1.
ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
2.
Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
3.
Brazos River
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It sometimes is used to mark the boundary between East Texas and West Texas. Another major tributary of the Upper Brazos is the Clear Fork Brazos River, the main stem of the Brazos is dammed in three places, all north of Waco, forming Possum Kingdom Lake, Lake Granbury, and Lake Whitney. Of these three, Granbury was the last to be completed, in 1969, when its construction was proposed in the mid-1950s, John Graves wrote the book, Goodbye to a River. A small municipal dam is near the city limit of Waco at the end of the Baylor campus. This impoundment of the Brazos through Waco is locally called Lake Brazos, a total of nineteen major reservoirs are located along the Brazos. Later Spanish accounts call it Los Brazos de Dios, for which there were several different explanations. In 1842, native Indian commissioner of Texas, Ethan Stroud established a trading post on this river, Brazos River was the scene of a battle between the Texas Navy and Mexican Navy during the Texas Revolution. Texas Navy ship Independence was defeated by one Mexican vessel, the river was important for navigation before and after the American Civil War, and steam boats sailed as far up the river as Washington-on-the-Brazos. While attempts to improve navigation on the river continued, railroads proved more reliable. The Brazos River also flooded, often seriously, on a basis before a piecemeal levee system was replaced. The river is important today as a source of water for power, irrigation. The water is administered by the Brazos River Authority, the river also features prominently in a number of prison songs, because at one time nearly every prison in Texas was near the Brazos. On June 2,2016, the rising of the river required evacuations for portions of Brazoria County, the Brazos River watershed covers a total area of 119,174 square kilometers. Within the watershed lie 42 lakes and rivers which have a storage capacity of 2.5 million acre-feet. The Brazos watershed also has a ground water availability of 119,275 acre-feet per year. Approximately 31% of the use within the watershed is cropland. Approximately 61% is grassland shrubland and forest while urban use only makes up 4. 6%, the population density within the watershed is 19.5 people per square kilometer. The main water quality issues within the Brazos Watershed are high nutrient loads, high bacterial and salinity levels and these water quality issues can be attributed to livestock, fertilizer and chemical run off
4.
Wichita Falls, Texas
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Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States. Wichita Falls is the city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 104,553, of interest is the Newby-McMahon Building, constructed downtown in 1919 and featured in Robert Ripleys Ripleys Believe It or Not. The Choctaw Native Americans settled the area in the early 19th century from their native Mississippi area once Americans negotiated to relocate them after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, American settlers arrived in the 1860s to form cattle ranches. The city was officially titled Wichita Falls on September 27,1872, on that day, a sale of town lots was held at what is now the corner of Seventh and Ohio Streets – the birthplace of the city. The Fort Worth & Denver City Railway arrived in September 1882, the city grew westwards from the original FW&DC train depot which was located at the northwest corner of Seventh Street and the FW&DC. This area is now referred to as the Depot Square Historic District, the early history of Wichita Falls well into the 20th century also rests on the work of two entrepreneurs, Joseph A. Kemp and his brother-in-law, Frank Kell. Kemp and Kell were pioneers in food processing and retailing, flour milling, railroads, cattle, banking, a flood in 1886 destroyed the original falls on the Wichita River for which the city was named. After nearly 100 years of wanting to visit the nonexistent falls. The recreated falls are 54 ft high and recirculate at 3,500 gallons per minute and they are visible to south-bound traffic on Interstate 44. The city is seeking funding to rebuild and restore the downtown area. Both firms continued to use a portion of their former refineries as gasoline/oil terminal facilities for many years, a devastating tornado hit the north and northwest portions of Wichita Falls along with Sheppard Air Force Base during the afternoon of April 3,1964. As the first violent tornado on record to hit the Wichita Falls area, it left seven dead, additionally, the tornado caused roughly $15 million in property damage with about 225 homes destroyed and another 250 damaged. It was rated as an F5, the highest rating on the Fujita scale, an F4 tornado struck the heavily populated southern sections of Wichita Falls in the late afternoon on Tuesday, April 10,1979. It was part of an outbreak that produced 30 tornadoes around the region and it left 20,000 people homeless and caused $400 million in damage, a U. S. record not topped by an individual tornado until the F5 Moore-Oklahoma City tornado of May 3,1999. Wichita Falls is about 15 miles south of the border with Oklahoma,115 mi northwest of Fort Worth, and 140 mi southwest of Oklahoma City. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 70.71 square miles. Wichita Falls experiences a subtropical climate, with some of the highest summer daily maximum temperatures in the entire U. S. outside of the Desert Southwest
5.
