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Breviceps Fuscus
''Breviceps fuscus'', also known as black rain frog, plain rain frog, brown short-headed frog, and Tsitsikama rainfrog, is a species of frogs in the family Brevicipitidae. It is endemic to the southern coast of South Africa. Description ''Breviceps fuscus'' have a round body with short limbs and toes. Its feet are inward facing which allows the frog to burrow much more effectively . They grow to about in snout–vent length. Skin has no warts, but pronounced widely spaced lumps or small tubercles and pitting are present. Colouration is typically dark brown or nearly black, with a slightly lighter ventrum and no pigmented patterns. They have a squat body and their legs are rather short, which gives the frog its distinctive appearance. File:Black Rain Frog imported from iNaturalist photo 15409543.jpg, Front view of black rain frog File:Black Rain Frog imported from iNaturalist photo 72292953.jpg, Top view of black rain frog File:Black Rain Frog imported from iNaturalist phot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Hewitt (herpetologist)
John Hewitt (23 December 1880 – 4 August 1961) was a South African zoologist and archaeologist of British origin. He was born in Dronfield, Derbyshire, England, and died in Grahamstown, South Africa. He was the author of several herpetological papers which described new species. He also described new species of spiders and other arachnids. Biography He graduated with a first-class in natural sciences from Jesus College, Cambridge in 1903. From 1905 to 1908 he was Curator of the Sarawak Museum in Kuching, Sarawak. In 1909 he went to South Africa to work as an assistant curator at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria. In 1910 he was appointed Director of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown, eventually retiring in 1958.Deacon HJ, Deacon J (1999)''Human Beginnings in South Africa: Uncovering the Secrets of the Stone Age.''Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press. viii + 215 pp. His daughter, Florence Ellen Hewitt (1910–1979), was a teacher and phycologist. He was a founder mem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sexual Selection In Amphibians
Sex is the biological distinction of an organism between male and female. Sex or SEX may also refer to: Biology and behaviour *Animal sexual behaviour **Copulation (zoology) **Human sexual activity **Non-penetrative sex, or sexual outercourse **Sex drive, a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity ** Sexual intercourse, also called copulation or coitus *Gender, the distinction between male and female or masculinity and femininity within an individual's gender identity **Sex and gender distinction *Human sexuality *Mating types, a distinction of gametes, whether in anisogamous or isogamous species * Sexing, the act of discerning the sex of an animal *Sexual reproduction, a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, associated with the generation of new individuals, by means of meiosis and fertilization ** Genetic recombination, the process of mixing genetic traits solely, occurring both in organisms with sexual or asexual reproduction Art and entertainment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphibians Described In 1925
Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Thus amphibians typically start out as larvae living in water, but some species have developed behavioural adaptations to bypass this. The young generally undergo metamorphosis from larva with gills to an adult air-breathing form with lungs. Amphibians use their skin as a secondary respiratory surface and some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs and rely entirely on their skin. They are superficially similar to reptiles like lizards but, along with mammals and birds, reptiles are amniotes and do not require water bodies in which to breed. With their complex reproductive needs and permeable skins, amphibians are often ecological indicators; in recent decades there has been a dramatic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Amphibians Of South Africa
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frogs Of Africa
The fauna of Africa, in its broader sense, is all the animals living in Africa and its surrounding seas and islands. The more characteristic African fauna is found in the Afrotropical realm. Lying almost entirely within the tropics, and equally to north and south of the equator creates favourable conditions for rich wildlife. Africa is home to many of the world's most famous fauna in human culture such as lions‚ rhinos‚ cheetahs‚ giraffes‚ antelope, hippos, leopards, zebras‚ and African elephants among many others. Origins and history of African fauna Whereas the earliest traces of life in fossil record of Africa date back to the earliest times, the formation of African fauna as we know it today, began with the splitting up of the Gondwana supercontinent in the mid-Mesozoic era. After that, four to six faunal assemblages, the so-called African Faunal Strata (AFSs) can be distinguished. The isolation of Africa was broken intermittently by discontinuous "filter routes" tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breviceps
''Breviceps'' is a genus of frogs in the family Brevicipitidae. Species in the genus ''Breviceps'' are commonly known as rain frogs or short-headed frogs. They occur in arid to semiarid climates of East Africa and Southern Africa. Taxonomy The genus ''Breviceps'' consists of 20 species, of which most occur in southern Africa. There are five species found in the Western Cape, '' B. gibbosus'', '' B. fuscus'' (black rain frog), '' B. rosei'' (Rose's rain frog), '' B. montanus'' (mountain rain frog) and '' B. acutirostris'' (strawberry rain frog). Two species are found in arid areas and other species are found in the eastern and northern parts of southern Africa. Description Species of the genus ''Breviceps'' are sexually dimorphic: males are much smaller than females. This prevents normal amplexus; instead, males and females produce an adhesive secretion from the skin that allows them to "stick" together during mating. Ecology and behaviour Species of the genus ''Breviceps'' sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microhylidae
