1.
South American coati
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The South American coati, or ring-tailed coati, is a species of coati from tropical and subtropical South America. In Brazilian Portuguese it is known as quati, weight in this species is 2–7.2 kg and total length is 85–113 cm, half of that being its tail. Its color is variable and the rings on the tail may be quite weak, but it lacks the largely white muzzle of its northern cousin. The South American coati is widespread in tropical and subtropical South America, most of its distribution is in the lowlands east of the Andes, from Colombia and The Guianas south to Uruguay and northern Argentina. The status of coatis west of the Andes has caused confusion, but specimen records from west Ecuador. The only documented records of white-nosed coatis in South America are from far northwestern Colombia, the smaller mountain coatis are mainly found at altitudes above the South American coati, but there is considerable overlap. South American coatis are diurnal animals, and they live both on the ground and in trees and they typically live in the forest. They are omnivorous and primarily eat fruit, invertebrates, other small animals, coatis search for fruit in trees high in the canopy, and use their snouts to poke through crevices to find animal prey on the ground. They also search for prey by turning over rocks on the ground or ripping open logs with their claws. Females typically live in groups, called bands, consisting of 15 to 30 animals. Males, on the hand, are usually solitary. Solitary males were considered a separate species due to the different social habits and were called coatimundis. Neither bands of females nor solitary males defend a unique territory, group members produce soft whining sounds, but alarm calls are different, consisting of loud woofs and clicks. When an alarm call is sounded, the coatis typically climb trees, coatis typically sleep in the trees. Predators of the South American coati include foxes, jaguars, jaguarundis, domestic dogs, all females in a group come into heat simultaneously when fruit is in season. Females give birth to 2–4 young at a time, which are raised in a nest in the trees for 4–6 weeks, females leave the group during this time. Females tend to remain with the group they were born in, South American coatis generally live for up to 7 years in the wild, but can live up to 14 years in captivity
2.
White-nosed coati
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The white-nosed coati, also known as the coatimundi, is a species of coati and a member of the family Procyonidae. Local names include pizote, antoon, and tejón, however, males are much larger than females, and small females weigh as little as 2.5 kg and large males as much as 12.2 kg. On average, the length is about 110 cm, about half of that being the tail length. White-nosed coatis inhabit wooded areas of the Americas and they are found at any altitude from sea level to 3,000 m, and from as far north as southeastern Arizona and New Mexico, through Mexico and Central America, to far northwestern Colombia. There has been confusion over its southern range limit, but specimen records from most of Colombia. They are smaller than white-nosed coatis from the adjacent mainland, the level of other differences also support its status as a subspecies rather than separate species. White-nosed coatis have also found in the U. S. state of Florida. It is unknown precisely when introduction occurred, a specimen in the Florida Museum of Natural History, labeled an escaped captive. There are several documented cases of coatis escaping captivity, and since the 1970s there have been a number of sightings. These reports have occurred over an area of southern Florida. They are omnivores, preferring small vertebrates, fruits, carrion, insects, snakes and they can climb trees easily, where the tail is used for balance, but they are most often on the ground foraging. Their predators include boas, raptors, hunting cats, and Tayras and they readily adapt to human presence, like raccoons, they will raid campsites and trash receptacles. They can be tamed easily, and have been verified experimentally to be quite intelligent, while the raccoon and ringtail are nocturnal, coatis are active by day, retiring during the night to a specific tree and descending at dawn to begin their daily search for food. However, their habits are adjustable, and in areas where they are hunted by humans for food, or where they raid human settlements for their own food, adult males are solitary, but females and sexually immature males form social groups. They use many vocal signals to communicate with one another, and also spend time grooming themselves and each other with their teeth, during foraging times, the young cubs are left with a pair of babysitters, similar to meerkats. The young males and even some females tend to play-fight, many of the coatis will have short fights over food. Smithsonian Institution – North American Mammals, Nasua narica Smithsonian Wild, Nasua narica
3.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
4.
Animalia
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
5.
Chordate
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Chordates are deuterostomes, as during the embryo development stage the anus forms before the mouth. They are also bilaterally symmetric coelomates, in the case of vertebrate chordates, the notochord is usually replaced by a vertebral column during development, and they may have body plans organized via segmentation. There are also additional extinct taxa, the Vertebrata are sometimes considered as a subgroup of the clade Craniata, consisting of chordates with a skull, the Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, the worlds largest and fastest animals, the blue whale and peregrine falcon respectively, are chordates, as are humans. Fossil chordates are known from at least as early as the Cambrian explosion, Hemichordata, which includes the acorn worms, has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but it now is usually treated as a separate phylum. The Hemichordata, along with the Echinodermata, form the Ambulacraria, the Chordata and Ambulacraria form the superphylum Deuterostomia, composed of the deuterostomes. Attempts to work out the relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. All of the earliest chordate fossils have found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna. Because the fossil record of early chordates is poor, only molecular phylogenetics offers a prospect of dating their emergence. However, the use of molecular phylogenetics for dating evolutionary transitions is controversial and it has also proved difficult to produce a detailed classification within the living chordates. Attempts to produce family trees shows that many of the traditional classes are paraphyletic. While this has been known since the 19th century, an insistence on only monophyletic taxa has resulted in vertebrate classification being in a state of flux. Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson, it was already in prevalent use by 1880, ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866. Though he used the German vernacular form, it is allowed under the ICZN code because of its subsequent latinization, among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, and in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the pharynx is the part of the throat immediately behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, a muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. This is a groove in the wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus and it also stores iodine, and may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland
6.
Mammal
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Mammals are any vertebrates within the class Mammalia, a clade of endothermic amniotes distinguished from reptiles by the possession of a neocortex, hair, three middle ear bones and mammary glands. All female mammals nurse their young with milk, secreted from the mammary glands, Mammals include the largest animals on the planet, the great whales. The basic body type is a quadruped, but some mammals are adapted for life at sea, in the air, in trees. The largest group of mammals, the placentals, have a placenta, Mammals range in size from the 30–40 mm bumblebee bat to the 30-meter blue whale. With the exception of the five species of monotreme, all modern mammals give birth to live young, most mammals, including the six most species-rich orders, belong to the placental group. The largest orders are the rodents, bats and Soricomorpha, the next three biggest orders, depending on the biological classification scheme used, are the Primates, the Cetartiodactyla, and the Carnivora. Living mammals are divided into the Yinotheria and Theriiformes There are around 5450 species of mammal, in some classifications, extant mammals are divided into two subclasses, the Prototheria, that is, the order Monotremata, and the Theria, or the infraclasses Metatheria and Eutheria. The marsupials constitute the group of the Metatheria, and include all living metatherians as well as many extinct ones. Much of the changes reflect the advances of cladistic analysis and molecular genetics, findings from molecular genetics, for example, have prompted adopting new groups, such as the Afrotheria, and abandoning traditional groups, such as the Insectivora. The mammals represent the only living Synapsida, which together with the Sauropsida form the Amniota clade, the early synapsid mammalian ancestors were sphenacodont pelycosaurs, a group that produced the non-mammalian Dimetrodon. At the end of the Carboniferous period, this group diverged from the line that led to todays reptiles. Some mammals are intelligent, with some possessing large brains, self-awareness, Mammals can communicate and vocalize in several different ways, including the production of ultrasound, scent-marking, alarm signals, singing, and echolocation. Mammals can organize themselves into fission-fusion societies, harems, and hierarchies, most mammals are polygynous, but some can be monogamous or polyandrous. They provided, and continue to provide, power for transport and agriculture, as well as commodities such as meat, dairy products, wool. Mammals are hunted or raced for sport, and are used as model organisms in science, Mammals have been depicted in art since Palaeolithic times, and appear in literature, film, mythology, and religion. Defaunation of mammals is primarily driven by anthropogenic factors, such as poaching and habitat destruction, Mammal classification has been through several iterations since Carl Linnaeus initially defined the class. No classification system is accepted, McKenna & Bell and Wilson & Reader provide useful recent compendiums. Though field work gradually made Simpsons classification outdated, it remains the closest thing to a classification of mammals
7.
Carnivora
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Carnivora is a diverse scrotiferan order that includes over 280 species of placental mammals. Its members are referred to as carnivorans, whereas the word carnivore can refer to any meat-eating organism.9 m in length. Some carnivorans, such as cats and pinnipeds, depend entirely on meat for their nutrition, carnivorans have teeth and claws adapted for catching and eating other animals. Many hunt in packs and are social animals, giving them an advantage over larger prey, carnivorans are split into two suborders, feliforms and caniforms. Carnivorans all share the same arrangement of teeth in which the last upper premolar, carnivorans have had this arrangement for over 60 million years with many adaptions, and these dental adaptions help identify carnivoran species and groupings of species. Carnivorans evolved in North America out of members of the family Miacidae about 42 million years ago and they soon split into cat-like and dog-like forms. Their molecular phylogeny shows the extant Carnivora are a monophyletic group, the last premolar of the upper jaw and first molar of the lower are termed the carnassials or sectorial teeth. These blade-like teeth occlude with an action for shearing and shredding meat. Carnassials are most highly developed in the Felidae and the least developed in the Ursidae, carnivorans have six incisors and two conical canines in each jaw. The only two exceptions to this are the sea otter, which has four incisors in the jaw, and the sloth bear. The number of molars and premolars is variable between species, but all teeth are deeply rooted and are diphyodont. Incisors are retained by carnivorans and the incisor is commonly large. Carnivorans have either four or five digits on each foot, with the first digit on the forepaws, also known as the dew claw, being vestigial in most species and absent in some. Most species are plain in coloration, lacking the flashy spotted or rosetted coats like many species of felids and viverrids have. This is because Canoidea tend to range in the temperate and subarctic biomes, most are terrestrial, although a few species, like procyonids, are arboreal. All families except the Canidae and a few species of Mustelidae are plantigrade, diet is varied and most tend to be omnivorous to some degree, and thus the carnassial teeth are less specialized. Canoidea have more premolars and molars in an elongated skull and this is because these species tend to range in tropical habitats, although a few species do inhabit temperate and subarctic habitats. Many are arboreal or semiarboreal, and the majority are digitigrade, diet tends to be more strictly carnivorous, especially in the family Felidae
8.
