Granite
Granite is a common type of felsic intrusive igneous rock, granular and phaneritic in texture. Granites can be predominantly white, pink, or gray depending on their mineralogy; the word "granite" comes from the Latin granum, a grain, in reference to the coarse-grained structure of such a holocrystalline rock. Speaking, granite is an igneous rock with between 20% and 60% quartz by volume, at least 35% of the total feldspar consisting of alkali feldspar, although the term "granite" is used to refer to a wider range of coarse-grained igneous rocks containing quartz and feldspar; the term "granitic" means granite-like and is applied to granite and a group of intrusive igneous rocks with similar textures and slight variations in composition and origin. These rocks consist of feldspar, quartz and amphibole minerals, which form an interlocking, somewhat equigranular matrix of feldspar and quartz with scattered darker biotite mica and amphibole peppering the lighter color minerals; some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic.
A granitic rock with a porphyritic texture is known as a granite porphyry. Granitoid is a descriptive field term for lighter-colored, coarse-grained igneous rocks. Petrographic examination is required for identification of specific types of granitoids; the extrusive igneous rock equivalent of granite is rhyolite. Granite is nearly always massive and tough; these properties have made granite a widespread construction stone throughout human history. The average density of granite is between 2.65 and 2.75 g/cm3, its compressive strength lies above 200 MPa, its viscosity near STP is 3–6·1019 Pa·s. The melting temperature of dry granite at ambient pressure is 1215–1260 °C. Granite has poor primary permeability overall, but strong secondary permeability through cracks and fractures if they are present. Granite is classified according to the QAPF diagram for coarse grained plutonic rocks and is named according to the percentage of quartz, alkali feldspar and plagioclase feldspar on the A-Q-P half of the diagram.
True granite contains both alkali feldspars. When a granitoid is devoid or nearly devoid of plagioclase, the rock is referred to as alkali feldspar granite; when a granitoid contains less than 10% orthoclase, it is called tonalite. A granite containing both muscovite and biotite micas is called two-mica granite. Two-mica granites are high in potassium and low in plagioclase, are S-type granites or A-type granites. A worldwide average of the chemical composition of granite, by weight percent, based on 2485 analyses: Granite containing rock is distributed throughout the continental crust. Much of it was intruded during the Precambrian age. Outcrops of granite tend to form rounded massifs. Granites sometimes occur in circular depressions surrounded by a range of hills, formed by the metamorphic aureole or hornfels. Granite occurs as small, less than 100 km2 stock masses and in batholiths that are associated with orogenic mountain ranges. Small dikes of granitic composition called aplites are associated with the margins of granitic intrusions.
In some locations coarse-grained pegmatite masses occur with granite. Granite is more common in continental crust than in oceanic crust, they are crystallized from felsic melts which are less dense than mafic rocks and thus tend to ascend toward the surface. In contrast, mafic rocks, either basalts or gabbros, once metamorphosed at eclogite facies, tend to sink into the mantle beneath the Moho. Granitoids have crystallized from felsic magmas that have compositions near a eutectic point. Magmas are composed of minerals in variable abundances. Traditionally, magmatic minerals are crystallized from the melts that have separated from their parental rocks and thus are evolved because of igneous differentiation. If a granite has a cooling process, it has the potential to form larger crystals. There are peritectic and residual minerals in granitic magmas. Peritectic minerals are generated through peritectic reactions, whereas residual minerals are inherited from parental rocks. In either case, magmas will evolve to the eutectic for crystallization upon cooling.
Anatectic melts are produced by peritectic reactions, but they are much less evolved than magmatic melts because they have not separated from their parental rocks. The composition of anatectic melts may change toward the magmatic melts through high-degree fractional crystallization. Fractional crystallisation serves to reduce a melt in iron, titanium and sodium, enrich the melt in potassium and silicon – alkali feldspar and quartz, are two of the defining constituents of granite; this process operates regardless of the origin of parental magmas to granites, regardless of their chemistry. The composition and origin of any magma that differentiates into granite leave certain petrological evidence as to what the granite's parental rock was; the final texture and composition of a granite are distinctive as to its parental rock. For instance, a granite, derived from partial melting of meta
Australian Museum
The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology, it was first conceived and developed along the contemporary European model of an encyclopedic warehouse of cultural and natural history and features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy and anthropology. Apart from exhibitions, the museum is involved in Indigenous studies research and community programs. In the museum's early years, collecting was its main priority, specimens were traded with British and other European institutions; the scientific stature of the museum was established under the curatorship of Gerard Krefft, himself a published scientist. The museum is located at the corner of William Street and College Street in the Sydney central business district, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, was known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum.
