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Chalcidoseps Thwaitesi
Thwaites's skink (''Chalcidoseps thwaitesi''), also known commonly as the fourtoe snakeskink, is a species of skink, a lizard in the family Scincidae. The species is endemic to the island of Sri Lanka. Etymology The specific name, ''thwaitesi'', is in honor of English botanist George Henry Kendrick Thwaites.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Chalcidoseps thwaitesi'', p. 265). Taxonomy ''C. thwaitesi'' is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Chalcidoseps''. Habitat and geographic range A highly fossorial skink, ''C. theaitesi'' is known from the Knuckles Mountain Range, between . Description ''C. thwaitesi'' has small eyes with scaly lower eyelids. The midbody scales are smooth, in 24-26 rows. The body and tail are elongate, and the tail is as wide as the body. The limbs are short and rudimentary, each bearing four toes, the inner two toes being sho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Albert Boulenger
George Albert Boulenger (19 October 1858 – 23 November 1937) was a Belgian-British zoologist who described and gave scientific names to over 2,000 new animal species, chiefly fish, reptiles, and amphibians. Boulenger was also an active botanist during the last 30 years of his life, especially in the study of roses. Life Boulenger was born in Brussels, Belgium, the only son of Gustave Boulenger, a Belgian public notary, and Juliette Piérart, from Valenciennes. He graduated in 1876 from the Free University of Brussels with a degree in natural sciences, and worked for a while at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, as an assistant naturalist studying amphibians, reptiles, and fishes. He also made frequent visits during this time to the ''Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle'' in Paris and the British Museum in London. In 1880, he was invited to work at the Natural History Museum, then a department of the British Museum, by Dr. Albert C. L. G. Günther a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knuckles Mountain Range
The Knuckles Mountain Range lies in central Sri Lanka, in the Districts of Matale and Kandy. The range takes its name from a series of recumbent folds and peaks in the west of the massif which resemble the knuckles of clenched fist when viewed from certain locations in the Kandy District. Whilst this name was assigned by early British surveyors, the Sinhalese residents have traditionally referred to the area as ''Dumbara Kanduvetiya'' meaning Mist-laden Mountain Range. The higher montane area is often robed in thick layers of cloud. In addition to its aesthetic value, the range is of great scientific interest. It is a climatic microcosm of the rest of Sri Lanka as the conditions of all the climatic zones in the country are exhibited in the massif. At higher elevations there is a series of isolated cloud forests, harbouring a variety of flora and fauna. Although the range constitutes approximately 0.03% of the island's total area, it is home to a significantly higher proportion o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skinks
Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae, a family in the infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one of the most diverse families of lizards. Skinks are characterized by their smaller legs in comparison to typical lizards and are found in different habitats except arctic and subarctic regions. Description Skinks look like lizards of the family Lacertidae (sometimes called ''true lizards''), but most species of skinks have no pronounced neck and relatively small legs. Several genera (e.g., ''Typhlosaurus'') have no limbs at all. This is not true for all skinks, however, as some species such as the red-eyed crocodile skink have a head that is very distinguished from the body. These lizards also have legs that are relatively small proportional to their body size. Skinks' skulls are covered by substantial bony scales, usually matching up in shape and size, while overlapping. Other gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles Of Sri Lanka
This is a list of reptiles of Sri Lanka. The reptilian diversity in Sri Lanka is higher than the diversity of other vertebrates such as mammals and fish with 181 reptile species. All extant reptiles are well documented through research by many local and foreign scientists and naturalists. Sri Lankan herpetologist, Anslem de Silva largely studied the biology and ecology of Sri Lanka snakes, where he documented 96 species of land and sea snakes. Five genera are endemic to Sri Lanka - ''Aspidura'', ''Balanophis'', ''Cercaspis'', ''Haplocercus'', and ''Pseudotyphlops''. Out of them only five of the land snakes are considered potentially deadly and life threatening to humans. Among snakes, 54 are endemic to Sri Lanka. The total increased to 107 with new descriptions of ''Dendrelaphis'', ''Rhinophis'', ''Aspidura'' and ''Dryocalamus''. Lizard diversity in the island has been documented and studied by many local scientists and researchers such as Imesh Nuwan Bandara, Kalana Maduwage, Anj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Harrison Taylor
