1.
Canadian Prairies
–
The Canadian Prairies is a region in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, in a more restricted sense, the term may also refer only to the areas of those provinces covered by prairie, their portions of the physiographic region known as the Interior Plains. Prairie also covers portions of northeastern British Columbia, though that province is not included in the region in a political sense. Northern short grasslands in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan, northern tall grasslands in southern Manitoba, and Aspen parkland, which covers central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba. The Prairie starts from north of Edmonton, it covers the three provinces east to the Manitoba-Minnesota border, the Canadian prairies typically experience about 12 to 15 in of annual precipitation in the semi-arid areas while they experience 16 to 20 in in the continental regions. Manitoba is generally the coldest and most humid of the three prairie provinces, the area is also prone to thunderstorms in the spring and summer. Some of these storms, especially further south, are enough for tornadoes. The plains comprise both prairies and forests while, with the exception of Arctic tundra along the Hudson Bay, three main grassland types occur in the Canadian prairies, tallgrass prairie, mixed grass prairie, and fescue prairie. Each has a geographic distribution and characteristic mix of plant species. All but a fraction of one percent of the tallgrass prairie has been converted to cropland, what remains occurs on the 6,000 km2 plain centred in the Red River Valley in Manitoba. Mixed prairie is more common and is part of the dry plains that extend from Canada south to the U. S. state of Texas. More than half of the native grassland in the Canadian prairies is mixed. Though widespread in southern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, because of extensive cattle grazing, fescue prairie occurs in the moister regions, occupying the northern extent of the prairies in central and southwestern Alberta and west-central Saskatchewan. The southwestern Canadian prairies, supporting brown and black soil types, are semi-arid and highly prone to frequent, the zones around the cities of Regina and immediately east of Calgary are also very dry. Most heavy precipitation quickly dissipates by the time it passes Cheadle on its way heading east, in an average year, southern Saskatchewan receives between 30–51 cm of precipitation, with the majority falling between April and June. Frost from October to April limits the growing season for certain crops, the eastern section of the Canadian prairies in Manitoba is well watered with several large lakes such as Lake Winnipeg and several large rivers. The area also gets reasonable amounts of precipitation, the middle sections of Alberta and Saskatchewan are also wetter than the south and have better farmland, despite having a shorter frost-free season. The areas around Edmonton and Saskatoon are especially notable as good farmland, both lie in the northern area of the Pallisers Triangle, and are within aspen parkland a transitional prairie ecozone
Canadian Prairies
–
Farm on the prairies near
Hartney, Manitoba
Canadian Prairies
–
Native grasslands in southern Saskatchewan
Canadian Prairies
–
Gimli, Manitoba is located on
Lake Winnipeg, a very large fresh water lake in the eastern prairies.
Canadian Prairies
–
A canola field in the Qu'Appelle Valley in Southern Saskatchewan.
2.
Llano Estacado
–
Llano Estacado commonly known as the Staked Plain, is a region in the Southwestern United States that encompasses parts of eastern New Mexico and northwestern Texas. The Llano Estacado lies at the end of the Western High Plains ecoregion of the Great Plains of North America. The Canadian River forms the Llanos northern boundary, separating it from the rest of the High Plains, the Llano has no natural southern boundary, instead blending into the Edwards Plateau near Big Spring, Texas. This geographic area stretches about 250 miles north to south, and 150 miles east to west and it covers all or part of 33 Texas counties and four New Mexico counties. The landscape is dotted by numerous small lakes, depressions that seasonally fill with water. The Llano Estacado has a semiarid climate, characterized by long, hot summers. Rainfall is very low, the region receives fewer than 23 in of rainfall annually. High summer temperatures mean most of the amount of precipitation is lost to evaporation. The Texas State Historical Society states it covers all or part of 33 Texas counties, six fewer than as depicted by a US Geological Survey map, interstate 40 crosses the northern portion from east of Amarillo to Tucumcari, New Mexico. There was not a stone, nor bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, in the early 18th century, the Comanches expanded their territory into the Llano Estacado, displacing the Apaches who had previously lived there. The region became part of the Comancheria, a Comanche stronghold until the defeat of the tribe in the late 19th century. Rachel Plummer, while a captive of the Comanche in 1836, after his 1852 expedition to explore the headwaters of the Red and Colorado Rivers, General Randolph Marcy wrote, a tree, shrub, or any other herbage to intercept the vision. The almost total absence of water causes all animals to shun it, in his report for the United States Army, When we were upon the high table-land, a view presented itself as boundless as the ocean. Not a tree, shrub, or any object, either animate or inanimate, relieved the dreary monotony of the prospect. The great Sahara of North America and it is a region almost as vast and trackless as the ocean—a land where no man, either savage or civilized permanently abides. A treeless, desolate waste of uninhabitable solitude, which always has been, during the 1854 Marcy-Neighbors expedition, Dr. George Getz Shumard noted, Beyond the mountain appeared a line of high bluffs which in the distance looked like clouds floating upon the horizon. Herman Lehmann was captured by the Apache in 1870 and described the Llano Estacado as the country was open, but not exactly a desert. Robert G. Carter described it in 1871 while pursuing Quanah Parker with Ranald S. Mackenzie. all were over and out of the canyon upon what appeared to be a vast, almost illimitable expanse of prairie
Llano Estacado
–
Northwest
escarpment of the Llano Estacado
Llano Estacado
–
Shaded relief image of the Llano Estacado. The
escarpments marking the eastern edge of the Llano are visible, running roughly in a north-south line through the middle of the
Panhandle. The western edge is on the New Mexico side of the border, with the Texas-New Mexico border running somewhat closer to the western edge of the Llano than to the eastern.
Llano Estacado
–
Caprock Escarpment south of
Ralls, Texas
Llano Estacado
–
The northern edge of the Llano Estacado in New Mexico
3.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
United States
–
Native Americans meeting with Europeans, 1764
United States
–
Flag
United States
–
The signing of the
Mayflower Compact, 1620.
United States
–
The
Declaration of Independence: the
Committee of Five presenting their draft to the
Second Continental Congress in 1776
4.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
5.
Plain
–
In geography, a plain is a flat, sweeping landmass that generally does not change much in elevation. Plains occur as lowlands along the bottoms of valleys or on the doorsteps of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands. In a valley, a plain is enclosed on two sides but in other cases a plain may be delineated by a complete or partial ring of hills, where a geological region contains more than one plain, they may be connected by a pass. Coastal plains would mostly rise from sea level until they run into elevated features such as mountains or plateaus, plains are one of the major landforms on earth, where they are present on all continents, and would cover more than one-third of the world’s land area. Plains may have formed from flowing lava, deposited by water, ice, wind, or formed by erosion by these agents from hills. Plains would generally be under the grassland, steppe, savannah or tundra biomes, in a few instances, deserts and rainforests can also be plains. Structural plains are relatively undisturbed horizontal surfaces of the Earth and they are structurally depressed areas of the world that make up some of the most extensive natural lowlands on the Earths surface. Erosional plains have been leveled by various agents of such as running water, rivers, wind and glacier which wear out the rugged surface. Plain resulting from the action of these agents of denudation are called peneplains while plains formed from wind action are called pediplains, depositional plains formed by the deposition of materials brought by various agents of transportation such as rivers, wind, waves, and glaciers. Their fertility and economic relevance depend greatly on the types of sediments that are laid down, flood plain, adjacent to a stream, river, lake or wetland that experiences occasional or periodic flooding. Scroll plain, a plain through which a river meanders with a low gradient. Lacustrine plain, a plain that originally formed in a lacustrine environment, lava plain, formed by sheets of flowing lava. Glacial plains, formed by the movement of glaciers under the force of gravity, Sandur, sandar consist mainly of stratified gravel and sand. Till plain, a plain of glacial till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the body of a glacier. Till plains are composed of unsorted material of all sizes, abyssal plain, a flat or very gently sloping area of the deep ocean basin. Planitia, the Latin word for plain, is used in the naming of plains on extraterrestrial objects, such as Hellas Planitia on Mars or Sedna Planitia on Venus
Plain
–
Curry County, eastern
New Mexico, on the North American
Great Plains
Plain
–
Los llanos, an area of
land with relatively high relief in
Venezuela
Plain
–
Corn fields in the
Wallachian Plain. The Walachian plain has thick deposits of
fertile black earth, a type of
loess
Plain
–
Part of the plain that surrounds
Lightning Ridge in
New South Wales,
Australia
6.
Prairie
–
Temperate grassland regions include the Pampas of Argentina, southern Brazil and Uruguay as well as the steppes of Eurasia. Lands typically referred to as prairie tend to be in North America, the Central Valley of California is also a prairie. The Canadian Prairies occupy vast areas of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Prairie is the French word for meadow, but the ultimate root is the Latin pratum. The formation of the North American Prairies started with the upwelling of the Rocky Mountains near Alberta, the mountains created a rain shadow that resulted in lower precipitation rates downwind, creating an environment in which most tree species will not tolerate. The parent material of most prairie soil was distributed during the last glacial advance that began about 110,000 years ago, the glaciers expanding southward scraped the landscape, picking up geologic material and leveling the terrain. As the glaciers retreated about 10,000 years ago, it deposited this material in the form of till, wind based loess deposits also form an important parent material for prairie soils. Tallgrass Prairie evolved over tens of thousands of years with the disturbances of grazing, native ungulates such as bison, elk, and white-tailed deer, roamed the expansive, diverse, plentiful grassland before European colonization of the Americas. For 10, 000-20,000 years native people used fire annually as a tool to assist in hunting, transportation, evidence of ignition sources of fire in the tallgrass prairie are overwhelmingly human as opposed to lightning. Humans, and grazing animals, were participants in the process of prairie formation. Fire has the effect on prairies of removing trees, clearing dead plant matter, fire kills the vascular tissue of trees, but not prairie, as up to 75% of the total plant biomass is below the soil surface and will re-grow from its deep roots. Without disturbance, trees will encroach on a grassland, cast shade, Prairie and widely spaced oak trees evolved to coexist in the oak savanna ecosystem. In spite of long recurrent droughts and occasional torrential rains, the grasslands of the Great Plains were not subject to soil erosion. The root systems of native prairie grasses firmly held the soil in place to prevent run-off of soil, when the plant died, the fungi, bacteria returned its nutrients to the soil. These deep roots also helped native prairie plants reach water in even the driest conditions, the native grasses suffered much less damage from dry conditions than the farm crops currently grown. Prairie in North America is usually split into three groups, wet, mesic, and dry and they are generally characterized by tallgrass prairie, mixed, or shortgrass prairie, depending on the quality of soil and rainfall. In wet prairies the soil is very moist, including during most of the growing season. The resulting stagnant water is conducive to the formation of bogs, wet prairies have excellent farming soil. The average precipitation amount is 10-30 inches a year, mesic prairie /ˈmiːzɪk/ has good drainage, but good soil during the growing season
Prairie
–
Prairie,
Badlands National Park,
South Dakota, USA, is in the mixed grasslands region containing some species of
tall grass and some of
short grass
Prairie
–
Tallgrass prairie flora (
Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie)
Prairie
–
Prairie grasses
Prairie
–
Prairie Homestead, Milepost 213 on I-29, South Dakota (May 2010).
7.
Steppe
–
In South Africa they are referred to as Veld. The prairie is an example of a steppe, though it is not usually called such and it may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude. The term is used to denote the climate encountered in regions too dry to support a forest. The soil is typically of chernozem type, steppes are usually characterized by a semi-arid and continental climate. Extremes can be recorded in the summer of up to 45 °C and in winter, besides this huge difference between summer and winter, the differences between day and night are also very great. In the highlands of Mongolia,30 °C can be reached during the day with sub-zero °C readings at night, the mid-latitude steppes can be summarized by hot summers and cold winters, averaging 250–510 mm of precipitation per year. Precipitation level alone is not what defines a steppe climate, potential evapotranspiration must also be taken into account, the Eurasian Grass-Steppe of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands had a role in the spread of the horse, the wheel, and the Indo-European languages. The Indo-European expansion and diverse invasions of horse archer civilizations of the steppe eventually led to, the Pannonian Plain is another steppe region in eastern Europe, primarily Hungary. Another large steppe area is located in the central United States, western Canada, the shortgrass prairie steppe is the westernmost part of the Great Plains region. The Channeled Scablands in Southern British Columbia and Washington State is an example of a region in North America outside of the Great Plains. In South America, cold steppe can be found in Patagonia, relatively small steppe areas can be found in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand. In Asia, a subtropical steppe can be found in semi-arid lands that fringe the Thar Desert of the Indian subcontinent, in Australia, subtropical steppe can be found in a belt surrounding the most severe deserts of the continent and around the Musgrave Ranges. Ecology and Conservation of Steppe-land Birds by Manuel B. Morales, Santi Mañosa, Jordi Camprodón, international Symposium on Ecology and Conservation of steppe-land birds
Steppe
–
The
Eurasian Steppe Belt (in red on the map), a path of passage for cultures - a possible origin for the
Indo-European languages, the
domesticated horse, and the
wheel and
chariot.
Steppe
–
Steppe in
Ukraine
Steppe
–
Steppe in
Kazakhstan
Steppe
–
Steppe in
Mongolia
8.
Grassland
–
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses, however sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica, grasslands are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. For example, there are five terrestrial ecoregion classifications of the grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. Grassland vegetation can vary in height from short, as in chalk grassland, to quite tall, as in the case of North American tallgrass prairie, South American grasslands. Woody plants, shrubs or trees, may occur on some grasslands – forming savannas, scrubby grassland or semi-wooded grassland, as flowering plants and trees, grasses grow in great concentrations in climates where annual rainfall ranges between 500 and 900 mm. The root systems of perennial grasses and forbs form complex mats that hold the soil in place, graminoids are among the most versatile life forms. Existing forest biomes declined, and grasslands became much more widespread, following the Pleistocene ice ages, grasslands expanded in range in the hotter, drier climates, and began to become the dominant land feature worldwide. Grasslands often occur in areas with annual precipitation between 600 mm and 1,500 mm and average annual temperatures ranges from −5 and 20 °C. However, some occur in colder and hotter climatic conditions. Grassland can exist in habitats that are disturbed by grazing or fire. Grasslands dominated by unsown wild-plant communities can be called natural or semi-natural habitats. The majority of grasslands in temperate climates are semi-natural and these grasslands contain many species of wild plants – grasses, sedges, rushes and herbs –25 or more species per square metre is not unusual. Chalk downlands in England can support over 40 species per square metre, in many parts of the world, few examples have escaped agricultural improvement. For example, original North American prairie grasslands or lowland wildflower meadows in the UK are now rare and their associated wild flora equally threatened. Some of the worlds largest expanses of grassland are found in African savanna, grasslands may occur naturally or as the result of human activity. Grasslands created and maintained by human activity are called anthropogenic grasslands, hunting peoples around the world often set regular fires to maintain and extend grasslands, and prevent fire-intolerant trees and shrubs from taking hold. The tallgrass prairies in the U. S. Midwest may have been extended eastward into Illinois, Indiana, much grassland in northwest Europe developed after the Neolithic Period, when people gradually cleared the forest to create areas for raising their livestock. Grassland types by Schimper, meadow steppe savannah Grassland types by Ellenberg & Mueller-Dombois, terrestrial herbaceous communities A. Savannas and related grasslands B
Grassland
–
Grassland in
Magallanes Region,
Patagonia, Chile
Grassland
–
Grassland in the
Antelope Valley,
California
Grassland
–
The
Konza tallgrass prairie in the
Flint Hills of northeastern
Kansas
Grassland
–
A grassland in the
Philippines
9.
