David Tab Rasmussen

David Tab Rasmussen (June 17, 1958 – August 7, 2014), also known as D. Tab Rasmussen, was an American biological anthropologist. Specializing in both paleontology and behavioral ecology with interests in Paleogene mammals, early primate evolution, prosimians (lorises, lemurs, and tarsiers), and birds, he synthesized multiple fields of study in order to better understand evolutionary processes. His field research spanned the western United States as well as internationally in Africa and the Neotropics. He published over 85 research articles.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1958, Rasmussen grew up in the Sonoran Desert, which he frequently explored as a child and young adult. After obtaining his PhD from Duke University under the guidance of Elwyn L. Simons in 1986, he went on to work at Rice University and University of California, Los Angeles before finally settling at Washington University in St. Louis where he spent the remainder of his career. He was active in the graduate program, serving as the director and as a member of the Graduate Council. He was recognized by students on multiple occasions for his teaching and mentoring.
Early life and education.
David Tab Rasmussen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 17, 1958 to Deon and David I. Rasmussen. After living briefly in Michigan and California, his family moved to Tempe, Arizona where he grew up. Both his father and grandfather, Daniel Irvin Rasmussen, were biologists. His interest in the natural world and native cultures began during his childhood with his exploration of the surrounding Sonoran Desert. Throughout his youth and early adulthood, he and his siblings freely explored the mountains and arroyos of the region. He and his family also made frequent trips to the Grand Canyon and throughout the western states.
In 1976, he graduated from McClintock High School in Tempe and went on to graduate "Magna cum laude" at Colorado College in 1980. With Elwyn L. Simons as his doctoral advisor, he obtained his PhD from Duke University in 1986. Kenneth Glander also acted as one of his advisors.
Career.
After completing his doctoral studies, Rasmussen was employed for one year as a visiting professor at Rice University and then worked as an assistant professor for the University of California, Los Angeles until 1991. That year he joined the Department of Anthropology in the Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), and ten years later achieved tenure as a full professor. Courses he taught at WUSTL included the history of physical anthropology and human osteology, primate biology, evolution, functional morphology, paleobiology and phylogeny. He also co-taught a course on human evolution as represented in film and culture together with a cultural anthropologist and taught Environmental Studies starting in 1993. Rasmussen was the director of the graduate program and was a member of the Graduate Council in Arts & Sciences, both from 1993–1996 and 2004–2006, and was part of the university's Fulbright Committee starting in 1999.
Throughout his career, he traveled both locally and internationally for his paleontological and archeological research. In the western United States, he visited California, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. He spent several summers with his colleague, Glenn Conroy, in the Uintah Basin of Utah searching for the fossils of early mammals. Other fossil collecting trips included locations such as Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Ethiopia, Namibia, South Africa, Madagascar, Ecuador, and Colombia. His studies of Paleogene mammals focused not only on primates, but also hyraxes and carnivorans. In addition to his studies of fossil mammals, Rasmussen studied ornithology, reporting on bird populations in Ethiopia and sea eagle populations in the Solomon Islands. He studied primates and birds in the Neotropics, and in Costa Rica and Brazil, he studied the behavior of monkeys, woolly opossums, and birds.
Rasmussen was a biological anthropologist who specialized in both paleontology and behavioral ecology. He studied primate evolution, utilizing his knowledge of both living and fossil primates. His primary research interests were the adaptive radiation of prosimian primates, particularly their life history and evolution, as well as evolutionary origins of both simians (anthropoids) and primates in general.
In 1996, he described a new genus and species of fossil primate, "Chipetaia lamporea", an early tarsiiform primate from Middle Eocene found in present-day Utah. He also coauthored descriptions of the fossil primate genus "Aframonius" and the family Plesiopithecidae.
He wrote over 85 research articles during his career and was a doctoral advisor to nine graduate students at WUSTL.
Honors.
Rasmussen is commemorated in the name of the fossil mammal "Widanelfarasia rasmusseni", named in 2000 in recognition of his contributions to Egyptian paleontology. During his tenure at WUSTL, he was acknowledged with the Excellence in Mentoring award twice by the Graduate Student Senate of College of Arts and Sciences. He also received the Outstanding Teaching Award and a Mortar Board Teaching Award from the student body.
Following his death in 2014, Field Projects International created a scholarship in his honor, allowing a student from a developed country to attend a field course in Tropical Biology and Primatology. A symposium in celebration of Rasmussen's influence on biological anthropology was held as a part of the 84th annual meeting of American Association of Physical Anthropologists on March 27, 2015.
Personal life.
Rasmussen died in his home in Edwardsville, Illinois, at the age of 56 on August 7, 2014. He was survived by his parents and three siblings, Jan, Lora, and Brian Rasmussen.


Ceriantheopsis

Ceriantheopsis is a genus of tube-dwelling anemones in the family Cerianthidae. Members of the genus are found only in the Atlantic Ocean. They are predators, scavengers and omnivores.
Species.
Species in the genus include:


Anal triangle

The anal triangle is the posterior part of the perineum. It contains the anal canal.
Structure.
The anal triangle can be defined either by its vertices or its sides.
Contents.
Some components of the anal triangle include:


Francesco Zirano

Blessed Francesco Zirano (1565 – 25 January 1603) was a Roman Catholic priest from Sardinia and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. He is recognized as a martyr in the Catholic church. Born and raised in Sardinia, he became an ordained priest in 1586. When Barbary pirates abducted and enslaved his cousin, Zirano raised funds over the course of several years to pay the ransom for his cousin's freedom. He traveled to Algiers in 1602 and helped four Christian slaves escape to freedom, but soldiers later targeted and imprisoned him. The Grand Council of Algiers sentenced him to death for his role in helping the slaves escape and for being a spy for the city's enemies, but his captors offered to spare his life if he would convert to Islam. He refused, and they executed him by flaying.
Zirano's beatification cause commenced in 1731, and Pope Francis eventually approved him for beatification in 2014. Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over his beatification in Sassari on 12 October 2014.
Biography.
Early life.
Zirano was born in about 1564 in Sassari, in the Kingdom of Sardinia (once part of Spain and today Italy) to a family of modest farmers. Historians have not been able to discover the name of his father, who they believe died in a plague epidemic that claimed twenty thousand victims in Sassari in 1582. His mother, Margherita, lived until 1598. He most likely had two sisters and one brother. At the age of about 33, official papers described him as "a man [...] of short stature, black eyes, and brown beard." In an era where the majority of the population was illiterate, it was exceptional when he began receiving an education from the monastery of Santa Maria di Betlem at the age of 14.
In 1580, Zirano became a professed member of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, and received his ordination to the priesthood in 1586 at the Cathedral of San Nicola from the Archbishop of Sassari Alfonso de Lorca. At the friary, he served variously as beggar, bursar, and vicar.
His younger cousin on his mother's side, Francesco Serra, also entered the priesthood. In 1590, Barbary pirates captured and enslaved Serra in one of their frequent raids on the Sardinian Coast, and transported him to Algiers. People who were abducted in one of these raids were sold as slaves in Arab lands, and sometimes allowed to communicate with relatives back home to notify them of a ransom amount that could be paid for their freedom, which price varied according to the importance of the person. Often the slaves would agree to convert to Islam in order to secure their own freedom. Zirano expressed fears that his cousin would renounce his Christian beliefs and wanted to travel to Algiers to arrange for his freedom before that could happen.
In Sardinia, the right to arrange for the ransom of captives was reserved for members of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, so in late 1597 or early 1598, Zirano presented a petition to Pope Clement VIII in late 1597 to be granted the right to raise funds to pay the 200 scudi in ransom that Serra's master demanded in exchange for his freedom. Zirano also wanted to raise funds to free other Christian slaves in the area. The Pope granted permission to accomplish these tasks beginning in March 1599 for a period of up to three years. Zirano spent the next three years travelling around Sardinia soliciting donations to pay the ransoms of kidnapped Sardinians, and meeting and consoling the families of other abducted residents.
Algiers.
Zirano departed on his journey to the Barbary Coast in the spring of 1602. Because it was not possible to travel directly to Algiers from Sardinia, he first went to Spain, where King Philip III offered him passage on a ship to the region with Friar Matteo de Aguirre, who was King Philip's ambassador to the Kingdom of Kuku (today part of northern Algeria). The Kingdom of Kuku, with military support from King Phillip, was about to embark on a war with the state of Algiers. Aguirre was himself a former slave in Algiers, and his familiarity with the language, local customs, and the habits of Christian slaves and their masters in the city was expected to be an asset, but Zicaro's association with Aquirre would eventually cause problems. The two left Spain and arrived in the port of Azeffoun on 28 July 1602. They traveled from the port to Kuku and Zirano later departed the city on 18 August, disguised as a travelling merchant selling linen fabrics, with a companion who could act as an interpreter. He arrived in Algiers three days later.
In Algiers, the situation was tense due to the anticipated war with the Kingdom of Kuku. Word reached the city that a large number of Spanish warships had been spotted near the island of Ibiza east of Spain. When Algerian authorities arrested a smuggler from Kuku within the city, they discovered letters written by Matteo de Aguirre, addressed to Zirano as well as to other Christians in Algiers. Zirano was added to a list of people who were searched for to be captured in the city, but he remained safely on the outskirts of the city. He helped four Christian slaves escape from their masters, and returned to Kuku with them in September. He remained in Kuku for the rest of the year, providing spiritual guidance and comfort to freed and escaped captives from Algiers.
On 1 January 1603, the conflict between the Algerian army and the Kingdom of Kuku, up until now limited to brief skirmishes, escalated, and a surprise attack by Kuku resulted in a decisive defeat to the army of Algiers. The King of Kuku, sid Amar ben Amar, wanting to communicate his success to King Phillip III of Spain, instructed Zirano to personally carry a letter back to Spain. However, on the way to the port city of Azeffoun, the soldiers who were escorting him through the mountains deserted him, possibly as part of a plot to betray him to Algerian soldiers. He was captured, stripped, beaten, and chained, and led to Algiers, where he arrived on 6 January 1603. His captors locked him away in the palace of the Pasha, or governor. They mistakenly believed that he was Friar Matteo de Aguirre, and he was held for a ransom of three thousand gold ducats, about seventeen times the normal price for a slave. Under penalty of death, nobody was permitted to speak with Zirano. Despite the high security, his enslaved cousin managed to visit him two Fridays in a row, while his jailers were praying in the mosque. He told Zirano that he should prepare to die, because he had heard that his captors intended to have him burned alive.
On 22 January 1603, an English ship was about to depart for Constantinople, the capital city of the Ottoman Empire that ruled over Algiers. The Turkish soldiers that guarded the city, the Janissaries, wanted to send Zirano on that ship to the Grand Vizier of the empire since they believed him to be a valuable captive, to send a strong message that the city had not fallen to the Kingdom of Kuku and was still loyal to the Empire. However, the Pasha refused, hoping to receive the ransom for Zirano himself. After several days of disagreement, the Janissaries and the Pasha agreed to have the Grand Council of the city decide Zirano's fate. The Grand Council met on Friday, 24 January, with the soldiers advocating for the execution of Zirano, and the Pasha arguing to keep him alive in the hopes of receiving the ransom. The council failed to resolve the dispute that day, but the next morning, the Pasha changed his mind and agreed that Zirano should be executed. This change of heart was probably because Zirano's true identity had been discovered by the Council; he was not Friar Matteo de Aguirre, and was unlikely to receive such a high ransom. For his crime of helping four Christian slaves escape to Kuku and for being a spy, Zirano was sentenced to death by flaying.
Death.
After being informed of the sentence, Zirano's captors offered him freedom if he converted to Islam, which he refused. They stripped him of his clothes and dressed him in a simple tunic with a chain around his neck, and paraded him down the main street of Algiers, where local residents insulted, beat, and spat upon him until he arrived at the place of execution outside the walls of the city. The executioners tied his hands to two poles driven into the ground. They told him once again that he would be spared if he would convert to Islam, and again he refused. They flayed him alive, and took his skin, removed from his body, and stuffed it with straw and publicly displayed it outside one of the gates to the city. Zirano's cousin, with the help of two Christian slaves, collected his remains and buried them in the Christian cemetery, outside the walls of the city. His cousin eventually earned his freedom and he returned to Sardinia some time prior to 1605.
Beatification.
The first stated intent to propose church recognition of Zirano as a martyr was in 1606, when the depositions of two eyewitnesses of Zirano's death were published. The first serious steps toward beatification did not occur until 1731, when a request to the Congregation for Rites to begin the sainthood process was denied after a dispute between the Conventual Franciscans and the Order of Friars Minor who each claimed Zirano as their own member, thus throwing into question who the formal petitioner should be.
In 1926, the postulator general, Father Giuseppe Vicari, requested all of the available information about Father Zirano from the provincial minister of Sardinia. After World War II, a new postulator, Antonio Ricciardi, attempted to advance the process, but was instructed to seek further documents. Starting In 1977, Sardinian historian Father Umberto Zucca spent six years researching Italian and Spanish archives to compile the completed set of documents required to advance the process of Beatification, and on 18 May 1984 the Congregation for the Causes of Saints decided that the cause can proceed. On 25 November 1984, the Archbishop of Sassari, Salvatore Isgrò, created a commission for the examination of the collected documentation, a process that continued until 15 August 1990, when the late priest became titled as a Servant of God. The postulation submitted the Positio to the C.C.S. for assessment in 2001. Historians assented to the cause on 4 March 2003 while theologians on 16 May 2013 endorsed the cause as did the members of the C.C.S. on 4 February 2014.
On 7 February 2014, Pope Francis approved the petition that the late priest had been killed "in odium fidei" ("in hatred of the faith") and Zirano was then approved to be beatified. Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the beatification on the pope's behalf in Sassari on 12 October 2014. In attendance was the Sassari Archbishop Paolo Maria Virgilio Atzei and the then-Archbishop of Algiers Ghaleb Moussa Abdalla Bader.
The current postulator for this cause is the Conventual Franciscan priest Angelo Paleri.


