the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
Cascade (album), an album by folk rock band Capercaillie
"Cascade" (song), a single by Future Sound of London
Cascade (band), a Japanese Visual Kei band
Another name for German dance group Cascada
Cascade Club and Spa[Cascade Club and Spa], premium health club based in Bangkok Thailand
Cascade converter, a type of motor-generator
Cascade (juggling), a juggling pattern
Resonance cascade, the event that started "The Black Mesa Incident" in the Half-Life game series.
Cascade virus, a computer virus
USS Cascade (AD-16), a United States Navy destroyer tender
A variety of hops found in North America
Kemble's Cascade, a pattern of stars
A brand name of detergent by Procter & Gamble
A variety of Seibel grapes
Superencryption, or Cascading encryption, when an encrypted message is encrypted again
Cascades (disambiguation)
Cascade Falls
Dromaeosaurs are a family of bird-like theropod dinosaurs.
They include the famous Velociraptor and Deinonychus.
They were small to medium-sized feathered carnivores which flourished in the Cretaceous period.
They are often called raptors, a term popularized by the movie Jurassic Park.
They were fast-running predators.
Dromaeosaurs had a world-wide distribution.
They first appeared in the Middle Jurassic, 167 million years ago (mya).
The larger types are not found before about 124 mya in the Lower Cretaceous, and are only found in the northern hemisphere.
They survived until the end of the Cretaceous, 65.5 mya at the K/T extinction event.
Dromaeosaurs, like most other theropods, had an S-curved neck, and their trunk was relatively short and deep.
Like other maniraptorans, they had long arms, and relatively large hands with three long fingers ending in large claws.
The dromaeosaur hip structure featured a large 'pubic boot' (part of the hip) projecting beneath the base of the tail.
These hip bones were places muscle and tendons attached.
Dromaeosaur feet bore a large, recurved claw on the second toe.
Their tails were slender, and mainly used as a counterbalance.
Like other theropods, dromaeosaurs were bipedal; that is, they walked on their hind legs.
Whereas other theropods walked with three toes on the ground, fossilized footprint tracks show that most dromaeosaurs held the second toe off the ground, with only the third and fourth toes bearing the weight of the animal.
The enlarged second toe bore an unusually large, curved sickle-shaped claw.
It is thought to have been used in capturing prey and, in the smaller species, climbing trees.
One dromaeosaur species, Balaur bondoc, had a first toe which was highly modified in parallel with the second.
Both the first and second toes on each foot of B. bondoc were also held retracted and bore enlarged, sickle-shaped claws.
Dromaeosaurs had long tails.
Most of the tail vertebrae bear bony, rod-like extensions, as well as bony tendons in some species.
In his study of Deinonychus, Ostrom proposed that these features stiffened the tail so that it could only flex at the base, and the whole tail would then move as a single, rigid, lever.
However, one well-preserved specimen of Velociraptor mongoliensis (IGM 100/986) has an articulated tail skeleton which is curved horizontally in an S-shape.
This suggests that, in life, the tail could bend from side to side with some degree of flexibility.
It has been proposed that this tail was used as a stabilizer and/or counterweight while running.
In Microraptor, an elongate diamond-shaped fan of feathers is preserved on the end of the tail.
This might have been used as a stabilizer and rudder during gliding.
Dromaeosaurs were small to medium-sized dinosaurs, ranging from about 0.7 meters in length (2.3 ft, in the case of Mahakala) to over 6m (20 ft, in Utahraptor and Achillobator).
Some were larger; undescribed specimens of Utahraptor in BYU collections may have been up to  long.
Large size appears to have evolved at least twice among dromaeosaurs.
A possible third lineage of giant dromaeosaurs is represented by isolated teeth found on the Isle of Wight, England.
The teeth belong to a Utahraptor-sized animal but are more similar in shape to the teeth of velociraptorines.
Mahakala is both the most primitive dromaeosaur ever described and the smallest.
This evidence, and Microraptor and the troodontid Anchiornis, suggests the common ancestor of dromaeosaurs, troodontids, and birds – the 'ancestral paravian' – may have been very small, at around 65 cm in length and 600 to 700 grams of mass.
Fossils show that dromaeosaurs were covered in feathers.
Some fossils preserve long feathers on the hands and arms (remiges) and tail (rectrices), as well as shorter, down-like feathers covering the body.
Other fossils, which do not preserve actual impressions of feathers, still preserve the associated bumps on the forearm bones where long wing feathers would have attached in life.
Overall, this feather pattern looks very much like Archaeopteryx.
The first known dromaeosaur with definitive evidence of feathers was Sinornithosaurus, reported from China by Xu et al.
Many other dromaeosaur fossils have been found with feathers covering their bodies, some with fully-developed feathered wings.
While direct feather impressions are only possible in fine-grained sediments, some fossils found in coarser rocks show evidence of feathers by the presence of quill knobs, the attachment points for wing feathers possessed by some birds.
The dromaeosaurids Rahonavis and Velociraptor have both been found with quill knobs, showing that these forms had feathers despite no impressions having been found.
In light of this, it is most likely that even the larger ground-dwelling dromaeosaurs bore feathers, since even flightless birds today retain most of their plumage, and relatively large dromaeosaurs, like Velociraptor, are known to have had feathers.
Claw function
There is some discussion about the function of the enlarged "sickle claw" on the second toe.
When John Ostrom described it for Deinonychus in 1969, he interpreted the claw as a blade-like slashing weapon, much like the canines of some saber-toothed cats, used with powerful kicks to cut into prey.
