title: Kristin Bauer van Straten

text: In 1995, Bauer van Straten had her first regular role in a television series, as Maggie Reynolds on "The Crew". Other recurring roles include Geneva Renault in "Total Security", Candy Cooper in "That's Life", Rebecca Colfax in "Dirty Sexy Money", and Belinda Slypich in "Hidden Hills". Perhaps her best known film role was in "Dancing at the Blue Iguana" in 2000. Bauer van Straten played a porn star appearing as the featured act at a Los Angeles strip club and performed an extended nude dance. In 2001, she starred in the award-winning short film "Room 302", and in 2004 she had a minor role in the film "50 First Dates", which starred Adam Sandler. In the animated series "Justice League", she supplied the voice of the superhero Mera.


title: Kristin Bauer van Straten

text: She has also made a number of guest appearances in several television shows, including "LA Law", "Seinfeld", "Everybody Loves Raymond", "Dark Angel", "Two and a Half Men", "", "", "Desperate Housewives", and "George Lopez". She famously appeared in a "Seinfeld" episode ("The Bizarro Jerry") as Gillian, Jerry's girlfriend with "man hands", though the actual "man hands", seen only in close-ups, belonged to a member of the production crew.


title: Kristin Bauer van Straten

text: From 2008 to its conclusion in 2014, Bauer van Straten played the vampire Pamela Swynford De Beaufort on the HBO fantasy drama series "True Blood". On December 8, 2009, "TV Guide" confirmed she had been promoted from recurring status to a series regular. In 2011, Bauer van Straten was cast in the fantasy television series "Once Upon a Time" as the evil fairy Maleficent (the wicked fairy godmother, using the name from Disney's "Sleeping Beauty"), the rival of the Evil Queen of Snow White.


title: Kristin Bauer van Straten

text: Bauer van Straten carries out conservation work to improve the treatment of animals. In 2011, she teamed with the Animal Legal Defense Fund in an unsuccessful fight to release Tony, a Siberian-Bengal tiger who has been kept as a roadside attraction at the Tiger Truck Stop in Grosse Tete, Louisiana since 2000. Bauer van Straten has also worked with Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to promote cosmetics that are not tested on animals. She is a vegetarian and has used her platform to support shelter animals by promoting adoption.


title: Sarah Burns

text: Sarah Burns (born July 26, 1981) is an American film and television actress and comedian, best known for playing Krista on HBO's "Enlightened".


title: Sarah Burns

text: Born on Long Island, New York. Burns has performed improvisational comedy regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, New York.


title: Sarah Burns

text: Burns is known for her appearances in comedic films and television series. Her film roles include Anne in "Slow Learners" (2015) opposite Adam Pally, Hailey in "I Love You, Man" (2009), Harper in "Going the Distance" (2010) and Janine Groff in "Life as We Know It" (2010).


title: Sarah Burns

text: She has also appeared in television productions including "Damage Control" (one episode; 2005), "Flight of the Conchords" (one episode; 2007), "Party Down" (one episode; 2010) and "Ben and Kate" (one episode; 2012). She had a costarring role in the short film "Cried Suicide" (2010), which was screened at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. Her short film "The First Step" (2012) premiered at the 2013 Seattle International Film Festival.


title: Sarah Burns

text: She appears as part of a recurring cast of sketch players for the Comedy Central television series "Drunk History", which premiered in July 2013. In 2015, Burns was a series regular in second season of the FX comedy series "Married". Burns was cast as Assistant District Attorney Emily Sinclair in Season Two of the show "How to Get Away With Murder".


title: Sarah Burns

text: In 2009, "Entertainment Weekly" named her one of the "25 Funniest Actresses in Hollywood". In June 2013, "Entertainment Weekly" named Burns one of "15 Actresses We're Rooting For" as part of its "Emmy Watch".


title: Sarah Burns

text: In 2016, Burns appeared as Margie Turley in the Lorne Michaels-produced "Brother Nature". In 2017, Burns appeared as Gabrielle in the HBO original miniseries "Big Little Lies" and in the Netflix series "".


title: Sarah Burns

text: In 2020, Burns appeared as Kaylie in the Netflix film "Desperados" as well as a major role in the Netflix series "Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun".


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: The Party at Kitty and Stud's is a 1970 American softcore pornographic romance film directed by Morton Lewis and starring Sylvester Stallone in his first starring and leading role. Stallone worked two days and was paid $200. Shortly after the 1976 release of "Rocky", "The Party at Kitty and Stud's" was edited and re-released as Italian Stallion to capitalize on its now-famous star.


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: The film deals with the sex life of a young New York City woman, Kitty, and her boyfriend, Stud. Stud is brutal and oafish but Kitty is enamored with his sexual performance. They sometimes engage in light sadomasochism, with Stud belt-whipping Kitty. Stud later posts a sign on a bulletin board inviting people to a party. Several people show up at Kitty and Stud's apartment and they engage in group sex, with Stud servicing all the women.


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: According to Stallone, the film was financed by "a group of wealthy lawyers, very, very solid." The actor said in a 1978 "Playboy" interview that he had done the film out of desperation after being bounced out of his apartment and finding himself homeless for several days, sleeping in a New York City bus station in the middle of winter. In Stallone's words: "It was either do that movie or rob someone because I was at the end—at the very end—of my rope. Instead of doing something desperate, I worked two days for $200 and got myself out of the bus station". The actor also called the film "horrendous" and commented "By today's standards, the movie would almost qualify for a PG rating".


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: Although some sources, including Stallone himself, have stated that "The Party at Kitty and Stud's" was never released until after his success in "Rocky" (1976), contemporary newspaper advertisements indicate that the film was screened in adult cinemas in at least four U.S. states between 1970 and 1972.


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: Stallone has stated that after "Rocky" became a hit, the owners of "The Party at Kitty and Stud's" offered to sell him the rights to the film for about US$100,000 in order to prevent its re-release, but the actor "wouldn't buy it for two bucks". The film was then rereleased in theaters under the new title "The Italian Stallion". In a prologue included with the reissued version, and in the film's trailer, pornography director Gail Palmer sat by an editing machine addressing the audience and presented the film as X-rated. The release campaign implied that the original film was hardcore pornography, but that the material had now been edited into a milder version. However, the truth of this version has been repeatedly challenged, notably by trade journal "AVN", which examined an original print, finding no trace of hardcore scenes. The "Sylvester Stallone porno movie" evolved over the years into a minor urban legend.


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: The film was released on DVD in the United States in July 2004 by Ventura Distribution, then again in October 2007 by Cinema Epoch, both under short licenses from Bryanston Distributing Company. Bryanston owned all worldwide rights to the title and also granted short overseas licenses to various territories at the time.


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: In 2007, the film was released on DVD in a supposedly hardcore version with the lead actor performing actual sexual penetrations. However, the hardcore scenes in that version were revealed as inserts not involving Stallone.


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: Scenes from "The Party at Kitty and Stud's" surfaced in a German version of Roger Colmont's hardcore film "White Fire" (1976), released on DVD under license by Another World Entertainment in 2008.


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: Protracted negotiations between Bryanston and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for sale of all rights to the picture were terminated in June 2009, as neither party could agree on financial terms. The film's worldwide rights and original 35 mm negatives were auctioned on eBay for $412,000 in November 2010.


title: The Party at Kitty and Stud's

text: When rereleased as "Italian Stallion", the film was distributed to movie theaters for $10,000 a night, about which Stallone commented "Hell, for $10,000 forget the movie! I'll be there myself!"


title: Ian Hill

text: Ian Frank Hill (born 20 January 1951) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and the sole continuous member for the heavy metal band Judas Priest.


title: Ian Hill

text: Hill learned how to play the double bass from his father, a bass player for local jazz acts. His father died when he was fifteen. In 1970, together with schoolmate K. K. Downing, Hill formed heavy metal band Judas Priest. He has been playing bass with the band ever since and is the only original member continuously in the band from the beginning, following Downing's departure in 2011.


title: Ian Hill

text: During the early years of the band, he played bass by finger-picking, but since the album "Killing Machine" he has played with a pick.


title: Ian Hill

text: Hill is responsible for bringing Rob Halford into Judas Priest. The two met while Hill was dating Halford's sister and mentioned that he needed a new vocalist for his band. Halford accepted, leaving his previous band Hiroshima, and brought along drummer John Hinch, who would later be dropped by the band after one album due to "musical inadequacy", according to Judas Priest's website.


title: Ian Hill

text: In the early years of Judas Priest, Hill played a 1970s Fender Jazz Bass, switching to Hamer in the mid-1980s. Since the late 1980s, Hill has played Spector basses. Spector currently produce an Ian Hill signature bass guitar, based on Hill's NS-2 and fitted with a narrower neck, with an optional tuning of BEAD. He plays using a nylon flatpick of 0.75 mm thickness.


title: Ian Hill

text: While Hill has used a wide range of different amplifiers through his career, he has been using SWR products since the late 1990s. His current rig consists of two SWR SM1500 amplifiers and four SWR TRIAD cabinets.


title: Ian Hill

text: During the "Jugulator" and "Demolition" recording sessions, Hill used a 5 string Spector bass to access the lower registers needed through the use of down tuned guitars by Tipton and Downing.


title: Ian Hill

text: Hill married Rob Halford's sister, Sue, in 1976 and they divorced in 1984. Together they have a son, Alex, who was born in 1980. Hill lived in Florida while he was married to his second wife, Letitia. They had a daughter with the same name. He met his present wife in 1999, and married in 2006.


title: Ian Hill

text: When Hill was asked about his reaction to the 2001 film "Rock Star", which was originally inspired by the real-life story of Tim "Ripper" Owens, a singer in a Judas Priest tribute band who was chosen to replace singer Rob Halford when he left the band, in an interview with "PopMatters" magazine, Hill responded "Well, it was a true work of fiction, you know? When we heard about the production company were going to make a movie based, as far as we knew, about Ripper joining the band we offered our help. We said 'If there's anything you want to know, talk to us at the time.' And certainly our communication was cut off and that was it and they went off on their own tangent." Hill added "I mean, I quite enjoyed the movie. [laughs] It was entertaining, you know?" Hill was quoted as saying "It had nothing to do with Rob Halford, Ripper Owens and Judas Priest, it's got nothing to do with that, whatsoever. It was fiction. Apart from the fact that 'Local Boy Makes Good'? That was the only true aspect of the movie." Hill was quick to add "I watched it once. I don't have the urge to watch it again. [laughs]"


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Crown corporations in Canada are government organizations with a mixture of commercial and public-policy objectives. They are directly and wholly owned by the Crown (i.e. the government of Canada or a province).


