|
Tail Vibration
Tail vibration is a common behavior in some snakes where the tail is vibrated rapidly as a defensive response to a potential predator. Tail vibration should not be confused with where the tail is twitched in order to attract prey. While rattlesnakes are perhaps the most famous group of snakes to exhibit tail vibration behavior, many other snake groups—particularly those in the Colubridae and Viperidae families—are known to vibrate tails when feeling threatened. Description Process Tail vibration involves the rapid shaking of the tail in response to a predatory threat. The behavior is particularly widespread among New World species of Viperidae and Colubridae.Allf, Bradley C., Paul AP Durst, and David W. Pfennig. "Behavioral Plasticity and the Origins of Novelty: The Evolution of the Rattlesnake Rattle." The American Naturalist 188.4 (2016): 475–483Young, Bruce A. "Snake bioacoustics: toward a richer understanding of the behavioral ecology of snakes." The Quarterly review o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snakes
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs about twenty-five times independently via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acacia Drepanolobium
''Vachellia drepanolobium'', more commonly known as ''Acacia drepanolobium'' or whistling thorn, is a swollen-thorn acacia native to East Africa. The whistling thorn grows up to 6 meters tall. It produces a pair of straight spines at each node, some of which have large bulbous bases. These swollen spines are naturally hollow and occupied by any one of several symbiotic ant species. The common name of the plant is derived from the observation that when wind blows over bulbous spines in which ants have made entry and exit holes, they produce a whistling noise. Whistling thorn is the dominant tree in some areas of upland East Africa, sometimes forming a nearly monoculture woodland, especially on " black cotton" soils of impeded drainage with high clay content. It is browsed upon by giraffes and other large herbivores. It is apparently fire-adapted, coppicing readily after "top kill" by fire. Whistling thorn is used as fencing, tool handles, and other implements. The wood of the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caudal Luring
Caudal luring is a form of aggressive mimicry characterized by the waving or wriggling of the predator's tail to attract prey. This movement attracts small animals who mistake the tail for a small worm or other small animal. When the animal approaches to prey on the worm-like tail, the predator will strike. This behavior has been recorded in snakes, sharks, and eels. Mimicry The tail of a species may serve various functions, such as aggression, defense and feeding. Caudal luring behavior was first recorded in 1878 and is an instance of aggressive mimicry. Predators attract their prey by moving their caudal section to mimic a small animal, such as a worm, and attract prey animals. The prey is intrigued by caudal movement and will investigate assuming it is their own prey, and the predator will strike. Species Snakes Caudal luring behavior is found in over 50 different snake species. It is most common in boas, pythons, tropidophiids, colubrids and elapids of the genus ''Ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extant
{{disambig ...
Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, such as an extant species * Extant Theatre Company, a disability arts organisation * ''Extant'' (TV series), an American television series * Hank Hall, also known as Extant, a DC Comics supervillain See also * Extent (other) Extent may refer to: Computing * Extent (file systems), a contiguous region of computer storage medium reserved for a file * Extent File System, a discontinued file system implementation named after the contiguous region * Extent, a chunk of s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maximum Parsimony (phylogenetics)
In phylogenetics, maximum parsimony is an optimality criterion under which the phylogenetic tree that minimizes the total number of character-state changes (or miminizes the cost of differentially weighted character-state changes) is preferred. Under the maximum-parsimony criterion, the optimal tree will minimize the amount of homoplasy (i.e., convergent evolution, parallel evolution, and evolutionary reversals). In other words, under this criterion, the shortest possible tree that explains the data is considered best. Some of the basic ideas behind maximum parsimony were presented by James S. Farris in 1970 and Walter M. Fitch in 1971. Maximum parsimony is an intuitive and simple criterion, and it is popular for this reason. However, although it is easy to ''score'' a phylogenetic tree (by counting the number of character-state changes), there is no algorithm to quickly ''generate'' the most-parsimonious tree. Instead, the most-parsimonious tree must be sought in "tree space" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudocerastes Urarachnoides