Edward Harrison Taylor (April 23, 1889 – June 16, 1978) was an American herpetologist from Missouri. Family Taylor was born in Maysville, Missouri, to George and Loretta Taylor. He had an older brother, Eugene. Education Taylor studied at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, graduating with a B.A. in 1912. Field trips during his time at the University of Kansas with Dr. Clarence McClung and Dr. Roy Moody helped prepare Taylor for his future endeavors. Between 1916 and 1920 he returned briefly to Kansas to finish his M.A. Career Upon completing his bachelor's degree, Taylor went to the Philippines, where at first he held a teacher's post in a village in central Mindanao. He collected and studied the local herpetofauna extensively and published many papers. He returned to the Philippines after completing his master's degree and was appointed Chief of Fisheries in Manila. On his many survey trips he continued collecting and studying fishes and reptiles of the islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malcolm Arthur Smith
Malcolm Arthur Smith (1875 in New Malden, Surrey – 1958 in Ascot) was a herpetologist and physician working in the Malay Peninsula. Early life Smith was interested in reptiles and amphibians from an early age. After completing a degree in medicine and surgery in London in 1898, he left for the then Kingdom of Siam (today Thailand) as a doctor to the British Embassy in Bangkok. In 1921 he married Eryl Glynne of Bangor, who as well as being medically trained, made significant collections of ferns from Thailand and later worked at RBG Kew. She was killed in a car crash near Bangkok in 1930. The couple had three children including the mountaineer Cymryd "Cym" Smith, also killed in a road accidenEryl was the elder sister of the mountaineer and plant pathologist Mary Dilys Glynne. Work Smith went on to become the physician in the royal court of Siam and was a close confidant and a doctor to the royal family. He published his observations on the reptiles and amphibians during hi ... [...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] |
Insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. Their blood is not totally contained in vessels; some circulates in an open cavity known as the haemocoel. Insects are the most diverse group of animals; they include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms. The total number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million; In: potentially over 90% of the animal life forms on Earth are insects. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, which are dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans, which recent research has indicated insects are nested within. Nearly all insects hatch from eggs. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lankascincus
''Lankascincus'' is a genus of lizards, commonly known as lanka skinks and tree skinks, in the family Scincidae. The genus is endemic to Sri Lanka. Species The genus ''Lankascincus'' comprises nine species. *'' Lankascincus deignani'' – Deignan's tree skink *''Lankascincus dorsicatenatus'' *''Lankascincus fallax'' – Peters's tree skink *''Lankascincus gansi'' – Gans's tree skink, Gans's lankaskink *''Lankascincus merrill'' – Merrill's lanka skink *''Lankascincus sameerai'' – Sameera's lanka skink *''Lankascincus sripadensis'' – Sripada forest skink *''Lankascincus taprobanensis'' – Ceylon tree skink *''Lankascincus taylori'' – Taylor's tree skink ''Nota bene'': A binomial authority In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ... in parentheses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nessia
''Nessia'' is a genus of skinks, lizards in the family Scincidae. The genus is endemic to Sri Lanka. Species in the genus ''Nessia'' are commonly known as snake skinks. Species The following nine species are recognized as being valid: *''Nessia bipes'' – two-legged nessia *''Nessia burtonii'' – Burton's nessia *''Nessia deraniyagalai'' – Deraniyagala's nessia *''Nessia didactyla'' – two-toed nessia *''Nessia gansi'' *''Nessia hickanala'' – Hickanala nessia *''Nessia layardi'' – Layard's nessia *''Nessia monodactyla'' – one-toed nessia *''Nessia sarasinorum'' – Müller's nessia ''Nota bene'': A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Nessia''. References Further reading * Gray JE (1839). "Catalogue of the Slender-tongued Saurians, with Descriptions of many new Genera and Species". ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History, First Series'' 2: 331–337. (''Nessia'', new genus, p. 3 ... [...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] |
Sympatry
In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sharing a common range exemplifies sympatric speciation. Such speciation may be a product of reproductive isolation – which prevents hybrid offspring from being viable or able to reproduce, thereby reducing gene flow – that results in genetic divergence. Sympatric speciation may, but need not, arise through secondary contact, which refers to speciation or divergence in allopatry followed by range expansions leading to an area of sympatry. Sympatric species or taxa in secondary contact may or may not interbreed. Types of populations Four main types of population pairs exist in nature. Sympatric populations (or species) contrast with parapatric populations, which contact one another in adjacent but not shared ranges and do not ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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