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Speckled Nightingale-thrush
The speckled nightingale-thrush or Sclater's nightingale-thrush (''Catharus maculatus'') is a species of bird in the thrush family Turdidae native to South America. Taxonomy The speckled nightingale-thrush was first described in 1858 by Philip Sclater as ''Malacocichla maculatus''. In 1879 it was subsumed as a subspecies of the spotted nightingale-thrush, as ''Cantharus dryas maculatus''. In 2017, it was argued based on phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA, morphometric and vocal data analyses, and modeling of ecological niches, that it should again be considered a separate species. The former "spotted nightingale-thrush" (''Catharus dryas sensu lato'') was split into the speckled nightingale-thrush (''C. maculatus'') and the yellow-throated nightingale-thrush The yellow-throated nightingale-thrush or Gould's nightingale-thrush (''Catharus dryas'') is a species of bird in the family Turdidae native to Central America. It was first described in 1855 by English ornithologis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philip Sclater
Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an England, English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London for 42 years, from 1860–1902. Early life Sclater was born at Tangier Park, in Wootton St Lawrence, Hampshire, where his father William Lutley Sclater had a country house. George Sclater-Booth, 1st Baron Basing was Philip's elder brother. Philip grew up at Hoddington House where he took an early interest in birds. He was educated in school at Twyford and at thirteen went to Winchester College and later Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he studied scientific ornithology under Hugh Edwin Strickland. In 1851 he began to study law and was admitted a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. In 1856 he travelled to America and visited Lake Superior and the upper St. Croix River (Wisconsin–Minnesota), St. Croix River, cano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turdidae
The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flycatchers. Thrushes are small to medium-sized ground living birds that feed on insects, other invertebrates and fruit. Some unrelated species around the world have been named after thrushes due to their similarity to birds in this family. Characteristics Thrushes are plump, soft-plumaged, small to medium-sized birds, inhabiting wooded areas, and often feeding on the ground. The smallest thrush may be the forest rock thrush, at and . However, the shortwings, which have ambiguous alliances with both thrushes and Old World flycatchers, can be even smaller. The lesser shortwing averages . The largest thrush is the Great thrush at and , though the commonly recognized Blue whistling-thrush is an Old world flycatcher. The Amami thrush might, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species have subspecies, but for those that do there must be at least two. Subspecies is abbreviated subsp. or ssp. and the singular and plural forms are the same ("the subspecies is" or "the subspecies are"). In zoology, under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the subspecies is the only taxonomic rank below that of species that can receive a name. In botany and mycology, under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, other infraspecific ranks, such as variety, may be named. In bacteriology and virology, under standard bacterial nomenclature and virus nomenclature, there are recommendations but not strict requirements for recognizing other important infraspecific ranks. A taxonomist decides whether ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogenetic
In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups of organisms. These relationships are determined by Computational phylogenetics, phylogenetic inference methods that focus on observed heritable traits, such as DNA sequences, protein amino acid sequences, or morphology. The result of such an analysis is a phylogenetic tree—a diagram containing a hypothesis of relationships that reflects the evolutionary history of a group of organisms. The tips of a phylogenetic tree can be living taxa or fossils, and represent the "end" or the present time in an evolutionary lineage. A phylogenetic diagram can be rooted or unrooted. A rooted tree diagram indicates the hypothetical common ancestor of the tree. An unrooted tree diagram (a network) makes no assumption about the ancestral line, and does ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is only a small portion of the DNA in a eukaryotic cell; most of the DNA can be found in the cell nucleus and, in plants and algae, also in plastids such as chloroplasts. Human mitochondrial DNA was the first significant part of the human genome to be sequenced. This sequencing revealed that the human mtDNA includes 16,569 base pairs and encodes 13 proteins. Since animal mtDNA evolves faster than nuclear genetic markers, it represents a mainstay of phylogenetics and evolutionary biology. It also permits an examination of the relatedness of populations, and so has become important in anthropology and biogeography. Origin Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA are thought to be of separate evolutionary origin, with the mtDNA being derived ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ecological Niche
In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors (for example, by growing when resources are abundant, and when predators, parasites and pathogens are scarce) and how it in turn alters those same factors (for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey). "The type and number of variables comprising the dimensions of an environmental niche vary from one species to another ndthe relative importance of particular environmental variables for a species may vary according to the geographic and biotic contexts". See also Chapter 2: Concepts of niches, pp. 7 ''ff'' A Grinnellian niche is determined by the habitat in which a species lives and its accompanying behavioral adaptations. An Eltonian niche emphasizes that a spec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yellow-throated Nightingale-thrush
The yellow-throated nightingale-thrush or Gould's nightingale-thrush (''Catharus dryas'') is a species of bird in the family Turdidae native to Central America. It was first described in 1855 by English ornithologist John Gould. Taxonomy and systematics In 1878, the Sclater's nightingale-thrush (''Catharus maculatus'') was categorized as a subspecies of ''Catharus dryas'' based on the similar plumage. In 2017, a study showed that ''Catharus maculatus'' was not a subspecies of ''Catharus dryas'', but a separate species of Spotted nightingale-thrush. The publication cited DNA sequencing, vocal data, and modeling of ecological niches as evidence that the two organisms were, in fact, different species. Subspecies Three subspecies are recognised: * ''C. d. harrisoni'' - Phillips, AR & Rook, 1965: Found in Oaxaca (south-western Mexico) * ''C. d. ovandensis'' - Brodkorb, 1938: Found in Chiapas (south-western Mexico) * ''C. d. dryas'' - (Gould, 1855): Found in western Guatemala, El ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catharus
The genus ''Catharus'' is an evolutionary clade of forest-dwelling passerine birds in the family Turdidae (thrushes), commonly known as nightingale-thrushes. The extant species are widely distributed across the Americas and are descended from a common ancestor that lived 4–6 million years ago. Most of the species are shy of humans, seldom leaving the cover of dense forest vegetation, where their activities are hidden from view. Thus, many fundamental aspects of their biology and life histories are poorly known. Nightingale-thrushes are small omnivorous songbirds that, like their sister species the wood thrush (''Hylocichla mustelina''), exhibit a variety of migratory and non-migratory habits.Winker, Kevin & Pruett, Christin L. (2006):Seasonal migration, speciation, and morphological convergence in the avian genus ''Catharus'' (Turdidae)." ''Auk'' 123(4): 1052-1068. DOI: 10.1642/0004-8038(2006)123 052:SMSAMC.0.CO;2 Multiple species are long-distance migrants that breed in Nor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds Described In 1858
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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