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Crown corporations represent a specific form of state-owned enterprise. Each corporation is ultimately accountable to (federal or provincial) Parliament through a relevant minister for the conduct of its affairs. They are established by an Act of Parliament and report to that body via the relevant minister in Cabinet, though they are "shielded from constant government intervention and legislative oversight" and thus "generally enjoy greater freedom from direct political control than government departments."


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Crown corporations have a long-standing presence in the country and have been instrumental in its formation. They can provide services required by the public that otherwise would not be economically viable as a private enterprise or that do not fit exactly within the scope of any ministry. They are involved in everything from the distribution, use, and price of certain goods and services to energy development, resource extraction, public transportation, cultural promotion, and property management.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: , there were 47 federal Crown corporations in Canada. Provinces and territories operate their own Crown corporations independently of the federal government.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: In Canada, Crown corporations within either the federal or provincial level are owned by the Crown as the institution's sole legal shareholder. This follows the legal premise that the monarch, as the personification of Canada, owns all state property.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Established by an Act of Parliament, each corporation is ultimately accountable to (federal or provincial) Parliament through a relevant minister for the conduct of its affairs.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Although these corporations are owned by the Crown, they are operated with much greater managerial autonomy than government departments. While they report to Parliament via the relevant minister in Cabinet, they are "shielded from constant government intervention and legislative oversight" and thus "generally enjoy greater freedom from direct political control than government departments." Direct control over operations are only exerted over the corporation's budget and the appointment of its senior leadership through Orders-in-Council.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Further, in the federal sphere, certain Crown corporations can be an agent or non-agent of the Crown. One with agent status is entitled to the same constitutional prerogatives, privileges, and immunities held by the Crown and can bind the Crown by its acts. The Crown is thus entirely responsible for the actions of these organisations. The Crown is not liable for Crown corporations with non-agent status, except for actions of that corporation carried out on instruction from the government, though there may be "moral obligations" on the part of the Crown in other circumstances.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Crown corporations are generally formed to fill a need that the federal or provincial government deems in the national interest or not profitable for private industry. Some Crown corporations are expected to be profitable organisations, while others are non-commercial and rely entirely on public funds to operate.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Prior to the formation of Crown corporations as presently understood, much of what later became Canada was settled and governed by a similar type of entity called a "chartered company". These companies were established by a royal charter by the Scottish, English, or French crown, but were owned by private investors. They fulfilled the dual roles of promoting government policy abroad and making a return for shareholders. Certain companies were mainly trading businesses, but some were given a mandate (by royal charter) to govern a specific territory called a charter colony, and the head of this colony, called a proprietary governor, was both a business manager and the governing authority in the area. The first colonies on the island of Newfoundland were founded in this manner, between 1610 and 1728.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Canada's most famous and influential chartered company was the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), founded on May 2, 1670, by royal charter of King Charles II. The HBC became the world's largest land owner, at one point overseeing , territories that today incorporate the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, as well as Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon. The HBC were often the point of first contact between the colonial government and First Nations. By the late 19th century, however, the HBC lost its monopoly over Rupert's Land and became a fully privatised company.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: The first Crown corporation was the Board of Works, established in 1841 by the Province of Canada to construct shipping canals.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: The first major Canadian experience with directly state-owned enterprises came during the early growth of the railways. The first Canadian Crown corporation after confederation was the Canadian National Railway Company, created in 1922.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: During the earlier part of the century, many British North American colonies that now comprise the Canadian federation had Crown corporations, often in the form of railways, such as the Nova Scotia Railway, since there was limited private capital available for such endeavours. When three British colonies joined to create the Canadian federation in 1867, these railways were transferred to the new central government. As well, the construction of the Intercolonial Railway between them was one of the terms of the new constitution. The first section of this entirely government-owned railway was completed in 1872.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Western Canada's early railways were all run by privately owned companies backed by government subsidies and loans. By the early twentieth century, however, many of these had become bankrupt. The federal government nationalised several failing Western railways and combined them with its existing Intercolonial and other line in the East to create Canadian National Railways (CNR) in 1918 as a transcontinental system. The CNR was unique in that was a conglomerate, and besides passenger and freight rail, it had inherited major business interests in shipping, hotels, and telegraphy and was able create new lines of business in broadcasting and air travel. Many of the components of this business empire were later spun off into new Crown corporations including some the most important businesses in the mid-20th-century economy of Canada, such Air Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Via Rail, and Marine Atlantic.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Provincial Crown corporations also re-emerged in the early 20th century, most notably in the selling of alcohol. Government monopoly liquor stores were seen as a compromise between the recently ended era of Prohibition in Canada and the excesses of the previous open market which had led to calls for prohibition in the first place. Virtually all the provinces used this system at one point. The largest of these government liquor businesses, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (founded 1927), was by 2008 one of the world's largest alcohol retailers. Resource and utility companies also emerged at this time, notably Ontario Hydro and Alberta Government Telephones in 1906, and SaskTel in 1908. Provincial governments also re-entered the railway business as in Northern Alberta Railways in 1925 and what later became BC Rail in 1918. A notable anomaly of this era is Canada's only provincially owned "bank" (though not called that for legal reasons) Alberta Treasury Branches, created in 1937.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: The Bank of Canada, originally privately owned, became a Crown corporation in 1938. New crown Corporations were also created throughout much of the mid-century.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: The federal Post Office Department became a Crown corporation as Canada Post Corporation in 1981, and Canada's export credit agency, Export Development Canada, was created in 1985. Perhaps the most controversial was Petro-Canada, Canada's short-lived attempt to create a national oil company, founded in 1975.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: The heyday of Crown corporations ended in the late 1980s, and there has been much privatisation since that time, particularly at the federal level.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Not only the federal government was involved, but also the provinces, who were in engaged in an era of "province building" (expanding the reach and importance of the provincial governments) around this time. The prototypical example is Hydro-Québec, founded in 1944 and now Canada's largest electricity generator and the world's largest producer of hydro-electricity. It is widely seen as a symbol of modern Quebec, helping to create the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s where French-speakers in Quebec rose to positions of influence in the industrial economy for the first time, and Quebec nationalism emerged as a political force. This model followed by SaskPower in 1944 and BC Hydro in 1961. Other areas provinces were active in included insurance (Saskatchewan Government Insurance, 1945)


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: In Alberta, the term "public agency" is used to describe "boards, commissions, tribunals or other organizations established by government, but not part of a government department."


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Crown corporations in Ontario are sometimes referred to as "Crown agencies". A Crown agency includes any board, commission, railway, public utility, university, factory, company or agency owned, controlled or operated by the King in Right of Ontario or the Government of Ontario, or under the authority of the Legislature or the Lieutenant Governor-in-Council.


title: Crown corporations of Canada

text: Finances Québec published a list 60 Quebec Crown corporations () in June 2017. The following entities were among those listed:


title: Heinkel He 178

text: The Heinkel He 178 was an experimental aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Heinkel. It was the world's first aircraft to fly using the thrust from a turbojet engine.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: The He 178 was developed to test the jet propulsion concept devised by the German engineer Hans von Ohain during the mid-1930s. Having secured the industrial support of Ernst Heinkel, von Ohain was able to demonstrate a working turbojet engine, the Heinkel HeS 1, in September 1937. Heinkel pursued development of the He 178 as a private venture, independent of the German authorities and the Luftwaffe, keeping the aircraft relatively secret for much of its development. Heinkel was keen not only to demonstrate the capabilities of aviation gas turbines, but had a separate emphasis on developing high-speed flight technologies.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: On 27 August 1939, the He 178 V1, the first prototype, performed its maiden flight, piloted by Erich Warsitz. This flight, which only lasted for six minutes, had been preceded by a short hop by the same aircraft three days prior. Due to its performance limitations, such as a maximum speed of and its relatively small endurance, the aircraft failed to impress Nazi officials such as Ernst Udet and Erhard Milch, who attended a demonstration flight. Heinkel subsequently developed a twin-engined jet-powered fighter aircraft, building on the lessons of the He 178, to produce the He 280. The He 178 provided valuable test data to guide the development of subsequent jet-powered aircraft. The He 178 V1 prototype itself went on static display in Berlin for a time before it was destroyed by an Allied air raid on the city in 1943.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: In 1935, Hans von Ohain, a young German engineer, successfully took out a patent on the use of the exhaust from a gas turbine as a means of propulsion. Von Ohain presented his idea to the aeronautical engineer Ernst Heinkel, who was sufficiently impressed that he agreed to help develop the concept. This industrial support would prove highly benefitial to von Ohain's work. According to the periodical New Scientist, Heinkel had already been interested in the potential of the gas turbine prior to encounter von Ohain and his work.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: During September 1937, von Ohain successfully demonstrated his first engine, the Heinkel HeS 1. Accordingly, it was promptly decided to begin designing an aircraft for which a similar such engine could be installed and tested in the air. This aircraft, which would be designated "He 178", was designed around von Ohain's third engine design, the HeS 3, which burned either diesel fuel or gasoline. To support the programme, the HeS 3 was test flown in a Heinkel He 118, but only as a supplemental engine to the conventional piston engine that it retained.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: The He 178 was a relatively compact aircraft, featuring a primarily metal fuselage and using a largely conventional configuration and construction. The nose accommodated the air intake for the engine, which was housed within the central fuselage. The aircraft was fitted with tailwheel undercarriage. The main landing gear was intended to be retractable, but actually remained fixed in the "down" position throughout the flight trials. It was furnished with high-mounted wooden wings that had the characteristic Günter brothers elliptical trailing edge. Photos showing a "straight wing" (straight-line-taper in the wing planform, for both the leading and trailing edges) were of the second prototype He 178 V2, which never flew under power.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: On 27 August 1939, the aircraft performed its maiden flight, only days before Germany invaded Poland. This flight, piloted by Erich Warsitz, lasted only six minutes and almost ended in near-disaster due to a misjudgement during the unpowered landing approach, but was successfully recovered. Warsitz later described his groundbreaking flight: "I moved the throttle levers gently forward. As the aircraft began to roll I was initially rather disappointed at the thrust, for she did not shoot forward as the 176 had done, but moved off slowly. By the 300-metre mark she was moving very fast. Despite several attempts I could not retract the undercarriage. It was not important, all that mattered was that she flew. The rudder and all flaps worked almost normally, the turbine howled. Now I would have to take my chances with the landing, losing altitude by side-slipping. I restored her to the correct attitude just before touching down, made a wonderful landing and pulled up just short of the Warnow."


