1.
Eastern barred bandicoot
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The eastern barred bandicoot is a small, rabbit-sized marsupial native to Tasmania and Victoria, southeastern Australia. It is one of three extant bandicoot species in the genus Perameles, the eastern barred bandicoot weighs less than 2 kg and has a short tail and three to four whitish bars across the rump. The Eastern barred bandicoot has two separated populations, one on the mainland of Australia and one on the island of Tasmania, the Tasmanian form is somewhat larger than the mainland form as the average adult mass is 750 g in Victoria and 1,000 g in Tasmania. It lives for just two to three years and is not gregarious, males occupy large home ranges compared to females and only consort with females for mating. It emerges from its nest at dusk to forage for a variety of invertebrates including crickets, beetles, during the day it rests in a grass-lined nest. When foraging, it uses its nose to probe deep into the soil. Females have 8 nipples and can produce a maximum of 5 young in one litter with an average of 2 to 3 young, gestation lasts just 12 days—this is one of the shortest gestation periods of any mammal. Young are weaned at 55 days and emerged juveniles remain dependent upon the mother, given ideal conditions, females can have up to five litters per year although reproduction becomes depressed in summer and ceases altogether in times of drought. The eastern barred bandicoot was once distributed across the Basalt Plains of south west Victoria, due to predation by introduced foxes and cats, along with land-clearing for farming practices, the Victorian subspecies is critically endangered. Since 1989, eight reintroduction sites have established across the bandicoots former range. The conservation of Eastern barred bandicoots in Victoria now depends upon the success of captive breeding, a management plan, developed in 1987 and revised in 1989, recommended the first reintroduction of the eastern barred bandicoot in Victoria at Woodlands Historic Park,20 km northwest of Melbourne. Animals were translocated from the last remaining free-ranging mainland population in Hamilton, unfortunately, populations at four sites are now extinct, functionally extinct at Woodlands Historic park, declining at Mooramong and increasing at Hamilton Community Parklands and Mount Rothwell. The last remaining wild population which was found along the Grange Burn in Hamilton has also been declared extinct. The estimated population size for the Victorian Eastern Barred bandicoot is 150 individuals, the Tasmanian subspecies is vulnerable to extinction. This species is more widespread than its mainland cousin because Tasmania provides large areas of habitat and because the island lacks the bandicoots main predator. In the state of Victoria, a Recovery Team oversees actions aimed at conserving the Victorian subspecies, representatives of government agencies, NGOs and private conservation groups collaborate to develop and implement actions to improve the species outlook. Volunteers are encouraged to participate in recovery efforts arranged by Conservation Volunteers as part of the Wild Futures program, an effective recovery tactic currently in use is the exclusion of invasive predators from populations of threatened eastern barred bandicoots through the extensive use of conservation fences. Non-native predator species that are fenced out from endangered populations include feral cats, another important feature of conservation fences are that they restrict the spread of infectious diseases among the few remaining animals
2.
Marsupial
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Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia and the Americas, a distinctive characteristic common to these species is that most of the young are carried in a pouch. Well-known marsupials include kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, possums, opossums, wombats, Tasmanian devils, others include the numbat, the bandicoot, the bettong, the bilby, the quoll, and the quokka. Marsupials represent the clade originating from the last common ancestor of extant metatherians, like other mammals in the Metatheria, they give birth to relatively undeveloped young that often reside with the mother in a pouch, for a certain amount of time. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur on the Australian continent, the remaining 100 are found in the Americas — primarily in South America, but thirteen in Central America, and one in North America, north of Mexico. Taxonomically, the two divisions of Marsupialia are, American and Australian marsupials. The order Microbiotheria is found in South America, but is believed to be closely related to Australian marsupials. There are many small species in each group. The term opossum is used to refer to American species, while similar Australian species are properly called possums, again, shrew opossums are more closely related to australidelphians than to true opossums. Order Notoryctemorphia. Marsupials have the characteristics of mammals—e. g. Mammary glands, three middle ear bones, and true hair, there are, however, striking differences as well as a number anatomical features that separate them from Eutherians. In addition to the front pouch, which contains multiple nipples for the protection and sustenance of their young, ossified patellae are absent in most modern marsupials and epipubic bones are present. Marsupials also lack a gross communication between the right and left brain hemispheres, the skull has peculiarities in comparison to higher mammals. In general, the skull is small and tight. Holes are located in the front of the orbit, the cheekbone is enlarged and extends further to the rear. The angular extension of the jaw is bent toward the center. Another feature is the palate which, in contrast to the higher mammals foramina. The teeth differ from that of mammals, so that all taxa except wombats have a different number of incisors in the upper and lower jaws
3.
Omnivore
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Omnivore /ˈɒmnivɔər/ is a consumption classification for animals that have the capability to obtain chemical energy and nutrients from materials originating from plant and animal origin. Often, omnivores also have the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, omnivores come from diverse backgrounds that often independently evolved sophisticated consumption capabilities. For instance, dogs evolved from primarily carnivorous organisms while pigs evolved from primarily herbivorous organisms, what this means is that physical characteristics are often not reliable indicators of whether an animal has the ability to obtain energy and nutrients from both plant and animal matter. The variety of different animals that are classified as omnivores can be placed into categories depending on their feeding behaviors. Frugivores include maned wolves and orangutans, insectivores include swallows and pink fairy armadillos, granivores include large ground finches, all of these animals are omnivores, yet still fall into special niches in terms of feeding behaviors and preferred foods. Being omnivores gives these animals more food security in times or makes possible living in less consistent environments. The word omnivore derives from the Latin omnis, and vora, from vorare, having been coined by the French, traditionally the definition for omnivory was entirely behavioral by means of simply including both animal and vegetable tissue in the diet. This has subsequently conditioned two context specific definitions, behavioral, This definition is used to specify if a species or individual is actively consuming both plant and animal materials. Physiological, This definition is used in academia to specify species that have the capability to obtain energy. Though Carnivora is a taxon for species classification, no equivalent exists for omnivores. The Carnivora order does not include all species, and not all species within the Carnivora taxon are carnivorous. It is common to find physiological carnivores consuming materials from plants or physiological herbivores consuming material from animals, e. g. felines eating grass, from a behavioral aspect, this would make them omnivores, but from the physiological standpoint, this may be due to zoopharmacognosy. Physiologically, animals must be able to both energy and nutrients from plant and animal materials to be considered omnivorous. For instance, it is documented that animals such as giraffes, camels. Felines, which are regarded as obligate carnivores, occasionally eat grass to regurgitate indigestibles, aid with hemoglobin production. Occasionally, it is found that animals historically classified as carnivorous may deliberately eat plant material, for example, in 2013 it was considered that American alligators may be physiologically omnivorous once investigations had been conducted on why they occasionally eat fruits. It was suggested that alligators probably ate fruits both accidentally but also deliberately, life-history omnivores is a specialized classification given to organisms that change their eating habits during their life cycle. Some species, such as grazing waterfowl like geese, are known to eat animal tissue at one stage of their lives
4.
