title: Dania Ramirez

text: Ramirez appeared as an extra in the HBO film "Subway Stories" (1997), where she met filmmaker Spike Lee who would later cast her in the film "She Hate Me" (2004). She played older sister "Laurie" in the movie "Fat Albert" (2004). She was Callisto (one of The Omegas) in the comic book film "" (2006). She went on to star in "The 5th Commandment", a film written by and starring Rick Yune, in 2008. In 2012, Ramirez appeared in two films, playing Selena in "American Reunion" and a bicycle messenger in "Premium Rush".


title: Dania Ramirez

text: Ramirez appeared as the minor character Caridad in the final episodes of the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and as Blanca Selgado, a recurring role during of "The Sopranos".


title: Dania Ramirez

text: Ramirez guest starred as Alex, an employee of Turtle's, who begins a relationship with Turtle in season seven on the TV series "Entourage".


title: Dania Ramirez

text: From 2013 to 2016, Ramirez had been part of the main cast of "Devious Maids", which aired on the Lifetime network for four seasons. She portrayed Rosie Falta, one of the main characters and titular protagonists of the series.


title: Dania Ramirez

text: In July 2017, Ramirez was cast as a series regular in the softly-rebooted final season of "Once Upon a Time". She portrayed Jacinda Vidrio, the real-world counterpart of the series' second iteration of Cinderella. In 2018, Ramirez was cast in another fairytale-themed drama, "Tell Me a Story" for CBS All Access. Ramirez played Hannah Perez, loosely based on Gretel from "Hansel and Gretel".


title: Dania Ramirez

text: Ramirez has appeared in several magazine spreads. She has also been listed in several of the world's top publications' "Sexiest Ladies of the Year" lists. In 2009, she was added to the roster of models for CoverGirl Cosmetics. In January 2010, Ramirez and Queen Latifah launched the company's "Clean Makeup for Clean Water Campaign".


title: Dania Ramirez

text: Dania dated "Soul Plane" director Jessy Terrero until 2008. She became engaged in September 2011 to director John Beverly "Bev" Land. The couple married on the beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on February 16, 2013. Land has a son, Kai Miles, with former wife Sharon Leal.


title: Dania Ramirez

text: On July 15, 2013, Ramirez announced that she was pregnant with twins. She gave birth to fraternal twins: a son (John) and a daughter (Gaia).


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Jennifer Anne Doudna (; born February 19, 1964) is an American biochemist who has done pioneering work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. Doudna was one of the first women to share a Nobel in the sciences. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with Emmanuelle Charpentier, "for the development of a method for genome editing." She is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1997.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: She graduated from Pomona College in 1985 and earned a Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1989. Apart from her professorship at Berkeley, she is also president and chair of the board of the Innovative Genomics Institute, a faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, and an adjunct professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In 2012, Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier were the first to propose that CRISPR-Cas9 (enzymes from bacteria that control microbial immunity) could be used for programmable editing of genomes, which has been called one of the most significant discoveries in the history of biology. Since then, Doudna has been a leading figure in what is referred to as the "CRISPR revolution" for her fundamental work and leadership in developing CRISPR-mediated genome editing.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Her many other prestigious awards and fellowships include the 2000 Alan T. Waterman Award for her research on the structure as determined by X-ray crystallography of a ribozyme, and the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology, with Charpentier. She has been a co-recipient of the Gruber Prize in Genetics (2015), the Tang Prize (2016), the Canada Gairdner International Award (2016), and the Japan Prize (2017). She was named one of the "Time" 100 most influential people in 2015.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Jennifer Doudna was born February 19, 1964, in Washington, D.C., as the daughter of Dorothy Jane (Williams) and Martin Kirk Doudna. Her father received his Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Michigan, and her mother, a stay-at-home parent, held a master's degree in education. When Doudna was seven years old, the family moved to Hawaii so her father could accept a teaching position in American literature at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Doudna's mother earned a second master's degree in Asian history from the university and taught history at a local community college. Growing up in Hilo, Hawaii, Doudna was fascinated by the environmental beauty of the island and its flora and fauna. Nature built her sense of curiosity and her desire to understand the underlying biological mechanisms of life. This was coupled with the atmosphere of intellectual pursuit that her parents encouraged at home. Her father enjoyed reading about science and filled the home with many books on popular science. When Doudna was in the sixth grade, he gave her a copy of James Watson's 1968 book on the discovery of the structure of DNA, "The Double Helix," which was a major inspiration. Doudna also developed her interest in science and mathematics in school. Even though Doudna was told that "Women don't go into science," she knew that she wanted to be a scientist no matter what. Nothing said to her made her doubt it, Doudna said, When someone tells me I can’t do something and I know that I can, it just makes me more resolved to do it." While she attended Hilo High School, Doudna's interest in science was nurtured by her 10th-grade chemistry teacher, Ms. Jeanette Wong, whom she has routinely cited as a significant influence in sparking her nascent scientific curiosity. A visiting lecturer on cancer cells further encouraged her pursuit of science as a career choice. She spent a summer working in the University of Hawaii at Hilo lab of noted mycologist Don Hemmes and graduated from Hilo High School in 1981.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Doudna was an undergraduate student at Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she studied biochemistry. During her freshman year, while taking a course in general chemistry, she questioned her own ability to pursue a career in science, and considered switching her major to French as a sophomore. However, her French teacher suggested she stick with science. Chemistry professors Fred Grieman and Corwin Hansch at Pomona had a major impact on her. She started her first scientific research in the lab of professor Sharon Panasenko. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Biochemistry in 1985. She chose Harvard Medical School for her doctoral study and earned a PhD in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology in 1989. Her Ph.D. dissertation was on a system that increased the efficiency of a self-replicating catalytic RNA and was supervised by Jack W. Szostak.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: After her PhD, she held research fellowships in molecular biology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and in genetics at Harvard Medical School. From 1991 to 1994, she was Lucille P. Markey Postdoctoral Scholar in Biomedical Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she worked with Thomas Cech. , Doudna has an h-index of 141 according to Google Scholar and of 111 according to Scopus.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Early in her scientific career, Doudna worked to uncover the structure and biological function of RNA enzymes or ribozymes. While in the Szostak lab, Doudna re-engineered the self-splicing "Tetrahymena" Group I catalytic intron into a true catalytic ribozyme that copied RNA templates. Her focus was on engineering ribozymes and understanding their underlying mechanisms; however, she came to realize that not being able to see the molecular mechanisms of ribozymes was a major problem. Doudna went to the lab of Thomas Cech at the University of Colorado Boulder to crystallize and determine the three-dimensional structure of a ribozyme for the first time, so ribozyme structure could be compared with that of Enzymes, the catalytic Proteins. She started this project at the Cech lab in 1991 and finished it at Yale University in 1996. Doudna joined Yale's Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry as an assistant professor in 1994.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: At Yale, Doudna's group was able to crystallize and solve the three-dimensional structure of the catalytic core of the "Tetrahymena" Group I ribozyme. They showed that a core of five magnesium ions clustered in one region of the P4-P6 domain of the ribozyme, forming a hydrophobic core around which the rest of the structure could fold. This is analogous, but chemically distinct from, the way proteins typically have a core of hydrophobic amino acids. Her group has crystallized other ribozymes, including the Hepatitis Delta Virus ribozyme. This initial work to solve large RNA structures led to further structural studies on an internal ribosome entry site(IRES) and protein-RNA complexes such as the Signal Recognition Particle.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Doudna was promoted to the position of Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale in 2000. In 2000–2001, she was Robert Burns Woodward Visiting Professor of Chemistry at Harvard University.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: In 2002, she joined her husband, Jamie Cate, at Berkeley, accepting a position as professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. Doudna also gained access to the synchrotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for her experiments with high powered x-ray diffraction.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: In 2009, she took a leave of absence from Berkeley to work at Genentech to lead discovery research. She left Genentech after two months and returned to Berkeley with the help of colleague Michael Marletta, cancelling all of her obligations to study CRISPR.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: As of 2020, Doudna was located at the University of California, Berkeley, where she directs the Innovative Genomics Institute, a collaboration between Berkeley and UCSF; holds the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Professorship in Biomedicine and Health; and is the chair of the Chancellor's Advisor Committee on Biology. Her lab now focuses on obtaining a mechanistic understanding of biological processes involving RNA. This work is divided into three major areas: the CRISPR system, RNA interference, and translational control via MicroRNAs.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Doudna was introduced to CRISPR by Jillian Banfield in 2006 who had found Doudna by way of a Google search, having typed "RNAi and UC Berkeley" into her browser, and Doudna's name came up at the top of the list. In 2012, Doudna and her colleagues made a new discovery that reduces the time and work needed to edit genomic DNA. Their discovery relies on a protein named Cas9 found in the "Streptococcus" bacterial "CRISPR" immune system that cooperates with guide RNA and works like scissors. The protein attacks its prey, the DNA of viruses, and slices it up, preventing it from infecting the bacterium. This system was first discovered by Yoshizumi Ishino and colleagues in 1987 and later characterized by Francisco Mojica, but Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier showed for the first time that they could use different RNAs to program it to cut and edit different DNAs.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: As CRISPR becomes increasingly used to edit multicellular organisms, Doudna continues to be called upon to serve as a thought-leader on the ethics of changing an organism's function using CRISPR technology. Their discovery has since been further developed by many research groups for applications ranging from fundamental cell biology, plant, and animal research to treatments for diseases including sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, and HIV. Doudna and several other leading biologists called for a worldwide moratorium on any clinical application of gene editing using CRISPR. Doudna supports the usage of CRISPR in somatic gene editing, gene alterations which do not get passed to the next generation, but not germline gene editing.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: The CRISPR system created a new straightforward way to edit DNA and there was a rush to patent the technique. Doudna and UC Berkeley collaborators applied for a patent and so did a group at the Broad Institute affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Feng Zhang at the Broad Institute had shown that CRISPR-Cas9 could edit genes in cultured human cells a few months after Doudna and Charpentier published their method. Before the UC Berkeley patent application was decided, a patent was granted to the Broad investigators and UC Berkeley filed a lawsuit against the decision. In 2017, the court decided in favor of the Broad Institute, who claimed that they had initiated the research earliest and had first applied it to human cell engineering thus supporting editing in human cells with evidence but that the UC Berkeley group had only suggested this application. UC Berkeley appealed on grounds that they had clearly discussed and spelled out how to do the application the Broad had pursued. In September 2018, the appeals court decided in favor of the Broad Institute's patent. Meanwhile, UC Berkeley and co-applicants' patent to cover the general technique was also granted. To further cloud the issue, in Europe the claim of the Broad Institute, to have initiated the research first, was disallowed. The rejection was due to a procedural flaw in the application involving a different set of personnel listed in the lawsuit and the patent application, leading to speculation that the UC Berkeley group would prevail in Europe. Doudna cofounded Caribou Biosciences, a company to commercialize CRISPR technology, in 2011. In September 2013, Doudna cofounded Editas Medicine with Zhang and others despite their legal battles, but she quit in June 2014; Charpentier then invited her to join CRISPR Therapeutics, but she declined following the "divorce"-like experience at Editas. Doudna is also a cofounder of Caribou spin-off Intellia Therapeutics and Scribe Therapeutics, which pioneered CasX, a more compact, next-generation Cas9 which can efficiently cut DNA.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: In 2017, she co-authored "A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution", a rare case of the first-person account of a major scientific breakthrough, aimed at the general public.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: In addition to the CRISPR breakthrough, Doudna has discovered that the hepatitis C virus utilizes an unusual strategy to synthesize viral proteins. This work could lead to new drugs to stop infections without causing harm to the tissues of the body.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: “I have so much optimism about what CRISPR can do to help cure unaddressed genetic diseases and improve sustainable agriculture, but I’m also concerned that the benefits of the technology might not reach those who need it most if we’re not thoughtful and deliberate about how we develop the technology,” Doudna said.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: In 2017, Doudna co-founded Mammoth Biosciences, a San Francisco-based bioengineering tech startup. Initial funding raised $23 million, with a series B round of funding in 2020 raising $45 million. The business is focused on improving access to bio sensing tests which address "challenges across healthcare, agriculture, environmental monitoring, biodefense, and more."


