Massasauga Rattlesnake
The eastern massasauga (''Sistrurus catenatus'') is a rattlesnake species found in central and eastern North America from southern Ontario in Canada and throughout the Midwestern and Eastern United States. Like all rattlesnakes, it is a pit viper and is venomous; it is the only species of venomous snake in Ontario. Taxonomy Three subspecies were recognized for more than a century, although research published in 2011 elevated two subspecies ''Sistrurus catenatus catenatus'' and ''Sistrurus catenatus tergeminus'', to full species: the eastern massasauga (''Sistrurus catenatus'') and the western massasauga (''Sistrurus tergeminus''). The status of the third subspecies was somewhat unresolved and it is tentatively recognized as the desert massasauga ('' Sistrurus tergeminus edwardsii'') by some,Powell, Robert, Roger Conant, and Joseph T. Collins. 2016. ''Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, 4rd ed.'' Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Constantine Samuel Rafinesque
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; 22 October 178318 September 1840) was a French early 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimately settling in Ohio in 1815, where he made notable contributions to botany, zoology, and the study of Mound Builders, prehistoric earthworks in North America. He also contributed to the study of ancient Mesoamerican languages, Mesoamerican linguistics, in addition to work he had already completed in Europe. Rafinesque was an eccentric and erratic genius. He was an autodidact, who excelled in various fields of knowledge, as a zoologist, botanist, writer and Polyglot (person), polyglot. He wrote prolifically on such diverse topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics, but was honored in none of these fields during his lifetime. Indeed, he was an outcast in the American scientific community and his submissions were automati ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Eastern United States
The Eastern United States, often abbreviated as simply the East, is a macroregion of the United States located to the east of the Mississippi River. It includes 17–26 states and Washington, D.C., the national capital. As of 2011, the Eastern United States had an estimated population exceeding 179 million, representing the majority (over 58 percent) of the total U.S. population. The three most populous cities in the Eastern United States are New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Northeastern United States According to the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau, the Northeastern United States comprises nine states, including (north to south): Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York (state), New York, and Pennsylvania. The present-day Northeast is significantly smaller than the Northeastern Woodlands cultural area. The pre-Columbian Northeast had three major areas: the Coastal area, Saint Lawrence Lowlands, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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River Delta
A river delta is a landform, archetypically triangular, created by the deposition of the sediments that are carried by the waters of a river, where the river merges with a body of slow-moving water or with a body of stagnant water. The creation of a river delta occurs at the '' river mouth'', where the river merges into an ocean, a sea, or an estuary, into a lake, a reservoir, or (more rarely) into another river that cannot carry away the sediment supplied by the feeding river. Etymologically, the term ''river delta'' derives from the triangular shape (Δ) of the uppercase Greek letter delta. In hydrology, the dimensions of a river delta are determined by the balance between the watershed processes that supply sediment and the watershed processes that redistribute, sequester, and export the supplied sediment into the receiving basin. River deltas are important in human civilization, as they are major agricultural production centers and population centers. They can provide ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceous plant, herbs. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica and are found in most ecoregions of the Earth. Furthermore, grasslands are one of the largest biomes on Earth and dominate the landscape worldwide. There are different types of grasslands: natural grasslands, semi-natural grasslands, and agricultural grasslands. They cover 31–69% of the Earth's land area. Definitions Included among the variety of definitions for grasslands are: * "...any plant community, including harvested forages, in which grasses and/or legumes make up the dominant vegetation." * "...terrestrial ecosystems dominated by herbaceous and shrub vegetation, and maintained by fire, grazing, drought and/or freezing temperatures." (Pilot Assessm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ojibwe Language
Ojibwe ( ), also known as Ojibwa ( ), Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian languages, Algonquian language family.Goddard, Ives, 1979.Bloomfield, Leonard, 1958. The language is characterized by a series of dialects that have local names and frequently local writing systems. There is no single dialect that is considered the most prestigious or most prominent, and no standard writing system that covers all dialects. Dialects of Ojibwemowin are spoken in Canada, from southwestern Quebec, through Ontario, Manitoba and parts of Saskatchewan, with outlying communities in Alberta;Nichols, John, 1980, pp. 1–2. and in the United States, from Michigan to Wisconsin and Minnesota, with a number of communities in North Dakota and Montana, as well as groups that were removed to Kansas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Indigenous Peoples Of The Americas