Abilene, Texas
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Abilene is a city in Taylor and Jones counties in West Texas, United States. The population was 117,063 according to the 2010 census and it is the principal city of the Abilene Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2011 estimated population of 166,416. It is the county seat of Taylor County, Dyess Air Force Base is located on the west side of the city. Abilene is located off Interstate 20, between exits 279 on its edge and 292 on the east. Abilene is 150 miles west of Fort Worth, Texas, the city is looped by I-20 to the north, US 83/84 on the west, and Loop 322 to the east. A railroad divides the city down the center north and south. The historic downtown area is on the side of the railroad. Many developments have begun in these three areas within the last few years, established by cattlemen as a stock shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881, the city was named after Abilene, Kansas, the original endpoint for the Chisholm Trail. The T&P had bypassed the town of Buffalo Gap, the county seat at the time, eventually, a landowner north of Buffalo Gap, Clabe Merchant, known as the father of Abilene, chose the name for the new town. According to a Dallas newspaper, about 800 people had begun camping at the townsite. The town was out by Colonel J. Stoddard Johnson. By the end of the first day,139 lots were sold for a total of $23,810, and another 178 lots were sold the next day for $27,550. Abilene was incorporated soon after being founded in 1881, and Abilenians began to set their sights on bringing the county seat to Abilene, in 1888, the Progressive Committee was formed to attract businesses to the area, which later became the Board of Trade in 1890. By 1900,3,411 people lived in Abilene, and in that decade, however, this committee failed when the population only hit 9,204 in 1910. Replacing it was the Young Mens Booster Club, which became the Abilene Chamber of Commerce in 1914, the cornerstone was laid for the first of three future universities in Abilene, called Simmons College, in 1891, which later became Hardin-Simmons University. Childers Classical Institute followed in 1906, currently Abilene Christian University, in 1923, McMurry College was founded and later became McMurry University. Much more recently, Abilene succeeded in bringing Cisco Junior College and Texas State Technical College branches to Abilene, with the Cisco Junior College headquarters being located in Abilene. In 1940, Abilene raised the money to land for a U. S. Army base, southwest of town, named Camp Barkeley
6.
Stratum
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In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers. The stratum is the unit in a stratigraphic column and forms the basis of the study of stratigraphy. Each layer is one of a number of parallel layers that lie one upon another. They may extend over hundreds of thousands of kilometers of the Earths surface. Strata are typically seen as bands of different colored or differently structured material exposed in cliffs, road cuts, quarries, individual bands may vary in thickness from a few millimeters to a kilometer or more. Each band represents a mode of deposition, river silt, beach sand, coal swamp, sand dune, lava bed. Geologists study rock strata and categorize them by the material of beds, each distinct layer is typically assigned to the name of sheet, usually based on a town, river, mountain, or region where the formation is exposed and available for study. For example, the Burgess Shale is an exposure of dark, occasionally fossiliferous. Slight distinctions in material in a formation may be described as members, formations are collected into groups while groups may be collected into supergroups. Archaeological horizon Geologic formation Geologic map Geologic unit Law of superposition Bed GeoWhen Database
7.
