fern: Tissues: An example is the common maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum), the blade of which, between veins, is mainly made up of only two layers, the upper and the lower epidermis, in which most photosynthesis occurs.

woolly mammoth, (Mammuthus primigenius), extinct species of elephant found in fossil deposits of the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs (from about 2.6 million years ago to the present) in Europe, northern Asia, and North America. The woolly mammoth was known for its large size, fur, and imposing

Northern Mariana Islands, a self-governing commonwealth in association with the United States. It is composed of 14 islands and islets in the western Pacific Ocean. The commonwealth is a part of the Mariana Islands, a chain of volcanic mountain peaks and uplifted coral reefs. (The Marianas chain

Northern Mariana Islands, a self-governing commonwealth in association with the United States. It is composed of 14 islands and islets in the western Pacific Ocean. The commonwealth is a part of the Mariana Islands, a chain of volcanic mountain peaks and uplifted coral reefs. (The Marianas chain

Thule culture, prehistoric culture that developed along the Arctic coast in northern Alaska, possibly as far east as the Amundsen Gulf. Starting about 900 ce, it spread eastward rapidly and reached Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) by the 12th century. It continued to develop in the central areas of

northern Mexican Indian, member of any of the aboriginal peoples inhabiting northern Mexico. The generally accepted ethnographic definition of northern Mexico includes that portion of the country roughly north of a convex line extending from the Río Grande de Santiago on the Pacific coast to the

Northern Michigan University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Marquette, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. It comprises the Walter L. Cisler College of Business and colleges of arts and sciences; graduate studies; and professional studies, including education, nursing, and

paracanthopterygian: Life cycle and reproduction: The northern midshipman (P. notatus), a common species on the eastern Pacific coast, spawns in shallow water, attaching its eggs to a rocky surface. The male guards the eggs. Like other batrachoidiforms, the midshipman lives and grows on the ocean bottom.

China: Sino-Tibetan of China: …to the south, by the Fuzhou, or Northern Min, language of northern and central Fujian and by the Xiamen-Shantou (Amoy-Swatow), or Southern Min, language of southern Fujian and easternmost Guangdong. The Hakka language of southernmost Jiangxi and northeastern Guangdong has a rather scattered pattern of distribution. Probably the best known…

mockingbird: …common, or northern, mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) is well known as a mimic; it has been known to imitate the songs of 20 or more species within 10 minutes. It is 27 cm (10.5 inches) long and gray with darker wings and tail both marked with white. It ranges from…

Hungary: Resources and power: …coal) is mined in the Northern Mountains and in Transdanubia. Coal once satisfied half of Hungary’s energy requirements, but it now represents less than one-fifth of energy production.

Chiapas Highlands: The Northern Mountains of Chiapas, block mountains capped with volcanic materials and reaching elevations above 12,000 feet (3,650 metres), compose the eastern section. The Tacaná Volcano, located on the southern extreme of the highlands at the Mexico–Guatemala border, rises to 13,484 feet (4,110 metres).

woolly spider monkey: In the northern muriqui (B. hypoxanthus), from Bahia, Minas Gerais, and Espiritu Santo, the face is mottled pink and black, there is a rudimentary thumb, and the two sexes have canines of the same size.

native cat: The northern native cat (D. hallucatus) of tropical regions is generally smaller, as is the New Guinea native cat (D. albopunctatus), which occupies a variety of habitats on its native island. The largest species, the spotted-tailed native cat (D. maculatus, also called the tiger cat), has…

Nord-Norge, geographic region of Norway. It reaches from Nordland about 575 miles (925 km) northward to the North Cape (Nordkapp), the northernmost point in Europe. An arm of the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Current, which flows past its coast, provides a relatively mild maritime climate.