Procyonidae
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Procyonidae is a New World family of the order Carnivora. It includes the raccoons, coatis, kinkajous, olingos, olinguitos, ringtails, procyonids inhabit a wide range of environments and are generally omnivorous. Procyonids are relatively small animals, with slender bodies and long tails. Many procyonids have banded tails, and distinctive facial markings – these are visible in the raccoons. Like bears, procyonids are plantigrade, walking on the soles of their feet, because of their general build, the Procyonidae are often popularly viewed as smaller cousins of the bear family. This is apparent in their German names, a raccoon is called a Waschbär, dutch follows suit, calling the animals wasbeer, neusbeer and rolstaartbeer respectively. However, it is now believed that procyonids are more related to mustelids than to bears. Due to their omnivorous diet, procyonids have lost some of the adaptations for flesh-eating found in their carnivorous relatives, while they do have carnassial teeth, these are poorly developed in most species, especially the raccoons. Apart from the kinkajou, procyonids have the formula, for a total of 40 teeth. The kinkajou has one premolar in each row, for a total of 36 teeth. While coatis are diurnal, all other procyonids are nocturnal and they are mostly solitary animals, and the mother raises litters of up to four young on her own. Procyonid fossils once believed to belong to the genus Bassariscus, which includes the modern ringtail and cacomistle, have identified from the Miocene epoch. It has been suggested that early procyonids were an offshoot of the canids that adapted to an omnivorous diet. Genetic studies have shown that kinkajous are a group to all other extant procyonids. The clades leading to coatis and olingos on one hand, and to ringtails and raccoons on the other, the divergence between olingos and coatis is estimated to have occurred about 10.2 Ma ago, at about the same time that ringtails and raccoons parted ways. There has been considerable uncertainty over the correct classification of several members. The red panda was previously classified in family, but it is now classified it in its own family. The status of the various olingos was disputed, some regarded them all as subspecies of Bassaricyon gabbii before DNA sequence data demonstrated otherwise, the traditional classification scheme shown below on the left predates the recent revolution in our understanding of procyonid phylogeny based on genetic sequence analysis
9.
Nasua
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Nasua is a genus within the family Procyonidae, whose best-known members are raccoons. The two species within the genus are referred to as coatis. Two additional species of coatis, commonly known as mountain coatis, are placed in the genus Nasuella, Nasua differs from Nasuella in being larger and having larger canine teeth, but preliminary genetic evidence suggests that Nasuella should be merged into Nasua. Other genetic studies have shown that the closest relatives of the coatis are the olingos, like other procyonids, coatis are omnivores. Their very active foraging behavior appears to be interrelated with their social organization. Exceptional among procyonids, coatis are diurnal and for much of the year gregarious, though females nest, and bear and nurse their young in isolation, shortly after the altricial young become mobile the females aggregate into social groups known as bands. Bands consist of females, and sub-adults and juveniles of both sexes. At maturity, at two years of age, males are excluded from bands and take up a solitary lifestyle, during the nesting season, the sub-adults and juveniles remain together in bands while breeding adult females become solitary for parturition and nesting. Females begin breeding in their 3rd or 4th year, apparently depending on nutritional status, occasionally, older females become postreproductive, and these remain with the bands while breeding females separate. Breeding is synchronous, as is parturition and nursing, nonetheless, persistent social bonds may form anew at this point in the reproductive cycle, while there may be a tendency to reaggregate with kin, prior relationships are not indispensable. Previously unfamiliar individuals may aggregate into bands with stable social relationships, a conspicuous means of bond formation is mutual grooming, on which an hour or more may be spent daily. When juveniles descend from the nest, they are better than helpless. One important benefit of aggregating for the females is sharing of vigilance in protection of juveniles from predation. Juvenile mortality is high, sources of peril including adult male coatis which have been observed to kill them and it is not entirely clear whether adult males are preying on them or killing potential rivals, and of course it may be both. The active foraging behavior of coatis is fairly conspicuous, and requires a degree of attention. Bands forage in formation, with adults and sub-adults distributed around the periphery and this shared vigilance appears to be an important contributor to the benefit of gregariousness for coatis. The Cozumel Island coati had been recognized as a third species, data related to Nasua at Wikispecies Media related to Nasua at Wikimedia Commons
10.
Nasuella
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Mountain coatis are two species of procyonid mammals from the genus Nasuella. Unlike the larger coatis from the genus Nasua, mountain coatis only weigh 1–1.5 kilograms and are endemic to the north Andean highlands in South America, until recently only a single species with three subspecies was recognized. In 2009 this species was split into two species, the eastern mountain coati from Venezuela, and the western mountain coati from Colombia, a population discovered in southern Peru has tentatively been identified as the western mountain coati, but may represent an undescribed taxon. Both are found in cloud forest and páramo, at altitudes of 2, 000–4,000 metres for the eastern mountain coati and they are very poorly known, and the combined species has been classified as data deficient by the IUCN. Their behavior largely appears to resemble that of the better-known Nasua coatis, unlike the Nasua coatis, mountain coatis are very rare in captivity. Among ISIS registered institutions, only three zoos reported that they had mountain coatis in early 2011, but at least one of these appears to be a case of misidentification, a mountain coati that was confiscated from poachers is kept at Bioparque la Reserva in Cota. Genetic evidence indicates that the genus Nasua is only if it also includes the mountain coatis. Based on cytochrome b sequences, Nasua nasua is the taxon to a clade consisting of Nasua narica plus both species of Nasuella
11.
Diurnality
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Diurnality is a form of plant or animal behavior characterized by activity during the day, with a period of sleeping, or other inactivity, at night. The common adjective used for daytime activity is diurnal, the timing of activity by an animal depends on a variety of environmental factors such as the temperature, the ability to gather food by sight, the risk of predation, and the time of year. Diurnality is a cycle of activity within a period, cyclic activities called circadian rhythms are endogenous cycles not dependent on external cues or environmental factors. Animals active at dawn or dusk are crepuscular, those active at night are nocturnal, plants that open their flowers during the day are referred to as diurnal, while those that bloom at night are nocturnal. The timing of opening is often related to the time at which preferred pollinators are foraging. For example, sunflowers open during the day in order to attract bees, many animal species are diurnal, including many mammals, insects, reptiles and birds. In some animals, especially insects, external patterns of the environment control the activity, diurnality is descriptive, it refers to an observed 24-hour pattern, as opposed to ~24-hour circadian rhythms which are self-sustaining within the organism. In many species, the switches from nocturnal to diurnal foraging depending on the environmental temperature. This allows the individual to maximize its feeding efficiency during the summer and lower its risk of predation during the winter. Diurnal insects include some bees, such as Anthidium maculosum and these carder bees are diurnal and active only when the temperatures are above freezing. They are also most active when there are plenty of such as flowers, from which they can extract pollen. Some primarily nocturnal or crepuscular animals, like dogs and cats, have been domesticated and have become diurnal to coincide with the cycle of human life, however, these animals may exhibit their species original behavior when they are born feral. Other animals have been forced from their normal cycle to a one as a means of avoiding predators. Many plants are diurnal or nocturnal, depending on the period when the most effective pollinators, i. e. insects. Most angiosperm plants are visited by insects, so the flower adapts its phenology to the most effective pollinators. For example, the baobab is pollinated by bats and starts blooming in late afternoon. Services that alternate between high and low utilization in a daily cycle are described as being diurnal, many web sites have the most users during the day and little utilization at night, or vice versa. Operations planners can use this cycle to plan, for example, maintenance that needs to be done when there are fewer users on the web site
12.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
13.
Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The combined population of Central America is between 41,739,000 and 42,688,190, Central America is a part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala through to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently, these disasters have resulted in the loss of many lives. In the Pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west. Soon after Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish began to colonize the Americas, the seven states finally became independent autonomous states, beginning with Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, followed by El Salvador, then Panama, and finally Belize. Middle America is usually thought to comprise Mexico to the north of the 7 states of Central America as well as Colombia, usually the whole of the Caribbean to the north-east and sometimes the Guyanas are also included. According to one source, the term Central America was used as a synonym for Middle America as recently as 1962, in Brazil, Central America comprises all countries between Mexico and Colombia, including those in the Caribbean. Mexico, in whole or in part, is included by British people. For the people living in the 5 countries formerly part of the Federal Republic of Central America there is a distinction between the Spanish language terms América Central and Centroamérica, in the Pre-Columbian era, the northern areas of Central America were inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Most notable among these were the Mayans, who had built numerous cities throughout the region, and the Aztecs, following Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish sent many expeditions to the region, and they began their conquest of Maya territory in 1523. Soon after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado commenced the conquest of northern Central America for the Spanish Empire. Beginning with his arrival in Soconusco in 1523, Alvarados forces systematically conquered and subjugated most of the major Maya kingdoms, including the Kiche, Tzutujil, Pipil, and the Kaqchikel. By 1528, the conquest of Guatemala was nearly complete, with only the Petén Basin remaining outside the Spanish sphere of influence, the last independent Maya kingdoms – the Kowoj and the Itza people – were finally defeated in 1697, as part of the Spanish conquest of Petén. In 1538, Spain established the Real Audiencia of Panama, which had jurisdiction over all land from the Strait of Magellan to the Gulf of Fonseca. This entity was dissolved in 1543, and most of the territory within Central America then fell under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia Real de Guatemala. This area included the current territories of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Mexican state of Chiapas, the president of the Audiencia, which had its seat in Antigua Guatemala, was the governor of the entire area
14.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
15.