Mississippi River
–
The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system on the North American continent. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota, with its many tributaries, the Mississippis watershed drains all or parts of 31 U. S. states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and fifteenth largest river in the world by discharge, the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans long lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the way of life as first explorers, then settlers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. Formed from thick layers of the silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country. In recent years, the river has shown a shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel in the Delta. The word itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, see below in the History section for additional information. In addition to historical traditions shown by names, there are at least two measures of a rivers identity, one being the largest branch, and the other being the longest branch. Using the largest-branch criterion, the Ohio would be the branch of the Lower Mississippi. Using the longest-branch criterion, the Middle Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock-Hellroaring Creek River would be the main branch and its length of at least 3,745 mi is exceeded only by the Nile, the Amazon, and perhaps the Yangtze River among the longest rivers in the world. The source of this waterway is at Browers Spring,8,800 feet above sea level in southwestern Montana and this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase Trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca,1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, however, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river
Mississippi River
–
Mississippi River near Fire Point in
Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa
Mississippi River
–
Detailed map of Mississippi River tributary structure
Mississippi River
–
The beginning of the Mississippi River at
Lake Itasca (2004)
Mississippi River
–
Mississippi head of navigation, Coon Rapids Dam
10.
Tallgrass prairie
–
The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. They were characteristically found in the central forest-grasslands transition, the tall grasslands, the upper Midwest forest-savanna transition. They flourished in areas with loess soils and moderate rainfall around 30 to 35 inches per year. To the east were the eastern savannas. In the northeast, where fire was infrequent and periodic windthrow represented the source of disturbance. In contrast, shortgrass prairie was typical in the western Great Plains, due to expansive agricultural land use, very little tallgrass prairie remains. Retreating glaciers deposited the parent material for soil in the form of till, i. e. unsorted sediment, wind-dropped loess and organic matter accumulated, resulting in deep levels of topsoil. Animals such as bison, elk, deer, and rabbits added nitrogen to the soil through urine, Prairie dogs, a ground squirrel-like rodent considered to be a keystone species, dug tunnels that aerated the soil and channeled water several feet below the surface. For 5,000 to 8,000 years, more than 240 million acres of prairie grasslands were a feature of the landscape. Between 1800 and 1930, the vast majority was destroyed, settlers transformed what they named the Great American Desert or The Inland Sea into farmland. Further, extensive tile drainage has changed the water content and hydrodynamics. Tallgrass prairie is capable of supporting significant biodiversity, parts of the ecoregion among the top ten ecoregions for reptiles, birds, butterflies, and tree species. Tallgrass species are found in the understory layer, oak and hickory tree species occur in some areas, but generally in moderate densities. The tallgrass prairie biome depends on fires, a form of wildfire. Tree seedlings and intrusive alien species without fire tolerance are eliminated by periodic fires, such fires may either be set by humans or started naturally by lightning. Technically, prairies have less than 5–11% tree cover, a grass-dominated plant community with 10–49% tree cover is a savanna. After the steel plow was invented by John Deere, this fertile soil became one of Americas most important resources, over 95% of the original tallgrass prairie is now farmland. In Oklahoma, the tallgrass prairie has been maintained by ranchers and they have reintroduced plains bison to the vast expanses of grass
Tallgrass prairie
–
Tallgrass Prairie,
Midewin
Tallgrass prairie
–
Bison grazing on the 158 km 2 (39,000-acre) Tallgrass Prairie Nature Preserve in Osage County, Oklahoma.
Tallgrass prairie
–
A pink wild onion (
Allium stellatum) — blooms in the Tallgrass Prairie of
Waubay Wetland Management District in
South Dakota.
11.
Rocky Mountains
–
The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the Southwestern United States. Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges, the Rocky Mountains were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate. The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks, at the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range. The first mention of their present name by a European was in the journal of Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in 1752, the Rocky Mountains are commonly defined as stretching from the Liard River in British Columbia south to the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The United States definition of the Rockies includes the Cabinet and Salish Mountains of Idaho and their counterparts north of the Kootenai River, the Columbia Mountains, are considered a separate system in Canada, lying to the west of the huge Rocky Mountain Trench. This runs the length of British Columbia from its beginnings in the middle Flathead River valley in western Montana to the bank of the Liard River. The Rockies vary in width from 70 to 300 miles, also west of the Rocky Mountain Trench, farther north and facing the Muskwa Range across the trench, are the Stikine Ranges and Omineca Mountains of the Interior Mountains system of British Columbia. A small area east of Prince George, British Columbia on the side of the Trench. In Canada geographers define three main groups of ranges, the Continental Ranges, Hart Ranges and Muskwa Ranges, the Muskwa and Hart Ranges together comprise what is known as the Northern Rockies. The western edge of the Rockies includes ranges such as the Wasatch near Salt Lake City, the Great Basin and Columbia River Plateau separate these sub-ranges from distinct ranges further to the west, most prominent among which are the Sierra Nevada, Cascade Range and Coast Mountains. The Rocky Mountain System within the United States is a United States physiographic region, the Rocky Mountains are notable for containing the highest peaks in central North America. The ranges highest peak is Mount Elbert located in Colorado at 14,440 feet above sea level, Mount Robson in British Columbia, at 12,972 feet, is the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. The Continental Divide of the Americas is located in the Rocky Mountains, triple Divide Peak in Glacier National Park is so named because water that falls on the mountain reaches not only the Atlantic and Pacific, but Hudson Bay as well. Farther north in Alberta, the Athabasca and other rivers feed the basin of the Mackenzie River, see Rivers of the Rocky Mountains for a list of rivers. Human population is not very dense in the Rocky Mountains, with an average of four people per square kilometer, however, the human population grew rapidly in the Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. The 40-year statewide increases in range from 35% in Montana to about 150% in Utah
Rocky Mountains
–
Moraine Lake, and the
Valley of the Ten Peaks,
Banff National Park,
Alberta,
Canada
Rocky Mountains
–
The Front Range of the Rocky Mountains near
Denver, Colorado
Rocky Mountains
–
The
Tetons are a rugged subrange in Wyoming
Rocky Mountains
–
Mount Robson in
British Columbia.
12.
Kansas
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Kansas /ˈkænzəs/ is a U. S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribes name is said to mean people of the wind or people of the south wind. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous, tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. When it was opened to settlement by the U. S. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided. The abolitionists eventually prevailed, and on January 29,1861, after the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. By 2015, Kansas was one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, corn, sorghum, and soybeans. Kansas, which has an area of 82,278 square miles is the 15th largest state by area and is the 34th most populous of the 50 United States with a population of 2,911,641, residents of Kansas are called Kansans, officially. Mount Sunflower is Kansass highest point at 4,041 feet, for a millennia, the land that is currently Kansas was inhabited by Native Americans. The first European to set foot in present-day Kansas was Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, in 1803, most of modern Kansas was secured by the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Southwest Kansas, however, was still a part of Spain, Mexico, from 1812 to 1821, Kansas was part of the Missouri Territory. The Santa Fe Trail traversed Kansas from 1821 to 1880, transporting manufactured goods from Missouri and silver and furs from Santa Fe, wagon ruts from the trail are still visible in the prairie today. In 1827, Fort Leavenworth became the first permanent settlement of white Americans in the future state, the Kansas–Nebraska Act became law on May 30,1854, establishing the U. S. territories of Nebraska and Kansas, and opening the area to broader settlement by whites. Kansas Territory stretched all the way to the Continental Divide and included the sites of present-day Denver, Colorado Springs, Missouri and Arkansas sent settlers into Kansas all along its eastern border. These settlers attempted to sway votes in favor of slavery, the secondary settlement of Americans in Kansas Territory were abolitionists from Massachusetts and other Free-Staters, who attempted to stop the spread of slavery from neighboring Missouri. Directly presaging the American Civil War, these forces collided, entering into skirmishes that earned the territory the name of Bleeding Kansas, Kansas was admitted to the United States as a free state on January 29,1861, making it the 34th state to enter the Union. He was roundly condemned by both the conventional Confederate military and the partisan rangers commissioned by the Missouri legislature and his application to that body for a commission was flatly rejected due to his pre-war criminal record
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Samuel Seymour's 1819 illustration of a
Kansa lodge and dance is the oldest drawing known to be done in Kansas.
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Kanopolis State Park.
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Flint Hills in Wabaunsee County
13.
Nebraska
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Nebraska /nᵻˈbræskə/ is a state that lies in both the Great Plains and the Midwestern United States. Its area is just over 77,220 sq mi with almost 1.9 million people and its largest city is Omaha, which is on the Missouri River. The state is crossed by many trails and was explored by the Lewis. Nebraska was admitted as the 37th state of the United States in 1867 and it is the only state in the United States whose legislature is unicameral and officially nonpartisan. Nebraska is composed of two major regions, the Dissected Till Plains and the Great Plains. The Dissected Till Plains is a region of rolling hills. The Great Plains occupy most of western Nebraska, characterized by treeless prairie, the state has a large agriculture sector and is a major producer of beef, pork, corn, and soybeans. Two major climatic zones are represented in Nebraska, the half of the state has a humid continental climate, and the western half. Indigenous peoples lived in the region of present-day Nebraska for thousands of years before European exploration. The historic tribes in the state included the Omaha, Missouria, Ponca, Pawnee, Otoe, when European exploration, trade, and settlement began, both Spain and France sought to control the region. In the 1690s, Spain established trade connections with the Apaches, by 1703, France had developed a regular trade with the native peoples along the Missouri River in Nebraska, and by 1719 had signed treaties with several of these peoples. After war broke out between the two countries, Spain dispatched an expedition to Nebraska under Lieutenant General Pedro de Villasur in 1720. The party was attacked and destroyed near present-day Columbus by a force of Pawnees and Otoes. The massacre of the Villasur expedition effectively put an end to Spanish exploration of Nebraska for the remainder of the 18th century, in 1762, during the Seven Years War, France ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain. Frances withdrawal from the area left Britain and Spain competing for dominance along the Mississippi, by 1773, later that year, Mackays party built a trading post, dubbed Fort Carlos IV, near present-day Homer. In 1819, the United States established Fort Atkinson as the first U. S. Army post west of the Missouri River, the army abandoned the fort in 1827 as migration moved further west. European-American settlement did not begin in any numbers until after 1848, on May 30,1854, the US Congress created the Kansas and the Nebraska territories, divided by the Parallel 40° North, under the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The Nebraska Territory included parts of the current states of Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, the territorial capital of Nebraska was Omaha
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Nebraska in 1718,
Guillaume de L'Isle map, with the approximate area of the future state highlighted.
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Homesteaders in central Nebraska in 1888.
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Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was held in
Omaha in 1898.
14.
South Dakota
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South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, South Dakota is the 17th most expansive, but the 5th least populous and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Once the southern portion of the Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2,1889, Pierre is the state capital and Sioux Falls, with a population of about 171,000, is South Dakotas largest city. South Dakota is bordered by the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, the state is bisected by the Missouri River, dividing South Dakota into two geographically and socially distinct halves, known to residents as East River and West River. Eastern South Dakota is home to most of the states population, West of the Missouri, ranching is the predominant agricultural activity, and the economy is more dependent on tourism and defense spending. Most of the Native American reservations are located in West River, the Black Hills, a group of low pine-covered mountains sacred to the Sioux, are located in the southwest part of the state. Mount Rushmore, a major tourist destination, is located there, South Dakota experiences a temperate continental climate, with four distinct seasons and precipitation ranging from moderate in the east to semi-arid in the west. The ecology of the state features species typical of a North American grassland biome, humans have inhabited the area for several millennia, with the Sioux becoming dominant by the early 19th century. In the late 19th century, European-American settlement intensified after a rush in the Black Hills. Encroaching miners and settlers triggered a number of Indian wars, ending with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, historically dominated by an agricultural economy and a rural lifestyle, South Dakota has recently sought to diversify its economy in areas to attract and retain residents. South Dakotas history and rural character still strongly influence the culture of the state, South Dakota is situated in the north-central United States, and is considered a part of the Midwest by the U. S. Census Bureau, it is also part of the Great Plains region. The culture, economy, and geography of western South Dakota have more in common with the West than the Midwest, South Dakota has a total area of 77,116 square miles, making the state the 17th largest in the Union. Black Elk Peak, formerly named Harney Peak, with an elevation of 7,242 ft, is the states highest point, while the shoreline of Big Stone Lake is the lowest, with an elevation of 966 ft. South Dakota is bordered to the north by North Dakota, to the south by Nebraska, to the east by Iowa and Minnesota, the geographical center of the U. S. is 17 miles west of Castle Rock in Butte County. The North American continental pole of inaccessibility is located between Allen and Kyle,1,024 mi from the nearest coastline, the Missouri River is the largest and longest river in the state. Other major South Dakota rivers include the Cheyenne, James, Big Sioux, Eastern South Dakota has many natural lakes, mostly created by periods of glaciation. Additionally, dams on the Missouri River create four large reservoirs, Lake Oahe, Lake Sharpe, Lake Francis Case, South Dakota can generally be divided into three regions, eastern South Dakota, western South Dakota, and the Black Hills. The Missouri River serves as a boundary in terms of geographic, social, at times the Black Hills are combined with the rest of western South Dakota, and people often refer to the resulting two regions divided by the Missouri River as West River and East River
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Much of western South Dakota is covered by grasslands and features
buttes such as
Thunder Butte, shown above.
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Badlands National Park
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The
Black Hills, a low mountain range, is located in southwestern South Dakota.
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North Dakota
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North Dakota is the 39th state of the United States, having been admitted to the union on November 2,1889. The state capital is Bismarck, and the largest city is Fargo, North Dakota is the 19th most extensive but the 4th least populous and the 4th least densely populated of the 50 United States. The development has driven strong job and population growth, and low unemployment, North Dakota is located in the U. S. region known as the Great Plains. The state shares the Red River of the North with Minnesota on the east, South Dakota is to the south, Montana is to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba are to the north. North Dakota is situated near the middle of North America with a marker in Rugby. With an area of 70,762 square miles, North Dakota is the 19th largest state, the western half of the state consists of the hilly Great Plains as well as the northern part of the Badlands, which are to the west of the Missouri River. The states high point, White Butte at 3,506 feet, the region is abundant in fossil fuels including natural gas, crude oil and lignite coal. The Missouri River forms Lake Sakakawea, the third largest man-made lake in the United States, the central region of the state is divided into the Drift Prairie and the Missouri Plateau. The eastern part of the consists of the flat Red River Valley. Its fertile soil, drained by the meandering Red River flowing northward into Lake Winnipeg, Devils Lake, the largest natural lake in the state, is also found in the east. Eastern North Dakota is overall flat, however, there are significant hills, most of the state is covered in grassland, crops cover most of eastern North Dakota but become increasingly sparse in the center and farther west. This diverse terrain supports nearly 2,000 species of plants, the state of North Dakota is home to the geographical center of North America located near Rugby, North Dakota North Dakota has a continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. The temperature differences are rather extreme because of its far inland position and being in the center of the Northern Hemisphere, with equal distances to the North Pole. As such, summers are almost subtropical in nature, but winters are cold enough to plant hardiness is very low. Native American peoples lived in what is now North Dakota for thousands of years before the coming of Europeans and their tribes included the Mandan people, the Dakota people and the Yanktonai, the latter two from the Lakota peoples. The first European to reach the area was the French-Canadian trader Pierre Gaultier, sieur de La Vérendrye, in 1762 the region became part of Spanish Louisiana until 1802. Dakota Territory was settled sparsely by European Americans until the late 19th century, with the advantage of grants of land, they vigorously marketed their properties, extolling the region as ideal for agriculture. An omnibus bill for statehood for North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and his successor, Benjamin Harrison, signed the proclamations formally admitting North Dakota and South Dakota to the Union on November 2,1889
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View of western North Dakota
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Moose in North Dakota.
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Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
16.
