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Russian Desman
The Russian desman (''Desmana moschata'') (russian: выхухоль ''vykhukhol'') is a small semiaquatic mammal that inhabits the Volga, Don and Ural River basins in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. It constructs burrows into the banks of ponds and slow-moving streams, but prefers small, overgrown ponds with abundance of insects, crayfish and amphibians. The Russian desman often lives in small groups of two to five animals, that are usually not related, and appears to have a complex (but largely unstudied) communication and social system. Taxonomy The Russian desman is one of two surviving species of the tribe '' Desmanini'', the other being the Pyrenean desman. Despite its outward similarity to muskrats (a rodent), the Russian desman is actually part of the mole family Talpidae in the order Eulipotyphla. Like other moles, it is functionally blind and obtains much of its sensory input from the touch-sensitive Eimer's organs at the end of its long, bilobed snout. However, the h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, 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 (biology), 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammals Of Asia
All of the animals living in Asia and its surrounding seas and islands are considered the fauna of Asia. Since there is no natural biogeographic boundary in the west between Europe and Asia. The term "fauna of Asia" is somewhat elusive. Temperate Asia is the eastern part of the Palearctic realm (which in turn is part of the Holarctic), and its south-eastern part belongs to the Indomalayan realm (previously called the ''Oriental region''). Asia shows a notable diversity of habitats, with significant variations in rainfall, altitude, topography, temperature and geological history, which is reflected in its richness and diversity of animal life. Origins of Asian wildlife The formation of the Asian fauna began in the Mesozoic with the splitting of Laurasian supercontinent. Asia blends elements from both ancient supercontinents of Laurasia and Gondwana. Gondwanian elements were introduced from Africa and by India, which detached from Gondwana approximately 90 MYA, carrying its Gondwana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service maintains 50 foreign news bureaus with more than 250 correspondents around the world. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England and national news c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illegal, Unreported And Unregulated Fishing
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries. Illegal fishing takes place when vessels or harvesters operate in violation of the laws of a fishery. This can apply to fisheries that are under the jurisdiction of a coastal state or to high seas fisheries regulated by regional fisheries management organisations (RFMO). According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, illegal fishing has caused losses estimated at US$23 billion per year. Unreported fishing is fishing that has been unreported or misreported to the relevant national authority or RFMO, in contravention of applicable laws and regulations. Unregulated fishing generally refers to fishing by vessels without nationality, vessels flying the flag of a country not party to the RFMO governing that fishing a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water Pollution
Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water pollution results when contaminants are introduced into these water bodies. Water pollution can be attributed to one of four sources: sewage discharges, industrial activities, agricultural activities, and urban runoff including stormwater. It can be grouped into surface water pollution (either fresh water pollution or marine pollution) or groundwater pollution. For example, releasing inadequately treated wastewater into natural waters can lead to degradation of these aquatic ecosystems. Water pollution can also lead to water-borne diseases for people using polluted water for drinking, bathing, washing or irrigation. Water pollution reduces the ability of the body of water to provide the ecosystem services (such as drinking water) that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loss Of Habitat
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby reducing biodiversity and species abundance. Habitat destruction is the leading cause of biodiversity loss. Fragmentation and loss of habitat have become one of the most important topics of research in ecology as they are major threats to the survival of endangered species. Activities such as harvesting natural resources, industrial production and urbanization are human contributions to habitat destruction. Pressure from agriculture is the principal human cause. Some others include mining, logging, trawling, and urban sprawl. Habitat destruction is currently considered the primary cause of species extinction worldwide. Environmental factors can contribute to habitat destruction more indirectly. Geological processes, climate change, introdu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fur Trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued. Historically the trade stimulated the exploration and colonization of Siberia, northern North America, and the South Shetland and South Sandwich Islands. Today the importance of the fur trade has diminished; it is based on pelts produced at fur farms and regulated fur-bearer trapping, but has become controversial. Animal rights organizations oppose the fur trade, citing that animals are brutally killed and sometimes skinned alive. Fur has been replaced in some clothing by synthetic imitations, for example, as in ruffs on hoods of parkas. Continental fur trade Russian fur trade Before the European colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Its trade developed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eimer's Organ
Eimer's organs are sensory organs in which the epidermis is modified to form bulbous papillae. First isolated by Theodor Eimer from the European mole in 1871, these organs are present in many moles, and are particularly common in the star-nosed mole, which bears 25,000 of them on its unique tentacled snout. The organs are formed from a stack of epidermal cells, which is innervated by nerve processes from myelinated fibers in the dermis, which form terminal swellings just below the outer keratinized layer of epidermis. They contain a Merkel cell-neurite complex in the epidermis and a lamellated corpuscle in the dermal connective tissue. Discovery Theodor Eimer described the discrete microscopic organ of touch that densely populates the tip of the nose of the European mole ''Talpa europaea''. The organ is named in his honour. In his original publication in 1871, he examined the structure of the nose, the distribution of the touch organs on the nasal skin, and the relationship of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eulipotyphla
Eulipotyphla (, which means "truly fat and blind") is an order of mammals suggested by molecular methods of phylogenetic reconstruction, which includes the laurasiatherian members of the now-invalid polyphyletic order Lipotyphla, but not the afrotherian members (tenrecs, golden moles, and otter shrews, now in their own order Afrosoricida). Eulipotyphla comprises the hedgehogs and gymnures (family Erinaceidae, formerly also the order Erinaceomorpha), solenodons (family Solenodontidae), the desmans, moles, and shrew-like moles (family Talpidae) and true shrews (family Soricidae). True shrews, talpids and solenodons were formerly grouped in Soricomorpha; however, Soricomorpha has been found to be paraphyletic, since erinaceids are the sister group of shrews, and they are more closely linked to the Carnivora order; (such as cats, dogs, bears, skunks, badgers, etc.). It is the sister clade of Scrotifera; together, they make up Laurasiatheria. Classification * Order Eulipoty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Talpidae
The family Talpidae () includes the moles (some of whom are called shrew moles and desmans) who are small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean animals; shrew moles and shrew-like moles somewhat less so; and desmans, while basically aquatic, excavate dry sleeping chambers; whilst the quite unique star-nosed mole is equally adept in the water and underground. Talpids are found across the Northern Hemisphere of Eurasia and North America (although none are found in Ireland nor in the Americas south of northern Mexico), and range as far south as the montane regions of tropical Southeast Asia. The first talpids evolved from shrew-like animals which adapted to digging late in the Eocene in Europe. '' Eotalpa anglica'' is the oldest known mole, it was discovered in the Late Eocene deposits of Hampshire Basin, UK. The most primitive living talpids are believed to be the shrew-like moles, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mole (animal)
Moles are small mammals adapted to a subterranean lifestyle. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous eyes and ears, reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging. The word “mole” refers to any species in the family Talpidae, which means “mole” in Latin. Moles are found in most parts of North America, Europe and Asia. Moles may be viewed as pests to gardeners, but they provide positive contributions to soil, gardens, and ecosystem, including soil aeration, feeding on slugs and small creatures that eat plant roots, and providing prey for other wildlife. They eat earthworms and other small invertebrates in the soil. Terminology In Middle English, moles were known as ''moldwarp''. The expression "don't make a mountain out of a molehill" (which means "exaggerating problems") was first recorded in Tudor times. By the era of Early Modern English, the mole was also known in English as ''mouldywarp'', a wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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