1.
European fire-bellied toad
–
The European fire-bellied toad is a fire-bellied toad native to mainland Europe. European fire-bellied toads have a lime green dorsal traversed by black spots. The skin is mildly bumpy, the set high to suit a semi-aquatic life style. Color and body variations will be described for each of the other 3 species commonly sold as or mistaken for Oriental fire-bellied toads and they are the largest of the bombina family. They are commonly darker than Fire-bellied toads from Asia, the European fire-bellied toad is 26–60 mm long and may weigh 2-13.9 g. Above, the skin is covered in low tubercles with black horny spines. There are no parotids behind the eyes but paired and arched gland complexes at the neck, inner vocal sacs are present at the throat and webbings are well developed at the hind feet. The body colour is grey, brown or green with spots on the upper side and blackish with larger orange or red. The skin produces a poison to protect itself from bacteria and fungi or the animal from vertebrates and this poison is irritating to mucous membranes. The eggs are brown above and lighter below and they are 1. 4-1.8 mm large coated with a transparent jelly of 5–8 mm in diameter. Tadpoles may reach a length of 55 mm and are brownish above with two longitudinal pale bands along the backbone, the mouth field is triangular and the flipper is reticulated. When they shed their skin, they themselves and make a coughing sound, then start to tear the old skin off with their mouth. The food of the European fire-bellied toad consists of insects, spiders, millipedes, mollusks, the tadpoles mainly feed on algae, bacteria and plankton by grazing the surfaces of stones and plants. If attacked by a vertebrate on land the European fire-bellied toad makes a hollow-back, the combination of dark and red is a learned signal meaning “attention poison” to the enemy. Reproduction takes place from April to July/August and is induced by heavy rainfall, then, males can be recognized by some darkened, spiny swelling, the nuptial pad, on their forelegs. They help it to grasp the female properly around its hip, males defend small territories of 2–3 m in diameter against rivals. Spawn consists of small clutches of 10–40 eggs which are attached to plants, several such clutches are produced in a short time and thereby a female may lay a total of 80–300 eggs. Tadpoles hatch after 2–5 days and metamorphose after 5–12 weeks from July to September or after hibernation in spring, young toads are 11–15 mm long and remain at the water’s edge
2.
Taxonomy (biology)
–
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
–
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.
Chordate
–
Chordates are deuterostomes, as during the embryo development stage the anus forms before the mouth. They are also bilaterally symmetric coelomates, in the case of vertebrate chordates, the notochord is usually replaced by a vertebral column during development, and they may have body plans organized via segmentation. There are also additional extinct taxa, the Vertebrata are sometimes considered as a subgroup of the clade Craniata, consisting of chordates with a skull, the Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, the worlds largest and fastest animals, the blue whale and peregrine falcon respectively, are chordates, as are humans. Fossil chordates are known from at least as early as the Cambrian explosion, Hemichordata, which includes the acorn worms, has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but it now is usually treated as a separate phylum. The Hemichordata, along with the Echinodermata, form the Ambulacraria, the Chordata and Ambulacraria form the superphylum Deuterostomia, composed of the deuterostomes. Attempts to work out the relationships of the chordates have produced several hypotheses. All of the earliest chordate fossils have found in the Early Cambrian Chengjiang fauna. Because the fossil record of early chordates is poor, only molecular phylogenetics offers a prospect of dating their emergence. However, the use of molecular phylogenetics for dating evolutionary transitions is controversial and it has also proved difficult to produce a detailed classification within the living chordates. Attempts to produce family trees shows that many of the traditional classes are paraphyletic. While this has been known since the 19th century, an insistence on only monophyletic taxa has resulted in vertebrate classification being in a state of flux. Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson, it was already in prevalent use by 1880, ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866. Though he used the German vernacular form, it is allowed under the ICZN code because of its subsequent latinization, among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, and in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the pharynx is the part of the throat immediately behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, a muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. This is a groove in the wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus and it also stores iodine, and may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland
5.
Vertebrate
–
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
6.
Amphibian
–
Amphibians are ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates of the class Amphibia. They inhabit a variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Thus amphibians typically start out as larvae living in water, the young generally undergo metamorphosis from larva with gills to an adult air-breathing form with lungs. Amphibians use their skin as a respiratory surface and some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs. They are superficially similar to lizards but, along with mammals and birds, reptiles are amniotes, the earliest amphibians evolved in the Devonian period from sarcopterygian fish with lungs and bony-limbed fins, features that were helpful in adapting to dry land. They diversified and became dominant during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, over time, amphibians shrank in size and decreased in diversity, leaving only the modern subclass Lissamphibia. The three modern orders of amphibians are Anura, Urodela, and Apoda, the number of known amphibian species is approximately 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. The smallest amphibian in the world is a frog from New Guinea with a length of just 7.7 mm. The largest living amphibian is the 1.8 m Chinese giant salamander, the study of amphibians is called batrachology, while the study of both reptiles and amphibians is called herpetology. The word amphibian is derived from the Ancient Greek term ἀμφίβιος, the term was initially used as a general adjective for animals that could live on land or in water, including seals and otters. Traditionally, the class Amphibia includes all tetrapod vertebrates that are not amniotes, the numbers of species cited above follows Frost and the total number of known amphibian species is over 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. With the phylogenetic classification, the taxon Labyrinthodontia has been discarded as it is a group without unique defining features apart from shared primitive characteristics. Classification varies according to the phylogeny of the author and whether they use a stem-based or a node-based classification. The phylogeny of Paleozoic amphibians is uncertain, and Lissamphibia may possibly fall within groups, like the Temnospondyli or the Lepospondyli. If the common ancestor of amphibians and amniotes is included in Amphibia, all modern amphibians are included in the subclass Lissamphibia, which is usually considered a clade, a group of species that have evolved from a common ancestor. The three modern orders are Anura, Caudata, and Gymnophiona, although the fossils of several older proto-frogs with primitive characteristics are known, the oldest true frog is Prosalirus bitis, from the Early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona. It is anatomically similar to modern frogs. The oldest known caecilian is another Early Jurassic species, Eocaecilia micropodia, the earliest salamander is Beiyanerpeton jianpingensis from the Late Jurassic of northeastern China
7.
Frog
–
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura. The oldest fossil proto-frog appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, Frogs are widely distributed, ranging from the tropics to subarctic regions, but the greatest concentration of species diversity is in tropical rainforests. There are approximately 4,800 recorded species, accounting for over 85% of extant amphibian species and they are also one of the five most diverse vertebrate orders. The body plan of a frog is generally characterized by a stout body, protruding eyes, cleft tongue, limbs folded underneath. Besides living in water and on dry land, the adults of some species are adapted for living underground or in trees. The skin of the frog is glandular, with secretions ranging from distasteful to toxic, Frogs skins vary in colour from well-camouflaged dappled brown, grey and green to vivid patterns of bright red or yellow and black to advertise toxicity and warn off predators. Frogs typically lay their eggs in water, the eggs hatch into aquatic larvae called tadpoles that have tails and internal gills. They have highly specialized rasping mouth parts suitable for herbivorous, omnivorous or planktivorous diets, the life cycle is completed when they metamorphose into adults. A few species deposit eggs on land or bypass the tadpole stage, adult frogs generally have a carnivorous diet consisting of small invertebrates, but omnivorous species exist and a few feed on fruit. Frogs are extremely efficient at converting what they eat into body mass and they are an important food source for predators and part of the food web dynamics of many of the worlds ecosystems. The skin is semi-permeable, making them susceptible to dehydration, so they live in moist places or have special adaptations to deal with dry habitats. Frogs are valued as food by humans and also have many roles in literature, symbolism. Frog populations have declined significantly since the 1950s, more than one third of species are considered to be threatened with extinction and over one hundred and twenty are believed to have become extinct since the 1980s. The number of malformations among frogs is on the rise and a fungal disease. Conservation biologists are working to understand the causes of these problems, the name frog derives from Old English frogga, abbreviated to frox, forsc, and frosc, probably deriving from Proto-Indo-European preu = to jump. About 88% of amphibian species are classified in the order Anura and these include around 4,810 species in 33 families, of which the Leptodactylidae, Hylidae and Ranidae are the richest in species. The use of the common frog and toad has no taxonomic justification. From a classification perspective, all members of the order Anura are frogs, there are numerous exceptions to this rule
8.
Blasius Merrem
–
Blasius Merrem was a German naturalist, zoologist, ornithologist, mathematician, and herpetologist. In 1804, he became the professor of economy and botany at the University of Marburg. Merrem was born at Bremen, and studied at the university of Göttingen under Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and he developed an interest in zoology, particularly ornithology. Merrem is honored in the names of two South American snakes, the species Xenodon merremi, and the subspecies Erythrolamprus miliaris merremi
9.
True toads
–
A true toad is any member of the family Bufonidae, in the order Anura. This is the family of anurans in which all members are known as toads. The bufonids now comprise more than 35 genera, Bufo being the most widespread, true toads are widespread and are native to every continent except Australia and Antarctica, inhabiting a variety of environments, from arid areas to rainforest. Most lay eggs in paired strings that hatch into tadpoles, although, in the genus Nectophrynoides, true toads are toothless and generally warty in appearance. They have a pair of glands on the back of their heads. These glands contain a poison which the toads excrete when stressed. The poison in the glands contains a number of toxins causing different effects, different animals contain significantly different substances and proportions of substances. Some, like the cane toad Rhinella marina, are more toxic than others, some psychoactive toads, such as the Colorado River toad Bufo alvaris, have been used recreationally for the effects of their bufotoxin. Male toads possess a Bidders organ, under the right conditions, the organ becomes an active ovary and the toad, in effect, becomes female. The family Bufonidae contains about 500 species among 38 genera, Amphibian Species of the World 5.1 - Bufonidae. Halliday, Tim R. and Kraig Adler, the New Encyclopedia of Reptiles & Amphibians. Facts on File, New York,2002, tolweb. org, Bufonidae Bufonidae. com Amphibian and Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia - Family Bufonidae FED. us Bufonidae recordings from the British Library Sound Archive
10.