Tupian languages
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The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani. Rodrigues considers the Proto-Tupian urheimat to be somewhere between the Guaporé and Aripuanã rivers, in the Madeira River basin, much of this area corresponds to the modern-day state of Rondônia, Brazil. 5 of the 10 Tupian branches are found in area, as well as some Tupi–Guarani languages, making it the probable urheimat of these languages. Rodrigues believes the Proto-Tupian language dates back to around 5,000 B. P, when the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, they found that wherever they went along the vast coast of this newly discovered land, most natives spoke similar languages. Jesuit missionaries took advantage of similarities, systematizing common standards then named línguas gerais. However, the Tupi family also comprises other languages, today, Guarani has 7 million speakers, and is one of the official languages of Paraguay. The Tupian family also includes several other languages with fewer speakers and these share irregular morphology with the Ge and Carib families, and Ribeiro connects them all as a Je–Tupi–Carib family. Rodrigues & Cabral list 10 branches of Tupian, which cluster into Western Tupian, within Western and Eastern Tupian, the most divergent branches are listed first, followed by the core branches. In Ana Suelly Arruda Câmara Cabral, Aryon DallIgna Rodrigues, linguas e culturas Tupi, p. 167-203. Swadesh lists of Tupi–Guarani basic vocabulary words
16.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
17.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
18.
Guatemala
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With an estimated population of around 15.8 million, it is the most populated state in Central America. Guatemala is a democracy, its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción. The territory of modern Guatemala once formed the core of the Maya civilization, most of the country was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century, becoming part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Guatemala attained independence in 1821 as part of the Federal Republic of Central America, from the mid to late 19th century, Guatemala experienced chronic instability and civil strife. Beginning in the early 20th century, it was ruled by a series of dictators backed by the United Fruit Company, in 1944, authoritarian leader Jorge Ubico was overthrown by a pro-democratic military coup, initiating a decade-long revolution that led to sweeping social and economic reforms. A U. S. -backed military coup in 1954 ended the revolution, from 1960 to 1996, Guatemala endured a bloody civil war fought between the US-backed government and leftist rebels, including genocidal massacres of the Maya population perpetrated by the military. As of 2014, Guatemala ranks 31st of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries in terms of the Human Development Index, Guatemalas abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems includes a large number of endemic species and contributes to Mesoamericas designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The country is known for its rich and distinct culture. The name Guatemala comes from the Nahuatl word Cuauhtēmallān, or place of many trees and this was the name the Tlaxcaltecan soldiers who accompanied Pedro de Alvarado during the Spanish Conquest gave to this territory. The first evidence of habitation in Guatemala dates back to 12,000 BC. Evidence, such as obsidian arrowheads found in parts of the country. There is archaeological proof that early Guatemalan settlers were hunters and gatherers, pollen samples from Petén and the Pacific coast indicate that maize cultivation had been developed by 3500 BC. Sites dating back to 6500 BC have been found in the Quiché region in the Highlands, archaeologists divide the pre-Columbian history of Mesoamerica into the Preclassic period, the Classic period, and the Postclassic period. Until recently, the Preclassic was regarded as a period, with small villages of farmers who lived in huts. This period is characterized by urbanisation, the emergence of independent city-states and this lasted until approximately 900 AD, when the Classic Maya civilization collapsed. The Maya abandoned many of the cities of the lowlands or were killed off by a drought-induced famine. The cause of the collapse is debated, but the Drought Theory is gaining currency, supported by such as lakebeds, ancient pollen. A series of prolonged droughts, among other such as overpopulation, in what is otherwise a seasonal desert is thought to have decimated the Maya
19.
Costa Rica
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It has a population of around 4.5 million, of whom nearly a quarter live in the metropolitan area of the capital and largest city, San José. Costa Rica was sparsely inhabited by people before coming under Spanish rule in the 16th century. Since then, Costa Rica has remained among the most stable, prosperous, following a brief civil war, it permanently abolished its army in 1949, becoming one of only a few sovereign nations without a standing army. Costa Rica is a member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. The country has consistently performed favourably in the Human Development Index, placing 69th in the world as of 2015 and its rapidly developing economy, once heavily dependent on agriculture, has diversified to include sectors such as finance, pharmaceuticals, and ecotourism. Costa Rica is known for its environmental policies, being the only country to meet all five UNDP criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. Costa Rica officially plans to become a country by 2021. In 2012, it became the first country in the Americas to ban recreational hunting, historians have classified the indigenous people of Costa Rica as belonging to the Intermediate Area, where the peripheries of the Mesoamerican and Andean native cultures overlapped. More recently, pre-Columbian Costa Rica has also described as part of the Isthmo-Colombian Area. The oldest evidence of occupation in Costa Rica is associated with the arrival of various groups of hunter-gatherers about 10,000 to 7,000 years BCE in the Turrialba Valley. The presence of Clovis culture type spearheads and arrows from South America opens the possibility that, in this area, agriculture became evident in the populations that lived in Costa Rica about 5,000 years ago. They mainly grew tubers and roots, for the first and second millennia BCE there were already settled farming communities. These were small and scattered, although the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture as the livelihood in the territory is still unknown. The earliest use of pottery appears around 2,000 to 3,000 BCE, shards of pots, cylindrical vases, platters, gourds and other forms of vases decorated with grooves, prints, and some modelled after animals have been found. The impact of indigenous peoples on modern Costa Rican culture has been small compared to other nations. Costa Rica was described as the poorest and most miserable Spanish colony in all America by a Spanish governor in 1719, for all these reasons, Costa Rica was, by and large, unappreciated and overlooked by the Spanish Crown and left to develop on its own. Costa Rica became a democracy with no oppressed mestizo or indigenous class. It was not long before Spanish settlers turned to the hills, where they found rich volcanic soil, like the rest of Central America, Costa Rica never fought for independence from Spain
20.
Belize
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Belize, formerly British Honduras, is an independent country on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala and its mainland is about 290 km long and 110 km wide. Belize has an area of 22,800 square kilometres and a population of 368,310 and it has the lowest population density in Central America. The countrys population growth rate of 1. 87% per year is the second highest in the region, Belizes abundance of terrestrial and marine species and its diversity of ecosystems gives it a key place in the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Belize has a society, composed of many cultures and languages that reflect its rich history. English is the language of Belize, with Belizean Kriol being the unofficial language. Over half the population is multilingual, with Spanish being the second most common spoken language, Belize is considered a Central American and Caribbean nation with strong ties to both the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Belize is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, Belize is known for its September Celebrations, its extensive coral reefs, and punta music. The origin of the name Belize remains unclear, the earliest known record of the name appears in the journal of the Dominican priest Fray José Delgado, dating to 1677. Delgado recorded the names of three rivers that he crossed while travelling north along the Caribbean coast, Rio Soyte, Rio Xibum. The names of these waterways, which correspond to the Sittee River, Sibun River and it is likely that Delgados Balis was actually the Mayan word belix, meaning muddy-watered. Others have suggested that the name derives from a Spanish pronunciation of the name of the Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace, there is no proof that Wallace settled in this area and some scholars have characterized this claim as a myth. Writers and historians have suggested other possible etymologies, including postulated French. Many aspects of this culture persist in the area despite nearly 500 years of European domination, prior to about 2500 BC, some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages, they later domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Maya core culture, between about 2500 BC and 250 AD, the basic institutions of Maya civilisation emerged. The peak of this occurred during the classic period, which began about 250 AD. The Maya civilisation spread across what is now Belize around 1500 BC, the recorded history of the middle and southern regions is dominated by Caracol, an urban political centre that may have supported over 140,000 people. North of the Maya Mountains, the most important political centre was Lamanai, in the late Classic Era of Maya civilisation, as many as 1 million people may have lived in the area that is now Belize
21.
Colombia
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Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a transcontinental country largely situated in the northwest of South America, with territories in Central America. Colombia shares a border to the northwest with Panama, to the east with Venezuela and Brazil and to the south with Ecuador and it shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is a unitary, constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments, the territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples including the Muisca, the Quimbaya and the Tairona. The Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a period of conquest and colonization ultimately creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the Gran Colombia Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada, the new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation, and then the United States of Colombia, before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. Since the 1960s the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict, Colombia is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world, and thereby possesses a rich cultural heritage. Cultural diversity has also influenced by Colombias varied geography. The urban centres are located in the highlands of the Andes mountains. Colombian territory also encompasses Amazon rainforest, tropical grassland and both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, ecologically, it is one of the worlds 17 megadiverse countries, and the most densely biodiverse of these per square kilometer. Colombia is a power and a regional actor with the fourth-largest economy in Latin America, is part of the CIVETS group of six leading emerging markets and is an accessing member to the OECD. Colombia has an economy with macroeconomic stability and favorable growth prospects in the long run. The name Colombia is derived from the last name of Christopher Columbus and it was conceived by the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to all the New World, but especially to those portions under Spanish and Portuguese rule. The name was adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819. When Venezuela, Ecuador and Cundinamarca came to exist as independent states, New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was changed, this time to United States of Colombia. To refer to country, the Colombian government uses the terms Colombia. Owing to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor of early human migration from Mesoamerica, the oldest archaeological finds are from the Pubenza and El Totumo sites in the Magdalena Valley 100 km southwest of Bogotá. These sites date from the Paleoindian period, at Puerto Hormiga and other sites, traces from the Archaic Period have been found
22.