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Beginning in March 2020, Doudna organized an effort to use CRISPR-based technologies to address the COVID-19 pandemic along with Dave Savage, Robert Tjian, and other colleagues at the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), where they created a testing center. This center processes more than 1,000 patient samples per day. Mammoth Biosciences announced a peer-reviewed validation of a rapid, CRISPR-based point of need COVID-19 diagnostic which is faster and less expensive than qRT-PCR based tests.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Doudna's first marriage was in 1988 to a fellow graduate student at Harvard named Tom Griffin, but his interests were more broad and less focused on research than hers and they divorced a few years later. Griffin wanted to move to Boulder, Colorado, where Doudna was also interested in working with Thomas Cech. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado, Doudna met Jamie Cate, then a graduate student; they worked together on the project to crystallize and determine the structure of the Tetrahymena Group I intron P4-P6 catalytic region. Doudna brought Cate with her to Yale, and they married in Hawaii in 2000. Cate later became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Doudna followed him to Boston at Harvard, but in 2002 they both accepted faculty positions at Berkeley and moved there together; Cate preferred the less formal environment on the West Coast from his earlier experiences at the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Doudna liked that Berkeley is a public university. Cate is currently a Berkeley professor and works on gene-editing yeast to increase their cellulose fermentation for biofuel production. Doudna and Cate have a son born in 2002 who now attends the University of California, Berkeley and is studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: Doudna was a Searle Scholar and received the 1996 Beckman Young Investigators Award. In 2000, she was awarded the Alan T. Waterman Award, the National Science Foundation's highest honor that annually recognizes an outstanding researcher under the age of 35, for her structure determination of a ribozyme. In 2001, she received the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: In 2015, together with Emmanuelle Charpentier, she received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for her contributions to CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology. In 2016, together with Charpentier, Feng Zhang, Philippe Horvath and Rodolphe Barrangou, she received the Canada Gairdner International Award. Also in 2016, she received the Heineken Prize for Biochemistry and Biophysics. She has also been a co-recipient of the Gruber Prize in Genetics (2015), the Tang Prize (2016), the Japan Prize (2017) and the Albany Medical Center Prize (2017). In 2018, Doudna was awarded the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences, the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from the Rockefeller University, and a Medal of Honor from the American Cancer Society. Also in 2018, she was awarded the Kavli Prize in Nanoscience (jointly with Emmanuelle Charpentier and Virginijus Šikšnys). In 2019 she received the Harvey Prize of the Technion/Israel for the year 2018 (jointly with Emmanuelle Charpentier and Feng Zhang) and the LUI Che Woo Prize in the category of Welfare Betterment. In 2020, she received the Wolf Prize in Medicine (jointly with Emmanuelle Charpentier). Also in 2020, Doudna and Charpentier were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development of a method for genome editing."


