1.
Miocene
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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
2.
Holocene
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The Holocene is the geological epoch that began after the Pleistocene at approximately 11,700 years before present. The term Recent has often used as an exact synonym of Holocene. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period and its name comes from the Ancient Greek words ὅλος and καινός, meaning entirely recent. It has been identified with the current warm period, known as MIS1, given these, a new term, Anthropocene, is specifically proposed and used informally only for the very latest part of modern history involving significant human impact. It is accepted by the International Commission on Stratigraphy that the Holocene started approximately 11,700 years ago, the epoch follows the Pleistocene and the last glacial period. The Holocene can be subdivided into five time intervals, or chronozones, based on climatic fluctuations, Preboreal, Boreal, Atlantic, Subboreal and they find a general correspondence across Eurasia and North America, though the method was once thought to be of no interest. The scheme was defined for Northern Europe, but the changes were claimed to occur more widely. The periods of the include a few of the final pre-Holocene oscillations of the last glacial period. Paleontologists have not defined any faunal stages for the Holocene, if subdivision is necessary, periods of human technological development, such as the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age, are usually used. However, the time periods referenced by these terms vary with the emergence of those technologies in different parts of the world, climatically, the Holocene may be divided evenly into the Hypsithermal and Neoglacial periods, the boundary coincides with the start of the Bronze Age in Europe. According to some scholars, a division, the Anthropocene, has now begun. Continental motions due to plate tectonics are less than a kilometre over a span of only 10,000 years, however, ice melt caused world sea levels to rise about 35 m in the early part of the Holocene. The sea level rise and temporary land depression allowed temporary marine incursions into areas that are now far from the sea, Holocene marine fossils are known, for example, from Vermont and Michigan. Other than higher-latitude temporary marine incursions associated with depression, Holocene fossils are found primarily in lakebed, floodplain. Holocene marine deposits along low-latitude coastlines are rare because the rise in sea levels during the period exceeds any likely tectonic uplift of non-glacial origin, post-glacial rebound in the Scandinavia region resulted in the formation of the Baltic Sea. The region continues to rise, still causing weak earthquakes across Northern Europe, the equivalent event in North America was the rebound of Hudson Bay, as it shrank from its larger, immediate post-glacial Tyrrell Sea phase, to near its present boundaries. Climate has been stable over the Holocene. It appears that this was influenced by the glacial ice remaining in the Northern Hemisphere until the later date
3.
Amazon river dolphin
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The Amazon river dolphin, also known as the boto, bufeo or pink river dolphin, is a species of toothed whale classified in the family Iniidae. Three subspecies are recognized, I. g. geoffrensis, I. g. boliviensis. The three subspecies are distributed in the Amazon basin, the upper Madeira River in Bolivia, the Amazon river dolphin is the largest species of river dolphin, with adult males reaching 185 kilograms in weight, and 2.5 metres in length. Adults acquire a pink color, more prominent in males, giving it its nickname pink river dolphin, sexual dimorphism is very evident, with males measuring 16% longer and weighing 55% more than females. Like other toothed whales, they have a melon, an organ that is used for bio sonar, the dorsal fin, although short in height, is regarded as long, and the pectoral fins are also large. The fin size, unfused vertebrae, and its relative size allow for improved manoeuvrability when navigating flooded forests and capturing prey. They have one of the widest ranging diets among toothed whales and they also consume other animals such as river turtles and freshwater crabs. In 2008, this species was ranked by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a Data Deficient, due to the uncertainty regarding their population trends and the impact of threats. While hunting is a threat, in recent decades, greater impacts on population are due to the loss of habitat. It is the species of river dolphin kept in captivity, mainly in the United States, Venezuela and Europe, however, it is difficult to train. The species Inia geoffrensis was described by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1817, originally, the Amazon river dolphin belonged to the superfamily Platanistoidea, which constituted all river dolphins, making them a paraphyletic group. Today, however, the Amazon river dolphin has been reclassified into the superfamily Inioidea. There is no consensus on when and how they penetrated the Amazon basin, they may have done so during the Miocene from the Pacific Ocean, before the formation of the Andes, or from the Atlantic Ocean. Three subspecies are recognized, I. g. geoffrensis, I. g. boliviensis, however, based on skull morphology in 1994, it was proposed that I. g. boliviensis was a different species. It is confined to the Mamore River and its main tributary, the Amazon river dolphin is the largest river dolphin. Adult males reach a length and weight of 2.55 metres and 185 kilograms, while females reach a length. It has very evident sexual dimorphism, with measuring and weighing between 16% and 55% more than females, making it unique among cetaceans, where females are generally larger than males. The texture of the body is robust and strong but flexible, unlike oceanic dolphins, the cervical vertebrae are not fused, allowing the head to turn 90 degrees
4.
Duisburg Zoo
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The Duisburg Zoo, founded on 12 May 1934, is one of the largest zoological gardens in Germany. It is especially known for its dolphinarium and, since 1994. Far less well known are the successes in other areas, for example, with fossas. The zoo is located in the part of the Duisburg urban forest on the border with Mülheim on the Ruhr. Federal highway A3 divides the zoo into western and an eastern parts, the highway is scarcely noticeable to the visitors. The Duisburg Zoo was founded in 1934 as the Duisburg-Hamborner Tierpark am Kaiserberg, in 1936, the zoo began to grow from a small animal park with its first elephant. With the beginning of World War II in 1939, the zoo had to be closed, only in 1946 was the zoo re-opened with animals loaned from the Hellabrunn Zoo in Munich. In 1952, the zoo could register the acquisition of its first elephant, in 1958, a facility for penguins and seals was dedicated by businessman and promoter Helmut Horten. In 1965, one of Europe’s largest dolphinariums was opened in a developed area. Director Wolfgang Gewalt drew similarly vehement criticism for leading an expedition to supply the zoo with a white whale, amazingly, the animals, which are the oldest of their kind known, appear to have tolerated the move well. In 1970, the park renamed itself a zoo and marked 1978 with the birth of its first dolphin. The Duisburg Zoo celebrated its 70 years of existence in May 2004, since September 2005, a new facility for the two river dolphins, dubbed the “Rio Negro”, has opened. One of the dolphins died a short time later, the one is still alive. The Dolphinarium is inhabited by nine bottle-nosed dolphins Ivo, Pepina, Delphi, Daisy, Dolly, Donna, Diego, Darwin, and Dörte and it is not cleaned chemically, but with special equipment using air. It is the largest dolphinarium in Germany, depending on the season, two or three performances take place every day in the large arena. During the week, the dolphinarium is free-of-charge for visitors between performances and it regularly offers special treats, such as An Evening with the Dolphins or Zookeeper for a Day and weddings or childrens birthday parties can be celebrated there. Dolphins have been born and bred in Duisburg several times, Duphi, Delphi, Daisy, Duke, however, on several occasions the offspring did not reach maturity. In September 2007, Donna, the daughter of Pepina, was born, the Rio Negro was opened in 2005, and is situated in the Tropical House
5.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
6.
Animal
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
7.
Chordate
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Chordates are deuterostomes, as during the embryo development stage the anus forms before the mouth. They are also bilaterally symmetric coelomates, in the case of vertebrate chordates, the notochord is usually replaced by a vertebral column during development, and they may have body plans organized via segmentation. There are also additional extinct taxa, the Vertebrata are sometimes considered as a subgroup of the clade Craniata, consisting of chordates with a skull, the Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, the worlds largest and fastest animals, the blue whale and peregrine falcon respectively, are chordates, as are humans. Fossil chordates are known from at least as early as the Cambrian explosion, Hemichordata, which includes the acorn worms, has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but it now is usually treated as a separate phylum. The Hemichordata, along with the Echinodermata, form the Ambulacraria, the Chordata and Ambulacraria form the superphylum Deuterostomia, composed of the deuterostomes. Attempts to work out the relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. All of the earliest chordate fossils have found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna. Because the fossil record of early chordates is poor, only molecular phylogenetics offers a prospect of dating their emergence. However, the use of molecular phylogenetics for dating evolutionary transitions is controversial and it has also proved difficult to produce a detailed classification within the living chordates. Attempts to produce family trees shows that many of the traditional classes are paraphyletic. While this has been known since the 19th century, an insistence on only monophyletic taxa has resulted in vertebrate classification being in a state of flux. Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson, it was already in prevalent use by 1880, ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866. Though he used the German vernacular form, it is allowed under the ICZN code because of its subsequent latinization, among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, and in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the pharynx is the part of the throat immediately behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, a muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. This is a groove in the wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus and it also stores iodine, and may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland
8.