title: Heinkel He 178

text: Heinkel had developed the turbojet engine and the testbed aircraft, the Heinkel He 178 V1, in great secrecy. Their existence were kept secret even from the Luftwaffe. On 1 November 1939, after the German victory in Poland, Heinkel arranged a demonstration of the aircraft before a group of Nazi officials. While Hermann Göring, the commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, was not in attendance, the demonstration was watched by Ernst Udet and Erhard Milch, Minister of Aircraft Production and Supply, however, they were reportedly not impressed by its performance. While the He 178 had been a success on a technical basis, its speed was restricted to no greater than , even when fitted with the more powerful HeS 6 engines, capable of generating up to of thrust, while its combat endurance was limited to only ten minutes.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: Heinkel was disappointed by the lack of official interest in his private-venture jet. In his autobiography, he attributes that to the failure of the leaders of the "Reichsluftfahrtministerium" to understand the advantages of jet propulsion and the breakthrough that He 178 represented. Undeterred by a lack of support from external officials, Heinkel decided to embark on the development of a twin-engine jet fighter as a private venture, harnessing what had been learned from flying the He 178 prototype. This would result in the He 280, the first prototype jet-powered fighter aircraft.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: Unknown to Heinkel, the Reich Air Ministry had already been developing its own jet technology. In fact, in September 1939, the development of jet powered single-seat aircraft was ordered to continue despite a general order to cut back on non-core development work as to get certain aircraft types operational as soon as possible. However, the jet engines that would be developed by Junkers and BMW would differ considerably from those engines used by the He 178, instead favouring the axial flow approach in place of the earlier centrifugal design. Nevertheless, the He 178 programme was a valuable source of test data that aided subsequent development efforts considerably.


title: Heinkel He 178

text: The He 178 V1 airframe was placed on display at the Berlin Aviation Museum, where it was destroyed in an air raid in 1943.


title: Aethiopia

text: Ancient Aethiopia, (; also known as Ethiopia) first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the upper Nile region of Sudan, as well as certain areas south of the Sahara desert. Its earliest mention is in the works of Homer: twice in the "Iliad", and three times in the "Odyssey". The Greek historian Herodotus "specifically" uses the appellation to refer to such parts of sub-Saharan Africa as were then known within the inhabitable world.


title: Aethiopia

text: In classical antiquity, "Africa" (or 'Ancient Libya') specifically referred to what is now known as the Maghreb and south of the Libyan Desert and Western Sahara, including all the desert land west of the southern Nile river in North Africa, and not to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geographical knowledge of the continent gradually grew, with the Greek travelogue "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" (1st century AD) describing areas along the Red Sea (Erythraean Sea).


title: Aethiopia

text: The Greek name "Aithiopia" (, from ) is a compound derived of two Greek words: + . According to the Perseus Project, this designation properly translates in noun form as "burnt-face" and in adjectival form as "red-brown". As such, it was used as a vague term for dark-skinned populations since the time of Homer. The term was applied to such peoples when within the range of observation of the ancient geographers, primarily in what was then Nubia (in ancient Sudan). With the expansion of geographical knowledge, the exonym successively extended to certain other areas below the Sahara.


title: Aethiopia

text: Homer () is the first to mention "Aethiopians" (, ), writing that they are to be found at the east and west extremities of the world, divided by the sea into "eastern" (at the sunrise) and "western" (at the sunset). In Book 1 of the "Iliad", Thetis visits Olympus to meet Zeus, but the meeting is postponed, as Zeus and other gods are absent, visiting the land of the Aethiopians.


title: Aethiopia

text: And in Book 1 of the Odyssey, Athena convinces Zeus to let Odysseus finally return home only because Poseidon is away in Aithiopia and unable to object.


title: Aethiopia

text: In 515 BC, Scylax of Caryanda, on orders from Darius I of the Achaemenid Empire, sailed along the Indus River, Indian Ocean, and Red Sea, circumnavigating the Arabian Peninsula. He mentioned "Aethiopians", though his writings on them have not survived.


title: Aethiopia

text: Hecataeus of Miletus () is also said to have written a book about 'Aethiopia,' but his writing is now known only through quotations from later authors. He stated that 'Aethiopia' was located to the east of the Nile, as far as the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. He is also quoted as relating a myth in which the Skiapods ('Shade feet'), whose feet were supposedly large enough to serve as shade, lived there.


title: Aethiopia

text: In his "Histories" (), Herodotus presents some of the most ancient and detailed information about "Aethiopia". He relates that he personally traveled up the Nile to the border of Egypt as far as Elephantine (modern Aswan). In his view, "Aethiopia" is all of the inhabited land found to the south of Egypt, beginning at Elephantine. He describes a capital at Meroë, adding that the only deities worshipped there were Zeus (Amun) and Dionysus (Osiris). He relates that in the reign of Pharaoh Psamtik I (), many Egyptian soldiers deserted their country and settled amidst the Aethiopians.


title: Aethiopia

text: Herodotus also remarked on the shared cultural practices between Egyptians and Ethiopians as he states: “I myself guessed it to be so, partly because they are dark-skinned and woolly-haired; though that indeed goes for nothing, seeing that other peoples, too, are such; but my better proof was that the Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from the first practised circumcision”.


title: Aethiopia

text: Herodotus further noted that there had been 18 Ethiopian kings and one queen among the Egyptian dynasties.


title: Aethiopia

text: Herodotus tells us that king Cambyses II () of the Achaemenid Empire sent spies to the Aethiopians "who dwelt in that part of Libya (Africa) which borders upon the southern sea." They found a strong and healthy people. Although Cambyses then campaigned toward their country, by not preparing enough provisions for the long march, his army completely failed and returned quickly.


title: Aethiopia

text: The Egyptian priest Manetho () listed Kushite (25th) dynasty, calling it the "Aethiopian dynasty," and Esarhaddon the early 7th century BC ruler of the Neo-Assyrian Empire describes deporting all "Aethiopians" from Egypt upon conquering Egypt from the Nubian Kushite Empire which formed the 25th Dynasty. Moreover, when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek (c. 200 BC), the Hebrew appellation "Kush, Kushite" became in Greek "Aethiopia, Aethiopians", appearing as "Ethiopia, Ethiopians" in the English "King James Version".


title: Aethiopia

text: Agatharchides provides a relatively detailed description of the gold mining system of Aethiopia. His text was copied almost verbatim by virtually all subsequent ancient writers on the area, including Diodorus Siculus and Photius.


title: Aethiopia

text: Diodorus Siculus also discussed the similar cultural practices between the Ethiopians and Egyptians such as the writing systems as he states “We must now speak about the Ethiopian writing which is called hieroglyphic among the Egyptians, in order that we may omit nothing in our discussion of their antiquities”.


title: Aethiopia

text: Strabo discussed migrations between Egypt and Ethiopia in his book, "Geography", and noted that “Egyptians settled Ethiopia and Colchis”.


title: Aethiopia

text: With regard to the Ethiopians, Strabo indicates that they looked similar to Indians, remarking "those who are in Asia (South India), and those who are in Africa, do not differ from each other." Pliny in turn asserts that the place-name "Aethiopia" was derived from one "Aethiop, a son of Vulcan" (the Greek god Hephaestus). He also writes that the "Queen of the Ethiopians" bore the title Kandake, and avers (incorrectly) that the Ethiopians had conquered ancient Syria and the Mediterranean. Following Strabo, the Greco-Roman historian Eusebius claims that the Ethiopians had emigrated into the Red Sea area from the Indus Valley and that there were no people in the region by that name prior to their arrival.


title: Aethiopia

text: The Greek travelogue from the 1st-century AD, known as the "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea", initially describes the littoral, based on its author's intimate knowledge of the area. However, the "Periplus" does not mention any dark-skinned "Ethiopians" among the area's inhabitants. They only later appear in Ptolemy's "Geographia" in a region far south, around the "Bantu nucleus" of northern Mozambique.


title: Aethiopia

text: Arrian, wrote in the 1st-century AD that “The appearance of the inhabitants is also not very different in India and Ethiopia: the southern Indians are rather more like Ethiopians as they are black to look on, and their hair is black; only they are not so snub-nosed or woolly-haired as the Ethiopians; the northern Indians are most like the Egyptians physically”.


title: Aethiopia

text: Also the Roman Christian historian and theologian Saint Jerome along with Sophronius referred to Colchis as the "second Ethiopia" because of its 'black-skinned' population.


