Dragon Rocks Nature Reserve
Dragon Rocks is a 322 km2 nature reserve in the south-east of the wheatbelt region of Western Australia, some 310 km east-south-east of Perth. It is surrounded by farmland, it is listed on Australia’s Register of the National Estate as an area significant for rare species of plants and animals. The reserve contains 28 different vegetation associations, including heaths, low forests and kwongan; the large number of plant communitiess form a complex mosaic characteristic of wheatbelt vegetation, including vegetation communities occurring on laterite. Sixteen 16 plants, including 13 eucalypts, are endemic either to the wheatbelt region or to Western Australia; the rare Lake Varley grevillea is found in the reserve. Frog species found in the reserve include the spotted-thighed frog. Reptiles present include three geckos; the honey possum, Gilbert's dunnart and the red-tailed phascogale are present. The reserve has been identified as an Important Bird Area because it supports populations of the endangered Carnaby's black-cockatoo, western rosella, blue-breasted fairy-wren, purple-gaped honeyeater and western yellow robin.
"IBA: Dragon Rocks". Birdata. Birds Australia. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2011-06-18. "Dragon Rocks Nature Reserve". Australian Heritage Database. Department of Sustainability, Water and Communities. Retrieved 2011-06-18
Mating
In biology, mating is the pairing of either opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for the purposes of sexual reproduction. Some definitions limit the term to pairing between animals, while other definitions extend the term to mating in plants and fungi. Fertilization is the fusion of both sex gamete. Copulation is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization. Mating may lead to external fertilization, as seen in amphibians and plants. For the majority of species, mating is between two individuals of opposite sexes. However, for some hermaphroditic species, copulation is not required because the parent organism is capable of self-fertilization; the term mating is applied to related processes in bacteria and viruses. Mating in these cases involves the pairing of individuals, accompanied by the pairing of their homologous chromosomes and exchange of genomic information leading to formation of recombinant progeny. For animals, mating strategies include random mating, disassortative mating, assortative mating, or a mating pool.
In some birds, it includes behaviors such as feeding offspring. The human practice of mating and artificially inseminating domesticated animals is part of animal husbandry. In some terrestrial arthropods, including insects representing basal phylogenetic clades, the male deposits spermatozoa on the substrate, sometimes stored within a special structure. Courtship involves inducing the female to take up the sperm package into her genital opening without actual copulation. In groups such as dragonflies and many spiders, males extrude sperm into secondary copulatory structures removed from their genital opening, which are used to inseminate the female. In advanced groups of insects, the male uses its aedeagus, a structure formed from the terminal segments of the abdomen, to deposit sperm directly into the female's reproductive tract. Other animals reproduce sexually including many basal vertebrates. Vertebrates reproduce with internal fertilization through cloacal copulation, while mammals copulate vaginally.
Like in animals, mating in other Eukaryotes, such as plants and fungi, denotes sexual conjugation. However, in vascular plants this is achieved without physical contact between mating individuals, in some cases, e.g. in fungi no distinguishable male or female organs exist. Yeasts are eukaryotic microorganisms classified in the kingdom Fungi, with 1,500 species described. In general, under high stress conditions like nutrient starvation, haploid cells will die. Protists are a large group of diverse eukaryotic microorganisms unicellular animals and plants, that do not form tissues. Eukaryotes emerged in evolution more than 1.5 billion years ago. The earliest eukaryotes were protists. Mating and sexual reproduction are widespread among extant eukaryotes including protists such as Paramecium and Chlamydomonas. In many eukaryotic species, mating is promoted by sex pheromones including the protist Blepharisma japonicum. Based on a phylogenetic analysis and Roger proposed that facultative sex was present in the common ancestor of all eukaryotes.
