Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about 300 miles east of South America's southern Patagonian coast, about 752 miles from the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, at a latitude of about 52°S; the archipelago, with an area of 4,700 square miles, comprises East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands. As a British overseas territory, the Falklands have internal self-governance, the United Kingdom takes responsibility for their defence and foreign affairs; the Falkland Islands' capital is Stanley on East Falkland. Controversy exists over the Falklands' discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans. At various times, the islands have had French, British and Argentine settlements. Britain reasserted its rule in 1833. In April 1982, Argentine forces temporarily occupied the islands. British administration was restored two months at the end of the Falklands War. Most Falklanders favour the archipelago remaining a UK overseas territory, but its sovereignty status is part of an ongoing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom.
The population consists of native-born Falkland Islanders, the majority of British descent. Other ethnicities include French and Scandinavian. Immigration from the United Kingdom, the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, Chile has reversed a population decline; the predominant language is English. Under the British Nationality Act 1983, Falkland Islanders are British citizens; the islands lie on the boundary of the subantarctic oceanic and tundra climate zones, both major islands have mountain ranges reaching 2,300 feet. They are home to large bird populations, although many no longer breed on the main islands because of competition from introduced species. Major economic activities include fishing and sheep farming, with an emphasis on high-quality wool exports. Oil exploration, licensed by the Falkland Islands Government, remains controversial as a result of maritime disputes with Argentina; the name "Falkland Islands" comes from Falkland Sound, the strait that separates the two main islands.
The name "Falkland" was applied to the channel by John Strong, captain of an English expedition which landed on the islands in 1690. Strong named the strait in honour of Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, the Treasurer of the Navy who sponsored his journey; the Viscount's title originates from the town of Falkland, Scotland—the town's name comes from a Gaelic term referring to an "enclosure", but it could less plausibly be from the Anglo-Saxon term "folkland". The name "Falklands" was not applied to the islands until 1765, when British captain John Byron of the Royal Navy, claimed them for King George III as "Falkland's Islands"; the term "Falklands" is a standard abbreviation used to refer to the islands. The Spanish name for the archipelago, Islas Malvinas, derives from the French Îles Malouines—the name given to the islands by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in 1764. Bougainville, who founded the islands' first settlement, named the area after the port of Saint-Malo; the port, located in the Brittany region of western France, was in turn named after St. Malo, the Christian evangelist who founded the city.
At the twentieth session of the United Nations General Assembly, the Fourth Committee determined that, in all languages other than Spanish, all UN documentation would designate the territory as Falkland Islands. In Spanish, the territory was designated as Islas Malvinas; the nomenclature used by the United Nations for statistical processing purposes is Falkland Islands. Although Fuegians from Patagonia may have visited the Falkland Islands in prehistoric times, the islands were uninhabited when Europeans first discovered them. Claims of discovery date back to the 16th century, but no consensus exists on whether early explorers discovered the Falklands or other islands in the South Atlantic; the first recorded landing on the islands is attributed to English captain John Strong, who, en route to Peru's and Chile's littoral in 1690, discovered the Falkland Sound and noted the islands' water and game. The Falklands remained uninhabited until the 1764 establishment of Port Louis on East Falkland by French captain Louis Antoine de Bougainville, the 1766 foundation of Port Egmont on Saunders Island by British captain John MacBride.
