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Galápagos Mockingbird
The Galápagos mockingbird (''Mimus parvulus'') is a species of bird in the family Mimidae. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. Systematics The Galápagos mockingbird is one of four mockingbird species endemic to the Galápagos Islands. These four are all closely related, and DNA evidence shows they likely all descended from an ancestor species which reached the islands in a single colonization event. When John Gould first described the species in 1837, based on specimens brought back from the islands by Charles Darwin, he named it ''Orpheus parvulus''. However, because of the rules of binomial nomenclature, ''Orpheus'' was declared a junior synonym, and in 1841, George Robert Gray moved all of the ''Orpheus'' mockingbirds to the older genus ''Mimus''. In 1890, Robert Ridgway created the genus ''Nesomimus'' for the mockingbirds found on the Galápagos Islands, and most taxonomists adopted the change. Recent DNA studies, however, show that the ''Nesomimus'' mockingbi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gould
John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, ''On the Origin of Species''. Early life Gould was born in Lyme Regis, the first son of a gardener. Both father and son probably had little education. After working on Dowager Lady Poulett's glass house, his father obtained a position on an estate near Guildford, Surrey, and then in 1818, Gould Snr became foreman in the Royal Gardens of Windsor. Gould then be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Seymour Island
North Seymour ( es, Isla Seymour Norte) is a small island near Baltra Island in the Galápagos Islands. It was formed by uplift of a submarine lava formation. The whole island is covered with low, bushy vegetation. The island is named after an English nobleman, Lord Hugh Seymour. North Seymour Island has an area of and a maximum altitude of . This island is home to a large population of blue-footed boobies and swallow-tailed gulls. It hosts one of the largest populations of magnificent frigatebirds (''Fregata magnificens'') and a slowly growing population of Galápagos land iguanas (''Conolophus subcristatus''). North Seymour has a visitor trail approximately in length crossing the inland of the island and exploring the rocky coast. The stock for the captive breeding program of the Galápagos land iguana is descended from iguanas which Captain G. Allan Hancock translocated from nearby Baltra Island to North Seymour Island in the 1930s. This was very important because Balt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darwin's Finches
Darwin's finches (also known as the Galápagos finches) are a group of about 18 species of passerine birds. They are well known for their remarkable diversity in beak form and function. They are often classified as the subfamily Geospizinae or tribe Geospizini. They belong to the tanager family and are not closely related to the true finches. The closest known relative of the Galápagos finches is the South American '' Tiaris obscurus''. They were first collected when the second voyage of the ''Beagle'' visited the Galápagos Islands, with Charles Darwin on board as a gentleman naturalist. Apart from the Cocos finch, which is from Cocos Island, the others are found only on the Galápagos Islands. The term "Darwin's finches" was first applied by Percy Lowe in 1936, and popularised in 1947 by David Lack in his book ''Darwin's Finches''. Lack based his analysis on the large collection of museum specimens collected by the 1905–06 Galápagos expedition of the California Academy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Placenta
The placenta is a temporary embryonic and later fetal organ that begins developing from the blastocyst shortly after implantation. It plays critical roles in facilitating nutrient, gas and waste exchange between the physically separate maternal and fetal circulations, and is an important endocrine organ, producing hormones that regulate both maternal and fetal physiology during pregnancy. The placenta connects to the fetus via the umbilical cord, and on the opposite aspect to the maternal uterus in a species-dependent manner. In humans, a thin layer of maternal decidual (endometrial) tissue comes away with the placenta when it is expelled from the uterus following birth (sometimes incorrectly referred to as the 'maternal part' of the placenta). Placentas are a defining characteristic of placental mammals, but are also found in marsupials and some non-mammals with varying levels of development. Mammalian placentas probably first evolved about 150 million to 200 million years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omnivore
An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutrients and energy of the sources absorbed. Often, they have the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, and bacteria into their diet. Omnivores come from diverse backgrounds that often independently evolved sophisticated consumption capabilities. For instance, dogs evolved from primarily carnivorous organisms ( Carnivora) while pigs evolved from primarily herbivorous organisms (Artiodactyla). Despite this, physical characteristics such as tooth morphology may be reliable indicators of diet in mammals, with such morphological adaptation having been observed in bears. The variety of different animals that are classified as omnivores can be placed into further sub-categories depending on their feeding behaviors. Frugivor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Specific Epithet (zoology)
