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Metaturnal
Cathemerality, sometimes called metaturnality, is an organismal activity pattern of irregular intervals during the day or night in which food is acquired, socializing with other organisms occurs, and any other activities necessary for livelihood are undertaken. This activity differs from the generally monophasic pattern (sleeping once per day) of nocturnal and diurnal species as it is polyphasic (sleeping 4-6 times per day) and is approximately evenly distributed throughout the 24-hour cycle. Many animals do not fit the traditional definitions of being strictly nocturnal, diurnal, or crepuscular, often driven by factors that include the availability of food, predation pressure, and variable ambient temperature. Although cathemerality is not as widely observed in individual species as diurnality or nocturnality, this activity pattern is seen across the mammal taxa, such as in lions, coyotes, and lemurs. Cathemeral behaviour can also vary on a seasonal basis over an annual pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nocturnality
Nocturnality is a behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing, smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Some animals, such as ferrets, have eyes that can adapt to both low-level and bright day levels of illumination (see metaturnal). Others, such as bushbabies and (some) bats, can function only at night. Many nocturnal creatures including tarsiers and some owls have large eyes in comparison with their body size to compensate for the lower light levels at night. More specifically, they have been found to have a larger cornea relative to their eye size than diurnal creatures to increase their : in the low-light conditions. Nocturnality helps wasps, such as ''Apoica flavissima'', avoid hunting in intense sunlight. Diurnal animals, including humans (except for ni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panthera Leo Persica Nuremberg Zoo
''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae, and one of two extant genera in the subfamily Pantherinae. It contains the largest living members of the cat family. There are five living species: the jaguar, leopard, lion, snow leopard and tiger. Numerous extinct species are also named, including the cave lion and American lion. Etymology The word derives from Classical Latin , itself from the Ancient Greek (). Characteristics In ''Panthera'' species, the dorsal profile of the skull is flattish or evenly convex. The frontal interorbital area is not noticeably elevated, and the area behind the elevation is less steeply sloped. The basic cranial axis is nearly horizontal. The inner chamber of the bullae is large, the outer small. The partition between them is close to the external auditory meatus. The convexly rounded chin is sloping. All ''Panthera'' species have an incompletely ossified hyoid bone and a specially adapted larynx with large vocal folds covered in a fibro- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Tattersall
Ian Tattersall (born 1945) is a British-born American paleoanthropologist and a curator emeritus with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, New York. In addition to human evolution, Tattersall has worked extensively with lemurs. Tattersall is currently working with the Templeton Foundation. Early life and education Tattersall was born in 1945 in the United Kingdom, and grew up in eastern Africa. He trained in archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and earned his PhD from Yale University in 1971. Career Tattersall has concentrated his research over the past quarter-century on the analysis of the human fossil record and the study of the ecology and systematics of the lemurs of Madagascar, and is considered a leader in both areas. Tattersall believed that existing literature was not an adequate resource for comparing human fossils because of the many terminological variations. As a result, Tattersall and research associate Jeffrey Schwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crepuscular
In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal (active during dawn), vespertine (biology), vespertine/vespertinal (active during dusk), or both. This is distinguished from diurnality, diurnal and nocturnality, nocturnal behavior, where an animal is active during the hours of daytime and of night, respectively. Some crepuscular animals may also be active by moonlight or during an overcast day. Matutinal animals are active only after dawn, and vespertine (biology), vespertine only before dusk. A number of factors affect the time of day an animal is active. Predation, Predators hunt when their prey is available, and prey try to avoid the times when their principal predators are at large. The temperature may be too high at midday or too low at night. Some creatures may adjust their activities depending on local competition. Etymology and usage The word ''crepuscular'' derives from the Latin ''wiktionary:crepusculum, cre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden-lined Spinefoot
The golden-lined spinefoot (''Siganus lineatus''), also known as the goldlined rabbitfish or lined rabbitfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a rabbitfish belonging to the family Siganidae. It is found in the tropical Western Pacific and along the coasts of northern Australia. Taxonomy The golden-lined spinefoot was first formally described in 1835 as ''Amphacanthus lineatus'' by the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes with the type locality given as the Western Pacific. The populations of spinefoots similar to '' Siganus lineatus'' in the waters off the Maldives, southern India and Sr Lanka had been considered to be conspecific with ''S. lineatus'' but differences in the colour and pattern as well as genetic differences showed that this was a valid, allopatric species, '' S. insomnis''. The specific name ''lineatus'' means "lined", a reference to the wavy bands along its body. Description The golden-lined spinefoot has a laterally compressed body, which has a depth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fossa (animal)