Whether or not the settlements were aware of each other's existence is debated by historians. In 1766, France surrendered its claim on the Falklands to Spain, which renamed the French colony Puerto Soledad the following year. Problems began when Spain discovered and captured Port Egmont in 1770. War was narrowly avoided by its restitution to Britain in 1771. Both the British and Spanish settlements coexisted in the archipelago until 1774, when Britain's new economic and strategic considerations led it to voluntarily withdraw from the islands, leaving a plaque claiming the Falklands for King George III. Spain's Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata became the only governmental presence in the territory. West Falkland was left abandoned, Puerto Soledad became a prison camp. Amid the British invasions of the Río de la Plata during the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, the islands' governor evacuated the archipelago in 1806. Thereafter, the archipelago was visited only
Tapir
A tapir is a large, herbivorous mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, Southeast Asia; the five extant species of tapirs, all of the family Tapiridae and the genus Tapirus, are the Brazilian tapir, the Malayan tapir, the Baird's tapir, the kabomani tapir and the mountain tapir. The four species that have been evaluated are all classified on the IUCN Red List as Endangered or Vulnerable; the tapirs have a number of extinct relatives in the superfamily Tapiroidea. The closest extant relatives of the tapirs are the other odd-toed ungulates, which include horses, donkeys and rhinoceroses. Five extant species within one extant genus are recognised. Four are in Central and South America, while the fifth is in Asia.: Baird's tapir, Tapirus bairdii South American tapir, Tapirus terrestris Little black tapir, Tapirus kabomani Mountain tapir, Tapirus pinchaque Malayan tapir, Tapirus indicus Tapirus augustus † Tapirus californicus † Tapirus copei † Tapirus cristatellus † Tapirus greslebini † Tapirus johnsoni † Tapirus lundeliusi † Tapirus merriami † Tapirus mesopotamicus † Tapirus oliverasi † Tapirus polkensis † Tapirus rioplatensis † Tapirus rondoniensis † Tapirus tarijensis † Tapirus veroensis † Tapirus webbi † Size varies between types, but most tapirs are about 2 m long, stand about 1 m high at the shoulder, weigh between 150 and 300 kg.
Their coats are short and range in color from reddish brown, to grey, to nearly black, with the notable exceptions of the Malayan tapir, which has a white, saddle-shaped marking on its back, the mountain tapir, which has longer, woolly fur. All tapirs have oval, white-tipped ears, protruding rumps with stubby tails, splayed, hooved toes, with four toes on the front feet and three on the hind feet, which help them to walk on muddy and soft ground. Baby tapirs of all types have striped-and-spotted coats for camouflage. Females have a single pair of mammary glands, males have long penises relative to their body size; the proboscis of the tapir is a flexible organ, able to move in all directions, allowing the animals to grab foliage that would otherwise be out of reach. Tapirs exhibit the flehmen response, a posture in which they raise their snouts and show their teeth to detect scents; this response is exhibited by bulls sniffing for signs of other males or females in oestrus in the area. The length of the proboscis varies among species.
The evolution of tapir probosces, made up entirely of soft tissues rather than bony internal structures, gives the Tapiridae skull a unique form in comparison to other perissodactyls, with a larger sagittal crest, orbits positioned more rostrally, a posteriorly telescoped cranium, a more elongated and retracted nasoincisive incisure. Tapirs have brachyodont, or that lack cementum, their dental formula is: Totaling 42 to 44 teeth, this dentition is closer to that of equids, which may differ by one less canine, than their other perissodactyl relatives, rhinoceroses. Their incisors are chisel-shaped, with the third large, conical upper incisor separated by a short gap from the smaller canine. A much longer gap is found between the premolars, the first of which may be absent. Tapirs are lophodonts, their cheek teeth have distinct lophs between protocones, paracones and hypocones. Tapirs have brown eyes with a bluish cast to them, identified as corneal cloudiness, a condition most found in Malayan tapirs.
The exact etiology is unknown, but the cloudiness may be caused by excessive exposure to light or by trauma. However, the tapir's sensitive ears and strong sense of smell help to compensate for deficiencies in vision. Tapirs are hindgut fermenters that ferment digested food in a large cecum. Young tapirs reach sexual maturity between three and five years of age, with females maturing earlier than males. Under good conditions, a healthy female tapir can reproduce every two years; the natural lifespan of a tapir is about 25 to 30 years, both in zoos. Apart from mothers and their young offspring, tapirs lead exclusively solitary lives. Although they live in dryland forests, tapirs with access to rivers spend a good deal of time in and underwater, feeding on soft vegetation, taking refuge from predators, cooling off during hot periods. Tapirs near a water source will swim, sink to the bottom, walk along the riverbed to feed, have been known to submerge themselves under water to allow small fish to pick parasites off their bulky bodies.
