1.
Johann Georg Wagler
Johann Georg Wagler was a German herpetologist. Wagler was assistant to Johann Baptist von Spix, and gave lectures in Zoology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich after that was moved to Munich and he worked on the extensive collections brought back from Brazil by Spix, published partly together with him books on reptiles from Brazil. Wagler wrote Monographia Psittacorum, which included the naming of the blue macaws. In 1832, Wagler died of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound while out collecting in München-Moosach, four of Waglers books and articles are available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library, Monographia Psittacorum. Natürliches System der Amphibien, mit vorangehender Classification der Säugethiere und Vögel, Waglers Six ornithological memoirs from the Isis. Edt, Sclater, P. L. Adler, contributions to the History of Herpetology. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, works by or about Johann Georg Wagler at Internet Archive
2.
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera
Peter Martyr dAnghiera, formerly known in English as Peter Martyr of Angleria, was an Italian historian at the service of Spain during the Age of Exploration. His Decades are of value in the history of geography. It was first translated into English in 1555, and in a version in 1912. Martyr was born February 2,1457 at Lake Maggiore in Arona in Piedmont and he studied under Giovanni Borromeo, the count of Arona. He went to Rome at the age of twenty, and met important men in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, after meeting the Spanish ambassador in Rome, Martyr accompanied him to Zaragoza in August 1487. Martyr soon became a figure among the humanists of Spain. In 1488 he lectured in Salamanca on the invitation of the university, the new learning was supported by highly placed patrons in the society. Martyr would become chaplain to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella, after 1492, Martyrs chief task was the education of young nobles at the Spanish court. In 1501 he was sent to Egypt on a mission to dissuade the Sultan from taking vengeance on the Christians in Egypt.
He described his voyage through Egypt in the Legatio Babylonica, which was published in the 1511 edition of his Decades, following the success of this mission, he received the title of maestro de los caballeros. In 1523 Charles gave him the title of Count Palatine, Martyr was invested by Pope Clement VII, as proposed by Charles V, as Abbot of Jamaica. Although Martyr never visited the island, as abbot he directed construction of the first stone church there and he died in Granada in 1526. Peter Martyr was a prolific writer and it was as a chronicler that Martyr performed his most notable literary work. He collected documents and accounts from the discoverers as well as personally interviewing them and he learned from the letters of Christopher Columbus and made use of the reports of the Council of the Indies. He had a grasp of geographical issues, he was the first European to realize the significance of the Gulf Stream. In 1511, his publications included the first historical account of the Spanish discoveries, Legatio, Oceanidecas, Epigrammata.
The Decas consisted of ten reports, two of which Martyr had previously sent as letters describing the voyages of Columbus, to Cardinal Ascanius Sforza in 1493 and 1494. In 1501 Martyr, as requested by the Cardinal Luigi dAragona, added eight chapters on the voyage of Columbus, in 1511 he added a supplement giving an account of events from 1501 to 1511
3.
Encyclopedia Americana
Encyclopedia Americana is one of the largest general encyclopedias in the English language. Following the acquisition of Grolier in 2000, the encyclopedia has been produced by Scholastic, the encyclopedia has more than 45,000 articles, most of them more than 500 words and many running to considerable length. The works coverage of American and Canadian geography and history has been a traditional strength, most articles are signed by their contributors. Long available as a 30-volume print set, the Encyclopedia Americana is now marketed as an online encyclopedia requiring a subscription, in March 2008, Scholastic said that print sales remained good but that the company was still deciding on the future of the print edition. The company did not produce an edition in 2007, a change from its previous approach of releasing a revised print edition each year, the most recent print edition of the Encyclopedia Americana was published in 2006. The online version of the Encyclopedia Americana, first introduced in 1997, continues to be updated and this work, like the print set from which it is derived, is designed for high school and first-year college students along with public library users.
Grolier Online is not available to individual subscribers, francis Lieber, a German political exile, who came to Boston, Massachusetts in 1827, began publication of Encyclopedia Americana in 1829. The 13 volumes of the first edition were completed in 1833, just before the beginning of the 20th century Richard S. Some of the old material was carried over into the new encyclopedia, the short article method of Brockhaus was continued. Thus in 1902 a new version in 16 volumes that carried some of the old material was published. The magazines editor, Frederick Converse Beach, was editor-in-chief, and was said to be assisted by hundreds of eminent scholars, the relationship with Scientific American was terminated in 1911. From 1907 to 1912, the work was published as The Americana, a major new edition appeared in 1918–20 in 30 volumes, with George Edwin Rines as editor-in-chief. An Annual or Yearbook was published each year beginning in 1923, the encyclopedia was purchased by Grolier in 1945. Sales during this period were accomplished primarily through mail-order and door-to-door operations and third-party distribution through their Lexicon division added to sales volumes in the 1970s.
