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Information about Kimmeridgian

The Kimmeridgian is a stage of the Late Jurassic Epoch. It spans the time between 155.7 ± 4 Ma and 150.8 ± 4 Ma (million years ago).

The stage takes its name from the village of Kimmeridge on the Dorset coast, England where the exposure is at its greatest extent. The beach at Kimmeridge Bay is a good place for looking for fossils — there are specimens on the beach washed in by the tide.

The Kimmeridge Clay formation is the source for about 95% of the petroleum in the North Sea.

Vertebrate Fauna

Birds

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A model depicting how Archaeopteryx lithographica is believed to appear in life.
Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals. Birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs during the Jurassic period, c 200 to 150 Ma (million years ago), and the earliest known bird is the Late Jurassic Archaeopteryx, c 155–150 Ma. Modern birds are characterised by feathers, a beak with no teeth, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a lightweight but strong skeleton. All birds have forelimbs modified as wings and most can fly, though some species have lost the ability to fly.
*Archaeopteryx lithographica

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs were vertebrate animals that dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 160 million years, first appearing approximately 230 million years ago. At the end of the Cretaceous Period, 65 million years ago, a catastrophic extinction event ended the dominance of dinosaurs on land.
  • Amphicoelias
*Amphicoelias fragillimus?
*Aviatyrannis jurassica
*Europasaurus holgeri
*Stokesosaurus clevelandi

Thalattosuchians

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Geosaurus suevicus
Thalattosuchia is the name given to a clade of marine crocodylomorphs from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous that had a cosmopolitan distribution.
  • Dakosaurus
*Dakosaurus andiniensis
:Dakosaurus was a recently discovered metriorhynchid nicknamed "Godzilla." It was a high order predator which fed on other marine reptiles and could attain lengths of 6 meters (about 20 feet) or more.
A relatively small metriorhynchid genus. No known species of Geosaurus attained lengths in excess of 3 meters (10 feet). There were multiple Geosaurus species alive during the Tithonian.
* G. giganteus
:The type species from Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Late Kimmeridgian-Early Tithonian).
* G. gracilis
:Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Late Kimmeridgian-Early Tithonian).
* G. suevicus:
:Western Europe of the Late Jurassic (Late Kimmeridgian-Early Tithonian)
An opportunistic carnivore that fed on fish, belemnites and other marine animals and possible carrion. Metriorhynchus grew to an average adult length of 3 meters (9.6 feet), although some individuals may have reached lengths rivaling those of large nile crocodiles.

Invertebrate Fauna

Ammonitida

Members of the order ammonitda are known as Ammonitic ammonites. They are distinguished primarily by their suture lines. In ammonitic suture patterns, the lobes and saddles are much subdivided (fluted) and subdivisions are usually rounded instead of saw-toothed. Ammonoids of this type are the most important species from a biostratigraphical point of view. This suture type is characteristic of Jurassic and Cretaceous ammonoids but extends back all the way to the Permian.

Genera Surving From the Bajocian

The following genera of Ammonites first appear in Bajocian rocks, but survived to this article's eponymous stage.
  • Somalinautilus

Belemnites

Enlarge picture
Small Belemnite fossils
Belemnites (or belemnoids) are an extinct group of marine cephalopod, very similar in many ways to the modern squid and closely related to the modern cuttlefish. Like them, the belemnites possessed an ink sac, but, unlike the squid, they possessed ten arms of roughly equal length and no tentacles.

Genera Surviving From the Bajocian

The following genera of Belemnites first appear in Bajocian rocks, but survived to this article's eponymous stage.
  • Produvalia

Localities

References

Jurassic period
Lower/Early Jurassic Middle Jurassic Upper/Late Jurassic
Hettangian | Sinemurian
Pliensbachian | Toarcian		Aalenian | Bajocian
Bathonian | Callovian		Oxfordian | Kimmeridgian
Tithonian
Faunal stages are subdivisions of rock layers used primarily by paleontologists who study fossils rather than by geologists who study rock formations. Typically, a faunal stage will consist of a series of rocks that contain similar fossils.
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Late Jurassic (or Malm) Epoch of the Jurassic Period is the unit of geologic time from 161.2 ± 4.0 to 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago, which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.
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The geological time scale is used by geologists and other scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of Earth.
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Annum is a Latin noun meaning year. It is the accusative singular of the second declension masculine noun annus (nominative), anni (genitive) [1] .