Along with freshwater lounging, tapirs wallow in mud pits, which help to keep them cool and free of insects. In the wild, the tapir's diet consists of fruit and leaves young, tender growth. Tapirs will spend many of their waking hours foraging along well-worn trails, snout
Bolivia
Bolivia the Plurinational State of Bolivia is a landlocked country located in western-central South America. The capital is Sucre; the largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra, located on the Llanos Orientales a flat region in the east of Bolivia. The sovereign state of Bolivia is a constitutionally unitary state, divided into nine departments, its geography varies from the peaks of the Andes in the West, to the Eastern Lowlands, situated within the Amazon Basin. It is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to the south by Argentina, to the southwest by Chile, to the northwest by Peru. One-third of the country is within the Andean mountain range. With 1,098,581 km2 of area, Bolivia is the fifth largest country in South America, the 27th largest in the world and the largest landlocked country in the Southern Hemisphere; the country's population, estimated at 11 million, is multiethnic, including Amerindians, Europeans and Africans.
The racial and social segregation that arose from Spanish colonialism has continued to the modern era. Spanish is the official and predominant language, although 36 indigenous languages have official status, of which the most spoken are Guarani and Quechua languages. Before Spanish colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was part of the Inca Empire, while the northern and eastern lowlands were inhabited by independent tribes. Spanish conquistadors arriving from Cuzco and Asunción took control of the region in the 16th century. During the Spanish colonial period Bolivia was administered by the Royal Audiencia of Charcas. Spain built its empire in large part upon the silver, extracted from Bolivia's mines. After the first call for independence in 1809, 16 years of war followed before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th century Bolivia lost control of several peripheral territories to neighboring countries including the seizure of its coastline by Chile in 1879.
Bolivia remained politically stable until 1971, when Hugo Banzer led a coup d'état which replaced the socialist government of Juan José Torres with a military dictatorship headed by Banzer. Banzer's regime cracked down on leftist and socialist opposition and other forms of dissent, resulting in the torture and deaths of a number of Bolivian citizens. Banzer was ousted in 1978 and returned as the democratically elected president of Bolivia from 1997 to 2001. Modern Bolivia is a charter member of the UN, IMF, NAM, OAS, ACTO, Bank of the South, ALBA and USAN. For over a decade Bolivia has had one of the highest economic growth rates in Latin America, it is a developing country, with a medium ranking in the Human Development Index, a poverty level of 38.6%, one of the lowest crime rates in Latin America. Its main economic activities include agriculture, fishing and manufacturing goods such as textiles, refined metals, refined petroleum. Bolivia is rich in minerals, including tin and lithium. Bolivia is named after Simón Bolívar, a Venezuelan leader in the Spanish American wars of independence.
The leader of Venezuela, Antonio José de Sucre, had been given the option by Bolívar to either unite Charcas with the newly formed Republic of Peru, to unite with the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, or to formally declare its independence from Spain as a wholly independent state. Sucre opted to create a brand new state and on 6 August 1825, with local support, named it in honor of Simón Bolívar; the original name was Republic of Bolívar. Some days congressman Manuel Martín Cruz proposed: "If from Romulus comes Rome from Bolívar comes Bolivia"; the name was approved by the Republic on 3 October 1825. In 2009, a new constitution changed the country's official name to "Plurinational State of Bolivia" in recognition of the multi-ethnic nature of the country and the enhanced position of Bolivia's indigenous peoples under the new constitution; the region now known as Bolivia had been occupied for over 2,500 years. However, present-day Aymara associate themselves with the ancient civilization of the Tiwanaku culture which had its capital at Tiwanaku, in Western Bolivia.
The capital city of Tiwanaku dates from as early as 1500 BC when it was a small, agriculturally based village. The community grew to urban proportions between AD 600 and AD 800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes. According to early estimates, the city covered 6.5 square kilometers at its maximum extent and had between 15,000 and 30,000 inhabitants. In 1996 satellite imaging was used to map the extent of fossilized suka kollus across the three primary valleys of Tiwanaku, arriving at population-carrying capacity estimates of anywhere between 285,000 and 1,482,000 people. Around AD 400, Tiwanaku went from being a locally dominant force to a predatory state. Tiwanaku expanded its reaches into the Yungas and brought its culture and way of life to many other cultures in Peru and Chile. Tiwanaku was not a violent culture in many respects. In order to expand its reach, Tiwanaku exercised great political astuteness, creating colonies, fostering trade agree
Altiplano
The Altiplano, Andean Plateau or Bolivian Plateau, in west-central South America, is the area where the Andes are the widest. It is the most extensive area of high plateau on Earth outside Tibet; the bulk of the Altiplano lies in Bolivia, but its northern parts lie in Peru, its southern parts lie in Chile and Argentina. The plateau hosts several cities of these four nations, including El Alto, La Paz and Puno; the northeastern Altiplano is more humid than the southwestern area. The latter area has salt flats, due to its aridity. At the Bolivia -- Peru border lies the largest lake in South America. South of that in Bolivia was Lake Poopó, declared dried up and defunct as of December 2015, it is unclear. The Altiplano was the site of several pre-Columbian cultures, including the Chiripa and the Inca Empire. Spain conquered the region in the 16th century. Major economic activities in the Altiplano include mining and vicuña herding, services in the cities. There is some international tourism; the Altiplano is an area of inland drainage lying in the central Andes, occupying parts of northern Chile and Argentina, western Bolivia and southern Peru.
Its height averages about 3,750 meters less than that of the Tibetan Plateau. Unlike conditions in Tibet, the Altiplano is dominated by massive active volcanoes of the Central Volcanic Zone to the west, such as Ampato, Parinacota, Paruma and Licancabur, the Cordillera Real in the north east with Illampu, Huayna Potosí, Janq'u Uma and Illimani; the Atacama Desert, one of the driest areas on the planet, lies to the southwest of the Altiplano. The Altiplano is noted for hypoxic air caused by high elevation. At various times during the Pleistocene epoch, both the southern and northern Altiplano were covered by vast pluvial lakes. Remnants are Lake Titicaca, straddling the Peru–Bolivia border, Poopó, a salt lake that extends south of Oruro, Bolivia. Salar de Uyuni, locally known as Salar de Tunupa, Salar de Coipasa are two large dry salt flats formed after the Altiplano paleolakes dried out; the term Altiplano is sometimes used to identify the altitude zone and the type of climate that prevails within it: it is colder than that of the tierra fría but not as cold as that of the tierra helada.
Scientists classify the latter as commencing at an elevation of 4,500 meters. Alternate names used in place of altiplano in this context páramos. In extentum, the climate is cool and humid to semi-arid and arid, with mean annual temperatures that vary from 3 °C near the western mountain range to 12 °C near Lake Titicaca; the diurnal cycle of temperature is wide, with maximum temperatures in the order of 12 to 24 °C and the minimum in the order of -20 to 10 °C. The coldest temperatures occur in the southwestern portion of the Altiplano during the months of June and July, which correspond to the austral winter; the seasonal cycle of rainfall is marked, with the rainy season concentrated between December and March. The rest of the year tends to be dry, cool and sunny. Snowfall may happen between April and September to the north, but it is not common. Several mechanisms have been put forth for the formation of the Altiplano plateau; such weaknesses would cause the partition of tectonic deformation and uplift into the eastern and western cordillera, leaving the necessary space for the formation of the altiplano basin.