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003, the National Academy of Medicine in 2010 and the National Academy of Inventors in 2014. In 2015, together with Charpentier, she became a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 2016. In 2017, Doudna was awarded the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 2020, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2021, Pope Francis appointed Doudna, and two other female Nobel laureates Donna Strickland and Emmanuelle Charpentier, as members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.


title: Jennifer Doudna

text: She along with Charpentier was named one of the "Time" 100 most influential people in 2015, and she was a runner-up for "Time" Person of the Year in 2016 alongside other CRISPR researchers.


title: Shilajit

text: Shilajit ( {شلاجیت} in Urdu "Conqueror of mountains, Conqueror of the Rocks, Destroyer of Weakness") or Mumijo is a blackish-brown powder or an exudate from high mountain rocks, often found in the Himalayas, Karakoram, Gilgit-Baltistan - Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia, Central Asia, Iran, Mongolia and in the south of Peru, where it is called Andean Shilajit. Also known as μούμια (in Greek), Mumiyo (in Russian), Brag-shun or Barakhshin (means "oil of the mountains" in South Siberian region of the Sayano-Altai Mountains, Khakassia, Buryatia, Mongolia), Rock sap or Rock juice (in Tibet, Central Asia, Himalaya, Pamir and Altai), Marathi or Gujarati (in Hindi), شلاجیت ( in Urdu ) Asphalt (in English), Silajita, Silajatu (in Bengali), Hajarul-Musa or Araq-al-jibal (in Arabic), Myemu, Moomiaii or Mumnaei (in Persian), Mumie (in German), Mineral Pitch, Jew’s Pitch, Mineral Wax, Kao-tun (blood of the mountain in Birma), Tasmay and Slag (China), "Blessing of Nature" (Nepal).


title: Shilajit

text: Although shilajit is sometimes referred to as a mineral tar or resin, it is not actually either of those. It is a highly viscous substance like a tar or resin that is very dark brown or black in color, but unlike these is readily soluble in water but insoluble in ethanol. The organic content Shilajit is composed of 60% to 80% humic substances such as humic and fulvic acids, the mineral content is 15-20% along with trace elements including selenium. Therefore, Shilajit is rich in nutrients such as mineral salts, amino acids, etc., while other organic components are: benzoic acid, hippuric acid, fatty acids (myristic acid, stearic acid, Oleic acid, petroselinic acid, linoleic acid, lauric acid, saturated fatty acids), ichthyridine, salicylic acid, resins, triterpenes, sterols, aromatic carboxylic acids, 3,4-benzocoumarins, amino groups Acids, phenolic lipids, 85 trace minerals (potassium, calcium, and magnesium are the most prevalent), latex, albumin, sterols, tea polyphenols, phenolic lipids, dibenzo-alpha-pyrones (DBP), selenium  , dibenzo-α-pyrone chromoproteins (DCPs), etc.


title: Shilajit

text: The composition of mumiyo is different. According to the location, as well as the appearance, there are varieties of mumiyo:


title: Shilajit

text: Coprolitic (mumiyo-saladji, Pamir and Altai mumiyo, mumiyo-asil, etc.) are fossilized phyto- and zooorganic remains mixed with fragments and gruss of rocks and soil formations. The content of extractive substances in coprolite mumiyo ranges from 10 to 30% or more.


title: Shilajit

text: Mumiyo-bearing breccias are large-clastic rocks (more often, fissured limestones) cemented by mummy-bearing clay mass. The content of extractive substances is from 0.5 to 5.0%.


title: Shilajit

text: Evaporite mumiyo - formations in the form of streaks, icicles and shiny black or gray dull, thin films that stain the roofs and walls of caves, niches, grottoes and other large cavities. Its extraction is difficult.


title: Shilajit

text: Some researchers hypothesize that shilajit is produced by the decomposition or humification of latex and resin-bearing plant material from species such as "Euphorbia royleana" and "Trifolium repens" over a period of centuries.


title: Shilajit

text: Mumioids are a group of natural formations resembling mumiyo in appearance. The group includes ozokerite, saltpeter, fossilized vegetable resins and gums, mountain wax, white, stone and mountain oils, Antarctic shilajit, lofor, aqua bitum.


title: Shilajit

text: Shilajit also has different colors and grades according to the type of metal contained, such as: red ("Sauvarna Shilajit") with more gold, white ("Rajat Shilajit") with silver, blue ("Tamra) with copper Shilajit") and iron-containing black ("Lauha Shilajit Shilajit"), among which black shilajit containing gold is the rarest and is considered to have the best curative effect. In nature, shilajit containing iron is used most in traditional medicine.


title: Shilajit

text: Mumiyo is used as a medicine in folk and alternative medicine and has been used in ancient medicine for more than 4000 years. For medicinal purposes, Mumiyo has been used since antiquity in folk medicine in Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Tibet, China, etc. On the healing effect of Mumiyo in different diseases are mentioned in the works of Aristotle, Razi, Biruni, Ibn Sina and others.


title: Shilajit

text: In 1955 Shakirov, based on ethnography study and old medical manuscripts, started systematic pharmacological study of Mumiye-asil.


title: Shilajit

text: 1978 in Tashkent, on the initiative of the Ministry of Health of the Uzbek SSR, the 3rd All-Union Symposium was held on experimental and morphological studies of the effect of mumiyo on the regeneration of nerves, heart muscle and bones .


title: Isopoda

text: Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration. Females brood their young in a pouch under their thorax.


title: Isopoda

text: Isopods have various feeding methods: some eat dead or decaying plant and animal matter, others are grazers, or filter feeders, a few are predators, and some are internal or external parasites, mostly of fish. Aquatic species mostly live on the seabed or bottom of freshwater bodies of water, but some taxa can swim for a short distance. Terrestrial forms move around by crawling and tend to be found in cool, moist places. Some species are able to roll themselves into a ball as a defense mechanism or to conserve moisture.


title: Isopoda

text: There are over 10,000 identified species of isopod worldwide, with around 4,500 species found in marine environments, mostly on the seabed, 500 species in fresh water, and another 5,000 species on land. The order is divided into eleven suborders. The fossil record of isopods dates back to the Carboniferous period (in the Pennsylvanian epoch), at least 300 million years ago, when isopods lived in shallow seas. The name Isopoda is derived from the Greek roots (from , meaning "equal") and (from , the stem of , meaning "foot").


title: Isopoda

text: Classified within the arthropods, isopods have a chitinous exoskeleton and jointed limbs. Isopods are typically flattened dorsoventrally (broader than they are deep), although many species deviate from this rule, particularly parasitic forms, and those living in the deep sea or in ground water habitats. Their colour may vary, from grey to white, or in some cases red, green, or brown. Isopods vary in size, ranging from some Microcerberidae species of just to the deep sea giant isopod "Bathynomus" spp. of nearly . Giant isopods lack an obvious carapace (shell), which is reduced to a "cephalic shield" covering only the head. This means that the gill-like structures, which in other related groups are protected by the carapace, are instead found on specialised limbs on the abdomen. The dorsal (upper) surface of the animal is covered by a series of overlapping, articulated plates which give protection while also providing flexibility. The isopod body plan consists of a head (cephalon), a thorax (pereon) with seven segments (pereonites), and an abdomen (pleon) with six segments (pleonites), some of which may be fused. The head is fused with the first segment of the thorax to form the cephalon. There are two pairs of unbranched antennae, the first pair being vestigial in land-dwelling species. The eyes are compound and unstalked and the mouthparts include a pair of maxillipeds and a pair of mandibles (jaws) with palps (segmented appendages with sensory functions) and lacinia mobilis (spine-like movable appendages).


title: Isopoda

text: The seven free segments of the thorax each bear a pair of unbranched pereopods (limbs). In most species these are used for locomotion and are of much the same size, morphology and orientation, giving the order its name "Isopoda", from the Greek "equal foot". In a few species, the front pair are modified into gnathopods with clawed, gripping terminal segments. The pereopods are not used in respiration, as are the equivalent limbs in amphipods, but the coxae (first segments) are fused to the tergites (dorsal plates) to form epimera (side plates). In mature females, some or all of the limbs have appendages known as oostegites which fold underneath the thorax and form a brood chamber for the eggs. In males, the gonopores (genital openings) are on the ventral surface of segment eight and in the females, they are in a similar position on segment six.