Cat
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The domestic cat is a small, typically furry, carnivorous mammal. They are often called house cats when kept as pets or simply cats when there is no need to distinguish them from other felids. Cats are often valued by humans for companionship and for their ability to hunt vermin, there are more than 70 cat breeds, though different associations proclaim different numbers according to their standards. Cats are similar in anatomy to the felids, with a strong flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp retractable claws. Cat senses fit a crepuscular and predatory ecological niche, cats can hear sounds too faint or too high in frequency for human ears, such as those made by mice and other small animals. They can see in near darkness, like most other mammals, cats have poorer color vision and a better sense of smell than humans. Cats, despite being solitary hunters, are a species and cat communication includes the use of a variety of vocalizations. Cats have a high breeding rate, under controlled breeding, they can be bred and shown as registered pedigree pets, a hobby known as cat fancy. Failure to control the breeding of pet cats by neutering, as well as the abandonment of former household pets, has resulted in numbers of feral cats worldwide. In certain areas outside cats native range, this has contributed, along with destruction and other factors. Cats have been known to extirpate a bird species within specific regions, a genetic study in 2007 concluded that domestic cats are descended from Near Eastern wildcats, having diverged around 8,000 BC in the Middle East. As of a 2007 study, cats are the second most popular pet in the US by number of pets owned, in a 2010 study they were ranked the third most popular pet in the UK, after fish and dogs, with around 8 million being owned. The domestic cat is believed to have evolved from the Near Eastern wildcat, the felids are a rapidly evolving family of mammals that share a common ancestor only 10–15 million years ago and include lions, tigers, cougars and many others. Within this family, domestic cats are part of the genus Felis, members of the genus are found worldwide and include the jungle cat of southeast Asia, European wildcat, African wildcat, the Chinese mountain cat, and the Arabian sand cat, among others. The domestic cat was first classified as Felis catus by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae published in 1758, because of modern phylogenetics, domestic cats are usually regarded as another subspecies of the wildcat, F. silvestris. This has resulted in mixed usage of the terms, as the cat can be called by its subspecies name. Wildcats have also referred to as various subspecies of F. catus, but in 2003. The most common name in use for the cat remains F. catus
23.
Prehensile tail
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A prehensile tail is the tail of an animal that has adapted to be able to grasp or hold objects. Fully prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects, if the tail cannot be used for this it is considered only partially prehensile - such tails are often used to anchor an animals body to dangle from a branch, or as an aid for climbing. The term prehensile means able to grasp, one point of interest is the distribution of animals with prehensile tails. The prehensile tail is predominantly a New World adaptation, especially among mammals, many more animals in South America have prehensile tails than in Africa and Southeast Asia. It has been argued that animals with prehensile tails are more common in South America because the forest there is denser than in Africa or Southeast Asia. In contrast, in dense forest such as in Southeast Asia it is observed that gliding animals such as colugos or flying snakes are more abundant. South American rainforests also differ by having more lianas, as there are large animals to eat them than in Africa and Asia. Tails are mostly a feature of vertebrates, however, some such as scorpions also have appendages that can be considered tails. However, only vertebrates are known to have developed prehensile tails, many mammals with prehensile tails will have a bare patch to aid gripping. This bare patch is known as a friction pad, many New World monkeys in the family Atelidae, which includes howler monkeys, spider monkeys and woolly monkeys, have grasping tails often with a bare tactile pad. This is in contrast with their distant Old World monkey cousins who do not have prehensile tails, a marsupial group from the Americas. There is anecdotal evidence that opossums may use their tails to carry nesting material. Anteaters are found in Central and South America, three of the four species of anteater, the Silky Anteater and the two species of tamandua, have prehensile tails Binturong. One of the few Old World animals with prehensile tails. The kinkajou of South and Central America is the other animal of the order Carnivora, besides the binturong. Another old world mammal, the Harvest Mouse also has a prehensile tail. Commonly found amongst areas of tall grasses such as crops, roadside verges, hedgerows, reedbeds. New World porcupines of the genera Coendou and Chaetomys have fully prehensile tails help them to climb
24.
Procyon (genus)
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Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the raccoon, is often known simply as the raccoon. Genetic studies have shown that the closest relatives of raccoons are the cats and cacomistles of genus Bassariscus. Raccoons are unusual, for their thumbs enable them to open many closed containers, Raccoon hindfeet are plantigrade similar to those of humans and bears. Raccoons are sometimes considered vermin or a nuisance and they have readily adapted to urban environments, scavenging garbage bins and other food sources. Although there is variation depending on species, raccoons range from 20–40 inches in length. The raccoons tail ranges from 8 to 16 inches in length, male raccoons are generally larger than females. A baby raccoon is called a kit, Raccoons can live up to 16 years in the wild, though most do not make it through their second year. A raccoon that survives past its youth will live an average of five years, primary causes of mortality include humans and malnutrition. There are three extant species of raccoon, the raccoon or common raccoon, also known as the northern raccoon, has a natural range from southern Canada to Panama, and has been introduced to continental Europe and the Japanese archipelago. Raccoons can live in the city or in the wild, and while they are not domesticated, the tropical crab-eating raccoon ranges from Costa Rica through most areas of South America east of the Andes down to northern Argentina and Uruguay. Based on genetic studies, the lineages of common and crab-eating raccoons are thought to have separated about 4.2 million years ago, a much rarer species, the Cozumel raccoon, is native to Cozumel, an island off the Atlantic coast of the Yucatán. The word raccoon is derived from the Algonquian word aroughcoune, he who scratches with his hands, spanish-speaking colonists similarly adopted their term, mapache, from mapactli the Nahuatl word for the animal, meaning roughly that which has hands. The genus name, Procyon, comes from the Greek for before the dog, one exception is Russian, where raccoon is named yenot due to similarity between raccoon and genet furs. However, the name of the common raccoon in Russian is also “water-related”, it is called yenot-poloskun. In contrast, the raccoon is little crab-catching rat and crab-eating pre-dog in French and Latin. Taxonomic status and conservation relevance of the raccoons of the West Indies, a systematic and zoogeographic overview of the raccoons of Mexico and Central America. Pp. 219–234 in Sanchez-Cordero, V. & Medellin, R. A, contribuciones Mastozoologicas, en Homenaje a Bernardo Villa
25.
Ring-tailed cat
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The ringtail is a mammal of the raccoon family, native to arid regions of North America. It is also known as the cat, ring-tailed cat, miners cat or bassarisk. The ringtail is sometimes called a cacomistle, though this seems to be more often used to refer to Bassariscus sumichrasti. The ringtail is buff to brown in color with white underparts and a black and white ringed tail that has 14–16 white and black stripes. The claws are short, straight, and semi-retractable, the eyes are large and black, each surrounded by a patch of light fur. It is smaller than a cat and is one of the smallest extant procyonids. It measures 30–42 cm long to the base of the tail with the tail adding another 31–44 cm and it can weigh from 0.7 to 1.5 kg. Ringtails have occasionally hunted for their pelts, but the fur is not especially valuable. Typically weighing around three pounds, ringtails possess superb hearing and eyes allow them to move about at night. A nocturnal creature, the large eyes and upright ears make it easier for it to move about in the dark. Its fur ranges in coloring from tawny to grayish, and a muzzle with long whiskers resembles that of a fox - which is appropriate in that its very name means ‘clever little fox’. Its tail is about a long, with seven to nine black rings and is about the same length as the animals body. Like its namesake, the ringtail uses this tail for balancing when moving about its habitat, the tail also serves another purpose, acting as a distraction for potential predators. The white rings provide predators with an other than the ringtail itself, by grabbing the tail rather than the body. Additionally, their claws and long tail provide the ringtail with tools ideal for climbing. In areas with a source of water, as many as 50 ringtails/sq. Ranging from 50 to 100 acres, the territories of male ringtails occasionally intersect with several females It has been suggested that ringtails utilize feces as a way to mark territory, ringtails prefer a solitary existence but may share a den or be found mutually grooming one another. They exhibit limited interaction except during the season, which occurs in the early spring
26.
Cacomistle
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The cacomistle, Bassariscus sumichrasti, is a nocturnal, arboreal and omnivorous member of the carnivoran family Procyonidae. Its preferred habitats are wet, tropical, evergreen woodlands and mountain forests, nowhere in its range is B. sumichrasti common. This is especially true in Costa Rica, where it only a very small area. It is completely dependent on forest habitat, making it susceptible to deforestation. The cacomistle is part of the family Procyonidae which includes other small omnivores such as the raccoon, the cacomistle and its close relative, the ringtail, are the only living species of the subfamily Procyoninae and the genus Bassariscus. Within the Cacomistle species there are 5 subspecies, the Central American cacomistles body is 38–47 cm in length, which is attached to a tail of approximately the same length, if not longer. The male cacomistle is often longer than its female counterpart. Their body consists of brown and grey fur, which stands as a stark contrast to the black. The tail stripes are the most defined near the posterior end. The cacomistle can also be identified by its tail and the observation of ears that come to a point. The cacomistle inhabits the forests of Central America, from south central Mexico to Panama. These animals are solitary and thus spread themselves out, with each cacomistle having a home range of at least 20 hectares and are typically seen in the middle. Throughout their broad range this species is found to inhabit a variety of different forests ecosystems. In Mexico the cacomistle tends to avoid oak forest, secondary forest, and overgrown pastures, cacomistles are considered generalist feeders, because they can survive on a wide variety of different foods. The bromeliad is an excellent reservoir for food in the edge of the cacomistles range, as these plants naturally collect water, insects. Mating season is the only time cacomistles interact with each other, after mating, the female cacomistle undergoes a gestation period of approximately two months before giving birth to a single offspring. When the cub is three months old it is weaned, and then taught hunting and survival skills by its mother before going off to develop his or her own territory
27.
