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Burrunan Dolphin
The Burrunan dolphin (''Tursiops australis'') is a species of bottlenose dolphin found in parts of Victoria, Australia first described in 2011. Its exact taxonomy is debated: numerous studies support it as being a separate species within the genus ''Tursiops'' and occupying a basal position within the genus, with limited phylogenetic studies using different methodologies indicate that it is a subspecies of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops aduncus''). The Burrunan dolphin is not currently recognized as a species by the Society for Marine Mammalogy or American Society of Mammalogists, which cites problematic methodology in the original study proposing species status and recommends further research. however recent the studies listed supporting the species, have not been mentioned as being considered in recent reviews of the species by the Committee. There are only two known resident populations in Victoria, Australia, with an estimated total population size of less t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bottlenose Dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the common bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops truncatus'') and the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops aduncus''). Others, like the Burrunan dolphin (''Tursiops (aduncus) australis''), may be alternately considered their own species or be subspecies of ''T. aduncus''. Bottlenose dolphins inhabit warm and temperate seas worldwide, being found everywhere except for the Arctic and Antarctic Circle regions. Their name derives from the Latin ''tursio'' (dolphin) and ''truncatus'' for their characteristic truncated teeth. Numerous investigations of bottlenose dolphin intelligence have been conducted, examining mimicry, use of artificial language, object categorization, and self-recognition. They can use tools (sponging; using marine sponges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is only a small portion of the DNA in a eukaryotic cell; most of the DNA can be found in the cell nucleus and, in plants and algae, also in plastids such as chloroplasts. Human mitochondrial DNA was the first significant part of the human genome to be sequenced. This sequencing revealed that the human mtDNA includes 16,569 base pairs and encodes 13 proteins. Since animal mtDNA evolves faster than nuclear genetic markers, it represents a mainstay of phylogenetics and evolutionary biology. It also permits an examination of the relatedness of populations, and so has become important in anthropology and biogeography. Origin Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are thought to be of separate evolutionary origin, with the mtDNA being deri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresh Water Skin Disease
Fresh water skin disease (FWSD) is a disease of marine cetaceans in coastal and estuarine environments, caused when they are exposed for extended periods to water with lower than normal levels of salt (hypo-saline). It has been observed in dolphins that were displaced into freshwater lakes, and in normally-salty lakes and estuaries where salinity has dropped suddenly due to flooding or storm runoff. The symptoms are widespread skin lesions and ulcers. Circular lesions can resemble cetacean pox, which is more common in juveniles. Chronic lesions may have overgrowths of algal and/or fungal mats. Extended exposure can lead to over-hydration, electrolyte imbalance, and organ failure. The syndrome has been observed particularly with bottlenose dolphins ''Tursiops truncatus'' in Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana from 2007, thought to have been trapped by Hurricane Katrina in 2005; with '' T. australis'' at Gippsland Lakes in 2007; with '' T. aduncus'' at the Swan Canning Riverpark (Sw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environment Protection And Biodiversity Conservation Act
The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and culturally significant places. Enacted on 17 July 2000, it established a range of processes to help protect and promote the recovery of threatened species and ecological communities, and preserve significant places from decline. The Act is administered by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. Lists of threatened species are drawn up under the Act, and these lists, the primary reference to threatened species in Australia, are available online through the Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT). As an Act of the Australian Parliament, it relies for its constitutional validity upon the legislative powers of the Parliament granted by the Australian Constitution, and key provisions of the Act are largely based on a number ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
St Francis Island
St Francis Island (originally in Dutch: ''Eyland St. François'') is an island on the south coast of South Australia near Ceduna. It is part of the Nuyts Archipelago. It was one of the first parts of South Australia to be discovered and named by Europeans, along with St Peter Island, mapped by François Thijssen in 't Gulden Zeepaert in 1627. Flora & Fauna The flora and fauna of St Francis Island in the 1900s included petrels, Australian sea lions and little penguins. Protected area status Statutory reserves The island is part of the Nuyts Archipelago Wilderness Protection Area while the waters surrounding its shores are within the Nuyts Archipelago Marine Park. Non-statutory arrangements Important Bird Area The island is part of the Nuyts Archipelago Important Bird Area (IBA), so identified by BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife Intern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Gulf
The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe and Eyre Peninsula in the west to Cape Spencer and Yorke Peninsula in the east. The largest towns on the gulf are Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Pirie, and Port Augusta. Smaller towns on the gulf include Tumby Bay, Port Neill, Arno Bay, Cowell, Port Germein, Port Broughton, Wallaroo, Port Hughes, Port Victoria, Port Rickaby, Point Turton, and Corny Point. History The first recorded exploration of the gulf was that of Matthew Flinders in February 1802. Flinders navigated inland from the present location of Port Augusta to within of the termination of the water body. The gulf was named ''Spencer's Gulph'' by Flinders on 20 March 1802, after George John Spencer, the 2nd Earl Spencer. The Baudin expedition visited the gulf a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haplotype