Hugh MacDiarmid: …first postwar Scottish verse anthology, Northern Numbers (1921–23). In 1922 he founded the monthly Scottish Chapbook, in which he advocated a Scottish literary revival and published the lyrics of “Hugh MacDiarmid,” later collected as Sangschaw (1925) and Penny Wheep (1926). Rejecting English as a medium for Scottish poetry, MacDiarmid scrutinized…

Ontario: Relief: Northern Ontario, as usually defined, lies north of a line drawn from the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa rivers (at the Quebec border, east of Lake Nipissing) southwest to the mouth of the French River, on Georgian Bay. Most of the region, which covers…

North Ossetia–Alania, respublika (republic) in southwestern Russia, on the northern flank of the Greater Caucasus range. It is bordered on the south by Georgia and on the north by the Sunzha and Terek ranges. The capital and largest city is Vladikavkaz. North Ossetia is mountainous: the Glavny

Northern Pacific Railway Company, one of the northern transcontinental railroads of the United States, operating between St. Paul, Minn., and Seattle, Wash., and merged into the Burlington Northern in 1970. The Northern Pacific was chartered by Congress in 1864 to build a line from Lake Superior

Paiute: The Northern Paiute (called Paviotso in Nevada) are related to the Mono of California. Like a number of other California and Southwest Indians, the Northern Paiute have been known derogatorily as “Diggers” because some of the wild foods they collected required digging. They occupied east-central California,…

wood warbler: …or American, parula warbler (Parula americana), which breeds in eastern North America, is pale blue with white wing bars, a partial white eye ring, and a yellow breast crossed by a narrow dark band. The black-and-white warbler (Mniotilta varia), common east of the Rockies, is streaked and has creeperlike…

satyr butterfly: Northern pearly-eyes (E. anthedon) are similar in appearance to their southern counterparts and are found mainly in the northeastern region of the United States and in Canada, from central Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia.

Newfoundland and Labrador: Northern Peninsula: The Northern Peninsula (locally called the Great Northern Peninsula) stretches northward toward the Labrador coast between Bonne Bay on the west and White Bay on the east. In the west the Long Range Mountains, rising abruptly from a narrow coastal plain dissected by…

Penneru River, river of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh states, southern India. It has a total length of about 350 miles (560 km). The Penneru rises in an upland region on the Deccan plateau, 7 miles (11 km) west-southwest of Chik Ballapur in southeastern Karnataka. It flows north into Andhra Pradesh

Nigeria: Political process: …Action Group (AG) and the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) were the major Nigerian parties when the country became independent in 1960. However, their regional rather than national focus—the AG represented the west, the NPC the north, and the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons the east—ultimately contributed to the…

phalarope: …phalarope in Britain, and the northern phalarope (P. lobatus), called red-necked phalarope in Britain. Both species winter on tropical oceans, where they are known as sea snipe. Wilson’s phalarope (P. tricolor) breeds primarily in interior western North America and migrates chiefly to the Argentine pampas.

pika: …with the largest distribution, the northern pika (O. hyperborea), ranges from the Ural Mountains to the east coast of Russia and Hokkaido Island of northern Japan. Although the northern pika is considered a typical talus-dwelling species, it also is known to inhabit rocky terrain in coniferous forests, where it makes…

pike: The northern pike (Esox lucius; see photograph) of North America, Europe, and northern Asia has pale, bean-shaped spots on the body and lacks scales on the lower parts of the gill covers. It is a fairly common and prized game fish with a maximum size and…

pin oak: The northern pin oak, or jack oak (Q. ellipsoidalis), also has pinlike branchlets but usually occurs on upland sites that are dry. Its ellipse-shaped acorns are nearly half enclosed in a scaly cup. The leaves become yellow or pale brown in autumn, often with purple blotches.

pintail: The common, or northern, pintail (Anas acuta), widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, is a long-distance flier; some Alaskan birds winter as far away as Hawaii. Pairs form at the wintering ground, and the males follow the females back to their summer range.

Afghanistan: Physiographic regions: The northern plains region, north of the central highlands, extends eastward from the Iranian border to the foothills of the Pamirs, near the border with Tajikistan. It comprises some 40,000 square miles (103,000 square km) of plains and fertile foothills sloping gently toward the Amu Darya…

Odisha: Relief, soils, and drainage: …into four natural divisions: the northern plateau, the Eastern Ghats, the central tract, and the coastal plains. The northern plateau (in the northern part of the state) is an extension of the forest-covered and mineral-rich Chota Nagpur plateau centred in Jharkhand. The Eastern Ghats, extending roughly parallel to the coast…

Mesa del Norte, the northern section of the Mexican Plateau, sloping gently upward to the south for more than 700 miles (1,100 km) from the U.S.–Mexico border to the Zacatecas Mountains. Mesa del Norte largely spans the country from coast to coast and is bordered by the Sierra Madre Oriental on the

evolution: Quantum speciation: …gophers of the species group Thomomys talpoides in the northern Rocky Mountains are well-studied examples.

porgy: …are such species as the scup, or northern porgy (Stenotomus chrysops), a small fish, brownish above and silvery below, and the sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), a black-banded grayish fish growing to about 75 cm and 9 kg, both valued for food and sport.

