There are three major families of shorebirds: 1  Waders, about 220 species, include sandpipers, lapwings, snipes, plovers, stilts and various other species. These birds inhabit coasts and shorelines, as well as other open habitats. 2  Gulls, terns, skuas, jaegers and skimmers form a group of a little over 100 species.
The compass was probably invented in the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) by Chinese fortune-tellers who used the lodestones to construct their fortune telling boards.
The truth is, there was no such thing as the compass in ancient times, and even after the compass was invented, it wasnât used all that much for marine navigation. Sailors in ancient times charted their course by the stars, and did not use a compass. No one knows where or when the first compass was invented. It may have been in China or in the Near East or in Italy. All we know is that the compass was first mentioned in the 12th century, and that it was first used on a European ship in 1345. These early compasses consisted of an iron needle attached to a piece of wood or cork that floated in a bowl of water.