However, to many biologists it seemed unlikely until that mating and sex could be a primordial and fundamental characteristic of eukaryotes. A principal reason for this view was that mating and sex appeared to be lacking in certain pathogenic protists whose ancestors branched off early from the eukaryotic family tree. However, several of these protists are now known to be capable of, or to have had, the capability for meiosis and hence mating. To cite one example, the common intestinal parasite Giardia intestinalis was once considered to be a descendant of a protist lineage that predated the emergence of meiosis and sex. However, G. intestinalis was found to have a core set of genes that function in meiosis and that are present among sexual eukaryotes. These results suggested that G. intestinalis is capable of meiosis and thus mating and sexual reproduction. Furthermore, direct evidence for meiotic recombination, indicative of mating and sexual reproduction, was found in G. intestinalis. Other protists for which evidence of mating and sexual reproduction has been described are parasitic protozoa of the genus Leishmania, Trichomonas vaginalis, acanthamoeba.
Protists reproduce asexually under favorable environmental conditions, but tend to reproduce sexually under stressful conditions, such as starvation or heat shock. Animal husbandry Breeding in the wild Breeding season Evolution of sex Lordosis behavior Mate choice copying Mating system Reproduction Sex determination system Sexual conflict Sexual intercourse Introduction to Animal Reproduction Advantages of Sexual Reproduction
Fox
Foxes are small-to-medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. Foxes have a flattened skull, upright triangular ears, a pointed upturned snout, a long bushy tail. Twelve species belong to the monophyletic "true foxes" group of genus Vulpes. Another 25 current or extinct species are always or sometimes called foxes. Foxes live on every continent except Antarctica. By far the most common and widespread species of fox is the red fox with about 47 recognized subspecies; the global distribution of foxes, together with their widespread reputation for cunning, has contributed to their prominence in popular culture and folklore in many societies around the world. The hunting of foxes with packs of hounds, long an established pursuit in Europe in the British Isles, was exported by European settlers to various parts of the New World; the word fox comes from Old English. This in turn derives from Proto-Indo-European *puḱ-, meaning ’thick-haired. Male foxes are known as dogs, tods or reynards, females as vixens, young as cubs, pups, or kits, though the latter name is not to be confused with a distinct species called kit foxes.
Vixen is one of few words in modern English that retains the Middle English southern dialect "v" pronunciation instead of "f". A group of foxes is referred to leash, or earth. Within the Canidae, the results of DNA analysis shows several phylogenetic divisions: The fox-like canids, which include the kit fox, red fox, Cape fox, Arctic fox, fennec fox; the wolf-like canids, including the dog, gray wolf, red wolf, eastern wolf, golden jackal, Ethiopian wolf, black-backed jackal, side-striped jackal and African wild dog. The South American canids, including hoary fox, crab-eating fox and maned wolf. Various monotypic taxa, including the bat-eared fox, gray fox, raccoon dog. Foxes are smaller than some other members of the family Canidae such as wolves and jackals, while they may be larger than some within the family, such as Raccoon dogs. In the largest species, the red fox, males weigh on average between 4.1 and 8.7 kg, while the smallest species, the fennec fox, weighs just 0.7 to 1.6 kg. Fox-like features include a triangular face, pointed ears, an elongated rostrum, a bushy tail.
Foxes are digitigrade, thus, walk on their toes. Unlike most members of the family Canidae, foxes have retractable claws. Fox vibrissae, or whiskers, are black; the whiskers on the muzzle, mystaciae vibrissae, average 100–110 mm long, while the whiskers everywhere else on the head average to be shorter in length. Whiskers are on the forelimbs and average 40 mm long, pointing downward and backward. Other physical characteristics vary according to adaptive significance. Fox species differ in fur color and density. Coat colors range from pearly white to black and white to black flecked with white or grey on the underside. Fennec foxes, for example, have short fur to aid in keeping the body cool. Arctic foxes, on the other hand, have tiny ears and short limbs as well as thick, insulating fur, which aid in keeping the body warm. Red foxes, by contrast, have a typical auburn pelt, the tail ending with white marking. A fox's coat color and texture may vary due to the change in seasons. To get rid of the dense winter coat, foxes moult once a year around April.
