1.
Host (biology)
–
In biology, a host is an organism that harbors a parasitic, a mutual, or a commensal symbiont, typically providing nourishment and shelter. Examples include animals playing host to parasitic worms, cells harbouring a parasitic virus, more specifically in botany, a host plant supplies food resources and acts as a substrate for commensalist insects or other fauna. Guest is the term used for parasites, mutualists and commensals. The host range of a parasite is the collection of hosts that an organism can utilize as a partner, in the case of human parasites, the host range influences the epidemiology of the parasitism or disease. For instance, the production of antigenic shifts in Influenza A virus can result from pigs being infected with the virus from different hosts. This co-infection provides an opportunity for mixing of the viral genes between existing strains, thereby producing a new viral strain
Host (biology)
–
The
roof rat (Rattus rattus) is a reservoir host for
bubonic plague: the
oriental rat fleas that infest these rats are a prime
source for the disease.
2.
Subclinical infection
–
A subclinical infection is an infection that, being subclinical, is nearly or completely asymptomatic. A subclinically infected person is thus an asymptomatic carrier of a microbe, intestinal parasite, or virus that usually is a pathogen causing illness, many pathogens spread by being silently carried in this way by some of their host population. Such infections occur both in humans and nonhuman animals, an example of an asymptomatic infection is a mild common cold that is not noticed by the infected individual. Since subclinical infections often occur without eventual overt sign, their existence is only identified by microbiological culture or DNA techniques such as polymerase chain reaction, an individual may only develop signs of an infection after a period of subclinical infection, a duration that is called the incubation period. This is the case, for example, for sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS. Individuals with such subclinical infections, and those that never develop overt illness, however, they are evolved physiological and behavioral responses of the host to clear itself of the infection. Instead of incurring the costs of deploying these evolved responses to infections, Subclinical infections are important since they allow infections to spread from a reserve of carriers. They also can cause clinical problems unrelated to the issue of infection. For example, in the case of urinary infections in women. Endara, Pablo, Trueba, Gabriel, Solberg, Owen D. Bates, Sarah J. Ponce, Karina, Cevallos, William, Matthijnssens, Jelle, Eisenberg, symptomatic and Subclinical Infection with Rotavirus PG9, Rural Ecuador
Subclinical infection
–
Typhoid Mary pictured above in a 1909 tabloid was a famous case of a subclinical infection of
Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, the infectious agent of
typhoid fever
3.
Asymptomatic
–
In medicine, a disease is considered asymptomatic if a patient is a carrier for a disease or infection but experiences no symptoms. A condition might be if it fails to show the noticeable symptoms with which it is usually associated. Asymptomatic infections are also called subclinical infections, other diseases might be considered subclinical if they present some but not all of the symptoms required for a clinical diagnosis. The term clinically silent is also used, knowing that a condition is asymptomatic is important because, It may develop symptoms later and so require watch and wait or early treatment. It may resolve itself or become benign and it is required that a person undergoes treatment so it does not cause later medical problems such as high blood pressure and hyperlipidaemia. Be alert to possible problems, asymptomatic hypothyroidism makes a person vulnerable to Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome or beri-beri following intravenous glucose, the affected person may be infectious and unknowingly spread the infection to others. An example of a disease is Cytomegalovirus which is a member of the herpes virus. It is estimated that 1% of all newborns are infected with CMV, in some diseases, the proportion of asymptomatic cases can be important. For example in multiple sclerosis it is estimated that around 25% of the cases are asymptomatic, asymptomatic conditions may not be discovered until the patient undergoes medical tests. Some people may remain asymptomatic for a long period of time. If a patient is asymptomatic, precautionary steps must be taken, a patients individual genetic makeup may delay or prevent the onset of symptoms. Some diseases are defined only clinically, like AIDS being opposed to HIV infection, therefore it makes no sense to speak about asymptomatic AIDS. This concept of clinically defined diseases is related in some way to the concept of syndrome and these are conditions for which there is a sufficient number of documented individuals that are asymptomatic that it is clinically noted. For a complete list of asymptomatic infections see subclinical infection
Asymptomatic
–
Pulmonary contusion due to trauma is an example of a condition that can be asymptomatic with half of people showing no signs at the initial presentation since such symptoms can take time to develop. The
CT scan shows a pulmonary contusion (red arrow) accompanied by a
rib fracture (purple arrow).
4.
Preventive medicine
–
Preventive healthcare consists of measures taken for disease prevention, as opposed to disease treatment. Health, disease, and disability are dynamic processes which begin before individuals realize they are affected, Disease prevention relies on anticipatory actions that can be categorized as primal, primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Each year, millions of people die of preventable deaths, a 2004 study showed that about half of all deaths in the United States in 2000 were due to preventable behaviors and exposures. Leading causes included cardiovascular disease, chronic disease, unintentional injuries, diabetes. This same study estimates that 400,000 people die each year in the United States due to poor diet and this is an increase from the year 2000, during which 60% of deaths were attributed to these diseases. Preventive healthcare is especially important given the rise in prevalence of chronic diseases. There are many methods for prevention of disease, genetic testing can also be performed to screen for mutations that cause genetic disorders or predisposition to certain diseases such as breast or ovarian cancer. However, these measures are not affordable for every individual and the cost effectiveness of healthcare is still a topic of debate. Preventive healthcare strategies are described as taking place at the primal, primary, secondary, in the 1940s, Hugh R. Leavell and E. Gurney Clark coined the term primary prevention. They worked at the Harvard and Columbia University Schools of Public Health, respectively, goldston notes that these levels might be better described as prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation, though the terms primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention are still in use today. A separate category of health promotion has recently been propounded and this new way of promoting health is now commonly called primal prevention. It consists mainly in providing future parents with pertinent, unbiased information on primal health and this includes adequate parental leave - ideally for both parents - with kin caregiving and financial help where needed. Another related concept is primordial prevention which to refers to all measures designed to prevent the development of risk factors in the first place, primary prevention consists of traditional health promotion and specific protection. Health promotion activities are current, non-clinical life choices, for example, eating nutritious meals and exercising daily, that both prevent disease and create a sense of overall well-being. Preventing disease and creating overall well-being, prolongs our life expectancy, health-promotional activities do not target a specific disease or condition but rather promote health and well-being on a very general level. On the other hand, specific protection targets a type or group of diseases, whereas specific protective measures would be using prophylactics during sex and avoiding sexual promiscuity. Food is very much the most basic tool in preventive health care, the 2011 National Health Interview Survey performed by the Centers for Disease Control was the first national survey to include questions about ability to pay for food. Difficulty with paying for food, medicine, or both is a problem facing 1 out of 3 Americans and these are often low-income neighborhoods with the majority of residents lacking transportation
Preventive medicine
–
An image of melanoma, one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer
Preventive medicine
–
Distribution of lung cancer in the United States
Preventive medicine
–
The presence of cancer (adenocarcinoma) detected on a pap test
5.