Richard Vogt (herpetologist)

Richard Carl "Dick" Vogt (August 06, 1949 – January 17, 2021) was an American herpetologist based in Brazil. He was the director of the "Centro de Estudos de Quelônios da Amazônia" (Center for the Study of Amazonian Turtles) at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA).
Career.
Vogt received his PhD in 1978 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his dissertation focused on the systematics and ecology of the false map turtle ("Graptemys pseudogeographica"). The same year, he became a Postdoctoral Fellow at Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.
In March 2000, "Wildlife Conservation" magazine wrote about Vogt's work in his role as Curator of reptiles and amphibians for the Museum of INPA in Manaus. At the time, his research was focused on working with communities in Mamirauá to monitor and safeguard the population levels of both the six-tubercled Amazon River turtle ("Podocnemis sextuberculata") and the yellow-headed sideneck turtle ("Podocnemis unifilis").
In 2013, Vogt was part of a group of authors who published a paper in the Journal of Comparative Psychology that described findings which they considered to be the "...first evidence of acoustic communication mediating posthatching parental care in chelonians." The vocalization study focused on recordings of the acoustic behavior of the Arrau turtle ("Podocnemis expansa)" as both hatchlings and adult turtles, with the theory that these sounds assist in synchronised hatching and emergence, and in the hatchlings' seeking of female turtle attention to accompany them during migration. In 2017, this research was expanded to show that the pig-nosed turtle ("Carettochelys insculpta") also emits underwater sounds.
In 2006, Vogt was part of the assessment panel which determined the critically endangered status of the Central American river turtle ("Dermatemys mawii)". Similarly in 2016, he assisted in assessing the critically endangered status of Hoge's side-necked turtle ("Messoclemmys hogei)".
Awards and recognition.
In 2014, the impact of Vogt's research was highlighted when he was awarded the 9th Annual 2014 Behler Turtle Conservation Award. The Award is presented in memory of herpetologist John L. Behler.
In May 2018, a newly identified endangered Mexican turtle species, "Kinosternon vogti", was named for Vogt, to honour his more than 40 years in the field, scientific impact and mentorship of younger scientists.
In July 2018, Vogt received the Distinguished Herpetologist Award at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists by the Herpetologists' League. During his acceptance address, one image of a student in a bikini and 3 in shorts were shown, in his presentation these pictures were censored by conference staff without informing Vogt, and the photographs were criticized by other members in attendance as they believed that these students were naked or dressing inappropriately because these girls were wearing clothes that this patriarchy decided was inappropriate. In response to the controversy, the Herpetologist's League rescinded Vogt's award due to the inappropriate images and the rumors of him behaving inappropriately toward colleagues, and instituted a new diversity and inclusion committee.


Triller

The trillers are a group of passerine birds belonging to the cuckooshrike family Campephagidae partially making up the genus " Lalage". Their name come from the loud trilling calls of the males. There are about 12 species that usually exist in southern Asia and Australasia with a number of species in Pacific islands. They feed mainly on insects and fruit. They build a neat cup-shaped nest high in trees.
Trillers are fairly small birds, about 15 to 20 cm long. They are mainly black, grey and white in colour.
Most species are fairly common but the Samoan triller is considered to be endangered and the Norfolk Island subspecies of the long-tailed triller has gone extinct.


Birkenia

Birkenia is a genus of extinct anaspid fish from Middle Silurian strata of Northern Europe, and Middle Silurian to possibly Earliest Devonian strata of Arctic Canada. Birkeniid anaspids are covered by a series of small plates on the head and rod-shaped scales in a cheveron-like pattern on the trunk.
Intact fossil specimens of "B. elegans" suggest the living animal reached a length of up to , and was an active swimmer. In addition to whole specimens and scale microfossils of "B. elegans", which are found in Great Britain and Scandinavia, scales of a second species, "B. robusta," are found in Late Silurian strata of Scandinavia and Estonia. The scales of "B. robusta" differ from those of "B. elegans" in that, as the specific epithet suggests, the scales of the former are more robustly proportioned than those of the latter. Fossil specimens also show a rib that is modified by being narrow at the ends and gradually broadens and rises towards the middle of the scale, where a major elevation is developed that is expressed as a raised and slightly angled ridge.


Practical Reptile Keeping

Practical Reptile Keeping is a monthly herpetology magazine published by Kelsey Media in the United Kingdom. The magazine focuses on all aspects of Reptilekeeping, including Species information and Caresheets.
The magazine was first released in 2009 and is funded by Ad revenue from Reptile stores and websites.


CDK5RAP2

CDK5 regulatory subunit-associated protein 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the "CDK5RAP2" gene. It has necessary roles in the formation and stability of microtubules from the centrosome and has been found to be linked to human brain size variation in males. Multiple transcript variants exist for this gene, but the full-length nature of only two has been determined.
CDK5RAP2 is homologous to the "Drosophila" protein centrosomin (cnn) and paralogous to myomegalin, which in mammals contains an Olduvai domain, a domain implicated in human brain size evolution.
Function.
CDK5RAP2 is necessary for the proper formation, anchoring and orientation of microtubules from the centrosome. It binds with the γ-tubulin ring complex (γTuRC), and this is required for the γTuRC to attach to the centrosome. CDK5RAP2 also binds to p25, a form of CDK5R1 that serves as the activating subunit of CDK5, which is involved in the regulation of neuronal differentiation. CDK5RAP2 therefore has a role in neuronal differentiation. CDK5RAP2 is also necessary as a scaffolding protein in the centrosomal corona of "Dictyostelium".
Clinical significance.
Human brain size variation.
An MRI study has demonstrated a link between common human variation in the CDK5RAP2 gene and brain structure. More specifically, associations were found between several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and brain cortical surface area and total brain volume. These associations were found exclusively in male subjects, and all SNPs were located either in the last 7 introns or downstream of the gene. The functional significance of these loci is not yet known. However, given their location close to regulatory elements, it is possible that they are involved in gene regulation, which suggests that common variance in brain structure could be associated with differences in gene regulation rather than protein structure, consistent with findings in other complex human traits. CDK5RAP2 is a paralogue of myomegalin, which in mammals contains an Olduvai domain, a domain with human-specific duplications that have been implicated in human brain size evolution.
Autosomal recessive primary microcephaly.
Mutations in CDK5RAP2 cause autosomal recessive primary microcephaly type 3.
Interactions.
CDK5RAP2 has been shown to interact with CDK5R1 and pericentrin (PCTN).
History.
The gene was discovered in 2000 and was first characterised in 2007.


