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Apodidae
The Apodidae, or swifts, form a family of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows, but are not closely related to any passerine species. Swifts are placed in the order Apodiformes along with hummingbirds. The treeswifts are closely related to the true swifts, but form a separate family, the Hemiprocnidae. Resemblances between swifts and swallows are due to convergent evolution, reflecting similar life styles based on catching insects in flight. The family name, Apodidae, is derived from the Greek language, Greek ἄπους (''ápous''), meaning "footless", a reference to the small, weak legs of these most aerial of birds.Jobling (2010) pp. 50–51.Kaufman (2001) p. 329. The tradition of depicting swifts without feet continued into the Middle Ages, as seen in the heraldic martlet. Taxonomy Taxonomists have long classified swifts and treeswifts as relatives of the hummingbirds, a judgment corroborated by the discovery of the Jungornithidae (apparently swi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swiftlet
Swiftlets are birds from the four genera ''Aerodramus'', ''Collocalia'', ''Hydrochous'' and ''Schoutedenapus'', which form the tribe (biology), tribe Collocaliini within the swift (bird), swift family (biology), family Apodidae. The group contains around thirty species mostly confined to southern Asia, south Pacific islands, and northeastern Australia, all within the tropical and subtropical regions. They are in many respects typical members of the Apodidae, having narrow wings for fast flight, with a wide gape and small reduced beak surrounded by bristles for catching insects in flight. What distinguishes many but not all species from other swifts and indeed almost all other birdsThe oilbird is a notable exception. The presence of echolocation was formerly used to argue for a close relationship of the Apodiformes and the oilbird, but the actual situation is more complicated. ''See also'': Caprimulgiformes. is their ability to use a simple but effective form of animal echolocation, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaniacypselus
''Scaniacypselus'' is an extinct genus of basal Apodidae, swifts from the Eocene of Denmark, Germany and France. Many well preserved specimens still showing plumage were discovered in the Messel Pit near Darmstadt, Germany. Species of ''Scaniacypselus'' had relatively broader wings than modern swifts and hindlimbs better adapted to perching on tree-branches, indicating that the bird was not as aerial as its extant relatives and likely nested in trees like hummingbirds and treeswifts. Two species are recognized, ''S. wardi'' and ''S. szarskii''. History and naming The first remains of ''Scaniacypselus'' were recovered by D.J. Ward from the Røsnæs Clay in Denmark. The type and only known specimen of ''S. wardi'' is an almost complete left wing. The second species, ''Scaniacypselus szarskii'', was originally described as a species of ''Aegialornis'' by Peters in 1985 from the sediments of the Messel Pit in Germany. The species was referred to ''Scaniacypselus'' in 2001 by Mayr and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apodiformes
The Apodiformes is an Order (biology), order, or Taxonomy, taxonomic grouping, of Bird, birds which traditionally contained three living Family (biology), families—the Swift (bird), Apodidae (swifts), the Treeswift, Hemiprocnidae (treeswifts), and the Hummingbird, Trochilidae (hummingbirds); however, in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, this order is elevated to the superorder Apodimorphae, in which hummingbirds are separated into a new order, the Trochiliformes. With nearly 450 species identified to date, it is the most diverse order of birds after the passerine, Passeriformes (the "perching" birds). Description, etymology and taxonomy As the name ''apodiforme''—meaning "footless" in Greek language, Greek—suggests, the legs of hummingbirds, swifts and treeswifts (or 'crested' swifts) are rather small and offer limited functional uses, aside from perching; their feet are covered with bare skin, rather than the Scute, scutes seen on many birds. Another commonality amongst Apodif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cypseloidinae
The Cypseloidinae are a subfamily of swifts and contain the following species: * Genus ''Cypseloides'' :* Spot-fronted swift (''Cypseloides cherriei'') :* White-chinned swift (''Cypseloides cryptus'') :* Sooty swift (''Cypseloides fumigatus'') :* White-chested swift (''Cypseloides lemosi'') :* Rothschild's swift (''Cypseloides rothschildi'') :* Great dusky swift (''Cypseloides senex'') :* White-fronted swift (''Cypseloides storeri'') :* American black swift (''Cypseloides niger'') :: Subspecies: C. n. borealis, C. n. costaricensis, & C. n. niger * Genus ''Streptoprocne'' :* Biscutate swift (''Streptoprocne biscutata'') :: Subspecies: S. b. seridoensis, & S. b. biscutata :* Tepui swift (''Streptoprocne phelpsi'') :* White-naped swift (''Streptoprocne semicollaris'') :* White-collared swift (''Streptoprocne zonaris'') :: Subspecies: S. z. mexicana, S. z. bouchellii, S. z. pallidifrons, S. z. minor, S. z. albicincta, S. z. subtropicalis, S. z. altissima, S. z. kuenzeli, & S. z. zon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apodinae