Kinkajou
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The kinkajou is a rainforest mammal of the family Procyonidae related to olingos, coatis, raccoons, and the ringtail and cacomistle. It is the member of the genus Potos and is also known as the honey bear. Kinkajous may be mistaken for ferrets or monkeys, but are not closely related to either, native to Central America and South America, this mostly frugivorous, arboreal mammal is not an endangered species, though it is seldom seen by people because of its strict nocturnal habits. However, they are hunted for the pet trade, for their fur and they may live up to 40 years in captivity. An adult kinkajou weighs 1. 4–4.6 kg, the adult body length is 40–60 cm, in addition to body length, the length of the prehensile tail is 40–60 cm. The kinkajous woolly fur consists of a coat of gold overlapping a gray undercoat. It has large eyes and small ears and it also has short legs with five toes on each foot and sharp claws. Kinkajous range from east and south of the Sierra Madres in Mexico, throughout Central America to Bolivia east of the Andes and their altitudinal range is from sea level to 2500 m. They are found in tropical forests, including lowland rainforest, montane forest, dry forest, gallery forest. Deforestation is thus a threat to the species. Although the kinkajou is classified in the order Carnivora and has sharp teeth, studies have shown that 90% of their diet consists of fruit. To eat softer fruits they hold it with their forepaws, then out the succulent pulp with their tongue. They may play an important role in seed dispersal, leaves, flowers, and various herbs make up much of the other 10% of their diet. They sometimes eat insects, particularly ants and it has been suggested, without direct evidence, that they may occasionally eat bird eggs and small vertebrates. Their frugivorous habits are actually convergent with those of spider monkeys, the kinkajous slender five-inch extrudable tongue helps the animal to obtain fruit and to lick nectar from flowers, so that it sometimes acts as a pollinator. Although captive specimens will avidly eat honey, honey has not yet observed in the diet of wild kinkajous. Olingos are similar to the kinkajou in morphology and habits and this divergence is thought to have occurred about 22.6 million years ago. The similarities between the kinkajou and olingos are thus an example of evolution, the closest relatives of the olingos are actually the coatis
28.
Bear
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Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern Hemisphere and partially in the Southern Hemisphere. Bears are found on the continents of North America, South America, Europe, common characteristics of modern bears include large bodies with stocky legs, long snouts, small rounded ears, shaggy hair, plantigrade paws with five nonretractile claws, and short tails. While the polar bear is mostly carnivorous, and the giant panda feeds almost entirely on bamboo, with the exception of courting individuals and mothers with their young, bears are typically solitary animals. They may be diurnal or nocturnal and have an excellent sense of smell, despite their heavy build and awkward gait, they are adept runners, climbers, and swimmers. Bears use shelters, such as caves and logs, as their dens, most species occupy their dens during the winter for a period of hibernation. Bears have been hunted since prehistoric times for their meat and fur, they have used for bear-baiting and other forms of entertainment. With their powerful physical presence, they play a prominent role in the arts, mythology, in modern times, bears have come under pressure through encroachment on their habitats and illegal trade in bear parts, including the Asian bile bear market. The IUCN lists six species as vulnerable or endangered, and even least concern species. The poaching and international trade of these most threatened populations are prohibited, Bear taxon names such as Ursidae and Ursus come from Latin Ursus/Ursa, he-bear/she-bear. The female first name Ursula, originally derived from a Christian saints name, in Switzerland, the male first name Urs is especially popular, while the name of the canton and city of Bern is derived from Bär, German for bear. The Germanic name Bernard means bear-brave, bear-hardy, or bold bear, the Old English name Beowulf is a kenning, bee-wolf, for bear, in turn meaning a brave warrior. The family Ursidae is one of nine families in the suborder Caniformia, or doglike carnivorans, Bears closest living relatives are the pinnipeds, canids, and musteloids. Modern bears comprise eight species in three subfamilies, Ailuropodinae, Tremarctinae, and Ursinae, the earliest members of Ursidae belong to the extinct subfamily Amphicynodontinae, including Parictis and the slightly younger Allocyon, both from North America. These animals looked very different from bears, being small and raccoon-like in overall appearance. Parictis does not appear in Eurasia and Africa until the Miocene, european genera morphologically are very similar to Allocyon, and to the much younger American Kolponomos, are known from the Oligocene, including Amphicticeps and Amphicynodon. The raccoon-sized, dog-like Cephalogale is the member of the subfamily Hemicyoninae. The subfamily includes the younger genera Phoberocyon, and Plithocyon, a Cephalogale-like species gave rise to the genus Ursavus during the early Oligocene, this genus proliferated into many species in Asia and is ancestral to all living bears
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Plantigrade
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In terrestrial animals, plantigrade locomotion means walking with the toes and metatarsals flat on the ground. It is one of three forms of locomotion adopted by terrestrial mammals, the leg of a plantigrade mammal includes the bones of the upper leg and lower leg. The leg of a digitigrade mammal also includes the metatarsals/metacarpals, the bones that in a human compose the arch of the foot, the leg of an unguligrade mammal also includes the phalanges, the finger and toe bones. Among extinct animals, most early mammals such as pantodonts were plantigrade, a plantigrade foot is the primitive condition for mammals, digitigrade and unguligrade locomotion evolved later. Among archosaurs, the pterosaurs were partially plantigrade, walking on the whole of the hind foot, the primary disadvantage of a plantigrade foot is speed. With more bones and joints in the foot, the leg is shorter and heavier at the far end, which makes it difficult to move rapidly. Plantigrade foot occurs normally in humans in static postures of standing and sitting and it should also occur normally in gait. This would be evident by the observable heel rise
30.
Convergent evolution
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Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different lineages. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last common ancestor of those groups, the cladistic term for the same phenomenon is homoplasy. The recurrent evolution of flight is an example, as flying insects, birds. Functionally similar features that have arisen through convergent evolution are analogous, whereas homologous structures or traits have a common origin, bird, bat and pterosaur wings are analogous structures, but their forelimbs are homologous, sharing an ancestral state despite serving different functions. The opposite of convergence is divergent evolution, where related species evolve different traits, convergent evolution is similar to but different from parallel evolution. Many instances of convergent evolution are known in plants, including the development of C4 photosynthesis, seed dispersal by fleshy fruits adapted to be eaten by animals. In morphology, analogous traits arise when different species live in similar ways and/or a similar environment, when occupying similar ecological niches similar problems can lead to similar solutions. The British anatomist Richard Owen was the first to identify the difference between analogies and homologies. In biochemistry, physical and chemical constraints on mechanisms have caused some active site arrangements such as the triad to evolve independently in separate enzyme superfamilies. In his 1989 book Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould argued that if one could rewind the tape of life the same conditions were encountered again, evolution could take a very different course. In cladistics, a homoplasy is a trait shared by two or more taxa for any other than that they share a common ancestry. Taxa which do share ancestry are part of the same clade, homoplastic traits caused by convergence are therefore, from the point of view of cladistics, confounding factors which could lead to an incorrect analysis. In some cases, it is difficult to tell whether a trait has been lost and then re-evolved convergently, or whether a gene has simply been switched off, such a re-emerged trait is called an atavism. From a mathematical standpoint, a gene has a steadily decreasing probability of retaining potential functionality over time. When two species are similar in a character, evolution is defined as parallel if the ancestors were also similar. When the ancestral forms are unspecified or unknown, or the range of traits considered is not clearly specified, the enzymology of proteases provides some of the clearest examples of convergent evolution. These examples reflect the intrinsic chemical constraints on enzymes, leading evolution to converge on equivalent solutions independently and repeatedly, serine and cysteine proteases use different amino acid functional groups as a nucleophile. In order to activate that nucleophile, they orient an acidic, the chemical and physical constraints on enzyme catalysis have caused identical triad arrangements to evolve independently more than 20 times in different enzyme superfamilies
31.
Mongoose
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Mongoose is the popular English name for 29 of the 34 species in the 14 genera of the family Herpestidae, which are small feliform carnivorans native to southern Eurasia and mainland Africa. The other five species in the family are the four kusimanses in the genus Crossarchus, Herpestidae is placed within the suborder Feliformia, together with the cat, hyena, and civet families. The word mongoose is likely derived from the Marathi name mungūs or probably ultimately from Telugu name mangisu, the form of the English name was altered to its -goose ending by folk-etymology. It has no connection with the word goose. Historically, it has also been spelled mungoose, the plural form is mongooses, or, rarely, mongeese. Mongooses live in southern Asia, Africa, and southern Europe, as well in Fiji, Puerto Rico, and some Caribbean and Hawaiian islands, the 34 species range from 24 to 58 cm in length, excluding the tail. Mongooses range in weight from the dwarf mongoose, at 320 g, to the cat-sized white-tailed mongoose. Some species lead predominantly solitary lives, seeking out food only for themselves, while others travel in groups, sharing food among group members and offspring. Mongooses bear a resemblance to mustelids, having long faces and bodies, small, rounded ears, short legs. Most are brindled or grizzly, a few have strongly marked coats and their nonretractile claws are used primarily for digging. Mongooses, much like goats, have narrow, ovular pupils, most species have a large anal scent gland, used for territorial marking and signaling reproductive status. The dental formula of mongooses is similar to that of viverrids,3.1. 3-4. 1-23.1. 3-4. 1-2. Mongooses also have receptors for acetylcholine that, like the receptors in snakes, are shaped so that it is impossible for snake venom to attach to them. Mongooses are one of four known species with mutations in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor that protect against snake venom. Pigs, honey badgers, hedgehogs, and mongooses all have modifications to the pocket that prevents the snake venom α-neurotoxin from binding. These represent four separate, independent mutations, in the mongoose, this change is effected uniquely, by glycosylation. Researchers are investigating whether similar mechanisms protect the mongoose from hemotoxic snake venoms, in contrast to the arboreal, nocturnal viverrids, mongooses are more commonly terrestrial and many are active during the day. The Egyptian mongoose is sometimes held as an example of a solitary mongoose, Mongooses mostly feed on insects, crabs, earthworms, lizards, birds, and rodents
32.
