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Desert Kingsnake
The desert kingsnake (''Lampropeltis splendida'') is a species of kingsnake native to Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, United States. It is not venomous, colored yellow and black. The desert kingsnake's diet consists of rodents, lizards, and smaller snakes, including rattlesnakes. They normally grow 3–4 ft long, but have been known to grow up to 6.8 ft. They are docile creatures when confronted by humans. If they do not try to escape, often they "play dead" by flipping over onto their backs and lying motionless. Some who domesticate kingsnakes, such as ranchers, do so in the hopes that the kingsnakes will feed on other snakes, which might present more of a threat. It was previously considered a subspecies of the common kingsnake. The desert kingsnake belongs to the Colubridae family, which is the largest family of snakes in the world. Appearance The snake's glossy dorsum is black or very dark brown colored, finely speckled with off-white or yellow. These pale flecks form d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Fullerton Baird
Spencer Fullerton Baird (; February 3, 1823 – August 19, 1887) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, Herpetology, herpetologist, and museum curator. Baird was the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution. He eventually served as assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1850 to 1878, and as Secretary from 1878 until 1887. He was dedicated to expanding the natural history collections of the Smithsonian which he increased from 6,000 specimens in 1850 to over 2 million by the time of his death. He published over 1,000 works during his lifetime. Early life and education Spencer Fullerton Baird was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1823. His mother was a member of the prominent Philadelphia Biddle family; he was a nephew of Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate Charles B. Penrose and a first cousin, once removed, of U.S. Senator Boies Penrose and his distinguished brothers, R. A. F. Penrose Jr., Richard, Spencer Penrose, Spencer, and Charles Bingham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snake
Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), 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, altho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fauna Of The Southwestern United States
Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is ''funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoologists and paleontologists use ''fauna'' to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess Shale fauna". Paleontologists sometimes refer to a sequence of faunal stages, which is a series of rocks all containing similar fossils. The study of animals of a particular region is called faunistics. Etymology ''Fauna'' comes from the name Fauna, a Roman goddess of earth and fertility, the Roman god Faunus, and the related forest spirits called Fauns. All three words are cognates of the name of the Greek god Pan, and ''panis'' is the Greek equivalent of fauna. ''Fauna'' is also the word for a book that catalogues the animals in such a manner. The term was first used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the Class (biology), class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsid, sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, Squamata, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians (tuatara). As of March 2022, the Reptile Database includes about 11,700 species. In the traditional Linnaean taxonomy, Linnaean classification system, birds are considered a separate class to reptiles. However, crocodilians are more closely related to birds than they are to other living reptiles, and so modern Cladistics, cladistic classification systems include birds within Reptilia, redefining the term as a clade. Other cladistic definitions abandon the term reptile altogether in favor of the clade Sauropsida, which refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. The study of the traditional reptile Order (biology), orders, historically combined with that of modern amphi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
The western diamondback rattlesnake or Texas diamond-backWright AH, Wright AA. (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes''. Comstock Publishing Associates. (7th printing, 1985). . (''Crotalus atrox'') is a rattlesnake species and member of the viper family, found in the southwestern United States and Mexico. Like all other rattlesnakes and all other vipers, it is venomous. It is likely responsible for the majority of snakebite fatalities in northern Mexico and the greatest number of snakebites in the U.S.Norris R. (2004) "Venom Poisoning in North American Reptiles" in Campbell JA, Lamar WW. ''The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere''. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. . No subspecies are currently recognized. It lives in elevations from below sea level up to . This species ranges throughout the Southwestern United States and northern half of Mexico. Currently, western diamondback rattlesnakes are not threatened or endangered. Common names Other common names for this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diamondback Rattlesnake
