biology

Macgowania

Macgowania is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Macgowania rather than just read about it. In short: Macgowania is an extinct genus of parvipelvian ichthyosaur known from British Columbia of Canada. It was a small ichthyosaur around 3 metres (9.8 ft) in total body length.

Key takeaways

Macgowania belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Macgowania to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Macgowania from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Macgowania is an extinct genus of parvipelvian ichthyosaur known from British Columbia of Canada. It was a small ichthyosaur around 3 metres (9.8 ft) in total body length.

History of research The first specimen of Macgowania is the holotype ROM 41992 (RBCM EH 91.2.5), a partial skeleton which preserved nearly complete skull, almost complete forefin and other postcranial elements. It was collected in the Jewitt Spur locality from the Pardonet Formation, dating to the middle Norian stage of the Late Triassic, about 210 million years ago. It was found on the northern shore of the Peace Reach branch of Williston Lake. A second specimen from the same locality, ROM 41991, may be referable to this genus based on its forefin structure, but this cannot be confirmed due to its poor preservation. Macgowania has a very stable position in many cladistic analyses. The family Macgowaniidae was named by McGowan and Motani in 2003 to include this genus. A second specimen of Macgowania was discovered by a British Columbian outdoor club in August 2009. This specimen was largely complete, though it was preserved in a fractured slab of rock balanced on a steep slope above the Graham River, in danger of immediate destruction. The club alerted the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology about the ichthyosaur, and an expedition to retrieve it was sent out the following month. Once the expedition reached the specimen, only the front part of the skeleton remained, the rest having detached and fallen into the river. The team from the Royal Tyrell Museum worked with the outdoor club to collect the surviving portion of the specimen. A plaster jacket was created to protect it from damage, after which it was brought down the slope using ropes. Back at the museum, the specimen was prepared by Mark Mitchell and given the catalog number TMP 2009.121.1. A scientific description of the specimen written by Donald Henderson was published in 2015, in which it was identified as Macgowania janiceps.

Etymology Macgowania was originally described by Chris McGowan in 1996 as Ichthyosaurus janiceps. It was reassigned to its own genus by Ryosuke Motani in 1999 and the type species is Macgowania janiceps. The generic name honors Chris McGowan for describing the type species. The specific name is said to derived from Janus, Latin for the Roman god with two opposite faces, and ceps, Latin for "with a head". The ~ceps suffix is derived from caput. Caput is Latin for head.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Macgowania

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Macgowania claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Macgowania before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Macgowania ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Macgowania

In research: Macgowania appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Macgowania in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Macgowania is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fossil taxa described in 1999, Fossils of British Columbia, Fossils of Canada, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Macgowania outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Macgowania in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Macgowania means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Macgowania out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Macgowania in simple terms?

Macgowania is an extinct genus of parvipelvian ichthyosaur known from British Columbia of Canada. It was a small ichthyosaur around 3 metres (9.8 ft) in total body length.

Why does Macgowania matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Macgowania?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Macgowania.