Coat color may change as the individual ages. A fox's dentition, like all other canids, is I 3/3, C 1/1, PM 4/4, M 3/2 = 42. Foxes have pronounced carnassial pairs, characteristic of a carnivore; these pairs consist of the upper premolar and the lower first molar, work together to shear tough material like flesh. Foxes' canines are pronounced characteristic of a carnivore, are excellent in gripping prey. In the wild, the typical lifespan of a fox is one to three years, although individuals may live up to ten years. Unlike many canids, foxes are not always pack animals, they live in small family groups, but some are known to be solitary. Foxes are omnivores; the diet of foxes is made up of invertebrates such as insects, small vertebrates such as reptiles and birds, can include eggs and plants. Many species are generalist predators. Most species of fox consume around 1 kg of food every day. Foxes cache excess food, burying it for consumption under leaves, snow, or soil. Foxes tend to use a pouncing technique where they crouch down to camouflage themselves in the terrain using their hind legs, leap up with great force to land on top of their targeted prey.
Using their pronounced canine te
Binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature called binominal nomenclature or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name; the first part of the name – the generic name – identifies the genus to which the species belongs, while the second part – the specific name or specific epithet – identifies the species within the genus. For example, humans belong within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. Tyrannosaurus rex is the most known binomial; the formal introduction of this system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus beginning with his work Species Plantarum in 1753. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus; the application of binomial nomenclature is now governed by various internationally agreed codes of rules, of which the two most important are the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature for animals and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae and plants.
Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are some differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. In modern usage, the first letter of the first part of the name, the genus, is always capitalized in writing, while that of the second part is not when derived from a proper noun such as the name of a person or place. Both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a binomial name is given, at least when it is first mentioned, the date of publication may be specified. In zoology "Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758"; the name "Linnaeus" tells the reader who it was that first published a description and name for this species of limpet. "Passer domesticus". The original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica; the ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, although nomenclatorial catalogs include such information.
In botany "Amaranthus retroflexus L." – "L." is the standard abbreviation used in botany for "Linnaeus". "Hyacinthoides italica Rothm. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica. The name is composed of two word-forming elements: "bi", a Latin prefix for two, "-nomial", relating to a term or terms; the word "binomium" was used in Medieval Latin to mean a two-term expression in mathematics. Prior to the adoption of the modern binomial system of naming species, a scientific name consisted of a generic name combined with a specific name, from one to several words long. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature; these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, second, to be a diagnosis or description. In a simple genus, containing only two species, it was easy to tell them apart with a one-word genus and a one-word specific name; such "polynomial names" may sometimes look like binomials, but are different. For example, Gerard's herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort: "The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort.
The other... is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia". The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels; the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné, more known by his Latinized name Carl Linnaeus, it was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word "trivial name" together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as specific name; the Bauhins' genus names were retained in many of these, but the descriptive part was reduced to a single word. Linnaeus's trivial names introduced an important new idea, namely that the function of a name could be to give a species a unique label; this meant. Thus Gerard's Phalangium ephemerum virginianum became Tradescantia virgi
Simpson Desert
The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 km2 and is the world's largest sand dune desert; the desert is underlain by the Great Artesian Basin, one of the largest inland drainage areas in the world. Water from the basin rises to the surface at numerous natural springs, including Dalhousie Springs, at bores drilled along stock routes, or during petroleum exploration; as a result of exploitation by such bores, the flow of water to springs has been decreasing in recent years. It is part of the Lake Eyre basin; the Simpson Desert is an erg. These north-south oriented dunes are static, held in position by vegetation, they vary in height from 3 metres in the west to around 30 metres on the eastern side. The largest dune, Nappanerica or Big Red, is 40 metres in height; the explorer Charles Sturt, who visited the region from 1844–1846, was the first European to see the desert.
