Charadriiformes
Charadriiformes is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It has members in all parts of the world. Most Charadriiformes eat invertebrates or other small animals; the order was divided into three suborders: The waders: typical shorebirds, most of which feed by probing in the mud or picking items off the surface in both coastal and freshwater environments. The gulls and their allies: these are larger species which take fish from the sea. Several gulls and skuas will take food items from beaches, or rob smaller species, some have become adapted to inland environments; the auks are coastal species which "fly" underwater to catch fish. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy lumps all the Charadriiformes together with other seabirds and birds of prey into a enlarged order Ciconiiformes. However, the resolution of the DNA-DNA hybridization technique used by Sibley & Ahlquist was not sufficient to properly resolve the relationships in this group, indeed it appears as if the Charadriiformes constitute a single large and distinctive lineage of modern birds of their own.
The auks considered distinct because of their peculiar morphology, are more related to gulls, the "distinctness" being a result of adaptation for diving. Following recent research, a better arrangement may be as follows: This is a list of the charadriiform families, presented in taxonomic order. Suborder Scolopaci: snipe-like waders Family Scolopacidae: snipe, sandpipers and allies Suborder Thinocori: aberrant charadriforms Family Rostratulidae: painted snipe Family Jacanidae: jacanas Family Thinocoridae: seedsnipe Family Pedionomidae: plains wanderer Suborder Lari: gulls and allies Family Laridae: gulls and skimmers Family Alcidae: puffins, guillemots and allies Family Stercorariidae: skuas Family Glareolidae: pratincoles and coursers Family Pluvianidae: Egyptian plover Family Dromadidae: crab plover Suborder Turnici: buttonquails Family Turnicidae: buttonquails Suborder Chionidi: thick-knees and allies Family Burhinidae: thick-knees Family Chionididae: sheathbills Family Pluvianellidae: Magellanic plover Suborder Charadrii: plover-like waders Family Ibidorhynchidae: ibisbill Family Recurvirostridae: avocets and stilts Family Haematopodidae: oystercatchers Family Charadriidae: plovers and lapwingsMore conservatively, the Thinocori could be included in the Scolopaci, the Chionidi in the Charadrii.
The suborders Thincori, Scolopaci and Charadri are referred to collectively as waders. Some taxonomy sources place the family Glareolidae in its own suborder, instead of being classified under suborder Lari; the buttonquails are of basal position in the Lari-Scolopaci sensu lato group. The arrangement as presented here is a consensus of the recent studies. Cladogram based on Baker, A. J. et al. and Boyd, J. H. et al. That the Charadriiformes are an ancient group is borne out by the fossil record. Much of the Neornithes' fossil record around the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event is made up of bits and pieces of birds which resemble this order. In many, this is due to convergent evolution brought about by semiaquatic habits. Specimen VI 9901 is a basal charadriiform somewhat reminiscent of a thick-knee. However, more complete remains of undisputed charadriiforms are known only from the mid-Paleogene onwards. Present-day orders emerged around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary 35-30 mya. Basal or unresolved charadriiforms are: "Morsoravis" - a nomen nudum?
Jiliniornis - charadriid? Boutersemia - glareolid? Turnipax - turnicid? Elorius "Larus" desnoyersii - larid? stercorarid? "Larus" pristinus - larid? Charadriiformes gen. et sp. indet. - charadriid? scolopacid? Charadriiformes gen. et sp. indet. - charadriid? scolopacid? Charadriiformes gen. et sp. indet. - larid? Charadriiformes gen. et sp. indet. (Sajóvölgyi Middle Miocene of Mátraszõlõs, Hungary "Totanus" teruelensis - scolopacid? larid? The "transitional shorebirds" are a Mesozoic form taxon believed to constitute the common ancestors of charadriiforms and flamingos, they are now assumed to be basal taxa of the charadriiforms and/or "higher waterbirds", which were two distinct lineages 65 mya and few if any are still believed to be related to the well-distinct waterfowl. Taxa considered graculavids are: Laornithidae - charadriiform? gruiform? Laornis "Graculavidae" Graculavus - charadriiform? Palaeotringa - charadriiform? Telmatornis - charadriiform? gruiform? Scaniornis - phoenicopteriform? Zhylgaia - presbyornithid?