The museum was renamed in June 1836 by a sub-committee meeting, when it was resolved during an argument that it should be renamed the "Australian Museum". The Australian Museum building and its collection was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999, its current CEO and Executive Director is Kim McKay. The establishment of a museum had first been planned in 1821 by the Philosophical Society of Australasia, although specimens were collected, the Society folded in 1822. An entomologist and fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Alexander Macleay, arrived in 1826. After being appointed New South Wales Colonial Secretary, he began lobbying for a museum; the museum was founded in 1827 by Earl Bathurst the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who wrote to the Governor of New South Wales of his intention to found a public museum and who provided £200 yearly towards its upkeep. In 1832 George Bennett, curator of the Australian Museum, explained the role of the museum: "Here, in a public museum, the remains of the arts, etc. as existing among them, may be preserved as lasting memorials of the former races inhabiting the lands, when they have ceased to exist."
Australia's first museum was a primary conduit through which colonial expansion was represented to the general public. This was occurring as the dispossession and destruction of Aboriginal life and land continued unabated. Museums were seen as mausoleums for Indigenous culture. Indigenous peoples themselves, needless to say, have been silenced in responding to these representations. Early colonial museum practices saw European and Australian museum representations of Indigenous Australians that reiterated and reinforced the political and social norms and agendas of the dominant society; these representations have seen Indigenous Australians portrayed as primitive people, aggressive barbarians, nature's children and of course as noble savages. The heritage-listed building has evolved to encompass a range of different architectural styles and when its building expanded, it was in conjunction with an expansion of the collections; the first location of the museum in 1827 was a room in the offices of the Colonial Secretary, although over the following thirty years it had several other locations in Sydney, until it moved into its current home in 1849.
The Long Gallery is part of the wing designed by New South Wales Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis, the earliest building on the site, c. 1846. This is a handsome building of Sydney sandstone in the Greek Revival style on the corner of College and William Streets, opposite Hyde Park, designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet, it was first opened to the public in May 1857. In order to accommodate the expanding collections of the museum, Barnet was responsible for the construction of the neoclassical west wing along William Street in 1868. A third storey was added to the north Lewis wing in 1890. In 1963, the floor space of the museum doubled when Joseph van der Steen under the Government Architect, Edward Farmer, designed a six-story extension linked to the Lewis building for the scientific and research collections, the reference library and a public restaurant. There were two basement floors providing workspace for scientific staff; this International Style extension became known as the Parkes/Farmer eastern wing.
In 1977, to mark the Museum's 150th anniversary, bronze lower case letters were added to the façade identifying the building as "The Australian Museum". In 2008 a significant expansion took place on the College street site with the addition of the new Collection and Research building which added 5000 square metres of office and storage areas for scientists. In the same year two new permanent galleries were opened, "Dinosaurs" and "Surviving Australia". In 2015, the museum's carbon-neutral glass box entryway known as the "Crystal Hall" was opened. Designed by Neeson-Murcutt, it returned the entry to William Street and provided access via a suspended walkway. In December 2016 the Museum made public a $285 million master plan proposing to expand its available exhibition space, by adding a 13-storey building on the block's east, adding a large central glazed atrium space; the museum was administered directly by the colonial government until June 1836, until the establishment of a Committee of Superintendence of the Australian Museum and Botanical Garden.
Sub-committees were established for each institution. Members of these committees were the leading members of the political and scientific classes of Sydney. In that year, the
International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, field projects and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable". Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to sustainable development in its projects. Unlike many other international environmental organisations, IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation, it tries to influence the actions of governments and other stakeholders by providing information and advice, through building partnerships. The organization is best known to the wider public for compiling and publishing the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses the conservation status of species worldwide.
