Blog Archive

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

05-24-2023-0633 - Batodonoides vanhouteni, an extinct shrew-like mammal, thought to be the smallest mammal that ever lived, Frangible bullets, Smallest_organisms, Batodonoides, (est.) Temporal range: Eocene, 55.4–42 Ma ([1]) (estimated, uncertain, approximate, ns, nc, etc.), Vaccinium arboreum, 1785, 1976, eocene life, Pleurodelinae, tadpole, frog, 1998, etc. (draft)


Batodonoides vanhouteni, an extinct shrew-like mammal, thought to be the smallest mammal that ever lived

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallest_organisms

A sequence of photos showing a frangible bullet fracturing when subjected to high velocity strain waves

Frangible bullets are intended to disintegrate into tiny particles upon target impact to minimize their penetration of other objects. Small particles are slowed more rapidly by air resistance, and are less likely to cause injury or damage to persons and objects distant from the point of bullet impact.

Most frangible bullets are subject to brittle failure upon striking a hard target. This mechanism has been used to minimize the tendency of malleable lead and copper bullets to ricochet from hard targets as large, cohesive particles. Brittle failure may occur at subsonic velocity. Attempting to crimp a brittle frangible bullet into the cartridge case may break the bullet.[1] Brittle frangible bullets may break during the self-loading cycle of semi-automatic firearms;[2] and those fired from revolvers often break as the bullet encounters the barrel forcing cone after leaving the cylinder.[3] 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frangible_bullet

Many vertebrates have evolved limbless, limb-reduced, or apodous forms. Reptiles have on a number of occasions evolved into limbless forms – snakes, amphisbaenia, and legless lizards (limb loss in lizards has evolved independently several times, examples include the families Pygopodidae and Dibamidae and species of Isopachys, Anguis, and Ophisaurus). The same is true of amphibians – caecilians, Sirenidae (a clade of salamanders that are limbless except for atrophied front limbs), Amphiumidae (a clade of salamander with extremely atrophied limbs that appear non-functional) and at least three extinct groups (Aïstopoda, Lysorophia, and Adelospondyli).[1] Larval amphibians, tadpoles, are also often limbless.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbless_vertebrate

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_data_deficient_amphibians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vulnerable_amphibians

This article is about the 1835 literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. For other uses, see Thumbelina (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Thumleima.
Thumbelina
by Hans Christian Andersen
Calineczka VP ubt.jpeg
Illustration by Vilhelm Pedersen,
Andersen's first illustrator
Original titleTommelise
TranslatorMary Howitt
CountryDenmark
LanguageDanish
Genre(s)Literary fairy tale
Published inFairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection. Second Booklet. 1835. (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Andet Hefte. 1835.)
Publication typeFairy tale collection
PublisherC. A. Reitzel
Media typePrint
Publication date16 December 1835
Published in English1846
Chronology
← Preceded by
Little Ida's Flowers 		Followed by →
The Naughty Boy
Text available at Wikisource

Thumbelina (/ˌθʌmbəˈliːnə/; Danish: Tommelise) is a literary novel bedtime story fairy tale written by the famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. It was first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Travelling Companion" in the second instalment of Fairy Tales Told for Children. Thumbelina is about a tiny girl and her adventures with marriage-minded toads, moles, and cockchafers. She successfully avoids their intentions before falling in love with a flower-fairy prince just her size. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thumbelina

Pseudoeurycea mystax
Pseudoeurycea mystax 42776147.jpg
P. mystax in Oaxaca, Mexico
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Urodela
Family: Plethodontidae
Genus: Pseudoeurycea
Species:
P. mystax
Binomial name
Pseudoeurycea mystax
Bogert, 1967[2]

Pseudoeurycea mystax is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to Mexico and only known from the area of its type locality in the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca near Ayutla, Oaxaca.[1][3][4] Its common name is mustache false brook salamander or mustached false brook salamander.[1][3] The specific name refers to the whitish protuberances on the lips that resemble a mustache in the frontal view of the male holotype.[2]

Ayutla in Mexico
Ayutla in Mexico
Pseudoeurycea mystax is only known from the vicinity of San Pedro y San Pablo Ayutla in eastern Oaxaca, Mexico
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoeurycea_mystax

The term gerrymandering is named after American politician Elbridge Gerry,[a][5] Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander. The term has negative connotations, and gerrymandering is almost always considered a corruption of the democratic process. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander (/ˈdʒɛriˌmændər, ˈɡɛri-/). The word is also a verb for the process.[6][7] 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

Common European adder
Benny Trapp Vipera berus.jpg
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Viperidae
Genus: Vipera
Species:
V. berus
Binomial name
Vipera berus
Vipera berus distribution.svg
Synonyms[2]

Species synonymy

Vipera berus, also known as the common European adder[3] and the common European viper,[4] is a species of venomous snake in the family Viperidae. The species is extremely widespread and can be found throughout most of Central Europe and Eastern Europe, and as far as East Asia.[2] There are three recognised subspecies.