title: Aethiopia

text: Several personalities in Greek and medieval literature were identified as Aethiopian, including several rulers, male and female:


title: Danielle Staub

text: Danielle Staub (born Beverly Ann Merrill; July 29, 1962) is an American television personality. In May 2009, she came to prominence after being cast in the reality television series "The Real Housewives of New Jersey", as a main cast member for two seasons of (2009-10), and afterward as a friend for three more seasons (2017-20).


title: Danielle Staub

text: Born to a 15-year-old mother of Sicilian heritage, Staub was adopted and raised in Athens, Pennsylvania. She said in her autobiography "The Naked Truth" that multiple relatives sexually abused her, writing, "The memory goes back as far as 8 years old. By 11, I started fighting back."


title: Danielle Staub

text: In 2001, Staub briefly acted in an episode of "All My Children". In 2009, Staub joined the cast of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey", where she appeared in the first two seasons. After weeks of speculation, Bravo announced that Staub would not be returning to the show for season three, giving no reason.


title: Danielle Staub

text: In September 2010, she appeared on the Style Network comedy program "The Dish". She acted in several sketches, including a surprise cold open where she tried to take over as the show's host after leaving the real presenter, Danielle Fishel, bound and gagged backstage. In 2011, Staub starred in a food-related reality series for VH1 called "Famous Food," in which they would "[revamp] a restaurant from the ground up." In August 2017, it was announced that Staub would return to "The Real Housewives of New Jersey", in a "friend of the housewives" capacity. She appeared as a recurring cast member for seasons eight, nine and ten. On, January 8, 2020, Staub announced her permanent departure from "The Real Housewives of New Jersey".


title: Danielle Staub

text: Staub has been married three times. She was married to Kevin Maher from 1986 to 1987, and to Thomas Staub, the father of her daughters Christine and Jillian, from 1993 to 2007. In May 2017, it was announced Staub was engaged to Marty Caffrey. The two wed in May 2018. In August 2018, it was announced the couple would divorce. Their divorce was finalized on February 21, 2019. She has been engaged 26 times, most recently to Michael Lohan.


title: Danielle Staub

text: In June 2010, her home in Wayne, New Jersey, which had been featured on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," was put up for sale. In June 2012, Staub filed for bankruptcy. As of the end of 2014, the property was listed as a short sale in connection with Staub's successful completion of a bankruptcy filing.


title: Danielle Staub

text: During the first season of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," other participants in the reality show confronted Staub with Charles Kipps' book "Cop Without a Badge," which recounted events that surrounded Kevin Maher, an undercover FBI informer, who had once been married to Staub; "Cop Without a Badge" also included an account of Staub's arrest. Known at the time as Beverly Merrill, Staub cooperated with authorities and received five years' probation. Staub had been arrested in June 1986, but she denied many of the other allegations Maher had made. Staub's autobiography "The Naked Truth" was released on May 25, 2010, and in it, she wrote that her arrest was a matter of "wrong place/wrong time."


title: Danielle Staub

text: In October 2009, Staub's ex-husband Kevin Maher sued her for defamation of character after allegations were made about him; it was settled out of court. In October 2010, Staub was sued again by Maher for making false allegations in her memoir "The Naked Truth", after notifying the publisher Simon & Schuster, a lawsuit would be filed if the book was published.


title: GABAA receptor

text: The GABA receptor (GABAR) is an ionotropic receptor and ligand-gated ion channel. Its endogenous ligand is γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Upon opening, the GABA receptor on the postsynaptic cell is selectively permeable to chloride ions (Cl) and, to a lesser extent, bicarbonate ions (HCO). Depending on the membrane potential and the ionic concentration difference, this can result in ionic fluxes across the pore. If the membrane potential is higher than the equilibrium potential (also known as the reversal potential) for chloride ions, when the receptor is activated Cl will flow into the cell. This causes an inhibitory effect on neurotransmission by diminishing the chance of a successful action potential occurring at the postsynaptic cell. The reversal potential of the GABA-mediated inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) in normal solution is −70 mV, contrasting the GABA IPSP (-100 mV).


title: GABAA receptor

text: The active site of the GABA receptor is the binding site for GABA and several drugs such as muscimol, gaboxadol, and bicuculline. The protein also contains a number of different allosteric binding sites which modulate the activity of the receptor indirectly. These allosteric sites are the targets of various other drugs, including the benzodiazepines, nonbenzodiazepines, neuroactive steroids, barbiturates, alcohol (ethanol), inhaled anaesthetics, kavalactones, cicutoxin, and picrotoxin, among others.


title: GABAA receptor

text: GABA receptors occur in all organisms that have a nervous system. To a limited extent the receptors can be found in non-neuronal tissues. Due to their wide distribution within the nervous system of mammals they play a role in virtually all brain functions.


title: GABAA receptor

text: The ionotropic GABA receptor protein complex is also the molecular target of the benzodiazepine class of tranquilizer drugs. Benzodiazepines do not bind to the same receptor "site" on the protein complex as the endogenous ligand GABA (whose binding site is located between α- and β-subunits), but bind to distinct benzodiazepine binding sites situated at the interface between the α- and γ-subunits of α- and γ-subunit containing GABA receptors. While the majority of GABA receptors (those containing α1-, α2-, α3-, or α5-subunits) are benzodiazepine sensitive, there exists a minority of GABA receptors (α4- or α6-subunit containing) which are insensitive to classical 1,4-benzodiazepines, but instead are sensitive to other classes of GABAergic drugs such as neurosteroids and alcohol. In addition peripheral benzodiazepine receptors exist which are not associated with GABA receptors. As a result, the IUPHAR has recommended that the terms ""BZ receptor"", ""GABA/BZ receptor"" and ""omega receptor"" no longer be used and that the term ""benzodiazepine receptor"" be replaced with "benzodiazepine site".


title: GABAA receptor

text: In order for GABA receptors to be sensitive to the action of benzodiazepines they need to contain an α and a γ subunit, between which the benzodiazepine binds. Once bound, the benzodiazepine locks the GABA receptor into a conformation where the neurotransmitter GABA has much higher affinity for the GABA receptor, increasing the frequency of opening of the associated chloride ion channel and hyperpolarising the membrane. This potentiates the inhibitory effect of the available GABA leading to sedative and anxiolytic effects.


title: GABAA receptor

text: Different benzodiazepines have different affinities for GABA receptors made up of different collection of subunits, and this means that their pharmacological profile varies with subtype selectivity. For instance, benzodiazepine receptor ligands with high activity at the α1 and/or α5 tend to be more associated with sedation, ataxia and amnesia, whereas those with higher activity at GABA receptors containing α2 and/or α3 subunits generally have greater anxiolytic activity. Anticonvulsant effects can be produced by agonists acting at any of the GABA subtypes, but current research in this area is focused mainly on producing α-selective agonists as anticonvulsants which lack the side effects of older drugs such as sedation and amnesia.


title: GABAA receptor

text: The binding site for benzodiazepines is distinct from the binding site for barbiturates and GABA on the GABA receptor, and also produces different effects on binding, with the benzodiazepines increasing the frequency of the chloride channel opening, while barbiturates increase the duration of chloride channel opening when GABA is bound. Since these are separate modulatory effects, they can both take place at the same time, and so the combination of benzodiazepines with barbiturates is strongly synergistic, and can be dangerous if dosage is not strictly controlled.


title: GABAA receptor

text: Also note that some GABA agonists such as muscimol and gaboxadol do bind to the same site on the GABA receptor complex as GABA itself, and consequently produce effects which are similar but not identical to those of positive allosteric modulators like benzodiazepines.


title: GABAA receptor

text: Structural understanding of the GABA receptor was initially based on homology models, obtained using crystal structures of homologous proteins like Acetylcholine binding protein (AChBP) and nicotinic acetylcholine (nACh) receptors as templates. The much sought structure of a GABA receptor was finally resolved, with the disclosure of the crystal structure of human β3 homopentameric GABA receptor.


title: GABAA receptor

text: Whilst this was a major development, the majority of GABA receptors are heteromeric and the structure did not provide any details of the benzodiazepine binding site. This was finally elucidated in 2018 by the publication of a high resolution cryo-EM structure of rat α1β1γ2S receptor and human α1β2γ2 receptor bound with GABA and the neutral benzodiazepine flumazenil.


title: GABAA receptor

text: GABA receptors are pentameric transmembrane receptors which consist of five subunits arranged around a central pore. Each subunit comprises four transmembrane domains with both the N- and C-terminus located extracellularly. The receptor sits in the membrane of its neuron, usually localized at a synapse, postsynaptically. However, some isoforms may be found extrasynaptically. When vesicles of GABA are released presynaptically and activate the GABA receptors at the synapse, this is known as phasic inhibition. However, the GABA escaping from the synaptic cleft can activate receptors on presynaptic terminals or at neighbouring synapses on the same or adjacent neurons (a phenomenon termed ‘spillover’) in addition to the constant, low GABA concentrations in the extracellular space results in persistent activation of the GABA receptors known as tonic inhibition.


title: GABAA receptor

text: The ligand GABA is the endogenous compound that causes this receptor to open; once bound to GABA, the protein receptor changes conformation within the membrane, opening the pore in order to allow chloride anions (Cl) and, to a lesser extent, bicarbonate ions (HCO) to pass down their electrochemical gradient. The binding site to GABA is about 80Å away from the narrowest part of the ion channel. Recent computational studies have suggested an allosteric mechanism whereby GABA binding leads to ion channel opening. Because the reversal potential for chloride in most mature neurons is close to or more negative than the resting membrane potential, activation of GABA receptors tends to stabilize or hyperpolarise the resting potential, and can make it more difficult for excitatory neurotransmitters to depolarize the neuron and generate an action potential. The net effect therefore typically inhibitory, reducing the activity of the neuron, although depolarizing currents have been observed in response to GABA in immature neurons in early development. This effect during development is due to a modified Cl gradient wherein the anions leave the cells through the GABA receptors, since their intracellular chlorine concentration is higher than the extracellular. The difference in extracellular chlorine anion concentration is presumed to be due to the higher activity of chloride transporters, such as NKCC1, transporting chloride into cells which are present early in development, whereas, for instance, KCC2 transports chloride out cells and is the dominant factor in establishing the chloride gradient later in development. These depolarization events have shown to be key in neuronal development. In the mature neuron, the GABA channel opens quickly and thus contributes to the early part of the inhibitory post-synaptic potential (IPSP).