IUCN has a membership of over 1400 non-governmental organizations. Some 16,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis, it employs 1000 full-time staff in more than 50 countries. Its headquarters are in Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, plays a role in the implementation of several international conventions on nature conservation and biodiversity, it was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. In the past, IUCN has been criticized for placing the interests of nature over those of indigenous peoples. In recent years, its closer relations with the business sector have caused controversy. IUCN was established in 1948, it was called the International Union for the Protection of Nature and the World Conservation Union. Establishment IUCN was established on 5 October 1948, in Fontainebleau, when representatives of governments and conservation organizations signed a formal act constituting the International Union for the Protection of Nature.
The initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley. The objectives of the new Union were to encourage international cooperation in the protection of nature, to promote national and international action and to compile and distribute information. At the time of its founding IUPN was the only international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation Early years: 1948–1956 IUPN started out with 65 members, its secretariat was located in Brussels. Its first work program focused on saving species and habitats and applying knowledge, advancing education, promoting international agreements and promoting conservation. Providing a solid scientific base for conservation action was the heart of all activities. IUPN and UNESCO were associated, they jointly organized the 1949 Conference on Protection of Nature. In preparation for this conference a list of gravely endangered species was drawn up for the first time, a precursor of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
In the early years of its existence IUCN depended entirely on UNESCO funding and was forced to temporarily scale down activities when this ended unexpectedly in 1954. IUPN was successful in engaging prominent scientists and identifying important issues such as the harmful effects of pesticides on wildlife but not many of the ideas it developed were turned into action; this was caused by unwillingness to act on the part of governments, uncertainty about the IUPN mandate and lack of resources. In 1956, IUPN changed its name to International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Increased profile and recognition: 1956–1965 In the 1950s and 1960s Europe entered a period of economic growth and formal colonies became independent. Both developments had impact on the work of IUCN. Through the voluntary involvement of experts in its Commissions IUCN was able to get a lot of work done while still operating on a low budget, it established links with the Council of Europe. In 1961, at the request of United Nations Economic and Social Council, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, IUCN published the first global list of national parks and protected areas which it has updated since.
IUCN's best known publication, the Red Data Book on the conservation status of species, was first published in 1964. IUCN began to play a part in the development of international treaties and conventions, starting with the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Environmental law and policy making became a new area of expertise. Africa was the focus of many of the early IUCN conservation field projects. IUCN supported the ‘Yellowstone model’ of protected area management, which restricted human presence and activity in order to protect nature. IUCN and other conservation organisations were criticized for protecting nature against people rather than with people; this model was also applied in Africa and played a role in the decision to remove the Maasai people from Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. To establish a stable financial basis for its work, IUCN participated in setting up the World Wildlife Fund
State Library of Queensland
The State Library of Queensland is the main reference and research library provided to the people of the State of Queensland, Australia, by the state government. Its legislative basis is provided by the Queensland Libraries Act 1988, it contains a significant portion of Queensland's documentary heritage, major reference and research collections, is an advocate of and partner with public libraries across Queensland. The library is at Kurilpa Point, within the Queensland Cultural Centre on the Brisbane River at South Bank; the Brisbane Public Library was established by the government of the Colony of Queensland in 1896, was renamed the Public Library of Queensland in 1898. The library was opened to the public in 1902. In 1934, the Oxley Memorial Library, named for the explorer John Oxley, opened as a centre for research and study relating to Queensland; the Libraries Act of 1943 established the Library Board of Queensland to manage the Public Library of Queensland. In March 1947, James L. Stapleton was appointed Queensland's first State Librarian.
Stapleton advocated for a new building for the library and that library services should be free to the public. He remains the longest-serving CEO, has been followed by five others: Sydney Lawrence Ryan from 1970 to 1988, Des Stephens from 1988 to 2001, Lea Giles-Peters from 2001 to 2011, Janette Wright, from 2012-2015 and from 2016, Vicki McDonald. In 1971, the "Public Library" became the "State Library." The following year, the Public Library Service was established to liaise with Queensland local authorities regarding their public libraries. A few years the Country Lending Service was established to provide book exchange and other services to public libraries in Queensland's smaller local government areas. Under the new name of Rural Libraries Queensland, the service is still going strong today, administered by the State Library's Public and Indigenous Library Services program. In 2003, the State Library began a new mission of establishing Indigenous Knowledge Centres in the Cape York and Torres Strait areas.
