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Stephen Blair Hedges
file:Stephen Hedges.jpg, Blair Hedges Stephen Blair Hedges (known as S. Blair Hedges) is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science and director of the Center for Biodiversity at Temple University where he researches the Tree of life (biology), tree of life and leads conservation efforts in Haiti and elsewhere. He co-founded Haiti National Trust. Career Hedges has a Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree from George Mason University, and a Master's degree, Masters and PhD in Zoology from the University of Maryland, supervised by Richard Highton. Before he joined Temple University in 2014, he was a professor at Penn State. He is also a founding member of the NASA Astrobiology Center. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed works including 10 books and monographs. He was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009 for "revealing connections between biological evolution and Earth history in diverse groups of organisms", and was awarded the 201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Hedges
Stephen or Steven is an English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is widely regarded as the first martyr (or "protomartyr") of the Christian Church. The name, in both the forms Stephen and Steven, is often shortened to Steve or Stevie (given name), Stevie. In English, the female version of the name is Stephanie. Many surnames are derived from the first name, including Template:Stephen-surname, Stephens, Stevens, Stephenson, and Stevenson, all of which mean "Stephen's (son)". In modern times the name has sometimes been given with intentionally non-standard spelling, such as Stevan or Stevon. A common variant of the name used in English is Stephan (given name), Stephan ( ); related names that have found some currency or significance in English include Stefan (given name), Stefan (pronounced or in English) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sphaerodactylus Ariasae
''Sphaerodactylus ariasae'', commonly called the Jaragua sphaero or the Jaragua dwarf gecko, is the smallest species of lizard in the family Sphaerodactylidae. Description ''Sphaerodactylus ariasae'' is the world's smallest known reptile. The second-smallest is '' S. parthenopion'', native to the British Virgin Islands. The Jaragua sphaero measures 14–18 mm (0.55–0.71 in) from the snout to the base of the tail and can fit on a US 25-cent coin. It has an average weight of 0.13 g (0.0045 oz). Geographic range The geographic range of ''S. ariasae'' is believed to be limited to Jaragua National Park, in the southernmost tip of the Barahona Peninsula, in the extreme southwest of the Dominican Republic and nearby forested Beata Island on Hispaniola. Habitat The preferred natural habitat of ''S. ariasae'' is the leaf litter of the forest floor of dry forests with limestone substratum. File:Beata island dry forests P5210593.jpg, Habitat of ''S. ariasae'' in Beata islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monte Iberia Eleuth
The Monte Iberia eleuth (''Eleutherodactylus iberia''), also known as the Monte Iberia dwarf frog, is a species of eleutherodactylid frog. It is critically endangered and endemic to rainforest in a small part of easternmost Cuba. It is the smallest frog in the Northern Hemisphere and the third smallest frog in the world, at about in snout–to– vent length (only a few members of the Southern Hemisphere genera '' Brachycephalus'', '' Mini'', '' Paedophryne'' and '' Stumpffia'' are smaller). It was first discovered in 1993 on Mount Iberia in the Holguín Province, from which it gets its name. Much remains unknown about this small creature. It is part of a closely related Cuban group that contains five additional described species ('' E. cubanus'', '' E. etheridgei'', '' E. jaumei'', '' E. limbatus'' and '' E. orientalis'') and at least one undescribed species; most of which are of tiny size, relatively brightly colored and possibly aposematic (at least ''E. iberia'' and ''E. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smallest Organisms
The smallest organisms found on Earth can be determined according to various aspects of organism size, including volume, mass, height, length, or genome size. Given the incomplete nature of scientific knowledge, it is possible that the smallest organism is undiscovered. Furthermore, there is some debate over the definition of life, and what entities qualify as organisms; consequently the smallest known organisms (microrganisms) may be nanobes that can be 20 nanometers long. Microorganisms Obligate endosymbiotic bacteria The genome of '' Nasuia deltocephalinicola'', a symbiont of the European pest leafhopper, '' Macrosteles quadripunctulatus'', consists of a circular chromosome of 112,031 base pairs. The genome of '' Nanoarchaeum equitans'' is 491 Kbp nucleotides long. ''Pelagibacter ubique'' '' Pelagibacter ubique'' is one of the smallest known free-living bacteria, with a length of and an average cell diameter of . They also have the smallest free-living bacterium gen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caribherp