Peramelemorphia
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The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies, it equates approximately to the mainstream of marsupial omnivores. Their size varies from about 140 grams up to 4 kilograms, the position of the Peramelemorphia within the marsupial family tree has long been puzzling and controversial. There are two features in the order that appear to show a clear evolutionary link with another marsupial group, the type of foot. Unfortunately, these clear signposts point in opposite directions, all members of the order are polyprotodont —in the case of the Peramelemorphia, three pairs. This suggests that they have evolved within Dasyuromorphia, on the other hand, they also have an unusual feature in their feet, the second and third toes are fused together. This condition is called syndactyly, and is characteristic of the Diprotodontia, recent molecular analyses have resulted in a phylogenetic reconstruction of the members of Peramelemorphia with quite strong support. The most basal split separates Thylacomyidae from all other bandicoots, probably the next to diverge was the recently extinct Chaeropodidae. However, very few species have been recovered to date. The first species of fossil peramelemorphian was described by R. A. Stirton in 1955, the specimen Stirton described was a partial lower jaw from the Tirari Desert in Central Australia, Pliocene in age. The lower jaw morphology suggested a relationship with bilbies, and was named Ischnodon australis and it was not until 1976 that Archer and Wade described the next fossil bandicoot. A single upper molar was recovered from the Bluff Downs fossil site, Allingham Formation, in northern Queensland, the tooth was similar to that of species of Perameles, and was therefore named Perameles allinghamensis. In 1995, the first Miocene species was described from Riversleigh, the species was represented by several upper and lower jaws, which were smaller than any living bandicoots and had a very primitive dentition. A skull was recovered in 2000, the first for any fossil peramelemorphian to date. In 1997, Muirhead, Dawson and Archer described a new species of Perameles, Perameles bowensis, the same species was later reported in 2000 from Chinchilla, Queensland by Mackness and colleagues. In 2002, Price described a new species Perameles, Perameles sobbei, from the Darling Downs and this species was represented by a lower jaw and a few isolated lower molars. Additional material were later described in 2005 from the same site, a second species of Yarala, Yarala kida, was described in 2006 by Schwartz. This species was recovered from Kangaroo Well, a late Oligocene site from the Northern Territory in Australia and this species is thought to be even more primitive than Yarala burchfieldi. The second fossil skull of any fossil peramelemorphian was also recovered from Miocene sites of Riversleigh, in fact, more than one skull of this new species was found, and was significantly different from any other bandicoot to erect a new genus, Galadi
5.
Endemism
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The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution. An alternative term for a species that is endemic is precinctive, the word endemic is from New Latin endēmicus, from Greek ενδήμος, endēmos, native. Endēmos is formed of en meaning in, and dēmos meaning the people, the term, precinctive, has been suggested by some scientists, and was first used in botany by MacCaughey in 1917. It is the equivalent of endemism, precinction was perhaps first used by Frank and McCoy. That definition excludes artificial confinement of examples by humans in far-off botanical gardens or zoological parks, physical, climatic, and biological factors can contribute to endemism. The orange-breasted sunbird is found in the fynbos vegetation zone of southwestern South Africa. The glacier bear is found only in limited places in Southeast Alaska, political factors can play a part if a species is protected, or actively hunted, in one jurisdiction but not another. There are two subcategories of endemism, paleoendemism and neoendemism, paleoendemism refers to species that were formerly widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to species that have arisen, such as through divergence and reproductive isolation or through hybridization. Endemics can easily become endangered or extinct if their restricted habitat changes, particularly—but not only—due to human actions, there were millions of both Bermuda petrels and Bermuda cedars in Bermuda when it was settled at the start of the seventeenth century. By the end of the century, the petrels were thought extinct, cedars, already ravaged by centuries of shipbuilding, were driven nearly to extinction in the twentieth century by the introduction of a parasite. Bermuda petrels and cedars are now rare, as are species endemic to Bermuda
6.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
7.
New Guinea
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New Guinea is a large Island in the South West Pacific region. It is the worlds second-largest island, after Greenland, covering an area of 785,753 km2. The island is divided between two countries, Papua New Guinea to the east, and Indonesia to the west, the island has been known by various names. The name Papua was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West and its etymology is unclear, one theory states that it is from Tidore, the language used by the Sultanate of Tidore, which controlled parts of the islands coastal region. The name came from papo and ua, which means not united or, ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to derive from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning frizzly-haired, referring to the highly curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, when the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea. The name Irian was used in the Indonesian language to refer the island and Indonesian province, the name was promoted in 1945 by Marcus Kaisiepo, brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo. It is taken from the Biak language of Biak Island, and means to rise and this name of Irian is the name used in the Biak language and other languages such as Serui, Merauke and Waropen. The name was used until 2001, when the name Papua was again used for the island, the name Irian, which was originally favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta. New Guinea is an island to the north of Australia, and it is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west and the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east. A spine of east–west mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km from the head to the tail of the island. The western half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 m high, the tree line is around 4,000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating since at least 1936. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges, except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season. At 4,884 metres, Puncak Jaya makes New Guinea the worlds fourth highest landmass, Puncak Mandala, located in Papua, is the second highest peak on the island at 4,760 metres. Puncak Trikora, also in Papua, is 4,750 metres, mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG side of the border at 4,509 metres. Its granite peak is the highest point of the Bismarck Range, mount Giluwe 4,368 metres is the second highest summit in PNG. It is also the highest volcanic peak in Oceania, another major habitat feature is the vast southern and northern lowlands. Stretching for hundreds of kilometres, these include lowland rainforests, extensive wetlands, savanna grasslands, the southern lowlands are the site of Lorentz National Park, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site
8.
