Palæos:
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Taxon Index
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The
Vertebrates
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L-O
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Taxon Index: L-O
-L-
- Labridae:
wrasses
- Labroidei:
cichlids, wrasses, damselfish, parrotfishes
- Laccocephalus
X: a rhinesuchid temnospondyl from just before or just after the
end-Permian extinction
- Lagerpeton
X: an ornithodiran archosaur from the
Middle
Triassic of South America, the sister of all other dinosauromorphs
- Lagomorpha:
rabbits & pikas
- Lagosuchidae X :
important protodinosaurs from Triassic South America
- Laidleria
X: a notably flat and triangular-headed temnospondyl
from the Early Triassic of South Africa
- Lambeosaurinae
X: advanced Late Cretaceous hadrosaurs with expansive hollow
crests.
- Lamniformes:
mackerel and Basking sharks
- Lampridiformes:
opahs, crestfish, ribbonfish, oarfish
- Lanarkia
X: a thelodontid thelodont -- the only thelodont with two distinct,
but mixed, types of body scales.
- Lanthanosuchidae
X: they look like temnospondyls but are actually
anapsids
- Lanthanotidae:
earless monitor lizards
- Lapillopsidae
X: a small group of small temnospondyls from the Early Triassic of
Australia
- Lapparentosaurus
X: a close relative of Brachiosaurus, from the Middle
Jurassic of Madagascar.
- Lariosaurus
X: a Middle Triassic nothosaur from Europe with peculiarly expanded
forearms
- Larvacea :
tiny, planktonic urochordates which build gelatinous "houses"
- Leaellynasaurua
X: a small hypsilophodont dinosaur from the middle Cretaceous of
Australia
- Lemuriformes:
indri and lemurs
- Lemuroidea:
lemurs
- Lepidosauria:
sphenodonts, lizards, mosasaurs & snakes
- Lepidosauriformes:
probably mosasaurs > plesiosaurs
- Lepidosauromorpha:
lizards > buzzards
- Lepisosteiformes:
gars
- Lepospondyli:
toads > Texans
- Leptictida
X: possibly the stem group of Pholidota (pangolins)
- Leptocleidus
X: a smallish rhomaleosaurid pliosaur from the Early Cretaceous.
- Leptotyphlopidae:
small (10-25 cm) fossorial snakes, near the base of the snake radiation
- Lexovisaurus
X: a European cousine of Stegosaurus.
- Libycosuchidae
X: short-snouted, hyena-like crocs from the Cretaceous
of Africa
- Limnarchia
X: all temnospondyls except edopoids and Euskelia
- Liopleurodon
X: the classic big, mean, Jurassic pliosaur
- Lissamphibia:
living amphibians
- Lithornithiformes
X: early paleognathous birds from the Paleocene and
Eocene
- Livoniana
X
- Lochmocercus:
X another Bear Gulch actinistian
- Loganellia
X: a rather gnathostome-like jawless fish of the thelodont
persuasion
- Loganiidae
X: Silurian theolodonts, possible sister group of the gnathostomes
- Longosuchus
X
- Lorisiformes:
pottos, lorises & galagos (lemur-like primates)
- Lourinhasaurus
X: an early camarasaur from Portugal
- Loxomma
X: a baphetid tetrapod from the Early Carboniferous
- Luzocephalidae
X: some of the first temnospondyls to appear after the
end-Permian extinction
- Lydekkerinidae
X: Triassic capitosaur temnospondyls
- Lysorophia
X: Permo-Carboniferous microsaurs, possible sister group of
living amphibians
- Lystrosaurus
X: the well-known South African dicynodont almost synonymous with the
Permo-Triassic transition.
-M-
- Macronaria
X: Brachiosaurus > Diplodocus.