Magmatic processes rooted in the asthenosphere might have contributed to uplift of the plateau Climate has controlled the spatial distribution of erosion and sediment deposition, controlling the lubrication along the subducting Nazca Plate and hence influencing the transmission of tectonic forces into South America. Climate determined the formation of internal drainage and sediment trapping within the Andes blocking tectonic deformation in the central area between the two cordilleras, expelling deformation towards the flanks of the orogen Convective removal of the dense lower lithosphere beneath the Altiplano caused that region to isostatically'float' higher Qulla Uros Quechua Aymara Lake Tauca Gran Chaco Guatemalan Highlands Mexican Plateau Puna de Atacama Yungas Photo Gallery: Argentinian Puna Water resources of Chilean Altiplano Steinmetz, George. "Altiplano - Where Bolivia meets the sky". National Geographic Magazine
Peru
Peru the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, in the west by the Pacific Ocean. Peru is a megadiverse country with habitats ranging from the arid plains of the Pacific coastal region in the west to the peaks of the Andes mountains vertically extending from the north to the southeast of the country to the tropical Amazon Basin rainforest in the east with the Amazon river. Peruvian territory was home to several ancient cultures. Ranging from the Norte Chico civilization in the 32nd century BC, the oldest civilization in the Americas and one of the five cradles of civilization, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in pre-Columbian America, the territory now including Peru has one of the longest histories of civilization of any country, tracing its heritage back to the 4th millennia BCE; the Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a viceroyalty that encompassed most of its South American colonies, with its capital in Lima.
Peru formally proclaimed independence in 1821, following the military campaigns of José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar, the decisive battle of Ayacucho, Peru secured independence in 1824. In the ensuing years, the country enjoyed relative economic and political stability, which ended shortly before the War of the Pacific with Chile. Throughout the 20th century, Peru endured armed territorial disputes, social unrest, internal conflicts, as well as periods of stability and economic upswing. Alberto Fujimori was elected to the presidency in 1990. Fujimori left the presidency in 2000 and was charged with human rights violations and imprisoned until his pardon by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2017. After the president's regime, Fujimori's followers, called Fujimoristas, have caused political turmoil for any opposing faction in power causing Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to resign in March 2018; the sovereign state of Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. It is classified as an emerging market with a high level of human development and an upper middle income level with a poverty rate around 19 percent.
It is one of the region's most prosperous economies with an average growth rate of 5.9% and it has one of the world's fastest industrial growth rates at an average of 9.6%. Its main economic activities include mining, manufacturing and fishing; the country forms part of The Pacific Pumas, a political and economic grouping of countries along Latin America's Pacific coast that share common trends of positive growth, stable macroeconomic foundations, improved governance and an openness to global integration. Peru ranks high in social freedom. Peru has a population of 32 million, which includes Amerindians, Europeans and Asians; the main spoken language is Spanish, although a significant number of Peruvians speak Quechua or other native languages. This mixture of cultural traditions has resulted in a wide diversity of expressions in fields such as art, cuisine and music; the name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a local ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama City, in the early 16th century.
When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans. Thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, son of an Inca princess and a conquistador, he said the name Birú was that of a common Indian happened upon by the crew of a ship on an exploratory mission for governor Pedro Arias de Ávila, went on to relate more instances of misunderstandings due to the lack of a common language. The Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru. Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, which became Republic of Peru after independence; the earliest evidences of human presence in Peruvian territory have been dated to 9,000 BC. Andean societies were based on agriculture, terracing.