Adams (1987) suggested that the talon was used to disembowel large ceratopsian dinosaurs.
The interpretation of the sickle claw as a killing weapon applied to all dromaeosaurs.
Ostrom compared Deinonychus to the ostrich and cassowary.
He noted that the bird species can inflict serious injury with the large claw on the second toe.
The cassowary has claws up to  long.
The seriema also has an enlarged second toe claw, and uses it to tear apart small prey items for swallowing.
The Manning team also compared the curvature of the dromaeosarid "sickle claw" on the foot with curvature in modern birds and mammals.
Previous studies had shown that the amount of curvature in a claw corresponded to what lifestyle the animal has: animals with strongly curved claws of a certain shape tend to be climbers, while straighter claws indicate ground-dwelling lifestyles.
The sickle-claws of the dromaeosaurid Deinonychus have a curvature of 160 degrees, well within the range of climbing animals.
The forelimb claws they studied also fell within the climbing range of curvature.
Paleontologist Peter Mackovicky said that small, primitive dromaeosaurids (such as Microraptor) were likely to have been tree-climbers, but that climbing did not explain why later, gigantic dromaeosaurids such as Achillobator retained highly curved claws when they were too large to have climbed trees.
Group behavior
Deinonychus fossils have been uncovered in small groups near the remains of the herbivore Tenontosaurus, a larger ornithischian dinosaur.
This had been interpreted as evidence that these dromaeosaurs hunted in coordinated packs like some modern mammals.
However, not all paleontologists found the evidence conclusive, and a study in 2007 by Roach and Brinkman suggests that the Deinonychus may have actually displayed a disorganized mobbing behavior.
The trackway, (made by a large, Achillobator-sized species), showed the sickle-claw was held off the ground.
Six individuals of about equal size moved together along a shoreline.
The individuals were spaced about one meter apart, and retained the same direction of travel, walking at a fairly slow pace.
The trackways are evidence that some species of dromaeosaurs lived in groups.
While the trackways clearly do not represent hunting behavior, the idea that groups of dromaeosaurs may have hunted together can not be ruled out.
Flying and gliding
The ability to fly or glide has been suggested for at least two dromaeosaur genera.
The first, Rahonavis was originally classified as avian bird, but found to be a dromaeosaur in later studies.
It may have been capable of powered flight.
The forelimbs of Rahonavis were more powerfully built than Archaeopteryx, and show evidence that they bore strong ligament attachments necessary for flapping flight.
Luis Chiappe concluded that, given these adaptations, Rahonavis could probably fly but would have been more clumsy in the air than modern birds.
Another species of dromaeosaur, Microraptor, may have been capable of gliding using its well-developed wings on both the fore and hind limbs.
A 2005 study by Sankar Chatterjee suggested that the wings of Microraptor functioned like a split-level "biplane", and that it likely employed a style of gliding, in which it would launch from a perch and swoop downward in a 'U' shaped curve, then lift again to land on another tree, with the tail and hind wings helping to control its position and speed.
Chatterjee also found that Microraptor had the basic requirements to sustain level powered flight in addition to gliding.
Relationship with birds
Dromaeosaurs share many features with early birds (clade Avialae or Aves).
The nature of their relationship to birds is under discussion.
Mark Norell and colleagues analyzed a survey of coelurosaur fossils and suggested that dromaeosaurs were most closely related to birds, with troodontids as a more distant outgroup.
In 2002, Hwang and colleagues suggested that birds (avialans) were better thought of as cousins to the dromaeosaurids and troodontids.
The current consensus among paleontologists agrees with Hwang that dromaeosaurids are most closely related to the troodontids, and together with the troodontids form the clade Deinonychosauria.
Deinonychosaurians in turn are the sister taxon to avialans, and therefore the closest relatives of avialan birds.
In 2002, Hwang et al.
found that Microraptor was the most primitive dromaeosaur.
Xu and colleagues in 2003 cited the basal position of Microraptor, along with feather and wing features, as evidence that the ancestral dromaeosaur could glide.
In that case the larger dromaeosaurs would be secondarily terrestrial—having lost the ability to glide later in their evolutionary history.
A few researchers, like Larry Martin, believe that dromaeosaurs, along with all maniraptorans are not dinosaurs at all.
Martin asserted for decades that birds were unrelated to maniraptorans, but in 2004 he changed his position, and now he agrees that the two are the closest of relatives.
Martin believes that maniraptorans are secondarily flightless birds, and that birds evolved from non–dinosaurian archosaurs, so that most of the species formerly called theropods would now not even be classified as dinosaurs.
A challenge to all of these alternative scenarios came when Turner and colleagues in 2007 described a new dromaeosaur, Mahakala, which they found to be the most basal and most primitive member of the Dromaeosauridae, more primitive than Microraptor.
Mahakala had short arms and no ability to glide.
Turner et al.
also inferred that flight evolved only in the Avialae, and these two points suggested that the ancestral dromaeosaurid could not glide or fly.
Based on this cladistic analysis, Mahakala suggests that the ancestral condition for dromaeosaurids is non-flying.
Phylogeny and taxonomy
The family Dromaeosauridae was named in 1922, with only one new genus Dromaeosaurus.
Dromaeosauridae, along with Troodontidae, make up the infraorder Deinonychosauria.
Dromaeosauridae was first defined as a clade by Paul Sereno in 1998, as the most inclusive natural group containing Dromaeosaurus but not Troodon, Ornithomimus or Passer.