Viverridae
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Viverridae is a family of small to medium-sized mammals, the viverrids, comprising 15 genera, which are subdivided into 38 species. This family was named and first described by John Edward Gray in 1821, members of this family are commonly called civets or genets. Viverrids are found in South and Southeast Asia, across the Wallace Line, all over Africa and their occurrence in Sulawesi and in some of the adjoining islands shows them to be ancient inhabitants of the Old World tropics. Viverrids have four or five toes on each foot and half-retractile claws and they have six cutting teeth in each jaw and true grinders with two tubercular grinders behind in the upper jaw, and one in the lower jaw. The tongue is rough with sharp prickles, a pouch or gland occurs beneath the anus, but there is no coecum. Viverrids are the most primitive of all the families of feliform Carnivora, the typical dental formula is,3.1.4.23.1.4.2, but the number may be reduced, although never to the same extent as in the Felidae. Their flesh-shearing carnassial teeth are relatively undeveloped, most viverrid species have a baculum. They are generally solitary and have excellent hearing and vision and they are omnivorous, or, in the case of the palm civet, almost entirely herbivorous. Favored habitats include woodland, savanna, mountains, and above all, in 1821, Gray defined this family as consisting of the genera Viverra, Genetta, Herpestes, and Suricata. He subordinated the subfamilies Hemigalinae, Paradoxurinae, Prionodontinae, and Viverrinae to the Viverridae, in 1833, Edward Turner Bennett described the Malagasy fossa and subordinated the Cryptoprocta to the Viverridae. A molecular and morphological analysis based on DNA/DNA hybridization experiments suggests that Cryptoprocta does not belong within Viverridae, the African palm civet resembles the civets of the Viverridae, but is genetically distinct and belongs in its own monotypic family, the Nandiniidae. There is little dispute that the Poiana species are viverrids, BBC, New mammal seen in Borneo University of Michigans Animal Diversity Web page ITIS page The Straight Dope on Civet Cats
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Mustelidae
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The Mustelidae are a family of carnivorous mammals, including the weasel, badger, otter, marten, ferret, mink, stoat, and wolverine. Mustelids are diverse and the largest family in the order Carnivora, the internal classification is still disputed, with rival proposals containing between two and eight subfamilies. One study, published in 2008, questions the long-accepted Mustelinae subfamily, mustelids vary greatly in size and behaviour. The least weasel is not much larger than a mouse, while the giant otter can measure up to 1.7 m in length and sea otters can exceed 45 kg in weight. The wolverine can crush bones as thick as the femur of a moose to get at the marrow, the sea otter uses rocks to break open shellfish to eat. The marten is largely arboreal, while the badger digs extensive networks of tunnels, some mustelids have been domesticated, the ferret and the tayra are kept as pets, or as working animals for hunting or vermin control. Others have been important in the fur trade—the mink is often raised for its fur, as well as being one of the most species-rich families in the order Carnivora, the family Mustelidae is one of the oldest. Mustelid-like forms first appeared about 40 million years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of rodents, the direct ancestors of the modern mustelids first appeared about 15 million years ago. Within a large range of variation, the mustelids exhibit some common characteristics and they are typically small animals with short legs, short, round ears, and thick fur. Most mustelids are solitary, nocturnal animals, and are active year-round, with the exception of the sea otter, they have anal scent glands that produce a strong-smelling secretion the animals use for sexual signaling and for marking territory. Most mustelid reproduction involves embryonic diapause, the embryo does not immediately implant in the uterus, but remains dormant for some time. No development takes place as long as the embryo remains unattached to the uterine lining, as a result, the normal gestation period is extended, sometimes up to a year. This allows the young to be born under more favorable environmental conditions, reproduction has a large energy cost and it is to a females benefit to have available food and mild weather. The young are likely to survive if birth occurs after previous offspring have been weaned. Mustelids are predominantly carnivorous, although some eat vegetable matter at times, while not all mustelids share an identical dentition, they all possess teeth adapted for eating flesh, including the presence of shearing carnassials. With variation between species, the most common formula is 3.1.3.13.1.3.2. Several members of the family are aquatic to varying degrees, ranging from the semiaquatic mink, to the river otters, the sea otter is one of the few nonprimate mammals known to use a tool while foraging. It uses anvil stones to open the shellfish that form a significant part of its diet
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Felidae
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Felidae is the family of cats. A member of family is also called a felid. They are sometimes referred to as hypercarnivores because of the large proportion of protein they require in their diet. Of the 13 terrestrial families in the order Carnivora, they are the strictest carnivores, the first cats emerged during the Oligocene, about 25 million years ago. In prehistoric times, there was a subfamily, the Machairodontinae. Other superficially cat-like mammals, such as the metatherians Thylacosmilus and Thylacoleo, the 42 known cat species in the world today are all descended from a common ancestor. Cats originated in Asia and spread across continents by crossing land bridges, about 60% of the modern cat species are estimated to have developed within the last million years. Felidaes closest relatives are thought to be the Asiatic linsangs, together with the Viverridae, hyenas, mongooses, and Madagascar carnivores, they form the suborder Feliformia. Most cat species share a genetic anomaly that prevents them from tasting sweetness, most cat species have a haploid number of 18 or 19. New World cats have a number of 18, possibly due to the combination of two smaller chromosomes into a larger one. Domestic cats may either have a long or short tail, at one point, biologists had to consider whether the short tail also found in the lynx was the ancestral or derived trait. Without looking at the record, researchers were able to look at the character states found in their outgroups. Because all animals belonging to Felidae’s sister taxa, Viverridae, have long tails, some domestic cats display a rosette pattern on their coats. This character state, however, is not related to the rosettes found on big cats, domestic cats and big cats underwent convergent evolution for this trait. The most common ancestor to all cats had a flecked coat, the jaguarundi lost this character state secondarily. The most common recent ancestor of snow leopards, tigers, jaguars, lions, tigers and lions, however, do not display rosettes as adults. They both have lost this character state over time. Adult tigers actually display elongated rosettes that now appear as stripes, adult lions seem to lack any distinctive markings altogether
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Suidae
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Suidae is a family of artiodactyl mammals commonly called pigs, hogs, or boars. In addition to numerous species, up to sixteen extant species are currently recognized, classified into between four and eight genera. All suids, or swine, are native to the Old World, ranging from Asia to Europe, the earliest fossil suids date from the Oligocene epoch in Asia, and their descendants reached Europe during the Miocene. Several fossil species are known, and show adaptations to a range of different diets. Suids belong to the order Artiodactyla, and are regarded as the living members of that order most similar to the ancestral form. Unlike most other members of the order, they have four toes on each foot and they also have a simple stomach, rather than the more complex, ruminant, stomach found in most other artiodactyl families. They are small to medium animals, varying in size from 58 to 66 cm in length and they have large heads and short necks, with relatively small eyes and prominent ears. Their heads have a snout, ending in a disc-shaped nose. Suids typically have a coat, and a short tail ending in a tassle. The males possess a penis, which fits into a similarly shaped groove in the females cervix. Suids have a sense of hearing, and are vocal animals, communicating with a series of grunts, squeals. They also have a sense of smell. Many species are omnivorous, eating grass, leaves, roots, insects, worms, other species are more selective and purely herbivorous. Their teeth reflect their diet, and suids retain the upper incisors, the canine teeth are enlarged to form prominent tusks, used for rooting in moist earth or undergrowth, and in fighting. They have only a short diastema, the number of teeth varies between species, but the general dental formula is, 1-3.1. 2-4.33.1.2.3 Suids are intelligent and adaptable animals. Adult females and their travel in a group, while adult males are either solitary. Males generally are not territorial, and come into conflict only during the mating season, litter size varies between one and twelve, depending on the species. The mother prepares a grass nest or similar den, which the young leave after ten days
36.
Animal cognition
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Animal cognition describes the mental capacities of animals and the study of those capacities. The field developed from comparative psychology, including the study of animal conditioning and learning and it has also been strongly influenced by research in ethology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary psychology, and hence the alternative name cognitive ethology is sometimes used. Many behaviors associated with the term animal intelligence are also subsumed within animal cognition, researchers have examined animal cognition in mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and invertebrates. Coined by 19th-century British psychologist C. Lloyd Morgan, Morgans Canon remains a fundamental precept of comparative psychology, the behavior of non-human animals has captivated human imagination from antiquity, and over the centuries many writers have speculated about the animal mind, or its absence. Unsatisfied with the method of Darwin and his protégé J. G. Romanes. According to Thorndike, using Morgans Canon, the inference of animal reason, insight, or consciousness is unnecessary, at about the same time, I. P. Pavlov began his seminal studies of conditioned reflexes in dogs. Pavlov quickly abandoned attempts to infer canine mental processes, such attempts, he said, led only to disagreement and he was, however, willing to propose unseen physiological processes that might explain his observations. The work of Thorndike, Pavlov and a little later of the outspoken behaviorist John B, watson set the direction of much research on animal behavior for more than half a century. Many experiments on conditioning followed, they generated some complex theories, probably the most explicit dismissal of the idea that mental processes control behavior was the radical behaviorism of Skinner. This view seeks to explain behavior, including events like mental images. Despite the predominantly behaviorist orientation of research before 1960, the rejection of mental processes in animals was not universal during those years, beginning around 1960, a cognitive revolution in research on humans gradually spurred a similar transformation of research with animals. Inference to processes not directly observable became acceptable and then commonplace, Animals came to be seen as goal seeking agents that acquire, store, retrieve, and internally process information at many levels of cognitive complexity. The acceleration of research on cognition in the last 50 years or so has led to a rapid expansion in the variety of species studied. In the laboratory, animals push levers, pull strings, dig for food, swim in water mazes, or respond to images on screens in discrimination, attention, memory. Careful field studies explore memory for food caches, navigation by stars, communication, tool use, identification of conspecifics, studies often focus on the behavior of animals in their natural environments and discuss the putative function of the behavior for the propagation and survival of the species. These developments reflect an increased cross-fertilization from related fields such as ethology, also, contributions from behavioral neuroscience are beginning to clarify the physiological substrate of some inferred mental process. Human and animal cognition have much in common, and this is reflected in the research summarized below, of course, research in the two also differs in important respects. Notably, much research with humans either studies or involves language, following are summaries of some of the major areas of research in animal cognition
37.