title: GABAA receptor

text: GABA receptors are members of the large pentameric ligand gated ion channel (previously referred to as ""Cys"-loop" receptors) super-family of evolutionarily related and structurally similar ligand-gated ion channels that also includes nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, glycine receptors, and the 5HT receptor. There are numerous subunit isoforms for the GABA receptor, which determine the receptor's agonist affinity, chance of opening, conductance, and other properties.


title: GABAA receptor

text: There are three ρ units (GABRR1, GABRR2, GABRR3); however, these do not coassemble with the classical GABA units listed above, but rather homooligomerize to form GABA-ρ receptors (formerly classified as GABA receptors but now this nomenclature has been deprecated).


title: GABAA receptor

text: Given the large number of GABA receptors, a great diversity of final pentameric receptor subtypes is possible. Methods to produce cell-based laboratory access to a greater number of possible GABA receptor subunit combinations allow teasing apart of the contribution of specific receptor subtypes and their physiological and pathophysiological function and role in the CNS and in disease.


title: GABAA receptor

text: GABA receptors are responsible for most of the physiological activities of GABA in the central nervous system, and the receptor subtypes vary significantly. Subunit composition can vary widely between regions and subtypes may be associated with specific functions. The minimal requirement to produce a GABA-gated ion channel is the inclusion of an α and a β subunit. The most common GABA receptor is a pentamer comprising two α's, two β's, and a γ (αβγ). In neurons themselves, the type of GABA receptor subunits and their densities can vary between cell bodies and dendrites. GABA receptors can also be found in other tissues, including leydig cells, placenta, immune cells, liver, bone growth plates and several other endocrine tissues. Subunit expression varies between 'normal' tissue and malignancies, as GABA receptors can influence cell proliferation.


title: GABAA receptor

text: A number of ligands have been found to bind to various sites on the GABA receptor complex and modulate it besides GABA itself. A ligand can possess one or more properties of the following types. Unfortunately the literature often does not distinguish these types properly.


title: GABAA receptor

text: Ligands which contribute to receptor activation typically have anxiolytic, anticonvulsant, amnesic, sedative, hypnotic, euphoriant, and muscle relaxant properties. Some such as muscimol and the z-drugs may also be hallucinogenic. Ligands which decrease receptor activation usually have opposite effects, including anxiogenesis and convulsion. Some of the subtype-selective negative allosteric modulators such as αIA are being investigated for their nootropic effects, as well as treatments for the unwanted side effects of other GABAergic drugs.


title: GABAA receptor

text: A useful property of the many benzodiazepine site allosteric modulators is that they may display selective binding to particular subsets of receptors comprising specific subunits. This allows one to determine which GABA receptor subunit combinations are prevalent in particular brain areas and provides a clue as to which subunit combinations may be responsible for behavioral effects of drugs acting at GABA receptors. These selective ligands may have pharmacological advantages in that they may allow dissociation of desired therapeutic effects from undesirable side effects. Few subtype selective ligands have gone into clinical use as yet, with the exception of zolpidem which is reasonably selective for α, but several more selective compounds are in development such as the α-selective drug adipiplon. There are many examples of subtype-selective compounds which are widely used in scientific research, including:


title: GABAA receptor

text: There are multiple indications that paradoxical reactions upon – for example – benzodiazepines, barbiturates, inhalational anesthetics, propofol, neurosteroids, and alcohol are associated with structural deviations of GABA receptors. The combination of the five subunits of the receptor (see images above) can be altered in such a way that for example the receptor's response to GABA remains unchanged but the response to one of the named substances is dramatically different from the normal one.


title: GABAA receptor

text: There are estimates that about 2–3 % of the general population may suffer from serious emotional disorders due to such receptor deviations, with up to 20% suffering from moderate disorders of this kind. It is generally assumed that the receptor alterations are, at least partly, due to genetic and also epigenetic deviations. There are indication that the latter may be triggered by, among other factors, social stress or occupational burnout.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Strepsirrhini or Strepsirhini (; ) is a suborder of primates that includes the lemuriform primates, which consist of the lemurs of Madagascar, galagos ("bushbabies") and pottos from Africa, and the lorises from India and southeast Asia. Collectively they are referred to as strepsirrhines. Also belonging to the suborder are the extinct adapiform primates which thrived during the Eocene in Europe, North America, and Asia, but disappeared from most of the Northern Hemisphere as the climate cooled. Adapiforms are sometimes referred to as being "lemur-like", although the diversity of both lemurs and adapiforms does not support this comparison.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Strepsirrhines are defined by their "wet" (moist) rhinarium (the tip of the snout) – hence the colloquial but inaccurate term "wet-nosed" – similar to the rhinaria of canines and felines. They also have a smaller brain than comparably sized simians, large olfactory lobes for smell, a vomeronasal organ to detect pheromones, and a bicornuate uterus with an epitheliochorial placenta. Their eyes contain a reflective layer to improve their night vision, and their eye sockets include a ring of bone around the eye, but they lack a wall of thin bone behind it. Strepsirrhine primates produce their own vitamin C, whereas haplorhine primates must obtain it from their diets. Lemuriform primates are characterized by a toothcomb, a specialized set of teeth in the front, lower part of the mouth mostly used for combing fur during grooming.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Many of today's living strepsirrhines are endangered due to habitat destruction, hunting for bushmeat, and live capture for the exotic pet trade. Both living and extinct strepsirrhines are behaviorally diverse, although all are primarily arboreal (tree-dwelling). Most living lemuriforms are nocturnal, while most adapiforms were diurnal. Both living and extinct groups primarily fed on fruit, leaves, and insects.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The taxonomic name Strepsirrhini derives from the Greek "strepsis" "a turning round" and "rhis" "nose, snout, (in pl.) nostrils" ( "rhinos"), which refers to the appearance of the sinuous (comma-shaped) nostrils on the rhinarium or wet nose. The name was first used by French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1812 as a subordinal rank comparable to Platyrrhini (New World monkeys) and Catarrhini (Old World monkeys). In his description, he mentioned ""Les narines terminales et sinueuses"" ("Nostrils terminal and winding").


title: Strepsirrhini

text: When British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock revived Strepsirrhini and defined Haplorhini in 1918, he omitted the second "r" from both ("Strepsirhini" and "Haplorhini" instead of "Strepsirrhini" and "Haplorrhini"), although he did not remove the second "r" from Platyrrhini or Catarrhini, both of which were also named by É. Geoffroy in 1812. Following Pocock, many researchers continued to spell Strepsirrhini with a single "r" until primatologists Paulina Jenkins and Prue Napier pointed out the error in 1987.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Strepsirrhines include the extinct adapiforms and the lemuriform primates, which include lemurs and lorisoids (lorises, pottos, and galagos). Strepsirrhines diverged from the haplorhine primates near the beginning of the primate radiation between 55 and 90 mya. Older divergence dates are based on genetic analysis estimates, while younger dates are based on the scarce fossil record. Lemuriform primates may have evolved from either cercamoniines or sivaladapids, both of which were adapiforms that may have originated in Asia. They were once thought to have evolved from adapids, a more specialized and younger branch of adapiform primarily from Europe.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Lemurs rafted from Africa to Madagascar between 47 and 54 mya, whereas the lorises split from the African galagos around 40 mya and later colonized Asia. The lemuriforms, and particularly the lemurs of Madagascar, are often portrayed inappropriately as "living fossils" or as examples of "basal", or "inferior" primates. These views have historically hindered the understanding of mammalian evolution and the evolution of strepsirrhine traits, such as their reliance on smell (olfaction), characteristics of their skeletal anatomy, and their brain size, which is relatively small. In the case of lemurs, natural selection has driven this isolated population of primates to diversify significantly and fill a rich variety of ecological niches, despite their smaller and less complex brains compared to simians.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The divergence between strepsirrhines, simians, and tarsiers likely followed almost immediately after primates first evolved. Although few fossils of living primate groups – lemuriforms, tarsiers, and simians – are known from the Early to Middle Eocene, evidence from genetics and recent fossil finds both suggest they may have been present during the early adaptive radiation.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The origin of the earliest primates that the simians and tarsiers both evolved from is a mystery. Both their place of origin and the group from which they emerged are uncertain. Although the fossil record demonstrating their initial radiation across the Northern Hemisphere is very detailed, the fossil record from the tropics (where primates most likely first developed) is very sparse, particularly around the time that primates and other major clades of eutherian mammals first appeared.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Lacking detailed tropical fossils, geneticists and primatologists have used genetic analyses to determine the relatedness between primate lineages and the amount of time since they diverged. Using this molecular clock, divergence dates for the major primate lineages have suggested that primates evolved more than 80–90 mya, nearly 40 million years before the first examples appear in the fossil record.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The early primates include both nocturnal and diurnal small-bodied species, and all were arboreal, with hands and feet specially adapted for maneuvering on small branches. Plesiadapiforms from the early Paleocene are sometimes considered "archaic primates", because their teeth resembled those of early primates and because they possessed adaptations to living in trees, such as a divergent big toe (hallux). Although plesiadapiforms were closely related to primates, they may represent a paraphyletic group from which primates may or may not have directly evolved, and some genera may have been more closely related to colugos, which are thought to be more closely related to primates.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The first true primates (euprimates) do not appear in the fossil record until the early Eocene (~55 mya), at which point they radiated across the Northern Hemisphere during a brief period of rapid global warming known as the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. These first primates included "Cantius", "Donrussellia", "Altanius", and "Teilhardina" on the northern continents, as well as the more questionable (and fragmentary) fossil "Altiatlasius" from Paleocene Africa. These earliest fossil primates are often divided into two groups, adapiforms and omomyiforms. Both appeared suddenly in the fossil record without transitional forms to indicate ancestry, and both groups were rich in diversity and were widespread throughout the Eocene.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The last branch to develop were the adapiforms, a diverse and widespread group that thrived during the Eocene (56 to 34 million years ago <nowiki>[</nowiki>mya<nowiki>]</nowiki>) in Europe, North America, and Asia. They disappeared from most of the Northern Hemisphere as the climate cooled: The last of the adapiforms died out at the end of the Miocene (~7 mya).


