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Maindroniidae
Maindroniidae is a very small family of silverfish, basal insects belonging to the order Zygentoma. It contains just a single genus, ''Maindronia'', and a handful of species. Four species of these insects are found in some of the driest deserts on Earth: in Sudan, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Atacama Desert on the west coast of Chile. The distribution of these closely related species suggests that ''Maindronia'' is a Gondwanan relict group. A new species in this family was recently discovered in Hormozgan province, Iran. ''Maindronia'' currently comprises four described species: * ''Maindronia bashagardensis'' Smith & Molero-Baltanás, 2020 – Iran * ''Maindronia beieri'' Schremmer, 1964 – Sudan * ''Maindronia mascatensis'' Bouvier, 1897 – Oman and UAE * ''Maindronia neotropicalis'' Bouvier, 1897 – Peru and Chile Recent findings from a phylogenetic study using the Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and the 18S genes showed that ''Maindronia neotropicalis'', inhabiting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zygentoma
Zygentoma are an order in the class Insecta, and consist of about 550 known species. The Zygentoma include the so-called silverfish or fishmoths, and the firebrats. A conspicuous feature of the order are the three long caudal filaments. The two lateral filaments are cerci, and the medial one is an epiproct or ''appendix dorsalis''. In this they resemble the Archaeognatha, although the cerci of Zygentoma, unlike in the latter order, are nearly as long as the epiproct. Until the late twentieth century the Zygentoma were regarded as a suborder of the Thysanura, until it was recognized that the order Thysanura was paraphyletic, thus raising the two suborders to the status of independent monophyletic orders, with Archaeognatha as sister group to the Dicondylia, including the Zygentoma. Etymology The name "Zygentoma" is derived from the Greek ('), in context meaning "yoke" or "bridge"; and ('), "insects", literally "cut into" because of the segmented anatomy of typical insects ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Escherich
Karl Leopold Escherich (18 September 1871 – 22 November 1951) was a German entomologist and professor of zoology. Known as a pioneer of applied entomology and expert in termites, he was rector of the University of Munich from 1933 to 1936. Escherich was born in Schwandorf, Bavaria, to parents Hermann N. Escherich and Katharina von Stengel. His older brother Georg Escherich would become a noted forester and politician. He studied medicine in Munich and Würzburg, graduating in 1893. After gaining his postdoctoral qualification in Strasbourg in 1901, he received a professorship at the Department of Forest Zoology in Tharandt in 1907, which had been orphaned since the death of Hinrich Nitsche. In 1914 he joined the Chair of Applied Zoology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, where he succeeded August Pauly. In 1917 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. After a 1911 trip to the United States, he conceived a plan to redesign applied entomology i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Relict (biology)
In biogeography and paleontology, a relict is a population or taxon of organisms that was more widespread or more diverse in the past. A relictual population is a population currently inhabiting a restricted area whose range was far wider during a previous geologic epoch. Similarly, a relictual taxon is a taxon (e.g. species or other lineage) which is the sole surviving representative of a formerly diverse group. Definition A relict (or relic) plant or animal is a taxon that persists as a remnant of what was once a diverse and widespread population. Relictualism occurs when a widespread habitat or range changes and a small area becomes cut off from the whole. A subset of the population is then confined to the available hospitable area, and survives there while the broader population either shrinks or evolves divergently. This phenomenon differs from endemism in that the range of the population was not always restricted to the local region. In other words, the species or group di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Descent
Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) of all life on Earth, according to modern evolutionary biology. Common descent is an effect of speciation, in which multiple species derive from a single ancestral population. The more recent the ancestral population two species have in common, the more closely are they related. The most recent common ancestor of all currently living organisms is the last universal ancestor, which lived about 3.9 billion years ago. The two earliest pieces of evidence for life on Earth are graphite found to be biogenic in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks discovered in western Greenland and microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. All currently living organisms on Earth s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
18S Ribosomal RNA
18S ribosomal RNA (abbreviated 18S rRNA) is a part of the ribosomal RNA. The S in 18S represents Svedberg units. 18S rRNA is an SSU rRNA, a component of the eukaryotic ribosomal small subunit (40S). 18S rRNA is the structural RNA for the small component of eukaryotic cytoplasmic ribosomes, and thus one of the basic components of all eukaryotic cells. 18S rRNA is the eukaryotic cytosolic homologue of 16S ribosomal RNA in prokaryotes and plastids. 18S rRNA is also a homologue of 12S ribosomal RNA in mitochondria. The genes coding for 18S rRNA are referred to as 18S rRNA genes. Sequence data from these genes is widely used in molecular analysis to reconstruct the evolutionary history of organisms, especially in vertebrates, as its slow evolutionary rate makes it suitable to reconstruct ancient divergences. Uses in phylogeny The small subunit (SSU) 18S rRNA gene is one of the most frequently used genes in phylogenetic studies and an important marker for random target polymerase ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cytochrome C Oxidase Subunit I
