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Central Hare-wallaby
The Lake Mackay hare-wallaby (''Lagorchestes asomatus''), also known as the central hare-wallaby or kuluwarri, is an extinct species of macropod formerly found in central Australia. Very little is known about it. Family The Lake Mackay hare-wallaby belongs to the family Macropodidae, the largest in the order Diprodontia. Along with possums, gliders, potoroos, and kangaroos, the Lake Mackay hare-wallaby belongs to the suborder Phalangerida. The suborder Vombatiformes consist of koalas and wombats. The Lake Mackay hare-wallaby's subfamily, Macropodinae, comprises 61 species from 10 genera. Macropodidae's other suborder, Sthenurinae, may have included about 20 species during the Pleistocene period according to fossil record. History The Lake Mackay hare-wallaby is known only from a single animal collected by explorer/geologist Michael Terry in 1932 between Mount Farewell and the northern end of Lake Mackay in the Northern Territory. Only the skull was kept, and this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedley Herbert Finlayson
Hedley Herbert Finlayson (1895–1991) was an Australian mammalogist, author and photographer. Associated with the South Australian Museum, he is recognised for his extensive surveys and research on mammals in Central Australia and systematically documenting the knowledge of the Indigenous peoples of the region. Early life Born in the Australian city of Adelaide, the fourth of the five surviving children of Finette (Nettie) Finlayson née Champion, wife of Ebenezer Finlayson, an influential financier, political activist and writer at state newspaper ''The Register''. He was schooled at Kyre College in Mitcham, South Australia (now Scotch College), and studied science at the state's university. Works Chemistry While studying at the University of South Australia, Finlayson became employed in a junior role by the chemistry department as a demonstrator, remaining in this position until 1918. Finlayson was injured in a series of laboratory accidents during his early career, incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Australia to the west (129th meridian east), South Australia to the south (26th parallel south), and Queensland to the east (138th meridian east). To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other islands of the Indonesian archipelago. The NT covers , making it the third-largest Australian federal division, and List of country subdivisions by area, the 11th-largest country subdivision in the world. It is sparsely populated, with a population of only 249,000 – fewer than half as many people as in Tasmania. The largest population center is the capital city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. The archaeological hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rufous Hare-wallaby
The rufous hare-wallaby (''Lagorchestes hirsutus''), also known as the mala, is a small macropod found in Australia. It was formerly widely distributed across the western half of the continent, but naturally occurring populations are now confined to Bernier Island and Dorre Island Islands off Western Australia. Although once widespread in the central and western deserts, predation by feral cats and foxes, and destructive wildfires, caused the last wild population on mainland Australia to go extinct in the early 1990s. Despite its extinction in the wild, the mainland subspecies persisted in captivity. The species, which is currently classified as vulnerable, has rufous-grey fur and is the smallest hare-wallaby, weighing just 800-1,600 grams. It is a solitary nocturnal herbivore that feeds on herbs, leaves and seeds. Mala prefer spinifex sandplain habitat; the animals build burrows under large spinifex hummocks. The burrows are tunnel-like structures with a spinifex roof. This p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes with little or no vegetation are called ''ergs'' or ''sand seas''. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter ''slip face'' in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a ''dune slack''. Dunes are most common in desert environments, where the lack of moisture hinders the growth of vegetation that would otherwise interfere with the development of dunes. However, sand deposits are not restricted to deserts, and dunes are also found along sea shores, along streams in semiarid climates, in areas of glacial outwash, and in other areas where poorly cemented sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sand Plains
A sandplain is an area where the soil is sand deposited from elsewhere by processes such as wind or ocean, rather than direct weathering of bedrock. Sandplains are quite flat. There may be dune systems, and given time and the right conditions these may form eolianite ridges, but other than that there is little to give a sandplain any topographical character. Inland sandplains are often extremely infertile, because the sand is often low in nutrients when deposited, plus the good drainage means any nutrients are rapidly leached away. Coastal sandplains in intertidal zones like those seen in the Wadden Sea in western Europe for example, are wet with nutrients added continuously, so they can often support a very rich and important fauna of birds, worms, mussels, etc.. In North America, sandplains are often vegetated by pine barrens. In Western Australia, kwongan Kwongan is plant community found in south-western Western Australia. The name is a Bibbelmun (Noongar) Aboriginal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gibson Desert
The Gibson Desert is a large desert in Western Australia, largely in an almost "pristine" state. It is about in size, making it the fifth largest desert in Australia, after the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Tanami and Simpson deserts. The Gibson Desert is both an interim Australian bioregion and desert ecoregion. Location and description The Gibson Desert is located between the saline Kumpupintil Lake and Lake Macdonald along the Tropic of Capricorn, south of the Great Sandy Desert, east of the Little Sandy Desert, and north of the Great Victoria Desert. The altitude rises to just above in places. As noted by early Australian explorers such as Ernest Giles large portions of the desert are characterized by gravel-covered terrains covered in thin desert grasses and it also contains extensive areas of undulating red sand plains and dunefields, low rocky/gravelly ridges and substantial upland portions with a high degree of laterite formation. The sandy soil of the later ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanami Desert