Bushmeat
–
Bushmeat, wildmeat, or game meat is meat from non-domesticated mammals, reptiles, amphibians and birds hunted for food in tropical forests. Commercial harvesting and the trade of wildlife is considered a threat to biodiversity, bushmeat also provides a route for a number of serious tropical diseases to spread to humans from their animal hosts. Bushmeat is used for sustenance in remote areas, while in major towns, today the term bushmeat is commonly used for meat of terrestrial wild or feral mammals, killed for sustenance or commercial purposes throughout the humid tropics of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. In West Africa, Achatina achatina, a giant African snail, is gathered, sold, eaten. To reflect the nature of hunting of wild animals, Resolution 2.64 of the IUCN General Assembly in Amman in October 2000 referred to wild meat rather than bushmeat. A more worldwide term for wild animals is game. The term bushmeat crisis is sometimes used to describe unsustainable hunting of endangered wild mammals in West and Central Africa. African hunting predates recorded history, by the 21st century, it had become an international issue, the volume of the bushmeat trade in West and Central Africa was estimated at 1-5 million tonnes per year at the turn of the century. According to the Center for International Forestry Research in 2014, approximately 5 million tonnes were still being consumed per year in the Congo Basin, for the people of this region, bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein in the diet, making it a significant commercial industry. According to a 1994 study in Gabon, annual sales were estimated at US$50 million, the study found that bushmeat accounted for more than half of meat sold in local markets, with primates representing 20% of the total bushmeat. Logging concessions operated by companies in African forests have been linked to the bushmeat trade. Because they provide roads, trucks and other access to forests, they are the primary means for the transportation of hunters. Numerous solutions are needed, because each country has different circumstances, traditions and laws, in the case of Ghana, international over-exploitation of African fishing grounds has increased demand for bushmeat. Both EU-subsidized fleets and local commercial fleets have depleted fish stocks, over 30 years of data link sharp declines in both mammal populations and the biomass of 41 wildlife species with a decreased supply of fish. In the case of Liberia in West Africa, bushmeat is eaten widely and is considered a delicacy, a 2004 public opinion survey found that bushmeat ranked second behind fish among residents of the capital Monrovia as a preferred source of protein. Of households where bushmeat was served, 80% of residents said they cooked it once in a while, while 13% cooked it once a week, the survey was conducted during the last civil war, and bushmeat consumption is now believed to be far higher. The transmission of highly variable retrovirus chains causes zoonotic diseases, outbreaks of the Ebola virus in the Congo Basin and in Gabon in the 1990s have been associated with the butchering of apes and consumption of their meat. Bushmeat hunters in Central Africa infected with the human T-lymphotropic virus were closely exposed to wild primates, there are several distinct strains of HIV, indicating that this cross-species transfer has occurred several times
Bushmeat
–
Fruit bats are commonly sold for meat in some countries
Bushmeat
–
Endangered species, including
lemurs from
Madagascar are killed for bushmeat despite this being illegal.
Bushmeat
–
Bushmeat is often smoked prior to consumption.
Bushmeat
–
Pygmy hippos are among the species
illegally hunted for food in Liberia. The
World Conservation Union estimates that there are fewer than 3,000 pygmy hippos remaining in the wild.
6.
Ghana
–
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a unitary presidential constitutional democracy, located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land mass of 238,535 km², Ghana is bordered by the Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, Togo in the east, Ghana means Warrior King in the Soninke language. The territory of present-day Ghana has been inhabited for a millennium, numerous kingdoms and empires emerged over the centuries, of which the most powerful was the Kingdom of Ashanti. Beginning in the 15th century, numerous European powers contested the area for trading rights, following over a century of native resistance, Ghanas current borders were established by the 1900s as the British Gold Coast. On 6 March 1957, it became the first sub-Saharan African nation to become independent of European colonisation, a multicultural nation, Ghana has a population of approximately 27 million, spanning a variety of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. Five percent of the population practices traditional faiths,71. 2% adhere to Christianity and 17. 6% are Muslim and its diverse geography and ecology ranges from coastal savannahs to tropical jungles. Ghana is a country led by a president who is both head of state and head of the government. Ghanas economy is one of the strongest and most diversified in Africa, following a century of relative stability. Ghanas growing economic prosperity and democratic political system have made it a power in West Africa. It is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, Group of 24, Ghana was already recognized as one of the great kingdoms in Bilad el-Sudan by the ninth century. Ghana was inhabited in the Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery by a number of ancient predominantly Akan kingdoms in the Southern and this included the Ashanti Empire, the Akwamu, the Bonoman, the Denkyira, and the Mankessim Kingdom. Until the 11th century, the majority of modern Ghanas territorial area was unoccupied and uninhabited by humans. Although the area of present-day Ghana in West Africa has experienced many population movements, by the early 11th century, the Akans were firmly established in the Akan state called Bonoman, for which the Brong-Ahafo Region is named. From the 13th century, Akans emerged from what is believed to have been the Bonoman area, to create several Akan states of Ghana and these states included Bonoman, Ashanti, Denkyira, Mankessim Kingdom, and Akwamu Eastern region. By the 19th century, the territory of the part of Ghana was included in the Kingdom of Ashanti. The Kingdom of Ashanti government operated first as a loose network, prior to Akan contact with Europeans, the Akan Ashanti people created an advanced economy based on principally gold and gold bar commodities then traded with the states of Africa. The earliest known kingdoms to emerge in modern Ghana were the Mole-Dagbani states, the Mole-Dagombas came on horseback from present-day Burkina Faso under a single leader, Naa Gbewaa. The death of Naa Gbewaa caused civil war among his children, some of whom broke off and founded separate states including Dagbon, Mamprugu, Mossi, Nanumba, Akan trade with European states began after contact with Portuguese in the 15th century
Ghana
–
1925 map of pre–existing Ghana
Ghana
Ghana
–
16th – 17th century
Akan Terracotta,
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ghana
–
A 1850 map showing the
Akan Kingdom of Ashanti within the
Guinea region and surrounding regions in West Africa.
7.
Arthropod
–
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda, which includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages, the rigid cuticle inhibits growth, so arthropods replace it periodically by moulting. Their versatility has enabled them to become the most species-rich members of all guilds in most environments. They have over a million described species, making up more than 80% of all described living species, some of which. Arthropods range in size from the microscopic crustacean Stygotantulus up to the Japanese spider crab, arthropods primary internal cavity is a hemocoel, which accommodates their internal organs, and through which their haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, they have open circulatory systems. Like their exteriors, the organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system is ladder-like, with paired ventral nerve cords running through all segments and their heads are formed by fusion of varying numbers of segments, and their brains are formed by fusion of the ganglia of these segments and encircle the esophagus. The respiratory and excretory systems of arthropods vary, depending as much on their environment as on the subphylum to which they belong, arthropods also have a wide range of chemical and mechanical sensors, mostly based on modifications of the many setae that project through their cuticles. Aquatic species use internal or external fertilization. Almost all arthropods lay eggs, but scorpions give birth to live young after the eggs have hatched inside the mother, arthropod hatchlings vary from miniature adults to grubs and caterpillars that lack jointed limbs and eventually undergo a total metamorphosis to produce the adult form. The level of care for hatchlings varies from nonexistent to the prolonged care provided by scorpions. The evolutionary ancestry of arthropods dates back to the Cambrian period, the group is generally regarded as monophyletic, and many analyses support the placement of arthropods with cycloneuralians in a superphylum Ecdysozoa. Overall however, the relationships of Metazoa are not yet well resolved. Likewise, the relationships between various groups are still actively debated. Arthropods contribute to the food supply both directly as food, and more importantly indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread disease to humans, livestock. The word arthropod comes from the Greek ἄρθρον árthron, joint, and πούς pous, i. e. foot or leg, arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs
Arthropod
Arthropod
–
Head
Arthropod
–
Cicada climbing out of its exoskeleton while attached to tree
Arthropod
–
Head of a
wasp with three ocelli (centre), and
compound eyes at the left and right
8.
