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Boiga Andamanensis
''Boiga andamanensis'', known commonly as the Andaman cat snake, is a species of rear-fanged snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to the Andaman Islands. Description The body of ''B. andamanensis'' is long, thin, and laterally compressed, with smooth dorsal scales. The head is distinctly broader than the neck. The eye is large, and has a vertical pupil. The tail is long. Dorsally, the Andaman cat snake is pale reddish or greyish brown, uniform, or with a series of dark brown vertebral spots or thin cross-lines. There is dark colour usually on the scale edges. The markings are most distinct on the forebody. The top of the head has faint, dark brown or black lines. The upper lip scales are white, the last few with thin black rear edges. There is an indistinct black line from behind the eye to the angle of the mouth. The underside of the body is white or yellowish, usually with a series of black spots on each side. Juveniles and sub-adults are similarly patterned, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Wall (herpetologist)
Colonel Frank Wall (21 April 1868 – 19 May 1950) was a physician and herpetologist who lived in Sri Lanka and India. Early life and education Wall was born in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). His father, George Wall, was responsible for initiating the study of natural history on the island. Wall was sent to England to be educated at Harrow School, the same school his father and brothers attended, and studied medicine in London before joining the Indian Medical Service in 1893.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Wall", p. 279). Herpetology Sent to India under the British Raj, Wall continued to work there until 1925 and researched many animals, especially snakes. He collected numerous snakes, many of which are now in the collections of the British Museum and the Natural History Museum, London. Wall was a member of the Bombay Natural History Society and pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subcaudal Scales
In snakes, the subcaudal scales are the enlarged plates on the underside of the tail.Wright AH, Wright AA. 1957. Handbook of Snakes. Comstock Publishing Associates (7th printing, 1985). 1105 pp. . These scales may be either single or divided (paired) and are preceded by the anal scale. Related scales * Anal scale * Ventral scales See also * Snake scales 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 ... References {{Reflist Snake scales ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles Of India
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates ( lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians (tuatara). As of March 2022, the Reptile Database includes about 11,700 species. In the traditional Linnaean classification system, birds are considered a separate class to reptiles. However, crocodilians are more closely related to birds than they are to other living reptiles, and so modern cladistic classification systems include birds within Reptilia, redefining the term as a clade. Other cladistic definitions abandon the term reptile altogether in favor of the clade Sauropsida, which refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. The study of the traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology. The earliest known proto-reptiles originate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Fauna Of The Andaman Islands
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boiga
''Boiga'' is a large genus of rear-fanged, mildly venomous snakes, known commonly as cat-eyed snakes or simply cat snakes, in the family Colubridae. Species of the genus ''Boiga'' are native to southeast Asia, India, and Australia, but due to their extremely hardy nature and adaptability, have spread to many other suitable habitats around the world. There are 38 recognized species in the genus. According to the study done by Jiří Smíd regarding Old World cat snakes, the ancestor of the cat snake originated in Africa, from where it diversified and expanded to other countries. Despite this diversity however, the different species have very similar needs in terms of temperature and precipitation. Species and subspecies The following species and subspecies are recognized as being valid. *''Boiga andamanensis'' – Andaman cat snake *''Boiga angulata'' – Leyte cat snake *''Boiga barnesii'' – Barnes' cat snake *''Boiga beddomei ''Boiga beddomei'', commonly known as Bedd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calotes
''Calotes'' is a genus of lizards in the draconine clade of the family Agamidae. The genus contains 29 species. Some species are known as forest lizards, others as " bloodsuckers" due to their red heads, and yet others (namely '' C. versicolor'') as garden lizards. The genus name ''Calotes'' has been derived from the Greek word ''Καλότης (Kalótës)'', meaning ‘beauty’, referring to the beautiful pattern of this genus. Geographic range Species in the genus ''Calotes'' are native to South Asia, southern China, mainland Southeast Asia and Ambon. Additionally, ''C. versicolor'' has been introduced to Florida (USA), Borneo, Sulawesi, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Oman.Calotes versicolor'' The Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org. Retrieved 17 January 2013 The greatest species richness of the genus is from the Western Ghats, northeast India, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Description ''Calotes'' is distinguished from related genera in having uniform-sized ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family (taxonomy), 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 taxonomy (biology), 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arboreal Locomotion
Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. The habitats pose numerous mechanical challenges to animals moving through them and lead to a variety of anatomical, behavioral and ecological consequences as well as variations throughout different species.Cartmill, M. (1985). Climbing. In ''Functional Vertebrate Morphology'', eds. M. Hildebrand D. M. Bramble K. F. Liem and D. B. Wake, pp. 73–88. Cambridge: Belknap Press. Furthermore, many of these same principles may be applied to climbing without trees, such as on rock piles or mountains. Some animals are exclusively arboreal in habitat, such as the tree snail. Biomechanics Arboreal habitats pose numerous mechanical challenges to animals moving in them, which have been solved in diverse ways. These challenges include moving on narrow branches, mov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nocturnality
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing, smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Some animals, such as cats and ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low-level and bright day levels of illumination (see metaturnal). Others, such as bushbabies and (some) bats, can function only at night. Many nocturnal creatures including tarsiers and some owls have large eyes in comparison with their body size to compensate for the lower light levels at night. More specifically, they have been found to have a larger cornea relative to their eye size than diurnal creatures to increase their : in the low-light conditions. Nocturnality helps wasps, such as ''Apoica flavissima'', avoid hunting in intense sunlight. Diurnal animals, including squirrels and songbirds, are active d ... [...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] |
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia. Modern humans arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa no later than 55,000 years ago., "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by modern humans originating in Africa. ... Coalescence dates for most non-European populations average to between 73–55 ka.", "Modern human beings—''Homo sapiens''—originated in Africa. Then, int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Labial Scales
The labial scales are the scales of snakes and other scaled reptiles that border the mouth opening. These do not include the median scales on the upper and lower jawsWright AH, Wright AA. 1957. Handbook of Snakes. Comstock Publishing Associates (7th printing, 1985). 1105 pp. . (rostral and mental scales). The term ''labial'' originates from ''Labium'' (Latin for "lip"), which refers to any lip-like structure. In snakes, there are two different types of labial scales: supralabials and sublabials. The numbers of these scales present, and sometimes the shapes and sizes, are some of many characteristics used to differentiate species from one another. There are two different types of labial scales: * Supralabials are the scales that form part of the upper lip. Also called upper labials. * Sublabials are the scales that form part of the lower lip. Also called infralabials or lower labials. Related scales * Rostral scale: median scale on the tip of the snout bordering the mouth openi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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