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Sentinel Lark
The sentinel lark (''Corypha athi'') is a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found in Kenya and Tanzania. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark. Taxonomy The sentinel lark was formally described in 1900 by the German ornithologist Ernst Hartert based on a specimen collected on the plains of the Athi River in Kenya. He considered it to be a subspecies of the rufous-naped lark and coined the trinomial name ''Mirafra africana athi''. The sentinel lark is now treated as a separate species and placed in the genus ''Corypha''. This placement is based on the results of two molecular phylogenetic studies by a team of ornithologists led by Per Alström that were published in 2023 and 2024. Two subspecies are recognised: * ''C. a. athi'' ( Hartert, EJO, 1900) – central Kenya to northeast Tanzania * ''C. a. harterti'' (Neumann Neumann () is a German language, German surname, with its origins in the pre-7th-century (Old English) word ''wikt:neowe, neowe'' m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsavo East National Park
Tsavo East National Park is a national park in Kenya with an area of . It was established in April 1948 and covers a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert. Together with the Tsavo West National Park, it forms an area of about 22,000 square kilometers. The Tsavo River flows west to east through the national park, which is located in the Taita-Taveta County of the former Coast Province. Geography Tsavo East National Park is generally flat, with dry plains across which the Galana River flows. Other features include the Yatta Plateau and Lugard Falls. Inside Tsavo East National Park, the Athi and Tsavo rivers converge to form the Athi-Galana-Sabaki River. Most of the park consists of semi-arid grasslands and savanna. The Yatta Plateau, the world's longest lava flow, runs along the western boundary of the park above the Athi-Galana-Sabaki River. Its length was formed by lava from Ol Donyo Sabuk Mountain. The Mudanda Rock is a inselberg of stratified rock tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernst Hartert
Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German ornithologist. Life and career Hartert was born in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married the illustrator Claudia Bernadine Elisabeth Hartert in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, with whom he had a son named Joachim Karl (Charles) Hartert, (1893–1916), who was killed as an English soldier on the Somme. Together with his wife, he was the first to describe the blue-tailed Buffon hummingbird subspecies (''Chalybura buffonii intermedia'' Hartert, E & Hartert, C, 1894). The article ''On a collection of Humming Birds from Ecuador and Mexico'' appears to be their only joint publication. Hartert was employed by Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild as ornithological curator of Rothshild's private Natural History Museum at Tring, in England from 1892 to 1929. Hartert published the quarterly museum periodical ''Novitates Zoologicae'' (1894–39) wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lark
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] |
Kenya
Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi. Its second-largest and oldest city is Mombasa, a major port city located on Mombasa Island. Other major cities within the country include Kisumu, Nakuru & Eldoret. Going clockwise, Kenya is bordered by South Sudan to the northwest (though much of that border includes the disputed Ilemi Triangle), Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the east, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, Tanzania to the southwest, and Lake Victoria and Uganda to the west. Kenya's geography, climate and population vary widely. In western, rift valley counties, the landscape includes cold, snow-capped mountaintops (such as Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana on Mount Kenya) with vast surrounding forests, wildlife and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. According to a 2024 estimate, Tanzania has a population of around 67.5 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator. Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania. In the Stone and Bronze Age, prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included South Cushitic languages, Southern Cushitic speakers similar to modern day Iraqw people who moved south from present-day Ethiopia; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago; and the Southern Nilotic languages, Southern Nilotes, including the Datooga people, Datoog, who originated fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subspecies
In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species have subspecies, but for those that do there must be at least two. Subspecies is abbreviated as subsp. or ssp. and the singular and plural forms are the same ("the subspecies is" or "the subspecies are"). In zoology, under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, the subspecies is the only taxonomic rank below that of species that can receive a name. In botany and mycology, under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants, other infraspecific name, infraspecific ranks, such as variety (botany), variety, may be named. In bacteriology and virology, under standard International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes, bacterial nomenclature and virus clas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rufous-naped Lark