As a unit of time, it is defined as exactly 365.
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Kimmeridge is a small village in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England, situated on the English Channel coast. The village has a population of 110 (2001). Non-resident parking is managed by the nearby Smedmore Estate.
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Dorset
Motto: Who's a'feard

Geography
Status Ceremonial & (smaller) Non-metropolitan county
Origin Historic
Region South West England
Area
- Total
- Admin. council
- Admin.
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Motto
Dieu et mon droit   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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For other uses of the term, see Fossil (disambiguation)


FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under the DOS operating system.
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The Kimmeridge Clay Formation is, arguably, the most economically important unit of rocks in the whole of Europe, being the major source rock for oil fields in the North Sea hydrocarbon province. It has distinctive physical properties, log responses, and palynological signature.
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Petroleum (Latin Petroleum derived from Greek πέτρα (Latin petra) - rock + έλαιον (Latin oleum) - oil) or crude oil
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The North Sea is marginal, epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European continental shelf between Norway and Denmark in the east, Scotland and England in the west, and Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France in the south.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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class is the rank in the scientific classification of organisms in biology below Phylum and above Order.

For example, Mammalia is the class used in the classification of dogs, whose phylum is Chordata (animals with notochords) and order is Carnivora (mammals that eat meat).
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Bipedalism is standing, or moving for example by walking, running, or hopping, on two appendages (typically legs). An animal or machine that usually moves in a bipedal manner is known as a biped (/'baɪ.
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Warm-blooded animals maintain thermal homeostasis; that is, they keep their body temperature at a constant level. This involves the ability to cool down or produce more body heat. Warm-blooded animals mainly control their body temperature by regulating their metabolic rates (e.g.
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In most birds and reptiles, an egg (Latin ovum) is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum. To enable incubation the egg is usually kept within a favourable temperature range as it nourishes and protects the growing embryo.
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Vertebrata
Cuvier, 1812

Classes and Clades

See below
Vertebrates are members of the subphylum Vertebrata (within the phylum Chordata), specifically, those chordates with backbones or spinal columns.
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Theropoda
Marsh, 1881

Infraorders
  • Carnosauria
  • Ceratosauria
  • Deinonychosauria
  • Ornithomimosauria
  • Oviraptorosauria


Theropods ('beast feet') are a group of bipedal saurischian dinosaurs.
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Dinosauria *
Owen, 1842

Orders & Suborders
  • Ornithischia
  • Cerapoda
  • Thyreophora
  • Saurischia

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The Jurassic Period is a major unit of the geologic timescale that extends from about 199.6 ± 0.6 Ma (million years ago) to 145.4 ± 4.0 Ma, the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous.
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Archaeopteryx
Meyer, 1861

Species

A. lithographica Meyer, 1861 (type)
Synonyms

See below Archaeopteryx (from Ancient Greek archaios
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A body plan, or body form, is essentially the blueprint for the way the body of an organism is laid out. An organism's symmetry, its number of body segments and number of limbs are all aspects of its body plan.
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Metabolism is the complete set of chemical reactions that occur in living cells. These processes are the basis of life, allowing cells to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories.
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Flight is the main mode of locomotion used by most of the world's bird species. It assists birds while feeding, breeding and avoiding predators.

Evolution and purpose of bird flight


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Archaeopteryx
Meyer, 1861

Species

A. lithographica Meyer, 1861 (type)
Synonyms

See below Archaeopteryx (from Ancient Greek archaios
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Vertebrata
Cuvier, 1812

Classes and Clades

See below
Vertebrates are members of the subphylum Vertebrata (within the phylum Chordata), specifically, those chordates with backbones or spinal columns.
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A landform comprises a geomorphological unit, and is largely defined by its surface form and location in the landscape, as part of the terrain, and as such, is typically an element of topography.
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ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all the non-living physical factors of the environment.
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Annum is a Latin noun meaning year. It is the accusative singular of the second declension masculine noun annus (nominative), anni (genitive) [1] .

As a unit of time, it is defined as exactly 365.
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