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Gallotia Goliath
''Gallotia goliath'' (the Tenerife giant lizard or goliath Tenerife lizard) is an extinct giant lizard species from the island of Tenerife of the Canary Islands, Spain. This reptile lived before the arrival of humans and is believed to have grown to at least long. It was described by the German herpetologist Robert Mertens. Fossils of this lizard have been found in volcanic caves, where they often appear with those of other animals, like the Tenerife giant rat. Classification Prehistoric ''Gallotia'' remains have been assigned to the taxa ''G. maxima'' and ''G. goliath'', the former supposedly occurring only on Tenerife, the latter on several islands. It was eventually determined, however, that ''G. maxima'' is a junior synonym of ''G. goliath'', and that the latter was close to the El Hierro giant lizard (''Gallotia simonyi''); supposed ''goliath'' specimens from El Hierro, La Gomera, and La Palma (from the Cuevas de los Murciélagos) are probably just extremely large ... [...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] |
La Gomera
La Gomera () is one of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. With an area of , it is the third smallest of the eight main islands of this archipelago. It belongs to the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. La Gomera is the third least populous of the eight main Canary Islands with 22,426 inhabitants. Its capital is San Sebastián de La Gomera, where the cabildo insular (island council) is located. Political organisation La Gomera is part of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is divided into six municipalities: The island government (''cabildo insular'') is located in the capital, San Sebastián. Geography The island is of volcanic origin and roughly circular; it is about in diameter. The island is very mountainous and steeply sloping and rises to at the island's highest peak, Alto de Garajonay. Its shape is rather like an orange that has been cut in half and then split into segments, which has left deep ravines or ''barra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallotia
The genus ''Gallotia'' are the lacertids (wall lizards) of the Canary Islands. This genus consists of a group that has been evolving there ever since the first islands emerged from the sea over 20 million years ago. The endemic species and subspecies of this group have a number of characteristics that make them quite special within their family (Lacertidae); their only close relatives are the sandrunner lizards (''Psammodromus'') of the western Mediterranean region. ''Gallotia'' are characteristic for eating significant quantities of plants, and several lineages are often presented as classic examples for insular gigantism. However, a find of an even larger ''Gallotia'' species from the early Miocene of mainland Europe casts doubt on this assumption. Instead the ancestor of all modern ''Gallotia'' species of the Canary islands was probably already very large but carnivorous (Černaňský et al., 2016). Systematics and biogeography This genus can be broadly divided into two group ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holocene Extinctions
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together form the Quaternary period. The Holocene has been identified with the current warm period, known as MIS 1. It is considered by some to be an interglacial period within the Pleistocene Epoch, called the Flandrian interglacial.Oxford University Press – Why Geography Matters: More Than Ever (book) – "Holocene Humanity" section https://books.google.com/books?id=7P0_sWIcBNsC The Holocene corresponds with the rapid proliferation, growth and impacts of the human species worldwide, including all of its written history, technological revolutions, development of major civilizations, and overall significant transition towards urban living in the present. The human impact on modern-era Earth and its ecosystems may be considered of global sig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles Of The Canary Islands
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians (tuatara). As of March 2022, the Reptile Database includes about 11,700 species. In the traditional 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 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 orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology. The earliest known proto-reptiles originated around 31 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Largest Extinct Lizards
List of largest extinct lizards which are members of the order Squamata. List Geckos (Gekkota) *A extinct member of family Diplodactylidae, Kawekaweau or Delcourt's giant gecko (''Hoplodactylus delcourti''), the largest gecko of all time. It had a snout-vent length of 37 cm (14.6 in), a total length of 60 cm (23.6 in). and a mass of The modern representative of same genus is Duvaucel's gecko (''Hoplodactylus duvaucelii'') also has a large sizes (see list of largest extant lizards). *Some members of genus ''Phelsuma'' are one of the largest extant geckos (see list of largest extant lizards). Although, in the past, day geckos were even more larger. For example, the Rodrigues day gecko (''Phelsuma edwardnewtoni'') had total length up to 23 cm (9.1 in). The Rodrigues giant day gecko (''Phelsuma gigas'') was the largest day gecko and second-largest of all geckos (after the kawekaweau), with a length of up to 40 cm (15.74 in) and possibly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Island Gigantism
Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general "island effect" or "Foster's rule", which posits that when mainland animals colonize islands, small species tend to evolve larger bodies, and large species tend to evolve smaller bodies (insular dwarfism). This is itself one aspect of the more general phenomenon of island syndrome which describes the differences in morphology, ecology, physiology and behaviour of insular species compared to their continental counterparts. Following the arrival of humans and associated introduced predators (dogs, cats, rats, pigs), many giant as well as other island endemics have become extinct. A similar size increase, as well as increased woodiness, has been observed in some insular plants. Possible causes Large mammalian carnivores are often absent on isl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Canary
The Atlantic canary (''Serinus canaria''), known worldwide simply as the wild canary and also called the island canary, common canary, or canary, is a small passerine bird belonging to the genus ''Serinus'' in the finch family, Fringillidae. It is native to the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Madeira. Wild birds are mostly yellow-green, with brownish streaking on the back. The species is common in captivity and a number of colour varieties have been bred. This bird is the natural symbol of the Canary Islands, together with the Canary Island date palm. Description The Atlantic canary can range from in length, with a wingspan of and a weight of , with an average of around .Snow, D. W. & Perrins, C. M. (1998). ''The Birds of the Western Palearctic'' concise ed. Oxford University Press. .''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), .''Finches and Sparrows'' by Peter Clement. Princeton University Press (1999). . The male has a largel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castilians
Castilians (Spanish: ''castellanos'') are those people who live in certain former areas of the historical Kingdom of Castile, but the region's exact limits are disputed. A broader definition is to consider as Castilians the population belonging to the Iberian peninsular territories and the Canary Islands, which were controlled by the Crown of Castile and included a large part of the Iberian Peninsula. However, not all people in the regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile or Crown of Castile think of themselves as Castilian. For that reason, the exact limits of what is Castilian today are disputed. The western parts of Castile and León (that is, the Region of León), Cantabria and La Rioja are often also included in the definition, but that is controversial for historical reasons and for the strong sense of unique cultural identity of those regions. The Province of Albacete is also often included, but it was previously has part of the Region of Murcia. As an ethnicity, Cast ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guanches
The Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some west of Africa. It is believed that they may have arrived on the archipelago some time in the first millennium BCE. The Guanches were the only native people known to have lived in the Macaronesian archipelago region before the arrival of Europeans, as there is no accepted evidence that the other Macaronesian archipelagos (the Cape Verde Islands, Madeira and the Azores) were inhabited. After the Spanish conquest of the Canaries starting in the early 15th century, many natives were wiped out by the Spanish settlers while others interbred with the settler population, although elements of their culture survive within Canarian customs and traditions, such as Silbo (the whistled language of La Gomera Island). In 2017, the first genome-wide data from the Guanches confirmed a North African origin and that they were genetically most similar to ancient North African Berber peoples of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tenerife Speckled Lizard
The Tenerife speckled lizard (''Gallotia intermedia'') is a recently discovered lacertid (wall lizard) endemic to Tenerife in the Canary Islands. It is the smallest member of the clade containing the western islands' giant species. It was discovered in 1996 by biologist Efraín Hernández in the Macizo de Teno in the extreme northwest of Tenerife. Although it is believed that the species was once widespread throughout much of the island, nowadays it is only known from a small area of coastline in the extreme west of the island, and also from Montana de Guaza in the extreme south. The total number of animals in the northwestern distribution area is 500 (estimated in 2008), in 40 isolated populations along altogether 9 km of coastline. In the south, there are about 100 animals. The main threat to this lizard is predation by feral cats and, to a lesser degree, by rats. The lizards are increasing in number since the turn of the century as a result of control of introduced mam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Palma Giant Lizard
The La Palma giant lizard (''Gallotia auaritae'') is a giant lacertid historically living on the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain); its habitat ranged from sea level up to altitudes of 800 m. It probably lives in xerophytic vegetation and is presumably an egg-laying species. Generally considered extinct in historic times, there were sightings (including photographic evidence) of a large lacertid in 2007 which may possibly correspond to this species, although these sightings have been assessed as doubtful. Taxonomy Working on fossil and subfossil evidence, this giant lizard was originally described as a subspecies of the El Hierro giant lizard (Mateo ''et al.'' 2001). Later, it was elevated to full species rank (Afonso & Mateo 2003). Specimen remains from La Palma assigned to '' G. goliath'' seem to belong to this taxon instead; if this is correct, they indicate that the average size of this species had been decreasing over the last millennia, possibly due to humans pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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