The rufous-naped lark (''Corypha africana'') or rufous-naped bush lark is a widespread and conspicuous species of Alaudidae, lark in the lightly wooded grasslands, open savannas and farmlands of the Afrotropical realm, Afrotropics. Males attract attention to themselves by a bold and often repeated wing-fluttering display from a prominent perch, which is accompanied by a melodious and far-carrying whistled phrase. This rudimentary Display (zoology), display has been proposed as the precursor to the wing-clapping displays of other Mirafra, bush lark species. They have consistently rufous outer wings and a short erectile crest, but the remaining plumage hues and markings are individually and geographically variable. It has a straight lower, and longish, curved upper mandible. Taxonomy and systematics The rufous-naped lark was formerly placed in the genus ''Mirafra''. It is one of several species that were moved to the resurrected genus ''Corypha (bird), Corypha'' based on the results ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Species Description
A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have been previously described or related species. For a species to be considered valid, a species description must follow established guidelines and naming conventions dictated by relevant nomenclature codes. These include the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) for animals, the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) for plants, and the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) for viruses. A species description often includes photographs or other illustrations of type material and information regarding where this material is deposited. The publication in which the species is described gives the new species a formal scientific name. Some 1.9 million ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athi-Galana-Sabaki River
The Athi-Galana-Sabaki River is the second longest river in Kenya (after the Tana River). It has a total length of , and drains an area of . The river rises in the Gatamaiyo Forest as the Athi River and enters the Indian Ocean as the Galana River (also known as the Sabaki River). Flow The Athi River flows across the Kapote and Athi plains, through Athi River town, and then takes a northeast direction where it is met by the Nairobi River. Near Thika, the river forms the Fourteen Falls and turns south-south-east under the wooded slopes of the Yatta ridge, which shuts in its basin on the east. Apart from the numerous small feeders of the upper river, the only other tributary is the Tsavo River, from the east side of the Kilimanjaro, which enters at about 3° S. It then turns east, and in its lower course is known as the Sabaki (or Galana) River, which traverses the sterile quartz-land of the outer plateau. The valley is low and flat, covered with forest and scrub, containing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinomial Name
In biology, trinomial nomenclature is the system of names for taxa below the rank of species. These names have three parts. The usage is different in zoology and botany. In zoology In zoological nomenclature, a trinomen (), trinominal name, or ternary name is the name of a subspecies. A trinomen is a name with three parts: generic name, specific name and subspecific name. The first two parts alone form the binomen or species name. All three names are typeset in italics, and only the first letter of the generic name is capitalised. No indicator of rank is included: in zoology, subspecies is the only rank below that of species. For example: "''Buteo jamaicensis borealis'' is one of the subspecies of the red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'')." Examples include ''Gorilla gorilla gorilla'' ( Savage and Wyman, 1847) for the western lowland gorilla and ''Gorilla gorilla diehli'' ( Matschie, 1903) for the Cross River gorilla (which are subspecies of ''Gorilla gorilla'', the wester ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corypha (bird)
''Corypha'' is a genus of larks in the family Alaudidae. These species were formerly placed in the genus ''Mirafra''. They are widely distributed in open savannah-type habitats across sub-Saharan Africa. Taxonomy A 2023 molecular phylogenetic study of the lark family Alaudidae by the Swedish ornithologist Per Alström and his collaborators found that the genus ''Mirafra'' contained deep internal genetic divergences. They therefore split ''Mirafra'' into four genera, each corresponding to a major clade. For one of these clades they resurrected the genus ''Corypha'' that had originally been introduced in 1840 by the English zoologist George Gray with ''Alauda apiata'' Vieillot, 1816, the Cape clapper lark, as the type species. The name ''Corypha'' is from Ancient Greek κορυφος/''koruphos'', an unknown bird mentioned by the Greek author Hesychius of Alexandria that is usually assumed to be a lark. A comprehensive integrated study of the genus, published in 2024, combined a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
