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Lark Lane 20200101
Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occurs in Australia. Habitats vary widely, but many species live in drier regions. When the word "lark" is used without specification, it often refers to the Eurasian skylark ''(Alauda arvensis)''. Taxonomy and systematics The family Alaudidae was introduced in 1825 by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors as a subfamily Alaudina of the finch family Fringillidae. Larks are a well-defined family, partly because of the shape of their . They have multiple Scute#Birds, scutes on the hind side of their tarsi, rather than the single plate found in most songbirds. They also lack a pessulus, the bony central structure in the syrinx of songbirds. They were long placed at or near the beginning of the songbirds or oscines (now often called Pas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurasian Skylark
The Eurasian skylark (''Alauda arvensis'') is a passerine bird in the lark family, Alaudidae. It is a widespread species found across Europe and the Palearctic with introduced populations in Australia, New Zealand and on the Hawaiian Islands. It is a bird of open farmland and heath, known for the song of the male, which is delivered in hovering flight from heights of . The sexes are alike. It is streaked greyish-brown above and on the breast and has a buff-white belly. The female Eurasian skylark builds an open nest in a shallow depression on open ground well away from trees, bushes and hedges. She lays three to five eggs which she incubates for around 11 days. The chicks are fed by both parents but leave the nest after eight to ten days, well before they can fly. They scatter and hide in the vegetation but continue to be fed by the parents until they can fly at 18 to 20 days of age. Nests are subject to high predation rates by larger birds and small mammals. The parents can hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bearded Reedling
The bearded reedling (''Panurus biarmicus'') is a small, long-tailed passerine bird found in reed beds near water in the temperate zone of Eurasia. It is frequently known as the bearded tit or the bearded parrotbill, as it historically was believed to be closely related to tits or parrotbills. Today it is known to lack close relatives and it is the only species in the family Panuridae. Bearded reedlings are strongly sexually dimorphic and form life-long pairs. They are highly productive and can breed several times in a season. They mainly feed on small invertebrates in summer and plant seeds in winter. Taxonomy and systematics The bearded reedling was scientifically described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in his 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. He placed it with the tits in the genus '' Parus'' and coined the binomial name ''Parus biarmicus''. Linnaeus based his entry on the "beardmanica or bearded tit-mouse" that had been described and illustrated in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clade
In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach to taxonomy adopted by most biological fields. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, or a species (extinct or Extant taxon, extant). Clades are nested, one in another, as each branch in turn splits into smaller branches. These splits reflect evolutionary history as populations diverged and evolved independently. Clades are termed ''monophyletic'' (Greek: "one clan") groups. Over the last few decades, the cladistic approach has revolutionized biological classification and revealed surprising evolutionary relationships among organisms. Increasingly, taxonomists try to avoid naming Taxon, taxa that are not clades; that is, taxa that are not Monophyly, monophyletic. Some of the relationships between organisms that the molecul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 taxon B are sister groups to each other. Taxa A and B, together with any other extant or extinct descendants of their most recent common ancestor (MRCA), form a monophyletic group, the clade AB. Clade AB and taxon C are also sister groups. Taxa A, B, and C, together with all other descendants of their MRCA form the clade ABC. The whole clade ABC is itself a subtree of a larger tree which offers yet more sister group relationships, both among the leaves and among larger, more deeply rooted clades. The tree structure shown connects through its root to the rest of the universal tree of life. In cladistic standards, taxa A, B, and C may represent specimens, species, genera, or any other taxonomic units. If A and B are at the same taxonomic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molecular Phylogenetic
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to determine the processes by which diversity among species has been achieved. The result of a molecular phylogenetic analysis is expressed in a phylogenetic tree. Molecular phylogenetics is one aspect of molecular systematics, a broader term that also includes the use of molecular data in taxonomy and biogeography. Molecular phylogenetics and molecular evolution correlate. Molecular evolution is the process of selective changes (mutations) at a molecular level (genes, proteins, etc.) throughout various branches in the tree of life (evolution). Molecular phylogenetics makes inferences of the evolutionary relationships that arise due to molecular evolution and results in the construction of a phylogenetic tree. History The theoretical fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their toes (three pointing forward and one back), which facilitates perching. With more than 140 families and some 6,500 identified species, Passeriformes is the largest order of birds and one of the most diverse clades of terrestrial vertebrates, representing 60% of birds.Ericson, P.G.P. et al. (2003Evolution, biogeography, and patterns of diversification in passerine birds ''J. Avian Biol'', 34:3–15.Selvatti, A.P. et al. (2015"A Paleogene origin for crown passerines and the diversification of the Oscines in the New World" ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'', 88:1–15. Passerines are divided into three suborders: New Zealand wrens; Suboscines, primarily found in North and South America; and songbirds. Passerines originated in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old World Babbler
The Old World babblers or Timaliidae, are a family (biology), family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft, fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The timaliids are one of two unrelated groups of birds known as babblers, the other being the Australasian babblers of the family Pomatostomidae (also known as pseudo-babblers). This family takes its name from the Genus (biology) , genus Timalia: this generic name was coined by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier in 1821. Although Cuvier did not explain its etymology, it is thought to be based on a Latinized form of an Asian vernacular name (probably Hindu or Indo-Malaysian languages) for these birds, as many species in this family are native to South and Southeast Asia. morphology (biology), Morphological diversity is rather high; most species resemble "warblers", jay (bird ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old World Warbler
The Old World warblers are a large group of birds formerly grouped together in the bird family Sylviidae. They are not closely related to the New World warblers. The family held over 400 species in over 70 genera, and were the source of much taxonomic confusion. Two families were split out initially, the cisticolas into Cisticolidae and the kinglets into Regulidae. In the past 20–30 years they have been the subject of much research and many species are now placed into other families, including the Acrocephalidae, Cettiidae, Phylloscopidae, and Megaluridae. In addition some species have been moved into existing families or have not yet had their placement fully resolved. Only a small number of warblers, in just two genera, are now retained in the family Sylviidae. Characteristics Most Old World warblers are of generally undistinguished appearance, though some species are boldly marked. The sexes are often identical, but may be clearly distinct, notably in the genera '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taxonomic Rank
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 (biology), family, Order (biology), order, Class (biology), class, Phylum (biology), phylum, Kingdom (biology), kingdom, and Domain (biology), domain designate rank. This page emphasizes absolute ranks and the rank-based codes (the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, Zoological Code, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vireonidae
The vireos make up a family (biology), family, Vireonidae, of small to medium-sized passerine birds found in the New World (Canada to Argentina, including Bermuda and the West Indies) and Southeast Asia. The family contains 62 species and is divided into eight genera. "Vireo" is a Latin word referring to a green migratory bird, perhaps the female golden oriole, possibly the European greenfinch. They are typically dull-plumaged and greenish in color, the smaller species resembling New World warbler, wood warblers apart from their heavier bills. They range in size from the Chocó vireo, dwarf vireo and lesser greenlet, all at around 10 cm and 8g, to the peppershrikes and shrike-vireos at up to 17 cm and 40g.Forshaw, Joseph & Parkes, Kenneth C. 1991. ''Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds,'' p. 209. Merehurst Press, London. Distribution and habitat Most species are found in Middle America (Americas), Middle America and northern South America. Thirteen species of true ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
