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Relictual Taxa
In biogeography and paleontology, a relict is a population or taxon of organisms that was more widespread or more diverse in the past. A relictual population is a population currently inhabiting a restricted area whose Range (biology), range was far wider during a previous Geologic time scale, geologic epoch. Similarly, a relictual taxon is a taxon (e.g. species or other lineage) which is the sole surviving representative of a formerly diverse group. Definition A relict (or relic) plant or animal is a taxon that persists as a remnant of what was once a diverse and widespread population. Relictualism occurs when a widespread habitat or range changes and a small area becomes cut off from the whole. A subset of the population is then confined to the available hospitable area, and survives there while the broader population either shrinks or Divergent evolution, evolves divergently. This phenomenon differs from endemism in that the range of the population was not always restricted to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area.Brown University, "Biogeography." Accessed February 24, 2014. . Phytogeography is the branch of biogeography that studies the distribution of plants. Zoogeography is the branch that studies distribution of animals. Mycogeography is the branch that studies distribution of fungi, such as mushrooms. Knowledge of spatial variation in the numbers and types of organisms is as vital to us today as it was to our early human ancestors, as we adapt to heterogeneous but geographically predictable environments. Biogeography is an integrative field of inquiry that unites concepts and information from ecology, evolutionary biology, taxonomy, geology, physical geography, palaeontology, and climatology.Dansereau, Pierre. 1957 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omma
''Omma'' is a genus of beetles in the family Ommatidae. ''Omma'' is an example of a living fossil. The oldest species known, ''O. liassicum'', lived during the final stage of the Triassic (Rhaetian), over 200 million years ago, though the placement of this species in ''Omma'' has been questioned. Numerous other fossil species are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous of Europe and Asia. The only living species is ''Omma stanleyi'', which is endemic to Australia. Three other extant species endemic to Australia that were formerly part of this genus were moved to the separate genus ''Beutelius'' in 2020''.'' ''Omma stanleyi'' is strongly associated with wood, being found under ''Eucalyptus'' bark and exhibiting Apparent death, thanatosis when disturbed. Its larval stage and many other life details are unknown due to its rarity. Males are typically 14–20 mm in length, while females are 14.4-27.5 mm. ''Omma stanleyi'' occurs throughout eastern Australia from Victoria (Austr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snowdonia
Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the name is derived from ("eagle"), and thus means "the abode/land of eagles", but recent evidence is that it means ''highlands'', and is related to the Latin (to rise) as leading Welsh scholar Sir proved. The term first appeared in a manuscript in the 9th-century , in an account of the downfall of the semi-legendary 5th-century king (Vortigern). In the Middle Ages, the title ''Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdonia'' () was used by ; his grandfather used the title ''Prince of north Wales and Lord of Snowdonia.'' The name ''Snowdonia'' derives from '' Snowdon'', the highest mountain in the area and the highest mountain in Wales at . Before the boundaries of the national park were designated, "Snowdonia" was generally used to refer to a sm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snowdon Lily
''Gagea serotina'', synonym ''Lloydia serotina'', is an Arctic–alpine flowering plant of the lily family. It is widespread across the mountainous parts of western North America, from Alaska to New Mexico, and in Europe is found in the Alps and Carpathians, as well as in Great Britain. It is also native to much of Central Asia, Siberia, China, Nepal, Mongolia, Korea and Japan. It was originally known as mountain spiderwort, but is now known in Great Britain as the Snowdon lily, or in Welsh as ' (meaning "rush-leaves of the mountain"). In North America, it is called the common alplily. It is also known as Snowdon alplily. Description For most of the year, the plant is visible only as long, curving, stiff, grass-like leaves, often protruding through cushions of other plants. The flowers appear from June onwards (despite the name ''serotina'', meaning "late-flowering"), and are borne at the end of long stalks. The flowers themselves are white, with purple or reddish veins along ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word (''botanē'') meaning " pasture", " herbs" "grass", or " fodder"; is in turn derived from (), "to feed" or "to graze". Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists (in the strict sense) study approximately 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants (including approximately 369,000 species of flowering plants), and approximately 20,000 are bryophytes. Botany originated in prehistory as herbalism with the efforts of early humans to identify – and later cultivate – ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smithsonian Institution Press