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
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Canopy (biology)
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In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by the collection of individual plant crowns. In forest ecology, canopy also refers to the layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns. Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent of the layer of leaves of an individual tree or group of trees. Shade trees normally have a canopy that blocks light from lower growing plants. Canopy structure is the organization or spatial arrangement of a plant canopy, leaf Area Index, leaf area per unit ground area, is a key measure used to understand and compare plant canopies. It is also taller than the understory layer, dominant and co-dominant canopy trees form the uneven canopy layer. Canopy trees are able to photosynthesize relatively rapidly due to abundant light, the canopy layer provides protection from strong winds and storms, while also intercepting sunlight and precipitation, leading to a relatively sparsely vegetated understory layer. Forest canopies are home to flora and fauna not found in other layers of forests. The highest terrestrial biodiversity resides in the canopy of tropical rainforests, many rainforest animals have evolved to live solely in the canopy, and never touch the ground. The canopy of a rainforest is typically about 10m thick, the canopy is below the emergent layer, a sparse layer of very tall trees, typically one or two per hectare. With an abundance of water and an ideal temperature in rainforests, light. In the permaculture and forest gardening community, the canopy is the highest of seven layers, Canopy Canopy research Canopy walkway Hemispherical photography Stratification Treefall gap Wildfire Crown shyness Rainforest size-asymmetric competition Lowman, M. D. and H. B. ISBN 0-12-457553-6, ISBN 978-0-12-457553-0 Moffett, M. W, the High Frontier, Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy. Plant Canopies, Their Growth, Form and Function, ISBN 0-521-39563-1, ISBN 978-0-521-39563-2 International Canopy Access Network
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Arid
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A region is arid when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Environments subject to arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic, most arid climates surround the equator, these places include most of Africa and parts of South America, Central America and Australia. The distribution of aridity observed at any one point in time is largely the result of the circulation of the atmosphere. The latter does change significantly over time through climate change, for example, temperature increase across the Nile Basin over the next 30–40 years could change the region from semi-arid to arid, resulting in a significant reduction in agricultural land. In addition, changes in use can result in greater demands on soil water. Durrenberger, R. W. Arid Climates, article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology, p. 92-101, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, ISBN 0-87933-009-0. J Aridity Indexes, article in The Encyclopedia of Climatology, p. 102-107, Edited by J. E. Oliver and R. W. Fairbridge, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, blue Peace for the Nile Report,2009, Strategic Foresight Group
40.
Humidity
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Humidity is the amount of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor is the state of water and is invisible. Humidity indicates the likelihood of precipitation, dew, or fog, higher humidity reduces the effectiveness of sweating in cooling the body by reducing the rate of evaporation of moisture from the skin. This effect is calculated in an index table or humidex. The amount of vapor that is needed to achieve saturation increases as the temperature increases. As the temperature of a parcel of water becomes lower it will not reach the point of saturation without adding or losing water mass. The differences in the amount of vapor in a parcel of air can be quite large. For example, a parcel of air that is near saturation may contain 28 grams of water per cubic meter of air at 30 °C, there are three main measurements of humidity, absolute, relative and specific. Absolute humidity is the content of air expressed in gram per cubic meter. Relative humidity, expressed as a percent, measures the current absolute humidity relative to the maximum for that temperature, specific humidity is the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the total mass of the moist air parcel. Absolute humidity is the mass of water vapor present in a given volume of air. It does not take temperature into consideration, absolute humidity in the atmosphere ranges from near zero to roughly 30 grams per cubic meter when the air is saturated at 30 °C. Absolute humidity is the mass of the vapor, divided by the volume of the air and water vapor mixture. The absolute humidity changes as air temperature or pressure changes and this makes it unsuitable for chemical engineering calculations, e. g. for clothes dryers, where temperature can vary considerably. Mass of water per unit volume as in the equation above is defined as volumetric humidity. Because of the confusion, British Standard BS1339 suggests avoiding the term absolute humidity. Units should always be carefully checked, many humidity charts are given in g/kg or kg/kg, but any mass units may be used. The field concerned with the study of physical and thermodynamic properties of mixtures is named psychrometrics
41.
Amazon rainforest
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The Amazon rainforest, also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 square kilometres, of which 5,500,000 square kilometres are covered by the rainforest and this region includes territory belonging to nine nations. States or departments in four nations contain Amazonas in their names, the name Amazon is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with the Tapuyas and other tribes. The women of the tribe alongside the men, as was their custom. Orellana derived the name Amazonas from the Amazons of Greek mythology, the rainforest likely formed during the Eocene era. It appeared following a reduction of tropical temperatures when the Atlantic Ocean had widened sufficiently to provide a warm. Following the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the extinction of the dinosaurs, from 66–34 Mya, the rainforest extended as far south as 45°. Climate fluctuations during the last 34 million years have allowed savanna regions to expand into the tropics, during the Oligocene, for example, the rainforest spanned a relatively narrow band. It expanded again during the Middle Miocene, then retracted to a mostly inland formation at the last glacial maximum, however, the rainforest still managed to thrive during these glacial periods, allowing for the survival and evolution of a broad diversity of species. During the mid-Eocene, it is believed that the basin of the Amazon was split along the middle of the continent by the Purus Arch. Water on the eastern side flowed toward the Atlantic, while to the west water flowed toward the Pacific across the Amazonas Basin, as the Andes Mountains rose, however, a large basin was created that enclosed a lake, now known as the Solimões Basin. Within the last 5–10 million years, this accumulating water broke through the Purus Arch, there is evidence that there have been significant changes in Amazon rainforest vegetation over the last 21,000 years through the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation. There is debate, however, over how extensive this reduction was, more than 56% of the dust fertilizing the Amazon rainforest comes from the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad in the Sahara desert. The dust contains phosphorus, important for plant growth, the yearly Sahara dust replaces the equivalent amount of phosphorus washed away yearly in Amazon soil from rains and floods. Up to 50 million tonnes of Sahara dust per year are blown across the Atlantic Ocean, CALIPSO uses a laser range finder to scan the Earths atmosphere for the vertical distribution of dust and other aerosols. CALIPSO regularly tracks the Sahara-Amazon dust plume, CALIPSO has measured variations in the dust amounts transported— an 86 percent drop between the highest amount of dust transported in 2007 and the lowest in 2011. A possibility causing the variation is the Sahel, a strip of land on the southern border of the Sahara. When rain amounts in the Sahel are higher, the volume of dust is lower, the higher rainfall could make more vegetation grow in the Sahel, leaving less sand exposed to winds to blow away
42.