By the late 1970s, Grolier had moved its operations to Danbury, in 1988 Grolier was purchased by the French media company Hachette, which owned a well-known French-language encyclopedia, the Hachette Encyclopedia. Hachette was absorbed by the French conglomerate the Lagardère Group, a CD-ROM version of the encyclopedia was published in 1995. Although the text and images were stored on separate disks, it was in keeping with current at the time. More importantly, the work had been digitized, allowing for release of a version in 1997
4.
Reptile
Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia, comprising todays turtles, snakes, lizards and their extinct relatives. The study of these traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of amphibians, is called herpetology. Because some reptiles are more related to birds than they are to other reptiles. For this reason, many scientists prefer to consider the birds part of Reptilia as well. Some early examples include the lizard-like Hylonomus and Casineria, in addition to the living reptiles, there are many diverse groups that are now extinct, in some cases due to mass extinction events. In particular, the K–Pg extinction wiped out the pterosaurs, plesiosaurs and sauropods, as well as species of theropods, crocodyliforms. Modern non-avian reptiles inhabit every continent with the exception of Antarctica, several living subgroups are recognized, approximately 400 species, Sphenodontia,1 species, over 9,600 species, Crocodilia,25 species, and Aves,10,000 species. Reptiles are tetrapod vertebrates, creatures that either have four limbs or, unlike amphibians, reptiles do not have an aquatic larval stage.
As amniotes, reptile eggs are surrounded by membranes for protection and transport, many of the viviparous species feed their fetuses through various forms of placenta analogous to those of mammals, with some providing initial care for their hatchlings. In the 18th century, the reptiles were, from the outset of classification, the terms reptile and amphibian were largely interchangeable, reptile being preferred by the French. Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti was the first to use the term Reptilia for an expanded selection of reptiles. Today, the two groups are commonly treated under the same heading as herptiles. He subsequently proposed the names of Sauropsida and Ichthyopsida for the two groups. In 1866, Haeckel demonstrated that vertebrates could be divided based on their strategies, and that reptiles, birds. The terms Sauropsida and Theropsida were used again in 1916 by E. S, Goodrich to distinguish between lizards and their relatives on the one hand and mammals and their extinct relatives on the other.
Goodrich supported this division by the nature of the hearts and blood vessels in each group, according to Goodrich, both lineages evolved from an earlier stem group, Protosauria in which he included some animals today considered reptile-like amphibians, as well as early reptiles. Watson observed that the first two groups diverged very early in history, so he divided Goodrichs Protosauria between them. He reinterpreted Sauropsida and Theropsida to exclude birds and mammals, thus his Sauropsida included Procolophonia, Millerosauria, Squamata, Crocodilia, non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs and sauropterygians
5.
Big cat
The informal term big cat is typically used to refer to any of the four largest members of the entire Panthera genus. Among the five species within the Panthera genus, these four are the only cats that are able to roar. In descending order of their potential size, these four species are, lions, jaguars. A more liberal and expansive definition is used which may include the snow leopard, clouded leopard, Sunda clouded leopard and/or cheetah. The two clouded leopard species are considered a link between big and small cats. All cats are carnivores and efficient apex predators and their range includes the Americas, Africa and Europe. The ability to roar comes from an elongated and specially adapted larynx, when air passes through the larynx on the way from the lungs, the cartilage walls of the larynx vibrate, producing sound. The lions larynx is longest, giving it the most robust roar, all five extant members of the Panthera genus contain this elongated hyoid but due to differences in the larynx the snow leopard cannot roar.
The principal threats to big cats vary by location, but primarily are habitat destruction. In Africa many big cats are hunted by pastoralists or government problem animal control officers, certain protected areas exist that shelter large and exceptionally visible populations of lions, hyenas and cheetahs, such as Botswanas Chobe, Kenyas Masai Mara, and Tanzanias Serengeti. Rather, it is outside these areas where hunting poses the dominant threat to large carnivores. The initial Captive Wildlife Safety Act was signed into law on December 19,2003, to address problems associated with the increasing trade in certain big cat species, the CSWA regulations were strengthened by a law passed on September 17,2007. Private ownership of these big cats is not prohibited by law but the law does make it illegal to transport, sell. The WWF is concerned that weaknesses in the existing U. S. regulations could be helping to fuel the black market for tiger parts. An animal sanctuary provides a refuge for animals to live out their lives in a protected environment.