Caribherp is an online database containing information on amphibians and reptiles of the Caribbean Islands. It was established in 1999 and serves as a resource for determining the species that occur on specific islands, viewing their distributions, and identifying them by images. Besides the primary search capability by regions and islands, the site features a global search functionality and the ability to refine lists by taxon and origin (endemic or introduced), and to sort by various features. Caribherp also includes common and scientific names, sightings, images, videos, audio of frog calls, distribution maps, geographic regions, and conservation status provided by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The development and maintenance of Caribherp is accomplished through the work of S. Blair Hedges and his colleagues, and students from Penn State University and (since 2014) Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphibian
Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excluding the amniotes (tetrapods with an amniotic membrane, such as modern reptiles, birds and mammals). All extant taxon, extant (living) amphibians belong to the monophyletic subclass (biology), subclass Lissamphibia, with three living order (biology), orders: Anura (frogs and toads), Urodela (salamanders), and Gymnophiona (caecilians). Evolved to be mostly semiaquatic, amphibians have adapted to inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living in freshwater ecosystem, freshwater, wetland or terrestrial ecosystems (such as riparian woodland, fossorial and even arboreal habitats). Their biological life cycle, life cycle typically starts out as aquatic animal, aquatic larvae with gills known as tadpoles, but some species have devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the species distribution, distribution of species and ecosystems in geography, geographic space and through evolutionary history of life, geological time. Organisms and biological community (ecology), communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, allopatric speciation, isolation and habitat species-area curve, area. Phytogeography is the branch of biogeography that studies the distribution of plants. Zoogeography is the branch that studies distribution of animals. Mycogeography is the branch that studies distribution of fungi, such as mushrooms. Knowledge of spatial variation in the numbers and types of organisms is as vital to us today as it was to our early human ancestors, as we adapt to heterogeneous but geographically predictable Natural environment, environments. Biogeography is an integrative field of inquiry that unites concepts and information from ecology, evolutionary biology, taxonomy (bio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America to the west, and South America to the south, it comprises numerous List of Caribbean islands, islands, cays, islets, reefs, and banks. It includes the Lucayan Archipelago, Greater Antilles, and Lesser Antilles of the West Indies; the Quintana Roo Municipalities of Quintana Roo#Municipalities, islands and Districts of Belize#List, Belizean List of islands of Belize, islands of the Yucatán Peninsula; and the Bay Islands Department#Islands, Bay Islands, Miskito Cays, Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina, Corn Islands, and San Blas Islands of Central America. It also includes the coastal areas on the Mainland, continental mainland of the Americas bordering the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within lineages. Charles Darwin was the first to describe the role of natural selection in speciation in his 1859 book ''On the Origin of Species''. He also identified sexual selection as a likely mechanism, but found it problematic. There are four geographic modes of speciation in nature, based on the extent to which speciating populations are isolated from one another: allopatric speciation, allopatric, peripatric speciation, peripatric, parapatric speciation, parapatric, and sympatric speciation, sympatric. Whether genetic drift is a minor or major contributor to speciation is the subject of much ongoing discussion. Rapid sympatric speciation can take place through polyploidy, such as by doubling of chromosome number; the result is progeny wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insectivorous
A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant which eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores were amphibians. When they evolved 400 million years ago, the first amphibians were piscivores, with numerous sharp conical teeth, much like a modern crocodile. The same tooth arrangement is however also suited for eating animals with exoskeletons, thus the ability to eat insects can stem from piscivory. At one time, insectivorous mammals were scientifically classified in an order called Insectivora. This order is now abandoned, as not all insectivorous mammals are closely related. Most of the Insectivora taxa have been reclassified; those that have not yet been reclassified and found to be truly related to each other remain in the order Eulipotyphla. Although individually small, insects exist in enormous numbers. Insects make up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
