|
Atretochoana
''Atretochoana eiselti'' is a species of caecilian originally known only from two preserved specimens discovered by Sir Graham Hales in the Brazilian rainforest, while on an expedition with Sir Brian Doll in the late 1800s, but rediscovered in 2011 by engineers working on a hydroelectric dam project in Brazil. Until 1998, it was known only from the type specimen in the Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna. Originally placed in the genus ''Typhlonectes'' in 1968, it was reclassified into its own monotypic genus, ''Atretochoana'', in 1996. It was also found to be more closely related to the genus ''Potamotyphlus'' than ''Typholonectes''. The species is the largest of the few known lungless tetrapods, and the only known lungless caecilian. Description ''A. eiselti'' is the largest tetrapod to lack lungs, double the size of the next largest. Caecilians such as ''Atretochoana'' are limbless amphibians with snake-like bodies, marked with rings like those of earthworms. It has significan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Typhlonectidae
Typhlonectidae, also known as aquatic caecilians or rubber eels, are a family of caecilians found east of the Andes in South America. They are viviparous animals, giving birth to young that possess external gills. Of the five genera in the family, ''Atretochoana'', ''Potamotyphlus'' and ''Typhlonectes'' are entirely aquatic, while ''Chthonerpeton'' and ''Nectocaecilia'' are semiaquatic. ''Atretochoana'' reaches in length, but other species in the family range from . Taxonomy *Genus ''Atretochoana'' **''Atretochoana eiselti'' *Genus ''Chthonerpeton'' **''Chthonerpeton arii'' **''Chthonerpeton braestrupi'' **''Chthonerpeton exile'' **''Chthonerpeton indistinctum'' **''Chthonerpeton noctinectes'' **''Chthonerpeton onorei'' **''Chthonerpeton perissodus'' **''Chthonerpeton viviparum'' *Genus ''Nectocaecilia'' **''Nectocaecilia petersii'' *Genus ''Potamotyphlus'' **''Potamotyphlus kaupii'' *Genus ''Typhlonectes'' **''Typhlonectes compressicauda'' **''Typhlonectes natans ''Typhlon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caecilian
Caecilians (; ) are a group of limbless, vermiform or serpentine amphibians. They mostly live hidden in the ground and in stream substrates, making them the least familiar order of amphibians. Caecilians are mostly distributed in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia. Their diet consists of small subterranean creatures such as earthworms. All modern caecilians and their closest fossil relatives are grouped as a clade, Apoda , within the larger group Gymnophiona , which also includes more primitive extinct caecilian-like amphibians. The name derives from the Greek words γυμνος (''gymnos'', naked) and οφις (''ophis'', snake), as the caecilians were originally thought to be related to snakes. The body is cylindrical dark brown or bluish black in colour. The skin is slimy and bears grooves or ringlike markings. Description Caecilians completely lack limbs, making the smaller species resemble worms, while the larger species, with lengths up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosqueiro
Mosqueiro is an island near the south bank of the Pará River in the Brazilian state of Pará. Since July 6, 1989, the northwest coast of the island has comprised an administrative district of the city of Belém, roughly north of the downtown area of the city. The island has of beaches with freshwater tides, which draw vacationers primarily in the dry season. The largest settlement on the island is the town of Vila (often referred to simply as Mosqueiro) on the westernmost part of the island. Origin of the name Scholars have attributed the name ''Mosqueiro'' to a corruption of the native Tupinambá word ''moqueio'', which referred to the local practice of smoking meat and fish. In the early period of Portuguese colonization, the Tupinambá supplied smoked meat and fish to the city of Belém. The Portuguese, unfamiliar with the term ''moqueio'', called the island ''Mosqueiro'', which was the name of several places on the Iberian Peninsula. In Portuguese, the word ''mosqueir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lung
The lungs are the primary organs of the respiratory system in humans and most other animals, including some snails and a small number of fish. In mammals and most other vertebrates, two lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart. Their function in the respiratory system is to extract oxygen from the air and transfer it into the bloodstream, and to release carbon dioxide from the bloodstream into the atmosphere, in a process of gas exchange. Respiration is driven by different muscular systems in different species. Mammals, reptiles and birds use their different muscles to support and foster breathing. In earlier tetrapods, air was driven into the lungs by the pharyngeal muscles via buccal pumping, a mechanism still seen in amphibians. In humans, the main muscle of respiration that drives breathing is the diaphragm. The lungs also provide airflow that makes vocal sounds including human speech possible. Humans have two lungs, one on the left and on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Harrison Taylor
Edward Harrison Taylor (April 23, 1889 – June 16, 1978) was an American herpetologist from Missouri. Family Taylor was born in Maysville, Missouri, to George and Loretta Taylor. He had an older brother, Eugene. Education Taylor studied at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, graduating with a B.A. in 1912. Field trips during his time at the University of Kansas with Dr. Clarence McClung and Dr. Roy Moody helped prepare Taylor for his future endeavors. Between 1916 and 1920 he returned briefly to Kansas to finish his M.A. Career Upon completing his bachelor's degree, Taylor went to the Philippines, where at first he held a teacher's post in a village in central Mindanao. He collected and studied the local herpetofauna extensively and published many papers. He returned to the Philippines after completing his master's degree and was appointed Chief of Fisheries in Manila. On his many survey trips he continued collecting and studying fishes and reptiles of the islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madeira River
