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Badger Gate
Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by their ancestral relationships: Musteloidea contains several families, only two of which (the "weasel family" Mustelidae and the "skunk family" Mephitidae) include badgers; moreover, both of these families also include various other animals that are not badgers. The fifteen species of mustelid badgers are grouped in four subfamilies: four species of Melinae (genera ''Meles'' and ''Arctonyx'') including the European badger, five species of Helictidinae (genus ''Melogale'') or ferret-badger, the honey badger or ratel Mellivorinae (genus ''Mellivora''), and the American badger Taxideinae (genus ''Taxidea''). Badgers include the most basal mustelids; the American badger is the most basal of all, followed successively by the ratel and the Melinae ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Ferret-badger
The Chinese ferret-badger (''Melogale moschata''), also known as the small-toothed ferret-badger, is a member of the Mustelidae, and widely distributed in Southeast Asia. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and considered tolerant of modified habitat. The Chinese ferret-badger is densely distributed from Northeast India north to Central China south to northern Indochina. The Formosan ferret-badger (''M. subaurantiaca'') of Taiwan was formerly considered conspecific, but is now thought to be a distinct species. Description Distinctive mask-like face markings distinguish the Chinese ferret-badger from most other oriental mustelids, although the other members of the genus '' Melogale'' have similar facial markings. The average body size of the Chinese ferret-badger is with a tail of . Distribution and habitat The Chinese ferret-badger lives in grassland, open forests, and tropical rainforests from northeast India to southern China, including Hainan Island, and so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basal (phylogenetics)
In phylogenetics, basal is the direction of the ''base'' (or root) of a phylogenetic tree#Rooted tree, rooted phylogenetic tree or cladogram. The term may be more strictly applied only to nodes adjacent to the root, or more loosely applied to nodes regarded as being close to the root. Note that extant taxa that lie on branches connecting directly to the root are not more closely related to the root than any other extant taxa. While there must always be two or more equally "basal" clades sprouting from the root of every cladogram, those clades may differ widely in taxonomic rank, Phylogenetic diversity, species diversity, or both. If ''C'' is a basal clade within ''D'' that has the lowest rank of all basal clades within ''D'', ''C'' may be described as ''the'' basal taxon of that rank within ''D''. The concept of a 'key innovation' implies some degree of correlation between evolutionary innovation and cladogenesis, diversification. However, such a correlation does not make a given ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honey Badger
The honey badger (''Mellivora capensis''), also known as the ratel ( or ), is a mammal widely distributed across Africa, Southwest Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. It is the only living species in both the genus ''Mellivora'' and the subfamily Mellivorinae. It has a fairly long body, with a distinctly thick-set and broad back, and remarkably loose skin, allowing the badger to turn and twist freely within it. The largest terrestrial mustelid in Africa, the honey badger measures long and weighs up to . Sexual dimorphism has been recorded in this species, with males being larger and heavier than females. There are two pairs of mammae, and an anal pouch which, unusual among mustelids, is eversible, a trait shared with hyenas and mongooses. The honey badger is a solitary animal that can be active at any time of day, depending on the location. It is primarily a carnivorous species and has few natural predators because of its thick skin, strength and ferocious defensive abiliti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferret-badger
Ferret-badgers are the six species of the genus ''Melogale'', which is the only genus of the monotypic mustelid subfamily Helictidinae. * Bornean ferret-badger The Bornean ferret badger (''Melogale everetti''), also known as Everett's ferret badger or the Kinabalu ferret badger, is a small, nocturnal and omnivorous mammal that is endemic to the island of Borneo. It is a member of the Mustelidae and one ... (''Melogale everetti'') * Chinese ferret-badger (''Melogale moschata'') * Formosan ferret-badger (''Melogale subaurantiaca'') * Javan ferret-badger (''Melogale orientalis'') * Burmese ferret-badger (''Melogale personata'') * Vietnam ferret-badger (''Melogale cucphuongensis'') Human impact The ferret-badger's impact on humans is through the spread of rabies. This has been documented in Taiwan and China but lack of prior documentation and research on ferret-badgers has proven a roadblock. References Badgers Mammals of Southeast Asia Taxa named by Isidore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology (biology), morphology, behaviour, or ecological niche. In addition, palaeontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. About 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses) are given a binomial nomenclature, two-part name, a "binomen". The first part of a binomen is the name of a genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name (zoology), specific name or the specific ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossorial
A fossorial animal () is one that is adapted to digging and which lives primarily (but not solely) underground. Examples of fossorial vertebrates are Mole (animal), moles, badgers, naked mole-rats, meerkats, armadillos, wombats, and mole salamanders. Among invertebrates, many molluscs (e.g., clams), insects (e.g., beetles, wasps, bees), and arachnids (e.g. spiders) are fossorial. Prehistoric evidence The physical adaptation of fossoriality is widely accepted as being widespread among many Prehistory, prehistoric Phylum, phyla and Taxon, taxa, such as bacteria and early eukaryotes. Furthermore, fossoriality has evolved independently multiple times, even within a single Family (biology), family. Fossorial animals appeared simultaneously with the colonization of land by arthropods in the late Ordovician period (over 440 million years ago). Other notable early burrowers include ''Eocaecilia'' and possibly ''Dinilysia''. The oldest example of burrowing in synapsids, the lineag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies, which are explained as a result of convergent evolution. The arrangement of the members of a polyphyletic group is called a polyphyly .. [Source for pronunciation.] It is contrasted with monophyly and paraphyly. For example, the biological characteristic of warm-bloodedness evolved separately in the ancestors of mammals and the ancestors of birds; "warm-blooded animals" is therefore a polyphyletic grouping. Other examples of polyphyletic groups are algae, C4 photosynthesis, C4 photosynthetic plants, and Xenarthra#Evolutionary relationships, edentates. Many taxonomists aim to avoid homoplasies in grouping taxa together, with a goal to identify and eliminate groups that are found to be polyphyletic. This is often the stimulus for major re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musteloidea
Musteloidea is a superfamily (taxonomy), superfamily of carnivoran mammals united by shared characteristics of the skull and teeth. Musteloids are the sister group of pinnipeds, the group which includes seals. Musteloidea comprises the following families: * Ailuridae, the red panda (and its extinct kin). * Mephitidae, the skunks and stink badgers. * Mustelidae, the weasel (mustelid) family, including new- and old-world badgers, ferrets and polecats, Fisher (animal), fishers, grisons and honey badger, ratels, martens and Martes zibellina, sables, minks, River otter (other), river and sea otters, stoats and Weasel, ermines, tayras and wolverines. * Procyonidae, the raccoons and raccoon-like procyonids, including coatimundis, kinkajous, olingos, olinguitos, ring-tailed cat, ringtails and cacomistles. In North America, ursoid, ursids (bears) and musteloids first appeared in the Chadronian of the late Eocene, and in early-Oligocene Europe, immediately following the Eocene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superfamily (taxonomy)
In biology, taxonomic rank (which some authors prefer to call nomenclatural rank because ranking is part of nomenclature rather than taxonomy proper, according to some definitions of these terms) is the relative or absolute level of a group of organisms (a ''taxon'') in a hierarchy that reflects evolutionary relationships. Thus, the most inclusive clades (such as Eukarya and Animalia) have the highest ranks, whereas the least inclusive ones (such as ''Homo sapiens'' or ''Bufo bufo'') have the lowest ranks. Ranks can be either relative and be denoted by an indented taxonomy in which the level of indentation reflects the rank, or absolute, in which various terms, such as species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and domain designate rank. This page emphasizes absolute ranks and the rank-based codes (the Zoological Code, the Botanical Code, the Code for Cultivated Plants, the Prokaryotic Code, and thCode for Viruses require them. However, absolute ranks are not req ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omnivore
An omnivore () is an animal that regularly consumes significant quantities of both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutrients and energy of the sources absorbed. Often, they have the ability to incorporate food sources such as algae, fungi, and bacteria into their diet. Omnivores come from diverse backgrounds that often independently evolved sophisticated consumption capabilities. For instance, dogs evolved from primarily carnivorous organisms (Carnivora) while pigs evolved from primarily herbivorous organisms (Artiodactyla). Despite this, physical characteristics such as tooth morphology may be reliable indicators of diet in mammals, with such morphological adaptation having been observed in bears. The variety of different animals that are classified as omnivores can be placed into further sub-categories depending on their feeding behaviors. Frug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
