1.
University of Aberdeen
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The University of Aberdeen is a public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. The university as it is today was formed in 1860 by a merger between Kings College and Marischal College, a university founded in 1593 as a Protestant alternative to the former. Today, Aberdeen is consistently ranked among the top 200 universities in the world and is one of two universities in the city, the other being the Robert Gordon University. The universitys iconic buildings act as symbols of wider Aberdeen, particularly Marischal College in the city centre, there are two campuses, the predominantly utilised Kings College campus dominates the section of the city known as Old Aberdeen, which is approximately two miles north of the city centre. Although the original site of the foundation, most academic buildings were constructed in the 20th century during a period of significant expansion. The universitys Foresterhill campus is next to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and houses the School of Medicine, Aberdeen has approximately 13,500 students from undergraduate to doctoral level, including many international students. An abundant range of disciplines are taught at the university, with 650 undergraduate degree offered in the 2012-13 academic year. Five Nobel laureates have since associated with Aberdeen. The first principal was Hector Boece, graduate and professor of the University of Paris, despite this founding date, teaching did not start for another ten years, and the University of Aberdeen celebrated 500 years of teaching and learning in 2005. Following the Scottish Reformation in 1560, Kings College was purged of its Roman Catholic staff, George Keith, the fifth Earl Marischal was a moderniser within the college and supportive of the reforming ideas of Peter Ramus. In April 1593 he founded a university in the city. It is also possible the founding of another college in nearby Fraserburgh by Sir Alexander Fraser, Aberdeen was highly unusual at this time for having two universities in one city, as 20th-century University prospectuses observed, Aberdeen had the same number as existed in England at the time. In addition, a university was set up to the north of Aberdeen in Fraserburgh from 1595. Initially, Marischal College offered the Principal of Kings College a role in selecting its academics, Marischal College, in the commercial heart of the city, was quite different in nature and outlook. For example, it was integrated into the life of the city. The two rival colleges often clashed, sometimes in court, but also in brawls between students on the streets of Aberdeen, as the institutions put aside their differences, a process of attempted mergers began in the 17th century. During this time, both colleges made notable contributions to the Scottish Enlightenment. Both colleges supported the Jacobite rebellion and following the defeat of the 1715 rising were largely purged by the authorities of their academics and officials
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England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years
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Illuminated manuscript
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An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders and miniature illustrations. Comparable Far Eastern and Mesoamerican works are described as painted, islamic manuscripts may be referred to as illuminated, illustrated or painted, though using essentially the same techniques as Western works. This article covers the technical, social and economic history of the subject, for an art-historical account, the earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the period 400 to 600, produced in the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths and the Eastern Roman Empire. The significance of these works lies not only in their inherent artistic and historical value, had it not been for the monastic scribes of Late Antiquity, most literature of Greece and Rome would have perished in Europe. As it was, the patterns of textual survivals were shaped by their usefulness to the severely constricted literate group of Christians, the majority of surviving manuscripts are from the Middle Ages, although many survive from the Renaissance, along with a very limited number from Late Antiquity. The majority of manuscripts are of a religious nature. However, especially from the 13th century onward, a number of secular texts were illuminated. Most illuminated manuscripts were created as codices, which had superseded scrolls, a very few illuminated manuscript fragments survive on papyrus, which does not last nearly as long as vellum or parchment. Most medieval manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on parchment, beginning in the late Middle Ages manuscripts began to be produced on paper. Illuminated manuscripts continued to be produced in the early 16th century, Manuscripts are among the most common items to survive from the Middle Ages, many thousands survive. They are also the best surviving specimens of medieval painting, indeed, for many areas and time periods, they are the only surviving examples of painting. There are a few examples from later periods, the type of book that was most often heavily and richly illuminated, sometimes known as a display book, varied between periods. In the first millennium, these were most likely to be Gospel Books, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Romanesque period saw the creation of many huge illuminated complete Bibles – one in Sweden requires three librarians to lift it. Many Psalters were also illuminated in both this and the Gothic period. Finally, the Book of Hours, very commonly the personal book of a wealthy layperson, was often richly illuminated in the Gothic period. Other books, both liturgical and not, continued to be illuminated at all periods, the Byzantine world also continued to produce manuscripts in its own style, versions of which spread to other Orthodox and Eastern Christian areas. See Medieval art for other regions, periods and types, reusing parchments by scraping the surface and reusing them was a common practice, the traces often left behind of the original text are known as palimpsests. The Gothic period, which saw an increase in the production of these beautiful artifacts, also saw more secular works such as chronicles
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Bestiary
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A bestiary, or bestiarum vocabulum, is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the Ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals, the natural history and illustration of each beast was usually accompanied by a moral lesson. This reflected the belief that the world itself was the Word of God, for example, the pelican, which was believed to tear open its breast to bring its young to life with its own blood, was a living representation of Jesus. The bestiary, then, is also a reference to the language of animals in Western Christian art. Following the Physiologus, Saint Isidore of Seville and Saint Ambrose expanded the religious message with reference to passages from the Bible and they and other authors freely expanded or modified pre-existing models, constantly refining the moral content without interest or access to much more detail regarding the factual content. Nevertheless, the often fanciful accounts of these beasts were widely read, a few observations found in bestiaries, such as the migration of birds, were discounted by the natural philosophers of later centuries, only to be rediscovered in the modern scientific era. Mediaeval bestiaries are remarkably similar in sequence of the animals of which they treat, bestiaries were particularly popular in England and France around the 12th century and were mainly compilations of earlier texts. The Aberdeen Bestiary is one of the best known of over 50 manuscript bestiaries surviving today, bestiaries influenced early heraldry in the Middle Ages, giving ideas for charges and also for the artistic form. Bestiaries continue to give inspiration to coats of arms created in our time, two illuminated Psalters, the Queen Mary Psalter and the Isabella Psalter, contain full Bestiary cycles. The bestiary in the Queen Mary Psalter is found in the decorations that occupy about the bottom quarter of the page. In fact the bestiary has been expanded beyond the source in the Norman bestiary of Guillaume le Clerc to ninety animals, some are placed in the text to make correspondences with the psalm they are illustrating. The Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci also made his own bestiary, a volucrary is a similar collection of the symbols of birds that is sometimes found in conjunction with bestiaries. The most widely known volucrary in the Renaissance was Johannes de Cubas Gart der Gesundheit which describes 122 birds, Medieval bestiaries often contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of species native to Western Europe, exotic animals and what in modern times are considered to be imaginary animals. The description was then followed with an artistic illustration of the animal as described in the bestiary. Bestiaries were organized in different ways based upon the text, the descriptions could be organized by animal groupings, such as terrestrial and marine creatures, or presented in an alphabetical manner. However, the texts gave no distinction between existing and imaginary animals, descriptions of creatures such as dragons, unicorns, basilisk, griffin and caladrius were common in such works and found intermingled amongst accounts of bears, boars, deer, lions, and elephants. This lack of separation has often been associated with the assumption that people during this time believed in what the modern period classifies as nonexistent or imaginary creatures, however, this assumption is currently under debate, with various explanations being offered. To state that the animal in question didnt exist was to defy the truth of the word of the Church, the contents of Medieval bestiaries were often obtained and created from combining older textual sources and accounts of animals, such as the Physiologus, with newer observations and writings
5.
Royal manuscripts, British Library
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They are still catalogued with call numbers using the prefix Royal in the style Royal MS2. As a collection, the Royal manuscripts date back to Edward IV, the collection was expanded under Henry VIII by confiscations in the Dissolution of the Monasteries and after the falls of Henrys ministers Cardinal Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell. The date and means of entry into the collection can only be guessed at in many if not most cases, now the collection is closed in the sense that no new items have been added to it since it was donated to the nation. Fortunately the collection escaped relatively lightly in the fire of 1731 at Ashburnham House, the Cotton Library was one of the founding collections of the British Museum in 1753, and four years later the Royal collection was formally donated to the new institution by the king. It moved to the new British Library when this was established in 1973, the 9,000 printed books that formed the majority of the Old Royal Library were not kept as a distinct collection in the way the manuscripts were, and are dispersed among the librarys holdings. A few Anglo-Saxon manuscripts owned by royalty have survived after being presented to the church, among them a Gospel Book, VII, given to Christ Church, Canterbury by King Athelstan in the 920s, which probably rejoined the collection at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. However these works are scattered among a variety of libraries, by the late Middle Ages luxury manuscripts would generally include the heraldry of the commissioner, especially in the case of royalty, which is an important means of identifying the original owner. The careful inventories of the French royal library have no English equivalent until a list compiled at Richmond Palace in 1535, by 1340 there were only 18 books left, although this probably did not include Edwards personal books. The wills of Henrys son, Henry V refer to a Biblia Magna, E. IX, with fine historiated initials illuminated in London by several artists from the school of Herman Scheerre of Cologne. A considerable number of texts were left to family members, staff. Two of Henry Vs younger brothers were notable collectors and he also used the dominant English position in France to buy the French royal library of the Louvre, from which a few examples remain in the Royal manuscripts. About fifty of the Royal manuscripts were acquired by Edward IV and he was not a scholarly man, and had to fight his way to the throne after inheriting the Yorkist claim to the throne at the age of eighteen after his father and elder brother died in battle. He reigned from 1461 until 1470, when machinations among the nobles forced a six-month period of exile in Burgundy. He stayed for some of this period in Bruges at the house of Louis de Gruuthuse, a nobleman in the intimate circle of Philip the Good. Philip had the largest and finest library of illuminated manuscripts in Europe, with perhaps 600, in 1470 his library was in its early stages, but must already have been very impressive for Edward. As well as numbers of miniatures, the borders were decorated in increasingly inventive and elaborate fashion. Many of Edwards manuscripts reflected this taste, like that of Philip, his court displayed an increase in ceremonial formality, and interest in chivalry. Most of his books are popular works in French, with several modern and ancient histories
6.
