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Daurian Pika
The Daurian pika (''Ochotona dauurica'') is a small relative of rabbits and hares in the order Lagomorpha. It is well known for its “barking” alarm call, and for its peculiar habit of making hay to help survive the winter. There are 4 recognized subspecies, ''Ochotona dauurica annectens, O.d. bedfordi, O.d. dauurica, ''and'' O.d. mursavi''. Daurian pikas, like other lagomorphs, are characterized by a secondary set of incisor teeth. They are sexually monomorphic, with thick reddish coats. Pikas have no external tail, and their ears are large and rounded. The auditory bullae, a feature of the skull of daurian pikas are small in comparison to many other pikas. This is thought to be related to their fairly low altitude habitat preference. They are considered keystone species within their habitat. Range and habitat Daurian pikas are found throughout Mongolia, southern Russia, Manchuria and in several provinces of China. They live in mountainous regions, and are found at altitude ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Simon Pallas
Peter Simon Pallas Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussian zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia between 1767 and 1810. Life and work Peter Simon Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Simon Pallas. He studied with private tutors and took an interest in natural history, later attending the University of Halle and the University of Göttingen. In 1760, he moved to the University of Leiden and passed his doctor's degree at the age of 19. Pallas travelled throughout the Netherlands and to London, improving his medical and surgical knowledge. He then settled at The Hague, and his new system of animal classification was praised by Georges Cuvier. Pallas wrote ''Miscellanea Zoologica'' (1766), which included descriptions of several vertebrates new to science which he had discovered in the Dutch museum collections. A planned voyage to southern Africa and the East Indies fell through when his father reca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ochotona Dauurica, Tariat Sum, Arkhangai Province, Mongolia Extr
A pika ( or ; archaically spelled pica) is a small, mountain-dwelling mammal found in Asia and North America. With short limbs, very round body, an even coat of fur, and no external tail, they resemble their close relative, the rabbit, but with short, rounded ears. The large-eared pika of the Himalayas and nearby mountains is found at heights of more than , among the highest of any mammal. Pikas prefer rocky slopes and graze on a range of plants, mostly grasses, flowers and young stems. In the autumn they pull hay, soft twigs and other stores of food into their burrows to eat during the long, cold winter. The pika is also known as the whistling hare because of its high-pitched alarm call when diving into its burrow. The name ‘pika’ appears to be derived from the Tungus ''piika'', and the scientific name ''Ochotona'' is from the Mongolian word ''ogutun-a, оготно'', which means pika. It is used for any member of the Ochotonidae, a family within the order of lagomorph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lagomorpha
The lagomorphs are the members of the taxonomic order Lagomorpha, of which there are two living families: the Leporidae (hares and rabbits) and the Ochotonidae ( pikas). The name of the order is derived from the Ancient Greek ''lagos'' (λαγώς, "hare") + ''morphē'' (μορφή, "form"). There are 110 recent species of lagomorph of which 109 are extant, including 34 species of pika, 42 species of rabbit, and 33 species of hare. Taxonomy and evolutionary history Other names used for this order, now considered synonymous, include: ''Duplicidentata'' - Illiger, 1811; ''Leporida'' - Averianov, 1999; ''Neolagomorpha'' - Averianov, 1999; ''Ochotonida'' - Averianov, 1999; and ''Palarodentia'' - Haeckel, 1895, Lilian, 2016. The evolutionary history of the lagomorphs is still not well understood. Until recently, it was generally agreed that '' Eurymylus'', which lived in eastern Asia and dates back to the late Paleocene or early Eocene, was an ancestor of the lagomorphs. More r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, making it the world's most sparsely populated sovereign nation. Mongolia is the world's largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea, and much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to roughly half of the country's population. The territory of modern-day Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the First Turkic Khaganate, and others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous land empire in history. His grandson Kublai Khan conquered China proper and established the Yuan dynasty. After the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across eleven time zones and shares land boundaries with fourteen countries, more than any other country but China. It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country, with a population of 146 million people. The country's capital and largest city is Moscow, the largest city entirely within Europe. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. Other major urban areas include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan. The East Slavs emerged as a recognisable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries CE. Kievan Rus' arose as a state in the 9th century, and in 988, it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym "Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East ( Outer Manchuria). Its meaning may vary depending on the context: * Historical polities and geographical regions usually referred to as Manchuria: ** The Later Jin (1616–1636), the Manchu-led dynasty which renamed itself from "Jin" to "Qing", and the ethnicity from "Jurchen" to "Manchu" in 1636 ** the subsequent duration of the Qing dynasty prior to its conquest of China proper (1644) ** the northeastern region of Qing dynasty China, the homeland of Manchus, known as "Guandong" or "Guanwai" during the Qing dynasty ** The region of Northeast Asia that served as the historical homeland of the Jurchens and later their descendants Manchus ***Qing control of Dauria (the region north of the Amur River, but in its watershed) was contested in 1643 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Campbell's Dwarf Hamster
Campbell's dwarf hamster (''Phodopus campbelli'') is a species of hamster in the genus '' Phodopus''. It was given its common name by Oldfield Thomas in honor of Charles William Campbell, who collected the first specimen in Mongolia on July 1, 1902. It is distinguished from the closely related Djungarian hamster as it has smaller ears and no dark fur on its crown. Campbell's dwarf hamster typically has a narrow dorsal stripe compared to the Djungarian hamster and grey fur on the stomach. This hamster may be raised in captivity and kept as a small pet. In the wild, the breeding season for Campbell's dwarf hamster varies by location. For example, the breeding season begins towards the middle of April in Tuva and towards the end of April in Mongolia. However, in captivity, there is no fixed breeding season and they can breed frequently throughout the year. Females are usually sexually mature at two months of age and the gestation period is typically 20 days. Campbell's dwarf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communal Burrow
Communal burrow refers to the habitat built by some species of mammals as a community habitat. There are some species that build burrows, but not communal burrows; and there are some species that live in communal groups, but do not construct burrows or any other type of habitat. Overview A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to create a space suitable for habitation, temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of shelter against predation and exposure to the elements and can be found in nearly every biome and among various biological interactions. Many different animal species are known to form burrows. These species range from small invertebrates, such as the ''Corophium arenarium'', to very large vertebrate species such as the polar bear. Burrows can be constructed into a wide variety of substrates and can range in complexity from a simple tube a few centimeters long to a complex network of interconnecting tunnels and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pikas
A pika ( or ; archaically spelled pica) is a small, mountain-dwelling mammal found in Asia and North America. With short limbs, very round body, an even coat of fur, and no external tail, they resemble their close relative, the rabbit, but with short, rounded ears. The large-eared pika of the Himalayas and nearby mountains is found at heights of more than , among the highest of any mammal. Pikas prefer rocky slopes and graze on a range of plants, mostly grasses, flowers and young stems. In the autumn they pull hay, soft twigs and other stores of food into their burrows to eat during the long, cold winter. The pika is also known as the whistling hare because of its high-pitched alarm call when diving into its burrow. The name ‘pika’ appears to be derived from the Tungus ''piika'', and the scientific name ''Ochotona'' is from the Mongolian word ''ogutun-a, оготно'', which means pika. It is used for any member of the Ochotonidae, a family within the order of lagomo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammals Described In 1776
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or hair, and three middle ear bones. These characteristics distinguish them from reptiles (including birds) from which they diverged in the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. Around 6,400 extant species of mammals have been described divided into 29 orders. The largest orders, in terms of number of species, are the rodents, bats, and Eulipotyphla (hedgehogs, moles, shrews, and others). The next three are the Primates (including humans, apes, monkeys, and others), the Artiodactyla (cetaceans and even-toed ungulates), and the Carnivora (cats, dogs, seals, and others). In terms of cladistics, which reflects evolutionary history, mammals are the only living members of the Synapsida (synapsids); this clade, together with Saurop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
