1.
Atlantic purple sea urchin
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The Atlantic purple sea urchin is a species of sea urchins from the family Arbaciidae, native to the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic purple sea urchin is a spherical, dark purple-spined sea urchin and it can reach up to 8 cm in diameter, and is native to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its natural habitat is in the western Atlantic Ocean, a. A. punctulata is omnivorous, consuming a wide variety of prey although Karlson classified it as a generalized carnivore. Its galactolipids, rather than phlorotannins, act as herbivore deterrents in Fucus vesiculosus against A. punctulata, for more than a century, developmental biologists have valued the sea urchin as an experimental model organism. Sea urchin eggs are transparent and can be manipulated easily in the research laboratory and their eggs can be easily fertilized and then develop rapidly and synchronously. For decades, the sea urchin embryo has been used to establish the theory of heredity, the description of centrosomes, parthenogenesis. Sea urchin studies provided the first evidence of actin in nonmuscle cells, arbacia punctulata is also a model organism of marine sediments toxicity and sperm study. Animal Diversity Web Card Marine Biological Laboratory Card
2.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
3.
Animal
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Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia. The animal kingdom emerged as a clade within Apoikozoa as the group to the choanoflagellates. Animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and independently at some point in their lives and their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later in their lives. All animals are heterotrophs, they must ingest other organisms or their products for sustenance, most known animal phyla appeared in the fossil record as marine species during the Cambrian explosion, about 542 million years ago. Animals can be divided broadly into vertebrates and invertebrates, vertebrates have a backbone or spine, and amount to less than five percent of all described animal species. They include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, the remaining animals are the invertebrates, which lack a backbone. These include molluscs, arthropods, annelids, nematodes, flatworms, cnidarians, ctenophores, the study of animals is called zoology. The word animal comes from the Latin animalis, meaning having breath, the biological definition of the word refers to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing creatures as diverse as sponges, jellyfish, insects, and humans. Aristotle divided the world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Linnaeus, in the first hierarchical classification. In Linnaeuss original scheme, the animals were one of three kingdoms, divided into the classes of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and Mammalia. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into a single phylum, in 1874, Ernst Haeckel divided the animal kingdom into two subkingdoms, Metazoa and Protozoa. The protozoa were later moved to the kingdom Protista, leaving only the metazoa, thus Metazoa is now considered a synonym of Animalia. Animals have several characteristics that set apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular, which separates them from bacteria and they are heterotrophic, generally digesting food in an internal chamber, which separates them from plants and algae. They are also distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. All animals are motile, if only at life stages. In most animals, embryos pass through a stage, which is a characteristic exclusive to animals. With a few exceptions, most notably the sponges and Placozoa and these include muscles, which are able to contract and control locomotion, and nerve tissues, which send and process signals
4.
Echinoderm
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Echinoderm is the common name given to any member of the phylum Echinodermata of marine animals. The adults are recognizable by their symmetry, and include such well-known animals as sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars. Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the zone to the abyssal zone. The phylum contains about 7000 living species, making it the second-largest grouping of deuterostomes, echinoderms are also the largest phylum that has no freshwater or terrestrial representatives. Aside from the hard-to-classify Arkarua, the first definitive members of the phylum appeared near the start of the Cambrian, the echinoderms are important both ecologically and geologically. Ecologically, there are few other groupings so abundant in the desert of the deep sea. Most echinoderms are able to regenerate tissue, organs, limbs, geologically, the value of echinoderms is in their ossified skeletons, which are major contributors to many limestone formations, and can provide valuable clues as to the geological environment. They were the most used species in regenerative research in the 19th and 20th centuries, further, it is held by some scientists that the radiation of echinoderms was responsible for the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. Along with the chordates and hemichordates, echinoderms are deuterostomes, one of the two divisions of the bilaterians, the other being the protostomes. During the early development of the embryo, in deuterostomes, the blastopore becomes the anus whereas in the protostomes, in deuterostomes, the mouth develops at a later stage, at the opposite end of the blastula from the blastopore, and a gut forms connecting the two. There are a total of about 7,000 extant species of echinoderm as well as about 13,000 extinct species and they are found in habitats ranging from shallow intertidal areas to abyssal depths. These consist of the Crinoidea and the extinct blastoids and Paracrinoids, a fifth class of Eleutherozoa consisting of just three species, the Concentricycloidea, were recently merged into the Asteroidea. The fossil record includes a number of other classes which do not appear to fall into any extant crown group. All echinoderms are marine and nearly all are benthic, the oldest known echinoderm fossil may be Arkarua from the Precambrian of Australia. It is a fossil with radial ridges on the rim. However, no stereom or internal structure showing a water system is present. The first universally accepted echinoderms appear in the Lower Cambrian period, asterozoans appeared in the Ordovician, echinoderms left behind an extensive fossil record. It is hypothesised that the ancestor of all echinoderms was a simple, motile, bilaterally symmetrical animal with a mouth, gut and this ancestral stock adopted an attached mode of life and suspension feeding, and developed radial symmetry as this was more advantageous for such an existence
5.
Sea urchin
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Sea urchins or urchins, archaically called sea hedgehogs, are small, spiny, globular animals that, with their close kin, such as sand dollars, constitute the class Echinoidea of the echinoderm phylum. About 950 species of echinoids inhabit all oceans from the intertidal to 5,000 metres deep, the shell, or test, of sea urchins is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 cm across. Common colors include black and dull shades of green, olive, brown, purple, blue, Sea urchins move slowly, feeding primarily on algae. Sea otters, starfish, wolf eels, triggerfish, and other predators hunt and their roe is a delicacy in many cuisines. The name urchin is an old word for hedgehog, which sea urchins resemble, Sea urchins are members of the phylum Echinodermata, which also includes sea stars, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, and crinoids. Like other echinoderms, they have five-fold symmetry and move by means of hundreds of tiny, transparent, the symmetry is not obvious in the living animal, but is easily visible in the dried test. The irregular sea urchins are an infra-class inside the Euechinoidea, called Irregularia, irregular echinoids include, flattened sand dollars, sea biscuits, and heart urchins. Together with sea cucumbers, they make up the subphylum Echinozoa, Sea cucumbers and the irregular echinoids have secondarily evolved diverse shapes. Urchins typically range in size from 6 to 12 cm, although the largest species can reach up to 36 cm, like other echinoderms, sea urchin early larvae have bilateral symmetry, but they develop five-fold symmetry as they mature. This is most apparent in the sea urchins, which have roughly spherical bodies with five equally sized parts radiating out from their central axes. Several sea urchins, however, including the sand dollars, are oval in shape, with front and rear ends. In these urchins, the surface of the body is slightly domed. This irregular body form has evolved to allow the animals to burrow through sand or other soft materials, Sea urchins tube feet arise from the five ambulacral grooves. Tube feet are moved by a vascular system, which works through hydraulic pressure, allowing the sea urchin to pump water into and out of the tube feet. The lower half of a sea urchins body is referred to as the surface, because it contains the mouth. The internal organs are enclosed in a shell or test composed of fused plates of calcium carbonate covered by a thin dermis and epidermis. The test is rigid, and divides into five ambulacral grooves separated by five interambulacral areas, each of these areas consists of two rows of plates, so the sea urchin test includes 20 rows of plates in total. The plates are covered in rounded tubercles, to which the spines are attached, the inner surface of the test is lined by peritoneum
6.
Echinacea
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Echinacea /ˌɛkᵻˈneɪʃiə/ is a genus, or group of herbaceous flowering plants in the daisy family. The Echinacea genus has nine species, which are commonly called purple coneflowers and they are found only in eastern and central North America, where they are found growing in moist to dry prairies and open wooded areas. They have large, showy heads of flowers, blooming from early to late summer. The generic name is derived from the Greek word ἐχῖνος, meaning hedgehog and these flowering plants and their parts have different uses. Some species are cultivated in gardens for their showy flowers, Echinacea purpurea is used in folk medicine. Two of the species, E. tennesseensis and E. laevigata, are listed in the United States as endangered species, the DNA analysis allows researchers to reveal clear distinctions among species based on chemical differences in root metabolites. The research concluded that of the 40 genetically diverse populations of Echinacea studied, Echinacea species are herbaceous, drought-tolerant perennial plants growing up to 140 cm or 4 feet, in height. They grow from taproots, except E. purpurea, which grows from a caudex with fibrous roots. They have erect stems that in most species are unbranched, both the basal and cauline leaves are arranged alternately. The leaves are hairy with a rough texture, having uniseriate trichomes but sometimes they lack hairs. The basal leaves and the stem leaves have petioles. The leaf blades in different species may have one, three or five nerves, some species have linear to lanceolate leaves, and others have elliptic- to ovate-shaped leaves, often the leaves decrease in size as they progress up the stems. Leaf bases gradually increase in width away from the petioles or the bases are rounded to heart shaped, most species have leaf margins that are entire, but sometimes they are dentate or serrate. The flowers are collected together into single rounded heads at the ends of long peduncles, the inflorescences have crateriform to hemispheric shaped involucres which are 12–40 mm wide. The phyllaries, or bracts below the head, are persistent. The phyllaries are produced in a 2–4 series, the receptacles are hemispheric to conic. The paleae have orange to reddish purple ends, and are longer than the disc corollas, the paleae bases partially surrounding the cypselae, and are keeled with the apices abruptly constricted to awn-like tips. The ray florets number 8–21 and the corollas are purple to pale pink, white
7.