- Macroplata
X: an Early Jurassic pliosaur
- Macroscelidea:
elephant shrews
- Macrosemiiformes
X Mesozoic neopterygians with 7 odd, scroll-shaped
infraorbitals
- Macrostomata:
advanced snakes with large gapes (Crotalus > Anilius)
- Madtsoiidae
X: basal macrostomate snakes from Gondwana which
persisted in Australia through the Pleistocene
- Magyarosaurus
X: a "dwarf" titanosaur from the Late Cretaceous of
Eastern Europe
- Mamenchisauridae
X: perhaps the world's longest neck on some Chinese
sauropods of uncertain relationships
- Mammalia:
mammals, used here as the crown group monotremes + mastodons
- Mammaliformes:
mammals and not quite mammals -- defined as a crown group for some reason
-- Sinocodon + snow leopards
- Mandageria
X: a derived tristichopterid sarcopterygian fish from the Late
Devonian of Australia
- Maniraptora:
birds and specialized, bird-like theropods
- Maniraptoriformes:
Ornithomimus + birds, although we think this is a pretty useless
definition.
- Maresaurus
X: a Middle Jurassic South American pliosaur with a large flat snout.
- Marginocephalia
X: pachycephalosaurs and ceratopsians
- Massospondylidae
X: a widely-distributed family of moderately large prosauropods
closely related to plateosaurs.
- Mastodonsaurus
X: a huge, stout temnospondyl from the
Middle Triassic.
- Megalichthyidae
X: actually not-so-"mega" osteolepiforms which
survived into the Permian
- Megalocephalus
X: a well-known baphetid of the Early Pennsylvanian
- Megapodidae:
brush turkeys of Australia
- Megazostrodontidae
X: docodont pammamiforms from the Triassic and Jurassic
of Africa
- Meiolania X:
huge, "horned" turtles
- Melanorosauridae
X: very large prosauropods from the Late Triassic of
South America
- Menaspidae
X: odd and early holocephalians of the PermoCarboniferous
- Mergini:
sea ducks
- Meridiungulata
X: originally, all endemic South American ungulates. This may
not be a clade, so we're not sure what's in this box.
- Merriamosauria
X: ichthyosaurs characterized by having their teeth set in a groove,
without ankylosis to the jaw
- Mesoeucrocodylia:
a clade containing most marine & amphibious crocs from the Mesozoic
and Cenozoic
- Mesonychia X:
Medium to large-sized, possibly dominant predators or scavengers of the
mid-Paleocene to Early Oligocene.
- Mesosauridae
X: a small group of secondarily aquatic forms with elongated
snout & neck, sister group of the reptiles.
- Metasuchia: Notosuchus
+ Crocodylus, including all Cenezoic crocs and some Cretaceous
forms
- Metatheria:
marsupials
- Metaxygnathus:
X this jaw taxon and Ventastega may be the sister of
Tetrapoda
- Metoposauroidea
X: A group of large flat-headed aquatic temnospondyls,
rather similar to the capitosaurids in size and body proportions.
- Metornithes:
alvarezsaurs + living birds, birds with fused carpometacarpus and reduced
fibula
- Metriorhynchidae
X: highly aquatic Jurassic thalattosuchian crocs
- Microbiotheria:
very small, mouse-like marsupials from South America
- Microbrachiidae
X: Tiny (<2 cm) Middle or Late Devonian antiarch
placoderms transitional between Yunnanolepidoids and Bothriolepidoids
- Microcleidus
X: an early Jurassic elasmosaur of uncertain affinities.
- Micropternodontidae
X: widespread, but poorly known, basal Insectivores of the
Paleocene through Miocene.
- Microsauria:
diverse, small, long-bodied lepospondyls best known from the
Permo-Carboniferous -- probable ancestors of at least some living
amphibians
- Miguashaia
X: the earliest known actinistian (coelacanth lineage)
- Milleretidae
X: lizard-like things from the Late Permian -- quite likely the
sister of all other anapsids
- Minicrania
X: Tiny antiarch placoderms (<2cm) intermediate
between yunnanolepidoids & euantiarchs, from the Early Devonian of
China.