Cytochrome c oxidase I (COX1) also known as mitochondrially encoded cytochrome c oxidase I (MT-CO1) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''MT-CO1'' gene. In other eukaryotes, the gene is called ''COX1'', ''CO1'', or ''COI''. Cytochrome c oxidase I is the main subunit of the cytochrome c oxidase complex. Mutations in MT-CO1 have been associated with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), acquired idiopathic sideroblastic anemia, Complex IV deficiency, colorectal cancer, sensorineural deafness, and recurrent myoglobinuria. Structure One of 37 mitochondrial genes, the ''MT-CO1'' gene is located from nucleotide pairs 5904 to 7444 on the guanine-rich heavy (H) section of mtDNA. The gene product is a 57 kDa protein composed of 513 amino acids. Function Cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (CO1 or MT-CO1) is one of three mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encoded subunits (MT-CO1, MT-CO2, MT-CO3) of respiratory complex IV. Complex IV is the third and final enzyme of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogenetic Tree
A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities based upon similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics. All life on Earth is part of a single phylogenetic tree, indicating common ancestry. In a ''rooted'' phylogenetic tree, each node with descendants represents the inferred most recent common ancestor of those descendants, and the edge lengths in some trees may be interpreted as time estimates. Each node is called a taxonomic unit. Internal nodes are generally called hypothetical taxonomic units, as they cannot be directly observed. Trees are useful in fields of biology such as bioinformatics, systematics, and phylogenetics. ''Unrooted'' trees illustrate only the relatedness of the leaf nodes and do not require the ancestral root ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of , making it the 17th-largest country. Iran has a population of 86 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz. The country is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified by the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, in the seventh century BC, and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Chile covers an area of , with a population of 17.5 million as of 2017. It shares land borders with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the north-east, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Chile also controls the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Isla Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. It also claims about of Antarctica under the Chilean Antarctic Territory. The country's capital and largest city is Santiago, and its national language is Spanish. Spain conquered and colonized the region in the mid-16th century, replacing Inca rule, but failing to conquer the independent Mapuche who inhabited what is now south-central Chile. In 1818, after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gondwana
Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages of break-up, involving the separation of Antarctica from South America (forming the Drake Passage) and Australia, occurred during the Paleogene. Gondwana was not considered a supercontinent by the earliest definition, since the landmasses of Baltica, Laurentia, and Siberia were separated from it. To differentiate it from the Indian region of the same name (see ), it is also commonly called Gondwanaland. Gondwana was formed by the accretion of several cratons. Eventually, Gondwana became the largest piece of continental crust of the Palaeozoic Era, covering an area of about , about one-fifth of the Earth's surface. During the Carboniferous Period, it merged with Laurasia to form a larger supercontinent called Pangaea. Gondwana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eugène Louis Bouvier
Eugène Louis Bouvier (9 April 1856, in Saint-Laurent-en-Grandvaux – 14 January 1944, in Paris) was a French entomologist and carcinologist. Bouvier was a professor at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle. Biography Following graduation at the normal school in Lons-le-Saunier, he taught classes in Clairvaux, Versailles, Saint-Cloud and Villefranche-sur-Saône. From 1882 to 1887, he served as a "boursier" at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, where he studied with Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835–1900) and Edmond Perrier (1844–1921). Together with Milne-Edwards, he worked on some of the crustaceans from the ''Travailleur'' and ''Talisman'' expeditions (1880–1883). In 1887, he earned his doctorate in natural sciences with a dissertation involving prosobranch gastropods, ''Système nerveux, morphologie générale et classification des Gastéropodes prosobranches''. In 1889 he became an associate professor at the ''Ecole supérieure de pharmacie de Paris'', and in 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert ( es, Desierto de Atacama) is a desert plateau in South America covering a 1,600 km (990 mi) strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes Mountains. The Atacama Desert is the driest nonpolar desert in the world, and the second driest overall, just behind some very specific spots within the McMurdo Dry Valleys as well as the only hot true desert to receive less precipitation than the polar deserts, and the largest fog desert in the world. Both regions have been used as experimentation sites on Earth for Mars expedition simulations. The Atacama Desert occupies , or if the barren lower slopes of the Andes are included. Most of the desert is composed of stony terrain, salt lakes (''salares''), sand, and felsic lava that flows towards the Andes. The desert owes its extreme aridity to a constant temperature inversion due to the cool north-flowing Humboldt ocean current and to the presence of the strong Pacific anticyclone. The most arid reg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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