The various "subfamilies" have also been re-defined as clades.
The subfamilies of Dromaeosauridae is not yet settled.
Mahakala, for example, the most primitive dromaeosaur in terms of structure, falls outside any named sub-group.
The most basal subfamily of dromaeosaurs is often found to be the Unenlagiinae.
All known dromaeosaur skin impressions come from this group, and all show an extensive covering of feathers and well-developed wings.
Some species may have been capable of active flight.
The following classification of the various genera of dromaeosaurids is based on studies by Sereno (2005), Senter (2004), Makovicky et al. (
2005), Norell et al. (
2006), and Turner et al. (
Family Dromaeosauridae
Subfamily Dromaeosaurinae
Subfamily Microraptorinae
Cryptovolans
Graciliraptor
Subfamily Saurornitholestinae
Subfamily Unenlagiinae
Subfamily Velociraptorinae Velociraptorinae is a subfamily of the Dromaeosauridae.
It existed from the Late Jurassic period to the end of the Cretaceous period.
The Velociraptorinae consists of Velociraptor, Deinonychus, Tsaagan, Saurornitholestes, and Balaur.
Teeth belonging to a giant velociraptorine the size of Utahraptor have also been reported from the Isle of Wight, England.
In general, velociraptorines tend to have longer, narrower jaws and more slender bodily proportions than the dromaeosaurines.
A Deinonychus appears in John Brosnan's 1984 novel Carnosaur and its movie adaptation though the book itself received little press attention.
Velociraptor, a dromaeosaur, got attention after it was featured in the 1993 Steven Spielberg movie Jurassic Park.
However, the size of the Velociraptor in the movie is much larger than the largest members of that genus.
Robert Bakker recalled that Spielberg had been disappointed with the dimensions of Velociraptor and so upsized it.
Michael Crichton used the name Velociraptor for the much larger raptor in his novels, on which the first two movies were based.
The depiction of the dromaeosaur in the original Jurassic Park movie, while accurate for its time, is now known to have been inaccurate in some respects, such as the lack of feathers.
While Jurassic Park III attempted to address this last oversight by adding quill-like structures around the head of some of its dromaeosaurs, they did not resemble the structure or distribution of actual dromaeosaurid feathers known from fossil remains.
Dromaeosaurids also appear in many of The Land Before Time movies, beginning with the third.
Dromaeosauridae at DinoData.
The Dromaeosauridae: The Raptors!,
from the University of California Berkeley Museum of Paleontology.
Dromaeosauridae, by Justin Tweet from Thescelosaurus.
Dinosaurs – Complete and free online edition of the book "Dinosaurs" as written by W. D. Matthew (cited in this article with authorship of the family Dromaeosauridae), and former Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; Originally published in 1915
Dromaeosauridae , Dinosaur-world reference with in-depth description and pictures of many dromaeosauridae dinosaurs
The Province of Treviso () is a province in the Veneto region of Italy.
The province of Treviso has an area of  and is formed mainly by plains but there are hills in the northern part.
In the border with the Belluno province, there are some mountains over  high, found mainly in the Dolomites, part of the eastern Alps; the highest mountain of the province is Monte Grappa ) that is  high and is on the border with the Belluno and Vicenza provinces.
, there are 885,447 persons living in the province, for a population density of  inhabitants/km².
There are 95 municipalities (or comuni) in the province; they are:
Altivole
Asolo
Borso del Grappa
Breda di Piave
Caerano di San Marco
Cappella Maggiore
Carbonera
Casale sul Sile
Casier
Castelcucco
Castelfranco Veneto
Castello di Godego
Cavaso del Tomba
Cessalto
Chiarano
Cimadolmo
Cison di Valmarino
Colle Umberto
Cordignano
Cornuda
Crespano del Grappa
Crocetta del Montello
Farra di Soligo
Follina
Fregona
Gaiarine
Giavera del Montello
Godega di Sant'Urbano
Gorgo al Monticano
Istrana
Loria
Mansuè
Mareno di Piave
Maserada sul Piave
Meduna di Livenza
Miane
Mogliano Veneto
Monastier di Treviso
Monfumo
Morgano
Moriago della Battaglia
Motta di Livenza
Oderzo
Ormelle
Orsago
Paderno del Grappa
Paese
Pederobba
Pieve di Soligo
Ponte di Piave
Ponzano Veneto
Portobuffolé
Possagno
Povegliano
Preganziol
Quinto di Treviso
Refrontolo
Resana
Revine Lago
Riese Pio X
Roncade
Salgareda
San Biagio di Callalta
San Fior
San Pietro di Feletto
San Polo di Piave
San Vendemiano
San Zenone degli Ezzelini
Santa Lucia di Piave
Sarmede
Segusino
Sernaglia della Battaglia
Silea
Spresiano
Tarzo
Trevignano
Valdobbiadene
Vazzola
Vedelago
Villorba
Vittorio Veneto
Volpago del Montello
Zenson di Piave
Zero Branco
The following shows the 12 comuni with the population, and the area and altitude.
Provincia di Treviso Official site
Tourism in Treviso website
The American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana or Lithobates catesbeianus) is a semi-aquatic frog.
It belongs to the family Ranidae, or 'true frogs'.
Bullfrogs are native to most of North America, Canada and Mexico.
The ones that live in northern America hibernate during winter.
However, bullfrogs in southern US states are active all the time.
Bullfrogs have been seen in South America, Asia, Western Europe and the Caribbean.
These bullfrogs were brought on ships.