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Adapiform primates are extinct strepsirrhines that shared many anatomical similarities with lemurs. They are sometimes referred to as lemur-like primates, although the diversity of both lemurs and adapiforms do not support this analogy.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Like the living strepsirrhines, adapiforms were extremely diverse, with at least 30 genera and 80 species known from the fossil record as of the early 2000s. They diversified across Laurasia during the Eocene, some reaching North America via a land bridge.They were among the most common mammals found in the fossil beds from that time. A few rare species have also been found in northern Africa. The most basal of the adapiforms include the genera "Cantius" from North America and Europe and "Donrussellia" from Europe. The latter bears the most ancestral traits, so it is often considered a sister group or stem group of the other adapiforms.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The relationship between adapiform and lemuriform primates has not been clearly demonstrated, so the position of adapiforms as a paraphyletic stem group is questionable. Both molecular clock data and new fossil finds suggest that the lemuriform divergence from the other primates and the subsequent lemur-lorisoid split both predate the appearance of adapiforms in the early Eocene. New calibration methods may reconcile the discrepancies between the molecular clock and the fossil record, favoring more recent divergence dates. The fossil record suggests that the strepsirrhine adapiforms and the haplorhine omomyiforms had been evolving independently before the early Eocene, although their most basal members share enough dental similarities to suggest that they diverged during the Paleocene (66–55 mya).


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Lemuriform origins are unclear and debated. American paleontologist Philip Gingerich proposed that lemuriform primates evolved from one of several genera of European adapids based on similarities between the front lower teeth of adapids and the toothcomb of extant lemuriforms; however, this view is not strongly supported due to a lack of clear transitional fossils. Instead, lemuriforms may be descended from a very early branch of Asian cercamoniines or sivaladapids that migrated to northern Africa.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Until discoveries of three 40 million-year-old fossil lorisoids ("Karanisia", "Saharagalago", and "Wadilemur") in the El Fayum deposits of Egypt between 1997 and 2005, the oldest known lemuriforms had come from the early Miocene (~20 mya) of Kenya and Uganda. These newer finds demonstrate that lemuriform primates were present during the middle Eocene in Afro-Arabia and that the lemuriform lineage and all other strepsirrhine taxa had diverged before then. "Djebelemur" from Tunisia dates to the late early or early middle Eocene (52 to 46 mya) and has been considered a cercamoniine, but also may have been a stem lemuriform. Azibiids from Algeria date to roughly the same time and may be a sister group of the djebelemurids. Together with "Plesiopithecus" from the late Eocene Egypt, the three may qualify as the stem lemuriforms from Africa.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Molecular clock estimates indicate that lemurs and the lorisoids diverged in Africa during the Paleocene, approximately 62 mya. Between 47 and 54 mya, lemurs dispersed to Madagascar by rafting. In isolation, the lemurs diversified and filled the niches often filled by monkeys and apes today. In Africa, the lorises and galagos diverged during the Eocene, approximately 40 mya. Unlike the lemurs in Madagascar, they have had to compete with monkeys and apes, as well as other mammals.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The taxonomy of strepsirrhines is controversial and has a complicated history. Confused taxonomic terminology and oversimplified anatomical comparisons have created misconceptions about primate and strepsirrhine phylogeny, illustrated by the media attention surrounding the single "Ida" fossil in 2009.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Strepsirrhine primates were first grouped under the genus "Lemur" by Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of "Systema Naturae" published in 1758. At the time, only three species were recognized, one of which (the colugo) is no longer recognized as a primate. In 1785, Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert divided the genus "Lemur" into two genera: "Prosimia" for the lemurs, colugos, and tarsiers and "Tardigradus" for the lorises. Ten years later, É. Geoffroy and Georges Cuvier grouped the tarsiers and galagos due to similarities in their hindlimb morphology, a view supported by German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger, who placed them in the family Macrotarsi while placing the lemurs and tarsiers in the family Prosimia (Prosimii) in 1811. The use of the tarsier-galago classification continued for many years until 1898, when Dutch zoologist Ambrosius Hubrecht demonstrated two different types of placentation (formation of a placenta) in the two groups.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: English comparative anatomist William Henry Flower created the suborder Lemuroidea in 1883 to distinguish these primates from the simians, which were grouped under English biologist St. George Jackson Mivart's suborder Anthropoidea (=Simiiformes). According to Flower, the suborder Lemuroidea contained the families Lemuridae (lemurs, lorises, and galagos), Chiromyidae (aye-aye), and Tarsiidae (tarsiers). Lemuroidea was later replaced by Illiger's suborder Prosimii. Many years earlier, in 1812, É. Geoffroy first named the suborder Strepsirrhini, in which he included the tarsiers. This taxonomy went unnoticed until 1918, when Pocock compared the structure of the nose and reinstated the use of the suborder Strepsirrhini, while also moving the tarsiers and the simians into a new suborder, Haplorhini. It was not until 1953, when British anatomist William Charles Osman Hill wrote an entire volume on strepsirrhine anatomy, that Pocock's taxonomic suggestion became noticed and more widely used. Since then, primate taxonomy has shifted between Strepsirrhini-Haplorhini and Prosimii-Anthropoidea multiple times.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Most of the academic literature provides a basic framework for primate taxonomy, usually including several potential taxonomic schemes. Although most experts agree upon phylogeny, many disagree about nearly every level of primate classification.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The most commonly recurring debate in primatology during the 1970s, 1980s, and early 2000s concerned the phylogenetic position of tarsiers compared to both simians and the other prosimians. Tarsiers are most often placed in either the suborder Haplorhini with the simians or in the suborder Prosimii with the strepsirrhines. Prosimii is one of the two traditional primate suborders and is based on evolutionary grades (groups united by anatomical traits) rather than phylogenetic clades, while the Strepsirrhini-Haplorrhini taxonomy was based on evolutionary relationships. Yet both systems persist because the Prosimii-Anthropoidea taxonomy is familiar and frequently seen in the research literature and textbooks.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Strepsirrhines are traditionally characterized by several symplesiomorphic (ancestral) traits not shared with the simians, particularly the rhinarium. Other symplesiomorphies include long snouts, convoluted maxilloturbinals, relatively large olfactory bulbs, and smaller brains. The toothcomb is a synapomorphy (shared, derived trait) seen among lemuriforms, although it is frequently and incorrectly used to define the strepsirrhine clade. Strepsirrhine primates are also united in possessing an epitheliochorial placenta. Unlike the tarsiers and simians, strepsirrhines are capable of producing their own and do not need it supplied in their diet. Further genetic evidence for the relationship between tarsiers and simians as a haplorhine clade is the shared possession of three SINE markers.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Because of their historically mixed assemblages which included tarsiers and close relatives of primates, both Prosimii and Strepsirrhini have been considered wastebasket taxa for "lower primates". Regardless, the strepsirrhine and haplorrhine clades are generally accepted and viewed as the preferred taxonomic division. Yet tarsiers still closely resemble both strepsirrhines and simians in different ways, and since the early split between strepsirrhines, tarsiers and simians is ancient and hard to resolve, a third taxonomic arrangement with three suborders is sometimes used: Prosimii, Tarsiiformes, and Anthropoidea. More often, the term "prosimian" is no longer used in official taxonomy, but is still used to illustrate the behavioral ecology of tarsiers relative to the other primates.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: In addition to the controversy over tarsiers, the debate over the origins of simians once called the strepsirrhine clade into question. Arguments for an evolutionary link between adapiforms and simians made by paleontologists Gingerich, Elwyn L. Simons, Tab Rasmussen, and others could have potentially excluded adapiforms from Strepsirrhini. In 1975, Gingerich proposed a new suborder, Simiolemuriformes, to suggest that strepsirrhines are more closely related to simians than tarsiers. However, no clear relationship between the two had been demonstrated by the early 2000s. The idea reemerged briefly in 2009 during the media attention surrounding "Darwinius masillae" (dubbed "Ida"), a cercamoniine from Germany that was touted as a "missing link between humans and earlier primates" (simians and adapiforms). However, the cladistic analysis was flawed and the phylogenetic inferences and terminology were vague. Although the authors noted that "Darwinius" was not a "fossil lemur", they did emphasize the absence of a toothcomb, which adapiforms did not possess.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Within Strepsirrhini, two common classifications include either two infraorders (Adapiformes and Lemuriformes) or three infraorders (Adapiformes, Lemuriformes, Lorisiformes). A less common taxonomy places the aye-aye (Daubentoniidae) in its own infraorder, Chiromyiformes. In some cases, plesiadapiforms are included within the order Primates, in which case Euprimates is sometimes treated as a suborder, with Strepsirrhini becoming an infraorder, and the Lemuriformes and others become parvorders. Regardless of the infraordinal taxonomy, Strepsirrhini is composed of three ranked superfamilies and 14 families, seven of which are extinct. Three of these extinct families included the recently extinct giant lemurs of Madagascar, many of which died out within the last 1,000 years following human arrival on the island.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: When Strepsirrhini is divided into two infraorders, the clade containing all toothcombed primates can be called "lemuriforms". When it is divided into three infraorders, the term "lemuriforms" refers only to Madagascar's lemurs, and the toothcombed primates are referred to as either "crown strepsirrhines" or "extant strepsirrhines". Confusion of this specific terminology with the general term "strepsirrhine", along with oversimplified anatomical comparisons and vague phylogenetic inferences, can lead to misconceptions about primate phylogeny and misunderstandings about primates from the Eocene, as seen with the media coverage of "Darwinius". Because the skeletons of adapiforms share strong similarities with those of lemurs and lorises, researchers have often referred to them as "primitive" strepsirrhines, lemur ancestors, or a sister group to the living strepsirrhines. They are included in Strepsirrhini, and are considered basal members of the clade. Although their status as true primates is not questioned, the questionable relationship between adapiforms and other living and fossil primates leads to multiple classifications within Strepsirrhini. Often, adapiforms are placed in their own infraorder due to anatomical differences with lemuriforms and their unclear relationship. When shared traits with lemuriforms (which may or may not be synapomorphic) are emphasized, they are sometimes reduced to families within the infraorder Lemuriformes (or superfamily Lemuroidea).


