|
American Black Bear
The American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), or simply black bear, is a species of medium-sized bear which is Endemism, endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. It is an omnivore, with a diet varying greatly depending on season and location. It typically lives in largely forested areas; it will leave forests in search of food and is sometimes attracted to human communities due to the immediate availability of food. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the American black bear as a least-concern species because of its widespread distribution and a large population, estimated to be twice that of all other bear species combined. Along with the brown bear (''Ursus arctos''), it is one of the two modern bear species not considered by the IUCN to be globally threatened with extinction. Taxonomy and evolution The American black bear is not closely related to the brown bear or polar bear, though all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58See the 2014 version of the ICS geologic time scale million years ago (Ma). It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic, Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale, which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene, the Pliocene also included the Gelasian Stage, which lasted from 2.59 to 1.81 Ma, and is now included in the Pleistocene. As with other older geologic periods, the Stratum, geological strata that define the start and end are well-identified but the exact dates of the start a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sister Taxa
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and taxon B are sister groups to each other. Taxa A and B, together with any other extant or extinct descendants of their most recent common ancestor (MRCA), form a monophyletic group, the clade AB. Clade AB and taxon C are also sister groups. Taxa A, B, and C, together with all other descendants of their MRCA form the clade ABC. The whole clade ABC is itself a subtree of a larger tree which offers yet more sister group relationships, both among the leaves and among larger, more deeply rooted clades. The tree structure shown connects through its root to the rest of the universal tree of life. In cladistic standards, taxa A, B, and C may represent specimens, species, genera, or any other taxonomic units. If A and B are at the same taxonomic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Hanna
Jack Bushnell Hanna (born January 2, 1947) is an American retired zookeeper and director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Commonly nicknamed "Jungle Jack", he was director of the zoo from 1978 to 1992, and is viewed as largely responsible for elevating its quality and reputation. His media appearances, particularly with David Letterman, James Corden, ''Good Morning America'', and Maury Povich made him one of the most notable animal experts in the United States. Early life Hanna was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. He grew up on his family's farm and volunteered for the family veterinarian, Dr. Roberts, when he was 11. He attended The Kiski School, an all-boys boarding school in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, for high school, graduating in 1965. He majored in business and political science at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, where he got in trouble for keeping ducks in his dorm room and a donkey in a shed behind his fraternity house (The M.A.C.E. Club). In his senio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hybrid (biology)
In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different varieties, subspecies, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Generally, it means that each cell has genetic material from two different organisms, whereas an individual where some cells are derived from a different organism is called a chimera. Hybrids are not always intermediates between their parents such as in blending inheritance (a now discredited theory in modern genetics by particulate inheritance), but can show hybrid vigor, sometimes growing larger or taller than either parent. The concept of a hybrid is interpreted differently in animal and plant breeding, where there is interest in the individual parentage. In genetics, attention is focused on the numbers of chromosomes. In taxonomy, a key question is how closely related the parent species are. Species are reproductively isolated by strong barriers to hybridization, which include genetic and morph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and greenhouse periods during which there are no glaciers on the planet. Earth is currently in the ice age called Quaternary glaciation. Individual pulses of cold climate within an ice age are termed '' glacial periods'' (''glacials, glaciations, glacial stages, stadials, stades'', or colloquially, ''ice ages''), and intermittent warm periods within an ice age are called '' interglacials'' or ''interstadials''. In glaciology, the term ''ice age'' is defined by the presence of extensive ice sheets in the northern and southern hemispheres. By this definition, the current Holocene epoch is an interglacial period of an ice age. The accumulation of anthropogenic greenhouse gases is projected to delay the next glacial period. History of research ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quaternary Glaciation
The Quaternary glaciation, also known as the Pleistocene glaciation, is an alternating series of glacial period, glacial and interglacial, interglacial periods during the Quaternary period that began 2.58 Year#SI prefix multipliers, Ma (million years ago) and is ongoing. Although geologists describe this entire period up to the present as an "ice age", in popular culture this term usually refers to the Last Glacial Period, most recent glacial period, or to the Pleistocene epoch in general. Since Earth still has polar Ice sheet, ice sheets, geologists consider the Quaternary glaciation to be ongoing, though currently in an interglacial period. During the Quaternary glaciation, ice sheets appeared, expanding during glacial periods and contracting during interglacial periods. Since the end of the last glacial period, only the Antarctic ice sheet, Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have survived, while other sheets formed during glacial periods, such as the Laurentide Ice Sheet, hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generalist Species
A generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and can make use of a variety of different natural resource, resources (for example, a heterotroph with a varied diet (nutrition), diet). A specialist species can thrive only in a narrow range of environmental conditions or has a limited diet. Most organisms do not all fit neatly into either group, however. Some species are highly specialized (the most extreme case being monophagous, monophagy, eating one specific type of food), others less so, and some can tolerate many different environments. In other words, there is a continuum from highly specialized to broadly generalist species. Description Omnivores are usually generalists. Herbivores are often specialists, but those that eat a variety of plants may be considered generalists. A well-known example of a specialist animal is the monophagous koala, which subsists almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves. The raccoon is a generalist, because it h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tremarctinae
The Tremarctinae or short-faced bears is a subfamily of Ursidae that contains one living representative, the spectacled bear (''Tremarctos ornatus'') of South America, and several extinct species from four genera: the Florida spectacled bear (''Tremarctos floridanus''), the North American giant short-faced bears '' Arctodus'' (''A. pristinus'' and ''A. simus''), the South American giant short-faced bear ''Arctotherium'' (including ''A. angustidens'', ''A. vetustum'', ''A. bonariense'', ''A. wingei'', and ''A. tarijense)'' as well as '' Plionarctos'' ''(P. edensis and P. harroldorum),'' which is thought to be ancestral to the other three genera. Of these, the giant short-faced bears ('' Arctodus simus'' and '' Arctotherium angustidens'') may have been the largest ever carnivorans in the Americas. The group is thought to have originated in eastern North America, and then invaded South America as part of the Great American Interchange. Most short-faced bears became extinct at th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tremarctos Floridanus
''Tremarctos floridanus'' is an extinct species of bear in the family Ursidae, subfamily Tremarctinae. ''T. floridanus'' became extinct at the end of the last ice age, 11,000 years ago. Its fossils have been found throughout the Southeastern United States, in northeastern Mexico, and in Belize from the Rancholabrean epoch (250,000–11,000 years ago), and from earlier epochs at some sites in western North America. Names ''Tremarctos floridanus'' is called the Florida spectacled bear, Florida cave bear, or rarely Florida short-faced bear. Description ''T. floridanus'' is presumed to closely resemble its modern relative that shares the same genus, the spectacled bear (''Tremarctos ornatus'') found in the Andes Mountains of South America. Intermediate in size between a modern American black bear and grizzly bear, it was noticeably larger than its South American relation though still much smaller than the fellow Tremarctinae bear ''Arctodus''. ''Arctodus'' was a contemporary of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arctodus
''Arctodus'' is an extinct genus of short-faced bear that inhabited North America during the Pleistocene (~2.6 Year#mya, Mya until 12,800 years ago). There are two recognized species: the lesser short-faced bear (''Arctodus pristinus'') and the giant short-faced bear (''Arctodus simus''). Of these species, ''A. simus'' was larger, is known from more complete remains, and is considered one of the best known members of North America's extinct Ice Age megafauna. ''A. pristinus'' was largely restricted to the Early Pleistocene of the eastern United States, whereas ''A. simus'' had a broader range, with most finds being from the Late Pleistocene of the United States, Mexico and Canada. ''A. simus'' evolved from ''A. pristinus'', but both species likely overlapped in the Middle Pleistocene. Both species are relatively rare in the fossil record. Today considered to be an enormous omnivore, ''Arctodus simus'' is believed to be one of the largest known terrestrial carnivorans that has ever e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), other morphological forms of brown bear in North America are sometimes identified as grizzly bears. These include three living populations—the Kodiak bear (''U. a. middendorffi''), the Kamchatka brown bear, Kamchatka bear (''U. a. beringianus''), and the Alaska Peninsula brown bear, peninsular grizzly (''U. a. gyas'')—as well as the extinct California grizzly bear, California grizzly (''U. a. californicus''†) and Mexican grizzly bear, Mexican grizzly (formerly ''U. a. nelsoni''†). On average, grizzly bears near the coast tend to be larger while inland grizzlies tend to be smaller. The Ussuri brown bear (''U. a. lasiotus''), inhabiting the Ussuri Krai, Sakhalin, the Amur Oblast, the Shantar Islands, Iturup Island, and Kun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Kennedy, Pennsylvania
Port Kennedy was an industrial village located where U.S. Route 422 (Pottstown Expressway) now crosses the Schuylkill River in Upper Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. History and notable features Built along the Schuylkill Canal and, after 1838, the Reading Railroad, this village was a center for the lime industry during the nineteenth century. It was named for Alexander Kennedy, the owner of the quarries and kilns. Beginning in 1871, a number of important fossils were unearthed at Port Kennedy. The location of the find was forgotten until 2006, when the Port Kennedy Bone Cave was rediscovered. In 1919, the State of Pennsylvania seized the land of the village through eminent domain to expand the growing Valley Forge State Park. Planning for U.S. Route 422 between U.S. Route 202 U.S. Route 202 (US 202) is a spur route of U.S. Route 2, US 2. It follows a northeasterly and southwesterly direction stretching from Delaware in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