Diamondback rattlesnake may refer to: *''Crotalus adamanteus'', a.k.a. the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, a venomous pitviper species found in the southeastern United States. *''Crotalus atrox'', a.k.a. the western diamondback rattlesnake, a venomous pit viper species found in the southwestern United States and Mexico. *''Crotalus oreganus'', a.k.a. the western rattlesnake, a venomous pitviper species found in North America in the western United States, parts of British Columbia and northwestern Mexico. *''Crotalus ruber :''Common names: red diamond rattlesnake, red rattlesnake, red diamond snake,Wright AH, Wright AA. 1957. Handbook of Snakes. Comstock Publishing Associates. (7th printing, 1985). 1105 pp. . more'' ''Crotalus ruber'' is a venomous pit viper spec ...'', a.k.a. the red diamond rattlesnake, a venomous pitviper species found in southwestern California in the United States and Baja California in Mexico. {{SIA, snakes [Baidu] |
Pitviper
The Crotalinae, commonly known as pit vipers,Mehrtens JM (1987). ''Living Snakes of the World in Color''. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . crotaline snakes (from grc, κρόταλον ''krotalon'' castanet), or pit adders, are a subfamily of vipers found in Eurasia and the Americas. Like all other vipers, they are venomous. They are distinguished by the presence of a heat-sensing pit organ located between the eye and the nostril on both sides of the head. Currently, 23 genera and 155 species are recognized: These are also the only viperids found in the Americas. The groups of snakes represented here include rattlesnakes, lanceheads, and Asian pit vipers. The type genus for this subfamily is ''Crotalus'', of which the type species is the timber rattlesnake, ''C. horridus''. These snakes range in size from the diminutive hump-nosed viper, ''Hypnale hypnale'', that grows to a typical total length (including tail) of only , to the bushmaster, ''Lachesis muta'', a specie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riparian Corridor
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation, characterized by hydrophilic plants. Riparian zones are important in ecology, environmental resource management, and civil engineering because of their role in soil conservation, their habitat biodiversity, and the influence they have on fauna and aquatic ecosystems, including grasslands, woodlands, wetlands, or even non-vegetative areas. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a riparian zone. The word ''riparian'' is derived from Latin '' ripa'', meaning " river bank". Characteristics Riparian zones may be natural or engineered for soil stabilization or restoration. These zones are important natural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesic Habitat
In ecology, a mesic habitat is a type of habitat with a moderate or well-balanced supply of moisture, e.g., a mesic forest, a temperate hardwood forest, or dry-mesic prairie. Mesic habitats transition to xeric shrublands in a non-linear fashion, which is evidence of a threshold. Mesic is one of a triad of terms used to describe the amount of water in a habitat. The others are xeric and hydric. Further examples of mesic habitats include streamsides, wet meadows, springs, seeps, irrigated fields, and high elevation habitats. These habitats effectively provide drought insurance as land at higher elevations warms due to seasonal or other change. Healthy mesic habitats act like sponges in that they store water in such a way that it can be deposited to neighboring habitats as needed. They are common in dryer regions of the western United States, and can be a good water source to neighboring desert habitats. Healthy mesic habitats also provide forb and insects for organisms belonging t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ecological niche. Thus "habitat" is a species-specific term, fundamentally different from concepts such as environment or vegetation assemblages, for which the term "habitat-type" is more appropriate. The physical factors may include (for example): soil, moisture, range of temperature, and light intensity. Biotic factors will include the availability of food and the presence or absence of predators. Every species has particular habitat requirements, with habitat generalist species able to thrive in a wide array of environmental conditions while habitat specialist species requiring a very limited set of factors to survive. The habitat of a species is not necessarily found in a geographical area, it can be the interior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colubridae
Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from la, coluber, 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica. Description While most colubrids are not venomous (or have venom that is not known to be harmful to humans) and are mostly harmless, a few groups, such as genus ''Boiga'', can produce medically significant injuries. In addition, the boomslang, the twig snakes, and the Asian genus ''Rhabdophis'' have caused human fatalities. Some colubrids are described as opisthoglyphous (often called "rear-fanged"), meaning they have elongated, grooved teeth located in the back of their upper jaws. It is likely that opisthoglyphous dentition evolved many times in the history of snakes and is an evolutionary precursor to the fangs of vipers and elapids, which are located in the front of the mouth. Classification In the pas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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