Parotoid gland
–
The parotoid gland is an external skin gland on the back, neck, and shoulder of toads and some frogs and salamanders. It secretes a milky alkaloid substance to deter predators, the substance, bufotoxin, acts as a neurotoxin. The cell layers have interlocking microvilli, the inner layer was hypothesised to be involved in venom formation and release. The study noted that the structure of the glands of the Colorado River toad is very different from the structure of the same glands in the cane toad. There is extensive blood supply to the glands to deliver cholesterol. The vague similarity in appearance, however, is the reason behind the belief that touching a toad causes warts
11.
Folk taxonomy
–
A folk taxonomy is a vernacular naming system, and can be contrasted with scientific taxonomy. Folk taxonomies are generated from social knowledge and are used in everyday speech and they are distinguished from scientific taxonomies that claim to be disembedded from social relations and thus objective and universal. Anthropologists have observed that taxonomies are generally embedded in cultural and social systems. Arguably, the most well-known and influential study of folk taxonomies is Émile Durkheims The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Folk taxonomies exist to allow popular identification of classes of objects, and apply to all areas of human activity. All parts of the world have their own systems of naming local plants and these naming systems are a vital aid to survival and include information such as the fruiting patterns of trees and the habits of large mammals. These localised naming systems are folk taxonomies, theophrastus recorded evidence of a Greek folk taxonomy for plants, but later formalized botanical taxonomies were laid out in the 18th century by Carl Linnaeus. Critics of the concept of race in humans argue that race is a folk taxonomy rather than a scientific classification, cognition 84, 1-53 Berlin, Brent Speculations on the growth of ethnobotanical nomenclature, Language in Society,1, 51-86. Berlin, Brent & Dennis E. Breedlove & Peter H. Raven Folk taxonomies and biological classification, Science,154, 273-275. Berlin, Brent & Dennis E. Breedlove & Peter H. Raven General principles of classification and nomenclature in biology, American Anthropologist,75. Unique beginners and covert categories in folk biological taxonomies, American Anthropologist,76, brown, Cecil H. & John Kolar & Barbara J. Torrey & Tipawan Truoong-Quang & Phillip Volkman. ‘Some general principles of biological and non-biological folk classification’, American Ethnologist,3,1, ‘The growth of ethnobiological nomenclature’, Current Anthropology,27,1, 1-19
12.
Terrestrial animal
–
Terrestrial invertebrates include ants, flies, crickets, grasshoppers and snails. The term terrestrial is typically applied for species that live primarily on the ground, in contrast to arboreal species, there are other less common terms that apply to specific groups of terrestrial animals, Saxicolous are rock dwelling creatures. Saxicolus is derived from the Latin word Saxum which means Rocks, arenicolous creatures live in the sand. Terrestrial invasion is one of the most important events in the history of life, Terrestrial lineages evolved in several animal phyla, among which vertebrates, arthropods, and mollusks are representatives of more successful groups of terrestrial animals. Terrestrial animals do not form a clade, rather, they share only the fact that they live on land. The transition from an aquatic to terrestrial life has evolved independently and successfully many times by groups of animals. Most terrestrial lineages originated under a mild or tropical climate during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, roundworms, tardigrades, and rotifers are microscopic animals that require a film of water to live in, and are not considered truly terrestrial. Flatworms, ribbon worms, velvet worms and annelids all depend on more or less moist habitats, labeling an animal species terrestrial or aquatic is often obscure and becomes a matter of judgment. Many animals considered terrestrial have a life-cycle that is dependent on being in water. Penguins, seals, and walruses sleep on land and feed in the ocean, there are crab species that are completely aquatic, crab species that are amphibious, and crab species that are terrestrial. Fiddler crabs are called semi-terrestrial since they make burrows in the muddy substrate, when the tide is out, fiddler crabs search the beach for food. The same is true in the Mollusca, many hundreds of genera and species live in intermediate situations, such as for example. Some gastropods with gills live on land, and others with a live in the water. As well as the terrestrial and the purely aquatic animals. There are no universally accepted criteria for deciding how to label these species, fossil evidence has shown that sea creatures, likely related to arthropods, first began to make forays on to land around 530 million years ago. There is little reason to believe, however, that animals first began living reliably on land around this time period. A more likely hypothesis is that these early arthropods motivation for venturing on to dry land was to mate or lay out of the reach of predators. As such, they are likely the most recent common ancestor of all modern tetrapods, gastropod mollusks are one of the most successful animals that have diversified in the fully terrestrial habitat
13.
Family (biology)
–
In biological classification, family is one of the eight major taxonomic ranks, it is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks above the rank of genus. In vernacular usage, a family may be named one of its common members, for example, walnuts and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae. What does or does not belong to a family—or whether a family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no rules for describing or recognizing a family. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions of taxa, and there may be no broad consensus across the community for some time. Some described taxa are accepted broadly and quickly, but others only rarely, if at all, the naming of families is codified by various international codes. In zoological nomenclature, the names of animals end with the suffix -idae. The concept of rank at time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera. Carolus Linnaeus used the word familia in his Philosophia botanica to denote groups of plants, trees, herbs, ferns, palms. He used this term only in the section of the book. In zoology, the family as an intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes. He used families in some but not in all his orders of insects, families can be used for evolutionary, palaeontological and generic studies because they are more stable than lower taxonomic levels such as genera and species
14.
Bombinatoridae
–
The Bombinatoridae are often referred to as fire-bellied toads because of their brightly colored ventral sides, which show they are highly toxic. This family includes two genera, Barbourula and Bombina, both of which have flattened bodies, Bombina species are warty, aquatic toads about 7 cm in length, and most noted for their bright bellies. They often display the unken reflex when disturbed, the animal will arch its back and limbs to expose the bright belly and this acts as a warning to predators. The vocal behavior of some Bombina sp. is unusual in that the call is produced during inhalation rather than exhalation as in other frogs and they lay pigmented eggs in ponds. Barbourula species occur in the Philippine Islands and Borneo, while Bombina species are found throughout Eurasia and they are slightly less colored than Bombina, and possess webbed fingers in addition to webbed toes. Characteristics of tadpoles of Barbourula are unknown, fossil Bombina specimens are known from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene, on fossils of Barbourula are known. Microdeladigitora Bombina lichuanensis – Lichuan bell toad, now considered a synonym of B, phylogenetic relationships of discoglossid frogs based on complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear genes. San Mauro, Diego, Miguel Vences, Marina Alcobendas, Rafael Zardoya, initial diversification of living amphibians predated the breakup of Pangaea
15.
Alytidae
–
The Alytidae are a family of primitive frogs. Their common name is painted frogs or midwife toads, most are endemic to Europe, but there are also three species in northwest Africa, and a species formerly thought to be extinct in Israel. This family is known as Discoglossidae, but the older name Alytidae has priority and is now recognized by major reference works. However, some researchers suggest that Alytes and Discoglossus are different enough to be treated as separate families, the family contains three extant genera, Alytes, Discoglossus, and Latonia. The first is somewhat toad-like and can often be found on land, the second is smoother and more frog-like, preferring the water. The third genus was recently considered extinct, and is represented by the recently rediscovered Hula painted frog. All of the species have pond-dwelling tadpoles, the genera Bombina and Barbourula also used to be under this family, but have now been moved to the Bombinatoridae. Phylogenetic relationships of frogs based on complete mitochondrial genomes and nuclear genes. San Mauro, Diego, Vences, Miguel, Alcobendas, Marina, Zardoya, Rafael, Meyer, initial diversification of living amphibians predated the breakup of Pangaea
16.
European spadefoot toad
–
The European spadefoot toads are a family of frogs, the Pelobatidae, with only one extant genus Pelobates, containing four species. They are native to Europe, the Mediterranean, northwestern Africa, the European spadefoot toads are small- to large-sized frogs, up to 10 cm in length, which are often inconspicuously coloured. They are predominantly fossorial frogs, which burrow in sandy soils and they have hardened protrusions on their feet to aid in digging, which is the source of the common name. They emerge from the ground during periods of rain and breed in pools, all of the species from this family have free-living, aquatic tadpoles. The eggs are laid in ponds that may quickly evaporate, so the tadpole stage is unusually brief. To further speed their growth, some of the tadpoles are cannibalistic, the seven species of American spadefoot toads were previously also included into the Pelobatidae family, but are now generally regarded as the separate family Scaphiopodidae. In the Jurassic Morrison Formation, pelobatids are represented by the illium of an unnamed and this illium is larger than that of Enneabatrachus, a contemporary discoglossid species. A specimen has been recovered from Quarry 9 of Como Bluff in Wyoming, pelobatids are present in stratigraphic zones 5 and 6 of the formation. Gissi, Carmela, Diego San Mauro, Graziano Pesole, Rafael Zardoya, mitochondrial phylogeny of Anura, A case study of congruent phylogenetic reconstruction using amino acid and nucleotide characters. Archived from the original on 4 August 2014, archaeobatrachian paraphyly and pangaean diversification of crown-group frogs. Archived from the original on 4 August 2014, San Mauro, Diego, Miguel Vences, Marina Alcobendas, Rafael Zardoya, Axel Meyer. Initial diversification of living amphibians predated the breakup of Pangaea, archived from the original on 4 August 2014. Media related to Pelobates at Wikimedia Commons
17.
