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Zygaspis Vandami
Van Dam's dwarf worm lizard (''Zygaspis vandami''), also known commonly as the sand-dwelling dwarf worm lizard and Van Dam's round-headed worm lizard, is a species of Amphisbaenia, amphisbaenian in the Family (biology), family Amphisbaenidae. The species is native to southern Africa. There are two recognized subspecies. Etymology The Specific name (zoology), specific name, ''vandami'', is in honor of South African Herpetologist Gerhardus Petrus Frederick Van Dam (died 1927). Geographic range ''Z. vandami'' is found in Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Habitat The preferred natural habitats of ''Z. vandami'' are sand, sandy-soils, and humus-rich soils. Description One of the smaller species in its genus, ''Z. vandami'' usually has a Snout-vent length, snout-to-vent length (SVL) of . The maximum recorded SVL is . It is uniformly dark purplish brown Dorsum (anatomy), dorsally, and light purple ventrally. The chin and the anal area are white.William Roy Branch, Branch, Bill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vivian Frederick Maynard FitzSimons
Vivian Frederick Maynard FitzSimons, born in Pietermaritzburg, was a notable herpetologist in South Africa. Also, he contributed to the collection of spermatophyte samples for the National Herbarium which has become part of the South African National Biodiversity Institute at the Pretoria National Botanical Garden. In 1937, together with Anna Amelia Obermeyer, he collected some of the earliest plant specimens from the Eastern Highlands of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Later, as director of the Transvaal Museum, he together with Charles Koch helped to establish the Namib Desert Research Institute in Gobabeb Family Vivian FitzSimons came from a family of naturalists. His father, Frederick William FitzSimons, and his mother Patricia Henrietta (née Russell), both immigrated to South Africa from Ireland. His brother was Desmond Charles Fitzsimons, who in 1939 founded the Fitzsimons Snake Park (Durban) and was a leading distributor of snake antivenoms in South Africa. Vivian FitzSimons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ecological niche. Thus "habitat" is a species-specific term, fundamentally different from concepts such as environment or vegetation assemblages, for which the term "habitat-type" is more appropriate. The physical factors may include (for example): soil, moisture, range of temperature, and light intensity. Biotic factors will include the availability of food and the presence or absence of predators. Every species has particular habitat requirements, with habitat generalist species able to thrive in a wide array of environmental conditions while habitat specialist species requiring a very limited set of factors to survive. The habitat of a species is not necessarily found in a geographical area, it can be the interior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Reptiles Of South Africa
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are Indigenous (ecology), indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example ''Cytisus, Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. ''Enidae, Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a Invasive species, non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a specie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles Of South Africa
Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians (tuatara). As of March 2022, the Reptile Database includes about 11,700 species. In the traditional Linnaean classification system, birds are considered a separate class to reptiles. However, crocodilians are more closely related to birds than they are to other living reptiles, and so modern cladistic classification systems include birds within Reptilia, redefining the term as a clade. Other cladistic definitions abandon the term reptile altogether in favor of the clade Sauropsida, which refers to all amniotes more closely related to modern reptiles than to mammals. The study of the traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of modern amphibians, is called herpetology. The earliest known proto-reptiles originated around 31 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested in science; he published his first scientific paper at the age of 19. Though his father tried to raise Cope as a gentleman farmer, he eventually acquiesced to his son's scientific aspirations. Cope married his cousin and had one child; the family moved from Philadelphia to Haddonfield, New Jersey, although Cope would maintain a residence and museum in Philadelphia in his later years. Cope had little formal scientific training, and he eschewed a teaching position for field work. He made regular trips to the American West, prospecting in the 1870s and 1880s, often as a member of United States Geological Survey teams. A personal feud between Cope and paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh led to a period of intense fossil-finding competition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zygaspis