Dakotornis "Graculavidae" gen. et sp. indet. Other wader- or gull-like birds incertae sedis, which may or may not be Charadriiformes, are: Ceramornis "Cimolopteryx" Palintropus (Lance Creek Late Creta
Insect
Insects or Insecta are hexapod invertebrates and the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Definitions and circumscriptions vary; as used here, the term Insecta is synonymous with Ectognatha. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. Insects are the most diverse group of animals; the total number of extant species is estimated at between ten million. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, which are dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans. Nearly all insects hatch from eggs. Insect growth is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton and development involves a series of molts; the immature stages differ from the adults in structure and habitat, can include a passive pupal stage in those groups that undergo four-stage metamorphosis. Insects that undergo three-stage metamorphosis lack a pupal stage and adults develop through a series of nymphal stages.
The higher level relationship of the insects is unclear. Fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonflies with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm; the most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants. Adult insects move about by walking, flying, or sometimes swimming; as it allows for rapid yet stable movement, many insects adopt a tripedal gait in which they walk with their legs touching the ground in alternating triangles, composed of the front & rear on one side with the middle on the other side. Insects are the only invertebrates to have evolved flight, all flying insects derive from one common ancestor. Many insects spend at least part of their lives under water, with larval adaptations that include gills, some adult insects are aquatic and have adaptations for swimming; some species, such as water striders, are capable of walking on the surface of water. Insects are solitary, but some, such as certain bees and termites, are social and live in large, well-organized colonies.
Some insects, such as earwigs, show maternal care, guarding their eggs and young. Insects can communicate with each other in a variety of ways. Male moths can sense the pheromones of female moths over great distances. Other species communicate with sounds: crickets stridulate, or rub their wings together, to attract a mate and repel other males. Lampyrid beetles communicate with light. Humans regard certain insects as pests, attempt to control them using insecticides, a host of other techniques; some insects damage crops by feeding on sap, fruits, or wood. Some species are parasitic, may vector diseases; some insects perform complex ecological roles. Insect pollinators are essential to the life cycle of many flowering plant species on which most organisms, including humans, are at least dependent. Many insects are considered ecologically beneficial as predators and a few provide direct economic benefit. Silkworms produce silk and honey bees produce honey and both have been domesticated by humans.
Insects are consumed as food in 80% of the world's nations, by people in 3000 ethnic groups. Human activities have effects on insect biodiversity; the word "insect" comes from the Latin word insectum, meaning "with a notched or divided body", or "cut into", from the neuter singular perfect passive participle of insectare, "to cut into, to cut up", from in- "into" and secare "to cut". A calque of Greek ἔντομον, "cut into sections", Pliny the Elder introduced the Latin designation as a loan-translation of the Greek word ἔντομος or "insect", Aristotle's term for this class of life in reference to their "notched" bodies. "Insect" first appears documented in English in 1601 in Holland's translation of Pliny. Translations of Aristotle's term form the usual word for "insect" in Welsh, Serbo-Croatian, etc; the precise definition of the taxon Insecta and the equivalent English name "insect" varies. In the broadest circumscription, Insecta sensu lato consists of all hexapods. Traditionally, insects defined in this way were divided into "Apterygota" —the wingless insects—and Pterygota—the winged insects.
However, modern phylogenetic studies have shown that "Apterygota" is not monophyletic, so does not form a good taxon. A narrower circumscription restricts insects to those hexapods with external mouthparts, comprises only the last three groups in the table. In this sense, Insecta sensu stricto is equivalent to Ectognatha. In the narrowest circumscription, insects are restricted to hexapods that are either winged or descended from winged ancestors. Insecta sensu strictissimo is equivalent to Pterygota. For the purposes of this article, the middle definition is used; the evolutionary relationship of insects to other animal groups remains unclear. Although traditionally grouped with millipedes and centiped
ARKive
ARKive was a global initiative with the mission of "promoting the conservation of the world's threatened species, through the power of wildlife imagery", which it did by locating and gathering films and audio recordings of the world's species into a centralised digital archive. Its priority was the completion of audio-visual profiles for the c. 17,000 species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The project was an initiative of a UK-registered educational charity, based in Bristol; the technical platform was created by Hewlett-Packard, as part of the HP Labs' Digital Media Systems research programme. ARKive had the backing of leading conservation organisations, including BirdLife International, Conservation International, International Union for Conservation of Nature, the United Nations' World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the World Wide Fund for Nature, as well as leading academic and research institutions, such as the Natural History Museum, it was a member of the Institutional Council of the Encyclopedia of Life.
Two ARKive layers for Google Earth, featuring endangered species and species in the Gulf of Mexico were produced by Google Earth Outreach. The first of these was launched in April 2008 by Sir David Attenborough; the website closed on 15 February 2019. The project formally was launched on 20 May 2003 by its patron, the UK-based natural history presenter, Sir David Attenborough, a long-standing colleague and friend of its chief instigator, the late Christopher Parsons, a former Head of the BBC Natural History Unit. Parsons never lived to see the fruition of the project, succumbing to cancer in November 2002 at the age of 70. Parsons identified a need to provide a centralised safe haven for wildlife films and photographs after discovering that many such records are held in scattered, non-indexed, collections with little or no public access, sometimes in conditions that could lead to loss or damage, he believed the records could be a powerful force in building environmental awareness by bringing scientific names to life.
He saw their preservation as an important educational resource and conservation tool, not least because extinction rates and habitat destruction could mean that images and sounds might be the only legacy of some species’ existence. His vision of a permanent, refuge for audio-visual wildlife material won immediate support from many of the world’s major broadcasters, including the BBC, international state broadcasting corporations and National Geographic magazine; the initial feasibility study for creating ARKive was carried out in the late 1980s by conservationist John Burton, but at the time the costs of the technology needed were too far too high, so it was over a decade after the technology had caught up with Christopher Parson's vision, that the project was able to get off the ground. After capital development funds of £2m were secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 1997 and New Opportunities Fund in 2000, work on building ARKive began as part of the UK's Millennium celebrations, using advanced computerised storage and retrieval technology devised for the project by Hewlett-Packard, with an initial capacity of up to 74 terabytes of data, using redundant hardware and multiple copies of media stored at multiple sites.
Media was digitised to the highest available quality without compression and encoded to open standards. A prototype site was online as early as April 1999. There were several design iterations before the formal launch. By the launch date, the project team had researched, copied and authenticated image and fact files of 1,000 animals and fungi, many of them critically endangered. More multi-media profiles are added every month, starting with British flora and fauna and with species included on the Red List – that is, species that are believed to be closest to extinction, according to research by the World Conservation Union. By January 2006, the database had grown to 2,000 species, 15,000 still images and more than 50 hours of video. By 2010, over 5,500 donors had contributed photos of more than 12,000 species. In February 2019, Wildscreen announced that they "...have had to make the hard decision to close the Arkive website on 15 February 2019", due to funding issues. On that date the website was replaced with a short statement, concluding: The complete Arkive collection of over 100,000 images and videos is now being stored securely offline for future generations.
The site was Sunday Times website of the year for 2005. It was a 2010 Webby Award honoree for its outstanding calibre of work, in the'Education' category, a 2010 Association of Educational Publishers'Distinguished Achievement Award' winner, in the category for websites for 9-12 year olds. Catalogue of Life Encyclopedia of Life List of online encyclopedias Nature documentary Official ARKive site Technical specifications from Hewlett-Packard Memorandum of Understanding with Encyclopedia of Life
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a region of The Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, north of South America. Situated on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets and cays; these islands form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean islands, consisting of the Greater Antilles on the north and the Lesser Antilles on the south and east, are part of the somewhat larger West Indies grouping, which includes the Lucayan Archipelago; the Lucayans and, less Bermuda, are sometimes considered Caribbean despite the fact that none of these islands border the Caribbean Sea. In a wider sense, the mainland countries and territories of Belize, the Caribbean region of Colombia, the Yucatán Peninsula, Margarita Island, the Guyanas, are included due to their political and cultural ties with the region.
Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, dependencies. From December 15, 1954, to October 10, 2010, there was a country known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states, all of which were Dutch dependencies. From January 3, 1958, to May 31, 1962, there was a short-lived political union called the West Indies Federation composed of ten English-speaking Caribbean territories, all of which were British dependencies; the West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations. The region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Americas; the two most prevalent pronunciations of "Caribbean" outside the Caribbean are, with the primary stress on the third syllable, with the stress on the second. Most authorities of the last century preferred the stress on the third syllable.
This is the older of the two pronunciations, but the stressed-second-syllable variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer while North American speakers more use, but major American dictionaries and other sources list the stress on the third syllable as more common in American English too. According to the American version of Oxford Online Dictionaries, the stress on the second syllable is becoming more common in UK English and is considered "by some" to be more up to date and more "correct"; the Oxford Online Dictionaries claim that the stress on the second syllable is the most common pronunciation in the Caribbean itself, but according to the Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, the most common pronunciation in Caribbean English stresses the first syllable instead. The word "Caribbean" has multiple uses, its principal ones are political. The Caribbean can be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation and the plantation system.
The United Nations geoscheme for the Americas presents the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea. To the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America. Politically, the "Caribbean" may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the bloc known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, the Republic of Suriname in South America and Belize in Central America as full members. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are associate members of the Caribbean Community; the Commonwealth of the Bahamas is in the Atlantic and is a full member of the Caribbean Community. Alternatively, the organisation called the Association of Caribbean States consists of every nation in the surrounding regions that lie on the Caribbean, plus El Salvador, which lies on the Pacific Ocean.