Echinoida
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Echinoida is an order of sea urchins in the class Echinoidea. They are distinguished from other sea urchins by simultaneously possessing both an un-sculpted test and a lantern with large plates fused across the top of each pyramid
8.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
9.
Pacific Ocean
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The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the Earths oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres. Both the center of the Water Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere are in the Pacific Ocean, the oceans current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means peaceful sea, important human migrations occurred in the Pacific in prehistoric times. Long-distance trade developed all along the coast from Mozambique to Japan, trade, and therefore knowledge, extended to the Indonesian islands but apparently not Australia. By at least 878 when there was a significant Islamic settlement in Canton much of trade was controlled by Arabs or Muslims. In 219 BC Xu Fu sailed out into the Pacific searching for the elixir of immortality, from 1404 to 1433 Zheng He led expeditions into the Indian Ocean. The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1513 after his expedition crossed the Isthmus of Panama and he named it Mar del Sur because the ocean was to the south of the coast of the isthmus where he first observed the Pacific. Later, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed the Pacific East to West on a Castilian expedition of world circumnavigation starting in 1519, Magellan called the ocean Pacífico because, after sailing through the stormy seas off Cape Horn, the expedition found calm waters. The ocean was often called the Sea of Magellan in his honor until the eighteenth century, sailing around and east of the Moluccas, between 1525 and 1527, Portuguese expeditions discovered the Caroline Islands, the Aru Islands, and Papua New Guinea. In 1542–43 the Portuguese also reached Japan, in 1564, five Spanish ships consisting of 379 explorers crossed the ocean from Mexico led by Miguel López de Legazpi and sailed to the Philippines and Mariana Islands. The Manila galleons operated for two and a half centuries linking Manila and Acapulco, in one of the longest trade routes in history, Spanish expeditions also discovered Tuvalu, the Marquesas, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, and the Admiralty Islands in the South Pacific. In the 16th and 17th century Spain considered the Pacific Ocean a Mare clausum—a sea closed to other naval powers, as the only known entrance from the Atlantic the Strait of Magellan was at times patrolled by fleets sent to prevent entrance of non-Spanish ships. On the western end of the Pacific Ocean the Dutch threatened the Spanish Philippines, Spain also sent expeditions to the Pacific Northwest reaching Vancouver Island in southern Canada, and Alaska. The French explored and settled Polynesia, and the British made three voyages with James Cook to the South Pacific and Australia, Hawaii, and the North American Pacific Northwest, one of the earliest voyages of scientific exploration was organized by Spain in the Malaspina Expedition of 1789–1794. It sailed vast areas of the Pacific, from Cape Horn to Alaska, Guam and the Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and the South Pacific. Growing imperialism during the 19th century resulted in the occupation of much of Oceania by other European powers, and later, Japan, in Oceania, France got a leading position as imperial power after making Tahiti and New Caledonia protectorates in 1842 and 1853 respectively. After navy visits to Easter Island in 1875 and 1887, Chilean navy officer Policarpo Toro managed to negotiate an incorporation of the island into Chile with native Rapanui in 1888, by occupying Easter Island, Chile joined the imperial nations
10.
Ensenada, Baja California
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Ensenada is a coastal city in Mexico, the third-largest in Baja California. Lying 125 kilometres south of San Diego on the Baja California Peninsula, it is referred to as La Cenicienta del Pacífico. It is said that the first Vitis vinifera made it to the regions San Ignacio Mission in 1703, situated on the coastline of Bahía de Todos Santos—an inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the peninsulas Gold Coast—the Port of Ensenada is an important commercial, fishing, and tourist port. The city is home to a base, army base, and Ensenada Airport. Ensenada is the seat and cultural and commercial center of Ensenada Municipality. As of 2015, the city of Ensenada had a population of 519,813, Ensenada is backed by small mountain ranges. Proximity to the Pacific and a warm Mediterranean latitude create mild year-round weather, the rainy season during the winter is short and the area is prone to prolonged droughts, which can threaten its grape harvests. The National Park Constitution of 1857 created the Sierra de Juarez and San Pedro Martir National Parks, when the first European explorers discovered the region, the Yuman Indians inhabited the region, of which tribal groups such as the Kiliwa, Paipai and Kumeyaay still exist. These semi-nomadic indigenous people lived in the bay area and interior valleys of the Sierra de Juárez, Bahia Todos Santos, on which Ensenada now stands, was first reached by sea by the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo on the vessels El Salvador and Victoria. The city was founded September 17,1542 under the name San Mateo, the first permanent settlement was established by the Jesuits during the seventeenth or eighteenth century. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1768, the Dominicans took over the representation of Europe in what is now Ensenada, in 1882, Ensenada was designated the capital of Baja California, and attempts at developing the area were made by the English Mexican Land and Colonization Company. These were interrupted by the Mexican Revolution, which left the area devastated, in 1915, the capital was transferred to Mexicali, and in 1930 the population of Ensenada was only 5,000. It really flourished only in the early 1950s, at which time Ensenadas population had risen to 20,000, the hotel finally closed in 1964. It was later reopened as a center and museum. By this time, other hotels had opened, and the population and economy of Ensenada had grown, Ensenada is predominantly a mid-rise building beach city. Several marinas including Ensenada Cruiseport Village, Hotel Coral & Marina, the Bajamar Oceanfront Golf Resort at Baja Mar is also located nearby to the north, and is a prominent seaside resort of Baja California. Many of the terrestrial or marine species inhabiting the surrounding the Greater Ensenada area in the Baja California islands are unique, Guadalupe Island, off the coast of the city, is one of the best places in the world for observing the great white shark. The island has been a sanctuary since 1975
11.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
12.
British Columbia
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British Columbia is the westernmost province of Canada, with a population of more than four million people located between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. British Columbia is also a component of the Pacific Northwest and the Cascadia bioregion, along with the U. S. states of Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The first British settlement in the area was Fort Victoria, established in 1843, subsequently, on the mainland, the Colony of British Columbia was founded by Richard Clement Moody and the Royal Engineers, Columbia Detachment, in response to the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Port Moody is named after him, in 1866, Vancouver Island became part of the colony of British Columbia, and Victoria became the united colonys capital. In 1871, British Columbia became the province of Canada. Its Latin motto is Splendor sine occasu, the capital of British Columbia remains Victoria, the fifteenth-largest metropolitan region in Canada, named for the Queen who created the original European colonies. The largest city is Vancouver, the third-largest metropolitan area in Canada, the largest in Western Canada, in October 2013, British Columbia had an estimated population of 4,606,371. British Columbia evolved from British possessions that were established in what is now British Columbia by 1871, First Nations, the original inhabitants of the land, have a history of at least 10,000 years in the area. Today there are few treaties and the question of Aboriginal Title, notably, the Tsilhqotin Nation has established Aboriginal title to a portion of their territory, as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. BCs economy is diverse, with service producing industries accounting for the largest portion of the provinces GDP and it is the endpoint of transcontinental railways, and the site of major Pacific ports that enable international trade. Though less than 5% of its vast 944,735 km2 land is arable and its climate encourages outdoor recreation and tourism, though its economic mainstay has long been resource extraction, principally logging, farming, and mining. Vancouver, the provinces largest city and metropolitan area, also serves as the headquarters of many western-based natural resource companies and it also benefits from a strong housing market and a per capita income well above the national average. The Northern Interior region has a climate with very cold winters. The climate of Vancouver is by far the mildest winter climate of the major Canadian cities, the provinces name was chosen by Queen Victoria, when the Colony of British Columbia, i. e. the Mainland, became a British colony in 1858. The current southern border of British Columbia was established by the 1846 Oregon Treaty, British Columbias land area is 944,735 square kilometres. British Columbias rugged coastline stretches for more than 27,000 kilometres and it is the only province in Canada that borders the Pacific Ocean. British Columbias capital is Victoria, located at the tip of Vancouver Island. Only a narrow strip of the Island, from Campbell River to Victoria, is significantly populated, much of the western part of Vancouver Island and the rest of the coast is covered by thick, tall and sometimes impenetrable temperate rainforest
13.