Palace of Westminster
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The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Commonly known as the Houses of Parliament after its occupants, the Palace lies on the bank of the River Thames in the City of Westminster. The palace is owned by the monarch in right of the Crown and for ceremonial purposes, the building is managed by committees appointed by both houses, which report to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker. The first royal palace was built on the site in the 11th century, part of the New Palaces area of 3.24 hectares was reclaimed from the Thames, which is the setting of its nearly 300-metre long façade, called the River Front. Barry was assisted by Augustus Pugin, an authority on Gothic architecture and style. The Palace is one of the centres of political life in the United Kingdom, Westminster has become a metonym for the UK Parliament, the Palace of Westminster has been a Grade I listed building since 1970 and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The Palace of Westminster site was important during the Middle Ages. Known in medieval times as Thorney Island, the site may have been first-used for a residence by Canute the Great during his reign from 1016 to 1035. St Edward the Confessor, the penultimate Anglo-Saxon monarch of England, Thorney Island and the surrounding area soon became known as Westminster. Neither the buildings used by the Anglo-Saxons nor those used by William I survive, the oldest existing part of the Palace dates from the reign of William Is successor, King William II. The Palace of Westminster was the principal residence in the late Medieval period. The predecessor of Parliament, the Curia Regis, met in Westminster Hall, simon de Montforts parliament, the first to include representatives of the major towns, met at the Palace in 1265. The Model Parliament, the first official Parliament of England, met there in 1295, in 1512, during the early years of the reign of King Henry VIII, fire destroyed the royal residential area of the palace. In 1534, Henry VIII acquired York Place from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, renaming it the Palace of Whitehall, Henry used it as his principal residence. Although Westminster officially remained a royal palace, it was used by the two Houses of Parliament and by the various law courts. Because it was originally a residence, the Palace included no purpose-built chambers for the two Houses. Important state ceremonies were held in the Painted Chamber which had originally built in the 13th century as the main bedchamber for King Henry III. The House of Commons, which did not have a chamber of its own, the Commons acquired a permanent home at the Palace in St Stephens Chapel, the former chapel of the royal palace, during the reign of Edward VI
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Middle Ages
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In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance, the Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history, classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is subdivided into the Early, High. Population decline, counterurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, the large-scale movements of the Migration Period, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the seventh century, North Africa and the Middle East—once part of the Byzantine Empire—came under the rule of the Umayyad Caliphate, although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with classical antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power, the empires law code, the Corpus Juris Civilis or Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions, monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th, the Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Holy Land from Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence, intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. Controversy, heresy, and the Western Schism within the Catholic Church paralleled the conflict, civil strife. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages, the Middle Ages is one of the three major periods in the most enduring scheme for analysing European history, classical civilisation, or Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Modern Period. Medieval writers divided history into periods such as the Six Ages or the Four Empires, when referring to their own times, they spoke of them as being modern. In the 1330s, the humanist and poet Petrarch referred to pre-Christian times as antiqua, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodisation in his History of the Florentine People. Bruni and later argued that Italy had recovered since Petrarchs time. The Middle Ages first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas or middle season, in early usage, there were many variants, including medium aevum, or middle age, first recorded in 1604, and media saecula, or middle ages, first recorded in 1625. The alternative term medieval derives from medium aevum, tripartite periodisation became standard after the German 17th-century historian Christoph Cellarius divided history into three periods, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern. The most commonly given starting point for the Middle Ages is 476, for Europe as a whole,1500 is often considered to be the end of the Middle Ages, but there is no universally agreed upon end date. English historians often use the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 to mark the end of the period
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Adam
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Adam is a figure from the Book of Genesis who is also mentioned in the New Testament, the deuterocanonical books, the Quran, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Iqan. According to the myth of the Abrahamic religions, he was the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by God, Christian churches differ on how they view Adams subsequent behavior of disobeying God, and to the consequences that those actions had on the rest of humanity. Christian and Jewish teachings sometimes hold Adam and Eve to a different level of responsibility for the Fall, in addition, Islam holds that Adam was eventually forgiven, while Christianity holds that redemption occurred only later through the sacrifice of Jesus. The Baháí Faith, Islam and some Christian denominations consider Adam to be the first prophet, Adam as a proper name, predates its generic use in Semitic languages. Its earliest known use as a name in historicity is Adamu. Its use as a word in the Hebrew language is ׳āḏām. Coupled with the article, it becomes the human. Its root is not attributed to the Semitic root for man --sh, rather, ׳āḏām is linked to its triliteral root אָדָם, meaning red, fair, handsome. As a masculine noun, adam means man, mankind usually in a context as in humankind. The noun adam is also the form of the word adamah which means ground or earth. It is related to the words, adom, admoni, according to a number of observers, the word Adam derives from Sanskrit word Adima, meaning progenitor, first, primitive in Sanskrit. In the Book of Genesis, the Hebrew word ׳āḏām is often rendered mankind in the most generic sense, the use of mankind in Genesis, gives the reflection that Adam was the ancestor of all men. Kabbalistic works indicate that Adam also comes from the Hebrew word Adame, in the first five chapters of Genesis the word אָדָם is used in all of its senses, collectively, individually, gender nonspecific, and male. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, its use in Genesis 1 is generic, while in Genesis 2 and Genesis 3 the generic and personal usages are mixed. In Genesis 1,27 adam is used in the sense, whereby not only the individual Adam. Genesis 2,7 is the first verse where Adam takes on the sense of an individual man, the gender distinction of adam is then reiterated in Genesis 5, 1–2 by defining male and female. A recurring literary motif that occurs, is the bond between Adam and the earth, Gods cursing of Adam also results in the ground being cursed, causing him to have to labour for food, and Adam returns to the earth from which he was taken
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Animal
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
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Tiger
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The tiger is the largest cat species, most recognisable for their pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with a lighter underside. The species is classified in the genus Panthera with the lion, leopard, jaguar, Tigers are apex predators, primarily preying on ungulates such as deer and bovids. They are territorial and generally solitary but social animals, often requiring large contiguous areas of habitat that support their prey requirements and this, coupled with the fact that they are indigenous to some of the more densely populated places on Earth, has caused significant conflicts with humans. Tigers once ranged widely across eastern Eurasia, from the Black Sea in the west, to the Indian Ocean in the south, today, they range from the Siberian taiga to open grasslands and tropical mangrove swamps. The remaining six tiger subspecies have been classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a 2016 global census estimated the population of wild tigers at approximately 3,890 individuals. Major reasons for decline include habitat destruction, habitat fragmentation. The extent of area occupied by tigers is estimated at less than 1,184,911 km2, in 2016, wildlife conservation group at WWF declared that worlds count of wild tigers has risen for the first time in a century. Tigers are among the most recognisable and popular of the charismatic megafauna. They have featured prominently in ancient mythology and folklore, and continue to be depicted in modern films and they appear on many flags, coats of arms, and as mascots for sporting teams. The tiger is the animal of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia. In 1758, Linnaeus described the tiger in his work Systema Naturae, in 1929, the British taxonomist Reginald Innes Pocock subordinated the species under the genus Panthera using the scientific name Panthera tigris. The derivation from Greek pan- and ther may be folk etymology, the specific epithet, tigris, as well as the common name, tiger, come from the Middle English tigre and the Old English tigras, both used for the animal. These derive from the Old French tigre, itself a derivative of the Latin word tigris and the Greek word tigris. The original source may have been the Persian tigra meaning pointed or sharp, the tigers closest living relatives were previously thought to be the lion, leopard and jaguar, all of which are classified under the genus Panthera. The oldest remains of an extinct relative, called Panthera zdanskyi or the Longdan tiger, have been found in the Gansu province of northwestern China. This species is considered to be a taxon to the extant tiger and lived about 2 million years ago. It was smaller than the tiger, being the size of a jaguar. Despite being considered more primitive, the Longdan tiger was functionally and possibly ecologically similar to its modern cousin, as Panthera zdanskyi lived in northwestern China, that may have been where the tiger lineage originated
11.
Pard (legendary creature)
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A pard is an imaginary animal that is listed in Medieval bestiaries. They were felines with spotted coats and were extremely fast and they were believed to mate with lions to produce leopards. The English noun pard derives from Middle English parde, from Old French via Latin pardus, the word pard is probably of Iranian origin, akin to Sogdian purdhank. and Persian پلنگ Palang
12.
Panther (legendary creature)
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A Panther is a creature out of ancient legend that resembles a big cat with a multicoloured hide. Under medieval belief, after feasting, the panther will sleep in a cave for a total of three days, after this period ends, the panther roars, in the process emitting a sweet smelling odor. This odor draws in any creatures who smell it, they are eaten by the panther, the ancient Greeks believed the panther was one of the favored mounts of the god Dionysus. Other names for this creature are pantera, pantere, and love cervere, mostly drawn as a type of cat, the panther was at times depicted in other forms. It was depicted as a donkey, as a creature with a horned head, long neck and a horses body. This was mostly because those involved did not know what a panther should look like, but, in some instances, in Germany in particular, the panther is often depicted in heraldry as a creature with four horns, cows ears and a fiery red tongue. An example of the former is the coat-of-arms of the city of Cres, in heraldry the panther is commonly used in a form known as the Panther Incensed. In this form the panther is depicted with flames coming from its mouth and ears, the heraldic panther is usually shown with coloured spots, which are frequently blue and red. The arms of the Worshipful Company of Dyers, however, have as supporters two panthers. incensed Gules crowned Or and semée of Roundels Gules, Azure, Vert, Purpure and Sable. The panther was used by King Henry VI as his badge, a panther which is all silver is seen in the coat of arms of the Austrian province of Styria
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Hyena
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Hyenas or hyaenas are any feliform carnivoran mammals of the family Hyaenidae /haɪˈɛnᵻdiː/. With only four extant species, it is the fifth-smallest biological family in the Carnivora, despite their low diversity, hyenas are unique and vital components of most African ecosystems. Both eat food quickly and may store it, and their feet with large, blunt. However, the grooming, scent marking, defecating habits, mating. Spotted hyenas may kill as many as 95% of the animals they eat, generally, hyenas are known to drive off larger predators, like lions, from their kills, despite having a reputation in popular culture for being cowardly. Hyenas are primarily nocturnal animals, but sometimes venture from their lairs in the early-morning hours, with the exception of the highly social spotted hyena, hyenas are generally not gregarious animals, though they may live in family groups and congregate at kills. Hyenas first arose in Eurasia during the Miocene period from viverrid-like ancestors, Although the dog-like hyenas thrived 15 million years ago, they became extinct after a change in climate along with the arrival of canids into Eurasia. Of the dog-like hyena lineage, only the insectivorous aardwolf survived, while the bone-crushing hyenas became the undisputed top scavengers of Eurasia, Hyenas feature prominently in the folklore and mythology of human cultures with which they are sympatric. Hyenas are commonly viewed as frightening and worthy of contempt, and are associated with witchcraft, in some cultures, hyenas are thought to influence people’s spirits, rob graves, and steal livestock and children. Hyenas originated in the jungles of Miocene Eurasia 22 million years ago, the lineage of Plioviverrops prospered, and gave rise to descendants with longer legs and more pointed jaws, a direction similar to that taken by canids in North America. The descendants of Plioviverrops reached their peak 15 million years ago, the doglike hyenas were very numerous, in some Miocene fossil sites, the remains of Ictitherium and other doglike hyenas outnumber those of all other carnivores combined. The decline of the doglike hyenas began 5–7 million years ago during a period of climate change, one species, Chasmaporthetes ossifragus, managed to cross the land bridge into North America, being the only hyena to do so. Chasmopothertes managed to survive for some time in North America by deviating from the cursorial and bone-crushing niches monopolised by canids, most of the doglike hyenas had died off by 1.5 million years ago. By 10–12 million years ago, the family had split into two distinct groups, dog-like hyenas and bone-crushing hyenas. The arrival of the ancestral bone-crushing hyenas coincided with the decline of the similarly built, by 5 million years ago, the bone-crushing hyenas had become the dominant scavengers of Eurasia, primarily feeding on large herbivore carcasses felled by sabre-toothed cats. One genus, Pachycrocuta, was a 200 kg mega-scavenger that could splinter the bones of elephants, with the decline of large herbivores by the late ice age, Pachycrocuta was replaced by the smaller Crocuta. The aardwolf can trace its lineage back to Plioviverrops 15 million years ago. Its success is attributed to its insectivorous diet, for which it faced no competition from canids crossing from North America
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Satyr
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In Greek mythology, a satyr is one of a troop of ithyphallic male companions of Dionysus with goat-like features and often permanent erection. Early artistic representations sometimes include horse-like legs, but in 6th-century BC black-figure pottery human legs are the most common, in Roman Mythology there is a concept similar to satyrs, with goat-like features, the faun, being half-man, half-goat, who roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are associated with pipe-playing. Greek-speaking Romans often used the Greek term saturos when referring to the Latin faunus, the satyrs chief was Silenus, a minor deity associated with fertility. These characters can be found in the complete remaining satyr play, Cyclops, by Euripides. The satyr play was a short, lighthearted tailpiece performed after each trilogy of tragedies in Athenian festivals honoring Dionysus, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the satyr play regularly drew on the same myths as those dramatized in the tragedies that preceded. The groundbreaking tragic playwright Aeschylus is said to have especially loved for his satyr plays. Mature satyrs are depicted in Roman art with goats horns. As Dionysiac creatures they are lovers of wine and women, because of their love of wine, they are often represented holding wine cups, and they appear often in the decorations on wine cups. Attic painted vases depict mature satyrs as being built with flat noses, large pointed ears, long curly hair. Satyrs often carry the thyrsus, the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone, in earlier Greek art, Silenos appear as old and ugly, but in later art, especially in Hellenistic art, he is softened into a more youthful and graceful aspect. This transformation or humanization of the Satyr appears throughout late Greek art, another example of this shift occurs in the portrayal of Medusa and in that of the Amazon, characters who are traditionally depicted as barbaric and uncivilized. A humanized Satyr is depicted in a work of Praxiteles known as the Resting Satyr, Praxiteles gives a new direction to the satyr in art. Although not mentioned by Homer, in a fragment of Hesiods works satyrs are called brothers of the nymphs and Kuretes. In the Dionysus cult, male followers are known as satyrs, in Attica there was a species of drama dealing with the legends of gods and heroes, and the chorus was composed of satyrs and sileni. In the Athenian satyr plays of the 5th century BC, the chorus commented on the action and this satyric drama burlesqued the serious events of the mythic past with lewd pantomime and subversive mockery. One complete satyr play from the 5th century survives, the Cyclops of Euripides, the Satyr and the Traveller, one of Aesops Fables, features the satyr as the benevolent host for a traveler in the forest in winter. The satyr is bewildered by the claim to be able to blow hot and cold with the same breath, first to warm his hands, then to cool his porridge
15.
