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Jamaican Tody
The Jamaican tody (''Todus todus'') is a species of bird in the genus ''Todus'' endemic to Jamaica. Local names for the Jamaican tody include ''rasta bird'', ''robin'' and ''robin redbreast''. Taxonomy It was thought that the genus ''Todus'' was established in 1760, after the split from the kingfisher from the genus ''Alcedo''. However, the exact historical relationship between the genus ''Todus'' and other close relatives was not confirmed until around 2004 when a paper was published on the molecular phylogenic relationships for the tody species. Mitochondrial DNA and nuclear gene sequences were used to discover the heterogeneity among genes in these species. Genus ''Todus'' is monophyletic and a relatively old group based on divergence approximations. Todies are closer to the '' Baryphthengus'' and '' Hylomanes'' genera, from the family Momotidae, than the '' Ceryle'' and ''Chloroceryle'' genera, from the family Alcedinidae. The family Todidae likely derived from a motmot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is rendered in Latin as and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as . Linnaeus was born in Råshult, the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published the first edition of his ' in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect an ... [...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] |
Greater Antilles Mangroves
The Greater Antilles mangroves is a mangrove ecoregion that includes the coastal mangrove forests of the Greater Antilles – Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Geography Mangroves are estimated to cover 5,569 km in Cuba (or 4.8% of the country); 134 km in Haiti; 325 km in the Dominican Republic; and 106 km in Jamaica. Some ecoregion systems include the Greater Antilles mangroves, Bahamian mangroves, and Lesser Antilles mangroves The Lesser Antilles mangroves ecoregion (WWF ID: NT1416) covers the salt-water habitats along the coasts of the islands on the divide between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. the included islands stretch from Anguilla in the north to the ... within a single Bahamian-Antillean mangroves ecoregion."Bahamian-Antillean mangroves". DOPA Explorer. Accessed 28 December 2020/ref> Protected areas 30.5% of the ecoregion is in protected areas. These include Habitat/Species Management Area of Cahouane, La Cahouane and Three Bays Protected A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesic Habitat
In ecology, a mesic habitat is a type of habitat with a moderate or well-balanced supply of moisture, e.g., a mesic forest, a temperate hardwood forest, or dry-mesic prairie. Mesic habitats transition to xeric shrublands in a non-linear fashion, which is evidence of a threshold. Mesic is one of a triad of terms used to describe the amount of water in a habitat. The others are xeric and hydric. Further examples of mesic habitats include streamsides, wet meadows, springs, seeps, irrigated fields, and high elevation habitats. These habitats effectively provide drought insurance as land at higher elevations warms due to seasonal or other change. Healthy mesic habitats act like sponges in that they store water in such a way that it can be deposited to neighboring habitats as needed. They are common in dryer regions of the western United States, and can be a good water source to neighboring desert habitats. Healthy mesic habitats also provide forb and insects for organisms belonging t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second-growth
A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. It is distinguished from an old-growth forest (primary or primeval forest), which has not recently undergone such disruption, and complex early seral forest, as well as third-growth forests that result from harvest in second growth forests. Secondary forest regrowing after timber harvest differs from forest regrowing after natural disturbances such as fire, insect infestation, or windthrow because the dead trees remain to provide nutrients, structure, and water retention after natural disturbances. However, often after natural disturbance the timber is harvested and removed from the system, in which case the system more closely resembles secondary forest rather than seral forest. Description Depending on the forest, the development o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Mountains, Jamaica
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when observing light with a dominant wavelength between approximately 450 and 495 nanometres. Most blues contain a slight mixture of other colours; azure contains some green, while ultramarine contains some violet. The clear daytime sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering. An optical effect called Tyndall effect explains blue eyes. Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called aerial perspective. Blue has been an important colour in art and decoration since ancient times. The semi-precious stone lapis lazuli was used in ancient Egypt for jewellery and ornament and later, in the Renaissance, to make the pigment ultramarine, the most expensive of all pigments. In the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iris (anatomy)