Canada
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Canada is a country in the northern half of North America. Canadas border with the United States is the worlds longest binational land border, the majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its territory being dominated by forest and tundra. It is highly urbanized with 82 per cent of the 35.15 million people concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, One third of the population lives in the three largest cities, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Its capital is Ottawa, and other urban areas include Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg. Various aboriginal peoples had inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years prior to European colonization. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1,1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick and this began an accretion of provinces and territories to the mostly self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. With the Constitution Act 1982, Canada took over authority, removing the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II being the head of state. The country is officially bilingual at the federal level and it is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many other countries. Its advanced economy is the eleventh largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources, Canadas long and complex relationship with the United States has had a significant impact on its economy and culture. Canada is a country and has the tenth highest nominal per capita income globally as well as the ninth highest ranking in the Human Development Index. It ranks among the highest in international measurements of government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic freedom, Canada is an influential nation in the world, primarily due to its inclusive values, years of prosperity and stability, stable economy, and efficient military. While a variety of theories have been postulated for the origins of Canada. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec City region used the word to direct French explorer Jacques Cartier to the village of Stadacona, from the 16th to the early 18th century Canada referred to the part of New France that lay along the St. Lawrence River. In 1791, the area became two British colonies called Upper Canada and Lower Canada collectively named The Canadas, until their union as the British Province of Canada in 1841. Upon Confederation in 1867, Canada was adopted as the name for the new country at the London Conference. The transition away from the use of Dominion was formally reflected in 1982 with the passage of the Canada Act, later that year, the name of national holiday was changed from Dominion Day to Canada Day
14.
Embryogenesis
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Embryogenesis is the process by which the embryo forms and develops. In mammals, the term refers chiefly to early stages of development, whereas the terms fetus. Embryogenesis starts with the fertilization of the egg cell by a sperm cell, once fertilized, the ovum is referred to as a zygote, a single diploid cell. The zygote undergoes mitotic divisions with no significant growth and cellular differentiation, the egg cell is generally asymmetric, having an animal pole and a vegetal pole. It is covered with protective envelopes, with different layers, the first envelope - the one in contact with the membrane of the egg - is made of glycoproteins and is known as the vitelline membrane. Different taxa show different cellular and acellular envelopes englobing the vitelline membrane, fertilization is the fusion of gametes to produce a new organism. In animals, the process involves a sperm fusing with an ovum, depending on the animal species, the process can occur within the body of the female in internal fertilisation, or outside in the case of external fertilisation. The fertilized egg cell is known as the zygote, cell division with no significant growth, producing a cluster of cells that is the same size as the original zygote, is called cleavage. At least four initial cell divisions occur, resulting in a ball of at least sixteen cells called the morula. The different cells derived from cleavage, up to the stage, are called blastomeres. Depending mostly on the amount of yolk in the egg, the cleavage can be holoblastic or meroblastic, on the other hand, meroblastic cleavage occurs in animals whose eggs have more yolk, i. e. birds and reptiles. Because cleavage is impeded in the pole, there is a very uneven distribution and size of cells, being more numerous. In holoblastic eggs the first cleavage always occurs along the axis of the egg. Fluid collects between the trophoblast and the part of the inner cell-mass, and thus the morula is converted into a vesicle. After the 7th cleavage has produced 128 cells, the embryo is called a blastula, the blastula is usually a spherical layer of cells surrounding a fluid-filled or yolk-filled cavity. Mammals at this form a structure called the blastocyst, characterized by an inner cell mass that is distinct from the surrounding blastula. The blastocyst must not be confused with the blastula, even though they are similar in structure, their cells have different fates. On the deep surface of the cell mass, a layer of flattened cells, called the endoderm, is differentiated and quickly assumes the form of a small sac
15.
University of St Andrews
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The University of St Andrews is a British public research university in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland, St Andrews was founded between 1410 and 1413, when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy. St Andrews is made up from a variety of institutions, including three constituent colleges and 18 academic schools organised into four faculties, the university occupies historic and modern buildings located throughout the town. The academic year is divided into two terms, Martinmas and Candlemas, in term time, over one-third of the towns population is either a staff member or student of the university. It is ranked as the third best university in the United Kingdom in national league tables, the Times Higher Education World Universities Ranking names St Andrews among the worlds Top 50 universities for Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. St Andrews has the highest student satisfaction amongst all multi-faculty universities in the United Kingdom, St Andrews has many notable alumni and affiliated faculty, including eminent mathematicians, scientists, theologians, philosophers, and politicians. Six Nobel Laureates are among St Andrews alumni and former staff, a charter of privilege was bestowed upon the society of masters and scholars by the Bishop of St Andrews, Henry Wardlaw, on 28 February 1411. Wardlaw then successfully petitioned the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII to grant the university status by issuing a series of papal bulls. King James I of Scotland confirmed the charter of the university in 1432, subsequent kings supported the university with King James V confirming privileges of the university in 1532. A college of theology and arts called St Johns College was founded in 1418 by Robert of Montrose, St Salvators College was established in 1450, by Bishop James Kennedy. St Leonards College was founded in 1511 by Archbishop Alexander Stewart, St Johns College was refounded by Cardinal James Beaton under the name St Marys College in 1538 for the study of divinity and law. Some university buildings that date from this period are still in use today, such as St Salvators Chapel, St Leonards College Chapel, at this time, the majority of the teaching was of a religious nature and was conducted by clerics associated with the cathedral. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the university had mixed fortunes and was beset by civil. He described it as pining in decay and struggling for life, in the second half of the 19th century, pressure was building upon universities to open up higher education to women. In 1876, the University Senate decided to allow women to receive an education at St Andrews at a roughly equal to the Master of Arts degree that men were able to take at the time. The scheme came to be known as the L. L. A and it required women to pass five subjects at an ordinary level and one at honours level and entitled them to hold a degree from the university. In 1889 the Universities Act made it possible to admit women to St Andrews. Agnes Forbes Blackadder became the first woman to graduate from St Andrews on the level as men in October 1894
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Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory
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The William G. Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology. It is located 101 Dahlia Street, in the Corona del Mar district of Newport Beach, in Orange County, history The marine laboratory was established by biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan in 1928 to replicate the facilities at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy. It is one of the oldest marine laboratories on the West Coast of the United States, from 1962 until his death in 2002, Dr. Wheeler J. North conducted numerous studies on the ecology of the California kelp forests while based at this laboratory. During the 1990s and 2000s investigators included members of the Eric Davidson lab working on various marine biology related projects
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California Institute of Technology
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The California Institute of Technology is a private doctorate-granting university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910, the university is one among a small group of Institutes of Technology in the United States which is primarily devoted to the instruction of technical arts and applied sciences. Caltech has six divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering, managing $332 million in 2011 in sponsored research. Its 124-acre primary campus is located approximately 11 mi northeast of downtown Los Angeles, first-year students are required to live on campus, and 95% of undergraduates remain in the on-campus House System at Caltech. Although Caltech has a tradition of practical jokes and pranks. The Caltech Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division IIIs Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Caltech is frequently cited as one of the worlds best universities. There are 112 faculty members who have elected to the United States National Academies. In addition, numerous faculty members are associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as NASA, according to a 2015 Pomona College study, Caltech ranked number one in the U. S. for the percentage of its graduates who go on to earn a PhD. Caltech started as a school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was known successively as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, the vocational school was disbanded and the preparatory program was split off to form an independent Polytechnic School in 1907. At a time when research in the United States was still in its infancy, George Ellery Hale. He joined Throops board of trustees in 1907, and soon began developing it and he engineered the appointment of James A. B. Scherer, a literary scholar untutored in science but a capable administrator and fund raiser, scherer persuaded retired businessman and trustee Charles W. Gates to donate $25,000 in seed money to build Gates Laboratory, the first science building on campus. In 1910, Throop moved to its current site, arther Fleming donated the land for the permanent campus site. The promise of Throop attracted physical chemist Arthur Amos Noyes from MIT to develop the institution and assist in establishing it as a center for science, with the onset of World War I, Hale organized the National Research Council to coordinate and support scientific work on military problems. This institution, with its able investigators and excellent research laboratories, through the National Research Council, Hale simultaneously lobbied for science to play a larger role in national affairs, and for Throop to play a national role in science. During the course of the war, Hale, Noyes and Millikan worked together in Washington on the NRC, subsequently, they continued their partnership in developing Caltech. Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes and Millikan, Caltech grew to prominence in the 1920s
18.