Monoceros (legendary creature)
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The monoceros is a legendary animal with only one horn. It derives from the Greek word Μονοκέρως, a word from μόνος which means one. The monoceros was first described in Pliny the Elders Natural History as a creature with the body of a horse, the head of a stag, the feet of an elephant, and the tail of a wild boar. It has one horn in the middle of its forehead. In todays English language, the term typically refers to a unicorn or similar one-horned creature
16.
Sheep
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The sheep is a quadrupedal, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, although the name sheep applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female sheep is referred to as a ewe, a male as a ram or occasionally a tup, a castrated male as a wether. Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe, one of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleece, meat and milk. A sheeps wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is harvested by shearing. Ovine meat is called lamb when from younger animals and mutton when from older ones, Sheep continue to be important for wool and meat today, and are also occasionally raised for pelts, as dairy animals, or as model organisms for science. Sheep husbandry is practised throughout the majority of the inhabited world, in the modern era, Australia, New Zealand, the southern and central South American nations, and the British Isles are most closely associated with sheep production. Sheepraising has a lexicon of unique terms which vary considerably by region. Use of the sheep began in Middle English as a derivation of the Old English word scēap. A group of sheep is called a flock, herd or mob, many other specific terms for the various life stages of sheep exist, generally related to lambing, shearing, and age. Being a key animal in the history of farming, sheep have a deeply entrenched place in human culture, as livestock, sheep are most often associated with pastoral, Arcadian imagery. Sheep figure in many mythologies—such as the Golden Fleece—and major religions, in both ancient and modern religious ritual, sheep are used as sacrificial animals. Domestic sheep are relatively small ruminants, usually with a crimped hair called wool, domestic sheep differ from their wild relatives and ancestors in several respects, having become uniquely neotenic as a result of selective breeding by humans. A few primitive breeds of sheep retain some of the characteristics of their wild cousins, depending on breed, domestic sheep may have no horns at all, or horns in both sexes, or in males only. Most horned breeds have a pair, but a few breeds may have several. Another trait unique to domestic sheep as compared to wild ovines is their variation in color. Wild sheep are largely variations of brown hues, and variation within species is extremely limited, colors of domestic sheep range from pure white to dark chocolate brown, and even spotted or piebald
17.
Night heron
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The night herons are medium-sized herons, 58–65 cm, in the genera Nycticorax, Nyctanassa, and Gorsachius. In Europe, night heron is often used to refer to the night heron. Adults are short-necked, short-legged, and stout herons with a brown or grey plumage, and, in most. Young birds are brown, flecked with white, at least some of the extinct Mascarenes taxa appear to have retained this juvenile plumage in adult birds. Night herons nest alone or in colonies, on platforms of sticks in a group of trees, night herons stand still at the waters edge, and wait to ambush prey, mainly at night. They primarily eat small fish, crustaceans, frogs, aquatic insects, during the day, they rest in trees or bushes. Night Herons breed mainly in southern and southeastern Europe and migrate across the Sahara to winter in central and west Africa
18.
Phoenix (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that is cyclically regenerated or reborn. Associated with the Sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. According to some sources, the dies in a show of flames and combustion, although there are other sources that claim that the legendary bird dies. According to some texts, the phoenix could live over 1,400 years before rebirth. Herodotus, Lucan, Pliny the Elder, Pope Clement I, Lactantius, Ovid, the modern English noun phoenix derives from Middle English phenix, itself from Old English fēnix. Old English fēnix was borrowed from Medieval Latin phenix, which is derived from Classical Latin phoenīx, the Classical Latin phoenīx represents Greek φοῖνιξ phoinīx. In ancient Greece and Rome, the bird, φοῖνιξ, was associated with the similar-sounding Phoenicia. A late antique etymology offered by the 6th- and 7th-century CE archbishop Isidore of Seville accordingly derives the name of the phoenix from its allegedly purple-red hue. Because the costly purple dye from Phoenicia was associated with the classes in antiquity and, later, with royalty. Classical discourse on the subject of the points to a potential origin of the phoenix in Ancient Egypt. However, the Egyptian sources regarding the bennu are often problematic, some of these sources may have actually been influenced by Greek notions of the phoenix, rather than the other way around. Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, gives a somewhat skeptical account of the phoenix, have another sacred bird called the phoenix which I myself have never seen. Indeed it is a rarity, even in Egypt, only coming there once in five hundred years. Its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, are as follow, - The plumage is partly red, partly golden, while the general make, such is the story they tell of the doings of this bird. The phoenix is sometimes pictured in ancient and medieval literature and medieval art as endowed with a nimbus, in the oldest images of phoenixes on record these nimbuses often have seven rays, like Helios. Pliny the Elder also describes the bird as having a crest of feathers on its head, although the phoenix was generally believed to be colorful and vibrant, there is no clear consensus about its coloration. Tacitus claims that its made it stand out from all other birds. Some thought that the bird had peacock-like coloring, and Herodotuss claim of red, scholars have observed analogues to the phoenix in a variety of cultures
19.
Recto and verso
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The terms recto and verso refer to the text written on the front and back sides of a leaf of paper in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. The terms are shortened from Latin rectō foliō and versō foliō, translating to on the side of the page and on the turned side of the page. The page faces themselves are called folium rectum and folium versum in Latin, in codicology, each physical sheet of a manuscript is numbered and the sides are referred to as rectum and folium versum, abbreviated as r and v respectively. Editions of manuscripts will thus mark the position of text in the manuscript in the form fol. 1r, sometimes with the r and v in superscript, as in 1r, or with a superscript o indicating the ablative recto, verso and this terminology has been standard since the beginnings of modern codicology in the 17th century. The use of the recto and verso are also used in the codicology of manuscripts written in right-to-left scripts, like Syriac, Arabic. However, as these scripts are written in the direction to the scripts witnessed in European codices. The reading order of each folio remains first recto, then verso regardless of writing direction, the distinction between recto and verso can be convenient in the annotation of scholarly books, particularly in bilingual edition translations. The recto and verso terms can also be employed for the front and back of a one-sheet artwork, a recto-verso drawing is a sheet with drawings on both sides, for example in a sketchbook—although usually in these cases there is no obvious primary side. Some works are planned to exploit being on two sides of the piece of paper, but usually the works are not intended to be considered together. Paper was relatively expensive in the past, indeed good drawing paper still is more expensive than normal paper. In some early printed books, it is the rather than the pages. Thus each folium carries a number on its recto side. This was also common in e. g. internal company reports in the 20th century. Book design Obverse and reverse in coins Page spread
20.
Genesis creation narrative
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The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. Two creation stories are found in the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the second story, God, now referred to by the personal name Yahweh, creates Adam, the first man, from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden, eve, the first woman, is created from Adam and as his companion. The two sources can be identified in the narrative, Genesis 1, 1–2,3 is Priestly and Genesis 2. The combined narrative is a critique of the Mesopotamian theology of creation, Genesis affirms monotheism, robert Alter described the combined narrative as compelling in its archetypal character, its adaptation of myth to monotheistic ends. Misunderstanding the genre of the Genesis creation narrative, meaning the intention of the author/s, reformed evangelical scholar Bruce Waltke cautions against one such misreading, the approach which reads it as history rather than theology and so leads to Creationism and the denial of evolution. As noted scholar of Jewish studies, Jon D. Levenson, puts it, although tradition attributes Genesis to Moses, biblical scholars hold that it, together with the following four books, is a composite work, the product of many hands and periods. The two sources appear in chronological order, Genesis 1, 1–2,3 is Priestly. As for the background which led to the creation of the narrative itself. The creation narrative is made up of two stories, roughly equivalent to the two first chapters of the Book of Genesis. The first account employs a structure of divine fiat and fulfillment, then the statement And there was evening and there was morning. In each of the first three days there is an act of division, day one divides the darkness from light, day two the waters above from the waters below, and day three the sea from the land. Together, this combination of character and contrasting profile point to the different origin of materials in Genesis 1,1 and Genesis 2,4. The primary accounts in each chapter are joined by a bridge at Genesis 2,4, These are the generations of the heavens. This echoes the first line of Genesis 1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and is reversed in the next phrase. in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. This verse is one of ten generations phrases used throughout Genesis and they normally function as headings to what comes after, but the position of this, the first of the series, has been the subject of much debate. Comparative mythology provides historical and cross-cultural perspectives for Jewish mythology, Genesis 1–11 as a whole is imbued with Mesopotamian myths. Genesis 1 bears both striking differences from and striking similarities to Babylons national creation myth, the Enuma Elish, still, Genesis 1 bears similarities to the Baal Cycle of Israels neighbor, Ugarit
21.