Rhinophrynidae
–
The Rhinophrynidae are a family of frogs containing one extant genus, the monotypic Rhinophrynus, and a number of fossil genera. The family is known as the Mexican burrowing toads or simply burrowing toads. Rhinophrynus occurs in the Central America north from Costa Rica to Mexico, Fossil finds of Rhinophrynidae come from Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Rhinophrynus is an ant and termite eater. The Rhinophrynidae are the sister taxon of the Pipidae, the clade formed by these two genera is sometimes referred to as Xenoanura or superfamily Pipoidea. Extant genera, Rhinophrynus Fossil genera, Chelomophrynus Eorhinophrynus Rhadinosteus The affinity of Eorhinophrynus is uncertain
18.
American spadefoot toad
–
The Scaphiopodidae are a family of threatened American spadefoot toads native to southern Canada, southern United States, and extend to southern Mexico. The Scaphiopodidae are a family, comprising only seven different species. The American spadefoot toads are of typical shape to most fossorial frogs and they are round, with short legs and protruding eyes. As suggested by their name, these frogs have hard, keratinous protrusions present on their feet, like most fossorial frogs, they will dig backwards into the ground. The American spadefoot toads are terrestrial when not under ground and they are dully colored, usually a grey or dull green or brown. This is to aid in camouflage in their arid habitats and this family was previously included in the European spadefoot toad family, but has been split into two taxa. The Pelobatidae include the Pelobates genus, and Scaphiopodidae the rest, during years of sufficient rainfall, the toads surface to breed and lay eggs. Similar to other burrowing frogs, the American Spadefoot Toads are about 2-3 inches in length with round, the name “Spadefoot” is derived from the keratinous bone in its hind legs that allow it to burrow within dirt. The skin of the toad is grey or brown in appearance, the seven species of Scaphiopodidae are found in different locations across North America. The Eastern Spadefoot is the species found east of the Mississippi River. The Great Basin Spadefoot and the Plains Spadefoot are both found in western Canada and the northwestern U. S. but the Plains Spadefoot has also spread into Texas and northern Mexico. The Couch’s Spadefoot, Hurter’s Spadefoot and New Mexico Spadefoot are all spread across the southern and southwestern U. S. with the Couch’s and Hurter’s also reaching into Mexico. The Western Spadefoot is the species found in California, mainly southern parts of the state. The toads are believed to have moved into North America from South American Countries due to changing climate and they most likely moved into the U. S. as a single species, but split up as they spread across the continent and adapted to their new surroundings. The toads prefer marsh-like environments, but only enter the water to breed and they stay buried in the soil for most of the year as a mechanism to deal with changing weather. The American Spadefoot Toad has a unique diet, the adult’s diet and the tadpole’s diet vary. The adults diet consists of invertebrates and they eat flies, crickets, caterpillars, moths, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, earthworms and snails. The tadpole’s diet is related to its surroundings and food supply, when they are first born, they eat microscopic plants called plankton
19.
Microhylidae
–
The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family of frogs. The 584 species are in 61 genera and 11 subfamilies, which is the largest number of genera of any frog family, the most recent common ancestor of the Microhylidae and their closest ranoid relatives is estimated to have lived 116 million years ago in Gondwana. As suggested by their name, microhylids are mostly small frogs, many species are below 1.5 cm in length, although some species are as large as 9 cm. They can be arboreal or terrestrial, and some even live close to water, the ground-dwellers are often found under leaf litter within forests, occasionally venturing out at night to hunt. The two main shapes for the microhylids are wide bodies and narrow mouths and normal frog proportions and those with narrow mouths generally eat termites and ants, and the others have diets typical of most frogs. The microhylids of New Guinea and Australia completely bypass the tadpole stage, the arboreal species can therefore lay the eggs within the trees, and never need venture to the ground. Where species do have tadpoles, these almost always lack the teeth or horny beaks typical of the tadpoles of other families, the skull has paired palatines and frontoparietals. The facial nerve passes through the anterior acoustic foramen in the auditory capsule, the eight presacral holochordal vertebrae are all procoelous except for a biconcave surface on last presacral. The pectoral girdle is firmisternal and some show reduced clavicle and procoracoids, the terminal phalanges are blunt, pointed, or T-shaped. The tadpole lacks keratinized mouth parts and has a large spiracular chamber emptied by a caudomedial spiracle, although most are found in tropical or subtropical regions, a few species can be found in arid or nontropical areas. They are the majority of species in New Guinea and Madagascar
20.
Philopatry
–
Philopatry is the tendency of an organism to stay in or habitually return to a particular area. The causes of philopatry are numerous, but natal philopatry, where return to their birthplace to breed. The term philopatry derives from the Greek home-loving, although in recent years the term has been applied to more than just the animals birthplace. One type of philopatry is breeding philopatry, or breeding-site fidelity, among animals that are largely sedentary, breeding-site philopatry is common. It is advantageous to reuse a breeding site, as there may be territorial competition outside of the home range. Such advantages are compounded among species that invest heavily in the construction of a nest or associated courtship area, for example, the megapodes construct a large mound of vegetation and soil or sand to lay their eggs in. Megapodes often reuse the same mound for many years, only abandoning it when it is damaged beyond repair, nest fidelity is highly beneficial as reproducing is time and energy consuming. Breeding fidelity is also documented among species that migrate or disperse after reaching maturity. Birds, in particular, that disperse as fledglings will take advantage of exceptional skills to return to a previous site. Philopatric individuals exhibit learning behaviour, and do not return to a location in following years if an attempt is unsuccessful. The evolutionary benefits of learning are evident, individuals that risk searching for a better site will not have lower fitness than those that persist with a poor site. Philopatry is not homogenous within a species, with far more likely to exhibit philopatry if the breeding habitat is isolated. Similarly, non-migratory populations are likely to be philopatric that those that migrate. In species that exhibit lifelong monogamous pair bonds, even outside of the breeding season, however, among polygynous species that disperse, there is a much higher rate of breeding-site philopatry in males than females among birds, and the opposite bias among mammals. Many possible explanations for this sex bias have been posited, with the earliest accepted hypothesis attributing the bias to intrasexual competition, the most widely accepted hypothesis is that proposed by Greenwood. Among birds, males invest highly in protecting resources – a territory – against other males, over consecutive seasons, a male that returns to the same territory has higher fitness than one that is not philopatric. Females are free to disperse, and assess males, conversely, in mammals, the predominant mating system is one of matrilineal social organisation. Males generally invest little in the raising of offspring, and compete each other for mates rather than resources
21.
American toad
–
The American toad is a common species of toad found throughout the eastern United States and Canada. It is divided into three subspecies—the eastern American toad, the dwarf American toad, and the rare Hudson Bay toad, recent taxonomic treatments place this species in the genus Anaxyrus instead of Bufo. The eggs of the American toad are laid in two strings and can hatch in 2–14 days, when hatched the tadpoles are recognizable by their skinny tails in relation to the size of their black bodies. They may advance to adulthood in 50–65 days, when metamorphosis is completed, the toadlets may stay in the water for a short period of time before they become mostly land based. Toadlets can be observed eating microscopic bugs as fast as they can in the area they roam between various vegetation, they are also known to eat ants, spiders, slugs and worms. Studies have shown that they have a relationship with Chlorogonium alga. Tadpoles have several mechanisms to reduce predation and they avoid predators by swimming in very shallow water often with thick grass vegetation, and by swimming close together in schools during the day. Tadpoles also produce toxic chemicals in their skin that discourage some potential predators, fish have been reported to die after consuming one tadpole, however, most fish quickly learn to avoid eating American toad tadpoles. The tadpoles are very small and they are a solid black color. Races tend to hybridize with Anaxyrus woodhousii in their overlapping ranges, the eastern American toad is a medium-sized toad usually ranging in size from 5–9 cm, record 11.1 centimetres. The color and pattern is variable, especially for the females. Skin color can change depending on colors, humidity, stress. Color changes range from yellow to brown to black, from solid colors to speckled and their breeding habits are very similar to Anaxyrus fowleri. The call or voice of a male is a high trill, lasting 6–30 seconds. The eastern American toad has spots that contain one to two warts. It also has enlarged warts on the tibia or lower leg below the knee, while the belly is usually spotted, in some areas many are, and it is generally more so on the forward half. This subspecies of the American toad has no or very little markings on it, the spades on the back legs are blackish. Some toads of this subspecies have a more red and deep brown coller
22.
