Human Destinies

2018 ◽  
pp. 73-92
Author(s):  
Gary Westfahl
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Species ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Interstellar Space ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
The City ◽  
A New Species

Unlike other science fiction writers, this chapter explains, Clarke rarely envisions humanity colonizing interstellar space and forging a galactic empire, anticipating limitations on human development. Though unconcerned about nuclear wars or alien invasions, Clarke regularly predicts humanity’s extinction, due to climate change or competing new species, or long periods of decadence. If humans avoid these fates, evolution may transform them into a new species, unlike present-day humans. Such scenarios unfold in Clarke’s major novels about humanity’s destiny: in Against the Fall of Night (1953), revised as The City and the Stars (1956), residents of an unchanging future city rediscover their ambitions but still face eventual demise; and in Childhood’s End (1953) humans guided by alien Overlords become a group intelligence to join a transcendent Overmind.

A new small-celled diatom from Brazil - Luticola minutissima sp. nov., with comparison to the type of the Antarctic L. neglecta Zidarova, Levkov & Van de Vijv

Phytotaxa ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 530 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-294
Author(s):  
MATEUSZ RYBAK ◽  
ŁUKASZ PESZEK ◽  
ŁUKASZ SKOCZYLAS ◽  
THELMA ALVIM VEIGA LUDWIG
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Palm Tree ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Concrete Walls ◽  
New Information ◽  
Eastern Brazil ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
The City ◽  
A New Species ◽  
Small Valve

The samples for this study were collected from terrestrial mosses and lichens growing on palm tree trunks and concrete walls in the city of Rio de Janeiro, south-eastern Brazil. During the investigation on diatom diversity, a new species from the genus Luticola was found. The new species occurred individually at all sampling sites. The aim of this paper is to provide a morphological and ecological description of Luticola minutissima sp. nov. from an aerophytic environment. The species is characterized by a small valve size (5.2–16.8 μm length and 3.7–4.4 wide) and abruptly hooked proximal raphe endings (ca. 90-degree angle). Additionally for comparison, type material of the most similar species, Luticola neglecta Zidarova, Levkov & Van de Vijver, was studied and new information for the ultrastructure of the latter species is provided as well.

Staying Mobile in Postapocalyptic Cli-Fi

2020 ◽  
pp. 159-188
Author(s):  
Jeremy Withers
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
First Century ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Twenty First Century

This chapter examines how the rising popularity since the 1990s of works of postapocalyptic cli-fi (i.e. climate change fiction) has provided science fiction writers a convenient opportunity to explore issues of mobility and transportation. After first examining an early postapocalyptic cli-fi work from the 1990s by Octavia E. Butler, the chapter then advances this book’s chronological analysis to some twenty-first century works of science fiction. In its discussion of a novel by Paolo Bacigalupi and one by Benjamin Parzybok, this chapter shows how more restrained modes of transport play a vital role during times of apocalypse in keeping a society functioning and keeping us as individuals from slipping into disempowerment.

scholarly journals Sison amomum L. (Apiaceae), a new species in the flora of Bosnia and Herzegovina

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-18
Author(s):  
Semir Maslo ◽  
Šemso Šarić ◽  
Nermina Sarajlić
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Morphological Description ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City ◽  
A New Species

Sison amomum L. (Apiaceae) was recorded for the first time in Bosnia and Herzegovina during a fieldwork in the vicinity of the city of Tuzla (northeast Bosnia) in September 2019. This study reports the newly discovered localities and presents a short morphological description of the species.

scholarly journals A new species of the genus Chiromyza Wiedemann (Diptera, Stratiomyidae) from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. e20206037
Author(s):  
José Roberto Pujol-Luz
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Related Species ◽  
Rain Forest ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Distal Region ◽  
Outer Margin ◽  
Atlantic Rain Forest ◽  
Distal Surface ◽  
The City ◽  
A New Species

Seven species of the genus Chiromyza Wiedemann are recorded in Brazil: C. brevicornis (Lindner, 1949), C. enderleini (Lindner, 1949), C. leptiformis (Macquart, 1838), C. ochracea Wiedemann, 1820, C. stylicornis (Enderlein, 1921), C. viridis Bezzi, 1922 and C. vittata Wiedemann, 1820. Herein I describe a new species, Chiromyza raccai sp. nov., based on 88 specimens (41 males, 47 females) from the Atlantic Rain Forest mountains of State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the city of Miguel Pereira. The new species is distinguished from the related species C. ochracea and C. vittata by the structure of male terminalia. Chiromyza raccai sp. nov. has the distal region of the phallus rounded with two conspicuous apical setae, C. ochracea has the distal surface of the phallus wide and flatness, and C. vittata has the distal surface of the phallus rounded with outer margin rugose.

scholarly journals On a new species of rhinoceros found in the interior of Africa, the skull of which bears a close resemblance to that found in a fossil state in Siberia and other countries

1833 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 157-158
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Close Resemblance ◽  
Cape Of Good Hope ◽  
The City ◽  
Small Capacity ◽  
A New Species ◽  
Fossil State

The animal described in this paper was shot about 300 miles west of La Goa Bay, 6 miles from the city of Mashow, and 1000 miles in a straight direction from the Cape of Good Hope. It is graminivorous, and not gregarious. The skull is 36 inches long; and the position of the horns, though differing in many respects from those of other existing species, bear so close a resemblance to those of the fossil skulls from Siberia, as to leave no prominent characteristic mark between them; hence the author doubts whether many races of animals supposed to be extinct are really so: he thinks it probable that they may have retired to uninhabited parts of the globe. The small capacity of the skull of the rhinoceros, as compared with that of the elephant, accounts for its inferior intellect, for the extreme difficulty of rendering the animal tractable, and for the failure of all attempts that have been made at taming him; and renders it not improbable that the unicorn, not to be tamed, mentioned by Job, is identical with the rhinoceros, since no other animal so devoid of intellect has ever been described. In that age, says the author, the short horn, which cannot be regarded as a defensive weapon, might easily have been overlooked, and the smoothness of the skin would give it a greater resemblance to the horse than any other animal. This paper is accompanied by two plates, exhibiting the skull of the African and of the fossil Siberian rhinoceros, and a fossil horn of the latter.