Many people, including pet owners, have placed bullfrogs outside of their native area.
They have done this: on purpose because they no longer want them, to control the pest population, or by accident by catching them in fishing nets.
Bullfrogs can adapt and live almost anywhere if there is water nearby.
They can eat rodents, insects, small fish, arachnids, small birds, crustaceas, small mammals, worms, and other frogs.
Because of this, they have been blamed for many animal extinctions.
Bullfrogs live in large bodies of water such as swamps, lakes, and ponds.
They like to stay near the edge of the water.
During a rainstorm, they may travel on land.
They travel in search of a new habitat.
Bullfrogs are prey to various birds like herons, and their life in the wild is much less than in captivity.
One captive bullfrog lived almost 16 years.
The name "bullfrog" was given because males roar when mating with a female.
Bullfrogs can be kept as pets.
Captive bullfrogs are given rodents, small fish, crickets, worms, and fruit flies as food and treats.
Pet owners may add supplements on the frogs food for health.
Bullfrogs can host many viruses, bacteria and parasites.
They were blamed for an intraerythrocytic virus outbreak in Canada in 1997.
Bullfrogs are the cause of the chytrid fungus spreading into Arizona.
The fungus is one of the main reasons that there are fewer amphibians.
A female bullfrog can lay up to 20,000 eggs.
Bullfrog tadpoles take up to a year to become a young frog.
Males will stay behind and take care of the tadpoles.
Males are territorial and will attack any animal, including their own kind, if they come near them.
Bullfrogs can reduce the mosquito population.
They do this by eating most of the mosquito's larvae.
Bullfrogs do not move during the day, except if there is food nearby or when threatened.
Bullfrog legs are eaten by humans.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) rates the bullfrog as "Least Concern", which means that they are not an endangered species.
However, they are dying because of habitat loss, water pollution, pesticides, and over harvesting.
The American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) is its common name.
It is one of 90 species of the genus Rana.
In Quebec, Canada and Louisiana US the bullfrog is called ouaouaron (wa'wa'ron); a word originating in the Wendat language and borrowed in the 17th century.
The American bullfrog is also known as Lithobates catesbeianus.
The parent family for Rana is Ranidae, or "true frogs".
The Ranidae is split into nine sub families.
Ceratobatrachinae (southeast Asia), Conrauinae (Africa), Dicroglossinae, Micrixalinae (India), Nyctibatrachinae (India), Petropedetinae (Africa), Ptychadeninae (Africa), Raninae (Australia, South America), and Ranixalinae (India).
The American bullfrog's genus name comes from the Latin word rana, which means frog.
Bullfrogs were first described in 1802 by George Shaw.
Shaw described the bullfrog in his book General Zoology or Systematic Natural History.
A bullfrogs call is a slow deep g-r-r-u-u-u-u-m. Young bullfrogs will make a high pitch chirp before going in the water.
Bullfrogs have toxic skin, though it is not harmful to humans.
The toxins make it less likely that other animals will eat them.
The American bullfrog is the largest of the "true frogs" family.
Bullfrogs can reach a length of .
Bullfrogs can weigh up to .
Bullfrogs are either brown or green.
They also have darker spots on their back.
Bullfrogs have webbed feet for swimming.
They can leap up to .
Male bullfrogs can be heard roaring when mating with a female.
Males also have bigger tympanic membranes which cover their ears.
Bullfrogs have brown or gold eyes.
They also have broad flat heads and bodies.
The mouth of a bullfrog are small and have tiny teeth inside.
Bullfrogs can live up to 4–5 years.
There was one captive bullfrog that had lived up to 18years.
They will jump, wrestle, and even chase any animal away.
Bullfrogs are good at hearing.
A group of bullfrogs are called an "army".
Bullfrogs are known to have many viruses and bacteria.
However, only a few of them are important to nature.
Bullfrogs were blamed for an intraerythrocytic virus outbreak in Canada in 1997.
They were also blamed for a chytrid fungus that spread into Arizona in 2000.
The chytrid fungus is believed to be one of the major causes of the decline in amphibian populations.
Many bullfrogs can have parasites including helminths, trematodes, nematodes, protozoans and leeches.
In a 1913 study, it was found that bullfrogs will eat any animal it can overpower and stuff down its throat.
Bullfrog stomachs have been found to have rodents, baby muskrats, small turtles, snakes, frogs (including bullfrogs), birds, and a bat, as well as the many invertebrates, such as insects.
These studies show the bullfrog's diet is unique among North American Rana.
Bullfrogs are also known to eat ducklings and tadpoles.
Bullfrogs have teeth on the top of their mouths.
Their tongues are capable of flipping their food into their mouths.
Bullfrogs will eat at night.
In captivity, pet bullfrogs are given crickets, worms, small fish, rodents, and fruit flies.
In the wild they like to eat crayfish, water beetles, snails, and dragon fly larvae.
Bullfrogs may eat each other, this makes up of 80% of their diet.
In a 1935 study, it was found that smaller bullfrogs eat mostly insects.
However, larger bullfrogs eat crayfish, frogs and mice.
In an Arizona study in 1988, it was found that bullfrogs there eat invertebrates such as snails and insects.
While two other studies, one in 1977 (in New Mexico) and the other in 1993 (in New York), found that bullfrogs in New York eat mostly Ranidae frogs.
The study from New Mexico, found that bullfrogs there eat mostly toads.
Adults can help decrease the mosquito population by eating most of their larvae.
Bullfrogs will become sexually active after 2–4 years of becoming a frog.