Colorado
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Colorado is a state in the United States encompassing most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,540,545 on July 1,2016, the state was named for the Colorado River, which Spanish travelers named the Río Colorado for the ruddy silt the river carried from the mountains. The Territory of Colorado was organized on February 28,1861, Colorado is nicknamed the Centennial State because it became a state in the same year as the centennial of the United States Declaration of Independence. Colorado is noted for its landscape of mountains, forests, high plains, mesas, canyons, plateaus, rivers. Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado, residents of the state are properly known as Coloradans, although the term Coloradoan has been used archaically and lives on in the title of Fort Collins newspaper, the Coloradoan. Colorado, Wyoming and Utah are the states which have boundaries defined solely by lines of latitude and longitude. The summit of Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet elevation in Lake County is the highest point in Colorado, Colorado is the only U. S. state that lies entirely above 1,000 meters elevation. The point where the Arikaree River flows out of Yuma County, Colorado and this point, which holds the distinction of being the highest low elevation point of any state, is higher than the high elevation points of 18 states and the District of Columbia. A little less than one half of the area of Colorado is flat, East of the Rocky Mountains are the Colorado Eastern Plains of the High Plains, the section of the Great Plains within Nebraska at elevations ranging from roughly 3,350 to 7,500 feet. The Colorado plains were mostly prairies, but they have many patches of forests, buttes. Eastern Colorado is presently covered in farmland and rangeland, along with small farming villages. Precipitation is fair, averaging from 15 to 25 inches annually, corn, wheat, hay, soybeans, and oats are all typical crops, and most of the villages and towns in this region boast both a water tower and a grain elevator. Irrigation water is available from the South Platte, the Arkansas River, and a few other streams, however, heavy use of ground water from wells for irrigation has caused underground water reserves to decline. As well as agriculture, eastern Colorado hosts considerable livestock, such as cattle ranches. Roughly 70% of Colorados population resides along the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Front Range Urban Corridor between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pueblo, Colorado. This region is protected from prevailing storms that blow in from the Pacific Ocean region by the high Rockies in the middle of Colorado. The Front Range includes Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Greeley and other townships, on the other side of the Rockies, the significant population centers in Western Colorado are the cities of Grand Junction, Durango, and Montrose
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The
Elk Mountains near
Aspen, Colorado
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Mountains and lakes near
Breckenridge, Colorado
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A view of the arid high plains in Southeastern Colorado
17.
Montana
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Montana /mɒnˈtænə/ is a state in the Western region of the United States. The states name is derived from the Spanish word montaña, Montana has several nicknames, although none official, including Big Sky Country and The Treasure State, and slogans that include Land of the Shining Mountains and more recently The Last Best Place. Montana has a 545-mile border with three Canadian provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, the state to do so. It also borders North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, Montana is ranked 4th in size, but 44th in population and 48th in population density of the 50 United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges, smaller island ranges are found throughout the state. In total,77 named ranges are part of the Rocky Mountains, the eastern half of Montana is characterized by western prairie terrain and badlands. The economy is based on agriculture, including ranching and cereal grain farming. Other significant economic activities include oil, gas, coal and hard rock mining, lumber, the health care, service, and government sectors also are significant to the states economy. Millions of tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the name Montana comes from the Spanish word Montaña and the Latin word Montana, meaning mountain, or more broadly, mountainous country. Montaña del Norte was the name given by early Spanish explorers to the mountainous region of the west. The name was changed by Representatives Henry Wilson and Benjamin F. Harding, when Ashley presented a bill to establish a temporary government in 1864 for a new territory to be carved out of Idaho, he again chose Montana Territory. This time Rep. Samuel Cox, also of Ohio, objected to the name, Cox complained that the name was a misnomer given most of the territory was not mountainous and that a Native American name would be more appropriate than a Spanish one. Other names such as Shoshone were suggested, but it was decided that the Committee on Territories could name it whatever they wanted, with an area of 147,040 square miles, Montana is slightly larger than Japan. It is the fourth largest state in the United States after Alaska, Texas, and California, the largest landlocked U. S. state, and the worlds 56th largest national state/province subdivision. To the north, Montana shares a 545-mile border with three Canadian provinces, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, the state to do so. It borders North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, the states topography is roughly defined by the Continental Divide, which splits much of the state into distinct eastern and western regions. Most of Montanas 100 or more named mountain ranges are in the western half. The Absaroka and Beartooth ranges in the states south-central part are part of the Central Rocky Mountains
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Map of Montana
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Montana terrain
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St. Mary Lake in Glacier National Park
18.
New Mexico
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New Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States of America. It was admitted to the Union as the 47th state on January 6,1912 and it is usually considered one of the Mountain States. New Mexico is fifth by area, the 36th-most populous, inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years before European exploration, New Mexico was colonized by the Spanish in 1598 Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. Later, it was part of independent Mexico before becoming a U. S. territory and eventually a U. S. state as a result of the Mexican–American War. Among U. S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, the major Native American nations in the state are Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache peoples. The demography and culture of the state are shaped by these strong Hispanic and Native American influences and its scarlet and gold colors are taken from the royal standards of Spain, along with the ancient sun symbol of the Zia, a Pueblo-related tribe. New Mexico, or Nuevo México in Spanish, is incorrectly believed to have taken its name from the nation of Mexico. The name simply stuck, even though the area had no connection to Mexico or the Mexica Indian tribes, Mexico, formerly a part of New Spain, adopted its name centuries later in 1821, after winning independence from Spanish rule. New Mexico was a part of the independent Mexican Empire and Federal Republic of Mexico for 27 years,1821 through 1848, New Mexico and Mexico developed as neighboring Spanish-speaking communities under Spanish rule, with relatively independent histories. The states total area is 121,412 square miles, the eastern border of New Mexico lies along 103° W longitude with the state of Oklahoma, and 2.2 miles west of 103° W longitude with Texas. On the southern border, Texas makes up the eastern two-thirds, while the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora make up the western third, the western border with Arizona runs along the 109°03 W longitude. The southwestern corner of the state is known as the Bootheel, the 37° N latitude parallel forms the northern boundary with Colorado. The states New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah come together at the Four Corners in the corner of New Mexico. New Mexico, although a state, has very little water. Its surface water area is about 250 square miles, the New Mexican landscape ranges from wide, rose-colored deserts to broken mesas to high, snow-capped peaks. Despite New Mexicos arid image, heavily forested mountain wildernesses cover a significant portion of the state, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the southernmost part of the Rocky Mountains, run roughly north-south along the east side of the Rio Grande in the rugged, pastoral north. The most important of New Mexicos rivers are the Rio Grande, Pecos, Canadian, San Juan, the Rio Grande is tied for the fourth-longest river in the United States. Tourists visiting these sites bring significant money to the state, other areas of geographical and scenic interest include Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument and the Gila Wilderness in the southwest of the state
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Wheeler Peak in the
Sangre de Cristo Range
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Chaco Canyon
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Carlsbad Caverns
19.
Oklahoma
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Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central United States. Oklahoma is the 20th-most extensive and the 28th-most populous of the 50 United States, the states name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning red people. The name was settled upon statehood, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory were merged, on November 16,1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans, or informally Okies, and its capital, a major producer of natural gas, oil, and agricultural products, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. In 2007, it had one of the economies in the United States, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahomas primary economic anchors, with nearly two-thirds of Oklahomans living within their metropolitan statistical areas. With small mountain ranges, prairie, mesas, and eastern forests, most of Oklahoma lies in the Great Plains, Cross Timbers, interior Highlands—a region especially prone to severe weather. The name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw phrase okla humma, literally meaning red people, equivalent to the English word Indian, okla humma was a phrase in the Choctaw language used to describe Native American people as a whole. Oklahoma later became the de facto name for Oklahoma Territory, and it was approved in 1890. Oklahoma is the 20th-largest state in the United States, covering an area of 69,898 square miles and it is one of six states on the Frontier Strip and lies partly in the Great Plains near the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states. It is bounded on the east by Arkansas and Missouri, on the north by Kansas, on the northwest by Colorado, on the far west by New Mexico, much of its border with Texas lies along the Southern Oklahoma Aulacogen, a failed continental rift. The geologic figure defines the placement of the Red River, the Oklahoma panhandles Western edge is out of alignment with its Texas border. The Oklahoma/New Mexico border is actually 2.1 to 2.2 miles east of the Texas line, the border between Texas and New Mexico was set first as a result of a survey by Spain in 1819. It was then set along the 103rd Meridian, in the 1890s, when Oklahoma was formally surveyed using more accurate surveying equipment and techniques, it was discovered the Texas line was not set along the 103rd Meridian. Surveying techniques were not as accurate in 1819, and the actual 103rd Meridian was approximately 2.2 miles to the east and it was much easier to leave the mistake than for Texas to cede land to New Mexico to correct the surveying error. The placement of the Oklahoma/New Mexico border represents the true 103rd Meridian, cimarron County in Oklahomas panhandle is the only county in the United States that touches four other states, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado and Kansas. Its highest and lowest points follow this trend, with its highest peak, Black Mesa, at 4,973 feet above sea level, situated near its far northwest corner in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The states lowest point is on the Little River near its far southeastern boundary near the town of Idabel, Oklahoma, which dips to 289 feet above sea level
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State rock (
rose rock) specimens from Cleveland County, with a
US quarter for size reference.
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The state's high plains stretch behind a greeting sign in the
Oklahoma Panhandle.
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A view of
Mt Scott
20.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
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Sam Rayburn Reservoir
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Texas Hill Country
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Big Bend National Park.
21.
Wyoming
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Wyoming /waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/ is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the tenth largest by area, the least populous, Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, the state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than the population of 31 of the largest U. S. cities. The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were some of the inhabitants of the region. Southwestern Wyoming was included in the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The region acquired the name Wyoming when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a government for the territory of Wyoming. The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, with the name ultimately being derived from the Munsee word xwé, wamənk, the mineral extraction industry—especially coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—along with the travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyomings economy. Agriculture has historically been an important component of the economy with the main commodities being livestock, hay, sugar beets, grain. The climate is generally semi-arid and continental, being drier and windier in comparison to the rest of the United States, except for the 1964 election, Wyoming has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s, with the Republican party winning every presidential election. Wyoming is one of three states to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the tenth largest state in the United States in total area, from the north border to the south border it is 276 miles, and from the east to the west border is 365 miles at its south end and 342 miles at the north end. The Great Plains meet the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the state is a great plateau broken by many mountain ranges. Surface elevations range from the summit of Gannett Peak in the Wind River Mountain Range, at 13,804 feet, to the Belle Fourche River valley in the states northeast corner, at 3,125 feet. In the northwest are the Absaroka, Owl Creek, Gros Ventre, Wind River, in the north central are the Big Horn Mountains, in the northeast, the Black Hills, and in the southern region the Laramie, Snowy and Sierra Madre ranges. The Snowy Range in the central part of the state is an extension of the Colorado Rockies in both geology and appearance. The Wind River Range in the west central part of the state is remote and includes more than 40 mountain peaks in excess of 13,000 ft tall in addition to Gannett Peak, the highest peak in the state. The Big Horn Mountains in the central portion are somewhat isolated from the bulk of the Rocky Mountains
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Wind River Canyon
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Thunder Basin National Grassland close to
Douglas, Wyoming
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Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge
22.
Provinces and territories of Canada
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Canadas geography is divided into administrative divisions known as provinces and territories that are responsible for delivery of sub-national governance. Over its history, Canadas international borders have changed several times, the ten provinces are Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. Several of the provinces were former British colonies, Quebec was originally a French colony, the three territories are Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon, which govern the rest of the area of the former British North America. Together, the provinces and territories make up the worlds second-largest country by area, the powers flowing from the Constitution Act are divided between the federal government and the provincial governments to exercise exclusively. In modern Canadian constitutional theory, the provinces are considered to be co-sovereign divisions, the territories are not sovereign, but simply part of the federal realm, and have a commissioner who represents the federal government. Notes, There are three territories in Canada, unlike the provinces, the territories of Canada have no inherent sovereignty and have only those powers delegated to them by the federal government. They include all of mainland Canada north of latitude 60° north and west of Hudson Bay, the following table lists the territories in order of precedence. Prior to Confederation, Ontario and Quebec were united as the Province of Canada, over the following years, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island were added as provinces. The Hudsons Bay Company controlled large swathes of western Canada referred to as Ruperts Land and the North-Western Territory until 1870, subsequently, the area was re-organized into the province of Manitoba and the Northwest Territories. The remaining Arctic islands were transferred by Britain to Canada in 1880,1898 saw the Yukon Territory, later renamed simply as Yukon, carved from the parts of the Northwest Territories surrounding the Klondike gold fields. On September 1,1905, a portion of the Northwest Territories south of the 60th parallel north became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. In 1912, the boundaries of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba were expanded northward, Manitobas to the 60° parallel, Ontarios to Hudson Bay, in 1907, Newfoundland acquired dominion status. In the middle of the Great Depression in Canada with Newfoundland facing a period of economic crisis. In 2001, it was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1903, the Alaska Panhandle Dispute fixed British Columbias northwestern boundary. This was one of two provinces in Canadian history to have its size reduced. In 1999, Nunavut was created from the portion of the Northwest Territories. Yukon lies in the portion of The North, while Nunavut is in the east. All three territories combined are the most sparsely populated region in Canada, covering 3,921,739 km2 in land area and they are often referred to as a single region, The North, for organisational and economic purposes
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"
O Canada we stand on guard for thee" Stained Glass, Yeo Hall,
Royal Military College of Canada features arms of the Canadian provinces and territories (1965)
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Alberta Legislature Building
Provinces and territories of Canada
–
British Columbia Parliament Buildings
Provinces and territories of Canada
–
Manitoba Legislative Building
23.
Alberta
–
Alberta is a western province of Canada. With an estimated population of 4,196,457 as of July 1,2015, it is Canadas fourth-most populous province and its area is about 660,000 square kilometres. Alberta and its neighbour Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories until they were established as provinces on September 1,1905, the premier has been Rachel Notley since May 2015. Alberta is bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U. S. state of Montana to the south. Alberta is one of three Canadian provinces and territories to only a single U. S. state and one of only two landlocked provinces. About 290 km south of the capital is Calgary, the largest city in Alberta, Calgary and Edmonton centre Albertas two census metropolitan areas, both of which have populations exceeding one million, while the province has 16 census agglomerations. Tourist destinations in the province include Banff, Canmore, Drumheller, Jasper, Alberta is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth daughter of Victoria, Queen of Canada, and Albert, Prince Consort. Princess Louise was the wife of John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne, Lake Louise and Mount Alberta were also named in her honour. Alberta, with an area of 661,848 km2, is the fourth largest province after Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. To the south, the borders on the 49th parallel north, separating it from the US state of Montana. The province extends 1,223 km north to south and 660 km east to west at its maximum width, with the exception of the semi-arid steppe of the south-eastern section, the province has adequate water resources. There are numerous rivers and lakes used for swimming, fishing, there are three large lakes, Lake Claire in Wood Buffalo National Park, Lesser Slave Lake, and Lake Athabasca which lies in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. The longest river in the province is the Athabasca River which travels 1,538 km from the Columbia Icefield in the Rocky Mountains to Lake Athabasca, the largest river is the Peace River with an average flow of 2161 m3/s. The Peace River originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows through northern Alberta and into the Slave River, Albertas capital city, Edmonton, is located approximately in the geographic centre of the province. It is the most northerly city in Canada, and serves as a gateway. The region, with its proximity to Canadas largest oil fields, has most of western Canadas oil refinery capacity, Calgary is located approximately 280 km south of Edmonton and 240 km north of Montana, surrounded by extensive ranching country. Almost 75% of the population lives in the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor. The land grant policy to the served as a means to populate the province in its early years
Alberta
–
Welcome to Alberta sign traveling from east to west
Alberta
–
Flag
Alberta
–
Topographic map of Alberta
Alberta
–
Moraine Lake in
Banff National Park
24.
