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Bajío Dry Forests
The Bajío dry forests is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion in western−central Mexico. Geography The Bajío dry forests lie in the southwestern portion of the Mexican Plateau. They are bounded on the southeast, south, and southwest by the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests, which occupy the folded mountains and volcanoes of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt that form the southern edge of the Mexican Plateau. The Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental bound the ecoregion on the northwest. The numerous mountains of the plateau which rise above the dry forests are occupied by sky islands of pine-oak forest. To the north, the Bajío dry forests transition to the drier, more temperate Central Mexican matorral. Most of the ecoregion lies within the basin of the Lerma River, and the dry forests extend around Lake Chapala at the eastern end of the region, and into the endorheic basins of Lake Cuitzeo and Lake Pátzcuaro in the sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Chapala
Lake Chapala (, ) has been Mexico's largest freshwater lake since the desiccation of Lake Texcoco in the early 17th century. It borders both the states of Jalisco and Michoacán, being located within the municipalities of Ocotlán, Jalisco, Ocotlán, Chapala, Mexico, Chapala, Jocotepec, Poncitlán, and Jamay (municipality), Jamay, in Jalisco, and in Venustiano Carranza, Michoacán, Venustiano Carranza and Cojumatlán de Régules, in Michoacán. Geography Geographic features It is located at , southeast of Guadalajara, Jalisco, and is situated on the border between the States of Mexico, states of Jalisco and Michoacán, at 1,524 metres (5000 feet) above sea level. Its approximate dimensions are from east to west and averages 12.5 km (7.8 miles) from north to south, and covers an approximate area of . It is a shallow lake, with a mean depth of and a maximum of . The age of Lake Chapala, which is located in one of the youngest geological areas of the American ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt
The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks have snow all year long, and during clear weather, they are visible to a large percentage of those who live on the many high plateaus from which these volcanoes rise. History The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt spans across central-southern Mexico from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico between 18°30'N and 21°30'N, resting on the southern edge of the North American plate. This approximately 1000 kilometer long, 90–230 km broad structure is an east–west, active, continental volcanic arc; encompassing an area of approximately 160,000 km2. Over several million years, the subduction of the Rivera Plate, Rivera and Cocos Plate, Cocos Tectonic plate, plates beneath the North American plate along the northern end of the Middle America Trench formed the Trans-Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thick-billed Kingbird
The thick-billed kingbird (''Tyrannus crassirostris'') is a large bird in the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. Distribution and habitat This bird breeds from southeastern Arizona and extreme southwestern New Mexico in the United States and northern Sonora (the Madrean sky islands) through the western and western-coastal ranges in Mexico, south to western Guatemala. Thick-billed kingbirds usually occur in arid or partly arid areas in streamside riparian canyons, or open areas near water. They are particularly fond of sycamore woodland edges. Description This is a large tyrant flycatcher, with adults measuring in length. Adults are dusky olive-brown on the upperparts with light underparts; they have a long dark brown or black tail. The underside is a dull white to pale yellow. They have a yellow patch on their crown, but is not visible very often. The bill on this species, for which it is named, is rather large and stocky compared to other members of this group and it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-throated Magpie-jay
The black-throated magpie-jay (''Cyanocorax colliei'') is a strikingly long-tailed magpie-jay of northwestern Mexico. Taxonomy The black-throated magpie-jay was formally described in 1829 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors from a specimen collected at San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico. The specimen had been obtained by members of an expedition to explore the western coast of North America captained by Frederick William Beechey on '' HMS Blossom''. Vigors coined the binomial name ''Pica colleriei'', with the specific epithet chosen to honour Alexander Collie, the surgeon on board the ''Blossom'', who had presented the specimen to the Zoological Society of London. The black-throated magpie-jay and the white-throated magpie-jay were formerly placed in their own genus ''Calocitta''. When molecular phylogenetic studies found that the genus ''Cyanocorax'' was paraphyletic relative to ''Calocitta'', the two species were subsumed into ''Cyanocorax'' to resolve the paraphyly. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pocketed Free-tailed Bat
The pocketed free-tailed bat (''Nyctinomops femorosaccus'') is a species of bat in the family Molossidae found in Mexico and in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States. They resemble the Brazilian free-tailed bat (''Tadarida brasiliensis'') but differ morphologically. They are recognized as "least concern" by the IUCN and as "apparently secure" by Natureserve. Characteristics The pocketed free-tailed bat shares similar features with the Brazilian free-tailed bat ("Tadarida brasiliensis") but is larger in size. The name is derived from a skin fold stretching from the medial side of the femur to the middle of the tibia. This fold produces a shallow pocket on the underside of the interfemoral membrane in the vicinity of the knee. Some defining characteristics include: Ears joined at the midline; second phalanx of the 4th digit is less than 5mm; anterior part of hard palate narrowly excised; upper incisors placed close together with longitudinal axes nearly pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexican Wolf
