|
Saddle-backed Rodrigues Giant Tortoise
The saddle-backed Rodrigues giant tortoise (''Cylindraspis vosmaeri)'' is an extinct species of giant tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species was endemic to Rodrigues. Human exploitation caused the extinction of this species around 1800. Etymology The specific name, ''vosmaeri'', is in honor of Dutch naturalist Arnout Vosmaer (1720–1799). Taxonomy Both ''Cylindraspis vosmaeri'' and its smaller domed relative, ''Cylindraspis peltastes'', were descended from an ancestral species on Mauritius (an ancestor of ''Cylindraspis inepta''), which colonised Rodrigues by sea many millions of years ago, and then gradually differentiated into the two Rodrigues species. Description The saddle-backed Rodrigues giant tortoise was an exceptionally tall species of giant tortoise, with a long, raised neck and an upturned carapace, which gave it a giraffe-like body shape almost similar to that of a sauropod dinosaur. It lived by browsing the taller vegetation, while its much smaller r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georg Adolf Suckow
Georg Adolf Suckow sometimes Adolph (28 January 1751, Jena – 13 March 1813, Heidelberg) was a German physicist, chemist, mineralogist, mining engineer and naturalist. Suckow was a professor of physics, chemistry, and natural history at the University of Heidelberg. He wrote many books and articles on chemistry, botany, zoology and mineralogy. From 1808 he was a Member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. His son Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Suckow (1770–1838) was also a naturalist. Works * ''Von dem Nutzen der Chymie zum Behuf des bürgerlichen Lebens, und der Oekonomie. Nebst Ankündigung der Lesestunden des Sommers halben Jahres 1775 bei der kurfürstlichen oekonomischen Schule zu Lautern, von G.A. Suckow, der A.D. Professor der theoretischen Wissenschaften, und beständigen Sekretair der Kurfürstlichen oekonomischen Gesellschaft. Mannheim/Lautern'' (1775) * ''Oekonomische Botanik''. (1777) * ''Versuche über die Wirkungen verschiedener Luftarten auf die Vegetatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Specific Name (zoology)
In zoological nomenclature, the specific name (also specific epithet or species epithet) is the second part (the second name) within the scientific name of a species (a binomen). The first part of the name of a species is the name of the genus or the generic name. The rules and regulations governing the giving of a new species name are explained in the article species description. For example, the scientific name for humans is ''Homo sapiens'', which is the species name, consisting of two names: ''Homo'' is the " generic name" (the name of the genus) and ''sapiens'' is the "specific name". Historically, ''specific name'' referred to the combination of what are now called the generic and specific names. Carl Linnaeus, who formalized binomial nomenclature, made explicit distinctions between specific, generic, and trivial names. The generic name was that of the genus, the first in the binomial, the trivial name was the second name in the binomial, and the specific the proper term for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reptiles Described In 1798
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] |