Mammal
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Mammals are any vertebrates within the class Mammalia, a clade of endothermic amniotes distinguished from reptiles by the possession of a neocortex, hair, three middle ear bones and mammary glands. All female mammals nurse their young with milk, secreted from the mammary glands, Mammals include the largest animals on the planet, the great whales. The basic body type is a quadruped, but some mammals are adapted for life at sea, in the air, in trees. The largest group of mammals, the placentals, have a placenta, Mammals range in size from the 30–40 mm bumblebee bat to the 30-meter blue whale. With the exception of the five species of monotreme, all modern mammals give birth to live young, most mammals, including the six most species-rich orders, belong to the placental group. The largest orders are the rodents, bats and Soricomorpha, the next three biggest orders, depending on the biological classification scheme used, are the Primates, the Cetartiodactyla, and the Carnivora. Living mammals are divided into the Yinotheria and Theriiformes There are around 5450 species of mammal, in some classifications, extant mammals are divided into two subclasses, the Prototheria, that is, the order Monotremata, and the Theria, or the infraclasses Metatheria and Eutheria. The marsupials constitute the group of the Metatheria, and include all living metatherians as well as many extinct ones. Much of the changes reflect the advances of cladistic analysis and molecular genetics, findings from molecular genetics, for example, have prompted adopting new groups, such as the Afrotheria, and abandoning traditional groups, such as the Insectivora. The mammals represent the only living Synapsida, which together with the Sauropsida form the Amniota clade, the early synapsid mammalian ancestors were sphenacodont pelycosaurs, a group that produced the non-mammalian Dimetrodon. At the end of the Carboniferous period, this group diverged from the line that led to todays reptiles. Some mammals are intelligent, with some possessing large brains, self-awareness, Mammals can communicate and vocalize in several different ways, including the production of ultrasound, scent-marking, alarm signals, singing, and echolocation. Mammals can organize themselves into fission-fusion societies, harems, and hierarchies, most mammals are polygynous, but some can be monogamous or polyandrous. They provided, and continue to provide, power for transport and agriculture, as well as commodities such as meat, dairy products, wool. Mammals are hunted or raced for sport, and are used as model organisms in science, Mammals have been depicted in art since Palaeolithic times, and appear in literature, film, mythology, and religion. Defaunation of mammals is primarily driven by anthropogenic factors, such as poaching and habitat destruction, Mammal classification has been through several iterations since Carl Linnaeus initially defined the class. No classification system is accepted, McKenna & Bell and Wilson & Reader provide useful recent compendiums. Though field work gradually made Simpsons classification outdated, it remains the closest thing to a classification of mammals
9.
Even-toed ungulate
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The even-toed ungulates are ungulates whose weight is borne equally by the third and fourth toes. By contrast, odd-toed ungulates, such as horses, bear their weight primarily on their third toe, the aquatic cetaceans evolved from within even-toed ungulates, and therefore modern taxonomic classification sometimes combines Artiodactyla and Cetacea into Cetartiodactyla. The oldest fossils of even-toed ungulates date back to the early Eocene, since these findings almost simultaneously appeared in Europe, Asia, and North America, it is very difficult to accurately determine the origin of artiodactyls. The fossils are classified as belonging to the family Dichobunidae, their best-known and these were small animals, some as small as a hare, with a slim build, lanky legs, and a long tail. The hind legs were longer than the front legs. The early to middle Eocene saw the emergence of the ancestors of most of todays mammals, two formerly widespread, but now extinct, families of even-toed ungulates were Enteledontidae and Anthracotheriidae. Entelodonts existed from the middle Eocene to the early Miocene in Eurasia and they had a stocky body with short legs and a massive head, which was characterized by two humps on the lower jaw bone. Anthracotheres had a large, porcine build, with short legs and this group appeared in the middle Eocene up until the Pliocene, and spread throughout Eurasia, Africa, and North America. Anthracothereres are thought to be the ancestors of hippos, and, likewise, hippopotamuses appeared in the late Miocene and occupied Africa and Asia – they never got to the Americas. The camels were, during parts of the Cenozoic, limited to North America. Among the North American camels were groups like the stocky, short-legged Merycoidodontidae and they first appeared in the late Eocene and developed a great diversity of species in North America. Only in the late Miocene or early Pliocene did they migrate from North America into Eurasia, the North American varieties became extinct around 10,000 years ago. Suina have been around since the Eocene, in the late Eocene or the Oligocene, two families stayed in Eurasia and Africa, the peccaries, which became extinct in the Old World, exist today only in the Americas. South America was settled by even-toed ungulates only in the Pliocene, with only the peccaries, lamoids, and various species of capreoline deer, South America has comparatively fewer artiodactyl families than other continents. The classification of artiodactyls was hotly debated because the ocean-dwelling cetaceans evolved from the land-dwelling even-toed ungulates, some semiaquatic even-toed ungulates are more closely related to the ocean-dwelling cetaceans than to the other even-toed ungulates. This makes the Artiodactyla as traditionally defined an invalid paraphyletic taxon, since it includes animals descended from a common ancestor, phylogenetic classification only recognizes monophyletic taxa, that is, groups that descend from a common ancestor and include all its descendants. To address this problem, the traditional order Artiodactyla and infraorder Cetacea are sometimes subsumed into the more inclusive Cetartiodactyla taxon, an alternative approach is to include both land-land dwelling even toed ungulates and ocean-dwelling cetaceans in a revised Artiodactyla taxon. Order Artiodactyla/Clade CetartiodactylaSuborder Tylopoda Family †Anoplotheriidae, molecular biology involves sequencing an organisms DNA and RNA and comparing the sequence with that of other living beings – the more similar they are, the more closely they are related
10.
Cetacea
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Cetacea are a widely distributed and diverse clade of aquatic mammals that today consists of the whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Most species live in the sea, some in rivers, the name is derived from the Latin cetus whale and Greek ketos huge fish. The extinct ancestors of modern whales are the Archaeoceti, while cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids, molecular evidence supports them as a relative of Artiodactyls. Cetaceans belong to the order Cetartiodactyla and their closest living relatives are hippopotamuses and other hoofed mammals, having diverged about 50 million years ago. Cetaceans range in size from the 1 m and 50 kg Mauis dolphin to the 29.9 m and 190,000 kg blue whale and they have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers. Dolphins are able to very tight turns while swimming at high speeds. The hindlimbs of cetaceans are internal, and are thought to be vestigial, baleen whales have short hairs on their mouth, unlike the toothed whales. Cetaceans have well-developed senses—their eyesight and hearing are adapted for both air and water, and baleen whales have a system in their vibrissae. They have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to maintain body heat in cold water, Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths. Although cetaceans are widespread, most species prefer the waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. They spend their lives in the water, having to mate, give birth, molt or escape predators, like killer whales. This has drastically affected their anatomy to be able to do so and they feed largely on fish and marine invertebrates, but a few, like the killer whale, feed on large mammals and birds, such as penguins and seals. Some baleen whales are specialised for feeding on benthic creatures, male cetaceans typically mate with more than one female, although the degree of polygyny varies with the species. Cetaceans are not shown to have pair bonds, male cetacean strategies for reproductive success vary between herding females, defending potential mates from other males, or whale song which attracts mates. Calves are typically born in the fall and winter months, cetaceans produce a number of vocalizations, notably the clicks and whistles of dolphins, the moaning songs of the humpback whale. The meat, blubber and oil of cetaceans have traditionally used by indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Cetaceans have been depicted in cultures worldwide. Dolphins are commonly kept in captivity and are sometimes trained to perform tricks and tasks
11.
Inioidea
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River dolphins are a widely distributed group of fully aquatic mammals that reside exclusively in freshwater or brackish water. They are a grouping of dolphins, which is a paraphyletic group within the infraorder Cetacea. The river dolphins comprise the extant families Platanistidae, Iniidae, there are five extant species of river dolphins, and two subspecies. River dolphins are small compared to other dolphins, having evolved to survive in warm, shallow water. They range in size from the 5-foot long South Asian river dolphin to the 8-foot, several species exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the males are larger than the females. They have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers, River dolphins use their conical-shaped teeth and long beaks to capture fast-moving prey in murky water. They have well-developed hearing that is adapted for both air and water, they do not really rely on vision since the water they swim in is very muddy. These species are well-adapted to living in warm, shallow waters, River dolphins are not very widespread, they are all restricted to certain rivers or deltas. This makes them vulnerable to habitat destruction. River dolphins feed primarily on fish, male river dolphins typically mate with multiple females every year, but females only mate every two to three years. Calves are typically born in the spring and summer months and females bear all the responsibility for raising them, River dolphins produce a variety of vocalizations, usually in the form of clicks and whistles. River dolphins are kept in captivity, breeding success has been poor. As of 2015, there are three river dolphins in captivity. Four families of river dolphins are currently recognized, comprising three superfamilies, Platanistidae, containing the two subspecies of South Asian river dolphin, is the only accepted family of Platanistoidea. Previously, many taxonomists had assigned all river dolphins to a family, Platanistidae. A December 2006 survey found no members of Lipotes vexillifer and declared the species functionally extinct, with their disappearance, one of the recently accepted superfamilies, Lipotoidea, has become extinct. G. gangetica Indus River dolphin, P. g, River dolphins are members of the infraorder Cetacea, which are descendants of land-dwelling mammals of the order Artiodactyla. They are related to the Indohyus, an extinct chevrotain-like ungulate, the primitive cetaceans, or archaeocetes, first took to the sea approximately 49 million years ago and became fully aquatic by 5–10 million years later
12.