According to the ACS, the total population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies: Some islands in the region have flat terrain of non-volcanic origin; these islands include Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, Antigua. Others possess rugged towering mountain-ranges like the islands of Saint Martin, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Dominica, Saba, Sint Eustatius, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Saint Thomas, Saint John, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Guadeloupe and Trinidad and Tobago. Definitions of the terms Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles vary; the Virgin Islands as part of the Puerto Rican bank are sometimes included with the Greater Antilles. The term Lesser Antilles is used to define an island arc that includes Grenada but excludes Trinidad and Tobago and the Leeward Antilles; the waters of the Caribbean Sea host large, migratory schools of fish and coral reef
Cayucos, California
Cayucos is a census-designated place located on the coast in San Luis Obispo County, California along California State Route 1 between Cambria to the north and Morro Bay to the south. The population was 2,592 at the 2010 census, down from 2,943 at the 2000 census. Prehistorically the local area was inhabited by the Chumash people, who settled the coastal San Luis Obispo area 11,000 to 10,000 BC, including a large village to the south of Cayucos at Morro Creek; the first European land exploration of Alta California, the Spanish Portolà expedition, camped in the vicinity of today's Cayucos on September 9, 1769. Coming from the previous campsite near Morro Bay, Franciscan missionary and expedition member Juan Crespi noted in his diary that "In the four hours that we traveled, making at the most three leagues, we encountered eight arroyos by which the water from the mountains runs to the sea, along whose edge we traveled. We halted at the eighth watering place in a moderately broad valley, into which enters an estuary fed by an arroyo of good water coming from the mountains."
Crespi translator Herbert Bolton noted the camp location as Ellysley Creek, but the description sounds more like Cayucos. Cayucos is the Hispanicization of a Chumash word for "kayak," or "canoe," used by the Chumash people to fish in the bay in the rich kelp beds just north of the current Cayucos pier; the town took its name from the old Rancho Moro y Cayucos, a Mexican land grant awarded in 1842 that includes the present area of the town. In 1867, Captain James Cass settled on 320 acres of this land, founded the town of Cayucos. Cass began developing the area with Captain Ingals. Cass built a warehouse to house cargo bound for San Francisco or Los Angeles. Cass returned to life on the sea and in 1875 real estate developer C. H. Phillips sold the remaining portions of Rancho Moro y Cayucos; the original pier has since been rebuilt. On December 7, 1987, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, bound from Los Angeles International Airport to San Francisco, was cruising above the central California coast when a terminated disgruntled USAir employee aboard the plane shot his ex-supervisor, both pilots, a flight attendant and PSA's chief pilot, causing the airplane to enter a steep nosedive.
The aircraft slammed into a hillside just east of Cayucos at 770 mph. All 43 passengers and crew aboard perished. In October 2009, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine listed Cayucos as one of the "Coolest Small Towns in America". Cayucos is located at 35°26′18″N 120°53′26″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 3.5 square miles, of which, 3.1 square miles of it is land and 0.4 square miles of it is water. Cayucos is home to Cayucos State Beach; the 2010 United States Census reported that Cayucos had a population of 2,592. The population density was 745.4 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Cayucos was 2,366 White, 6 African American, 12 Native American, 54 Asian, 8 Pacific Islander, 57 from other races, 89 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 207 persons; the Census reported that 2,592 people lived in households, 0 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, 0 were institutionalized. There were 1,314 households, out of which 214 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 578 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 105 had a female householder with no husband present, 45 had a male householder with no wife present.
There were 76 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, 10 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 471 households were made up of individuals and 195 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.97. There were 728 families; the population was spread out with 337 people under the age of 18, 169 people aged 18 to 24, 488 people aged 25 to 44, 946 people aged 45 to 64, 652 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 53.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males. There were 2,354 housing units at an average density of 677.0 per square mile, of which 781 were owner-occupied, 533 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 4.6%. 1,555 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 1,037 people lived in rental housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 2,943 people, 1,405 households, 809 families residing in the CDP; the population density was 954.4 people per square mile.
There were 2,284 housing units at an average density of 740.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 93.82% White, 6.80% Hispanic or Latino, 2.17% from two or more races, 2.11% from other races, 1.26% Asian, 0.37% Native American, 0.24% African American, 0.03% Pacific Islander. There were 1,405 households out of which 19.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.4% were married couples living together, 7.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 42.4% were non-families. 33.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.08 and the average family size was 2.62. In the CDP, the population was
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