced which broke Rodinia into ...