John Edward Gray
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John Edward Gray, FRS was a British zoologist. He was the brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray. Gray was Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum in London from 1840 until Christmas 1874 and he published several catalogues of the museum collections that included comprehensive discussions of animal groups as well as descriptions of new species. He improved the zoological collections to make them amongst the best in the world, Gray was born in Walsall, but his family soon moved to London, where Gray studied medicine. He assisted his father in writing The Natural Arrangement of British Plants, after being blackballed by the Linnean Society he turned his interest from botany to zoology. He began his career by volunteering to collect insects for the British Museum at age 15. He officially joined the Zoological Department in 1824 to help John George Children catalog the reptile collection, in 1840 he took over from Children as Keeper of Zoology, which he continued for 35 years, publishing well over 1000 papers. He named many species, genera, subfamilies, and families. During this period he collaborated with Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, the natural history artist. Knowsley Park, near Liverpool, had been founded by Edward Stanley, Gray married Maria Emma Smith in 1826. She helped him with his work, especially with her drawings. In 1833, he was a founder of what became the Royal Entomological Society of London, during his fifty years employed at the British Museum Gray wrote nearly 500 papers, including many descriptions of species new to science. He was also active in malacology, the study of molluscs, on his death he was buried at St Marys Church, Lewisham. 1821, On the natural arrangement of Vertebrose Animals,1824, A revision of the family Equidae. 1824, On the natural arrangement of the pulmonobranchous Mollusca, annals of Philosophy, new series 8, 107–109. 1825, A list and description of species of shells not taken notice of by Lamarck. 1825, An outline of an attempt at the disposition of the Mammalia into tribes and families with a list of the genera apparently appertaining to each tribe, narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia. Performed between the years 1818 and 1822, with an Appendix, containing various subjects relating to hydrography and natural history
13.
Family (biology)
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In biological classification, family is one of the eight major taxonomic ranks, it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks above the rank of genus. In vernacular usage, a family may be named one of its common members, for example, walnuts and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae. What does or does not belong to a family—or whether a family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no rules for describing or recognizing a family. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions of taxa, and there may be no broad consensus across the community for some time. Some described taxa are accepted broadly and quickly, but others only rarely, if at all, the naming of families is codified by various international codes. In zoological nomenclature, the names of animals end with the suffix -idae. The concept of rank at time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera. Carolus Linnaeus used the word familia in his Philosophia botanica to denote groups of plants, trees, herbs, ferns, palms. He used this term only in the section of the book. In zoology, the family as an intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes. He used families in some but not in all his orders of insects, families can be used for evolutionary, palaeontological and generic studies because they are more stable than lower taxonomic levels such as genera and species
14.
River dolphin
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River dolphins are a widely distributed group of fully aquatic mammals that reside exclusively in freshwater or brackish water. They are a grouping of dolphins, which is a paraphyletic group within the infraorder Cetacea. The river dolphins comprise the extant families Platanistidae, Iniidae, there are five extant species of river dolphins, and two subspecies. River dolphins are small compared to other dolphins, having evolved to survive in warm, shallow water. They range in size from the 5-foot long South Asian river dolphin to the 8-foot, several species exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the males are larger than the females. They have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers, River dolphins use their conical-shaped teeth and long beaks to capture fast-moving prey in murky water. They have well-developed hearing that is adapted for both air and water, they do not really rely on vision since the water they swim in is very muddy. These species are well-adapted to living in warm, shallow waters, River dolphins are not very widespread, they are all restricted to certain rivers or deltas. This makes them vulnerable to habitat destruction. River dolphins feed primarily on fish, male river dolphins typically mate with multiple females every year, but females only mate every two to three years. Calves are typically born in the spring and summer months and females bear all the responsibility for raising them, River dolphins produce a variety of vocalizations, usually in the form of clicks and whistles. River dolphins are kept in captivity, breeding success has been poor. As of 2015, there are three river dolphins in captivity. Four families of river dolphins are currently recognized, comprising three superfamilies, Platanistidae, containing the two subspecies of South Asian river dolphin, is the only accepted family of Platanistoidea. Previously, many taxonomists had assigned all river dolphins to a family, Platanistidae. A December 2006 survey found no members of Lipotes vexillifer and declared the species functionally extinct, with their disappearance, one of the recently accepted superfamilies, Lipotoidea, has become extinct. G. gangetica Indus River dolphin, P. g, River dolphins are members of the infraorder Cetacea, which are descendants of land-dwelling mammals of the order Artiodactyla. They are related to the Indohyus, an extinct chevrotain-like ungulate, the primitive cetaceans, or archaeocetes, first took to the sea approximately 49 million years ago and became fully aquatic by 5–10 million years later
15.
Rostrum (anatomy)
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In anatomy, the term rostrum is used for a number of phylogenetically unrelated structures in different groups of animals. In crustaceans, the rostrum is the extension of the carapace in front of the eyes. It is generally a rigid structure, but can be connected by a hinged joint, among insects, the rostrum is the name for the piercing mouthparts of the order Hemiptera. The long snout of weevils may also be called a rostrum, gastropod molluscs have a rostrum or proboscis. Cephalopod molluscs have hard beak-like mouthparts referred to as the rostrum, invertebrate rostrums The beak or snout of a vertebrate may also be referred to as the rostrum. Some cetaceans, including toothed whales such as dolphins and beaked whales, have rostrums which evolved from their jawbones, the narwhal possesses a large rostrum which evolved from a protruding canine tooth. Some fish have permanently protruding rostrums which evolved from their upper jawbones, billfish use rostrums to slash and stun prey. Paddlefish, goblin sharks and hammerhead sharks have rostrums packed with electroreceptors which signal the presence of prey by detecting weak electrical fields, sawsharks and the critically endangered sawfish have rostrums which are both electro-sensitive and used for slashing. The rostrums extend ventrally in front of the fish, in the case of hammerheads the rostrum extends both ventrally and laterally. The upper jawbones of some fish have evolved into rostrums Beak Nostril
16.
Toothed whale
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The toothed whales are a parvorder of cetaceans that includes all the dolphins and porpoises, as well as the whales that have teeth, such as the beaked whales and sperm whales. Seventy-three species of toothed whales are described and they are one of two living groups of cetaceans, the other being the baleen whales, which have baleen instead of teeth. The two groups are thought to have diverged around 34 million years ago, toothed whales range in size from the 4.5 ft and 120 lb vaquita to the 20 m and 55 t sperm whale. Several species of odontocetes exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the females are larger than males and they have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers. Some can travel at up to 20 knots, Odontocetes have conical teeth designed for catching fish or squid. They have well-developed hearing, that is adapted for both air and water, so much so that some can survive even if they are blind. Some species are adapted for diving to great depths. Almost all have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to keep warm in the cold water, toothed whales consist of some of the most widespread mammals, but some, as with the vaquita, are restricted to certain areas. Odontocetes feed largely on fish and squid, but a few, like the killer whale, feed on mammals, males typically mate with multiple females every year, but females only mate every two to three years, making them polygynous. Calves are typically born in the spring and summer, and females bear the responsibility for raising them, many species, mainly dolphins, are highly sociable, with some pods reaching over a thousand individuals. Once hunted for their products, cetaceans are now protected by international law, some species are attributed with high levels of intelligence. At the 2012 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, support was reiterated for a bill of rights. Besides whaling and drive hunting, they face threats from bycatch. The baiji, for example, is considered extinct by the IUCN, with the last sighting in 2004. Whales occasionally feature in literature and film, as in the white sperm whale of Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick. Small odontocetes, mainly dolphins, are kept in captivity and trained to perform tricks, Whale watching has become a form of tourism around the world. In Aristotles time, the fourth century BCE, whales were regarded as due to their superficial similarity. Aristotle, however, could see many physiological and anatomical similarities with the terrestrial vertebrates, such as blood, lungs, uterus
17.