A new species of Stenomicra Coquillett (Diptera: Periscelididae) from the Brazilian Amazon and its life history

Zootaxa ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4407 (4) ◽  
pp. 591
Author(s):  
ELIANE SOLAR GOMES ◽  
ROSALY ALE-ROCHA ◽  
RUTH LEILA FERREIRA KEPPLER
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
New Species ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Brazilian Amazon ◽  
Neotropical Region ◽  
Biological Information ◽  
Forest Fragment ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
The City ◽  
A New Species

A new species of Stenomicra is described for the Neotropical Region, from phytotelmata of Araceae at an urban forest fragment in the city of Manaus, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Morphological descriptions of the immatures and the adults (male and female) are provided, together with biological information on the life cycle of the species and its “host” plant. 

scholarly journals Distribution of Stenasellidae in Africa and description of a new species of Metastenasellus from Cameroonian groundwaters

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 175-194
Author(s):  
Pountougnigni Oumarou Farikou ◽  
Piscart Christophe ◽  
Sob Nangou Paul Bertrand ◽  
Zebaze Togouet Serge Hubert
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Distal Part ◽  
Ecological Data ◽  
African Species ◽  
Large Size ◽  
The Family ◽  
Spermatic Duct ◽  
The City ◽  
Distal Seta ◽  
A New Species

During recent investigations of the groundwater fauna of Cameroon, specimens of a new species of the stygobitic genus Metastenasellus, M. boutini sp. nov. were collected in wells of the city of Douala. The new species can be easily distinguished from the other species of the genus by its relatively large size (up to 11 mm), pleonite 1 and 2 half the length of pereonite 7, the shape of pleopod 2 in males (presence of an external lobe on the protopodite, distal part of the spermatic duct slightly protruding out of the second article, lack of a distal seta on the exopodite), and uropod half the length of the pleotelson. Ecological data and a key to Metastenasellus species are provided. We also performed an exhaustive analysis of the literature on Stenasellidae in Africa to study the geographical distribution of the family in this continent and discuss some hypotheses about the origin of African species.

scholarly journals The first record of the Siberian northern shrike (Lanius borealis sibiricus) in Lithuania with molecular confirmation

Biologija ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vytautas Eigirdas ◽  
Vesta Jonikė
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New Species ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
First Record ◽  
Mitochondrial Cytochrome ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mitochondrial Cytochrome B ◽  
The World ◽  
A New Species

Climate change significantly affects biological diversity around the world. Trends of this phenomenon have also been noticed in Lithuania: in the past decades, 55 new bird species have been recorded. The recent record of a new species was done on 3 December 2019. During ordinary birds ringing carried out in Ventės Ragas Ornithological Station in Lithuania, an individual Siberian northern shrike (Lanius borealis sibiricus) was caught and ringed. Additional blood sample was collected for species confirmation. Based on identification keys and molecular mitochondrial cytochrome b analysis, we report that this is the first record of the Siberian northern shrike in Lithuania.

scholarly journals Four New Species of Dicranocentrus and Heteromurus from the State of Mérida, Venezuela (Collembola: Entomobryidae)

1969 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
José A. Mari Mutt
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Central America ◽  
West Indies ◽  
Cloud Forest ◽  
First Record ◽  
The State ◽  
Congeneric Species ◽  
The West ◽  
The City ◽  
A New Species

The new species Dicranocentrus paramoense, D. bidentatus, Heteromurus (Heteromurtrella) echinatus and H. (H.) pruinosus are described from specimens collected in the State of Mérida, Venezuela. A new species of each genus comes from a cloud forest near the city of Mérida and a new species of each taxon was collected in paramos northeast of Mérida. Congeneric species are phyletically very near and their closest relatives live in Central America and the West Indies. Dicranocentrus bidentatus is the sole species of its genus with only two teeth (the basal pair) along the inner margin of the unguis. Heteromurus (Heteromurtrella) echinatus is unique among members of its subgenus in possessing dental spines, although some individuals lack these structures. This is the first record of such intraspecific variation. Four tables detail variations of a number of characters and 41 figures complement the text.

scholarly journals A new species of Leiostracus from Bahia, Brazil (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Orthalicidae)

2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Rodrigo B. Salvador ◽  
Daniel C. Cavallari
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Color Pattern ◽  
Land Snails ◽  
Forest Fragments ◽  
Basal Region ◽  
Diagnostic Features ◽  
The City ◽  
Axial Band ◽  
A New Species ◽  
High Diversity

A remarkable new species of pulmonate snail was recently collected in a small Atlantic Rainforest fragment near the city of Canavieiras, state of Bahia, Brazil, an area known for a high diversity of land snails. It is described herein as Leiostracus fetidus sp. nov. and can be easily identified by its color pattern of irregular brown to black axial stripes on a white to yellow background, a reddish axial band "separating" the white peristome from the rest of the shell and a broad brown spiral band surrounding the umbilical region. Other diagnostic features include a relatively small size, a proto columellar fold and two very weak folds delimiting the basal region of the aperture. This discovery is a reminder of how little this fauna is known and also an alarm for proper conservation of these forest fragments.

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