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Amphisbaenid
The Amphisbaenidae (common name: worm lizards) are a family of amphisbaenians, a group of limbless vertebrates. Geographic range Amphisbaenids occur in South America, some Caribbean islands, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. Taxonomy One deep-branching and somewhat aberrant genus, '' Blanus'', is native to Europe, and may represent a distinct family. More recent sources indeed place it in the family Blanidae. Description Members of the family Amphisbaenidae are limbless, burrowing reptiles with carnivorous diets. As in other amphisbaenians, the body bears rings of scales, which gives amphisbaenids a worm-like appearance. The head is massively constructed and used for burrowing, with powerful jaws and large, recurved teeth used for seizing prey. Some species have a spade-like head, while others have a narrow keel on the head, and still others have a rounded skull. The eyes are highly reduced, while the ear bone, or stapes in the middle ear, is large and massive. Together with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphisbaenian
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 loss of the limbs, and rudimentary eyes. As many species have a pink body and scales arranged in rings, they have a superficial resemblance to earthworms. While the genus '' Bipes'' retains forelimbs, all other genera are limbless. Although superficially similar to the snakes and blind lizards, recent phylogenetic studies suggest that they are most closely related to wall lizards of the family Lacertidae. Amphisbaenians are widely distributed, occurring in North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Western Asia and the Caribbean. Most species are less than long. Description 200px, left, Close-up of the head of'' Rhineura'' Despite a superficial resemblance to some primitive snakes, amphisbaenians have many unique features that distinguish them from other reptiles. Internal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia and Ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptile
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chirindia
''Chirindia'' is a genus of amphisbaenians in the family Amphisbaenidae. Commonly known as pink round-headed worm lizards, species in the genus ''Chirindia'' are native to East Africa and southern Africa, from Tanzania to South Africa. They are unpigmented worm lizards with rounded heads, and extensive fusion of the head shields. Description ''Chirindia'' are small and slender. For example, the holotype of ''C. swynnertoni'' is long, with the tail , and the body is in diameter. They are uniformly, unpigmented flesh-coloured, tinged with purplish, and have minute teeth. They usually lack an ocular shield, and each eye is situated under the posterior part of a large fused shield, that combines the nasal, second and sometimes first upper labial, prefrontal and sometimes the ocular shield into one, so as to cover all of one side of the snout. (''Chirindia'', new genus, p. 48; ''C. swynnertoni'', new species, pp. 48-49). The pair of large shields, fused with the ocular to cover eac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hampton Wildman Parker
Hampton Wildman Parker (5 July 1897 – 2 September 1968) was an English zoologist. Parker was Keeper of Zoology at the Natural History Museum from 1947 to 1957. He is the author of several works on snakes and frogs: Parker discovered a new species of lizard on the Seychelles, which he described and named Vesey-Fitzgerald's burrowing skink (''Janetaescincus veseyfitzgeraldi'' ) after entomologist Leslie Desmond Foster Vesey-Fitzgerald. __NOTOC__ Books by H.W. Parker *1934. ''A Monograph of the Frogs of the Family Microhylidae''. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). *1963. ''Snakes''. London: Hale. *1965. ''Natural History of Snakes''. London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). *1977. ''Snakes, a Natural History''. University of Queensland Press. Eponyms Parker is honored in the specific names of the following reptiles: '' Cercosaura parkeri'', '' Chamaelycus parkeri'', '' Emoia parkeri'', '' Myriopholis parkeri'', ''Phelsuma parkeri'', '' Pra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancylocranium
''Ancylocranium'' is a genus of amphisbaenians in the family Amphisbaenidae, commonly known as sharp-snouted worm lizards. Three species are placed in this genus, which is endemic to eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa. Species The following species are recognized as being valid."''Ancylocranium'' ". The Reptile Database. www,reptile-database.org. *'' Ancylocranium barkeri'' Loveridge, 1946 - Lindi sharp-snouted worm lizard *'' Ancylocranium ionidesi'' Loveridge, 1955 - Kilwa sharp-snouted worm lizard *'' Ancylocranium somalicum'' ( Scortecci, 1930) - Somali sharp-snouted worm lizard ''Nota bene'': A binomial authority In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ... in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Ancylocranium''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy". Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is rendered in Latin as and, after his 1761 ennoblement, as . Linnaeus was born in Råshult, the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his higher education at Uppsala University and began giving lectures in botany there in 1730. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published the first edition of his ' in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphisbaena (genus)
''Amphisbaena'' is a genus in the family Amphisbaenidae, commonly known as worm lizards. Over 100 species are placed in this diverse genus. Species ''Nota bene'': A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Amphisbaena''. ''Nota bene'': A binomial authority in parentheses indicates that the species was originally described in a genus other than ''Amphisbaena''. Etymology The specific names ''carlgansi'', ''carli'', and ''cegei'' are all in honor of American herpetologist Carl Gans (1923–2009), for his contributions to the knowledge of Amphisbaenians.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Amphisbaena cegei'', p. 50; ''A. carlgansi'', p. 97). See also * List of reptiles of Brazil Total number of species = 976 ''Nota bene'': In the following list, a binomial authority in parentheses ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soutpansberg Wormlizard (Chirindia Langi Subsp
The Soutpansberg, (formerly ''Zoutpansberg'') meaning "Salt Pan Mountain" in Afrikaans, is a range of mountains in far northern South Africa. It is located in Vhembe District, Limpopo. It is named for the salt pan ( ve, Thavha ya muno, or "place of salt") located at its western end. The mountain range reaches the opposite extremity in the Matikwa Nature Reserve, some due east. The range as a whole had no Venda name, as it was instead known by its sub-ranges which include Dzanani, Songozwi and others. Of late it is however known as Tha vhani ya muno, meaning "mountain of salt". The Soutpansberg forms part of the 'Vhembe Biosphere Reserve', which was designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 2009. The latter reserve also includes the Blouberg Range, Kruger National Park, Makgabeng Plateau, Makuleke Wetlands and the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape. Geography The mountain is intersected by two defiles, the Waterpoort in the west, containing the Sand River (Polokwane) and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malleus
The malleus, or hammer, is a hammer-shaped small bone or ossicle of the middle ear. It connects with the incus, and is attached to the inner surface of the eardrum. The word is Latin for 'hammer' or 'mallet'. It transmits the sound vibrations from the eardrum to the ''incus'' (anvil). Structure The malleus is a bone situated in the middle ear. It is the first of the three ossicles, and attached to the tympanic membrane. The head of the malleus is the large protruding section, which attaches to the incus. The head connects to the neck of malleus. The bone continues as the handle (or manubrium) of malleus, which connects to the tympanic membrane. Between the neck and handle of the malleus, lateral and anterior processes emerge from the bone. The bone is oriented so that the head is superior and the handle is inferior. Development Embryologically, the malleus is derived from the first pharyngeal arch along with the ''incus''. It grows from Meckel's cartilage. Function The malleu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chrysochloridae
Golden moles are small insectivorous burrowing mammals endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. They comprise the family Chrysochloridae and as such they are taxonomically distinct from the true moles, family Talpidae, and other mole-like families, all of which, to various degrees, they resemble as a result of evolutionary convergence. There are 21 species. Some (e.g., ''Chrysochloris asiatica'', ''Amblysomus hottentotus'') are relatively common, whereas others (e.g., species of ''Chrysospalax'', ''Cryptochloris'', ''Neamblysomus'') are rare and endangered. Characteristics and affinities Like most burrowing mammals with similar habits, the Chrysochloridae have short legs with powerful digging claws, very dense fur that repels dirt and moisture, and toughened skin, particularly on the head. Their eyes are non-functional and covered with furred skin. The external ears are just tiny openings. In particular, golden moles bear a remarkable resemblance to the marsupial moles of Australia, famil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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