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Aplodontia
The mountain beaver (''Aplodontia rufa'')Other names include mountain boomer, ground bear, giant mole, gehalis, lesser sasquatch, sewellel, suwellel, showhurll, showtl, and showte, as well as a number of Chinookan and other Native American terms; "mountain boomer" is a misnomer, and the animal does not make the characteristic tail slapping sound of the true beaver species. See Carraway and Verts, 1993. Lewis and Clark originally called the animal "sewellel", a misunderstanding of the Chinook word "she-wal-lal", the name for garments made from the skin of the creature. See Borrecco and Anderson, 1980. is a North American rodent. It is the only living member of its genus, ''Aplodontia'', and family, Aplodontiidae. It should not be confused with true North American and Eurasian beavers, to which it is not closely related, being more closely related to squirrels. There are 7 subspecies of mountain beavers, 6 of which are found in California and 3 of which are endemic to the state. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aplodontia Rufa (Harvard University)
The mountain beaver (''Aplodontia rufa'')Other names include mountain boomer, ground bear, giant mole, gehalis, lesser sasquatch, sewellel, suwellel, showhurll, showtl, and showte, as well as a number of Chinookan and other Native American terms; "mountain boomer" is a misnomer, and the animal does not make the characteristic tail slapping sound of the true beaver species. See Carraway and Verts, 1993. Lewis and Clark originally called the animal "sewellel", a misunderstanding of the Chinook word "she-wal-lal", the name for garments made from the skin of the creature. See Borrecco and Anderson, 1980. is a North American rodent. It is the only living member of its genus, ''Aplodontia'', and family, Aplodontiidae. It should not be confused with true North American and Eurasian beavers, to which it is not closely related, being more closely related to squirrels. There are 7 subspecies of mountain beavers, 6 of which are found in California and 3 of which are endemic to the state. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are native to all major land masses except for New Zealand, Antarctica, and several oceanic islands, though they have subsequently been introduced to most of these land masses by human activity. Rodents are extremely diverse in their ecology and lifestyles and can be found in almost every terrestrial habitat, including human-made environments. Species can be arboreal, fossorial (burrowing), saltatorial/richochetal (leaping on their hind legs), or semiaquatic. However, all rodents share several morphological features, including having only a single upper and lower pair of ever-growing incisors. Well-known rodents include mice, rats, squirrels, prairie dogs, porcupines, beavers, guinea pigs, and hamsters. Rabbits, hares, and pikas, whose i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Living Fossil
A living fossil is an extant taxon that cosmetically resembles related species known only from the fossil record. To be considered a living fossil, the fossil species must be old relative to the time of origin of the extant clade. Living fossils commonly are of species-poor lineages, but they need not be. While the body plan of a living fossil remains superficially similar, it is never the same species as the remote relatives it resembles, because genetic drift would inevitably change its chromosomal structure. Living fossils exhibit stasis (also called "bradytely") over geologically long time scales. Popular literature may wrongly claim that a "living fossil" has undergone no significant evolution since fossil times, with practically no molecular evolution or morphological changes. Scientific investigations have repeatedly discredited such claims. The minimal superficial changes to living fossils are mistakenly declared as an absence of evolution, but they are examples of s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North American Beaver
The North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') is one of two Extant taxon, extant beaver species, along with the Eurasian beaver (''Castor fiber''). It is native to North America and introduced in South America (Patagonia) and Europe (primarily Finland and Karelia). In Canada and the United States, the species is often referred to simply as "beaver", though this causes some confusion because another distantly related rodent, ''Aplodontia rufa'', is often called the "mountain beaver". Other vernacular names, including American beaver and Canadian beaver, distinguish this species from the other Extant taxon, extant beaver species, ''Castor fiber'', which is native to Eurasia. The North American beaver is one of the official national wildlife of Canada symbols and is the official state mammal of Oregon and New York (state), New York. Taxonomy Evolution The first fossil records of beaver are 10 to 12 million years old in Germany, and they are thought to have migrated to North Amer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hystricomorphous
The zygomasseteric system (or zygomasseteric structure) in rodents is the anatomical arrangement of the masseter muscle of the jaw and the zygomatic arch of the skull. The anteroposterior or propalinal (front-to-back) motion of the rodent jaw is enabled by an extension of the zygomatic arch and the division of the masseter into a superficial, lateral and medial muscle. The four main types are described as protrogomorphous, sciuromorphous, hystricomorphous, and myomorphous.{* Protrogomorphy The members of this grade include nearly all of the pre-Oligocene rodents of North America and Asia and some of those of Europe. Several lineages survive into the Oligocene or early Miocene, with only one species still alive today, the mountain beaver ('' Aplodontia rufa''). The molerats (family Bathyergidae) are considered secondarily protrogomorphous since their zygomatic condition is clearly derived from a hystricomorphous ancestor. The rostrum of protrogomorph rodents is unmodified an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sciuromorphous