The Madeira River ( pt, Rio Madeira, link=no ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near or in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is the biggest tributary of the Amazon, accounting for about 15% of the water in the basin. A map from Emanuel Bowen in 1747, held by the David Rumsey Map Collection, refers to the Madeira by the pre-colonial, indigenous name Cuyari. The River of Cuyari, called by the Portuguese Madeira or the Wood River, is formed by two great rivers, which join near its mouth. It was by this River, that the Nation of Topinambes passed into the River Amazon. Climate The mean inter-annual precipitations on the great basins vary from , the entire upper Madeira basin receiving . The greatest extremes of rainfall are between . Even just below the confluence that forms it, the Madeira is one of the largest rivers of the world, with a mean inter-annual discharge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Belém
Belém (; Portuguese for Bethlehem; initially called Nossa Senhora de Belém do Grão-Pará, in English Our Lady of Bethlehem of Great Pará) often called Belém of Pará, is a Brazilian city, capital and largest city of the state of Pará in the country's north. It is the gateway to the Amazon River with a busy port, airport, and bus/coach station. Belém lies approximately 100 km upriver from the Atlantic Ocean, on the Pará River, which is part of the greater Amazon River system, separated from the larger part of the Amazon delta by ''Ilha de Marajó'' ( Marajo Island). With an estimated population of 1,499,641 people — or 2,491,052, considering its metropolitan area — it is the 11th most populous city in Brazil, as well as the 16th by economic relevance. It is the second largest in the North Region, second only to Manaus, in the state of Amazonas. Founded in 1616 by the Kingdom of Portugal, Belém was the first European colony on the Amazon but did not become ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viviparous
Among animals, viviparity is development of the embryo inside the body of the parent. This is opposed to oviparity which is a reproductive mode in which females lay developing eggs that complete their development and hatch externally from the mother. The term 'viviparity' and its adjective form 'viviparous' derive from the Latin ''vivus'' meaning "living" and ''pario'' meaning "give birth to". Reproductive mode Five modes of reproduction have been differentiated in animals based on relations between zygote and parents. The five include two nonviviparous modes: ovuliparity, with external fertilisation, and oviparity, with internal fertilisation. In the latter, the female lays zygotes as eggs with a large yolk; this occurs in all birds, most reptiles, and some fishes. These modes are distinguished from viviparity, which covers all the modes that result in live birth: *Histotrophic viviparity: the zygotes develop in the female's oviducts, but find their nutrients by oophagy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Union For Conservation Of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. It is involved in data gathering and analysis, research, field projects, advocacy, and education. IUCN's mission is to "influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable". Over the past decades, IUCN has widened its focus beyond conservation ecology and now incorporates issues related to sustainable development in its projects. IUCN does not itself aim to mobilize the public in support of nature conservation. It tries to influence the actions of governments, business and other stakeholders by providing information and advice and through building partnerships. The organization is best known to the wider pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lungless Salamander
Plethodontidae, or lungless salamanders, are a family of salamanders. Most species are native to the Western Hemisphere, from British Columbia to Brazil, although a few species are found in Sardinia, Europe south of the Alps, and South Korea. In terms of number of species, they are by far the largest group of salamanders. Biology Adult lungless salamanders have four limbs, with four toes on the fore limbs, and usually with five on the hind limbs. Within many species, mating and reproduction occur solely on land. Accordingly, many species also lack an aquatic larval stage, a phenomenon known as direct development in which the offspring hatch as fully-formed, miniature adults. Direct development is correlated with changes in the developmental characteristics of plethodontids compared to other families of salamanders including increases in egg size and duration of embryonic development. Additionally, the evolutionary loss of the aquatic larval stage is related to a diminishing dep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Language
Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Albania, and other regions of the Balkans, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet, which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer, ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting impo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proceedings Of The Royal Society B
''Proceedings of the Royal Society'' is the main research journal of the Royal Society. The journal began in 1831 and was split into two series in 1905: * Series A: for papers in physical sciences and mathematics. * Series B: for papers in life sciences. Many landmark scientific discoveries are published in the Proceedings, making it one of the most historically significant science journals. The journal contains several articles written by the most celebrated names in science, such as Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Ernest Rutherford, Erwin Schrödinger, William Lawrence Bragg, Lord Kelvin, J.J. Thomson, James Clerk Maxwell, Dorothy Hodgkin and Stephen Hawking. In 2004, the Royal Society began ''The Journal of the Royal Society Interface'' for papers at the interface of physical sciences and life sciences. History The journal began in 1831 as a compilation of abstracts of papers in the ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'', the older Royal Society publication ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