Floodplain
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In other words, a floodplain is an area near a river or a stream which floods when the water level reaches flood stage. Flood plains are made by a meander eroding sideways as it travels downstream, when a river breaks its banks and floods, it leaves behind layers of alluvium. These gradually build up to create the floor of the flood plain, floodplains generally contain unconsolidated sediments, often extending below the bed of the stream. These are accumulations of sand, gravel, loam, silt, and/or clay, and are often important aquifers, geologically ancient floodplains are often represented in the landscape by fluvial terraces. These are old floodplains that remain relatively high above the present floodplain and it is probable that any section of such an alluvial plain would show deposits of a similar character. The floodplain during its formation is marked by meandering or anastomotic streams, oxbow lakes and bayous, marshes or stagnant pools, and is occasionally completely covered with water. When the drainage system has ceased to act or is diverted for any reason. The floodplain differs, however, because it is not altogether flat and it has a gentle slope downstream, and often, for a distance, from the side towards the center. The floodplain is the place for a river to dissipate its energy. Meanders form over the floodplain to slow down the flow of water, in terms of flood management the upper part of the floodplain is crucial as this is where the flood water control starts. Artificial canalisation of the river here will have a impact on wider flooding. This is the basis of flood management. Floodplains can support particularly rich ecosystems, both in quantity and diversity, tugay forests form an ecosystem associated with floodplains, especially in Central Asia. They are a category of riparian zones or systems, a floodplain can contain 100 or even 1,000 times as many species as a river. Microscopic organisms thrive and larger species enter a rapid breeding cycle, opportunistic feeders move in to take advantage. The production of nutrients peaks and falls away quickly, however the surge of new growth endures for some time and this makes floodplains particularly valuable for agriculture. River flow rates are undergoing change following suit with climate change and this change is a threat to the riparian zones and other flood plain forests. These forests have over time synced their seedling deposits after the peaks in flow to best take advantage of the nutrient rich soil generated by peak flow
18.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
19.
Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
20.
Libya
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The three traditional parts of the country are Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. With an area of almost 1.8 million square kilometres, Libya is the fourth largest country in Africa, Libya has the 10th-largest proven oil reserves of any country in the world. The largest city and capital, Tripoli, is located in western Libya, the other large city is Benghazi, which is located in eastern Libya. Libya has been inhabited by Berbers since the late Bronze Age, the Phoenicians established trading posts in western Libya, and ancient Greek colonists established city-states in eastern Libya. Libya was variously ruled by Carthaginians, Persians, Egyptians and Greeks before becoming a part of the Roman Empire, Libya was an early center of Christianity. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the area of Libya was mostly occupied by the Vandals until the 7th century, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire and the Knights of St John occupied Tripoli, until Ottoman rule began in 1551. Libya was involved in the Barbary Wars of the 18th and 19th centuries, Ottoman rule continued until the Italian occupation of Libya resulted in the temporary Italian Libya colony from 1911 to 1943. During the Second World War Libya was an important area of warfare in the North African Campaign, the Italian population then went into decline. Libya became an independent kingdom in 1951, a military coup in 1969 overthrew King Idris I, beginning a period of sweeping social reform. Since then, Libya has experienced a period of instability, the European Union is involved in an operation to disrupt human trafficking networks exploiting refugees fleeing from wars in Africa for Europe. At least two political bodies claim to be the government of Libya, the Council of Deputies is internationally recognized as the legitimate government, but it does not hold territory in the capital, Tripoli, instead meeting in the Cyrenaica city of Tobruk. Parts of Libya are outside of either governments control, with various Islamist, rebel, the United Nations is sponsoring peace talks between the Tobruk and Tripoli-based factions. An agreement to form an interim government was signed on 17 December 2015. Under the terms of the agreement, a nine-member Presidency Council, the leaders of the new government, called the Government of National Accord, arrived in Tripoli on 5 April 2016. Since then the GNC, one of the two governments, has disbanded to support the new GNA. The name Libya was introduced in 1934 for Italian Libya, reviving the name for Northwest Africa. The name was based on use in 1903 by Italian geographer Federico Minutilli. It was intended to supplant terms applied to Ottoman Tripolitania, the region of what is today Libya having been ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1551 to 1911
21.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
22.
Inia
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Inia is a genus of river dolphins from South America. It contains one to three species, the genus was described by Alcide dOrbigny in 1834 when Delphinus geoffrensis, described by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1817, was recognized to be a unique taxon. A1998 classification listed a species, Inia geoffrensis, in the genus Inia. Most of the community accepted this single species classification, as did the IUCN. In 2012 the Society for Marine Mammalogy started considering the Bolivian subspecies as a full species, in 2014, the population in the Araguaia-Tocantins basin was recognized to be an additional species, Inia araguaiaensis. Journey of the Pink Dolphins, An Amazon Quest
23.
Araguaian river dolphin
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The Araguaian river dolphin or Araguaian boto is a South American river dolphin population whose identification as a species distinct from the Amazon river dolphin was announced in 2014. It is native to the Araguaia–Tocantins basin of Brazil, as of October 2014, I. araguaiaensis is not recognized as a separate species by the Society for Marine Mammalogy. Their Committee on Taxonomy made these comments regarding the decision to not include I. araguaiaensis as an independent species, diagnostic osteological differences were also reported. However, because this was based on the examination of very few specimens, the recognition of I. araguaiaensis as a separate species was announced on January 22,2014. It was distinguished from members of Inia on the basis of nuclear microsatellite. It also differs from the Amazon and Bolivian river dolphins in the number of teeth per hemimandible and it is the first new river dolphin species to be described since 1918. Members of the genus are gray to pink in color and have a length range from 1.53 to 2.6 m. They have a ridge rather than a fin. Their neck vertebrae are unfused, allowing them to turn their heads sharply, like other river dolphins, I. araguaiaensis has a prominent forehead and a much longer snout than those of most marine dolphins, as well as smaller eyes than marine dolphins. Because their aquatic environment is often turbid, their vision is not as well developed, River dolphins tend to be less active than marine dolphins. They feed mainly on fish, aided by echolocation and this species is most closely related to the Amazon river dolphin, from which it is believed to have split about 2.08 million years ago, on the basis of mitochondrial DNA sequence comparisons. The time of divergence corresponds to the time the Amazon and Araguaia-Tocantins river basins became separated, major rapids in the lower Tocantins River are thought to have contributed to isolating the two species, as the Pará River connects with the Amazon River. The estimated times of divergence with I. boliviensis, P. blainvillei and L. vexillifer are 2.9,12.0 and 16.2 Ma ago, respectively. The total population of the species is estimated to be of the order of 600 to 1500 individuals, the ecology of its habitat has been adversely affected by agricultural, ranching and industrial activities, as well as by the use of dams for hydroelectric power. The inhabited section of the Araguaia River probably extends over about 1500 km out of a length of 2110 km. The Tocantins River habitat is fragmented by six dams, so the population there is at particular risk. The authors of the discovery paper regard its probable eventual IUCN status to be Vulnerable or worse, the largest number of individuals of the new species is likely to occur in and around Cantão State Park, which contains most of the lakes in the Araguaia basin. However, commercial fishermen around the park have been killing them because they steal fish from nets
24.
Bolivian river dolphin
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The Bolivian river dolphin, a mammal, is a subspecies of the Amazon river dolphin. Current classification, therefore, considers them a species, Inia geoffrensis, in the genus Inia. However, in 2012 the Society for Marine Mammalogy began considering the Bolivian and Amazonian subspecies as full species Inia boliviensis and Inia geoffrensis. A recent study of mitochondrial DNA sequences gave a time of divergence from I. geoffrensis geoffrensis of 2.9 million years ago. In September 2012, Bolivian President Evo Morales enacted a law to protect the dolphin, french naturalist and palaeontologist Alcide Dessalines dOrbigny explored South America from 1826–1833, including a stay in Bolivia from 1831–1833. He returned to France in 1834 and started to describe his scientific explorations, in 1847, he and Paul Gervais compared it to Delphinius geoffrensis, which had been described from a stuffed specimen in Lisbon, and the two were considered synonyms for more than a century. The Bolivian river dolphin was therefore made a subspecies, Inia geoffrensis boliviensis, morphological studies later in the 1970s added to the differences between the populations and the specific status Inia boliviensis was restored. There is, however, still no consensus on the status of the Bolivian population
25.
PLOS One
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PLOS ONE is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published by the Public Library of Science since 2006. The journal covers primary research from any discipline within science and medicine, operating under a pay-to-publish model, PLOS ONE publishes approximately 50% of submitted manuscripts. All submissions go through a review by a member of the board of academic editors. According to the journal, papers are not to be excluded on the basis of lack of perceived importance or adherence to a scientific field, although the number of submissions decreased from 2013 to 2014, PLOS ONE remained the world’s largest journal by number of papers published. Numbers decreased further to 22,000 published papers in 2016, later, PLOS ONE was launched in December 2006 as a beta version named PLoS ONE. It launched with Commenting and Note making functionality, and added the ability to rate articles in July 2007, in September 2007 the ability to leave trackbacks on articles was added. In August 2008 it moved from a publication schedule to a daily one. In October 2008 PLoS ONE came out of beta, also in September 2009, as part of its Article-Level Metrics program, PLoS ONE made the full online usage data—e. g. HTML page views, PDF, XML downloads—for every published article publicly available, in mid-2012, as part of a rebranding of PLoS as PLOS, the journal changed its name to PLOS ONE. The number of published by PLOS ONE grew rapidly from inception to 2013 and has since declined somewhat. By 2010, it was estimated to have become the largest journal in the world, at PLOS ONE, the median review time has grown from 37 days to 125 days over the first ten years of operation, according to Himmelsteins analysis, done for Nature. The median between acceptance and posting a paper on the site has decreased from 35 to 15 days over the same period, both numbers for 2016 roughly correspond to the industry-wide averages for biology-related journals. The founding managing editor was Chris Surridge and he was succeeded by Peter Binfield in March 2008, who was publisher until May 2012. Damian Pattinson then held the editorial position until December 2015. Joerg Heber was confirmed as editor-in-chief from November 2016, according to Nature, the journals aim is to challenge academias obsession with journal status and impact factors. Being an online-only publication allows PLOS ONE to publish more papers than a print journal, in an effort to facilitate publication of research on topics outside, or between, traditional science categories, it does not restrict itself to a specific scientific area. Papers published in PLOS ONE can be of any length, contain full color throughout, reuse of articles is subject to a Creative Commons Attribution License, version 2.5. In the first four years following launch, it use of over 40,000 external peer reviewers
26.
PubMed Identifier
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PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez system of information retrieval, from 1971 to 1997, MEDLINE online access to the MEDLARS Online computerized database primarily had been through institutional facilities, such as university libraries. PubMed, first released in January 1996, ushered in the era of private, free, home-, the PubMed system was offered free to the public in June 1997, when MEDLINE searches via the Web were demonstrated, in a ceremony, by Vice President Al Gore. Information about the journals indexed in MEDLINE, and available through PubMed, is found in the NLM Catalog. As of 5 January 2017, PubMed has more than 26.8 million records going back to 1966, selectively to the year 1865, and very selectively to 1809, about 500,000 new records are added each year. As of the date,13.1 million of PubMeds records are listed with their abstracts. In 2016, NLM changed the system so that publishers will be able to directly correct typos. Simple searches on PubMed can be carried out by entering key aspects of a subject into PubMeds search window, when a journal article is indexed, numerous article parameters are extracted and stored as structured information. Such parameters are, Article Type, Secondary identifiers, Language, publication type parameter enables many special features. As these clinical girish can generate small sets of robust studies with considerable precision, since July 2005, the MEDLINE article indexing process extracts important identifiers from the article abstract and puts those in a field called Secondary Identifier. The secondary identifier field is to store numbers to various databases of molecular sequence data, gene expression or chemical compounds. For clinical trials, PubMed extracts trial IDs for the two largest trial registries, ClinicalTrials. gov and the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Register, a reference which is judged particularly relevant can be marked and related articles can be identified. If relevant, several studies can be selected and related articles to all of them can be generated using the Find related data option, the related articles are then listed in order of relatedness. To create these lists of related articles, PubMed compares words from the title and abstract of each citation, as well as the MeSH headings assigned, using a powerful word-weighted algorithm. The related articles function has been judged to be so precise that some researchers suggest it can be used instead of a full search, a strong feature of PubMed is its ability to automatically link to MeSH terms and subheadings. Examples would be, bad breath links to halitosis, heart attack to myocardial infarction, where appropriate, these MeSH terms are automatically expanded, that is, include more specific terms. Terms like nursing are automatically linked to Nursing or Nursing and this important feature makes PubMed searches automatically more sensitive and avoids false-negative hits by compensating for the diversity of medical terminology. The My NCBI area can be accessed from any computer with web-access, an earlier version of My NCBI was called PubMed Cubby
27.
Wikispecies
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Wikispecies is a wiki-based online project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aim is to create a free content catalogue of all species. Jimmy Wales stated that editors are not required to fax in their degrees, Wikispecies is available under the GNU Free Documentation License and CC BY-SA3.0. Benedikt Mandl co-ordinated the efforts of people who are interested in getting involved with the project. Databases were evaluated and the administrators contacted, some of them have agreed on providing their data for Wikispecies, the board of directors of the Wikimedia Foundation voted by 4 to 0 in favor of the establishment of a Wikispecies. The project was launched in August 2004 and is hosted at species. wikimedia. org and it was officially merged to a sister project of Wikimedia Foundation on September 14,2004. On October 10,2006, the project exceeded 75,000 articles, on May 20,2007, the project exceeded 100,000 articles with a total of 5,495 registered users. On September 8,2008, the project exceeded 150,000 articles with a total of 9,224 registered users, on October 23,2011, the project reached 300,000 articles. On June 16,2014, the project reached 400,000 articles, on January 7,2017, the project reached 500,000 articles. Wikispecies has disabled local upload and asks users to use images from Wikimedia Commons, Wikispecies does not allow the use of content that does not conform to a free license
28.
Eutheria
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Eutheria is one of two mammalian clades with extant members that diverged in the Early Cretaceous or perhaps the Late Jurassic. Except for the Virginia opossum, from North America, which is a metatherian, all post-Miocene mammals indigenous to Europe, Africa, Asia, extant eutherians, their last common ancestor, and all extinct descendants of that ancestor are members of Placentalia. Eutherians are distinguished from noneutherians by various phenotypic traits of the feet, ankles, jaws, all extant eutherians lack epipubic bones, which are present in all other living mammals. This allows for expansion of the abdomen during pregnancy, the oldest known eutherian species is Juramaia sinensis, dated at 160 million years ago from the Jurassic in China. Eutheria was named in 1872 by Theodore Gill, in 1880 Thomas Henry Huxley defined it to encompass a more broadly defined group than Placentalia, distinguishing features are, an enlarged malleolus at the bottom of the tibia, the larger of the two shin bones. Various features of jaws and teeth, eutheria contains several extinct genera as well as larger groups, many with complicated taxonomic histories still not fully understood. Members of the Adapisoriculidae, Cimolesta and Leptictida have been placed within the out-dated placental group Insectivora. However, more recent studies have suggested these enigmatic taxa represent stem group eutherians, the weakly favoured cladogram favours Boreoeuthearia as a basal Eutherian clade as sister to the Atlantogenata
29.
Laurasiatheria
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Laurasiatheria is a superorder of placental mammals that originated on the northern supercontinent of Laurasia 99 million years ago. The superorder includes shrews, pangolins, bats, whales, carnivorans, odd-toed and even-toed ungulates, Laurasiatheria was discovered on the basis of the similar gene sequences shared by the mammals belonging to it, no anatomical features have yet been found that unite the group. Laurasiatheria is a clade usually discussed without a Linnaean rank, but has assigned the rank of cohort or magnorder. The Laurasiatheria clade is based on DNA sequence analyses and retrotransposon presence/absence data, the name comes from the theory that these mammals evolved on the supercontinent of Laurasia, after it split from Gondwana when Pangaea broke up. It is a group to Euarchontoglires with which it forms the clade Boreoeutheria. Based on morphological grounds, Chiroptera had long classified in the superorder Archonta until genetic research instead showed their kinship with the other laurasiatherians. Found better support for the latter, while Nery et al. found Perissodactyla to be sister to Carnivora, Laurasiatheria is also posited to include several extinct orders and superorders. At least some of these are considered wastebasket taxons, historically lumping together several lineages based on superficial attributes, in some cases, these orders have turned out to either be paraphyletic assemblages, or to be composed of mammals now understood not to be laurasiatheres at all. Meridiungulata Condylarthra Dinocerata Mesonychia Creodonta Data related to Laurasiatheria at Wikispecies
30.
Whippomorpha
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Whippomorpha is the clade containing the Cetacea and their closest living relatives, the hippopotamuses, named by Waddell et al. It is defined as a group, including all species that are descendants of the most recent common ancestor of Hippopotamus amphibius. This would be a sub-grouping of the Cetartiodactyla, Whippomorpha is a mixture of English and Greek. Attempts have been made to rename the clade Cetancodonta but Whippomorpha maintains precedent
31.
Baleen whale
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Baleen whales, known earlier as whalebone whales, form a parvorder of the infraorder Cetacea. They are a widely distributed and diverse parvorder of carnivorous marine mammals, Mysticeti comprise the families Balaenidae, Balaenopteridae, Cetotheriidae, and Eschrichtiidae. There are currently 15 species of baleen whale, while cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychids, molecular evidence supports them as relatives of even-toed ungulates. Baleen whales split from toothed whales around 34 million years ago, baleen whales range in size from the 20 ft and 6,600 lb pygmy right whale to the 112 ft and 190 t blue whale, which is also the largest creature on earth. Baleen whales can have streamlined or large bodies, depending on the feeding behavior, though not as flexible and agile as seals, baleen whales can swim very fast, with the fastest able to travel at 23 miles per hour. Baleen whales use their baleen plates to filter out food from the water by either lunge-feeding or skim-feeding, baleen whales have fused neck vertebrae, and are unable to turn their head at all. Some species are adapted for diving to great depths. They have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin to keep warm in the cold water, although baleen whales are widespread, most species prefer the colder waters around the Northern and Southern poles. Gray whales are specialized for feeding on bottom-dwelling crustaceans, rorquals are specialized at lunge-feeding, and have a streamlined body to reduce drag while accelerating. Right whales skim-feed, meaning they use their head to effectively take in a large amount of water. Males typically mate more than one female, although the degree of polygyny varies with the species. Male strategies for reproductive success vary between performing ritual displays or lek mating, calves are typically born in the winter and spring months and females bear all the responsibility for raising them. Mothers fast for a long period of time over the period of migration. Baleen whales produce a number of vocalizations, notably the songs of the humpback whale, the meat, blubber, baleen, and oil of baleen whales have traditionally been used by the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Once relentlessly hunted by commercial industries for these products, cetaceans are now protected by international law, however, the North Atlantic right whale is ranked critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Besides hunting, baleen whales also face threats from marine pollution and it has been speculated that man-made sonar results in strandings. They have rarely been kept in captivity, and this has only attempted with juveniles or members of one of the smallest species. Baleen whales are classified under the parvorder Mysticeti, and consist of four extant families, Balaenidae, Balaenopteridae, Cetotheriidae
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Balaenidae
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Balaenidae /bəˈliːnᵻdiː/ is a family of whales of the parvorder Mysticeti that contains two living genera. Historically, it is known as the whale family, as it was thought to contain only species of right whales. Through most of the 20th Century, however, that became a topic amongst the scientific community. Finally, in the early 2000s, science reached a definitive conclusion, the family of Balaenids, therefore, comprises the right whales, and in a genus all to its own, the very closely related bowhead whale. Baleen whales belong to the lineage of Mysticeti order. Mysticeti are large filter-feeding cetaceans that also included of largest animals on earth as well as some of the most critically endangered, based on morphology and molecular data, four extant family-level clades are recognized within Mysticeti, Balaenidae, Neobalaenidae, Eschirichtiidae, and Balaenopteridae. Phylogenetic relationships of the order remain unclear due to legal and logistical challenges. However, recent morphological analysis, support Balaenidae as a group that is the sister group to Neobalaenidae. Balaenids are large whales, with an adult length of 15 to 17 metres. Their principle distinguishing feature is their narrow, arched, upper jaw and this shape allows for especially long baleen plates. Their diet consists of crustaceans, primarily copepods, although some species also eat a significant amount of krill. Balaenids are also built by comparison with the rorquals. They have exceptionally large heads in comparison with their bodies, reaching 40% of the length in the case of the Bowhead Whale. They have short, broad, flippers, and lack a dorsal fin, all species are at least somewhat migratory, moving into warmer waters during the winter, during which they both mate and give birth. Gestation lasts 10–11 months, results in the birth of a single young, the four species of the Balaenidae that are found throughout temperate and polar waters, Eubalaena glacialis, Eubalaena japonica, Eubalaena australis, and Balaena mysticetus. Bowhead and right whales can reach up to 18 meters in length, members of Balaenidae can live over 70 years and were hunted extensively in the late 1800s for their blubber. Approximately 40% of right whales body mass is blubber and thus were known as the whale to kill. After death, the large blubber deposits caused right whales to float to the surface, with population estimated between 300 -350, the North Atlantic right whale is the most critically endangered great whale
33.
Bowhead whale
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The bowhead whale is a species of the family Balaenidae, in suborder Mysticeti, and genus Balaena, once thought to include the right whale. A stocky dark-colored whale without a fin, it can grow 14 to 18 m in length. This thick-bodied species can weigh from 75 to 100 tonnes and they live entirely in fertile Arctic and sub-Arctic waters, unlike other whales that migrate to low latitude waters to feed or reproduce. The bowhead was also known as the Greenland right whale or Arctic whale, American whalemen called them the steeple-top, polar whale, or Russia or Russian whale. The bowhead has the largest mouth of any animal, the bowhead was an early whaling target. The population was reduced before a 1966 moratorium was passed to protect the species. Through conservation efforts, the population has since recovered and is now rated Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Carl Linnaeus first described this whale in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae, today, the bowhead whale occupies a monotypic genus, separate from the right whales, as was proposed by the work of John Edward Gray in 1821. For the next 180 years, the family Balaenidae was the subject of great taxonometric debate. Authorities have repeatedly recategorized the three populations of right whale plus the bowhead whale, as one, two, three or four species, either in a genus or in two separate genera. Eventually, it was recognized that bowheads and right whales were in fact different, the right whales were thus confirmed to be in a separate genus, Eubalaena. The relationship is shown in the cladogram below, Balaena prisca, one of the five Balaena fossils from the late Miocene to early Pleistocene, the earlier fossil record shows no related cetacean after Morenocetus, found in a South American deposit dating back 23 million years. However based on later DNA analysis those fossil bones claimed to be from Swedenborg whales were confirmed to be from bowhead whales, the bowhead whale has a large, robust, dark-colored body and a white chin/lower jaw. The whale has a triangular skull, which the whale uses to break through the Arctic ice to breathe. Inuit hunters have reported bowheads surfacing through 60 cm of ice, the bowhead also has a strongly bowed lower jaw and a narrow upper jaw. Its baleen is the longest of that of any whale, at 3 m, the bowhead whale has paired blowholes, at the highest point of the head, which can spout a blow 6.1 m high. The whales blubber is the thickest of that of any animal, unlike most cetaceans, the bowhead does not have a dorsal fin. Bowhead whales are comparable in size to the three species of right whales and he also spoke of one, caught near Spitsbergen around 1800, that was allegedly nearly 21.3 m long
34.
Right whale
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Right whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus Eubalaena, the North Atlantic right whale, the North Pacific right whale and the Southern right whale. They are classified in the family Balaenidae with the bowhead whale, Right whales have rotund bodies with arching rostrums, V-shaped blowholes and dark gray or black skin. The most distinguishing feature of a whale is the rough patches of skin on its head which appear white due to parasitism by whale lice. One explanation for their name is that whales were named by whalers who identified them as the right whale to kill on a hunt due to the plentiful oil. All three species are migratory, moving seasonally to feed or give birth, the warm equatorial waters form a barrier that isolates the northern and southern species from one another although at least the southern species have been known to cross the equator. In the Southern Hemisphere, right whales feed far offshore in summer, Right whales feed mainly on copepods but also consume krill and pteropods. They may forage the surface, underwater or even on the ocean bottom, during courtship, males gather into large groups to compete for a single female, suggesting that sperm competition appears to be an important factor in mating behavior. Gestation tends to last a year, and calves are born at 1 short ton in weight and 4–6 m in length. Today, the North Atlantic and North Pacific right whales are among the most endangered whales in the world, the western populations of both are currently endangered, with their total populations numbering in the hundreds. Regarding the North Atlantic right whale, for example, these two factors alone account for 48% of all known right whale deaths since 1970. A popular explanation for the right whales is that they were the right ones to hunt, as they float when killed. They are quite docile, and do not tend to shy away from approaching boats, as such, they were hunted nearly to extinction during the active years of the whaling industry. In his history of American whaling, Eric Jay Dolin writes, Despite this highly plausible rationale, the right whales were first classified in the genus Balaena in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, who at the time considered all of the right whales as a single species. Through the 1800s and 1900s, in fact, the family Balaenidae has been the subject of great taxonometric debate. Authorities have repeatedly recategorized the three populations of right whale plus the bowhead whale, as one, two, three or four species, either in a genus or in two separate genera. In the early whaling days, they were all thought to be a single species, eventually, it was recognized that bowheads and right whales were in fact different, and John Edward Gray proposed the genus Eubalaena for the right whale in 1864. In 2000, two studies of DNA samples from each of the whale populations concluded the northern and southern populations of right whale should be considered separate species, the authors of one of these studies concluded that these species have not interbred for between 3 million and 12 million years. The following cladogram of the family Balaenidae serves to illustrate the current scientific consensus as to the relationships between the three right whales and the bowhead whale, Whale lice, parasitic cyamid crustaceans that live off skin debris, offer further information through their own genetics
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Southern right whale
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The southern right whale is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus Eubalaena. Approximately 10,000 southern right whales are spread throughout the part of the Southern Hemisphere. Right whales were first classified in the Balaena genus in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, through the 1800s and 1900s, in fact, the family Balaenidae has been the subject of great taxonometric debate. Authorities have repeatedly recategorized the three populations of right whale plus the bowhead whale, as one, two, three or four species, either in a genus or in two separate genera. In the early whaling days, they were all thought to be a single species, the southern right whale was initially described as Balaena australis by Desmoulins in 1822. Eventually, it was recognized that bowheads and right whales were in fact different, in 2000, Rosenbaum et al. disagreed, based on data from their genetic study of DNA samples from each of the whale populations. The northern Pacific and Atlantic populations are distinct, with the North Pacific right whale being more closely related to the southern right whale than to the North Atlantic right whale. Genetic differences between E. japonica and E. australis are much smaller than other baleen whales represent among different ocean basins and it is believed that the right whale populations first split because of the joining of North and South America. The rising temperatures at the then created a second split, into the northern and southern groups. In 2002, the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission accepted Rosenbaums findings, the cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxa. The point where a node branches off is analogous to an evolutionary branching – the diagram can be read left-to-right, the following cladogram of the family Balaenidae serves to illustrate the current scientific consensus as to the relationships between the southern right whale and the other members of its family. Other junior synonyms for E. australis have included B. antarctica, B. antipodarum, Hunterus temminckii and its skin is very dark grey or black, occasionally with some white patches on the belly. The right whales callosities appear white due to colonies of cyamids. It is almost indistinguishable from the closely related North Atlantic and the North Pacific right whales and it may have fewer callosities on its head than North Atlantic and more on its lower lips than the two northern species. The testicles of right whales are likely to be the largest of any animal and this suggests that sperm competition is important in the mating process. However, based on records and unconfirmed sightings in modern periods. Moreover, a stranding of a 21.3 m long right whale at Gajana, northwestern India in November,1944 was reported, however, the proportion and numbers of molten-coloured individuals are notable in this species compared with the other species in the Northern Hemisphere. Some whales remain white even after growing up, life span is not clear although whales seem to reach over 100 years old
36.