- Minmi X:
the only Gondwanan ankylosaur
- Miolabinae
X:
- Mixosaurus
X: a small, very basal, early ichthyosaur from the
Middle Triassic of
nearly everywhere
- Molybdopygus
X: a poorly-known dinocephalian from the Late Permian of Russia.
- Monolophosaurus
X: a carnosaur with a unique, single ridge-like head
crest running from its nose to the rear of the skull, from the Middle
Jurassic of China
- Mononykinae X:
the Asian Alvarezsaurids, flightless birds with small, weird arms.
- Mononykus
X: perhaps the best known of the alvarezsaurs, from the Late
Cretaceous of Mongolia
- Monotremata:
the egg-laying mammals (platypi & echidnas) and their ancestors
- Monstersauria:
venemous varanoid lizards, such as the gila monster
- Morganucodontidae
X: the best-known Mesozoic mammaliforms
- Mosasauroidea
X: mosasaurs
- Moschops
X: perhaps the largest and most bone-headed of the tapinocephalids
- Mucrovenator
X: a rather advanced little
Middle Triassic North American shark
(tooth genus)
- Multituberculata
X: the "rodents of the Mesozoic," a prolific
and long lived group of "maybe-mammals"
- Muraenosaurus
X: a classic medium-sized plesiosauroid from the Late Jurassic
- Musophagidae: mouse
birds
- Muttaburrasaurinae
X: the National Iguanodont of Australia (mid-Cretaceous)
- Mycterosaurinae
X: a widespread clade of varanopsid
"pelycosaurs" from the Middle and Late Permian
- Mycterosaurus
X: the best-known member of the previous group, from
the Middle Permian of North America
- Myriacanthoidei
X: a weird & enigmatic family of chimaeriforms, mostly from the
Jurassic of Europe.
- Mysticeti:
the baleen whales
- Mystriosuchus
X: a late and specialized fish-eating phytosaur from the Late
Triassic of Europe
- Myxinoidea:
the hagfishes
-N-
- Nanictosaurus
X: a Late Permian galesaurid cynodont
- Nanocynodon
X: another Late Permian cynodont, this one from Russia -- very small
but very carnivorous
- Nanyangosaurus
X: an early hadrosauroid from the middle Cretaceous of
China -- hard to distinguish from Iguanodon.
- Narcinidae:
a family of electric rays
- Nectridia
X: Permo-Carboniferous newt-like lepospondyls, including the
boomerang-head forms like Diplocaulus.
- Necrosauridae
X: an ill-defined Cretaceous to Eocene taxon of extinct
varanoid lizards
- Nemegtosauridae
X: a titanosaurid group, perhaps Nemegtosaurus
> Saltasaurus, with an odd distribution in Asia, India &
Africa
- Nemegtosaurus
X: a controversial titanosaur from the Late Cretaceous of China
- Neoaetosauroides
X: a late, but primitive aetosaur from the end-Triassic of South
America
- Neochoristodera
X: champsosaurs, an odd, late-surviving archosauromorph
line
- Neodiapsida:
younginiforms + living reptiles
- Neognathi:
the clade uniting pikes Neoteleosts -- teleosts with acellular bone and
depressible teeth
- Neomorphidae:
roadrunners
- Neopterygii:
gars + teleosts -- actinopterygians with symmetrical tails
- Neornithes:
the crown group of all living birds
- Neosauropoda
X: diplodocids + titanosaurs, digitigrade sauropods
- Neoselachii:
the crown group of living sharks and rays
- Neosuchia:
extant crocs + dryosaurs
- Neoteleostei:
most living teleosts
- Neotherapsida:
anomodonts + theriodonts
- Neuquensaurus
X: a medium-sized advanced titanosaur from the Late Cretaceous of
South America
-
Neusticosaurus
X
- Nicrosaurus
X
- Nigersaurus
X
- Nikoliviidae
X
- Nodosauridae X
- Nothosauria
X: plesiosaurs > placodonts.