Females are attracted to males who have territories that provide the most food.
Bullfrogs  mate between early spring to early summer.
A male bullfrog grabs the female and begins roaring.
A female bullfrog makes an aggressive call.
The female lays her eggs in shallow waters.
The male releases sperm on the eggs as fertilizer.
A female can lay up to 20,000 eggs.
The eggs of the bullfrogs are laid on the surface of water.
They are then exposed to harmful UV-B radiation.
Because of this, many bullfrogs may have abnormal (not normal) development.
The eggs hatches after four days.
They are called "tadpoles" and live in the water eating algae.
Bullfrog tadpoles are larger in length than other tadpoles by other frogs.
They become frogs in more than a year.
In captivity, they can become frogs in twelve weeks.
If a bullfrog tadpole remains as a tadpole for more than a year, it will become larger when it is an adult.
Because of this, they will have a better chance at survival in the wild.
There are many predators such as larger fish, crustaceans, and some birds that eat some of the eggs and tadpoles.
Because bullfrog tadpoles are not very active, they are less likely to be eaten by any animal.
However, if spotted, bullfrog tadpoles will be eaten by salamanders and invertebrates.
When they become adult frogs, the predators become food for the bullfrogs.
Males will stay with their tadpoles and protect them.
Males will even take their tadpoles, by digging through mud, to other large bodies of water.
They do this if the water is drying up.
The tadpoles of a bullfrog are not a favorite food source for fish.
This is because of their awful taste.
This gives bullfrog tadpoles a better chance in surviving than tadpoles of other frogs.
Bullfrog tadpoles spend most of their time not swimming.
This makes them less noticeable.
Tadpoles of a bullfrog have also raised concerns.
Their favorite food is algae and while growing up, they consume large amounts of it.
They can also live anywhere where a human house is, if there is water nearby.
Development of tadpoles
Once the tadpoles become "froglets", they begin hopping out of the water and into land.
They loose their tails once they are at this stage.
The froglets will stop using their gills and use them as lungs.
They begin eating small insects.
The froglets will remain near the water where they were laid.
If there is a drought, they will search for a new habitat.
At the time, froglets become easy prey to larger frogs, reptiles, raccoons, foxes, and birds.
Froglets become adult bullfrogs after four months they began hopping on land.
Bullfrogs in southern US states are active all the time.
Bullfrogs in northern US states hibernate during the winter time.
Mating season begins in spring and ends in early summer.
In northern US states, bullfrogs will begin coming out of hibernation.
They will begin eating and swimming.
During the summer, bullfrogs will spend most of their time in the water.
They will feed on mosquito larvae.
During the fall, northern US states bullfrogs will begin hibernating.
Southern US states bullfrogs will become semi-aquatic.
During the winter time, they will continue to be semi-aquatic.
If the weather outside is cold, they will hibernate for a few days.
Bullfrogs are active at night.
They can be seen hopping around gardens and streets.
During the day, they will be near the edge of the water.
During the daytime, they become motionless (not moving).
They will begin moving if food is nearby, or if they feel threatened.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) rates the bullfrog as "Least Concern".
This is because they are found almost in every continent. "
Least Concern" means that the bullfrog is not an endangered species.
There are more bullfrogs in southern United States than there is in the north.
However, bullfrogs populations are decreasing because of habitat loss, water pollution, pesticide and over harvesting.
In 2012, Mark W. Stone chairman of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, is currently trying to ban the import, sale, and the keeping of bullfrogs in Santa Cruz, California.
If the board signs the bill, Santa Cruz will be the first county in the United States to ban bullfrogs.
Stone is trying ban bullfrogs because of the bullfrogs appetite.
They have been blamed for making many animals become an endangered species in that state.
Bullfrogs are an invasive species in Puerto Rico.
Bullfrogs were accidentally introduced starting in the 1900s in Colorado and California.
Fishermen went out fishing and took their catchings back home, some had bullfrogs in their nets still alive.
They have been introduced by pet owners who no longer wanted them.
Some pet owners bought bullfrogs to control pests near their homes.
The impact of bullfrogs being introduced has negative outcomes.
Because of their diet, they can decrease populations of other frogs.
Bullfrogs have been blamed for making the California Red-legged Frog a near-threatened species.
They have also been blamed for many other amphibian extinctions in California.
Bullfrogs compete with other frogs for food, and can even kill their own kind if food is no where to be found.
Bullfrogs are considered one of the worst alien invasive species (AIS).
The AIS are animals who are able to decrease other species and even make them extinct worldwide.
Bullfrogs are responsible for the decline of garter snakes in Mexico.
In a laboratory experiment by Alford in 1989, bullfrogs decreased the population of Cope's gray treefrog.
The study introduced the bullfrogs with Cope's gray treefrog in a controlled environment.
Bullfrogs are a source of food for Southern United States and the Midwestern United States.
The bullfrogs' legs are cooked, while their backs are fried.
In China, bullfrogs are sold alive for eating.
They are then killed and cooked with vegetables.
In the state of California, people must have a license to catch bullfrogs for food.
In schools, bullfrogs are dissected in biology classes.
Usually, this is done in middle school.
The dissecting is a method for teaching students the anatomy of a bullfrog.
Bullfrogs are also kept as pets.
They are kept in aquariums or a terrarium.
A bullfrog would need one place for land and another for water.
Herps of Texas: Rana catesbeiana
Bullfrog at allaboutfrogs.com
Bullfrog recordings
Irritator (say: irr-irr-it-at-or) is a genus of spinosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Brazil during the Lower Cretaceous.