Heaven
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According to the beliefs of some religions, heavenly beings can descend to earth or incarnate, and earthly beings can ascend to Heaven in the afterlife, or in exceptional cases enter Heaven alive. Some believe in the possibility of a Heaven on Earth in a World to Come, another belief is in an axis mundi or world tree which connects the heavens, the terrestrial world, and the underworld. In Indian religions, Heaven is considered as Svarga loka, and this cycle can be broken after a soul achieves Moksha or Nirvana. Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or deities, the modern English word heaven is derived from the earlier heven, this in turn was developed from the previous Old English form heofon. By about 1000, heofon was being used in reference to the Christianized place where God dwells, all of these have been derived from a reconstructed Proto-Germanic form *Hemina-. In Ancient Egyptian religion, belief in an afterlife is much more stressed than in ancient Judaism, Heaven was a physical place far above the Earth in a dark area of space where there were no stars, basically beyond the Universe. Their heart would finally be weighed with the feather of truth, almost nothing is known of Bronze Age Canaanite views of Heaven, and the archeological findings at Ugarit have not provided information. The 1st century Greek author Philo of Byblos may preserve elements of Iron Age Phoenician religion in his Sanchuniathon, in the Middle Hittite myths, Heaven is the abode of the gods. In the Song of Kumarbi, Alalu was king in Heaven for nine years before giving birth to his son, Anu was himself overthrown by his son, Kumarbi. The Baháí Faith regards the description of Heaven as a specific place as symbolic. The Baháí writings describe Heaven as a condition where closeness to God is defined as Heaven. For Baháís, entry into the life has the potential to bring great joy. Baháulláh likened death to the process of birth and he explains, The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother. Accordingly, Baháís view life as a stage, where one can develop. The key to progress is to follow the path outlined by the current Manifestation of God. Baháulláh wrote, Know thou, of a truth, that if the soul of man hath walked in the ways of God, it will, assuredly return, in Buddhism there are several Heavens, all of which are still part of samsara. Those who accumulate good karma may be reborn in one of them, however, their stay in Heaven is not eternal—eventually they will use up their good karma and will undergo rebirth into another realm, as a human, animal or other being. Because Heaven is temporary and part of samsara, Buddhists focus more on escaping the cycle of rebirth, Nirvana is not a heaven but a mental state
22.
Earth
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Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun
23.
Book of Genesis
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The Book of Genesis is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. The basic narrative expresses the theme, God creates the world and appoints man as his regent. The new post-Flood world is also corrupt, God does not destroy it, instead calling one man, Abraham, to be the seed of its salvation. At Gods command Abraham descends from his home into the land of Canaan, given to him by God, Genesis ends with Israel in Egypt, ready for the coming of Moses and the Exodus. The narrative is punctuated by a series of covenants with God, the books author or authors appear to have structured it around ten toledot sections, but modern commentators see it in terms of a primeval history followed by the cycle of Patriarchal stories. In Judaism, the importance of Genesis centers on the covenants linking God to his chosen people. It is not clear, however, what this meant to the original authors, while the first is far shorter than the second, it sets out the basic themes and provides an interpretive key for understanding the entire book. The primeval history has a symmetrical structure hinging on chapters 6–9, God creates the world in six days and consecrates the seventh as a day of rest. God creates the first humans Adam and Eve and all the animals in the Garden of Eden but instructs them not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. A talking serpent portrayed as a creature or trickster, entices Eve into eating it anyway. Eve bears two sons, Cain and Abel, Cain kills Abel after God accepts Abels offering but not Cains. Eve bears another son, Seth, to take Abels place, after many generations of Adam have passed from the lines of Cain and Seth, the world becomes corrupted by the sin of man and Nephilim, and God determines to wipe out mankind. First, he instructs the righteous Noah and his family to build a huge boat, then God sends a great flood to wipe out the rest of the world. When the waters recede, God promises that he not destroy the world a second time with water with the rainbow as the symbol of his promise. But upon seeing mankind cooperating to build a great tower city, God instructs Abram to travel from his home in Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Abrams name is changed to Abraham and that of his wife Sarai to Sarah, because Sarah is old, she tells Abraham to take her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, as a second wife. God resolves to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sins of their people, Abraham protests and gets God to agree not to destroy the cities if 10 righteous men can be found. Angels save Abrahams nephew Lot and his family, but his wife back on the destruction against their command and is turned into a pillar of salt
24.
Water
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Water is a transparent and nearly colorless chemical substance that is the main constituent of Earths streams, lakes, and oceans, and the fluids of most living organisms. Its chemical formula is H2O, meaning that its molecule contains one oxygen, Water strictly refers to the liquid state of that substance, that prevails at standard ambient temperature and pressure, but it often refers also to its solid state or its gaseous state. It also occurs in nature as snow, glaciers, ice packs and icebergs, clouds, fog, dew, aquifers, Water covers 71% of the Earths surface. It is vital for all forms of life. Only 2. 5% of this water is freshwater, and 98. 8% of that water is in ice and groundwater. Less than 0. 3% of all freshwater is in rivers, lakes, and the atmosphere, a greater quantity of water is found in the earths interior. Water on Earth moves continually through the cycle of evaporation and transpiration, condensation, precipitation. Evaporation and transpiration contribute to the precipitation over land, large amounts of water are also chemically combined or adsorbed in hydrated minerals. Safe drinking water is essential to humans and other even though it provides no calories or organic nutrients. There is a correlation between access to safe water and gross domestic product per capita. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the population will be facing water-based vulnerability. A report, issued in November 2009, suggests that by 2030, in developing regions of the world. Water plays an important role in the world economy, approximately 70% of the freshwater used by humans goes to agriculture. Fishing in salt and fresh water bodies is a source of food for many parts of the world. Much of long-distance trade of commodities and manufactured products is transported by boats through seas, rivers, lakes, large quantities of water, ice, and steam are used for cooling and heating, in industry and homes. Water is an excellent solvent for a variety of chemical substances, as such it is widely used in industrial processes. Water is also central to many sports and other forms of entertainment, such as swimming, pleasure boating, boat racing, surfing, sport fishing, Water is a liquid at the temperatures and pressures that are most adequate for life. Specifically, at atmospheric pressure of 1 bar, water is a liquid between the temperatures of 273.15 K and 373.15 K
25.
Firmament
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In Biblical cosmology, the firmament is the structure above the atmosphere, conceived as a vast solid dome. According to the Genesis creation narrative, God created the firmament to separate the waters above the earth from the waters below the earth, the word is anglicized from Latin firmamentum, which appears in the Vulgate, a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible. The firmament is described in Genesis 1, 6–8 in the Genesis creation narrative, Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. ”Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven, so the evening and the morning were the second day. The word firmament is first recorded in a Middle English narrative based on scripture dated 1250 and it later appeared in the King James Bible. The word is anglicised from Latin firmamentum, used in the Vulgate and this in turn is derived from the Latin root firmus, a cognate with firm. The word is a Latinization of the Greek stereōma, which appears in the Septuagint, the word firmament is used to translate rāqîa‘, a word used in Biblical Hebrew. It is derived from the root raqqə‘, meaning to beat or spread out, like most ancient peoples, the Hebrews believed the sky was a solid dome with the Sun, Moon, planets and stars embedded in it. According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, The Hebrews regarded the earth as a plain or a hill figured like a hemisphere, over this is arched the solid vault of heaven. To this vault are fastened the lights, the stars, so slight is this elevation that birds may rise to it and fly along its expanse. Augustine wrote that too much learning had been expended on the nature of the firmament and we may understand this name as given to indicate not it is motionless but that it is solid. Saint Basil argued for a fluid firmament, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, the firmament had a solid nature and stood above a region of fire, wherein all vapor must be consumed. The Copernican Revolution of the 16th century led to reconsideration of these matters, in 1554, John Calvin proposed that firmament be interpreted as clouds. He who would learn astronomy and other arts, let him go elsewhere. As it became a theologian, had to respect us rather than the stars, calvins doctrine of accommodation allowed Protestants to accept the findings of science without rejecting the authority of scripture. The Greeks and Stoics adopted a model of celestial spheres after the discovery of the spherical Earth in the 4th to 3rd centuries BC, the Medieval Scholastics adopted a cosmology that fused the ideas of the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Ptolemy. This cosmology involved celestial orbs, nested concentrically inside one another, the outermost orb contained the stars and the term firmament was then transferred to this orb. There were seven inner orbs for the seven wanderers of the sky, even Copernicus heliocentric model included an outer sphere that held the stars
26.
Bird
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Birds, a subgroup of Reptiles, are the last living examples of Dinosaurs. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich. They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species, at ten thousand. Birds are the closest living relatives of crocodilians, the fossil record indicates that birds evolved from feathered ancestors within the theropod group of saurischian dinosaurs. True birds first appeared during the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, Birds, especially those in the southern continents, survived this event and then migrated to other parts of the world while diversifying during periods of global cooling. Primitive bird-like dinosaurs that lie outside class Aves proper, in the broader group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago. Birds have wings which are more or less developed depending on the species, the digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have evolved for swimming. Many species annually migrate great distances, Birds are social, communicating with visual signals, calls, and bird songs, and participating in such social behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous or, rarely, Birds produce offspring by laying eggs which are fertilised through sexual reproduction. They are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents, most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching. Some birds, such as hens, lay eggs even when not fertilised, songbirds, parrots, and other species are popular as pets. Guano is harvested for use as a fertiliser, Birds prominently figure throughout human culture. About 120–130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them. Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry, the first classification of birds was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae. Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system currently in use, Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the dinosaur clade Theropoda, Aves and a sister group, the clade Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria
27.