Order (biology)
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In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, an immediately higher rank, superorder, may be added directly above order, while suborder would be a lower rank. A taxonomic unit, a taxon, in that rank, in that case the plural is orders. Example, The Juglans and Hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, what does and does not belong to each order is determined by a taxonomist, as is whether a particular order should be recognized at all. Often there is no agreement, with different taxonomists each taking a different position. There are no rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing or recognizing an order. Some taxa are accepted almost universally, while others are recognised only rarely, for some groups of organisms, consistent suffixes are used to denote that the rank is an order. The Latin suffix -formes meaning having the form of is used for the name of orders of birds and fishes. The suffix -ales is for the name of orders of plants, fungi, for some clades covered by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a number of additional classifications are sometimes used, although not all of these are officially recognised. In their 1997 classification of mammals, McKenna and Bell used two levels between superorder and order, grandorder and mirorder. Michael Novacek inserted them at the same position, michael Benton inserted them between superorder and magnorder instead. This position was adopted by Systema Naturae 2000 and others, in botany, the ranks of subclass and suborder are secondary ranks pre-defined as respectively above and below the rank of order. Any number of further ranks can be used as long as they are clearly defined, the superorder rank is commonly used, with the ending -anae that was initiated by Armen Takhtajans publications from 1966 onwards. Carl Linnaeus was the first to apply it consistently to the division of all three kingdoms of nature in his Systema Naturae, for plants, Linnaeus orders in the Systema Naturae and the Species Plantarum were strictly artificial, introduced to subdivide the artificial classes into more comprehensible smaller groups. In French botanical publications, from Michel Adansons Familles naturelles des plantes and until the end of the 19th century, some of the plant families still retain the names of Linnaean natural orders or even the names of pre-Linnaean natural groups recognised by Linnaeus as orders in his natural classification. Such names are known as family names. In zoology, the Linnaean orders were used more consistently and that is, the orders in the zoology part of the Systema Naturae refer to natural groups. Some of his names are still in use
9.
Macrotis
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Bilbies, or rabbit-bandicoots, are desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores, they are members of the order Peramelemorphia. At the time of European colonisation of Australia, there were two species, the lesser bilby became extinct in the 1950s, the greater bilby survives but remains endangered. It is currently listed as a vulnerable species and it is on average 55 cm long, excluding the tail, which is usually around 29 cm long. Its fur is grey or white, it has a long pointy nose and very long ears, hence earning its nick-name. Macrotis means ‘big-eared’ in Greek, referring to the animals large, the familys current name Thylacomyidae is derived from an invalid synonym Thylacomys, meaning ‘pouched mouse’, from the Ancient Greek thýlakos and mys, sometimes misspelt Thalacomys. The term bilby is a loanword from the Yuwaalaraay Aboriginal language of northern New South Wales and it is known as dalgite in Western Australia, and the nickname pinkie is sometimes used in South Australia. The Wiradjuri of New South Wales also call it bilby, Bilbies have the characteristic long bandicoot muzzle and very big ears that radiate heat. They are about 29–55 cm long, compared to bandicoots, they have a longer tail, bigger ears, and softer, silky fur. The size of their ears allows them to have better hearing, most food is found by digging or scratching in the soil, and using their very long tongues. Unlike bandicoots, they are excellent burrowers and build extensive tunnel systems with their strong forelimbs and well-developed claws. A bilby typically makes a number of burrows within its range, up to about a dozen. The female bilbys pouch faces backwards, which prevents the pouch from getting filled with dirt while she is digging, Bilbies have a short gestation of about 12–14 days, one of the shortest among mammals. Bilbies are slowly becoming endangered because of loss and change. There is a recovery plan being developed for saving them. This program includes captive breeding, monitoring populations, and reestablishing bilbies where they once lived, there have been reasonably successful moves to popularise the bilby as a native alternative to the Easter Bunny by selling chocolate Easter Bilbies. Successful reintroductions have also occurred on the Peron Peninsula in Western Australia as a part of Western Shield, successful reintroductions have also occurred on other conservation lands, including islands and the Australian Wildlife Conservancys Scotia and Yookamurra Sanctuaries. There is a highly successful breeding program at Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre near Perth. The placement of bilbies within the classification has changed in recent years
10.
Bandicota
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Bandicota is a genus of rodents from Asia. They are known as the bandicoot rats, pp. 894–1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore
11.
Embryo
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An embryo is an early stage of development of a multicellular diploid eukaryotic organism. In general, in organisms that reproduce sexually, an embryo develops from a zygote, the zygote possesses half the DNA of each of its two parents. In plants, animals, and some protists, the zygote will begin to divide by mitosis to produce a multicellular organism, the result of this process is an embryo. First attested in English in the mid-14c, the word embryon derives from Medieval Latin embryo, itself from Greek ἔμβρυον, lit. Young one, which is the neuter of ἔμβρυος, lit, growing in, from ἐν, in and βρύω, swell, be full, the proper Latinized form of the Greek term would be embryum. In animals, the development of the zygote into an embryo proceeds through specific stages of blastula, gastrula. The blastula stage typically features a fluid-filled cavity, the blastocoel, surrounded by a sphere or sheet of cells, in a placental mammal, an ovum is fertilized in a fallopian tube through which it travels into the uterus. An embryo is called a fetus at an advanced stage of development. In humans, this is from the week of gestation. During gastrulation the cells of the blastula undergo coordinated processes of cell division, invasion, in triploblastic organisms, the three germ layers are called endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm. The position and arrangement of the layers are highly species-specific, however. For example, in neurogenesis, a subpopulation of cells is set aside to become the brain, spinal cord. Modern developmental biology is extensively probing the molecular basis for every type of organogenesis, including angiogenesis, chondrogenesis, myogenesis, osteogenesis, and many others. In botany, a plant embryo is part of a seed, consisting of precursor tissues for the leaves, stem. Once the embryo begins to germinate — grow out from the seed — it is called a seedling, bryophytes and ferns also produce an embryo, but do not produce seeds. In these plants, the embryo begins its existence attached to the inside of the archegonium on a parental gametophyte from which the egg cell was generated, the structure and development of the rest of the embryo varies by group of plants. Once the embryo has expanded beyond the enclosing archegonium, it is no longer termed an embryo, embryos are used in various fields of research and in techniques of assisted reproductive technology. An egg may be fertilized in vitro and the embryo may be frozen for later use
12.
Placenta
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The placenta provides oxygen and nutrients to growing babies and removes waste products from the babys blood. The placenta attaches to the wall of the uterus, and the umbilical cord develops from the placenta. The umbilical cord is what connects the mother and the baby, Placentas are a defining characteristic of placental mammals, but are also found in some non-mammals with varying levels of development. The homology of structures in various viviparous organisms is debatable. The classical plural is placentae, but the form placentas is common in modern English, prototherial and metatherial mammals produce a choriovitelline placenta that, while connected to the uterine wall, provides nutrients mainly derived from the egg sac. In humans, the placenta averages 22 cm in length and 2–2.5 cm in thickness, with the center being the thickest, and it typically weighs approximately 500 grams. It has a dark reddish-blue or crimson color and it connects to the fetus by an umbilical cord of approximately 55–60 cm in length, which contains two umbilical arteries and one umbilical vein. The umbilical cord inserts into the chorionic plate, vessels branch out over the surface of the placenta and further divide to form a network covered by a thin layer of cells. This results in the formation of villous tree structures, on the maternal side, these villous tree structures are grouped into lobules called cotyledons. In humans, the placenta usually has a shape. The placental flora more closely resembles that of the oral microbiome than either the vaginal or rectal microbiome, in non-human animals, part of the microbiome is passed onto offspring even before the offspring are born. Bacteriologists assume that the same holds true for humans. The placenta begins to develop upon implantation of the blastocyst into the maternal endometrium, the outer layer of the blastocyst becomes the trophoblast, which forms the outer layer of the placenta. This outer layer is divided into two layers, the underlying cytotrophoblast layer and the overlying syncytiotrophoblast layer. The syncytiotrophoblast is a continuous cell layer that covers the surface of the placenta. It forms as a result of differentiation and fusion of the underlying cytotrophoblast cells, the syncytiotrophoblast, thereby contributes to the barrier function of the placenta. Development of the blood supply to the placenta is complete by the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. In preparation for implantation of the blastocyst, the uterine endometrium undergoes decidualisation, spiral arteries in decidua are remodeled so that they become less convoluted and their diameter is increased
13.
