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Black Sicklebill
The black sicklebill (''Epimachus fastosus'') is a large member of the birds of paradise family, Bird-of-paradise, Paradisaeidae. This species is found throughout most of central New Guinea and the Bird's Head Peninsula, Vogelkop region to the northwest in Montane ecosystems, montane forests at altitudes from . Etymology The species' Binomial nomenclature, scientific name is ''Epimachus fastosus''. ''Epimachus,'' its generic name, means "equipped for battle", referring to this genus' machine gun-sounding calls. Its specific name, ''fastosus'', means "proud". For its subspecies, ''atratus'' means "black", ''ultimus'' means "final" (probably referring to this subspecies as the last one discovered for this species), and ''stresemanni'' honors the German naturalist, Erwin Stresemann. Description As the second-longest bird of paradise species (behind the ribbon-tailed astrapia), the black sicklebill measures about in length if the tail is included, and around without the tail. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Hermann
Johann, or Jean-Frederic, Hermann, or Herrmann, (31 December 1738 in Barr, Alsace – 4 October 1800 in Strasbourg) was a French physician and naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal .... In 1769 he was appointed professor of medicine at the School of Public Health of Strasbourg, then, in 1778, professor of philosophy, before going on, in 1784, to succeed Jacob Reinbold Spielmann as chair of chemistry, natural history and materia medica. In 1794 he became professor of botany and materia medica in the new School of Medicine. He was the author of ''Tabula affinitatum animalium '' (1783) and ''Observationes zoologicae quibus novae complures'', published posthumously in 1804. His collections and library of 18,000 volumes formed the basis of the Natural History M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding the nucleus, and sometimes a Comet tail, tail of gas and dust gas blown out from the coma. These phenomena are due to the effects of solar radiation and the outstreaming solar wind plasma acting upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. The coma may be up to 15 times Earth's diameter, while the tail may stretch beyond one astronomical unit. If sufficiently close and bright, a comet may be seen from Earth without the aid of a telescope and can Subtended angle, subtend an arc of up to 30° (60 Moons) across the sky. Comets have been observed and recorded since ancient times by many cultures and religion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Branch
A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, including , , , and . There are also numerous descriptive words, such as (that is, something that has bled, or 'bloomed', out), (literally 'little bough'), (literally 'on growth'), and (literally 'offspringing'). Numerous other words for twigs and boughs abound, including , which still survives as the ''-toe'' in ''mistletoe''. Latin words for branch are or . The latter term is an affix found in other modern words such as '' cladodont'' (prehistoric sharks with branched teeth), ''cladode'' (flattened leaf-like branches), or ''cladogram'' (a branched diagram showing relations among organisms). Woody branches Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually refers to a terminus, while ''bou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polygyny In Animals
Polygyny (; from Neo-Greek , ) is a mating system in which one male lives and mates with multiple females but each female only mates with a single male. Systems where several females mate with several males are defined either as promiscuity or polygynandry. Lek mating is frequently regarded as a form of polygyny, because one male mates with many females, but lek-based mating systems differ in that the male has no attachment to the females with whom he mates, and that mating females lack attachment to one another.Clutton-Brock T.H. (1989). ‘Review lecture: mammalian mating systems.' ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London''. Series B, Biological Sciences 236: 339–372. Polygyny is typical of one-male, multi-female groupsBoyd, R., & Silk, J. B. (2009). How Humans Evolved (preferably the downloadable pdf version): WW Norton & Company, New York. and can be found in many species including: elephant seal, spotted hyena, gorilla, red-winged prinia, house wren, hamadryas bab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Display (zoology)
Display behaviour is a set of ritualized behaviours that enable an animal to communicate to other animals (typically of the same species) about specific stimuli. Such ritualized behaviours can be visual, but many animals depend on a mixture of visual, audio, tactical and chemical signals. Evolution has tailored these stereotyped behaviours to allow animals to communicate both conspecifically and interspecifically which allows for a broader connection in different niches in an ecosystem. It is connected to sexual selection and survival of the species in various ways. Typically, display behaviour is used for courtship between two animals and to signal to the female that a viable male is ready to mate. In other instances, species may make territorial displays, in order to preserve a foraging or hunting territory for its family or group. A third form is exhibited by tournament species in which males will fight in order to gain the 'right' to breed. Animals from a broad range of evol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epimachus Speciosus - The Birds Of New Guinea
''Epimachus'' is a genus of birds-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae) that includes two species, found in the highland forests of New Guinea. They are the largest members of the family. The common name "sicklebill" refers to their long, decurved, sickle-shaped bill. Sicklebills often associate with astrapias, which are superficially similar but have a short, straight bill and blunt-tipped tail, and the male's wings hiss in flight. The species in the genus ''Epimachus'' are often referred to as "long-tailed" sicklebills, when describing them collectively as a genus. The other sicklebills, genus ''Drepanornis'', are referred to as the "short-tailed" sicklebills. Ironically, the two genera are not closely related. There may also be confusion with the birds of the same name that belong to the hummingbird family, found in the Americas. Taxonomy The genus ''Epimachus'' was introduced in 1816 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier for the black sicklebill. The genus name is from the Ancie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frugivore
A frugivore ( ) is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance and nutritional composition of fruits. Frugivores can benefit or hinder fruit-producing plants by either dispersing or destroying their seeds through digestion. When both the fruit-producing plant and the frugivore benefit by fruit-eating behavior the interaction is a form of mutualism. Frugivore seed dispersal Seed dispersal is important for plants because it allows their progeny to move away from their parents over time. The advantages of seed dispersal may have led to the evolution of fleshy fruits, which entice animals to consume them and move the plant's seeds from place to place. While many fruit-producing plant species would not disperse far without frugivores, their seeds can usually germinate even if they fall to the ground di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crescent-caped Lophorina
The Vogelkop lophorina (''Lophorina superba''), formerly part of the superb bird-of-paradise complex, is a species of passerine bird in the bird-of-paradise family Paradisaeidae. It is found in montane northwest New Guinea. Taxonomy The Vogelkop lophorina was given the binomial name ''Paradisea superba'' in 1781 in a book which has the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster on the title page. The binomial name is accompanied by a cite to a hand coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet that had been included in Edme-Louis Daubenton's ''Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle''. The authorship of the text is disputed. The book originated as a project by the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant and it is uncertain how much was contributed by Forster and how much by Pennant. The specimen depicted in the plate had been acquired in 1772 by French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat when it had been gifted to him on the small island of Gebe. The island lies between North Maluku and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superb Bird-of-paradise
The greater lophorina (''Lophorina latipennis''), formerly a subspecies of the superb bird-of-paradise, is a species of passerine bird in the bird-of-paradise family Paradisaeidae. It is found in the central and northeast montane regions of New Guinea. Taxonomy The greater lophorina was formally described in 1907 by the English zoologist Walter Rothschild based on a specimen collected in the Rawlinson Mountains on the Huon Peninsula of north-eastern Papua New Guinea. He considered the specimen to be a subspecies of the lesser lophorina and coined the trinomial name ''Lophorina minor latipennis''. The specific epithet combines the Latin ''latus'' meaning "broad" with ''-pennis'' meaning "-winged" or "-feathered". For many years what is now the greater lophorina was treated as one of the subspecies of the superb bird-of-paradise with the trinomial (''Lophorina superba latipennis''). In 2017 Martin Irestedt and collaborators suggested that the superb bird-of-paradise should be sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long-tailed Paradigalla
The long-tailed paradigalla (''Paradigalla carunculata'') is a large, approximately 37 cm long, black bird-of-paradise with long and pointed tail. One of the most plain members in the family Paradisaeidae, its only adornment is the colorful facial wattle (anatomy), wattles of yellow, red and sky-blue near base of the Beak, bill. Both sexes are sexual dimorphism, similar in appearance, however the female is slightly duller and smaller. One of the least known members in the family Paradisaeidae, the long-tailed paradigalla is Endemism in birds, endemic to the Arfak Mountains in Doberai Peninsula, West Papua (province), West Papua of Indonesia. The long-tailed paradigalla is evaluated as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES. Subspecies * ''Paradigalla carunculata carunculata'' * ''Paradigalla carunculata intermedia'' References External links BirdLife Species FactsheetRed Data Book Paradigalla, long-taile ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astrapian Sicklebill
The astrapian sicklebill, also known as the green-breasted riflebird, is a bird in the Paradisaeidae family that was proposed by Erwin Stresemann to be an intergeneric hybrid between an Arfak astrapia and black sicklebill, an identity since confirmed by DNA analysis. History Only one adult male specimen of this hybrid is known, held by the American Museum of Natural History, and presumably deriving from the Vogelkop Peninsula of north-western New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ....Frith & Beehler (1998), p.507. Notes References * * Hybrid birds of paradise Birds of the Doberai Peninsula Intergeneric hybrids {{Paradisaeidae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elliot's Bird-of-paradise
Elliot's bird of paradise is a bird in the family Paradisaeidae, first described by Edward Ward in 1873, but which was later proposed to be a hybrid rather than a “real” species, an identity since confirmed by DNA analysis. History Only two adult male specimens are known of this bird, held in the British Natural History Museum (BMNH) and the Dresden Natural History Museum, and presumably deriving from the Vogelkop Peninsula of north-western New Guinea. In 1930, Erwin Stresemann inspected both specimens and declared Elliot's Bird of Paradise to be an intergeneric hybrid between a black sicklebill and Arfak astrapia. Other ornithologists dispute this claim. Errol Fuller argues that the astrapia is a fanciful choice made with little supporting evidence, and that Elliot's Bird of Paradise is much smaller than the two proposed parent species. The specimens show a number of characteristics not present in either parent species, adding weight to the possibility of the specimens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