Inbreeding depression
–
Inbreeding depression is the reduced biological fitness in a given population as a result of inbreeding, or breeding of related individuals. Population biological fitness refers to an ability to survive and perpetuate its genetic material. Inbreeding depression is often the result of a population bottleneck, in general, the higher the genetic variation or gene pool within a breeding population, the less likely it is to suffer from inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression seems to be present in most groups of organisms, hermaphroditic species often exhibit lower degrees of inbreeding depression than outcrossing species, as repeated generations of selfing is thought to purge deleterious alleles from populations. Inbreeding results in more recessive, deleterious traits manifesting themselves, because the genomes of pair-mates are more similar, recessive traits can only occur in an offspring if present in both parents genomes. The more genetically similar the parents are, the more often recessive traits appear in their offspring, consequently, the more closely related the breeding pair is, the more homozygous, deleterious genes the offspring may have, resulting in very unfit individuals. For alleles that confer an advantage in the heterozygous and/or homozygous-dominant state, an example of inbreeding depression is shown to the right. In this case, a is the allele which has negative effects. In order for the a phenotype to become active, the gene must end up as homozygous aa because in the geneotype Aa, the A takes dominance over the a, another mechanism responsible for inbreeding depression is the fitness advantage of heterozygosity, which is known as overdominance. This can lead to reduced fitness of a population with many homozygous genotypes, here, even the dominant alleles result in reduced fitness if present homozygously. Currently, it is not known which of the two mechanisms is more prevalent in nature, Natural selection cannot effectively remove all deleterious recessive genes from a population for several reasons. First, deleterious genes arise constantly through mutation within a population, second, in a population where inbreeding occurs frequently, most offspring will have some deleterious traits, so few will be more fit for survival than the others. Third, recessive deleterious alleles will be masked by heterozygosity, and so in a dominant-recessive trait, in general, sexual reproduction in eukaryotes has two fundamental aspects, recombination during meiosis, and outcrossing. It has been proposed that two aspects have two natural selective advantages respectively. A proposed adaptive advantage of meiosis is that it facilitates repair of DNA damages that are otherwise difficult to repair. A proposed adaptive advantage of outcrossing is complementation, which is the masking of deleterious recessive alleles, the selective advantage of complementation may largely account for the general avoidance of inbreeding. Introducing alleles from a different population can reverse inbreeding depression, different populations of the same species have different deleterious traits, and therefore their cross breeding will not result in homozygosity at most loci in the offspring. This is known as outbreeding enhancement, practiced by conservation managers, however, intermixing two different populations can give rise to unfit polygenic traits in outbreeding depression
23.
Toadstone
–
The toadstone, also known as bufonite, is a mythical stone or gem that was thought to be found in the head of a toad. It was supposed to be an antidote to poison and in this it is not unlike batrachite, toadstones were actually the button-like fossilized teeth of Lepidotes, an extinct genus of ray-finned fish from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They appeared to be stones that are perfect in form and were set by European jewellers into magical rings, from ancient times people associated the fossils with jewels that were set inside the heads of toads. The toad has poison glands in its skin, so it was assumed that they carried their own antidote. They were first recorded by Pliny the Elder in the first century, according to Paul Taylor of the English Natural History Museum, Like tonguestones, toadstones were considered to be antidotes for poison and were also used in the treatment of epilepsy. As early as the 14th century, people began to adorn jewelry with toadstones for their magical abilities and they were supposedly most effective against poison when worn against the skin, on which occasion they were thought to heat up, sweat and change colour. If a person was bitten by a creature a toadstone would be touched against the affected part to effect a cure. Loose toadstones were discovered among other gemstones in the Elizabethan Cheapside Hoard and there are surviving toadstone rings in the Ashmolean Museum, biomineralization Bezoar New Oxford American Dictionary, under the entry toadstone. An inquiry into the state and formation of the earth, pp 184-5,190
24.
Kenneth Grahame
–
Kenneth Grahame was a British writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows, one of the classics of childrens literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon, both books were adapted into Disney films, which are The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Kenneth Grahame was born on 8 March 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland, when he was a little more than a year old, his father, an advocate, received an appointment as sheriff-substitute in Argyllshire at Inveraray on Loch Fyne. This ambiance, particularly Quarry Wood and the River Thames, is believed, by Peter Green, his biographer and he was an outstanding pupil at St Edwards School in Oxford. Grahame wanted to attend Oxford University, but was not allowed to do so by his guardian on grounds of cost, Grahame was shot at three times, all shots missing. He was awarded a pension of £400 but a worked example on display indicates he was actually due £710. Grahame married Elspeth Thomson in 1899, they had one child. Alastair eventually committed suicide on a track while an undergraduate at Oxford University. Out of respect for Grahame, Alastairs demise was recorded as an accidental death, Grahame died in Pangbourne, Berkshire, in 1932. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, while still a young man in his 20s, Grahame began to publish light stories in London periodicals such as the St. James Gazette. Some of these stories were collected and published as Pagan Papers in 1893 and these were followed by Dream Days in 1898, which contains The Reluctant Dragon. There is a gap between Grahames penultimate book and the publication of his triumph, The Wind in the Willows. During this decade, Grahame became a father, the wayward, headstrong nature he saw in his little son Alastair he transformed into the swaggering Mr. Toad, one of its four principal characters. The character in the known as Ratty was inspired by his good friend. Grahame mentions this in a copy he gave to Quiller-Couchs daughter. Despite its success, he never attempted a sequel, the book is still widely enjoyed by adults and children today, also in films, while Toad remains one of the most celebrated and beloved characters. The Wind in the Willows won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958, in the 1990s, William Horwood came up with a series of sequels. A Study of His Life, Work and Times in 1959, with black and white illustrations, Grahame, K, The Wind in the Willows, An Annotated Edition, edited by Seth Lerer
25.
The Wind in the Willows
–
The Wind in the Willows is a childrens novel by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. Alternately slow moving and fast paced, it focuses on four anthropomorphised animals in a version of Edwardian England. The novel is notable for its mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality and camaraderie, in 1908, Grahame retired from his position as secretary of the Bank of England. The novel was in its 31st printing when playwright A. A. Milne adapted part of it for the stage as Toad of Toad Hall in 1929, almost a century later, it was adapted again for the stage as a musical by Julian Fellowes. In 2003, The Wind in the Willows was listed at number 16 in the BBCs survey The Big Read, Kenneth Grahame was born on 8 March 1859 in Edinburgh. When he was 5, his mother died from fever, and his father, who had a drinking problem, gave the care of his four children over to their grandmother. At Christmas 1865 the chimney of the collapsed and the children moved to Fern Hill Cottage in Cranbourne. During his early years at St. Grahame married Elspeth Thomson in 1899, they had one child. With the arrival of spring and fine weather outside, the good-natured Mole loses patience with spring cleaning and he flees his underground home, emerging to take in the air and ends up at the river, which he has never seen before. Here he meets Rat, who at time of year spends all his days in, on. Rat takes Mole for a ride in his rowing boat and they get along well and spend many more days boating, with Rat teaching Mole the ways of the river. One summer day, Rat and Mole disembark near the grand Toad Hall, Toad is rich, jovial, friendly and kind-hearted, but aimless and conceited, he regularly becomes obsessed with current fads, only to abandon them abruptly. Having recently given up boating, Toads current craze is his horse-drawn caravan and he persuades the reluctant Rat and willing Mole to join him on a trip. Toad soon tires of the realities of life, and sleeps in the following day to avoid chores. Later that day, a passing motorcar scares the horse, causing the caravan to overturn into a ditch, Rat threatens to have the law on the car driver, while Mole calms the horse, but Toads craze for caravan travel is immediately replaced by an obsession with motorcars. Nevertheless, on a winters day, while the seasonally somnolent Rat dozes, Mole impulsively goes to the Wild Wood to explore. He gets lost in the woods, sees many evil faces among the woods less-welcoming denizens, succumbs to fright and panic and hides, trying to stay warm, among the sheltering roots of a tree. Attempting to find their way home, Rat and Mole quite literally stumble across Badgers home—Mole barks his shin on the boot scraper on Badgers doorstep
26.
Mr. Toad
–
Mr. Toad, of Toad Hall, is one of the main characters in the novel The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and also the title character of the A. A. Milne play Toad of Toad Hall based on the book. Mr. Toad is a common toad who is the village squire, being the wealthy owner. Toad is very rich and a bit of a fop, with a penchant for Harris tweed suits and he owns his own horse, and is able to indulge his impulsive desires, such as punting, house boating and hot air ballooning. Toad is intelligent, creative and resourceful, however, he is narcissistic, self-centred almost to the point of sociopathy. His reckless interest in motor cars leads to an episode in which he steals a car, the result is a twenty-year prison sentence, but he escapes, dressed as a washer woman, to regain his family seat of Toad Hall from the clutches of the weasels. Although he has escaped from gaol, and the police pursue him. No reason is given for this, but in the 1949 Disney movie. Ultimately, Toad has his heart in the right place and his characteristics have made him arguably the epitome of the stock character of the lovable rogue. During the course of his adventures Toad alternates between deep remorse for his arrogance and having relapses into it. An example of his arrogance is seen in his self-centred ditty, Toads Last Little Song and this is Toads final bow as he has finally resolved to change his conceited ways. In the 1949 Disney film adaptation The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and this version of Mr. Toad makes a cameo appearance in the 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit while riding a firetruck and dressed in a fire-fighter uniform. He also appeared as Fezziwig in Mickeys Christmas Carol, and was featured as one of the guests in House of Mouse, the Reluctant Dragon and Mr. Toad Show, a 1970 show by Rankin/Bass. The Wind in the Willows, a 1983 animated film version with stop-motion puppets by Cosgrove Hall, the Wind in the Willows, a TV series following the stop-motion film, done in the same style. There was a host of names in the cast, including David Jason, Sir Michael Hordern, Peter Sallis. The Wind in the Willows, in this 1995 animated film and its sequel The Willows in Winter, the Wind in the Willows, a 1996 live action production which featured four of the six members of the Monty Python troupe. The BBC produced a version of the Wind in the Willows in 2006, Toad was played by Matt Lucas. In the book Counselling for Toads, A Psychological Adventure an older Mr Toad is found in a depressed state, for many years there was a ride at Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom called Mr. Toads Wild Ride. The ride was closed on September 7,1998, the Disneyland California version of the ride is still open
27.