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded on August 10, 1846, it operates as a trust instrumentality and is not formally a part of any of the three branches of the federal government. The institution is named after its founding donor, British scientist James Smithson. It was originally organized as the United States National Museum, but that name ceased to exist administratively in 1967. Called "the nation's attic" for its eclectic holdings of 154 million items, the institution's 19 museums, 21 libraries, nine research centers, and zoo include historical and architectural landmarks, mostly located in the District of Columbia. Additional facilities are located in Maryland, New York, and Virginia. More than 200 institutions and museums in 45 states,States without Smithsonian A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within lineages. Charles Darwin was the first to describe the role of natural selection in speciation in his 1859 book ''On the Origin of Species''. He also identified sexual selection as a likely mechanism, but found it problematic. There are four geographic modes of speciation in nature, based on the extent to which speciating populations are isolated from one another: allopatric speciation, allopatric, peripatric speciation, peripatric, parapatric speciation, parapatric, and sympatric speciation, sympatric. Speciation may also be induced artificially, through animal husbandry, agriculture, or laboratory experiments of speciation, laboratory experiments. Whether genetic drift is a minor or major contributor to speciation is the subject of much ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cinereus Shrew
The cinereus shrew or masked shrew (''Sorex cinereus'') is a small shrew found in Alaska, Canada, and the northern United States. This is the most widely distributed shrew in North America, where it is also known as the common shrew. Description It is grey-brown in colour with a light grey underside and a pointed snout. It has a long tail that is brown on top and pale underneath with a dark tip. Its body is about in length including a long tail. It weighs about . It has darker colouring than other shrews. Masked shrews can live up to two years, but, on average, only survive eighteen months. In a long-term study done in Alaska, Yom-Tov and colleagues (2005) found that the masked shrew's body size contradicts Bergmann's rule, Bergmann's Rule. The study, done on 650 specimens and spanning from 1950 to 2003, examined body size in relation to ambient temperature. Measurements of body weight and the length of the tail, ear, hind foot, and body were taken. Results yielded that the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pribilof Island Shrew
The Pribilof Island shrew (''Sorex pribilofensis'') is a species of mammal in the family Soricidae. It is found only on Alaska's Pribilof Islands The Pribilof Islands (formerly the Northern Fur Seal Islands; ale, Amiq, russian: Острова Прибылова, Ostrova Pribylova) are a group of four volcanic islands off the coast of mainland Alaska, in the Bering Sea, about north of .... References External links * http://aknhp.uaa.alaska.edu/zoology/pdfs/mammals/Priblof%20Shrew.pdf Sorex Mammals of the United States Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Mammals described in 1895 Endemic fauna of Alaska {{redtoothed-shrew-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indiana University Press
Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 new books annually, in addition to 39 academic journals, and maintains a current catalog comprising some 2,000 titles. Indiana University Press primarily publishes in the following areas: African, African American, Asian, cultural, Jewish, Holocaust, Middle Eastern studies, Russian and Eastern European, and women's and gender studies; anthropology, film studies, folklore, history, bioethics, music, paleontology, philanthropy, philosophy, and religion. IU Press undertakes extensive regional publishing under its Quarry Books imprint. History IU Press began in 1950 as part of Indiana University's post-war growth under President Herman B Wells. Bernard Perry, son of Harvard philosophy professor Ralph Barton Perry, served as the first d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from the Ancient Greek (''olígos'', "few") and (''kainós'', "new"), and refers to the sparsity of extant forms of molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period. The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of the tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major changes during the Oligocene included a global expansion o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates than the Pliocene has. The Miocene is preceded by the Oligocene and is followed by the Pliocene. As Earth went from the Oligocene through the Miocene and into the Pliocene, the climate slowly cooled towards a series of ice ages. The Miocene boundaries are not marked by a single distinct global event but consist rather of regionally defined boundaries between the warmer Oligocene and the cooler Pliocene Epoch. During the Early Miocene, the Arabian Peninsula collided with Eurasia, severing the connection between the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, and allowing a faunal interchange to occur between Eurasia and Africa, including the dispersal of proboscideans into Eurasia. During the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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