Its fossils are known from the Romualdo Formation.
Irritator had straight and cone-shaped teeth.
Its jaws were low, long and slender, with the nostrils placed well back from the front of the snout (all consistent with fish eating).
Irritator also had a narrow crest made of nasal bones on top of the skull.
Irritator's name comes from the English word "Irritation".
It was given its name due to the feelings of the scientists who described it when they found that fossil dealers had added plaster to the front of the snout.
Kate Garry Hudson (born April 19, 1979) is an American actress, movie director, screenwriter and producer.
In 2001 she won Golden Globe for this role in Almost Famous and was nominated for Oscar, but Marcia Gay Harden won.
Kate is the younger child of musician Bill Hudson and Oscar-winning actress Goldie Hawn who were divorced in 1980.
She has one older brother, Oliver Hudson.
She also has one half-brother and three half-sisters.
In 2000 she played Penny Lane in Almost Famous and won a Golden Globe for this role.
She was also nominated for an Oscar for this role, but Marcia Gay Harden won.
From 2000 to 2007 she was married to musician Chris Robinson.
They had one child, Ryder Russell Robinson (born on January 4, 2004).
She has been in a relationship with musician Matthew Bellamy since 2010.
They have one child, Bingham Hawn Bellamy (born on July 9, 2011).
The Province of Verona () is a province in the Veneto region of Italy.
The province of Verona has an area of , the second largest province in the Veneto region, after the Belluno province, and is the most western of the provinces of the region.
Most of its territory is almost flat, with few mountains.
The highest point of the province is Cima Valdritta, that is  high.
The main river in the province is the Adige; it flows through the capital of the province.
To the west of the province is the Lake Garda (), the largest lake of Italy.
, there are 922,383 persons living in the province, for a population density of  inhabitants/km².
There are 98 municipalities (or comuni) in the province; they are:
Affi
Albaredo d'Adige
Angiari
Arcole
Badia Calavena
Belfiore
Bonavigo
Boschi Sant'Anna
Bosco Chiesanuova
Bovolone
Brentino Belluno
Brenzone sul Garda
Bussolengo
Buttapietra
Caldiero
Caprino Veronese
Casaleone
Castagnaro
Castel d'Azzano
Castelnuovo del Garda
Cavaion Veronese
Cazzano di Tramigna
Cerea
Cerro Veronese
Cologna Veneta
Colognola ai Colli
Concamarise
Costermano sul Garda
Dolcè
Erbè
Erbezzo
Ferrara di Monte Baldo
Fumane
Gazzo Veronese
Grezzana
Illasi
Isola della Scala
Isola Rizza
Lavagno
Lazise
Legnago
Malcesine
Marano di Valpolicella
Mezzane di Sotto
Minerbe
Montecchia di Crosara
Monteforte d'Alpone
Mozzecane
Negrar
Nogara
Nogarole Rocca
Oppeano
Palù
Pastrengo
Pescantina
Povegliano Veronese
Pressana
Rivoli Veronese
Roncà
Ronco all'Adige
Roverchiara
Roverè Veronese
Roveredo di Guà
Salizzole
San Giovanni Ilarione
San Giovanni Lupatoto
San Martino Buon Albergo
San Mauro di Saline
San Pietro di Morubio
San Pietro in Cariano
San Zeno di Montagna
Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella
Selva di Progno
Soave
Sommacampagna
Sorgà
Torri del Benaco
Tregnago
Trevenzuolo
Valeggio sul Mincio
Velo Veronese
Veronella
Vestenanova
Vigasio
Villafranca di Verona
Zevio
Zimella
The largest comune is Verona, with  and the smallest is Concamarise, with .
The comune with fewest inhabitants is Ferrara di Monte Baldo, with 226 inhabitants.
The following shows the 10 comuni with more inhabitants with their population, and their area and altitude.
Provincia di Verona Official site
The Province of Vicenza () is a province in the Veneto region of Italy.
Its capital is the city of Vicenza.
The province of Vicenza has an area of .
The southern part is largely flat (the Pianura Padana, here known as Pianura veneta) except for a group of small hills (the Berici Hills), south of the city of Vicenza.
There are many high mountains in the northern part of the province; the highest mountain of the province is Cima Dódici ) that is  high and is on the border with the province of Trento (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region).
Brenta, ; and
Bacchiglione,
, there are 867,314 persons living in the province, for a population density of  inhabitants/km².