The Apodinae are a subfamily of swifts and contain the following species: Tribe Collocaliini - swiftlets * Genus ''Collocalia'' :* Plume-toed swiftlet (''Collocalia affinis'') :* Grey-rumped swiftlet (''Collocalia marginata'') :* Ridgetop swiftlet (''Collocalia isonota'') :* Tenggara swiftlet (''Collocalia sumbawae'') :* Drab swiftlet (''Collocalia neglecta'') :* Glossy swiftlet (''Collocalia esculenta'') :: Subspecies: C. e. affinis, C. e. elachyptera, C. e. cyanoptila, C. e. vanderbilti, C. e. oberholseri, C. e. natalis, C. e. septentrionalis, C. e. isonota, C. e. marginata, C. e. bagobo, C. e. spilura, C. e. manadensis, C. e. esculenta, C. e. minuta, C. e. sumbawae, C. e. perneglecta, C. e. neglecta, C. e. amethystina, C. e. erwini, C. e. numforensis, C. e. nitens, C. e. misimae, C. e. stresemanni, C. e. heinrothi, C. e. spilogaster, C. e. tametamele, C. e. becki, C. e. makirensis, C. e. desiderata, C. e. uropygialis, & C. e. albidior :* Satin swiftlet (''Collocalia u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hummingbird
Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Central America, Central and South America. As of 2024, 21 hummingbird species are listed as Endangered species, endangered or critically endangered, with numerous species declining in population. Hummingbirds have varied specialized characteristics to enable rapid, maneuverable flight: exceptional metabolism, metabolic capacity, adaptations to high altitude, sensitive visual and communication abilities, and long-distance migration in some species. Among all birds, male hummingbirds have the widest diversity of plumage color, particularly in blues, greens, and purples. Hummingbirds are the smallest mature birds, measuring in length. The smallest is the bee hummingbird, which weighs less than , and the largest is the giant hummingbird, weig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morphology (biology)
Morphology (from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ) "form", and λόγος (lógos) "word, study, research") is the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features. This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape, structure, color, pattern, size), as well as the form and structure of internal parts like bones and organs, i.e., anatomy. This is in contrast to physiology, which deals primarily with function. Morphology is a branch of life science dealing with the study of the overall structure of an organism or taxon and its component parts. History The etymology of the word "morphology" is from the Ancient Greek (), meaning "form", and (), meaning "word, study, research". While the concept of form in biology, opposed to function, dates back to Aristotle (see Aristotle's biology), the field of morphology was developed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1790) and independently by the German anatomist and physiologist Karl Fried ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DNA Sequences
A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nucleotides. By convention, sequences are usually presented from the 5' end to the 3' end. For DNA, with its double helix, there are two possible directions for the notated sequence; of these two, the sense strand is used. Because nucleic acids are normally linear (unbranched) polymers, specifying the sequence is equivalent to defining the covalent structure of the entire molecule. For this reason, the nucleic acid sequence is also termed the primary structure. The sequence represents genetic information. Biological deoxyribonucleic acid represents the information which directs the functions of an organism. Nucleic acids also have a secondary structure and tertiary structure. Primary structure is sometimes mistakenly referred to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''Ēṓs'', 'Eos, Dawn') and (''kainós'', "new") and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.See: *Letter from William Whewell to Charles Lyell dated 31 January 1831 in: * From p. 55: "The period next antecedent we shall call Eocene, from ήως, aurora, and χαινος, recens, because the extremely small proportion of living species contained in these strata, indicates what may be considered the first commencement, or ''dawn'', of the existing state of the animate creation." The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Paleocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the Eocene is marked by a brief period in which the concentration of the carbon isoto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the epoch are slightly uncertain. The name Oligocene was coined in 1854 by the German paleontologist Heinrich Ernst Beyrich from his studies of marine beds in Belgium and Germany. The name comes from Ancient Greek (''olígos'') 'few' and (''kainós'') 'new', and refers to the sparsity of Neontology, extant forms of Mollusca, molluscs. The Oligocene is preceded by the Eocene Epoch and is followed by the Miocene Epoch. The Oligocene is the third and final epoch of the Paleogene Period. The Oligocene is often considered an important time of transition, a link between the archaic world of the tropical Eocene and the more modern ecosystems of the Miocene. Major chang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