In humans and most mammals and birds, the iris (plural: ''irides'' or ''irises'') is a thin, annular structure in the eye, responsible for controlling the diameter and size of the pupil, and thus the amount of light reaching the retina. Eye color is defined by the iris. In optical terms, the pupil is the eye's aperture, while the iris is the diaphragm. Structure The iris consists of two layers: the front pigmented fibrovascular layer known as a stroma and, beneath the stroma, pigmented epithelial cells. The stroma is connected to a sphincter muscle (sphincter pupillae), which contracts the pupil in a circular motion, and a set of dilator muscles ( dilator pupillae), which pull the iris radially to enlarge the pupil, pulling it in folds. The sphincter pupillae is the opposing muscle of the dilator pupillae. The pupil's diameter, and thus the inner border of the iris, changes size when constricting or dilating. The outer border of the iris does not change size. The constricti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Rican Tody
The Puerto Rican tody (''Todus mexicanus'') is a bird endemic to Puerto Rico. It is locally known in Spanish as "San Pedrito" ("little Saint Peter") and "medio peso" ("half-dollar bird"). Taxonomy Todies are the closest relative to the motmots of Central America. It is thought that the Jamaican tody (''Todus todus'') gave rise to the Puerto Rican tody after hurricane dispersals, but the relationship between both species has not yet been confirmed. Studies show the ''Todus'' genus probably developed before the Pleistocene. Mitochondrial gene studies point to the motmots as their closest relative, although egg white protein electrophoresis studies suggest a relationship to kingfishers. The Puerto Rican tody's specific epithet, ''mexicanus'' (Latin for "from Mexico"), is a misnomer; it is thought that the ornithologist who first described it, René Lesson, erroneously wrote the type specimen's retrieval location as Mexico. The Puerto Rican tody makes up one of the five endemic '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hispaniola
Hispaniola (, also ; es, La Española; Latin and french: Hispaniola; ht, Ispayola; tnq, Ayiti or Quisqueya) is an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Greater Antilles. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the region's second largest in area, after the island of Cuba. The island is divided into two separate nations: the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic (48,445 km2, 18,705 sq mi) to the east and the French/ Haitian Creole-speaking Haiti (27,750 km2, 10,710 sq mi) to the west. The only other divided island in the Caribbean is Saint Martin, which is shared between France ( Saint Martin) and the Netherlands (Sint Maarten). Hispaniola is the site of one of the first European settlements in the Americas, La Navidad (1492–1493), as well as the first proper town, La Isabela (1493–1500), and the first permanent settlement, the current capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo (est. 1498). These settlements were founded succe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Broad-billed Tody
The broad-billed tody (''Todus subulatus'') is a species of bird in the family Todidae, and one of two Todus species found on Hispaniola, along with the narrow-billed tody. They are small insectivorous birds, characterized by their bright green feathers, pink flanks and red throats. They occur at elevations lower than 1700 meters and prefer drier habitats to that of wet rainforests. The broad-billed tody does not migrate and occupies very small territories. These birds are often seen hopping along perches, foraging for insects with their long bills among the leaves. Broad-billed todies have two principle vocalizations, the first being their general call which sounds like a whistle and the second call sounding more trilly, when they encounter a predator. They can also create a rattling noise by running wind through their feathers. Their breeding season runs from April to July, in which the female will lay one clutch of eggs, containing one to four eggs. The nestlings take three we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narrow-billed Tody
The narrow-billed tody (''Todus angustirostris'') is a species of bird in the family Todidae. It is one of two Todus species endemic to Hispaniola, a Caribbean island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Taxonomy and systematics The narrow-billed tody and the other Hispaniolan tody, the broad-billed (''T. subulatus''), were originally thought to share a recent common ancestor, because the other three todies are each the only one on different islands. However, phylogenetic analysis suggests that the narrow-billed tody descended from the Cuban tody (''T. multicolor'') and the broad-billed tody descended from the Puerto Rican tody (''T. mexicanus''). The separation between the lineages occurred two to three million years ago, before either ancestor colonized Hispaniola.Overton, L. C. (2020). Narrow-billed Tody (''Todus angustirostris''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