Shrew
–
A shrew or shrew mouse is a small mole-like mammal classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with West Indies shrews, treeshrews, otter shrews, or elephant shrews. Although its external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse and it is in fact a much closer relative of moles, and related to rodents only in that both belong to the Boreoeutheria Magnorder. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, not the familiar gnawing front incisor teeth of rodents, all shrews are comparatively small, most no larger than a mouse. They have small eyes and generally poor vision, but have excellent senses of hearing and they are very active animals, with voracious appetites. Shrews have unusually high rates, above that expected in comparable small mammals. Shrews in captivity can eat 1/2 to 2 times their own weight in food daily. They do not hibernate, but are capable of entering torpor, in winter, many species undergo morphological changes that drastically reduce their body weight. Shrews can lose between 30% and 50% of their weight, shrinking the size of bones, skull. Apart from the first pair of incisors, which are long and sharp, and the molars at the back of the mouth, the teeth of shrews are small and peg-like. The dental formula of shrews is,3.1. 1-3. 31-2. 0-1.1.3 Shrews are fiercely territorial, driving off rivals, many species dig burrows for caching food and hiding from predators, although this is not universal. Female shrews can have up to 10 litters a year, in the tropics, they breed all year round, in temperate zones, Shrews have gestation periods of 17–32 days. The female often becomes pregnant within a day or so of giving birth, Shrews live 12 to 30 months. Shrews are unusual among mammals in a number of respects, unlike most mammals, some species of shrews are venomous. Shrew venom is not conducted into the wound by fangs, the venom contains various compounds, and the contents of the venom glands of the American short-tailed shrew are sufficient to kill 200 mice by intravenous injection. The saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew contains soricidin, a peptide which has studied for use in treating ovarian cancer. Also, along with the bats and toothed whales, some species of shrews use echolocation, unlike most other mammals, shrews lack zygomatic bones, so have incomplete zygomatic arches. The only terrestrial mammals known to echolocate are two genera of shrews, the tenrecs of Madagascar, rats and the solenodons and these include the Eurasian or common shrew and the American vagrant shrew and northern short-tailed shrew
Shrew
Shrew
–
Water shrew skeleton
Shrew
–
The
northern short-tailed shrew is known to
echolocate.
9.
Central African Republic
–
The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in Central Africa. The CAR covers a area of about 620,000 square kilometres and had an estimated population of around 4.7 million as of 2014. Most of the CAR consists of Sudano-Guinean savannas, but the country includes a Sahelo-Sudanian zone in the north. Two thirds of the country is within the Ubangi River basin, while the third lies in the basin of the Chari. Ange-Félix Patassé became president, but was removed by General François Bozizé in the 2003 coup. As of 2015, according to the Human Development Index, the country had the lowest level of human development and this Agricultural Revolution, combined with a Fish-stew Revolution, in which fishing began to take place, and the use of boats, allowed for the transportation of goods. Products were often moved in ceramic pots, which are the first known examples of artistic expression from the regions inhabitants, the Bouar Megaliths in the western region of the country indicate an advanced level of habitation dating back to the very late Neolithic Era. Ironworking arrived in the region around 1000 BC from both Bantu cultures in what is today Nigeria and from the Nile city of Meroë, the capital of the Kingdom of Kush. Bananas arrived in the region and added an important source of carbohydrates to the diet, production of copper, salt, dried fish, and textiles dominated the economic trade in the Central African region. During the 16th and 17th centuries slave traders began to raid the region as part of the expansion of the Saharan, in the mid 19th century, the Bobangi people became major slave traders and sold their captives to the Americas using the Ubangi river to reach the coast. During the 18th century Bandia-Nzakara peoples established the Bangassou Kingdom along the Ubangi River, in 1875 the Sudanese sultan Rabih az-Zubayr governed Upper-Oubangui, which included present-day CAR. The European penetration of Central African territory began in the late 19th century during the Scramble for Africa, Europeans, primarily the French, Germans, and Belgians, arrived in the area in 1885. France created Ubangi-Shari territory in 1894, in 1911 at the Treaty of Fez, France ceded a nearly 300,000 km² portion of the Sangha and Lobaye basins to the German Empire which ceded a smaller area to France. After World War I France again annexed the territory, in 1920 French Equatorial Africa was established and Ubangi-Shari was administered from Brazzaville. The concessionary companies forced local people to harvest rubber, coffee, between 1890, a year after the French first arrived, and 1940, about half of the population died as a result. New forms of forced labor were also introduced and a number of Ubangians were sent to work on the Congo-Ocean Railway. Many of these laborers died of exhaustion, illness, or the poor conditions which claimed between 20% and 25% of the 127,000 workers. In 1928, an insurrection, the Kongo-Wara rebellion or war of the hoe handle, broke out in Western Ubangi-Shari
Central African Republic
–
Charles de Gaulle in Bangui, 1940.
Central African Republic
–
Flag
Central African Republic
–
Rebel militia in the northern countryside, 2007.
Central African Republic
–
Eland armoured car of the Central African Multinational Force patrols the streets of Bangui in December 2013.
10.
Gorilla
–
Gorillas are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. The eponymous genus Gorilla is divided into two species, the gorillas and the western gorillas, and either four or five subspecies. They are the largest living primates, the DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of humans, from 95–99% depending on what is counted, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after the chimpanzees and bonobos. Gorillas natural habitats cover tropical or subtropical forests in Africa, although their range covers a small percentage of Africa, gorillas cover a wide range of elevations. The mountain gorilla inhabits the Albertine Rift montane cloud forests of the Virunga Volcanoes, ranging in altitude from 2, 200–4,300 metres. The word gorilla comes from the history of Hanno the Navigator, members of the expedition encountered a savage people, the greater part of whom were women, whose bodies were hairy, and who our interpreters called Gorillae. The word was later used as the species name, though it is unknown whether what these ancient Carthaginians encountered were truly gorillas, another species of ape or monkeys. The American physician and missionary Thomas Staughton Savage and naturalist Jeffries Wyman first described the gorilla in 1847 from specimens obtained in Liberia. The name was derived from Ancient Greek Γόριλλαι, meaning tribe of hairy women, the closest relatives of gorillas are the other two Homininae species, chimpanzees and humans, all of them having diverged from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago. Human gene sequences differ only 1. 6% on average from the sequences of corresponding gorilla genes, until recently, gorillas were considered to be a single species, with three subspecies, the western lowland gorilla, the eastern lowland gorilla and the mountain gorilla. There is now agreement that there are two species, each with two subspecies, more recently, a third subspecies has been claimed to exist in one of the species. The separate species and subspecies developed from a type of gorilla during the Ice Age. Primatologists continue to explore the relationships between various gorilla populations, the species and subspecies listed here are the ones upon which most scientists agree. The proposed third subspecies of Gorilla beringei, which has not yet received a trinomen, is the Bwindi population of the mountain gorilla, some variations that distinguish the classifications of gorilla include varying density, size, hair colour, length, culture, and facial widths. Now, over 100,000 western lowland gorillas are thought to exist in the wild, with 4,000 in zoos, mountain gorillas are the most severely endangered, with an estimated population of about 880 left in the wild and none in zoos. Population genetics of the lowland gorillas suggest that the western and eastern lowland populations diverged ~261 thousand years ago, gorillas move around by knuckle-walking, although they sometimes walk bipedally for short distances while carrying food or in defensive situations. Wild male gorillas weigh 135 to 180 kg while females usually weigh half as much as adult males at 70–115 kg. Adult males are 1.7 to 1.8 m tall, female gorillas are shorter, with smaller arm spans
Gorilla
–
Gorillas
Gorilla
–
A skull of a gorilla
Gorilla
–
Young gorilla in tree
Gorilla
–
Gorilla night nest constructed in a tree.