A. A. Milne
–
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various poems. Milne was a writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work. Milne served in both World Wars, joining the British Army in World War I, and was a captain of the British Home Guard in World War II, one of his teachers was H. G. Wells, who taught there in 1889–90. Milne attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied on a mathematics scholarship and he edited and wrote for Granta, a student magazine. He collaborated with his brother Kenneth and their articles appeared over the initials AKM, Milnes work came to the attention of the leading British humour magazine Punch, where Milne was to become a contributor and later an assistant editor. Milne played for the amateur English cricket team the Allahakbarries alongside authors J. M. Barrie, Milne joined the British Army in World War I and served as an officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and later, after a debilitating illness, the Royal Corps of Signals. He was commissioned into the 4th Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 17 February 1915 as a second lieutenant and his commission was confirmed on 20 December 1915. On 7 July 1916, he was injured while serving in the Battle of the Somme, having recuperated, he was recruited into Military Intelligence to write propaganda articles for MI 7b between 1916 and 1918. He was discharged on 14 February 1919, and settled in Mallord Street and he relinquished his commission on 19 February 1920, retaining the rank of lieutenant. After the war, he wrote a denunciation of war titled Peace with Honour, which he retracted somewhat with 1940s War with Honour. During World War II, Milne was one of the most prominent critics of fellow English writer P. G. Wodehouse, Wodehouse made radio broadcasts about his internment, which were broadcast from Berlin. Although the light-hearted broadcasts made fun of the Germans, Milne accused Wodehouse of committing an act of treason by cooperating with his countrys enemy. Milne married Dorothy Daphne de Sélincourt in 1913 and their son Christopher Robin Milne was born in 1920, in 1925, Milne bought a country home, Cotchford Farm, in Hartfield, East Sussex. During World War II, Milne was Captain of the British Home Guard in Hartfield & Forest Row and he retired to the farm after a stroke and brain surgery in 1952 left him an invalid, and by August 1953 he seemed very old and disenchanted. Milne died in January 1956, aged 74, after graduating from Cambridge in 1903, A. A. Milne contributed humorous verse and whimsical essays to Punch, joining the staff in 1906 and becoming an assistant editor. During this period he published 18 plays and 3 novels, including the murder mystery The Red House Mystery. His son was born in August 1920 and in 1924 Milne produced a collection of childrens poems When We Were Very Young, a collection of short stories for children Gallery of Children, and other stories that became part of the Winnie-the-Pooh books, were first published in 1925. Milne was a screenwriter for the nascent British film industry
28.
Toad of Toad Hall
–
Toad of Toad Hall is a play written by A. A. Milne, the first of several dramatisations of Kenneth Grahames 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows, with incidental music by Harold Fraser-Simson. Its first production was at the Lyric Theatre, London on 17 December 1929, Milne extracted the adventures of Mr. Toad because they lent themselves most easily to being staged. Milne loved Grahames book, which is one of the reasons he decided to adapt it, the play has four main characters, Rat, Badger, Mole, and Toad. Toads caravan and car adventures are included, as well as his imprisonment, escape, although not a musical, the play contains six songs, with music written by Harold Fraser-Simson. During the plays history many actors have played the part of Toad in a number of plays, films and these include, Alan Reid - BBC Television Play in 1947. Co-starred with Kenneth More as Badger and Jon Pertwee as the judge, Toad of Toad Hall 1961–62 production, with a cast including Ian McKellen
29.
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
–
Mr. Toads Wild Ride is a dark ride at Disneyland Park. Originally planned to be a coaster, it was removed due to Walt Disney only wanting rides for all ages. It is one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on the opening day in 1955. The rides story is based on Disneys adaptation of The Wind in the Willows and it is currently operating in Fantasyland. Corey Burton performs every voice at the attraction, except for the usage of audio from the film, Disneyland Paris also has a restaurant named Toad Hall. Guests enter a re-creation of Toad Hall, passing by artistic works commemorating characters from The Wind in the Willows, a large mural shows the adventures of Toad and his motorcar, foreshadowing various scenes in the ride. Guests hop aboard miniature, early 1900s -era, multicolored motorcars, the name of one of the characters from the film is inscribed on each motorcar. Passengers begin their journey by crashing into a library, where MacBadger is seen teetering atop a ladder with a stack of books and they then crash through the fireplace, where fiberoptic effects simulate the scattering of embers on the floor. Narrowly avoiding a falling suit of armor, the break through a set of doors to find the interior hallway of Toad Hall in disarray. Guests then enter the room, where Moley is eating at a dinner table. Upon leaving Toad Hall, guests travel through the countryside, passing Rattys house, aggravating policemen and terrifying a farmer, guests crash through a brick wall as the warehouses contents explode. They then head out into the streets of London, narrowly avoid a collision with a truck, and enter Winkies Pub. He ducks down, leaving the mugs spinning in the air, passengers then enter the town square, where the cars wreak further havoc on the citizens. A working fountain featuring Toad and Cyril Proudbottom stands in the center of the town, behind this statue is one of Lady Justice peeking out from under her blindfold. Next, guests enter a courtroom, where the riders are proclaimed guilty by a judge. The cars then enter what is presumed to be a prison cell before abruptly turning right. The vehicles bounce along the tracks in the dark before colliding head-on with an oncoming train, passengers then arrive at the rides final scene, a tongue-in-cheek depiction of Hell not inspired by any scene in the movie or book. The entire room is heated, and the scenery features small devils who bounce up, passengers also see a demon who resembles the Judge from the courtroom scene
30.
Walt Disney
–
Walter Elias Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons, as a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors, several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing and he took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy, with Ub Iwerks, Walt developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success, he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, Disney became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons, the results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi, furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella and Mary Poppins, in the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in 1955 he opened Disneyland. In 1965, he began development of theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city. Disney was a smoker throughout his life, and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed. Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and insecure man in private and he had high standards and high expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he was racist or anti-semitic and his reputation changed in the years after his death, from a purveyor of homely patriotic values to a representative of American imperialism. Nevertheless, Disney is considered an icon, particularly in the United States. Walt Disney was born on December 5,1901, at 1249 Tripp Avenue and he was the fourth son of Elias Disney—born in the Province of Canada, to Irish parents—and Flora, an American of German and English descent. Aside from Disney, Elias and Calls sons were Herbert, Raymond and Roy, in 1906, when Disney was four, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his uncle Robert had just purchased land. In Marceline, Disney developed his interest in drawing when he was paid to draw the horse of a neighborhood doctor. Elias was a subscriber to the Appeal to Reason newspaper, Disney also began to develop an ability to work with watercolors and crayons. He lived near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line and he and his younger sister Ruth started school at the same time at the Park School in Marceline in late 1909. In 1911, the Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri, before long, he was spending more time at the Pfeiffers house than at home
31.
Dark ride
–
The size of each room containing a scene or scenes is thus concealed, and the set designer is able to use forced perspective and other visual tricks to create the illusion of distance. Typically, these experiences also use a series of opaque doors between scenes to control the views of the audience within a space-constrained building. The first dark rides appeared in the late 19th century and were called scenic railways, a popular type of dark ride, commonly referred to as an old mill or tunnel of love, used small boats to carry riders through water-filled canals. A Trip to the Moon began operation at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, leon Cassidy of the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company patented the first single-rail electric dark ride in 1928. Historically notable dark rides include Futurama at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, modern attractions in this genre vary widely in their use of technology. To improve the effect and give a sense of journey, passages in dark rides frequently change direction, sudden curves give a sense of surprise and allow new scenes to surprise the rider. The rides may also feature sudden ascents or descents to further the excitement, Dark rides have a number of variations that are not necessarily mutually exclusive. In the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, dark rides with a theme are called ghost trains. This name is reserved for travelling funfair-type dark rides. The first ride to use the name ghost train was that of Blackpool Pleasure Beach and it was rebuilt in 1936 and has remained unchanged since. Blackpool Pleasure Beach is also home to Valhalla, the worlds largest indoor dark ride, known for its many complicated effects, also, Derren Browns Ghost Train at Thorpe Park, despite containing the phrase ghost train in its name, is not actually a ghost train per se. In Australia, a ride is named The Ghost Train at Luna Park, Melbourne. As the name suggests, interactive dark rides feature a component that allows the riders to be involved directly in the story of the attraction, the vast majority of interactive dark rides are shooting dark rides, with a small number featuring different forms of interaction. A shooting dark ride requires riders to aim and shoot at targets throughout the ride, each vehicle is equipped with hand-held or vehicle-mounted light guns. Successfully shooting a target usually triggers special animation such as flashing lights or moving the target, the more targets riders hit, the higher their scores at the end of the ride. The ride systems used for conventional dark rides allow for the conversion into shooting dark rides. This conversion is evident in Duel, The Haunted House Strikes Back. at Alton Towers, the latter uses facilities that previously housed If You Had Wings, Delta Dreamflight, and Take Flight. A recent dark ride, Wonder Mountains Guardian based at Canadas Wonderland, has the worlds longest interactive screen, aside from shooting dark rides, other interactive dark rides do exist
32.