In zoological nomenclature, the specific name (also specific epithet or species epithet) is the second part (the second name) within the scientific name of a species (a binomen). The first part of the name of a species is the name of the genus or the generic name. The rules and regulations governing the giving of a new species name are explained in the article species description. For example, the scientific name for humans is ''Homo sapiens'', which is the species name, consisting of two names: ''Homo'' is the " generic name" (the name of the genus) and ''sapiens'' is the "specific name". Historically, ''specific name'' referred to the combination of what are now called the generic and specific names. Carl Linnaeus, who formalized binomial nomenclature, made explicit distinctions between specific, generic, and trivial names. The generic name was that of the genus, the first in the binomial, the trivial name was the second name in the binomial, and the specific the proper term for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb conjuga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolf Island
Wolf Island (Spanish: ''Isla Wolf'') or Wenman Island is a small island in the Galápagos Islands and was named after the German geologist Theodor Wolf, who also has the volcano Wolf on Isabela Island named after him. It has an area of and a maximum altitude of above sea level. The island is remote from the main island group and has no permanent population. The Galápagos National Park does not allow landing on the island; however, it is a popular diving location. The group formed by Darwin Island and Wolf was previously known as Culpepper and Wenman. Geology Wolf Island is the remains of an extinct volcano that reaches a maximum above sea level, it is situated north west of the main Galápagos Island group on the Wolf-Darwin Lineament that extends from the Galápagos Platform to the Galápagos Spreading Center, a mid ocean ridge separating the Nazca and Cocos tectonic plates. Like its near neighbour Darwin Island, Wolf Island is upstream of the magma plume, in terms of p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santiago Island (Galápagos)
Santiago Island () is one of the Galápagos Islands. It is also known as San Salvador, named after the first island discovered by Columbus in the Caribbean Sea (see San Salvador Island), or as James Island. The island, which consists of two overlapping volcanoes, has an area of and a maximum altitude of , atop the northwestern shield volcano. The volcano in the island's southeast erupted along a linear fissure, and is much lower. The oldest lava flows on the island date back to 750,000 years ago. Geology Santiago Island was formed from a shield volcano eponymously named Santiago. The low, flat summits of the volcano allowed the low-viscosity lava to flow for large distances from the source vents. The volcanic origin of the island has led it to be dotted with holocene pyroclastic rock that can be found across the island. On the eastern and western sides of the island, tuff cones, formed from the rapid interaction of hot lava and water, are visible. The summit of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rábida Island
Rábida Island (), is one of the Galápagos Islands. The island has also been known as Jervis Island named in honour of the 18th-century British admiral John Jervis. In Ecuador it is officially known as Isla Rábida. Wildlife In addition to flamingos and the bachelor sea lion colony, pelicans, white-cheeked pintails, boobies, and nine species of finch have been reported. The rich wildlife attracts a number of tourists cruises. In 1971 the Galápagos National Park Service successfully eradicated goats from Rábida. This introduced species upset the natural environment and led to the extinction of several native creatures including geckos, land iguanas, and rice rats. Conservation and Restoration During January 2011, invasive rodents were removed from the island by The Galápagos National Park, assisted by Island Conservation to benefit Galapagos penguins and '' Scalesia stewartii'' (a tree forming daisy and the plant equivalent of one of Darwin's finches Darwin's finch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marchena Island
The island's name, Marchena Island (Spanish: ''Isla Marchena''), comes from the Spanish monk, Frey Antonio de Marchena. It has an area of 130 km2 and a maximum altitude of 343 meters. The island is not set up for visitors, although the surrounding water is used by aquatic divers on organised tours. People generally see the island as they sail around the northern part of Isabela on the way to Tower Island. Marchena is Tower Island's nearest neighbor, about 45 miles due west. Like many of the Galápagos volcanos, Marchena has a caldera. Marchena's caldera is roughly elliptical and measures , within the range of caldera sizes of the large western volcanoes. Marchena's caldera is unusual, however, in that it has been almost completely filled with young lavas, some of which has spilled over and down the sides. The oldest lava pools go back 500,000 years. See also *List of volcanoes in Ecuador A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinta Island
Pinta Island (Spanish: ''Isla Pinta''), also known as Abingdon Island, after the Earl of Abingdon, is an island located in the Galápagos Islands group, Ecuador. It has an area of and a maximum altitude of . Pinta was the original home to Lonesome George, perhaps the most famous tortoise in the Galápagos Islands. He was the last known representative of the subspecies ''Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii''. Pinta Island is also home to swallow-tailed gulls, marine iguanas, Galapagos hawks, Galapagos fur seals and a number of other birds and mammals. The most northern major island in the Galápagos, at one time Isla Pinta had a thriving tortoise population. The island's vegetation was devastated over several decades by introduced feral goats, thus diminishing food supplies for the native tortoises. A prolonged effort to exterminate goats introduced to Pinta was completed in 1990, and the vegetation of the island is starting to return to its former state. The elongated island of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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