Manitoba
–
Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is one of the three provinces and Canadas fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres with a varied landscape. Aboriginal peoples have inhabited what is now Manitoba for thousands of years, in the late 17th century, fur traders arrived in the area when it was part of Ruperts Land and owned by the Hudsons Bay Company. In 1869, negotiations for the creation of the province of Manitoba led to an uprising of the Métis people against the Government of Canada. The rebellions resolution led to the Parliament of Canada passing the Manitoba Act in 1870 that created the province, Manitobas capital and largest city, Winnipeg, is Canadas eighth-largest census metropolitan area. Winnipeg is the seat of government, home to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, four of the provinces five universities and all four of its professional sports teams are in Winnipeg. The name Manitoba is believed to be derived from the Cree, the name derives from Cree manitou-wapow or Ojibwa manidoobaa, both meaning straits of Manitou, the Great Spirit, a place referring to what are now called The Narrows in the centre of Lake Manitoba. It may also be from the Assiniboine for Lake of the Prairie, the lake was known to French explorers as Lac des Prairies. Thomas Spence chose the name to refer to a new republic he proposed for the south of the lake. Métis leader Louis Riel also chose the name, and it was accepted in Ottawa under the Manitoba Act of 1870 and it adjoins Hudson Bay to the northeast, and is the only prairie province to have a saltwater coastline. The Port of Churchill is Canadas only Arctic deep-water port and the shortest shipping route between North America and Asia, Lake Winnipeg is the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Hudson Bay is the worlds second-largest bay, Manitoba is at the heart of the giant Hudson Bay watershed, once known as Ruperts Land. It was a area of the Hudsons Bay Company, with many rivers. The province has a saltwater coastline bordering Hudson Bay and more than 110,000 lakes, Manitobas major lakes are Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake Winnipeg, the tenth-largest freshwater lake in the world. Some traditional Native lands and boreal forest on Lake Winnipegs east side are a proposed UNESCO World Heritage Site. Manitoba is at the centre of the Hudson Bay drainage basin, with a volume of the water draining into Lake Winnipeg. This basins rivers reach far west to the mountains, far south into the United States, major watercourses include the Red, Assiniboine, Nelson, Winnipeg, Hayes, Whiteshell and Churchill rivers
Manitoba
Manitoba
–
Deep Lake at Riding Mountain National Park.
Manitoba
–
Polar bears are common in northern Manitoba
25.
Saskatchewan
–
Saskatchewan is a prairie and boreal province in west-central Canada, the only province without natural borders. It has an area of 651,900 square kilometres, nearly 10 percent of which is water, composed mostly of rivers, reservoirs. As of December 2013, Saskatchewans population was estimated at 1,114,170, residents primarily live in the southern prairie half of the province, while the northern boreal half is mostly forested and sparsely populated. Of the total population, roughly half live in the provinces largest city, Saskatoon, or the provincial capital, other notable cities include Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, Yorkton, Swift Current, North Battleford, and the border city Lloydminster. Saskatchewan is a province with large distances to moderating bodies of waters. As a result, its climate is continental, rendering severe winters throughout the province. Southern areas have very warm or hot summers, Midale and Yellow Grass near the U. S. border are tied for the highest ever recorded temperatures in Canada with 45 °C observed at both locations on July 5,1937. In winter, temperatures below −45 °C are possible even in the south during extreme cold snaps, Saskatchewan has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups, and first explored by Europeans in 1690 and settled in 1774. It became a province in 1905, carved out from the vast North-West Territories, in the early 20th century the province became known as a stronghold for Canadian social democracy, North Americas first social-democratic government was elected in 1944. The provinces economy is based on agriculture, mining, and energy, Saskatchewans current premier is Brad Wall and its lieutenant-governor is Vaughn Solomon Schofield. In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed a land claim agreement with First Nations in Saskatchewan. The First Nations received compensation and were permitted to buy land on the market for the tribes, they have acquired about 3,079 square kilometres. Some First Nations have used their settlement to invest in urban areas and its name derived from the Saskatchewan River. The river was known as kisiskāciwani-sīpiy in the Cree language, as Saskatchewans borders largely follow the geographic coordinates of longitude and latitude, the province is roughly a quadrilateral, or a shape with four sides. However the 49th parallel boundary and the 60th northern border appear curved on globes, additionally, the eastern boundary of the province is partially crooked rather than following a line of longitude, as correction lines were devised by surveyors prior to the homestead program. S. States of Montana and North Dakota, Saskatchewan has the distinction of being the only Canadian province for which no borders correspond to physical geographic features. Along with Alberta, Saskatchewan is one of only two land-locked provinces, the overwhelming majority of Saskatchewans population is located in the southern third of the province, south of the 53rd parallel. Saskatchewan contains two natural regions, the Canadian Shield in the north and the Interior Plains in the south
Saskatchewan
–
Henry Kelsey sees the
buffalo on the western plains.
Saskatchewan
–
Flag
Saskatchewan
–
Cree Pipe Stem Carrier, a painting of a Plains Cree warrior by
Paul Kane.
Saskatchewan
–
The
Battle of Batoche, 1885
26.
Ranch
–
A ranch is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in Mexico, the Western United States and Canada, people who own or operate a ranch are called ranchers, cattlemen, or stockgrowers. Ranching is also a used to raise less common livestock such as elk, American bison or even ostrich, emu. Ranches generally consist of areas, but may be of nearly any size. In the western United States, many ranches are a combination of owned land supplemented by grazing leases on land under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management. If the ranch includes arable or irrigated land, the ranch may also engage in an amount of farming, raising crops for feeding the animals, such as hay. Ranches that cater exclusively to tourists are called guest ranches or, colloquially, most working ranches do not cater to guests, though they may allow private hunters or outfitters onto their property to hunt native wildlife. Ranching is part of the iconography of the Wild West as seen in Western movies, the person who owns and manages the operation of a ranch is usually called a rancher, but the terms cattleman, stockgrower, or stockman are also sometimes used. If this individual in charge of management is an employee of the actual owner. A rancher who primarily raises young stock sometimes is called an operator or a cow-calf man. This person is usually the owner, though in cases, particularly where there is absentee ownership. The people who are employees of the rancher and involved in handling livestock are called a number of terms, including cowhand, ranch hand, people exclusively involved with handling horses are sometimes called wranglers. Ranching and the tradition originated in Spain, out of the necessity to handle large herds of grazing animals on dry land from horseback. During the Reconquista, members of the Spanish nobility and various military orders received large land grants that the Kingdom of Castile had conquered from the Moors and these landowners were to defend the lands put into their control and could use them for earning revenue. When the Conquistadors came to the Americas in the 16th century, followed by settlers, they brought their cattle, huge land grants by the Spanish government, part of the hacienda system, allowed large numbers of animals to roam freely over vast areas. A number of different traditions developed, often related to the location in Spain from which a settlement originated. For example, many of the traditions of the Jalisco charros in central Mexico come from the Salamanca charros of Castile, however, there were cattle on the eastern seaboard. Deep Hollow Ranch,110 miles east of New York City in Montauk, New York, claims to be the first ranch in the United States, the prairie and desert lands of what today is Mexico and the western United States were well-suited to open range grazing
Ranch
–
View of the
Grant-Kohrs Ranch near
Deer Lodge,
Montana.
Ranch
–
The historic 101 Ranch in Oklahoma showing the ranchhouse, corrals, and out-buildings.
Ranch
–
An 1898
photochrom of a round-up in or near the town of
Cimarron, Colorado.
Ranch
–
Cattle near the
Bruneau River in
Elko County, Nevada
27.
Dryland farming
–
Dryland farming and dry farming are agricultural techniques for non-irrigated cultivation of crops. Dryland farming is associated with drylands - dry areas characterized by a wet season followed by a warm dry season. Dryland farming was introduced to southern Russia and Ukraine by Ukrainian Mennonites under the influence of Johann Cornies, in Australia, it is widely practiced in all states but the Northern Territory. Dry farming may be practiced in areas that have significant annual rainfall during a wet season, Crops are cultivated during the subsequent dry season, using practices that make use of the stored moisture in the soil. California, Colorado and Oregon, in the United States, are three states where dry farming is practiced for a variety of crops, Dryland farmed crops may include winter wheat, corn, beans, Sunflowers or even watermelon. Successful dryland farming is possible with as little as 9 inches of precipitation a year, native American tribes in the arid Southwest survived for hundreds of years on dryland farming in areas with less than 10 inches of rain. The choice of crop is influenced by the timing of the predominant rainfall in relation to the seasons. For example, winter wheat is more suited to regions with higher winter rainfall areas with summer wet seasons may be more suited to summer growing crops such as sorghum. Dry farmed crops may include grapes, tomatoes, pumpkins, beans and these crops grow using the winter water stored in the soil, rather than depending on rainfall during the growing season. Dryland farming has evolved as a set of techniques and management practices used by farmers to adapt to the presence or lack of moisture in a given crop cycle. In marginal regions, a farmer should be able to survive occasional crop failures. Survival as a dryland farmer requires careful husbandry of the moisture available for the crop, Dryland farming involves the constant assessing of the amount of moisture present or lacking for any given crop cycle and planning accordingly. Dryland farmers know that to be successful they have to be aggressive during the good years in order to offset the dry years. The fact that a period must be included in the crop rotation means that fields cannot always be protected by a cover crop. Some of the theories of dryland farming developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries claimed to be scientific but were in reality pseudoscientific, Dry farming depends on making the best use of the bank of soil moisture that was created by winter rainfall. Some dry farming practices include, Wider than normal spacing, to provide a bank of moisture for each plant. Strict weed control, to ensure that weeds do not consume soil moisture needed by the cultivated plants, cultivation of soil to produce a dust mulch, thought to prevent the loss of water through capillary action. This practice is controversial, and is not universally advocated, selection of crops and cultivars suited for dry farming practices
Dryland farming
–
Dryland farming in the
Granada region in Spain
Dryland farming
–
Agriculture
Dryland farming
–
Fields in the
Palouse, USA
Dryland farming
–
Dryland farming caused a large
dust storm in parts of
Eastern Washington on October 4, 2009. Courtesey: NASA/GSFC, MODIS Rapid Response
28.
Interior Plains
–
The Interior Plains is a vast physiographic region that spreads across the Laurentian craton of central North America. The region extends from the Gulf Coast region to the Arctic Ocean along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains, in Canada the region separates the Rocky Mountains from the Canadian Shield. In the United States the plains include the Great Plains of the west and this area was originally formed when cratons collided and welded together 1. 8–1.9 billion years ago in the Trans-Hudson orogeny during the Paleoproterozoic Era. Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks now form the basement of the Interior Plains, with the exception of the Black Hills of South Dakota, the entire region has low relief, reflecting more than 500 million years of relative tectonic stability. The Interior plains region of the United States and Canada falls within this area, the Interior Plains were often covered by shallow inland seas. Sediments from the shield and the Rocky Mountains were deposited in these seas over millions of years, eventually the sediments were compressed by the weight of the layers above into sedimentary rock. Part of the sedimentary rock deposited in these areas consists of reefs that formed close to the surface of seas during the Paleozoic Era. During much of the Mesozoic Era, the North American continental interior were mostly well above sea level, the Interior Plains continued to receive deposits from the eroding Rocky Mountains to the west and Appalachian and Ozark/Ouachita Mountains to the east and south throughout the era. The flatness of the Interior Plains is a reflection of the platform of mostly flat-lying marine, USGS map showing the subdivisions of the Interior Plains Province within the US
Interior Plains
–
Biogeography
Interior Plains
–
The Interior Plains are highlighted in red.
29.
Plains Indians
–
Plains Indians are usually divided into two broad classifications which overlap to some degree. The first group became a nomadic horse culture during the 18th and 19th centuries, following the vast herds of buffalo. These include the Blackfoot, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Lakota, Lipan, Plains Apache, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwe, Sarsi, Nakoda, and Tonkawa. The second group of Plains Indians were semi-sedentary, and, in addition to hunting buffalo, they lived in villages, raised crops, and actively traded with other tribes. These include the Arikara, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kaw, Kitsai, Mandan, Missouria, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, Quapaw, Wichita, and the Santee Dakota, Yanktonai and Yankton Dakota. Both groups included people indigenous to the region as well as those who were pushed west by population pressure linked to the expansion of white culture. Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains are often separated into Northern and Southern Plains tribes, the tribes followed the seasonal grazing and migration of buffalo. The Plains Indians lived in teepees because they were disassembled and allowed the nomadic life of following game. When horses were obtained, the Plains tribes rapidly integrated them into their daily lives, people in the southwest began to acquire horses in the 16th century by trading or stealing them from Spanish colonists in New Mexico. As horse culture moved northward, the Comanche were among the first to commit to a fully mounted nomadic lifestyle and this occurred by the 1730s, when they had acquired enough horses to put all their people on horseback. The Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was the first European to describe the Plains Indian culture, while searching for a reputedly wealthy land called Quivira in 1541, Coronado came across the Querechos in the Texas panhandle. The Querechos were the later called Apache. According to the Spaniards, the Querechos lived in tents made of the skins of the cows. They empty a large gut and fill it with blood, Coronado described many common features of Plains Indians culture, skin tepees, travois pulled by dogs, Plains Indian Sign Language, and staple foods such as jerky and pemmican. The Plains Indians found by Coronado had not yet obtained horses, by the 19th century, the typical year of the Lakota and other northern nomads was a communal buffalo hunt as early in spring as their horses had recovered from the rigors of the winter. In June and July the scattered bands of the gathered together into large encampments. These gatherings afforded leaders to meet to make decisions, plan movements, arbitrate disputes. In the fall, people would split up into smaller bands to facilitate hunting to procure meat for the long winter, between the fall hunt and the onset of winter was a time when Lakota warriors could undertake raiding and warfare
Plains Indians
–
Southern Cheyenne
Chiefs Lawrence Hart, Darryl Flyingman and
Harvey Pratt in
Oklahoma City, 2008
Plains Indians
–
Territories of Plains Indians, ca. 18th and early 19th centuries. Note:
Shoshone,
Nez Perce, and
Ute people are not usually regarded as Plains peoples
Plains Indians
–
Blackfoot warrior, painted between 1840 and 1843 by Karl Bodmer
Plains Indians
–
Stump Horn and his family (
Cheyenne) with a horse and
travois, ca. 1871–1907
30.
Natural Resources Canada
–
It was created in 1995 by amalgamating the now-defunct Departments of Energy, Mines and Resources and Forestry. Natural Resources Canada works to ensure the development of Canadas natural resources, including energy, forests. NRCan also uses its expertise in earth sciences to build and maintain a knowledge base of our landmass. To promote internal collaboration, NRCan has implemented a departmental wide wiki based on MediaWiki, under the Canadian constitution, responsibility for natural resources belongs to the provinces, not the federal government. However, the government has jurisdiction over off-shore resources, trade and commerce in natural resources, statistics, international relations. The current Minister of Natural Resources is Jim Carr as of November 4,2015, the department is governed by the Resources and Technical Surveys Act, R. S. C. C. R-7 and the Department of Natural Resources Act, S. C, structured along business lines according to types of natural resources and areas of interest
Natural Resources Canada
–
Department of Natural Resource Funding
31.
United States Geological Survey
–
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its resources. The organization has four science disciplines, concerning biology, geography, geology. The USGS is a research organization with no regulatory responsibility. The USGS is a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior, the USGS employs approximately 8,670 people and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The USGS also has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver Federal Center, the current motto of the USGS, in use since August 1997, is science for a changing world. The agencys previous slogan, adopted on the occasion of its anniversary, was Earth Science in the Public Service. Prompted by a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the USGS was created, by a last-minute amendment and it was charged with the classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and products of the national domain. This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the legislation also provided that the Hayden, Powell, and Wheeler surveys be discontinued as of June 30,1879. Clarence King, the first director of USGS, assembled the new organization from disparate regional survey agencies, after a short tenure, King was succeeded in the directors chair by John Wesley Powell. Administratively, it is divided into a Headquarters unit and six Regional Units, Other specific programs include, Earthquake Hazards Program monitors earthquake activity worldwide. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado on the campus of the Colorado School of Mines detects the location, the USGS also runs or supports several regional monitoring networks in the United States under the umbrella of the Advanced National Seismic System. The USGS informs authorities, emergency responders, the media, and it also maintains long-term archives of earthquake data for scientific and engineering research. It also conducts and supports research on long-term seismic hazards, USGS has released the UCERF California earthquake forecast. The USGS National Geomagnetism Program monitors the magnetic field at magnetic observatories and distributes magnetometer data in real time, the USGS operates the streamgaging network for the United States, with over 7400 streamgages. Real-time streamflow data are available online, since 1962, the Astrogeology Research Program has been involved in global, lunar, and planetary exploration and mapping. USGS operates a number of related programs, notably the National Streamflow Information Program. USGS Water data is available from their National Water Information System database
United States Geological Survey
–
Clarence King, founder of the USGS
United States Geological Survey
–
Seal of the United States Geological Survey
United States Geological Survey
–
The USGS headquarters in
Reston, Virginia
United States Geological Survey
–
USGS gauging station 03221000 on the
Scioto River below
O'Shaughnessy Dam near
Dublin, Ohio
32.
