1.
Dougong
–
Dougong is a unique structural element of interlocking wooden brackets, one of the most important elements in traditional Chinese architecture. The use of dougong first appeared in buildings of the late centuries BC and evolved into a network that joined pillars. Dougong was widely used in the ancient Chinese during the Spring and Autumn period, the pieces are fitted together by joinery alone without glue or fasteners, due to the precision and quality of the carpentry. After the Song Dynasty, brackets and bracket sets became more ornamental than structural when used in structures and important religious buildings. Walls functioned to delineate spaces in the rather than to support weight. Multiple interlocking bracket sets are formed by placing a wooden block on a column to provide a solid base for the bow-shaped brackets that support the beam or another gong above it. This process can be repeated many times, and rise many stories, adding multiple sets of interlocking brackets or dougong reduces the amount of strain on the horizontal beams when transferring their weight to a column. Multiple dougong also allows structures to be elastic and to damage from earthquakes. During the Ming Dynasty an innovation occurred through the invention of new components that aided dougong in supporting the roof. This allowed dougong to add an element to buildings in the traditional Chinese integration of artistry and function. Brackets could be hung under eaves, giving the appearance of graceful baskets of flowers while also supporting the roof, the Baoen Temple in Sichuan is a good example of the Ming style. It has forty-eight types and 2,200 sets of dougong to support and it is a well-preserved fifteenth century monastery complex located in northwestern Sichuan province, China. It was built by Wang Xi, a chieftain, between 1440 and 1446 during Emperor Yingzongs reign in the Ming Dynasty. Liang Ssu Cheng Chinese Architecture, A Pictorial History ISBN 0-486-43999-2 Dougong Brackets Arts of China to A. D.900 Chinese architecture
2.
Conservation status
–
The conservation status of a group of organisms indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Various systems of conservation status exist and are in use at international, multi-country, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Also included are species that have gone extinct since 500 AD, when discussing the IUCN Red List, the official term threatened is a grouping of three categories, critically endangered, endangered, and vulnerable. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category, Data deficient – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction Not evaluated – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora aims to ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals. Many countries require CITES permits when importing plants and animals listed on CITES, in the European Union, the Birds and Habitats Directives are the legal instruments that evaluate the conservation status within the EU of species and habitats. NatureServe conservation status focuses on Latin America, United States, Canada, and it has been developed by scientists from NatureServe, The Nature Conservancy, and the network of natural heritage programs and data centers. It is increasingly integrated with the IUCN Red List system and its categories for species include, presumed extinct, possibly extinct, critically imperiled, imperiled, vulnerable, apparently secure, and secure. The system also allows ambiguous or uncertain ranks including inexact numeric ranks, NatureServe adds a qualifier for captive or cultivated only, which has a similar meaning to the IUCN Red List extinct in the wild status. The Red Data Book of the Russian Federation is used within the Russian Federation, in Australia, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 describes lists of threatened species, ecological communities and threatening processes. The categories resemble those of the 1994 IUCN Red List Categories & Criteria, prior to the EPBC Act, a simpler classification system was used by the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992. Some state and territory governments also have their own systems for conservation status, in Belgium, the Flemish Research Institute for Nature and Forest publishes an online set of more than 150 nature indicators in Dutch. In Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada is a group of experts that assesses and designates which wild species are in danger of disappearing from Canada. Under the Species at Risk Act, it is up to the federal government, in China, the State, provinces and some counties have determined their key protected wildlife species. There is the China red data book, in Finland, a large number of species are protected under the Nature Conservation Act, and through the EU Habitats Directive and EU Birds Directive. In Germany, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation publishes red lists of endangered species, india has the Wild Life Protection Act,1972, Amended 2003 and the Biological Diversity Act,2002. In Japan, the Ministry of Environment publishes a Threatened Wildlife of Japan Red Data Book, in the Netherlands, the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality publishes a list of threatened species, and conservation is enforced by the Nature Conservation Act 1998. Species are also protected through the Wild Birds and Habitats Directives, in New Zealand, the Department of Conservation publishes the New Zealand Threat Classification System lists
3.
Vulnerable species
–
Vulnerability is mainly caused by habitat loss or destruction of the species home. Vulnerable habitat or species are monitored and can become increasingly threatened, some species listed as vulnerable may be common in captivity, an example being the military macaw. There are currently 5196 animals and 6789 plants classified as vulnerable, compared with 1998 levels of 2815 and 3222, practices such as Cryoconservation of animal genetic resources have been enforced in efforts to conserve vulnerable breeds of livestock specifically. The International Union for Conservation of Nature uses several criteria to enter species in this category, a reduction of at least 20%, projected or suspected to be met within the next ten years or three generations, whichever is the longer, based on any of, or above. Population is characterised by a restriction in its area of occupancy or in the number of locations. E) Quantitative analysis showing the probability of extinction in the wild is at least 10% within 100 years
4.
IUCN Red List
–
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, founded in 1964, is the worlds most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the main authority on the conservation status of species. A series of Regional Red Lists are produced by countries or organizations, the IUCN Red List is set upon precise criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of thousands of species and subspecies. These criteria are relevant to all species and all regions of the world, the aim is to convey the urgency of conservation issues to the public and policy makers, as well as help the international community to try to reduce species extinction. Major species assessors include BirdLife International, the Institute of Zoology, the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, collectively, assessments by these organizations and groups account for nearly half the species on the Red List. The IUCN aims to have the category of every species re-evaluated every five years if possible, the 1964 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants used the older pre-criteria Red List assessment system. Plants listed may not, therefore, appear in the current Red List, IUCN advise that is best to check both the online Red List and the 1997 plants Red List publication. The 2006 Red List, released on 4 May 2006 evaluated 40,168 species as a whole, plus an additional 2,160 subspecies, varieties, aquatic stocks, on 12 September 2007, the World Conservation Union released the 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Russ Mittermeier, chief of Swiss-based IUCNs Primate Specialist Group, stated that 16,306 species are endangered with extinction,188 more than in 2006, the Red List includes the Sumatran orangutan in the Critically Endangered category and the Bornean orangutan in the Endangered category. The study shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction, and 836 are listed as Data Deficient. The Red List of 2012 was released 19 July 2012 at Rio+20 Earth Summit, nearly 2,000 species were added, the IUCN assessed a total of 63,837 species which revealed 19,817 are threatened with extinction. With 3,947 described as endangered and 5,766 as endangered. At threat are 41% of amphibian species, 33% of reef-building corals, 30% of conifers, 25% of mammals, the IUCN Red List has listed 132 species of plants and animals from India as Critically Endangered. Extinct – No known individuals remaining, extinct in the wild – Known only to survive in captivity, or as a naturalized population outside its historic range. Critically endangered – Extremely high risk of extinction in the wild, Endangered – High risk of extinction in the wild. Vulnerable – High risk of endangerment in the wild, near threatened – Likely to become endangered in the near future. Does not qualify for a more at-risk category, widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category. Data deficient – Not enough data to make an assessment of its risk of extinction, Not evaluated – Has not yet been evaluated against the criteria
5.
Taxonomy (biology)
–
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
6.
Animal
–
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
7.
Chordate
–
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
8.
Mammal
–
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
9.
Sirenia
–
The Sirenia, commonly referred to as sea cows or sirenians, are an order of fully aquatic, herbivorous mammals that inhabit swamps, rivers, estuaries, marine wetlands, and coastal marine waters. The Sirenia comprise the families Dugongidae, Trichechidae, †Protosirenidae, currently, four species of sirenians exist. Sirenians are classified in the clade Paenungulata, alongside the elephants and the hyraxes, the Dugongidae diverged from the Trichechidae in the late Eocene or early Oligocene. Sirenians grow to between 2.5 and 4 m in length and 1,500 kg in weight, the now extinct Stellers sea cow was the largest sirenian to have lived, and could reach lengths of 8 m and weights of 8 to 10 t. Sirenians have a large, fusiform body to prevent drag through the water and they have heavy bones that act as ballasts to counteract the buoyancy of their blubber. They have a layer of blubber and consequently are sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Sirenians are slow-moving, typically coasting at 8 km/h, but they can reach 24 km/h in short bursts and they use their strong lips to pull out seagrasses, consuming 10–15% of their body weight per day. While breathing, they hold just their nostrils above the surface, sirenians typically inhabit warm, shallow, coastal waters or rivers. They are mainly herbivorous, but have been known to consume animals such as birds, males typically mate with more than one female, and may participate in lek mating. Sirenians are K-selectors, and display parental care, the meat, oil, bones, and skins are valuable items sold in markets. Mortality is often caused by hunting by humans or other human-induced causes, such as habitat destruction, entanglement in fishing gear. Stellers sea cow went extinct due to overhunting in 1768, Sirenia, commonly sirenians, are also referred to by the common name sirens, deriving from the sirens of Greek mythology. This comes from a legend about their discovery, involving lonely sailors mistaking them for mermaids, seekoei is also the name for a hippopotamus in Afrikaans. In some Germanic languages, see can mean either a body of fresh or salt water, sirenians are classified within the cohort Afrotheria in the clade Paenungulata, alongside the Proboscidea, Hyracoidea, and two extinct orders, the Embrithopoda and Desmostylia. This clade was first established by George Gaylord Simpson in 1945 based on evidence, such as testicondy. The Paenungulata, along with the Afrotheria, are one of the most well-supported mammalian clades in molecular phylogeny, the first appearance of sirenians in the fossil record was during the early Eocene, and by the late Eocene, sirenians had significantly diversified. Inhabitants of rivers, estuaries, and nearshore waters, they were able to spread rapidly. The most primitive sirenian known to date, Prorastomus, was found in Jamaica, the first known quadrupedal sirenian was Pezosiren from the early Eocene
10.