Phaethontiformes

The Phaethontiformes are an order of birds. They contain one extant family, the tropicbirds (Phaethontidae), and one extinct family Prophaethontidae from the early Cenozoic. Several fossil genera have been described.
The tropicbirds were traditionally grouped in the order Pelecaniformes, which contained the pelicans, cormorants and shags, darters, gannets and boobies and frigatebirds; in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the Pelecaniformes were united with other groups into a large "Ciconiiformes". More recently this grouping has been found to be massively paraphyletic (missing closer relatives of its distantly related groups) and split again.
Microscopic analysis of eggshell structure by Konstantin Mikhailov in 1995 found that the eggshells of tropicbirds lacked the covering of thick microglobular material of other Pelecaniformes.
Some early studies in the last decade suggested Phaethontiformes were distantly related to Procellariiformes,
 but since 2004 they have been placed in Metaves, or in a lineage with no affinities with Procellariiformes, by the results of most recent molecular studies.
Jarvis, "et al".'s 2014 paper "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds" aligns the Phaethontiformes most closely with the sunbittern and the kagu of the Eurypygiformes, with these two clades forming the sister group of the "core water birds", the Aequornithes, and the Metaves hypothesis abandoned.


Berthold Benecke

Berthold Adolph Benecke (27 February 1843, Elbing – 27 February 1886, Königsberg) was a German anatomist and embryologist. He made contributions in diverse subjects such as photomicrography and fish farming.
Beginning in 1861 he studied medicine at the University of Königsberg, where his influences were surgeon Albrecht Wagner and botanist Robert Caspary. From 1870 to 1877 he served as an instructor and prosector at the anatomical institute in Königsberg. In 1877 he was appointed to the chair of topographical anatomy at the university.
Published works.
In 1868 he published ""Die Photographie als Hilfsmittel mikroskopischer Forschung" (The photograph as a tool of microscopic research), a translation of Albert Moitessier's "La photographie appliquée aux recherches micrographiques"". His treatises "The enemies of pond culture in central Europe" (1887) and "Observations on salmon in German rivers" (1887) have been translated into English. Other works by Benecke include:


Lucerne Gold Collar

The Lucerne Gold Collar is a breed of fancy pigeon developed over many years of selective breeding. Lucerne Gold Collars, along with other varieties of domesticated pigeons, are all descendants from the rock pigeon ("Columba livia").
The collar is required to be a rich but clear golden yellow.
History.
This breed as the name suggests originated in Lucerne, Switzerland. The breed is a variety of Swiss Lucerne peak crested pigeon.


Sidney William Jackson

Sidney William Jackson (12 June 1873 – 30 September 1946) was an Australian naturalist and field ornithologist with a special interest in oology, who was also a skilled photographer and taxidermist.
History.
Jackson was born in Brisbane, Queensland, and educated at Toowoomba Grammar School and in Grafton, New South Wales. From his youth he developed an interest in birds and in collecting their eggs. Based in Grafton, for many years he worked as a commercial traveller, giving him the opportunity to build up a large collection of birds' eggs. Although his field activities were mainly focussed on bird and egg specimens, he also collected land snails and botanical specimens. He was a skillful tree-climber and developed, with the help of his brother Frank, techniques for climbing trees, using leg-spikes and rope-ladders, as aids to egg-collecting.
Jackson contributed several papers to the RAOU journal "The Emu". He was a diligent diarist, correspondent, photographer and talented sketcher, whose diaries, as well as much of his correspondence, photographic negatives and drawings, eventually found their way to the National Library of Australia in Canberra. He also authored a book, "Egg Collecting and Bird Life of Australia", a combined autobiographical work and oological catalogue, illustrated with his own photographs, which was published in 1907.
In 1906 Jackson had sold his collection of nearly 2000 eggs, representing over 500 species of Australian birds, to H.L. White, a wealthy pastoralist based at Scone, New South Wales who was a keen amateur ornithologist and oologist. In 1907 White then employed Jackson as curator of his collection of eggs and bird skins, as well as a collector of further specimens. During this period Jackson travelled extensively throughout Australia on quests to obtain specimens and eggs of various birds. Following White's death in 1927, Jackson moved to Sydney where he wrote popular illustrated articles on natural history for newspapers and magazines, mainly the "Sydney Morning Herald" and the "World's News", using the pen name ‘Ajax’.
Ornithological historian Alec Chisholm, in an article about Jackson's diaries in "The Emu", described Jackson, whom he knew personally, as follows:
”Inevitably, the diaries and correspondence reflect the character of their author. Jackson was an odd mixture. A keen observer and most diligent worker, he was extremely temperamental – apt to be completely downcast at one moment and thoroughly joyful soon afterwards. In some respects he was entirely humourless, and yet he could be highly entertaining when giving performances of ventriloquism and mimicry, added to which he had a child-like fondness for those trivial gadgets (such as a piece of tin shaped and painted to resemble spilt ink) that alarm or embarrass unwary people. Practical and self-reliant in the bush, he was just the reverse in matters of business, and so he was frequently in trouble, financial and otherwise. The one factor that sustained him during tribulations, and also caused him to exaggerate his own achievements, was a strong strain of egotism. This failing, if occasionally provoking, was quite naive in his case, and so was tolerated by all who knew him well – H.L. White included – though they regretted to see it leading him, at times, into childish absurdities. Inevitably, the same weakness is manifest in every diary and almost every letter of the collection now at Canberra, and in some instances the remarks are distinctly quaint.
“The fact appears to be that Jackson, through experiencing much solitude in the bush, had become lonely and introspective, and so took to indulging in self-pity and self-congratulation. Like various other bush-wanderers before his time, he ‘talked’ to his diaries, and, even though we may smile at certain comments, it has to be conceded that such highly personal touches make the entries more ‘human’ than matter-of-fact narratives.”
Legacy.
"Eucalyptus jacksonii" was named in honour of Jackson.


Corticium diamantense

Corticium diamantense is a species of sea sponge in the order Homosclerophorida, first found in vertical walls of reef caves at depths of about in the Caribbean Sea. This species has oscula situated near its border; regular non-lophose calthrops of one size, rare tetralophose calthrops and candelabra, the fourth actine of which is basally ramified into 4 or 5 microspined rays.


Carolyn King (zoologist)

Carolyn Mary King is a New Zealand zoologist specialising in mammals, particularly small rodents and mustelids. She is currently a professor of biological sciences at the University of Waikato.
Career.
King got her first PhD in Zoology from the University of Oxford entitled 'Studies on the ecology of the weasel (Mustela nivalis L.)' studying under ornithologist Henry Neville Southern, before moving to DSIR's Ecology Division and from there to the University of Waikato, where she rose to full professor.
She won the New Zealand Ecology Society "Te Tohu Taiao Award for Ecological Excellence" in 1999. In 2018, King was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.
She received her second PhD (this time in theology) from the University of Waikato entitled: 'Habitat of Grace - Biology, Christianity and the Global Environmental Crisis'.


Phyllis Barclay-Smith

Ida Phyllis Barclay-Smith (18 May 1902 – 2 January 1980) was a British ornithologist and editor of the "Avicultural Magazine". She led the International Council of Bird Preservation. In 1958, she became the first woman to receive an MBE for work in conservation, and was made CBE for 1970.
Biography.
Phyllis, as she was known, was the second of three daughters of Edward Barclay-Smith and his wife Ida Mary. Edward was a professor of anatomy at Cambridge University. She studied at Blackheath high school and King's College, London and joined as an assistant secretary to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in 1924. One of the founders of the RSPB was her aunt Margaretta Louisa Lemon, known as Etta Lemon.
At the International Ornithological Congress of 1930 Barclay-Smith spoke on oil pollution and sea birds. Jean Delacour who was vice-president of the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP) was impressed by her organizational efficiency.
Barclay-Smith resigned from the RSPB in 1935, partly due to being denied the position of secretary after the retirement of Linda Gardiner, a position for which Robert Preston Donaldson was recruited. Etta Lemon believed that a male secretary was needed for the organization to be viewed more seriously and this enraged the secretaries, Barclay-Smith as well as Beatrice Solly. Barclay-Smith then joined the ICBP and worked almost lifelong at the Council, becoming a secretary in 1946 and secretary-general in 1974.
War years.
During the World War II, Barclay-Smith worked as a secretary to the business manager of the Bristol Aeroplane Factory and from 1943 to 45 she worked in the Ministry of Labour. Her strengths were in building organizations, ensuring communication, collaboration and participation within and across an international network of scientists, civil servants and politicians.
She helped in bridging aviculturists and ornithologists, serving as editor of the "Avicultural Magazine" from 1938. She helped establish the International Wildfowl Research Bureau, and helped in raising awareness on insecticide risks. She also helped in rallying support for the establishment of the Cousin Island reserve in the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean.
Phyllis earned the nickname of "the dragon", a nickname also shared by her aunt Etta Lemon.
Death.
Barclay-Smith died five days after going into coma following a severe stroke on Christmas Day, 1979, at the Whittington Hospital, Islington, London. She was cremated.
Honors.
She was made MBE in 1958 for her services to conservation, CBE for 1970, and awarded Ridder of the Most Excellent Order of the Golden Ark by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.
Selected works.
Among Barclay-Smith's works were translations of books from French and German.