title: Isopoda

text: One or more of the abdominal segments, starting with the sixth segment, is fused to the telson (terminal section) to form a rigid pleotelson. The first five abdominal segments each bear a pair of biramous (branching in two) pleopods (lamellar structures which serve the function of gas exchange, and in aquatic species serve as gills and propulsion), and the last segment bears a pair of biramous uropods (posterior limbs). In males, the second pair of pleopods, and sometimes also the first, are modified for use in transferring sperm. The endopods (inner branches of the pleopods) are modified into structures with thin, permeable cuticles (flexible outer coverings) which act as gills for gas exchange. In some terrestrial isopods, these resemble lungs.


title: Isopoda

text: Isopods belong to the larger group Peracarida, which are united by the presence of a special chamber under the thorax for brooding eggs. They have a cosmopolitan distribution and over 10,000 species of isopod, classified into 11 suborders, have been described worldwide. Around 4,500 species are found in marine environments, mostly on the sea floor. About 500 species are found in fresh water and another 5,000 species are the terrestrial woodlice, which form the suborder Oniscidea. In the deep sea, members of the suborder Asellota predominate, to the near exclusion of all other isopods, having undergone a large adaptive radiation in that environment. The largest isopod is in the genus "Bathynomus" and some large species are fished commercially for human food in Mexico, Japan and Hawaii.


title: Isopoda

text: Some isopod groups have evolved a parasitic lifestyle, particularly as external parasites of fish. They can damage or kill their hosts and can cause significant economic loss to commercial fisheries. In reef aquariums, parasitic isopods can become a pest, endangering the fish and possibly injuring the aquarium keeper. Some members of the family Cirolanidae suck the blood of fish, and others, in the family Aegidae, consume the blood, fins, tail and flesh and can kill the fish in the process.


title: Isopoda

text: The World Marine, Freshwater and Terrestrial Isopod Crustaceans database subdivides the order into eleven suborders:


title: Isopoda

text: Isopods first appeared in the fossil record during the Carboniferous period of the Paleozoic some 300 million years ago. They were primitive, short-tailed members of the suborder Phreatoicidea. At that time, Phreatoicideans were marine organisms with a cosmopolitan distribution. Nowadays, the members of this formerly widespread suborder form relic populations in freshwater environments in South Africa, India and Oceania, the greatest number of species being in Tasmania. Other primitive, short-tailed suborders include Asellota, Microcerberidea, Calabozoidea and the terrestrial Oniscidea.


title: Isopoda

text: The short-tailed isopods have a short pleotelson and terminal, stylus-like uropods and have a sedentary lifestyle on or under the sediment on the seabed. The long-tailed isopods have a long pleotelson and broad lateral uropods which can be used in swimming. They are much more active and can launch themselves off the seabed and swim for short distances. The more advanced long-tailed isopods are mostly endemic to the southern hemisphere and may have radiated on the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana soon after it broke away from Laurasia 200 million years ago. The short-tailed forms may have been driven from the shallow seas in which they lived by increased predatory pressure from marine fish, their main predators. The development of the long-tailed forms may also have provided competition that helped force the short-tailed forms into refugia. The latter are now restricted to environments such as the deep sea, freshwater, groundwater and dry land. Isopods in the suborder Asellota are by far the most species-rich group of deep sea isopods.


title: Isopoda

text: Unlike the amphipods, marine and freshwater isopods are entirely benthic. This gives them little chance to disperse to new regions and may explain why so many species are endemic to restricted ranges. Crawling is the primary means of locomotion, and some species bore into the seabed, the ground or timber structures. Some members of the Flabellifera can swim to a limited extent and have their front three pairs of pleopods modified for this purpose, with their respiratory structures limited to the hind pleopods. Most terrestrial species are slow-moving and conceal themselves under objects or hide in crevices or under bark. The semi-terrestrial sea slaters ("Ligia" spp.) can run rapidly on land and many terrestrial species can roll themselves into a ball when threatened, a feature that has evolved independently in different groups and also in the marine sphaeromatids.


title: Isopoda

text: Isopods have a simple gut which lacks a midgut section; instead there are caeca connected to the back of the stomach in which absorption takes place. Food is sucked into the esophagus, a process enhanced in the blood-sucking parasitic species, and passed by peristalsis into the stomach, where the material is processed and filtered. The structure of the stomach varies, but in many species there is a dorsal groove into which indigestible material is channelled and a ventral part connected to the caeca where intracellular digestion and absorption take place. Indigestible material passes on through the hindgut and is eliminated through the anus, which is on the pleotelson.


title: Isopoda

text: Isopods are detritivores, browsers, carnivores (including predators and scavengers), parasites, and filter feeders, and may occupy one or more of these feeding niches. Only aquatic and marine species are known to be parasites or filter feeders. Some exhibit coprophagia and will also consume their own fecal pellets. Terrestrial species are in general herbivorous, with woodlice feeding on moss, bark, algae, fungi and decaying material. In marine isopods that feed on wood, cellulose is digested by enzymes secreted in the caeca. "Limnoria lignorum", for example, bores into wood and additionally feeds on the mycelia of fungi attacking the timber, thus increasing the nitrogen in its diet. Land-based wood-borers mostly house symbiotic bacteria in the hindgut which aid in digesting cellulose. There are numerous adaptations to this simple gut, but these are mostly correlated with diet rather than by taxonomic group.


title: Isopoda

text: Parasitic species are mostly external parasites of fish or crustaceans and feed on blood. The larvae of the Gnathiidae family and adult cymothoidids have piercing and sucking mouthparts and clawed limbs adapted for clinging onto their hosts. In general, isopod parasites have diverse lifestyles and include "Cancricepon elegans", found in the gill chambers of crabs; "Athelges tenuicaudis", attached to the abdomen of hermit crabs; "Crinoniscus equitans" living inside the barnacle "Balanus perforatus"; cyproniscids, living inside ostracods and free-living isopods; bopyrids, living in the gill chambers or on the carapace of shrimps and crabs and causing a characteristic bulge which is even recognisable in some fossil crustaceans; and entoniscidae living inside some species of crab and shrimp. "Cymothoa exigua" is a parasite of the spotted rose snapper "Lutjanus guttatus" in the Gulf of California; it causes the tongue of the fish to atrophy and takes its place in what is believed to be the first instance discovered of a parasite functionally replacing a host structure in animals.


title: Isopoda

text: In most species, the sexes are separate and there is little sexual dimorphism, but a few species are hermaphroditic and some parasitic forms show large differences between the sexes. Some Cymothoidans are protandrous hermaphrodites, starting life as males and later changing sex, and some Anthuroideans are the reverse, being protogynous hermaphrodites that are born female. Some Gnathiidans males are sessile and live with a group of females. Males have a pair of penises, which may be fused in some species. The sperm is transferred to the female by the modified second pleopod which receives it from the penis and which is then inserted into a female gonopore. The sperm is stored in a special receptacle, a swelling on the oviduct close to the gonopore. Fertilisation only takes place when the eggs are shed soon after a moult, at which time a connection is established between the semen receptacle and the oviduct.


title: Isopoda

text: The eggs, which may number up to several hundred, are brooded by the female in the marsupium, a chamber formed by flat plates known as oostegites under the thorax. This is filled with water even in terrestrial species. The eggs hatch as mancae, a post-larval stage which resembles the adult except for the absence of the last pair of pereopods. The lack of a swimming phase in the life cycle is a limiting factor in isopod dispersal, and may be responsible for the high levels of endemism in the order. As adults, isopods differ from other crustaceans in that moulting occurs in two stages known as "biphasic moulting". First they shed the exoskeleton from the posterior part of their body and later shed the anterior part. The giant Antarctic isopod "Glyptonotus antarcticus" is an exception, and moults in a single process.