The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It has a rocky terrain with small hills, and cacti. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored by Australians of European descent until well into the twentieth century. It is traversed by the Tanami Track. The name ''Tanami'' is thought to be an anglicisation of the Warlpiri name for the area, "Chanamee", meaning "never die". This referred to certain rock holes in the desert which were said never to run dry. Under the name Tanami, the desert is classified as an interim Australian bioregion, comprising .IBRA Version 6.1 data Biological resources According to government commissions, the Tanami desert is uniquely "one of the ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tussock Grassland
Tussock grassland is a form of open grassland that is dominated by tussock grasses (also called bunchgrasses). It is common in some temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregions of the Southern Hemisphere. Tussock grasslands are usually typified by low rainfall and poor soils in which few plants other than hardy tussock grasses can flourish. They are predominantly populated by tufted grasses of the genera '' Agrostis'', ''Andropogon'', '' Chionochloa'', ''Deschampsia'', ''Festuca'', ''Koeleria'', ''Pentameris'' and '' Poa''. The grasslands are found in New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, temperate areas of southern and eastern Africa, and some subantarctic islands. See also * Tussock Grassland (Tanzania) * Tussock grasslands of New Zealand Tussock grasslands form expansive and distinctive landscapes in the South Island and, to a lesser extent, in the Central Plateau region of the North Island of New Zealand. Most of the plants referred to as tussocks are in the ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desert Quandong
''Santalum acuminatum'', the desert quandong, is a hemiparasitic plant in the sandalwood family, Santalaceae, (Native to Australia) which is widely dispersed throughout the central deserts and southern areas of Australia. The species, especially its edible fruit, is also commonly referred to as quandong or native peach. The use of the fruit as an exotic flavouring, one of the best known bush tucker (bush food), has led to the attempted domestication of the species. Desert quandong is an evergreen tree, its fruit can be stewed to make pie filling for quandong pies or made into a fruit juice drink. The seed (kernel) inside the tough shell can be extracted to be crushed into a paste then be used on sore gums or an oral gum boil to ease the pain. In far-west New South Wales being one of the few drought-tolerant fruit trees around, many Aboriginal communities and local Australians that know about this fruit like to grow it. Description ''Santalum acuminatum'' grows as a tall sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rufous Hare-wallaby
The rufous hare-wallaby (''Lagorchestes hirsutus''), also known as the mala, is a small macropod found in Australia. It was formerly widely distributed across the western half of the continent, but naturally occurring populations are now confined to Bernier Island and Dorre Island Islands off Western Australia. Although once widespread in the central and western deserts, predation by feral cats and foxes, and destructive wildfires, caused the last wild population on mainland Australia to go extinct in the early 1990s. Despite its extinction in the wild, the mainland subspecies persisted in captivity. The species, which is currently classified as vulnerable, has rufous-grey fur and is the smallest hare-wallaby, weighing just 800-1,600 grams. It is a solitary nocturnal herbivore that feeds on herbs, leaves and seeds. Mala prefer spinifex sandplain habitat; the animals build burrows under large spinifex hummocks. The burrows are tunnel-like structures with a spinifex roof. This p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triodia (plant)
''Triodia'' is a large genus of hummock-forming bunchgrass endemic to Australia. They are known by the common name spinifex, although they are not a part of the coastal genus '' Spinifex''. Many of the soft-leaved members of this species were formerly included in the genus ''Plectrachne''. It is known as ''tjanpi'' in central Australia, and is used for basket weaving by the women of various Aboriginal Australian peoples. A multiaccess key (SpiKey) is available as a free application for identifying the ''Triodia'' of the Pilbara (28 species and one hybrid). Description ''Triodia'' is a perennial Australian tussock grass that grows in arid regions. Its leaves (30–40 centimetres long) are subulate ( awl-shaped, with a tapering point). The leaf tips, that are high in silica, can break off in the skin, leading to infections. Uses Spinifex has traditionally had many uses for Aboriginal Australians. The seeds were collected and ground to make seedcakes. Spinifex resin was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rabbit
Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit species and its descendants, the world's 305 breeds of domestic rabbit. ''Sylvilagus'' includes 13 wild rabbit species, among them the seven types of cottontail. The European rabbit, which has been introduced on every continent except Antarctica, is familiar throughout the world as a wild prey animal and as a domesticated form of livestock and pet. With its widespread effect on ecologies and cultures, the rabbit is, in many areas of the world, a part of daily life—as food, clothing, a companion, and a source of artistic inspiration. Although once considered rodents, lagomorphs like rabbits have been discovered to have diverged separately and earlier than their rodent cousins and have a number of traits rodents lack, like two extra incis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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