Edward Drinker Cope
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Edward Drinker Cope was an American paleontologist and comparative anatomist, as well as a noted herpetologist and ichthyologist. He was a founder of the Neo-Lamarckism school of thought, born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science, he published his first scientific paper at the age of 19. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, Cope married his cousin and had one child, the family moved from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years. Cope had little formal training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West, prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, a personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition now known as the Bone Wars. Copes financial fortunes soured after failed mining ventures in the 1880s and he experienced a resurgence in his career toward the end of his life before dying on April 12,1897. Though Copes scientific pursuits nearly bankrupted him, his contributions helped to define the field of American paleontology and he was a prodigious writer, with 1,400 papers published over his lifetime, although his rivals debated the accuracy of his rapidly published works. He discovered, described, and named more than 1,000 vertebrate species, including hundreds of fishes and his proposal for the origin of mammalian molars is notable among his theoretical contributions. Copes rule, however, the hypothesis that mammalian lineages gradually grow larger over geologic time, Edward Drinker Cope was born on July 28,1840, the eldest son of Alfred and Hanna Cope. The death of his mother when he was three years old seemed to have had effect on young Edward, as he mentioned in his letters that he had no recollection of her. His stepmother, Rebecca Biddle, filled the role, Cope referred to her warmly, as well as his younger stepbrother. Alfred, a member of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers, operated a lucrative shipping business started by his father, Thomas P. Cope. He was a philanthropist who gave money to the Society of Friends, the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, Edward was born and raised in a large stone house called Fairfield, whose location is now within the boundaries of Philadelphia. The 8 acres of pristine and exotic gardens of the house offered a landscape that Edward was able to explore. The Copes began teaching their children to read and write at a young age, and took Edward on trips across New England and to museums, zoos. Copes interest in animals became apparent at an age, as did his natural artistic ability. Alfred intended to give his son the same education he himself had received. At age nine, Edward was sent to a day school in Philadelphia and in 1853 at the age of 12, Edward was sent to the Friends Boarding School at Westtown, near West Chester, Pennsylvania
8.
Trimerorhachis
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Trimerorhachis is an extinct genus of dvinosaurian temnospondyl within the family Trimerorhachidae. It is known from the Early Permian of the southwestern United States, the type species of Trimerorhachis, T. insignis, was named by American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1878. Cope named a species from Texas, T. mesops. The species T. rogersi and T. greggi are also from Texas, the length of the largest specimens of Trimerorhachis is estimated to have been almost a metre in length. Trimerorhachis has a triangular head with upward-facing eyes positioned near the front of the skull. The trunk is long and the limbs are relatively short, the presence of a branchial apparatus indicates that Trimerorhachis had external gills in life, much like the modern axolotl. The body of Trimerorhachis is also covered by small and very thin osteoderms. These osteoderms act as a covering, especially around the tail. Their weight may have helped Trimerorhachis sink to the bottom of lakes, Trimerorhachis was first described by Edward Drinker Cope in 1878. Specimens are often preserved as masses of bones that are mixed together, fossils are rarely found in articulation, although a slab of rock has been found with sixteen skulls and their associated vertebrae in an intact position. Most of these fossils preserve skulls and dorsal vertebrae, but rarely any other bones, Williston of the University of Chicago commented in 1915 that it will only be by the fortunate discovery of a connected skeleton that the tail, ribs, and feet will be made known. A nearly complete specimen was discovered the year near Seymour, Texas. In 1955, paleontologist Edwin Harris Colbert described the scales of Trimerorhachis and he noted that they were oval-shaped and overlapping and that each had a base layer of longitudinal striations covered by another layer ring-like ridges, the growth rings of the scales. The scales were more similar to fish scales than they were to reptile scales, in 1979, paleontologist Everett C. Olson claimed that there were no such scales in Trimerorhachis, and that Colbert was incorrect in his interpretation of the body covering of Trimerorhachis. A second species called T. sandovalensis was named from New Mexico in 1980, a nearly complete skeleton from the Abo Formation near Jemez Springs has been designated the holotype, but other fossils of the species are found throughout the state, giving it a wide distribution. Trimerorhachis was probably an aquatic temnospondyl. Like most dvinosaurs, it had external gills, the interclavicle and clavicle of the pectoral girdle are both very large, a feature that is shared with other aquatic temnospondyls. Many bones are poorly ossified, indicating that Trimerorhachis was poorly suited for movement on land, Trimerorhachis was probably an aquatic predator that fed on fish and small vertebrates
9.