Usually these animal sanctuaries are the organizations which provide a home to big cats whose private owners are no longer able or willing to care for their big cats. However, use of the sanctuary in an organizations name is by itself no guarantee that it is a true animal sanctuary in the sense of a refuge. The study reveals that the leopard and the tiger are sister species, while the lion, leopard
6.
Boidae
Boidae is a family of nonvenomous snakes found in America, Madagascar, Europe and some Pacific Islands. Relatively primitive snakes, adults are medium to large in size, five subfamilies, comprising 12 genera and 49 species, are currently recognized. Like the pythons, boas have elongated supratemporal bones, both families share a number of primitive characteristics. In males, these anal spurs are larger and more conspicuous than in females, a long row of palatal teeth is present, and most species have a functional left lung that can be up to 75% as large as the right lung. Boids are, distinguished from the pythons in that none has postfrontal bones or premaxillary teeth, when labial pits are present, these are located between the scales as opposed to on them. Also, their distributions are almost entirely mutually exclusive. In the few areas where they do coexist, the tendency is for them to different habitats. Formerly, boas were said to be found in the New World, while this is true of boine boas, other boid species are present in Africa, much of southern Eurasia, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, so this is not accurate.
However, they seem more abundant in evolutionarily isolated areas, south America was isolated until a few million years ago, with a fauna that included marsupials and other distinctive mammals. The Old Tupi name for such snakes was mbói, which figures in the etymology of names such as jibóia, prey is killed by constriction, after an animal has been grasped to restrain it, a number of coils are hastily wrapped around it. Then, by applying and maintaining sufficient pressure, the snake prevents its prey from inhaling, the pressures produced during constriction have been suggested as the cause of cardiac arrest by interfering with blood flow, but this hypothesis has not yet been confirmed. Larger specimens usually eat animals about the size of a cat, but larger food items are not unknown. Prey is swallowed whole, and may take days or even weeks to fully digest. Despite their intimidating size and muscular power, they are not dangerous to humans. Contrary to popular belief, even the species do not crush their prey to death, in fact.
Most species are viviparous, with giving birth to live young. This is in contrast to the pythons, which all lay eggs, type genus = Boa - Gray,1825 Pythons were sometimes classified as a subfamily of Boidae, the Pythoninae, but are in this case listed under their own family, the Pythonidae. In the same way, the Old World sand boas, the Erycinae, are frequently listed under their own family
7.
International Standard Book Number
The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay.
The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces.
Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
8.
Yellow anaconda
The yellow anaconda is a boa species endemic to South America. It is one of the largest snakes in the world, but is not as large as its close relative, like all boas and pythons, it is non-venomous and kills its prey by constriction. The yellow anaconda is found in regions of South America, including Paraguay, southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina. The genus name Eunectes derives from Greek and means good swimmer, in distinguishing his new species Eunectes notaeus from Eunectes murinus, Edward Drinker Cope stated, Dorsal scales are larger and in fewer rows. Adults are not as large as the anaconda, E. murinus. They commonly weigh 25 to 35 kg, though large specimens can weigh 40 to 55 kg or even more, the maximum size can certainly be larger, although confusion with its larger cousin may complicate matters. Female yellow anacondas have reportedly been measured up to 4.6 m, females are generally larger than males. The color pattern consists of a yellow, golden-tan or greenish-yellow ground color overlaid with a series of black or dark brown saddles, blotches and this species prefers mostly aquatic habitats, including swamps and brush-covered banks of slow-moving rivers and streams.
They can be observed in forests and can prey on relatively large game. These snakes were studied in regularly flooded areas in the Pantanal region of southwestern Brazil, the data collected were directly observed from predatory instances and examination of gut and waste contents, and affirmations by local residents and other researchers. These studies indicate the species is a generalist feeder, the prey list analyzed and other evidence suggest E. notaeus employs both ambush predation and wide-foraging strategies. They have known to prey on fish, small-sized caimans, birds eggs, small mammals. The prey to predator weight ratio is much higher than those known for other types of Boidae. As captives, they have a reputation for being unpredictable, and are dangerous to humans. However, humans are anacondas main predators, killing them for their skin, list of boine species and subspecies Boinae by common name Boinae by taxonomic synonyms Eunectes notaeus at the Reptarium. cz Reptile Database
9.
