The Carboniferous Period occurred from about 354 to 290 million years ago during the late Paleozoic Era. The term "Carboniferous" comes from England, in reference to the rich deposits of coal that occur there. These deposits of coal occur...
nyone who has been to the beach has probably seen starfish or sand dollars. The more intrepid beachcomber may find brittle stars, sea cucumbers, or sea urchins. These and many other organisms, living and extinct, make up the Echinodermata, the largest phylum to lack any freshwater or land...
Lichens are unusual creatures. A lichen is not a single organism the way most other living things are, but rather it is a combination of two organisms which live together intimately. Most of the lichen is composed of fungal filaments, but living among the filaments are algal cells, usually from a...
Although bats are one of the most diverse groups of mammals today, they are one of the least common groups in the fossil record. Bats have small, light skeletons that do not preserve well. Also, many live in tropical forests, where conditions are usually unfavorable for the formation of fossils....
Pteranodon ingens "soars" above T. rex and visitors to the Valley Life Sciences Building at UC Berkeley. A feeling of jealousy is common, and understandable, when we catch a flicker of movement out of the corner of our eyes, and look to...
Small and furry, bats are the only mammals to have achieved powered flight. Their arms are spindly, with membranes stretched between the fingers on each hand. This arrangement makes their wings quite different from those of birds and pterosaurs, and in fact the bats have evolved flight quite...
In many ways, the Triassic was a time of transition. It was at this time that the world-continent of Pangaea existed, altering global climate and ocean circulation. The Triassic also follows the largest extinction event in the history of life, and so is a time when the survivors of that event...
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The long, eel-like fish drinking the blood of this lake trout is one of nearly fifty species of lampreys, a group of jawless fishes found in temperate rivers and coastal seas. Some species live in fresh water for their entire lives....
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