Binomial nomenclature
–
Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
11.
Marine mammal
–
Marine mammals are aquatic mammals that rely on the ocean and other marine ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as seals, whales, manatees, sea otters and they do not represent a distinct taxon or systematic grouping, but rather have a polyphyletic relation due to convergent evolution. They are also unified by their reliance on the environment for feeding. Marine mammal adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle vary considerably between species, both cetaceans and sirenians are fully aquatic and therefore are obligate water dwellers. Seals and sea-lions are semiaquatic, they spend the majority of their time in the water, in contrast, both otters and the polar bear are much less adapted to aquatic living. Their diet varies considerably as well, some may eat zooplankton, others may eat fish, squid, shellfish, sea-grass and this role in maintaining ecosystems makes them of particular concern as 23% of marine mammal species are currently threatened. Marine mammals were first hunted by aboriginal peoples for food and other resources, many were also the target for commercial industry, leading to a sharp decline in all populations of exploited species, such as whales and seals. Commercial hunting lead to the extinction of †Stellers sea cow and the monk seal. Other than hunting, marine mammals can be killed as bycatch from fisheries, increased ocean traffic causes collisions between fast ocean vessels and large marine mammals. Habitat degradation also threatens marine mammals and their ability to find, noise pollution, for example, may adversely affect echolocating mammals, and the ongoing effects of global warming degrade arctic environments. Marine mammals form a group of 129 species that rely on the ocean for their existence. They do not represent a taxon or systematic grouping. They are also unified by their reliance on the environment for feeding. The level of dependence on the environment for existence varies considerably with species. For example, dolphins and whales are completely dependent on the environment for all stages of their life, seals feed in the ocean but breed on land. Twenty three percent of mammal species are threatened. Five of these lineages are extinct, despite the diversity in morphology seen between groups, improving foraging efficiency has been the main driver in the evolution in these lineages. Today, fully aquatic marine mammals belong to one of two orders, Cetartiodactyla or Sirenia, based on molecular and morphological research, the cetaceans genetically and morphologically fall firmly within the Artiodactyla
12.
Manatee
–
Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows. They measure up to 4.0 metres long, weigh as much as 590 kilograms, the name manatí comes from the Spanish manatí, derived from the Caribbean word sometimes cited as manattouï. The etymology is dubious, with connections having been made to Latin manus, and to a used by the Taíno. Manatees are occasionally called sea cows, as they are slow plant-eaters, peaceful and they often graze on water plants in tropical seas. Manatees comprise three of the four living species in the order Sirenia, the fourth is the Eastern Hemispheres dugong. The Sirenia are thought to have evolved from four-legged land mammals over 60 million years ago, the Amazonians hair color is brownish gray, and they have thick wrinkled skin often with coarse hair, or whiskers. Photos are rare, although little is known about this species. Manatees have a mass of 400 to 550 kilograms, and mean length of 2.8 to 3.0 metres, when born, baby manatees have an average mass of 30 kilograms. They have a large, flexible, prehensile upper lip and they use the lip to gather food and eat, as well as using it for social interactions and communications. Manatees have shorter snouts than their fellow sirenians, the dugongs and their small, widely spaced eyes have eyelids that close in a circular manner. The adults have no incisor or canine teeth, just a set of cheek teeth and these teeth are continuously replaced throughout life, with new teeth growing at the rear as older teeth fall out from farther forward in the mouth. This process is known as polyphyodonty and amongst the mammals, only occurs in the kangaroo. At any given time, a manatee typically has no more than six teeth in each jaw of its mouth. Its tail is paddle-shaped, and is the clearest visible difference between manatees and dugongs, a tail is fluked, similar in shape to a that of a whale. Females have two teats, one under each flipper, a characteristic that was used to make links between the manatee and elephants. Manatees are unusual amongst mammals in possessing just six cervical vertebrae, all other mammals have seven cervical vertebrae, other than the two-toed and three-toed sloths. Like horses, they have a stomach, but a large cecum. In general, their intestines have a length of about 45 meters
13.
Steller's sea cow
–
Stellers sea cow is an extinct species of sirenian that was discovered in 1741. At the time of its discovery, it was only in the Commander Islands. Its closest living relative is the dugong, which is the surviving member of the Dugongidae. It was among the largest mammals other than whales to have existed into the Holocene epoch, reaching weights of 8–10 metric tons and lengths of 9 metres. Stellers sea cow was the largest of all sirenians, and had a thicker layer of blubber than other sirenians. The tail was forked, like that of cetaceans, instead of teeth, it had an array of white bristles on the upper lip, and two keratinous plates used for chewing. The sea cow was mute and made snorting sounds and sighs and it was apparently monogamous and gregarious, and lived in small family groups, it probably cared for its young, like extant sirenians. Georg Wilhelm Steller, a naturalist, discovered Stellers sea cow in 1741 on Vitus Berings Great Northern Expedition when he, much of what is known about the sea cow in life comes from Stellers account on the island documented in his posthumous publication The Beasts of the Sea. Within 27 years of discovery by Europeans, the slow-moving and easily captured Stellers sea cow was hunted into extinction for its meat, fat, and hide, though sightings have been claimed after 1768. The true value is estimated to lie between these figures, at about 8–10 metric tons, making it one of the largest mammals of the Holocene epoch and its large size was probably an adaptation to reduce its surface-area-to-volume ratio and conserve heat. Unlike other sirenians, Stellers sea cow was positively buoyant, meaning it could not completely submerge. It had a massive epidermis,2.5 centimetres in thickness, to prevent injury from abrasions on sharp rocks and ice, the blubber was 8–10 centimetres thick, an adaptation to the cold climate of its habitat. The skin was brownish-black in color, with patches in some individuals. It was smooth along the back and rough on the sides, with crater-like depressions most likely from ectoparasites, alluding to its skin texture. Hair was sparse, but the sides of the flippers were covered in bristles. The tail fluke was forked, like that of cetaceans, the forelimb was ca.67 centimetres long and its head was small and short compared to the huge body. The upper lip was large and broad, and extended so far beyond the mandible that the mouth appeared to be located underneath the skull, unlike other sirenians, Stellers sea cow was toothless. According to Steller, these plates, or masticatory pads, were held together by interdental papillae, a part of the gums, and had many small holes for nerves and arteries
14.
Extinction
–
In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms, normally a species. The moment of extinction is considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed. Because a species range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult. This difficulty leads to such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly reappears after a period of apparent absence. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to five billion species. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the relationship between animals and their ecological niches has been firmly established. Mass extinctions are relatively rare events, however, isolated extinctions are quite common, only recently have extinctions been recorded and scientists have become alarmed at the current high rate of extinctions. Most species that become extinct are never scientifically documented, some scientists estimate that up to half of presently existing plant and animal species may become extinct by 2100. A dagger symbol next to a name is often used to indicate its extinction. A species is extinct when the last existing member dies, Extinction therefore becomes a certainty when there are no surviving individuals that can reproduce and create a new generation. Pinpointing the extinction of a species requires a definition of that species. If it is to be declared extinct, the species in question must be distinguishable from any ancestor or daughter species. Extinction of a plays a key role in the punctuated equilibrium hypothesis of Stephen Jay Gould. In ecology, extinction is often used informally to refer to local extinction, in which a species ceases to exist in the area of study. This phenomenon is known as extirpation. Local extinctions may be followed by a replacement of the species taken from other locations, species which are not extinct are termed extant. Those that are extant but threatened by extinction are referred to as threatened or endangered species, currently an important aspect of extinction is human attempts to preserve critically endangered species
15.