North American Environmental Atlas
–
By mapping North Americas shared environment, the Atlas depicts environmental issues from a continental perspective. Each countrys contributing team works closely with their partner agencies in the countries to ensure seamless. The Atlas provides a foundation to analyze the status of environmental conditions and it contains data on watersheds, terrestrial and marine ecoregions and protected areas, industrial pollution, human impact, and base layers including transportation and waterways. This data is displayed as series of interactive map layers in an easy to use map viewer format, most layers in the North American Environmental Atlas are at a scale of 1,1,10,000,000 or finer. The variety of layers in the Atlas continues to expand in order to support analysis of environmental conditions, increasingly, data are being made compatible with tools such as Google Earth and ArcGis On-line/Arc Explorer. The entire collection of maps, data, and downloadable files is available for online at the CEC website. Remote Sensing North American Environmental Atlas Online Natural Resources Canada - Atlas of Canada Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía US National Atlas
North American Environmental Atlas
–
A map layer showing land cover for the year 2005
33.
Ecoregion
–
An ecoregion is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than an ecozone. All three of these are less or greater than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, the biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches, firstly, no single bio-geographic framework is optimal for all taxa. Ecoregions reflect the best compromise for as many taxa as possible, secondly, ecoregion boundaries rarely form abrupt edges, rather, ecotones and mosaic habitats bound them. Thirdly, most ecoregions contain habitats that differ from their assigned biome, biogeographic provinces may originate due to various barriers. Some physical, some climatic and some ocean chemical related, the history of the term is somewhat vague as it was used in many contexts, forest classifications, biome classifications, biogeographic classifications, etc. The concept of ecoregion of Bailey gives more importance to ecological criteria, while the WWF concept gives more importance to biogeography, there is significant, but not absolute, spatial correlation among these characteristics, making the delineation of ecoregions an imperfect science. Such transition zones are called ecotones, Ecoregions can be categorized using an algorithmic approach or a holistic, “weight-of-evidence” approach where the importance of various factors may vary. An example of the approach is Robert Bailey’s work for the U. S. The intended purpose of ecoregion delineation may affect the method used, according to WWF, the boundaries of an ecoregion approximate the original extent of the natural communities prior to any major recent disruptions or changes. WWF has identified 867 terrestrial ecoregions, and approximately 450 freshwater ecoregions across the Earth, the use of the term ecoregion is an outgrowth of a surge of interest in ecosystems and their functioning. In particular, there is awareness of issues relating to spatial scale in the study and it is widely recognized that interlinked ecosystems combine to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. The Global 200 is the list of ecoregions identified by WWF as priorities for conservation, Terrestrial ecoregions are land ecoregions, as distinct from freshwater and marine ecoregions. In this context, terrestrial is used to mean of land, WWF ecologists currently divide the land surface of the Earth into 8 major ecozones containing 867 smaller terrestrial ecoregions. The WWF effort is a synthesis of previous efforts to define. Many consider this classification to be decisive, and some propose these as stable borders for bioregional democracy initiatives. The eight terrestrial ecozones follow the major floral and faunal boundaries, identified by botanists and zoologists, ecozone boundaries generally follow continental boundaries, or major barriers to plant and animal distribution, like the Himalayas and the Sahara
Ecoregion
–
A map location of the
Amazon rainforest ecoregions. The yellow line encloses the ecoregions per the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Ecoregion
–
A map of North America's Bioregions
Ecoregion
–
The
Ötztal Alps, a
mountain range in the central
Alps of
Europe, are part of the
Central Eastern Alps, and can both be termed as ecoregions.
Ecoregion
–
A conifer forest in the
Swiss Alps (
National Park).
34.
Haskell County, Kansas
–
Haskell County is a county located in the U. S. state of Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 4,256 and its county seat and most populous city is Sublette. Haskell County was founded in 1887 and it was named for Dudley C. Haskell, a member of Congress. John M. Dr. Loring Miner, a Haskell County doctor, Public Health Service about the new and more deadly variant of the virus. It produced the common influenza symptoms with a new intensity, violent headache and body aches, high fever and this was violent, rapid in its progress through the body, and sometimes lethal. Soon dozens of patients—the strongest, the healthiest, the most robust people in the county—were being struck down as suddenly as if they had been shot. Barry writes that In the first six months of 1918, Miners warning of influenza of a type was the only reference in that journal to influenza anywhere in the world. Haskell County was one of the hardest hit counties in the Midwest during the drought of 1930-1937, the first rodeo and fair was held in Sublette in 1916 and the fair continues at the same location. The first school district was founded in Santa Fe in 1887, watkins, who owned a considerable amount of land in the county, was named World Wheat Queen in 1926. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 578 square miles. Haskell County is the flattest county in Kansas, the population density was 8 people per square mile. There were 1,639 housing units at a density of 3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 85. 07% White,0. 63% Asian,0. 58% Native American,0. 19% Black or African American,11. 45% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 23. 57% of the population. 20. 10% of all households were made up of individuals and 9. 20% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.88 and the average family size was 3.35. In the county, the population was out with 32. 90% under the age of 18,9. 10% from 18 to 24,27. 80% from 25 to 44,19. 50% from 45 to 64. The median age was 31 years, for every 100 females there were 103.30 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.30 males, the median income for a household in the county was $38,634, and the median income for a family was $43,354
Haskell County, Kansas
–
Haskell County Court House in Sublette
Haskell County, Kansas
–
Satellite image of circular crop fields in Haskell County in late June 2001.
35.
Buffalo wallow
–
A buffalo wallow or bison wallow is a natural topographical depression in the flat prairie land that holds rain water and runoff. Originally this would have served as a watering hole for wildlife. Wallowing buffalo that drank from and bathed in these naturally occurring shallow water holes gradually changed the pristine watering hole into a buffalo wallow, each time they went away, they carried mud with them from the hole, thus enlarging the wallow. Furthermore, wallowing action caused abrasion of hair, natural oils and cellular debris from their hides and left the debris in the water. Ultimately the water remained for long periods which attracted more wildlife, even when stagnant, the water would be eagerly drunk by thirsty animals. Though thriving buffalo herds roamed and grazed the great prairies of North America for thousands of years, exceptions are the somewhat rare yet still visible ancient buffalo wallows found occasionally on the North American prairie flatlands. Buffalo wallows are also made by the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo
Buffalo wallow
–
An 1897 photograph of a buffalo wallow, underlain by the
Ogallala Aquifer (
Haskell County, Kansas)
Buffalo wallow
–
A Kiowa ledger drawing possibly depicting the Buffalo Wallow Fight.
36.
American bison
–
The American bison, also commonly known as the American buffalo or simply buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds. Bison were seen in North Carolina near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba River as late as 1750. Two subspecies or ecotypes have been described, the bison, smaller in size and with a more rounded hump. Furthermore, the bison has been suggested to consist of a northern. However, this is not supported. The wood bison is one of the largest wild species of bovid in the world, surpassed by only the Asian gaur and it is the largest extant land animal in the Americas. The American bison is the mammal of the United States. The term buffalo is considered to be a misnomer for this animal, and could be confused with true buffalos, the Asian water buffalo. The name buffalo is listed in dictionaries as an acceptable name for American buffalo or bison. In reference to animal, the term buffalo dates to 1625 in North American usage when the term was first recorded for the American mammal. It thus has a longer history than the term bison. The American bison is very related to the wisent or European bison. In Plains Indian languages in general, male and female buffaloes are distinguished, a bison has a shaggy, long, dark-brown winter coat, and a lighter-weight, lighter-brown summer coat. As is typical in ungulates, the bison is slightly larger than the female and, in some cases. Plains bison are often in the range of sizes. Head-and-body lengths range from 2 to 3.5 m long, shoulder heights in the species can range from 152 to 186 cm. Weights can range from 318 to 1,000 kg Mature bulls tend to be larger than cows. Cow weights have had reported medians of 450 to 495 kg, with one small sample averaging 479 kg, the heaviest wild bull ever recorded weighed 1,270 kg
American bison
American bison
–
Adult male (farther) and adult female (closer) with a background of rich autumn colors, in
Yellowstone National Park
American bison
–
Calf
American bison
–
Skulls of European bison (left) and American bison (right)
37.
Midwestern United States
–
It was officially named the North Central region by the Census Bureau until 1984. Illinois is the most populous of the states and North Dakota the least, a 2012 report from the United States Census put the population of the Midwest at 65,377,684. The Midwest is divided by the Census Bureau into two divisions, the East North Central Division includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, all of which are also part of the Great Lakes region. Major rivers in the include, from east to west, the Ohio River, the Upper Mississippi River. Chicago is the most populated city in the American Midwest and the third most populous in the entire country, other large Midwest cities include, Indianapolis, Columbus, Detroit, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Wichita and St. Louis. Chicago and its suburbs form the largest metropolitan area with 9.8 million people, followed by Metro Detroit. Paul, Greater St. Louis, Greater Cleveland, Greater Cincinnati, Kansas City metro area, the term Midwestern has been in use since the 1880s to refer to portions of the central United States. A variant term, Middle West, has used since the 19th century. Another term sometimes applied to the general region is the heartland. Other designations for the region have fallen out of use, such as the Northwest or Old Northwest, the Northwest Territory was one of the earliest territories of the United States, stretching northwest from the Ohio River to northern Minnesota and upper-Mississippi. The upper-Mississippi watershed including the Missouri and Illinois Rivers was the setting for the earlier French settlements of the Illinois Country, economically the region is balanced between heavy industry and agriculture, with finance and services such as medicine and education becoming increasingly important. Its central location makes it a crossroads for river boats, railroads, autos, trucks. Politically the region swings back and forth between the parties, and thus is heavily contested and often decisive in elections, after the sociological study Middletown, which was based on Muncie, Indiana, commentators used Midwestern cities as typical of the nation. The region has a higher ratio than the Northeast, the West. Traditional definitions of the Midwest include the Northwest Ordinance Old Northwest states, the states of the Old Northwest are also known as Great Lakes states and are east-north central in the United States. The Ohio River runs along the section while the Mississippi River runs north to south near the center. Many of the Louisiana Purchase states in the west-north central United States, are known as Great Plains states. The Midwest lies north of the 36°30′ parallel that the 1820 Missouri Compromise established as the line between future slave and non-slave states
Midwestern United States
–
Typical terrain of the
Driftless Area as viewed from
Wildcat Mountain State Park in
Vernon County, Wisconsin
Midwestern United States
–
The Midwest as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Midwestern United States
–
Flint Hills grasslands of Kansas
Midwestern United States
–
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota
38.
High Plains (United States)
–
The southern region of the Western High Plains ecology region contains the geological formation known as Llano Estacado which can be seen from a short distance or from miles away on satellite maps. From east to west, the High Plains rise in elevation from around 1,160 feet to over 7,800 feet. The term Great Plains, for the region west of about the 96th or 98th meridian, nevin Fennemans 1916 study, Physiographic Subdivision of the United States, brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage. Prior to 1916, the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, today the term High Plains is usually used for a subregion instead of the whole of the Great Plains. The High Plains has a cold semi-arid climate—Köppen BSk—receiving between 10–20 inches of precipitation annually, due to low moisture and high elevation, the High Plains commonly experiences wide ranges and extremes in temperature. This is the record for the greatest temperature change in 24 hours. The region is known for the steady, and sometimes intense, the winds add a considerable wind chill factor in the winter. The development of farms in the High Plains is one of the newest areas of economic development. The High Plains are anomalously high in elevation, an explanation has recently been proposed to explain this high elevation. As the Farallon plate was subducted into the mantle beneath the region, within the crust this water caused the hydration of dense garnet and other phases into lower density amphibole and mica minerals. The resulting increase in crustal volume raised the elevation about one mile, plants endemic to the region are shortgrass prairie, prickly pear cacti and scrub. Agriculture in the forms of ranching and the growing of wheat, corn. Some areas of the High Plains have significant petroleum and natural gas deposits, the combination of oil, natural gas, and wind energy along with plentiful underground water, has allowed some areas to sustain a range of economic activity, including occasional industry. For example, the ASARCO refinery in Amarillo, Texas has been in operation since 1924 due to the plentiful and inexpensive natural gas and water that are needed in metal ore refining. The High Plains has one of the lowest population densities of any region in the continental United States, Wyoming, smaller towns, on the other hand, often struggle to sustain their population. High Plains Regional Climate Center High Plains climatological resources High Plains information - U. S. Department of the Interior Trains on the High Plains Texas counties map showing the ecoregion
High Plains (United States)
–
A
buffalo wallow on the High Plains.
High Plains (United States)
–
Physiographic regions of the United States. The High Plains region is the center yellow area designated 13d.
High Plains (United States)
–
Childress County, Texas, June 1938.
High Plains (United States)
–
High Plains in
Oklahoma west of
Guymon (2009)
39.
North America
–
North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
North America
–
Map of North America, from 1621.
North America
–
North America
North America
–
The
El Castillo pyramid, at
Chichén Itzá, Mexico.
North America
–
Benjamin West 's
The Death of General Wolfe (1771) depicting the
Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
40.
Appalachian Plateau
–
The Appalachian Plateau is a series of rugged, high plains located on the western side of the Appalachian Highlands. The Appalachian Highlands are a range that run down the entire east coast of the United States. The Appalachian Plateau is the part of the Appalachian Mountains. The formation of the plateau began during the Paleozoic Era, regional uplift during this time caused the area to rise altogether without changing the topography of the land. The eastern side of the plateau appears as a mountain range and this false appearance is due to a very steep slope on the eastern side known as the Allegheny Front. The eastern edge is the highest part of the Appalachian Plateau, in Pennsylvania, the altitude ranges from 1,750 to 3,000 feet and continues to rise towards West Virginia, where the elevation is around 4,800 feet. From West Virginia to Tennessee the elevation lowers to 3,000 feet, on the western side of the plateau, the elevation is 900 feet in Ohio, increasing to about 2,000 feet in Kentucky. From Kentucky the elevation drops down to 500 feet in northwestern Alabama, the plateau has a slight slant towards the northwest making it higher on the eastern side. A large portion of the plateau is a coalfield that was formed approximately 320 million years ago during the Pennsylvanian Age, the plateau was subjected to glaciation during the Pleistocene ice age. As a result, the topography of this section of the plateau is flat in comparison to the rest of the province. This portion of the plateau is marked evidence of a glaciated past including bogs, lakes. The topography of the rest of the plateau was created mainly from stream erosion, the result is a rugged landscape, unlike many other plateaus, that includes many narrow stream valleys surrounded by steep ridges. A physiographic region is a portion of land that is grouped together by several factors. Each region has similar geology, topography, and groups of plants, there are eight physiographic regions in the United States. Each region is divided into provinces, there are 25 provinces in the United States, each region is then divided into sections, creating 85 different physio-graphic sections in the United States. The Appalachian Plateau is a province of the physio-graphic region Appalachian Highlands, each section is classified under the Appalachian Plateau province because of its similarities in geologic makeup, topography, and wildlife. Likewise, the Appalachian Plateau falls under the classification of Appalachian Highlands because of similar characteristics. The rock underlying the Appalachian Plateau consists of a base of Precambrian rock, on top of the basement is a thick layer, approximately 20,000 feet, of a mixture of Cambrian, Ordovician, and Middle Silurian rock
Appalachian Plateau
–
Biogeography
Appalachian Plateau
–
Appalachian zones in the US - USGS
41.