11.
Plant
–
Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
Plant
–
Green algae from
Ernst Haeckel 's
Kunstformen der Natur, 1904.
Plant
–
Had'n
Plant
–
Dicksonia antarctica, a species of
tree fern
Plant
–
A petrified log in
Petrified Forest National Park.
12.
Arthropods
–
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda, which includes the insects, arachnids, myriapods, arthropods are characterized by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, often mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages, the rigid cuticle inhibits growth, so arthropods replace it periodically by moulting. Their versatility has enabled them to become the most species-rich members of all guilds in most environments. They have over a million described species, making up more than 80% of all described living species, some of which. Arthropods range in size from the microscopic crustacean Stygotantulus up to the Japanese spider crab, arthropods primary internal cavity is a hemocoel, which accommodates their internal organs, and through which their haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, they have open circulatory systems. Like their exteriors, the organs of arthropods are generally built of repeated segments. Their nervous system is ladder-like, with paired ventral nerve cords running through all segments and their heads are formed by fusion of varying numbers of segments, and their brains are formed by fusion of the ganglia of these segments and encircle the esophagus. The respiratory and excretory systems of arthropods vary, depending as much on their environment as on the subphylum to which they belong, arthropods also have a wide range of chemical and mechanical sensors, mostly based on modifications of the many setae that project through their cuticles. Aquatic species use internal or external fertilization. Almost all arthropods lay eggs, but scorpions give birth to live young after the eggs have hatched inside the mother, arthropod hatchlings vary from miniature adults to grubs and caterpillars that lack jointed limbs and eventually undergo a total metamorphosis to produce the adult form. The level of care for hatchlings varies from nonexistent to the prolonged care provided by scorpions. The evolutionary ancestry of arthropods dates back to the Cambrian period, the group is generally regarded as monophyletic, and many analyses support the placement of arthropods with cycloneuralians in a superphylum Ecdysozoa. Overall however, the relationships of Metazoa are not yet well resolved. Likewise, the relationships between various groups are still actively debated. Arthropods contribute to the food supply both directly as food, and more importantly indirectly as pollinators of crops. Some species are known to spread disease to humans, livestock. The word arthropod comes from the Greek ἄρθρον árthron, joint, and πούς pous, i. e. foot or leg, arthropods are invertebrates with segmented bodies and jointed limbs
Arthropods
Arthropods
–
Head
Arthropods
–
Cicada climbing out of its exoskeleton while attached to tree
Arthropods
–
Head of a
wasp with three ocelli (centre), and
compound eyes at the left and right
13.
Index case
–
An index case will sometimes achieve the status of a classic case in the literature, as did Phineas Gage. The index case may indicate the source of the disease, the spread. The index case is the first patient that indicates the existence of an outbreak, earlier cases may be found and are labeled primary, secondary, tertiary, etc. The term primary case can only apply to infectious diseases spread from human to human. Patient Zero was used to refer to the index case in the spread of HIV in North America. In genetics, the case is the case of the original patient that stimulates investigation of other members of the family to discover a possible genetic factor. In the early years of the AIDS epidemic, a “patient zero” transmission scenario was compiled by Dr. William Darrow, centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This epidemiological study showed how “patient zero” had infected multiple partners with HIV, the CDC identified Gaëtan Dugas as a carrier of the virus from Europe to the United States and spreading it to other men he encountered at gay bathhouses. Journalist Randy Shilts subsequently wrote about Patient Zero, based on Darrows findings, in his 1987 book And the Band Played On, Dugas was a flight attendant who was sexually promiscuous in several North American cities, according to Shilts book. He was vilified for several years as a spreader of HIV. Four years later, Darrow repudiated the studys methodology and how Shilts had represented its conclusions, and more often than not, especially in large disease outbreaks, they’re not. Mary Mallon was a case of a typhoid outbreak in the early 1900s. An apparently healthy carrier, she infected 47 people while working as a cook and she eventually was isolated to prevent her from spreading the disease to others. The first recorded victim of the Ebola virus was a 44-year-old schoolteacher named Mabalo Lokela, 64-year-old Liu Jianlun, a Guangdong doctor, transmitted SARS during a stay in the Hong Kong Metropole Hotel in 2003. A baby in the Lewis House at 40 Broad Street is considered the patient in the 1854 cholera outbreak in the Soho neighborhood of London. Édgar Enrique Hernández may be patient zero of the 2009 swine flu outbreak and he recovered, and a bronze statue has been erected in his honor. Maria Adela Gutierrez, who contracted the virus about the time as Hernández. Two-year-old Emile Ouamouno is believed to be the patient in the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Guinea
Index case
–
A 1984 paper linked 40 AIDS patients by sexual contact. Of those patients, Dugas was the first to experience an onset of symptoms of AIDS. In the above graph, Dugas is represented by the circle highlighted in red.
14.
Gabon
–
Gabon, officially the Gabonese Republic, is a sovereign state on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, Gabon is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. It has an area of nearly 270,000 square kilometres and its capital and largest city is Libreville. Since its independence from France in 1960, Gabon has had three presidents, in the early 1990s, Gabon introduced a multi-party system and a new democratic constitution that allowed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed many governmental institutions. Gabon was also a member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2010–2011 term. GDP grew by more than 6% per year from 2010 to 2012, however, because of inequality in income distribution, a significant proportion of the population remains poor. Gabons name originates from gabão, Portuguese for cloak, which is roughly the shape of the estuary of the Komo River by Libreville, the earliest inhabitants of the area were Pygmy peoples. They were largely replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes as they migrated, in the 15th century, the first Europeans arrived. By the 18th century, a Myeni speaking kingdom known as Orungu formed in Gabon, on February 10,1722, Bartholomew Roberts, a Welsh pirate known as Black Bart, died at sea off Cape Lopez. He raided ships off the Americas and West Africa from 1719 to 1722, French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza led his first mission to the Gabon-Congo area in 1875. He founded the town of Franceville, and was later colonial governor, several Bantu groups lived in the area that is now Gabon when France officially occupied it in 1885. In 1910, Gabon became one of the four territories of French Equatorial Africa, in World War II, the Allies invaded Gabon in order to overthrow the pro-Vichy France colonial administration. The territories of French Equatorial Africa became independent on August 17,1960, the first president of Gabon, elected in 1961, was Léon Mba, with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president. However, when Mba dissolved the National Assembly in January 1964 to institute one-party rule, French paratroopers flew in within 24 hours to restore Mba to power. After a few days of fighting, the coup ended and the opposition was imprisoned, French soldiers still remain in the Camp de Gaulle on the outskirts of Gabons capital to this day. When MBa died in 1967, Bongo replaced him as president, in March 1968, Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state by dissolving the BDG and establishing a new party—the Parti Democratique Gabonais. He invited all Gabonese, regardless of political affiliation, to participate. Bongo was elected President in February 1975, in April 1975, the position of president was abolished and replaced by the position of prime minister
Gabon
–
A map of
West Africa in 1670.
