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Ani (bird)
The anis are the three species of birds in the genus ''Crotophaga'' of the cuckoo family. They are essentially tropical New World birds, although the range of two species just reaches the United States.Payne, R.B. (2005). ''The Cuckoos''. Oxford University Press. Unlike some cuckoos, the anis are not brood parasites, but nest communally, the cup nest being built by several pairs from 2–6 m high in a tree. A number of females lay their eggs in the nest and then share incubation and feeding. The anis are large black birds with a long tail and a deep ridged black bill. Their flight is weak and wobbly, but they run well, and usually feed on the ground. These are very gregarious species, always found in noisy groups. Anis feed on termites, large insects, and even lizards and frogs. The claim that they will remove ticks and other parasites from grazing animals has been disputed; while there is no doubt that anis follow grazing animals to catch disturbed insects and will occa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name is a combination of Ancient Greek grc, label=none, πλεῖστος, pleīstos, most and grc, label=none, καινός, kainós (latinized as ), 'new'. At the end of the preceding Pliocene, the previously isolated North and South American continents were joined by the Isthmus of Panama, causing a faunal interchange between the two reg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. '' Panthera leo'' (lion) and '' Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus '' Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants of an ancestral taxon are grouped together (i.e. phylogenetic analysis should cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crotophaga Sulcirostris
The groove-billed ani (''Crotophaga sulcirostris'') is a tropical bird in the cuckoo family with a long tail and a large, curved beak. It is a resident species throughout most of its range, from southern Texas, central Mexico and The Bahamas, through Central America, to northern Colombia and Venezuela, and coastal Ecuador and Peru. It only retreats from the northern limits of its range in Texas and northern Mexico during winter. Taxonomy The groove-billed ani was formally described by the English naturalist William John Swainson from a specimen collected in Temascaltepec, Mexico. It still bears its original binomial name of ''Crotophaga sulcirostris''. The specific epithet combines the Latin meaning "furrow" with ''-'' meaning "-billed". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. Description The groove-billed ani is about long, and weighs . Wingspan ranges 41-46 cm (16-18 in). It is completely black, with a very long tail almost as long as its body. It has a huge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smooth-billed Ani
The smooth-billed ani (''Crotophaga ani'') is a bird in the cuckoo family. It is a resident breeding species from southern Florida, the Caribbean, parts of Central America, south to western Ecuador, Brazil, northern Argentina and southern Chile. It was introduced to Galápagos around the 1960s and is potentially impacting native and endemic species across the archipelago. Taxonomy The smooth-billed ani was described and illustrated in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his ''Historia Naturalis Brasiliae''. He used the name "Ani" but did not explain the origin of the word. It probably comes from the word ''Anim'' in the Tupi language which means "social bird". In 1756 the Irish physician Patrick Browne used the name ''Crotophaga'' for the species in his ''The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica''. Browne's name combines the Ancient Greek ''krotōn'' meaning "tick" with ''-phagos'' meaning "-eating". Browne wrote that the smooth-billed anis "live chiefly upon ticks ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tupi Language
Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi (also spelled as Tupí) is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the aboriginal Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. It belongs to the Tupi–Guarani language family, and has a written history spanning the 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries. In the early colonial period, Tupi was used as a ''lingua franca'' throughout Brazil by Europeans and aboriginal Americans, and had literary usage, but it was later suppressed almost to extinction. Today, only one modern descendant is living, the Nheengatu language. The names Old Tupi or classical Tupi are used for the language in English and by modern scholars (it is referred to as in Portuguese), but native speakers called it variously "the good language", "common language", "human language", in Old Tupi, or, in Portuguese, "general language", "Amazonian general language", "Brazilian language". History Old Tupi w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historia Naturalis Brasiliae
''Historia Naturalis Brasiliae'' ( en, Brazilian Natural History), originally written in Latin, is the first scientific work on the natural history of Brazil, written by Dutch naturalist Willem Piso and containing research done by the German scientist Georg Marcgraf, published in 1648. The work includes observations made by the German naturalist H. Gralitzio, in addition to humanist Johannes de Laet. It was dedicated to Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau, who was the patron of the project during the period of Dutch rule in Brazil.''História Natural do Brasil'' - edição brasileira: Though referring to Brazil generally throughout the text, the authors' research was of the coastal strip of the Northeast, occupied by the Dutch West India Company. It is based on Marcgraf and Piso's time in Brazil, starting in 1637. It offers an important early European insight into Brazilian flora and fauna by analyzing plants and animals and studying tropical diseases and indigenous therapi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georg Marcgrave
Georg Marcgrave (originally german: Georg Marggraf, also spelled ''"Marcgraf" " Markgraf"'') (1610 – 1644) was a German naturalist and astronomer, whose posthumously published ''Historia Naturalis Brasiliae'' was a major contribution to early modern science. Life Born in Liebstadt in the Electorate of Saxony, Marcgrave studied botany, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine in Germany and Switzerland until 1636 when he journeyed to Leiden in the Netherlands. In 1637, he was appointed astronomer of a company being formed to sail to the Dutch Brazil. He was accompanied by Willem Piso, a physician. He afterward entered the service of Dutch Brazil's governor, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, whose patronage provided him with the means of exploring a considerable part of Brazil. He arrived in Brazil in early 1638 and undertook the first zoological, botanical, and astronomical expedition there, exploring various parts of the colony to study its natural history and geography. Traveling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patrick Browne (physician)
Patrick Browne (1720–1790) was an Irish physician and botanist. Career Browne was born in Woodstock, County Mayo in 1720, sent to relatives on Antigua in 1737 and returned to Europe due to ill health after two years. He studied medicine, natural history and especially botany at Reims, Paris, and Leyden, qualifying in 1743. He worked as a physician at St. Thomas's Hospital, London, visited Barbados, Montserrat, Antigua, and St. Kitts in the West Indies and settled as physician in Jamaica in 1746. He corresponded with the botanist Carl Linnaeus, among whose papers were found fragments of articles on venereal diseases and yaws by Browne. His major work, ''The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica'' (1756), illustrated by the botanic artist Georg Dionysius Ehret, contains new names for 104 genera.Patrick Browne author, 1756 - Climatoloy, Medical - 503 pages He retired to Rushbrook, near Claremorris, County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic period (), and the Classical period (). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language. From the Hellenistic period (), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek, which is regarded as a separate historical stage, although its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek, of which Attic Greek developed into Koi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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