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Blanford's Blind Snake
''Afrotyphlops blanfordii'', or Blanford's blind-snake, is a species of snake in the family Typhlopidae. The species is native to the Horn of Africa. Geographic range ''Afrotyphlops blanfordii'' is found in Eritrea and Ethiopia, at elevations of above sea level. Etymology The specific name, ''blanfordii'', is in honour of English naturalist William Thomas Blanford. Taxonomy ''Afrotyphlops blanfordii'' is similar to '' Afrotyphlops lineolatus'', and the two may even be conspecific. Description ''Afrotyphlops blanfordii'' may attain a total length (including a short tail) of . Dorsally, the body is olive-grey, with the basal half of each dorsal scale blackish. Ventrally, it has a narrow whitish strip running down the middle.Boulenger (1893). Habitat The preferred natural habitats of ''A. blanfordii'' are grassland, shrubland, and forest. Behaviour ''Afrotyphlops blanfordii'' is fossorial and terrestrial. Reproduction ''Afrotyphlops blanfordii'' is oviparous. References ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Spawls
Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is widely regarded as the first martyr (or "protomartyr") of the Christian Church. In English, Stephen is most commonly pronounced as ' (). The name, in both the forms Stephen and Steven, is often shortened to Steve or Stevie. The spelling as Stephen can also be pronounced which is from the Greek original version, Stephanos. In English, the female version of the name is Stephanie. Many surnames are derived from the first name, including Stephens, Stevens, Stephenson, and Stevenson, all of which mean "Stephen's (son)". In modern times the name has sometimes been given with intentionally non-standard spelling, such as Stevan or Stevon. A common variant of the name used in English is Stephan ; related names that have found some cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afrotyphlops Lineolatus
The lined blind snake (''Afrotyphlops lineolatus''), also known as the common lined blind snake, common lined worm snake, or lineolate blind snake, is a species of snake in the family Typhlopidae.McDiarmid, Roy W., Jonathan A. Campbell, and T'Shaka A. Touré, 1999. ''Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1'' It is widely distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ..., from Senegal in the west to Ethiopia in the east and Angola and Zambia in the south. References lineolatus Snakes of Africa Reptiles of West Africa Reptiles of Angola Reptiles of Cameroon Reptiles of the Central African Republic Fauna of Chad Reptiles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Reptiles of Ethiopia Fauna of the Gambia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snakes Of Africa
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, Dibamid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afrotyphlops
''Afrotyphlops'' is a genus of snakes in the family Typhlopidae. Distribution The 28 species of this genus are found in sub-Saharan Africa. Species The following species are recognized as being valid.. www.reptile-database.org. * Angola blind snake (''Afrotyphlops angolensis'' ) * Angolan giant blind snake (''Afrotyphlops anomalus'' ) * Bibron's blind snake (''Afrotyphlops bibronii'' ) * Blanford's blind snake (''Afrotyphlops blanfordii'' ) * Somali giant blind snake (''Afrotyphlops brevis'' ) *Calabresi's blind snake (''Afrotyphlops calabresii'' ) * Chirio's blind snake (''Afrotyphlops chirioi'' ) * Blotched blind snake (''Afrotyphlops congestus'' ) * Wedge-snouted blind snake (''Afrotyphlops cuneirostris'' ) * Elegant blind snake (''Afrotyphlops elegans'' ) * Fornasini's blind snake (''Afrotyphlops fornasinii'' ) * Gierra's blind snake (''Afrotyphlops gierrai'' ) * Kaimosi blind snake (''Afrotyphlops kaimosae'' ) * Liberian blind snake (''Afrotyphlops liberiensis'' ) * Lined bl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malcolm John Largen
Malcolm, Malcom, Máel Coluim, or Maol Choluim may refer to: People * Malcolm (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Clan Malcolm * Maol Choluim de Innerpeffray, 14th-century bishop-elect of Dunkeld Nobility * Máel Coluim, Earl of Atholl, Mormaer of Atholl between 1153/9 and the 1190s * Máel Coluim, King of Strathclyde, 10th century * Máel Coluim of Moray, Mormaer of Moray 1020–1029 * Máel Coluim (son of the king of the Cumbrians), possible King of Strathclyde or King of Alba around 1054 * Malcolm I of Scotland (died 954), King of Scots * Malcolm II of Scotland, King of Scots from 1005 until his death * Malcolm III of Scotland, King of Scots * Malcolm IV of Scotland, King of Scots * Máel Coluim, Earl of Angus, the fifth attested post 10th-century Mormaer of Angus * Máel Coluim I, Earl of Fife, one of the more obscure Mormaers of Fife * Maol Choluim I, Earl of Lennox, Mormaer * Máel Coluim II, Earl of Fife, Mormaer * Maol Choluim II, Earl of L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of 19. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son's scientific aspirations. Cope married his cousin and had one child; the family moved from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years. Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West, prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oviparity
Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and monotremes. In traditional usage, most insects (one being ''Culex pipiens'', or the common house mosquito), molluscs, and arachnids are also described as oviparous. Modes of reproduction The traditional modes of reproduction include oviparity, taken to be the ancestral condition, traditionally where either unfertilised oocytes or fertilised eggs are spawned, and viviparity traditionally including any mechanism where young are born live, or where the development of the young is supported by either parent in or on any part of their body. However, the biologist Thierry Lodé recently divided the traditional category of oviparous reproduction into two modes that he named ovuliparity and (true) oviparity respectively. He distinguished the tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terrestrial Locomotion
Terrestrial locomotion has evolved as animals adapted from aquatic to terrestrial environments. Locomotion on land raises different problems than that in water, with reduced friction being replaced by the increased effects of gravity. As viewed from evolutionary taxonomy, there are three basic forms of animal locomotion in the terrestrial environment: * legged – moving by using appendages *limbless locomotion – moving without legs, primarily using the body itself as a propulsive structure. *rolling – rotating the body over the substrate Some terrains and terrestrial surfaces permit or demand alternative locomotive styles. A sliding component to locomotion becomes possible on slippery surfaces (such as ice and snow), where location is aided by potential energy, or on loose surfaces (such as sand or scree), where friction is low but purchase (traction) is difficult. Humans, especially, have adapted to sliding over terrestrial snowpack and terrestrial ice by means of ice ska ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossorial
A fossorial () animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily, but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats, and mole salamanders, as well as many beetles, wasps, and bees. Prehistoric evidence The physical adaptation of fossoriality is widely accepted as being widespread among many prehistoric phyla and taxa, such as bacteria and early eukaryotes. Furthermore, fossoriality has evolved independently multiple times, even within a single family. Fossorial animals appeared simultaneously with the colonization of land by arthropods in the late Ordovician period (over 440 million years ago). Other notable early burrowers include ''Eocaecilia'' and possibly ''Dinilysia''. The oldest example of burrowing in synapsids, the lineage which includes modern mammals and their ancestors, is a cynodont, ''Thrinaxodon liorhinus'', found in the Karoo of South Africa, estimated to be 251 million years old. Evidence shows that this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) defines a forest as, "Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds ''in situ''. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban use." Using this definition, '' Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020'' (FRA 2020) found that forests covered , or approximately 31 percent of the world's land area in 2020. Forests are the predominant terrestrial ecosystem of Earth, and are found around the globe. More than half of the world's forests are found in only five countries (Brazil, Canada, China, Russia, and the United States). The largest share of forests (45 percent) are in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It may be the mature vegetation type in a particular region and remain stable over time, or a transitional community that occurs temporarily as the result of a disturbance, such as fire. A stable state may be maintained by regular natural disturbance such as fire or browsing. Shrubland may be unsuitable for human habitation because of the danger of fire. The term was coined in 1903. Shrubland species generally show a wide range of adaptations to fire, such as heavy seed production, lignotubers, and fire-induced germination. Botanical structural form In botany and ecology a shrub is defined as a much-branched woody plant less than 8 m high and usually with many stems. Tall shrubs are mostly 2–8 m high, small shrubs 1–2 m high and su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area. Definitions Included among the variety of definitions for grasslands are: * "...any plant community, including harvested forages, in which grasses and/or legumes make up the dominant vegetation." * "...terrestrial ecosystems dominated by herbaceous and shrub vegetation, and maintained by fire, grazing, drought and/or freezing temperatures." (Pilot Assessment of Global Ecosystems, 2000) * "A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
