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Micrurus Tener
''Micrurus tener'', commonly known as the Texas coral snake, is a species of snake in the family Elapidae. It is native to the southern United States and adjacent northeastern and central Mexico. Six subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies, ''Micrurus tener tener'' The species ''Micrurus tener'' was once considered to be a subspecies of the eastern coral snake (''Micrurus fulvius''). Geographic range The Texas coral snake ranges from the southern United States south to northeastern and central Mexico. It inhabits the states of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas, and the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Querétaro and Morelos. Description The Texas coral snake has the traditional coloration associated with coral snakes: black, yellow, and red rings. These rings extend onto the belly. It is capable of growing to 48 in (122 cm) in total length (tail included), but most are closer to . Powell R, Conant R, Coll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spencer Fullerton Baird
Spencer Fullerton Baird (; February 3, 1823 – August 19, 1887) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, Herpetology, herpetologist, and museum curator. Baird was the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution. He eventually served as assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1850 to 1878, and as Secretary from 1878 until 1887. He was dedicated to expanding the natural history collections of the Smithsonian which he increased from 6,000 specimens in 1850 to over 2 million by the time of his death. He also served as the U.S. United States Fish Commission, Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries from 1871 to 1887 and published over 1,000 works during his lifetime. Early life and education Spencer Fullerton Baird was born in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1823. His mother was a member of the prominent Philadelphia Biddle family; he was a nephew of Speaker of the Pennsylvania Senate Charles B. Penrose and a first cousin, once removed, of U.S. Senator Boies Penr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma to the west. Its name derives from the Osage language, and refers to their relatives, the Quapaw people. The state's diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the densely forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River and the Arkansas Delta. Previously part of French Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase, the Territory of Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state on June 15, 1836. Much of the Delta had been developed for cotton plantations, and landowners there largely depended on enslaved African Americans' labor. In 1861, Arkansas seceded from the United St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nocturnal Animal
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 nig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melanism
Melanism is the congenital excess of melanin in an organism resulting in dark pigment. Pseudomelanism, also called abundism, is another variant of pigmentation, identifiable by dark spots or enlarged stripes, which cover a large part of the body of the animal, making it appear melanistic. The morbid deposition of black matter, often of a malignant character causing pigmented tumors, is called melanosis. Adaptation Melanism related to the process of adaptation is called adaptive. Most commonly, dark individuals become fitter to survive and reproduce in their environment as they are better camouflaged. This makes some species less conspicuous to predators, while others, such as leopards, use it as a foraging advantage during night hunting. Typically, adaptive melanism is heritable: A dominant allele, which is entirely or nearly entirely expressed in the phenotype, is responsible for the excessive amount of melanin. By contrast, adaptive melanism associated with Batesian mimi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albinism In Biology
Albinism is the congenital absence of melanin in an animal or plant resulting in white hair, feathers, scales and skin and reddish pink or blue eyes. Individuals with the condition are referred to as albinos. Varied use and interpretation of the terms mean that written reports of albinistic animals can be difficult to verify. Albinism can reduce the survivability of an animal; for example, it has been suggested that albino alligators have an average survival span of only 24 hours due to the lack of protection from UV radiation and their lack of camouflage to avoid predators. It is a common misconception that all albino animals have characteristic pink or red eyes (resulting from the lack of pigment in the iris allowing the blood vessels of the retina to be visible); this is not the case for some forms of albinism. Familiar albino animals include in-bred strains of laboratory animals (rats, mice and rabbits), but populations of naturally occurring albino animals exist in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pupil
The pupil is a hole located in the center of the iris of the eye that allows light to strike the retina.Cassin, B. and Solomon, S. (1990) ''Dictionary of Eye Terminology''. Gainesville, Florida: Triad Publishing Company. It appears black because light rays entering the pupil are either absorbed by the tissues inside the eye directly, or absorbed after diffuse reflections within the eye that mostly miss exiting the narrow pupil. The size of the pupil is controlled by the iris, and varies depending on many factors, the most significant being the amount of light in the environment. The term "pupil" was coined by Gerard of Cremona. In humans, the pupil is circular, but its shape varies between species; some cats, reptiles, and foxes have vertical slit pupils, goats and sheep have horizontally oriented pupils, and some catfish have annular types. In optical terms, the anatomical pupil is the eye's aperture and the iris is the aperture stop. The image of the pupil as seen from o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eyes
An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the eye is a complex optical system that collects light from the surrounding environment, regulates its intensity through a diaphragm, focuses it through an adjustable assembly of lenses to form an image, converts this image into a set of electrical signals, and transmits these signals to the brain through neural pathways that connect the eye via the optic nerve to the visual cortex and other areas of the brain. Eyes with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, classified into compound eyes and non-compound eyes. Compound eyes are made up of multiple small visual units, and are common on insects and crustaceans. Non-compound eyes have a single lens and focus light onto the retina to form a single image. This type of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorsal Scales
In snakes, the dorsal scales are the longitudinal series of plates that encircle the body, but do not include the ventral scales. Campbell JA, Lamar WW (2004). ''The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates. 2 volumes. 870 pp. 1,500 plates. . When counting dorsal scales, numbers are often given for three points along the body, for example 19:21:17. These numbers correspond to the number of dorsal scales around the body at a head's length behind the head, at midbody and at a head's length before the vent. If only one number is given, it is for the midbody count. Dorsal scale are easiest to count diagonally, starting with the paraventral scale row. In doing so, it is often noted that certain scale rows are raised, keeled or smooth as opposed to the others.U.S. Navy (1991). ''Poisonous Snakes of the World''. United States Government. New York: Dover Publications Inc. 203 pp. . See also *Snake scales *Anatomical terms of locat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Powell (herpetologist)
Robert ″Bob″ Powell (born 17 August 1948 in Germany) is an American herpetologist. His main research interest is in the herpetofauna of the Caribbean. Career Powell was born in Germany but raised in Missouri. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1970 from the University of Missouri and his Master of Arts in 1971 from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. In 1984, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri with the thesis ″Variation in Spotted Salamanders (''Ambystoma maculatum'') from Missouri". In 1989, he became professor and coordinator in the biology department at the Avila College in Kansas City. From 1994 until 2018 he was professor for biology at the Avila University in Kansas City. In 2005, he described the gecko species '' Gonatodes daudini'' from Union Island, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, sometimes known simply as Saint Vincent or SVG, is an island country in the eastern Caribbean. It is located in the sout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morelos
Morelos, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Morelos, is a landlocked state located in south-central Mexico. It is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Morelos, 36 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca. Morelos is bordered by Mexico City to the north, and by the states of State of Mexico, México to the northeast and northwest, Puebla to the east and Guerrero to the southwest. Morelos is the second-smallest state in the nation, just after Tlaxcala. It was part of a very large province, the State of Mexico, until 1869 when Benito Juárez decreed that its territory would be separated and named in honor of José María Morelos y Pavón, who Siege of Cuautla, defended the city of Cuautla, Morelos, Cuautla from royalist forces during the Mexican War of Independence. Most of the state enjoys a warm climate year-round, which is good for the raising of sugar cane and o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Querétaro
Querétaro, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Querétaro, 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Querétaro City, Santiago de Querétaro. It is located in north-central Mexico, in a region known as Bajío. It is bordered by the states of San Luis Potosí to the north, Guanajuato to the west, Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo to the east, State of Mexico, México to the southeast and Michoacán to the southwest. The state is one of the smallest in Mexico, but also one of the most heterogeneous geographically, with ecosystems varying from deserts to tropical rainforest, especially in the Sierra Gorda, which is filled with microecosystems. The area of the state was located on the northern edge of Mesoamerica, with both the Purépecha Empire and Aztec Empire having influence in the extreme south, but neither really dominating it. The area, especially the Sierra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