Galician language, Romance language with many similarities to the Portuguese language, of which it was historically a dialect. It is now much influenced by standard Castilian Spanish. Galician is spoken by some four million people as a home language, mostly in the autonomous community of Galicia,

Raoul Walsh: At Warner Brothers: The Roaring Twenties, High Sierra, and White Heat: …with more patriotic derring-do in Northern Pursuit (1943), as a Mountie going undercover in a ring of Nazi saboteurs. Walsh and Flynn reteamed for Uncertain Glory (1944), in which a French criminal must make the supreme sacrifice to save 100 hostages held by the Nazis. Their next collaboration, Objective, Burma!…

clam: The northern quahog (Mercenaria mercenaria), also known as the cherrystone clam, littleneck clam, or hard-shell clam, and the southern quahog (M. campechiensis) belong to the family of venus clams (Veneridae). M. mercenaria is about 7.5 to 12.5 cm (3 to 5 inches) long. The dingy white…

Trinidad and Tobago: Relief and drainage: …island of Trinidad is its Northern Range, a continuation of the coastal ranges of the Andes Mountains in Venezuela. The range runs east-west at an average elevation of about 1,500 feet (460 metres), rising to 3,084 feet (940 metres) at Mount Aripo (El Cerro del Aripo), the country’s highest peak.…

common raven, (Corvus corax), large, black-feathered, highly intelligent bird of the Corvidae family, which includes other types of ravens, crows, magpies, and jays. Common ravens are the largest of the passerine, or perching, birds (order Passeriformes), alongside thick-billed ravens. They have a

red oak: …two important timber trees, the northern red oak (Quercus rubra) and the southern red oak, or Spanish oak (Q. falcata). The northern red oak is often cultivated as an ornamental; it grows rapidly into a round-headed, wide-spreading tree about 25 m (80 feet) tall, occasionally to 45 m (150 feet).…

dace: erythrogaster) and northern (P. eos) species. The southern redbelly dace, found in clear creeks from Alabama to Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes region, is an attractive fish sometimes kept in home aquariums. It is 5–7.5 cm (2–3 inches) long and is marked with two longitudinal black stripes.…

Arusha, administrative region, northern Tanzania, East Africa. It is bordered on the northeast by Kenya. The Serengeti Plain lies in the northwest, and the Masai Steppe, broken only by isolated gneiss hills, lies in the south. In the central area of the region are the Crater Highlands, bordering

Renaissance: Artistic developments and the emergence of Florence: Early Northern Renaissance painters were more concerned with the detailed reproduction of objects and their symbolic meaning than with the study of scientific perspective and anatomy even after these achievements became widely known. On the other hand, central Italian painters began to adopt the oil medium…

Zambia, landlocked country in south-central Africa. It is situated on a high plateau and takes its name from the Zambezi River, which drains all but a small northern part of the country. Large parts of Zambia are thinly populated. Much of population is concentrated in the country’s most developed

Zambia: Colonial rule: …these gave rise to the Northern Rhodesia Congress. Some of its members sat on the African Representative Council set up by the government in 1946. This body had no power, but it criticized political and social conditions, especially the informal colour bar, and from 1948 it elected two Africans to…

right whale: …classified into three different species: E. glacialis of the North Atlantic and E. japonica of the North Pacific, both commonly called northern right whales, and E. australis of the Southern Hemisphere, referred to as the southern right whale. Whether found in northern or southern latitudes, these right whales are estimated…

right whale: … of the North Atlantic and E. japonica of the North Pacific, both commonly called northern right whales, and E. australis of the Southern Hemisphere, referred to as the southern right whale. Whether found in northern or southern latitudes, these right whales are estimated to reach a maximum length of about…

penguin: Locomotion and orientation: Some, such as the northern rockhopper (Eudyptes moseleyi), the southern rockhopper (E. chrysocome), and Adélie penguins, move among rocks with agility, using the flippers for balance. On snow or ice, many penguins “toboggan,” sliding on the belly as they propel themselves with the feet and

Idaho: Relief and drainage: …are included within Idaho: the Northern Rocky Mountains, the Middle Rocky Mountains, the Columbia Basin, and the Basin and Range Province. The Northern Rockies extend from the Canadian border to south-central Idaho and occupy nearly half the state’s area. Peaks reaching elevations between 10,000 and 12,000 feet (3,000 and 3,700…

plant disease: Nematode diseases: …species, however, such as the northern root-knot nematode (M. hapla), are found where soil may freeze to depths of nearly a metre. Vegetables, cotton, strawberry, and orchard trees are commonly attacked. Garden plants and ornamentals frequently become infested through nursery stock.