Fish
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A fish is any member of a group of animals that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits. They form a group to the tunicates, together forming the olfactores. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous, tetrapods emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well. However, traditionally fish are rendered obsolete or paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods, because in this manner the term fish is defined negatively as a paraphyletic group, it is not considered a formal taxonomic grouping in systematic biology. The traditional term pisces is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification, the earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts, fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators, the first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Fish are abundant in most bodies of water and they can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans. With 33,100 described species, fish exhibit greater species diversity than any group of vertebrates. Fish are an important resource for humans worldwide, especially as food, commercial and subsistence fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean. They are also caught by fishers, kept as pets, raised by fishkeepers. Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, fish do not represent a monophyletic group, and therefore the evolution of fish is not studied as a single event. Early fish from the record are represented by a group of small, jawless. Jawless fish lineages are mostly extinct, an extant clade, the lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. The first jaws are found in Placodermi fossils, the diversity of jawed vertebrates may indicate the evolutionary advantage of a jawed mouth. It is unclear if the advantage of a hinged jaw is greater biting force, improved respiration, fish may have evolved from a creature similar to a coral-like sea squirt, whose larvae resemble primitive fish in important ways. The first ancestors of fish may have kept the form into adulthood. Fish are a group, that is, any clade containing all fish also contains the tetrapods
28.
Man
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The term man is usually reserved for an adult male, with the term boy being the usual term for a male child or adolescent. However, the man is also sometimes used to identify a male human, regardless of age. Like most other mammals, a mans genome typically inherits an X chromosome from his mother. The male fetus produces larger amounts of androgens and smaller amounts of estrogens than a female fetus and this difference in the relative amounts of these sex steroids is largely responsible for the physiological differences that distinguish men from women. During puberty, hormones which stimulate androgen production result in the development of sexual characteristics. However, there are exceptions to the above for some transgender, the English term man is derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *man-. More directly, the word derives from Old English mann, the Old English form had a default meaning of adult male, though it could also signify a person of unspecified gender. The closely related Old English pronoun man was used just as it is in Modern German to designate one. The Old English form is derived from Proto-Germanic *mannz, human being, person, which is also the etymon of German Mann man, husband and man one, Old Norse maðr, according to Tacitus, the mythological progenitor of the Germanic tribes was called Mannus. *Manus in Indo-European mythology was the first man, see Mannus, the word man is used to mean any adult male. In English-speaking countries, many words can also be used to mean an adult male such as guy, dude, buddy, bloke, fellow, chap. The term manhood is associated with masculinity and virility, which refer to male qualities, humans exhibit sexual dimorphism in many characteristics, many of which have no direct link to reproductive ability, although most of these characteristics do have a role in sexual attraction. Most expressions of sexual dimorphism in humans are found in height, weight, for example, men tend to be taller than women, but there are many people of both sexes who are in the mid-height range for the species. If a sperm cell carrying an X chromosome fertilizes the egg, the offspring will typically be female, if a sperm cell carrying a Y chromosome fertilizes the egg, persons whose anatomy or chromosomal makeup differ from this pattern are referred to as intersex. This is referred to as the XY sex-determination system and is typical of most mammals, the term primary sexual characteristics denotes the kind of gamete the gonad produces, the ovary produces egg cells in the female, and the testis produces sperm cells in the male. The term secondary sexual characteristics denotes all other sexual distinctions that play roles in uniting sperm. Biological factors are not sufficient determinants of whether a person considers themselves a man or is considered a man, intersex individuals, who have physical or genetic features considered to be mixed or atypical for one sex or the other, may use other criteria in making a clear determination. There are also transgender and transsexual men, who were assigned as female at birth, the male sex organs are part of the reproductive system, consisting of the penis, testicles, vas deferens, and the prostate gland
29.
Isidore of Seville
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He was influential in the inner circle of Sisebut, Visigothic king of Hispania. Like Leander, he played a prominent role in the Councils of Toledo, the Visigothic legislation that resulted from these councils influenced the beginnings of representative government. His fame after his death was based on his Etymologiae, an encyclopedia which assembled extracts of many books from classical antiquity that would have otherwise been lost. Isidore was probably born in Cartagena, Spain, a former Carthaginian colony, to Severianus, both Severianus and Theodora belonged to notable Hispano-Roman families of high social rank. His parents were members of a family who were instrumental in the political-religious manoeuvring that converted the Visigothic kings from Arianism to Catholicism. A younger brother, Saint Fulgentius of Cartagena, served as the Bishop of Astigi at the start of the new reign of the Catholic King Reccared and his sister, Saint Florentina, served God as a nun and allegedly ruled over forty convents and one thousand consecrated religious. This claim seems unlikely, however, given the few functioning monastic institutions in Iberia during her lifetime, Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, the first of its kind in Iberia, a body of learned men including Archbishop Saint Leander of Seville taught the trivium and quadrivium, Saint Isidore applied himself to study diligently enough that he quickly mastered Latin, and acquired some Greek, and Hebrew. Two centuries of Gothic control of Iberia incrementally suppressed the ancient institutions, classic learning, the associated culture entered a period of long-term decline. The ruling Visigoths nevertheless showed some respect for the trappings of Roman culture. Arianism meanwhile took deep root among the Visigoths as the form of Christianity that they received, scholars may debate whether Isidore ever personally embraced monastic life or affiliated with any religious order, but he undoubtedly esteemed the monks highly. After the death of Saint Leander of Seville on 13 March 600 or 601, on his elevation to the episcopate, he immediately constituted himself as protector of monks. He used all available religious resources toward this end and succeeded, Isidore practically eradicated the heresy of Arianism and completely stifled the new heresy of Acephali at its very outset. Archbishop Isidore strengthened religious discipline throughout his See, Archbishop Isidore also used resources of education to counteract increasingly influential Gothic barbarism throughout his episcopal jurisdiction. His quickening spirit animated the educational movement centered on Seville, Saint Isidore introduced Aristotle to his countrymen long before the Arabs studied Greek philosophy extensively. In 619, Saint Isidore of Seville pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who in any way should molest the monasteries, through the enlightened statecraft of his two brothers, the Councils of Seville and Toledo emanated Visigothic legislation which influenced the beginnings of representative government. The Acts of the Council fully set forth the nature of Christ, countering the conceptions of Gregory, based on a few surviving canons found in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, Saint Isidore is known to have presided over an additional provincial council around 624. The council dealt with a conflict over the see of Ecija, and wrongfully stripped bishop Martianus of his see and it also addressed a concern over Jews who had been forced to convert to Christianity by Sisebut failing to present their children for baptism
30.
Etymologiae
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Etymologiae, also known as the Origines and usually abbreviated Orig. is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville towards the end of his life. Isidore was encouraged to write the book by his friend Braulio, the Etymologies summarized and organized a wealth of knowledge from hundreds of classical sources, three of its books are derived largely from Pliny the Elders Natural History. Isidore acknowledges Pliny, but not his other principal sources, namely Cassiodorus, Servius and Solinus, the work contains whatever Isidore, an influential Christian bishop, thought worth keeping. Etymologiae covers a range of topics. Etymologiae was the most used textbook throughout the Middle Ages and it was so popular that it was read in place of many of the original classical texts that it summarized, so these ceased to be copied and were lost. It was cited by Dante Alighieri, who placed Isidore in his Paradiso, quoted by Geoffrey Chaucer, among the thousand-odd surviving manuscript copies is the 13th-century Codex Gigas, the earliest surviving manuscript, the Codex Sangallensis, preserves books XI to XX from the 9th century. Etymologiae was printed in at least ten editions between 1472 and 1530, after which its importance faded in the Renaissance, the first scholarly edition was printed in Madrid in 1599, the first modern critical edition was edited by Wallace Lindsay in 1911. Etymologiae is less known in modern times, though the Vatican considered naming its author Isidore the patron saint of the Internet. Scholars recognize its importance both for its preservation of texts and for the insight it offers into medieval thought. Isidore of Seville was born around 560 in Spain, under the rule of the Visigoths after the collapse of the Roman empire. His older brother, Leander, the abbot of a Seville monastery, supervised Isidores education, Leander was a powerful priest, a friend of Pope Gregory, and eventually he became bishop of Seville. Leander also made friends with the Visigothic kings sons, Hermenigild, in 586, Reccared became king, and in 587 under Leanders religious direction he became a Catholic, controlling the choice of bishops. Reccared died in 601, not long after appointing Isidore as bishop of Seville, Isidore helped to unify the kingdom through Christianity and education, eradicating the Arian heresy which had been widespread, and led National Councils at Toledo and Seville. Isidore had a friendship with king Sisebut, who came to the throne in 612, and with another Seville churchman, Braulio. Isidore was widely read, mainly in Latin with a little Greek, the classical encyclopedists had already introduced alphabetic ordering of topics, and a literary rather than observational approach to knowledge, Isidore followed those traditions. Isidore became well known in his lifetime as a scholar and he started to put together a collection of his knowledge, the Etymologies, in about 600, and continued to write until about 625. Etymologiae presents in abbreviated form much of that part of the learning of antiquity that Christians thought worth preserving, Etymologies, often very far-fetched, form the subject of just one of the encyclopedias twenty books, but perceived linguistic similarities permeate the work. An idea of the quality of Isidores etymological knowledge is given by Peter Jones, Isidores vast encyclopedia of ancient learning includes subjects from theology to furniture, and provided a rich source of classical lore and learning for medieval writers
31.
Quadrupedalism
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Quadrupedalism or pronograde posture is a form of terrestrial locomotion in animals using four limbs or legs. An animal or machine that moves in a quadrupedal manner is known as a quadruped. The majority of quadrupeds are vertebrate animals, including such as cattle, dogs and cats. Few other animals are quadrupedal, though a few birds like the shoebill sometimes use their wings to itself after lunging at prey. Although the words quadruped and tetrapod are both derived from terms meaning four-footed, they have distinct meanings, a tetrapod is any member of the taxonomic unit Tetrapoda whereas a quadruped actually uses four limbs for locomotion. Not all tetrapods are quadrupeds and not all quadrupeds are tetrapods, the distinction between quadrupeds and tetrapods is important in evolutionary biology, particularly in the context of tetrapods whose limbs have adapted to other roles. All of these animals are tetrapods, but none is a quadruped, even snakes, whose limbs have become vestigial or lost entirely, are nevertheless tetrapods. Most quadrupedal animals are tetrapods but there are a few exceptions, for instance, among the insects, the praying mantis is a quadruped. In July 2005, in rural Turkey, scientists discovered five Kurdish siblings who had learned to walk naturally on their hands, unlike chimpanzees, which ambulate on their knuckles, the Kurdish siblings walked on their palms, allowing them to preserve the dexterity of their fingers. Many people, especially practitioners of Parkour and Freerunning and Georges Héberts Natural Method, kenichi Ito is a Japanese man famous for speed running on four limbs. Quadrupedalism is sometimes referred to as being on all fours, and is observed in crawling especially by infants, bigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. Also by NASA JPL, in collaboration with University of California, Santa Barbara Robotics Lab, is RoboSimian, with emphasis on stability and it has been demonstrated at the DARPA Robotics Challenge. Bipedalism Orthograde posture Family may provide evolution clue - BBC News
32.
