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Maclear's Rat
Maclear's rat (''Rattus macleari'') is an extinct large rat Endemism, endemic to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. It was one of two species of rat native to Christmas Island, alongside the bulldog rat. Abundant, unfamiliar with and seemingly unafraid of humans, large numbers of the creatures emerged and foraged in all directions at night. Making querulous squeaks, the rats entered the Challenger expedition, ''Challenger'' expedition's tents and shelters in 1886, ran over sleepers, and upset everything in the search and fight for food. Maclear's rat might have been responsible for keeping the population of the Christmas Island red crab in check, as recent numbers of the crab are greater than in the past. It is thought that black rats inadvertently introduced by the expedition infected the Maclear's rats with a disease (possibly a Trypanosomatid, trypanosome), which in turn could have contributed to the species' decline. The last recorded sighting was in 1903, although it is poss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oldfield Thomas
Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appointed to the museum secretary's office in 1876, transferring to the zoological department in 1878. In 1891, Thomas married Mary Kane, daughter of Sir Andrew Clark, heiress to a small fortune, which gave him the finances to hire mammal collectors and present their specimens to the museum. He also did field work himself in Western Europe and South America. His wife shared his interest in natural history, and accompanied him on collecting trips. In 1896, when William Henry Flower took control of the department, he hired Richard Lydekker to rearrange the exhibitions, allowing Thomas to concentrate on these new specimens. Thomas viewed his taxonomy efforts from the scope of British imperialism. "You and I in our scientific lives have seen th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Maclear
John Fiot Lee Pearse Maclear (27 June 1838 in Cape Town – 17 July 1907 in Niagara) was an admiral in the Royal Navy, known for his leadership in hydrography. He is best known for being commander of during the ''Challenger'' Expedition (1872–1876) under its commission captain, Sir George Nares, for the voyage of scientific discovery in which the ship went round the world. This expedition led to the science of oceanography, after which various ocean features are named, including the Challenger Plateau near New Zealand. During this expedition the Maclear's Rat on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean was named after him. He is also honoured in the specific epithet of '' Dicliptera maclearii'', a plant in the family Acanthaceae which is endemic to Christmas Island. Royal Navy career Maclear entered the Navy in September 1851 as a cadet on board the frigate , then bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Christopher Wyvill, then commanding the Cape station. In her he saw ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinct Rodents
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryote globally, and possibly many times more if microorganisms, like bacteria, are included. Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, dodos, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trypanosoma Lewisi
''Trypanosoma lewisi'' is a globally distributed parasite of ''Rattus'' species and other rodents such as mice, and of kangaroo rats in America. Among these host species were two endemic species of rats: '' Rattus macleari'' and '' Rattus nativitatis''. Both are now believed to be extinct. It is not very clear whether or not the same parasite infected both species. However, both parasites are very similar. The northern rat flea (''Nosopsyllus fasciatus'') acts as the vector for the parasite, harboring the epimastigote stage in its midgut. The trypomastigote is the stage that is present in the main host, the rodent. The epimastigote form attaches itself to the rectum of the insect using its flagella to burrow through the rectal walls. The parasites also appear in the flea's feces. Ingestion of either the flea or its feces during grooming infects the host rodent with the parasites. ''T. lewisi'' is normally non-pathogenic but is known to have produced fatal infections in rats. His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paraphyly
In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic group (a clade) includes a common ancestor and ''all'' of its descendants. The terms are commonly used in phylogenetics (a subfield of biology) and in the tree model of historical linguistics. Paraphyletic groups are identified by a combination of synapomorphies and symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic. The term was coined by Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia ( reptiles) which, as commonly named and traditionally defined, is paraphyletic with respect to mammals and birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles and all descendants of that ancestor, including all extant reptiles as well as the extinct synapsids ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rattus