There are 120 municipalities (or comuni) in the province; they are:
Agugliaro
Albettone
Alonte
Altavilla Vicentina
Altissimo
Arcugnano
Arsiero
Arzignano
Asigliano Veneto
Barbarano Vicentino
Bolzano Vicentino
Breganze
Brendola
Bressanvido
Brogliano
Caltrano
Calvene
Camisano Vicentino
Campiglia dei Berici
Campolongo sul Brenta
Carrè
Cartigliano
Cassola
Castegnero
Castelgomberto
Chiampo
Chiuppano
Cogollo del Cengio
Conco
Cornedo Vicentino
Costabissara
Creazzo
Crespadoro
Dueville
Enego
Fara Vicentino
Foza
Gallio
Gambellara
Gambugliano
Grisignano di Zocco
Grumolo delle Abbadesse
Isola Vicentina
Laghi
Lastebasse
Longare
Lonigo
Lugo di Vicenza
Lusiana
Marano Vicentino
Marostica
Mason Vicentino
Molvena
Monte di Malo
Montebello Vicentino
Montecchio Maggiore
Montecchio Precalcino
Montegalda
Montegaldella
Monteviale
Monticello Conte Otto
Montorso Vicentino
Mossano
Mussolente
Nogarole Vicentino
Orgiano
Pedemonte
Pianezze
Piovene Rocchette
Pojana Maggiore
Posina
Pove del Grappa
Pozzoleone
Quinto Vicentino
Recoaro Terme
Roana
Romano d'Ezzelino
Rosà
Rossano Veneto
Rotzo
Salcedo
San Pietro Mussolino
San Vito di Leguzzano
Sandrigo
Santorso
Sarcedo
Sarego
Schiavon
Schio
Solagna
Sossano
Sovizzo
Tezze sul Brenta
Thiene
Tonezza del Cimone
Torrebelvicino
Torri di Quartesolo
Trissino
Val Liona
Valdastico
Valli del Pasubio
Valstagna
Velo d'Astico
Villaga
Villaverla
Zanè
Zermeghedo
Zovencedo
Zugliano
Provincia di Vicenza Official site
A petroleum product is an organic compound  made in oil refineries.
They result from refining (changing) crude oil (also called Petroleum) into more useful products.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
fuel oil
Asphalt (mainly used in asphalt concrete)
Paraffin wax
In addition, oil-refineries also sell other things that come from the refining process, most notably
Propane and other gases
Sulfur (and Sulfuric acid)
Lubricants for machines with moving parts
Different kind of industrial waxes
Thomas Spurgeon (20 September 1856–October 1917) was a British Reformed Baptist preacher.
He was the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
He was one of two non-identical twin sons of the famous Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892).
Billings is a city in the U.S. State of Montana.
Just over 100,000 people live there.
It was founded in 1882 as a railroad town.
it is the largest city in Montana by population.
Billings Logan International Airport is in the city.
It is also home to the Pictograph Cave National Historic Landmark, Lake Elmo State Park and Four Dances Natural Area.
19th-century establishments in Montana
West Jordan is a city in the suburbs of Salt Lake City.
It is in the U.S. State of Utah.
Cities in Utah
Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first African-American Major League Baseball (MLB) player of modern times.
Robinson broke the baseball color barrier when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
He was the first black man to openly play in the major leagues since the 1880s.
He had a big role in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball.
Up to that point, African-Americans could only play in Negro leagues for six decades.
Apart from his cultural impact, Robinson had an overall good baseball career.
Over ten seasons, he played in six World Series and helped in the Dodgers' 1955 World Championship.
He was selected for six consecutive All-Star Games from 1949 to 1954.
Robinson received the first MLB Rookie of the Year Award in 1947.
He also won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949.
He was the first black player to win this award.
Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.
Robinson was also known for his activities outside of baseball.
He was the first African-American television analyst in Major League Baseball.
He was also the first African-American vice-president of a major American company.
In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, an African-American-owned/controlled financial business based in Harlem, New York.
In honor of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal after his death.
Robinson was born on January 31, 1919.
His family were sharecroppers in Cairo, Georgia.
He was born during a Spanish flu and smallpox epidemic.
He was the youngest of five children, after siblings Edgar, Frank, Matthew (nicknamed "Mack"), and Willa Mae.
His middle name was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who died twenty-five days before Robinson was born.
After Robinson's father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California.
The Robinson family lived on a plot with two small houses at 121 Pepper Street in Pasadena.
Robinson's mother worked different odd jobs to support the family.
Robinson grew up somewhat poor in a fairly rich community.
Because of this, Robinson and his minority friends were left out of many sports activities.
As a result, Robinson joined a neighborhood gang.
However, his friend Carl Anderson made him leave it.
Muir Tech
In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School.
He then entered Muir Tech (now called John Muir High School).
Seeing that Robinson was good at sports, his older brothers Mack (himself a good athlete and silver medal winner at the 1936 Summer Olympics) and Frank inspired Jackie to follow his interest in sports.
At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level.
Robinson lettered in four of them: football, basketball, track, and baseball.
He played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, and guard on the basketball team.
With the track and field team, he won awards in the broad jump.
He was also part of the tennis team.
In 1936, Robinson won the junior boys singles championship in the yearly Pacific Coast Negro Tennis Tournament.
He also won a place on the Pomona baseball tournament all-star team.
That team included future Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Bob Lemon.
In late January 1937, the Pasadena Star-News newspaper wrote that Robinson "for two years has been the outstanding athlete at Muir, starring in football, basketball, track, baseball and tennis."
Pasadena Junior College
After Muir, Robinson went to Pasadena Junior College (PJC).
There he continued his sports career by playing basketball, football, baseball, and track.
Jackie Robinson was one of the best athletes at Pasadena Junior College.
On the football team, he played quarterback and safety.
He was a shortstop and leadoff hitter for the baseball team.
He broke school broad jump records held by his brother, Mack.
As at Muir Hugh School, most of Jackie's teammates were white.
While playing football at PJC, Robinson fractured his ankle.
Issues from this would later delay his deployment status while in the military.
Also while at PJC, he was elected to the Lancers.
They were a student-run police group who patrolled various school activities.
In 1938, he was elected to the All-Southland Junior College Team for baseball.
He was also selected as the region's Most Valuable Player.
That year, Robinson was one of ten students named to the school's Order of the Mast and Dagger (Omicron Mu Delta).
This was awarded to students performing "outstanding service to the school and whose scholastic and citizenship record is worthy of recognition."
