Pterosaur remains have been found by humans for millennia and may have helped form the basis for belief in mythical beasts, including winged dragons. In the prescientific West, the claim in the Genesis creation story that the planet and all life were formed just two or three thousand years before the great Egyptian pyramids were built hindered the scientific study of fossils. The discovery and subsequent detailed illustration of the virtually complete and articulated skull and skeleton of the small Pterodactylus found in fine-grained Lagerstätte sediments of Bavaria in the late 1700s began modern pterosaur paleozoology decades before the discovery of teeth and a few bones led to the recognition of land-bound dinosaurs in the 1820s. The strange pterodactyl skeleton posed a major problem for early science because it was still thought that major extinctions had not occurred. The creature had a hyperelongated single finger, which was radically different from the feathery airfoils of birds and also uite distinctive from the multifingered wings of bats. Nor did the very long, spike-toothed jaws belong to either group. <...>

The Productora prospect is situated 15 km SSW of the town of Vallenar in the Third Region, north-central Chile. It lies within the "Chilean Iron Belt" close to the north-trending Atacama Fault system. The belt contains a variety of Fe oxide ±Cu ±Au-bearing deposits including Candelaria (366 million tonnes averaging 1.08 % Cu, 0.26 g/t Au) which is situated in the Punta del Cobre region approximately 150 km north of Productora. The age, structural setting, alteration assemblages and styles of mineralisation in the Productora area resemble those present at Candelaria, but Productora differs in its spatial association with intrusive rocks and its lack of skarn assemblages.

The dragon blinked in the fierce light of the sun as it emerged from the clouds and banked hard, its tremendous wings arching under the load. Reflected in a massive dark eye, the world below slowly tilted into view. Vast herds of dinosaurs were strung out across a dusty yellow-orange plain, occasionally gathered in knots where they had stopped to feed on patches of stunted vegetation. Then came marshes and— the dragon focused— a long, still, clear-blue lake.

The quaternary of the United States THE QUATERNARY PERIOD of geologic time encompasses the last ice age proper (Pleistocene Epoch) and subsequent time (Holocene or Recent Epoch). The Quaternary is unique among the geologic periods for the relative perfection of its stratigraphic record—and thus for the unmatched opportunity it affords to decipher historical details with an accuracy impossible for earlier periods. The framework of the continents even in early-Quaternary time resembled that of the present so closely that major relations of land and sea and their effects on the general circulation of the atmosphere were probably very like those of the present, except perhaps when world-wide lowering of sea level exposed continental shelves or created significant land bridges between continents and arctic islands. Reconstructions of past conditions therefore may be controlled by a geographic framework relatively easy to visualize. <...>