Baylor College of Medicine
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Baylor College of Medicine, located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, US, is a health sciences university. It includes a school, Baylor College of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of Allied Health Sciences. The medical school has been considered in the top-tier of programs in the country. Its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is among the top 25 graduate schools in the United States, within the School of Allied Health Sciences, the nurse anesthesia ranks 5th and the physician assistant program ranks 6th. A program in Orthotics and Prosthetics began in 2013, with 18 students in the first class, the National School of Tropical Medicine is the only school in the nation dedicated exclusively to patient care, research, education and policy related to neglected tropical diseases. On June 21,2010, Dr. Paul Klotman was named as the President, in January 2014, the College and CHI St. Lukes became joint owners of Baylor St. Lukes Medical Center. The school was formed in Dallas, Texas by a group of Baylor University alumni physicians who aimed to improve medical practice in North Texas. Originally called the University of Dallas Medical Department, the school opened its doors October 30,1900, Dr. Albert Ferdinand Beddoe, A. B. M. D. was a co-founder. He established the chair of Diseases of Children and became a professor and he built up the free clinic in connection with Baylor hospital. In 1903, an alliance with Baylor University in Waco was formed, by 1918, Baylor University College of Medicine was the only private medical school in Texas. The M. D. Anderson Foundation invited Baylor to join the newly formed Texas Medical Center in Houston in 1943, the school opened in the medical center July 12,1943, in a converted Sears, Roebuck & Co. warehouse, with 131 students. Four years later, Baylor moved to its present site in the Roy and Lillie Cullen Building, in 1948, Michael E. DeBakey joined the faculty as chair of the Department of Surgery, and the following year, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was established. Baylors rise in prominence began in the 1950s when DeBakeys surgical techniques garnered international attention, in the 1960s, the college underwent its first major expansion. In 1969, the college separated from Baylor University and became an independent institution and that same year, BCM negotiated with the Texas Legislature to double its class size in order to increase the number of physicians in Texas. In 2005, Baylor College of Medicine began building a hospital and clinic, to be called the Baylor Clinic and Hospital, in 2009, the college postponed construction for financial reasons, with the outer shell of the hospital completed but the interiors remaining unfinished. In March 2012, BCM decided to convert the building to an outpatient clinic center, in 2009, BCM entered into discussions with Rice University regarding a potential merger between the two Houston institutions. After extensive meetings, the boards at both institutions decided that school would remain an independent. In 2010, Baylor University entered into talks with BCM to strengthening ties to other, however
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Invertebrate
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Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column, derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart from the subphylum Vertebrata, familiar examples of invertebrates include insects, crabs, lobsters and their kin, snails, clams, octopuses and their kin, starfish, sea-urchins and their kin, jellyfish, and worms. The majority of species are invertebrates, one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many invertebrate taxa have a number and variety of species than the entire subphylum of Vertebrata. Some of the invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata are more closely related to the vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the term invertebrate paraphyletic and hence almost meaningless for taxonomic purposes, the word invertebrate comes from the form of the Latin word vertebra, which means a joint in general, and sometimes specifically a joint from the spinal column of a vertebrate. In turn the jointed aspect of vertebra derived from the concept of turning, coupled with the prefix in-, meaning not or without. The term invertebrates is not always precise among non-biologists since it does not accurately describe a taxon in the way that Arthropoda. Each of these describes an valid taxon, phylum, subphylum or family. Invertebrata is a term of convenience, not a taxon, it has very little circumscriptional significance except within the Chordata, the Vertebrata as a subphylum comprises such a small proportion of the Metazoa that to speak of the kingdom Animalia in terms of Vertebrata and Invertebrata has limited practicality. That would at least circumscribe the Chordata, however, even the notochord would be a less fundamental criterion than aspects of embryological development and symmetry or perhaps bauplan. The following text reflects earlier scientific understanding of the term and of animals which have constituted it. According to this understanding, invertebrates do not possess a skeleton of bone and they include hugely varied body plans. Many have fluid-filled, hydrostatic skeletons, like jellyfish or worms, others have hard exoskeletons, outer shells like those of insects and crustaceans. The most familiar invertebrates include the Protozoa, Porifera, Coelenterata, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Echinodermata, Mollusca, Arthropoda include insects, crustaceans and arachnids. By far the largest number of described species are insects. The following table lists the number of described extant species for major invertebrate groups as estimated in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species,2014.3. The IUCN estimates that 66,178 extant vertebrate species have been described, the trait that is common to all invertebrates is the absence of a vertebral column, this creates a distinction between invertebrates and vertebrates
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Endoskeleton
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An endoskeleton is an internal support structure of an animal, composed of mineralized tissue. An endoskeleton is a skeleton that is on the inside of a body, the endoskeleton develops within the skin or in the deeper body tissues. The vertebrate endoskeleton is basically made up of two types of tissues, during early embryonic development the endoskeleton is composed of notochord and cartilage. The notochord in most vertebrates is replaced by the vertebral column, in three phyla and one subclass of animals, endoskeletons of various complexity are found, Chordata, Echinodermata, Porifera, and Coleoidea. An endoskeleton may function purely for support, but often serves as an attachment site for muscle, a true endoskeleton is derived from mesodermal tissue. Such a skeleton is present in echinoderms and chordates, the poriferan skeleton consists of microscopic calcareous or siliceous spicules or a spongin network
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Immune system
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The immune system is a host defense system comprising many biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease. To function properly, a system must detect a wide variety of agents, known as pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms. In many species, the system can be classified into subsystems, such as the innate immune system versus the adaptive immune system. In humans, the barrier, blood–cerebrospinal fluid barrier, and similar fluid–brain barriers separate the peripheral immune system from the neuroimmune system. Even simple unicellular organisms such as bacteria possess a rudimentary immune system in the form of enzymes that protect against bacteriophage infections, other basic immune mechanisms evolved in ancient eukaryotes and remain in their modern descendants, such as plants and invertebrates. These mechanisms include phagocytosis, antimicrobial peptides called defensins, and the complement system, jawed vertebrates, including humans, have even more sophisticated defense mechanisms, including the ability to adapt over time to recognize specific pathogens more efficiently. Adaptive immunity creates immunological memory after a response to a specific pathogen. This process of acquired immunity is the basis of vaccination, disorders of the immune system can result in autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancer. Immunodeficiency occurs when the system is less active than normal. In humans, immunodeficiency can either be the result of a disease such as severe combined immunodeficiency, acquired conditions such as HIV/AIDS. In contrast, autoimmunity results from an immune system attacking normal tissues as if they were foreign organisms. Common autoimmune diseases include Hashimotos thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus type 1, immunology covers the study of all aspects of the immune system. Immunology is a science that examines the structure and function of the immune system and it originates from medicine and early studies on the causes of immunity to disease. The earliest known reference to immunity was during the plague of Athens in 430 BC, thucydides noted that people who had recovered from a previous bout of the disease could nurse the sick without contracting the illness a second time. In the 18th century, Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis made experiments with scorpion venom and observed that certain dogs and this and other observations of acquired immunity were later exploited by Louis Pasteur in his development of vaccination and his proposed germ theory of disease. Pasteurs theory was in opposition to contemporary theories of disease. It was not until Robert Kochs 1891 proofs, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1905, viruses were confirmed as human pathogens in 1901, with the discovery of the yellow fever virus by Walter Reed. Immunology made an advance towards the end of the 19th century, through rapid developments, in the study of humoral immunity
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Deuterostome
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Deuterostomes are any members of a superphylum of animals. It is a clade of Protostomia, with which it forms the Nephrozoa clade. Deuterostomes are also known as enterocoelomates because their coelom develops through enterocoely, the phylum Chaetognatha may belong here, but molecular studies have placed them in the protostomes more often. Extinct deuterostome groups may include the phylum Vetulicolia, echinodermata and Hemichordata form the clade Ambulacraria. In both deuterostomes and protostomes, a zygote first develops into a ball of cells, called a blastula. In deuterostomes, the early divisions occur parallel or perpendicular to the polar axis and this is called radial cleavage, and also occurs in certain protostomes, such as the lophophorates. Most deuterostomes display indeterminate cleavage, in which the fate of the cells in the developing embryo are not determined by the identity of the parent cell. Thus, if the first four cells are separated, each cell is capable of forming a small larva, and if a cell is removed from the blastula. In deuterostomes the mesoderm forms as evaginations of the gut that pinch off. Both the Hemichordata and Chordata have gill slits, and primitive fossil echinoderms also show signs of gill slits, a hollow nerve cord is found in all chordates, including tunicates. Some hemichordates also have a nerve cord. In the early stage, it looks like the hollow nerve cord of chordates. It could have resembled the small group of Cambrian urochordate deuterostomes named Vetulicolia, the defining characteristic of the deuterostome is the fact that the blastopore becomes the anus, whereas in protostomes the blastopore becomes the mouth. The deuterostome mouth develops at the end of the embryo from the blastopore. The majority of more complex than jellyfish and other Cnidarians are split into two groups, the protostomes and deuterostomes. It seems likely that the 555 million year old Kimberella was a member of the protostomes. e, during the later part of the Ediacaran Era. The oldest discovered proposed deuterostome is Saccorhytus coronarius, which lived approximately 540 million years ago, the researchers that made the discovery believe that the Saccorhytus is a common ancestor to all previously-known deuterostomes. Fossils of one major group, the echinoderms, are quite common from the start of Series 2 of the Cambrian,521 million years ago