Rugby Football League, governing body of rugby league football (professional rugby) in England, founded in 1895. Originally called the Northern Rugby Football Union (popularly Northern Union), it was formed when 22 clubs from Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire left the Rugby Football Union over

Khoisan languages: Classification of the Khoisan languages: …into three effectively unrelated groups: Northern, Central, and Southern. Sandawe of Tanzania has a distant relationship to the Central group, but the place of Hadza even in relation to Sandawe has always been unclear; and the status of Kwadi, an extinct language of Namibe (formerly Moçâmedes) in southwestern Angola, remains…

Northern Sarkārs, group of four, later five or six, sarkārs (districts) into which the Afghan emperor Shēr Shah of Sūr (ruled 1540–45) divided his empire. They corresponded roughly to the several districts of present-day northeastern Andhra Pradesh state, India, along the coast of the Bay of

Dai Jin: …was later placed within the lineage of “professional” painters and held in lesser regard in contrast to the school of literary “amateurs,” who were more concerned with personal expression and who were then represented in the Wu school in which Shen Zhou held an equivalent place of leadership.

sea lion: The northern, or Steller, sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) is a pale- to golden-brown sea lion of the Bering Sea and both sides of the North Pacific Ocean. It is the largest member of the eared seals. Males are about 3.3 metres in length and weigh 1,000…

Northeast Passage, maritime route through the Arctic along the northern coast of the Eurasian landmass, principally situated off the coast of northern Siberia (Russia). Historically, the European concept of the Northeast Passage was of a channel that traversed the entire distance between the

Great Northern Railway Company: …year, Hill set up the Northern Securities Company, a holding company to control the three railroads, with himself as president. The U.S. Supreme Court declared it in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1904 and ordered the company dissolved. The Burlington continued under control of the Great Northern and…

Senoic languages: The main languages, Semai and Temiar, are spoken in the Main Range of the Malay Peninsula. Together their speakers number some 33,000.

Mertensia: Northern shorewort, oyster plant, or sea-lungwort (M. maritima), a fleshy, grayish-leaved plant, is about the same height as Virginia bluebell but has smaller flowers that bloom in summer. It grows along pebbly coasts of northern North America and northern Europe. Languid ladies (M. paniculata), from…

short-tailed shrew: …the genus Blarina are the northern (B. brevicauda), the southern (B. carolinensis), and Elliot’s (B. hylophaga) short-tailed shrew. Blarina is one of many genera classified with “true shrews” of the family Soricidae in the order Soricimorpha, which belongs to a larger group of mammals referred to as insectivores. Their evolutionary…

shoveler: The northern shoveler (A. clypeata) nests in North America, Europe, and northern Asia, migrating to South America, North Africa, and southern Asia in winter. The male has a green head, a white breast, a chestnut belly and chestnut sides, and a blue patch on the forewing.…

shrike: …most widespread species is the great gray shrike (L. excubitor), called northern shrike in Canada and the United States, a 24-cm (9.5-inch) black-masked bird. The only other New World species is the similar but smaller loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus) of North America. Several Eurasian species have reddish or brown markings.

turtle: Egg development and hatching: … and South America and the northern snake-necked turtle (Chelodina rugosa) of Australia, have embryonic diapause, in which development stops soon after an egg is deposited. Diapause is usually triggered by an environmental stimulus, and development resumes when a contrasting stimulus (temperature and moisture) occurs. Incubation with diapause can be as…

Decembrist: …the Union of Welfare (1818), the Northern Society (1821), and the Southern Society (1821).