Pyramidal process of palatine bone

The pyramidal process of the palatine bone projects backward and lateralward from the junction of the horizontal and vertical parts, and is received into the angular interval between the lower extremities of the pterygoid plates.
On its posterior surface is a smooth, grooved, triangular area, limited on either side by a rough articular furrow. The furrows articulate with the pterygoid plates, while the grooved intermediate area completes the lower part of the pterygoid fossa and gives origin to a few fibers of the Pterygoideus internus.
The anterior part of the lateral surface is rough, for articulation with the tuberosity of the maxilla; its posterior part consists of a smooth triangular area which appears, in the articulated skull, between the tuberosity of the maxilla and the lower part of the lateral pterygoid plate, and completes the lower part of the infratemporal fossa.
On the base of the pyramidal process, close to its union with the horizontal part, are the lesser palatine foramina for the transmission of the posterior and middle palatine nerves.


Clavarioid fungi

The clavarioid fungi are a group of fungi in the "Basidiomycota" typically having erect, simple or branched basidiocarps (fruit bodies) that are formed on the ground, on decaying vegetation, or on dead wood. They are colloquially called club fungi and coral fungi.
Originally such fungi were referred to the genus "Clavaria" ("clavarioid" means "Clavaria"-like), but it is now known that clavarioid species are not all closely related. Since they are often studied as a group, it is convenient to retain the informal (non-taxonomic) name of "clavarioid fungi" and this term is frequently used in research papers.
History.
"Clavaria" was one of the original genera created by Linnaeus in his "Species Plantarum" of 1753. It contained all species of fungi with erect, club-shaped or branched (coral-like) fruit bodies, including many that are now referred to the Ascomycota. Subsequent authors described over 1200 species in the genus. With increasing use of the microscope in the late nineteenth century, most of the ascomycetous members of the genus were recognized as distinct and moved to other genera. "Clavaria" was still used for the majority of the basidiomycetous species until Donk reviewed Dutch species in 1933 (introducing the genera "Clavariadelphus", "Ramariopsis", and "Ramaria" in its modern sense) and Corner published his world monograph in 1950, introducing most of the remaining modern genera. DNA sequencing has since confirmed the diversity of the clavarioid fungi, not only placing species in different genera, but also in different families and orders.
Description and genera.
Most clavarioid fungi have simple or branched fruit bodies that are erect (or pendant from wood in the genus "Deflexula"). The spores are born on the sides of the clubs or branches and the spore-bearing surface is typically smooth or ridged, occasionally warted to weakly spiny.
The largest current genus is "Ramaria", which has species with branched fruit bodies and ochre to brownish spores. "Clavariadelphus", producing large, club-shaped fruit bodies, is closely related. "Clavaria" in its modern sense is restricted to white-spored species, many simple, some branched. It is not clearly distinguished from two related genera, "Clavulinopsis" and "Ramariopsis". The genus "Typhula" contains a number of small, sometimes minute species with simple fruit bodies. Smaller genera of clavarioid fungi include "Alloclavaria", "Aphelaria", "Artomyces", "Chaetotyphula", "Clavariachaete", "Clavicorona", "Clavulina", "Ertzia", "Lachnocladium", "Lentaria", "Lepidostroma", "Multiclavula", "Pterula", "Scytinopogon", and "Sulzbacheromyces".
Habitat and distribution.
Most clavarioid fungi are saprotrophic with a terrestrial habit, growing in woodland leaf litter or in mossy grassland. A few grow on wood or on decaying herbaceous stems and fallen leaves. Some species, particularly in the genera "Clavulina" and "Ramaria", are known to be ectomycorrhizal (forming a beneficial association with the roots of living trees). Species in the genera "Ertzia", "Multiclavula", "Lepidostroma", and "Sulzbacheromyces" are lichenized and grow in association with algae.
Clavarioid fungi have a worldwide distribution, though some genera—such as "Aphelaria" and "Lachnocladium"—are principally tropical. They are one of the most common of the four fungi groupings.


Tadpole

A tadpole is the larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some features that may not be found in adult amphibians such as a lateral line, gills, and tails. As they undergo metamorphosis, the diet of tadpoles changes and they will start to breathe air.
Having no hard parts, it might be expected that fossil tadpoles would not exist. However, traces of biofilms have been preserved and fossil tadpoles have been found dating back to the Miocene. Tadpoles are eaten in some parts of the world and are mentioned in various folk tales from around the world.
Etymology.
The name "tadpole" is from Middle English ', made up of the elements ', 'toad', and ', 'head' (modern English "poll"). Similarly, "pollywog" / "polliwog" is from Middle English ', made up of the same ', 'head', and ', 'to wiggle'.
General description.
The life cycle of all amphibians involves a larval stage that is intermediate between embryo and adult. Tadpoles of frogs are mostly herbivorous, while tadpoles of salamanders and caecilians are carnivorous.
Anura.
Tadpoles of frogs and toads are usually globular, with a laterally compressed tail with which they swim by lateral undulation. When first hatched, anuran tadpoles have external gills that are eventually covered by skin, forming an opercular chamber with internal gills vented by spiracles. Depending on the species, there can be two spiracles on both sides of the body, a single spiracle on the underside near the vent, or a single spiracle on the left side of the body. Newly hatched tadpoles are also equipped with a cement gland which allows them to attach to objects. The tadpoles have a cartilaginous skeleton and a notochord which eventually develops into a proper spinal cord.
Anuran tadpoles are usually herbivorous, feeding on soft decaying plant matter. The gut of most tadpoles is long and spiral shaped to efficiently digest organic matter, and can be seen through the bellies of many species. Though many tadpoles will feed on dead animals if available to them, only a few species of frog have strictly carnivorous tadpoles, an example being the frogs of the family Ceratophryidae, their cannibalistic tadpoles having wide gaping mouths with which they devour other organisms, including other tadpoles. Another example is the tadpoles of the New Mexico spadefoot toad ("Spea multiplicata") which will develop a carnivorous diet along with a broader head, larger jaw muscles, and a shorter gut if food is scarce, allowing them to consume fairy shrimp and their smaller herbivorous siblings. A few genera such as Pipidae and Microhylidae have species whose tadpoles are filter feeders that swim through the water column feeding on plankton. Megophrys tadpoles feed at the water-surface using unusual funnel-shaped mouths.
As a frog tadpole matures it gradually develops its limbs, with the back legs growing first and the front legs second. The tail is absorbed into the body using apoptosis. Lungs develop around the time as the legs start growing, and tadpoles at this stage will often swim to the surface and gulp air. During the final stages of metamorphosis, the tadpole's mouth changes from a small, enclosed mouth at the front of the head to a large mouth the same width as the head. The intestines shorten as they transition from a herbivorous diet to the carnivorous diet of adult frogs.
Tadpoles vary greatly in size, both during their development and between species. For example, in a single family, Megophryidae, length of late-stage tadpoles varies between and . The tadpoles of the paradoxical frog ("Pseudis paradoxa)" can reach up to , the longest of any frog, before shrinking to a mere snout-to-vent length of 3.4–7.6 cm (1.3–3.0 in).
While most anuran tadpoles inhabit wetlands, ponds, vernal pools, and other small bodies of water with slow moving water, a few species are adapted to different environments. Some frogs have terrestrial tadpoles, such as the family Ranixalidae, whose tadpoles are found in wet crevices near streams. The tadpoles of "Micrixalus herrei" are adapted to a fossorial lifestyle, with a muscular body and tail, eyes covered by a layer of skin, and reduced pigment. Several frogs have stream dwelling tadpoles equipped with a strong oral sucker that allows them to hold onto rocks in fast flowing water, two examples being the Indian purple frog ("Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis") and the tailed frogs (Ascaphus) of Western North America. Although there are no marine tadpoles, the tadpoles of the crab-eating frog can cope with brackish water.
Some anurans will provide parental care towards their tadpoles. Frogs of the genus Afrixalus will lay their eggs on leaves above water, folding the leaves around the eggs for protection. Female Pipa frogs will embed the eggs into their backs where they get covered by a thin layer of skin. The eggs will hatch underneath her skin and grow, eventually leaving as either large tadpoles (such as in "Pipa parva") or as fully formed froglets ("Pipa pipa"). Female marsupial frogs (Hemiphractidae) will carry eggs on her back for various amounts of time, with it going as far as letting the tadpoles develop into tiny froglets in a pouch. Male African bullfrogs ("Pyxicephalus adspersus") will keep watch over their tadpoles, attacking anything that might be a potential threat, even though he may eat some of the tadpoles himself.
Males of the Emei mustache toads ("Leptobrachium boringii") will construct nests along riverbanks where they breed with females and keep watch over the eggs, losing as much as 7.3% of their body mass in the time they spend protecting the nest. Male midwife toads ("Alytes") will carry eggs between their legs to protect them from predators, eventually releasing them into a body of water when they are ready to hatch. Poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) will carry their tadpoles to various locations, usually phytotelma, where they remain until metamorphosis. Some female dart frogs such as the strawberry poison dart frog ("Oophaga pumilio") will regularly lay unfertilized eggs for the developing tadpoles to feed on.
Fossil record.
Despite their soft-bodied nature and lack of mineralised hard parts, fossil tadpoles (around 10 cm in length) have been recovered from Upper Miocene strata. They are preserved by virtue of biofilms, with more robust structures (the jaw and bones) preserved as a carbon film. In Miocene fossils from Libros, Spain, the brain case is preserved in calcium carbonate, and the nerve cord in calcium phosphate. Other parts of the tadpoles' bodies exist as organic remains and bacterial biofilms, with sedimentary detritus present in the gut. Tadpole remains with telltale external gills are also known from several labyrinthodont groups.
Human use.
Some tadpoles are used as food. Tadpoles of the megophryid frog "Oreolalax rhodostigmatus" are particularly large, more than in length, and are collected for human consumption in China. In India, "Clinotarsus curtipes" are collected for food, and in Peru "Telmatobius mayoloi" tadpoles are collected for food and medicine.
Mythology and history.
According to Sir George Scott, in the origin myths of the Wa people in China and Myanmar, the first Wa originated from two female ancestors "Ya Htawm" and "Ya Htai", who spent their early phase as tadpoles ("") in a lake in the Wa country known as "Nawng Hkaeo".
In the Ancient Egyptian numerals, a hieroglyphic representing a tadpole was used to denote the value of 100,000.


