The Saxifragales are an order of flowering plants. Their closest relatives are a large eudicot group known as the rosids by the definition of rosids given in the APG II classification system. Some authors define the rosids more widely, including Saxifragales as their most basal group. Saxifragales is one of the eight groups that compose the core eudicots. The others are Gunnerales, Dilleniaceae, Rosids, Santalales, Berberidopsidales, Caryophyllales, and Asterids.
Fagaceae is a family of flowering plants that includes beeches and oaks, and comprises eight genera with about 927 species. The Fagaceae are deciduous or evergreen trees and shrubs, characterized by alternate simple leaves with pinnate venation, unisexual flowers in the form of catkins, and fruit in the form of cup-like (cupule) nuts. Their leaves are often lobed and both petioles and stipules are generally present. Leaf characteristics of Fagaceae can be very similar to those of Rosaceae and other rose motif families. Their fruits lack endosperm and lie in a scaly or spiny husk that may or may not enclose the entire nut, which may consist of one to seven seeds. In the oaks, genus Quercus, the fruit is a non-valved nut called an acorn. The husk of the acorn in most oaks only forms a cup in which the nut sits. Other members of the family have fully enclosed nuts. Fagaceae is one of the most ecologically important woody plant families in the Northern Hemisphere, as oaks form the backbone of temperate forest in North America, Europe, and Asia and one of the most significant sources of wildlife fodder.
Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes.
Colubridae is a family of snakes. With 524 genera and approximately 1,760 species, it is the largest snake family, and includes just over 51% of all known living snake species. The earliest species of the family date back to the Oligocene epoch. Colubrid snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica.
Redstarts are a group of small Old World birds. They were formerly classified in the thrush family (Turdidae), but are now known to be part of the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae. They are currently treated in four genera, the true redstarts Phoenicurus, the closely related genera Chaimarrornis and Rhyacornis, and one species in the less closely related genus Luscinia.
The tanagers comprise the bird family Thraupidae, in the order Passeriformes. The family has an American distribution. The Thraupidae are the second-largest family of birds and represent about 4% of all avian species and 12% of the Neotropical birds.
Ovenbirds or furnariids are a large family of small suboscine passerine birds found from Mexico and Central to southern South America. They form the family Furnariidae. The ovenbird, which breeds in North America, is not a furnariid – rather it is a distantly related bird of the wood warbler family, Parulidae.
Common stonechat is the name used for the Saxicola species Saxicola torquatus when this is treated in its broad sense.
Asphodelaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Asparagales. Such a family has been recognized by most taxonomists, but the circumscription has varied widely. In its current circumscription in the APG IV system, it includes about 40 genera and 900 known species.
The genus Ophioderma are distinctive ferns in the family Ophioglossaceae. Ophioderma is closely related to, and sometimes treated as a subgenus of, the genus Ophioglossum. It includes the genus formerly known as Cheiroglossa. Recent genetic analysis has indicated that the two genera should be treated as one, and Ophioderma has precedence by being validly published at an earlier date. The type species is Ophioderma pendulum.
The Drosophilinae are the largest subfamily in the Drosophilidae. The other subfamily is the Steganinae.
Micromacronus is a bird genus in the family Cisticolidae endemic to the Philippines. Long considered to be monotypic, its members are known as miniature babblers or miniature tit-babblers. As the scientific as well as the common names indicate, their habitus resembles a diminutive version of the tit-babblers (Macronus). The genus was only described in 1962, upon the description of the first species, which had been collected by collector Manuel Celestino and Godofredo Alcasid, a zoologist at the Philippine National Museum. The genus was formerly placed in the family Timaliidae but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2012 found that the genus was more closely related to species in the family Cisticolidae.
Bistorta is a genus of flowering plants in the Polygonaceae family with only one accepted species, Bistorta sherei H. Ohba & Akiyama (2002). It has been supported as a separate clade by molecular phylogenetic analysis. A number of species that were once assigned to Bistorta are now either treated as synonyms of species in the genus Persicaria, or currently remain unresolved.
The Polychrotidae family of iguanian lizards contains the living genus Polychrus and the extinct genus Afairiguana. The family Polychrotidae was once thought to encompass all anoles, including those in the genus Anolis. Studies of the evolutionary relationships of anoles based on molecular information has shown that Polychrus is not closely related to Anolis, but instead closer to Hoplocercidae. It is therefore not part of Dactyloidae and instead is treated as the family, Polychrotidae.
Vampyriscus is a genus of bats in the family Phyllostomidae, the leaf-nosed bats.
Tsaiorchis keiskeoides is a species of flowering plant in the family Orchidaceae, native to northern Vietnam.