Herbivore
–
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthparts adapted to rasping or grinding, horses and other herbivores have wide flat teeth that are adapted to grinding grass, tree bark, and other tough plant material. A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora that help them digest plant matter and this gut flora is made up of cellulose-digesting protozoans or bacteria living in the herbivores intestines. Herbivore is the form of a modern Latin coinage, herbivora. Richard Owen employed the term in an 1854 work on fossil teeth. Herbivora is derived from the Latin herba meaning a small plant or herb, Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms feed on autotrophs in general are known as primary consumers. Herbivory usually refers to eating plants, fungi, bacteria and protists that feed on living plants are usually termed plant pathogens. Flowering plants that obtain nutrition from other living plants are usually termed parasitic plants, there is however no single exclusive and definitive ecological classification of consumption patterns, each textbook has its own variations on the theme. Insects fed on the spores of early Devonian plants, and the Rhynie chert also provides evidence that organisms fed on plants using a pierce, during the next 75 million years, plants evolved a range of more complex organs, such as roots and seeds. There is no evidence of any organism being fed upon until the middle-late Mississippian,330.9 million years ago, further than their arthropod status, the identity of these early herbivores is uncertain. Hole feeding and skeletonisation are recorded in the early Permian, with surface fluid feeding evolving by the end of that period, Herbivory among four-limbed terrestrial vertebrates, the tetrapods developed in the Late Carboniferous. Early tetrapods were large amphibious piscivores, while amphibians continued to feed on fish and insects, some reptiles began exploring two new food types, tetrapods and plants. The entire dinosaur order ornithischia was composed with herbivores dinosaurs, carnivory was a natural transition from insectivory for medium and large tetrapods, requiring minimal adaptation. In contrast, a set of adaptations was necessary for feeding on highly fibrous plant materials. Arthropods evolved herbivory in four phases, changing their approach to it in response to changing plant communities, tetrapod herbivores made their first appearance in the fossil record of their jaws near the Permio-Carboniferous boundary, approximately 300 million years ago. The earliest evidence of their herbivory has been attributed to dental occlusion, the evolution of dental occlusion led to a drastic increase in plant food processing and provides evidence about feeding strategies based on tooth wear patterns. Examination of phylogenetic frameworks of tooth and jaw morphologes has revealed that dental occlusion developed independently in several lineages tetrapod herbivores and this suggests that evolution and spread occurred simultaneously within various lineages
16.
Seawater
–
Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the oceans has a salinity of about 3. 5% This means that every kilogram of seawater has approximately 35 grams of dissolved salts. Average density at the surface is 1.025 kg/l, seawater is denser than both fresh water and pure water because the dissolved salts increase the mass by a larger proportion than the volume. The freezing point of seawater decreases as salt concentration increases, at typical salinity, it freezes at about −2 °C. The coldest seawater ever recorded was in 2010, in a stream under an Antarctic glacier, seawater pH is typically limited to a range between 7.5 and 8.4. However, there is no universally accepted reference pH-scale for seawater, although the vast majority of seawater has a salinity of between 31 g/kg and 38 g/kg, seawater is not uniformly saline throughout the world. Where mixing occurs with fresh water runoff from river mouths, near melting glaciers or vast amounts precipitation, the most saline open sea is the Red Sea, where high rates of evaporation, low precipitation and low river run-off, and confined circulation result in unusually salty water. The salinity in isolated bodies of water can be considerably greater still, historically, several salinity scales were used to approximate the absolute salinity of seawater. A popular scale was the Practical Salinity Scale where salinity was measured in practical salinity units, the current standard for salinity is the Reference Salinity scale with the salinity expressed in units of g/kg. The density of surface seawater ranges from about 1020 to 1029 kg/m3, depending on the temperature, at a temperature of 25 °C, salinity of 35 g/kg and 1 atm pressure, the density of seawater is 1023.6 kg/m3. Deep in the ocean, under pressure, seawater can reach a density of 1050 kg/m3 or higher. The density of seawater also changes with salinity, brines generated by seawater desalination plants can have salinities up to 120 g/kg. The density of typical seawater brine of 120 g/kg salinity at 25 °C, seawater pH is limited to the range 7.5 to 8.4. The speed of sound in seawater is about 1,500 m/s, and varies with temperature, salinity. The thermal conductivity of seawater is 0.6 W/mK at 25 °C, the thermal conductivity decreases with increasing salinity and increases with increasing temperature. Seawater contains more dissolved ions than all types of freshwater, however, the ratios of solutes differ dramatically. Bicarbonate ions also constitute 48% of river water solutes but only 0. 14% of all seawater ions, differences like these are due to the varying residence times of seawater solutes, sodium and chlorine have very long residence times, while calcium tends to precipitate much more quickly. The most abundant dissolved ions in seawater are sodium, chloride, magnesium, sulfate and its osmolarity is about 1000 mOsm/l
17.
Indo-West Pacific
–
It does not include the temperate and polar regions of the Indian and Pacific oceans, and the Tropical Eastern Pacific, along the Pacific coast of the Americas, is also a distinct marine realm. The WWF and Nature Conservancy divide the Indo-Pacific into three realms, and each of these into a number of marine provinces, the Central Indo-Pacific, due in part to its central location at the meeting of two oceans, has the greatest diversity of corals and mangroves. Since 2011, the term ‘Indo-Pacific’ is being used increasingly in the global strategic/ geo-political discourse, from 2010 onwards, the term Indo-Pacific acquired salience within the Indian government and has since been used often by Indias apex political leadership. From about 2011 onwards, the term has been used frequently by strategic analysts and high-level government/ military leadership in Australia, Japan, however, a formal/ official documented articulation of the term first appeared in Australia’s Defence White Paper,2013. It has been argued that the concept of the Indo-Pacific may lead to a change in popular mental maps of how the world is understood in strategic terms, lately, the US officials have begun using the term Indo-Asia Pacific. This would enable America to maintain its geographic inclusiveness in the new coinage of Indo-Pacific, helen E. Fox, Gerald R. Allen, Nick Davidson et al. Marine Ecoregions of the World, A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas
18.
Seagrass
–
Seagrasses are flowering plants belonging to four families, all in the order Alismatales, which grow in marine, fully saline environments. There are 12 genera with some 60 species known, like all autotrophic plants, seagrasses photosynthesize so are limited to growing in the submerged photic zone, and most occur in shallow and sheltered coastal waters anchored in sand or mud bottoms. Most species undergo submarine pollination and complete their life cycle underwater. Seagrasses form extensive beds or meadows, which can be either monospecific or in mixed beds where more than one species coexist. In temperate areas, usually one or a few species dominate, whereas tropical beds usually are more diverse, some fish species that visit/feed on seagrasses raise their young in adjacent mangroves or coral reefs. Also, seagrasses trap sediment and slow down water movement, causing suspended sediment to fall out, the trapping of sediment benefits coral by reducing sediment loads in the water. Their importance for associated species is due to provision of shelter. Seagrass meadows account for more than 10% of the total carbon storage. Per hectare, it twice as much carbon dioxide as rain forests. Yearly, seagrasses sequester about 27.4 million tons of CO2, global warming models suggest, some seagrasses will go extinct – Posidonia oceanica is expected to go extinct, or nearly so, by 2050. This would result in CO2 release, historically, seagrasses were collected as fertilizer for sandy soil. This was an important use in the Ria de Aveiro, Portugal and it was also used for bandages and other purposes. Currently, seagrass is used in furniture, and woven like rattan, natural disturbances, such as grazing, storms, ice-scouring, and desiccation, are an inherent part of seagrass ecosystem dynamics. Seagrasses display a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, adapting rapidly to changing environmental conditions. Seagrasses are in decline, with some 30,000 km2 lost during recent decades. The main cause is human disturbance, most notably eutrophication, mechanical destruction of habitat, excessive input of nutrients is directly toxic to seagrasses, but most importantly, it stimulates the growth of epiphytic and free-floating macro- and micro-algae. This weakens the sunlight, reducing the photosynthesis that nourishes the seagrass, decaying seagrass leaves and algae fuels increasing algal blooms, resulting in a positive feedback. This can cause a regime shift from seagrass to algal dominance
19.