Song dynasty: The last of the Northern Song emperors was himself perhaps the most noteworthy artist and art collector in the country. His capital at Kaifeng was a city of beauty, abounding in palaces, temples, and tall pagodas when, in 1126, the Juchen burned it. The architecture of the Song era…

Ob River: Physiography: …(Malaya) Ob, which receives the Northern (Severnaya) Sosva, the Vogulka, and the Synya rivers from the left. These main channels are reunited below Shuryshkary into a single stream that is up to 12 miles (19 km) wide and 130 feet (40 metres) deep; but after the confluence of the Poluy…

Pedi, a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting Limpopo province, South Africa, and constituting the major group of the Northern Sotho ethnolinguistic cluster of peoples, who numbered about 3,700,000 in the late 20th century. Their traditional territory, which is known as Bopedi, is located between the

Aegean Sea: Ikaría, and Sámos; (3) the Northern Sporades, including Skyros, a group lying off Thessaly; (4) the Cyclades, including Melos, Páros, Náxos, Thera, and Ándros (Euboea, although technically an island, is considered a part of the Greek mainland and is connected to Boeotia by a bridge at Chalcís); (5) the Saronic…

minimum viable population: MVP and species management: …MVP is that for the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), which is found in the coniferous and mixed-hardwood forests of the northwestern United States and of British Columbia. The owl depends on old-growth trees with hollows for nesting sites, but heavy logging in the region during the 1970s and…

Northern Michigan University, public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Marquette, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, U.S. It comprises the Walter L. Cisler College of Business and colleges of arts and sciences; graduate studies; and professional studies, including education, nursing, and

Song dynasty: The last of the Northern Song emperors was himself perhaps the most noteworthy artist and art collector in the country. His capital at Kaifeng was a city of beauty, abounding in palaces, temples, and tall pagodas when, in 1126, the Juchen burned it. The architecture of the Song era…

New England Range, section of the Eastern Highlands, or Great Dividing Range, northeastern New South Wales, Australia. The range extends 200 mi (320 km) north from the Moonbi Range (near Tamworth) to the Queensland border and 80 mi from east to west (10–50 mi inland from the coast). It is

Tai languages: The distribution and classification of Tai languages: Southwestern, the Central, and the Northern. Thai and Lao, the official languages of Thailand and Laos, respectively, are the best known of the languages.

Tunisia: Relief: …and the mountains of the Northern Tell—which include the sandstone ridges of the Kroumirie Mountains in the northwest that reach elevations of 3,000 feet (900 metres)—and the Mogods, a mountain range running along the deeply indented coastline to the north, lies the Majardah (Medjerda) River valley, formed by a series…

Tepehuan: …Tepehuan are divided into the Northern Tepehuan, of Chihuahua, and the Southern Tepehuan, of Durango. Both speak dialects of the same language, Tepehuan, a Uto-Aztecan language that is most closely related to Piman.

Northern Territory, self-governing territory of Australia, occupying the central section of the northern part of the continent. The Northern Territory is bounded by the Timor and Arafura seas to the north and by Western Australia to the west, Queensland and the Gulf of Carpentaria to the east, and

Northern Territory: Administrative framework: The Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act of 1978 established the Northern Territory as a self-governing entity. Under this act the Commonwealth of Australia transferred most of its governing powers to the territory. The government of the territory, which is seated in Darwin, is similar to that of…

Northern Territory: The Northern Territory under Commonwealth administration: In 1922 the Northern Territory Representation Act provided for a single representative, bereft of voting powers, in the federal parliament. The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the territory severely. In 1933 the federal government, desperate to find some means of developing the area, offered much of it…

Australian flag consisting of an ochre-red field (background) with a vertical black stripe at the hoist. A white Southern Cross constellation is on the stripe, and the field bears a stylized Sturt’s desert rose with seven white petals around a black centre.Local symbols developed somewhat slowly in

woodpecker: …up the genus Picoides: the northern three-toe (P. tridactylus), which ranges across the subarctic Northern Hemisphere and south in some mountains, and the black-backed three-toe (P. arcticus), found across forested central Canada.