Coteau du Missouri
–
The terrain of the Missouri Coteau features low hummocky, undulating, rolling hills, potholes, and grasslands. Geologically the plateau is part of the plateau of the Great Plains in the Dakotas. The plateau is underlain by Pierre shale covered with hardened deposits from repeated glaciations, the plateau also contains deposits of lignite, mirabilite, and bentonite. While subjected to glaciation, it was north and west of the Driftless Area. The plateau is drained and is interspersed with glacial kettle lakes. It is transversed by several broad sags marking the ancient stream valleys of the continuations of the Grand, Moreau, Cheyenne, Bad. To the east of the plateau, the valley of the James River was formed by the lobe of the most recent ice age. Agriculturally the plateau is a grain and livestock region, Coteau des Prairies Geography of Saskatchewan Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park Cypress Hills List of highest points of Canadian provinces and territories South Dakotas Physiographic Regions
Coteau du Missouri
–
Missouri Plateau
Coteau du Missouri
–
Map of Palliser's Triangle. Canadian section of the Coteau du Missouri
Coteau du Missouri
–
Lists
42.
Black Hills
–
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk Peak, which rises to 7,244 feet, is the ranges highest summit, the Black Hills encompass the Black Hills National Forest. The name Black Hills is a translation of the Lakota Pahá Sápa, the hills were so-called because of their dark appearance from a distance, as they were covered in trees. Native Americans have a history in the Black Hills. After conquering the Cheyenne in 1776, the Lakota took over the territory of the Black Hills, however, when settlers discovered gold there in 1874, as a result of George Armstrong Custers Black Hills Expedition, miners swept into the area in a gold rush. As the economy of the Black Hills has shifted from natural resources since the late 20th century, locals tend to divide the Black Hills into two areas, The Southern Hills and The Northern Hills. Attractions in the Northern Hills include Spearfish Canyon, historic Deadwood, the first Rally was held on August 14,1938 and the 75th Rally in 2015 saw more than 1 million bikers visit the Black Hills. Devils Tower National Monument, located in the Wyoming Black Hills, is an important nearby attraction and was the United States first national monument. Scientists have been able to utilize carbon-dating to evaluate the age of tools found in the area, stratigraphic records indicate environmental changes in the land, such as flood and drought patterns. For example, large-scale flooding of the Black Hill basins occurs at a probability rate of 0.01, however, during The Medieval Climate Anomaly, or the Medieval Warm Period, flooding increased in the basins. The Arikara arrived by AD1500, followed by the Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, the Lakota arrived from Minnesota in the 18th century and drove out the other tribes, who moved west. They claimed the land, which they called Ȟe Sápa, the mountains commonly became known as the Black Hills. François and Louis de La Vérendrye probably travelled near the Black Hills in 1743, fur trappers and traders had some dealings with the Native Americans. European Americans increasingly encroached on Lakota territory, in this treaty, they protected the Black Hills forever from European-American settlement. Both the Sioux and Cheyenne also claimed rights to the land, saying that in their cultures, it was considered the axis mundi, an official announcement of gold was made by the newspaper reporters accompanying the expedition. The following year, the Newton-Jenney Party conducted the first detailed survey of the Black Hills, the surveyor for the party, Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, was the first European American to ascend to the top of Black Elk Peak. This highest point in the Black Hills is 7,242 feet above sea level, during the 1875–1878 gold rush, thousands of miners went to the Black Hills, in 1880, the area was the most densely populated part of the Dakota Territory. Three large towns developed in the Northern Hills, Deadwood, Central City, around these were groups of smaller gold camps, towns, and villages
Black Hills
–
The Black Hills, South Dakota, United States
Black Hills
Black Hills
Black Hills
43.
Sandhills (Nebraska)
–
The Sandhills, often written Sand Hills, is a region of mixed-grass prairie on grass-stabilized sand dunes in north-central Nebraska, covering just over one quarter of the state. The dunes were designated a National Natural Landmark in 1984. The sandhills are found in Arthur, Blaine, Brown, Cherry, Custer, Garden, Garfield, Grant, Holt, Hooker, Lincoln, Keith, Logan, Loup, McPherson, Morrill, Rock, Sheridan, Thomas, and Wheeler counties. The boundaries of the Sandhills are variously defined by different organizations, depending on the definition, the regions area can be as small as 19,600 mi2 or as large as 23,600 mi2. Dunes in the Sandhills may exceed 330 ft in height, the average elevation of the region gradually increases from about 1,800 ft in the east to about 3,600 ft in the west. The Sandhills sit atop the massive Ogallala Aquifer, thus both temporary and permanent shallow lakes are common in low-lying valleys between the grass-stabilized dunes prevalent in the Sandhills. The eastern and central sections of the region are drained by tributaries of the Loup River, the World Wide Fund for Nature designated the Sandhills as an ecoregion, distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains. According to their assessment, as much as 85% of the ecoregion is intact natural habitat and this is chiefly due to the lack of crop production, most of the Sandhills land has never been plowed. Much of the area was a desert, with desert-like conditions extending to several other states. The plant-anchored dunes of the Sandhills were long considered an irreclaimable desert, in the 1870s, cattlemen began to discover their potential as rangeland for Longhorn cattle. The fragility of the soil makes the area unsuitable for cultivation of crops. Unsuccessful attempts at farming were made in the region in the late 1870s, some development of cropland agriculture in the modern era has occurred through the use of center-pivot irrigation systems. The 1904 Kinkaid Act allowed homesteaders to claim 640 acres of land, nearly nine million acres were successfully claimed by Kinkaiders between 1910 and 1917. Some of the Kinkaiders attempted to farm, but these attempts generally failed and this included Nebraskas largest black settlement, DeWitty, which was located in southeast Cherry County until the 1930s. Many of the largest ranches broke up about the time due to regulations against fencing federal range lands. In the 21st century, the Sandhills are a cattle ranching area. The population of the region continues to decline as older generations die out, however, a number of small towns remain in the region. As the largest and most intricate wetland ecosystem in the United States, minimal crop production has led to limited land fragmentation, the resulting extensive and continuous habitat for plant and animal species has largely preserved the biodiversity of the area
Sandhills (Nebraska)
–
Sandhills in
Hooker County, near sunset in October
Sandhills (Nebraska)
–
A view of the
Dismal River, Sandhills, and
U.S. Route 83 in
Thomas County.
Sandhills (Nebraska)
–
Sand Hills near
Bingham, May 2005
44.
Eastern New Mexico
–
Eastern New Mexico is a physiographic subregion within the U. S. state of New Mexico. The region is called the High Plains, Eastern Plains. The region is coterminous with the portion of the Llano Estacado in New Mexico. Eastern New Mexico mostly lies upon the plains, which extends to elevations over 4,000 ft. The region typically lacks the high relief of central and northern New Mexico, such as that in the Sangre de Cristo, like much of the Llano Estacado region, Eastern New Mexico is largely agricultural and resembles West Texas in geography, culture, economy, and demographics. The region includes portions of the counties of Curry, De Baca, Guadalupe, Lea, Quay and it is served by Eastern New Mexico University, a state university located in Portales
Eastern New Mexico
–
Windmill north of Bellview,
Curry County, New Mexico
Eastern New Mexico
–
Shaded relief image of the Llano Estacado including the portion in Eastern New Mexico
Eastern New Mexico
–
West of
Hobbs,
Lea County, New Mexico.
Eastern New Mexico
–
Gate leading to fenced pastureland in the wide open spaces south of
Kenna,
Roosevelt County, New Mexico.
45.
Texas Panhandle
–
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U. S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost twenty-six counties in the state. The panhandle is an area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north. The Handbook of Texas defines the border of Swisher County as the southern boundary of the Texas Panhandle region. Its land area is 25,823.89 sq mi, the Texas Panhandle is slightly larger in size than the US State of West Virginia. There is an additional 62.75 sq mi of water area and its population as of the 2010 census was 427,927 residents, or 1.7 percent of the states total population. As of the 2010 census, the density for the region was 16.6 per square mile. The Panhandle is distinct from North Texas, which is farther southeast, West of the Caprock Escarpment and north and south of the Canadian River breaks, the surface of the Llano Estacado is rather flat. South of the city of Amarillo, the level terrain gives way to Palo Duro Canyon and this colorful canyon was carved by the Prairie Dog Town Fork Red River. North of Amarillo lies Lake Meredith, a reservoir created by Sanford Dam on the Canadian River, the lake, along with the Ogallala Aquifer, provides drinking water and irrigation for this moderately dry area of the high plains. Interstate Highway 40 passes through the panhandle, and also passes through Amarillo, the highway passes through Deaf Smith, Oldham, Potter, Carson, Gray, Donley, and Wheeler Counties. The Texas Panhandle has been identified in the early 21st century as one of the fastest-growing windpower-producing regions in the nation because of its strong, steady winds. Before the rise of Amarillo, the three towns of the Panhandle were Clarendon in Donley County, Mobeetie in Wheeler County. Clarendon moved itself after it was overlooked by the Fort Worth, Mobeetie was reduced even below its original small size with the closure of the United States Armys Fort Elliott in 1890. Tascosa was ruined by the location of the railroad too far north of the town, as of the census of 2000, approximately 402,862 people lived in the panhandle. Of these,68. 9% were non-Hispanic White,23. 8% were Hispanic, only 2. 7% were of some other ethnicity. 92. 3% of inhabitants claimed native birth, and 8. 9% were veterans of the United States armed forces,49. 9% of the population was male, and 50. 1% was female. 13. 2% of the population were 65 years of age or older and it was one of the first regions of the state to break away from its Democratic roots, though Democrats continued to do well at the local level well into the 1980s. However, Republicans now dominate every level of government, holding nearly every elected post above the county level, in the 2008 Presidential Election, John McCain received 78. 82% of the vote, as compared with Barack Obamas 20. 48% share of the vote
Texas Panhandle
–
Windpump on the level plains of the Texas Panhandle
Texas Panhandle
–
Caprock Canyons of
Briscoe County.
Texas Panhandle
–
A canyon formed by
Tierra Blanca Creek.
Texas Panhandle
–
The rugged country of
Palo Duro Canyon.
46.
Flint Hills
–
Oklahomans generally refer to the same geologic formation as the Osage Hills or The Osage. The Flint Hills Ecoregion is designated as a region because it has the most dense coverage of intact tallgrass prairie in North America. Due to its soil, the early settlers were unable to plow the area, resulting in the predominance of cattle ranches. The Flint Hills Discovery Center, a science and history museum focusing on the Flint Hills, opened in Manhattan, Kansas, explorer Zebulon Pike first coined the name the Flint Hills in 1806 when he entered into his journal, passed very ruff flint hills. The underlying bedrock of the hills is a flinty limestone, the largest town in the area is Manhattan, Kansas, and the hills can be accessed from the Flint Hills Scenic Byway, which passes through in Kansas. The rocks exposed in the Flint Hills were laid down approximately 250 million years ago during the Permian Period, during this time much of the Midwest, including Kansas and Oklahoma, were covered with shallow seas. As a result, much of the Flint Hills are composed of limestone, the most notable layer of chert-bearing limestone is the Florence Limestone Member, which is approximately 45 feet thick. Numerous roadcuts of the Florence Member are prominent along Interstate 70 in Riley County, unlike the Pennsylvanian limestones to the east, however, many of the limestones in the Flint Hills contain numerous bands of chert, or flint. Because chert is much less soluble than the limestone around it, most of the hilltops in this region are capped with this chert gravel. The highest point in the Flint Hills is Butler County High Point, the EPA and the World Wildlife Fund have designated the Flint Hills as an ecoregion, distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains. Beginning in the century, homesteaders replaced the American Indians in the Flint Hills. Due to shallow outcroppings of limestone and chert, corn and wheat farming were not practical over much of the area and cattle ranching became the main agricultural activity in the region. Most of the plains, such as the Central tall grasslands to the north, have better soil than the Flint Hills and had a richer plant cover but have almost entirely been converted to farmland. Tallgrass prairie is regularly renewed by fire and grazing, which also keep back the growth of trees, prominent grass species are big bluestem, switchgrass and Indian grass. Animals of the include the American bison, which once grazed the area in their millions were almost entirely exterminated and have now been reintroduced. The elk that once roamed the area are now gone. William Least Heat-Moon wrote a tribute to the Flint Hills and the Kansans who live there in his book PrairyErth, Flint Hills Discovery Center Konza Prairie Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Tallgrass Prairie Preserve Jacobs Creek Flood Flint Hills map and resources National Geographic photo gallery
Flint Hills
–
Flint Hills
Flint Hills
Flint Hills
–
A walking trail in the Konza Prairie shows the height of the grasses in the fall.
Flint Hills
–
Biogeography
47.
Red Hills (Kansas)
–
The Red Hills, also referred to as Gypsum Hills, is the name of a physiographic region located mostly in Clark, Comanche and Barber counties in southern and central Kansas. This undulating terrain of red-tinted sediments, a product of the underlying geology, the red bed sediments of the Red Hills were deposited in an arid continental closed basin that formed within the Pangaean supercontinent during the Permian Period. Water often flooded this basin forming ephemeral playas of somewhat acidic waters, the shallow playas were intermittently flooded then dried leaving a mixture of lacustrine sediments and gypsum evaporites. The red color derives from the oxidation of iron contained within the deposits, the region is also known as the Gypsum Hills, because of the large natural deposits of gypsum in this area. The dissolution of underlying gypsum beds has led to the formation of sinkholes which are features within the Red Hills region. Big Basin and Little Basin are two well-known sinkholes in western Clark County, the Red Hills have scenic vistas and some small steep canyons. High points include Mount Nebo, Mount Jesus and Mount Lookout, in Clark County, big Basin Prairie Preserve Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve Flint Hills Red Hills Focus Area-U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service Gypsum Hills on Kansastravel. org
Red Hills (Kansas)
–
Map showing physiographic divisions of Kansas
48.
Smoky Hills
–
The Smoky Hills are an upland region of hills in the central Great Plains of North America. They are located in the Midwestern United States, encompassing north-central Kansas, the hills are a dissected plain covered by tallgrass and mixed-grass prairie. The Smoky Hills were formed by sedimentary deposits during the Cretaceous period and consist of chalk, limestone, the Smoky Hills region is part of the Plains Border subregion of the Great Plains. The region extends into south-central Nebraska, bordered on the north by the Rainwater Basin and it consists of three belts of hills, all running southwest to northeast, which correspond to the underlying geological formations. The Smoky Hills proper comprise the easternmost belt, the two western belts are known as the Blue Hills, the hills of the westernmost belt are also known as the Chalk Bluffs. The Blue Hills escarpment forms the boundary with the High Plains to the west, the Republican River, Saline River, Solomon River, and Smoky Hill River all flow eastward through the Smoky Hills from their sources in the High Plains. These include Cedar Bluff Reservoir, Kanopolis Lake, Kirwin Reservoir, Waconda Lake, Webster Reservoir, land use in the Smoky Hills consists primarily of cropland and rangeland. The region is populated with numerous communities of varying size. The two largest communities in the Smoky Hills region are Salina, Kansas and Hays, Kansas, elevations in the Smoky Hills range from about 1,200 feet in the river valley near Salina to about 2,400 feet at the western edge of the region. The region is divided into three based on the underlying rock outcroppings, The Dakota Formation, the Greenhorn Limestone. The Dakota Formation forms the eastern region and this area includes the Smoky Hill buttes, which are capped by sandstone and provide a sharp contrast with the surrounding plains. One of the most notable buttes is Coronado Heights in Saline County, there are concretions at Rock City in Ottawa County and Mushroom Rock State Park in Ellsworth County. These are cemented by calcium carbonate, the Greenhorn Limestone region in the central region is made up of thin—usually less than 6 inches —chalky limestone beds alternating with thicker beds of grayish shale. This area is known as post rock country due to the practice of early settlers using limestone for buildings, the chalk beds of the Niobrara Chalk are exposed in bluffs of the western Solomon, Saline, and Smoky Hill Rivers and in an irregular belt in the west. This area includes such Kansas landmarks as Castle Rock and Monument Rocks in Gove County, Smoky Hills Wind Farm U. S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System, Smoky Hills
Smoky Hills
–
KDOT distance map color-coded by physiographic region showing the Smoky Hills (center)
49.
