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Desembarco Del Granma National Park
Desembarco del Granma National Park ( es, Parque Nacional Desembarco del Granma) is a national park in south-western Cuba, stretching across the Niquero and Pilón municipalities in what is now Granma Province. The name of the park means "Landing of the Granma" and refers to the yacht in which Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Raúl Castro, and 79 of their supporters sailed from Mexico to Cuba in 1956 and incited the Cuban Revolution. The National park is well known for its karst topography and coastal cliffs. The national park has a total area of 32,576 ha, of which 26,180 ha are terrestrial and 6,396 ha are marine. In 1999, it was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site because of its uplifted marine terraces and pristine sea cliffs. Description Desembarco del Granma National Park is located on the western end of the Sierra Maestra range, along the tectonically active zone between the North American Plate and Caribbean Plate. It conserves a series of limestone terraces that range ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean meet. Cuba is located east of the Yucatán Peninsula (Mexico), south of both the American state of Florida and the Bahamas, west of Hispaniola ( Haiti/Dominican Republic), and north of both Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Havana is the largest city and capital; other major cities include Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey. The official area of the Republic of Cuba is (without the territorial waters) but a total of 350,730 km² (135,418 sq mi) including the exclusive economic zone. Cuba is the second-most populous country in the Caribbean after Haiti, with over 11 million inhabitants. The territory that is now Cuba was inhabited by the Ciboney people from the 4th millennium BC with the Gua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sierra Maestra
The Sierra Maestra is a mountain range that runs westward across the south of the old Oriente Province in southeast Cuba, rising abruptly from the coast. The range falls mainly within the Santiago de Cuba and in Granma Provinces. Some view it as a series of connecting ranges (Vela, Santa Catalina, Quemado Grande, Daña Mariana), which join with others to the west. At 1,974 m (6,476 ft), Pico Turquino is the range's – and the country's – highest point. The area is rich in minerals, especially copper, manganese, chromium, and iron. History The Sierra Maestra has a long history of guerrilla warfare, starting with the resistance of the Taínos under Guamá (died 1532), the Cimarrón Neo-Taíno nations escaped slave cultures, the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898), and various minor conflicts such as the Race War of 1912, and the uprisings of Antonio Guiteras (died 1935) against Gerardo Machado (President of Cuba f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuban Flower Bat
The Cuban flower bat (''Phyllonycteris poeyi''), also called Poey's flower bat, is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae. It is found on the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Hispaniola (in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Description The Cuban flower bat is a medium-sized bat, with a wingspan of , and a body weight of . The males are significantly larger than the females. Both sexes have silky, uniformly greyish-white fur. They have a relatively short tail, no more than long, and only a narrow patagium between the legs, since they lack a calcar. The snout is relatively long and narrow and bears a simple, rather rudimentary, nose leaf. The tongue is also long, with a hair like structure forming a brush at the top, which helps the bat to feed on nectar from flowers. Cuban flower bats have been reported as flying no faster than , and the shape of the wings would suggest that they have difficulty hovering in place. Unlike other related bats, their echolocation call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Indian Manatee
The West Indian manatee (''Trichechus manatus''), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the eastern US to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it feeds on underwater plants and uses its whiskers to navigate. It is divided into two endangered subspecies, the Florida manatee (''T. m. latirostris'') in the US and the Antillean manatee (''T. m. manatus'') in the Caribbean, both of which face pressure from habitat loss, pollution, and other human activity. The West Indian manatee is the largest of the sirenians (order Sirenia), a group of large aquatic mammals that includes the dugong, other manatees, and the extinct Steller's sea cow. Manatees are herbivores, have developed vocal communication abilities, and are covered in highly sensitive whiskers (called vibrissae) that are used for feeding and navigation. In breeding season, several males form mating herds around an individual female; on aver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue-headed Quail-dove
The blue-headed quail-dove (''Starnoenas cyanocephala''), or blue-headed partridge-dove, is a species of bird in the pigeon and dove family Columbidae. It is monotypic within the subfamily Starnoenadinae and genus ''Starnoenas''. Taxonomy In 1734 the English naturalist Eleazar Albin included a picture and a description of the blue-headed quail-dove in his ''A Natural History of Birds''. His drawing was made from a live bird that had been brought to England from the East Indies. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his ''Systema Naturae'' for the tenth edition, he placed the blue-headed quail-dove with all the other pigeons in the genus ''Columba''. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name ''Columba cyanocephala'' and cited Albin's work. The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek ''kuanos'' meaning "dark blue" and ''-kephalos'' meaning "-headed". It is now the only species placed in the genus ''Starnoenas'' that was introduced by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cuban Night Lizard
The Cuban night lizard (''Cricosaura typica'') is a night lizard (family Xantusiidae, subfamily Cricosaurinae) endemic to southern Cuba. It is the only member of the genus ''Cricosaura'', one of three in the night lizard family.Schwartz & Henderson 1991 Etymology ''Cricosaura'' is derived from the Greek words "krikos" and "saura" meaning "ring lizard", perhaps in reference to the rings of caudal scales. The name "''typica''", from the Greek word "typikos", means "typical".Crother 1988 Description The Cuban night lizard differs from the other night lizards in possessing two frontonasal scales, one frontal scale, no parietal scale, and a fourth finger with four phalanges. With a snout-vent length less than 4 cm it is the smallest of the night lizards. Distribution ''Cricosaura typica'' lives exclusively in the west corner of the southernmost coast of Cuba in the Provinces of Granma and Santiago de Cuba up to 200 m altitude. Known localities for Granma Province include: Hoyo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polymita Picta
''Polymita picta'', also known as the Cuban painted snail, or the oriente tree snail, is a species of large, air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusk in the family Helminthoglyptidae. It is the type species of the genus ''Polymita'', and is endemic to Eastern Cuba. Subspecies and varietas Subspecies and varietas within this species include: *''Polymita picta picta'' **''Polymita picta picta var. muscata'' Torre 1950 **''Polymita picta picta var. multifasciata'' Torre 1950 **''Polymita picta picta var. dimidiata'' Torre 1950 **''Polymita picta picta var. obscurata'' Torre 1950 *''Polymita picta iolimbata Torre 1950 **''Polymita picta iolimbata var. iofasciata'' Torre 1950 **''Polymita picta iolimbata var. iosaturata'' Torre 1950 **''Polymita picta iolimbata var. iodimidiata'' Torre 1950 *''Polymita picta fuscolimbata'' Torre 1950 **''Polymita picta fuscolimbata'' Torre 1950 **''Polymita picta fuscolimbata var. elevata'' Torre 1950 *''Polymita picta nig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemism
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] |
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name is a combination of Ancient Greek grc, label=none, πλεῖστος, pleīstos, most and grc, label=none, καινός, kainós (latinized as ), 'new'. At the end of the preceding Pliocene, the previously isolated North and South American continents were joined by the Isthmus of Panama, causing Great American Interchang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58See the 2014 version of the ICS geologic time scale million years ago. It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the . The Pliocene follows the Epoch and is followed by the Epoch. Prior to the 2009 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event but consist rather of regionally defined boundaries between the warmer Oligocene and the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, the Arabian Peninsula collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, and allowing a faunal interchange to occur between Eurasia and Africa, including the dispersal of proboscideans into Eurasia. During the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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