The chachalacas, guans and curassows are birds in the family Cracidae. These are species of tropical and subtropical Central and South America. The range of one species, the plain chachalaca, just reaches southernmost parts of Texas in the United States. Two species, the Trinidad piping guan and the rufous-vented chachalaca occur on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago respectively.
Phelsuma is a large genus of geckos in the family Gekkonidae. Species in the genus Phelsuma are commonly referred to as day geckos.
Chelidae is one of three living families of the turtle/tortoise suborder Pleurodira, and are commonly called Austro-South American side-neck turtles. The family is distributed in Australia, New Guinea, parts of Indonesia, and throughout most of South America. It is a large family of turtles with a significant fossil history dating back to the Cretaceous. The family is entirely Gondwanan in origin, with no members found outside Gondwana, either in the present day or as a fossil.
John Edward Gray, FRS was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The standard author abbreviation J.E.Gray is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. The same is used for a zoological name.
The Alytidae are a family of primitive frogs. Their common name is painted frogs or midwife toads. Most are endemic to Europe, but there are also three species in northwest Africa, and a species formerly thought to be extinct in Israel.
Thomas Say was an American entomologist, conchologist, and herpetologist. His definitive studies of insects and shells, numerous contributions to scientific journals, and scientific expeditions to Florida, Georgia, the Rocky Mountains, Mexico, and elsewhere made him an internationally known naturalist. Say has been called the father of American descriptive entomology and American conchology. He served as librarian for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, curator at the American Philosophical Society, and professor of natural history at the University of Pennsylvania.
The white-bellied antbird, is a passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World from Panama to northern Brazil and in Trinidad. It is also called Swainson's antcatcher after William John Swainson, who first described it scientifically. The genus is monotypic.
Nilssonia is a genus of softshell turtles from rivers, streams, ponds, and lakes in South Asia and Burma. In many treatments, it is monotypic, with the single species Burmese peacock softshell. However, the supposed other genus of peacock softshells, Aspideretes, is more closely related to N. formosa than had been believed. They differ only in the neural plates between the first pleural scale pair of the bony carapace, which are fused into one in N. formosa and unfused in the others.
Littoraria is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Littorinidae, the winkles or periwinkles.
Columbina is a genus of small doves in the family Columbidae that live in the New World. They range from the southern United States through Central America and much of South America. Columbina doves are normally found in pairs or small flocks and generally occur in open country. They have maroon irides and pinkish legs. In flight, some species show a distinctive flash of rufous in the wings, while others show black-and-white wing-patterns.
The Tonnoidea are a superfamily of sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the order Littorinimorpha. This superfamily includes many very large species.
Naria is a genus of sea snails, cowries, marine gastropod mollusks in the subfamily Erosariinae of the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
Enaeta is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Volutidae.
Cypraeovula is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the subfamily Pustulariinae of the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
Palmadusta is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries.
Spatangus is a genus of heart urchins in the Spatangidae family. The genus is synonymous with the previously recognised genera Prospatangus Lambert, 1902 and Spatagus. There are nine recognised species. The type species is Spatangus purpureus Müller, 1776 by subsequent designation.
Luidia is a genus of starfish in the family Luidiidae in which it is the only genus. Species of the family have a cosmopolitan distribution.
Hinnites is a genus of rock scallops, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Pectinidae, the scallops.
Pollicipedomorpha is an order of pedunculated barnacles in the class Thecostraca. There are 3 families and more than 30 described species in Pollicipedomorpha.