A haplotype ( haploid genotype) is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent. Many organisms contain genetic material ( DNA) which is inherited from two parents. Normally these organisms have their DNA organized in two sets of pairwise similar chromosomes. The offspring gets one chromosome in each pair from each parent. A set of pairs of chromosomes is called diploid and a set of only one half of each pair is called haploid. The haploid genotype (haplotype) is a genotype that considers the singular chromosomes rather than the pairs of chromosomes. It can be all the chromosomes from one of the parents or a minor part of a chromosome, for example a sequence of 9000 base pairs. However, there are other uses of this term. First, it is used to mean a collection of specific alleles (that is, specific DNA sequences) in a cluster of tightly linked genes on a chromosome that are likely to be inherited together—that is, they are likely to be co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gippsland Lakes
The Gippsland Lakes are a network of coastal lakes, marshes and lagoons in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering an overall area of about between the rural towns of Lakes Entrance, Bairnsdale and Sale. The largest of the lakes are Lake Wellington ( Gunai language: ''Murla''), Lake King (Gunai: ''Ngarrang'') and Lake Victoria (Gunai: ''Toonallook''). The lakes are collectively fed by the Avon, Thomson, Latrobe, Mitchell, Nicholson and Tambo Rivers, and drain into the Bass Strait through a short canal about southwest of Lakes Entrance town centre. History The Gippsland Lakes were formed by two principal processes. The first is river delta alluvial deposition of sediment brought in by the rivers which flow into the lakes. Silt deposited by this process forms into long jetties which can run many kilometres into a lake, as exemplified by the Mitchell River silt jetties that run into Lake King. The second process is the action of sea current in Bass Strait ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Phillip
Port Phillip (Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, narrow channel known as The Rip, and is completely surrounded by localities of Victoria's two largest cities — metropolitan Greater Melbourne in the bay's main eastern portion north of the Mornington Peninsula, and the city of Greater Geelong in the much smaller western portion (known as the Corio Bay) north of the Bellarine Peninsula. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly , with the volume of water around . Most of the bay is navigable, although it is extremely shallow for its size — the deepest portion is only and half the bay is shallower than . Its waters and coast are home to seals, whales, dolphins, corals and many kinds of seabirds and migratory waders. Before European settlement, the area around Port Phillip was divided between the territories of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorsal Fin
A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through convergent evolution they have independently evolved external superficial fish-like body plans adapted to their marine environments, including most numerously fish, but also mammals such as cetaceans ( whales, dolphins, and porpoises), and even extinct ancient marine reptiles such as various known species of ichthyosaurs. Most species have only one dorsal fin, but some have two or three. Wildlife biologists often use the distinctive nicks and wear patterns which develop on the dorsal fins of large cetaceans to identify individuals in the field. The bony or cartilaginous bones that support the base of the dorsal fin in fish are called ''pterygiophores''. Functions The main purpose of the dorsal fin is to stabilize the animal against r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Incomplete Lineage Sorting
Incomplete lineage sorting, also termed hemiplasy, deep coalescence, retention of ancestral polymorphism, or trans-species polymorphism, describes a phenomenon in population genetics when ancestral gene copies fail to coalesce (looking backwards in time) into a common ancestral copy until deeper than previous speciation events. It is caused by lineage sorting of genetic polymorphisms that were retained across successive nodes in the species tree. In other words, the tree produced by a single gene differs from the population or species level tree, producing a discordant tree. Whatever the mechanism, the result is that a generated species level tree may differ depending on the selected genes used for assessment. This is in contrast to complete lineage sorting, where the tree produced by the gene is the same as the population or species level tree. Both are common results in phylogenetic analysis, although it depends on the gene, organism, and sampling technique. Concept The conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reticulate Evolution
Reticulate evolution, or network evolution is the origination of a lineage through the partial merging of two ancestor lineages, leading to relationships better described by a phylogenetic network than a bifurcating tree. Reticulate patterns can be found in the phylogenetic reconstructions of biodiversity lineages obtained by comparing the characteristics of organisms. Reticulation processes can potentially be convergent and divergent at the same time. Reticulate evolution indicates the lack of independence between two evolutionary lineages. Reticulation affects survival, fitness and speciation rates of species. Reticulate evolution can happen between lineages separated only for a short time, for example through hybrid speciation in a species complex. Nevertheless, it also takes place over larger evolutionary distances, as exemplified by the presence of organelles of bacterial origin in eukaryotic cells. Reticulation occurs at various levels:Perez, Julio E; Alfon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