There is now a network of 22 IKCs in remote and regional communities: across Cape York, the islands of the Torres Strait, Central Queensland and at Cherbourg in South East Queensland. The State Library's current strategic vision is to enrich the lives of Queenslanders through creatively engaging people with information and community. In early 2011, the library donated 50,000 pictures to Wikimedia Commons; the library holds general collections, including books and magazines, audiovisual items, family history, music, ephemera and electronic resources. There are research collections and services – including the John Oxley Library and the Australian Library of Art, which includes the James Hardie Library of Australian Fine Arts; the library is home to two UNESCO Memory of the World significant collections, Labour Party Manifesto and the Margaret Lawrie collection of Torres Strait Islands material. The library holds a collection of Queensland election-related material, including websites, posters and how-to-vote cards.
Access to collections, including access to 50,000 Copyright-free Queensland images through Wikimedia Commons Provides books and other resource material to public libraries throughout Queensland. Specialist services to public libraries in a number of areas, including services to young people and multicultural communities. Public programs and exhibitions, including exhibition loans to schools and other community organisations. Outreach programs in reference, information literacy, Internet training and digitisation throughout Queensland for public library staff and the general community. Library services to Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders including the establishment of Indigenous Knowledge Centres in Cape York and Torres Strait regions and increasing the employment and training opportunities for Indigenous peoples in the library industry. A digital culture centre called The Edge, for young people. A free coworking space, the Business Studio, supports startups and small business; the library has hosted a number of prominent exhibitions, including Plantation Voices Home: A Suburban Obsession Islands: hidden histories from Queensland Islands Hot Modernism Free guided tours of the building are available.
In 2010, a total of 3730 school students participated in a tour. Rural Libraries Queensland is a collaboration between the State Library of Queensland and 30 of the local government councils to provide library libraries to rural communities; the Brisbane Public Library moved into the Old State Library Building in William Street, Brisbane in 1899. This building had been occupied by the Queensland Museum; the Library shared accommodation in the building with an art gallery. In the late 1950s, an extension, with a distinctive tiled mural on the exterior, was built onto the building to provide more space; the mural was the winning design in a national competition held in 1958. In 1988, the State Library of Queensland moved to a new home within the Queensland Cultural Centre at South Bank, near the Queensland Museum and the original Queensland Art Gallery. In 2004, work began on the Millennium Library Project - a major redevelopment of the existing State Library building. After three years of extensive redevelopment, the South Bank building
Mrs Watson's Cottage
Mrs Watson's Cottage is a heritage-listed house ruin at Lizard Island National Park, Shire of Cook, Australia. It is known as Stone ruin at Lizard Island, it was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992. The stone ruins overlooking Watson's Bay on the north side of Lizard Island may be linked to the use of the island for beche-de-mer fishing by Europeans in the 19th century, they are popularly associated with the incidents surrounding the deaths of Mary Watson, her baby son and two Chinese employees in 1881, following a confrontation with mainland Aborigines. Aboriginal people used Lizard Island for thousands of years before Europeans arrived in north Queensland; the island is thought to have been used for ceremonial purposes and Captain James Cook recorded observing several frames of huts and large middens during his voyage along the coast in 1770. The harvesting of beche-de-mer, prized by Chinese as a culinary delicacy, was carried out along the north Australian coast from about 1700 by fishermen from the south of Sulawesi, who made regular trips to catch and process the creatures.
They require preservation by boiling and smoking before transportation and this meant that camps for the purpose were set up on shore until preservation began to be carried out on board ship in the 1890s. Europeans took up this trade following a suggestion of Matthew Flinders. In 1827, 10 long tons of beche-de-mer was exported from the Cooktown area to Timor. In 1860 a group of Europeans and South Sea Islanders arrived on Lizard Island to establish a processing base there and appear to have settled on Watson's Bay. Although the venture was not successful and was abandoned in October 1861 after a number of them died, they constructed a stone building during their occupancy. Other groups subsequently worked there including more than 40 South Sea Islanders employed by Captain Delargy in the late 1860s. In 1879 Captain Robert Watson and P C Fuller established a station to carry out beche-de-mer processing on Watson's Bay, it is possible that they used or adapted this building, this is not known and they did construct buildings themselves.