Tetrapod
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The superclass Tetrapoda contains the four-limbed vertebrates known as tetrapods, it includes living and extinct amphibians, reptiles and mammals, as well as earlier extinct groups. The first tetrapods appeared by the late Devonian,367, the first tetrapods were primarily aquatic. Their descendants drove most amphibians to extinction as they began to dominate, the amniotes include the tetrapods that further evolved for flight—such as birds from among the dinosaurs, and bats from among the mammals. The change from a plan for breathing and navigating in water to a body plan enabling the animal to move on land is one of the most profound evolutionary changes known. It is also becoming increasingly well-understood as a result of more transitional fossil finds, many tetrapods have returned to partially aquatic or fully aquatic lives throughout the history of the group. Tetrapods can be defined in cladistics as the nearest common ancestor of all living amphibians and all living amniotes, the group so defined is the crown group, or crown tetrapods. The term tetrapodomorph is used for the definition, any animal that is more closely related to living amphibians, reptiles, birds. The group so defined is known as the total group. Stegocephalia is a larger group equivalent to some uses of the word tetrapod. Batrachomorphs are all sharing a more recent common ancestry with living amphibians than with living amniotes. Reptiliomorphs are all sharing a more recent common ancestry with living amniotes than with living amphibians. Tetrapoda includes four classes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, however, that diversification process was interrupted at least a few times by major biological crises, such as the Permian–Triassic extinction event, which at least affected amniotes. As biodiversity has grown, so has the number of niches that tetrapods have occupied, the first tetrapods were aquatic and fed primarily on fish. Today, the Earth supports a diversity of tetrapods that live in many habitats. Tetrapods evolved from early bony fishes, specifically from the branch of lobe-finned fishes. The first tetrapods probably evolved in the Emsian stage of the Early Devonian from Tetrapodomorph fish living in water environments. The very earliest tetrapods would have been similar to Acanthostega, with legs and lungs as well as gills. The earliest tetrapods inhabited saltwater, brackish-water, and freshwater environments and these traits were shared with many early lobed-finned fishes
10.
Dimetrodon
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Dimetrodon is an extinct genus of synapsid that lived during the Cisuralian Permian, around 295–272 million years ago. It is a member of the family Sphenacodontidae, the most prominent feature of Dimetrodon is the large neural spine sail on its back formed by elongated spines extending from the vertebrae. It walked on four legs and had a tall, curved skull with teeth of different sizes set along the jaws. Most fossils have found in the southwestern United States, the majority coming from a geological deposit called the Red Beds of Texas. More recently, fossils have found in Germany. Over a dozen species have been named since the genus was first described in 1878, Dimetrodon is often mistaken for a dinosaur or as a contemporary of dinosaurs in popular culture, but it became extinct some 40 million years before the first appearance of dinosaurs. Reptile-like in appearance and physiology, Dimetrodon is nevertheless more closely related to mammals than to modern reptiles, Dimetrodon is assigned to the stem-mammals or non-mammalian synapsids, a group traditionally called mammal-like reptiles. This groups Dimetrodon together with mammals in a clade called Synapsida, while placing dinosaurs, reptiles and birds in a separate clade, Sauropsida. Single openings in the skull behind each eye, known as temporal fenestrae, Dimetrodon was probably one of the apex predators of the Cisuralian ecosystems, feeding on fish and tetrapods, including reptiles and amphibians. Smaller Dimetrodon species may have had different ecological roles, the sail of Dimetrodon may have been used to stabilize its spine or to heat and cool its body as a form of thermoregulation. Some recent studies argue that the sail would have been ineffective at removing heat from the body, Dimetrodon was a quadrupedal, sail-backed synapsid. Most Dimetrodon species ranged in length from 1.7 to 4.6 metres and are estimated to have weighed between 28 and 250 kilograms. The largest known species of Dimetrodon is D. angelensis at 4.6 metres, although some Dimetrodon species could grow very large, many juvenile specimens are known. Features such as ridges on the inside of the nasal cavity, the skull of Dimetrodon is tall and compressed laterally, or side-to-side. The eye sockets are positioned high and far back in the skull, behind each eye socket is a single hole called an infratemporal fenestra. An additional hole in the skull, the fenestra, can be seen when viewed from above. The back of the skull is oriented at an upward angle. The upper margin of the skull slopes downward in an arc to the tip of the snout
11.
