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Through this, environment plays a large role in the differentiation and evolution of this dolphin species. [87] The divergence and speciation within bottlenose dolphins has been largely due to climate and environmental changes over history. According to research, the divisions within the genus correlate with periods of rapid climate change.
A = Anapsid, B = Synapsid, C = Diapsid. It was traditionally assumed that first reptiles were anapsids, having a solid skull with holes only for the nose, eyes, spinal cord, etc.; [10] the discoveries of synapsid-like openings in the skull roof of the skulls of several members of Parareptilia, including lanthanosuchoids, millerettids, bolosaurids, some nycteroleterids, some procolophonoids and ...
Sexual reproduction may have increased the rate of evolution. [52] By 1000 Ma First non-marine eukaryotes move onto land. They were photosynthetic and multicellular, indicating that plants evolved much earlier than originally thought. [53] 750 Ma Beginning of animal evolution. [54] [55] 720–630 Ma
Dinosaurs evolved from more primitive reptiles in the aftermath of Earth's biggest mass-extinction event caused by extreme volcanism at the end of the Permian Period about 252 million years ago.
Turtle skulls vary in shape, from the long and narrow skulls of softshells to the broad and flattened skull of the mata mata. [25] Some turtle species have developed large and thick heads, allowing for greater muscle mass and stronger bites. [26] Turtles that are carnivorous or durophagous (eating hard-shelled animals) have the most powerful bites.
During the Early Triassic epoch, ichthyosaurs and other ichthyosauromorphs evolved from a group of unidentified land reptiles that returned to the sea, in a development similar to how the mammalian land-dwelling ancestors of modern-day dolphins and whales returned to the sea millions of years later, which they gradually came to resemble in a ...
Convergent evolution—the repeated evolution of similar traits in multiple lineages which all ancestrally lack the trait—is rife in nature, as illustrated by the examples below. The ultimate cause of convergence is usually a similar evolutionary biome , as similar environments will select for similar traits in any species occupying the same ...
Archelosauria is a clade grouping turtles and archosaurs (birds and crocodilians) and their fossil relatives, to the exclusion of lepidosaurs (the clade containing lizards, snakes and the tuatara). The majority of phylogenetic analyses based on molecular data (e.g. DNA and proteins) have supported a sister-group relationship between turtles and ...