Coxiella burnetii
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Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen, and is the causative agent of Q fever. The genus Coxiella is morphologically similar to Rickettsia, but with a variety of genetic, C. burnetii is a small Gram-negative bacterium that is highly resistant to environmental stresses such as high temperature, osmotic pressure, and ultraviolet light. It can survive standard disinfectants, and is resistant to other environmental changes like those presented in the phagolysosome. Research in the 1920s and 1930s identified what appeared to be a new type of Rickettsia, isolated from ticks, around the same time, Derrick proposed the name Rickettsia burnetii, in recognition of Burnets contribution in identifying the organism as a Rickettsia. Coxiella was difficult to study because it could not be reproduced outside a host, however, in 2009, scientists reported a technique allowing the bacteria to grow in an axenic culture and suggested the technique may be useful for study of other pathogens. The ID50 is one via inhalation, i. e. inhalation of one organism will yield disease in 50% of the population and this is an extremely low infectious dose, making C. burnetii one of the most infectious known organisms. Disease occurs in two stages, a stage that presents with headaches, chills, and respiratory symptoms. While most infections clear up spontaneously, treatment with tetracycline or doxycycline appears to reduce the symptomatic duration, a combination of erythromycin and rifampin is highly effective in curing the disease, and vaccination with Q-VAX vaccine is effective for prevention of it. The bacteria use a type IVB secretion system known as Icm/Dot to inject effector proteins called Ank proteins into the host and these effectors increase the bacterias ability to survive inside the host cell. The United States ended its biological warfare program in 1969, when it did, C. burnetii was one of seven agents it had standardized as biological weapons. At least five completely sequenced genomes of Coxiella burnetti exist, which contain about 2.1 Mbp of DNA each, in bacteria small regulatory RNAs are activated during stress and virulence conditions. Coxiella burnetii small RNAs are encoded within intergenic region, CbSRs 2,3,4 and 9 are located antisense to identified ORFs. The CbSRs are up-regulated during intracellular growth in host cells, Coxiella burnetii genomes and related information at PATRIC, a Bioinformatics Resource Center funded by NIAID
14.
Tick
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Ticks are small arachnids, part of the order Parasitiformes. Along with mites, they constitute the subclass Acari, Ticks are ectoparasites, living by feeding on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. Ticks had evolved by the Cretaceous period, the most common form of fossilisation being immersed in amber, Ticks are widely distributed around the world, especially in warm, humid climates. Almost all ticks belong to one of two families, the Ixodidae or hard ticks, which are difficult to crush. Adults have ovoid or pear-shaped bodies which become engorged with blood when they feed, both families locate a potential host by odour or from changes in the environment. Ticks have four stages to their lifecycle, namely egg, larva, nymph, ixodid ticks have three hosts, taking at least a year to complete their lifecycle. Argasid ticks have up to seven stages, each one requiring a blood meal. Because of their habit of ingesting blood, ticks are vectors of at least twelve diseases that affect humans, fossilized ticks are known from the Cretaceous onwards, most commonly in amber. They most likely originated in the Cretaceous, with most of the evolution, the oldest example is an argasid bird tick from Cretaceous New Jersey amber. The younger Baltic and Dominican ambers have also yielded examples which can be placed in living genera, there are three families of ticks. The two large ones are the families of Ixodidae and Argasidae. The third is Nuttalliellidae, named for the bacteriologist George Nuttall and it comprises a single species, Nuttalliella namaqua, and is the most basal lineage. Ticks are closely related to the mites, within the subclass Acarina, RDNA analysis suggests that the Ixodidae are a clade, but that the Argasidae may be paraphyletic. The Ixodidae contains over 700 species of ticks with a scutum or hard shield. The Argasidae contains about 200 species, the genera accepted as of 2010 are Antricola, Argas, Nothoaspis, Ornithodoros and they have no scutum, and the capitulum is concealed beneath the body. The family Nuttalliellidae contains only a species, Nuttalliella namaqua. The phylogeny of the Ixodida within the Acari is shown in the cladogram, the Argasidae appear monophyletic in this study. Ticks are also distributed among host taxa, which include marsupial and placental mammals, birds, reptiles such as snakes, iguanas and lizards
15.
Domestic animal
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This includes species which are semi-domesticated, undomesticated but captive-bred on a commercial scale, or commonly wild-caught, at least occasionally captive-bred, and tameable. A number of factors determine how quickly any changes may occur in a species, however, domestication is a gradual process, i. e. there is no precise moment in the history of a given species when it can be considered to have become fully domesticated. Archaeozoology has identified three classes of animal domesticates, commensals, adapted to a niche, prey animals sought for food. To sort the tables chronologically by date of domestication, refresh your browser window, as clicking the Date column heading will mix AD, due to the somewhat unclear outlines of what, precisely, constitutes domestication, there are some species that may or may not be fully domesticated. There are also species that are used or kept as pets by humans. Most animals on this table are at least somewhat altered from wild animals by their extensive interactions with humans. Many could not be released into the wild, or are in some way dependent on humans
16.
