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Gulf Killifish
The Gulf killifish (''Fundulus grandis'') is one of the largest members of the genus ''Fundulus''; it is capable of growing up to 7" in length, whereas the majority of other ''Fundulus'' reach a maximum length of 4". Therefore, ''F. grandis'' is among the largest minnows preyed upon by many sport fish, such as flounder, speckled trout, and red drum. ''Fundulus'' derives from the Latin meaning "bottom," and ''grandis'' means "large". The Gulf killifish is native to the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida and the eastern coast of Florida and the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean. Threats to the survival of the Gulf killifish include extreme changes in salinity, changes in temperatures, and toxic events such as the hypoxic dead zone in Louisiana and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Gulf killifish is currently being used to test the effects of oil and oil dispersants on the physiology of marine species affected by these substances. This is significant to conservation biolog ... [...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] |
Nalco Holding Company
Nalco Water, an Ecolab Company, is an American Naperville, Illinois-based supplier of water, energy and air improvement solutions and services for industrial and institutional markets, owned by Ecolab. The company sells various products and services designed to reduce energy, water and other natural resource consumption, enhance air quality, minimize environmental releases and improve productivity and end products. The company was founded in 1928 as the National Aluminate Corporation, formed from the merger of Chicago Chemical Company and the Aluminum Sales Corporation. By a series of mergers and acquisition, its name was changed to Nalco Chemical Company (1959 - 1999); then Ondeo Nalco Company (1999 - 2004); and in 2004 to Nalco Holding Company. It became a subsidiary of Ecolab Inc. in December 2011 after the completion of the US$5.4 billion acquisition by Ecolab. Nalco Water serves more than 70,000 customers employing over 11,500 employees operating in over 130 countries. Among ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fish Described In 1853
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fauna Of The Southeastern 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 by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fish Of The Dominican Republic
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fish Of Cuba
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fish Of The Gulf Of Mexico
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Most fis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fundulus
''Fundulus'' is a genus of ray-finned fishes in the superfamily Funduloidea, family Fundulidae (of which it is the type genus). It belongs to the order of toothcarps (Cyprinodontiformes), and therein the large suborder Cyprinodontoidei. Most of its closest living relatives are egg-laying, with the notable exception of the splitfin livebearers (Goodeidae). They are usually smallish; most species reaching a length of at most 4 in (10 cm) when fully grown. However, a few larger species exist, with the giant killifish ('' F. grandissimus'') and the northern studfish ('' F. catenatus'') growing to twice the genus' average size. Many of the 40-odd species are commonly known by the highly ambiguous name "killifish" (the general term for egg-laying toothcarps), or the somewhat less ambiguous " topminnow" (a catch-all term for Fundulidae). "Studfish" is a quite unequivocal vernacular name applied to some other ''Fundulus'' species; it is not usually used to refer to the genus as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macondo Prospect
The Macondo Prospect (Mississippi Canyon Block 252, abbreviated MC252) is an oil and gas prospect in the United States Exclusive Economic Zone of the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana. The prospect was the site of the ''Deepwater Horizon'' drilling rig explosion in April 2010 that led to a major oil spill in the region from the first exploration well, named itself MC252-1 (nicknamed also Macondo-1), which had been designed to investigate the existence of the prospect. Name Oil companies routinely assign code names to offshore prospects early in the exploration effort. This practice helps ensure secrecy during the confidential pre-sale phase, and later provides convenient names for casual reference rather than the often similar-sounding official lease names denoted by, for example, the Minerals Management Service in the case of federal waters in the USA. Names in a given year or area might follow a theme such as beverages (e.g., Cognac), heavenly bodies (e.g., Mars), or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barataria Bay
Barataria Bay (french: Baie de Barataria), also Barrataria Bay, is a bay of the Gulf of Mexico, about 15 miles (24 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide, in southeastern Louisiana, in Jefferson Parish and Plaquemines Parish, United States. It is separated from the gulf by two barrier islands, Grand Isle and Grand Terre. The bay takes its name from the Spanish novel ''Don Quixote'', in which the ''insula Barataria'', or Barataria island, appears as a fictional territory governed by Sancho Panza. Geography The bay is indented and marshy, with many islands. The surrounding low-lying Barataria country, south of New Orleans and west of the Mississippi River Delta, is noted for its shrimp industry (based at villages built on pilings above the coastal marshes), muskrat trapping, natural gas wells, oil wells, and sulfur production. Its inlet is connected to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway system. History and economy Barataria Bay was used in the early 19th century as the base o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oil Dispersant
An oil dispersant is a mixture of emulsifiers and solvents that helps break oil into small droplets following an oil spill. Small droplets are easier to disperse throughout a water volume, and small droplets may be more readily biodegraded by microbes in the water. Dispersant use involves a trade-off between exposing coastal life to surface oil and exposing aquatic life to dispersed oil. While submerging the oil with dispersant may lessen exposure to marine life on the surface, it increases exposure for animals dwelling underwater, who may be harmed by toxicity of both dispersed oil and dispersant. Although dispersant reduces the amount of oil that lands ashore, it may allow faster, deeper penetration of oil into coastal terrain, where it is not easily biodegraded. History ''Torrey Canyon'' In 1967, the supertanker ''Torrey Canyon'' leaked oil onto the English coastline. Alkylphenol surfactants were primarily used to break up the oil, but proved very toxic in the marine env ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Frédéric Girard
Charles Frédéric Girard (8 March 1822 – 29 January 1895) was a French biologist specializing in ichthyology and herpetology. Born in Mulhouse, France, he studied at the College of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, as a student of Louis Agassiz. In 1847, he accompanied Agassiz as his assistant to Harvard University. Three years later, Spencer Fullerton Baird called him to the Smithsonian Institution to work on its growing collection of North American reptiles, amphibians and fishes. He worked at the museum for the next ten years and published numerous papers, many in collaboration with Baird. In 1854, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. Besides his work at the Smithsonian, he managed to earn an M.D. from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1856. In 1859 he returned to France and was awarded the Cuvier Prize by the Institute of France for his work on the North American reptiles and fishes two years later. When the American Civil War broke out, he joined the Confederate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