Janua

Janua is a genus of polychaetes, containing the following subgenera and species:
References.
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Heterodrilus rarus

Heterodrilus rarus is a species of clitellate oligochaete worm, first found in Belize, on the Caribbean side of Central America.


Mbanja worm lizard

The Mbanja worm lizard ("Chirindia ewerbecki)", also known commonly as Ewerbeck's round-headed worm lizard, is a species of amphisbaenian in the family Amphisbaenidae. The species is endemic to Tanzania. There are two recognized subspecies.
Etymology.
The specific name, "ewerbecki", is in honor of German customs official Karl Ewerbeck, who collected the holotype.
Reproduction.
"C. ewerbecki" is oviparous.
Subspecies.
Two subspecies are recognized as being valid, including the nominotypical subspecies.
"Nota bene": A trinomial authority in parentheses indicates that the subspecies was originally described in a genus other than "Chirindia".


Peter B. Best

Peter Barrington Best (1939 - 22 April 2015) was an English marine biologist known for his research on whales and dolphins of Southern Africa. He was described as the world's foremost authority on the whales and dolphins of the Southern African region.
Best was an Extraordinary Professor and Head of the Whale Unit at the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria. He was well known for his work on whales and dolphins but also studied seals.
He is credited with initiating research into Southern right whales in the Southern African region in 1969 and of starting the on-going annual aerial survey of these whales in 1979.
From 1971 Best made recommendations to the Minister of Environmental Affairs on South Africa's policies relating to whaling and conservation of whales on behalf of the department of Marine and Coastal Management.
Education and career.
Best was born in London in 1939 and was educated at Bradfield College in Berkshire, England, matriculating in 1957. He spent two summers at the Antarctic whaling factory "Balaena" as a chemist's assistant. He spent a winter at the Saldanha Bay whaling station near Cape Town where he collected biological specimens including those for the Bryde's whale.
He then went to Cambridge University where he earned a BA Honours in 1962, after which he worked as a whale researcher with the Fisheries Development Corporation of South Africa (abolished in 1987, now part of the DAFF) in Cape Town until 1969. He was awarded a PhD from Cambridge in 1971 based on the data he collected during this time. His thesis was titled "Studies of South African Cetacea with special reference to the sperm whale (Physeter catodon)." This was one of the first degrees awarded by Cambridge for fieldwork done elsewhere.
From 1969 to 1984 he worked at the Sea Fisheries Research Institute in Cape Town, a Professional Officer, later Senior Professional Officer and finally Chief Professional Officer. He then joined the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria in 1985, working first as an Antarctic/Senior Research Officer between 1985 and 2004 and extraordinary professor from 2004 onward.
Field research.
Best conducted extensive field research including specimen collections from the Antarctic and from South African whaling stations; whale marking surveys off the South African and Indian coasts; aerial surveys of Southern right whales (personally conducted between 1969 and 2004 and supervised until 2014); and surveys of fur seals off the Namibian and west South African coast. He was also involved in surveys of migrating humpback whales, photo-identification of Heaviside's dolphins, and southern right whale feeding patterns.
Memberships, awards, recognition.
Best was a member of and recognised by several organisations, including:
He was a member of several research committees, including:
Between 1985 and 1995, Best acted as associate editor of Marine Mammal Science.
In 2007, Best was conference chair for 17th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals in Cape Town.
Selected publications.
Best published more than 160 academic papers in peer-reviewed journals, wrote more than 20 articles in popular works and authored 3 books, including:
Personal life.
Best married Margaret Ann Ralph in June 1974 and they had two children, Robert and Alison.


Spider web

A spider web, spiderweb, spider's web, or cobweb (from the archaic word "", meaning "spider") is a structure created by a spider out of proteinaceous spider silk extruded from its spinnerets, generally meant to catch its prey.
Spider webs have existed for at least 100 million years, as witnessed in a rare find of Early Cretaceous amber from Sussex, in southern England.
Many spiders build webs specifically to trap and catch insects to eat. However, not all spiders catch their prey in webs, and some do not build webs at all. "Spider web" is typically used to refer to a web that is apparently still in use (i.e. clean), whereas "cobweb" refers to abandoned (i.e. dusty) webs. However, the word "cobweb" is also used by biologists to describe the tangled three-dimensional web of some spiders of the family Theridiidae. While this large family is known as the cobweb spiders, they actually have a huge range of web architectures; other names for this spider family include tangle-web spiders and comb-footed spiders.
Silk production.
When spiders moved from the water to the land in the Early Devonian period, they started making silk to protect their bodies and their eggs. Spiders gradually started using silk for hunting purposes, first as guide lines and signal lines, then as ground or bush webs, and eventually as the aerial webs that are familiar today.
Spiders produce silk from their spinneret glands located at the tip of their abdomen. Each gland produces a thread for a special purpose – for example a trailed safety line, sticky silk for trapping prey or fine silk for wrapping it. Spiders use different gland types to produce different silks, and some spiders are capable of producing up to eight different silks during their lifetime.
Most spiders have three pairs of spinnerets, each having its own function – there are also spiders with just one pair and others with as many as four pairs.
Webs allow a spider to catch prey without having to expend energy by running it down, making it an efficient method of gathering food. However these energy savings are somewhat offset by the fact that constructing the web is in itself energetically costly, due to the large amount of protein required in the form of silk. In addition, after a time the silk will lose its stickiness and thus become inefficient at capturing prey. It is common for spiders to eat their own web daily to recoup some of the energy used in spinning. Through ingestion and digestion, the silk proteins are thus recycled.
Types.
There are a few types of spider webs found in the wild, and many spiders are classified by the webs they weave. Different types of spider webs include:
Several different types of silk may be used in web construction, including a "sticky" capture silk and "fluffy" capture silk, depending on the type of spider. Webs may be in a vertical plane (most orb webs), a horizontal plane (sheet webs), or at any angle in between. It is hypothesized that these types of aerial webs co-evolved with the evolution of winged insects. As insects are spiders' main prey, it is likely that they would impose strong selectional forces on the foraging behavior of spiders. Most commonly found in the sheet-web spider families, some webs will have loose, irregular tangles of silk above them. These tangled obstacle courses serve to disorient and knock down flying insects, making them more vulnerable to being trapped on the web below. They may also help to protect the spider from predators such as birds and wasps. It is reported that several "Nephila pilipes" individuals can collectively construct an aggregated web system to defend birds predation from all directions.
Orb web construction.
Most orb weavers construct webs in a vertical plane, although there are exceptions, such as "Uloborus diversus", which builds a horizontal web. During the process of making an orb web, the spider will use its own body for measurements. There is variation in web construction among orb-weaving spiders, in particular, the species "Zygiella x-notata" is known for its characteristic missing sector web crossed by a single signal thread.
Many webs span gaps between objects which the spider could not cross by crawling. This is done by first producing a fine adhesive thread to drift on a faint breeze across a gap. When it sticks to a surface at the far end, the spider feels the change in the vibration. The spider reels in and tightens the first strand, then carefully walks along it and strengthens it with a second thread. This process is repeated until the thread is strong enough to support the rest of the web.
After strengthening the first thread, the spider continues to make a Y-shaped netting. The first three radials of the web are now constructed. More radials are added, making sure that the distance between each radial and the next is small enough to cross. This means that the number of radials in a web directly depends on the size of the spider plus the size of the web. It is common for a web to be about 20 times the size of the spider building it.
After the radials are complete, the spider fortifies the center of the web with about five circular threads. It makes a spiral of non-sticky, widely spaced threads to enable it to move easily around its own web during construction, working from the inside outward. Then, beginning from the outside and moving inward, the spider methodically replaces this spiral with a more closely spaced one made of adhesive threads. It uses the initial radiating lines as well as the non-sticky spirals as guide lines. The spaces between each spiral and the next are directly proportional to the distance from the tip of its back legs to its spinners. This is one way the spider uses its own body as a measuring/spacing device. While the sticky spirals are formed, the non-adhesive spirals are removed as there is no need for them any more.
After the spider has completed its web, it chews off the initial three center spiral threads then sits and waits. If the web is broken without any structural damage during the construction, the spider does not make any initial attempts to rectify the problem.
The spider, after spinning its web, then waits on or near the web for a prey animal to become trapped. The spider senses the impact and struggle of a prey animal by vibrations transmitted through the web. A spider positioned in the middle of the web makes for a highly visible prey for birds and other predators, even without web decorations; many day-hunting orb-web spinners reduce this risk by hiding at the edge of the web with one foot on a signal line from the hub or by appearing to be inedible or unappetizing.
Spiders do not usually adhere to their own webs, because they are able to spin both sticky and non-sticky types of silk, and are careful to travel across only non-sticky portions of the web. However, they are not immune to their own glue. Some of the strands of the web are sticky, and others are not. For example, if a spider has chosen to wait along the outer edges of its web, it may spin a non-sticky prey or signal line to the web hub to monitor web movement. However, in the course of spinning sticky strands, spiders have to touch these sticky strands. They do this without sticking by using careful movements, dense hairs and nonstick coatings on their feet to prevent adhesion.
Uses.
Some species of spider do not use webs for capturing prey directly, instead pouncing from concealment (e.g. trapdoor spiders) or running them down in open chase (e.g. wolf spiders). The net-casting spider balances the two methods of running and web spinning in its feeding habits. This spider weaves a small net which it attaches to its front legs. It then lurks in wait for potential prey and, when such prey arrives, lunges forward to wrap its victim in the net, bite and paralyze it. Hence, this spider expends less energy catching prey than a primitive hunter such as the wolf spider. It also avoids the energy loss of weaving a large orb web.
Some spiders spin threads of silk to catch the wind and then sail on the wind to a new location.
Some spiders manage to use the signaling-snare technique of a web without spinning a web at all. Several types of water-dwelling spiders rest their feet on the water's surface in much the same manner as an orb-web user. When an insect falls onto the water and is ensnared by surface tension, the spider can detect the vibrations and run out to capture the prey.
Human use.
Cobweb paintings, which began during the 16th century in a remote valley of the Austrian Tyrolean Alps, were created on fabrics consisting of layered and wound cobwebs, stretched over cardboard to make a mat, and strengthened by brushing with milk diluted in water. A small brush was then used to apply watercolor to the cobwebs, or custom tools to create engravings. Fewer than a hundred cobweb paintings survive today, most of which are held in private collections.
In traditional European medicine, cobwebs were used on wounds and cuts and seem to help healing and reduce bleeding. Spider webs are rich in vitamin K, which can be effective in clotting blood. Webs were used several hundred years ago as pads to stop an injured person's bleeding. The effects of some drugs can be measured by examining their effects on a spider's web-building.
In northeastern Nigeria, cow horn resonators in traditional xylophones often have holes covered with spider webs to create a buzzing sound.
Spider web strands have been used for crosshairs or reticles in telescopes.
Development of technologies to mass-produce spider silk has led to manufacturing of prototype military protection, medical devices, and consumer goods.
Physical and chemical properties.
The stickiness of spiders' webs is courtesy of droplets of glue suspended on the silk threads. These glue balls are multifunctional – that is, their behavior depends on how quickly something touching a glue ball attempts to withdraw. At high velocities, they function as an elastic solid, resembling rubber; at lower velocities, they simply act as a sticky glue. This allows them to retain a grip on attached food particles.
The web is electrically conductive which causes the silk threads to spring out to trap their quarry, as flying insects tend to gain a static charge which attracts the silk.
Neurotoxins have been detected in the glue balls of some spider webs. Presumably these toxins help immobilize prey, but their function could also be antimicrobial, or protection from ants or other animals that steal from the webs or might attack the spider.
The tensile strength of spider silk is greater than the same weight of steel and has much greater elasticity. Its microstructure is under investigation for potential applications in industry, including bullet-proof vests and artificial tendons. Researchers have used genetically modified mammals to produce the proteins needed to make this material.
Communal spider webs.
Occasionally, a group of spiders may build webs together in the same area.
Massive flooding in Pakistan during the 2010 monsoon drove spiders above the waterline, into trees. The result was trees covered with spider webs.
One such web, reported in 2007 at Lake Tawakoni State Park in Texas, measured across. Entomologists believe it may be the result of social cobweb spiders or of spiders building webs to spread out from one another. There is no consensus on how common this occurrence is.
In Brazil, there have been two instances of a phenomenon that became known as "raining spiders"; communal webs that cover such wide gaps and which strings are so difficult to see that hundreds of spiders seem to be floating in the air. The first occurred in Santo Antônio da Platina, Paraná, in 2013, and involved "Anelosimus eximius" individuals; the second was registered in Espírito Santo do Dourado, Minas Gerais, in January 2019, and involved "Parawixia bistriata" individuals.
Low gravity.
It has been observed that being in Earth's orbit has an effect on the structure of spider webs in space.
Spider webs were spun in low earth orbit in 1973 aboard Skylab, involving two female European garden spiders (cross spiders) called Arabella and Anita, as part of an experiment on the Skylab 3 mission. The aim of the experiment was to test whether the two spiders would spin webs in space, and, if so, whether these webs would be the same as those that spiders produced on Earth. The experiment was a student project of Judy Miles of Lexington, Massachusetts.
After the launch on July 28, 1973, and entering Skylab, the spiders were released by astronaut Owen Garriott into a box that resembled a window frame. The spiders proceeded to construct their web while a camera took photographs and examined the spiders' behavior in a zero-gravity environment. Both spiders took a long time to adapt to their weightless existence. However, after a day, Arabella spun the first web in the experimental cage, although it was initially incomplete.
The web was completed the following day. The crew members were prompted to expand the initial protocol. They fed and watered the spiders, giving them a house fly. The first web was removed on August 13 to allow the spider to construct a second web. At first, the spider failed to construct a new web. When given more water, it built a second web. This time, it was more elaborate than the first. Both spiders died during the mission, possibly from dehydration.
When scientists were given the opportunity to study the webs, they discovered that the space webs were finer than normal Earth webs, and although the patterns of the web were not totally dissimilar, variations were spotted, and there was a definite difference in the characteristics of the web. Additionally, while the webs were finer overall, the space web had variations in thickness in places: some places were slightly thinner, and others slightly thicker. This was unusual, because Earth webs have been observed to have uniform thickness.
Later experiments indicated that having access to a light source could orient the spiders and enable them to build their normal asymmetric webs when gravity was not a factor.
In popular culture.
Spider webs play a crucial role in the children's novel "Charlotte's Web". Webs are also featured in many other cultural depictions of spiders. In films, illustration, and other visual arts, spider webs may be used to readily suggest a "spooky" atmosphere, or imply neglect or the passage of time. Artificial "spider webs" are a common element of Halloween decorations. Spider webs are a common image in tattoo art, often symbolizing long periods of time spent in prison, or used simply to fill gaps between other images.
Some observers believe that a small spider is depicted on the United States one-dollar bill, in the upper-right corner of the front side (obverse), perched on the shield surrounding the number "1". This perception is enhanced by the resemblance of the background image of intertwining fine lines to a stylized spider web. However, other observers believe the figure is an owl.
The World Wide Web is thus named because of its tangled and interlaced structure, said to resemble that of a spider web.
The version of Spider-Man in the Sam Raimi trilogy of films played by Tobey Maguire is shown to be able produce organic webs rather than relying on web shooters ( in contrast with other versions of the character) to release webs.
The notable tensile strength of spider webs is often exaggerated in science fiction, often as a plot device to justify the presence of artificially giant spiders.