Organization relied on reciprocity and redistribution because these societies had no notion of market or money. The oldest known complex society in Peru, the Norte Chico civilization, flourished along the coast of the Pacific Ocean between 3,000 and 1,800 BC; these early developments were followed by archaeological cultures that developed around the coastal and Andean regions throughout Peru. The Cupisnique culture which flourished from around 1000 to 200 BC along what is now Peru's Pacific Coast was an example of early pre-Incan culture; the Chavín culture that developed from 1500 to 300 BC was more of a religious than a political phenomenon, with their religious centre in Chavín de Huantar. After the decline of the Chavin culture around the beginning of the 1st century AD, a series of localized and specialized cultures rose and fell
Torres del Paine National Park
Torres del Paine National Park is a national park encompassing mountains, glaciers and rivers in southern Chilean Patagonia. The Cordillera del Paine is the centerpiece of the park, it lies in a transition area between the Patagonian Steppes. The park is located 112 km north of 312 km north of Punta Arenas; the park borders Bernardo O'Higgins National Park to the west and the Los Glaciares National Park to the north in Argentine territory. Paine is pronounced PIE-nay. Torres del Paine National Park is part of the Sistema Nacional de Áreas Silvestres Protegidas del Estado de Chile. In 2013, it measured 181,414 hectares, it is one of the most visited parks in Chile. The park averages around 252,000 visitors a year, of which 54% are foreign tourists, who come from many countries all over the world, it is part of the End of the World Route, a tourist scenic route. The park is one of the 11 protected areas of the Magallanes Chilean Antarctica. Together, the protected forested areas comprise about 51% of the land of the region.
The Torres del Paine are the distinctive three granite peaks of the Paine mountain range or Paine Massif. From left to right they are known as Torres Central and Torres Monzino, they extend up to 2,500 metres above sea level, are joined by the Cuernos del Paine. The area boasts valleys, rivers such as the Paine and glaciers; the well-known lakes include Grey, Pehoé, Nordenskiöld, Sarmiento. The glaciers, including Grey and Tyndall, belong to the Southern Patagonia Ice Field. Lady Florence Dixie, in her book published in 1880, gave one of the first descriptions of the area and referred to the three towers as Cleopatra's Needles, she and her party are sometimes credited as being the first "foreign tourists" to visit the area, now called Torres del Paine National Park. Several European scientists and explorers visited the area in the following decades, including Otto Nordenskiöld, Carl Skottsberg, Alberto María de Agostini. Gunther Plüschow was the first person to fly over the Paine massif; the park was established in 1959 as Parque Nacional de Turismo Lago Grey and was given its present name in 1970.
In 1976, British mountaineer John Gardner and two Torres del Paine rangers,Pepe Alarcon, Oscar Guineo pioneered the Circuit trail which circles the Paine massif. In 1977, Guido Monzino donated 12,000 hectares to the Chilean Government when its definitive limits were established; the park was designated a World Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 1978. In 1985, a tourist started a fire; the blaze affected the areas east and south around Lake Pehoé. In February 2005, an accidental fire started by a Czech backpacker, which lasted for about ten days, destroyed 155 km2 of the park, including about 2 km² of native forest; the Czech government donated US$1 million to reforestation efforts. In late December 2011 through January 2012, an Israeli backpacker was found by guilty to have started a fire after being caught by a park ranger when lighting up some paper roll in a forbidden area; this burned about 176 km2 of the reserve, destroying about 36 km² of native forest and affecting most of the areas around Lake Pehoé and the western areas around Lake Sarmiento, but moving away from the Cordillera del Paine, the park's centerpiece.
The Israeli government sent reforestation experts to the zone, has committed to donate trees to replant the affected areas. Recent paleoenvironmental studies performed within the Park indicate that fires have been frequent phenomena at least during the last 12,800 years. According to the Köppen climate classification, the park lies in the “temperate climate of cold rain without a dry season." The meteorological conditions of the park are variable due to the complex orography. The zone is characterized by cool summers, with temperatures lower than 16 °C during the warmest month. Winter is cold, with an average high temperature in July of 5 °C, an average low of −3 °C; the rainiest months are April, with a monthly average rainfall of 80 mm. This represents double the July -- October rainfall. A study of the exact chemical components of the precipitation in the park has been carried out; the park possesses a large drainage network, which consists of numerous rivers, lakes and cascades that come from the Southern Patagonia Ice Field and flow towards the southeast until the Última Esperanza Sound that bathes the coasts of the city of Puerto Natales.
The courses of water come from a longitudinal profile and are turbulent with brusque changes in course, generated by waterfalls and rapids. The Southern Patagonian Ice Field takes up the entire western side of the park; the Southern Patagonian Ice Field feeds four main glaciers. This last glacier is receding; the largest is Glacier Grey. It is divided into two arms, because of the appearance of a peninsula of ice called the Island or Nunatak, that becomes apparent a little more with each year that passes; the eastern arm measures about 1.2 km. The longitude of the glacier in its path towards the interior of the park is 15 km. Studies of the glacier
Chordate
A chordate is an animal constituting the phylum Chordata. During some period of their life cycle, chordates possess a notochord, a dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, a post-anal tail: these five anatomical features define this phylum. Chordates are bilaterally symmetric; the Chordata and Ambulacraria together form the superphylum Deuterostomia. Chordates are divided into three subphyla: Vertebrata. There are extinct taxa such as the Vetulicolia. Hemichordata has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but now is treated as a separate phylum: hemichordates and Echinodermata form the Ambulacraria, the sister phylum of the Chordates. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, about half are bony fish that are members of the superclass Osteichthyes. Chordate fossils have been found from as early as the Cambrian explosion, 541 million years ago. Cladistically, vertebrates - chordates with the notochord replaced by a vertebral column during development - are considered to be a subgroup of the clade Craniata, which consists of chordates with a skull.
The Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Chordates form a phylum of animals that are defined by having at some stage in their lives all of the following anatomical features: A notochord, a stiff rod of cartilage that extends along the inside of the body. Among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. A dorsal neural tube. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the main communications trunk of the nervous system. Pharyngeal slits; the pharynx is the part of the throat behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, but in some other chordates they are part of a filter-feeding system that extracts particles of food from the water in which the animals live. Post-anal tail. A muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. An endostyle; this is a groove in the ventral wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus.
It stores iodine, may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland. There are soft constraints that separate chordates from certain other biological lineages, but are not part of the formal definition: All chordates are deuterostomes; this means. All chordates are based on a bilateral body plan. All chordates are coelomates, have a fluid filled body cavity called a coelom with a complete lining called peritoneum derived from mesoderm; the following schema is from the third edition of Vertebrate Palaeontology. The invertebrate chordate classes are from Fishes of the World. While it is structured so as to reflect evolutionary relationships, it retains the traditional ranks used in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylum Chordata †Vetulicolia? Subphylum Cephalochordata – Class Leptocardii Clade Olfactores Subphylum Tunicata – Class Ascidiacea Class Thaliacea Class Appendicularia Class Sorberacea Subphylum Vertebrata Infraphylum incertae sedis Cyclostomata Superclass'Agnatha' paraphyletic Class Myxini Class Petromyzontida or Hyperoartia Class †Conodonta Class †Myllokunmingiida Class †Pteraspidomorphi Class †Thelodonti Class †Anaspida Class †Cephalaspidomorphi Infraphylum Gnathostomata Class †Placodermi Class Chondrichthyes Class †Acanthodii Superclass Osteichthyes Class Actinopterygii Class Sarcopterygii Superclass Tetrapoda Class Amphibia Class Sauropsida Class Synapsida Craniates, one of the three subdivisions of chordates, all have distinct skulls.
They include the hagfish. Michael J. Benton commented that "craniates are characterized by their heads, just as chordates, or all deuterostomes, are by their tails". Most craniates are vertebrates; these consist of a series of bony or cartilaginous cylindrical vertebrae with neural arches that protect the spinal cord, with projections that link the vertebrae. However hagfish have incomplete braincases and no vertebrae, are therefore not regarded as vertebrates, but as members of the craniates, the group from which vertebrates are thought to have evolved; however the cladistic exclusion of hagfish from the vertebrates is controversial, as they ma