title: Isopoda

text: The majority of crustaceans are aquatic and the isopods are one of the few groups of which some members now live on land. The only other crustaceans which include a small number of terrestrial species are amphipods (like sandhoppers) and decapods (crabs, shrimp, etc.). Terrestrial isopods play an important role in many tropical and temperate ecosystems by aiding in the decomposition of plant material through mechanical and chemical means, and by enhancing the activity of microbes. Macro-detritivores, including terrestrial isopods, are absent from arctic and sub-arctic regions, but have the potential to expand their range with increased temperatures in high latitudes.


title: Isopoda

text: The woodlice, suborder Oniscidea, are the most successful group of terrestrial crustaceans and show various adaptations for life on land. They are subject to evaporation, especially from their ventral area, and as they do not have a waxy cuticle, they need to conserve water, often living in a humid environment and sheltering under stones, bark, debris or leaf litter. Desert species are usually nocturnal, spending the day in a burrow and emerging at night. Moisture is achieved through food sources or by drinking, and some species can form their paired uropodal appendages into a tube and funnel water from dewdrops onto their pleopods. In many taxa, the respiratory structures on the endopods are internal, with a spiracle and pseudotrachaea, which resemble lungs. In others, the endopod is folded inside the adjoining exopod (outer branch of the pleopod). Both these arrangements help to prevent evaporation from the respiratory surfaces.


title: Isopoda

text: Many species can roll themselves into a ball, a behaviour used in defence that also conserves moisture. Members of the families Ligiidae and Tylidae, commonly known as rock lice or sea slaters, are the least specialised of the woodlice for life on land. They inhabit the splash zone on rocky shores, jetties and pilings, may hide under debris washed up on the shore and can swim if immersed in water.


title: Isopoda

text: Many species have become popular as pets in the last few decades. With this popularity new variants, or morphs, have been selectively bred : for example "Porcellionides pruinosus" which are among the most popular and beginner-friendly


title: Isopoda

text: have been bred to appear in "powder blue", "powder orange", and "powder purple". Many people keep isopods with their reptiles and amphibians as a "cleanup crew" in bioactive vivaria, whilst others keep them by themselves for their interesting activity and ease of care.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: Thomas Frederick Cooper (19 March 1921 – 15 April 1984) was a Welsh prop comedian and magician. As an entertainer, his appearance was large and lumbering at , and he habitually wore a red fez when performing. He served in the British Army for seven years, before developing his conjuring skills and becoming a member of The Magic Circle. Although he spent time on tour performing his magical act, which specialised on magic tricks that appeared to fail, he rose to international prominence when his career moved into television, with programmes for London Weekend Television and Thames Television.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: By the end of the 1970s, Cooper was smoking and drinking heavily, which affected his career and his health, effectively ending offers to front new programmes and relegating him to performing as a guest star on other entertainment shows. On 15 April 1984, Cooper died at the age of 63 after suffering a heart attack live on television.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: Thomas Frederick Cooper was born on 19 March 1921 at 19 Llwyn-On Street in Caerphilly, Glamorgan. He was delivered by the woman who owned the house in which the family were lodging. His parents were Thomas H. Cooper, a Welsh recruiting sergeant in the British Army and later coal miner, and Catherine Gertrude ("née" Wright), Thomas's English wife from Crediton, Devon.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: To change from his mining role, that could have had implications for his health in Caerphilly, his father accepted the offer of a new job and the family moved to Exeter, Devon, when Cooper was three. It was in Exeter that he acquired the West Country accent that became part of his act. As an adult and on a visit to Wales to visit the house where he was born, Cooper was asked if he considered himself to be a Welshman, to which he answered, "Well yes, my father's Welsh... and my mother's from Devon. Actually I was in Caerphilly and left here when I was about a year old, I was getting very serious with a girl", much to the amusement of the BBC interviewer and himself.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: When he was eight years old an aunt bought him a magic set and he spent hours perfecting the tricks. In the 1960s his brother David (born 1930) opened D. & Z. Cooper's Magic Shop at 249 High Street in Slough, Buckinghamshire. The shop later moved to Eastbourne, East Sussex and was run by David's daughter Sabrina. After school Cooper became a shipwright in Southampton, Hampshire. In 1940 he was called up as a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, serving for seven years. He joined Montgomery's Desert Rats in Egypt. Cooper became a member of a Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) entertainment party, and developed an act around his magic tricks interspersed with comedy. One evening in Cairo, during a sketch in which he was supposed to be in a costume that required a pith helmet, having forgotten the prop Cooper reached out and borrowed a fez from a passing waiter, which got huge laughs. He wore a fez when performing after that, the prop later being described as "an icon of 20th-century comedy".


title: Tommy Cooper

text: Cooper was demobilized after seven years of military service and took up show business on Christmas Eve 1947. He later developed a popular monologue about his military experience as "Cooper the Trooper". He worked in variety theatres around the country and at many night spots in London, performing as many as 52 shows in one week.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: Cooper developed his conjuring skills and became a member of The Magic Circle, but there are various stories about how and when he developed his delivery of "failed" magic tricks:


title: Tommy Cooper

text: To keep the audience on their toes Cooper threw in an occasional trick that worked when it was least expected.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: In 1947 Cooper got his big break with Miff Ferrie, at that time trombonist in a band called The Jackdaws, who booked him to appear as the second-spot comedian in a show starring the sand dance act Marqueeze and the Dance of the Seven Veils. Cooper then began two years of arduous performing, including a tour of Europe and a stint in pantomime, playing one of Cinderella's ugly sisters. The period culminated in a season-long booking at the Windmill Theatre, where he doubled up doing cabaret. In one week he performed 52 shows. Ferrie remained Cooper's sole agent for 37 years, until Cooper's death in 1984. Cooper was supported by a variety of acts, including the vocal percussionist Frank Holder.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: Cooper rapidly became a top-liner in variety with his turn as the conjurer whose tricks never succeeded, but it was his television work that raised him to national prominence. After his debut on the BBC talent show "New to You" in March 1948 he began starring in his own shows, and was popular with audiences for nearly 40 years, notably through his work with London Weekend Television from 1968 to 1972 and with Thames Television from 1973 to 1980. Thanks to his many television shows during the mid-1970s he was one of the most recognisable comedians in the world.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: John Fisher writes in his biography of Cooper: "Everyone agrees that he was mean. Quite simply he was acknowledged as the tightest man in show business, with a pathological dread of reaching into his pocket." One of Cooper's stunts was to pay the exact taxi fare and when leaving the cab slip something into the taxi driver's pocket, saying, "Have a drink on me." That something would turn out to be a tea bag.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: By the mid-1970s alcohol had started to erode Cooper's professionalism and club owners complained that he turned up late or rushed through his show in five minutes. In addition he suffered from chronic indigestion, lumbago, sciatica, bronchitis and severe circulation problems in his legs. When Cooper realised the extent of his maladies he cut down on his drinking, and the energy and confidence returned to his act. However, he never stopped drinking and could be fallible: on an otherwise triumphant appearance with Michael Parkinson he forgot to set the safety catch on the guillotine illusion into which he had cajoled Parkinson, and only a last-minute intervention by the floor manager saved Parkinson from serious injury or worse.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: Cooper was a heavy cigar smoker (up to 40 a day) as well as an excessive drinker. He experienced a decline in health during the late 1970s, suffering a heart attack in 1977 while performing a show in Rome. Three months later he was back on television in "Night Out at the London Casino".


