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Great Bison Belt
The great bison belt is a tract of rich grassland that ran from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico from around 9000 BC. The great bison belt was supported by spring and early summer rainfall that allowed short grasses to grow. These grasses retain their moisture at the roots which allowed for grazing ungulates such as bison to find high-quality nutritious food in autumn. These grasses are what allowed the bison population to thrive, as they were able to receive all of their nutrients from the short grasses, unlike other Ice Age animals which expanded in the postglacial period. This area was important to the Plains Paleo-Indians, who around 8500 BC turned to bison hunting instead of hunting a broader range of food. Early history About 50–75 million years ago, surging molten rock formed the mountain ranges of the west, including the Black Hills. About 10 million years ago, geological forces shaped the rest of the great bison belt, the largest terrestrial biome in North America.Isenbe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bison Original Range Map
A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North America, is the more numerous. Although colloquially referred to as a buffalo in the United States and Canada, it is only distantly related to the true buffalo. The North American species is composed of two subspecies, the Plains bison, ''B. b. bison'', and the generally more northern wood bison, ''B. b. athabascae''. A third subspecies, the eastern bison (''B. b. pennsylvanicus'') is no longer considered a valid taxon, being a junior synonym of ''B. b. bison''. Historical references to "woods bison" or "wood bison" from the Eastern United States refer to this synonym animal (and to their eastern woodland habitat), not to ''B. b. athabascae'', which was not found in the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundary, maritime boundaries with the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Caribbean Sea to the southeast, and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. Mexico covers 1,972,550 km2 (761,610 sq mi), and is the List of countries by area, thirteenth-largest country in the world by land area. With a population exceeding 130 million, Mexico is the List of countries by population, tenth-most populous country in the world and is home to the Hispanophone#Countries, largest number of native Spanish speakers. Mexico City is the capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city, which ranks among the List of cities by population, most populous metropolitan areas in the world. Human presence in Mexico dates back to at least 8,000 BC. Mesoamerica, considered a cradle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plains Indians
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nations peoples who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North America. While hunting-farming cultures have lived on the Great Plains for centuries prior to European contact, the region is known for the horse cultures that flourished from the 17th century through the late 19th century. Their historic nomadism and armed resistance to domination by the government and military forces of Canada and the United States have made the Plains Indian culture groups an archetype in literature and art for Native Americans everywhere. The Plains tribes are usually divided into two broad classifications which overlap to some degree. The first group became a fully nomadic horse culture during the 18th and 19th centuries, following the vast herds of American bison, although some tribes occasionally engaged in agricul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruminant
Ruminants are herbivorous grazing or browsing artiodactyls belonging to the suborder Ruminantia that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microbial actions. The process, which takes place in the front part of the digestive system and therefore is called foregut fermentation, typically requires the fermented ingesta (known as cud) to be regurgitated and chewed again. The process of rechewing the cud to further break down plant matter and stimulate digestion is called rumination. The word "ruminant" comes from the Latin ''ruminare'', which means "to chew over again". The roughly 200 species of ruminants include both domestic and wild species. Ruminating mammals include cattle, all domesticated and wild bovines, goats, sheep, giraffes, deer, gazelles, and antelopes.Fowler, M.E. (2010).Medicine and Surgery of Camelids, Ames, Iowa: Wiley-Blackwell. Chapter 1 General Biology and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megafauna
In zoology, megafauna (from Ancient Greek, Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and Neo-Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") are large animals. The precise definition of the term varies widely, though a common threshold is approximately , this lower end being centered on humans, with other thresholds being more relative to the sizes of animals in an ecosystem, the spectrum of lower-end thresholds ranging from to . Large body size is generally associated with other traits, such as having a slow rate of reproduction and, in large herbivores, reduced or negligible adult mortality from being killed by predators. Megafauna species have considerable effects on their local environment, including the suppression of the growth of woody vegetation and a consequent reduction in wildfire frequency. Megafauna also play a role in regulating and stabilizing the abundance of smaller animals. During the Pleistocene, megafauna were diverse across the globe, with most continental ecosystems exhibiting s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potomac River
The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved August 15, 2011 with a Drainage basin, drainage area of , and is the fourth-largest river along the East Coast of the United States. More than 6 million people live within its drainage basin, watershed. The river forms part of the borders between Maryland and Washington, D.C., on the left descending bank, and West Virginia and Virginia on the right descending bank. Except for a small portion of its headwaters in West Virginia, the #North Branch Potomac River, North Branch Potomac River is considered part of Maryland to the low-water mark on the opposite bank. The South Branch Potomac River lies completely within the state of West Virginia except for its headwaters, which lie i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buffalo Hunt On The Southwestern Prairies
Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the northeastern United States Buffalo or buffaloes may also refer to: Animals * Bubalina, a subtribe of the tribe Bovini within the subfamily Bovinae **African buffalo or Cape Buffalo (''Syncerus caffer'') ** ''Bubalus'', a genus of bovines including various water buffalo species ***Wild water buffalo (''Bubalus arnee'') *** Water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis'') ****Buffalo meat, the meat of the water buffalo **** Italian Mediterranean buffalo, a breed of water buffalo *** Anoa *** Tamaraw (''Bubalus mindorensis'') ***'' Bubalus murrensis'', an extinct species of water buffalo that occupied riverine habitats in Europe in the Pleistocene * Bison, large, even-toed ungulates in the genus ''Bison'' within the subfamily Bovinae **American bison ('' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bouteloua Dactyloides
''Bouteloua dactyloides'', commonly known as buffalograss or buffalo grass, is a North American prairie grass native to Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It is a short grass found mainly on the High Plains and is co-dominant with blue grama (''B. gracilis'') over most of the shortgrass prairie. Buffalo grass in North America is not the same species of grass commonly known as buffalo in Australia. Buffalograss is valued both as a forage species to feed domesticated animals and as a landscaping plant used in low water lawns and xeriscaping. Because its plants tend to have a single sex, many cultivars without pollen have been produced for use in lawns. It recovers quickly from grazing and from drought due to its ability to vegetatively reproduce itself by means of runners. Description ''Bouteloua dactyloides'' is a perennial plant that spreads by stolons (runners). A plant may extend stolons outward to reach a length of by the end of a growing season. In ideal experiment ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bouteloua Gracilis
''Bouteloua gracilis'', the blue grama, is a long-lived, warm-season ( C4) perennial grass, native to North America. It is most commonly found from Alberta, Canada, east to Manitoba and south across the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and U.S. Midwest states, onto the northern Mexican Plateau in Mexico. Blue grama accounts for most of the net primary productivity in the shortgrass prairie of the central and southern Great Plains. It is a green or greyish, low-growing, drought-tolerant grass with limited maintenance. Description Blue grama has green to greyish leaves less than wide and long. The overall height of the plant is at maturity. The flowering stems (culm (botany), culms) are long. At the top are one to four, usually two, comb-like spike (botany), spikes, which extend out at a sharp angle from the flowering stem. Each spike has 20 to 90 spikelets. Each spikelet is long, and has one fertile floret and one or two reduced sterile ones. Below the florets are two gl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alberta
Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, the Northwest Territories to its north, and the U.S. state of Montana to its south. Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only two landlocked Canadian provinces. The eastern part of the province is occupied by the Great Plains, while the western part borders the Rocky Mountains. The province has a predominantly humid continental climate, continental climate, but seasonal temperatures tend to swing rapidly because it is so arid. Those swings are less pronounced in western Alberta because of its occasional Chinook winds. Alberta is the fourth largest province by area, at , and the fourth most populous, with 4,262,635 residents. Alberta's capital is Edmonton; its largest city is Calgary. The two cities are Alberta's largest Census geographic units ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great American Desert
The term Great American Desert was used in the 19th century to describe the part of North America east of the Rocky Mountains to approximately the 100th meridian west, 100th meridian. It can be traced to Stephen Harriman Long, Stephen H. Long's Stephen H. Long's Expedition of 1820, 1820 scientific expedition which put the Great American Desert on the map. Today the area is usually referred to as the High Plains (United States), High Plains, and the original term is sometimes used to describe the List of North American deserts, arid region of North America, which includes parts of northwestern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, American southwest. The concept of "desert" The meaning of the term "desert" has varied through time and across cultures. The term was sometimes used to describe any uninhabited or treeless land, whether or not it was arid, and sometimes to refer to hot and arid lands, evoking images of sandy wastelands. European colonists believed that treeless la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