Gabon
Gabon
–
Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic, his wife Sylvia Bongo Ondimba, US president
Barack Obama and his wife
Michelle Obama in 2014.
Gabon
–
A proportional representation of Gabon's exports.
15.
Republic of the Congo
–
The Republic of the Congo, also known as the Congo Republic, West Congo, Congo-Brazzaville or simply Congo, is a country located in Central Africa. The region was dominated by Bantu-speaking tribes, who built trade links leading into the Congo River basin, Congo-Brazzaville was formerly part of the French colony of Equatorial Africa. Upon independence in 1960, the colony of French Congo became the Republic of the Congo. The Peoples Republic of the Congo was a Marxist–Leninist one-party state from 1970 to 1991, Bantu-speaking peoples who founded tribes during the Bantu expansions largely displaced and absorbed the earliest inhabitants of the region, the Pygmy people, about 1500 BC. Several Bantu kingdoms—notably those of the Kongo, the Loango, the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo in 1484. Commercial relationships quickly grew between the inland Bantu kingdoms and European merchants who traded various commodities, manufactured goods, the area north of the Congo River came under French sovereignty in 1880 as a result of Pierre de Brazzas treaty with King Makoko of the Bateke. This Congo Colony became known first as French Congo, then as Middle Congo in 1903, in 1908, France organized French Equatorial Africa, comprising Middle Congo, Gabon, Chad, and Oubangui-Chari. The French designated Brazzaville as the federal capital, economic development during the first 50 years of colonial rule in Congo centered on natural-resource extraction. The methods were brutal, construction of the Congo–Ocean Railroad following World War I has been estimated to have cost at least 14,000 lives. During the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, Brazzaville functioned as the capital of Free France between 1940 and 1943. The Brazzaville Conference of 1944 heralded a period of reform in French colonial policy. Congo benefited from the expansion of colonial administrative and infrastructure spending as a result of its central geographic location within AEF. It also received a local legislature after the adoption of the 1946 constitution that established the Fourth Republic, during these reforms, Middle Congo became known as the Republic of the Congo in 1958 and published its first constitution in 1959. Antagonism between the pro-Opangault Mbochis and the pro-Youlou Balalis resulted in a series of riots in Brazzaville in February 1959, the Republic of the Congo received full independence from France on 15 August 1960. Fulbert Youlou ruled as the countrys first president until labour elements, the Congolese military took charge of the country briefly and installed a civilian provisional government headed by Alphonse Massamba-Débat. Resentment and bitterness between the Baali and the Mbochi peoples brought upheaval in Brazzaville, the French army arrived to quell the turmoil. New elections took place in April 1959, by the time the Congo became independent, Jacques Opangault, the former opponent of Youlou, agreed to serve under him. Youlou became the first President of the Republic of the Congo, since the political tension was so high in Pointe-Noire, Youlou moved the capital to Brazzaville
Republic of the Congo
–
Marien Ngouabi changed the country's name to the
People's Republic of the Congo, declaring it to be
Africa 's first Marxist–Leninist state and was assassinated in 1977.
Republic of the Congo
Republic of the Congo
–
Denis Sassou Nguesso served as President from 1979 to 1992 and has remained in power ever since his rebel forces ousted President
Pascal Lissouba during the
1997 Civil War.
Republic of the Congo
–
Cassava is an important food crop in the Republic of Congo.
16.
Fruit bat
–
Megabats constitute the suborder Megachiroptera, and its only family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera. They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or, especially the genera Acerodon and Pteropus, compared to insectivorous bats, fruit bats are relatively large and, with some exceptions, do not navigate by echolocation. They are herbivores and rely on their senses of sight. Most fruit bats are larger than insectivorous bats or Microchiroptera, however there are a number of fruit bats also. The smallest species is 6 cm long and thus smaller than some microbats, for example, the largest attain a wingspan of 1.7 m, weighing in at up to 1.6 kg. Most fruit bats have large eyes, allowing them to orient themselves visually in twilight and inside caves and their sense of smell is excellent. In contrast to the microbats, the bats do not use echolocation. Megabats make up the family in order Chiroptera that is not capable of laryngeal echolocation. Echolocation and flight evolved early in the lineage of chiropterans, both echolocation and flight are energetically expensive processes for bats. The nature of the flight and echolocation mechanism of bats allows for creation of echolocation pulses with energy use. Energetic coupling of two processes is thought to have allowed for both energetically expensive processes to evolve in bats. The loss of echolocation may be due to the uncoupling of flight, megabats mostly roost in trees and shrubs. Only those that possess echolocation venture into the recesses of caves. Because they eat fruit, some species are unpopular with orchard owners. Megabats are frugivorous or nectarivorous, i. e. they eat fruits or lick nectar from flowers, often, the fruits are crushed and only the juices are consumed. The teeth are adapted to bite through hard fruit skins, frugivorous bats aid the distribution of plants by carrying the fruits with them and spitting the seeds or eliminating them elsewhere. They bear long tongues that are inserted deep into the flower, pollen passed to the bat is then transported to the next blossom visited and this relationship between plants and bats is a form of mutualism known as chiropterophily. Examples of plants benefit from this arrangement include the baobabs of the genus Adansonia
Fruit bat
Fruit bat
–
Spectacled flying fox (Pteropus conspicillatus)
Fruit bat
–
Livingstone's fruit bat Pteropus livingstonii
Fruit bat
–
Fox Island, Australia, is believed to be home to the largest colony of flying foxes on the continent.
17.
Hypsignathus monstrosus
–
The hammer-headed bat, also known as the big-lipped bat, is a megabat widely distributed in equatorial Africa. This large bat is found in forests, mangroves, swamps. The hammer-headed bat is a member of the family Pteropodidae, Pteropodidae is divided into two subfamilies, Macroglossinae which contains six genera, and Pteropodinae containing thirty-six genera including Hypsignathus. The family Pteropodidae is found within the suborder, Megachiroptera and this group is commonly referred to as the megabats or flying foxes. Pelage is grey-brown to slaty-brown with a collar of fur extending from shoulder to shoulder. The flight membranes are brown and the ears are brown with a tuft of white fur at the base. The face is brown with a few long, stiff whiskers around the mouth. The skull may be diagnosed by specific dental features, the second premolar and molars are markedly lobed. This feature is specific for this genus, and no other African fruit bats have this characteristic, there is extreme sexual dimorphism in this species. The male possesses an enormous head for producing loud honking calls, the enlarged rostrum, larynx and lips allow these sounds to be extremely resonant. The larynx is one half the length of the vertebral column and it is nearly three times larger in males than females. The male also has a split chin and warty rostrum with wrinkled skin around it. Females have a much more fox-like appearance similar to most fruit bats, figs make up much of their diet, but they may also include mangos, bananas and guavas. There are some inherent in a fruit diet such as insufficient protein intake. It is suggested that fruit bats compensate for this by possessing a proportionally longer intestine compared to insectivorous species and this enhances their ability to absorb protein. They also have very rapid digestive systems allowing these bats to assimilate high amounts of fruit to ensure adequate protein is absorbed. It is also suggested that by eating a variety of fruits with varying protein contents. Generally fruit is picked and taken to a tree where it is chewed, the juice squeezed out
Hypsignathus monstrosus
–
Hammer-headed bat
18.
