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Clelia Scytalina
''Clelia scytalina'', commonly known as the Mexican snake eater or ''zopilota de altura'' (highland mussarana), is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to the New World. Geographic range ''C. scytalina'' is found in Southern Mexico, Central America, and Colombia."''Clelia scytalina'' (Cope, 1867)" at the Reptile Database. www.reptile-database.org. Consulted: 22 April 2012. Description The head of ''C. scytalina'' is somewhat distinct from the neck. The eye is moderate in size, with a vertically elliptical pupil. The body is cylindrical, and the tail is moderately long. The smooth |
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] |
Old-growth Forest
An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological features, and might be classified as a climax community. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed. More than one-third (34 percent) of the world's forests are primary forests. Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitat that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. Virgin or first-growth forests are old-growth forests that have never been logged. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree height ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles Of Colombia ...
Colombia is the sixth richest country in the world for reptiles, and third richest in the Western Hemisphere. Turtles The turtles (order: Chelonii or Testudines) number thirty-three species from nine families. Fifteen species are listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. Three turtle species are listed as endemic. Crocodilia Squamata See also *Fauna of Colombia References External links * * * * {{South America topic, Reptiles of * Reptiles Colombia Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snakes Of Central America
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, Dibamida ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clelia , a genus of snakes
{{disambig ...
Clelia may refer to: *Clelia (given name) (includes a list of people with the name) *Cloelia, a legendary Roman figure *Clelia curve, an algebraic curve *Clelia (snake) Clelia may refer to: *Clelia (given name) (includes a list of people with the name) *Cloelia, a legendary Roman figure *Clelia curve, an algebraic curve *Clelia (snake genus) ''Clelia'' is a genus of snakes, one of three genera with species with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Encyclopedia Of Life
The ''Encyclopedia of Life'' (''EOL'') is a free, online encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing trusted databases curated by experts and with the assistance of non-experts throughout the world. It aims to build one "infinitely expandable" page for each species, including video, sound, images, graphics, as well as text. In addition, the Encyclopedia incorporates content from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which digitizes millions of pages of printed literature from the world's major natural history libraries. The project was initially backed by a US$50 million funding commitment, led by the MacArthur Foundation and the Sloan Foundation, who provided US$20 million and US$5 million, respectively. The additional US$25 million came from five cornerstone institutions—the Field Museum, Harvard University, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Smithsonian Institutio ... [...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] |
Ophiophagy
Ophiophagy (Greek "snake eating") is a specialized form of feeding or alimentary behavior of animals which hunt and eat snakes. There are ophiophagous mammals (such as the skunks and the mongooses), birds (such as snake eagles, the secretarybird, and some hawks), lizards (such as the common collared lizard), and even other snakes, such as the Central and South American mussuranas and the North American common kingsnake. The genus of the venomous king cobra (''Ophiophagus hannah'') is named for this habit. Ophiophagy in myth and legend :''The mythic associations of snakes are discussed at Serpent (symbolism).'' A snake-eating bird of prey appears in a legend of the Mexican people, who gave rise to the Aztec empire, and it is represented in the Mexican flag: The Mexicas, guided by their god Huitzilopochtli, sought a place where the bird landed on a prickly pear cactus, devouring a snake. They found the sign on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they erected the city of Tenochtitl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mussurana
Mussurana or musurana (Portuguese: ''muçurana'') is a common name which is used for several species of New World snakes, especially species in the genus ''Clelia''. ''Clelia'' is a genus of large snakes in the family Colubridae. The genus is endemic to Central America and South America, and species of ''Clelia'' are found from southern Mexico to Brazil. They specialize in ophiophagy, i.e., they attack and eat other snakes. Currently seven species are recognized as being valid. They have other popular names in various countries, such as ''zopilota'' in Central America and ''cribo'' on some Caribbean islands (though they are not related to ''Drymarchon)''. Species The genus ''Clelia'' contains the following species which are currently recognized: *''Clelia clelia'' – mussurana [Baidu] |
Montane Ecology
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial factor in shaping plant community, biodiversity, metabolic processes and ecosystem dynamics for montane ecosystems. Dense montane forests are common at moderate elevations, due to moderate temperatures and high rainfall. At higher elevations, the climate is harsher, with lower temperatures and higher winds, preventing the growth of trees and causing the plant community to transition to montane grasslands, shrublands or alpine tundra. Due to the unique climate conditions of montane ecosystems, they contain increased numbers of endemic species. Montane ecosystems also exhibit variation in ecosystem services, which include carbon storage and water supply. Life zones As elevation increases, the climate becomes cooler, due to a decrease in a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foothills
Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topographically higher mountains, hills, and uplands. Frequently foothills consist of alluvial fans, coalesced alluvial fans, and dissected plateaus. Description Foothills primarily border mountains, especially those which are reached through low ridges that increase in size closer and closer to the mountain, but can also border uplands and higher hills. Examples Areas where foothills exist, or areas commonly referred to as the foothills, include the: *Sierra Nevada foothills of California, USA *Foothills of the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles County, California, USA *Rocky Mountain Foothills in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada *Silesian Foothills in Silesia, Poland *Sivalik Hills along the Himalayas in the Indian subcontinent * Catalin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