Livestock
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Livestock are domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber, and labor. The term is used to refer solely to those raised for food. In recent years, some organizations have also raised livestock to promote the survival of rare breeds, animal husbandry practices have varied widely across cultures and time periods. Originally, livestock were not confined by fences or enclosures, but these practices have largely shifted to intensive animal farming and these practices increase yield of the various commercial outputs, but have led to increased concerns about animal welfare and environmental impact. Livestock production continues to play an economic and cultural role in numerous rural communities. Livestock as a word was first used between 1650 and 1660, as a merger between the live and stock. Older English sources, such as the King James Version of the Bible, the word cattle is derived from Old North French catel, which meant all kinds of movable personal property, including livestock, which was differentiated from immovable real estate. In later English, sometimes smaller livestock such as chickens and pigs were referred to as small cattle, today, the modern meaning of cattle, without a modifier, usually refers to domesticated bovines, but sometimes livestock refers only to this subgroup. Legal definition United States federal legislation sometimes more narrowly defines the term to make specified agricultural commodities either eligible or ineligible for a program or activity, for example, the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 defines livestock only as cattle, swine, and sheep. Animal-rearing originated during the transition to settled farming communities from hunter-gatherer lifestyles. Animals are domesticated when their breeding and living conditions are controlled by humans, over time, the collective behaviour, lifecycle and physiology of livestock have changed radically. Many modern farm animals are unsuited to life in the wild, dogs were domesticated in East Asia about 15,000 years ago. Goats and sheep were domesticated around 8000 BC in Asia, swine or pigs were domesticated by 7000 BC in the Middle East and China. The earliest evidence of horse domestication dates to around 4000 BC, the term livestock is nebulous and may be defined narrowly or broadly. Broadly, livestock refers to any breed or population of animal kept by humans for a useful and this can mean domestic animals, semidomestic animals, or captive wild animals. Semidomesticated refers to animals which are only lightly domesticated or of disputed status and these populations may also be in the process of domestication. Some people may use the term livestock to refer to only used for red meat. Livestock are used by humans for a variety of purposes, many of which have an economic value, Livestock products include, Meat A useful form of dietary protein and energy, meat is the edible tissue of the animal carcass
33.
Pack animal
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Traditional pack animals are diverse, including camels, goats, yaks, reindeer, water buffalo, and llamas, as well as the more familiar horses, donkeys and mules. The term pack animal is used in contrast to draft animal. For instance, sled dogs pull loads but do not normally carry them, traditional pack animals include ungulates such as camels, the yak, reindeer, goats, water buffalo and llama, and domesticated members of the horse family including horses, donkeys and mules. Occasionally, dogs can be used to carry small loads, hauling of goods in wagons with horses and oxen gradually displaced the use of packhorses, which had been important until the Middle Ages, by the sixteenth century. Pack animals may be fitted with saddles and may also carry saddlebags. The use of animals is considered a valid means of viewing and experiencing some National Parks in America, subject to guidelines. In the 21st century, special forces have received guidance on the use of horses, mules, llamas, camels, dogs, the maximum load for a camel is roughly 300 kg. Yaks are loaded differently according to region, in Sichuan,75 kg is carried for 30 km in 6 hours. In Qinghai, at 4100 m altitude, packs of up to 300 kg are routinely carried, llamas can carry roughly 1/4 of their body weight, so an adult male of 200 kg can carry some 50 kg. The US Army specifies a maximum of 20 percent of weight for mules walking up to 20 miles a day in mountains. However an 1867 text mentioned a load of up to 800 pounds, in India, the prevention of cruelty rules limit mules to 200 kg and ponies to 70 kg. Reindeer can carry up to 40 kg for a period in mountains
34.
Herd
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A herd is a social grouping of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic. The form of animal behavior associated with this is referred to as herding. The term herd is generally applied to mammals, and most particularly to the grazing ungulates that classically display this behaviour, a group of quail is often referred to as a covey. Large groups of carnivores are usually called packs, and in nature a herd is classically subject to predation from pack hunters. Special collective nouns may be used for particular taxa but for discussions of behavioural ecology. The word herd, as a noun, can refer to one who controls. Examples of herds in this sense include shepherds, goatherds, cowherds, when an association of animals is described as a herd, the implication is that the group tends to act together, but that this does not occur as a result of planning or coordination. A herd can be contrasted with a group where individuals have distinct roles. The question of why animals group together is one of the most fundamental in sociobiology and behavioural ecology. There is clearly a tradeoff involved, since on the one hand a predator may hesitate to attack a group of animals. In the case of predators, it is unclear whether the term herd is appropriate. A herd is by definition relatively unstructured, however, there may be one or a few animals which tend to be imitated by the rest of the members of the herd more than others. An animal taking this role is called an animal, since its behaviour will predict that of the herd as a whole. It cannot be assumed, however, that the animal is deliberately taking a leadership role. Control animals are not necessarily, or even usually, those that are dominant in conflict situations. Group size is an important characteristic of the environment of gregarious species. Domestic animal herds are assembled by humans for practicality in raising them and their behaviour may be quite different from that of wild herds of the same or related species, since both their composition and their history are likely to be very different. The term herd is also applied metaphorically to human beings in social psychology, however both the term and concepts that underlie its use are controversial
35.
Lion
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The lion is one of the big cats in the genus Panthera and a member of the family Felidae. The commonly used term African lion collectively denotes the several subspecies in Africa, with some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger. Wild lions currently exist in sub-Saharan Africa and in India, in ancient historic times, their range was in most of Africa, including North Africa, and across Eurasia from Greece and southeastern Europe to India. Lion populations are untenable outside designated reserves and national parks, although the cause of the decline is not fully understood, habitat loss and conflicts with humans are the greatest causes of concern. Within Africa, the West African lion population is particularly endangered, in the wild, males seldom live longer than 10 to 14 years, as injuries sustained from continual fighting with rival males greatly reduce their longevity. In captivity they can more than 20 years. They typically inhabit savanna and grassland, although they may take to bush, Lions are unusually social compared to other cats. A pride of lions consists of related females and offspring and a number of adult males. Groups of female lions typically hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates, Lions are apex and keystone predators, although they are also expert scavengers obtaining over 50 percent of their food by scavenging as opportunity allows. While lions do not typically hunt humans, some have, sleeping mainly during the day, lions are active primarily at night, although sometimes at twilight. Highly distinctive, the lion is easily recognised by its mane. It has been depicted in sculptures, in paintings, on national flags. Lions have been kept in menageries since the time of the Roman Empire, Zoos are cooperating worldwide in breeding programs for the endangered Asiatic subspecies. The lions name, similar in many Romance languages, is derived from the Latin leo, the Hebrew word לָבִיא may also be related. It was one of the originally described by Linnaeus, who gave it the name Felis leo, in his eighteenth-century work. The lions closest relatives are the species of the genus Panthera, the tiger, the snow leopard, the jaguar. P. leo evolved in Africa between 1 million and 800,000 years ago, before spreading throughout the Holarctic region and it appeared in the fossil record in Europe for the first time 700,000 years ago with the subspecies Panthera leo fossilis at Isernia in Italy. From this lion derived the later cave lion, which appeared about 300,000 years ago, Lions died out in northern Eurasia at the end of the last glaciation, about 10,000 years ago, this may have been secondary to the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna
36.
Physiologus
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The Physiologus consists of descriptions of animals, birds, and fantastic creatures, sometimes stones and plants, provided with moral content. Each animal is described, and an anecdote follows, from which the moral, manuscripts are often, but not always, given illustrations, often lavish. It retained its influence over ideas of the meaning of animals in Europe for over a thousand years and it was a predecessor of bestiaries. Some allegories set forth the deceptive enticements of the Devil and his defeat by Christ, in later centuries it was ascribed to various celebrated Fathers, especially Epiphanius, Basil, and St. Peter of Alexandria. About the year 400 the Physiologus was translated into Latin, in the 5th century into Ethiopic, into Armenian, an Old Slavic translation was made in the 10th century. Various translations and revisions were current in the Middle Ages, translations and adaptations from the Latin introduced the Physiologus into almost all the languages of Western Europe. An Old High German translation was written in Hirsau in ca,1070, a later translation has been edited by Lauchert in Geschichte des Physiologus, and a rhymed version appears in Karajan, Deutsche Sprachdenkmale des XII. Jahrhunderts, both based on the Latin text known as Dicta Chrysostomi, fragments of a 9th-century metrical Anglo-Saxon Physiologus are extant. Icelandic literature includes a Physiologus belonging to the part of the 13th century. An adaptation is found in the old Waldensian literature, and has been edited by Alfons Mayer in Romanische Forschungen, as to the Italian bestiaries, a Tuscan-Venetian Bestiarius has been edited. Extracts from the Physiologus in Provençal have been edited by Bartsch, ben Perry showed that a manuscript Sbordone had missed, at the Morgan Library, was the oldest extant Greek version, a late 10th-century manuscript from Grottaferrata. We begin first of all by speaking of the Lion II, on the Siren and Ass-Centaur XVI. On the Peridexion Tree and the Doves XX, on the Oyster-stone and the Pearl XXV. On the Other Nature of the Wild Ass and the Monkey XXVII, on the Heron, that is, the Coot XXIX. On the Whale, that is, the Aspidoceleon XXXII, on the Hyena or the Brute XXXIX. On the Lizard, that is, the Salamander XLVIII, on the Sun-lizard, that is, the Sun-eel List of illuminated manuscripts Naturalis Historia Emil Peters, Der Physiologus. 1921 Christian Schröder, Der Millstätter Physiologus, würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann,2005 French translation, Arnaud Zucker, Physiologos. Texte traduit du grec, introduit et commenté par Arnaud Zucker, Jérôme Millon,2005
37.