Epomops franqueti
–
Franquets epauletted fruit bat is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae, and is one of three different species of epauletted bats. Franquets epauletted fruit bat has a range of habitats, variying from sub-saharan forest to equatorial tropics, Franquets epauletted fruit bat ranges from Ivory Coast to South Sudan and south to Angola and Zambia. Reports of this species from Equatorial Guinea appear to be erroneous and its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical mangrove forests, subtropical or tropical swamps, and dry savanna. The habitat location has been mentioned as Gaboon, the type location is considered to be as Gabon and no subspecies have been recognised. It is a brown bat with large white epaulettes, white on the middle of the belly. It has a head and body length 165 to 180 millimetres, the body weight of a female bat ranges from 56 to 115 grams while that of a male bat ranges from 59 to 160 grams. Male bats have two pharyngeal sacs and shoulder pouches lined with glandular membranes, the epaulettes are due to white hair tufts and are prominent in dried laboratory specimens but may be concealed due to the shoulder pouches being contracted in the case of live bats. The epaulettes help spread olfactory cues by dispersing chemicals produced in the shoulder patches. The adult male Franquets bat has a voice box and emits a high pitched call which is heard throughout the night. This call may last several minutes and sounds like kyurnk at close range, Franquets bats, like other many other large frugivorous bats, cannot echo-locate. The males frequently perch by night in trees generally a 100 meters or so apart and call noisily. The males increase their rate in the presence of females. The calls of males can be heard as far as a mile off and have been compared to a flock of excited crows. Franquets bats are found in forests and open country, roosting in trees and bushes by day when they are quite alert. Not being gregarious, they are either alone or in groups of two or three. Franquets bat, like other epauletted fruit bats feeds mainly by night on fruit, nectar, suction, rather than mastication, appears to be the primary mode of consumption of food by Epomops bats. The extensible lips protude and engulf the fruit, the hard rind is then pierced with the canines and premolars. Occasionally, bats stuff their cheek pouches and fly to safe perches to eat where they move the contents from one cheek pouch to another, chewing with the sharp teeth
Epomops franqueti
–
Franquet's epauletted fruit bat
19.
Myonycteris torquata
–
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and moist savanna. The little collared fruit bat is one of three species of African fruit bat in which antibodies to Ebola virus have been detected along with viral RNA, no culturable virus has been isolated. It is not known whether these species are incidental hosts or a reservoir of Ebolavirus infection for humans, mickleburgh, S. Hutson, A. Bergmans, W. & Fahr, J.2004. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Myonycteris torquata
–
Little collared fruit bat
20.
Duiker
–
They are found in heavily wooded areas. The 22 extant species, including three sometimes considered to be subspecies of the species, form the subfamily Cephalophinae. The subfamily Cephalophinae comprises three genera and 22 species, three of which are considered to be subspecies of the other species. The three genera include Cephalophus, Philantomba and Sylvicapra, the subfamily was first described by British zoologist John Edward Gray in 1871 in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. The scientific name Cephalophinae probably comes from the combination of the New Latin word cephal, meaning head, and the Greek word lophos, meaning crest. The common name comes from the Afrikaans word duik, or Dutch duiken - both mean to dive, which refers to the practice of the animals to frequently dive into vegetation for cover. The three disputed species in Cephalophus are Brookes duiker, Ruwenzori duiker and the white-legged duiker, considered to be a subspecies of Ogilbys duiker, Brookes duiker was elevated to species status by British ecologist Peter Grubb in 1998. Its status as a species was further seconded in a 2002 publication by Grubb, however, zoologists such as Jonathan Kingdon continue to treat it as a subspecies. Ruwenzori duiker is generally considered to be a subspecies of the black-fronted duiker, Grubb treated the white-legged duiker as a subspecies of Ogilbys duiker in 1978, but regarded as an independent species by him and Groves after a revision in 2011. This was supported by a 2003 study, a 2001 phylogenetic study divided Cephalophus into three distinct lineages, the giant duikers, east African red duikers and west African red duikers. Abbotts duiker, the bay duiker, Jentinks duiker and the yellow-backed duiker were classified as the giant duikers, the east African red duikers include the black-fronted duiker, Harveys duiker, red-flanked duiker, red forest duiker, Ruwenzori duiker and white-bellied duiker. The third group, the west African red duikers, comprises the black duiker, Ogilbys duiker, Peterss duiker, however, the status of two species, Aders duiker and Zebra duiker, remained dubious. In 2012, Anne R. Johnston and colleagues constructed a cladogram of the subfamily Cephalophinae based on mitochondrial analysis, duikers are split into two groups based on their habitat, forest and bush duikers. All forest species inhabit the rainforests of Sub-Saharan Africa, while the only known bush duiker, grey common duiker occupies savannas. Duikers are very shy, elusive creatures with a fondness for dense cover, in tropical rainforest zones of Africa, people non-selectively hunt duikers for their fur, meat, and horns at highly unsustainable rates. Duikers range from the 3 kilogram blue duiker to the 70 kilogram yellow-backed duiker, with their body low to the ground and with very short horns, forest duikers are built to navigate effectively through dense rainforests and quickly dive into bushes when threatened. Also, duikers have well-developed preorbital glands, which resemble slits under their eyes, or in the cases of blue duikers, males use secretions from these glands to mark their territory. Besides reproduction, duikers behave in highly independent manner and prefer to act alone and this may, in part, explain the limited sexual size dimorphism shown by most duiker species, excluding the common grey duiker in which the females are distinctly larger than the males
Duiker
–
Duikers Temporal range: Late
Miocene to Recent
Duiker
–
Red-flanked duiker at the
San Antonio Zoo in
San Antonio,
Texas
Duiker
–
Yellow-backed duiker
21.
Mortuary
–
A morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or other method. In modern times corpses have customarily been refrigerated to delay decomposition, the facilities contain 20-40 feet long containers where the bodies are refrigerated, but each of these cost a considerable amount of fuel to run and only have so much space to accommodate the body. Mortuary early 14c. of mori to die, meaning place where bodies are kept temporarily first recorded 1865, a euphemism for earlier English term deadhouse. Morgue from the French morgue, which means to look at solemnly, morgue is predominantly used in North American English, while mortuary is more common in British English, although both terms are used interchangeably. The euphemisms “Rose Cottage” and “Rainbow’s End” are sometimes used in British hospitals to enable discussion in front of patients, a person responsible for handling and washing bodies is now known as a diener, morgue attendant, or autopsy technician. There are two types of mortuary cold chambers, Positive temperature Bodies are kept between 2 °C and 4 °C, while this is usually used for keeping bodies for up to several weeks, it does not prevent decomposition, which continues at a slower rate than at room temperature. Negative temperature Bodies are kept at between −10 °C and −50 °C, usually used at forensic institutes, particularly when a body has not been identified. At these temperatures the body is frozen and decomposition is very much reduced. In some countries, the body of the deceased is embalmed before disposal, which makes refrigeration unnecessary. In many countries, the family of the deceased must make the burial within 72 hours of death and this is why some corpses are kept as long as one or two years at a hospital or in a funeral home. When the family has money to organize the ceremony, the corpse is taken from the cold chamber for burial. In some funeral homes, the morgue is in the room, or directly adjacent to, the specially designed ovens, known as retorts. Some religions dictate that, should a body be cremated, the family must witness its incineration, to honor these religious rites, many funeral homes install a viewing window, which allows the family to watch as the body is inserted into the retort. In this way, the family can honor their customs without entering the morgue, a waiting mortuary is a mortuary building designed specifically for the purpose of confirming that deceased persons are truly deceased. Prior to the advent of methods of verifying death, people feared that they would be buried alive. To alleviate such fears, the deceased were housed for a time in waiting mortuaries. The corpses would be allowed to decompose partially prior to burial, waiting mortuaries were most popular in 19th-century Germany, and were often large, ornate halls. A bell was strung to the corpses to alert attendants of any motion, morgue is used in some science fiction books as the name for the armory aboard ships, when they contain some form of powered armour
Mortuary
–
One of the entrances of the Victoria Public Mortuary (域多利亞公眾殮房), in
Hong Kong
Mortuary
–
The first morgue in
New York City, opened in 1866 at
Bellevue Hospital
22.