Heathenry, a modern Pagan, or Neo-Pagan, religion. Its followers, Heathens, are inspired by the pre-Christian religions of Europe’s linguistically Germanic societies—most commonly those that spoke Old Norse. Heathens have assembled their new religion from a range of historical and archaeological

Rugby Football League, governing body of rugby league football (professional rugby) in England, founded in 1895. Originally called the Northern Rugby Football Union (popularly Northern Union), it was formed when 22 clubs from Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire left the Rugby Football Union over

Ural Mountains: Physiography: Farther south come the Northern Urals, which stretch for more than 340 miles (550 km) to thein the south; most mountains top 3,300 feet (1,000 metres), and the highest peak, Mount Telpos-Iz, rises to 5,305 feet (1,617 metres). Many of the summits are flattened, the remnants of ancient peneplains…

Severnye Uvaly, range of hills on the Russian Plain, western Russia. The hills form the watershed between the left-bank tributaries of the Volga River and of the Sukhona, Yug, Vychegda, and Pechora rivers. The hills run east-west for 375 miles (600 km), reach a maximum height of 965 feet (294 m),

China: Sino-Tibetan of China: …first of these is the northern variant, of which the Beijing dialect, or Beijing hua, is typical and which is spoken to the north of the Qin Mountains–Huai River line; as the most widespread Chinese tongue, it has officially been adopted as the basis for a national language. The second…

Viet-Muong languages: Northern Vietnamese, centred in Hanoi, is the basis for the official form of Vietnamese. Central Vietnamese, centred in Hue, and Southern Vietnamese, centred in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), differ from the Northern norm in having fewer tones and in modifying certain consonants. All three…

Battle of Gettysburg: Lee’s invasion of Pennsylvania: On June 28, when his Army of Northern Virginia was extended deep into Pennsylvania, Lee was out of touch with his cavalry under Stuart, which should have served as the eyes of the army.

walkingstick: The North American species Diapheromera femorata may defoliate oak trees during heavy infestations.

First Northern War, (1655–60), final stage of the struggle over the Polish-Swedish succession. In 1655 the Swedish king Charles X Gustav declared war on Poland on the pretext that Poland’s John II Casimir Vasa had refused to acknowledge him; the real reason was Charles’s desire to aggrandize more

Second Northern War, (1700–21), military conflict in which Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxony-Poland challenged the supremacy of Sweden in the Baltic area. The war resulted in the decline of Swedish influence and the emergence of Russia as a major power in that region. Sweden’s expansion in the

water hemlock: In Europe northern water hemlock (Cicuta virosa) is the commonly known species; it is a tall perennial herb. The best-known species in North America is the common water hemlock (C. maculata), also known as cowbane or musquash root, which grows to about 2.5 metres (8 feet) tall.…

water snake: The northern water snake (N. sipedon), the most common species, inhabits the eastern half of the United States, southern Ontario, and southern Quebec. It is a moderately large snake that can reach lengths of 1 to 1.4 metres (3 to 4.5 feet). The body is coloured…

Wei dynasty, (386–534/535 ce), the longest-lived and most powerful of the northern Chinese dynasties that existed before the reunification of China under the Sui and Tang dynasties. The Wei dynasty was founded by Tabgatch (Tuoba) tribesmen who, like many of the nomads inhabiting the frontiers of

Northern Wei sculpture, Chinese sculpture, dating from the Northern Wei dynasty (386–534/535 ce) of the Six Dynasties, that represents the first major Buddhist influence on Chinese art. Produced in the northern territory that was occupied and ruled by foreign invaders and that was quick to respond

whelk: The common northern whelk (Buccinum undatum) has a stout pale shell about 8 cm (3 inches) long and is abundant in North Atlantic waters. For fulgur whelks, see conch; for rock whelks, see murex.

American arborvitae, (Thuja occidentalis), ornamental and timber evergreen conifer of the cypress family (Cupressaceae), native to eastern North America. In the lumber trade it is called, among other names, white cedar, eastern white cedar, and New Brunswick cedar. Often 20 m (65 feet) tall, the

northern white rhinoceros, (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), critically endangered subspecies of the white rhinoceros and the most endangered animal on Earth. The northern white rhinoceros formerly inhabited South Sudan and adjacent areas of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with its

wild rice: Species: …wild rice (Zizania aquatica) and northern wild rice (Z. palustris), are grown on a large scale in constructed paddies in Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, and parts of Canada. These cultivated plants have been bred to ripen simultaneously, allowing for their harvest with combines. The Ojibwa people have long relied on manoomin…

Paleo-Siberian languages: Yukaghir: …about equally into two enclaves: Tundra Yukaghir (also called Northern Yukaghir) in the Sakha republic (Yakutia), near the estuary of the Indigirka River; and Kolyma, or Forest, Yukaghir (also called Southern Yukaghir) along the bend of the Kolyma River. Extinct earlier dialects or languages related to Yukaghir are Omok and…