Urine
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Urine is a liquid by-product of metabolism in the bodies of many animals, including humans. It is expelled from the kidneys and flows through the ureters to the urinary bladder, cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many nitrogenous, that require clearance from the bloodstream. These by-products are eventually expelled from the body during urination, the method for excreting water-soluble chemicals from the body. These chemicals can be detected and analyzed by urinalysis, of the many such substances that exist, the three main nitrogenous wastes of the mammalian body are urea, uric acid, and creatinine. Animal urine forms part of the nitrogen cycle, in balanced ecosystems it fertilizes soil and plants, which in turn continue to support the animal population. Some animals use it to mark their territories, human urine and human feces are collectively referred to as human waste, as sewage, they require sewage treatment in places where population density is high. Livestock urine and feces similarly require proper management if the population density is high. Such management is part of ecological sanitation, most animals have excretory systems for elimination of soluble toxic wastes. In humans, soluble wastes are excreted primarily by the system and, to a lesser extent in terms of urea. The urinary system consists of the kidneys, ureters, urinary bladder, the system produces urine by a process of filtration, reabsorption, and tubular secretion. The kidneys extract the soluble wastes from the bloodstream, as well as water, sugars. The resulting urine contains high concentrations of urea and other substances, urine flows from the kidney through the ureter, bladder, and finally the urethra before passing from the body. Research looking at the duration of urination in a range of species found that 9 larger species urinated for 21 ±13 seconds irrespective of body size. Smaller species including rodents and bats cannot produce jets and instead urinate with a series of drops, producing too much or too little urine needs medical attention. Polyuria is a condition of excessive production of urine, oliguria when <400 mL are produced, about 91-96% of urine consists of water. Urine also contains an assortment of inorganic salts and organic compounds, including proteins, hormones, the total solids in urine are on average 59 g per person per day. Organic matter makes up between 65% and 85% of urine dry solids, with volatile solids comprising 75–85% of total solids, urea is the largest constituent of the solids, constituting more than 50% of the total. On an elemental level, human urine contains 6.87 g/L carbon,8.12 g/L nitrogen,8.25 g/L oxygen, the exact proportions vary with individuals and with factors such as diet and health
17.
Faeces
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Feces or faeces are the solid or semisolid metabolic waste from an animals digestive tract, discharged through the anus or cloaca during a process called defecation. Urine and feces together are called excreta, collected feces has various uses, namely as fertilizer or soil conditioner in agriculture, as a fuel source, or for medicinal purposes. After an animal has digested eaten material, the remains of material are discharged from its body as waste. Although it is lower in energy than the food from which it is derived, feces may retain a large amount of energy and this means that of all food eaten, a significant amount of energy remains for the decomposers of ecosystems. Many organisms feed on feces, from bacteria to fungi to insects such as dung beetles, some may specialize in feces, while others may eat other foods as well. Feces serve not only as a food, but also as a supplement to the usual diet of some animals. Feces and urine, which reflect light, are important to raptors such as kestrels. Seeds also may be found in feces, animals who eat fruit are known as frugivores. An advantage for a plant in having fruit is that animals will eat the fruit and this mode of seed dispersal is highly successful, as seeds dispersed around the base of a plant are unlikely to succeed and often are subject to heavy predation. Provided the seed can withstand the pathway through the system, it is not only likely to be far away from the parent plant. This cycling of matter is known as the biogeochemical cycle, the distinctive odor of feces is due to bacterial action. Gut flora produce compounds such as indole, skatole, and thiols and these are the same compounds that are responsible for the odor of flatulence. Consumption of foods prepared with spices may result in the spices being undigested, the perceived bad odor of feces has been hypothesized to be a deterrent for humans, as consuming or touching it may result in sickness or infection. Human perception of the odor may be contrasted by an animals perception of it, for example. In humans and depending on the individual and the circumstances, defecation may occur daily, extensive hardening of the feces may cause prolonged interruption in the routine and is called constipation. Human fecal matter varies significantly in appearance, depending on diet, normally it is semisolid, with a mucus coating. The brown coloration comes from a combination of bile and bilirubin, in newborn babies, initially fecal matter is yellow-green after the meconium. This coloration comes from the presence of bile alone, throughout the life of an ordinary human, one may experience many types of feces
18.
Herbivore
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A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding, horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, and other tough plant material. A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora that help them digest plant matter and this gut flora is made up of cellulose-digesting protozoans or bacteria living in the herbivores intestines. Herbivore is the form of a modern Latin coinage, herbivora. Richard Owen employed the term in an 1854 work on fossil teeth. Herbivora is derived from the Latin herba meaning a small plant or herb, Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms feed on autotrophs in general are known as primary consumers. Herbivory usually refers to eating plants, fungi, bacteria and protists that feed on living plants are usually termed plant pathogens. Flowering plants that obtain nutrition from other living plants are usually termed parasitic plants, there is however no single exclusive and definitive ecological classification of consumption patterns, each textbook has its own variations on the theme. Insects fed on the spores of early Devonian plants, and the Rhynie chert also provides evidence that organisms fed on plants using a pierce, during the next 75 million years, plants evolved a range of more complex organs, such as roots and seeds. There is no evidence of any organism being fed upon until the middle-late Mississippian,330.9 million years ago, further than their arthropod status, the identity of these early herbivores is uncertain. Hole feeding and skeletonisation are recorded in the early Permian, with surface fluid feeding evolving by the end of that period, Herbivory among four-limbed terrestrial vertebrates, the tetrapods developed in the Late Carboniferous. Early tetrapods were large amphibious piscivores, while amphibians continued to feed on fish and insects, some reptiles began exploring two new food types, tetrapods and plants. The entire dinosaur order ornithischia was composed with herbivores dinosaurs, carnivory was a natural transition from insectivory for medium and large tetrapods, requiring minimal adaptation. In contrast, a set of adaptations was necessary for feeding on highly fibrous plant materials. Arthropods evolved herbivory in four phases, changing their approach to it in response to changing plant communities, tetrapod herbivores made their first appearance in the fossil record of their jaws near the Permio-Carboniferous boundary, approximately 300 million years ago. The earliest evidence of their herbivory has been attributed to dental occlusion, the evolution of dental occlusion led to a drastic increase in plant food processing and provides evidence about feeding strategies based on tooth wear patterns. Examination of phylogenetic frameworks of tooth and jaw morphologes has revealed that dental occlusion developed independently in several lineages tetrapod herbivores and this suggests that evolution and spread occurred simultaneously within various lineages
19.
Carnivore
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Animals that depend solely on animal flesh for their nutrient requirements are called obligate carnivores while those that also consume non-animal food are called facultative carnivores. A carnivore that sits at the top of the chain is termed an apex predator. Plants that capture and digest insects are called carnivorous plants, similarly, fungi that capture microscopic animals are often called carnivorous fungi. The word carnivore sometimes refers to the mammalian order Carnivora, while many Carnivora meet the definition of being meat eaters, not all do, and even fewer are true obligate carnivores. In addition, there are plenty of species that are not members of Carnivora. Outside the animal kingdom, there are several genera containing carnivorous plants, the former are predominantly insectivores, while the latter prey mostly on microscopic invertebrates, such as nematodes, amoebae and springtails. Carnivores are sometimes characterized by the type of prey that they consume, for example, animals that eat insects and similar invertebrates primarily or exclusively are called insectivores, while those that eat fish primarily or exclusively are called piscivores. The first tetrapods, or land-dwelling vertebrates, were piscivorous amphibians known as labyrinthodonts and they gave rise to insectivorous vertebrates and, later, to predators of other tetrapods. Carnivores may alternatively be classified according to the percentage of meat in their diet, obligate carnivores or true carnivores depend on the nutrients found only in animal flesh for their survival. For instance, felids including the cat are obligate carnivores requiring a diet of primarily animal flesh. Characteristics commonly associated with carnivores include organs for capturing and disarticulating prey, in truth, these assumptions may be misleading, as some carnivores do not hunt and are scavengers. Thus they do not have the associated with hunting carnivores. Carnivores have comparatively short digestive systems, as they are not required to break down tough cellulose found in plants, many animals that hunt other animals have evolved eyes that face forward, thus making depth perception possible. This is almost universal among mammalian predators, other predators, like crocodiles, as well as most reptiles and amphibians, have sideways facing eyes and hunt by ambush rather than pursuit. The first vertebrate carnivores were fish, and then amphibians that moved on to land, early tetrapods were large amphibious piscivores. Some scientists assert that Dimetrodon was the first terrestrial vertebrate to develop the curved, serrated teeth that enable a predator to eat prey much larger than itself. While amphibians continued to feed on fish and later insects, reptiles began exploring two new types, tetrapods, and later, plants. Carnivory was a transition from insectivory for medium and large tetrapods
20.