Bay
–
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, lake, or another bay. A large bay may be called a gulf, sea, sound, a cove is a type of smaller bay with a circular inlet and narrow entrance. A fjord is a particularly steep bay shaped by glacial activity, bays can be the estuary of a river, such as the Chesapeake Bay, an estuary of the Susquehanna River, which is the largest bay in North America. Bays may also be nested within each other, for example, some large bays, such as the Bay of Bengal and the Hudson Bay, have varied marine geology. The land surrounding a bay often reduces the strength of winds, bays were significant in the history of human settlement because they provided a safe place for fishing. Later they were important in the development of sea trade as the safe anchorage they provide encouraged their selection as ports, there are various ways from which bays can be created. The largest bays have developed as a result of plate tectonics, as the super-continent Pangaea broke up along curved and indented fault lines, the continents moved apart and the worlds largest bays formed. These include the Gulf of Guinea, Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Bengal, another way bays form is via glacial and river erosion. A bay formed by a glacier is a fjord, rias are created by rivers and are characterised by more gradual slopes. Currents can make waves more constant, and soft rocks speed erosion, hard rock eroded less quickly, leaving headlands. The Gulf of California is an example of a bay created by plate tectonics as Baja California peninsula moves away from the Mexican mainland, Bay platform Great capes Headlands and bays
20.
Mangrove
–
A mangrove is a shrub or small tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are salt tolerant trees, also called halophytes, and are adapted to life in coastal conditions. They contain a complex filtration system and complex root system to cope with salt water immersion. They are adapted to the low oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud, the saline conditions tolerated by various mangrove species range from brackish water, through pure seawater, to water concentrated by evaporation to over twice the salinity of ocean seawater. The term mangrove comes to English from Spanish, and is likely to originate from Guarani and it was earlier mangrow, but this word was corrupted via folk etymology influence of the word grove. Mangrove swamps are found in tropical and subtropical tidal areas, areas where mangal occurs include estuaries and marine shorelines. The intertidal existence to which trees are adapted represents the major limitation to the number of species able to thrive in their habitat. High tide brings in water, and when the tide recedes. The return of tide can flush out these soils, bringing back to salinity levels comparable to that of seawater. At low tide, organisms are exposed to increases in temperature and desiccation. About 110 species are considered mangroves, in the sense of being a tree grows in such a saline swamp, though only a few are from the mangrove plant genus. However, a mangrove swamp typically features only a small number of tree species. It is not uncommon for a mangrove forest in the Caribbean to feature three or four tree species. For comparison, the tropical rainforest biome contains thousands of tree species, though the trees themselves are few in species, the ecosystem that these trees create provides a home for a great variety of other organisms. Mangrove plants require a number of adaptations to overcome the problems of anoxia, high salinity. Each species has its own solutions to problems, this may be the primary reason why, on some shorelines. Small environmental variations within a mangal may lead to greatly differing methods for coping with the environment, once established, mangrove roots provide an oyster habitat and slow water flow, thereby enhancing sediment deposition in areas where it is already occurring
21.
Channel (geography)
–
In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of fluid, most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is cognate to canal, and sometimes shows in this form, most examples of this are fjords in the Pacific Northwest, a notable exception is the Casiquiare canal. All likely share borrowing from Spanish, Portuguese or French, channels can be either natural or human-made. A channel is typically outlined in terms of its bed and banks, Channel initiation refers to the site on a mountain slope where water begins to flow between identifiable banks. This site is referred to as the head and it marks an important boundary between hillslope processes and fluvial processes. The channel head is the most upslope part of a network and is defined by flowing water between defined identifiable banks. A channel head forms as overland flow and/or subsurface flow accumulate to a point where shear stress can overcome resistance of the ground surface. Channel heads are associated with colluvium, hollows and landslides. Overland flow is a factor in channel initiation where saturation overland flow deepens to increase shear stress. Overland flows converge in topographical depressions where channel initiation begins, soil composition, vegetation, precipitation, and topography dictate the amount and rate of overland flow. The composition of a soil determines how quickly saturation occurs and cohesive strength retards the entrainment of material from overland flows, vegetation slows infiltration rates during precipitation events and plant roots anchor soil on hillslopes. Subsurface flow destabilizes soil and resurfaces on hillslopes where channel heads are often formed and this often results in abrupt channel heads and landslides. Natural channels are formed by fluvial process and are found across the Earth and these are mostly formed by flowing water from the hydrological cycle, though can also be formed by other fluids such as flowing lava. Channels also describe the course through a reef, sand bar, bay. One example is the Columbia River, a located in the US states of Washington and Oregon. A stream channel is the confine of a stream consisting of a bed. Stream channels exist in a variety of geometries, Stream channel development is controlled by both water and sediment movement. There is a difference between low gradient streams and high gradient streams, a wide variety of stream channel types can be distinguished
22.
Shore
–
A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. Shores are influenced by the topography of the landscape, as well as by water induced erosion. The geological composition of rock and soil dictates the type of shore which is created, Riviera is an Italian word for shoreline, ultimately derived from Latin ripa. It came to be applied as a name to the coast of the Ligurian Sea, in the form riviera ligure. Historically, the Ligurian Riviera extended from Capo Corvo south of Genoa, north and west into what is now French territory past Monoco, now it is divided into the Italian Riviera and the French Riviera. Although the French use the term Riviera to refer to the Italian Riviera, as a result of the fame of the Ligurian rivieras, the term came into English to refer to any shoreline, especially one that is sunny, topographically diverse and popular with tourists. Such places using the term include the Australian Riviera in Queensland, offshore or Intertidal zone Ballantine Scale Coastal path Shorezone Anders, F. J. and Byrnes, M. R. Accuracy of shoreline change rates as determined from maps and aerial photographs Shore and Beach, v.59, processes influencing the transport and fate of contaminated sediments in the coastal ocean—Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay, U. S. Geological Survey Circular 1302, pp. 1–89. Equilibrium beach profiles—characteristics and applications Journal of Coastal Research, v.7, the Budget of Littoral Sediments—Concepts and Applications Shore and Beach, v.64, pp. 18–26. Meade, R. H. Sources, sinks and storage of river sediments in the Atlantic drainage of the United States Journal of Geology, v.90, an Assessment of the Nations Shorelines, USA Shore and Beach v.71, no. Stockdon, H. F. Sallenger, A. H. List, J. H. and Holman, estimation of shoreline position and change using airborne topographic lidar data Journal of Coastal Research, v.18, no. The use of models to predict beach behavior for U. S. coastal engineering—A critical review Journal of Coastal Research, v.16. Media related to Shores at Wikimedia Commons shore, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
23.
Shark Bay
–
Shark Bay is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. At that time most of the area was dry land, rising sea levels flooding Shark Bay between 8,000 BP and 6,000 BP, Shark Bay was named by William Dampier, on 7 August 1699. The heritage–listed area had a population of fewer than 1,000 people as at the 2011 census, the half-dozen small communities making up this population occupy less than 1% of the total area. The World Heritage status of the region was created and negotiated in 1991, the site was gazetted on the Australian National Heritage List on 21 May 2007 under the Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Act,2003. Declared as a World Heritage Site in 1991, the covers a area of 2,200,902 hectares. Denham and Useless Loop both fall within the boundary of the site, yet are specifically excluded from it, Shark Bay was the first Australian site to be classified on the World Heritage list. The bay itself covers an area of 1,300,000 hectares and it is divided by shallow banks and has many peninsulas and islands. The coastline is over 1,500 kilometres long, there are about 300 kilometres of limestone cliffs overlooking the bay. One spectacular segment of cliffs is known as the Zuytdorp Cliffs, the bay is located in the transition zone between three major climatic regions and between two major botanical provinces. Dirk Hartog Island is of historical significance due to landings upon it by early explorers, in 1616, Dirk Hartog landed at Inscription Point on the north end of the island and marked his discovery with a pewter plate, inscribed with the date and nailed to a post. This plate was replaced by Willem de Vlamingh and returned to Holland. It is now kept in the National Museum of Holland, there is a replica in the Shark Bay Discovery Centre in Denham. Bernier and Dorre islands in the north-west corner of the area are among the last-remaining habitats of Australian mammals threatened with extinction. They are used, with other smaller islands throughout the marine park. The Australian Wildlife Conservatory is the guardian of Faure Island, off Monkey Mia, seasonally, sea turtles come here to nest and are the subject of studies conducted in conjunction with the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation on this sheltered island. Shark Bay is an area of major zoological importance and it is home to about 10,000 dugongs, around 12. 5% of the worlds population, and there are many Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, particularly at Monkey Mia. The dolphins here have been friendly since the 1960s. The area supports 26 threatened Australian mammal species, over 230 species of bird and it is an important breeding and nursery ground for fish, crustaceans, and coelenterates
24.
