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Giant Petrel
Giant petrels form a genus, ''Macronectes'', from the family Procellariidae, which consists of two living and one extinct species. They are the largest birds in this family. Both extant species in the genus are native to the Southern Hemisphere. Giant petrels are extremely aggressive predators and scavengers, inspiring another common name, the stinker. Seamen and whalers also referred to the giant petrel as the molly-hawk, gong, glutton bird and nelly. They are the only member of their family that is capable of walking on land. Taxonomy The genus ''Macronectes'' was introduced in 1905 by the American ornithologist Charles Wallace Richmond to accommodate what is now the southern giant petrel. It replaced the previous genus ''Ossifraga'' which was found to have been earlier applied to a different group of birds. The name ''Macronectes'' combines the Ancient Greek ''makros'' meaning "great" and ''nēktēs'' meaning "swimmer". The present-day giant petrels are two large seabirds fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macronectes Giganteus
The southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant petrel, though it overall is centered slightly further south. Adults of the two species can be distinguished by the colour of their bill-tip: greenish in the southern and reddish in the northern. Taxonomy The southern giant petrel was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin. He placed it with all the other petrels in the genus ''Procellaria'' and coined the binomial name ''Procellaria gigantea''. Gmelin cited the "giant petrel" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The southern giant petrel is now placed with the northern giant petrel in the genus '' Macronectes'' that was introduced in 1905 by the American ornith ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Giant Petrel
The northern giant petrel (''Macronectes halli''), also known as Hall's giant petrel, is a large, predatory seabird of the southern oceans. Its range overlaps broadly with the range of the related southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), albeit slightly further to the north. Taxonomy The northern giant petrel was species description, formally described in 1912 by the Australian born ornithologist Gregory Mathews as a subspecies of the southern giant petrel with the trinomial name ''Macronectes giganteus halli''. The specific epithet ''halli'' was chosen to honour the Australian ornithologist Robert Hall (ornithologist), Robert Hall who had described the birds breeding on the Kerguelen Islands. The northern giant petrel is now considered to be a separate species and has the binomial name ''Macronectes halli''. It is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ''makros'' meaning "great" and ''nēktēs'' meaning "swimmer". The name "pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Giant Petrel
The southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant petrel, though it overall is centered slightly further south. Adults of the two species can be distinguished by the colour of their bill-tip: greenish in the southern and reddish in the northern. Taxonomy The southern giant petrel was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin. He placed it with all the other petrels in the genus ''Procellaria'' and coined the binomial name ''Procellaria gigantea''. Gmelin cited the "giant petrel" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The southern giant petrel is now placed with the northern giant petrel in the genus '' Macronectes'' that was introduced in 1905 by the American orni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macronectes Halli
The northern giant petrel (''Macronectes halli''), also known as Hall's giant petrel, is a large, predatory seabird of the southern oceans. Its range overlaps broadly with the range of the related southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), albeit slightly further to the north. Taxonomy The northern giant petrel was formally described in 1912 by the Australian born ornithologist Gregory Mathews as a subspecies of the southern giant petrel with the trinomial name ''Macronectes giganteus halli''. The specific epithet ''halli'' was chosen to honour the Australian ornithologist Robert Hall who had described the birds breeding on the Kerguelen Islands. The northern giant petrel is now considered to be a separate species and has the binomial name ''Macronectes halli''. It is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek ''makros'' meaning "great" and ''nēktēs'' meaning "swimmer". The name "petrel" refers to the Biblical account of Saint Pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Giant Petrel
The southern giant petrel (''Macronectes giganteus''), also known as the Antarctic giant petrel, giant fulmar, stinker, and stinkpot, is a large seabird of the southern oceans. Its distribution overlaps broadly with the similar northern giant petrel, though it overall is centered slightly further south. Adults of the two species can be distinguished by the colour of their bill-tip: greenish in the southern and reddish in the northern. Taxonomy The southern giant petrel was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin. He placed it with all the other petrels in the genus ''Procellaria'' and coined the binomial name ''Procellaria gigantea''. Gmelin cited the "giant petrel" that had been described and illustrated in 1785 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his ''A General Synopsis of Birds''. The southern giant petrel is now placed with the northern giant petrel in the genus '' Macronectes'' that was introduced in 1905 by the American orni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crozet Islands
The Crozet Islands (; or, officially, ''Archipel Crozet'') are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands. History Discovery and early history The Crozet Islands were discovered on 24 January 1772, by the expedition of French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, aboard ''Le Mascarin''. His second-in-command, Julien-Marie Crozet, landed on Île de la Possession, claiming the archipelago for France. In 1776, Crozet met James Cook at Cape Town, at the start of Cook's third voyage. Crozet shared the charts of his ill-fated expedition, and as Cook sailed eastward, he stopped at the islands, naming the western group ''Marion'' and the eastern group ''Crozet''. In the following years, sealers visiting the islands referred to both the eastern and western groups as the Crozet Islands, and Marion Island became the name of the larger of the two Prince Edward ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Edward Islands
The Prince Edward Islands are two small uninhabited subantarctic volcanic islands in the southern Indian Ocean that are administered by South Africa. They are named Marion Island (named after Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, 1724–1772) and Prince Edward Island (named after Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, 1767–1820). The islands in the group have been declared Special Nature Reserves under the South African Environmental Management: Protected Areas Act, No. 57 of 2003, and activities on the islands are therefore restricted to research and conservation management. Further protection was granted when the area was declared a marine protected area in 2013. The only human inhabitants of the islands are the staff of a meteorological and biological research station run by the South African National Antarctic Programme on Marion Island. History Barent Barentszoon Lam of the Dutch East India Company reached the islands on 4 March 1663 on the ship ''Maerseveen''. They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58See the 2014 version of the ICS geologic time scale million years ago (Ma). It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic, Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by the Pleistocene Epoch. Prior to the 2009 revision of the geologic time scale, which placed the four most recent major glaciations entirely within the Pleistocene, the Pliocene also included the Gelasian Stage, which lasted from 2.59 to 1.81 Ma, and is now included in the Pleistocene. As with other older geologic periods, the Stratum, geological strata that define the start and end are well-identified but the exact dates of the start a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kerguelen Islands
The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the subantarctic, sub-Antarctic region. They are among the Extremes on Earth#Remoteness, most isolated places on Earth, with the closest territory being the Heard Island and McDonald Islands territory of Australia located at roughly , and the nearest inhabited territory being Madagascar at more than in distance. The islands, along with Adélie Land, the Crozet Islands, Île Amsterdam, Amsterdam and Île Saint-Paul, Saint Paul islands, and France's Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean, are part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands and are administered as a separate district. The islands constitute one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau (the other being Heard Island and the McDonald islands), a large igneous province mostly submerged in the southern Indian Ocean. The main island, Grande Terre, is in area, about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snow Petrel
The snow petrel (''Pagodroma nivea'') is the only member of the genus ''Pagodroma.'' It is one of only three birds that have been seen at the Geographic South Pole, along with the Antarctic petrel and the south polar skua, which has the most southerly breeding sites of any bird, inland in Antarctica. Taxonomy The snow petrel was species description, described in 1777 by the German naturalist Georg Forster in his book ''A Voyage Round the World''. He had accompanied James Cook on Cook's Second voyage of James Cook, second voyage to the Pacific. We particularly observed a petrel, about the size of a pigeon, entirely white, with a black bill and blueish feet; it constantly appeared about the icy masses, and may be looked upon as a sure fore-runner of ice. Forster placed the snow petrel in the genus ''Procellaria'' that had been erected for the petrels by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 and coined the binomial name ''Procellaria nivea''. The snow petrel is now the only species placed in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
