Lystrosaurus Facts and Figures

Lystrosaurus Facts and Figures Name: Lystrosaurus (Greek for shovel lizard); pronounced LISS-tro-SORE-us Habitat: Plains (or swamps) of Antarctica, South Africa, and Asia Historical Period: Late Permian-Early Triassic (260-240 million years ago) Size and Weight: About three feet long and 100-200 pounds Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Short legs; barrel-shaped body; relatively large lungs; narrow nostrils About Lystrosaurus About the size and weight of a smallish pig, Lystrosaurus was a classic example of a dicynodont (two dog toothed) therapsid- that is, one of the mammal-like reptiles of the late Permian and early Triassic periods that preceded the dinosaurs, lived alongside the archosaurs (the dinosaurs true ancestors), and eventually evolved into the earliest mammals of the Mesozoic Era. As therapsids go, though, Lystrosaurus was on the much less mammal-like end of the scale: its unlikely that this reptile possessed either fur or a warm-blooded metabolism, putting it in stark contrast to near contemporaries like Cynognathus and Thrinaxodon. The most impressive thing about Lystrosaurus is how widespread it was. The remains of this Triassic reptile have been unearthed in India, South Africa and even Antarctica (these three continents were once merged together into the giant continent of Pangea), and its fossils are so numerous that they account for a whopping 95 percent of the bones recovered at some fossil beds. No less an authority than the famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has called Lystrosaurus the Noah of the Permian/Triassic boundary, being one of the few creatures to survive this little-known global extinction event 250 million years ago that killed 95 percent of marine animals and 70 percent of terrestrial ones. Why was Lystrosaurus so successful when so many other genera went extinct? No one knows for sure, but there are a few theories. Perhaps the unusually large lungs of Lystrosaurus allowed it to cope with plunging oxygen levels at the Permian-Triassic boundary; perhaps Lystrosaurus was somehow spared thanks to its presumed semi-aquatic lifestyle (the same way crocodiles managed to survive the K/T Extinction tens of millions of years later); or perhaps Lystrosaurus was so plain vanilla and unspecialized compared to other therapsids (not to mention so petitely built) that it managed to endure environmental stresses that rendered its fellow reptiles kaput. (Refusing to subscribe to the second theory, some paleontologists believe that Lystrosaurus actually thrived in the hot, arid, oxygen-starved environments that prevailed during the first few million years of the Triassic period.) There are over 20 identified species of Lystrosaurus, four of them from the Karoo Basin in South Africa, the most productive source of Lystrosaurus fossils in the entire world. By the way, this unprepossessing reptile made a cameo appearance in the late 19th century Bone Wars: an amateur fossil-hunter described a skull to the American paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh, but when Marsh didnt express any interest, the skull was forwarded instead to his arch-rival Edward Drinker Cope, who coined the name Lystrosaurus. Oddly, a short time later, Marsh purchased the skull for his own collection, perhaps wishing to examine it more closely for any mistakes Cope may have made!

Adverb of Emphasis - Definition and Examples

Adverb of Emphasis s In English grammar, adverb of emphasis is  a traditional term for an intensifier  used to give added force or a greater degree of certainty to another word in a sentence or to the sentence as a whole. Also called an emphasizer and an  emphasizing adverb. Common adverbs of emphasis include absolutely,  certainly, clearly, definitely, naturally, obviously, positively, really, simply, and undoubtedly. In The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar  (2014), Bas Aarts et al. point out that [o]nly some grammatical models subdivide adverbs with this level of semantic detail.  Ã‚   Examples and Observations I was flat broke and the rent was due. Clearly I needed to find a job.Hes tapping my phone, he said to Celia indignantly. I definitely heard it. Definitely.(Lawrence Sanders, The First Deadly Sin.  G. P. Putnams Sons, 1973) I hadnt the slightest hesitation in saying: For sure! Tell the manabsolutely! Absolutely! Of course!(Joey Tallon in Call Me the Breeze, a novel by Patrick McCabe, 2003) In Stamps the segregation  was so complete that most Black children didnt really, absolutely know what whites looked like.(Maya Angelou,  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House, 1969Deterrence, obviously, is one of the aims of punishment, but it is surely not the only one. On the contrary, there are at least half a dozen, and some are probably quite as important.(H.L. Mencken, The Penalty of Death At the door of the kitchen she said, You never finish your lunch. You run around senselessly. What will become of you?Then she died.Naturally for the rest of my life I longed to  see her, n ot only in doorways, in a great number of places- in the dining room with my aunts, at the window looking up and down the block, in the country garden among zinnias and marigolds, in the living room with my father.(Grace Paley, Mother.  Later the Same Day. Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1985) Theoretically, of course, one ought always to try for the best word. But practically, the habit of excessive care in word-selection frequently results in loss of spontaneity.(Francis Thompson, qtd. by Arthur Quiller-Couch in Murder Your Darlings)Everything beginning at Blake Avenue  would always wear for me some delightful strangeness and mildness, simply because it was not of my block, the block,  where the clang  of your head sounded against the pavement when you fell in a fist fight, and the rows of store-lights on each side were pitiless, watching you.(Alfred Kazin, A Walker in the City. Harcourt Brace, 1951 There is undoubtedly a sensation in traveling into foreign parts that is to be had nowhere else; but it is more pleasing at the time than lasting.(William Hazlitt, On Going a Journey Fallacies You can spot ​discourses that beg the question by looking for such words as obviously, of course, and really. Any defense lawyer would immediately leap up and say, Objection! if the prosecution were to say to the jury, Obviously, she is guilty. (Edward P. J. Corbett and Rosa A. Eberly, The Elements of Reasoning. Allyn and Bacon, 2000)