The zygomasseteric system (or zygomasseteric structure) in rodents is the anatomical arrangement of the masseter muscle of the jaw and the zygomatic arch of the skull. The anteroposterior or propalinal (front-to-back) motion of the rodent jaw is enabled by an extension of the zygomatic arch and the division of the masseter into a superficial, lateral and medial muscle. The four main types are described as protrogomorphous, sciuromorphous, hystricomorphous, and myomorphous.{* Protrogomorphy The members of this grade include nearly all of the pre-Oligocene rodents of North America and Asia and some of those of Europe. Several lineages survive into the Oligocene or early Miocene, with only one species still alive today, the mountain beaver (''Aplodontia rufa''). The molerats (family Bathyergidae) are considered secondarily protrogomorphous since their zygomatic condition is clearly derived from a hystricomorphous ancestor. The rostrum of protrogomorph rodents is unmodified and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territories of the United States by population, most populous U.S. state and the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated Administrative division, subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous Statistical area (United States), urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7million residents and the latter having over 9.6million. Sacramento, California, Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the List of largest California cities by population, most populous city in the state and the List of United States cities by population, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zygomasseteric System
The zygomasseteric system (or zygomasseteric structure) in rodents is the anatomical arrangement of the masseter muscle of the jaw and the zygomatic arch of the skull. The anteroposterior or propalinal (front-to-back) motion of the rodent jaw is enabled by an extension of the zygomatic arch and the division of the masseter into a superficial, lateral and medial muscle. The four main types are described as protrogomorphous, sciuromorphous, hystricomorphous, and myomorphous.{* Protrogomorphy The members of this grade include nearly all of the pre-Oligocene rodents of North America and Asia and some of those of Europe. Several lineages survive into the Oligocene or early Miocene, with only one species still alive today, the mountain beaver ('' Aplodontia rufa''). The molerats (family Bathyergidae) are considered secondarily protrogomorphous since their zygomatic condition is clearly derived from a hystricomorphous ancestor. The rostrum of protrogomorph rodents is unmodified an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimately settling in Ohio in 1815, where he made notable contributions to botany, zoology, and the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America. He also contributed to the study of ancient Mesoamerican linguistics, in addition to work he had already completed in Europe. Rafinesque was an eccentric and erratic genius. He was an autodidact, who excelled in various fields of knowledge, as a zoologist, botanist, writer and polyglot. He wrote prolifically on such diverse topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics, but was honored in none of these fields during his lifetime. Indeed, he was an outcast in the American scientific community whose submissions were rejected automatically by leading journals. Among his theories were th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paramys
''Paramys'' is an extinct genus of rodents from North America, Europe, and Asia. It is one of the oldest genera of rodents known and probably lived in trees. While the genus name literally means "near a mouse", it coexisted with ''Thisbemys'', a similar rodent, thus yielding a reference to Pyramus and Thisbe Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The story has since been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses. Their r .... References Further reading * Matthew, W. D. 1910. On the osteology and relationships of ''Paramys'' and the affinities of the Ischyromyidae. ''Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History'', 28:43–72. * Kenneth D. Rose, 2006. ''The Beginning of the Age of Mammals''. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore MD. pp. 306–335 * Kenneth D. Rose and Brenda J. Chinnery. The Postcranial Skeleton of Early Eocene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molecular Phylogeny
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to determine the processes by which diversity among species has been achieved. The result of a molecular phylogenetic analysis is expressed in a phylogenetic tree. Molecular phylogenetics is one aspect of molecular systematics, a broader term that also includes the use of molecular data in taxonomy and biogeography. Molecular phylogenetics and molecular evolution correlate. Molecular evolution is the process of selective changes (mutations) at a molecular level (genes, proteins, etc.) throughout various branches in the tree of life (evolution). Molecular phylogenetics makes inferences of the evolutionary relationships that arise due to molecular evolution and results in the construction of a phylogenetic tree. History The theoretical framew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, the equivalent Latin term ''cladus'' (plural ''cladi'') is often used in taxonomical literature. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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