William Stimpson

William Stimpson (February 14, 1832 – May 26, 1872) was a noted American scientist. He was interested particularly in marine biology. Stimpson became an important early contributor to the work of the Smithsonian Institution and later, director of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.
Biography.
Stimpson was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Herbert Hathorne Stimpson and Mary Ann Devereau Brewer. The Stimpsons were of the colonial stock of Massachusetts, the earliest known member of the family being James Stimpson, who was married in 1661, in Milton. His mother died at an early age. William Stimpson's father was an ingenious inventor, and a leading merchant of Boston in the mid decades of the nineteenth century, trading as "H. & F. Stimpson, stoves and furnaces, corner of Congress and Water Streets. It was he who invented the "Stimpson range", the first sheet-iron cooking stove, famous in its day throughout New England. He also made improvements in rifles, and suggested the placing of the flange on the inside of railway car wheels instead of on the outside, as had been the custom. His son was to inherit his energy, love of social life, enthusiasm, and brilliant wit.
Stimpson's father moved from Roxbury and built a house in the village of Cambridge. When fourteen years of age he read with delight Edwin Swett's work on geology, and soon after this a copy of Augustus Addison Gould's "Report on the Invertebrata of Massachusetts" filled him with exultant enthusiasm.
He graduated from the Cambridge high school in 1848, winning the gold medal, the highest prize of the school. In September 1848 he entered the Cambridge Latin School, absorbing the mastery he displayed in the use of Latin in the description of marine animals in his "Prodromus" of 1857–60.
He studied under the great naturalist Louis Agassiz. He focused most of his studies on marine biology, particularly invertebrates. Starting when he was 21 years old, from 1853 to 1856, he collected various specimens in the Pacific Northwest. He then settled in Washington, D.C., where he founded the Megatherium Club at the Smithsonian Institution. At the Smithsonian, he was named the director of the department of invertebrates. When fellow club member Robert Kennicott left his post as director of the Academy of Science in Chicago, Stimpson went to that city to take his place. There he gathered one of the most extensive natural history collections in the United States. The academy was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 (later rebuilt), and almost all of Stimpson's works and specimens were lost. He died the following year of tuberculosis in Ilchester, Maryland).
References.
This article incorporates public domain text from the reference


Equatorial antpitta

The Equatorial antpitta ("Grallaria saturata") is a species of bird in the family, Grallariidae. It is a member of the rufous antpitta species complex and in 2020, was found to be a species and not just a subspecies. It is found is southern Colombia, Ecuador, and northern Peru.
Taxonomy.
The Equatorial antpitta was described as a subspecies of rufous antpitta in 1918, but was later considered to be conspecific with the rufous antpitta. However, in 2020 a study resurrected the synonymized subspecies and promoted it to species rank using genetic evidence and analysis of vocalizations.
The Equatorial antpitta is named for its distribution around the Equator.
Distribution and habitat.
The Equatorial antpitta is found in two disjunct regions of northwestern South America separated by Colombian massif. The northern population is found in the central Colombian Andes east of the Cauca river, and further east to Iguaque Massif. The southern population is found in the central Andes from Colombia, through Ecuador and into the Peruvian departments of Cajamarca and Piura. It inhabits humid montane forests and forest edges and prefers the understory or forest floor. It is found in several protected areas including Podocarpus National Park and Tabaconas Nambelle National Sanctuary, both in Ecuador.
The Equatorial antpitta is separated from the closely related Cajamarca antpitta by the Huancabamba and Marañón rivers, and from the Chamí antpitta by the Cauca River Valley. The population in the Iguaque Massif Andes spur are separated from the Muisca antpitta by the Magdalena River Valley.
The Equatorial antpitta is the most widely distributed of the 12 members of the rufous antpitta complex.