Moreton Bay
–
The Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia 14 kilometres from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queenslands most important coastal resources, the waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are used by commercial operators who provide seafood to market. The Port of Brisbane coordinates large traffic along the channel which crosses the northern section of the bay. The bay serves as an approach to the airport and reduces noise pollution over the city to the west of the runway. A number of barge, ferry and water-taxi services also travel over the bay, Moreton Bay was the site of conflict between the indigenous Quandamooka people and early European settlers. It contains environmentally significant habitats and large areas of sandbanks, the bay is the only place in Australia where dugong gather into herds. Many parts of the foreshore and southern islands are settled. Moreton Bay is described as lagoonal because of the existence of a series of barrier islands that restrict the flow of oceanic water. The tidal range is moderate at 1. 5–2 metres in range, Moreton Bay has an average depth of 6.8 metres. This shallow depth lets light filter through to the seafloor, allowing an array of plants to grow which support a diverse range of fauna. The bay itself covers 1,523 square kilometres and has a catchment area 14 times larger, the waters of the bay are mostly blue in colour. Western parts of the bay are sometimes tinted green from algae, Moreton Bay was formed roughly 6000 years ago as the sea level rose and inundated what was then the floodplains of the Brisbane River. Moreton Bay and its islands were inhabited by indigenous tribes, in indigenous economy was very rich, one of the strongest for its productive yields of edible natural resources on the Australian continent. In the 1840s, resident white administrators estimated the population of the area to be around 4,000. They were only outnumbered with the influx over the five year period of 1850-1855 with saw the disembarkation of 3,000 European migrants on their land. The name Mortons Bay was given by Captain Cook when he passed the area on 15 May 1770, honouring Lord Morton, the spelling Moreton was an error in the first published account of Cooks voyage. Cook gave the only to the bight formed by the northern end of Stradbroke Island. He was unaware of the South Passage between the two islands, and did not sail into what is the present Moreton Bay, matthew Flinders was the first recorded European to enter the bay in 1799 touching down at the Pumicestone Passage, Redcliffe and Coochiemudlo Island
25.
Dorsal fin
–
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fish, cetaceans, and the ichthyosaurs. Depending on the species, an animal may have one or two of them, wildlife biologists often use the distinctive nicks and wear patterns which develop on the dorsal fins of large cetaceans to identify individuals in the field. The bony or cartilaginous bones that support the base of the fin in fish are called pterygiophores. The main purpose of the fin is to stabilize the animal against rolling. Some species have adapted their dorsal fins to other uses. The sunfish uses the dorsal fin for propulsion, in anglerfish, the anterior of the dorsal fin is modified into a biological equivalent to a fishing pole and a lure known as illicium or esca. Many catfish can lock the leading ray of the fin in an extended position to discourage predation or to wedge themselves into a crevice. Some animals have developed dorsal fins with protective functions, such as spines or venom, for example, both the spiny dogfish and the Port Jackson shark have spines in their dorsal fins which are capable of secreting venom. Like tuna, mackerel and other scombroids, billfish streamline themselves by retracting their fins into a groove in their body when they swim. The shape, size, position and colour of the dorsal fin varies with the type of billfish, for example, the white marlin has a dorsal fin with a curved front edge and is covered with black spots. The huge dorsal fin, or sail, of the sailfish is kept retracted most of the time, sailfish raise them if they want to herd a school of small fish, and also after periods of high activity, presumably to cool down. Fish fin Submarine sail Vertical stabilizer
26.
Forelimb
–
A forelimb is an anterior limb on a terrestrial vertebrates body. For quadrupeds, the foreleg is often used instead. All vertebrate forelimbs are homologous, meaning that they all evolved from the same structures, vertebrate zoology, an introduction to the comparative anatomy, embryology, and evolution of chordate animals
27.
Snout
–
A snout is the protruding portion of an animals face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals the equivalent structure is called a muzzle, rostrum or proboscis, the wet, naked surface around the nostrils of the nose of some animals is known as the rhinarium. The rhinarium is often associated with a sense of olfaction. The snout is considered a point on most animals, because of its structure. Snouts are found on other mammals in a variety of shapes. Some animals, including ursines and great cats, have box-like snouts, while others, pig snouts are flat and cylindrical. The muzzle begins at the stop, just below the eyes, in the domestic dog, most of the upper muzzle contains organs for detecting scents. The loose flaps of skin on the sides of the muzzle that hang to different lengths over the mouth are called flews. It is innervated by one of the pairs of cranial nerves. These nerves start in the brain and emerge through the skull to their target organs, other destinations of these nerves are eyeballs, teeth and tongue. The muzzle shape of a domestic dog ranges in shape depending upon the breed, from long and thin, as in the Rough Collie, to nearly nonexistent because it is so flat
28.
Benthic zone
–
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean or a lake, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. Organisms living in this zone are called benthos, e. g. the benthic community, including crustaceans. The organisms generally live in relationship with the substrate bottom. Examples of contact soil layers include sand bottoms, rocky outcrops, coral, the benthic region of the ocean begins at the shore line and extends downward along the surface of the continental shelf out to sea. The continental shelf is a gently sloping benthic region that extends away from the land mass, at the continental shelf edge, usually about 200 meters deep, the gradient greatly increases and is known as the continental slope. The continental slope drops down to the sea floor. The deep-sea floor is called the plain and is usually about 4,000 meters deep. The ocean floor is not all flat but has submarine ridges, for comparison, the pelagic zone is the descriptive term for the ecological region above the benthos, including the water-column up to the surface. For information on animals that live in the areas of the oceans see aphotic zone. Generally, these life forms that tolerate cool temperatures and low oxygen levels. Benthos are the organisms live in the benthic zone, and are different from those elsewhere in the water column. Many are adapted to live on the substrate, in their habitats they can be considered as dominant creatures, but they are often a source of prey for Carcharhinidae such as the lemon shark. Many organisms adapted to deep-water pressure cannot survive in the parts of the water column. The pressure difference can be very significant, because light does not penetrate very deep into ocean-water, the energy source for the benthic ecosystem is often organic matter from higher up in the water column that drifts down to the depths. This dead and decaying matter sustains the benthic food chain, most organisms in the zone are scavengers or detritivores. Some microorganisms use chemosynthesis to produce biomass, Benthic organisms can be divided into two categories based on whether they make their home on the ocean floor or an inch or two into the ocean floor. Those living on the surface of the floor are known as epifauna. Those who live burrowed into the floor are known as infauna
29.
Meat
–
Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and killed animals for meat since prehistoric times, the advent of civilization allowed the domestication of animals such as chickens, sheep, pigs and cattle. This eventually led to their use in production on an industrial scale with the aid of slaughterhouses. Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat and it is edible raw, but is normally eaten after it has been cooked and seasoned or processed in a variety of ways. Unprocessed meat will spoil or rot within hours or days as a result of infection with and decomposition by bacteria, most often, meat refers to skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as offal. The word meat comes from the Old English word mete, which referred to food in general, the term is related to mad in Danish, mat in Swedish and Norwegian, and matur in Icelandic and Faroese, which also mean food. The word mete also exists in Old Frisian to denote important food, differentiating it from swiets, paleontological evidence suggests that meat constituted a substantial proportion of the diet of even the earliest humans. Early hunter-gatherers depended on the hunting of large animals such as bison. Several breeds of sheep were established in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt by 3500–3000 BC, today, more than 200 sheep-breeds exist. Cattle were domesticated in Mesopotamia after settled agriculture was established about 5000 BC, modern domesticated cattle fall into the groups Bos taurus and Bos indicus, both descended from the now-extinct aurochs. The breeding of cattle, cattle optimized for meat production as opposed to animals best suited for draught or dairy purposes. Domestic pigs, which are descended from boars, are known to have existed about 2500 BC in modern-day Hungary and in Troy, earlier pottery from Jericho. Pork sausages and hams were of commercial importance in Greco-Roman times. Pigs continue to be bred intensively as they are being optimized to produce meat best suited for meat products. Other animals are or have raised or hunted for their flesh. The type of meat consumed varies much between different cultures, changes over time, depending on such as tradition and the availability of the animals. The amount and kind of meat consumed also varies by income, horses are commonly eaten in France, Italy, Germany and Japan, among other countries. Horses and other mammals such as reindeer were hunted during the late Paleolithic in western Europe
30.
Oil
–
An oil is any neutral, nonpolar chemical substance that is a viscous liquid at ambient temperatures and is both hydrophobic and lipophilic. Oils have a carbon and hydrogen content and are usually flammable. The general definition of oil includes classes of compounds that may be otherwise unrelated in structure, properties. Oils may be animal, vegetable, or petrochemical in origin and they are used for food, fuel, medical purposes, lubrication, and the manufacture of many types of paints, plastics, and other materials. Specially prepared oils are used in religious ceremonies and rituals as purifying agents. First attested in English 1176, the oil comes from Old French oile, from Latin oleum, which in turn comes from the Greek ἔλαιον, olive oil, oil. The earliest attested forms of the word are the Mycenaean Greek
31.