An event at PJC shown Robinson's impatience with people he felt were racist.
This character trait that would come up several times in his life.
On January 25, 1938, he was arrested after he argued against his black friend being taken away by police.
Robinson received a two-year suspended sentence.
The incident – along with other possible run-ins between Robinson and police – gave Robinson a reputation for getting upset in the face of racial problems.
Toward the end of his PJC career, Frank Robinson (to whom Robinson felt closest among his three brothers) was killed in a motorcycle accident.
The event motivated Jackie to pursue his athletic career at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he could remain closer to Frank's family.
UCLA and afterward
After graduating from PJC in spring 1939, Robinson transferred to UCLA.
There he became the school's first athlete to win varsity letters in four sports: baseball, basketball, football, and track.
He was one of four African-Americans on the 1939 UCLA Bruins football team.
The others were Woody Strode, Kenny Washington, and Ray Bartlett.
Washington, Strode, and Robinson made up three of the team's four backfield players.
This made UCLA college football's most integrated team.
Even though it would be his future career, baseball was Robinson's "worst sport" at UCLA.
He hit .097 in his only season, although in his first game he went 4-for-4 and twice stole home.
While a senior at UCLA, Robinson met his future wife, Rachel Isum.
She was a UCLA freshman who knew Robinson's sports career at PJC.
In the spring semester of 1941, against his mother's and Isum's doubts, Robinson left college before graduation.
He took a job as an assistant athletic director with the government's National Youth Administration (NYA) in Atascadero, California.
After the government stopping running the NYA, Robinson traveled to Honolulu in fall 1941 to play football.
He played for the semi-professional, racially integrated Honolulu Bears.
After a short season, Robinson returned to California in December 1941.
There he tried for a career as running back for the Los Angeles Bulldogs of the Pacific Coast Football League.
By that time, however, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had taken place.
The attack made the United States enter World War II.
This ended Robinson's football career.
In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas.
Having the necessary requirements, Robinson and several other black soldiers applied for entrance to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) then located at Fort Riley.
Although Army policy had allowed black applicants to enter OCS since July 1941, the applications of Robinson and his colleagues were delayed for several months.
After protests by boxing champion Joe Louis (then stationed at Fort Riley) and the help of Truman Gibson (then an assistant civilian aide to the Secretary of War), the men were accepted into OCS.
This shared military experience created a friendship between Robinson and Louis.
Upon finishing OCS, Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1943.
Shortly afterward, Robinson and Isum were engaged.
After receiving his commission, Robinson was moved to Fort Hood, Texas.
There he joined the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion.
While at Fort Hood, Robinson often used his weekend leave to visit the Rev. Karl Downs, President of Sam Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in nearby Austin, Texas.
Downs had been Robinson's pastor at Scott United Methodist Church while Robinson attended PJC.
An event in July 1944 stopped Robinson's military career.
While waiting for results of hospital tests on the ankle he had injured in junior college, Robinson got on an Army bus with a fellow officer's wife.
Although the Army had its own unsegregated bus line, the bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the bus.
Robinson refused.
The driver backed down.
However, after reaching the end of the line, he got the military police, who took Robinson into custody.
Robinson later talked to the duty officer about racist questioning by the officer and his assistant.
The officer then recommended Robinson be court-martialed.
After Robinson's commander in the 761st, Paul L. Bates, refused to allow this legal action, Robinson was moved to the 758th Battalion.
The commander there quickly allowed Robinson to be charged with several offenses, including, among other charges, public drunkenness – even though Robinson did not drink.
By the time of the court-martial in August 1944, the charges against Robinson had been reduced to two counts of insubordination (going against someone in charge of him) during questioning.
Although his former unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, became the first black tank unit to see combat in World War II, Robinson's court-martial stopped him from going with them.
He never saw fighting action in the war.
After his acquittal, he was moved to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky.
There he served as a coach for army athletics until receiving an honorable discharge in November 1944.
While there, Robinson met an ex-player for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League.
The player encouraged Robinson to write the Monarchs and ask for a tryout.
Robinson took the ex-player's advice and wrote Monarchs' co-owner Thomas Baird.
Post-military
After he left the army, Robinson returned to his old football club, the Los Angeles Bulldogs for a short time.
Robinson then took an offer from his old friend and pastor Rev. Karl Downs to be the athletic director at Sam Huston College in Austin.
The school was part of the Southwestern Athletic Conference at the time.
The job included coaching the school's basketball team for the 1944–45 season.
As a starting program, few students tried out for the basketball team.
Robinson even had to play in some of the practice games.
Although his teams were outmatched by opponents, Robinson was respected as a coach who made his players work really hard.
He received the respect of, among others, Langston University basketball player Marques Haynes, a future member of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Baseball career
In early 1945, while Robinson was at Sam Huston College, the Kansas City Monarchs sent him a written offer to play professional baseball in the Negro leagues.
Robinson accepted a contract for $400 ($ in  dollars) per month.
This was a big deal for him at the time.
He played well for the Monarchs, but Robinson was upset with the experience.
He had grown used to having a structure while playing in college.
The Negro leagues' lack of organization and acceptance of gambling interests bothered him.
The travel schedule also placed stress on his relationship with Isum.
The two could now communicate only by letter.
In all, Robinson played 47 games at shortstop for the Monarchs.
He hit .387 with five home runs and had 13 stolen bases.
He also played in the 1945 Negro League All-Star Game (where he had no hits in five at-bats).
During the season, Robinson tried for a possible major league interest.