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Sphenisciformes
Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life which they catch with their bills and swallow it whole while swimming. A penguin has a spiny tongue and powerful jaws to grip slippery prey. They spend roughly half of their lives on land and the other half in the sea. The largest living species is the emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri''): on average, adults are about tall and weigh . The smallest penguin species is the little blue penguin (''Eudyptula minor''), also known as the fairy penguin, which stands around tall and weighs . Today, larger penguins generally inhabit colder regions, and smaller penguins in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Sphenisciformes By Population
This is a list of Sphenisciformes species by global population. While numbers are estimates, they have been made by the experts in their fields. Sphenisciformes (from the Latin for ''"wedge-shaped"'') is the taxonomic order to which the penguins belong. BirdLife International has assessed 18 species. 16 (89% of total species) have had their population estimated: those missing are the king and little penguins, both of which have been assessed as being of least concern. A variety of methods are used for counting penguins, and April 2012 saw their first census from space, when imagery from Ikonos, QuickBird-2, and WorldView-2 satellites were used to count Antarctican emperors. This is a similar technique to that used by the UNHCR to count humans in Somalia. Most maritime surveys use strip transect and distance sampling to measure density; this is then extrapolated over the animal's range. The Galapagos has been counted annually since 1961 by the Galápagos National Park Servi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flightless Bird
Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly. There are over 60 extant species, including the well known ratites (ostriches, emu, cassowaries, rheas, and kiwi) and penguins. The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island rail (length 12.5 cm, weight 34.7 g). The largest (both heaviest and tallest) flightless bird, which is also the largest living bird, is the ostrich (2.7 m, 156 kg). Many domesticated birds, such as the domestic chicken and domestic duck, have lost the ability to fly for extended periods, although their ancestral species, the red junglefowl and mallard, respectively, are capable of extended flight. A few particularly bred birds, such as the Broad Breasted White turkey, have become totally flightless as a result of selective breeding; the birds were bred to grow massive breast meat that weighs too much for the bird's wings to support in flight. Flightlessness has evolved in many different birds independently, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eudyptula
The genus ''Eudyptula'' ("good little diver") contains two species of penguin, found in southern Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand (including the Chatham Islands). They are commonly known as the little penguin, little blue penguin, or, in Australia, fairy penguin. In the language of the Māori people of New Zealand, little penguins are known as . For many years, a white-flippered form of the little penguin found only in North Canterbury, New Zealand was considered either a separate species, '' Eudyptula albosignata'', or just a subspecies, ''Eudyptula minor albosignata''. Analysis of mtDNA revealed that ''Eudyptula'' falls instead into two groups: a western one, found along the southern coast of Australia and the Otago region of New Zealand, and another found in the rest of New Zealand. These two groups are now considered full species: ''Eudyptula novaehollandiae'' in Australia and Otago, and '' Eudyptula minor'' elsewhere. ''E. novaehollandiae'' probably arrived in New Zeala ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eudyptes
The term crested penguin is the common name given collectively to species of penguins of the genus ''Eudyptes''. The exact number of species in the genus varies between four and seven depending on the authority, and a Chatham Islands species became extinct in recent centuries. All are black and white penguins with yellow crests, red bills and eyes, and are found on Subantarctic islands in the world's southern oceans. All lay two eggs, but raise only one young per breeding season; the first egg laid is substantially smaller than the second. Taxonomy The genus ''Eudyptes'' was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816; the name is derived from the Ancient Greek words ''eu'' meaning "fine", and ''dyptes'' meaning "diver". The type species was designated as the southern rockhopper penguin by George Robert Gray in 1840. Six extant species have been classically recognised, with the recent splitting of the rockhopper penguin increasing it to seven. Conver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aptenodytes
The genus ''Aptenodytes'' contains two extant species of penguins collectively known as "the great penguins". Etymology The name "Aptenodytes" is a composite of Ancient Greek elements, "ἀ-πτηνο-δύτης" (without-wings-diver). Taxonomy * King penguin, ''Aptenodytes patagonicus'' **''Aptenodytes patagonicus patagonicus'' **''Aptenodytes patagonicus halli'' * Emperor penguin, ''Aptenodytes forsteri'' *Ridgen's penguin (''Aptenodytes ridgeni'') is an extinct species known from fossil bones of Early or Late Pliocene age. Combined morphological and molecular data In genetics and biochemistry, sequencing means to determine the primary structure (sometimes incorrectly called the primary sequence) of an unbranched biopolymer. Sequencing results in a symbolic linear depiction known as a sequence which succi ... have shown the genus ''Aptenodytes'' to be basal to all other living penguins, that is, the genus split off from a branch which led to all other species. DNA evi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water Bird
A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabirds that inhabit marine environments. Some water birds (e.g. wading birds) are more terrestrial while others (e.g. waterfowls) are more aquatic, and their adaptations will vary depending on their environment. These adaptations include webbed feet, beaks, and legs adapted to feed in the water, and the ability to dive from the surface or the air to catch prey in water. The term ''aquatic bird'' is sometimes also used in this context. A related term that has a narrower meaning is waterfowl. Some piscivorous birds of prey, such as ospreys and sea eagles, hunt aquatic prey but do not stay in water for long and lives predominantly over dry land, and are not considered water birds. The term waterbird is also used in the context of conservation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danian
The Danian is the oldest age or lowest stage of the Paleocene Epoch or Series, of the Paleogene Period or System, and of the Cenozoic Era or Erathem. The beginning of the Danian (and the end of the preceding Maastrichtian) is at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event . The age ended , being followed by the Selandian. Stratigraphic definitions The Danian was introduced in scientific literature by German-Swiss geologist Pierre Jean Édouard Desor in 1847 following a study of fossils found in France and Denmark.Danien He identified this stage in deposits from |
Family (biology)
Family ( la, familia, plural ') is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae, but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". What belongs to a family—or if a described family should be recognized at all—are proposed and determined by practicing taxonomists. There are no hard rules for describing or recognizing a family, but in plants, they can be characterized on the basis of both vegetative and reproductive features of plant species. Taxonomists often take different positions about descriptions, and there may be no broad consensus across the scientific community for some time. The publishing of new data and opini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Systematics And Evolution
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: cladograms, phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phylogenies have two components: branching order (showing group relationships) and branch length (showing amount of evolution). Phylogenetic trees of species and higher taxa are used to study the evolution of traits (e.g., anatomical or molecular characteristics) and the distribution of organisms (biogeography). Systematics, in other words, is used to understand the evolutionary history of life on Earth. The word systematics is derived from the Latin word '' systema,'' which means systematic arrangement of organisms. Carl Linnaeus used 'Systema Naturae' as the title of his book. Branches and applications In the study of biological systematics, researchers use the different branches to further understand the relationshi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. However, only about 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses) are given a two-part name, a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature, also sometimes i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galápagos Penguin
The Galápagos penguin (''Spheniscus mendiculus'') is a penguin endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador. It is the only penguin found north of the equator. Most inhabit Fernandina Island and the west coast of Isabela Island. The cool waters of the Humboldt and Cromwell Currents allow it to survive despite the tropical latitude. The Galápagos penguin is one of the banded penguins, the other species of which live mostly on the coasts of Africa and mainland South America. It is one of the smallest species of penguin in the world. Because of their warm environment, Galápagos penguins have developed techniques to stay cool. The feathers on their back, flippers, and head are black, and they have a white belly and a stripe looping from their eyes down to their neck and chin. Each penguin keeps only one mate, and breeds year-round. Their nests are typically in caves and crevices as protection against predators and the harsh environment. The Galápagos penguin has a lifespan of ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