International Union for Conservation of Nature
–
The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, lobbying. IUCNs mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of resources is equitable. Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to equality, poverty alleviation. Unlike other international NGOs, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation and it tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, and through lobbying and partnerships. The organization is best known to the public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List. IUCN has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations, some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries and its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several conventions on nature conservation. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature, in the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its relations with the business sector have caused controversy. It was previously called the International Union for Protection of Nature, establishment In 1947, the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen. It is considered to be the first government-organized non-governmental organization, the initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. At the time of its founding IUPN was the international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years. Its secretariat was located in Brussels and its first work program focused on saving species and habitats, increasing and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were closely associated and they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of endangered species was drawn up for the first time
32.
CITES
–
CITES is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975. In order to ensure that the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was not violated, as of 2015, Secretary-General of the CITES Secretariat is John E. Scanlon. CITES is one of the largest and oldest conservation and sustainable use agreements in existence, participation is voluntary, and countries that have agreed to be bound by the Convention are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties, it does not take the place of national laws, rather it provides a framework respected by each Party, which must adopt their own domestic legislation to implement CITES at the national level. Often, domestic legislation is either non-existent, or with penalties with the gravity of the crime, funding for the activities of the Secretariat and Conference of the Parties meetings comes from a Trust Fund derived from Party contributions. Trust Fund money is not available to Parties to improve implementation or compliance and these activities, and all those outside Secretariat activities must find external funding, mostly from donor countries and regional organizations such as the European Union. The Secretariat, when informed of an infraction by a Party, the Secretariat will give the Party time to respond to the allegations and may provide technical assistance to prevent further infractions. Other actions the Convention itself does not provide for but that derive from subsequent COP resolutions may be taken against the offending Party, infractions may include negligence with respect to permit issuing, excessive trade, lax enforcement, and failing to produce annual reports. As of 2013 the demand was massive and had expanded to thousands of species previously considered unremarkable. The text of the Convention was finalized at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington, united States, on 3 March 1973. It was then open for signature until 31 December 1974 and it entered into force after the 10th ratification by a signatory country, on 1 July 1975. Countries that signed the Convention become Parties by ratifying, accepting or approving it, by the end of 2003, all signatory countries had become Parties. States that were not signatories may become Parties by acceding to the Convention, as of October 2016, the Convention has 183 parties, including 182 states and the European Union. The CITES Convention includes provisions and rules for trade with non-Parties, UN observer the Holy See is also not a member. The Faroe Islands, a country in the Kingdom of Denmark, is also treated as a non-Party to CITES. The REIO can vote at CITES meetings with the number of votes representing the number of members in the REIO, at that time it entered into force only for those States that had accepted the amendment. The amended text of the Convention will apply automatically to any State that becomes a Party after 29 November 2013, for States that became party to the Convention before that date and have not accepted the amendment, it will enter into force 60 days after they accept it
33.
Human impact on the environment
–
Human impact on the environment or anthropogenic impact on the environment includes impacts on biophysical environments, biodiversity, and other resources. The term anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human activity, the atmospheric scientist Paul Crutzen introduced the term Anthropocene in the mid-1970s. The term is used in the context of pollution emissions that are produced as a result of human activities but applies broadly to all major human impacts on the environment. Environmental impacts caused by the application of technology are often perceived as unavoidable for several reasons, third, according to the second law of thermodynamics, order can be increased within a system only by increasing disorder or entropy outside the system. Thus, technologies can create “order” in the economy only at the expense of increasing “disorder” in the environment. According to a number of studies, increased entropy is likely to be correlated to environmental impacts. The environmental impact of agriculture based on the wide variety of agricultural practices employed around the world. Ultimately, the impact depends on the production practices of the system used by farmers. The connection between emissions into the environment and the system is indirect, as it also depends on other climate variables such as rainfall. An example of a means-based indicator would be the quality of groundwater, an indicator reflecting the loss of nitrate to groundwater would be effect-based. The environmental impact of agriculture involves a variety of factors from the soil, to water, the air, animal and soil diversity, plants, and the food itself. Some of the issues that are related to agriculture are climate change, deforestation, genetic engineering, irrigation problems, pollutants, soil degradation. These conservation issues are part of conservation, and are addressed in fisheries science programs. There is a gap between how many fish are available to be caught and humanity’s desire to catch them, a problem that gets worse as the world population grows. The journal Science published a study in November 2006, which predicted that, at prevailing trends. Many countries, such as Tonga, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, the impacts stem from the changed hydrological conditions owing to the installation and operation of the scheme. An irrigation scheme draws water from the river and distributes it over the irrigated area. These may be called direct effects, effects on soil and water quality are indirect and complex, and subsequent impacts on natural, ecological and socio-economic conditions are intricate
34.
Evolution of sirenians
–
Sirenia is the order of placental mammals which comprises modern sea cows and their extinct relatives. They are the only extant herbivorous marine mammals and the group of herbivorous mammals to have become completely aquatic. Sirenians are thought to have a 50-million-year-old fossil record and they attained modest diversity during the Oligocene and Miocene, but have since declined as a result of climatic cooling, oceanographic changes, and human interference. Sirenians, along with Proboscidea, group together with the extinct Desmostylia, Tethytheria is thought to have evolved from primitive hoofed mammals along the shores of the ancient Tethys Ocean. Tethytheria, combined with Hyracoidea, forms a clade called Paenungulata, Paenungulata and Tethytheria are among the least controversial mammalian clades, with strong support from morphological and molecular interpretations. The ancestry of Sirenia is remote from that of Cetacea and Pinnipedia, the first appearance of sirenians in the fossil record was during the early Eocene, and by the late Eocene, sirenians had significantly diversified. Inhabitants of rivers, estuaries, and nearshore waters, they were able to spread rapidly. The most primitive sirenian known to date, Prorastomus, was found in Jamaica, the first known quadrupedal sirenian was Pezosiren from the early Eocene. The earliest known sea cows, of the families Prorastomidae and Protosirenidae, are confined to the Eocene, and were about the size of a pig, four-legged amphibious creatures. The last of the families to appear, Trichechidae, apparently arose from early dugongids in the late Eocene or early Oligocene. Since sirenians first evolved, they have been herbivores, likely depending on seagrasses, to the present, almost all have remained tropical, marine and angiosperm consumers. Sea cows are shallow divers with large lungs and they have heavy skeletons to help them stay submerged, the bones are pachyostotic and osteosclerotic, especially the ribs which are often found as fossils. Eocene sirenians, like Mesozoic mammals but in contrast to other Cenozoic ones, have five instead of four premolars, whether this condition is truly a primitive retention in sirenians is still under debate. The most easily identifiable parts of skeletons are the skull and mandible, especially the frontal. With the exception of a pair of tusk-like first upper incisors present in most species, front teeth are lacking in all, in Perrin WF, Würsig B, Thewissen JG. Diversity, Evolution, and Adaptation of Sirenians and Other Marine Mammals, return to the Sea, The Life and Evolutionary Times of Marine Mammals. Berta A, Sumich JL, Kovacs KK.5, Sirenian and Other Marine Mammals, Evolution and Systematics. Marsh H, OShea TJ, Reynolds JE III, affinities, origins and diversity of the Sirenia through time
35.
Malay language
–
Malay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It has a status in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia. As the Bahasa Kebangsaan or Bahasa Nasional of several states, Standard Malay has various official names, in Singapore and Brunei it is called Bahasa Melayu, in Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia, and in Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia and is designated the Bahasa Persatuan/Pemersatu. However, in areas of central to southern Sumatra where the language is indigenous, Indonesians refer to it as Bahasa Melayu and consider it one of their regional languages. There are also several Malay trade and creole languages which are based on a lingua franca derived from Classical Malay, as well as Macassar Malay, Malay historical linguists agree on the likelihood of the Malay homeland being in western Borneo stretching to the Bruneian coast. A form known as Proto-Malay language was spoken in Borneo at least by 1000 BCE and was, it has been argued, the ancestral language of all subsequent Malayan languages. The history of the Malay language can be divided into five periods, Old Malay, the Transitional Period, the Malacca Period, Late Modern Malay and it is not clear that Old Malay was actually the ancestor of Classical Malay, but this is thought to be quite possible. Old Malay was influenced by Sanskrit literary language of Classical India, Sanskrit loanwords can be found in Old Malay vocabulary. Batenburg on November 29,1920 at Kedukan Bukit, South Sumatra, on the banks of the Tatang and it is a small stone of 45 by 80 centimetres. The earliest surviving manuscript in Malay is the Tanjong Tanah Law in post-Pallava letters and this 14th-century pre-Islamic legal text produced in the Adityawarman era of Dharmasraya, a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that arose after the end of Srivijayan rule in Sumatra. The laws were for the Minangkabau people, who still live in the highlands of Sumatra. The Malay language came into use as the lingua franca of the Malacca Sultanate. During this period, the Malay language developed rapidly under the influence of Islamic literature, the development changed the nature of the language with massive infusion of Arabic, Malayalam and Sanskrit vocabularies, called Classical Malay. Under the Sultanate of Malacca the language evolved into a form recognisable to speakers of modern Malay, however, there is no connection between Malaccan Malay as used on Riau and the Riau vernacular. One of the oldest surviving letters written in Malay is a letter from Sultan Abu Hayat of Ternate, Maluku Islands in present-day Indonesia, the letter is addressed to the king of Portugal, following contact with Portuguese explorer Francisco Serrão. The letters show sign of non-native usage, the Ternateans used the unrelated Ternate language, Malay was used solely as a lingua franca for inter-ethnic communications. Malay is a member of the Austronesian family of languages, which includes languages from Southeast Asia, malagasy, a geographic outlier spoken in Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, is also a member of this language family. Although each language of the family is mutually unintelligible, their similarities are rather striking, many roots have come virtually unchanged from their common ancestor, Proto-Austronesian language
36.