''Zygaspis'' is a genus of Amphisbaenia, amphisbaenians in the Family (biology), family Amphisbaenidae. Species in the genus are commonly known as purple round-headed worm lizards, and are native to equatorial and southern Africa. Species The genus contains eight species: *''Zygaspis dolichomenta'' *''Zygaspis ferox'' *''Zygaspis kafuensis'' *''Zygaspis maraisi'' *''Zygaspis nigra'' *''Zygaspis quadrifrons'' – Kalahari round-snouted worm lizard, Kalahari dwarf worm lizard *''Zygaspis vandami'' – Gerhardus Petrus Frederick Van Dam, Van Dam's dwarf worm lizard *''Zygaspis violacea'' ''Nota bene'': A Binomial nomenclature, binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Zygaspis''. References Further reading *:fr:William Roy Branch, Branch, Bill (2004). ''Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa''. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Florida: Ralph Curtis Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinomen
In biology, trinomial nomenclature refers to names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or ternary name refers to the name of a subspecies. Examples are ''Gorilla gorilla gorilla'' (Savage, 1847) for the western lowland gorilla (genus ''Gorilla'', species western gorilla), and ''Bison bison bison'' (Linnaeus, 1758) for the plains bison (genus ''Bison'', species American bison). A trinomen is a name with three parts: generic name, specific name and subspecific name. The first two parts alone form the binomen or species name. All three names are typeset in italics, and only the first letter of the generic name is capitalised. No indicator of rank is included: in zoology, subspecies is the only rank below that of species. For example: "''Buteo jamaicensis borealis'' is one of the subspecies of the red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nota Bene
(, or ; plural form ) is a Latin phrase meaning "note well". It is often abbreviated as NB, n.b., or with the ligature and first appeared in English writing . In Modern English, it is used, particularly in legal papers, to draw the attention of the reader to a certain (side) aspect or detail of the subject being addressed. While ''NB'' is also often used in academic writing, ''note'' is a common substitute. The markings used to draw readers' attention in medieval manuscripts are also called marks. The common medieval markings do not, however, include the abbreviation ''NB''. The usual medieval equivalents are anagrams from the four letters in the word , the abbreviation DM from ("worth remembering"), or a symbol of a little hand (☞), called a manicule or index, with the index finger pointing towards the beginning of the significant passage.Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), p. 44. Se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zygaspis Vandami Arenicola
''Zygaspis'' is a genus of amphisbaenians in the family Amphisbaenidae. Species in the genus are commonly known as purple round-headed worm lizards, and are native to equatorial and southern Africa. Species The genus contains eight species: *'' Zygaspis dolichomenta'' *''Zygaspis ferox'' *'' Zygaspis kafuensis'' *'' Zygaspis maraisi'' *'' Zygaspis nigra'' *''Zygaspis quadrifrons'' – Kalahari round-snouted worm lizard, Kalahari dwarf worm lizard *''Zygaspis vandami'' – Van Dam's dwarf worm lizard *''Zygaspis violacea ''Zygaspis violacea'' is a worm lizard Amphisbaenia (called amphisbaenians or worm lizards) is a group of usually legless squamates, comprising over 200 extant species. Amphisbaenians are characterized by their long bodies, the reduction or l ...'' '' Nota bene'': A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Zygaspis''. References Further reading * Branch, Bill (2004). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nominotypical 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] |
Oviparity
Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and monotremes. In traditional usage, most insects (one being ''Culex pipiens'', or the common house mosquito), molluscs, and arachnids are also described as oviparous. Modes of reproduction The traditional modes of reproduction include oviparity, taken to be the ancestral condition, traditionally where either unfertilised oocytes or fertilised eggs are spawned, and viviparity traditionally including any mechanism where young are born live, or where the development of the young is supported by either parent in or on any part of their body. However, the biologist Thierry Lodé recently divided the traditional category of oviparous reproduction into two modes that he named ovuliparity and (true) oviparity respectively. He distinguished the tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Roy Branch
William Roy "Bill" Branch (12 May 1946, London, England – 14 October 2018, Port Elizabeth, South Africa) was a British-South-African herpetologist. Branch studied at the University of Southampton where he remained until completing his Ph.D. degree (''Studies on a foetal-specific alpha-globulin FPin the rabbit'' ). From 1972 he worked as a scientist in the Life Sciences Division of the Atomic Energy Board in Pretoria doing research on, inter alia, liver cancer, but returned to the University of Southampton in 1976 to take up a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Department of Biology studying the synthesis of chemicals in the liver of foetal rabbits. He started working at Port Elizabeth Museum in 1979 and retired in 2011, when he was appointed as Research Associate and Curator Emeritus. Over a period of almost 40 years he conducted field work in about 20 African countries and played a major role in building up the large reptile and amphibian collections at the Museum. Pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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