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The first fossil primate described was the adapiform "Adapis parisiensis" by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1821, who compared it to a hyrax (""le Daman""), then considered a member of a now obsolete group called pachyderms. It was not recognized as a primate until it was reevaluated in the early 1870s. Originally, adapiforms were all included under the family Adapidae, which was divided into two or three subfamilies: Adapinae, Notharctinae, and sometimes Sivaladapinae. All North American adapiforms were lumped under Notharctinae, while the Old World forms were usually assigned to Adapinae. Around the 1990s, two distinct groups of European "adapids" began to emerge, based on differences in the postcranial skeleton and the teeth. One of these two European forms was identified as cercamoniines, which were allied with the notharctids found mostly in North America, while the other group falls into the traditional adapid classification. The three major adapiform divisions are now typically regarded as three families within Adapiformes (Notharctidae, Adapidae and Sivaladapidae), but other divisions ranging from one to five families are used as well.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: All lemuriforms possess a specialized dental structure called a "toothcomb", with the exception of the aye-aye, in which the structure has been modified into two continually growing (hypselodont) incisors (or canine teeth), similar to those of rodents. Often, the toothcomb is incorrectly used to characterize all strepsirrhines. Instead, it is unique to lemuriforms and is not seen among adapiforms.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Lemuriforms groom orally, and also possess a grooming claw on the second toe of each foot for scratching in areas that are inaccessible to the mouth and tongue. It is unclear whether adapiforms possessed grooming claws. The toothcomb consists of either two or four lower incisors and procumbent lower canine teeth followed by a canine-shaped premolar. It is used to comb the fur during oral grooming. Shed hairs that accumulate between the teeth of the toothcomb are removed by the sublingua or "under-tongue". Lemuriforms also possess a grooming claw on the second digit of each foot for scratching. Adapiforms did not possess a toothcomb. Instead, their lower incisors varied in orientation – from somewhat procumbent to somewhat vertical – and the lower canines were projected upwards and were often prominent. Adapiforms may have had a grooming claw, but there is little evidence of this.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Like all primates, strepsirrhine orbits (eye sockets) have a postorbital bar, a protective ring of bone created by a connection between the frontal and zygomatic bones. Both living and extinct strepsirrhines lack a thin wall of bone behind the eye, referred to as postorbital closure, which is only seen in haplorhine primates. Although the eyes of strepsirrhines point forward, giving stereoscopic vision, the orbits do not face fully forward. Among living strepsirrhines, most or all species are thought to possess a reflective layer behind the retina of the eye, called a tapetum lucidum (consisting of riboflavin crystals), which improves vision in low light, but they lack a fovea, which improves day vision. This differs from tarsiers, which lack a tapetum lucidum but possess a fovea.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Strepsirrhine primates have a brain relatively comparable to or slightly larger in size than most mammals. Compared to simians, however, they have a relatively small brain-to-body size ratio. Strepsirrhines are also traditionally noted for their unfused mandibular symphysis (two halves of the lower jaw), however, fusion of the mandibular symphysis was common in adapiforms, notably "Notharctus". Also, several extinct giant lemurs exhibited a fused mandibular symphysis.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Many nocturnal species have large, independently movable ears, although there are significant differences in sizes and shapes of the ear between species. The structure of the middle and inner ear of strepsirrhines differs between the lemurs and lorisoids. In lemurs, the tympanic cavity, which surrounds the middle ear, is expanded. This leaves the ectotympanic ring, which supports the eardrum, free within the auditory bulla. This trait is also seen in adapiforms. In lorisoids, however, the tympanic cavity is smaller and the ectotympanic ring becomes attached to the edge of the auditory bulla. The tympanic cavity in lorisoids also has two accessory air spaces, which are not present in lemurs.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Both lorisoids and cheirogaleid lemurs have replaced the internal carotid artery with an enlarged ascending pharyngeal artery.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Strepsirrhines also possess distinctive features in their tarsus (ankle bones) that differentiate them from haplorhines, such as a sloping talo-fibular facet (the face where the talus bone and fibula meet) and a difference in the location of the position of the flexor fibularis tendon on the talus. These differences give strepsirrhines the ability to make more complex rotations of the ankle and indicate that their feet are habitually inverted, or turned inward, an adaptation for grasping vertical supports.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Sexual dichromatism (different coloration patterns between males and females) can be seen in most brown lemur species, but otherwise lemurs show very little if any difference in body size or weight between sexes. This lack of sexual dimorphism is not characteristic of all strepsirrhines. Some adapiforms were sexually dimorphic, with males bearing a larger sagittal crest (a ridge of bone on the top of the skull to which jaw muscles attach) and canine teeth. Lorisoids exhibit some sexual dimorphism, but males are typically no more than 20 percent larger than females.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Strepsirrhines have a long snout that ends in a moist and touch-sensitive rhinarium, similar to that of dogs and many other mammals. The rhinarium is surrounded by vibrissae that are also sensitive to touch. Convoluted maxilloturbinals on the inside of their nose filter, warm, and moisten the incoming air, while olfactory receptors of the main olfactory system lining the ethmoturbinals detect airborne smells. The olfactory bulbs of lemurs are comparable in size to those of other arboreal mammals.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The surface of the rhinarium does not have any olfactory receptors, so it is not used for smell in terms of detecting volatile substances. Instead, it has sensitive touch receptors (Merkel cells). The rhinarium, upper lip, and gums are tightly connected by a fold of mucous membrane called the philtrum, which runs from the tip of the nose to the mouth. The upper lip is constrained by this connection and has fewer nerves to control movement, which leaves it less mobile than the upper lips of simians. The philtrum creates a gap (diastema) between the roots of the first two upper incisors.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The strepsirrhine rhinarium can collect relatively non-volatile, fluid-based chemicals (traditionally categorized as pheromones) and transmit them to the vomeronasal organ (VNO), which is located below and in front of the nasal cavity, above the mouth. The VNO is an encased duct-like structure made of cartilage and is isolated from the air passing through the nasal cavity. The VNO is connected to the mouth through nasopalatine ducts (which communicate via the incisive foramen), which pass through the hard palate at the top, front of the mouth. Fluids traveling from the rhinarium to the mouth and then up the nasopalatine ducts to the VNO are detected, and information is relayed to the accessory olfactory bulb, which is relatively large in strepsirrhines. From the accessory olfactory bulb, information is sent to the amygdala, which handles emotions, and then to the hypothalamus, which handles basic body functions and metabolic processes. This neural pathway differs from that used by the main olfactory system.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: All lemuriforms have a VNO, as do tarsiers and some New World monkeys. Adapiforms exhibit the gap between the upper incisors, which indicates the presence of a VNO, but there is some disagreement over whether or not they possessed a rhinarium.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Extant strepsirrhines have an epitheliochorial placenta, where the maternal blood does not come in direct contact with the fetal chorion like it does in the hemochorial placenta of haplorhines. The strepsirrhine uterus has two distinct chambers (bicornuate). Despite having similar gestation periods to comparably sized haplorhines, fetal growth rates are generally slower in strepsirrhines, which results in newborn offspring that are as little as one-third the size of haplorhine newborns. Extant strepsirrhines also have a lower basal metabolic rate, which elevates in females during gestation, putting greater demands on the mother.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Most primates have two mammary glands, but the number and positions vary between species within strepsirrhines. Lorises have two pairs, while others, like the ring-tailed lemur, have one pair on the chest (pectoral). The aye-aye also has two mammary glands, but they are located near the groin (inguinal). In females, the clitoris is sometimes enlarged and pendulous, resembling the male penis, which can make sex identification difficult for human observers. The clitoris may also have a bony structure in it, similar to the baculum (penis bone) in males. Most male primates have a baculum, but it is typically larger in strepsirrhines and usually forked at the tip.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Approximately three-quarters of all extant strepsirrhine species are nocturnal, sleeping in nests made from dead leaves or tree hollows during the day. All of the lorisoids from continental Africa and Asia are nocturnal, a circumstance that minimizes their competition with the simian primates of the region, which are diurnal. The lemurs of Madagascar, living in the absence of simians, are more variable in their activity cycles. The aye-aye, mouse lemurs, woolly lemurs, and sportive lemurs are nocturnal, while ring-tailed lemurs and most of their kin, sifakas, and indri are diurnal. Yet some or all of the brown lemurs ("Eulemur") are cathemeral, which means that they may be active during the day or night, depending on factors such as temperature and predation. Many extant strepsirrhines are well adapted for nocturnal activity due to their relatively large eyes; large, movable ears; sensitive tactile hairs; strong sense of smell; and the tapetum lucidum behind the retina. Among the adapiforms, most are considered diurnal, with the exception of "Pronycticebus" and "Godinotia" from Middle Eocene Europe, both of which had large orbits that suggest nocturnality.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Reproduction in most strepsirrhine species tends to be seasonal, particularly in lemurs. Key factors that affect seasonal reproduction include the length of the wet season, subsequent food availability, and the maturation time of the species. Like other primates, strepsirrhines are relatively slow breeders compared to other mammals. Their gestation period and interbirth intervals are usually long, and the young develop slowly, just like in haplorhine primates. Unlike simians, some strepsirrhines produce two or three offspring, although some produce only a single offspring. Those that produce multiple offspring tend to build nests for their young. These two traits are thought to be plesiomorphic (ancestral) for primates. The young are precocial (relatively mature and mobile) at birth, but not as coordinated as ungulates (hoofed mammals). Infant care by the mother is relatively prolonged compared to many other mammals, and in some cases, the infants cling to the mother's fur with their hands and feet.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Despite their relatively smaller brains compared to other primates, lemurs have demonstrated levels of technical intelligence in problem solving that are comparable to those seen in simians. However, their social intelligence differs, often emphasizing within-group competition over cooperation, which may be due to adaptations for their unpredictable environment. Although lemurs have not been observed using objects as tools in the wild, they can be trained to use objects as tools in captivity and demonstrate a basic understanding about the functional properties of the objects they are using.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The nocturnal strepsirrhines have been traditionally described as "solitary", although this term is no longer favored by the researchers who study them. Many are considered "solitary foragers", but many exhibit complex and diverse social organization, often overlapping home ranges, initiating social contact at night, and sharing sleeping sites during the day. Even the mating systems are variable, as seen in woolly lemurs, which live in monogamous breeding pairs. Because of this social diversity among these solitary but social primates, whose level of social interaction is comparable to that of diurnal simians, alternative classifications have been proposed to emphasize their gregarious, dispersed, or solitary nature.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Among extant strepsirrhines, only the diurnal and cathemeral lemurs have evolved to live in multi-male/multi-female groups, comparable to most living simians. This social trait, seen in two extant lemur families (Indriidae and Lemuridae), is thought to have evolved independently. Group sizes are smaller in social lemurs than in simians, and despite the similarities, the community structures differ. Female dominance, which is rare in simians, is fairly common in lemurs. Strepsirrhines spend a considerable amount of time grooming each other (allogrooming). When lemuriform primates groom, they lick the fur and then comb it with their toothcomb. They also use their grooming claw to scratch places they cannot reach with their mouth.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Like New World monkeys, strepsirrhines rely on scent marking for much of their communication. This involves smearing secretions from epidermal scent glands on tree branches, along with urine and feces. In some cases, strepsirrhines may anoint themselves with urine (urine washing). Body postures and gestures may be used, although the long snout, non-mobile lips, and reduced facial enervation restrict the use of facial expressions in strepsirrhines. Short-range calls, long-range calls, and alarm calls are also used. Nocturnal species are more constrained by the lack of light, so their communication systems differ from those of diurnal species, often using long-range calls to claim their territory.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Living strepsirrhines are predominantly arboreal, with only the ring-tailed lemur spending considerable time on the ground. Most species move around quadrupedally (on four legs) in the trees, including five genera of smaller, nocturnal lemurs. Galagos, indriids, sportive lemurs, and bamboo lemurs leap from vertical surfaces, and the indriids are highly specialized for vertical clinging and leaping. Lorises are slow-moving, deliberate climbers.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Analyses of extinct adapiforms postcranial skeletons suggest a variety of locomotor behavior. The European adapids "Adapis", "Palaeolemur", and "Leptadapis" shared adaptations for slow climbing like the lorises, although they may have been quadrupedal runners like small New World monkeys. Both "Notharctus" and "Smilodectes" from North America and "Europolemur" from Europe exhibit limb proportions and joint surfaces comparable to vertical clinging and leaping lemurs, but were not as specialized as indriids for vertical clinging, suggesting that they ran along branches and did not leap as much. Notharctids "Cantius" and "Pronycticebus" appear to have been agile arboreal quadrupeds, with adaptations comparable to the brown lemurs.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Primates primarily feed on fruits (including seeds), leaves (including flowers), and animal prey (arthropods, small vertebrates, and eggs). Diets vary markedly between strepsirrhine species. Like other leaf-eating (folivorous) primates, some strepsirrhines can digest cellulose and hemicellulose. Some strepsirrhines, such as the galagos, slender lorises, and angwantibos, are primarily insectivorous. Other species, such as fork-marked lemurs and needle-clawed bushbabies, specialize on tree gum, while indriids, sportive lemurs, and bamboo lemurs are folivores. Many strepsirrhines are frugivores (fruit eaters), and others, like the ring-tailed lemur and mouse lemurs, are omnivores, eating a mix of fruit, leaves, and animal matter.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Among the adapiforms, frugivory seems to have been the most common diet, particularly for medium-sized to large species, such as "Cantius", "Pelycodus" and "Cercamonius". Folivory was also common among the medium and large-sized adapiforms, including "Smilodectes", "Notharctus", "Adapis" and "Leptadapis". Sharp cusps on the teeth of some of the smaller adapiforms, such as "Anchomomys" and "Donrussellia", indicate that they were either partly or primarily insectivorous.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: The now extinct adapiform primates were primarily found across North America, Asia, and Europe, with a few species in Africa. They flourished during the Eocene when those regions were more tropical in nature, and they disappeared when the climate became cooler and drier. Today, the lemuriforms are confined in the tropics, ranging between 28° S to 26° N latitude. Lorises are found both in equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia, while the galagos are limited to the forests and woodlands of sub-Saharan Africa. Lemurs are endemic to Madagascar, although much of their diversity and habitat has been lost due to recent human activity.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: As with nearly all primates, strepsirrhines typically reside in tropical rainforests. These habitats allow strepsirrhines and other primates to evolve diverse communities of sympatric species. In the eastern rainforests of Madagascar, as many as 11 or 12 species share the same forests, and prior to human arrival, some forests had nearly double that diversity. Several species of lemur are found in drier, seasonal forests, including the spiny forest on the southern tip of the island, although the lemur communities in these regions are not as rich.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: Like all other non-human primates, strepsirrhines face an elevated risk of extinction due to human activity, particularly deforestation in tropical regions. Much of their habitat has been converted for human use, such as agriculture and pasture. The threats facing strepsirrhine primates fall into three main categories: habitat destruction, hunting (for bushmeat or traditional medicine), and live capture for export or local exotic pet trade. Although hunting is often prohibited, the laws protecting them are rarely enforced. In Madagascar, local taboos known as "fady" sometimes help protect lemur species, although some are still hunted for traditional medicine.