Colorado Piedmont
–
The Colorado Piedmont is an area along the base of the foothills of the Front Range in north central Colorado in the United States. The region includes much of the populated and cultivated area of Colorado, the name Colorado Piedmont also refers to the physiographic section of the Great Plains province. The Colorado Piedmont elevation is lower than the foothills, but is slightly lower elevation than the High Plains to the east. This uplift resulted in increased streamflow and rapid erosion on the side of the Rocky Mountains. It was during this time that the South Platte River, which had previously flowed eastward across the Plains, the drop off from the Plains to the Piedmont is noticeable to motorists driving southward from Cheyenne, Wyoming on Interstate 25. The transition from High Plains to Piedmont is likewise accompanied by a change in agriculture, in the 19th century, the Piedmont region was inhabited primarily by the Southern Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. From the earliest time of settlement in the middle 19th century. The region was not widely settled in the early Colorado Territory, the use of irrigation in the Piedmont starting in the 1860s led to widespread homesteading and cultivation of wheat and sugar beets, as well as cattle and sheep ranching. Much of the water in the Piedmont comes from shallow wells that tap the layers of Pleistocene gravel. Water diversion projects, locally from the Cache la Poudre and other rivers, as well as the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, roadside Geology of Colorado, Halka, Chronic, Mountain Press Publishing,1980
Colorado Piedmont
–
Biogeography
50.
Raton, New Mexico
–
Raton is a city and the county seat of Colfax County in northeastern New Mexico. The city is located just south of Raton Pass, ratón is the Spanish term for mouse. The Raton Range and Raton Peak are located north of the town. The Raton Range is a 75-mile-long ridge that extends east from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Raton Pass and the Raton Basin are also named for the Raton Range. Raton Pass had been used by Spanish explorers and Indians for centuries to cut through the rugged Rocky Mountains, the post office at this location was named Willow Springs from 1877 to 1879, Otero from 1879 to 1880, then renamed Raton in 1880. Raton was founded at the site of Willow Springs, a stop on the Santa Fe Trail, the original 320 acres for the Raton townsite were purchased from the Maxwell Land Grant in 1880. In 1879, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway bought a local toll road, Raton quickly developed as a railroad, mining and ranching center for the northeast part of the New Mexico territory, as well as the county seat and principal trading center of the area. The city is mentioned in Jack Kerouacs novel On the Road, Raton is located at 36°53′49″N 104°26′24″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 8.0 square miles. Raton is one of the sites for viewing the K-T Boundary, also known as the K-Pg Boundary or Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary. There is a sequence of rocks spanning the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary in Climax Canyon Park. Geographic Coordinates, 36°54′13. 99″N 104°27′0. 75″W The rocks have been studied for evidence of the iridium anomaly cited as evidence of a meteorite impact at the end of the Cretaceous. It is interpreted to have caused the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event which killed off non-avian dinosaurs, as well as other species of flora. The K-T Boundary is represented in the rock strata by a 1-cm thick tonstein clay layer which has found to contain anomalously high concentrations of iridium. As of the census of 2000, there were 7,282 people,3,035 households, the population density was 992.4 people per square mile. There were 3,472 housing units at a density of 473.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 78. 04% White,0. 23% African American,1. 59% Native American,0. 40% Asian,0. 01% Pacific Islander,16. 19% from other races, and 3. 53% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 56. 96% of the population,30. 6% of all households were made up of individuals and 14. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
Raton, New Mexico
–
Downtown Raton (2010)
Raton, New Mexico
–
Santa Fe Trail in Raton
Raton, New Mexico
–
Amtrak station
Raton, New Mexico
–
Solano's Boot & Western Wear, a family-owned enterprise at 101 South Second Street in Raton, began in 1956 as a small boot repair business operated by Andy Solano.
51.
Pecos River
–
The Pecos River is a river that originates in eastern New Mexico and flows into Texas, emptying into the Rio Grande. Its headwaters are on the slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County north of Pecos, NM. The river flows for 926 miles before reaching the Rio Grande near Del Rio and its drainage basin encompasses about 44,300 square miles. The name Pecos derives from the Keresan term for the Pecos Pueblo, the river played a large role in the exploration of Texas by the Spanish. In the latter half of the 19th century, West of the Pecos was a reference to the desolation of the Wild West. In the series narration, West of the Pecos is described as, virtually beyond the reach of the authorities, the railroads, then pushing their way west, attracted the most vicious characters in the country. It was said that all civilization and law stopped at the east bank of the Pecos and it took one man, a lone storekeeper who was sick of the lawlessness, to change all this. His name was Judge Roy Bean, New Mexico and Texas disputed water rights to the river until the U. S. government settled the dispute in 1949 with the Pecos River Compact. The Pecos River Settlement Agreement was signed between New Mexico and Texas in 2003, multiple dams have been built along the Pecos River. Santa Rosa Lake is 117 miles/188 km east of Albuquerque, Sumner Lake, formed by the 1939 Sumner Dam, is located between Santa Rosa and Fort Sumner, NM. Two dams are located north of Carlsbad, New Mexico, at Avalon Dam and Brantley Dam, Texas has also dammed the river at the Red Bluff Dam in the western part of that state to form the Red Bluff Reservoir. The portion of the reservoir extends into New Mexico forms the lowest point in that state. On June 6,1990,20.5 miles of the Pecos River—from its headwaters to the townsite of Tererro—received National Wild and it includes 13.5 miles designated wild and 7 miles designated recreational. The Pecos River Flume is an aqueduct carrying water over the Pecos River. Construction took place from 1889 to 1890 and was part of the Pecos River Reclamation Project and it was originally constructed of wood and spanned 145 feet. It carried water at a depth of 8 feet, in 1902, a flood destroyed the flume and it was subsequently rebuilt using concrete. In 1902, it was identified as the largest concrete aqueduct in the world
Pecos River
–
Pecos River High Bridge, near
Langtry, Val Verde County, Texas
Pecos River
–
Pecos River between Terrerro and Pecos, New Mexico
Pecos River
–
The Pecos River flowing south of
Grandfalls, Texas
Pecos River
–
Pecos River near the
Rio Grande
52.
Edwards Plateau
–
San Angelo, Austin, San Antonio and Del Rio roughly outline the area. The eastern portion of the plateau is known as the Texas Hill Country, the landscape of the plateau is mostly savanna scattered with trees. It mostly lacks deep soil suitable for farming, though the soil is fertile mollisols and some cotton, grain sorghum, for the most part, though, the thin soil and rough terrain areas are primarily grazing regions, with cattle, sheep and Angora goats predominant. The area is drained, rainwater flows into the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone at the south of the plateau to feed rivers to the south. Rainfall varies from 15 to 33 inches per year, on average, from northwest to southeast, and the area has a moderate temperature and a reasonably long growing season. Flora Trees of the include a juniper-oak mix and a mesquite-acacia mix scattered over fairly short grasses. Some pecan trees are found near the springs and rivers, the Balcones Fault is associated with the Edwards Plateau formation. This fault line is a demarcation for the range definition of a number of species. Fauna Caves of the Edwards Plateau are important habitats for a deal of wildlife. The area is home to some of the largest colonies of bats in the world, there are also large numbers of reptiles and birds, including breeding populations of the Texan endemic golden-cheeked warbler. Further alteration to the savanna has incurred though the encroachment of shrubs now that grassland fires are carefully controlled, small areas of intact habitat remain, particularly around Austin, where areas are protected, such as the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. Another important area for wildlife is Fort Hood military base, earliest human settlement of this area was by Native Americans. First it was used and wandered about by Jumano and Coahuiltecan groups, then the Apacheria extended into the Southern Plains by the forerunners of the Lipan and Mescalero Apaches. After the expulsion of the Apachean groups from the Plains by the Comanche, Texas Hill Country Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge Colorado River Mount Bonnell List of ecoregions in the United States Johnson, E. H. Edwards Plateau. Texas counties map showing the ecoregion
Edwards Plateau
–
A photograph taken by NASA of the Edwards Plateau and Balcones Escarpment
Edwards Plateau
–
Edwards Plateau terrain as seen from
U.S. Route 277 between
Del Rio and
Sonora.
Edwards Plateau
–
Biogeography
53.
Central Texas
–
Central Texas is a region in the U. S. state of Texas surrounding Austin and roughly bordered by Brady to Kerrville to La Grange to Waco. Central Texas contains the Texas Hill Country and corresponds to a physiographic section designation within the Edwards Plateau, Central Texas includes the Austin–Round Rock, Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Bryan–College Station, and Waco metropolitan areas. The Austin–Round Rock and Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood areas are among the metropolitan areas in the state. Some of the largest cities in the region are Austin, College Station, Killeen, Round Rock, Bridge City, Mansfield, the United States Armys Fort Hood, a large military installation, is located in this region. Fredericksburg, Texas Chamber of Commerce Celebrate Diversity in Central Texas
Central Texas
–
Hamilton Pool Preserve - one of the many lush areas in Central Texas
Central Texas
–
Central Texas counties in red; counties sometimes included in Central Texas in pink
Central Texas
–
The Texas Capital -
Austin
Central Texas
–
Alamo Mission -
San Antonio
54.
Cretaceous
–
The Cretaceous is a geologic period and system that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic Period 145 million years ago to the beginning of the Paleogene Period 66 Mya. It is the last period of the Mesozoic Era, the Cretaceous Period is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation Kreide. The Cretaceous was a period with a warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists, during this time, new groups of mammals and birds, as well as flowering plants, appeared. The Cretaceous ended with a mass extinction, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, the name Cretaceous was derived from Latin creta, meaning chalk. The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs, or Lower and Upper Cretaceous series, in older literature the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series, Neocomian, Gallic and Senonian. A subdivision in eleven stages, all originating from European stratigraphy, is now used worldwide, in many parts of the world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds of the Cretaceous are well identified. No great extinction or burst of diversity separates the Cretaceous from the Jurassic and this layer has been dated at 66.043 Ma. A140 Ma age for the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary instead of the usually accepted 145 Ma was proposed in 2014 based on a study of Vaca Muerta Formation in Neuquén Basin. Víctor Ramos, one of the authors of the study proposing the 140 Ma boundary age sees the study as a first step toward formally changing the age in the International Union of Geological Sciences, due to the high sea level there was extensive space for such sedimentation. Because of the young age and great thickness of the system. Chalk is a type characteristic for the Cretaceous. It consists of coccoliths, microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores, the group is found in England, northern France, the low countries, northern Germany, Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North Sea. Chalk is not easily consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of sediments in many places. The group also has other limestones and arenites, among the fossils it contains are sea urchins, belemnites, ammonites and sea reptiles such as Mosasaurus. In southern Europe, the Cretaceous is usually a marine system consisting of competent limestone beds or incompetent marls
Cretaceous
–
Drawing of fossil jaws of
Mosasaurus hoffmanni, from the
Maastrichtian of
Dutch Limburg, by Dutch geologist
Pieter Harting (1866).
Cretaceous
–
Although the first representatives of leafy trees and true grasses emerged in the Cretaceous, the flora was still dominated by conifers like
Araucaria (Here: Modern Araucaria araucana in Chile).
Cretaceous
–
Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest land predators of all time, lived during the late Cretaceous.
Cretaceous
–
Up to 2 m-long
Velociraptor was likely feathered and roamed the late Cretaceous.
55.
Inland sea (geology)
–
An inland sea is a shallow sea that covers central areas of continents during periods of high sea level that result in marine transgressions. In modern times, continents stand high, eustatic sea levels are low, modern examples might also include the recently reflooded Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea that presently covers the Sunda Shelf. At various times in the geologic past, inland seas have been greater in extent, a vast inland sea, the Western Interior Seaway, extended from the Gulf of Mexico deep into present-day Canada during the Cretaceous. At the same time, much of the low plains of modern-day northern France and northern Germany were inundated by an inland sea, where the chalk was deposited that gave the Cretaceous Period its name. The Amazon, originally emptying into the Pacific, as South America rifted from Africa, a great inland sea developed, at times draining north through what is now Venezuela before finding its present eastward outlet into the South Atlantic. Gradually this inland sea became a vast freshwater lake and wetlands where sediment flattened its profiles and the marine inhabitants adapted to life in freshwater. Over 20 species of stingray, most closely related to those found in the Pacific Ocean, can be today in the freshwaters of the Amazon. In 2005 fossilized remains of a giant crocodilian, estimated to have been 46 ft in length, were discovered in the northern rainforest of Amazonian Peru. In Australia the promise of a sea is often said to have been one of the prime motives of inland exploration during the 1820s and 1830s. Also in Australia, the Eromanga Sea existed during the Cretaceous Period and it covered large swaths of the eastern half of the continent. The Baltic Sea is an inland sea, arguably the largest body of brackish water in the world. It occupies a basin formed by glacial erosion, hudson Bay, including James Bay at its southern end, reach within the North American continent from Baffin Island in the north to Quebec and Ontario in the south. Endorheic basin Mediterranean sea Marginal sea Geology Project - Inland Sea Movement Through Time
Inland sea (geology)
–
This 1830 map of Australia depicts a 'Great River' and a 'Supposed Sea' that both proved nonexistent.
56.
Western Interior Seaway
–
The ancient sea stretched from the Gulf of Mexico and through the middle of the modern-day countries of the United States and Canada, meeting with the Arctic Ocean to the north. At its largest, it was 2,500 feet deep,600 miles wide, the Seaway was created as the Farallon tectonic plate subducted under the North American Plate during the Cretaceous. As plate convergence proceeded, the younger and more buoyant lithosphere of the Farallon Plate subducted at a shallow angle, in what is known as a flat slab. This shallowly subducting slab exerted traction on the base of the lithosphere, pulling it down, in the south, the Gulf of Mexico was an extension of the Tethys Sea, which met with the Mowry Sea in the late Cretaceous, forming the complete Seaway. At its largest, the Western Interior Seaway stretched from the Rockies east to the Appalachians, at its deepest, it may have been only 800 or 900 metres deep, shallow in terms of seas. Two great continental watersheds drained into it from east and west, diluting its waters, there was little sedimentation on the eastern shores of the Seaway, the western boundary, however, consisted of a thick clastic wedge eroded eastward from the Sevier orogenic belt. The western shore was thus highly variable, depending on variations in sea level, widespread carbonate deposition suggests that the Seaway was warm and tropical, with abundant calcareous algae. Remnants of these deposits are found throughout the state of Kansas, one prominent example is Monument Rocks, an exposed chalk formation towering 70 feet over the surrounding range land. It is designated a National Natural Landmark and one of the Eight Wonders of Kansas and it is located 25 miles south of Oakley, Kansas. At a few times during the late Cretaceous the Western Interior Seaway went through periods of anoxia, where the water was devoid of oxygen. The Western Interior Seaway divided across the Dakotas and retreated south towards the Gulf of Mexico and this shrunken, regressive phase of the Western Interior Seaway is sometimes called the Pierre Seaway. During the early Paleocene, parts of the Western Interior Seaway still occupied areas of the Mississippi Embayment, later transgression, however, was associated with the Cenozoic Tejas sequence, rather than with the previous event responsible for the Seaway. The Western Interior Seaway was a sea, filled with abundant marine life. Interior Seaway denizens included predatory marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, icthyornis shared the sky with large pterosaurs such as Nyctosaurus and Pteranodon. Pteranodon fossils are common and it was probably a major component of the surface ecosystem. On the bottom, the giant clam Inoceramus left common fossilized shells in the Pierre Shale and this clam had a thick shell paved with prisms of calcite deposited perpendicular to the surface, giving it a pearly luster in life
Western Interior Seaway
–
A broken concretion with
fossils inside; late
Cretaceous Pierre Shale near Ekalaka,
Montana.
Western Interior Seaway
–
Western Interior Seaway during the mid-Cretaceous, about 100 million years ago
Western Interior Seaway
–
Monument Rocks, located 25 miles south of
Oakley, Kansas.
Western Interior Seaway
–
Inoceramus, an ancient bivalve from the Cretaceous of South Dakota.
57.
