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Tetepare
Tetepare Island is the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific, located at . It is a part of Western Province of the Solomon Islands. It covers approximately . Tetepare supports pristine lowland rainforest and a rich inshore marine area. Tetepare Island is identified as an area with high biodiversity and conservation values. The meaning of the name is uncertain; it most probably means "wild pig" or "fighting boar" because the island was (and to some degree still is) famous for these animals among inhabitants of the region.Molia (2000), Read & Moseby (2006) The local residents were apparently once a distinct ethnic group; a Tetepare language and unique traditions are attested, but information is fragmentary. Like their neighbors on Rendova Island and New Georgia, they appear to have been swidden agriculturalist, and to have occasionally practiced headhunting. But the island was abandoned in the mid-19th century, with the locals dispersing to New Georgia, Roviana L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetepare Language
Tetepare is an extinct language of Tetepare Island. According to local oral history, the indigenous people of the now-uninhabited island of Tetepare spoke their own language, different from the other languages of the region. Classification Published materials are insufficient to establish whether this language was an Austronesian language like most of the surrounding languages ( Roviana, Marovo and the rest of the New Georgia subgroup), or a non-Austronesian language like neighboring Touo. Language maps sometimes show the Touo language extending to Tetepare Island, but this seems to be an accident. See also * Northwest Solomonic languages *Kazukuru language Kazukuru is an extinct language that was once spoken in New Georgia, Solomon Islands. The Dororo and Guliguli languages (if they even existed) were transcriptional variants, dialects, or closely related. The speakers of Kazukuru gradually merged ... References *Read, John; Moseby, Vertebrates of Tetepare Island, Solom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rendova Island
Rendova is an island in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, east of Papua New Guinea. Geography Rendova Island is a roughly rectangularly-shaped island, located in the South Pacific in the New Georgia Islands. The length of the island is about 40 kilometers. To the north is the island of New Georgia and to the east is the island of Vangunu. Rendova is a volcanic island, with a central stratovolcano cone, with a height of which last erupted in the Pleistocene; however, the island is subject to frequent earthquakes. The island is surrounded in some places by a coral reef. The climate on Rendova is wet and tropical, and the island is subject to frequent cyclones. Flora and fauna The black-sand beaches along the southwest coast of Rendova are important nesting grounds for the critically endangered leatherback turtle. Community-based conservation organisation, the Tetepare Descendants' Association, runs a leatherback conservation program in the vill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Province, Solomon Islands
Western Province is the largest of the nine provinces of Solomon Islands. The area is renowned for its beautiful tropical islands, excellent diving and snorkelling, coral reefs and World War II wrecks, ecotourism lodges, and head-hunting shrines. The province contains many small lagoons and most of the country's tourist trade outside Honiara. History The Methodist Mission in the Western Province was established by Rev. John Francis Goldie in 1902. He dominated the mission and gained the loyalty of Solomon Islander members of his church. The relationship with the colonial administrators of the British Solomon Island Protectorate were also fraught with difficulty, at this time due to Goldie's effective control over the Western Solomon Islands. From 1927 to 1934 Dr Edward Sayers worked at the Methodist mission where he established a hospital at Gizo, and also at Munda and Vella Lavella, and carried out fieldwork in the treatment of malaria.Sayers, E. G. (1943) ''Malaria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Georgia Islands
The New Georgia Islands are part of the Western Province of Solomon Islands. They are located to the northwest of Guadalcanal. The larger islands are mountainous and covered in rain forest. The main islands are New Georgia, Vella Lavella, Kolombangara (a dormant volcano), Ghizo, Vangunu, Rendova and Tetepare. They are surrounded by coral reefs and include the largest saltwater lagoon in the world: Marovo lagoon. Another famous location is Kennedy Island where the future United States president, John F. Kennedy, spent three days stranded during World War II. Several of the islands were scenes of fighting in the war. The main towns are Gizo, Munda and Noro. The main industries are forestry and fishing. One of the smaller New Georgia islands, Ranongga, was lifted three metres (10 ft.) out of the Pacific Ocean by the 2007 Solomon Islands earthquake, causing an expansion of its shoreline by up to 70 metres all around. Northwest Solomonic languages are spoken on the isla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leatherback Sea Turtle
The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of up to and weights of . It is the only living species in the genus ''Dermochelys'' and family Dermochelyidae. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell; instead, its carapace is covered by oily flesh and flexible, leather-like skin, for which it is named. Taxonomy and evolution Taxonomy ''Dermochelys coriacea'' is the only species in genus ''Dermochelys''. The genus, in turn, contains the only extant member of the family Dermochelyidae. Domenico Agostino Vandelli named the species first in 1761 as ''Testudo coriacea'' after an animal captured at Ostia and donated to the University of Padua by Pope Clement XIII. In 1816, French zoologist Henri Blainville coined the term ''Dermochelys''. The leatherback was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herpetology
Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and reptiles (including snakes, lizards, amphisbaenids, turtles, terrapins, tortoises, crocodilians, and the tuataras). Birds, which are cladistically included within Reptilia, are traditionally excluded here; the scientific study of birds is the subject of ornithology. Thus, the definition of herpetology can be more precisely stated as the study of ectothermic (cold-blooded) tetrapods. Under this definition "herps" (or sometimes "herptiles" or "herpetofauna") exclude fish, but it is not uncommon for herpetological and ichthyological scientific societies to collaborate. Examples include publishing joint journals and holding conferences in order to foster the exchange of ideas between the fields, as the American Society of Ichthyologists and He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gecko
Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos are unique among lizards for their vocalisations, which differ from species to species. Most geckos in the family Gekkonidae use chirping or clicking sounds in their social interactions. Tokay geckos (''Gekko gecko'') are known for their loud mating calls, and some other species are capable of making hissing noises when alarmed or threatened. They are the most species-rich group of lizards, with about 1,500 different species worldwide. All geckos, except species in the family Eublepharidae lack eyelids; instead, the outer surface of the eyeball has a transparent membrane, the cornea. They have a fixed lens within each iris that enlarges in darkness to let in more light. Since they cannot blink, species without eyelids generally lick t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sea Turtles
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerhead, Kemp's ridley, and olive ridley sea turtles. All six of the sea turtle species present in US waters (all of those listed above except the flatback) are listed as endangered and/or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The seventh sea turtle species is the flatback, which exists in the waters of Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Sea turtles can be separated into the categories of hard-shelled (cheloniid) and leathery-shelled ( dermochelyid).Wyneken, J. 2001. The Anatomy of Sea Turtles. U.S Department of Commerce NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-SEFSC-470, 1-172 pp. There is only one dermochelyid species which is the leatherback sea turtle. Description For each of the seven types of sea turtles, females and males are the sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Sea Turtle
The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range extends throughout tropical and subtropical seas around the world, with two distinct populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but it is also found in the Indian Ocean. The common name refers to the usually green fat found beneath its carapace, not to the color of its carapace, which is olive to black. The dorsoventrally flattened body of ''C. mydas'' is covered by a large, teardrop-shaped carapace; it has a pair of large, paddle-like flippers. It is usually lightly colored, although in the eastern Pacific populations, parts of the carapace can be almost black. Unlike other members of its family, such as the hawksbill sea turtle, ''C. mydas'' is mostly herbivorous. The adults usually inhabit shallow lagoons, feeding mostly on various ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solomon Islands Skink
The Solomon Islands skink (''Corucia zebrata''), also known as prehensile-tailed skink, monkey-tailed skink, giant skink, zebra skink, and monkey skink, is an arboreal species of skink endemic to the Solomon Islands archipelago. It is the largest known extant species of skink. The Solomon Islands skink is completely herbivorous, eating many different fruits and vegetables including the pothos plant. It is one of the few species of reptile known to function within a social group or circulus. Both male and female specimens are known to be territorial and often hostile towards members not a part of their family group. ''Corucia'' is a monotypic genus, containing a single species. However, in 1997 it was determined that there are two subspecies of the Solomon Islands skink: the common monkey-tailed skink (''Corucia zebrata zebrata'') and the northern monkey-tailed skink (''Corucia zebrata alfredschmidti)''. Among other variances, the northern skink is smaller and has darker eye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hawksbill Sea Turtle
The hawksbill sea turtle (''Eretmochelys imbricata'') is a critically endangered sea turtle belonging to the family Cheloniidae. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Eretmochelys''. The species has a global distribution, that is largely limited to tropical and subtropical marine and estuary ecosystems. The hawksbill's appearance is similar to that of other marine turtles. In general, it has a flattened body shape, a protective Carapace#Turtles and tortoises, carapace, and flipper (anatomy), flipper-like limbs, adapted for swimming in the open ocean. ''E. imbricata'' is easily distinguished from other sea turtles by its sharp, curving beak with prominent tomium, and the wikt:serration, saw-like appearance of its shell margins. Hawksbill shells slightly change colors, depending on water temperature. While this turtle lives part of its life in the open ocean, it spends more time in shallow lagoons and coral reefs. The IUCN, World Conservation Union, primarily as a result o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