In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of the Americas as such. These populations exhibit significant diversity; some Indigenous peoples were historically hunter-gatherers, while others practiced agriculture and aquaculture. Various Indigenous societies developed complex social structures, including pre-contact monumental architecture, organized city, cities, city-states, chiefdoms, state (polity), states, monarchy, kingdoms, republics, confederation, confederacies, and empires. These societies possessed varying levels of knowledge in fields such as Pre-Columbian engineering in the Americas, engineering, Pre-Columbian architecture, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, History of writing, writing, physics, medicine, Pre-Columbian agriculture, agriculture, irrigation, geology, minin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Albert Hazen Wright
Albert Hazen Wright (August 15, 1879 – July 5, 1970) was an American herpetologist and professor at Cornell University. He was also an honorary member of the International Ornithological Congress. He did a great deal of study of the Okefenokee Swamp. In 1955 he won the Eminent Ecologist Award. Biography Albert Hazen Wright was born on August 15, 1879, in Hilton, New York, to parents Delos C. Wright and Emily Hazen. His parents also had a younger daughter named Mabel. On June 25, 1910, Wright married his wife, Anna Maria Allen, whom he met at Cornell University. Wright died on July 5, 1970, in Ithaca, New York, at the age of ninety. Education and career Wright attended Hilton High School and Brockport Normal School, and upon graduating high school, enrolled at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he studied herpetology. He earned his PhD from Cornell in vertebrate zoology in 1908. Both Wright and his wife were interested in studying amphibians; as such, they would ev ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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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]   |
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Massasauga Rattlesnake
The eastern massasauga (''Sistrurus catenatus'') is a rattlesnake species found in central and eastern North America from southern Ontario in Canada and throughout the Midwestern and Eastern United States. Like all rattlesnakes, it is a pit viper and is venomous; it is the only species of venomous snake in Ontario. Taxonomy Three subspecies were recognized for more than a century, although research published in 2011 elevated two subspecies ''Sistrurus catenatus catenatus'' and ''Sistrurus catenatus tergeminus'', to full species: the eastern massasauga (''Sistrurus catenatus'') and the western massasauga (''Sistrurus tergeminus''). The status of the third subspecies was somewhat unresolved and it is tentatively recognized as the desert massasauga ('' Sistrurus tergeminus edwardsii'') by some,Powell, Robert, Roger Conant, and Joseph T. Collins. 2016. ''Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, 4rd ed.'' Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Monotypic Taxon
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of Genus, genera, the term "unispecific" or "monospecific" is sometimes preferred. In botanical nomenclature, a monotypic genus is a genus in the special case where a genus and a single species are simultaneously described. Theoretical implications Monotypic taxa present several important theoretical challenges in biological classification. One key issue is known as "Gregg's Paradox": if a single species is the only member of multiple hierarchical levels (for example, being the only species in its genus, which is the only genus in its family), then each level needs a distinct definition to maintain logical structure. Otherwise, the different taxonomic ranks become effectively identical, which creates problems for organizing biological diversity in a hierarchical o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sistrurus Tergeminus Edwardsii
''Sistrurus tergeminus edwardsii'', also known as the desert massasauga, is a subspecies of venomous pit viper in the family Viperidae. The subspecies is endemic to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. In places, its range overlaps that of '' S. t. tergeminus'', and intergrading of the two subspecies is known. Etymology The subspecific name, ''edwardsii'', is in honor of Colonel Dr. Lewis A. Edwards (1824–1877), a U.S. Army surgeon, who collected the type specimen. Baird & Girard (1853). Common names include desert massasauga, Conant R (1975). ''A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, Second Edition''. (First Edition published in 1958). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. xviii + 429 pp + 48 plates. (hardcover), (paperback). Edward's massasauga, Wright AH, Wright AA (1957). ''Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada''. Ithaca and London: Comstock Publishing Associates, a Division of Cornell University Press. (7 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sistrurus Tergeminus
''Sistrurus tergeminus'', also known as the western massasauga, is a rattlesnake found in the southwestern plains of the United States and northern Mexico. Like all rattlesnakes, it is a pit viper and is venomous snake, venomous. Taxonomy It was once considered a subspecies of the eastern massasauga (''Sistrurus catenatus''). It contains two subspecies: the nominate ''S. t. tergeminus,'' or plains massasauga'','' found in the Great Plains, and ''Sistrurus tergeminus edwardsii, S. t. edwardsii'', or desert massasauga, found in the deserts of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The latter is considered ''"Vulnerable"'' by NatureServe. According to Campbell and Lamar (2004), a population also exists in southeastern Colorado that is morphologically somewhat intermediate between ''S. t. tergeminus'' and ''S. t. edwardsii''.Campbell JA, Lamar WW. (2004). ''The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere''. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. 870 pp. 1500 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |