Białowieża ForestBiałowieża Forest is a forest on the border between Belarus and Poland. It is one of the last and largest remaining parts of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to 800 European bison, Europe's heaviest land animal. UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme designated the Polish Biosphere Reserve Białowieża in 1976 and the Belarusian Biosphere Reserve Biełavieskaja pušča in 1993. In 2015, the Belarusian Biosphere Reserve occupied the area of , subdivided into transition, buffer and core zones.
Père David's deerThe Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus), also known as the milu () or elaphure, is a species of deer native to the subtropical river valleys of China. It grazes mainly on grass and aquatic plants. It is the only extant member of the genus Elaphurus. Some experts suggest demoting Elaphurus to a subgenus of Cervus. Based on genetic comparisons, Père David's deer is closely related to Eld's deer. Père David's deer were hunted almost to extinction in their native China by the late 19th century, but a number were taken to zoos in France and Germany and the deer was bred successfully in captivity.
Thorold's deerThorold's deer (Cervus albirostris) is a threatened species of deer found in grassland, shrubland, and forest at high altitudes in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. It is also known as the white-lipped deer (Baichunlu, 白唇鹿, in Simplified Chinese, ཤྭ་བ་མཆུ་དཀར།་ in Standard Tibetan) for the white patches around its muzzle. This deer fills an ecological niche similar to the Tibetan red deer (shou, the subspecies wallichi of the red deer species group). It was first scientifically described by Nikolai Przhevalsky in 1883.
Tapetum lucidumThe tapetum lucidum; təˈpiːtəm_'luːsɪdəm ; ) is a layer of tissue in the eye of many vertebrates and some other animals. Lying immediately behind the retina, it is a retroreflector. It reflects visible light back through the retina, increasing the light available to the photoreceptors (although slightly blurring the image). The tapetum lucidum contributes to the superior night vision of some animals. Many of these animals are nocturnal, especially carnivores, while others are deep sea animals.
TaxusTaxus is a genus of coniferous trees or shrubs known as yews in the family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow-growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of , with trunk girth averaging . They have reddish bark, lanceolate, flat, dark-green leaves long and broad, arranged spirally on the stem, but with the leaf bases twisted to align the leaves in two flat rows either side of the stem. The oldest known fossil species are from the Early Cretaceous.
Chronic wasting diseaseChronic wasting disease (CWD), sometimes called zombie deer disease, is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) affecting deer. TSEs are a family of diseases thought to be caused by misfolded proteins called prions and include similar diseases such as BSE (mad cow disease) in cattle, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans and scrapie in sheep. In the United States, CWD affects mule deer, white-tailed deer, red deer, sika deer, elk, caribou, and moose. Natural infection causing CWD affects members of the deer family.
RucervusRucervus is a genus of deer from India, Nepal, Indochina, and the Chinese island of Hainan. The only extant representatives, the barasingha or swamp deer (R. duvaucelii) and Eld's deer (R. eldii), are threatened by habitat loss and hunting; another species, Schomburgk’s deer (R. schomburgki), went extinct in 1938. Deer species found within the genus Rucervus are characterized by a specific antler structure, where the basal ramification is often supplemented with an additional small prong, and the middle tine is never present.
Cave of AltamiraThe Cave of Altamira (ˌæltəˈmɪərə ; Cueva de Altamira ˈkweβa ðe altaˈmiɾa) is a cave complex, located near the historic town of Santillana del Mar in Cantabria, Spain. It is renowned for prehistoric cave art featuring charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings of contemporary local fauna and human hands. The earliest paintings were applied during the Upper Paleolithic, around 36,000 years ago. The site was discovered in 1868 by Modesto Cubillas and subsequently studied by Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola.
Tine (structural)Tines ('tainz; also spelled tynes), prongs or teeth are parallel or branching spikes forming parts of a tool or natural object. They are used to spear, hook, move or otherwise act on other objects. They may be made of wood, bone, metal, or similar materials. The number of tines on tools varies widely – a pitchfork may have just two, a garden fork may have four, and a rake or harrow many. Tines may be blunt, such as those on a fork used as an eating utensil; or sharp, as on a pitchfork; or even barbed, as on a trident.
AscomycotaAscomycota is a phylum of the kingdom Fungi that, together with the Basidiomycota, forms the subkingdom Dikarya. Its members are commonly known as the sac fungi or ascomycetes. It is the largest phylum of Fungi, with over 64,000 species. The defining feature of this fungal group is the "ascus" (), a microscopic sexual structure in which nonmotile spores, called ascospores, are formed. However, some species of the Ascomycota are asexual, meaning that they do not have a sexual cycle and thus do not form asci or ascospores.