- Nothosauridae
X
- Nothosaurus
X: a large, well-known nothosaur from the Triassic of Europe.
- Notoryctemorphia:
Notoryctes, the strange marsupial mole
- Notostylopidae
X: an early (mostly Paleocene) group of notoungulates
- Notosuchidae
X: very terrestrial, solid-looking crocs from the Late
Cretaceous of South America
- Notosyodon
X: a medium sized anteosaur (carnivorous therapsid)
with a massive skull from the Late Permian of Russia
- Notoungulata
X: one of the two main groups of South American endemic ungulates,
Paleocene to Pleistocene
- Novumbra:
the infamous Olympic mudminnow
- Numididae:
guinea fowl, first cousins to the chicken
- Nyctitheriidae
X: the most basal group on the line to shrews, Paleocene to Early
Oligocene of North America & Europe.
-O-
- Obruchevichthys:
X a near-tetrapod and close relative of Elginerpeton
- Odontoceti:
dolphins, porpoises & toothed whales
- Odontophoridae
- Oikopleuridae
- Oligokyphus
X
- Oligoryctidae
X
- Onychodontiformes
X a very primitive, perhaps paraphyletic, group of sarcopterygians with symphysial tooth
whorls
- Onychodus
X: A large onychodontiform
- Ophiacodon
X: a large Permian pelycosaur from North America
- Ophiacodontidae
X: early synapsids with tall, thin snouts
- Ophthalmosauria
X: Jurassic ichthyosaurs with huge eyes
- Orectolobiformes:
carpet sharks, wobbegons, and nurse sharks
- Oreodontoidea
X: early members of the pig lineage, from the Eocene and Miocene of
North America
- Ornithischia X:
Triceratops > birds
- Ornithocheiroidea
X: Pteranodon and related Cretaceous pterosaurs
- Ornithodira:
the clade uniting pterosaurs and dinosaurs
- Ornitholestes
X: a small, Late Jurassic coelurosaur from the Late Jurassic of
North America
- Ornithomimosauria X: very bird-like
Cretaceous theropods, sister of the Tyrannosouroidea
- Ornithopoda
X: heterodontosaurs, hypsilophodonts, iguanodonts, and
hadrosaurs
- Ornithosuchidae
X: a strange family near the base of the split between
croc and dinosaur lineages
- Ornithosuchus
X: very large and theropod-like, but actually a member of the
Crurotarsi (croc lineage)
- Ornithothoraces:
the clade uniting Enantiornithes with living birds
- Ornithurae:
hesperornithiforms and living birds
- Orodontida
X: big eel-like primitive sharks from the Late Devonian and
Carboniferous
- Ostariophysi:
the dominant group of fresh water teleosts
- Osteichthyes:
bony fish -- acanthodians, actinopterygians and sarcopterygians (us)
- Osteoglossomorpha:
the aruana, elephant-nose fish and extincr relatives
- Osteolepididae
X
- Osteolepiformes
X: the group of sarcopterygian fishes which includes
the tetrapods
- Osteostraci
X: armored jawless fishes with massive cartilaginous
skulls and paired pectoral fins, from the Silurian & Devonian of the
Northern hemisphere
- Othnieliinae
X: small Jurassic hypsilophodont dinosaurs with small,
enamel-covered teeth
- Otophysi:
the clade uniting catfishes and carp
- Ouranosaurus
X: a hump-backed hadrosauroid, from the middle
Cretaceous of Africa
- Oviraptorosauria
X: oviraptors, bizarre dinosaurs from the Late
Cretaceous of China & North America
- Owenettidae X:
early anapsid insectivores from the Permian of Africa
- Oxyurini:
Gondwanan ducks
- Ozarkodinida
X: possibly the best known large taxon of conodonts
checked ATW050609