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Banded Pygmy Sunfish
The banded pygmy sunfish, ''Elassoma zonatum'', is a species of pygmy sunfish endemic to the United States, where it is found from Indiana and Illinois to Texas to the Atlantic coast. It prefers densely vegetated bodies of slow-moving water. This species can reach in total length, though most do not exceed . The banded pygmy sunfish are capable of retaining their juvenile characteristics while they are sexually mature; that is to say that they are neotenous. It was originally thought that the banded pygmy sunfish belonged to the cichlid family. However, researchers Hay, Jordan, and Gilbert thought that the banded pygmy sunfish was actually an intermediate species of fish between the pirate perch and the centrarchid family of fishes. Therefore, the banded pygmy sunfish was placed into its own family, Elassomatidae. In the 5th edition of '' Fishes of the World'', though, this is treated as a subfamily of the sunfish family Centrarchidae. Etymology The banded pygmy sunfishes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford University, he had served as president of Indiana University from 1884 to 1891. Starr was also a strong supporter of eugenics, and his published views expressed a fear of "race-degeneration" and asserted that cattle and human beings are "governed by the same laws of selection". He was an antimilitarist since he believed that war killed off the best members of the gene pool, and he initially opposed American involvement in World War I. Early life and career Jordan was born in Gainesville, New York, and grew up on a farm in upstate New York. His parents made the unorthodox decision to educate him at a local girls' high school. His middle name, Starr, does not appear in early census records, and was apparently self-selected; he had begun using ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is , of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the thirteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans have lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Most were hunter-ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Department Of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production, works to assure food safety, protects natural resources, fosters rural communities and works to end hunger in the United States and internationally. It is headed by the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Agriculture, who reports directly to the President of the United States and is a member of the president's Cabinet of the United States, Cabinet. The current secretary is Tom Vilsack, who has served since February 24, 2021. Approximately 80% of the USDA's $141 billion budget goes to the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) program. The largest component of the FNS budget is the Supplementa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceratophyllum
''Ceratophyllum'' is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants including four accepted living species in 2016, commonly found in ponds, marshes, and quiet streams in tropical and in temperate regions. It is the only extant genus in the family Ceratophyllaceae, itself the only extant family in the order Ceratophyllales. They are usually called coontails or hornworts, although hornwort is also used for unrelated plants of the division Anthocerotophyta. ''Ceratophyllum'' grows completely submerged, usually, though not always, floating on the surface, and does not tolerate drought. The plant stems can reach 1–3 m in length. At intervals along nodes of the stem they produce rings of bright green leaves, which are narrow and often much-branched. The forked leaves are brittle and stiff to the touch in some species, softer in others. Roots are completely absent and are missing even in the embryonic stage, but sometimes they develop modified leaves with a rootlike appearance, which anch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odonata
Odonata is an order of flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies. Members of the group first appeared during the Triassic, though members of their total group, Odonatoptera, first appeared in Late Carboniferous. The two common groups are distinguished with dragonflies, placed in the suborder Epiprocta, usually being larger, with eyes together and wings up or out at rest, while damselflies, suborder Zygoptera, are usually smaller with eyes placed apart and wings along body at rest. All Odonata have aquatic larvae called naiads (nymphs), and all of them, larvae and adults, are carnivorous. The adults can land, but rarely walk. Their legs are specialised for catching prey. They are almost entirely insectivorous. Etymology and terminology Fabricius coined the term ''Odonata'' in 1793 from the Ancient Greek ( Ionic form of ) 'tooth'. One hypothesis is that it was because their maxillae are notably toothed. Most insects also have toothed mandibles. The wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bowfin
The bowfin (''Amia calva'') is a bony fish, native to North America. Common names include mudfish, mud pike, dogfish, grindle, grinnel, swamp trout, and choupique. It is regarded as a relict, being the sole surviving species of the Halecomorphi, a group of fish that first appeared during the Early Triassic, around 250 million years ago. The bowfin is often considered a "primitive fish" because they have retained some morphological characteristics of their early ancestors. The closest living relatives of bowfins are gars, with the two groups being united in the clade Holostei. Bowfins are demersal freshwater piscivores, commonly found throughout much of the eastern United States, and in southern Ontario and Quebec. Fossil deposits indicate Amiiformes were once widespread in both freshwater and marine environments across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Now, their range is limited to much of the eastern United States and adjacent southern Canada, including th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grass Pickerel