Disneyland
–
Disneyland Park, originally Disneyland, is the first of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opened on July 17,1955. It is the theme park designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. It was originally the attraction on the property, its name was changed to Disneyland Park to distinguish it from the expanding complex in the 1990s. Walt Disney came up with the concept of Disneyland after visiting various amusement parks with his daughters in the 1930s and 1940s. He initially envisioned building a tourist attraction adjacent to his studios in Burbank to entertain fans who wished to visit, however, after hiring a consultant to help him determine an appropriate site for his project, Disney bought a 160-acre site near Anaheim in 1953. Construction began in 1954 and the park was unveiled during a televised press event on the ABC Television Network on July 17,1955. Opened in 2001, Disney California Adventure Park was built on the site of Disneylands original parking lot, Disneyland has a larger cumulative attendance than any other theme park in the world, with over 650 million guests since it opened. In 2013, the park hosted approximately 16.2 million guests, according to a March 2005 Disney report,65,700 jobs are supported by the Disneyland Resort, including about 20,000 direct Disney employees and 3,800 third-party employees. To all who come to this place, Welcome. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy. The concept for Disneyland began when Walt Disney was visiting Griffith Park in Los Angeles with his daughters Diane and Sharon. While watching them ride the merry-go-round, he came up with the idea of a place where adults and their children could go and have fun together and he may have also been influenced by his fathers memories of the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Another likely influence was Benton Harbor, Michigans nationally famous House of Davids Eden Springs Park, Disney visited the park and ultimately bought one of the older miniature trains originally used there, the colony had the largest miniature railway setup in the world at the time. His ideas evolved to a play park with a boat ride. The initial concept, the Mickey Mouse Park, started with an 8-acre plot across Riverside Drive and his designers began working on concepts, though the project grew much larger than the land could hold. Disney hired Harrison Price from Stanford Research Institute to gauge the proper area to locate the theme based on the areas potential growth. Based on Prices analysis, Disney acquired 160 acres of groves and walnut trees in Anaheim
33.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
–
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a 1949 animated package film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Beginning in 1955, the two portions of the film were separated, and televised as part of the Disneyland television series and they were later marketed and sold separately on home video. As the films animated segments are based on works, they are both introduced in live-action scenes set in a library as a framing device. The first segment is introduced and narrated by Basil Rathbone, decca Records issued an album called Ichabod - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow featuring Crosby in 1949 to tie in with the release of the film. This segment is based on The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, the story is set in and around London, England between 10 June 1909 and 1 January 1910. The protagonist J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. is introduced as an adventurer who never counted the cost. As the storys one disturbing element, although he is the proprietor of the Toad Hall estate, Toads adventures. As a last resort, Toads friend Angus MacBadger volunteers as Toads bookkeeper to help Toad keep his estate which is a source of pride in the community, Ratty and Moley confront Toad, but cannot change his mind. Toad then sees a car for the first time and becomes entranced by the new machine. To cure Toads new mania, Ratty and Moley put Toad under house arrest, however, Toad escapes and is later arrested and charged with car theft. At his trial, Toad represents himself and calls his horse Cyril Proudbottom as his first witness, Cyril testifies that the car which Toad was accused of stealing had already been stolen by a gang of weasels. Toad had entered a tavern where the car was parked and offered to buy the car from the weasels, however, since Toad had no money, he instead offered to trade Toad Hall for the car. Toad is found guilty on the spot and sentenced to five years in the Tower of London, Toads friends make every effort to appeal his case, but with no success. On 24 December 1909, Cyril visits Toad in disguise as his grandmother, meanwhile, MacBadger discovers that Winky is the leader of the weasel gang, and that they have indeed taken over Toad Hall, Winky himself is in possession of the deed. Knowing that the deed bearing Toad and Winkys signature would prove Toads innocence, the film then ends in 1 January 1910 with Toad regaining his house while it is implied that Winky and his minions have been arrested and imprisoned. The second segment is based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, although the film introduces the story as Ichabod Crane, later individual releases retained the storys original title. Despite his odd behavior and effeminate mannerisms, Ichabod soon wins the hearts of the villages women, Brom Bones, the roughish town hero, does his best to bully Ichabod. However, he is good at ignoring these taunts and continues to interact with the townspeople
34.
Magic Kingdom
–
Magic Kingdom is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks and Resorts division, initialized by Walt Disney and designed by WED Enterprises, its layout and attractions are based on Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, and is dedicated to fairy tales and Disney characters. The park is represented by Cinderella Castle, inspired by the fairy tale castle seen in the 1950 film, Walt Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney. And to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disneys dream come true, may Walt Disney World bring Joy and Inspiration and New Knowledge to all who come to this happy place. A Magic Kingdom where the young at heart of all ages can laugh and play, although Walt Disney had been highly involved in planning the Florida Project, Walt Disney Productions began construction on Magic Kingdom and the entire resort in 1967 after his death. The park was built as a larger, improved version of Disneyland Park in California, there are several anecdotes relating to reasons for some of the features of Walt Disney World, and Magic Kingdom specifically. According to one story, Walt Disney once saw a Frontierland cowboy walking through Tomorrowland at Disneyland and he disliked that the cowboy intruded on the futuristic setting of Tomorrowland and wanted to avoid situations like this in the new park. The area around the utilidors was filled in with dirt removed from the Seven Seas Lagoon, the utilidors were built in the initial construction and were not extended as the park expanded. The tunnels were intended to be designed into all subsequent Walt Disney World parks, future World at Epcot and Pleasure Island each have a smaller network of utilidors. Magic Kingdom opened as the first part of the Walt Disney World Resort on October 1,1971, commencing concurrently with Disneys Contemporary Resort, the Walt Disney Company promised to increase this number with a combination of replicas and unique attractions. While there is no dedication to Magic Kingdom, the dedication by Roy O. Disney for the entire resort was placed within its gates. The first, and as of today, only added to the original roster of lands in the park was Mickeys Toontown Fair. The land originally opened in 1988 as Mickeys Birthdayland to celebrate Mickey Mouses 60th birthday, later the land was renovated as Mickeys Starland and eventually to Mickeys Toontown Fair. The land was home to such as Mickeys Country House, Minnies Country House, The Barnstormer at Goofys Wiseacre Farm. It closed on February 12,2011, to make way for the expansion of Fantasyland, the Walt Disney World Railroad station in Mickeys Toontown Fair, which opened with Mickeys Birthdayland in 1988, was closed for the duration of the construction. In 2012, the space where Mickeys Toontown Fair sat reopened as a part of Fantasyland, in a called the Storybook Circus. The Barnstormer was retained and was re-themed to The Great Goofini, since opening day, Magic Kingdom has been closed temporarily because of six hurricanes, Floyd, Frances, Charley, Jeanne, Wilma, and Matthew. It was also closed in the middle of the day on September 11,2001, in addition, there are four phases of park closure when Magic Kingdom exceeds capacity, ranging from restricted access for most guests to full closure for everyone, even cast members
35.
Orlando, Florida
–
Orlando is a city in the U. S. state of Florida and the county seat of Orange County. Located in Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 4,000,002, according to U. S. As of 2015, Orlando had an estimated population of 270,934, making it the 73rd-largest city in the United States, the fourth-largest city in Florida. The City of Orlando is nicknamed The City Beautiful, and its symbol is the fountain at Lake Eola, Orlando is also known as The Theme Park Capital of the World and in 2014 its tourist attractions and events drew more than 62 million visitors. The Orlando International Airport is the thirteenth-busiest airport in the United States, with the exception of Walt Disney World, most major attractions are located along International Drive. The city is one of the busiest American cities for conferences and conventions. Orlando is home to the University of Central Florida, which is the largest university campus in the United States in terms of enrollment as of 2015, in 2010, Orlando was listed as a Gamma− level of world-city in the World Cities Study Groups inventory. Orlando ranks as the fourth-most popular American city based on where people want to live according to a 2009 Pew Research Center study. Fort Gatlin, as the Orlando area was known, was established at what is now just south of the city limits by the 4th U. S. Artillery under the command of Ltc, alexander C. W. Fanning on November 9,1838 during the construction of a series of fortified encampments across Florida during the Second Seminole War. The fort and surrounding area were named for Dr. John S. Gatlin, king Phillip and Coacoochee frequented this area and the tree was alleged to be the place where the previous 1835 ambush that had killed over 100 soldiers had been planned. When the U. S. military abandoned the fort in 1839 the surrounding community was built up by settlers, prior to being known by its current name, Orlando was once known as Jernigan. Aarron Jernigan became Orange Countys first State Representative in 1845 but his pleas for military protection went unanswered. Fort Gatlin was briefly reoccupied by the military for a few weeks during October and November 1849, a historical marker indicates that by 1850 the Jernigan homestead served as the nucleus of a village named Jernigan. One of the countys first records, a grand jurys report, mentions a stockade where it states homesteaders were driven from their homes, Aaron Jernigan led a local volunteer militia during 1852. Jernigan appears on an 1855 map of Florida and by 1856 the area had become the county seat of Orange County and it is known for certain that the area was renamed Orlando in 1857. The move is believed to be sparked, in part, by Aaron Jernigans fall from grace after he was relieved of his command by military officials in 1856. His behavior was so notorious that Secretary of War Jefferson Davis wrote, in 1859, Jernigan and his sons were accused of committing a murder at the towns post office
36.
Jin Chan
–
The Jin Chan, also called Chan Chu or Zhaocai Chan Chu, is most commonly translated as Money Toad or Money Frog. It represents a popular Feng Shui charm for prosperity and this mythical creature is said to appear during the full moon, near houses or businesses that will soon receive good news. According to one Chinese legend, the Jin Chan was the wife of one of the Eight Immortals. The Jin Chu is usually depicted as a bullfrog with red eyes, flared nostrils and only one leg, sitting on a pile of traditional Chinese cash. On its back, it often displays seven diamond spots symbolizing the Big Dipper, or the Plough, the toad is often shown in the company of Liu Hai, a fabled 10th-century Chinese alchemist who learned the secret of immortality from the Chan Chu, and became a xian. In Japanese, Liu Hai is known as Gamma Sennin, there is a body of mythology about the pair, and they are sometimes included among the Eight Immortals, or depicted with members of this group. According to Feng Shui beliefs, Jin Chan helps attract and protect wealth, because it symbolizes the flow of money, Feng Shui lore insists that a Jin Chan statue should not be positioned facing the main door. It also should never be kept in the bathroom, bedroom, maneki Neko Sennin Ch’an Chu, The Lucky Money Toad, The Anthropology of Money in Southern California
37.