North Atlantic right whale
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The North Atlantic right whale is a baleen whale, one of three right whale species belonging to the genus Eubalaena, all of which were formerly classified as a single species. At present, they are among the most endangered whales in the world, Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act and Canadas Species at Risk Act. In the eastern North Atlantic, on the other hand – with a population reaching into the low teens at best – scientists believe that they may already be functionally extinct. Vessel strikes and entanglement in fixed fishing gear, which account for nearly half of all North Atlantic right whale mortality since 1970, are their two greatest threats to recovery. The body of the whale is dark grey or black. The right whales callosities appear white due to colonies of cyamids or whale lice. Adult North Atlantic right whales average 13–16 m in length and weigh approximately 40,000 to 70,000 kg, the largest measured specimens have been 18.5 m long and 106,000 kg. Forty percent of a whales body weight is blubber, which is of relatively low density. Consequently, unlike other species of whale, dead right whales float. There is little data on their life span, but it is believed to be at least fifty years, aside from mating activities performed by groups of single female and several males, so called SAG, North Atlantic right whales seem less active compared to subspecies in southern hemisphere. However, this could be due to difference in number of surviving individuals especially calves that tend to be more curious and playful than adults. They are also known to interact with other baleen whales especially with Humpback whales or Bottlenose dolphins, North Atlantic right whales recordings are available online. Many effective automated methods, such as processing, data mining. They first give birth at age nine or ten after a year-long gestation, calves are 13–15 feet long at birth and weigh approximately 3,000 pounds. The cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxa, the point where a node branches off is analogous to an evolutionary branching – the diagram can be read left-to-right, much like a timeline. Another so-called species of whale, the Swedenborg whale as proposed by Emanuel Swedenborg in the 18th century, was by scientific consensus once thought to be the North Atlantic right whale. However, the 2013 results of DNA analysis of fossil bones revealed that they were in fact those of the bowhead whale. As the right continued to float long after being killed
37.
North Pacific right whale
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The North Pacific right whale is a very large, robust baleen whale species that is now extremely rare and endangered. The Northeast Pacific subpopulation, which summers in the southeastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, a western subpopulation that summers in the Sea of Okhotsk between the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island appears to number in the low hundreds of animals. Prior to commercial whaling in the North Pacific the populations in the North Pacific probably were over 20,000 animals, the taking of right whales in commercial whaling has been prohibited by one or more international treaties since 1935. Between 1962 and 1968, illegal Soviet whaling killed at least 529 right whales in the Bering Sea, plus an additional 104 North Pacific right whales from unspecified areas. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature categorizes the species as Endangered and it categorizes the Northeast Pacific subpopulation as Critically Endangered. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the North Pacific right whale is the most endangered whale on Earth, since 2000, scientists have considered the right whales in the North Pacific and nearby seas to be a separate species, Eubalaena japonica, the North Pacific Right Whale. Genetic differences between E. japonica and E. australis are much smaller than other baleen whales represent among different ocean basins, all these animals resemble each other in outward appearance very closely. The differences that separate them into separate species are genetic and discussed in the article on Balaenidae, the North Pacific, North Atlantic and Southern right whales are all members of the family Balaenidae. The bowhead whale found in the Arctic is also a balaenid whale, the cladogram is a tool for visualizing and comparing the evolutionary relationships between taxa. The point where a node branches off is analogous to an evolutionary branching – the diagram can be read left-to-right, E. japonica is a very large, robust baleen whale. It very closely resembles the other right whale species—the North Atlantic right whale, indeed, without knowing which ocean an individual came from, the physical similarities are so extensive that individuals can only be identified to species by genetic analysis. Relative to the right whale species, E. japonica may be slightly larger. Like other baleen whales, female North Pacific right whales are larger than males, also, North Pacific brindle-colored individuals are less common than they are among southern right whales. E. japonica is easily distinguished in the wild from other species in the North Pacific. North Pacific right whales are large and can reach from 15 to 18.3 m in length as adults. Typical body mass is from 50, 000–80,000 kg and they are much larger than gray or humpback whales and also being very stout, particularly when compared to the other large baleen whales such as blue and fin whales. For 10 North Pacific right whales taken in the 1960s, their girth in front of the flippers was 0.73 of the length of the whale. Additionally, differences of coloration and shape of baleen plates between pacific and Atlantic have been noted, Right whales are also unique in that they all have callosities — roughened patches of epidermis covered with aggregations in clusters, of hundreds of small cyamids
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Rorqual
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Rorquals /ˈrɔːrkwəl/ are the largest group of baleen whales, a family with nine extant species in two genera. Rorquals take their name from French rorqual, which derives from the Norwegian word røyrkval, all members of the family have a series of longitudinal folds of skin running from below the mouth back to the navel. These are understood to allow the mouth to expand immensely when feeding, permitting them to engorge great mouthfuls of food and these pleated throat grooves distinguish balaenopterids from other whales. Rorquals are slender and streamlined in shape, compared with their relatives the right whales and they have a dorsal fin, situated about two-thirds the way back. Rorquals feed by gulping in water, and then pushing it out through the plates with their tongue. They feed on crustaceans, such as krill, but also on various fish, such as herrings, gestation in rorquals lasts 11–12 months, so that both mating and birthing occur at the same time of year. Cows give birth to a calf, which is weaned after 6–12 months. Of some species, adults live in groups, or pods of two to five individuals. For example, humpback whales have a social structure, often engaging behavioral practices in a pod. The minke whale is named after a Norwegian whaler named Meincke. Most rorquals are strictly oceanic, the exceptions are Brydes whale and Edens whale, within each species, the largest individuals tend to approach the poles more closely, while the youngest and fittest ones tend to stay in warmer waters before leaving on their annual migration. Most rorquals breed in tropical waters during the winter, then back to the polar feeding grounds rich in plankton. As well as methods, rorqual whales obtain prey by lunge feeding on bait balls. Lunge feeding is a feeding method, where the whale accelerates to a high velocity. This generates the water required to expand its mouth and engulf and filter a huge amount of water. Furthermore, their large nerves are flexible so that they can stretch, in fact, they give rorquals the ability to open their mouths so wide that they would be capable of taking in water at volumes greater than their own sizes. These nerves are packed into a core area that is surrounded by elastin fibers. Opening the mouth causes the nerves to unfold, and they snap back after the mouth is closed, according to Potvin and Goldbogen, lunge feeding in rorqual whales represents the largest biomechanical event on Earth
39.