Bolivia
Bolivia, officially known as the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. It is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to the south by Argentina, to the southwest by Chile, and to the northwest by Peru. One-third of the country is the Andean mountain range, with one of its largest cities and principal economic centers, El Alto, Bolivia is one of two landlocked countries that lie outside Afro-Eurasia. Bolivia is geographically the largest landlocked country in the Americas, but remains a small country in economic. Before Spanish colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was part of the Inca Empire, Spanish conquistadors arriving from Cuzco and Asunción took control of the region in the 16th century. During the Spanish colonial period Bolivia was administered by the Royal Audiencia of Charcas, spain built its empire in great part upon the silver that was extracted from Bolivias mines. After the first call for independence in 1809,16 years of war followed before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar, on 6 August 1825.
Since independence, Bolivia has endured periods of political and economic instability, including the loss of peripheral territories to its neighbors, such as Acre. The countrys population, estimated at 11 million, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, the racial and social segregation that arose from Spanish colonialism has continued to the modern era. Spanish is the official and predominant language, although 36 indigenous languages have official status, of which the most commonly spoken are Guarani, modern Bolivia is constitutionally a unitary state, divided into nine departments. Its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands and it is a developing country, with a medium ranking in the Human Development Index and a poverty level of 53 percent. Its main economic activities include agriculture, fishing and manufacturing such as textiles, refined metals. Bolivia is very wealthy in minerals, especially tin, Bolivia is named after Simón Bolívar, a leader in the Spanish American wars of independence.
Sucre opted to create a new nation and, with local support. The original name was Republic of Bolívar, some days later, congressman Manuel Martín Cruz proposed, If from Romulus comes Rome, from Bolívar comes Bolivia. The name was approved by the Republic on 3 October 1825, the region now known as Bolivia had been occupied for over 2,500 years when the Aymara arrived. However, present-day Aymara associate themselves with the ancient civilization of the Tiwanaku culture which had its capital at Tiwanaku, the capital city of Tiwanaku dates from as early as 1500 BC when it was a small, agriculturally based village. The community grew to urban proportions between AD600 and AD800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes
10.
Synonym (taxonomy)
For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus.
To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon.
Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
11.
Green anaconda
The green anaconda, known as the common anaconda and water boa, is a non-venomous boa species found in South America. It is the heaviest and one of the longest known extant snake species, the term anaconda often refers to this species, though the term could apply to other members of the genus Eunectes. The green anacondas scientific name is derived from the Greek εὐνήκτης, meaning swimmer. The green anaconda is the worlds heaviest and one of the worlds longest snakes, reaching 5.21 m long. More typical mature specimens reportedly can range up to 5 m, with the females, at around a length of 4.6 m, being generally much larger in adulthood than the male. Weights are less studied, though will reportedly range from 30 to 70 kg in an average-range adult. It is the largest snake native to the Americas, although it is slightly shorter than the Reticulated python, it is far more robust, the bulk of a 4. 5m green anaconda would be comparable to a 7. 4m reticulated python. Eunectes murinus is probably the heaviest extant species of snake or squamate in the world, a $50,000 cash reward is offered for anyone who can catch an anaconda 30 ft or longer, but the prize has not been claimed yet.
The longest verified specimen encountered by Dr. Jesús Antonio Rivas, the color pattern consists of olive green background overlaid with black blotches along the length of the body. The head is compared to the body, usually with distinctive orange-yellow striping on either side. The eyes are set high on the head, allowing the snake to see out of the water while swimming without exposing its body, the remote location of the snakes habitat has historically made locating and returning specimens difficult. Transporting very large specimens to museums, especially before substantial decay, is difficult, skins can stretch substantially, increasing the snakes size by more than 50% if stretched during the tanning process. Observational reports of animals which were not captured are even more dubious, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, this species has been perhaps subject to the most extreme size exaggerations of any living animal. At the same time, it is difficult to argue a maximum possible or plausible size, older reports in particular could include individuals which, in times of less pressure from humans, lived longer lives and thus reached greater sizes.
Numerous historical accounts of green anacondas are reported, often of improbable sizes, several zoologists note rumors of snakes beyond 30 or 40 feet long, but in each case, their direct observations were limited to snakes of approximately 20 feet in length. Numerous estimates and second-hand accounts abound, but are considered unreliable. To prove the point of overestimating, in Guyana in 1937, zoologist Alpheus Hyatt Verrill asked the team he was with to estimate the length of a large. The teams guesses ran from 6.1 to 18.3 m, when measured, almost all specimens in excess of 6 m, including a much publicized specimen of 11.36 m in length, have no voucher specimens, including skins or bones