Deer mouse
–
The genus Peromyscus contains the animal species commonly referred to as deer mice. This genus of New World mice is only related to the common house mouse and laboratory mouse. In reference to the coloring, the word Peromyscus comes from Greek words meaning booted mouse and they are also accomplished jumpers and runners by comparison to house mice, and their common name of deer mouse is in reference to this agility. The most common species of mice in the continental United States are two closely related species, P. maniculatus, and P. leucopus. In the United States, Peromyscus is the most populous mammalian genus overall, the deer mouse came to the attention of the public when it was discovered to be the primary reservoir species for Sin Nombre hantavirus. A recent study in British Columbia of 218 deer mice showed 30% were seropositive for B. burgdorferi, ehrlichiosis and babesiosis are also carried by the deer mouse. For certain studies, Peromyscus is also favoured over the laboratory mouse. They are also useful for researching repetitive movement disorders and their use in aging research is because Peromyscus spp. musculus. This institute maintains populations of different species. A variety of mutations affecting their behavior, biochemistry, and the color of their coats are exhibited in these genetic lines
Deer mouse
–
Peromyscus (Deer mouse) Temporal range: Late
Miocene – Recent
23.
White-footed mouse
–
The white-footed mouse is a rodent native to North America from Ontario, Quebec, Labrador, and the Maritime Provinces to the southwest United States and Mexico. In the Maritimes, its location is a disjunct population in southern Nova Scotia. It is also known as the woodmouse, particularly in Texas, adults are 90–100 mm in length, not counting the tail, which can add another 63–97 mm. A young adult weighs 20–30 g, while their maximum lifespan is 96 months, the mean life expectancy for the species is 45.5 months for females and 47.5 for males. In northern climates, the life expectancy is 12–24 months. White-footed mice are omnivorous, and eat seeds and insects and it is timid and generally avoids humans, but they occasionally take up residence in ground-floor walls of homes and apartments, where they build nests and store food. This species is similar to Peromyscus maniculatus, like the deer mouse, it may carry hantaviruses, which cause severe illness in humans. It has also found to be a competent reservoir for the Lyme disease-causing spirochete. Monongahela virus Anderson JF, Johnson RC, Magnarelli LA Seasonal prevalence of Borrelia burgdorferi in natural populations of white-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus. Ecology and Evolution 3,7, 2075-2088, mis en ligne 1er juillet 2013 Barthold, SW, Persing, DH, Armstrong, AL, Peeples, kinetics of Borrelia burgdorferi dissemination and evolution of disease after intradermal inoculation of mice. Am J Pathol,139, 263–273 Bunikis J, Tsao J, Luke CJ, Borrelia burgdorferi infection in a natural population of Peromyscus leucopus mice, a longitudinal study in an area where Lyme borreliosis is highly endemic. J Infect Dis,189, 1515–1523 Brunner JL, LoGiudice K & Ostfeld RS Estimating reservoir competence of Borrelia burgdorferi hosts, prevalence and infectivity, sensitivity, J Med Entomol,45, 139–147 Burgess EC, French JrJB & Gendron-Fitzpatrick A. Systemic disease in Peromyscus leucopus associated with Borrelia burgdorferi infection, am J Trop Med Hyg,42, 254–259 Goodwin BJ, Ostfeld RS & Schauber EM Spatiotemporal variation in a Lyme disease host and vector, black-legged ticks on white-footed mice. Vector Borne and Zoonotic Diseases,1, 129-138, hofmeister EK, Ellis BA, Glass GE & Childs JE Longitudinal study of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi in a population of Peromyscus leucopus at a Lyme disease-enzootic site in Maryland. Int J Med Microbiol,299, 373–380 Martin LB, Weil ZM, Kuhlman JR & Nelson RJ Trade-offs within the systems of female white-footed mice. Martin LB, Weil ZM & Nelson RJ Immune defense and reproductive pace of life in Peromyscus mice, ecology,88, 2516–2528 Ostfeld RS, Miller MC & Hazler KR Causes and consequences of tick burdens on white-footed mice. Ostfeld RS, Schauber EM, Canham CD, Keesing F & al, effects of acorn production and mouse abundance on abundance and Borrelia burgdorferi infection prevalence of nymphal Ixodes scapularis ticks. Vector Borne Zoonot Dis,1, 55–63 Pederson AB, Grieves TJ The interaction of parasites, J Anim Ecol,77, 370–377 Schwan, TG, Burgdorfer, W, Schrumpf, ME, Karstens, RH
White-footed mouse
–
White-footed mouse
White-footed mouse
–
In
Quetico Provincial Park,
Ontario
White-footed mouse
–
Female with sucklings
White-footed mouse
–
A captive White-Footed Mouse. She is at least 3 years and 8 months old.
24.
Cotton rat
–
A cotton rat is any member of the rodent genus Sigmodon. They are called cotton rats because they build their nests out of cotton, cotton rats have small ears and dark coats, and are found in North and South America. Members of this genus are distributed in the Southwestern USA, Mexico, Central America and South American countries of, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Guyana, many of the species are found in Mexico. The molars of cotton rats are S-shaped when viewed from above, the genus name literally means S-tooth. Sigmodon hispidus was the first model organism to be used in polio research. G, mammal Species of the World, A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference
Cotton rat
–
Cotton rats Temporal range: Early
Pliocene - Recent
25.
Marmot
–
Marmots are large squirrels in the genus Marmota, of which there are 15 species. Other species prefer rough grassland and can be found widely across North America, the similarly-sized but more social prairie dog is not classified in the genus Marmota but in the related genus Cynomys. Marmots typically live in burrows, and hibernate there through the winter, most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed. Marmots mainly eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots, the following is a list of all Marmota species recognized by Thorington and Hoffman plus the recently defined M. kastschenkoi. They divide marmots into two subgenera, the etymology of the term marmot is uncertain. It may have arisen from the Gallo-Romance prefix marm-, meaning to mumble or murmur, another possible origin is post-classical Latin, mus montanus, meaning mountain mouse. Beginning in 2010, Alaska celebrates February 2 as Marmot Day, the Marmot Burrow International Marmot Network
Marmot
–
Marmot Temporal range: Late
Miocene –Recent
Marmot
–
Marmota primigenia fossil
Marmot
–
Yellow-Bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris) in
Tuolumne Meadows,
Yosemite National Park
Marmot
–
A
yellow-bellied marmot, near
Princeton, British Columbia
26.