In 1880 Augustus Poeppel, a surveyor with the South Australian Survey Department determined the border between Queensland and South Australia to the west of Haddon Corner and in doing so marked the corner point where the States of Queensland and South Australia meet the Northern Territory. After he returned to Adelaide, it was discovered that the links in his surveyor's chain had stretched. Poeppel’s border post was too far west by 300 metres. In 1884, surveyor Larry Wells moved the post to its proper position on the eastern bank of Lake Poeppel; the tri-state border is now known as Poeppel Corner. In January 1886 surveyor David Lindsay ventured into the desert from the western edge, in the process discovering and documenting, with the help of a Wangkangurru Aboriginal man, nine native wells and travelling as far east as the Queensland/Northern Territory border. In 1936 Ted Colson became the first non-indigenous person to cross the desert in its entirety, riding camels; the name Simpson Desert was coined by Cecil Madigan, after Alfred Allen Simpson, an Australian industrialist, philanthropist and president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia.
Mr Simpson was the owner of the Simpson washing machine company. In 1984, Dennis Bartel was the first white man to walk solo and unsupported west-to-east across the Simpson, 390 km in 24 days, relying on old Aboriginal wells for water. In 2006 Lucas Trihey was the first non-indigenous person to walk across the desert through the geographical centre away from vehicle tracks and unsupported, he carried all his equipment in a two-wheeled cart and crossed from East Bore on the western edge of the desert to Birdsville in the east. In 2008, Michael Giacometti completed the first, only, east-to-west walk across the Simpson Desert. Starting at Bedourie in Queensland, he walked solo and unsupported, towing all his equipment and water in a two-wheeled cart to Old Andado homestead. In 2008, Belgian Louis-Philippe Loncke became the first non-indigenous person to complete a north-south crossing of the desert on foot and unsupported and through the geographical centre. In 2016, explorer Sebastian Copeland and partner Mark George completed the longest unsupported latitudinal crossing of the Simpson They linked the Madigan Line, Colson Track and French Line for the first time, walking from Old Andado homestead to Birdsville, a distance of 650 kilometres in 26 days.
In 1967, the Queensland Government established the Munga-Thirri National Park known as the Simpson Desert National Park No maintained roads cross the desert. The Donohue Highway is an unpaved outback track passing from near Boulia towards the Northern Territory border in the north of the desert. There are tracks that were created during seismic surveys in the search for gas and oil during the 1960s and 1970s; these include the French Line, the Rig Road, the QAA Line. Such tracks are still navigable by well-equipped four-wheel-drive vehicles which must carry extra fuel and water. Towns providing access to the South Australian edge of the Simpson Desert include Innamincka to the south and Oodnadatta to the southwest. Last fuel on the western side is at store. Before 1980, a section of the Commonwealth Railways Central Australian line passed along the western side of the Simpson Desert; the desert is popular with tourists in winter, popular landmarks include the ruins and mound springs at Dalhousie Springs, Purnie Bore wetlands, Approdinna Attora Knoll and Poeppel Corner.
Because of the excessive heat and inadequately experienced drivers attempting to access the desert in the past, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has decided since 2008-2009 to close the Simpson Desert during the summer — to save unprepared "adventurers" from themselves. The area has an hot, dry desert climate. Rainfall is minimal, averaging only about 150 mm per year and falling in summer. Temperatures in summer can approach 50 °C and large sand storms are common. Winters are cool, heatwaves in the middle of July are not unheard of; some of the heaviest rain in decades occurred during 2009-2010, has seen the Simpson Desert burst into life and colour. In early March 2010, Birdsville recorded more rain in 24 hours. Rain inundated Queensland’s north-west and Gulf regions. In total, 17 million megalitres of water entered the State’s western river systems leading to Lake
Species distribution
Species distribution is the manner in which a biological taxon is spatially arranged. The geographic limits of a particular taxon's distribution is its range represented as shaded areas on a map. Patterns of distribution change depending the scale at which they are viewed, from the arrangement of individuals within a small family unit, to patterns within a population, or the distribution of the entire species as a whole. Species distribution is not to be confused with dispersal, the movement of individuals away from their region of origin or from a population center of high density. In biology, the range of a species is the geographical area within. Within that range, distribution is the general structure of the species population, while dispersion is the variation in its population density. Range is described with the following qualities: Sometimes a distinction is made between a species' natural, indigenous, or native range, where it has originated and lived, the range where a species has more established itself.