Balaenoptera
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Balaenoptera, from the Latin balaena and Ancient Greek pteron, is a genus of Balaenopteridae, the rorquals, and contains eight extant species. The species Balaenoptera omurai was published in 2003, Balaenoptera is a diverse genus and comprises all but one of the extant species in its family - the other species is the humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae. This genus is known in the records from the Neogene to the Quaternary. Some are either nondiagnostic, highly fragmentary, or had no holotype specimen named, the species Megaptera hubachi may in fact be a species of Balaenoptera, and is certainly not a member of Megaptera. The valid fossil species of Balaenoptera are, B. bertae is a small species from the Upper Miocene to Upper Pliocene of California. B. cephalus was originally thought to be a species of Eschrichtius or Cetotherium, B. colcloughi is known from four specimens, including four skulls and some postcranial remains, found at the San Diego Formation. It was a relative of Megaptera novaeangliae, B. siberi. B. cortesii is a species, it probably represents a distinct. A larger variant, called B. cortesii var. portisi is probably also a distinct genus, the species B. floridana is indistinguishable from B. cortesii var. portisi. Like B. cephalus, B. davidsonii was originally classified under Eschrichtius and it was native to the Pliocene San Diego Formation. The only known fossil of B. davidsonii is a fragment of the left dentary, B ryani represents genus of basal balaenopterid distinct from Balaenoptera. B. siberi is known from two skeletons, its affinity with the genus Balaenoptera has been questioned. B. sursiplana is a species, based on a single fossil bulla. Named after Taiwan, where the fossils were found, B. taiwanica is based on a single bone, which is similar to that of B. physalus
40.
Common minke whale
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The common minke whale or northern minke whale is a species of minke whale within the suborder of baleen whales. It is the smallest member of the rorquals and the second smallest species of baleen whale, although first ignored by whalers due to its small size and low oil yield, it began to be exploited by various countries beginning in the early 20th century. As other species declined larger numbers of minke whales were caught. It is now one of the targets of the whaling industry. There is a form in the Southern Hemisphere. This species is known in the record from the Pliocene period to the Quaternary period. The origins of the common name are obscure. Foyn on some of his voyages, according to the British writer John Guille Millais, Minkie was a Norwegian seaman who was always calling Hval at whatever backfin he saw. He is now regarded as the type of the tenderfoot at sea, norwegians often refer to any small whale with some contempt or amusement as a Minkie or Minkies hval. The American marine biologist and painter Richard Ellis, citing the Norwegian scientist Age Jonsgård, stated that Meincke was a German laborer working for Svend Foyn, Meincke one day mistook a school of this whale species for blue whales. Most probably he made this mistake during Foyns whaling operations in the Varanger Fjord between 1868 and 1885 and it has formerly been known as the little piked whale, the lesser or least rorqual, and the sharp-headed finner. American whalemen in the 19th century simply thought of them as young finbacks or a Finbacks calf, apparently under the impression that they were juveniles of their larger relative and they were also called zwergwal or vågehval. In Greenland they are known by the Danish name sildepisker, otto Fabricius, in his Fauna Groenlandica, was the first to describe the minke, noting its small size and white baleen – but he described it erroneously under the name Balaena rostrata. In 1804, Baron de Lacepede named it Balaenoptera acuto-rostrata, basing his description partly on the stranding of a 4.26 m juvenile female near Cherbourg, in 1872, the American whaleman and naturalist Charles Melville Scammon described and named Balaenoptera davidsoni, after an 8. Scammon mentioned its size, pointed head, falcated dorsal fin. In 1877, the Italian geologist and paleontologist Giovanni Capellini described and named Sibbaldius mondini from a specimen that was captured off Italy in 1771. Both were later synonymized with B. acutorostrata, the former described a diminutive form based on specimens caught off Durban, South Africa, while the latter named a dwarf form based on specimens and sightings from Australia. Until recently, all minke whales were considered a single species, however, the common minke whale was recognized as a separate species from the Antarctic minke whale based on mitochondrial DNA testing
41.
Antarctic minke whale
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The Antarctic minke whale or southern minke whale is a species of minke whale within the suborder of baleen whales. It is the second smallest rorqual after the common minke whale, although first scientifically described in the mid-19th century, it was not recognized as a distinct species until the 1990s. Surviving to become the most abundant baleen whale in the world and it is primarily restricted to the Southern Hemisphere and feeds mainly on euphausiids. In February 1867, a fisherman found an estimated 9.75 m male rorqual floating in the Río de la Plata near Belgrano, about ten miles from Buenos Aires, Argentina. After bringing it ashore he brought it to the attention of the German Argentine zoologist Hermann Burmeister, who described it as a new species, Balaenoptera bonaerensis, the skeleton of another specimen, a 4. Both descriptions were largely ignored for a century, all three had uniformly pale gray flippers and bicolored baleen, with white plates in the front and gray plates in the back. In the 1970s osteological and morphological studies suggested it was at least a subspecies of the minke whale. One study, in fact, suggested that sei whales and the form of Brydes whale were more closely related to one another than either species of minke whale were to each other. Antarctic and common minke whales diverged from other in the Southern Hemisphere 4. There have been two confirmed hybrids between Antarctic and common minke whales, both were caught in the northeastern North Atlantic by Norwegian whaling vessels. The first, an 8.25 m female taken off western Spitsbergen on 20 June 2007, was the result of a pairing between a female Antarctic minke and a common minke. The second, a pregnant female taken off northwestern Spitsbergen on 1 July 2010, on the hand, had a common minke mother. Her female fetus, in turn, was fathered by a North Atlantic common minke, the Antarctic minke is among the smallest of the baleen whales, with only the common minke and the pygmy right whale being smaller. Off South Africa, the longest measured were a 10.66 metres female, the heaviest caught in the Antarctic were a 9 metres female that weighed 10.4 metric tons and an 8.4 metres male that weighed 8.8 metric tons. At physical maturity, females average 8.9 metres and males 8.6 metres, at sexual maturity, females average 8.1 metres and males 7.6 metres. Calves are estimated to be 2.73 metres at birth, like their close relative the common minke, the Antarctic minke whale is robust for its genus. They have a narrow, pointed, triangular rostrum with a low splashguard and their prominent, upright, falcate dorsal fin – often more curved and pointed than in common minkes –is set about two-thirds the way along the back. About half of individuals have a light gray flare or patch on the half of the dorsal fin
42.
Sei whale
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The sei whale, Balaenoptera borealis, is a baleen whale, the third-largest rorqual after the blue whale and the fin whale. It inhabits most oceans and adjoining seas, and prefers deep offshore waters and it avoids polar and tropical waters and semienclosed bodies of water. The sei whale migrates annually from cool and subpolar waters in summer to winter in temperate and subtropical waters. Reaching 19.5 m long and weighing as much as 28 t, the sei whale consumes an average of 900 kg of food every day, its diet primarily of copepods, krill. It is among the fastest of all cetaceans, and can reach speeds of up to 50 km/h over short distances. The whales name comes from the Norwegian word for pollock, a fish that appears off the coast of Norway at the time of the year as the sei whale. As of 2008, its population was about 80,000. Sei is the Norwegian word for pollock, also referred to as coalfish, Sei whales appeared off the coast of Norway at the same time as the pollock, both coming to feed on the abundant plankton. The specific name is the Latin word borealis, meaning northern, in the Pacific, the whale has been called the Japan finner, finner was a common term used to refer to rorquals. In Japanese, the whale was called iwashi kujira, or sardine whale, later, as modern whaling shifted to Sanriku — where both species occur — it was confused for the sei whale. Now the term applies to the latter species. It has also referred to as the lesser fin whale because it somewhat resembles the fin whale. On 21 February 1819, a 32-ft whale stranded near Grömitz, the Swedish-born German naturalist Karl Rudolphi initially identified it as Balaena rostrata. In 1823, the French naturalist Georges Cuvier described and figured Rudolphis specimen under the name rorqual du Nord, in 1846, the English zoologist John Edward Gray, ignoring Lessons designation, named Rudolphis specimen Balaenoptera laticeps, which others followed. In 1884-85, the Norwegian scientist G. A. Guldberg first identified the sejhval of Finnmark with B. borealis, Sei whales are rorquals, baleen whales that include the humpback whale, the blue whale, Brydes whale, the fin whale, and the minke whale. Rorquals take their name from the Norwegian word røyrkval, meaning furrow whale, balaenopterids diverged from the other families of suborder Mysticeti, also called the whalebone whales or great whales, as long ago as the middle Miocene. Little is known about when members of the families in the Mysticeti, including the Balaenopteridae. Two subspecies have been identified—the northern sei whale and southern sei whale, the sei whale is the fourth-largest balaenopterid, after the blue whale and the fin whale and the humpback whale
. PMID 24465386.
