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Gnypetoscincus Queenslandiae
The prickly skink, or prickly forest skink (''Gnypetoscincus queenslandiae''), is a morphologically and genetically distinctive species of skink endemic to rainforests of the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, in north-eastern Australia. Unlike most small skinks, which have smooth scales, this species has rough, ridged and pointed scales. These keeled scales may be an adaptation to its high-rainfall habitat, to its microhabitat in rotting logs, or to camouflage it when moving through forest leaf-litter. Taxonomy This species is a member of the Australian " Sphenomorphid" group of skinks (family Scincidae), which includes such genera as ''Ctenotus'', ''Anomalopus'' and ''Eulamprus''. It is monotypic in the genus ''Gnypetoscincus''. Distribution and life History The prickly skink is a habitat specialist restricted to closed canopy forest in high rainfall areas (rainforests) of the Australian Wet Tropics, extending from lowland tropical rainforest to montane forests o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Walter Wells
Richard Walter Wells is an Australian herpetologist. He is known for editing the '' Australian Journal of Herpetology'' in the 1980s, in which he and C. Ross Wellington wrote and published three papers without academic peer review that proposed significant changes to the taxonomy and nomenclature of Australian reptiles and amphibians. In the 2000s, Wells self-published herpetological research in the ''Australian Biodiversity Record''. The scientific names he proposed therein are the subject of a boycott begun in 2013 by some members of the herpetological community. Early life Richard Walter Wells was interested in herpetology in his early teen years when he lived in Prospect, New South Wales. In 1980, he brought several eastern brown snake (''Pseudonaja textilis'') eggs to the offices of ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', where they hatched, an occurrence which Wells stated had never before been captured on film. Career By 1981, after working as a zoological specimen collector with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eulamprus
''Eulamprus'' is a genus of lizards, commonly known as water skinks, in the subfamily Sphenomorphinae of the family Scincidae. The genus is native to Australia. Taxonomy The genus ''Eulamprus'' belongs to a clade in the ''Sphenomorphus'' group that contains other genera such as ''Ctenotus'' and ''Anomalopus''. The molecular phylogenetic studies of O'Connor and Moritz (2003) and Skinner et al. (2013) found that species assigned to ''Eulamprus'' comprised four independent lineages within the Australian ''Sphenomorphus'' group and did not form a clade. The genus ''Eulamprus'' was restricted to the water skinks, with other species assigned to ''Concinnia'' (including species formerly in the monotypic genera '' Gnypetoscincus'' and ''Nangura''), '' Silvascincus'' and '' Tumbunascincus''. Species The following five species are recognized as being valid. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glacial Period
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods. The Last Glacial Period ended about 15,000 years ago. The Holocene is the current interglacial. A time with no glaciers on Earth is considered a greenhouse climate state. Quaternary Period Within the Quaternary, which started about 2.6 million years before present, there have been a number of glacials and interglacials. At least eight glacial cycles have occurred in the last 740,000 years alone. Penultimate Glacial Period The Penultimate Glacial Period (PGP) is the glacial period that occurred before the Last Glacial Period. It began about 194,000 years ago and ended 135,000 years ago, with the beginning of the Eemian interglacial. Last Glacial Period The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period ... [...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] |
Black Mountain Corridor
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have often been used to describe opposites such as good and evil, the Dark Ages versus Age of Enlightenment, and night versus day. Since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for this reason it is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates. Black was one of the first colors used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings. It was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as the color of the underworld. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches, and magic. In the 14th century, it was worn by royalty, clergy, judges, and government officials in much of Europe. It became the color worn by English romantic poets, businessmen an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