Carl Linnaeus
–
Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
37.
Type species
–
A similar concept is used for suprageneric groups called a type genus. In botanical nomenclature, these terms have no standing under the code of nomenclature. In botany, the type of a name is a specimen which is also the type of a species name. The species name that has that type can also be referred to as the type of the genus name, names of genus and family ranks, the various subdivisions of those ranks, and some higher-rank names based on genus names, have such types. In bacteriology, a species is assigned for each genus. Every named genus or subgenus in zoology, whether or not currently recognized as valid, is associated with a type species. In practice, however, there is a backlog of untypified names defined in older publications when it was not required to specify a type, a type species is both a concept and a practical system that is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals. The type species represents the species and thus definition for a particular genus name. In the Glossary, type species is defined as The nominal species that is the type of a nominal genus or subgenus. The type species permanently attaches a formal name to a genus by providing just one species within that genus to which the name is permanently linked. The species name in turn is fixed, in theory, to a type specimen, for example, the type species for the land snail genus Monacha is Monacha cartusiana. That genus is placed within the family Hygromiidae. The type genus for that family is the genus Hygromia, the concept of the type species in zoology was introduced by Pierre André Latreille. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature states that the name of the type species should always be cited. It gives an example in Article 67.1, Astacus marinus Fabricius,1775 was later designated as the type species of the genus Homarus, thus giving it the name Homarus marinus. However, the species of Homarus should always be cited using its original name. 3, the type of the genus name Elodes is quoted as the type of the species name Hypericum aegypticum, Glossary of scientific naming Genetypes – genetic sequence data from type specimens. Holotype Paratype Principle of Typification Type Type genus
38.
John Edward Gray
–
John Edward Gray, FRS was a British zoologist. He was the brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray. Gray was Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum in London from 1840 until Christmas 1874 and he published several catalogues of the museum collections that included comprehensive discussions of animal groups as well as descriptions of new species. He improved the zoological collections to make them amongst the best in the world, Gray was born in Walsall, but his family soon moved to London, where Gray studied medicine. He assisted his father in writing The Natural Arrangement of British Plants, after being blackballed by the Linnean Society he turned his interest from botany to zoology. He began his career by volunteering to collect insects for the British Museum at age 15. He officially joined the Zoological Department in 1824 to help John George Children catalog the reptile collection, in 1840 he took over from Children as Keeper of Zoology, which he continued for 35 years, publishing well over 1000 papers. He named many species, genera, subfamilies, and families. During this period he collaborated with Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, the natural history artist. Knowsley Park, near Liverpool, had been founded by Edward Stanley, Gray married Maria Emma Smith in 1826. She helped him with his work, especially with her drawings. In 1833, he was a founder of what became the Royal Entomological Society of London, during his fifty years employed at the British Museum Gray wrote nearly 500 papers, including many descriptions of species new to science. He was also active in malacology, the study of molluscs, on his death he was buried at St Marys Church, Lewisham. 1821, On the natural arrangement of Vertebrose Animals,1824, A revision of the family Equidae. 1824, On the natural arrangement of the pulmonobranchous Mollusca, annals of Philosophy, new series 8, 107–109. 1825, A list and description of species of shells not taken notice of by Lamarck. 1825, An outline of an attempt at the disposition of the Mammalia into tribes and families with a list of the genera apparently appertaining to each tribe, narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia. Performed between the years 1818 and 1822, with an Appendix, containing various subjects relating to hydrography and natural history
39.
George Gaylord Simpson
–
George Gaylord Simpson was an American paleontologist. He was an expert on extinct mammals and their intercontinental migrations and he anticipated such concepts as punctuated equilibrium and dispelled the myth that the evolution of the horse was a linear process culminating in the modern Equus caballus. He coined the word hypodigm in 1940, and published extensively on the taxonomy of fossil, Simpson was influentially, and incorrectly, opposed to Alfred Wegeners theory of continental drift. He was Professor of Zoology at Columbia University, and Curator of the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History from 1945 to 1959. He was Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University from 1959 to 1970, in 1943 Simpson was awarded the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. For his work, Tempo and mode in evolution, he was awarded the Academys Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal in 1944 and he was awarded the Linnean Society of Londons prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958. At the University of Arizona, Tucson, the Gould-Simpson Building was named for Arizona geologist Lawrence M. Gould, Simpson was noted for his work in the field of paleogeography and continental evolution relationships. In the 1960s, Simpson rubbished the then-nascent science of exobiology and he was raised as a Christian but later became an agnostic. Molecules and monkeys, George Gaylord Simpson and the challenge of molecular evolution, History & Philosophy of the Life Sciences. Laporte, L. O. F. Simpson on species, journal of the History of Biology. Olson, E. C. George Gaylord Simpson, June 16, laporte, Léo F. George Gaylord Simpson as mentor and apologist for paleoanthropology. Laporte, L. F. Simpsons Tempo and Mode in Evolution revisited, proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. Gershenowitz, H. George Gaylord Simpson and Lamarck, indian journal of history of science. George Gaylord Simpson — full and comprehensive biography by L. F. George Gaylord Simpson — Open Library
40.
Elephant
–
Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Three species are recognised, the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, Elephants are scattered throughout sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Elephantidae is the surviving family of the order Proboscidea, other, now extinct, members of the order include deinotheres, gomphotheres, mammoths. Male African elephants are the largest extant terrestrial animals and can reach a height of 4 m, all elephants have several distinctive features, the most notable of which is a long trunk or proboscis, used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water, and grasping objects. Their incisors grow into tusks, which can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects, Elephants large ear flaps help to control their body temperature. Their pillar-like legs can carry their great weight, African elephants have larger ears and concave backs while Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs. Elephants are herbivorous and can be found in different habitats including savannahs, forests, deserts and they prefer to stay near water. They are considered to be keystone species due to their impact on their environments, other animals tend to keep their distance from elephants while predators, such as lions, tigers, hyenas, and wild dogs, usually target only young elephants. Females tend to live in groups, which can consist of one female with her calves or several related females with offspring. The groups are led by a known as the matriarch. Elephants have a society in which multiple family groups come together to socialise. Males leave their family groups when they reach puberty and may live alone or with other males, calves are the centre of attention in their family groups and rely on their mothers for as long as three years. Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild and they communicate by touch, sight, smell, and sound, elephants use infrasound, and seismic communication over long distances. Elephant intelligence has been compared with that of primates and cetaceans and they appear to have self-awareness and show empathy for dying or dead individuals of their kind. African elephants are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature while the Asian elephant is classed as endangered, one of the biggest threats to elephant populations is the ivory trade, as the animals are poached for their ivory tusks. Other threats to elephants include habitat destruction and conflicts with local people. Elephants are used as working animals in Asia, in the past, they were used in war, today, they are often controversially put on display in zoos, or exploited for entertainment in circuses. Elephants are highly recognisable and have featured in art, folklore, religion, literature
41.