Antelope
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An antelope is a member of a number of even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a wastebasket taxon within the family Bovidae, encompassing those Old World species that are not cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, a group of antelope is called a herd. It perhaps derives from Greek anthos and ops, perhaps meaning beautiful eye or alluding to the animals long eyelashes and this, however, may be a later folk etymology. The word talopus and calopus, from Latin, came to be used in heraldry, in 1607, it was first used for living, cervine animals. The 91 species, most of which are native to Africa, the classification of tribes or subfamilies within Bovidae is still a matter of debate, with several alternative systems proposed. Antelope are not a cladistic or taxonomically defined group, the term is used to describe all members of the family Bovidae that do not fall under the category of sheep, cattle, or goats. Usually, all species of the Alcelaphinae, Antilopinae, Hippotraginae, Reduncinae, Cephalophinae, many Bovinae, the grey rhebok, and the impala are called antelopes. No antelope species is native to Australasia or Antarctica, nor do any extant species occur in the Americas, North America is currently home to the native pronghorn, which taxonomists do not consider a member of the antelope group, but which is locally referred to as such. More species of antelope are native to Africa than to any other continent, almost exclusively in savannahs, other species occur in Asia, the Arabian Peninsula is home to the Arabian oryx and Dorcas gazelle. India is home to the nilgai, chinkara, blackbuck, Tibetan antelope, and four-horned antelope, while Russia and Central Asia have the Tibetan antelope, many species of antelopes have been imported to other parts of the world, especially the United States, for exotic game hunting. With some species possessing spectacular leaping and evasive skills, individuals may escape, Texas in particular has many game ranches, as well as habitats and climates, that are very hospitable to African and Asian plains antelope species. Accordingly, wild populations of antelope, gemsbok, and nilgai may be found in Texas. Antelope live in a range of habitats. Numerically, most live in the African savannahs, species living in forests, woodland, or bush tend to be sedentary, but many of the plains species undertake long migrations. These enable grass-eating species to follow the rains and thereby their food supply, the gnus and gazelles of East Africa perform some of the most impressive mass migratory circuits of all mammals. For example, a male common eland can measure 178 cm at the shoulder and weigh almost 950 kg, whereas an adult royal antelope may stand only 24 cm at the shoulder and weigh a mere 1.5 kg. Not surprisingly for animals with long, slender yet powerful legs, many antelopes have long strides, some are also adapted to inhabiting rock koppies and crags. Both dibatags and gerenuks habitually stand on their two legs to reach acacia and other tree foliage
38.
Unicorn
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The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. The Bible also describes an animal, the reem, which some versions translate as unicorn, in European folklore, the unicorn is often depicted as a white horse-like or goat-like animal with a long horn and cloven hooves. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was described as an extremely wild woodland creature, a symbol of purity and grace. In the encyclopedias its horn was said to have the power to render poisoned water potable, in medieval and Renaissance times, the tusk of the narwhal was sometimes sold as unicorn horn. The earliest description is from Ctesias, who in his book Indika described them as wild asses, fleet of foot, having a horn a cubit and a half in length, and colored white, red and black. Aristotle must be following Ctesias when he mentions two one-horned animals, the oryx and the so-called Indian ass, strabo says that in the Caucasus there were one-horned horses with stag-like heads. Cosmas Indicopleustes, a merchant of Alexandria who lived in the 6th century, made a voyage to India and he gives a description of a unicorn based on four brass figures in the palace of the King of Ethiopia. He states, from report, that it is impossible to take this ferocious beast alive, and that all its strength lies in its horn. When it finds itself pursued and in danger of capture, it throws itself from a precipice, and turns so aptly in falling, that it all the shock upon the horn. A one-horned animal is found on seals from the Indus Valley Civilization. Seals with such a design are thought to be a mark of social rank. Medieval knowledge of the fabulous beast stemmed from biblical and ancient sources, the predecessor of the medieval bestiary, compiled in Late Antiquity and known as Physiologus, popularized an elaborate allegory in which a unicorn, trapped by a maiden, stood for the Incarnation. As soon as the unicorn sees her, it lays its head on her lap and this became a basic emblematic tag that underlies medieval notions of the unicorn, justifying its appearance in every form of religious art. Interpretations of the myth focus on the medieval lore of beguiled lovers, whereas some religious writers interpret the unicorn. The myths refer to a beast with one horn that can only be tamed by a virgin, subsequently, with the rise of humanism, the unicorn also acquired more orthodox secular meanings, emblematic of chaste love and faithful marriage. The Throne Chair of Denmark is made of unicorn horns – almost certainly narwhal tusks, the same material was used for ceremonial cups because the unicorns horn continued to be believed to neutralize poison, following classical authors. The unicorn, tamable only by a woman, was well established in medieval lore by the time Marco Polo described them as scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephants and they have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead
39.
Lynx
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A lynx is any of the four species within the Lynx genus of medium-sized wild cats, which includes the bobcat. The name lynx originated in Middle English via Latin from the Greek word λύγξ, neither the caracal, sometimes called the desert lynx, nor the jungle cat, called the jungle lynx, is a member of the Lynx genus. Lynx have a tail, characteristic tufts of black hair on the tips of their ears, large, padded paws for walking on snow. Under their neck, they have a ruff which has black bars resembling a bow tie although this is not visible. Body colour varies from brown to goldish to beige-white, and is occasionally marked with dark brown spots. All species of lynx have white fur on their chests, bellies and on the insides of their legs, fur which is an extension of the chest, the lynxs colouring, fur length and paw size vary according to the climate in their range. In the Southwestern United States, they are short-haired, dark in colour and their paws are smaller, as climates get colder and more northerly, lynx have progressively thicker fur, lighter colour, and their paws are larger and more padded to adapt to the snow. Their paws may be larger than a hand or foot. The smallest species are the bobcat and the Canada lynx, while the largest is the Eurasian lynx, the four living species of the Lynx genus are believed to have evolved from the Issoire lynx, which lived in Europe and Africa during the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene. Of the four species, the Eurasian lynx is the largest in size. It is native to European, Central Asian, and Siberian forests, while its conservation status has been classified as least concern, populations of Eurasian lynx have been reduced or extirpated from Europe, where it is now being reintroduced. The Eurasian lynx is the third largest predator in Europe after the brown bear and it is a strict carnivore, consuming about one or two kilograms of meat every day. The Eurasian lynx is one of the widest-ranging, during the summer, the Eurasian lynx has a relatively short, reddish or brown coat which is replaced by a much thicker silver-grey to greyish-brown coat during winter. The lynx hunts by stalking and jumping its prey, helped by the rugged, forested country in which it resides, a favorite prey for the lynx in its woodland habitat is roe deer. It will feed however on whatever animal appears easiest, as it is a predator much like its cousins. The Canada lynx, or Canadian lynx, is a North American felid that ranges in forest and tundra regions across Canada and into Alaska, historically, the Canadian lynx ranged from Alaska across Canada and into many of the northern U. S. states. In the eastern states, it resided in the zone in which boreal coniferous forests yielded to deciduous forests. By 2010, after an 11-year effort, it had successfully reintroduced into Colorado
40.
Griffin
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The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle, and an eagles talons as its front feet. Because the lion was considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of birds. The griffin was thought of as king of all creatures. Griffins are known for guarding treasure and priceless possessions, in Greek and Roman texts, griffins and Arimaspeans were associated with gold. Indeed, in later accounts, griffins were said to lay eggs in burrows on the grounds, in antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine. The derivation of this remains uncertain. It could be related to the Greek word γρυπός, meaning curved, also, this could have been an Anatolian loan word, compare Akkadian karūbu, and similar to Cherub. A related Hebrew word is כרוב, Most statuary representations of griffins depict them with bird-like talons, although in some older illustrations griffins have a lions forelimbs, they generally have a lions hindquarters. Its eagles head is given prominent ears, these are sometimes described as the lions ears, but are often elongated. Infrequently, a griffin is portrayed without wings, or a wingless eagle-headed lion is identified as a griffin, in 15th-century and later heraldry, such a beast may be called an alce or a keythong. In heraldry, a griffin always has forelegs like an eagles hind-legs, there is evidence of representations of griffins in Ancient Iranian and Ancient Egyptian art dating back to before 3000 BC. In Egypt, a griffin can be seen in a cosmetic palette from Hierakonpolis, known as the Two Dog Palette, which is dated to ca. In Iran, griffins appeared on seals from Susa as early as 3000 BC. Griffin depictions appear in the Levant, Syria. Early depictions of griffins in Ancient Greek art are found in the 15th century BC frescoes in the Throne Room of the Bronze Age Palace of Knossos and it continued being a favored decorative theme in Archaic and Classical Greek art. In Central Asia, the griffin appears about a years after Bronze Age Crete, in the 5th–4th centuries BC. The Achaemenids considered the griffin a protector from evil, witchcraft, the modern generalist calls it the lion-griffin, as for example, Robin Lane Fox, in Alexander the Great,1973,31 and notes p. The Pisa Griffin is a bronze sculpture that has been in Pisa in Italy since the Middle Ages. It is the largest bronze medieval Islamic sculpture known, at three feet tall, and was probably created in the 11th century in Al-Andaluz
41.
