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Tangalle Public Library
Tangalle ( Sinhala තංගල්ල , ta, தங்கல்லை) (also known as Tangalla) is a large town in Hambantota District, Southern Province, Sri Lanka, governed by an Urban Council. It is one of the largest towns in southern province. It is located south of Colombo and east of Matara. It has a mild climate, in comparison to the rest of the district, and sandy beaches. Tangalle is a regionally important fishing port, situated on one of the largest bays in Sri Lanka, which is protected from the ocean by an enclosing reef. It is a centre of tourism and a popular holiday destination on the south coast. In the town centre there is an old Dutch fort which is used as a prison today. The Dutch and subsequently the British used Tangalle as an important anchorage on the southern coast of the island. The Dutch Fort, Rest House and Court House are a few remaining examples of Dutch architecture in Tangalle. Etymology The name of the town in Sinhala means "projected rock", a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than city, cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an origin with the German language, German word , the Dutch language, Dutch word , and the Old Norse . The original Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic word, *''tūnan'', is thought to be an early borrowing from Proto-Celtic language, Proto-Celtic *''dūnom'' (cf. Old Irish , Welsh language, Welsh ). The original sense of the word in both Germanic and Celtic was that of a fortress or an enclosure. Cognates of ''town'' in many modern Germanic languages designate a fence or a hedge. In English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed, and through which a track must run. In England, a town was a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beach
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells or coralline algae. Sediments settle in different densities and structures, depending on the local wave action and weather, creating different textures, colors and gradients or layers of material. Though some beaches form on inland freshwater locations such as lakes and rivers, most beaches are in coastal areas where wave or current action deposits and reworks sediments. Erosion and changing of beach geologies happens through natural processes, like wave action and extreme weather events. Where wind conditions are correct, beaches can be backed by coastal dunes which offer protection and regeneration for the beach. However, these natural forces have become more extreme due to climate change, permanently altering beaches at ver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olive Ridley Turtle
The olive ridley sea turtle (''Lepidochelys olivacea''), also known commonly as the Pacific ridley sea turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Cheloniidae. The species is the second-smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world. ''L. olivacea'' is found in warm and tropical waters, primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but also in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean. This turtle and the related Kemp's ridley turtle are best known for their unique synchronised mass nestings called ''arribadas'', where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs. Taxonomy The olive ridley sea turtle may have been first described as ''Testudo mydas minor'' by Georg Adolf Suckow in 1798. It was later described and named ''Chelonia multiscutata'' by Heinrich Kuhl in 1820. Still later, it was described and named ''Chelonia olivacea'' by Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz in 1829. The species was placed in the subgenus ''Lepidochelys'' by Leopold ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leatherback Turtle
The leatherback sea turtle (''Dermochelys coriacea''), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle or simply the luth, is the largest of all living turtles and the heaviest non-crocodilian reptile, reaching lengths of up to and weights of . It is the only living species in the genus ''Dermochelys'' and family Dermochelyidae. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell; instead, its carapace is covered by oily flesh and flexible, leather-like skin, for which it is named. Taxonomy and evolution Taxonomy ''Dermochelys coriacea'' is the only species in genus ''Dermochelys''. The genus, in turn, contains the only extant member of the family Dermochelyidae. Domenico Agostino Vandelli named the species first in 1761 as ''Testudo coriacea'' after an animal captured at Ostia and donated to the University of Padua by Pope Clement XIII. In 1816, French zoologist Henri Blainville coined the term ''Dermochelys''. The leatherback was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loggerhead Turtle
The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully grown. The adult loggerhead sea turtle weighs approximately , with the largest specimens weighing in at more than . The skin ranges from yellow to brown in color, and the shell is typically reddish brown. No external differences in sex are seen until the turtle becomes an adult, the most obvious difference being the adult males have thicker tails and shorter plastrons (lower shells) than the females. The loggerhead sea turtle is found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. It spends most of its life in saltwater and estuarine habitats, with females briefly coming ashore to lay eggs. The loggerhead sea turtle has a low reproductive rate; females lay an average of four egg clutches and then becom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Green Turtle
The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range extends throughout tropical and subtropical seas around the world, with two distinct populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but it is also found in the Indian Ocean. The common name refers to the usually green fat found beneath its carapace, not to the color of its carapace, which is olive to black. The dorsoventrally flattened body of ''C. mydas'' is covered by a large, teardrop-shaped carapace; it has a pair of large, paddle-like flippers. It is usually lightly colored, although in the eastern Pacific populations, parts of the carapace can be almost black. Unlike other members of its family, such as the hawksbill sea turtle, ''C. mydas'' is mostly herbivorous. The adults usually inhabit shallow lagoons, feeding mostly on various spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sri Lankan Junglefowl