Endothelium

Endothelium is a single layer of squamous endothelial cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels, and lymphatic vessels. The endothelium forms an interface between circulating blood or lymph in the lumen and the rest of the vessel wall. Endothelial cells form the barrier between vessels and tissue and control the flow of substances and fluid into and out of a tissue.
Endothelial cells in direct contact with blood are called vascular endothelial cells whereas those in direct contact with lymph are known as lymphatic endothelial cells. Vascular endothelial cells line the entire circulatory system, from the heart to the smallest capillaries.
These cells have unique functions that include fluid filtration, such as in the glomerulus of the kidney, blood vessel tone, hemostasis, neutrophil recruitment, and hormone trafficking. Endothelium of the interior surfaces of the heart chambers is called endocardium. An impaired function can lead to serious health issues throughout the body.
Structure.
The endothelium is a thin layer of single flat (squamous) cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels.
Endothelium is of mesodermal origin. Both blood and lymphatic capillaries are composed of a single layer of endothelial cells called a monolayer. In straight sections of a blood vessel, vascular endothelial cells typically align and elongate in the direction of fluid flow.
Terminology.
The foundational model of anatomy, an index of terms used to describe anatomical structures, makes a distinction between endothelial cells and epithelial cells on the basis of which tissues they develop from, and states that the presence of vimentin rather than keratin filaments separates these from epithelial cells. Many considered the endothelium a specialized epithelial tissue.
Function.
The endothelium forms an interface between circulating blood or lymph in the lumen and the rest of the vessel wall. This forms a barrier between vessels and tissues and control the flow of substances and fluid into and out of a tissue. This controls the passage of materials and the transit of white blood cells into and out of the bloodstream. Excessive or prolonged increases in permeability of the endothelium, as in cases of chronic inflammation, may lead to tissue swelling (edema). Altered barrier function is also implicated in cancer extravasation.
Endothelial cells are involved in many other aspects of vessel function, including:
Blood vessel formation.
The endothelium is involved in the formation of new blood vessels, called angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is a crucial process for development of organs in the embryo and fetus, as well as repair of damaged areas. The process is triggered by decreased tissue oxygen (hypoxia) or insufficient oxygen tension leading to the new development of blood vessels lined with endothelial cells. Angiogenesis is regulated by signals that promote and decrease the process. These pro- and antiangiogenic signals including integrins, chemokines, angiopoietins, oxygen sensing agents, junctional molecules and endogenous inhibitors. Angiopoietin-2 works with VEGF to facilitate cell proliferation and migration of endothelial cells.
The general outline of angiogenesis is
Host immune response.
Endothelial cells express a variety of immune genes in an organ-specific manner. These genes include critical immune mediators and proteins that facilitate cellular communication with hematopoietic immune cells. Endothelial cells encode important features of the structural cell immune response in the epigenome and can therefore respond swiftly to immunological challenges. The contribution to host immunity by non-hematopoietic cells, such as endothelium, is called “structural immunity”.
Clinical significance.
Endothelial dysfunction, or the loss of proper endothelial function, is a hallmark for vascular diseases, and is often regarded as a key early event in the development of atherosclerosis. Impaired endothelial function, causing hypertension and thrombosis, is often seen in patients with coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, as well as in smokers. Endothelial dysfunction has also been shown to be predictive of future adverse cardiovascular events, and is also present in inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Endothelial dysfunction is a result of changes in endothelial function. After fat (lipid) accumulation and when stimulated by inflammation, endothelial cells become activated, which is characterized by the expression of molecules such as E-selectin, VCAM-1 and ICAM-1, which stimulate the adhesion of immune cells. Additionally, transcription factors, which are substances which act to increase the production of proteins within cells, become activated; specifically AP-1 and NF-κB, leading to increased expression of cytokines such as IL-1, TNFα and IFNγ, which promotes inflammation. This state of endothelial cells promotes accumulation of lipids and lipoproteins in the intima, leading to atherosclerosis, and the subsequent recruitment of white blood cells and platelets, as well as proliferation of smooth muscle cells, leading to the formation of a fatty streak. The lesions formed in the intima, and persistent inflammation lead to desquamation of endothelium, which disrupts the endothelial barrier, leading to injury and consequent dysfunction. In contrast, inflammatory stimuli also activate NF-κB-induced expression of the deubiquitinase A20 (TNFAIP3), which has been shown to intrinsically repair the endothelial barrier.
One of the main mechanisms of endothelial dysfunction is the diminishing of nitric oxide, often due to high levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine, which interfere with the normal L-arginine-stimulated nitric oxide synthesis and so leads to hypertension. The most prevailing mechanism of endothelial dysfunction is an increase in reactive oxygen species, which can impair nitric oxide production and activity via several mechanisms. The signalling protein ERK5 is essential for maintaining normal endothelial cell function. A further consequence of damage to the endothelium is the release of pathological quantities of von Willebrand factor, which promote platelet aggregation and adhesion to the subendothelium, and thus the formation of potentially fatal thrombi.
Research.
In cancer therapy the development and delivery of anti-angiogenic drugs is a very promising path and restoring vascular homeostasis holds great potential for the treatment of ischemic tissue diseases
In April 2020, the presence of viral elements in endothelial cells of 3 patients who had died of COVID-19 was reported for the first time. The researchers from the University of Zurich and Harvard Medical School considered these findings to be a sign of a general endotheliitis in different organs, an inflammatory response of the endothelium to the infection that can lead or at least contribute to multi-organ failure in Covid-19 patients with comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
History.
In 1958, Todd demonstrated that endothelium in human blood vessels have fibrinolytic activity.


Constellaria

Constellaria is an extinct genus of bryozoan from the Ordovician.


Antalis

Antalis is a genus of tusk shells, marine scaphopod mollusks.
Species.
Species within the genus "Antalis" include:


Litylenchus crenatae mccannii

Litylenchus crenatae mccannii is a newly recognized nematode subspecies believed to be the cause of beech leaf disease.


Panniculus adiposus

The panniculus adiposus is the fatty layer of the subcutaneous tissues, superficial to a deeper vestigial layer of muscle, the panniculus carnosus.
It includes structures that are considered fascia by some sources but not by others. Some examples include the fascia of Camper and the superficial cervical fascia.
A group of disorders of inflammation of this layer is called panniculitis.


Ascophora

Ascophora is an infraorder under order Cheilostomatida of the Bryozoa.
They are now considered a synonym of Flustrina.
Ascophorans are distinguished from other cheilostomes in having a completely calcified wall covering their frontal surface apart from the orifice, and possessing an ascus (hence the name of the suborder). The ascus is a water-filled sac of frontal membrane opening at or near the orifice. It functions as a hydrostatic system by allowing water into the space below the inflexible frontal wall when the zooid everts its polypide (feeding tentacles) by muscles pulling the frontal membrane inwards (non-ascophorans do not need this structure as their frontal wall is not calcified).
The structure of this frontal wall is the basis of distinguishing the four major subdivisions of the Ascophora, each of which is, however, currently under suspicion of being polyphyletic and/or paraphyletic. They are therefore listed here as 'unranked' groupings.
Ascophorans are exclusively marine, but very widespread geographically and ecologically. They grow on various substrates and in a variety of colony shapes.


Siratus

Siratus is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Muricidae, the murex snails or rock snails.
Species.
Species within the genus "Siratus" include:


Hemiechinus

Hemiechinus is a genus of hedgehogs. It contains two species, found in Central and South Asia.


Inferior tympanic artery

The inferior tympanic artery is a small branch of the ascending pharyngeal artery.
It is a small branch which passes through a minute foramen in the petrous portion of the temporal bone which is called tympanic canaliculus or inferior tympanic canaliculus, in company with the tympanic branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve, to supply the medial wall of the tympanic cavity and anastomose with the other tympanic arteries.
Clinical Significance.
In the case of a missing or underdeveloped cervical ICA, the Inferior tympanic artery can provide collateral ICA circulation by reversing flow of the caroticotympanic artery (embryologic hyoid artery). This can result in pulsatile tinnitus. The resulting Aberrant Carotid artery can mimic neoplasm on CT.


Deltaherpeton

Deltaherpeton is an extinct genus of colosteid from middle Mississippian (late Viséan age) deposits of Delta, Iowa, United States. It was first named by John R. Bolt and R. Eric Lombard in 2010 and the type species is Deltaherpeton hiemstrae.
"Deltaherpeton" can be differentiated from other colosteids due to possessing several unique bones along the midline of the skull, separating paired skull bones which typically contact each other along the midline. These include an internasal, an oval-shaped bone which lies at the intersection of the paired premaxillae and nasal bones at the top of the snout. Internasals are known from several of the earliest four-limbed vertebrates, such as "Acanthostega", "Ichthyostega", and baphetids. Further back, what seems to be a pair of lozenge-shape bones lie at the intersection of the nasal bones and frontal bones. These bones may be interfrontonasals, which have been found in some eryopoids and microsaurs.
In addition, "Deltaherpeton" has a single postparietal (rather than a pair), which separates the left and right supratemporal and tabular bones at the rear edge of the skull. Lone postparietals are rare among non-amniote tetrapods and tetrapod relatives; only "Ichthyostega" and diadectomorphs are known to possess them. The discovery of "Deltaherpeton" prompted a review and re-augmentation of the defining characteristics for the family Colosteidae, though it did not help to clarify the relationship between colosteids and other early tetrapods.
Though it is believed that "Deltaherpeton" is more derived, the species is thought to have shared its environment with other early four-limbed vertebrates such as "Whatcheeria" and "Siguornea", approximately 339.4 to 336 million years ago.


Oopsacas olympica

Oopsacas olympica is a species of sea sponge first found at the bottom of shelf, canyon and seamounts of the west coast of Washington, British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska.


Gracianella

Gracianella is a genus of fossil brachiopods. It was described by Johnson and Coucot in 1967, and existed from the Silurian to the Devonian of Australia, Austria, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Italy, Tajikistan, and the United States. A new species, "G. paulula", was described by Andrzej Baliński in 2012, from the early Devonian of Ukraine.


