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Zokors
Zokors are Asiatic burrowing rodents resembling mole-rats. They include two genera: ''Myospalax'' and ''Eospalax''. Zokors are native to much of China, Kazakhstan, and Siberian Russia. Traditionally, zokors were thought to be closely related to either hamsters ( Cricetinae) or voles (Arvicolinae), but recent molecular phylogenetic studies have demonstrated they are more closely related to blind mole-rats (Spalacinae) and root and bamboo rats (Rhizomyinae) in the family Spalacidae. It appears that one of the first important evolutionary splits in muroid rodents is between burrowing forms and nonburrowing forms. Unlike the other spalacids, which primarily use their incisors, zokors use their powerful front claws for digging. They have small eyes and no external ears. Zokors feed on plant matter such as tubers and seeds. Zokor bone is sometimes used as a more environmentally friendly alternative to tiger bone in traditional Chinese medicine. This product is called ''sailo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Zokor
The Chinese zokor (''Eospalax fontanierii'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae. It is endemic to China, ranging from Qinghai Province eastwards to Beijing in steppe and alpine grasslands. Henri Milne-Edwards first described it in 1867. Eradication programs in the 1990s in Qinghai Province resulted in a population decline to less than a third of the former population. It is considered common and has been assessed as Least Concern by IUCN. An average adult weighs and newborn young weigh . Description The Chinese zokor is a medium-sized, burrowing rodent, with a stocky build and a very short, conical tail. The head-and-body length is between and the tail between . The weight varies between . The fur is soft and dense, covering the eyes and tiny ears. There is a white flash on the forehead. The upper parts are a dark reddish-brown, each of the hairs having a greyish-black base. The underparts are greyish-black, the hairs having reddish-brown tips, and the tail has onl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molecular Phylogeny
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to determine the processes by which diversity among species has been achieved. The result of a molecular phylogenetic analysis is expressed in a phylogenetic tree. Molecular phylogenetics is one aspect of molecular systematics, a broader term that also includes the use of molecular data in taxonomy and biogeography. Molecular phylogenetics and molecular evolution correlate. Molecular evolution is the process of selective changes (mutations) at a molecular level (genes, proteins, etc.) throughout various branches in the tree of life (evolution). Molecular phylogenetics makes inferences of the evolutionary relationships that arise due to molecular evolution and results in the construction of a phylogenetic tree. History The theoretical framew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siberian Zokor
The Siberian zokor (''Myospalax myospalax'') is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae. It is found in Kazakhstan and Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig .... References * Myospalax Mammals described in 1773 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Mammals of Siberia Fauna of Kazakhstan Rodents of Asia {{muroid-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has been described as "fraught with pseudoscience", with the majority of its treatments having no logical mechanism of action. Medicine in traditional China encompassed a range of sometimes competing health and healing practices, folk beliefs, literati theory and Confucian philosophy, herbal remedies, food, diet, exercise, medical specializations, and schools of thought. In the early twentieth century, Chinese cultural and political modernizers worked to eliminate traditional practices as backward and unscientific. Traditional practitioners then selected elements of philosophy and practice and organized them into what they called "Chinese medicine" (''Zhongyi''). In the 1950s, the Chinese government sponsored the integration of Chinese and Western medicine, and in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, promoted Chinese medicine as inexpensive a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm plants. Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after the embryo sac is fertilized by sperm from pollen, forming a zygote. The embryo within a seed develops from the zygote, and grows within the mother plant to a certain size before growth is halted. The seed coat arises from the integuments of the ovule. Seeds have been an important development in the reproduction and success of vegetable gymnosperm and angiosperm plants, relative to more primitive plants such as ferns, mosses and liverworts, which do not have seeds and use water-dependent means to propagate themselves. Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to grasslands both in hot and cold climates. The term "seed" also has a general me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tuber
Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season, and as a means of asexual reproduction. ''Stem tubers'' form thickened rhizomes (underground stems) or stolons (horizontal connections between organisms); well known species with stem tubers include the potato and yam. Some writers also treat modified lateral roots (''root tubers'') under the definition; these are found in sweet potatoes, cassava, and dahlias. Terminology The term originates from the Latin , meaning "lump, bump, swelling". Some writers define the term "tuber" to mean only structures derived from stems; others use the term for structures derived from stems or roots., p. 124 Stem tubers A stem tuber forms from thickened rhizomes or stolons. The top sides of the tuber produce shoots that grow into typical stems ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Incisor
Incisors (from Latin ''incidere'', "to cut") are the front teeth present in most mammals. They are located in the premaxilla above and on the mandible below. Humans have a total of eight (two on each side, top and bottom). Opossums have 18, whereas armadillos have none. Structure Adult humans normally have eight incisors, two of each type. The types of incisor are: * maxillary central incisor (upper jaw, closest to the center of the lips) * maxillary lateral incisor (upper jaw, beside the maxillary central incisor) * mandibular central incisor (lower jaw, closest to the center of the lips) * mandibular lateral incisor (lower jaw, beside the mandibular central incisor) Children with a full set of deciduous teeth (primary teeth) also have eight incisors, named the same way as in permanent teeth. Young children may have from zero to eight incisors depending on the stage of their tooth eruption and tooth development. Typically, the mandibular central incisors erupt first, followed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eumuroida
The Eumuroida are a clade defined in 2004 by Steppan et al. that includes rats, mice and related species, though not all rodents; in other words, a specific group of muroid rodents. The clade is not defined in the standard taxonomic hierarchy, but it is between superfamily and family. The Eumuroida are technically defined as the clade including all organisms descended from the most recent common ancestor of the Calomyscidae, Nesomyidae, Cricetidae, and Muridae. It specifically excludes the fossorial forms of mouse-like rodents in the family Spalacidae. It has yet to be determined if the Platacanthomyidae belong to the Eumuroida, but Norris et al. (2004) suggested they do not because of subtle features in the skull. Norris et al. (2004) noted that two characters can be used to define the Eumuroida: the infraorbital foramen is V-shaped and extends to the roof of the palate, and the incisive foramina are medium to large in size. The zygomatic plate is at least moderately develop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muroidea
The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives. Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except Antarctica. Some authorities have placed all members of this group into a single family, Muridae, due to difficulties in determining how the subfamilies are related to one another. Many of the families within the Muroidea superfamily have more variations between the families than between the different clades. A possible explanation for the variations in rodents is because of the location of these rodents; these changes could have been due to radiation or the overall environment they migrated to or originated in. The following taxonomy is based on recent well-supported molecular phylogenies. The muroids are classified in six families, 19 subfamilies, around 280 genera, and at least 1,750 species. Taxonomy *Family Platacanthomyidae (spiny ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladogenesis
Cladogenesis is an evolutionary splitting of a parent species into two distinct species, forming a clade. This event usually occurs when a few organisms end up in new, often distant areas or when environmental changes cause several extinctions, opening up ecological niches for the survivors and causing population bottlenecks and founder effects changing allele frequencies of diverging populations compared to their ancestral population. The events that cause these species to originally separate from each other over distant areas may still allow both of the species to have equal chances of surviving, reproducing, and even evolving to better suit their environments while still being two distinct species due to subsequent natural selection, mutations and genetic drift. Cladogenesis is in contrast to anagenesis, in which an ancestral species gradually accumulates change, and eventually, when enough is accumulated, the species is sufficiently distinct and different enough from its ori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhizomyinae
The rodent subfamily Rhizomyinae includes the Asian bamboo rats and certain of the African mole-rats. The subfamily is grouped with the Spalacinae and the Myospalacinae into a family of fossorial muroid rodents basal to the other Muroidea. The group includes 17 species classified in 3 genera and 2 tribes: *Subfamily Rhizomyinae **Tribe Rhizomyini - Bamboo rats ***Genus ''Rhizomys'' **** Hoary bamboo rat, ''Rhizomys pruinosus'' ****Chinese bamboo rat, ''Rhizomys sinensis'' ****Large bamboo rat, ''Rhizomys sumatrensis'' ***Genus '' Cannomys'' ****Lesser bamboo rat, ''Cannomys badius'' **Tribe Tachyoryctini ***Genus ''Tachyoryctes'' - African mole-rats ****Ankole African mole-rat, ''Tachyoryctes ankoliae'' ****Mianzini African mole-rat, ''Tachyoryctes annectens'' ****Aberdare Mountains African mole-rat, ''Tachyoryctes audax'' ****Demon African mole-rat, ''Tachyoryctes daemon'' ****Kenyan African mole-rat, ''Tachyoryctes ibeanus'' ****Big-headed African mole-rat, ''Tachyoryctes m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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