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Flamingos
Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean), and two species native to Afro-Eurasia. A group of flamingoes is called a "flamboyance." Etymology The name ''flamingo'' comes from Portuguese or Spanish ("flame-colored"), which in turn comes from Provençal – a combination of ("flame") and a Germanic-like suffix ''-ing''. The word may also have been influenced by the Spanish ethnonym ("Fleming" or "Flemish"). The name of the genus, ''Phoenicopterus'', is from the Greek , ); other genera names include ''Phoeniconaias,'' which means "crimson/red water nymph (or naiad)", and ''Phoenicoparrus,'' which means "crimson/red bird (though, an unknown bird of omen)". Taxonomy and systematics The family Phoenicopteridae was introduced by the French zoologist Charles Lucien Bonapar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James's Flamingo
James's flamingo (''Phoenicoparrus jamesi''), also known as the puna flamingo, is a species of flamingo that lives at high altitudes in the Andean plateaus of Peru, Chile, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina. It is named for Harry Berkeley James, a British naturalist who studied the bird. James's flamingo is closely related to the Andean flamingo, and the two species are the only members of the genus ''Phoenicoparrus''. The Chilean flamingo, Andean flamingo, and James's flamingo are all sympatric, and all live in colonies (including shared nesting areas).Mascitti, V. and Kravetz, F.O., "Bill Morphology of South American Flamingos". ''The Condor''. 104(1), 73. James's flamingo had been thought to be extinct until a population was discovered in a remote area in 1956.Johnson, A.W., Behn, F., and Millie, W.R. "The South American Flamingos". ''The Condor''. 60(5), 289-99 Description The James's flamingo is smaller than the Andean flamingo, and is about the same size as the Old World sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoenicopteriformes
Phoenicopteriformes is a group of water birds which comprises flamingos and their extinct relatives. Flamingos (Phoenicopteriformes) and the closely related grebes ( Podicipedidae) are contained in the parent clade Mirandornithes. Fossil record Flamingos and their relatives are well attested in the fossil record, with the first unequivocal member of the Phoenicopteridae, ''Elornis'' known from the late Eocene epoch. Relation to extinct palaelodids The Palaelodidae – an extinct family of peculiar "swimming flamingos" – are believed to be the closest relatives of the modern flamingos, with the extinct genus ''Juncitarsus'' slightly more primitive than the clade which contains flamingos and grebes (Mirandornithes). The foot and wing anatomy of fossil palaelodids suggests that they were surface-swimming birds, rather than grebe-like divers as was proposed in the past. Whether swimmers or divers, that both primitive phoenicopteriforms and their closest relatives, the gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lesser Flamingo
The lesser flamingo (''Phoeniconaias minor'') is a species of flamingo occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and western India. Birds are occasionally reported from further north, but these are generally considered Vagrancy (biology), vagrants. Characteristics The lesser flamingo is the smallest species of flamingo, though it is a tall and large bird by most standards. The species can weigh from . The standing height is around . The total length (from beak to tail) and wingspan are in the same range of measurements, from . Most of the plumage is pinkish white. The clearest difference between this species and the greater flamingo, the only other Old World species of flamingo, is the much more extensive black on the bill. Size is less helpful unless the species are together, since the sexes of each species also differ in height. The extinct species ''Phoeniconaias proeses'' in the same genus, from the Pliocene of Australia, is thought to have been even smaller. The lesser flamingo may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xenorhynchopsis
''Xenorhynchopsis'' is an extinct genus of flamingo from the Pliocene to Pleistocene Lake Eyre basin of Australia. Initially described as species of stork, the two known ''Xenorhynchopsis'' species are vastly different in size. ''X. minor'' is the older and small of the two species, ranging from the Pliocene to Pleistocene and being described as having reached a size smaller than that of the lesser flamingo. ''X. tibialis'' meanwhile appears to have been restricted to Pleistocene strata and was notably bigger, being counted as one of the biggest known flamingos in the fossil record. History The fossils of ''Xenorhynchopsis'' were initially described by Charles Walter de Vis in 1905, who recognized two species he named ''Xenorhynchopsis minor'' and ''Xenorhynchopsis tibialis'' respectively. Possibly due to the fact that de Vis lacked flamingo material in his collection to compare the fossils to, he assigned the genus to the Ciconiidae, the storks. ''X. tibialis'', the larger of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoeniconotius
''Phoeniconotius'' is an extinct genus of flamingo that lived in Australia from the late Oligocene to the early Miocene. Unlike modern flamingos and the contemporary '' Phoenicopterus novaehollandiae'', it was likely less well adapted for swimming and deep water wading. ''Phoeniconotius'' was a robust flamingo with bones more massive than those of the modern greater flamingo. Only a single species is recognized, ''Phoeniconotius eyrensis''. History The fossils of ''Phoeniconotius'' have been discovered in the Lake Eyre basin of Australia, specifically a layer of mudstone belonging to the Etadunna Formation on the western shore of Lake Palankarinna. The type material consists of three bones, the distal end of the left tarsometatarsus and two phalanges. The material was collected from the surface and were discovered in association with one another, however not articulated. One phalax, which is thought to represent the third toe, matches well with the corresponding area on the ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Occitan
Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label=Occitan language, Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries. Old Occitan generally includes Early and Old Occitan. Middle Occitan is sometimes included in Old Occitan, sometimes in Modern Occitan. As the term ' appeared around the year 1300, Old Occitan is referred to as "Romance" (Occitan: ') or "Provençal" (Occitan: ') in medieval texts. History Among the earliest records of Occitan are the ''Tomida femina'', the ''Boecis'' and the ''Cançó de Santa Fe''. Old Occitan, the language used by the troubadours, was the first Romance language with a literary corpus and had an enormous influence on the development of lyric poetry in other European languages. The interpunct was a feature of its orthography and survives today in Catalan and Gascon language, Gascon. The official language of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
-ing
''-ing'' is a suffix used to make one of the inflected forms of English verbs. This verb form is used as a present participle, as a gerund, and sometimes as an independent noun or adjective. The suffix is also found in certain words like ''morning'' and ''ceiling'', and in names such as ''Browning''. Etymology and pronunciation The Modern English ''-ing'' ending, which is used to form both gerunds and present participles of verbs (i.e. in noun and adjective uses), derives from two different historical suffixes. The gerund (noun) use comes from Middle English , which is from Old English , (suffixes forming nouns from verbs). These in turn are from Proto-Germanic ''*-inga-'', ''*-unga-'', ''*-ingō'', ''*-ungō'', which derives from Proto-Indo-European . This use of English ''-ing'' is thus cognate with the suffix of Dutch, West Frisian, the North Germanic languages, and with German . The ''-ing'' of Modern English in its participial (adjectival) use comes from Middle Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crimson
Crimson is a rich, deep red color, inclining to purple. It originally meant the color of the kermes dye produced from a scale insect, ''Kermes vermilio'', but the name is now sometimes also used as a generic term for slightly bluish-red colors that are between red and rose. It is the national color of Nepal. History Crimson (NR4) is produced using the dried bodies of a scale insect, ''Kermes'', which were gathered commercially in Mediterranean countries, where they live on the kermes oak, and sold throughout Europe. Kermes dyes have been found in burial wrappings in Anglo-Scandinavian York. They fell out of use with the introduction of cochineal, also made from scale insects, because although the dyes were comparable in quality and color intensity, it needed ten to twelve times as much kermes to produce the same effect as cochineal. Carmine is the name given to the dye made from the dried bodies of the female cochineal, although the name crimson is sometimes applied to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from the Ancient Greek (''olígos'', "few") and (''kainós'', "new"), and refers to the sparsity of extant forms of molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period. The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of the tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major changes during the Oligocene included a global expansion o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naiad
In Greek mythology, the naiads (; grc-gre, ναϊάδες, naïádes) are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolis. Etymology The Greek word is (, ), plural (, ). It derives from (), "to flow", or (), "running water". Mythology Naiads were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring. In places like Lerna their waters' ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Animals were ritually drowned there. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs. Naiads could be dangerous: Hylas of the '' Argo''’s crew was lost when he was taken ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain. Spanish is the official language of List of countries where Spanish is an official language, 20 countries. It is the world's list of languages by number of native speakers, second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's list of languages by total number of speakers, fourth-most spoken language overall after English language, English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani language, Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance languages, Romance language. The largest population of native speakers is in Mexico. Spanish is part of the Iberian Romance languages, Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Type Genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearing type of a nominal family-group taxon is a nominal genus called the 'type genus'; the family-group name is based upon that of the type genus." Any family-group name must have a type genus (and any genus-group name must have a type species, but any species-group name may, but need not, have one or more type specimens). The type genus for a family-group name is also the genus that provided the stem to which was added the ending -idae (for families). :Example: The family name Formicidae has as its type genus the genus ''Formica'' Linnaeus, 1758. Botanical nomenclature In botanical nomenclature, the phrase "type genus" is used, unofficially, as a term of convenience. In the '' ICN'' this phrase has no status. The code uses type specimens for ranks up to fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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