Paleocene
–
The Paleocene or Palaeocene, the old recent, is a geologic epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 million years ago. It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era, as with many geologic periods, the strata that define the epochs beginning and end are well identified, but the exact ages remain uncertain. The Paleocene Epoch brackets two major events in Earths history and it started with the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous, known as the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. This was a marked by the demise of non-avian dinosaurs, giant marine reptiles and much other fauna. The die-off of the dinosaurs left unfilled ecological niches worldwide, the Paleocene ended with the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, a geologically brief interval characterized by extreme changes in climate and carbon cycling. The name Paleocene comes from Ancient Greek and refers to the old new fauna that arose during the epoch. The K–Pg boundary that marks the separation between Cretaceous and Paleocene is visible in the record of much of the Earth by a discontinuity in the fossil fauna. There is also evidence of abrupt changes in flora and fauna. There is some evidence that a substantial but very short-lived climatic change may have happened in the early decades of the Paleocene. The end of the Paleocene was also marked by a time of major change, the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum upset oceanic and atmospheric circulation and led to the extinction of numerous deep-sea benthic foraminifera and a major turnover in mammals on land. The Paleocene is divided into three stages, the Danian, the Selandian and the Thanetian, as shown in the table above, additionally, the Paleocene is divided into six Mammal Paleogene zones. The early Paleocene was cooler and dryer than the preceding Cretaceous, in many ways, the Paleocene continued processes that had begun during the late Cretaceous Period. During the Paleocene, the continued to drift toward their present positions. The Laramide orogeny of the late Cretaceous continued to uplift the Rocky Mountains in the American west, africa was heading north towards Europe, slowly closing the Tethys Ocean, and India began its migration to Asia that would lead to a tectonic collision and the formation of the Himalayas. The inland seas in North America and Europe had receded by the beginning of the Paleocene, making way for new land-based flora, warm seas circulated throughout the world, including the poles. The earliest Paleocene featured a low diversity and abundance of marine life, tropical conditions gave rise to abundant marine life, including coral reefs. With the demise of marine reptiles at the end of the Cretaceous, at the end of the Cretaceous, the ammonites and many species of foraminifera became extinct. Marine fauna also came to resemble modern fauna, with only the marine mammals, terrestrial Paleocene strata immediately overlying the K–Pg boundary is in places marked by a fern spike, a bed especially rich in fern fossils
Paleocene
–
Life restoration of
Titanoides
Paleocene
–
Section of an
Asiatosuchus jaw
Paleocene
–
Gastornis
58.
Miocene
–
The Miocene is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.333 million years ago. The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell and its name comes from the Greek words μείων and καινός and means less recent because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene Epoch and is followed by the Pliocene Epoch, the earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, with the climate slowly cooling towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event, the apes arose and diversified during the Miocene, becoming widespread in the Old World. By the end of this epoch, the ancestors of humans had split away from the ancestors of the chimpanzees to follow their own evolutionary path, as in the Oligocene before it, grasslands continued to expand and forests to dwindle in extent. In the Miocene seas, kelp forests made their first appearance, the plants and animals of the Miocene were fairly modern. The Miocene faunal stages from youngest to oldest are typically named according to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, Two subdivisions each form the lower, middle, continents continued to drift toward their present positions. Mountain building took place in western North America, Europe, both continental and marine Miocene deposits are common worldwide with marine outcrops common near modern shorelines. Well studied continental exposures occur in the North American Great Plains, India continued to collide with Asia, creating dramatic new mountain ranges. The Tethys Seaway continued to shrink and then disappeared as Africa collided with Eurasia in the Turkish–Arabian region between 19 and 12 Ma. The subsequent uplift of mountains in the western Mediterranean region and a fall in sea levels combined to cause a temporary drying up of the Mediterranean Sea near the end of the Miocene. The global trend was towards increasing aridity caused primarily by global cooling reducing the ability of the atmosphere to absorb moisture, climates remained moderately warm, although the slow global cooling that eventually led to the Pleistocene glaciations continued. Although a long-term cooling trend was well underway, there is evidence of a period during the Miocene when the global climate rivalled that of the Oligocene. The Miocene warming began 21 million years ago and continued until 14 million years ago, by 8 million years ago, temperatures dropped sharply once again, and the Antarctic ice sheet was already approaching its present-day size and thickness. Greenland may have begun to have large glaciers as early as 7 to 8 million years ago, life during the Miocene Epoch was mostly supported by the two newly formed biomes, kelp forests and grasslands. This allows for more grazers, such as horses, rhinoceroses, ninety five percent of modern plants existed by the end of this epoch. The higher organic content and water retention of the deeper and richer grassland soils, with long term burial of carbon in sediments, produced a carbon and this, combined with higher surface albedo and lower evapotranspiration of grassland, contributed to a cooler, drier climate. The expansion of grasslands and radiations among terrestrial herbivores correlates to fluctuations in CO2
Miocene
–
The
dragon blood tree is considered a remnant of the Mio-Pliocene Laurasian subtropical forests that are now almost extinct in North Africa.
Miocene
–
Cameloid footprint (Lamaichnum alfi Sarjeant and Reynolds, 1999; convex hyporelief) from the
Barstow Formation (Miocene) of Rainbow Basin, California.
Miocene
–
Miocene fauna of North America
Miocene
–
A Miocene crab (Tumidocarcinus giganteus) from the collection of the
Children's Museum of Indianapolis
59.
Pliocene
–
The Pliocene Epoch is the epoch in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58 million years BP. It is the second and youngest epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era, the Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch.588 to 1.806 million years ago, and is now included in the Pleistocene. As with other geologic periods, the geological strata that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start. The boundaries defining the Pliocene are not set at an easily identified worldwide event, the upper boundary was set at the start of the Pleistocene glaciations. The Pliocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell, the name comes from the Greek words πλεῖον and καινός and means roughly continuation of the recent, referring to the essentially modern marine mollusc faunas. H. W. Fowler called the term a regrettable barbarism, in the official timescale of the ICS, the Pliocene is subdivided into two stages. From youngest to oldest they are, Piacenzian Zanclean The Piacenzian is sometimes referred to as the Late Pliocene, in the system of North American Land Mammal Ages include Hemphillian, and Blancan. The Blancan extends forward into the Pleistocene, South American Land Mammal Ages include Montehermosan, Chapadmalalan and Uquian. In the Paratethys area the Pliocene contains the Dacian and Romanian stages, as usual in stratigraphy, there are many other regional and local subdivisions in use. In Britain the Pliocene is divided into the stages, Gedgravian, Waltonian, Pre-Ludhamian, Ludhamian, Thurnian, Bramertonian or Antian, Pre-Pastonian or Baventian, Pastonian and Beestonian. The exact correlations between these stages and the ICS stages is still a matter of detail. The formation of an Arctic ice cap is signaled by a shift in oxygen isotope ratios and ice-rafted cobbles in the North Atlantic. Mid-latitude glaciation was probably underway before the end of the epoch, the global cooling that occurred during the Pliocene may have spurred on the disappearance of forests and the spread of grasslands and savannas. Continents continued to drift, moving from positions possibly as far as 250 km from their present locations to positions only 70 km from their current locations, africas collision with Europe formed the Mediterranean Sea, cutting off the remnants of the Tethys Ocean. The border between the Miocene and the Pliocene is also the time of the Messinian salinity crisis, Sea level changes exposed the land-bridge between Alaska and Asia. Pliocene marine rocks are exposed in the Mediterranean, India. Elsewhere, they are exposed largely near shores, the change to a cooler, dry, seasonal climate had considerable impacts on Pliocene vegetation, reducing tropical species worldwide. Deciduous forests proliferated, coniferous forests and tundra covered much of the north, tropical forests were limited to a tight band around the equator, and in addition to dry savannahs, deserts appeared in Asia and Africa
Pliocene
–
The
gastropod Oliva sayana, from the Pliocene of
Florida.
Pliocene
–
Mid-Pliocene reconstructed annual sea surface temperature anomaly
Pliocene
–
The
coral Cladocora from the Pliocene of
Cyprus.
Pliocene
–
A gastropod and attached serpulid wormtube from the Pliocene of Cyprus.
60.
Ecological niche
–
In ecology, a niche is a term with a variety of meanings related to the behavior of a species living under specific environmental conditions. The ecological niche describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors, the notion of ecological niche is central to ecological biogeography, which focuses on spatial patterns of ecological communities. Species distributions and their dynamics over time result from properties of the species, and interactions between the two — in particular the abilities of some species, especially our own, to modify their environments and alter the range dynamics of many other species. Alteration of a niche by its inhabitants is the topic of niche construction. Island biogeography can help explain island species and associated unfilled niches, the ecological meaning of niche comes from the meaning of niche as a recess in a wall for a statue, which itself is probably derived from the Middle French word nicher, meaning to nest. The Grinnellian niche concept embodies the idea that the niche of a species is determined by the habitat in which it lives, in other words, the niche is the sum of the habitat requirements and behaviors that allow a species to persist and produce offspring. Its niche is defined by the felicitous complementing of the thrashers behavior and this perspective of niche allows for the existence of both ecological equivalents and empty niches. In 1927 Charles Sutherland Elton, a British ecologist, defined a niche as follows, The niche of an animal means its place in the environment, its relations to food. Elton classified niches according to foraging activities, For instance there is the niche that is filled by birds of prey which eat small animals such as shrews, in an oak wood this niche is filled by tawny owls, while in the open grassland it is occupied by kestrels. Conceptually, the Eltonian niche introduces the idea of a response to. In an extreme example, beavers require certain resources in order to survive and reproduce, thus, the beaver affects the biotic and abiotic conditions of other species that live in and near the watershed. In a more subtle case, competitors that consume resources at different rates can lead to cycles in resource density that differ between species, not only do species grow differently with respect to resource density, their own population growth can lead to different effects on resource density over time. The hypervolume defines the space of resources available to organisms. The niche concept was popularized by the zoologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson in 1957, Hutchinson inquired into the question of why there are so many types of organisms in any one habitat. For such a distribution, the position, width and form of the niche correspond to the mean, standard deviation. This postulate, however, can be misguided, as it ignores the impacts that the resources of each category have on the organism, for instance, the resource in the overlap region can be non-limiting, in which case there is no competition for this resource despite niche overlap. An organism free of interference from other species could use the range of conditions and resources in which it could survive. Hutchinson used the idea of competition for resources as the mechanism driving ecology
Ecological niche
–
The
flightless dung beetle occupies a niche exploiting animal droppings as a food source
Ecological niche
–
The shape of the
bill of this
Purple-throated Carib is complementary to the shape of the flower, enabling it to exploit the nectar as a resource
Ecological niche
–
As a hemi-
parasitic plant, the
mistletoe in this tree exploits its host for nutrients and as a place to grow.
Ecological niche
–
Subdisciplines
61.
Ungulate
–
Most terrestrial ungulates use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. The term means, roughly, being hoofed or hoofed animal, ungulates are typically herbivorous, and many employ specialized gut bacteria to allow them to digest cellulose, as in the case of ruminants. They inhabit a range of habitats, including jungles, plains. Ungulata, which used to be considered an order, has split into the following, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, Tubulidentata, Hyracoidea, Sirenia, Proboscidea. This is an example of convergent evolution. There is now some dispute as to whether this smaller Ungulata is a cladistic group, some studies have indeed found the mesaxonian ungulates and paraxonian ungulates to form a monophyletic lineage, closely related to either the Ferae in the clade Fereuungulata or to the bats. Below is a simplified taxonomy with the extant families, in order of the relationships, keep in mind that there are still some grey areas of conflict, such as the case with relationship of the pecoran families and the baleen whale families. See each family for the relationships of the species as well as the controversies in their respective article, Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla include the majority of large land mammals. These two groups first appeared during the late Paleocene, rapidly spreading to a variety of species on numerous continents. In Australia, the marsupial Chaeropus also developed hooves, convergent those of artiodactyls, perissodactyls are said to have evolved from the Phenacodontidae, small, sheep-sized animals that already shown signs of anatomical features that their descendents will inherit. By the start of the Eocene,55 million years ago, they had diversified, horses and tapirs both evolved in North America, rhinoceroses appear to have developed in Asia from tapir-like animals and then colonised the Americas during the middle Eocene. Of the approximately 15 families, only three survive and these families were very diverse in form and size, they included the enormous brontotheres and the bizarre chalicotheres. The largest perissodactyl, an Asian rhinoceros called Paraceratherium, reached 15 tonnes, the desmostylians were large amphibious quadrupeds with massive limbs and a short tail. They grew to 1.8 metres in length and are thought to have weighed more than 200 kilograms. Their fossils are known from the northern Pacific Rim, from southern Japan through Russia, the Aleutian Islands and their dental and skeletal form suggests desmostylians were aquatic herbivores dependent on littoral habitats. They are the marine mammals to have gone extinct. For a while their relationships with other ungulates was a mystery, a recent study based on bone collagen as also found that to suggest that at least litopterns and the notoungulates were closely related to the perissodactyls. The oldest known fossils assigned to Equidae date from the early Eocene,54 million years ago
Ungulate
Ungulate
Ungulate
–
Plains Zebra
Ungulate
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Black rhinoceros
62.
Glires
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Glires is a clade consisting of rodents and lagomorphs. The hypothesis that these form a group has been long debated based on morphological evidence. Data based on nuclear DNA support Glires as a sister of Euarchonta to form Euarchontoglires, a study investigating retrotransposon presence/absence data unambiguously supports the Glires hypothesis. Recent studies place Scandentia as sister of the Glires, invalidating Euarchonta, asher RJ, Meng J, Wible JR, et al. Stem Lagomorpha and the antiquity of Glires, madsen O, Scally M, Douady CJ, et al. Parallel adaptive radiations in two clades of placental mammals. The osteology of Rhombomylus, implications for phylogeny and evolution of Glires, the morphology of Tribosphenomys, phylogenetic implications for basal Glires. Murphy WJ, Eizirik E, Johnson WE, Zhang YP, Ryder OA, molecular phylogenetics and the origins of placental mammals. Arnason U, Adegoke JA, Bodin K, et al, mammalian mitogenomic relationships and the root of the eutherian tree. Kriegs JO, Churakov G, Jurka J, Brosius J, Schmitz J. Evolutionary history of 7SL RNA-derived SINEs in Supraprimates
Glires
63.
Paleontology
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Paleontology or palaeontology is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene Epoch. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms evolution and interactions with each other, paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuviers work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek παλαιός, palaios, i. e. old, ancient, ὄν, on, i. e. being, creature and λόγος, logos, i. e. speech, thought, study. Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics. The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of molecular phylogenetics, molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the molecular clock on which such estimates depend. The simplest definition is the study of ancient life, paleontology is one of the historical sciences, along with archaeology, geology, astronomy, cosmology, philology and history itself. This means that it aims to describe phenomena of the past, hence it has three main elements, description of the phenomena, developing a general theory about the causes of various types of change, and applying those theories to specific facts. Sometimes the smoking gun is discovered by an accident during other research. Paleontology lies on the boundary between biology and geology since paleontology focuses on the record of past life but its source of evidence is fossils. In addition paleontology often uses techniques derived from other sciences, including biology, osteology, ecology, chemistry, techniques developed in engineering have been used to analyse how ancient organisms might have worked, for example how fast Tyrannosaurus could move and how powerful its bite was. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised subdivisions, vertebrate paleontology concentrates on fossils of vertebrates, from the earliest fish to the immediate ancestors of modern mammals. Invertebrate paleontology deals with fossils of such as molluscs, arthropods. Paleobotany focuses on the study of plants, but traditionally includes the study of fossil algae. Palynology, the study of pollen and spores produced by plants and protists. Micropaleontology deals with all microscopic fossil organisms, regardless of the group to which they belong, one example is the development of oxygenic photosynthesis by bacteria, which hugely increased the productivity and diversity of ecosystems. This also caused the oxygenation of the atmosphere, together, these were a prerequisite for the evolution of the most complex eukaryotic cells, from which all multicellular organisms are built
Paleontology
Paleontology
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A palaeontologist at work at
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
Paleontology
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The preparation of the fossilised bones of
Europasaurus holgeri
. PMID 16586678. doi:10.1073/pnas.3.1.17. 