title: Tommy Cooper

text: By 1980 his drinking meant that Thames Television would not give him another starring series, and "Cooper's Half Hour" was his last. He did continue to appear as a guest on other television shows, however, and worked with Eric Sykes on two Thames productions in 1982.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: On 15 April 1984, Cooper collapsed from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act on the London Weekend Television variety show "Live from Her Majesty's", transmitted live from Her Majesty's Theatre in Westminster, London. An assistant had helped him put on a cloak for his sketch, while Jimmy Tarbuck, the host, was hiding behind the stage curtains waiting to pass him different props that he would then appear to pull from inside his gown. His last words seemed to be "Thank you love," to the assistant seconds before collapsing. The assistant smiled at him as he slumped down, believing that it was part of the act. Likewise, the audience laughed as he fell backwards.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: As Cooper laid dying on the floor, the audience continued to laugh at him believing it was part of an act. Cooper then began snorting and snoring, and died after. Around this time, Jimmy Tarbuck, Alasdair MacMillan (the director of the television production), and the crew behind the curtain who witnessed the incident realised that what was happening to him was not part of the act.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: After realising what had happened, Alasdair MacMillan cued the orchestra to play music for an unscripted commercial break (noticeable because of several seconds of blank screen while LWT's master control contacted regional stations to start transmitting advertisements) and Tarbuck's manager tried to pull Cooper back through the curtains.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: It was decided to continue with the show. Dustin Gee and Les Dennis were the act that had to follow Cooper, and other stars proceeded to present their acts in the limited space in front of the curtains. While the show continued, efforts were being made backstage to revive Cooper. It was not until a second commercial break that paramedics moved his body to Westminster Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. His death was not officially reported until the next morning, although the incident was the leading item on the news programme that followed the show. Cooper was cremated at Mortlake Crematorium in London.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: The video of Cooper's heart attack on stage has been uploaded to numerous video-sharing websites. YouTube drew criticism from a number of sources when footage of the incident was posted on the website in May 2009. John Beyer of the pressure group Mediawatch-UK said: "This is very poor taste. That the broadcasters have not repeated the incident shows they have a respect for him and I think that ought to apply also on YouTube." On 28 December 2011 segments of the "Live From Her Majesty's" clip, including Cooper collapsing on stage, were included in the Channel 4 programme "The Untold Tommy Cooper".


title: Tommy Cooper

text: Cooper married Gwen Henty in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 24 February 1947. She died in 2002. They had two children: Thomas, who was born in 1956, became an actor under the name Thomas Henty and died in 1988; and Victoria.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: From 1967 until his death, Cooper also had a relationship with his personal assistant, Mary Fieldhouse, who wrote about it in her book, "For the Love of Tommy" (1986).


title: Tommy Cooper

text: On Christmas Day 2018, the documentary "Tommy Cooper: In His Own Words" was broadcast on Channel 5. The programme featured Cooper's daughter, Vicky, who gave her first television interview following years of abstaining "because of the grief".


title: Tommy Cooper

text: A statue of Cooper was unveiled in his birthplace, Caerphilly, in 2008 by Sir Anthony Hopkins, who is patron of the Tommy Cooper Society. The statue, which cost £45,000, was sculpted by James Done. In 2009, for Red Nose Day, a charity Red Nose was put on the statue, but the nose was stolen.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: In a 2005 poll, The Comedians' Comedian, comedians and comedy insiders voted Cooper the sixth greatest comedy act ever. He has been cited as an influence by Jason Manford and John Lydon. Jerome Flynn has toured with his own tribute show to Cooper called "Just Like That".


title: Tommy Cooper

text: In February 2007 "The Independent" reported that Andy Harries, a producer of "The Queen", was working on a dramatisation of the last week of Cooper's life. Harries described Cooper's death as "extraordinary" in that the whole thing was broadcast live on national television. The film subsequently went into production over six years later as a television drama for ITV. From a screenplay by Simon Nye, "" was directed by Benjamin Caron and the title role was played by David Threlfall. It was broadcast 21 April 2014.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: In 2010 Cooper was portrayed by Clive Mantle in a stage show, "Jus' Like That! A Night Out with Tommy Cooper", at the Edinburgh Festival. To train for the role Mantle mastered many of Cooper's magic tricks, studying under Geoffrey Durham for several months.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: In 2012 the British Heart Foundation ran a series of advertisements featuring Cooper to raise awareness of heart conditions. These included posters bearing his image together with radio commercials featuring classic Cooper jokes.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: "Being Tommy Cooper", a new play written by Tom Green and starring Damian Williams, was produced by Franklin Productions and toured the UK in 2013.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: In 2014, with the support of The Tommy Cooper Estate and Cooper's daughter Victoria, a new tribute show, "Just Like That! The Tommy Cooper Show", commemorating 30 years since the comedian's death was produced by Hambledon Productions. The production moved to the Museum of Comedy in Bloomsbury, London, from September 2014 and continues to tour extensively throughout the UK.


title: Tommy Cooper

text: In May 2016 a blue plaque in memory of Cooper was unveiled at his former home in Barrowgate Road, Chiswick. In August it was announced that the Victoria and Albert Museum had acquired 116 boxes of Cooper's papers and props, including his "gag file", in which the museum said he had used a system to store his jokes alphabetically "with the meticulousness of an archivist".


