Excavations in Jamaica

1953 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Dewolf
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
West Indies ◽  
Present Knowledge ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
The West ◽  
Arbitrary Time ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Cross Dating ◽  
Made In

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of excavations conducted in 1933, as yet unreported, and to correlate the findings with present knowledge of Jamaican and other West Indian prehistory. Descriptions of the sites and specimens may be of value to archaeologists in this area.Since 1933 great strides have been made in archaeological knowledge of the West Indies. Irving Rouse has correlated known cultures in most of the Greater Antilles and in some of the Lesser Antilles. He has established seven arbitrary time periods, I, IIa, IIb, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, and IVb, for the area (Rouse, 1939, 1941, 1948, 1951, 1952) on the basis of stratigraphy, sedation of modes, establishment of style sequences, and cross-dating of trade objects. During these periods four cultures existed. The period I culture is preceramic and is associated with the Ciboney Indians who may have come from North America. The first ceramic culture, Igneri, is associated with the Arawak Indians, who pushed north and east from the Orinoco Valley in period II. It lacks the ceremonial complex which distinguishes the two later ceramic cultures, sub-Taino and Taino, which developed in the Greater Antilles during periods III and IV, the former as a simpler variant of the latter.

scholarly journals The West Indian Peridinetini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Baridinae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 2210 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
JENS PRENA
Keyword(s):  
West Indies ◽  
West Indian ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
The West ◽  
Distribution Maps

Two genera and nine species of Peridinetini are recognised in the West Indies; four of the species are newly described. Peridinetus Schönherr is represented in the Greater Antilles by P. concentricus (Olivier), P. decipiens Prena sp. n., P. fuscosignum Prena sp. n., P. poeyi Jacquelin du Val stat. res., P. roeselii (Boheman) and P. sexguttatus (Fabricius) comb. n. and Palliolatrix Prena in the Lesser Antilles by P. insignis (Chevrolat), P. lateropicta Prena sp. n. and P. silacea Prena sp. n. Ephimerus Schönherr is synonymised with Peridinetus (syn. n.). The overlooked synonymy of Peridinetus signatus Rosenschöld with P. concentricus is reinstated. Habitus images, distribution maps and a key for identification are provided.

scholarly journals An account of some experiments made in the West Indies and North America, to determine the relative magnetic forces, in the Years 1831, 32, and 33

1837 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 253-253
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
West Indies ◽  
Great Care ◽  
The West ◽  
Magnetic Forces ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Made In

The experiments of which the results are given in this paper were made by Mr. James Napier, late Master of H. M. S. Winchester. The needles were precisely similar to those used in the experiments described by the author in a former paper; and the observations were made with great care, and repeated several times at the same places; by which it appeared that the intensities of the needles continued unchanged during the whole period of the experiments; and the mean of all those made at one place was taken as the result. From these the relative forces at different places were computed, and stated in the form of a table.

Observations on Cotton Stainers (Dysdercus) in the West Indies

1939 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 289-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. A. Squire
Keyword(s):  
West Indies ◽  
Virgin Islands ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
The West ◽  
Eastern Group ◽  
Cotton Stainers ◽  
Made In

The following observations on cotton stainers were made in the Eastern Group of the West Indies, or Lesser Antilles, which extend from Trinidad to the Virgin Islands. Some idea of their size and geographical relationships will be obtained from fig. 1.

scholarly journals The West Indies as a laboratory of biogeography and evolution

2007 ◽  
Vol 363 (1502) ◽  
pp. 2393-2413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Ricklefs ◽  
Eldredge Bermingham
Keyword(s):  
West Indies ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
Molecular Clocks ◽  
Species Accumulation Curves ◽  
The West ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Island Populations ◽  
Allopatric Divergence ◽  
And Shifts

