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Elephant Shrews
Elephant shrews, also called jumping shrews or sengis, are small insectivorous mammals native to Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order Macroscelidea. Their traditional common English name "elephant shrew" comes from a perceived resemblance between their long noses and the trunk of an elephant, and their superficial similarity with shrews (family Soricidae) in the order Eulipotyphla. However, phylogenetic analysis has revealed that elephant shrews are not properly classified with true shrews, but are in fact more closely related to elephants than to shrews. In 1997, the biologist Jonathan Kingdon proposed that they instead be called "sengis" (singular ''sengi''), a term derived from the Bantu languages of Africa, and in 1998, they were classified into the new clade Afrotheria. They are widely distributed across the southern part of Africa, and although common nowhere, can be found in almost any type of habitat, from the Namib Desert to boulder-strewn out ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brigitte Senut
Brigitte Senut (27 January 1954, Paris) is a French Primatology, paleoprimatologist and Paleoanthropology, paleoanthropologist and a professor at the National Museum of Natural History, France, National Museum of Natural History, Paris. She is a specialist in the evolution of great apes and humans. Life and work Senut is a naturalist and geologist by training and began studying human paleontology and paleoprimatology at a young age. She earned her master's degree in geology at the Pierre and Marie Curie University, Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University of Paris in 1975, and specialized in vertebrate and human paleontology, obtaining a doctorate (DEA) in 1976 and defended her doctoral dissertation in 1978. She was interested in the function-phylogeny link in her thesis entitled ''Contribution à l'étude de l'humérus et de ses articulations chez les Hominidés du Plio-Pléistocène'' (''Contribution to the study of the humerus and its joints in Plio-Pleistocene Hominids''). In 1987, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shrew
Shrews ( family Soricidae) are small mole-like mammals classified in the order Eulipotyphla. True shrews are not to be confused with treeshrews, otter shrews, elephant shrews, West Indies shrews, or marsupial shrews, which belong to different families or orders. Although its external appearance is generally that of a long-nosed mouse, a shrew is not a rodent, as mice are. It is, in fact, a much closer relative of hedgehogs and moles; shrews are related to rodents only in that both belong to the Boreoeutheria magnorder. Shrews have sharp, spike-like teeth, whereas rodents have gnawing front incisor teeth. Shrews are distributed almost worldwide. Among the major tropical and temperate land masses, only New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and South America have no native shrews. However, as a result of the Great American Interchange, South America does have a relatively recently naturalised population, present only in the northern Andes. The shrew family has 385 kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Djibouti
Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area of . In antiquity, the territory, together with Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somaliland, was part of the Land of Punt. Nearby Zeila, now in Somaliland, was the seat of the medieval Adal Sultanate, Adal and Ifat Sultanate, Ifat Sultanates. In the late 19th century, the colony of French Somaliland was established after the ruling Dir (clan), Dir, Somali people, Somali, and Afar people, Afar sultans signed treaties with the French, and its Imperial Ethiopian Railway, railroad to Dire Dawa (and later Addis Ababa) allowed it to quickly supersede Zeila as the port for southern Ethiopia and the Ogaden. It was renamed the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas in 1967. A decade later, the Djiboutian people 1977 Afars and Issas independence referendu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somali Elephant Shrew
The Somali elephant shrew or Somali sengi (''Galegeeska revoilii'') is a species of elephant shrew in the family Macroscelididae. Habitat Its natural habitat is arid and semiarid desert with rocky substrates and sparse shrubs. In some parts of Somalia, the Somali sengi and rufous sengi (''G. rufescens'') may be locally sympatric. It is found in the northern Horn of Africa; it was formerly thought to be exclusively endemic to Somalia, but a 2020 sighting also indicates they are found in Djibouti and potentially Ethiopia. Classification It was formerly classified in the genus '' Elephantulus'', but a 2020 study found it to be the sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ... of the clade containing the genera '' Petrodromus'' and '' Petrosaltator''; and the genus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North African Elephant Shrew
The North African elephant shrew (''Petrosaltator rozeti'') or North African sengi is a species of elephant shrew in the family Macroscelididae. It is found in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, and (since the extinction of the North African elephant) is the only extant afrotherian within its range. The species was formerly classified in the genus '' Elephantulus'', but molecular evidence indicates that it is more closely related to '' Petrodromus'' than to other members of ''Elephantulus''. It was moved to a new genus, ''Petrosaltator'', in 2016. The split with ''Petrodromus'' likely occurred during the Miocene period. Description The North African elephant-shrew is a little rodent-like in appearance, having a small body, large ears, and a long tail. It weighs around , which is very light compared to other sengis). The total length is from , of which the tail is . The fur on the upper body varies from yellowish brown to pale sandy-pink, and the fur on the underside is white. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Namib Desert
The Namib ( ; ) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba River in Angola, through Namibia and to the Olifants River in Western Cape, South Africa. The Namib's northernmost portion, which extends from the Angola-Namibia border, is known as Moçâmedes Desert, while its southern portion approaches the neighboring Kalahari Desert. From the Atlantic coast eastward, the Namib gradually ascends in elevation, reaching up to inland to the foot of the Great Escarpment. Annual precipitation ranges from in the aridest regions to at the escarpment, making the Namib the only true desert in southern Africa. Having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for roughly 55–80 million years, the Namib may be the oldest desert in the world and contains some of the world's driest regions, with only western South A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black And Rufous Elephant Shrew Skeleton
Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''Psychologie de la couleur – effets et symboliques'', pp. 105–26. Black and white have often been used to describe opposites such as good and evil, the Dark Ages versus the Age of Enlightenment, and night versus day. Since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for this reason it is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates. Black was one of the first colors used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings. It was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as the color of the underworld. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches, and magic. In the 14th century, it was worn by royalty, clergy, judges, and government of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