The American pickerels are two subspecies of ''Esox americanus'', a medium-sized species of North American freshwater predatory fish belonging to the pike family (genus ''Esox'' in family Esocidae of order Esociformes): * Redfin pickerel, sometimes called the brook pickerel, ''E. americanus americanus'' Gmelin, 1789; * Grass pickerel, ''E. americanus vermiculatus'' Lesueur, 1846. Lesueur originally classified the grass pickerel as ''E. vermiculatus,'' but it is now considered a subspecies of ''E. americanus.'' There is no widely accepted English common collective name for the two ''E. americanus'' subspecies; "American pickerel" is a translation of the French systematic name ''brochet d'Amérique.'' Description The two subspecies are very similar, but the grass pickerel lacks the redfin's distinctive orange to red fin coloration, as its fins having dark leading edges and amber to dusky coloration. In addition, the light areas between the dark bands are generally wider on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poeciliidae
The Poeciliidae are a family of freshwater fishes of the order Cyprinodontiformes, the tooth-carps, and include well-known live-bearing aquarium fish, such as the guppy, molly, platy, and swordtail. The original distribution of the family was the Southeastern United States to north of Río de la Plata, Argentina, and Africa, including Madagascar. Due to release of aquarium specimens and the widespread use of species of the genera ''Poecilia'' and ''Gambusia'' for mosquito control, though, poeciliids can today be found in all tropical and subtropical areas of the world. In addition, ''Poecilia'' and ''Gambusia'' specimens have been identified in hot springs pools as far north as Banff, Alberta. Live-bearing Although the whole family Poeciliidae is known as "live bearers" (viviparous), some species are egg-scattering with external fertilization. All African species are egg-layers, and (with the exception of the members of the genus ''Tomeurus''), all American species are live ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algal Bloom
An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompasses many types of aquatic photosynthetic organisms, both macroscopic multicellular organisms like seaweed and microscopic unicellular organisms like cyanobacteria. ''Algal bloom'' commonly refers to the rapid growth of microscopic unicellular algae, not macroscopic algae. An example of a macroscopic algal bloom is a kelp forest. Algal blooms are the result of a nutrient, like nitrogen or phosphorus from various sources (for example fertilizer runoff or other forms of nutrient pollution), entering the aquatic system and causing excessive growth of algae. An algal bloom affects the whole ecosystem. Consequences range from the benign feeding of higher trophic levels to more harmful effects like blocking sunlight from reaching other organ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chironomidae
The Chironomidae (informally known as chironomids, nonbiting midges, or lake flies) comprise a family of nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Many species superficially resemble mosquitoes, but they lack the wing scales and elongated mouthparts of the Culicidae. The name Chironomidae stems from the Ancient Greek word ''kheironómos'', "a pantomimist". Common names and biodiversity This is a large taxon of insects; some estimates of the species numbers suggest well over 10,000 world-wide. Males are easily recognized by their plumose antennae. Adults are known by a variety of vague and inconsistent common names, largely by confusion with other insects. For example, chironomids are known as "lake flies" in parts of Canada and Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin, but "bay flies" in the areas near the bay of Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are called "sand flies", "muckleheads", "muffleheads", "Canadian so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wabash River
The Wabash River ( French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows from the headwaters in Ohio, near the Indiana border, then southwest across northern Indiana turning south near the Illinois border, where the southern portion forms the Indiana-Illinois border before flowing into the Ohio River. It is the largest northern tributary of the Ohio River and third largest overall, behind the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. From the dam near Huntington, Indiana, to its terminus at the Ohio River, the Wabash flows freely for . Its watershed drains most of Indiana. The Tippecanoe River, White River, Embarras River and Little Wabash River are major tributaries. The river's name comes from a Miami word meaning "water over white stones", as its bottom is white limestone, now obscured by mud. The Wabash is the st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazos River
The Brazos River ( , ), called the ''Río de los Brazos de Dios'' (translated as "The River of the Arms of God") by early Spanish explorers, is the 11th-longest river in the United States at from its headwater source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Roosevelt County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage basin. Being one of Texas' largest rivers,"Brazos River." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 11 Aug. 2018. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Brazos-River/16291. Accessed 27 Nov. 2018. it is sometimes used to mark the boundary between East Texas and West Texas. The river is closely associated with Texas history, particularly the Austin settlement and Texas Revolution eras. Today major Texas institutions such as Texas Tech University, Baylor University, and Texas A&M University are located close to the river's basin, as are parts of metropolitan Houston. Geography The Brazos proper begins at the confluence of the Salt Fork and Double ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