''Rattus'' is a genus of muroid rodents, all typically called rats. However, the term rat can also be applied to rodent species outside of this genus. Species and description The best-known ''Rattus'' species are the black rat (''R. rattus'') and the brown rat (''R. norvegicus''). The group is generally known as the Old World rats or true rats and originated in Asia. Rats are bigger than most Old World mice, which are their relatives, but seldom weigh over in the wild. Taxonomy of ''Rattus'' The genus ''Rattus'' is a member of the giant subfamily Murinae. Several other murine genera are sometimes considered part of ''Rattus'': '' Lenothrix'', ''Anonymomys'', ''Sundamys'', ''Kadarsanomys'', ''Diplothrix'', '' Margaretamys'', ''Lenomys'', '' Komodomys'', ''Palawanomys'', '' Bunomys'', '' Nesoromys'', ''Stenomys'', ''Taeromys'', '' Paruromys'', '' Abditomys'', '' Tryphomys'', '' Limnomys'', ''Tarsomys'', ''Bullimus'', ''Apomys'', ''Millardia'', ''Srilankamys'', ''Niviventer'', ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bandicota
''Bandicota'' is a genus of rodents from Asia known as the bandicoot rats. Their common name and genus name are derived from the Telugu language word ''pandikokku'' (పందికొక్కు). DNA studies have found the group to be a monophyletic clade sister to the radiation of Molucca and Australian ''Rattus'' species as part of the paraphyletic ''Rattus'' ''sensu lato''. Species *Greater bandicoot rat (''B. indica'') Bechstein, 1800 *Lesser bandicoot rat The lesser bandicoot rat, Sindhi rice rat, bengal rat or Indian mole-rat (''Bandicota bengalensis'') is a giant rat of Southern Asia, not related to the true bandicoots which are marsupials. They can be up to 40 cm long (including the tail), ... (''B. bengalensis'') Gray and Hardwicke, 1833 * Savile's bandicoot rat (''B. savilei'') Thomas, 1916 References Rodent genera Taxa named by John Edward Gray {{Murinae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nesokia
''Nesokia'' is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae endemic to West Asia and Central Asia known as the short-tailed bandicoot rats. Species Genus ''Nesokia'' - short-tailed bandicoot rats: * Short-tailed bandicoot rat (''Nesokia indica'') Gray, 1842 * Bunn's short-tailed bandicoot rat Bunn's short-tailed bandicoot rat (''Nesokia bunnii'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are the largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 1,383 species, including many species of mic ... (''Nesokia bunnii'') (Khajuria, 1981) References * Rodent genera Taxa named by John Edward Gray Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Murinae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, the equivalent Latin term ''cladus'' (plural ''cladi'') is often used in taxonomical literature. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed monophyletic (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not monophyletic. Some of the relationships between org ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flores
Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and the population was 1,878,875 in the 2020 Census (including various offshore islands); the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 1,897,550. The largest towns are Maumere and Ende. The name ''Flores'' is the Portuguese and Spanish word for "Flowers". Flores is located east of Sumbawa and the Komodo islands, and west of the Solor Islands and the Alor Archipelago. To the southeast is Timor. To the south, across the Sumba Strait, is Sumba island and to the north, beyond the Flores Sea, is Sulawesi. Among all islands containing Indonesian territory, Flores is the 10th most populous after Java, Sumatra, Borneo ( Kalimantan), Sulawesi, New Guinea, Bali, Madura, Lombok, and Timor and also the 10th biggest island of Indonesia. Unt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hainald's Rat
Hainald's rat (''Rattus hainaldi'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only on Flores Island in Indonesia, including on Mount Ranaka. Part of its habitat is protected within the Kelimutu National Park Kelimutu National Park (Indonesian: ''Taman Nasional Kelimutu'') is located on the island of Flores, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. It consists of a region with hills and mountains, with Mount Kelibara (1,731 m) as its highest peak. Mount Keli .... retrieved 1 November 2010 References * Rattus Rats of Asia[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Nares
Vice-Admiral Sir George Strong Nares (24 April 1831 – 15 January 1915) was a Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. He commanded the ''Challenger'' Expedition, and the British Arctic Expedition. He was highly thought of as a leader and scientific explorer. In later life he worked for the Board of Trade and as Acting Conservator of the River Mersey. Biography Family He was born on 24 April 1831, the third son and sixth child of Commander William Henry Nares, a British naval officer, and Elizabeth Rebecca Gould, at Llansenseld, near Abergavenny in Monmouthshire. He was baptised at the church of St Bridget, Llansanffraid on 22 May. He married Mary Grant, the eldest daughter of a Portsmouth banker, on 22 June 1858. They had four sons and six daughters. His two youngest sons, George Edward Nares and John Dodd Nares entered the Royal Navy. Education and early naval career He was educated at the Royal Naval School in New Cross in south London, and in 1845 joined t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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