The Sri Lankan junglefowl (''Gallus lafayettii'' sometimes spelled ''Gallus lafayetii''), also known as the Ceylon junglefowl or Lafayette's junglefowl, is a member of the Galliformes bird order which is endemic to Sri Lanka, where it is the national bird. It is closely related to the red junglefowl (''G. gallus''), the wild junglefowl from which the chicken was domesticated. However, a whole-genome molecular study rather show that Sri Lankan junglefowl and grey junglefowl are genetically sister species than with the red junglefowl. Sri Lankan junglefowl and red junglefowl diverged about 2.8 million years ago, whereas time of divergence between the Sri Lankan junglefowl and grey junglefowl was 1.8 million years ago. Evidence of introgressive hybridization from Sri Lanka junglefowl has also been established in domestic chicken. The specific name of the Sri Lankan junglefowl commemorates the French aristocrat Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette. Description As with other j ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black-capped Kingfisher
The black-capped kingfisher (''Halcyon pileata'') is a tree kingfisher which is widely distributed in tropical Asia from India east to China, Korea and Southeast Asia. This most northerly of the tree kingfishers is resident over much of its range, but northern populations are migratory, wintering south of their range in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Borneo and Java. It is distinctive in having a black cap that contrasts with the whitish throat, purple-blue wings and the coral red bill. The species is mainly found in coastal and mangrove habitats but can sometimes be found far inland. Taxonomy The black-capped kingfisher was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his ''Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux'' in 1780. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle'', which was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neithe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glossy Ibis
The glossy ibis (''Plegadis falcinellus'') is a water bird in the order Pelecaniformes and the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. The scientific name derives from Ancient Greek ''plegados'' and Latin, ''falcis'', both meaning "sickle" and referring to the distinctive shape of the bill. Distribution This is the most widespread ibis species, breeding in scattered sites in warm regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Atlantic and Caribbean regions of the Americas. It is thought to have originated in the Old World and spread naturally from Africa to northern South America in the 19th century, from where it spread to North America. The glossy ibis was first found in the New World in 1817 (New Jersey). Audubon saw the species just once in Florida in 1832. It expanded its range substantially northwards in the 1940s and to the west in the 1980s. This species is migratory; most European birds winter in Africa, and in North America birds from north of the Caroli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Reef Heron
The western reef heron (''Egretta gularis''), also called the western reef egret, is a medium-sized heron found in southern Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. It has a mainly coastal distribution and occurs in several plumage forms: a slaty-grey plumage in which it can only be confused with the rather uncommon dark morph of the Little egret (''Egretta garzetta''); a white form which can look very similar to the little egret although the bill tends to be paler and larger and the black form with white throat ''E. g. gularis'' of West Africa. There are also differences in size, structure and foraging behaviour. There have been suggestions that the species hybridizes with the Little Egret, and based on this, some authors treat ''schistacea'' and ''gularis'' as subspecies of ''Egretta garzetta''. Works that consider the Western Reef Heron as a valid species include the nominate ''gularis'' and ''schistacea'' as subspecies. Description This bird has two plumage colour forms. There is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mangroves
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several plant families. They occur worldwide in the tropics and subtropics and even some temperate coastal areas, mainly between latitudes 30° N and 30° S, with the greatest mangrove area within 5° of the equator. Mangrove plant families first appeared during the Late Cretaceous to Paleocene epochs, and became widely distributed in part due to the movement of tectonic plates. The oldest known fossils of mangrove palm date to 75 million years ago. Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees, also called halophytes, and are adapted to live in harsh coastal conditions. They contain a complex salt filtration system and a complex root system to cope with saltwater immersion and wave action. They are adapted to the low-oxygen conditions of wate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blowhole (geology)
In geology, a blowhole or marine geyser is formed as sea caves grow landwards and upwards into vertical shafts and expose themselves towards the surface, which can result in hydraulic compression of sea water that is released through a port from the top of the blowhole. The geometry of the cave and blowhole along with tide levels and swell conditions determine the height of the spray. Mechanics Blowholes are likely to occur in areas where there are crevices, such as lava tubes, in rock along the coast. These areas are often located along fault lines and on islands. As powerful waves hit the coast, water rushes into these crevices and bursts out in a high pressured release. It is often accompanied by a loud noise and wide spray, and for this reason, blowholes are often sites of tourism. Marine erosion on rocky coastlines produce blowholes that are found throughout the world. They are found at intersecting faults and on the windward sides of a coastline where they receive hig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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