title: Strepsirrhini

text: In 2012, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced that lemurs were the "most endangered mammals", due largely to elevated illegal logging and hunting following a political crisis in 2009. In Southeast Asia, slow lorises are threatened by the exotic pet trade and traditional medicine, in addition to habitat destruction. Both lemurs and slow lorises are protected from commercial international trade under CITES Appendix I.


title: Gambit

text: A gambit (from Italian , the act of tripping someone with the leg to make them fall) is a chess opening in which a player sacrifices with the aim of achieving a subsequent advantage.


title: Gambit

text: The word "gambit" is also sometimes used to describe similar tactics used by politicians or business people in a struggle with rivals in their respective fields, for example: "The early election was a risky gambit by Theresa May."


title: Gambit

text: The word "gambit" was originally applied to chess openings in 1561 by Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, from an Italian expression "dare il gambetto" (to put a leg forward in order to trip someone). López studied this maneuver, and so the Italian word gained the Spanish form "gambito" that led to French "gambit", which has influenced the English spelling of the word. The broader sense of "opening move meant to gain advantage" was first recorded in English in 1855.


title: Gambit

text: Gambits are most commonly played by White. Some well-known examples of a gambit are the King's Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4) and Evans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4). A gambit employed by Black may also be named a gambit, e.g. the Latvian Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5), or Englund Gambit (1.d4 e5); but is sometimes named a "countergambit", e.g. the Albin Countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5) and Greco Countergambit (the original name for the Latvian Gambit). Not all opening lines involving the sacrifice of material are named as gambits, for example the main line of the Two Knights Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5) in which Black sacrifices a pawn for active play is known as the "Knorre Variation", though it may be "described" as a "gambit". On the other hand, the Queen's Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4) is not a true gambit as Black cannot hold the pawn without incurring a disadvantage. As is often the case with chess openings, nomenclature is inconsistent.


title: Gambit

text: Gambits are described as being "offered" to an opponent, and that offer is then said to be either "accepted" or "declined".


title: Gambit

text: In modern chess, the typical response to a moderately sound gambit is to accept the material and give the material back at an advantageous time. For gambits that are less sound, the accepting player is more likely to try to hold on to their extra material. A rule of thumb often found in various primers on chess suggests that a player should get three moves (see tempo) of for a sacrificed pawn, but it is unclear how useful this general maxim is since the "free moves" part of the compensation is almost never the entirety of what the gambiteer gains. Often, a gambit can be declined with no disadvantage.


title: Gambit

text: A gambit is said to be 'sound' if it is capable of procuring adequate concessions from the opponent. There are three general criteria in which a gambit is often said to be sound:


title: Gambit

text: An example of a sound gambit is the Scotch Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4. Here Black can force White to sacrifice a pawn speculatively with 4...Bb4+, but White gets very good compensation for one pawn after 5.c3 dxc3 6.bxc3, or for two pawns after 6.0-0 inviting 6...cxb2 7.Bxb2, due to the development advantage and attacking chances against the black king. As a result, Black is often advised not to try to hold on to the extra pawn. A more dubious gambit is the so-called Halloween Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4. Here the investment (a knight for just one pawn) is too large for the moderate advantage of having a strong center.


title: Trematoda

text: Trematoda is a class of flatworms known as flukes. They are obligate internal parasites with a complex life cycle requiring at least two hosts. The intermediate host, in which asexual reproduction occurs, is usually a snail. The definitive host, where the flukes sexually reproduce, is a vertebrate. Infection by trematodes can cause disease in all five traditional vertebrate classes: mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish.


title: Trematoda

text: Trematodes are commonly referred to as flukes. This term can be traced back to the Old English name for flounder, and refers to the flattened, rhomboidal shape of the organisms.