parent_taxon dryolimnas
Corals are marine invertebrates in the class ___MASK24___ of phylum ___MASK98___ . They typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps . The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton . Leather is a durable and flexible material created by tanning ___MASK40___ rawhide and skin , often cattle hide . It can be produced at manufacturing scales ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry . Penguins ( order ___MASK89___ , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic , flightless birds . They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere , with only one species , the Galapagos penguin , found north of the equator . Highly adapted for life in the water , penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage , and their wings have evolved into flippers . Most penguins feed on krill , fish , squid and other forms of sealife caught while swimming underwater . They spend about half of their lives on land and half in the oceans . The Réunion rail (" ___MASK23___ augusti ") also known as Dubois ' s wood - rail is an extinct rail species which was endemic to the Mascarenes island of Réunion . The scientific name commemorates French poet Auguste de Villèle ( 1858 - 1943 ) whose interest in the history of Réunion and hospitality made it possible for numerous naturalists to discover and explore the caves of Réunion . The genus ___MASK23___ comprises birds in the rail family . The Réunion rail , a member of this genus , became extinct in the 17th century . The white - throated rail of Aldabra is the last surviving flightless ___MASK13___ in the western Indian Ocean . They are mostly found on Malabar Island , but can also be found on Polymnieli Island and other islands . An undescribed extinct taxon , sometimes mentioned as Sauzier ' s wood - rail , is known from Mauritius . Though much larger the skeletons of these rails show similarities to the rails of the genus ___MASK92___ . Therefore the two genera were lumped at times . Saint Brandon , also known as the Cargados Carajos shoals , is an archipelago comprising a number of sand banks , shoals and islets . It is a group of outer islands belonging to Mauritius and is administered by the Outer Island Development Corporation ( OIDC ). Saint Brandon is located in the Indian Ocean about 430 km to the northeast of Mauritius . The islands have a total land ___MASK12___ of 1 . 3 km² . The reef measures more than 50 km from north to south , and is 5 km wide , cut by three passes . The reef ___MASK12___ is 190 km² . The islands have a small transient population , mostly fishermen , 63 in number on census night ( Census of 2001 ). The majority of the population (~ 40 ) lives on Île Raphael , with smaller settlements existing on Avocaré , Coco , and Île du Sud . A former settlement existed on ___MASK99___ Island , but was abandoned in 1988 . The islands are rich in flora and fauna . They are classified as a dependency of Mauritius , which is more than 300 km to the south , and are administered from Port Louis . Cargados Carajos is part of the Mascarene Islands . Aldabra is the world ' s second - largest coral atoll . It is situated in the Aldabra Group of islands in the Indian Ocean that are part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles , with a distance of southwest of the capital , ___MASK34___ , on Mahé Island . ___MASK92___ is a genus of bird in the family ___MASK18___ . It contains the following species : Africa is the world ' s second - largest and second - most - populous continent . At about 30 . 3 million km² ( 11 . 7 million square miles ) including adjacent islands , it covers 6 % of Earth ' s total surface ___MASK12___ and 20 . 4 % of its total land ___MASK12___ . With 1 . 1 billion people as of 2013 , it accounts for about 15 % of the world ' s human population . The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north , both the Suez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast , the Indian Ocean to the southeast , and the Atlantic Ocean to the west . The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos . It contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states ( countries ), nine territories and two " de facto " independent states with limited or no recognition . Kiwi ( pronounced ) or kiwis are flightless birds native to New Zealand , in the genus ___MASK25___ and family Apterygidae . At around the size of a domestic chicken , kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites ( which also consist of ostriches , emus , rheas , and cassowaries ), and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world . DNA sequence comparisons have yielded the surprising conclusion that kiwi are much more closely related to the extinct Malagasy elephant birds than to the moa with which they shared New Zealand . There are five recognised species , two of which are currently vulnerable , one of which is endangered , and one of which is critically endangered . All species have been negatively affected by historic deforestation but currently the remaining large areas of their forest habitat are well protected in reserves and national parks . At present , the greatest threat to their survival is predation by invasive mammalian predators . Seychelles (; French : ), officially the Republic of Seychelles ( Creole : " Repiblik Sesel "), is an archipelago and country in the Indian Ocean . The 115 - island country , whose capital is ___MASK34___ , lies east of mainland East Africa . Other nearby island countries and territories include Comoros , Mayotte ( region of France ), Madagascar , Réunion ( region of France ) and Mauritius to the south . With a population of roughly 92 , 000 , it has the smallest population of any sovereign African country ; however , it does have a larger population than the British overseas territory Saint Helena , Ascension and Tristan da Cunha . Flightless birds are birds that through evolution lost the ability to fly . There are over 60 extant species including the well known ratites ( ___MASK86___ , emu , ___MASK3___ , ___MASK20___ and kiwi ) and penguins . The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island rail ( length 12 . 