Andes
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The Andes or Andean Mountains are the longest continental mountain range in the world. They are a range of highlands along the western edge of South America. This range is about 7,000 km long, about 200 to 700 km wide, the Andes extend from north to south through seven South American countries, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Along their length, the Andes are split into several ranges, the Andes are the location of several high plateaus – some of which host major cities, such as Quito, Bogotá, Arequipa, Medellín, Sucre, Mérida and La Paz. The Altiplano plateau is the worlds second-highest after the Tibetan plateau and these ranges are in turn grouped into three major divisions based on climate, the Tropical Andes, the Dry Andes, and the Wet Andes. The Andes are the worlds highest mountain range outside of Asia, the highest mountain outside Asia, Mount Aconcagua, rises to an elevation of about 6,961 m above sea level. The peak of Chimborazo in the Ecuadorean Andes is farther from the Earths center than any other location on the Earths surface, the worlds highest volcanoes are in the Andes, including Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina border, which rises to 6,893 m. The etymology of the word Andes has been debated, the majority consensus is that it derives from the Quechua word anti, which means east as in Antisuyu, one of the four regions of the Inca Empire. In the northern part of the Andes, the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range is considered to be part of the Andes. The term cordillera comes from the Spanish word cordel, meaning rope, the Andes range is about 200 km wide throughout its length, except in the Bolivian flexure where it is about 640 kilometres wide. The Andes are the result of plate tectonics processes, caused by the subduction of oceanic crust beneath the South American plate. The main cause of the rise of the Andes is the compression of the rim of the South American Plate due to the subduction of the Nazca Plate. In the south, the Andes share a boundary with the former Patagonia Terrane. To the west, the Andes end at the Pacific Ocean, from a geographical approach, the Andes are considered to have their western boundaries marked by the appearance of coastal lowlands and a less rugged topography. The Andes Mountains also contain large quantities of iron ore located in mountains within the range. The Andean orogen has a series of bends or oroclines, the Bolivian Orocline is a seaward concave bending in the coast of South America and the Andes Mountains at about 18° S. At this point the orientation of the Andes turns from Northwest in Peru to South in Chile, the Andean segment north and south of the orocline have been rotated 15° to 20° counter clockwise and clockwise respectively. The Bolivian Orocline area overlaps with the area of maximum width of the Altiplano Plateau, the specific point at 18° S where the coastline bends is known as the Arica Elbow
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Mountain
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A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is steeper than a hill. Mountains are formed through tectonic forces or volcanism and these forces can locally raise the surface of the earth. Mountains erode slowly through the action of rivers, weather conditions, a few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in huge mountain ranges. High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level and these colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains, different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction and recreation, the highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8,850 m above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m, there is no universally accepted definition of a mountain. Elevation, volume, relief, steepness, spacing and continuity have been used as criteria for defining a mountain, whether a landform is called a mountain may depend on local usage. The highest point in San Francisco, California, is called Mount Davidson, notwithstanding its height of 300 m, similarly, Mount Scott outside Lawton, Oklahoma is only 251 m from its base to its highest point. Whittows Dictionary of Physical Geography states Some authorities regard eminences above 600 metres as mountains, in addition, some definitions also include a topographical prominence requirement, typically 100 or 500 feet. For a while, the US defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet or taller, any similar landform lower than this height was considered a hill. However, today, the United States Geological Survey concludes that these terms do not have technical definitions in the US, using these definitions, mountains cover 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa. As a whole, 24% of the Earths land mass is mountainous, there are three main types of mountains, volcanic, fold, and block. All three types are formed from plate tectonics, when portions of the Earths crust move, crumple, compressional forces, isostatic uplift and intrusion of igneous matter forces surface rock upward, creating a landform higher than the surrounding features. The height of the feature makes it either a hill or, if higher and steeper, major mountains tend to occur in long linear arcs, indicating tectonic plate boundaries and activity. Volcanoes are formed when a plate is pushed below another plate, at a depth of around 100 km, melting occurs in rock above the slab, and forms magma that reaches the surface. When the magma reaches the surface, it builds a volcanic mountain. Examples of volcanoes include Mount Fuji in Japan and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, the magma does not have to reach the surface in order to create a mountain, magma that solidifies below ground can still form dome mountains, such as Navajo Mountain in the US
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Grassland
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Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses, however sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica, grasslands are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. For example, there are five terrestrial ecoregion classifications of the grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. Grassland vegetation can vary in height from short, as in chalk grassland, to quite tall, as in the case of North American tallgrass prairie, South American grasslands. Woody plants, shrubs or trees, may occur on some grasslands – forming savannas, scrubby grassland or semi-wooded grassland, as flowering plants and trees, grasses grow in great concentrations in climates where annual rainfall ranges between 500 and 900 mm. The root systems of perennial grasses and forbs form complex mats that hold the soil in place, graminoids are among the most versatile life forms. Existing forest biomes declined, and grasslands became much more widespread, following the Pleistocene ice ages, grasslands expanded in range in the hotter, drier climates, and began to become the dominant land feature worldwide. Grasslands often occur in areas with annual precipitation between 600 mm and 1,500 mm and average annual temperatures ranges from −5 and 20 °C. However, some occur in colder and hotter climatic conditions. Grassland can exist in habitats that are disturbed by grazing or fire. Grasslands dominated by unsown wild-plant communities can be called natural or semi-natural habitats. The majority of grasslands in temperate climates are semi-natural and these grasslands contain many species of wild plants – grasses, sedges, rushes and herbs –25 or more species per square metre is not unusual. Chalk downlands in England can support over 40 species per square metre, in many parts of the world, few examples have escaped agricultural improvement. For example, original North American prairie grasslands or lowland wildflower meadows in the UK are now rare and their associated wild flora equally threatened. Some of the worlds largest expanses of grassland are found in African savanna, grasslands may occur naturally or as the result of human activity. Grasslands created and maintained by human activity are called anthropogenic grasslands, hunting peoples around the world often set regular fires to maintain and extend grasslands, and prevent fire-intolerant trees and shrubs from taking hold. The tallgrass prairies in the U. S. Midwest may have been extended eastward into Illinois, Indiana, much grassland in northwest Europe developed after the Neolithic Period, when people gradually cleared the forest to create areas for raising their livestock. Grassland types by Schimper, meadow steppe savannah Grassland types by Ellenberg & Mueller-Dombois, terrestrial herbaceous communities A. Savannas and related grasslands B
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Southwestern United States
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The population of the area is around 11 million people, with over half that in Arizona, the most populous cities are Phoenix, El Paso, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and Tucson. Most of the area was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the Spanish Empire before becoming part of Mexico and it became part of the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase. The deserts dominate the southern and western reaches of the area, the two major rivers of the region are the Colorado River, running in the northern and western areas, and the Rio Grande, running in the south. Formed approximately 8000 years ago, the Chihuahuan Desert is a dry desert. The Chihuahuan Desert spreads across the portion of the region, covering from southeastern Arizona, across southern New Mexico. While it is the second largest desert in the United States, only a third of the desert is within the United States, El Paso is the major city in this desert, with other smaller cities being Las Cruces and Roswell in New Mexico. The Chihuahuan is a rain shadow desert, formed two mountain ranges which block oceanic precipitation from reaching the area. The most prolific plants in this region are agave, yucca and creosote bushes, when people think of the desert southwest, the landscape of the Sonoran Desert is what mostly comes to mind. Rainfall averages between 4–12 inches per year, and the deserts most widely known inhabitant is the saguaro cactus and it is bounded on the northwest by the Mojave Desert, to the north by the Colorado Plateau and to the east by the Arizona Mountains forests and the Chihuahuan Desert. The portion of the Sonora Desert which lies in the Southwestern United States is the most populated area within the region. Six of the top ten major population centers of the region are found within its borders, Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, also within its borders are Yuma and Prescott Arizona. The most northwest portion of the American Southwest is covered by the Mojave Desert, bordered on the south by the Sonoran Desert and the east by the Colorado Plateau, its range within the region makes up the southeast tip of Nevada, and the northwestern corner of Arizona. In terms of topography, the Mojave is very similar to the Great Basin Desert, the Mojave is the smallest, driest and hottest desert within the United States. The Mojave gets less than six inches of rain annually, the most prolific vegetation is the tall Joshua tree, which grow as tall as 40 feet, and are thought to live almost 1000 years. Other major vegetation includes the Parry saltbush and the Mojave sage, the Colorado Plateau varies from the large stands of forests in the west, including the largest stand of ponderosa pine trees in the world, to the Mesas to the east. Although not called a desert, the Colorado Plateau is mostly made up of high desert, the Plateau is characterized by a series of plateaus and mesas, interspersed with canyons. The most dramatic example is the Grand Canyon, but that is one of many dramatic vistas included within the Plateau, which includes spectacular lava formations, painted deserts, sand dunes, and badlands. One of the most distinctive features of the Plateau is its longevity, the Plateau can be divided into six sections, three of which fall into the Southwest region
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Arizona
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Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western United States and the Mountain West states and it is the sixth largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, Arizonas border with Mexico is 389 miles long, on the northern border of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the states to be admitted to the Union. Historically part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain, after being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase, Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Alpine, in addition to the Grand Canyon National Park, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments. To the European settlers, their pronunciation sounded like Arissona, the area is still known as alĭ ṣonak in the Oodham language. Another possible origin is the Basque phrase haritz ona, as there were numerous Basque sheepherders in the area, There is a misconception that the states name originated from the Spanish term Árida Zona. See also lists of counties, islands, rivers, lakes, state parks, national parks, Arizona is in the Southwestern United States as one of the Four Corners states. Arizona is the sixth largest state by area, ranked after New Mexico, of the states 113,998 square miles, approximately 15% is privately owned. The remaining area is public forest and park land, state trust land, Arizona is well known for its desert Basin and Range region in the states southern portions, which is rich in a landscape of xerophyte plants such as the cactus. This regions topography was shaped by volcanism, followed by the cooling-off. Its climate has hot summers and mild winters. The state is well known for its pine-covered north-central portion of the high country of the Colorado Plateau. Like other states of the Southwest United States, Arizona has an abundance of mountains, despite the states aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern-day France or Germany. The worlds largest stand of pine trees is in Arizona
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New Mexico
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New Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. It was admitted to the Union as the 47th state on January 6,1912 and it is usually considered one of the Mountain States. New Mexico is fifth by area, the 36th-most populous, inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years before European exploration, New Mexico was colonized by the Spanish in 1598 Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. Later, it was part of independent Mexico before becoming a U. S. territory and eventually a U. S. state as a result of the Mexican–American War. Among U. S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, the major Native American nations in the state are Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache peoples. The demography and culture of the state are shaped by these strong Hispanic and Native American influences and its scarlet and gold colors are taken from the royal standards of Spain, along with the ancient sun symbol of the Zia, a Pueblo-related tribe. New Mexico, or Nuevo México in Spanish, is incorrectly believed to have taken its name from the nation of Mexico. The name simply stuck, even though the area had no connection to Mexico or the Mexica Indian tribes, Mexico, formerly a part of New Spain, adopted its name centuries later in 1821, after winning independence from Spanish rule. New Mexico was a part of the independent Mexican Empire and Federal Republic of Mexico for 27 years,1821 through 1848, New Mexico and Mexico developed as neighboring Spanish-speaking communities under Spanish rule, with relatively independent histories. The states total area is 121,412 square miles, the eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and 2.2 miles west of 103° W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, the western border with Arizona runs along the 109°03 W longitude. The southwestern corner of the state is known as the Bootheel, the 37° N latitude parallel forms the northern boundary with Colorado. The states New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah come together at the Four Corners in the corner of New Mexico. New Mexico, although a state, has very little water. Its surface water area is about 250 square miles, the New Mexican landscape ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken mesas to high, snow-capped peaks. Despite New Mexicos arid image, heavily forested mountain wildernesses cover a significant portion of the state, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost part of the Rocky Mountains, run roughly north-south along the east side of the Rio Grande in the rugged, pastoral north. The most important of New Mexicos rivers are the Rio Grande, Pecos, Canadian, San Juan, the Rio Grande is tied for the fourth-longest river in the United States. Tourists visiting these sites bring significant money to the state, other areas of geographical and scenic interest include Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and the Gila Wilderness in the southwest of the state
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Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
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