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Aepyornithid
Elephant birds are members of the extinct ratite family Aepyornithidae, made up of flightless birds that once lived on the island of Madagascar. They are thought to have become extinct around 1000-1200 CE, probably as a result of human activity. Elephant birds comprised the genera '' Mullerornis'', ''Vorombe'' and ''Aepyornis''. While they were in close geographical proximity to the ostrich, their closest living relatives are kiwi (found only in New Zealand), suggesting that ratites did not diversify by vicariance during the breakup of Gondwana but instead evolved from ancestors that dispersed more recently by flying. In September 2018, scientists determined that ''Vorombe titan'' reached weights of and stood tall, making it the world's largest and heaviest bird, slightly larger than the much older ''Dromornis stirtoni''. Other members of the family were also very large, exhibiting the phenomenon of island gigantism. Description Elephant birds have been extinct since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dromornis Stirtoni
''Dromornis'' is a genus of large to enormous prehistoric birds. The species were flightless, possessing greatly reduced wing structures but with large legs, similar to the modern ostrich or emu. They were likely to have been predominantly, if not exclusively, herbivorous browsers. The male of the largest species, ''Dromornis stirtoni'', is a contender for the tallest and heaviest bird, and possibly exhibited aggressive territorial behaviour. They belong to the clade dromornithid, extinct flightless birds known as mihirungs. Taxonomy The genus was erected to separate a new species, '' Dromornis australis'', from the previously described '' Dinornis'' (giant moas), another lineage of ancient large and flightless birds found in New Zealand that was earlier described by Richard Owen in 1843. A femur that was forwarded to England, probably a dromornithid and since lost, suggested an Australian genus, but Owen withheld publication for many years. The type specimen, another femur, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aepyornis Maximus
''Aepyornis'' is a genus of aepyornithid, one of three genera of ratite birds endemic to Madagascar until their extinction sometime around 1000 CE. The species ''A. maximus'' weighed up to , and until recently was regarded as the largest known bird of all time. However, in 2018 the largest aepyornithid specimens, weighing up to , were moved to the related genus '' Vorombe''. Its closest living relative is the New Zealand kiwi. Taxonomy Brodkorb (1963) listed four species of ''Aepyornis'' as valid: ''A. hildebrandti'', ''A. gracilis'', ''A. medius'' and ''A. maximus''. However, Hume and Walters (2012) listed only one species, ''A. maximus''. Most recently, Hansford and Turvey (2018) recognized only ''A. hildebrandti'' and ''A. maximus''. * ?''A. grandidieri'' Rowley 1867 nomen dubium * ''Aepyornis hildebrandti'' Burckhardt, 1893 (Hildebrandt's elephant-bird) ** ''Aepyornis gracilis'' Monnier, 1913 ** ''Aepyornis lentus'' Milne-Edwards & Grandidier, 1894 ** ?''Aepyornis minimus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mullerornis
''Mullerornis'' is a genus of extinct elephant birds (Aepyornithidae) of Madagascar. Description ''Mullerornis'' is smaller than the more well-known ''Aepyornis''. A bone possibly belonging to ''Mullerornis'' has been radiocarbon dated to about 1260 BP, suggesting that the animal was still extant at the end of the first millennium. ''Aepyornis modestus'' was shown by Hansford and Turvey (2018) to be a senior synonym of all nominal ''Mullerornis'' species described by Milne-Edwards and Grandidier (1894), resulting in the new combination ''Mullerornis modestus''. Nocturnality Like other aepyornithids and its close kiwi relatives, ''Mullerornis'' was nocturnal, though it shows less optical lobe reduction than these other taxa, implying slightly more crepuscular habits. Etymology The genus is named after Georges Muller, a French explorer, who was killed in 1892 by hostile members of the Sakalava people The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar. They are found on the weste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vorombe
''Vorombe'' is one of three genera of elephant birds, an extinct family of large ratite birds endemic to Madagascar. Originally considered to be large '' Aepyornis'' specimens, it is now thought ''Vorombe'' are the largest and heaviest birds known to have existed. The genus was erected in 2018 after a detailed morphometric analysis. Taxonomy and naming ''Vorombe titan'' was first described by Charles William Andrews as ''Aepyornis titan'' in 1894, though it was later synonymized with the type species of ''Aepyornis'', ''A. maximus'', by American paleontologist Pierce Brodkorb in 1963. In 2018, James Hansford and Samuel Turvey, two researchers from the Zoological Society of London, found that it was sufficiently distinct from ''Aepyornis'' based on genetic and morphological evidence and allocated the species to a new genus, ''Vorombe''. They also recognized ''Aepyornis ingens'' as a synonym of ''Vorombe titan''. The study by Hansford and Turvey is the first taxonomic reass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ratite
A ratite () is any of a diverse group of flightless, large, long-necked, and long-legged birds of the infraclass Palaeognathae. Kiwi, the exception, are much smaller and shorter-legged and are the only nocturnal extant ratites. The systematics of and relationships within the paleognath clade have been in flux. Previously, all the flightless members had been assigned to the order Struthioniformes, which is more recently regarded as containing only the ostrich. The modern bird superorder Palaeognathae consists of ratites and the flighted Neotropic tinamous (compare to Neognathae). Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum — hence the name, from the Latin ''ratis'' ( raft, a vessel which has no keel - in contradistinction to extant flighted birds with a keel). Without this to anchor their wing muscles, they could not have flown even if they developed suitable wings. Ratites are a paraphyletic group; tinamous fall within them, and are the sist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Academy Of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is one of the earliest Academies of Sciences. Currently headed by Patrick Flandrin (President of the Academy), it is one of the five Academies of the Institut de France. History The Academy of Sciences traces its origin to Colbert's plan to create a general academy. He chose a small group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the King's library, near the present-day Bibliothèque Nationals, and thereafter held twice-weekly working meetings there in the two rooms assigned to the group. The first 30 years of the Academy's existence were relatively informal, since no statutes had as yet been laid down for the institution. In contrast to its Brit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Island Gigantism
Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives. Island gigantism is one aspect of the more general Foster's rule, "island effect" or "Foster's rule", which posits that when mainland animals colonize islands, small species tend to evolve larger bodies, and large species tend to evolve smaller bodies (insular dwarfism). This is itself one aspect of the more general phenomenon of island syndrome which describes the differences in Morphology (biology), morphology, ecology, physiology and ethology, behaviour of insular species compared to their continental counterparts. Following the arrival of humans and associated introduced predators (dogs, cats, rats, pigs), many giant as well as other island endemics have become Extinction, extinct. A similar size increase, as well as increased woodiness, has been observed in some insular plants. Possible ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Étienne De Flacourt
Étienne de Flacourt (1607–1660) was a French governor of Madagascar, born in Orléans in 1607. He was named governor of Madagascar by the French East India Company in 1648. Flacourt restored order among the French soldiers, who had mutinied. In his dealings with the Malagasy, he was less successful; he was continually harassed by their intrigues and attacks during his entire term of office. In 1655 he returned to France and, not long after, he was appointed director general of the company; after again returning to Madagascar, he drowned on his voyage home on the 10th of June 1660. He is the author of a ''Histoire de la grande isle de Madagascar'' (1st edition 1658, 2nd edition 1661). Flacourt was one of the few, if not the only, Westerners to have recorded knowledge of the elephant birds of Madagascar when they were possibly still extant. ''Flacourtia'', a genus of flowering plants in the willow family, Salicaceae The Salicaceae is the willow family of flowering plant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in '' The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marvels of the World '' and ''Il Milione'', ), a book that described to Europeans the then mysterious culture and inner workings of the Eastern world, including the wealth and great size of the Mongol Empire and China in the Yuan Dynasty, giving their first comprehensive look into China, Persia, India, Japan and other Asian cities and countries. Born in Venice, Marco learned the mercantile trade from his father and his uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, who travelled through Asia and met Kublai Khan. In 1269, they returned to Venice to meet Marco for the first time. The three of them embarked on an epic journey to Asia, exploring many places along the Silk Road until they reached Cathay (China). They were received by the royal court of Kublai Kha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molecular Clock
The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged. The biomolecular data used for such calculations are usually nucleotide sequences for DNA, RNA, or amino acid sequences for proteins. The benchmarks for determining the mutation rate are often fossil or archaeological dates. The molecular clock was first tested in 1962 on the hemoglobin protein variants of various animals, and is commonly used in molecular evolution to estimate times of speciation or radiation. It is sometimes called a gene clock or an evolutionary clock. Early discovery and genetic equidistance The notion of the existence of a so-called "molecular clock" was first attributed to Émile Zuckerkandl and Linus Pauling who, in 1962, noticed that the number of amino acid differences in hemoglobin between different lineages changes roughly linearly with time, as estimated from fossil ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