Monophyly
–
In common cladistic usage, a monophyletic group is a taxon which forms a clade, meaning that it consists of an ancestral species and all its descendants. The term is synonymous with the uncommon term holophyly, monophyletic groups are typically characterized by shared derived characteristics. Monophyly is contrasted with paraphyly and polyphyly, as shown in the second diagram, a paraphyletic group consists of all of the descendants of a common ancestor minus one or more monophyletic groups. These definitions have taken time to be accepted. When the cladistic school of thought became mainstream in the 1960s, indeed, taxonomists sometimes used terms without defining them, leading to confusion in the early literature, a confusion which persists. On the broadest scale, definitions fall into two groups, willi Hennig defined monophyly as groups based on synapomorphy. Some authors have sought to define monophyly to include paraphyly as any two or more groups sharing a common ancestor, however, this broader definition encompasses both monophyletic and paraphyletic groups as defined above. Therefore, most scientists today restrict the term monophyletic to refer to groups consisting of all the descendants of one common ancestor, however, when considering taxonomic groups such as genera and species, the most appropriate nature of their common ancestor is unclear. Assuming that it would be one individual or mating pair is unrealistic for sexually reproducing species, some argue that using a broader definition, such as a species and all its descendants, does not really work to define a genus. According to D. M. Glossary of scientific naming Clade Paraphyly Polyphyly Crown group Abbey, graphical explanation of basic phylogenetic terms. Carr, Steven M. Concepts of monophyly, polyphyly & paraphyly
42.
Hyrax
–
Hyraxes, also called dassies, are small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea. Hyraxes are well-furred, rotund animals with short tails, typically, they measure between 30 and 70 cm long and weigh between 2 and 5 kg. They are superficially similar to pikas or other rodents, but are closely related to elephants. Four extant species are recognised, the hyrax, the yellow-spotted rock hyrax, the western tree hyrax. Their distribution is limited to Africa and the Middle East, unlike most other browsing and grazing animals, they do not use the incisors at the front of the jaw for slicing off leaves and grass, rather, they use the molar teeth at the side of the jaw. The two upper incisors are large and tusk-like, and grow continuously through life, similar to rodents, the four lower incisors are deeply grooved comb teeth. A diastema occurs between the incisors and the cheek teeth, the dental formula for hyraxes is 1.0.4.32.0.4.3. Their mandibular motions are similar to chewing cud, but the hyrax is physically incapable of regurgitation as in the even-toed ungulates. This behaviour is referred to in a passage in the Bible which describes hyraxes as chewing the cud and this chewing behaviour may be a form of agonistic behaviour when the animal feels threatened. Hyraxes inhabit rocky terrain across sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and their feet have rubbery pads with numerous sweat glands, which may help the animal maintain its grip when quickly moving up steep, rocky surfaces. Hyraxes have stumpy toes with hoof-like nails, there are four toes on each front foot and they also have efficient kidneys, retaining water so that they can better survive in arid environments. Female hyraxes give birth to up to four young after a period between seven and eight months, depending on the species. The young are weaned at one to five months of age, hyraxes live in small family groups, with a single male that aggressively defends the territory from rivals. Where living space is abundant, the male may have access to multiple groups of females. The remaining males live solitary lives, often on the periphery of areas controlled by larger males, hyraxes have highly charged myoglobin, which has been inferred to reflect an aquatic ancestry. Hyraxes share several characteristics with elephants and the Sirenia, which have resulted in them all being placed in the taxon Paenungulata. Male hyraxes lack a scrotum and their testicles remain tucked up in their abdominal cavity next to the kidneys, the same as elephants, manatees, the tusks of hyraxes develop from the incisor teeth as do the tusks of elephants, most mammalian tusks develop from the canines. Hyraxes, like elephants, have flattened nails on the tips of their digits, the words rabbit, hare, or coney appear as terms for the hyrax in some English translations of the Bible
43.
Aardvark
–
The aardvark is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species. Unlike other insectivores, it has a long snout, which is used to sniff out food. It roams over most of the southern two-thirds of the African continent, a nocturnal feeder, it subsists on ants and termites, which it will dig out of their hills using its sharp claws and powerful legs. It also digs to create burrows in which to live and rear its young and it receives a least concern rating from the IUCN, although its numbers seem to be decreasing. The aardvark is sometimes colloquially called African ant bear, anteater, the name aardvark comes from earlier Afrikaans and means earth pig or ground pig, because of its burrowing habits. The name Orycteropus means burrowing foot, and the name refers to Africa. The name of the order, Tubulidentata, comes from the tubule-style teeth. The aardvark is not closely related to the South American anteater, despite sharing some characteristics, the similarities are based on convergent evolution. The closest living relatives of the aardvark are the elephant shrews, tenrecs, along with the sirenians, hyraxes, elephants, and their extinct relatives, these animals form the superorder Afrotheria. Based on fossils, Bryan Patterson has concluded that early relatives of the aardvark appeared in Africa around the end of the Paleocene. The ptolemaiidans, a clade of mammals with uncertain affinities, may actually be stem-aardvarks. The first unambiguous tubulidentate was probably Myorycteropus africanus from Kenyan Miocene deposits, the earliest example from the Orycteropus genus was the Orycteropus mauritanicus found in Algeria in deposits from the middle Miocene, with an equally aged version found in Kenya. Fossils from the aardvark have been dated to 5 million years, and have been located throughout Europe, the mysterious Pleistocene Plesiorycteropus from Madagascar was originally thought to be a tubulidentate that was descended from ancestors that entered the island during the Eocene. The aardvark is vaguely pig-like in appearance and its body is stout with a prominently arched back and is sparsely covered with coarse hairs. The limbs are of length, with the rear legs being longer than the forelegs. The front feet have lost the pollex, resulting in four toes, each toe bears a large, robust nail which is somewhat flattened and shovel-like, and appears to be intermediate between a claw and a hoof. Whereas the aardvark is considered digitigrade, it appears at time to be plantigrade and this confusion happens because when it squats it stands on its soles
44.
Eutheria
–
Eutheria is one of two mammalian clades with extant members that diverged in the Early Cretaceous or perhaps the Late Jurassic. Except for the Virginia opossum, from North America, which is a metatherian, all post-Miocene mammals indigenous to Europe, Africa, Asia, extant eutherians, their last common ancestor, and all extinct descendants of that ancestor are members of Placentalia. Eutherians are distinguished from noneutherians by various phenotypic traits of the feet, ankles, jaws, all extant eutherians lack epipubic bones, which are present in all other living mammals. This allows for expansion of the abdomen during pregnancy, the oldest known eutherian species is Juramaia sinensis, dated at 160 million years ago from the Jurassic in China. Eutheria was named in 1872 by Theodore Gill, in 1880 Thomas Henry Huxley defined it to encompass a more broadly defined group than Placentalia, distinguishing features are, an enlarged malleolus at the bottom of the tibia, the larger of the two shin bones. Various features of jaws and teeth, eutheria contains several extinct genera as well as larger groups, many with complicated taxonomic histories still not fully understood. Members of the Adapisoriculidae, Cimolesta and Leptictida have been placed within the out-dated placental group Insectivora. However, more recent studies have suggested these enigmatic taxa represent stem group eutherians, the weakly favoured cladogram favours Boreoeuthearia as a basal Eutherian clade as sister to the Atlantogenata
45.
Eocene
–
The Eocene Epoch, lasting from 56 to 33.9 million years ago, is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a period in which the concentration of the carbon isotope 13C in the atmosphere was exceptionally low in comparison with the more common isotope 12C. As with other periods, the strata that define the start and end of the epoch are well identified. The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek ἠώς and καινός, the Eocene epoch is conventionally divided into early, middle, and late subdivisions. The corresponding rocks are referred to as lower, middle, the Ypresian stage constitutes the lower, the Priabonian stage the upper, and the Lutetian and Bartonian stages are united as the middle Eocene. The Eocene Epoch contained a variety of different climate conditions that includes the warmest climate in the Cenozoic Era. During this period of time, little to no ice was present on Earth with a difference in temperature from the equator to the poles. Following the maximum was a descent into an icehouse climate from the Eocene Optimum to the Eocene-Oligocene transition at 34 million years ago. During this decrease ice began to reappear at the poles, greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide and methane, played a significant role during the Eocene in controlling the surface temperature. For the early Eocene there is discussion on how much carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere. This is due to numerous proxies representing different atmospheric carbon dioxide content, for contrast, today the carbon dioxide levels are at 400 ppm or 0. 04%. At about the beginning of the Eocene Epoch the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere more or less doubled. During the early Eocene, methane was another gas that had a drastic effect on the climate. In comparison to carbon dioxide, methane has much effect on temperature as methane is ~34 times more effective per molecule than carbon dioxide on a 100-year scale. Most of the methane released to the atmosphere during this period of time would have been from wetlands, swamps, the atmospheric methane concentration today is 0. 000179% or 1.79 ppmv. Due to the climate and sea level rise associated with the early Eocene, more wetlands, more forests. Comparing the early Eocene production of methane to current levels of atmospheric methane, biogenic production of methane produces carbon dioxide and water vapor along with the methane, as well as yielding infrared radiation