title: Tommy Cooper

text: On 5 March 2021 BBC One aired the 30-minute documentary "Tommy Cooper at the BBC", looking at his best performances, including his appearance on the "Parkinson" show where he almost killed Michael Parkinson with a trick guillotine. The programme, which celebrated the centenary of his birth, was presented by Sir Lenny Henry.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 117,292. Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County and is the smallest of the three principal cities in the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan area, most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Cleveland Street is one of the city's historic avenues, and the city includes BayCare Ballpark and Coachman Park. The city is separated by the Intracoastal Waterway from Clearwater Beach.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Present-day Clearwater was originally the home of the Tocobaga people. Around 1835, the United States Army began construction of Fort Harrison, named after William Henry Harrison, as an outpost during the Seminole Wars. The fort was located on a bluff overlooking Clearwater Harbor, which later became part of an early 20th-century residential development called Harbor Oaks. University of South Florida archaeologists excavated the site in 1962 after Mark Wyllie discovered an underground ammunition bunker while planting a tree in his yard.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The area's population grew after the Federal Armed Occupation Act of 1842 offered to anyone who would bear arms and cultivate the land. Early settlers included the Stevens, Stevenson, Sever and McMullen families, who claimed and farmed large tracts of land. Prior to 1906, the area was known as Clear Water Harbor. The name "Clear Water" is thought to have come from a fresh water spring flowing from near where the City Hall building is located today. There were many other freshwater springs that dotted the bluff, many in the bay or harbor itself.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Originally part of Hillsborough County, the first road joining Clearwater and Tampa was built in 1849, which dramatically reduced the prior day-long commute between the cities.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: During the American Civil War, Union gunboats repeatedly raided the community's supplies, as most of the able-bodied men were away fighting for the Confederate Army. The town began developing in the late nineteenth century, prompted by Peter Demens' completion of the first passenger railroad line into the city in 1888. Clearwater was incorporated in 1891, with James E. Crane becoming the first mayor. The area's popularity as a vacation destination grew after railroad magnate Henry B. Plant built a sprawling Victorian resort hotel named Belleview Biltmore just south of Clearwater in 1897.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: By the early 1900s, Clearwater's population had grown to around 400, ballooning to nearly 1,000 in the winter. Clearwater's oldest existing newspaper, the "Clearwater Sun", was first published on March 14, 1914. Clearwater was reincorporated, this time as a city, on May 27, 1915, and was designated the county seat for Pinellas County, which broke from Hillsborough County in 1912. In 1915, a bridge was built across Clearwater Harbor, joining the city with Clearwater Beach to the west. Clearwater Beach, although located on a separate barrier island, belongs to the city of Clearwater and fronts the Gulf of Mexico. A new, much higher bridge now arcs over the bay, replacing the former drawbridge; the connecting road is part of State Road 60 and is called Clearwater Memorial Causeway.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: During World War II, Clearwater became a major training base for US troops destined for Europe and the Pacific. Virtually every hotel in the area, including the Belleview Biltmore and the Fort Harrison Hotel, was used as a barracks for new recruits. Vehicle traffic was regularly stopped for companies of soldiers marching through downtown, and nighttime blackouts to confuse potential enemy bombers were common practice. The remote and isolated Dan's Island, now the highrise-dominated Sand Key, was used as a target by U.S. Army Air Corps fighter-bombers for strafing and bombing practice.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (34.86%) is water.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Clearwater's downtown has been undergoing major redevelopment in recent years. General beautification has been done along with completion of several high-rise condos and a large marina. New bars, restaurants and other amenities are coming to the area, renamed the "Cleveland Street District". Royalty Theatre is also slated to be renovated.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Clearwater has a humid subtropical climate. Clearwater is far enough south that it lies in the broad transition zone from subtropical to tropical climates. As such, Clearwater is mostly warm to hot year round, with few nights of frost. Most of the annual rainfall comes in the wet season (June through September), when daily thundershowers erupt due to the strong solar heating. The dry season starts in October and runs through May, at which time the weather is sunny, dry, and there is little change in daily weather.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Between 2014 and 2018, there were 46,667 households with an average household size of 2.4. In 2019, the city's population was spread out, with 18.7% under the age of 18, 59.4% between the age of 18 and 64, and 21.9% who were 65 years of age or older.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Between 2014 and 2018, the median income for a household in the city was $47,070, and the median income for a family was $46,228. 15.9% of the population fell below the poverty line.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: As of 2000, speakers of English as their first language were 84.43% of residents, Spanish as a mother tongue was 8.55%, Greek accounted for 1.15%, French made up 1.00% of speakers, German at 0.97%, and Italian speakers comprised 0.85% of the population.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Clearwater's economy employs nearly 50,400 people. Major employers include Morton Plant Hospital, Tech Data, and Honeywell. Employment in Clearwater grew 1.84% from 2015 to 2016 with 50,345 people in the workforce. The most common job groups include Service, Sales & Office, Science, and Business. The median household income for Clearwater is $44,569, which is below the average for both the United States as well as the state of Florida.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The Clearwater Public Art and Design Program, adopted by City Council in 2005, is funded through a 1% allocation on all city capital improvement projects valued at more than $500,000. The program commissions an average of 2–3 new projects per year.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Pre-Capitol Theatre, a bandstand stood at 405 Cleveland Street in Downtown Clearwater, where the community gathered to listen to music. The names of locals serving in World War I were etched on the wall of the adjacent "Clearwater Sun" building; this "Panel of Honor" was obscured when the original Capitol Theatre was built but uncovered when the newspaper building was torn down in 2013.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The Capitol Theatre opened March 21, 1921. It was built by Senator-elect John Stansel Taylor. The theater's architect was Lester Avery and the contractor was John D. Phillipoff. Avery is known for his architecture in Miami. Philipoff also built the Coachman Building (1916), the Donald Roebling Estate in Belleair (added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979), the old Pinellas County Courthouse (added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992), other historical homes which have been saved, and did work at the Belleview Hotel.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Groundbreaking was December 6, 1920. The "New Capitol Theatre" was damaged in a storm on October 26, 1921 (so it had been completed). A theatre organ was installed in 1922, to accompany silent films with music. The organ was made and installed by the Robert Morton Organ Company.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The theatre was managed by various movie companies (EJ Sparks, Paramount, ABC-Southeastern Theatres, and Plitt Southern) and played the most recent movies of the day. The theatre also offered vaudeville on Friday nights in the 1930s. Headliners included Sally Rand, Fred Stone and his daughter, and Lum and Abner (of radio). The theatre was renovated in 1962. The Morton theatre organ was most likely removed during this renovation. When Plitt Southern did not renew their contract in 1979, Bill Neville and Jerry Strain tried to save the theatre with film classics and reduced prices. However, the theatre closed its doors on October 28, 1980.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Royalty Theater Company signed leases with the Taylor family in February 1981 when it then became known as the Royalty Theater (Clearwater, Florida). The building was renovated with Ron Winter of Winter Associates as the contractor and Scott Musheff as the architect.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The theatre remained in the Taylor family estate until it was sold in 1996. In July 2008 the building went into foreclosure.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: In January 2009, the City of Clearwater and Ruth Eckerd Hall joined forces to purchase the theatre (renamed Capitol Theatre) as well as the neighboring Pat Lokey building as part of a renovation and revitalization of the historic Capitol Theater. Fowler Associates Architects, Inc. was selected for the renovation of the Capitol Theatre. The $10 million renovation and expansion began in 2012 and was completed in 2013. In 2019, a $2.5 million donation renamed the building the Nancy and David Bilheimer Capitol Theatre.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: In 1911, the city of Clearwater witnessed a vast population increase as well as acquiring telephones, electricity, paved streets and an ice factory. It is during this time that the Clearwater Library Association opened a subscription library on the second floor of the local People's Bank. Its popularity and support led to the request of $10,000 from the Carnegie Foundation to build a public library. The building was designed by Tampa architect F.J. Kennard. In its first year, the library had over 1,277 visitors and 2,792 books borrowed. As a vacation town, the library provided free access to materials for all residents and winter visitors.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: During the Depression, the Clearwater Public Library faced many of the same threats seen at other libraries seen throughout the United States. This includes increased patron usage and dwindling budget. In the 1940s, the Clearwater library increased its staff from three assistants to five assistants. The library's collection also grew from 18,047 to over 100,000. To account for this increase, the Librarian and Board President Traver Bayly made an appeal to the City Commission for additional space.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: As a result of segregation, the Clearwater Public Library was for White patrons only from its founding in 1911 to the mid-twentieth century. In 1950, the City Commission agreed to the building of the North Greenwood library. Designed by Architect Eugene Beach, the new library access to many information sources to the city's African American population. This library was renovated in 1984. The new Main library was rebuilt beginning in 2000. It opened in May 2004.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: As the population continued to increase throughout the late twentieth century, the library system continued to grow. The Clearwater Public Library System now includes five libraries: Clearwater Main, Countryside, North Greenwood, Beach, and East. In recent years, the Clearwater Public Library System has become increasingly digital, providing patrons with access to computers, online databases, and an online library catalog. This was made possible by the Greater Clearwater Public Library Foundation, Inc. which formed in 1984. As a part of the library's Centennial Celebration, a project is commencing to add makerspaces to the libraries. The Main library's makerspace is the "Studios at Main" and targets creative arts making.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The Clearwater Public Library System is a contributor to the Pinellas Memory Project. This system of libraries is part of the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative which seeks to provide patrons with access to information and programs to benefit the community.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The Clearwater Marine Aquarium is a small non-profit aquarium. Opening in 1972 on Clearwater Beach, the aquarium is most famous for Winter the dolphin. Rescued as a calf in 2005, Winter was one of the first dolphins to have been fitted with a prosthetic tail after losing it due to entanglement in a crab trap. The aquarium is also home to other dolphins, otters, pelicans, nurse sharks, and turtles among several species of fish and other marine life. CMA also assists in animal strandings and other emergencies regarding sea life. Animals that have stranded are rehabilitated, and if possible, released back into the wild once they have made a full recovery. It has been featured as the main setting of the American family movie series "Dolphin Tale".


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater is the spring training home of Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies, as well as their Low-A affiliate, the Clearwater Threshers.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Moccasin Lake Nature Park is a with a owned and operated by the city. The preserve also features the Moccasin Lake Environmental Education Center, which offers environmental education classes, programs and camps. The Center features live rehabilitated birds of prey, reptiles, amphibians and aquatic wildlife. It opened in 1982. The City of Clearwater contains five pools: Ross Norton, North Greenwood, Morningside, the Long Center, and Clearwater Beach. Swim lessons are offered throughout the year to patrons, and the pools have both a recreation summer pool league and the Clearwater Aquatics Team. These pools have participated in the World's Largest Swim Lesson.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The City of Clearwater is administered by a council-manager form of government, and the city manager serves as the chief executive and administrative officer of the city.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The Clearwater City Council comprises the mayor and four council members, each of whom serves a four-year term. The council is responsible for setting policies and making decisions on local government issues including tax rates, annexations, property code variances and large contract awards. The city manager and city council are supported by the various city departments.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Tampa International Airport serves Clearwater and the rest of the Tampa Bay Area as the primary means of air travel. St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport has also seen its usage increase. The city owns Clearwater Air Park.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) bus service is currently Pinellas County's only general public transit. The service offers approximately 35 local routes, two express routes which cross Tampa Bay to the east, and a beach trolley that runs north and south along the county's roughly chain of barrier islands.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Beginning in the 1970s under the code-name Project Normandy, the Church of Scientology began targeting Clearwater in order to "establish area control" of the city and county. The operations were exposed in a Pulitzer Prize winning series of articles in the "Clearwater Sun".