In May 1880, Robert Watson married the 20-year-old Mary Oxnam, who emigrated from England with her parents in 1877 and had worked as a teacher before her marriage. The Watsons moved to Lizard Island, where Watson had erected a dwelling and store, established a small fruit and vegetable garden. Two Chinese men, Ah Sam and Ah Leong, were employed to assist in the garden respectively. Mary returned to Cooktown in March 1881 to await the birth of her first child early in June, was back on Lizard Island by July. On 1 September 1881 Watson and Fuller took their boats 200 miles north to Night Island, intending to be away for about 6 weeks. Mary was left on the island with the two Chinese employees. On 27 September a group of Aborigines from Starke and Point Lookout arrived at Lizard Island, according to oral tradition, contained a sacred site in the approximate vicinity of the beche-de-mer station, it is thought that on 29 September they speared and killed Ah Leong, working in the garden quarter of a mile from Mrs Watson's dwelling.
The next day they gathered on the beach below the house, dispersed when Mary fired a rifle and revolver, but returned on 1 October and speared Ah Sam wounding him. Fearing a further attack and lacking other means of escape, Mary packed a few belongings, food and two paddles into a cut-down iron ship's tank used for boiling the beche-de-mer, set off with Ah Sam and the baby on 2 October, they reached No.5 Howick Island, although it lay along the steamer route lacked fresh water. Too weak to continue, they hoped to attract the attention of a passing ship, but were unsuccessful and died from thirst. Mary kept a brief diary throughout the ordeal; the contents were made public and her uncomplaining courage and efforts to protect her child evoked widespread pity and admiration. The last entry is dated 11 October 1881. In the meantime, Robert Watson had returned to find signs of an Aboriginal attack having taken place and his wife and child missing, he began to search for them and the incident exacerbated European antagonism toward Aborigines in the Cooktown area.
A punitive raid was carried out, during which many people were killed, though people at Cape Flattery rather than those responsible were targeted. The crew of a passing fishing vessel found the remains of Mrs. Watson, Ah Sam and baby Ferrier on 19 January 1882 and they were accorded a huge public funeral in Cooktown. In 1885 public subscriptions were called for the Mary Watson's Monument, a drinking-fountain memorial; the tank in which she escaped was on display at the Queensland Museum for many years. Lizard Island was gazetted as a National Park in 1939 and now contains a resort to the west of the ruins; the story has continued to stir the public imagination and the site of the ruins believed to be Watson's cottage remains a focus for the memory this tragic incident in the European settlement of the North. The stone ruins are located 60 metres from Watson's Beach and 35 metres north west of Ferrier's Creek at Watson's Bay on the north side of Lizard Island; this is a high rocky island 90 kilometres NNE of Cooktown and 31 kilometres from the coast NE of Cape Flattery.
The ruins consist of footings and sections of wall of what was a five- roomed building measuring 14 by 10 metres and which appears to have been built in several stages. It is aligned parallel with the beach and has substa
Argus monitor
The Argus monitor is a monitor lizard found in northern regions of Australia and southern New Guinea. It is commonly known as the yellow-spotted monitor; the size of an Argus monitor differs between the sexes, with the female reaching an average total length of three feet, while the male reaches an average of 4–5 feet, the larger sized animals being V. panoptes panoptes vs. V. panoptes horni. It is a reasonably lean monitor and does not put on the bulk that its African cousins do. Most Argus monitors are yellow in color, with a background of dark tan, their color varies with place of origin or the individual. Varanus panoptes rubidus, Western Australia, Varanus panoptes panoptes, Arnhem Land, the Kimberley and Cape York Peninsula Varanus panoptes horni, New Guinea The Argus monitor is a versatile predator and inhabits a large variety of biomes and habitats, they are terrestrial, meaning they spend a great deal of time on the ground. This species is an avid digger and will dig large burrows or take over an existing burrow, where they spend a sizable portion of their time.