The spider-tailed horned viper (''Pseudocerastes urarachnoides''), also known as the spider-snake, is a species of viper, a venomous snake, in the family Viperidae and genus '' Pseudocerastes''. The genus is commonly known as "false-horned vipers". The species is endemic to western Iran and over the border region with Iraq, and was originally described in 2006. The head looks very similar to that of other ''Pseudocerastes'' species in the region, but the spider-tailed horned viper has a unique tail that has a bulb-like end that is bordered by long drooping scales that give it the appearance of a spider. (''Pseudocerastes urarachnoides'', new species). The tail tip is waved around and used to lure insectivorous birds to within striking range. Etymology The specific name, ''urarachnoides'', is derived from Ancient Greek ( tail + spider + like), and refers to this snake's spider-like tail tip, as does the common name, spider-tailed horned viper. Description Like other vipers i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arthropod cuticle, cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate. The arthropod body plan consists of segments, each with a pair of appendages. Arthropods are bilaterally symmetrical and their body possesses an exoskeleton, external skeleton. In order to keep growing, they must go through stages of moulting, a process by which they shed their exoskeleton to reveal a new one. Some species have wings. They are an extremely diverse group, with up to 10 million species. The haemocoel, an arthropod's internal cavity, through which its haemolymph – analogue of blood – circulates, accommodates its interior Organ (anatomy), organs; it has an open circulatory system. Like their exteriors, the internal or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caudal Luring
Caudal luring is a form of aggressive mimicry characterized by the waving or wriggling of the predator's tail to attract prey. This movement attracts small animals who mistake the tail for a small worm or other small animal. When the animal approaches to prey on the worm-like tail, the predator will strike. This behavior has been recorded in snakes, sharks, and eels. Mimicry The tail of a species may serve various functions, such as aggression, defense and feeding. Caudal luring behavior was first recorded in 1878 and is an instance of aggressive mimicry. Predators attract their prey by moving their caudal section to mimic a small animal, such as a worm, and attract prey animals. The prey is intrigued by caudal movement and will investigate assuming it is their own prey, and the predator will strike. Species Snakes Caudal luring behavior is found in over 50 different snake species. It is most common in boas, pythons, tropidophiids, colubrids and elapids of the genus ''Ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Behavioral Plasticity
Behavioral plasticity refers to a change in an organism's behavior that results from exposure to stimuli, such as changing environmental conditions. Behavior can change more rapidly in response to changes in internal or external stimuli than is the case for most morphological traits and many physiological traits. As a result, when organisms are confronted by new conditions, behavioral changes often occur in advance of physiological or morphological changes. For instance, larval amphibians changed their antipredator behavior within an hour after a change in cues from predators, but morphological changes in body and tail shape in response to the same cues required a week to complete. Background For many years, ethologists have studied the ways that behavior can change in response to changes in external stimuli or changes in the internal state of an organism. In a parallel literature, psychologists studying learning and cognition have spent years documenting the many ways that experien ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vipers
The Viperidae (vipers) are a family of snakes found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipers), hinged fangs that permit deep penetration and injection of their venom. Four subfamilies are currently recognized. They are also known as viperids. The name "viper" is derived from the Latin word ''vipera'', -''ae'', also meaning viper, possibly from ''vivus'' ("living") and ''parere'' ("to beget"), referring to the trait viviparity (giving live birth) common in vipers like most of the species of Boidae. Description All viperids have a pair of relatively long solenoglyphous (hollow) fangs that are used to inject venom from glands located towards the rear of the upper jaws, just behind the eyes. Each of the two fangs is at the front of the mouth on a short maxillary bone that can rotate back and forth. When not in use, the fangs fold back against the ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old World
The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by their inhabitants as comprising the entire world, with the "New World", a term for the newly encountered lands of the Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas. Etymology In the context of archaeology and world history, the term "Old World" includes those parts of the world which were in (indirect) cultural contact from the Bronze Age onwards, resulting in the parallel development of the early civilizations, mostly in the temperate zone between roughly the 45th and 25th parallels north, in the area of the Mediterranean, including North Africa. It also included Mesopotamia, the Persian plateau, the Indian subcontinent, China, and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. These regions were connected via the Silk Road trade route, and they have a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