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Vertebrate
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Vertebrates /ˈvɜːrtᵻbrᵻts/ comprise all species of animals within the subphylum Vertebrata /-ɑː/. Vertebrates represent the majority of the phylum Chordata, with currently about 66,000 species described. Vertebrates include the fish and the jawed vertebrates, which include the cartilaginous fish. A bony fish known as the lobe-finned fishes is included with tetrapods, which are further divided into amphibians, reptiles, mammals. Extant vertebrates range in size from the frog species Paedophryne amauensis, at as little as 7.7 mm, to the blue whale, vertebrates make up less than five percent of all described animal species, the rest are invertebrates, which lack vertebral columns. The vertebrates traditionally include the hagfish, which do not have proper vertebrae due to their loss in evolution, though their closest living relatives, hagfish do, however, possess a cranium. For this reason, the vertebrate subphylum is sometimes referred to as Craniata when discussing morphology, molecular analysis since 1992 has suggested that hagfish are most closely related to lampreys, and so also are vertebrates in a monophyletic sense. Others consider them a group of vertebrates in the common taxon of craniata. The word origin of vertebrate derives from the Latin word vertebratus, the Proto-Indo-European language origins are still unclear. Vertebrate is derived from the vertebra, which refers to any of the bones or segments of the spinal column. All vertebrates are built along the basic body plan, a stiff rod running through the length of the animal, with a hollow tube of nervous tissue above it. In all vertebrates, the mouth is found at, or right below, the remaining part of the body continuing after the anus forms a tail with vertebrae and spinal cord, but no gut. However, a few vertebrates have secondarily lost this anatomy, retaining the notochord into adulthood, such as the sturgeon, jawed vertebrates are typified by paired appendages, but this trait is not required in order for an animal to be a vertebrate. All basal vertebrates breathe with gills, the gills are carried right behind the head, bordering the posterior margins of a series of openings from the pharynx to the exterior. Each gill is supported by a cartilagenous or bony gill arch, the bony fish have three pairs of arches, cartilaginous fish have five to seven pairs, while the primitive jawless fish have seven. The vertebrate ancestor no doubt had more arches than this, as some of their relatives have more than 50 pairs of gills. In amphibians and some primitive fishes, the larvae bear external gills. These are reduced in adulthood, their function taken over by the gills proper in fishes, some amphibians retain the external larval gills in adulthood, the complex internal gill system as seen in fish apparently being irrevocably lost very early in the evolution of tetrapods
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Intron
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An intron is any nucleotide sequence within a gene that is removed by RNA splicing during maturation of the final RNA product. The term intron refers to both the DNA sequence within a gene and the sequence in RNA transcripts. Sequences that are joined together in the final mature RNA after RNA splicing are exons. Introns are found in the genes of most organisms and many viruses, and can be located in a range of genes, including those that generate proteins, ribosomal RNA. When proteins are generated from intron-containing genes, RNA splicing takes place as part of the RNA processing pathway that follows transcription, the word intron is derived from the term intragenic region, i. e. a region inside a gene. Introns were first discovered in protein-coding genes of adenovirus, and were identified in genes encoding transfer RNA. Introns are now known to occur within a variety of genes throughout organisms. The frequency of introns within different genomes is observed to vary widely across the spectrum of biological organisms, in contrast, the mitochondrial genomes of vertebrates are entirely devoid of introns, while those of eukaryotic microorganisms may contain many introns. A particularly extreme case is the Drosophila dhc7 gene containing a ≥3.6 Mb intron, splicing of all intron-containing RNA molecules is superficially similar, as described above. However, different types of introns were identified through the examination of intron structure by DNA sequence analysis, together with genetic and they appear to be related to group II introns, and possibly to spliceosomal introns. Nuclear pre-mRNA introns are characterized by specific intron sequences located at the boundaries between introns and exons and these sequences are recognized by spliceosomal RNA molecules when the splicing reactions are initiated. Apart from these three short conserved elements, nuclear pre-mRNA intron sequences are highly variable, nuclear pre-mRNA introns are often much longer than their surrounding exons. Transfer RNA introns that depend upon proteins for removal occur at a location within the anticodon loop of unspliced tRNA precursors. The exons are then linked together by a protein, the tRNA splicing ligase. Note that self-splicing introns are also found within tRNA genes. Group I and group II introns are found in genes encoding proteins, transfer RNA, following transcription into RNA, group I and group II introns also make extensive internal interactions that allow them to fold into a specific, complex three-dimensional architecture. While introns do not encode protein products, they are integral to gene expression regulation, some introns themselves encode functional RNAs through further processing after splicing to generate noncoding RNA molecules. Alternative splicing is widely used to generate multiple proteins from a single gene, furthermore, some introns play essential roles in a wide range of gene expression regulatory functions such as non-sense mediated decay and mRNA export
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Toll-like receptor
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Toll-like receptors are a class of proteins that play a key role in the innate immune system. Once these microbes have breached physical barriers such as the skin or intestinal mucosa, they are recognized by TLRs. The TLRs include TLR1, TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, TLR5, TLR6, TLR7, TLR8, TLR9, TLR10, TLR11, TLR12 and they received their name from their similarity to the protein coded by the toll gene identified in Drosophila in 1985 by Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard. Upon activation, TLRs recruit adapter proteins within the cytosol of the cell in order to propagate the antigen-induced signal transduction pathway. Some of these lead to cytokine production, proliferation, and survival. If the ligand is a factor, the pathogen might be phagocytosed and digested. In the case of a factor, the infected cell may shut off its protein synthesis. Immune cells that have detected a virus may also release anti-viral factors such as interferons, toll-like receptors have also been shown to be an important link between innate and adaptive immunity through their presence in dendritic cells. Flagellin, a TLR5 ligand induces cytokine secretion on interacting with TLR5 on human T cells, three subgroups of TIR domains exist. Proteins with subgroup 1 TIR domains are receptors for interleukins that are produced by macrophages, monocytes, proteins with subgroup 2 TIR domains are classical TLRs, and bind directly or indirectly to molecules of microbial origin. A third subgroup of proteins containing TIR domains consists of proteins that are exclusively cytosolic. TLRs are present in vertebrates, as well as in invertebrates, molecular building blocks of the TLRs are represented in bacteria and in plants, and plant pattern recognition receptors are well known to be required for host defence against infection. The TLRs thus appear to be one of the most ancient, in recent years TLRs were identified also in the mammalian nervous system. Members of the TLR family were detected on glia, neurons and it has been estimated that most mammalian species have between ten and fifteen types of toll-like receptors. Thirteen TLRs have been identified in humans and mice together, however, equivalents of certain TLR found in humans are not present in all mammals. For example, a gene coding for an analogous to TLR10 in humans is present in mice. On the other hand, mice express TLRs 11,12, other mammals may express TLRs that are not found in humans. Other non-mammalian species may have TLRs distinct from mammals, as demonstrated by TLR14 and this may complicate the process of using experimental animals as models of human innate immunity
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Leucine-rich repeat
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A leucine-rich repeat is a protein structural motif that forms an α/β horseshoe fold. It is composed of repeating 20–30 amino acid stretches that are rich in the hydrophobic amino acid leucine. These repeats commonly fold together to form a protein domain. One face of the sheet and one side of the helix array are exposed to solvent and are therefore dominated by hydrophilic residues. The region between the helices and sheets is the hydrophobic core and is tightly sterically packed with leucine residues. Leucine-rich repeats are involved in the formation of protein–protein interactions. Leucine-rich repeat motifs have been identified in a number of functionally unrelated proteins. The best-known example is the inhibitor, but other proteins such as the tropomyosin regulator tropomodulin. In fact, the toll-like receptor possesses 10 successive LRR motifs which serve to bind pathogen-, leucine-rich repeats are often flanked by N-terminal and C-terminal cysteine-rich domains. They also co-occur with LRR adjacent domains and these are small, all beta strand domains, which have been structurally described for the protein Internalin and related proteins InlB, InlE, InlH from the pathogenic bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. Their function appears to be structural, They are fused to the C-terminal end of leucine-rich repeats, significantly stabilising the LRR. They are themselves not involved in protein-protein-interactions but help to present the adjacent LRR-domain for this purpose and these domains belong to the family of Ig-like domains in that they consist of two sandwiched beta sheets that follow the classical connectivity of Ig-domains. The beta strands in one of the sheets is, however, much smaller than in most standard Ig-like domains, an iron sulphur cluster is found at the N-terminus of some proteins containing the leucine-rich repeat variant domain. Biochemical studies revealed that the 4Fe, 4S cluster is sensitive to oxygen, leucine zipper Tooze, John, Brändén, Carl-Ivar. Wei T, Gong J, Jamitzky F, Heckl WM, Stark RW, LRRML, a conformational database and an XML description of leucine-rich repeats
27.
