Fauna (from the Latin faun), is a collective word signifying all the animals of a certain region, and also the description of them, corresponding to the word flora in respect to plants. Research Fauna
Wallaces' Line is a biological dividing line passing north-north-east between the East Indian islands of Bali and Lombok and Borneo and Celebes, to the west of which the flora and fauna are distinctly Asian in character, while to the east and south the Australian elements begin to be marked, and very soon become predominant. It was named after the biologist Wallace who clearly defines it in his book 'Island Life' published in 1880. Research Wallace's Line
Zoogeography is the study of the geographical distributions of animals. The earth can be divided into several zoogeographical regions separated by natural barriers, such as oceans, deserts, and mountain ranges. The characteristics of the fauna of each region are believed to depend particularly on the process of continentaldrift and the stage of evolution reached when the various land masses became isolated. For example Australia, which has been isolated since Cretaceous times, has the most primitive native mammalian fauna, consisting solely of marsupials and monotremes. Research Zoogeography
Hugh Falconer was a British naturalist and palaeontologist. He was born in 1808 in Scotland and died in 1865. After studying arts at Aberdeen and medicine at Edinburgh he went to India as a surgeon in 1830. Here he made valuable geological researches, and turned his attention to the introduction of tea cultivation. In 1837 he accompanied Barnes' second mission to Cabul. He visited England in 1843 and published an illustrated descriptive work entitled Fauna Antiqua Sivalensis (Ancient Fauna of the Sivalik Hills). He returned to India in 1848, where he had been appointed superintendent of the botanic garden at Calcutta. In 1855 he returned to England. Research Hugh Falconer
Lucien Bonaprate was Prince of Canino. He was born in 1775 at Ajaccio and died in 1840. The next younger brother of Napoleon I he emigrated to Marseilles in 1793, and having been appointed to a situation in the commissariat at the small town of St Maximin in Provence, he married the innkeeper's daughter. Here he distinguished himself as a republican orator and politician, and was so active on this side that after Robespierre's fall he was in some danger of suffering as a partisan. His brother's influence, however, operated in his favour, and in 1798 we find him settled in Paris and a member of the newly-elected Council of Five Hundred.
Shortly after Napoleon's return from Egypt in 1799 he was elected President of the Council, in which position he contributed greatly to the fall of the Directory and the establishment of his brother's power, on the famous 18th Brumaire (9th November). Next year, as Napoleon began to develop his system of military despotism, Lucien Bonaparte, who still held to his republican principles and candidly expressed his disapproval of his brother's conduct, fell into disfavour and was sent out of the way as ambassador to Spain. Eventually, when Napoleon had the consulate declared hereditary, Lucien Bonaparte withdrew to Italy, settling finally at Rome, where he devoted himself to the arts and sciences, and lived in apparent indifference to the growth of his brother's power.
In vain Napoleon offered him the crown, first of Italy and then of Spain; but he came to France and exerted himself on his brother's behalf, both before and after the Battle of Waterloo. Returning to Italy, he spent the rest of his life in literary and scientific researches, dying in 1840. Pope Pius VII made him Prince of Canino. He was the author of several works, amongst which are two long poems. His eldest son, Charles Lucien LaurentBonaparte, born in 1803, achieved a considerable reputation as a naturalist, chiefly in ornithology. He published a continuation of Wilson's Ornithology; Iconografia della Fauna Italica;
Conspectus Generum Avium, etc. He died in 1857. Another son, Pierre was born in 1815 and died in 1881. He led an unsettled and disreputable life, and became notorious in 1870 by killing, in his own house at Paris, the journalist Victor Noir, who had brought him a challenge. He got off on the plea of self-defence, but had to leave France. Research Lucien Bonaparte
In Roman mythology, Bona Dea was a goddess of chastity, fertility and healing. She was worshipped from the earliest times exclusively by women. A prophetic deity with a sanctuary in the Aventine, she revealed her oracles only to women, and men were not even allowed to know her name. Bona Dea means 'good goddess', and she was also called Fauna. Legend has it that she was related to the god Faunus, but the legends differ as to whether she was his sister, wife or daughter. Research Bona Dea
In Roman mythology, Fauna was the mother goddess of earth, rural life, fields, cattle and wild creatures. She was a protectress of women. See also Bona Dea. Research Fauna
In Roman mythology, Faunus was a king who instructed his subjects in agriculture and the management of flocks. Afterwards he was worshiped as the god of fields and shepherds, rather like the Greek Pan, with whom he became associated and whose attributes he acquired. He was the son of Picus and the grandson of Saturn. His female counterpart was Fauna. Research Faunus
The Challenger Expedition was a voyage for the scientific purposes of investigating the conditions of life in the deep sea of the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic Oceans organised in 1872 by the British government. The corvetteChallenger started from Sheerness in December 1872 and returned in May 1876 after collecting information about the ocean beds, currents, temperature and also collecting samples of fauna. Research Challenger Expedition
The Jurassic was the second geological period of the Mesozoic era. It followed the Triassic, which ended about 190 million years ago, and extended until the beginning of the Cretaceous period, about 139 million years ago. It was named in 1829 by A Brongniart after the JuraMountains on the borders of France and Switzerland.
Jurassic rocks include clays and limestones in which fossil flora and fauna are abundant. Plants included ferns, cycads, ginkgos, rushes, and conifers. Important invertebrates included ammonites (on which the Jurassic is zoned), corals, brachiopods, bivalves, and echinoids. Reptiles dominated the vertebrates and the first flying reptiles - the pterosaurs - appeared. The first primitive bird, Archaeopteryx, also made its appearance during this period. Research Jurassic
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Fauna
