Regurgitalites or sometimes Regurgitaliths [1] [2] are the fossilized remains of stomach contents that have been regurgitated by an animal, such as an owl pellet. They are bromalite trace fossils and can be subdivided into ichnotaxa. Regurgitaliths might provide useful information on the diet of the animal, [3] but are difficult to relate to any particular species.[ citation needed ]
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature, also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name, or a scientific name; more informally it is also historically called a Latin name. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), the system is also called binominal nomenclature, with an "n" before the "al" in "binominal", which is not a typographic error, meaning "two-name naming system".
In biology, a taxon is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and given a particular ranking, especially if and when it is accepted or becomes established. It is very common, however, for taxonomists to remain at odds over what belongs to a taxon and the criteria used for inclusion, especially in the context of rank-based ("Linnaean") nomenclature. If a taxon is given a formal scientific name, its use is then governed by one of the nomenclature codes specifying which scientific name is correct for a particular grouping.
In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank above genus, but below family and subfamily. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes. By convention, all taxa ranked above species are capitalized, including both tribe and subtribe.
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several examples, but explicitly designated as the holotype. Under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), a holotype is one of several kinds of name-bearing types. In the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) and ICZN, the definitions of types are similar in intent but not identical in terminology or underlying concept.
Mathurin Jacques Brisson was a French zoologist and natural philosopher.
A coprolite is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour rather than morphology. The name is derived from the Greek words κόπρος and λίθος. They were first described by William Buckland in 1829. Before this, they were known as "fossil fir cones" and "bezoar stones". They serve a valuable purpose in paleontology because they provide direct evidence of the predation and diet of extinct organisms. Coprolites may range in size from a few millimetres to over 60 centimetres.
Gabriel Bibron was a French zoologist and herpetologist. He was born in Paris. The son of an employee of the Museum national d'histoire naturelle, he had a good foundation in natural history and was hired to collect vertebrates in Italy and Sicily. Under the direction of Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent (1778–1846), he took part in the Morea expedition to Peloponnese.
The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries.
In binomial nomenclature, a nomen dubium is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application.
Barbonymus is a ray-finned fish genus in the family Cyprinidae, containing some barb species. The genus was only established in 1999, with the tinfoil barb as type species; thus, these fish are sometimes collectively called tinfoils. The new genus was established in recognition of the fact that some large Asian "barbs", formerly rather indiscriminately lumped in Barbus, Barbodes and Puntius, form a distinct evolutionary lineage.
Bromalites are the fossilized remains of material sourced from the digestive system of organisms. As such, they can be broadly considered to be trace fossils. The most well-known types of bromalites are fossilized faeces or coprolites. However, other types are recognised, including: regurgitalites ; cololites ; and gastrolites. Regurgtitalites and coprolites are thus essentially known only after they have left the body of the producing organisms, whereas gastrolites and cololites are found in situ in their respective organs, but there are rare exceptions.
The genus Cathartes includes medium-sized to large carrion-feeding birds in the New World vulture (Cathartidae) family. The three extant species currently classified in this genus occur widely in the Americas. There is one extinct species known from the Quaternary of Cuba.
A becard is a bird of the genus Pachyramphus in the family Tityridae.
In biology, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system of biological classification (taxonomy) consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and domain. While older approaches to taxonomic classification were phenomenological, forming groups on the basis of similarities in appearance, organic structure and behaviour, methods based on genetic analysis have opened the road to cladistics.
Dotidae are a taxonomic family of small sea slugs, nudibranchs, shell-less marine gastropod molluscs formerly assigned to the order Opisthobranchia, but now considered to belong to the clade Dexiarchia.
The Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the fields of zoology, paleontology, and geology. It is part of a group of journals published by the American Museum of Natural History, in which context it is commonly referred to as the Bulletin to distinguish it from other series of journals published by the museum.
The book Svenska Spindlar or Aranei Svecici is one of the major works of the Swedish arachnologist and entomologist Carl Alexander Clerck and was first published in Stockholm in the year 1757. It was the first comprehensive book on the spiders of Sweden and one of the first regional monographs of a group of animals worldwide. The full title of the work is Svenska Spindlar uti sina hufvud-slägter indelte samt under några och sextio särskildte arter beskrefne och med illuminerade figurer uplyste – Aranei Svecici, descriptionibus et figuris æneis illustrati, ad genera subalterna redacti, speciebus ultra LX determinati, and included 162 pages of text and six colour plates. It was published in Swedish, with a Latin translation printed in a slightly smaller font below the Swedish text.
The 12th edition of Systema Naturae was the last edition of Systema Naturae to be overseen by its author, Carl Linnaeus. It was published by Laurentius Salvius in Holmia (Stockholm) in three volumes, with parts appearing from 1766 to 1768. It contains many species not covered in the previous edition, the 10th edition which was the starting point for zoological nomenclature.
The Wells and Wellington affair was a dispute about the publication of three papers in the Australian Journal of Herpetology in 1983 and 1985. The periodical was established in 1981 as a peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on the study of amphibians and reptiles (herpetology). Its first two issues were published under the editorship of Richard W. Wells, a first-year biology student at Australia's University of New England. Wells then ceased communicating with the journal's editorial board for two years before suddenly publishing three papers without peer review in the journal in 1983 and 1985. Coauthored by himself and high school teacher Cliff Ross Wellington, the papers reorganized the taxonomy of all of Australia's and New Zealand's amphibians and reptiles and proposed over 700 changes to the binomial nomenclature of the region's herpetofauna.