Rainforest
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The monsoon trough, alternatively known as the intertropical convergence zone, plays a significant role in creating the climatic conditions necessary for the Earths tropical rainforests. Around 40% to 75% of all species are indigenous to the rainforests. It has been estimated there may be many millions of species of plants, insects. Tropical rainforests have been called the jewels of the Earth and the worlds largest pharmacy, the undergrowth in some areas of a rainforest can be restricted by poor penetration of sunlight to ground level. If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense, tangled growth of vines, shrubs and small trees, the term jungle is also sometimes applied to tropical rainforests generally. Tropical rainforests are characterized by a warm and wet climate with no dry season. Mean monthly temperatures exceed 18 °C during all months of the year, average annual rainfall is no less than 168 cm and can exceed 1,000 cm although it typically lies between 175 cm and 200 cm. Many of the tropical forests are associated with the location of the monsoon trough. The broader category of tropical moist forests are located in the zone between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn. Tropical forests have been called the Earths lungs, although it is now known that rainforests contribute little net oxygen addition to the atmosphere through photosynthesis, Tropical forests cover a large part of the globe, but temperate rainforests only occur in few regions around the world. Temperate rainforests are rainforests in temperate regions and they occur in North America, in Europe, in East Asia, in South America and also in Australia and New Zealand. A tropical rainforest typically has a number of layers, each with different plants, examples include the emergent, canopy, understorey and forest floor layers. They need to be able to withstand the hot temperatures and strong winds that occur above the canopy in some areas, eagles, butterflies, bats and certain monkeys inhabit this layer. The canopy layer contains the majority of the largest trees, typically 30 metres to 45 metres tall, the densest areas of biodiversity are found in the forest canopy, a more or less continuous cover of foliage formed by adjacent treetops. The canopy, by some estimates, is home to 50 percent of all plant species, epiphytic plants attach to trunks and branches, and obtain water and minerals from rain and debris that collects on the supporting plants. The fauna is similar to found in the emergent layer. A quarter of all species are believed to exist in the rainforest canopy. Scientists have long suspected the richness of the canopy as a habitat, true exploration of this habitat only began in the 1980s, when scientists developed methods to reach the canopy, such as firing ropes into the trees using crossbows
21.
Peramelidae
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The Peramelidae family of marsupials contains all of the extant bandicoots. One known extinct species of bandicoot, the bandicoot, was so different from the other species. They are found throughout Australia and New Guinea, with at least some species living in every available habitat and they have short limbs and tails, smallish, mouse-like ears, and a long, pointed snout. Peramelids are omnivorous, with soil-dwelling invertebrates forming the part of their diet, they also eat seeds, fruit. Their teeth are correspondingly unspecialised, with most species having the dental formula 5.1.3.43.1.3.4 Female peramelids have a pouch that opens to the rear, and contains eight teats. The maximum litter size is, therefore, eight, since young are attached to the teat during development. The gestation period of peramelids is the shortest among mammals, at just 12.5 days and this allows a given female to produce more than one litter per breeding season, and gives peramelids an unusually high reproductive rate compared with other marsupials. Mammal Species of the World, A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, a new species of bandicot from the Oligocene of Northern Australia and implications for correlating Australian Tertiary mammal faunas. Fauna of Australia Volume 1B Mammalia
22.
Pig-footed bandicoot
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The pig-footed bandicoot was a small marsupial of the arid and semi-arid plains of Australia. The distribution range of the species was reduced to an inland desert region. This species was placed in the family Peramelidae, along with the bilbies, as the subfamily Chaeropodinae by McKenna. However, its form is distinct from the Peramelidae and bilbies. It is believed to be the group of the rest of the Peramelmorphia and has been assigned to its own family Chaeropodidae. The pig-footed bandicoot had a size of 23–26 cm and a 10–15 cm long tail. In form, it was almost bilby-like on first sight, having long, slender limbs, large, pointed ears, on closer examination, however, it became apparent that the pig-footed bandicoot was very unusual for a marsupial. It had a head, and a long yet slender snout. Its fur was coarse and straight, but not spiny, in color it varied from grizzled grey through fawn to orange-brown, the belly and underparts were white with the fur on the ears being of chestnut color. This species had five pairs of upper and three pairs of lower incision teeth, the females of the species had eight nipples and the opening of the pouch was faced backwards, not forwards as is the case with kangaroos. The pig-footed bandicoot was native to western New South Wales and Victoria and it inhabited a wide range of habitat types, from grassy woodland and grassland plains to the spinifex country and arid flats of central Australia. Despite its wide range, the species had a distribution and was never abundant. It was a solitary, nocturnal animal that would sleep in its shelter during the day and emerge in the evening to feed, depending on the habitat, pig-footed bandicoots used a variety of shelters to hide from predators and for sleeping. In wooded areas and grasslands these ranged from hollow logs and nests made out of grass, while in arid treeless country this animal used to dig short, in captivity it was observed that they drank a good deal of water. Tim Flannery suggests that breeding occurred between May and June and that twins may have been the norm for this species. From the size of its pouch and comparison with other marsupials of this size, two specimens of pig-footed bandicoot were obtained by local people in 1857 for Gerard Krefft, who accompanied the Blandowski Expedition. Despite the trouble taken in gaining living specimens, Krefft recorded his observations with an apology for eating one of them, by the start of the 20th century, it had become extinct in Victoria and the south-west of Western Australia. The last certain specimen was collected in 1901, by 1945 the species vanished from South Australia and was reported to be limited to a slight foothold in central Australia
23.
Thylacomyidae
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Bilbies, or rabbit-bandicoots, are desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores, they are members of the order Peramelemorphia. At the time of European colonisation of Australia, there were two species, the lesser bilby became extinct in the 1950s, the greater bilby survives but remains endangered. It is currently listed as a vulnerable species and it is on average 55 cm long, excluding the tail, which is usually around 29 cm long. Its fur is grey or white, it has a long pointy nose and very long ears, hence earning its nick-name. Macrotis means ‘big-eared’ in Greek, referring to the animals large, the familys current name Thylacomyidae is derived from an invalid synonym Thylacomys, meaning ‘pouched mouse’, from the Ancient Greek thýlakos and mys, sometimes misspelt Thalacomys. The term bilby is a loanword from the Yuwaalaraay Aboriginal language of northern New South Wales and it is known as dalgite in Western Australia, and the nickname pinkie is sometimes used in South Australia. The Wiradjuri of New South Wales also call it bilby, Bilbies have the characteristic long bandicoot muzzle and very big ears that radiate heat. They are about 29–55 cm long, compared to bandicoots, they have a longer tail, bigger ears, and softer, silky fur. The size of their ears allows them to have better hearing, most food is found by digging or scratching in the soil, and using their very long tongues. Unlike bandicoots, they are excellent burrowers and build extensive tunnel systems with their strong forelimbs and well-developed claws. A bilby typically makes a number of burrows within its range, up to about a dozen. The female bilbys pouch faces backwards, which prevents the pouch from getting filled with dirt while she is digging, Bilbies have a short gestation of about 12–14 days, one of the shortest among mammals. Bilbies are slowly becoming endangered because of loss and change. There is a recovery plan being developed for saving them. This program includes captive breeding, monitoring populations, and reestablishing bilbies where they once lived, there have been reasonably successful moves to popularise the bilby as a native alternative to the Easter Bunny by selling chocolate Easter Bilbies. Successful reintroductions have also occurred on the Peron Peninsula in Western Australia as a part of Western Shield, successful reintroductions have also occurred on other conservation lands, including islands and the Australian Wildlife Conservancys Scotia and Yookamurra Sanctuaries. There is a highly successful breeding program at Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre near Perth. The placement of bilbies within the classification has changed in recent years
24.
Seram bandicoot
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The Seram bandicoot, also known as the Seram Island long-nosed bandicoot, is a member of the order Peramelemorphia. It is the species in the genus Rhynchomeles It was named by Oldfield Thomas for Charles, Felix and Joseph Pratt. The species was described from a collection of seven specimens, made in 1920 on the Indonesian island of Seram and it is classified as an endangered species on the Red List of the IUCN, due to its narrow distribution range and noted as data deficient. Conservation of the species, if extant, is threatened by clearing of lower altitude forests near its type locality, the introduction of pigs, dogs, and other feral animals could cause a decline in population. The collection of the specimens was made in tropical upper montane forest, in Manusela National Park. The surrounding region has not been surveyed for this species, although an occurrence in Buru has been suggested
25.
Crash Bandicoot (character)
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Crash Bandicoot, or simply Crash, is the title character and primary protagonist of the Crash Bandicoot series. Throughout the series, Crash acts as the opposition against Cortex, while Crash has a number of offensive maneuvers at his disposal, his most distinctive technique is one in which he spins like a tornado at high speeds and knocks away almost anything that he strikes. Crash was created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin, and was designed by Charles Zembillas. Crash was intended to be a character for Sony to use to compete against Nintendos Mario. Before Crash was given his name, he was referred to as Willie the Wombat for much of the duration of the first games production, Crash has drawn comparisons to Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog by reviewers. His animations have been praised, and his voice has been criticized, Naughty Dog desired to do what Sega and Warner Bros. did with the hedgehog and the Tasmanian devil respectively and incorporate an animal that was cute, real, and no one really knew about. The team purchased a field guide on Tasmanian mammals and selected the wombat, potoroo, Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin went with Willie the Wombat as a temporary name for the starring character of the game. The name was never meant to be final, due both to the name sounding too dorky and to the existence of a non-video game property of the same name. The character was effectively a bandicoot by October 1994, but was referred to as Willie the Wombat because a final name had not been formulated yet. Wanting their mascot game to be multi-dimensional in character depth as well as gameplay, american Exitus artist Charles Zembillas was hired and met with weekly to design and develop Willie and the other characters of the game. It was decided early on there would be no connection between the real animal and Willies final design. Instead the design of the character was determined 51% by technical and visual necessity, to determine the color of Willies fur, Gavin created a list of popular characters and their colors, and then made a list of earthly background possibilities. Colors that wouldnt look good on the screen were strictly outlawed, such as red, Orange was selected as the color of Willies fur as the last available color. Willies head was large and neckless to counter the low resolution of the screen. Jason Rubin noted the difficulty in turning Willies head with this type of design. Small details such as the gloves, the spots on Willies back, Willie was not given a tail or any flappy straps of clothing due to the PlayStations inability to properly display such pixels without flickering. The length of Willies pants was shortened to keep his ankles from flickering as they would with longer pants, Andy Gavin owns the original ink sketches of Crash by Charles Zembillas. Willies final game model was made from 512 polygons with the only textures being for the spots on his back and it took Andy Gavin a month to settle on that number of polygons
26.
Sony
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Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation that is headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified business includes consumer and professional electronics, gaming, entertainment, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony was ranked 116th on the 2015 list of Fortune Global 500 and these make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. The group consists of Sony Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Financial Holdings and others. Sony is among the Semiconductor sales leaders by year and as of 2013, the companys current slogan is BE MOVED. Their former slogans were make. believe, like. no. other, Sony has a weak tie to the SMFG keiretsu, the successor to the Mitsui keiretsu. Sony began in the wake of World War II, in 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a department store building in Tokyo. The company had $530 in capital and a total of eight employees, in the following year he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo 東京通信工業. The company built Japans first tape recorder, called the Type-G, in 1958 the company changed its name to Sony. When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TTK, the company occasionally used the acronym Totsuko in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was Tokyo Teletech until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name, the name Sony was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word sonus, which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was sonny, a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a boy. In the 1950s Japan sonny boys, was a word into Japanese which connoted smart and presentable young men. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955, at the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition, TTKs principal bank at the time and they pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Banks chairman gave their approval, according to Schiffer, Sonys TR-63 radio cracked open the U. S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics
27.