The Mexican wolf (''Canis lupus baileyi''), also known as the ''lobo mexicano'' (or, simply, ''lobo'') is a subspecies of gray wolf (''C. lupus'') native to eastern and southeastern Arizona and western and southern New Mexico (in the United States) and fragmented areas of northern Mexico. Historically, the subspecies ranged from eastern Southern California south into Baja California, east through the Sonora and Chihuahua Deserts and into West Texas. Its ancestors were likely among the first gray wolves to enter North America after the extinction of the Beringian wolf, as indicated by its southern range and basal physical and genetic characteristics. Though once held in high regard in Pre-Columbian Mexico, ''Canis lupus baileyi'' became the most endangered gray wolf subspecies in North America, having been extirpated in the wild during the mid-1900s through a combination of hunting, trapping, poisoning and the removal of pups from dens, mainly out of fear, by livestock herder ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morelia
Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid; Otomi language, Otomi: ) is a city and municipal seat of the municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is both the most populous and most densely populated municipality in Michoacán. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital and largest city of the state. The main pre-Hispanic cultures here were the Purépecha people, Purépecha and the Matlatzinca people, Matlatzinca, but no major cities were founded in the valley during this time. The New Spain, Spanish took control of the area in the 1520s. The Spanish under Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza founded a settlement here in 1541 with the name of Valladolid, which became rival to the nearby city of Pátzcuaro for dominance in Michoacán. In 1580, this rivalry ended in Valladolid's favor, and it became the capital of the Viceroy, viceregal province. After the Mexican War of Independence, the cit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guadalajara
Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 8th most populous city in Mexico, while the Guadalajara metropolitan area has a population of 5,268,642, making it the Metropolitan areas of Mexico#List of metropolitan areas in Mexico by population, third-largest metropolitan area in the country and the List of metropolitan areas in the Americas, twenty-second largest metropolitan area in the Americas. Guadalajara has the second-highest population density in Mexico with over 10,361 people per km2, surpassed only by Mexico City. Within Mexico, Guadalajara is a center of business, arts and culture, technology and tourism; as well as the economic center of the Bajío region. It usually ranks among the 100 most productive and globally competitive cities in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Pátzcuaro
Lake Pátzcuaro (Spanish: ''Lago de Pátzcuaro'') is a lake in the municipality of Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, Mexico. Lake Pátzcuaro lies in an endorheic basin, which does not drain to the sea. A watershed area of 929 square kilometres drains into the lake, of which 126.4 are the water body. The Lake Pátzcuaro watershed extends 50 kilometres east–west and 33 kilometres from north to south. Lake Pátzcuaro lies at an elevation of 1,920 metres, and is the center of the basin and is surrounded by volcanic mountains with very steep slopes. It has an average depth of 5 metres and a maximum of 11. Its volume is approximately 580 million cubic metres."Descripción de la cuenca", ''Recuperación Ambiental del Lago de Pátzcuaro''. Accessed October 18, 2009 The Lake Pátzcuaro basin is of volcanic origin. At times it has been part of an open and continuous hydrological system formed by Lake Cuitzeo, Pátzcuaro and Lake Zirahuén, which drained into the Lerma River. Today, like lakes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Cuitzeo
Lake Cuitzeo () is a lake in the central part of Mexico, in the state of Michoacán. It has an area of . The lake is astatic, meaning the volume and level of water in the lake fluctuates frequently. It is the second-largest freshwater lake in Mexico. Lake Cuitzeo lies in an endorheic basin, which does not drain to the sea, although in prehistoric times the lake may well have overflowed during periods of increased inflow, since the lowest point on its rim is only 10–20 meters above the current maximum elevation of the lake's surface. The basin has an area of , lying mostly in Michoacán, with the northern part of the basin in Guanajuato state. Michoacán's capital, Morelia, lies in the Cuitzeo basin south of the lake. The basin of the Lerma River lies to the east and north, and the basin of the Balsas River lies to the south, separated by the mountains of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. The endorheic basin of Lake Pátzcuaro lies to the west. The lake is irregular in shape, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endorheic Basin
An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent and seasonal lakes and swamps that equilibrate through evaporation. Endorheic basins are also called closed basins, terminal basins, and internal drainage systems. Endorheic regions contrast with open lakes (exorheic regions), where surface waters eventually drain into the ocean. In general, water basins with subsurface outflows that lead to the ocean are not considered endorheic; but cryptorheic. Endorheic basins constitute local base levels, defining a limit of the erosion and deposition processes of nearby areas. Endorheic water bodies include the Caspian Sea, which is the world's largest inland body of water. Etymology The term ''endorheic'' derives from the French word , which combines ( 'within') and 'flow'. Endorheic lake ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