Diadectes
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Diadectes is an extinct genus of large, very reptile-like amphibians that lived during the early Permian period. Diadectes was one of the very first herbivorous tetrapods, and also one of the first fully terrestrial animals to attain large size. Diadectes was a heavily built animal,1.5 to 3 meters long, with a skull, heavy vertebrae and ribs, massive limb girdles and short. The nature of the limbs and vertebrae clearly indicate a terrestrial animal and it possesses some characteristics of reptilians and amphibians, combining a reptile-like skeleton with a more primitive, seymouriamorph-like skull. Diadectes has been classified as belonging to the group of the amniotes. Among its primitive features, Diadectes has a large otic notch with an ossified tympanum, at the same time its teeth show advanced specialisations for an herbivorous diet that are not found in any other type of early Permian animal. The eight front teeth are spatulate and peg-like, and served as incisors that were used to nip off mouthfuls of vegetation, the broad, blunt cheek teeth show extensive wear associated with occlusion, and would have functioned as molars, grinding up the food. It also had a secondary palate, which meant it could chew its food and breathe at the same time. These traits are likely related to the animals high-fiber herbivorous diet. Many of the details of the post-cranial skeleton are possibly related to carrying the substantial trunk. The phenomenon of related animals evolving similarly is known as convergent evolution, Diadectes was first named and described by the American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope in 1878, based on part of a lower jaw from the Permian of Texas. Cope noted, Teeth with short and much compressed crowns, whose axis is transverse to that of the jaws. He described the animal as in all probability, herbivorous, copes Neo-Latin type species name sideropelicus of iron clay alluded to the Wichita beds in Texas, where the fossil was found. Diadectes fossil remains are known from a number of locations across North America, numerous species have been assigned to Diadectes, though most of those have proven to be synonyms of one another. Similarly, many supposed separate genera of diadectids have been shown to be synonyms of Diadectes. One of these, Nothodon, was published by Othniel Charles Marsh five days before the name Diadectes was published by his rival Edward Drinker Cope. A phylogenetic analysis of Diadectes and related diadectids was presented in an unpublished Ph. D. thesis by Richard Kissel in 2010. Previous phylogenetic analyses of diadectids had found D. absitus to be more basal than other species of Diadectes, in these analyses, Diasparactus zenos was more closely related to the other species of Diadectes than was D. absitus, making Diadectes paraphyletic
12.
Seymouriamorpha
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Seymouriamorpha were a small but widespread group of limbed vertebrates. They have long been considered reptiliomorphs, and most paleontologists may still accept this point of view, many seymouriamorphs were terrestrial or semi-aquatic. However, aquatic larvae bearing external gills and grooves from the lateral line system have been found and they ranged from lizard-sized creatures to crocodile-sized 150 centimeter long animals. If seymouriamorphs are reptiliomorphs, they were the distant relatives of amniotes, seymouriamorphs form into three main groups, Kotlassiidae, Discosauriscidae, and Seymouriidae, a group that includes the best known genus, Seymouria. The last seymouriamorph became extinct by the end of Permian. P, bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Washington,1944, v.55, N5, pp. 379-416. Seymouriamorpha - at Paleos Seymouriamorpha at Tree of Life Web Project