Islands have long provided material and inspiration for the study of evolution and ecology. The West Indies are complex historically and geographically, providing a rich backdrop for the analysis of colonization, diversification and extinction of species. They are sufficiently isolated to sustain endemic forms and close enough to sources of colonists to develop a dynamic interaction with surrounding continental regions. The Greater Antilles comprise old fragments of continental crust, some very large; the Lesser Antilles are a more recent volcanic island arc, and the low-lying Bahama Islands are scattered on a shallow oceanic platform. Dating of island lineages using molecular methods indicates over-water dispersal of most inhabitants of the West Indies, although direct connections with what is now southern Mexico in the Early Tertiary, and subsequent land bridges or stepping stone islands linking to Central and South America might also have facilitated colonization. Species–area relationships within the West Indies suggest a strong role for endemic radiations and extinction in shaping patterns of diversity. Diversification is promoted by opportunities for allopatric divergence between islands, or within the large islands of the Greater Antilles, with a classic example provided by the Anolis lizards. The timing of colonization events using molecular clocks permits analysis of colonization–extinction dynamics by means of species accumulation curves. These indicate low rates of colonization and extinction for reptiles and amphibians in the Greater Antilles, with estimated average persistence times of lineages in the West Indies exceeding 30 Myr. Even though individual island populations of birds might persist an average of 2 Myr on larger islands in the Lesser Antilles, recolonization from within the archipelago appears to maintain avian lineages within the island chain indefinitely. Birds of the Lesser Antilles also provide evidence of a mass extinction event within the past million years, emphasizing the time-heterogeneity of historical processes. Geographical dynamics are matched by ecological changes in the distribution of species within islands over time resulting from adaptive radiation and shifts in habitat, often following repeatable patterns. Although extinction is relatively infrequent under natural conditions, changes in island environments as a result of human activities have exterminated many populations and others—especially old, endemic species—remain vulnerable. Conservation efforts are strengthened by recognition of aesthetic, cultural and scientific values of the unique flora and fauna of the West Indies.

scholarly journals Magnetical observations made in the West Indies, on the coasts of Brazil and North America, in the years 1834, 1835, 1836 and 1837

1843 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 3-4
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
West Indies ◽  
The West ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Times ◽  
Made In

The observations for the dip were made with an instrument of modern construction, by Dollond. Each observation consisted of an equal number of readings of the position of the needle, before and after the inversion of its poles, and a mean of all the readings taken for the true dip. Tables are subjoined, containing the dips ob­served at each place; the times of making a hundred vibrations of five horizontal needles, and the mean horizontal forces computed therefrom; and likewise the results estimated in the direction of the dipping needle, compared with direct experiments made with the dipping needle itself.

Monitoring Agricultural Drought in the West Indies

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abraham Anthony Chen ◽  
Trevor Falloon
Keyword(s):  
West Indies ◽  
West Indian ◽  
Caribbean Sea ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
The West ◽  
Blue Mountains ◽  
The North ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Azores High

The core of the West Indies consists of the archipelago of islands that stretches southeast from the Yucatan and Florida peninsulas to Venezuela. Generally the term “West Indies” is synonymous with the “Antilles” and is therefore often used to refer to the islands that compose the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The islands of the Greater Antilles include Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica—all located in the north Caribbean Sea—while the Lesser Antilles encompasses the smaller islands found to the south and east. In total, the West Indies embraces about 25 island territories. There are complex mountain ranges in the Greater Antilles, such as the Blue Mountains (2257 m) in central Jamaica and the Pico Duarte (3175 m) in the Dominican Republic, smaller volcanic peaks in the northeast island arc, and low-lying islands composing the remainder of the Lesser Antilles. The variation in local topography contributes significantly to the general rainfall pattern across the West Indian islands, as the windward sides of the larger and more mountainous islands are rainy and windswept, while the leeward sides are drier. In comparison, the low-lying eastern islands receive much less rainfall due to their lack of topographic relief and are much more dependent on seasonal rains. It is, however, the location of the West Indian islands between the permanent high pressure zone of the subtropical north Atlantic (the Azores high) and the equatorial trough of low pressure that gives rise to the mean monthly West Indian rainfall depicted in figure 11.2. Early in the year (December through March) and for a brief period in July, the Caribbean is dominated by subsidence from the inner zone of the Azores high and is at its driest. Rainfall during this period (barring July) is largely from the intrusion of fronts from North America. By the onset of the rainy season, however, the Azores high drifts farther north, resulting in weakened trade winds. At the same time, the Caribbean Sea warms up.

Gerald H. Thayer's ornithological work in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Lesser Antilles

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Wiley
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
West Indies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
American Museum ◽  
The West ◽  
Comparative Zoology ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South

Gerald Handerson Thayer (1883–1939) was an artist, writer and naturalist who worked in North and South America, Europe and the West Indies. In the Lesser Antilles, Thayer made substantial contributions to the knowledge and conservation of birds in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Thayer observed and collected birds throughout much of St Vincent and on many of the Grenadines from January 1924 through to December 1925. Although he produced a preliminary manuscript containing interesting distributional notes and which is an early record of the region's ornithology, Thayer never published the results of his work in the islands. Some 413 bird and bird egg specimens have survived from his work in St Vincent and the Grenadines and are now housed in the American Museum of Natural History (New York City) and the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Four hundred and fifty eight specimens of birds and eggs collected by Gerald and his father, Abbott, from other countries are held in museums in the United States.

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