Despite this, they will eagerly forage in the water. These large lizards are quite fast and will run up to 100 yards/meters to the nearest tree or burrow when they are chased; the Argus monitor is riparian in habits and as such, it can be found around a permanent source of water. The Argus will "tripod" in captivity and in the wild, raising up on their hind legs and supporting themselves with the tail; this unusual behavior is used to spot potential prey or enemies from a distance or when they are threatened. They exhibit this behavior in captivity; this habit provides them a unique characteristic. In Arnhem Land, they lay 6 to 13 eggs between February, its prey consists of anything that it can overpower. This includes fish, small birds, rodents and other monitors; the Argus monitor preys on the dwarf monitors that it shares its range with. Spiny-tailed goannas and Kimberley rock monitors are eaten regularly. Argus monitors have great senses, with smell being the most acute. Like all monitors, the Argus has a vomeronasal organ in the roof of its mouth.
It uses this organ in the same manner as snakes do and can be seen flicking their tongues in search of a meal. Recent studies suggest that the cane toad infestation has damaged the population of Argus monitors within the Top End, it is estimated. Many individuals of this species are captive bred as a conservation effort against poisoning from the cane toad infestation of the species’ native range, they hunt for prey by chasing it down and overpowering it. Argus monitors are fed insects and mice. V. panoptes are husky lizards. They don’t like being restrained, can use their sharp claws in their attempts to squirm free. If left to wander on open ground, their ability to flee makes escape likely. V. panoptes prefer to bask each morning and return to bask as needed to maintain optimal body temperatures at 80 to 90 °F. Nighttime temperatures may drop 20 °F or more if the opportunity to warm up the next day exists. Akeret, B. 2006. Bau einer Großterrarienanlage für Warane und Hornvipern. Draco 7: 38- Anonymous 2000.
Hydrosaurus gouldii Gray, 1838 and Varanus panoptes Storr, 1980: specific names conserved by the designation of a neotype for H. gouldii. Bull. Zool. Nomenclature 57: 63-65 Bennet, D. F. 2003. Australische Warane. Reptilia 8: 18-25 Bennet, D. F. 2003. Der Varanus-gouldii-Komplex. Reptilia 8: 26-28 Bennet, D. F. 2003. Australian Monitors. Reptilia: 12-19 Bennet, D. F. 2003. The Varanus gouldii group. Reptilia: 27-29 Böhme, W. 1988. Der Arguswaran auf Neuguinea: Varanus panoptes horni spp. n. Salamandra 24: 87-101. Böhme,W. 2003. Checklist of the living monitor lizards of the world. Zool. Verhand. Leiden 341: 6-43 Böhme,W. & T. ZIEGLER 1998. Comments on the proposed conservation of the names Hydrosaurus gouldii Gray, 1838 and Varanus panoptes STORR, 1980 by the designation of a neotype for Hydrosaurus gouldii. Bull. Zool. Nomenclature 55: 173-174. Cogger, H. G.. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, 6th ed. Ralph Curtis Publishing, Sanibel Island, 808 pp. Lenk, P.. A parthenogenetic Varanus. Amphibia-Reptilia 26: 507-514 Packard, Gary C. and THOMAS J. BOARDMAN 2009.
Bias in interspecic allometry: examples from morphological scaling in varanid lizards. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 96, 296–305. Schardt, M.. Aktuelle Übersicht zur Nomenklatur der australischen "Gouldswarane" sowie Angaben zur Haltung und Nachzucht von Varanus panoptes panoptes Storr. Herpetofauna 22: 22-32 Sprackland R G.. Hydrosaurus gouldii Gray, 1838 and Varanus panoptes Storr, 1980: Proposed conservation of the specific names by the designation of a neotype for H. gouldii. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 54: 95-99. Storr G. M.. The monitor lizards of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum 8 1980: 237-293
First voyage of James Cook
The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages; the aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun, to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or "unknown southern land". The voyage was commissioned by King George III and commanded by Lieutenant James Cook, a junior naval officer with good skills in cartography and mathematics. Departing from Plymouth Dockyard in August 1768, the expedition crossed the Atlantic, rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti in time to observe the transit of Venus. Cook set sail into the uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the Pacific islands of Huahine and Raiatea to claim them for Great Britain, unsuccessfully attempting to land at Rurutu. In September 1769 the expedition reached New Zealand, being the second Europeans to visit there, following the first European discovery by Abel Tasman 127 years earlier.