5 cm , weight 34 . 7 g ). The largest ( both heaviest and tallest ) flightless bird , which is also the largest living bird , is the ___MASK86___ ( 2 . 7 m , 156 kg ). Ostriches are farmed for their decorative feathers , meat and their skins , which are used to make leather . A genus ( genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms in biology . In the hierarchy of biological classification , genus comes above species and below family . In binomial nomenclature , the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus . In biology , an organism is any contiguous living system , such as an ___MASK40___ , ___MASK53___ , fungus , archaeon , or bacterium . All known types of organisms are capable of some degree of response to stimuli , reproduction , growth and development and homeostasis . An organism consists of one or more cells ; when it has one cell it is known as a unicellular organism ; and when it has more than one it is known as a multicellular organism . Most unicellular organisms are of microscopic scale and are thus loosely described as microorganisms . Humans are multicellular organisms composed of many trillions of cells grouped into specialized tissues and organs . Birds ( Aves ), also known as avian dinosaurs , are a group of endothermic vertebrates , characterised by feathers , toothless beaked jaws , the laying of hard - shelled eggs , a high metabolic rate , a four - chambered heart , and a lightweight but strong skeleton . Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ___MASK86___ . They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species , at approximately ten thousand , with more than half of these being passerines , sometimes known as perching birds or , less accurately , as songbirds . The rails , or ___MASK18___ , are a large cosmopolitan family of small - to medium - sized ground - living birds . The family exhibits considerable diversity and also includes the crakes , coots , and gallinules . Many species are associated with wetlands , although the family is found in every terrestrial habitat except dry deserts , polar regions , and alpine areas above the snow line . Members of the ___MASK18___ occur on every continent except Antarctica . There are numerous island species . The most common rail habitats are marshland or dense forest . They are especially fond of dense vegetation . Agaléga are two Outer islands of Mauritius located in the Indian Ocean , about north of Mauritius island . The population of the islands as at July 2011 was estimated at 300 . The islands have a total ___MASK12___ of 2 , 600 hectares . The North island is 12 . 5 km long and 1 . 5 km wide , while the South island is 7 km long and 4 . 5 km wide . The North Island is home to the islands ' airstrip and the capital Vingt Cinq . The islands are known for their coconuts , the production of which is their main industry , and for the Agalega day gecko . The Aldabra Group are part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles , lying in the southwest of the island nation , from the capital , ___MASK34___ , on Mahé Island . The emu (" ___MASK59___ novaehollandiae ") is the second - largest living ___MASK13___ by height , after its ratite relative , the ostrich . It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native ___MASK13___ and the only extant member of the genus " ___MASK59___ ". The emu ' s range covers most of mainland Australia , but the Tasmanian emu and King Island emu subspecies became extinct after the European settlement of Australia in 1788 . The ___MASK13___ is sufficiently common for it to be rated as a least - concern species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature . The ___MASK86___ or common ___MASK86___ (" ___MASK88___ camelus ") is either one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa , the only living member ( s ) of the genus " ___MASK88___ ", which is in the ratite family . In 2014 , the Somali ___MASK86___ (" ___MASK88___ molybdophanes ") was recognized as a distinct species . The Inaccessible Island rail (" ___MASK51___ rogersi ") is a small bird of the rail family , ___MASK18___ . It is the only species in its genus . It is found only on Inaccessible Island in the Tristan Archipelago in the isolated south Atlantic , and is notable for being the smallest extant flightless bird in the world . Unlike many other islands , Inaccessible Island has remained free from introduced predators , allowing this species to flourish while many other flightless birds , including the even smaller Stephens Island wren , have perished . Binomial nomenclature ( also called binominal nomenclature or binary nomenclature ) is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts , both of which use Latin grammatical forms , although they can be based on words from other languages . Such a name is called a binomial name ( which may be shortened to just " binomial "), a binomen or a scientific name ; more informally it is also called a Latin name . The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs ; the second part identifies the species within the genus . For example , humans belong to the genus " ___MASK37___ " and within this genus to the species " ___MASK37___ sapiens ". The " formal " introduction of this system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus , effectively beginning with his work " Species Plantarum " in 1753 . But Gaspard Bauhin , in as early as 1623 , had introduced in his book " Pinax theatri botanici " ( English , " Illustrated exposition of plants ") many names of genera that were later adopted by Linnaeus . Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent . The country includes the island of Mauritius , Rodrigues [ east ], and the outer islands ( Agaléga , St . Brandon and two disputed territories ). The islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues ( southwest ) form part of the Mascarene Islands , along with nearby Réunion , a French overseas department . The ___MASK12___ of the country is 2 , 040 km . The capital and largest city is Port Louis . Mauritius was a British colonial possession from 1810 to 1968 , the year of its independence . The government uses English as the main language .