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marmot

(Encyclopedia)marmot, ground-living rodent of the genus Marmota, of the squirrel family, closely related to the ground squirrel, prairie dog, and chipmunk. Marmots are found in Eurasia and North America; the best-k...

bramble

(Encyclopedia)bramble, name for plants of the genus Rubus [Lat.,=red, for the color of the juice]. This complex genus of the family Rosaceae (rose family), with representatives in many parts of the world, includes ...

desert

(Encyclopedia)desert, arid region, usually partly covered by sand, having scanty vegetation or sometimes almost none, and capable of supporting only a limited and specially adapted animal population. The so-called ...

mulberry

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Red mulberry, Morus rubra mulberry, common name for the Moraceae, a family of deciduous or evergreen trees and shrubs, often climbing, mostly of pantropical distribution, and characterized by ...

Denali National Park and Preserve

(Encyclopedia)Denali National Park and Preserve dənälˈē [key], in the Alaska Range, S central Alaska; comprising Denali National Park (4,740,912 acres/1,919,398 hectares), est. as Mt. McKinley National Park 191...

Ayacucho

(Encyclopedia)Ayacucho äyäko͞oˈchō [key], city, capital of Ayacucho dept., S central Peru. It is a commercial center in a rich mining region that produces gold, silver, and nickel....

jewelweed

(Encyclopedia)jewelweed, common name for the Balsaminaceae, a family of widely distributed annual and perennial herbs. The principal genus is Impatiens, so named because of the sudden bursting of the mature seed ca...

Durant, Thomas Clark

(Encyclopedia)Durant, Thomas Clark, 1820–85, American railroad builder, chief figure in the construction of the Union Pacific RR, b. Lee, Mass. He was successful in building railroads in the Midwest, and, after t...

sunbittern

(Encyclopedia)sunbittern, common name for a graceful, stout-bodied, bitternlike bird, Eurypyga helias. It is named for its wing markings, an orange-chestnut shield set in an orange-buff circle, which looks like a s...

Paleozoic era

(Encyclopedia)Paleozoic era pāˌlēəzōˈĭk [key], a major division (era) of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table) occurring between 570 to 240 million years ago. It is subdivide...