Known by a host of common names including common adder and common viper, the adder has been the subject of much folklore in Britain and other European countries.[5] It is not regarded as especially dangerous;[3][page needed] the snake is not aggressive and usually bites only when really provoked, stepped on, or picked up. Bites can be very painful, but are seldom fatal.[6] The specific name, berus, is Neo-Latin and was at one time used to refer to a snake, possibly the grass snake, Natrix natrix.[7]

The common adder is found in different terrains, habitat complexity being essential for different aspects of its behaviour. It feeds on small mammals, birds, lizards, and amphibians, and in some cases on spiders, worms, and insects. The common adder, like most other vipers, is ovoviviparous. Females breed once every two or three years, with litters usually being born in late summer to early autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. Litters range in size from three to 20 with young staying with their mothers for a few days. Adults grow to a total length (including tail) of 60 to 90 cm (24 to 35 in) and a mass of 50 to 180 g (1.8 to 6.3 oz)[citation needed]. Three subspecies are recognized, including the nominate subspecies, Vipera berus berus described here.[8] The snake is not considered to be threatened, though it is protected in some countries. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vipera_berus

Little people have been part of the folklore of many cultures in human history, including Ireland, Greece, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand, Flores Island, Indonesia, and Native Americans. 

Native American "Little People" from Stories the Iroquois Tell Their Children by Mabel Powers, 1917

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_people_(mythology)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SKS

A brooding white tern (Gygis alba).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broodiness

White tern
White tern with fish.jpg
A white tern on the French Frigate Shoals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_tern

Caecilian
Temporal range:
Late Triassic (Norian) – Present, 223–0 Ma
Oscaecilia ochrocephala (16983972190).jpg
Oscaecilia ochrocephala (Caeciliidae)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caecilian

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_group#Stem_groups

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedicellate_teeth

 

Two grey newts, taken from the front, under water, presumably in an aquarium

Pleurodeles, including the Iberian ribbed newt, is the type genus of subfamily Pleurodelinae.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt

Common frog (Rana temporaria) tadpole

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadpole

 


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Batodonoides
Temporal range: Eocene, 55.4–42 Ma[1]
Batodonoides vanhouteni.jpg
Teeth
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Eulipotyphla
Family:
†Geolabididae
Genus:
†Batodonoides
Species
  • B. powayensis Novacek, 1976 (type)
  • B. vanhouteni Bloch et al. 1998
  • B. walshi Kelly 2010
  • B. rileyi Kelly 2013

Batodonoides (often misspelled as Batonoides) is a genus of extinct shrew-like mammals, which includes a species that is possibly the smallest mammal to have ever lived. Species of Batodonoides lived about 42 to 53 million years ago during the early to middle Eocene Epoch in North America. The genus contains four species: the type species B. powayensis, the older B. vanhouteni,[2] B. walshi[3] and B. rileyi.[4]

Species

B. powayensis

B. powayensis is based on the type specimen UCMP V-96459, and was a ground dwelling insectivore.[5] This species is younger than its counterpart, B. vanhouteni, existing between approximately 46.2 to 42 million years ago. It is based on fossilised remains recovered from California, USA.[1]

B. vanhouteni

Based on the size of its molar teeth, it is estimated that Batodonoides vanhouteni may have weighed only 0.93-1.82 grams (with 1.3 g most likely). The species lived about 53 million years ago during the early Eocene Epoch in North America.[2]

B. vanhouteni, described in 1998 by Bloch and colleagues, is the oldest species, and was discovered in Wasatchian deposits in Wyoming, USA.[1] It is based on a juvenile specimen, consisting of a mandible and some teeth.[2]

References


  • Batodonoides at the Paleobiology Database

  • Bloch, Jonathan I.; Rose, Kenneth D.; Gingerich, Philip D. (1998). "New Species of Batodonoides (Lipotyphla, Geolabididae) from the Early Eocene of Wyoming: Smallest Known Mammal?". Journal of Mammalogy. 79 (3): 804–827. doi:10.2307/1383090. JSTOR 1383090.

  • Kelly, Thomas S. (2010). "New records of Marsupialia, Lipotyphla, and Primates from the Duchesnean (middle Eocene) Simi Valley Landfill local fauna, Sespe Formation, California" (PDF). Paludicola. 7 (4): 158–169. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-30. Retrieved 2013-12-30.

  • Thomas S. Kelly (2013). "New records of small mammals from the latest Uintan (middle Eocene) Strathern local fauna, Sespe Formation, California". Paludicola. 9 (2): 56–69.

    1. Novacek, M. J. (1976). "Insectivora and Proteutheria of the late Eocene (Uintan) of San Diego County, California" (PDF). Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Contributions in Science (283): 1–51. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-12-31. Retrieved 2013-12-30.


    Stub icon

    This article about a prehistoric eulipotyphlan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

    By at

    No comments:

    Post a Comment

    Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)