Cranial fossa

A cranial fossa is formed by the floor of the cranial cavity.
There are three distinct cranial fossae:


Goose

A goose (plural geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera "Anser" (the grey geese and white geese) and "Branta" (the black geese). Some other birds, mostly related to the shelducks, have "goose" as part of their names. More distantly related members of the family Anatidae are swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller.
The term "goose" may refer to either a male or female bird, but when paired with "gander", refers specifically to a female one (the latter referring to a male). Young birds before fledging are called goslings. The collective noun for a group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; when in flight, they are called a skein, a team, or a wedge; when flying close together, they are called a plump.
Etymology.
The word "goose" is a direct descendant of Proto-Indo-European root, "ghans-". In Germanic languages, the root gave Old English "gōs" with the plural "gēs" and "gandres" (becoming Modern English goose, geese, gander, and gosling, respectively), Frisian "goes", "gies" and "guoske", New High German "Gans", "Gänse", and "Ganter", and Old Norse "gās".
This term also gave , (goose, from Old Irish "géiss"), , , Ancient ("khēn"), , (heron), Sanskrit "haṃsa" and "haṃsī" ("gander" and "goose", also the words for male and female swans), , Avestan "zāō", , , ("huska" / "husak"), ("gusyna" / "gus"), , and ("ghāz").
True geese and their relatives.
The two living genera of true geese are: "Anser", grey geese and white geese, such as the greylag goose and snow goose and "Branta", black geese, such as the Canada goose.
Two genera of geese are only tentatively placed in the Anserinae; they may belong to the shelducks or form a subfamily on their own: "Cereopsis", the Cape Barren goose, and "Cnemiornis", the prehistoric New Zealand goose. Either these or, more probably, the goose-like coscoroba swan is the closest living relative of the true geese.
Fossils of true geese are hard to assign to genus; all that can be said is that their fossil record, particularly in North America, is dense and comprehensively documents many different species of true geese that have been around since about 10 million years ago in the Miocene. The aptly named "Anser atavus" (meaning "progenitor goose") from some 12 million years ago had even more plesiomorphies in common with swans. In addition, some goose-like birds are known from subfossil remains found on the Hawaiian Islands.
Geese are monogamous, living in permanent pairs throughout the year; however, unlike most other permanently monogamous animals, they are territorial only during the short nesting season. Paired geese are more dominant and feed more, two factors that result in more young.
Geese honk while in flight to encourage other members of the flock to maintain a 'v-formation' and to help communicate with one another.
History of geese.
Geese fossils have been found ranging from 10 to 12 million years ago. Fossils found in the Gagarno region of central Italy suggest the existence of a pre-historic relative of the goose, that stood one and a half metres tall. The evidence suggests the bird was flightless unlike modern geese.
Other birds called "geese".
Some mainly Southern Hemisphere birds are called "geese", most of which belong to the shelduck subfamily Tadorninae. These are:
Others:
In popular culture.
Well-known sayings about geese include:
"Gray Goose Laws" in Iceland.
The oldest collection of Medieval Icelandic laws is known as "Grágás"; i.e., the "Gray Goose Laws".
Various etymologies were offered for that name:


Masseteric fascia

The masseteric fascia (parotideomasseteric fascia) is a strong layer of fascia derived from the deep cervical fascia on the human head and neck. It covers the masseter, and is firmly connected to it. Above, this fascia is attached to the lower border of the zygomatic arch, and behind, it invests the parotid gland proceeding into the parotid fascia.


Miguel Lillo

Miguel Ignacio Lillo (26 July 1862, in San Miguel de Tucumán – 4 May 1931, in San Miguel de Tucumán) was an Argentine naturalist and professor.
Early life and education.
Born in the city of San Miguel de Tucuman in 1862, Lillo was related to Lastenia Blanco, and journalist, Emilio J. Schleh. Miguel Lillo studied at the National School of Tucumán, graduating in 1881, but could not afford to continue formal university studies.
Career.
Lillo was passionately devoted to various scientific studies, especially those pertaining to nature.
After his formal education, he continued working as an assistant pharmacist in the Physics and Chemistry laboratories of the National College.
By 1883 he had amassed a collection of plants from his local area comprising 700 specimens. He went to the National University of Córdoba for guidance from Federico Kurtz and the brothers, Oscar and Adolfo Döring and from whom he gained an appreciation of classification.
In 1888 he published an interesting essay on the plants of Tucumán. Shortly after he was appointed assistant and student of Friedrich Schickendantz, chemist and director of the Municipal Chemical office of Tucumán; a post to which Lillo succeeded in 1892. In 1905 he published "" (Fauna of Tucumán, Birds) containing their discoveries of new species; at that time already he had the largest collection of birds of his province. In 1914 the National University of La Plata awarded Lillo the title of "Doctor Honoris Causa". After teaching chemistry and physics in the National School and the Normal school, from 1914 he lectured at the National University of Tucumán.
He was appointed director of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Tucumán and member of the National Commission of Argentina flora.
In 1918 he retired from teaching, but maintained the honorary position of director of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Tucumán.
In December 1930, and shortly before his death, he donated all his property to the National University of Tucumán; this consisted of extensive grounds, a considerable sum of money, an extensive library and his zoological and herbarium collections consisting of more than 20,000 specimens of 6,000 different species. With this donation the National University of Tucumán established the Miguel Lillo Foundation in 1933.
Miguel Lillo died in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán on May 4, 1931.
Activities.
Miguel Lillo was an amateur naturalist: extremely shrewd and observant; erudite and gifted with an extraordinary scientific vocation. He specialised in botany, but also pursued other branches of science, including chemistry and zoology.
He was dedicated to scientific research alternating with teaching. He made a notable contribution to the knowledge of the trees of Argentina and the botanical family of Compositae. He was also a keen ornithologist, a discipline in which he also became an authority. His interests extended beyond sciences to language, studying both classical literature and indigenous languages.
He was a competent phytogeographer. Expeditions undertaken between 1885 and 1916 familiarised him with the province of Tucumán. He also toured much of Argentina, from Buenos Aires to the north, expeditions to the provinces of Córdoba and Santiago del Estero in 1885, to Cuyo between 1890 and 1891, Buenos Aires and Santa Fe from 1891 to 1902, to the province of Salta in 1894 and into Chile in 1895. Other expeditions included Formosa, Chaco and Mesopotamia, Argentina, including Martín García Island.
Honours.
Genera.
Some 113 species, including
External links.
[[Category:1862 births]]
[[Category:1931 deaths]]
[[Category:Argentine naturalists]]
[[Category:People from San Miguel de Tucumán]]
[[Category:Argentine botanists]]
[[Category:Argentine zoologists]]
[[Category:Argentine ornithologists]]


Supreme nasal concha

The supreme nasal concha or highest nasal concha is a nasal concha (turbinate) that occurs in some cases. It is shaped like a seashell and found on the posterosuperior part of the lateral nasal wall. It lies on the medial surface of the labyrinth of ethmoid above the superior nasal concha. This makes it the highest the nasal conchae, and the highest of three on the ethmoid bone. It is often no more than a small, simple crest protruding from the nasal wall.
The space below and the fissure lateral to the concha are known as the supreme nasal meatus.
It was historically known as Santorini's concha, after Giovanni Domenico Santorini.


Paralytic (gene)

Paralytic is a gene in the fruit fly, "Drosophila melanogaster", which encodes a voltage gated sodium channel within "D. melanogaster" neurons. This gene is essential for locomotive activity in the fly. There are 9 different "para" alleles, composed of a minimum of 26 exons within over 78kb of genomic DNA. The "para" gene undergoes alternative splicing to produce subtypes of the channel protein. Flies with mutant forms of "paralytic" are used in fly models of seizures, since seizures can be easily induced in these flies.
Gene.
The "para" gene is located on the X chromosome within the Drosophila genome. There are 26 "para" exons, 13 are constitutively expressed in the transcript, while 15 are alternatively spliced. Alternative splicing allows for the formation of 60 unique transcripts and 57 unique polypeptides. The independent splicing of 11 exons allows for the unique cytoplasmic loops, the alternative splicing also can effect the Na+ channel kinetics, such as the varying gating conductivities. The mature mRNA transcript only includes one of C or D exonic region and only one of K or L exonic region, as they code for the same or similar regions. Neurons containing "para" exon L, show an increase in firing frequency which is associated with increase seizure susceptibility. Channel kinetics are influenced by splicing, that not only changes protein structure but can allow for varying modifications, like differential binding of cofactors.
Known Mutant Variants.
Currently there are 117 known allele variants within the "para" locus, a few are mentioned below.
Protein.
This proteins forms a sodium-selective ion channel, that relies on an electrochemical gradient. The protein consists of four homology domains, HD1, HD2, HD3 and HD4. Each homology domain has six alpha helical segments, S1-S6. The small alpha-helical region between S5 and S6 is known as the channel pore. Mutations within this region may be responsible for ion selectivity. The cytoplasmic loop between HD3 and HD4 is responsible for fast inactivation and blocking conductance. The voltage sensor 4 in HD III is partially formed by exon L and K. The alternative splicing at this locus causes a difference in the charged current at this channel. Exon L produces 8% of the transient current, which falls to 2% when the K exon is incorporated.
Function.
"Paralytic" encodes a protein channel which transfers sodium ions into neurons and is activated in response to changes in the voltage across a membrane to propagate an action potential. The paralytic protein has been found in the thoracic-abdominal ganglion, eye tissues and cortical regions in the brain.
Role in seizure models.
Flies with certain mutations in "para" gene are used as models for studying seizures and epilepsy, as they are much more prone to seizures than regular flies. Some of these mutant "para" genotypes are cause either severe sensitivity to seizures, or act as seizure suppressors. In these mutant flies, seizures can be induced by mechanical shock, electrical shock, or high-frequency visual stimuli such as strobe lights.
A number of mutations in "paralytic" have been described which can cause this increased sensitivity to seizures. Some of these, such as "bss1" and "bss2" can be caused by a single point mutation in the "paralytic" gene which makes the channel less able to inactivate itself after being activated.
Understanding the genetic and environmental influences on the seizures in mutant "para" flies, has proved to be a trackable system in understanding the complexity in human seizure models.
Evolution.
Voltage-gated sodium channels are highly conserved across lineages. The exons in specific, are conserved across many diverged groups of species, this seems to indicate physiological importance. Insect species have only one a single sodium channel gene which encodes the mammalian equivalent of α subunit. Insects like "D. melanogaster" take advantage of alternative splicing and RNA editing to generate distinct gating properties of sodium channels.
Human orthologs.
The most closely related genes to "paralytic" in humans are SCN1A, SCN8A and SCN2A, all of which are genes that encode sodium channels. Mutations in the human orthologs have been linked to seizure disorders and cognitive defects. Fly models can be used to study branches of human epilepsy, by using GEFS+ mutations at SCN1A gene for knock-in's at the "para" locus in "D. melanogaster".