Biomineralization
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Biomineralization is the process by which living organisms produce minerals, often to harden or stiffen existing tissues. Such tissues are called mineralized tissues and it is an extremely widespread phenomenon, all six taxonomic kingdoms contain members that are able to form minerals, and over 60 different minerals have been identified in organisms. Examples include silicates in algae and diatoms, carbonates in invertebrates and these minerals often form structural features such as sea shells and the bone in mammals and birds. Organisms have been producing mineralised skeletons for the past 550 million years, other examples include copper, iron and gold deposits involving bacteria. Biologically-formed minerals often have special uses such as sensors in magnetotactic bacteria, gravity sensing devices and iron storage. The structures of these materials are highly controlled from the nanometer to the macroscopic level. Biominerals perform a variety of roles in organisms, the most important being support, defense, if present on a super-cellular scale, biominerals are usually deposited by a dedicated organ, which is often defined very early in the embryological development. This organ will contain a matrix that facilitates and directs the deposition of crystals. The matrix may be collagen, as in deuterostomes, or based on chitin or other polysaccharides, the mollusc shell is a biogenic composite material that has been the subject of much interest in materials science because of its unusual properties and its model character for biomineralization. Molluscan shells consist of 95–99% calcium carbonate by weight, while an organic component makes up the remaining 1–5%, the resulting composite has a fracture toughness ~3000 times greater than that of the crystals themselves. The most common mineral present in biomineralization is hydroxyapatite, which is a naturally occurring form of calcium apatite with the formula Ca1062. Hydroxyapatite crystals are found in biological materials including bones, fish scales. Each material has a mineral content which corresponds with the mechanical properties. The first evidence of dates to some 750 million years ago. But in most lineages, biomineralization first occurred in the Cambrian or Ordovician periods, the stability is dependent on the Ca/Mg ratio of seawater, which is thought to be controlled primarily by the rate of sea floor spreading, although atmospheric CO2 levels may also play a role. Biomineralization evolved multiple times, independently, and most animal lineages first expressed biomineralized components in the Cambrian period, forms of mucus that are involved in inducing mineralization in most metazoan lineages appear to have performed such an anticalcifatory function in the ancestral state. Carbonic anhydrase serves a role in mineralization in sponges, as well as metazoans and this points to the exaptation of an original biomineralization pathway. Iron is stored in proximity to magnetite-coated chiton teeth, so that the teeth can be renewed as they wear
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Transmembrane protein
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A transmembrane protein is a type of integral membrane protein that spans the entirety of the biological membrane to which it is permanently attached. Many transmembrane proteins function as gateways to permit the transport of substances across the biological membrane. They frequently undergo significant conformational changes to move a substance through the membrane, Transmembrane proteins are polytopic proteins that aggregate and precipitate in water. They require detergents or nonpolar solvents for extraction, although some of them can be extracted using denaturing agents. The other type of membrane protein is the integral monotopic protein that is also permanently attached to the cell membrane. There are two types of transmembrane proteins, alpha-helical and beta-barrels. Alpha-helical proteins are present in the membranes of bacterial cells or the plasma membrane of eukaryotes. This is the category of transmembrane proteins. In humans, 27% of all proteins have been estimated to be membrane proteins. Beta-barrel proteins are so far only in outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria, cell wall of gram-positive bacteria. All beta-barrel transmembrane proteins have simplest up-and-down topology, which may reflect their evolutionary origin. This classification refers to the position of the N- and C-terminal domains, types I, II, and III are single-pass molecules, while type IV are multiple-pass molecules. Type I transmembrane proteins are anchored to the membrane with a stop-transfer anchor sequence and have their N-terminal domains targeted to the ER lumen during synthesis. Type IV is subdivided into IV-A, with their N-terminal domains targeted to the cytosol and IV-B, Membrane protein structures can be determined by X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy or NMR spectroscopy. The most common structures of these proteins are transmembrane helix bundle. The portion of the proteins that are attached to the lipid bilayer consist mostly of hydrophobic amino acids. Membrane proteins have hydrophobic surfaces, are flexible and are expressed at relatively low levels. This creates difficulties in obtaining protein and then growing crystals
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P16
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P16, is a tumor suppressor protein, that in humans is encoded by the CDKN2A gene. P16 can be used to improve the histological diagnostic accuracy of CIN3, the CDKN2A gene is frequently mutated or deleted in a wide variety of tumors. P16 is an inhibitor of cyclin dependent kinases such as CDK4 and these latter kinases phosphorylate retinoblastoma protein which eventually results in progression from G1 phase to S phase. P16 was originally found in a reading frame of 148 amino acids encoding a protein of molecular weight 15,845 comprising four ankyrin repeats. ”P16Ink4A is named after its molecular weight. This gene generates transcript variants that differ in their first exons. At least three alternatively spliced variants encoding distinct proteins have been reported, two of which encode structurally related isoforms known to function as inhibitors of CDK4. The ARF product functions as a stabilizer of the tumor suppressor protein p53, as it can interact with and sequester MDM2 and this gene is frequently mutated or deleted in a wide variety of tumors and is known to be an important tumor suppressor gene. Increased expression of the p16 gene as organisms age reduces the proliferation of stem cells and this reduction in the division and production of stem cells protects against cancer while increasing the risks associated with cellular senescence. P16 is a cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor that slows down the cycle by prohibiting progression from G1 phase to S phase. Normally, CDK4/6 binds cyclin D and forms a protein complex that phosphorylates retinoblastoma protein. Once phosphorylated, pRB disassociates from the transcription factor E2F1, liberating E2F1 from its cytoplasm bound state allowing it to enter the nucleus, once in the nucleus, E2F1 promotes the transcription of target genes that are essential for transition from G1 to S phase. P16 acts as a suppressor by binding to CDK4/6 and preventing its interaction with cyclin D. This interaction ultimately inhibits the activities of transcription factors, such as E2F1. This pathway connects the processes of tumor oncogenesis and senescence, fixing them on opposite ends of a spectrum, on one end, the hypermethylation, mutation, or deletion of p16 leads to downregulation of the gene and can lead to cancer through the dysregulation of cell cycle progression. Conversely, activation of p16 through the ROS pathway, DNA damage and these pathways are activated in cellular response to reduce senescence. Examples include, Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is often associated with mutations in the CDKN2A gene, homozygous deletion of p16 are frequently found in esophageal cancer and gastric cancer cell lines. Germline mutations in CDKN2A are associated with a susceptibility to develop skin cancer. Hypermethylation of tumor suppressor genes has been implicated in various cancers, in 2013, a meta-analysis of 39 articles using analysis cancer tissues and 7 articles using blood samples, revealed an increased frequency of DNA methylation of p16 gene in esophageal cancer
30.
Homology (biology)
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In biology, homology is the existence of shared ancestry between a pair of structures, or genes, in different taxa. Evolutionary biology explains homologous structures adapted to different purposes as the result of descent with modification from a common ancestor, examples include the legs of a centipede, the maxillary palp and labial palp of an insect, and the spinous processes of successive vertebrae in a vertebral column. Sequence homology between protein or DNA sequences is defined in terms of shared ancestry. Two segments of DNA can have shared ancestry because of either an event or a duplication event. Homology among proteins or DNA is inferred from their sequence similarity, significant similarity is strong evidence that two sequences are related by divergent evolution from a common ancestor. Alignments of multiple sequences are used to discover the homologous regions, the word homology, coined in about 1656, derives from the Greek ὁμόλογος homologos from ὁμός homos same and λόγος logos relation. Homology is the relationship between biological structures or sequences that are derived from a common ancestor, for example, many insects possess two pairs of flying wings. In beetles, the first pair of wings has evolved into a pair of hard wing covers, the same major forearm bones are found in fossils of lobe-finned fish such as Eusthenopteron. The opposite of homologous organs are analogous organs which do similar jobs in two taxa that were not present in their last common ancestor but rather evolved separately. For example, the wings of insects and birds evolved independently in widely separated groups, similarly, the wings of a sycamore maple seed and the wings of a bird are analogous but not homologous, as they develop from quite different structures. A structure can be homologous at one level, but only analogous at another, for example, in the pterosaurs, the wing involves both the forelimb and the hindlimb. Analogy is called homoplasy in cladistics, and convergent or parallel evolution in evolutionary biology, specialised terms are used in taxonomic research. Primary homology is that initially conjectured by a researcher based on similar structure or anatomical connections, secondary homology is implied by parsimony analysis, where a character that only occurs once on a tree is taken to be homologous. As implied in this definition, many cladists consider homology to be synonymous with synapomorphy, homologies provide the fundamental basis for all biological classification, although some may be highly counter-intuitive. The homologies between these have been discovered by comparing genes in evolutionary developmental biology, among insects, the stinger of the female honey bee is a modified ovipositor, homologous with ovipositors in other insects such as the Orthoptera, Hemiptera, and those Hymenoptera without stingers. The three small bones in the ear of mammals including humans, the malleus, incus. The malleus and incus develop in the embryo from structures that form jaw bones in lizards, both lines of evidence show that these bones are homologous, sharing a common ancestor. Among the many homologies in mammal reproductive systems, ovaries and testicles are homologous, in many plants, defensive or storage structures are made by modifications of the development of primary leaves, stems, and roots
31.