Many terms are used to describe the new range, such as non-native, introduced, invasive, or colonized range. Introduced means that a species has been transported by humans across a major geographical barrier. For species found in different regions at different times of year seasons, terms such as summer range and winter range are employed. For species for which only part of their range is used for breeding activity, the terms breeding range and non-breeding range are used. For mobile animals, the term natural range is used, as opposed to areas where it occurs as a vagrant. Geographic or temporal qualifiers are added, such as in British range or pre-1950 range; the typical geographic ranges could be elevational range. Disjunct distribution occurs when two or more areas of the range of a taxon are separated from each other geographically. Distribution patterns may change by season, distribution by humans, in response to the availability of resources, other abiotic and biotic factors. There are three main types of abiotic factors: climatic factors consist of sunlight, humidity and salinity.
An example of the effects of abiotic factors on species distribution can be seen in drier areas, where most individuals of a species will gather around water sources, forming a clumped distribution. Researchers from the Arctic Ocean Diversity project have documented rising numbers of warm-water crustaceans in the seas around Norway's Svalbard Islands. Arcod is part of the Census of Marine Life, a huge 10-year project involving researchers in more than 80 nations that aims to chart the diversity and abundance of life in the oceans. Marine Life has become affected by increasing effects of global warming; this study shows that as the ocean temperatures rise species are beginning to travel into the cold and harsh Arctic waters. The snow crab has extended its range 500 km north. Biotic factors such as predation and competition for resources such as food and mates, can affect how a species is distributed. For example, biotic factors in a quail’s environment would include their prey, competition from other quail, their predators, such as the coyote.
An advantage of a herd, community, or other clumped distribution allows a population to detect predators earlier, at a greater distance, mount an effective defense. Due to limited resources, populations may be evenly distributed to minimize competition, as is found in forests, where competition for sunlight produces an distribution of trees. Humans are one of the largest distributors due to the current trends in globalization and the expanse of the transportation industry. For example, large tankers fill their ballasts with water at one port and empty them in another, causing a wider distribution of aquatic species. On large scales, the pattern of distribution among individuals in a population is clumped. One common example of bird species' ranges are land mass areas bordering water bodies, such as oceans, rivers, or lakes. A second example, some species of bird depend on water a river, etc. or water related forest and live in a river corridor. A separate example of a river corridor would be a river corridor that includes the entire drainage, having the edge of the range delimited by mountains, or higher elevations.
A further example of a bird wildlife corridor would be a mountain range corridor. In the U. S. of North America, the Sierra Nevada range in the west, the Appalachian Mountains in the east are two examples of this habitat, used in summer, winter, by separate species, for different reasons. Bird species in these corridors are connected to a main range for the species or are in an isolated geographic range and be a disjunct range. Birds leaving the area, if they migrate, would leave connected to the main range or have to fly over land not connected to the wildlife corridor. On large scales, the pattern of distribution among individuals in a population is clumped. On small scales, the pattern may be regular, or random. Clumped distribution is the most common type of dispersion found in nat
Southern NSW Mallee Important Bird Area
The Southern NSW Mallee Important Bird Area comprises an irregularly shaped 8232 km2 tract of land in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is bounded by the Murray River in the south, the Darling River in the west, the Willandra Lakes in the north, it lies north-west of north of Robinvale and east of Mildura. The exact boundaries of the Important Bird Area are defined by the presence of remnant mallee woodland and shrubland habitat, excluding areas that have been cleared or support other plant communities; the landscape is mallee on flat or undulating sand plains, much of, used for grazing. The climate is semi-arid; the site includes several small reserves as well as Mallee Cliffs National Park and part of Mungo National Park. The site has been identified by BirdLife International as an IBA because it either is known to support, or contains suitable habitat for, a significant population of the vulnerable malleefowl. Other notable birds recorded in the IBA include flame robins and pied honeyeaters, Major Mitchell's cockatoos, purple-crowned lorikeets, regent parrots, shy heathwrens, southern scrub-robins, hooded robins, chestnut quail-thrushes and Gilbert's whistlers.
Central NSW Mallee Important Bird Area Riverland Mallee Important Bird Area