Elephant
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Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Three species are recognised, the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephantidae is the surviving family of the order Proboscidea, other, now extinct, members of the order include deinotheres, gomphotheres, mammoths. Male African elephants are the largest extant terrestrial animals and can reach a height of 4 m, all elephants have several distinctive features, the most notable of which is a long trunk or proboscis, used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water, and grasping objects. Their incisors grow into tusks, which can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects, Elephants large ear flaps help to control their body temperature. Their pillar-like legs can carry their great weight, African elephants have larger ears and concave backs while Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs. Elephants are herbivorous and can be found in different habitats including savannahs, forests, deserts and they prefer to stay near water. They are considered to be keystone species due to their impact on their environments, other animals tend to keep their distance from elephants while predators, such as lions, tigers, hyenas, and wild dogs, usually target only young elephants. Females tend to live in groups, which can consist of one female with her calves or several related females with offspring. The groups are led by a known as the matriarch. Elephants have a society in which multiple family groups come together to socialise. Males leave their family groups when they reach puberty and may live alone or with other males, calves are the centre of attention in their family groups and rely on their mothers for as long as three years. Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild and they communicate by touch, sight, smell, and sound, elephants use infrasound, and seismic communication over long distances. Elephant intelligence has been compared with that of primates and cetaceans and they appear to have self-awareness and show empathy for dying or dead individuals of their kind. African elephants are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature while the Asian elephant is classed as endangered, one of the biggest threats to elephant populations is the ivory trade, as the animals are poached for their ivory tusks. Other threats to elephants include habitat destruction and conflicts with local people. Elephants are used as working animals in Asia, in the past, they were used in war, today, they are often controversially put on display in zoos, or exploited for entertainment in circuses. Elephants are highly recognisable and have featured in art, folklore, religion, literature
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Ambrose
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Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose, was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was the Roman governor of Liguria and Emilia, headquartered in Milan, Ambrose was a staunch opponent of Arianism, and has been accused of fostering persecutions of Arians, Jews, and pagans. Ambrose was one of the four original Doctors of the Church and he is notable for his influence on Augustine of Hippo. Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family about 340 and was raised in Gallia Belgica and his mother was a woman of intellect and piety. Ambroses siblings, Satyrus and Marcellina, are venerated as saints. There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle and his father considered this a sign of his future eloquence and honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees and beehives often appear in the saints symbology, after the early death of his father, Ambrose followed his fathers career. He was educated in Rome, studying literature, law, Ambrose was the Governor of Aemilia-Liguria in northern Italy until 374, when he became the Bishop of Milan. He was a popular political figure, and since he was the Governor in the effective capital in the Roman West. In the late 4th century there was a conflict in the diocese of Milan between the Nicene Church and Arians. In 374 the bishop of Milan, Auxentius, an Arian, died, Ambrose went to the church where the election was to take place, to prevent an uproar, which was probable in this crisis. His address was interrupted by a call Ambrose, bishop, which was taken up by the whole assembly. Ambrose was known to be Nicene Christian in belief, but also acceptable to Arians due to the charity shown in matters in this regard. At first he refused the office, for which he was in no way prepared. Upon his appointment, Ambrose fled to a colleagues home seeking to hide, upon receiving a letter from the Emperor Gratian praising the appropriateness of Rome appointing individuals evidently worthy of holy positions, Ambroses host gave him up. Within a week, he was baptized, ordained and duly consecrated bishop of Milan and this raised his popularity even further, giving him considerable political leverage over even the emperor. Ambrose also wrote a treatise by the name of The Goodness of Death, according to legend, Ambrose immediately and forcefully stopped Arianism in Milan. He studied theology with Simplician, a presbyter of Rome, in the confrontation with Arians, Ambrose sought to theologically refute their propositions, which were contrary to the Nicene creed and thus to the officially defined orthodoxy
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Beaver
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The beaver is a large, primarily nocturnal, semiaquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, the North American beaver and Eurasian beaver, Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges. They are the second-largest rodent in the world and their colonies create one or more dams to provide still, deep water to protect against predators, and to float food and building material. The North American beaver population was more than 60 million. Beavers, along with pocket gophers and kangaroo rats, are castorimorph rodents, Beavers are known for their natural trait of building dams on rivers and streams, and building their homes in the resulting pond. Beavers also build canals to float building materials that are difficult to haul over land and they use powerful front teeth to cut trees and other plants that they use both for building and for food. In the absence of existing ponds, beavers must construct dams before building their lodges, first they place vertical poles, then fill between the poles with a crisscross of horizontally placed branches. They fill in the gaps between the branches with a combination of weeds and mud until the dam impounds sufficient water to surround the lodge and this serves as a warning to beavers in the area. Once a beaver has sounded the alarm, nearby beavers will dive, Beavers are slow on land, but are good swimmers, and can stay under water for as long as 15 minutes. Beavers are herbivores, and prefer the wood of quaking aspen, cottonwood, willow, alder, birch, maple and they also eat sedges, pondweed, and water lilies. Beavers do not hibernate, but store sticks and logs in a pile in their ponds, some of the pile is generally above water and accumulates snow in the winter. This insulation of snow often keeps the water freezing in and around the food pile. Beavers have webbed hind-feet, and a broad, scaly tail and they have poor eyesight, but keen senses of hearing, smell, and touch. A beavers teeth grow continuously so that they not be worn down by chewing on wood. Their four incisors are composed of hard orange enamel on the front, the chisel-like ends of incisors are maintained by their self-sharpening wear pattern. The enamel in a beavers incisors contains iron and is resistant to acid than enamel in the teeth of other mammals. Beavers continue to grow throughout their lives, adult specimens weighing over 25 kg are not uncommon. Females are as large as or larger than males of the same age, Beavers live up to 24 years of age in the wild
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Capra (genus)
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Capra is a genus of mammals, the goats or wild goats, composed of up to nine species, including the wild goat, the markhor, and several species known as ibex. The domestic goat is a subspecies of the wild goat. Evidence of goat domestication dates back more than 8,500 years, wild goats are animals of mountain habitats. They are very agile and hardy, able to climb on bare rock, the Rocky Mountain goat is in a separate genus, Oreamnos. All members of the Capra genus are bovids, and more specifically caprids, as such they are ruminants, meaning they chew the cud, and have four-chambered stomachs which play a vital role in digesting, regurgitating, and redigesting their food. The genus has sometimes taken to include Ovis and Ammotragus. In this smaller genus, some authors have recognized two species, the markhor on one side and all other forms included in one species on the other side. Recent studies based on mitochondrial DNA suggest that the Siberian ibex and the Nubian ibex represent distinct species, the Alpine ibex forms a group with the Spanish ibex. The West Caucasian tur appears to be closely related to the wild goat than to the East Caucasian tur. The markhor is relatively separated from other forms—previously it had been considered to be a separate branch of the genus. Almost all wild species are allopatric —the only geographical overlaps are the wild goat with the East Caucasian tur. In both cases, the species do not usually interbreed in the wild, but in captivity, all Capra species can interbreed. Along with sheep, goats were among the first domesticated animals, the domestication process started at least 10,000 years ago in what is now northern Iran. Easy human access to hair, meat, and milk were the primary motivations. Goat skins were used until the Middle Ages for water and wine bottles when traveling and camping. Evidence of the ibex is widely present in the record, particularly in the Near East. Ibex motifs are common on cylinder seals and pottery, both painted and embossed. Excavations from Minoan Crete at Knossos, for example, have yielded specimens from about 1800 BC, from the similar age a gold jewelry ibex image was found at the Akrotiri archaeological site on Santorini in present-day Greece
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Hugh of Fouilloy
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Hugh of Fouilloy, born between 1096 and 1111 in Fouilloy and died ca. 1172, was a French cleric, prior of St. -Nicholas-de-Regny and he is notable for writing De claustro animae and De medicina animae, allegorical texts on monastic spirituality. His De avibus, a treatise on birds was incorporated into many versions of the popular medieval bestiary. De avibus contains around sixty chapters in two sections, the first part is mainly scriptural exegesis, drawn from the Bible and the Physiologus. The dove is the subject of the first eleven chapters, the winds and the hawk the following eleven chapters, the second part conists of twenty-three chapters, each of which describe a different bird. The text is known by alternative names such as the Aviarium, De columba deargentata. Another title, Libellus quidam ad Rainerum conversum cognomine Corder Benignum, Hughs prologue says that De Avibus was intended as a teaching text for the lay brothers. It was probably written between 1132 and 1152 while Hugh was prior of St. -Nicholas-de-Regny, according to Badkes Medieval Bestiary, at least 125 manuscript copies of the De avibus still exist, though some include only part of the text. Most are illustrated, and copies of it are known all across Europe. For the most part the text appears in manuscripts along with other theological works, the Medieval book of birds, Hugh of Fouilloys Aviarium. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 80, binghamton, NY, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies. Works by or about Hugh of Fouilloy at Internet Archive David Badke, Hugh of Fouilloy at The Medieval Bestiary
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Crocotta
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The crocotta, is a mythical dog-wolf of India or Ethiopia, linked to the hyena and said to be a deadly enemy of men and dogs. Strabo, who uses the word crocuttas, describes the beast as the progeny of a wolf. Pliny in his work Natural History variously described the crocotta as a combination between dog and wolf or between hyena and lion, when crossed with this race of animals the Ethiopian lioness gives birth to the corocotta, that mimics the voices of men and cattle in a similar way. It has a ridge of bone in each jaw, forming a continuous tooth without any gum. The Byzantine scholar Photius summarizing the book Indica, by the Greek author Ctesias, writes, In Ethiopia there is an animal called crocottas, vulgarly kynolykos, of amazing strength. It is said to imitate the voice, to call men by name at night. It is as brave as a lion, as swift as a horse and it cannot be overcome by any weapon of steel. Claudius Aelianus in his book On the Characteristics of Animals specifically links the hyena and corocotta, according to the Augustan History, the emperor Antoninus Pius presented a corocotta, probably at his decennalia in AD148. It has the color of a lioness and tiger combined, later bestiaries of the Middle Ages confounded these various accounts, so that one finds the largely mythical creature given differing names and various characteristics, real and imaginary. Among the characteristics not found in the ancient sources was the idea that the eyes of a crocotta were striped gems that could give the possessor oracular powers when placed under the tongue. The scientific name of the hyena was taken from the mythological crocotta. Hyenas do have very powerful teeth and jaws, can digest a wide range of foods, are known to dig up bodies for food. Jorge Luis Borges in his Book of Imaginary Beings expounds on the crocotta, leucrocottas appear in The Demigod Diaries, where Luke and Thalia encounter a small pack of them in a haunted mansion. Werehyena Medieval Bestiary, Leucrocuta Photius excerpt of Ctesias Indica Aelians De Naturam Animalum VII
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Bonnacon
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The bonnacon is a legendary creature described as a bull with inward-curving horns and a horse-like mane. Medieval bestiaries usually depict its fur as reddish-brown or black, because its horns were useless for self-defense, the bonnacon was said to expel large amounts of caustic feces from its anus at its pursuers, burning them and thereby ensuring its escape. The popularity of the Naturalis Historia in the Middle Ages led to the inclusion in medieval bestiaries. In the tradition of the Physiologus, bestiaries often ascribed moral and scriptural lessons to the descriptions of animals, manuscript illustrations of the creature may have served as a source of humor, deriving as much from the reaction of the hunters as from the act of defecation. The Aberdeen Bestiary describes the creature using similar language to Pliny, though the location is moved from Paeonia to Asia. It has the head of a bull, and thereafter its whole body is of the size of a bulls with the neck of a horse. Its horns are convoluted, curling back on themselves in such a way that if anyone comes up against it, but the protection which its forehead denies this monster is furnished by its bowels. For when it turns to flee, it discharges fumes from the excrement of its belly over a distance of three acres, the heat of which sets fire to anything it touches, in this way, it drives off its pursuers with its harmful excrement. The bonnacon is also mentioned in the life of Saint Martha in the Golden Legend, in the story, Saint Martha encounters and tames the Tarasque, a dragon-like legendary creature said to be the offspring of the biblical Leviathan and the bonnacon. In this account, the bonnacon is said to originate in Galatia, Bonnacon at The Medieval Bestiary Image of the Bonnacon in the fifteenth-century English bestiary Copenhagen, GKS1633 4º, f
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Ape
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The simians are the monkeys, cladistically including the apes, the New World monkeys or platyrrhines, and the catarrhine clade consisting of the Old World monkeys and apes. The simian line and the line diverged about 60 million years ago. Forty million years ago, simians from Africa colonized South America, the remaining simians split 25 million years ago into apes and Old World monkeys. Under modern classification, the tarsiers and simians are grouped under the suborder Haplorhini while the strepsirrhines are placed in suborder Strepsirrhini, in anthropoidea, evidences indicate that the Old and the New World primates went through parallel evolution. Primatology, paleoanthropology, and other related fields are split on their usage of the synonymous infraorder names, Simiiformes and Anthropoidea. According to Robert Hoffstetter, the term Simiiformes has priority over Anthropoidea because of the taxonomic term Simii by van der Hoeven, from which it is constructed, dates to 1833. In contrast, Anthropoidea by Mivart dates to 1864, while Simiiformes by Haeckel dates to 1866, Hoffstetter also argued that Simiiformes is also constructed like a proper infraorder name, whereas Anthropoidea ends in -oidea, which is reserved for superfamilies. He also noted that Anthropoidea is too easily confused with anthropoïdes, the simians are split into three distinct groups. The New World monkeys in parvorder Platyrrhini split from the rest of the line about 40 mya. This group split about 25 mya between the Old World monkeys and the apes