Black rat
–
The black rat, also known as the ship rat, roof rat, house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae. The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and they are serious pests to farmers as they eat a wide range of agricultural crops. The black rat was one of the species originally described by Linnaeus in his 18th century work, Systema Naturae. It is the species of the genus Rattus. A typical adult black rat is 12.75 to 18.25 cm long, not including a 15 to 22 cm tail, despite its name, the black rat exhibits several colour forms. It is usually black to brown in colour with a lighter underside. In England during the 1920s, several variations were bred and shown alongside domesticated brown rats and this included an unusual green tinted variety. The black rat also has a coat of black fur. Rattus rattus bone remains that date back to the Norman Period have been discovered in Britain, evidence also suggests that R. rattus existed in prehistoric Europe as well as the Levant during post-glacial periods. The specific origin of the rat is uncertain due to the rats disappearance. Evidence such as DNA and bone fragments suggests that the rats did not originally come from Europe. Rats are resilient vectors for many diseases because of their ability to hold so many infectious bacteria in their blood, Rats played a primary role in spreading bacteria, such as Yersinia pestis, which is responsible for the Justinianic plague and bubonic plague. A recent study indicates that other Asiatic rodents served as reservoirs, from which infections spread as far west as Europe via trade routes. The modern black rat was probably spread across Europe in the wake of the Roman conquest and arose from an ancestor that originated in southeast Asia, the Mediterranean black rats differ genetically from their southeast Asian ancestors by having 38 instead of 42 chromosomes. Therefore, it seems that speciation could have occurred when the rats colonized southwest India, because Rattus rattus is a passive traveler, they could have easily traveled to Europe during the trading between Rome and southwestern Asian countries. Evidence also suggests that, in 321–331 BC, Egyptian birds were preying on Mediterranean rats, Black rats are considered omnivores and eat a wide range of foods, including seeds, fruit, stems, leaves, fungi, and a variety of invertebrates and vertebrates. They are generalists, and thus not very specific in their preferences, which is indicated by their tendency to feed on any meal provided for cows, swine, chickens, cats. They are similar to the squirrel in their preference of fruits and nuts
Black rat
–
Black rat
Black rat
–
Black rats in the
Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg, Germany.
27.
Prairie dog
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Prairie dogs are herbivorous burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America. The five species are, black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnisons, Utah and they are a type of ground squirrel, found in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the United States, they range primarily to the west of the Mississippi River, despite the name, they are not canines. Prairie dogs are named for their habitat and warning call, which similar to a dogs bark. The name was in use at least as early as 1774, the 1804 journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition note that in September 1804, they discovered a Village of an animal the French Call the Prairie Dog. Its genus, Cynomys, derives from the Greek for dog mouse, the black-tailed prairie dog was first described by Lewis and Clark in 1804. Lewis described it in detail in 1806, calling it the barking squirrel.5 and 1.5 kilograms. Sexual dimorphism in body mass in the prairie dog varies 105 to 136% between the sexes, among the species, black-tailed prairie dogs tend to be the least sexually dimorphic, and white-tailed prairie dogs tend to be the most sexually dimorphic. Prairie dogs are herbivorous, though they eat some insects. They feed primarily on grasses and small seeds, in the fall, they eat broadleaf forbs. In the winter, lactating and pregnant females supplement their diets with snow for extra water and they also will eat roots, seeds, fruit, and buds. Grasses of various species are eaten, white-tailed prairie dogs have been observed to kill ground squirrels, a competing herbivore. Prairie dogs live mainly at altitudes ranging from 2,000 to 10,000 ft above sea level, the areas where they live can get as warm as 38 °C in the summer and as cold as −37 °C in the winter. As prairie dogs live in areas prone to environmental threats, including hailstorms, blizzards, burrows help prairie dogs control their body temperature as they are 5–10 °C during the winter and 15–25 °C in the summer. Prairie dog burrows are 5–10 m long and 2–3 m below the ground, the entrance holes are generally 10–30 cm in diameter. Prairie dog burrows can have up to six entrances, sometimes the entrances are simply flat holes in the ground, while at other times they are surrounded by mounds of soil either left as piles or hard packed. Some mounds, known as dome craters, can be as high as 0. 2–0.3 m high, other mounds, known as rim craters, can be as high as 1 m. Dome craters and rim craters serve as observation posts used by the animals to watch for predators and they also protect the burrows from flooding
Prairie dog
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Prairie dogs Temporal range: Late
Pliocene -
Holocene
Prairie dog
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Prairie dogs raise their heads from their burrows in response to disturbances.
Prairie dog
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Full view of a prairie dog
Prairie dog
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Prairie dogs at a burrow entrance
28.
Chipmunk
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Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is primarily in Asia. These classifications are arbitrary, and most taxonomies over the century have placed the chipmunks in a single genus. However, studies of mitochondrial DNA show that the divergence between each of the three groups is comparable to the genetic dissimilarity between Marmota and Spermophilus. The genus name Tamias is Greek for treasurer, steward, or housekeeper, the common name originally may have been spelled chitmunk, from the native Odawa word jidmoonh, meaning red squirrel. The earliest form cited in the Oxford English Dictionary is chipmonk, however, other early forms include chipmuck and chipminck, and in the 1830s they were also referred to as chip squirrels, probably in reference to the sound they make. In the mid-1800s, John James Audubon and his sons included a lithograph of the chipmunk in their Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, Chipmunks have also been referred to as striped squirrels, chippers, munks, timber tigers, and ground squirrels. Chipmunks have a diet primarily consisting of seeds, nuts and other fruits. They also commonly eat grass, shoots, and many forms of plant matter, as well as fungi, insects and other arthropods, small frogs, worms. Around humans, chipmunks can eat cultivated grains and vegetables, and other plants from farms and gardens, Chipmunks mostly forage on the ground, but they climb trees to obtain nuts such as hazelnuts and acorns. At the beginning of autumn, many species of chipmunk begin to stockpile nonperishable foods for winter and they mostly cache their foods in a larder in their burrows and remain in their nests until spring, unlike some other species which make many small caches of food. Cheek pouches allow chipmunks to carry items to their burrows for either storage or consumption. Eastern chipmunks mate in spring and again in early summer. Western chipmunks breed only once a year, the young emerge from the burrow after about six weeks and strike out on their own within the next two weeks. These small mammals fulfill several important functions in forest ecosystems and their activities harvesting and hoarding tree seeds play a crucial role in seedling establishment. Chipmunks construct expansive burrows which can be more than 3.5 m in length with several well-concealed entrances, the sleeping quarters are kept clean as shells and feces are stored in refuse tunnels. The eastern chipmunk hibernates in the winter, while western chipmunks do not, Chipmunks typically live about three years although some have been observed living to nine years in captivity. Chipmunks in captivity are said to sleep for an average of about 15 hours a day and it is thought that mammals which can sleep in hiding, such as rodents and bats, tend to sleep longer than those that must remain on alert. and Paul V. Switzer
Chipmunk
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Chipmunk Temporal range: Early
Miocene to Recent
Chipmunk
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A
Siberian chipmunk, in
South Korea
Chipmunk
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A western chipmunk (probably a
Uinta chipmunk) in
Zion National Park,
Utah
Chipmunk
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An
eastern chipmunk
. PMID 15757552. doi:10.3201/eid1103.040981.