Feng shui
–
Feng Shui is a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. It is closely linked to Taoism, the term feng shui literally translates as wind-water in English. The feng shui practice discusses architecture in terms of invisible forces that bind the universe, earth. There is no scientific evidence that feng shuis mystical claims are real. Historically, feng shui was widely used to orient buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, depending on the particular style of feng shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or a compass. Qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water, Feng shui was suppressed in mainland China during the state-imposed Cultural Revolution of the 1960s but has since then regained popularity. The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience briefly summarizes the history and practice of feng shui and it states that the principles of feng shui related to living harmoniously with nature are quite rational, but does not otherwise lend credibility to the nonscientific claims. Its also a matter to dismiss the mystical energies said to be at its core. As of 2013 the Yangshao and Hongshan cultures provide the earliest known evidence for the use of feng shui, until the invention of the magnetic compass, feng shui apparently relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe. In 4000 BC, the doors of Banpo dwellings aligned with the asterism Yingshi just after the winter solstice—this sited the homes for solar gain. During the Zhou era, Yingshi was known as Ding and used to indicate the time to build a capital city. The late Yangshao site at Dadiwan includes a building at the center. The building faces south and borders a large plaza and it stands on a north-south axis with another building that apparently housed communal activities. Regional communities may have used the complex, a grave at Puyang that contains mosaics— actually a Chinese star map of the Dragon and Tiger asterisms and Beidou — is oriented along a north-south axis. Cosmography that bears a resemblance to modern feng shui devices and formulas appears on a piece of jade unearthed at Hanshan. Archaeologist Li Xueqin links the design to the astrolabe, zhinan zhen. Beginning with palatial structures at Erlitou, all cities of China followed rules of feng shui for their design. During the Zhou era, the Kaogong ji codified these rules, the carpenters manual Lu ban jing codified rules for builders
38.
True toad
–
A true toad is any member of the family Bufonidae, in the order Anura. This is the family of anurans in which all members are known as toads. The bufonids now comprise more than 35 genera, Bufo being the most widespread, true toads are widespread and are native to every continent except Australia and Antarctica, inhabiting a variety of environments, from arid areas to rainforest. Most lay eggs in paired strings that hatch into tadpoles, although, in the genus Nectophrynoides, true toads are toothless and generally warty in appearance. They have a pair of glands on the back of their heads. These glands contain a poison which the toads excrete when stressed. The poison in the glands contains a number of toxins causing different effects, different animals contain significantly different substances and proportions of substances. Some, like the cane toad Rhinella marina, are more toxic than others, some psychoactive toads, such as the Colorado River toad Bufo alvaris, have been used recreationally for the effects of their bufotoxin. Male toads possess a Bidders organ, under the right conditions, the organ becomes an active ovary and the toad, in effect, becomes female. The family Bufonidae contains about 500 species among 38 genera, Amphibian Species of the World 5.1 - Bufonidae. Halliday, Tim R. and Kraig Adler, the New Encyclopedia of Reptiles & Amphibians. Facts on File, New York,2002, tolweb. org, Bufonidae Bufonidae. com Amphibian and Reptiles of Peninsular Malaysia - Family Bufonidae FED. us Bufonidae recordings from the British Library Sound Archive
39.
Common toad
–
It is one of a group of closely related animals that are descended from a common ancestral line of toads and which form a species complex. The toad is an animal as it usually lies hidden during the day. It becomes active at dusk and spends the night hunting for the invertebrates on which it feeds and it moves with a slow, ungainly walk or short jumps, and has greyish-brown skin covered with wart-like lumps. Although toads are usually animals, in the breeding season, large numbers of toads converge on certain breeding ponds. Eggs are laid in gelatinous strings in the water and later out into tadpoles. After several months of growth and development, these sprout limbs, the juveniles emerge from the water and remain largely terrestrial for the rest of their lives. The common toad seems to be in decline in part of its range and it is threatened by habitat loss, especially by drainage of its breeding sites, and some toads get killed on the roads as they make their annual migrations. It has long been associated in popular culture and literature with witchcraft, the common toad was first given the name Rana bufo by the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758. In this work, he placed all the frogs and toads in the single genus Rana and it later became apparent that this genus should be divided, and in 1768, the Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti placed the common toad in the genus Bufo, naming it Bufo bufo. The toads in this genus are included in the family Bufonidae, various subspecies of B. bufo have been recognized over the years. The Caucasian toad is found in the regions of the Caucasus and was at one time classified as B. b. verrucosissima. It has a genome and differs from B. bufo morphologically and is now accepted as Bufo verrucosissimus. The spiny toad was classified as B. b. spinosus and it is found in the Mediterranean area and grows to a larger size and has a spinier skin than its more northern counterparts with which it intergrades. It is now accepted as Bufo spinosus, the Gredos toad, B. b. gredosicola, is restricted to the Sierra de Gredos, a mountain range in central Spain. It has exceptionally large paratoid glands and its colour tends to be blotched rather than uniform and it is now considered to be a synonym of Bufo spinosus. B. bufo is part of a complex, a group of closely related species which cannot be clearly demarcated. Several modern species are believed to form an ancient group of related taxa from preglacial times and these are the spiny toad, the Caucasian toad and the Japanese common toad. The European common toad seems to have more recently
40.
NPR
–
NPR produces and distributes news and cultural programming. Individual public radio stations are not required to broadcast all NPR programs that are produced and its content is also available on-demand via the web, mobile, and podcasts. The organizations legal name is National Public Radio and its brand is NPR. Is NPR has been used by its hosts for many years. However, National Public Radio remains the name of the group. National Public Radio replaced the National Educational Radio Network on February 26,1970 and this act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which created the Public Broadcasting Service in addition to NPR. A CPB organizing committee under John Witherspoon first created a Board of Directors chaired by Bernard Mayes, the board then hired Donald Quayle to be the first president of NPR with 30 employees and 90 charter member stations, and studios in Washington, D. C. NPR aired its first broadcast in April 1971, covering United States Senate hearings on the Vietnam War, a month later, the afternoon drive-time newscast All Things Considered began, on May 3,1971, first hosted by Robert Conley. NPR was primarily a production and distribution organization until 1977, when it merged with the Association of Public Radio Stations, NPR suffered an almost fatal setback in 1983 when efforts to expand services created a deficit of nearly US$7 million. After a congressional investigation and the resignation of NPRs president, Frank Mankiewicz, NPR also agreed to turn its satellite service into a cooperative venture, making it possible for non-NPR shows to get national distribution. It took NPR approximately three years to pay off the debt, delano Lewis, the president of C&P Telephone, left that position to become NPRs CEO and president in January 1994. In November 1998, NPRs board of directors hired Kevin Klose, NPR spent nearly $13 million to acquire and equip a West Coast 25, 000-square-foot production facility, NPR West, which opened in Culver City, Los Angeles County, California, in November 2002. C. In November 2003, NPR received US$235 million from the estate of the late Joan B, Kroc, the widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds Corporation. This was the largest monetary gift ever to a cultural institution, in 2004 NPRs budget increased by over 50% to US$153 million due to the Kroc gift. US$34 million of the money was deposited in its endowment, the endowment fund before the gift totaled $35 million. NPR will use the interest from the bequest to expand its news staff, the 2005 budget was about US$120 million. In August 2005, NPR entered podcasting with a directory of over 170 programs created by NPR, by November of that year, users downloaded NPR and other public radio podcasts 5 million times
41.
Anthrozoology
–
Anthrozoology is the subset of ethnobiology that deals with interactions between humans and other animals. It is a field that overlaps with other disciplines including anthropology, ethnology, medicine, psychology, veterinary medicine. A major focus of research is the quantifying of the positive effects of human-animal relationships on either party. It includes scholars from fields such as anthropology, sociology, biology, history, the interaction and enhancement within captive animal interactions. In the UK, the University of Exeter runs an MA in Anthrozoology which explores human-animal interactions from anthropological perspectives, there are now three primary lists for HAS scholars and students—H-Animal, the Human-Animal Studies listserv, and NILAS, as well as the Critical Animal Studies list. There are now over a dozen journals covering HAS issues, many of them founded in the last decade, and hundreds of HAS books, most of them published in the last decade. Brill, Berg, Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Columbia, Reaktion, Palgrave-McMillan, University of Minnesota, University of Illinois, beginning in 2011, ASI has partnered with Wesleyan Animal Studies, who will be hosting the fellowship in conjunction with ASI. There are also a handful of HAS conferences per year, including organized by ISAZ and NILAS. Finally, there are more HAS courses being taught now than ever before, the ASI website lists over 300 courses in twenty-nine disciplines at over 200 colleges and universities, not including over 100 law school courses. Animals and Society Institute Anthrozoology Research Group H-Animal Human-Animal Studies listserve Humanimalia, a journal of human-animal interface studies NILAS
42.