The fossa (''Cryptoprocta ferox''; or ; ) is a slender, long-tailed, cat-like mammal that is endemic to Madagascar. It is a member of the carnivora, carnivoran family Eupleridae. The fossa is the largest mammalian carnivore on Madagascar and has been compared to a small cougar, as it has Convergent evolution, convergently evolved many cat-like features. Adults have a head-body length of and weigh between , with the males larger than the females. It has semi-retractable claws (meaning it can extend but not retract its claws fully) and flexible ankles that allow it to climb up and down trees head-first, and also support jumping from tree to tree. A larger relative of the species, ''Cryptoprocta spelea'', probably became extinct before 1400. The species is widespread, although population density, population densities are usually low. It is found solely in forested habitat, and actively hunts both by day and night. Over 50% of its diet consists of lemurs, the endemic primates f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siganus Lineatus
The golden-lined spinefoot (''Siganus lineatus''), also known as the goldlined rabbitfish or lined rabbitfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a rabbitfish belonging to the family Siganidae. It is found in the tropical Western Pacific and along the coasts of northern Australia. Taxonomy The golden-lined spinefoot was first formally described in 1835 as ''Amphacanthus lineatus'' by the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes with the type locality given as the Western Pacific. The populations of spinefoots similar to '' Siganus lineatus'' in the waters off the Maldives, southern India and Sr Lanka had been considered to be conspecific with ''S. lineatus'' but differences in the colour and pattern as well as genetic differences showed that this was a valid, allopatric species, '' S. insomnis''. The specific name ''lineatus'' means "lined", a reference to the wavy bands along its body. Description The golden-lined spinefoot has a laterally compressed body, which has a depth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
The eastern grey kangaroo (''Macropus giganteus'': gigantic large-foot; also great grey kangaroo or forester kangaroo) is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. Although a large ''M. giganteus'' kangaroo male can typically weigh up to and have a length of well over , the scientific name is misleading as the red kangaroo of the semi-arid inland is larger, weighing up to . Taxonomy The eastern grey kangaroo was described by George Shaw (biologist), George Shaw in 1790 as ''Macropus giganteus''. Subspecies While two subspecies were recognised by Mammal Species of the World (MSW), there is some dispute as to the validity of this division, and the subspecies are not recognised by the Australian Mammal Society, the IUCN, or the American Society of Mammalogists, which produces the successor of the MSW. Albert Sherbourne Le Souef created the Tasmanian subspecies in 1923, based on coat colour. In 1972 John Augustus Walter Kirsch, Kirs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thermoregulation
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature as its own body temperature, thus avoiding the need for internal thermoregulation. The internal thermoregulation process is one aspect of homeostasis: a state of dynamic stability in an organism's internal conditions, maintained far from thermal equilibrium with its environment (the study of such processes in zoology has been called physiological ecology). If the body is unable to maintain a normal human body temperature, normal temperature and it increases significantly above normal, a condition known as hyperthermia occurs. Humans may also experience lethal hyperthermia when the wet bulb temperature is sustained above for six hours. Work in 2022 established by experiment that a wet-bulb temperature exceeding 30.55°C caused uncompensab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Photoperiodism
Photoperiod is the change of day length around the seasons. The rotation of the earth around its axis produces 24 hour changes in light (day) and dark (night) cycles on earth. The length of the light and dark in each phase varies across the seasons due to the tilt of the earth around its axis. The photoperiod defines the length of the light, for example a summer day the length of light could be 16 hours while the dark is 8 hours, whereas a winter day the length of day could be 8 hours, whereas the dark is 16 hours. Importantly, the seasons are different in the northern hemisphere than the southern hemisphere. Photoperiodism is the physiological reaction of organisms to the length of light or a dark period. It occurs in plants and animals. Plant photoperiodism can also be defined as the developmental responses of plants to the relative lengths of light and dark periods. They are classified under three groups according to the photoperiods: short-day plants, long-day plants, and day ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Brown Lemur (Eulemur Fulvus) Male
The common brown lemur (''Eulemur fulvus'') is a species of lemur in the family Lemuridae. It is found in Madagascar and has been introduced to Mayotte. Taxonomy Five additional currently recognized species of lemur were until 2001 considered subspecies of ''E. fulvus''. These are: * White-fronted brown lemur, ''E. albifrons'' * Gray-headed lemur, ''E. cinereiceps'' * Collared brown lemur, ''E. collaris'' * Red-fronted brown lemur, ''E. rufus'' * Sanford's brown lemur, ''E. sanfordi'' However, a number of zoologists believe that ''E. albifrons'' and ''E. rufus'' should continue to be considered subspecies of ''E. fulvus''. Physical description The common brown lemur has a total length of , including of tail. Weight ranges from . Common brown lemurs are unique amongst ''Eulemur'' in that they exhibit little-to-no sexual dichromatism: in both males and females, the face, muzzle and crown are dark gray or black, with white or tan "cheeks" of varying thickness. Some individuals m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