PlayStation
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It is created and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment since December 3,1994, with the launch of the original PlayStation console in Japan. The original console in the series was the first video game console to ship 100 million units,9 years and 6 months after its initial launch and its successor, the PlayStation 2, was released in 2000. The PlayStation 2 is the home console to date, having reached over 155 million units sold as of December 28,2012. Sonys next console, the PlayStation 3, was released in 2006 and has sold over 80 million consoles worldwide as of November 2013. Sonys latest console, the PlayStation 4, was released in 2013, selling 1 million consoles in its first 24 hours on sale, the first handheld game console in the PlayStation series, sold a total of 80 million units worldwide by November 2013. Its successor, the PlayStation Vita, which launched in Japan on December 17,2011, PlayStation TV is a microconsole and a non-portable variant of the PlayStation Vita handheld game console. The main series of controllers utilized by the PlayStation series is the DualShock, the PlayStation Network is an online service with over 110 million users worldwide. PlayStation Mobile is a framework that provides PlayStation content on mobile devices. Content set to be released under the framework consist of only original PlayStation games currently, 7th generation PlayStation products also use the XrossMediaBar, which is an award-winning graphical user interface. A new touch screen-based user interface called LiveArea was launched for the PlayStation Vita, additionally, PlayStation 2 and original PlayStation 3 consoles also featured support for Linux-based operating systems, though this has since been discontinued. The series has also known for its numerous marketing campaigns. The consoles origins date back to 1988 where it was originally a joint project between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-ROM for the Super Famicom. However, a day after the announcement at CES, Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with Sony, opting to go with Philips instead but using the same technology. The deal was broken by Nintendo after they were unable to come to an agreement on how revenue would be split between the two companies. The breaking of the partnership infuriated Sony President Norio Ohga, who responded by appointing Kutaragi with the responsibility of developing the PlayStation project to rival Nintendo. At that time, negotiations were still on-going between Nintendo and Sony, with Nintendo offering Sony a non-gaming role regarding their new partnership with Philips. This proposal was rejected by Kutaragi who was facing increasing criticism over his work with regard to entering the video game industry from within Sony. At the meeting, Kutaragi unveiled a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he had working on which involved playing video games with 3D graphics to the board
28.
Sega
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Nonetheless, Sega remains the worlds most prolific arcade producer, with over 500 games in over 70 franchises on more than 20 different arcade system boards since 1981. Sega, along with their sub-studios, are known for their multi-million selling game franchises, such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Virtua Fighter, Phantasy Star, Yakuza, Segas head offices are located in Tokyo. Segas North American division, Sega of America, is headquartered in Irvine, California, Segas European division, Sega Europe, is headquartered in London. After the war, the founders sold that company and established a new distributor called Service Games and this company provided coin-operated slot machines to U. S. bases in Japan and changed its name again to Service Games of Japan by 1953. David Rosen, an American officer in the United States Air Force stationed in Japan and this company eventually became Rosen Enterprises, and in 1957, began importing coin-operated games to Japan. On May 31,1960, Service Games Japan was closed, Three days later, two new companies were established to take over its business activities, Nihon Goraku Bussan and Nihon Kikai Seizo. By 1965, Rosen Enterprises grew to a chain of over 200 arcades, Rosen then orchestrated a merger between Rosen Enterprises and Nihon Goraku Bussan, becoming chief executive of the new company, Sega Enterprises, which derived its name from Service Games. Within a year, Sega began the transition from importer to manufacturer, with the release of the submarine simulator game, the game sported light and sound effects considered innovative for that time, eventually becoming quite successful in Japan. It was soon exported to both Europe and the United States, becoming the first arcade game in the US to cost 25 cents per play, in 1969, Rosen sold Sega to American conglomerate Gulf and Western Industries, although he remained as CEO following the sale. Under Rosens leadership, Sega continued to grow and prosper, and in 1974, Gulf and Western made Sega Enterprises, a subsidiary of an American company renamed Sega Enterprises, Inc. allowing them to take the companys stock public. Sega prospered heavily from the gaming boom of the late 1970s. In 1982, Segas revenues surpassed $214 million and that year they introduced the first game with isometric graphics, Zaxxon, the industrys first stereoscopic 3D game, SubRoc 3D, and the first laserdisc video game, Astron Belt. Astron Belt wasnt released in the U. S. until 1983, other notable games from Sega during this period are Head On, Monaco GP, Carnival, Turbo, Space Fury, Astro Blaster, and Pengo. In 1983-4, Sega published Atari 2600 versions of some of its arcade games, Carnival, Space Fury, Turbo, and Zaxxon were licensed to Coleco as launch titles for the ColecoVision console in 1982. Some of these and other titles were licensed to different companies for 8-bit computer versions, the Atari 8-bit computer port of Zaxxon is from Datasoft, for example, while the Commodore 64 port is from Synapse. An overabundance of games in 1983 led to the game crash. Seeking an alternate source of revenue from the arcade market, Sega designed and released its first home video game console. G&W sold the U. S. assets of Sega Enterprises that same year to pinball manufacturer Bally Manufacturing, nakayama became the new CEO of Sega, Robert Deith chairman of the board, and Rosen became head of its subsidiary in the United States
29.
Sonic the Hedgehog
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Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game franchise created and produced by Sega. The franchise centers on a series of speed-based platform games, the protagonist of the series is an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog named Sonic, whose peaceful life is often interrupted by the series main antagonist, Doctor Eggman. Typically, Sonic—usually along with some of his friends, such as Tails, Amy, the first game in the series, released in 1991, was conceived by Segas Sonic Team division after Sega requested a mascot character. The title was a success, it spawned many sequels, by 2016, the series had sold over 80 million physical copies of games, and over 350 million units when combining packaged game software with mobile phone downloads. Almost all games in the feature a blue hedgehog named Sonic as the central player character. The games detail Sonic and his allies attempt to save the world from various threats, primarily the evil genius Dr. Ivo Eggman Robotnik, Robotniks aim is to rule the world, to achieve this, he usually attempts to destroy Sonic and to acquire the powerful Chaos Emeralds. The game focused Sonics ability to run and to jump at high speeds with the use of springs, checkpoints, and loops. Its sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, a game released in 1992, increased the overall size. The game introduced Sonics sidekick, Miles Tails Prower, who followed Sonic throughout the game and this game also added Sonics spin dash maneuver, which allowed Sonic to boost forwards quickly from a complete standstill, unlike the previous title, where Sonic could only gain speed with momentum. The next sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, was a platform game in the Sonic series released in 1994. The game introduced a temporary shield maneuver, added new types to the series. It also introduced a new character, Knuckles the Echidna, who served as an additional antagonist with Doctor Robotnik for the game, Sonic & Knuckles, another platform game in the Sonic series, was released later in 1994. This allowed gamers to play the game as it was intended, the games were intended to be one title. There were several Sonic games for the Genesis that were not 2D platform games, Sonic Spinball, released in 1993, was a pinball simulation modeled after the Spring Yard and Casino Night Zones from the first two Sonic games. The game, unlike general pinball simulations, had a goal of collecting all the Chaos Emeralds in each level. It was one of the few games that had elements from the cartoons Sonic the Hedgehog. Dr. Robotniks Mean Bean Machine was a game similar to Puyo Puyo that was set in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog universe. The Sega Genesis had add-on systems that incorporated Sonic titles, Sonic CD, released for the Sega CD, was a 2D platform game released in 1993
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