The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family of frogs. The 683 species are in 63 genera and 11 subfamilies, which is the largest number of genera of any frog family. Evolution A molecular phylogenetic study by van der Meijden, et al. (2007) has estimated the initial internal divergence of the family Microhylidae to have taken place about 66 million years ago, or immediately after the Cretaceous extinction event. The most recent common ancestor of the Microhylidae and their closest ranoid relatives is estimated to have lived 116 million years ago in Gondwana. Description As suggested by their name, microhylids are mostly small frogs. Many species are below in length, although some species are as large as . They can be arboreal or terrestrial, and some even live close to water. The ground-dwellers are often found under leaf litter within forests, occasionally venturing out at night to hunt. The two main shapes for the microhyli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insectivore
A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were amphibians. When they evolved 400 million years ago, the first amphibians were piscivores, with numerous sharp conical teeth, much like a modern crocodile. The same tooth arrangement is however also suited for eating animals with exoskeletons, thus the ability to eat insects is an extension of piscivory. At one time, insectivorous mammals were scientifically classified in an order called Insectivora. This order is now abandoned, as not all insectivorous mammals are closely related. Most of the Insectivora taxa have been reclassified; those that have not yet been reclassified and found to be truly related to each other remain in the order Eulipotyphla. Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers. Insects make u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knysna
Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 47.2884'' E., and is situated 60 kilometres east of the city of George on the N2 highway, and 33 kilometres west of the Plettenberg Bay on the same road. History Early history Forty fossilised hominid footprints, dating to about 90,000 years ago, along with various other archaeological discoveries suggest that humans have lived in Knysna for well over 300,000 years. The first of these were various San Hunter-gatherer peoples who inhabited most of Southern Africa in paleolithic. The San were gradually displaced and absorbed by south migrating Khoekhoe peoples. Houtunqua (Outeniqua) Khoe The indigenous inhabitants of the Knysna area are a southern Khoekhoe people called the Houtunqua or Outeniqua. Their name means "The People Who Bear Honey" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Specific Name (zoology)
In zoological nomenclature, the specific name (also specific epithet or species epithet) is the second part (the second name) within the scientific name of a species (a binomen). The first part of the name of a species is the name of the genus or the generic name. The rules and regulations governing the giving of a new species name are explained in the article species description. For example, the scientific name for humans is ''Homo sapiens'', which is the species name, consisting of two names: ''Homo'' is the " generic name" (the name of the genus) and ''sapiens'' is the "specific name". Historically, ''specific name'' referred to the combination of what are now called the generic and specific names. Carl Linnaeus, who formalized binomial nomenclature, made explicit distinctions between specific, generic, and trivial names. The generic name was that of the genus, the first in the binomial, the trivial name was the second name in the binomial, and the specific the proper term for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afforestation
Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees (forestation) in an area where there was no previous tree cover. Many government and non-governmental organizations directly engage in afforestation programs to create forests and increase carbon capture. Afforestation is an increasingly sought-after method to fight climate concerns, as it is known to increase the soil quality and organic carbon levels into the soil, avoiding desertification. Afforestation is mainly done for conservational and commercial purposes. # The rate of net forest loss decreased substantially over the period 1990–2020 due to a reduction in deforestation in some countries, plus increases in forest area in others through afforestation and the natural expansion of forests. A 2019 study of the global potential for tree restoration showed that there is space for at least 9 million km2 of new forests worldwide, which is a 25% increase from current conditions. This forested area could store up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habitat Loss
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby reducing biodiversity and species abundance. Habitat destruction is the leading cause of biodiversity loss. Fragmentation and loss of habitat have become one of the most important topics of research in ecology as they are major threats to the survival of endangered species. Activities such as harvesting natural resources, industrial production and urbanization are human contributions to habitat destruction. Pressure from agriculture is the principal human cause. Some others include mining, logging, trawling, and urban sprawl. Habitat destruction is currently considered the primary cause of species extinction worldwide. Environmental factors can contribute to habitat destruction more indirectly. Geological processes, climate change, introdu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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