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Elaphe Persica
The Persian ratsnake (''Zamenis persicus'') is a species of medium-sized nonvenomous snake in the family Colubridae. The species is endemic to Western Asia. Geographic range ''Z. persicus'' is found in temperate northwestern Iran and Azerbaijan, in the area near the Caspian Sea. Description Adults of ''Z. persicus'' are from up to in total length (including tail), and usually jet black or grey with white markings along the lateral portion of the forebody. Males seem to grow larger than females. Taxonomy ''Z. persicus'' has habits very similar to '' Z. situla'' and for many years it was considered a subspecies of '' Elaphe longissima''. It was granted full species status in 1984 (Nilson and Andrén). Behavior The Persian ratsnake is principally regarded as a terrestrial species, spending most of its time in the leaf litter; however, it is also an agile climber and will mount low brush. Diet The diet of ''Z. persicus'', like that of most colubrids, consists primarily of smal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Werner
Franz Josef Maria Werner (15 August 1867 in Vienna – 28 February 1939 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist and explorer. Specializing as a herpetologist and entomologist, Werner described numerous species and other taxa of frogs, snakes, insects, and other organisms. His father introduced him at age six to reptiles and amphibians. A brilliant student, he corresponded often with George Albert Boulenger (1858–1937) and Oskar Boettger (1844–1910) who encouraged his studies with these animals. Werner obtained his doctorate in Vienna in 1890 and then after spending a year in Leipzig, began to teach at the Vienna Institute of Zoology. In 1919, he became tenured as a professor, maintaining this title until his retirement in 1933. Although working close to the Vienna Natural History Museum, he could not use their herpetological collections, after the death of its director, Franz Steindachner (1834–1919), who did not like Werner, and had barred him from accessing the collection ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia, south of the fertile plains of Southern Russia in Eastern Europe, and north of the mountainous Iranian Plateau. It covers a surface area of (excluding the highly saline lagoon of Garabogazköl to its east), an area approximately equal to that of Japan, with a volume of . It has a salinity of approximately 1.2% (12 g/L), about a third of the salinity of average seawater. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the southwest, Iran to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southeast. The name of the Caspian Sea is derived from the ancient Iranian peoples, Iranic Caspians, Caspi people. The sea stretches from north to south, with an average width of . Its gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fauna Of Azerbaijan
Fauna of Azerbaijan or animal kingdom of Azerbaijan refers to the diversity of various types of animals, which inhabit and populate a defined ground or water area in Azerbaijan. The first reports on the richness and diversity of animal life in Azerbaijan can be found in travel notes of Eastern travelers. Animal carvings on architectural monuments, ancient rocks and stones survived up to the present times. The first information on the animal kingdom of Azerbaijan was collected during the visits of naturalists to Azerbaijan in the 17th century. Unlike fauna, the concept of animal kingdom covers not only the types of animals, but also the number of individual species. The symbol of Fauna in Azerbaijan is the Karabakh horse ( Azeri: Qarabağ atı) which is a mountain-steppe racing and riding horse which can only be found in Azerbaijan. The Karabakh horse has a reputation for its good temper, speed, elegance and intelligence. It is one of the oldest breeds, with ancestry dating to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fauna Of Iran
The wildlife of Iran include the fauna and flora of Iran. One of the most famous animals of Iran is the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus venaticus''), which today survives only in Iran. Another notable species is the Iranian ground jay (''Podoces pleskei''), the only bird endemic to Iran. History The animals of Iran were described by Hamdallah Mustawfi in the 14th century. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Samuel Gottlieb Gmelin and Édouard Ménétries explored the Caspian Sea area and the Talysh Mountains to document Caspian fauna. Several naturalists followed in the 19th century, including Filippo de Filippi, William Thomas Blanford, and Nikolai Zarudny who documented mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species. The Complete Fauna of Iran by Eskandar Firouz, documents a wide range of species across the country’s ecosystems Flora More than one-tenth of the country is forested. The most extensive forest is found on the mountain slopes risin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rat Snakes
Rat snakes are members – along with kingsnakes, milk snakes, vine snakes and indigo snakes – of the subfamily Colubrinae of the family Colubridae. They are medium to large constrictors and are found throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. They feed primarily on rodents. Many species make attractive and docile pets and one, the corn snake, is one of the most popular reptile pets in the world. Like all snakes, they can be defensive when approached too closely, handled, or restrained. However, rat snake bites are not dangerous to humans. Like nearly all colubrids, rat snakes pose no threat to humans. Rat snakes were long believed to be completely nonvenomous, but recent studies have shown that some Old World species do possess small amounts of venom, though the amount is negligible relative to humans. Previously, most rat snakes were assigned to the genus ''Elaphe'', but many have been since renamed following mitochondrial DNA analysis performed in 2002. For the purpo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zamenis
''Zamenis'' is a genus of Old World non-venomous snakes in the Family (biology), family Colubridae. Etymology The Genus, generic name ''Zamenis'' comes from Greek language, Greek ''wiktionary:ζαμενής, ζαμενής'' (Latin, lat. ''wiktionary:vehemens, vehemens'', ''wiktionary:iracundus, iracundus'')Johann Georg Wagler, Wagler, J. (1830). ''Natürliches System der Amphibien : mit vorangehender Classification der Säugethiere und Vögel : ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Zoologie.'' Munich, Stuttgart and Tübingen: J.G. Cotta. vi + 354 pp. + one plate, in German and Latin. (''Zamenis'', new genus, p. 188.Available onlineat the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). meaning "angry", "irritable", "fierce". Species The following six species are recognized as being valid: www.reptile-database.org. *''Zamenis hohenackeri'' – Transcaucasian ratsnake *''Zamenis lineatus'' – Italian Aesculapian snake *''Zamenis longissimus'' – Aesculapian snake *''Zamenis persicus'' � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilization, fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to egg incubation, incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the animal hatches. Most arthropods, vertebrates (excluding live-bearing mammals), and Mollusca, mollusks lay eggs, although some, such as scorpions, do not. Reptile eggs, bird eggs, and monotreme eggs are laid out of water and are surrounded by a protective eggshell, shell, either flexible or inflexible. Eggs laid on land or in nests are usually kept within a warm and favorable temperature range while the embryo grows. When the embryo is adequately developed it hatches, i.e., breaks out of the egg's shell. Some embryos have a temporary egg tooth they use to crack, pip, or break the eggshell or covering. The largest recorded egg is from a whale shark and was in size. Whale shark eggs typically hatch within the m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clutch (eggs)
A clutch of eggs is the group of eggs produced by birds, amphibians, or reptiles, often at a single time, particularly those laid in a nest. In birds, destruction of a clutch by predators (or removal by humans, for example the California condor breeding program) results in ''double-clutching''. The technique is used to double the production of a species' eggs, in the California condor case, specifically to increase population size. Size Clutch size differs greatly between species, sometimes even within the same genus. It may also differ within the same species due to many factors including habitat, health, nutrition, predation pressures, and time of year. Clutch size variation can also reflect variation in optimal reproduction effort. In birds, clutch size can vary within a species due to various features (age and health of laying female, ability of male to supply food, and abundance of prey), while some species are determinant layers, laying a species-specific number of egg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amphibian
Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excluding the amniotes (tetrapods with an amniotic membrane, such as modern reptiles, birds and mammals). All extant taxon, extant (living) amphibians belong to the monophyletic subclass (biology), subclass Lissamphibia, with three living order (biology), orders: Anura (frogs and toads), Urodela (salamanders), and Gymnophiona (caecilians). Evolved to be mostly semiaquatic, amphibians have adapted to inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living in freshwater ecosystem, freshwater, wetland or terrestrial ecosystems (such as riparian woodland, fossorial and even arboreal habitats). Their biological life cycle, life cycle typically starts out as aquatic animal, aquatic larvae with gills known as tadpoles, but some species have devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mammal
A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three Evolution of mammalian auditory ossicles, middle ear bones. These characteristics distinguish them from reptiles and birds, from which their ancestors Genetic divergence, diverged in the Carboniferous Period over 300 million years ago. Around 6,640 Neontology#Extant taxon, extant species of mammals have been described and divided into 27 Order (biology), orders. The study of mammals is called mammalogy. The largest orders of mammals, by number of species, are the rodents, bats, and eulipotyphlans (including hedgehogs, Mole (animal), moles and shrews). The next three are the primates (including humans, monkeys and lemurs), the Artiodactyl, even-toed ungulates (including pigs, camels, and whales), and the Carnivora (including Felidae, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