Ethnobiology
–
Ethnobiology is the scientific study of the way living things are treated or used by different human cultures. It studies the relationships between people, biota, and environments, from the distant past to the immediate present. Naturalists have been interested in biological knowledge since the time Europeans started colonising the world. Entered into Europe during this period, such as the potato, tomato, pumpkin, maize, during the 19th century, Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory, on his Voyage of the Beagle took interest in the local biological knowledge of peoples he encountered. Ethnobiology itself, as a practice, only emerged during the 20th century as part of the records then being made about other peoples. As a practice, it was nearly always ancillary to other pursuits when documenting others languages, folklore, ethno-biology as the descriptive biological knowledge of primitive peoples. In Sillitoes words, By the mid-20th century, utilitarian-focussed studies started to give way to more cognitively framed ones, notably studies that centred on elucidating classificatory schemes. Porteres and others work in economic biology, the Society of Ethnobiology advises on its web page, Ethnobiology is a rapidly growing field of research, gaining professional, student, and public interest. Ethnobiologists investigate what lifeforms are used for what purposes, the techniques of use, the reasons for these choices. Different societies divide the world up in different ways. Ethnobiologists attempt to record the words used in cultures for living things. They also try to understand the structure or hierarchy of the classification system Ethnobiology. Proceedings of the First International Congress of Ethnobiology, cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity. London, United Nations Environmental Programme & Intermediate Technology Publications, & VON REIS, S Ethnobotany, evolution of a discipline Chapman & Hall. SILLITOE, Paul Ethnobiology and applied anthropology, rapprochement of the academic with the practical, special Edition of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute S119-S142 STEVENSON, M. C. Bureau of American Ethnology Annual Report, TUXILL, J & NABHAN, G. P People, plants and protected area. WARREN, D. M, SLIKKERVEER, L, & BROKENSHA, the cultural dimension of development, indigenous knowledge systems. ZERNER, C People, plants and justice, the politics of nature conservation, will provide a unique opportunity to further its goal of protecting our natural heritage
43.
Ethnobotany
–
Ethnobotany is the study of a regions plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for many aspects of life, such as plants as medicines, foods, and clothing. Since the time of Schultes, the field of ethnobotany has grown from simply acquiring ethnobotanical knowledge to that of applying it to a modern society, intellectual property rights and benefit-sharing arrangements are important issues in ethnobotany. The idea of ethnobotany was first proposed by the early 20th century botanist John William Harshberger, european botanical knowledge drastically expanded once the New World was discovered due to ethnobotany. This expansion in knowledge can be attributed to the substantial influx of new plants from the Americas, including crops such as potatoes, peanuts, avocados. One French explorer in the 16th century, Jacques Cartier, discovered a cure for scurvy from a local Iroquoi tribe, during the medieval period, ethnobotanical studies were commonly found connected with monasticism. Notable at this time was Hildegard von Bingen, however, most botanical knowledge was kept in gardens such as physic gardens attached to hospitals and religious buildings. It was thought of in practical use terms for culinary and medical purposes, carl Linnaeus carried out in 1732 a research expedition in Scandinavia asking the Sami people about their ethnological usage of plants. The age of enlightenment saw a rise in economic botanical exploration, alexander von Humboldt collected data from the New World, and James Cooks voyages brought back collections and information on plants from the South Pacific. At this time major botanical gardens were started, for instance the Royal Botanic Gardens, the directors of the gardens sent out gardener-botanist explorers to care for and collect plants to add to their collections. Edward Palmer collected material culture artifacts and botanical specimens from people in the North American West, the first individual to study the emic perspective of the plant world was a German physician working in Sarajevo at the end of 19th century, Leopold Glueck. His published work on traditional medical uses of plants done by people in Bosnia has to be considered the first modern ethnobotanical work. In the beginning, ethonobotanical specimens and studies were not very reliable and this is because the botanists and the anthropologists did not always collaborate in their work. The botanists focused on identifying species and how the plants were used instead of concentrating upon how plants fit into peoples lives, on the other hand, anthropologists were interested in the cultural role of plants and treated other scientific aspects superficially. In the early 20th century, botanists and anthropologists better collaborated, beginning in the 20th century, the field of ethnobotany experienced a shift from the raw compilation of data to a greater methodological and conceptual reorientation. This is also the beginning of academic ethnobotany, the so-called father of this discipline is Richard Evans Schultes, even though he did not actually coin the term ethnobotany. Mark Plotkin, who studied at Harvard University, the Yale School of Forestry, Plotkin was interviewed in 1998 by South American Explorer magazine, just after the release of Tales of a Shamans Apprentice and the IMAX movie Amazonia. It shouldnt be the doctor versus the witch doctor and it should be the best aspects of all medical systems combined in a way which makes health care more effective and more affordable for all
44.
Ethnoecology
–
Ethnoecology is the scientific study of how different groups of people living in different locations understand the ecosystems around them, and their relationships with surrounding environments. It seeks valid, reliable understanding of how we as humans have interacted with the environment, the “ethno” prefix in ethnoecology indicates a localized study of a people, and in conjunction with ecology, signifies people’s understanding and experience of environments around them. Ecology is the study of the interactions between living organisms and their environment, enthnoecology applies a human focused approach to this subject, the development of the field of lies in applying indigenous knowledge of botany and placing it in a global context. Ethnoecology began with some of the works of Dr. In his 1954 dissertation “The Relation of the Hanunoo Culture of the Plant World” he coined the term ethnoecology when he described his approach as “ethnoecological”, after earning his PhD he began teaching at Columbia University and continued his research among the Hanunoo. In 1955, Conklin published one of his first ethnoecological studies and his “Hanunoo Color Categories” study helped scholars understand the relationship between classification systems and conceptualization of the world within cultures. In this experiment, Conklin soon realized that people in various cultures recognized colors differently because of their classification system. Within his results he found that the Hanunoo uses two levels of colors, the first level consists of four basic terms of colors, darkness, lightness, redness, and greenness. The second level was more abstract and consisted of hundreds of color classifications, texture, shininess, other anthropologists had a hard time understanding this color classification system because they often applied their own idea of color criteria the Hanunoo’s color classifications. Other scholars such as Berlin, Breedlove, and Raven endeavored to learn more about other systems of environment classifications, ethnoscience emphasizes the importance of how societies make sense of their own reality, and not the ethnographers. This information can ultimately be useful for other approaches used in environmental anthropology, as a field of environmental anthropology, ethnoecology has derived much of its characteristics from classic theorists and more modern theorists of that time. Franz Boas was one of the first anthropologists to question unilineal evolution, Boas strongly urged anthropologists to gather detailed ethnographic data from an emic standpoint in order to understand different cultures. Julian Steward was another anthropologist whose ideas and theories influenced the use ethnoecology and he took ideas from Boas and applied it to classical theories of cultural evolution. Furthermore, Stewards cultural ecology provides an important theoretical antecedent and framework for ethnoecology, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, also known as Indigenous Knowledge, “refers to tacit knowledge in embodied in life experiences and reproduced in everyday behavior and speech”. It is common knowledge for a community and their environment and is fragile in its limited scope. The study of Traditional Ecological Knowledge frequently includes critiques of the division between cultural systems and ecosystems, interpreting humans as an integral part of the whole. The supposed distinction between culture and nature is often claimed to be nonexistent, humans, for example, can represent a keystone species in a given ecosystem and can play critical roles in creating, maintaining, and sustaining it. They can contribute to such as pedogenesis, seed dispersal
45.
Insects in culture
–
The roles of insects in culture span different aspects of human life, whether analysed academically or more generally. Both academic disciplines explore the parallels, connections and influence of insects on human populations and they are rooted in anthropology and natural history, as well as entomology, the study of insects. Other cultural uses of insects, such as biomimicry, do not necessarily lie within these academic disciplines, more generally, people make a wide range of uses of insects, both practical and symbolic. One insect, the bee, provides honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis. Medical uses of insects include maggot therapy for wound debridement, over a thousand protein families have been identified in the saliva of blood-feeding insects, these may provide useful drugs such as anticoagulants, vasodilators, antihistamines and anaesthetics. Symbolic uses include roles in art, in music, in film, in literature, in religion, insect costumes are used in theatrical productions and worn for parties and carnivals. Ethnoentomology developed from the 19th century with works by authors such as Alfred Russel Wallace. Hans Zinssers classic Rats, Lice and History showed that insects were an important force in human history, writers like William Morton Wheeler, Maurice Maeterlinck, and Jean Henri Fabre described insect life and communicated their meaning to people with imagination and brilliance. Frederick Simon Bodenheimers Insects as Human Food drew attention to the scope and potential of entomophagy, Food is the most studied topic in ethnoentomology, followed by medicine and beekeeping. In 1968, Erwin Schimitschek claimed cultural entomology as a branch of insect studies, in a review of the roles played in folklore and culture including religion, food, medicine. In 1984, Charles Hogue covered the field in English and from 1994 to 1997 and he added, Because the term cultural is narrowly defined, some aspects normally included in studies of human societies are excluded. Posey states at once that the division is artificial, complete with an unjustified us/them bias, a fundamental tenet is that a few species of arthropod are well understood for their influence on humans. However, insects offer ecological goods and services, the Xerces Society calculates the economic impact of four ecological services rendered by insects, pollination, recreation, dung burial, and pest control. The value has been estimated at $153 billion worldwide, as the ant expert E. O. Wilson observed, If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos, a Nova segment on the American Public Broadcasting Service framed the relationship with insects in an urban context, We humans like to think that we run the world. But even in the heart of our cities, a rival superpower thrives. These tiny creatures live all around us in vast numbers, though we hardly notice them. But in many ways, it is they who really run the show, in other words, Start thinking about the bugs
.jpg)
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Toad". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "