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Platanista
South Asian river dolphins are toothed whales in the genus ''Platanista'', which inhabit the waterways of the Indian subcontinent. They were historically considered to be one species (''P. gangetica'') with the Ganges river dolphin and the Indus river dolphin being subspecies (''P. g. gangetica'' and ''P. g. minor'' respectively). Genetic and morphological evidence led to their being described as separate species in 2021. The Ganges and Indus river dolphins are estimated to have diverged 550,000 years ago. They are the only living members of the family Platanistidae and the superfamily Platanistoidea. Fossils of ancient relatives date to the late Oligocene. South Asian river dolphins are small but stocky cetaceans with long snouts or rostra, broad flippers, and small dorsal fins. They have several unusual features. Living in murky river waters, they have eyes that are tiny and lensless; the dolphins rely instead on echolocation for navigation. The skull has large crests o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platanista Gangetica
The Ganges river dolphin (''Platanista gangetica'') is a species of freshwater dolphin classified in the family Platanistidae. It lives in the Ganges and related rivers of South Asia, namely in the countries of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. It is related to the much smaller Indus river dolphin which lives in the rivers of the Indus Basin in Pakistan and northwestern India. It is also known by the name susu (popular name) also shihu () in Assam and shushuk () in West Bengal and Bangladesh., page 451 etter Aand page 568 etter S The Ganges river dolphin has been recognized by the Government of India as its National Aquatic Animal and is the official animal of the Indian city of Guwahati. Its first occurrence, within the Hooghly River, was documented by William Roxburgh. Description The Ganges river dolphin has a rectangular, ridgelike dorsal fin and females tend to be larger than males. Ganges river dolphins usually are tan, chocolate brown, dark grey or light blue. They have ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ganges River Dolphin
The Ganges river dolphin (''Platanista gangetica'') is a species of freshwater dolphin classified in the family Platanistidae. It lives in the Ganges and related rivers of South Asia, namely in the countries of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. It is related to the much smaller Indus river dolphin which lives in the rivers of the Indus Basin in Pakistan and northwestern India. It is also known by the name susu (popular name) also shihu () in Assam and shushuk () in West Bengal and Bangladesh., page 451 etter Aand page 568 etter S The Ganges river dolphin has been recognized by the Government of India as its National Aquatic Animal and is the official animal of the Indian city of Guwahati. Its first occurrence, within the Hooghly River, was documented by William Roxburgh. Description The Ganges river dolphin has a rectangular, ridgelike dorsal fin and females tend to be larger than males. Ganges river dolphins usually are tan, chocolate brown, dark grey or light blue. They ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indus River Dolphin
The Indus river dolphin (''Platanista minor'') is a species of freshwater dolphin in the family Platanistidae. It is endemic to the Indus River basin in Pakistan and Beas River in northwestern India. This dolphin was the first discovered side-swimming cetacean. It is patchily distributed in five small, sub-populations that are separated by irrigation barrages. From the 1970s until 1998, the Ganges River dolphin (''Platanista gangetica'') and the Indus dolphin were regarded as separate species; however, in 1998, their classification was changed from two separate species to subspecies of a single species. However, more recent studies support them being distinct species. It has been named as the national mammal of Pakistan and the state aquatic animal of Punjab, India. Taxonomy The Indus river dolphin was described in 1853 by Richard Owen under the name ''Platanista gangetica, var. minor'', based on a dolphin skull, which was smaller than skulls of the Ganges river dolphin. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platanista Minor
The Indus river dolphin (''Platanista minor'') is a species of freshwater dolphin in the family Platanistidae. It is endemic to the Indus River basin in Pakistan and Beas River in northwestern India. This dolphin was the first discovered side-swimming cetacean. It is patchily distributed in five small, sub-populations that are separated by irrigation barrages. From the 1970s until 1998, the Ganges River dolphin (''Platanista gangetica'') and the Indus dolphin were regarded as separate species; however, in 1998, their classification was changed from two separate species to subspecies of a single species. However, more recent studies support them being distinct species. It has been named as the national mammal of Pakistan and the state aquatic animal of Punjab, India. Taxonomy The Indus river dolphin was described in 1853 by Richard Owen under the name ''Platanista gangetica, var. minor'', based on a dolphin skull, which was smaller than skulls of the Ganges river dolphin. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platanistidae
Platanistidae is a family of river dolphins containing the extant Ganges river dolphin and Indus river dolphin (both in the genus ''Platanista'') but also extinct relatives from freshwater and marine deposits in the Neogene. The Amazon river dolphin, baiji, and La Plata dolphin The La Plata dolphin, franciscana or toninha (''Pontoporia blainvillei'') is a species of river dolphin found in coastal Atlantic waters of southeastern South America. It is a member of the Inioidea group and the only one that lives in the ocean ... were once thought to belong to Platanistidae (e.g. Simpson, 1945), but cladistic and DNA studies beginning in the 1990s showed that the former three taxa are more closely related to Delphinoidea than to the South Asian river dolphin. The extinct odontocete families Allodelphinidae and Squalodelphinidae are closely related to Platanistidae. Fossils from this clade have been found in deposits in North and South America, Europe, and Central Asia. Fossil and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Dolphin
River dolphins are a polyphyletic group of fully aquatic mammals that reside exclusively in freshwater or brackish water. They are an informal grouping of dolphins, which itself is a paraphyletic group within the infraorder Cetacea. Extant river dolphins are placed in two superfamilies, Platanistoidea and Inioidea. They comprise the families Platanistidae (the South Asian dolphins), the possibly extinct Lipotidae (Yangtze River dolphin), Iniidae (the Amazonian dolphins) and Pontoporiidae. There are five extant species of river dolphins. River dolphins, alongside other cetaceans, belong to the clade Artiodactyla, with even-toed ungulates, and their closest living relatives the hippopotamuses, from which they diverged about 40 million years ago. Specific types of dolphins can be pink. River dolphins are relatively small compared to other dolphins, having evolved to survive in warm, shallow water and strong river currents. They range in size from the long South Asian river dol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heinrich Julius Lebeck
Heinrich Julius Lebeck (1772 – 12 June 1800) was a Ceylon-born Dutch naturalist and specimen collector. He was educated in southern India, at a school run by missionary Christoph Samuel John, and later became a student of naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg. He described the Gangetic dolphin, and the plant genus ''Lebeckia'' and the fish '' Ichthyscopus lebeck'' were named after him. Lebeck was born in Sri Lanka to a Dutch government servant named Abraham Evert de Lebecq (1746–1777). He went to study at a school in Tranquebar, India, run by C. S. John. He probably knew Tamil which he called his "native language". After around 1793 he arrived in Europe. He was living in Sweden and was a regular visitor of Carl Thunberg and began to study botany. In 1795 he received a ''testamur'' from Uppsala University where he was registered under the name Henricus Julius Lebeck Ceylonensis. He left Gothenburg for Bombay as Dutch ships were unavailable due to war. He then travelled to Tranquebar wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in a eukaryotic cell; most of the DNA is in the cell nucleus, and, in plants and algae, the DNA also is found in plastids, such as chloroplasts. Mitochondrial DNA is responsible for coding of 13 essential subunits of the complex oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) system which has a role in cellular energy conversion. Human mitochondrial DNA was the first significant part of the human genome to be sequenced. This sequencing revealed that human mtDNA has 16,569 base pairs and encodes 13 proteins. As in other vertebrates, the human mitochondrial genetic code differs slightly from nuclear DNA. Since animal mtDNA evolves faster than nuclear genetic markers, it represents a mainstay of phylogenetics and evolutionary biology. It als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lipid
Lipids are a broad group of organic compounds which include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes. Lipids have applications in the cosmetic and food industries, and in nanotechnology. Lipids are broadly defined as hydrophobic or amphiphilic small molecules; the amphiphilic nature of some lipids allows them to form structures such as vesicles, multilamellar/ unilamellar liposomes, or membranes in an aqueous environment. Biological lipids originate entirely or in part from two distinct types of biochemical subunits or "building-blocks": ketoacyl and isoprene groups. Using this approach, lipids may be divided into eight categories: fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides (derived from condensatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noise Pollution
Noise pollution, or sound pollution, is the propagation of noise or sound with potential harmful effects on humans and animals. The source of outdoor noise worldwide is mainly caused by machines, transport and propagation systems.Senate Public Works Committee. ''Noise Pollution and Abatement Act of 1972''. S. Rep. No. 1160, 92nd Congress. 2nd session Poor urban planning may give rise to noise disintegration or pollution, side-by-side industrial, and residential buildings can result in noise pollution in the residential areas. Some of the main sources of noise in residential areas include loud music, transportation (traffic, rail, airplanes, etc.), lawn care maintenance, construction, electrical generators, wind turbines, explosions, and people. Documented problems associated with noise in urban environments go back as far as ancient Rome. Research suggests that noise pollution in the United States is the highest in low-income and racial minority neighborhoods, and noise pollut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Owen
Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist and paleontology, palaeontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owen produced a vast array of scientific work, but is probably best remembered today for coining the word ''Dinosauria'' (meaning "Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile"). An outspoken critic of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Owen agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's ''On the Origin of Species''.[''Wikipedia:Citing sources, page range too broad''] Owen's approach to evolution can be considered to have anticipated the issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology. Owen was the first president of the Microscopical Society of London in 1839 and edited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Era
Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the original Anno Domini (AD) and Before Christ (BC) notations used for the same calendar era. The two notation systems are numerically equivalent: " CE" and "AD " each describe the current year; "400 BCE" and "400 BC" are the same year. The expression can be traced back to 1615, when it first appears in a book by Johannes Kepler as the (), and to 1635 in English as " Vulgar Era". The term "Common Era" can be found in English as early as 1708, and became more widely used in the mid-19th century by Jewish religious scholars. Since the late 20th century, BCE and CE have become popular in academic and scientific publications on the grounds that BCE and CE are religiously neutral terms. They have been promoted as more sensitive to non-Christia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