Reelin
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Reelin is a large secreted extracellular matrix glycoprotein that helps regulate processes of neuronal migration and positioning in the developing brain by controlling cell–cell interactions. Besides this important role in development, reelin continues to work in the adult brain. It modulates synaptic plasticity by enhancing the induction and maintenance of long-term potentiation and it also stimulates dendrite and dendritic spine development and regulates the continuing migration of neuroblasts generated in adult neurogenesis sites like subventricular and subgranular zones. It is found not only in the brain, but also in the cord, blood. Reelin has been suggested to be implicated in pathogenesis of several brain diseases, moreover, epigenetic hypotheses aimed at explaining the changed levels of reelin expression are controversial. Total lack of reelin causes a form of lissencephaly, Reelin may also play a role in Alzheimers disease, temporal lobe epilepsy and autism. Reelins name comes from the abnormal reeling gait of reeler mice, the primary phenotype associated with loss of reelin function is a failure of neuronal positioning throughout the developing central nervous system. The mice heterozygous for the gene, while having little neuroanatomical defects. Mutant mice have provided insight into the molecular mechanisms of the development of the central nervous system. A number of mice were found and given descriptive names such as reeler, weaver, lurcher, nervous. The reeler mouse was described for the first time in 1951 by D. S. Falconer in Edinburgh University as a spontaneous variant arising in a colony of mice maintained by geneticist Charlotte Auerbach. Histopathological studies in the 1960s revealed that the cerebellum of reeler mice is dramatically decreased in size while the normal laminar organization found in brain regions is disrupted. The 1970s brought about the discovery of cellular layer inversion in the mouse neocortex, in 1994, a new allele of reeler was obtained by means of insertional mutagenesis. This provided the first molecular marker of the locus, permitting the RELN gene to be mapped to chromosome 7q22 and they noted that CR-50 reacted specifically with Cajal-Retzius neurons, whose functional role was unknown until then. They then went on to show that the knockout mice for ApoER2 and VLDLR. The downstream pathway of reelin was further clarified with the help of other mutant mice, including yotari and these mutants have phenotypes similar to that of reeler mice, but without mutation in reelin. It was then demonstrated that the mouse disabled homologue 1 gene is responsible for the phenotypes of these mutant mice, targeted disruption of Dab1 also caused a phenotype similar to that of reeler. Pinpointing the DAB1 as a regulator of the reelin signaling cascade started the tedious process of deciphering its complex interactions
32.
VLGR1
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G protein-coupled receptor 98, also known as GPR98 or VLGR1, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GPR98 gene. Several alternatively spliced transcripts have been described, the adhesion GPCR Very Large GPCR receptor 1 is the largest GPCR known, with a size of 6300 amino acids and consisting of 90 exons. There are 8 splice variants of VlgR1, named VlgR1a-1e and Mass1. 1-1.3, the N-terminus consists of 5800 amino acids containing 35 Calx-beta domains, one pentraxin domain, and one epilepsy associated repeat. Mutations of VlgR1 have been shown to result in Ushers syndrome, knockouts of Vlgr1 in mice have been shown to phenocopy Ushers syndrome and lead to audiogenic seizures. This gene encodes a member of the family of receptors. The protein binds calcium and is expressed in the nervous system. It is also known as very large G-protein coupled receptor 1 because it is 6300 residues long and it contains a C-terminal 7-transmembrane receptor domain, whereas the large N-terminal segment includes 35 calcium binding Calx-beta domains, and 6 EAR domains. The Sea Urchin genome has a homolog of VLGR1 in it, mutations in this gene are associated with Usher syndrome 2 and familial febrile seizures. GeneReviews/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on Usher Syndrome Type II
33.
Sea otter
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The sea otter is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg, making them the heaviest members of the family. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otters primary form of insulation is a thick coat of fur. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter lives mostly in the ocean, the sea otter inhabits offshore environments, where it dives to the sea floor to forage. It preys mostly on invertebrates such as sea urchins, various molluscs and crustaceans. Its foraging and eating habits are noteworthy in several respects, First, its use of rocks to dislodge prey and to open shells makes it one of the few mammal species to use tools. In most of its range, it is a keystone species and its diet includes prey species that are also valued by humans as food, leading to conflicts between sea otters and fisheries. For these reasons, the sea otter remains classified as an endangered species, the first scientific description of the sea otter is contained in the field notes of Georg Steller from 1751, and the species was described by Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae of 1758. Originally named Lutra marina, it underwent numerous changes before being accepted as Enhydra lutris in 1922. The generic name Enhydra, derives from the Ancient Greek en/εν in and hydra/ύδρα water, meaning in the water, the sea otter was formerly sometimes referred to as the sea beaver, being the marine fur-bearer similar in commercial value to the terrestrial beaver. Rodents are not closely related to otters, which are carnivores and it is not to be confused with the marine otter, a rare otter species native to the southern west coast of South America. A number of other species, while predominantly living in fresh water, are commonly found in marine coastal habitats. The extinct sea mink of northeast North America is another mustelid that had adapted to a marine environment, the sea otter is the heaviest member of the family Mustelidae, a diverse group that includes the 13 otter species and terrestrial animals such as weasels, badgers, and minks. It is unique among the mustelids in not making dens or burrows, in having no functional anal scent glands, and in being able to live its entire life without leaving the water. The only member of the genus Enhydra, the sea otter is so different from other species that, as recently as 1982. Fossil evidence indicates the Enhydra lineage became isolated in the North Pacific approximately 2 Mya, giving rise to the now-extinct Enhydra macrodonta and the modern sea otter, Enhydra lutris. The sea otter evolved initially in northern Hokkaidō and Russia, and then spread east to the Aleutian Islands, mainland Alaska, and down the North American coast. In comparison to cetaceans, sirenians, and pinnipeds, which entered the water approximately 50,40, and 20 Mya, respectively, the sea otter is a relative newcomer to a marine existence
34.
Abalone
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Abalone is a common name for any of a group of small to very large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Haliotidae. Other common names are ear shells, sea ears, and muttonfish or muttonshells in Australia, ormer in Great Britain, perlemoen in South Africa and their taxonomy puts them in the family Haliotidae which contains only one genus, Haliotis, which once contained six subgenera. These subgenera have become alternate representations of Haliotis, the number of species recognized worldwide ranges between 30 and 130 with over 230 species-level taxa described. The most comprehensive treatment of the family considers 56 species valid, the shells of abalones have a low, open spiral structure, and are characterized by several open respiratory pores in a row near the shells outer edge. The flesh of abalones is widely considered to be a desirable food, Abalone vary in size from 20 millimetres to 200 millimetres while Haliotis rufescens is the largest of the genus at 12 inches. The shell of abalones is convex, rounded to oval in shape, the shell of the majority of species has a small, flat spire and two to three whorls. The last whorl, known as the whorl, is auriform, meaning that the shell resembles an ear. Haliotis asinina has a different shape, as it is more elongated and distended. The shell of Haliotis cracherodii cracherodii is also unusual as it has a form, is imperforate, shows an exserted spire. A mantle cleft in the shell impresses a groove in the shell and these holes are respiratory apertures for venting water from the gills and for releasing sperm and eggs into the water column. They make up what is known as the selenizone which forms as the shell grows and this series of 8 to 38 holes is near the anterior margin. Only a small number are generally open, the older holes are gradually sealed up as the shell grows and new holes form. Each species has a number of open holes, between four and ten, in the selenizone. The aperture of the shell is wide and nacreous. The exterior of the shell is striated and dull, the color of the shell is very variable from species to species which may reflect the animals diet. The iridescent nacre that lines the inside of the shell varies in color from white, to pink, red and green-red to deep blue. The animal has fimbriated head-lobes and side-lobes which are fimbriated and cirrated, the radula has small median teeth, and the lateral teeth are single and beam-like. There are about 70 uncini, with denticulated hooks, the first four very large, the rounded foot is very large in comparison to most molluscs
35.
