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Wikispecies

The free species directory that anyone can edit.

It covers Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Bacteria, Archaea, Protista and all other forms of life.

So far we have 376,785 articles

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A collaboration between Wikispecies and ZooKeys has been announced. PhytoKeys also joined the collaboration in November 2010. Images of species from ZooKeys and PhytoKeys will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and used in Wikispecies.



Distinguished Author

Bocage-JV-Barbosa-du-1823-1.jpg

José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage
  (1823-1907).

A Portuguese zoologist and politician. He was the curator of Zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Lisbon. His work at the Museum consisted in acquiring, describing and coordinating collections, many of which arrived from the Portuguese colonies in Africa, such as Angola, Mozambique, etc. He published more than 200 taxonomic papers on mammals, birds, and fishes. In the 1880s he became the Minister of the Navy and later the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Portugal. The zoology collection at the Lisbon Museum is called the Bocage Museum in his honor. He was responsible for identifying many new species, which he named according to the naturalist who found them.

Species of the week

Quokka

Setonix brachyurus

Setonix brachyurus

Some facts on this marsupial:

Head and body length: 40 to 54 cm.

Weight: 2.4 to 4.2 kg.

Distribution: Rottnest Island, south-west Western Australian mainland.

Hebitat: Dense swamps, heath, thickets, low forest and waterside areas.

Diet: Native grasses and the leaves, stems and bark of a variety of plants.

Surviving number: 8,000-17,000 mature individuals.

Protection status: Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1).

First described: By the French zoologists, Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830 as Kangurus brachyurus.


Setonix brachyurus carries a spare baby. The female has a safeguard in the case that her joey dies: it has a pre-embryonic structure called a blastocyst, which develops into an embryo if she loses her offspring before becoming independent enough to leave the poach. The quokka harbors special bacteria in its gut, capable of breaking down poor-quality vegetation into usable nutrients. This little marsupial is terrestrial yet is able to climb trees and small shrubs. It browses for leaves and grasses and searches out the best shelter from the summer scorching sun. All its natural advantages are of little help against the abundant threats it faces: foxes, feral cats, habitat loss and disease.

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