Cook and his crew spent the following six months charting the New Zealand coast, before resuming their voyage westward across open sea. In April 1770 they became the first Europeans to reach the east coast of Australia, making landfall at Point Hicks, proceeding to Botany Bay; the expedition continued northward along the Australian coastline, narrowly avoiding shipwreck on the Great Barrier Reef. In October 1770 the badly damaged Endeavour came into the port of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies, her crew sworn to secrecy about the lands they had discovered, they resumed their journey on 26 December, rounded the Cape of Good Hope on 13 March 1771, reached the English port of Deal on 12 July. The voyage lasted three years; the year following his return Cook set out on a second voyage of the Pacific, which lasted from 1772 to 1775. His third and final voyage lasted from 1776 to 1779. On 16 February 1768 the Royal Society petitioned King George III to finance a scientific expedition to the Pacific to study and observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the sun to enable the measurement of the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
Royal approval was granted for the expedition, the Admiralty elected to combine the scientific voyage with a confidential mission to search the south Pacific for signs of the postulated continent Terra Australis Incognita. The aims of the expedition were revealed in the press: "To-morrow morning Mr. Banks, Dr. Solano, with Mr. Green, the Astronomer, will set out for Deal, to embark on board the Endeavour, Capt. Cook, for the South Seas, under the direction of the Royal Society, to observe the Transit of Venus next summer, to make discoveries to the South and West of Cape Horn"; the London Gazetteer was more explicit when it reported on 18 August 1768: "The gentlemen, who are to sail in a few days for George's Land, the new discovered island in the Pacific ocean, with an intention to observe the Transit of Venus, are we are credibly informed, to attempt some new discoveries in that vast unknown tract, above the latitude 40". Another article reported that "the principal and sole national advantage" of the island discovered by Captain Wallace, Tahiti, was "its situation for exploring the Terra Incognita of the Southern Hemisphere", that, "The Endeavour, a North-Country Cat, is purchased by the Government, commanded by a Lieutenant of the Navy.
The Gazette de France of 20 June 1768 reported that the British Admiralty was outfitting two sloops of war to go to "the newly discovered island", from whence they would "essay the discovery of the Southern Continent". The Royal Society suggested command be given to Scottish geographer Alexander Dalrymple, who had urged that an expedition be sent to make contact with the estimated 50 million inhabitants of the Southern Continent with whom, he said, there was "at present no trade from Europe thither, though the scraps from this table would be sufficient to maintain the power and sovereignty of Britain, by employing all its manufacturers and ships"; as a condition of his acceptance, Dalrymple demanded a brevet commission as a captain in the Royal Navy. However, First Lord of the Admiralty Edward Hawke refused, going so far as to say he would rather cut off his right hand than give command of a Navy vessel to someone not educated as a seaman. In refusing Dalrymple's command, Hawke was influenced by previous insubordination aboard the sloop HMS Paramour in 1698, when naval officers had refused to take orders from civilian commander Dr. Edmond Halley.
The impasse was broken when the Admiralty proposed James Cook, a naval officer with a background in mathematics and cartography. Acceptable to both parties, Cook was promoted to Lieutenant and named as commander of the expedition; the vessel chosen by the Admiralty for the voyage was a merchant collier named Earl of Pembroke, launched in June 1764 from the coal and whaling port of Whitby in North Yorkshire. She was ship-rigged and sturdily built with a broad, flat bow, a square stern and a long box-like body with a deep hold. A flat-bottomed design made her well-suited to sailing in shallow waters and allowed her to be beached for loading and unloading of cargo and for basic repairs without requiring a dry dock, her length was 106 feet, with a beam of 29 feet 3 inches, measuring 36871⁄94 tons burthenEarl of Pembroke was purchased by the Admiralty in May 1768 for £2,840 10s 11d and sailed to Deptford on the River Thames to be prepared for the voyage. Her hull was sheathed and caulked, a third internal deck installed to provide cabins