Kelp forest
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Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Earth, smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds. Kelp forests occur worldwide throughout temperate and polar coastal oceans, in 2007, kelp forests were also discovered in tropical waters near Ecuador. Physically formed by brown macroalgae, kelp forests provide a unique, over the last century, they have been the focus of extensive research, particularly in trophic ecology, and continue to provoke important ideas that are relevant beyond this unique ecosystem. For example, kelp forests can influence coastal oceanographic patterns and provide ecosystem services. However, the influence of humans has often contributed to kelp forest degradation, of particular concern are the effects of overfishing nearshore ecosystems, which can release herbivores from their normal population regulation and result in the overgrazing of kelp and other algae. This can rapidly result in transitions to barren landscapes where relatively few species persist, the term kelp refers to marine algae belonging to the order Laminariales. Though not considered a taxonomically diverse order, kelps are highly diverse structurally and functionally, the most widely recognized species are the giant kelps, although numerous other genera such as Laminaria, Ecklonia, Lessonia, Alaria, and Eisenia are described. Many marine mammals and birds are found, including seals, sea lions, whales, sea otters, gulls, terns, snowy egrets, great blue herons. Frequently considered an ecosystem engineer, kelp provides a physical substrate, in algae, the body of an individual organism is known as a thallus rather than as a plant. The stipe is analogous to a plant stalk, extending vertically from the holdfast, the fronds are leaf- or blade-like attachments extending from the stipe, sometimes along its full length, and are the sites of nutrient uptake and photosynthetic activity. In addition, many species have pneumatocysts, or gas-filled bladders. These structures provide the necessary buoyancy for kelp to maintain a position in the water column. The environmental factors necessary for kelp to survive include hard substrate, high nutrients, water flow and turbulence facilitate nutrient assimilation across kelp fronds throughout the water column. Water clarity affects the depth to which sufficient light can be transmitted, in ideal conditions, giant kelp can grow as much as 30-60 cm vertically per day. Some species, such as Nereocystis, are annuals, while others such as Eisenia are perennials, in perennial kelp forests, maximum growth rates occur during upwelling months and die-backs correspond to reduced nutrient availability, shorter photoperiods, and increased storm frequency. Kelps are primarily associated with temperate and arctic waters worldwide, the region with the greatest diversity of kelps is the northeastern Pacific, from north of San Francisco, California, to the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Although kelp forests are unknown in tropical waters, a few species of Laminaria have been known to occur exclusively in tropical deep waters
36.
Indigenous peoples of California
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With over forty groups seeking to be federally recognized tribes, California has the second largest Native American population. The California cultural area does not exactly conform to the state of Californias boundaries, many tribes on the eastern border with Nevada are classified as Great Basin tribes, and some tribes on the Oregon border are classified as Plateau tribes. Tribes in Baja California who do not cross into California are classified as Indigenous peoples of Mexico, before European contact, native Californians spoke over 300 dialects of approximately 100 distinct languages. The majority of California Indian language belong either to highly localized language families with two or three members or are language isolates, of the remainder, most are Uto-Aztecan or Athapaskan languages. The Hokan superstock has the greatest time depth and has been most difficult to demonstrate, wiyot and Yurok are distantly related to Algonquian languages in a larger grouping called Algic. The several Athapaskan languages are relatively recent arrivals, no more recent than about 2000 years ago, evidence of human occupation of California dates from at least 19,000 years ago. Prior to European contact, California Indians had 500 distinct sub-tribes or groups, the size of California tribes today are small compared to tribes in other regions of the United States. Prior to contact with Europeans, the California region contained the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico. Because of the climate and easy access to food sources. Early Native Californians were hunter-gatherers, with seed collection becoming widespread around 9,000 BCE, due to the local abundance of food, tribes never developed agriculture or tilled the soil. Two early southern California cultural traditions include the La Jolla Complex, from 3000 to 2000 BCE, regional diversity developed, with the peoples making fine-tuned adaptations to local environments. Traits recognizable to historic tribes were developed by approximately 500 BCE, the indigenous people practiced various forms of sophisticated forest gardening in the forests, grasslands, mixed woodlands, and wetlands to ensure availability of food and medicine plants. They controlled fire on a scale to create a low-intensity fire ecology. By burning underbrush and grass, the natives revitalized patches of land, a form of fire-stick farming was used to clear areas of old growth to encourage new in a repeated cycle, a primitive permaculture. Different tribes encountered non-native European explorers and settlers at widely different times, the southern and central coastal tribes encountered Spanish and British explorers in the mid-16th century. Tribes such as the Quechan or Yuman Indians in present-day southeast California, tribes on the coast of northwest California, like the Miwok, Yurok, and Yokut, had contact with Russian explorers and seafarers in the late 18th century. In remote interior regions, some tribes did not meet non-natives until the mid-19th century, the Spanish began their long-term occupation in California in 1769 with the founding of Mission San Diego de Alcalá in San Diego. The Spanish built 20 additional missions in California and their introduction of European invasive plant species and non-native diseases resulted in unintended havoc and high fatalities for the Native populations
37.
Tube feet
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Tube feet are small active tubular projections on the oral face of an echinoderm, whether the arms of a starfish, or the undersides of sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers. They are part of the vascular system. Tube feet function in locomotion, feeding and respiration, the tube feet in a starfish are arranged in grooves along the arms. They are used to food to the oral mouth at the center. A starfish that is overturned simply turns one arm over and attaches it to a solid surface, tube feet allow these different types of animals to stick to the ocean floor and move slowly. Tube feet consist of two parts, ampullae and podia, ampullae contain both circular muscles and longitudinal muscle, whereas the podia contain the latter only. The podia use suction to attach to the substratum
38.
Arbacia punctulata
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The Atlantic purple sea urchin is a species of sea urchins from the family Arbaciidae, native to the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic purple sea urchin is a spherical, dark purple-spined sea urchin and it can reach up to 8 cm in diameter, and is native to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its natural habitat is in the western Atlantic Ocean, a. A. punctulata is omnivorous, consuming a wide variety of prey although Karlson classified it as a generalized carnivore. Its galactolipids, rather than phlorotannins, act as herbivore deterrents in Fucus vesiculosus against A. punctulata, for more than a century, developmental biologists have valued the sea urchin as an experimental model organism. Sea urchin eggs are transparent and can be manipulated easily in the research laboratory and their eggs can be easily fertilized and then develop rapidly and synchronously. For decades, the sea urchin embryo has been used to establish the theory of heredity, the description of centrosomes, parthenogenesis. Sea urchin studies provided the first evidence of actin in nonmuscle cells, arbacia punctulata is also a model organism of marine sediments toxicity and sperm study. Animal Diversity Web Card Marine Biological Laboratory Card
39.
International Standard Serial Number
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An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication. The ISSN is especially helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title, ISSN are used in ordering, cataloging, interlibrary loans, and other practices in connection with serial literature. The ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971, ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC9 is responsible for maintaining the standard. When a serial with the content is published in more than one media type. For example, many serials are published both in print and electronic media, the ISSN system refers to these types as print ISSN and electronic ISSN, respectively. The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers, as an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits. The last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows, NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character. The ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, for calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, the modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker that can validate an ISSN, ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres, usually located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris. The International Centre is an organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, at the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept, where ISBNs are assigned to individual books, an ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an identifier associated with a serial title. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change, separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. Also, a CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved, however, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial
40.
PubMed Identifier
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PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez system of information retrieval, from 1971 to 1997, MEDLINE online access to the MEDLARS Online computerized database primarily had been through institutional facilities, such as university libraries. PubMed, first released in January 1996, ushered in the era of private, free, home-, the PubMed system was offered free to the public in June 1997, when MEDLINE searches via the Web were demonstrated, in a ceremony, by Vice President Al Gore. Information about the journals indexed in MEDLINE, and available through PubMed, is found in the NLM Catalog. As of 5 January 2017, PubMed has more than 26.8 million records going back to 1966, selectively to the year 1865, and very selectively to 1809, about 500,000 new records are added each year. As of the date,13.1 million of PubMeds records are listed with their abstracts. In 2016, NLM changed the system so that publishers will be able to directly correct typos. Simple searches on PubMed can be carried out by entering key aspects of a subject into PubMeds search window, when a journal article is indexed, numerous article parameters are extracted and stored as structured information. Such parameters are, Article Type, Secondary identifiers, Language, publication type parameter enables many special features. As these clinical girish can generate small sets of robust studies with considerable precision, since July 2005, the MEDLINE article indexing process extracts important identifiers from the article abstract and puts those in a field called Secondary Identifier. The secondary identifier field is to store numbers to various databases of molecular sequence data, gene expression or chemical compounds. For clinical trials, PubMed extracts trial IDs for the two largest trial registries, ClinicalTrials. gov and the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Register, a reference which is judged particularly relevant can be marked and related articles can be identified. If relevant, several studies can be selected and related articles to all of them can be generated using the Find related data option, the related articles are then listed in order of relatedness. To create these lists of related articles, PubMed compares words from the title and abstract of each citation, as well as the MeSH headings assigned, using a powerful word-weighted algorithm. The related articles function has been judged to be so precise that some researchers suggest it can be used instead of a full search, a strong feature of PubMed is its ability to automatically link to MeSH terms and subheadings. Examples would be, bad breath links to halitosis, heart attack to myocardial infarction, where appropriate, these MeSH terms are automatically expanded, that is, include more specific terms. Terms like nursing are automatically linked to Nursing or Nursing and this important feature makes PubMed searches automatically more sensitive and avoids false-negative hits by compensating for the diversity of medical terminology. The My NCBI area can be accessed from any computer with web-access, an earlier version of My NCBI was called PubMed Cubby
41.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
. PMID 27095483.