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: Gabe Cazares, who was the mayor of Clearwater at the time, went so far as to call it "the occupation of Clearwater" and later characterized it as a "paramilitary operation by a terrorist group". The Church of Scientology targeted Cazares, attempting to entrap him in a sex scandal. Scientology also staged a phony hit-and-run accident with Cazares in an attempt to discredit him. Cazares and his wife sued the Church of Scientology for $1.5 million. The church settled with Cazares in 1986.


title: Clearwater, Florida

text: The Church of Scientology's headquarters are located in downtown Clearwater. The Church refers to Clearwater as its "Flag Land Base".


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: The Russian Liberation Army (), also known as the Vlasov army after its commander Andrey Vlasov, was a collaborationist formation, primarily composed of Russians, that fought under German command during World War II.<ref name="https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article/46/1/147/102854/Leaning-on-Legionnaires-Why-Modern-States-Recruit"></ref>


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Vlasov, a Soviet general, agreed to collaborate with Nazi Germany after having been captured on the Eastern Front. The soldiers under his command were mostly former Soviet prisoners of war but also included White Russian émigrés, some of whom were veterans of the anti-communist White Army from the Russian Civil War (1917–23). On 14 November 1944, it was officially renamed the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, with the KONR being formed as a political body to which the army pledged loyalty. On 28 January 1945, it was officially declared that the Russian divisions no longer form part of the German Army, but would directly be under the command of KONR.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Russian volunteers who enlisted into the German Army ("Wehrmacht Heer") wore the patch of the Russian Liberation Army. These volunteers (called "Hiwi", an acronym for "Hilfswilliger", roughly meaning "volunteers") were not under any Russian command or control; they were exclusively under German command carrying out various non-combat duties. A number of them were employed at the Battle of Stalingrad, where it was estimated that as much as one quarter of the 6th Army's strength was USSR citizens. Soon, several German commanders began to use them in small armed units for various tasks, including combat against Soviet partisans, driving vehicles, carrying wounded, and delivering supplies.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Adolf Hitler allowed the idea of the Russian Liberation Army to circulate in propaganda literature, as long as no formations of the sort were actually permitted. As a result, some Red Army soldiers surrendered or defected in hopes of joining an army that did not exist. Many Soviet prisoners of war volunteered to serve under German command just to get out of Nazi POW camps, which were notorious for starving Soviet prisoners to death.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Meanwhile, the newly captured USSR general Vlasov, along with his German and Russian allies, was desperately lobbying the German high command, hoping that the green light would be given for the formation of a real armed force that would be exclusively under Russian control. They were able to win over Alfred Rosenberg to some extent.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Although Hitler's staff repeatedly refused to even consider the idea, Vlasov and his allies reasoned that Hitler would eventually come to realize the futility of a war against the USSR without winning over the Russian people, and respond to Vlasov's demands.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Irrespective of the political wrangling over Vlasov and the status of the ROA, by mid-1943 several hundred thousand ex-Soviet volunteers were serving in the German forces, either as "Hiwi"s or in Eastern volunteer units (referred to as "Osteinheiten" ("Eastern units") or "landeseigene Verbände"). These latter were generally deployed in a security role at the rear of the armies and army groups in the East, where they constituted a major part of the German effort to counter the activity of Soviet partisan forces, dating as far back as early 1942. The Germans were, however, always concerned about their reliability.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Following the German defeats in the summer of 1943 the units began to disintegrate. On 12 September for example, 2nd Army had to withdraw Sturm-Btl. AOK 2 in order to deal with what was described as "several mutinies and desertions of Eastern units". A 14 September communication from the army states that in the recent period, "Hiwi" absenteeism had risen considerably. Following a series of attempted or successful mutinies, and a surge in desertions, the Germans decided in September 1943 that the reliability of the units had fallen to a level where they were more a liability than an asset. In an October 1943 report, the 8th Army concluded grimly: "All local volunteers are unreliable during enemy contact. Principal reason of unreliability is the employment of these volunteers in the East." Two days previously, the German army had given permission to the KTB to take harsh measures in the event of further cases of rebellion or unreliability, investing regimental commanders with far-reaching powers to hold summary courts and execute the verdicts.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Since it was felt that the reliability of Russian volunteers would improve if they were removed from contact with the local population, it was decided to send them to the Western Front, and the majority of them were re-deployed in late 1943 or early 1944.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Many of these battalions were integrated into the divisions in the West. A number of the Russian soldiers were on guard in Normandy on D-Day but, without the equipment or motivation to fight the Allies, most promptly surrendered.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: A total of 71 "Eastern" battalions served on the Eastern Front, while 42 battalions served in Belgium, Finland, France, and Italy.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: An aerial contingent of Russian volunteers was formed as "Ostfliegerstaffel (russische)" in December 1943, only to be disbanded in July 1944 before seeing combat. The Russian airmen were regrouped into the Night Harassment Squadron 8, whose first and only mission took place on 13 April 1945, when they attacked a Soviet bridgehead at Erlenhof, on the Oder River.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: The ROA did not officially exist until autumn of 1944, after Heinrich Himmler persuaded a very reluctant Hitler to permit the formation of 10 Russian Liberation Army divisions.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: On 14 November in Prague, Vlasov read aloud the Prague Manifesto before the newly created Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. This document stated the purposes of the battle against Stalin, and spelled out 14 points which the army was fighting for. German insistence that the document carry anti-Semitic rhetoric was successfully parried by Vlasov's committee, but they were obliged to include a statement criticising the Western Allies, labelling them "plutocracies" that were "allies of Stalin in his conquest of Europe".


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: By February 1945, only one division, the 1st Infantry (600th Infantry), was fully organised, under the command of General Sergei Bunyachenko. Formed at Münsingen, it fought briefly on the Oder Front before switching sides and helping the Czechs liberate Prague.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: A second division, the 2nd Infantry (650th Infantry), was incomplete when it left Lager Heuberg but was sent into action under the command of General Mikhail Meandrov. This division was joined in large numbers by eastern workers, which caused it to nearly double in size as it marched south. A third, the 3rd Infantry (700th German Infantry), had only begun formation.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Several other Russian units, such as the Russian Corps, XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps of General Helmuth von Pannwitz, the Cossack Camp of Ataman Domanov, and other primarily White émigré formations, had agreed to become a part of Vlasov's army. However, their membership remained "de jure" as the turn of events did not permit Vlasov to use the troops in any operation (even reliable communications were often impossible).


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: A small group of ROA volunteers fought against the Red Army on 9 February 1945. Their fighting spirit earned them the praise of Heinrich Himmler. The only active combat the Russian Liberation Army undertook against the Red Army was by the Oder River on 11 April 1945, largely at the insistence of Himmler, as a test of the army's reliability. After three days, the outnumbered 1st Division had to retreat.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: On 28 January 1945, it was officially declared that the Russian divisions no longer formed part of the German Army, but would be directly under the command of KONR.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Vlasov then ordered the first division to march south to concentrate all Russian anti-communist forces loyal to him. As an army, he reasoned, they could all surrender to the Allies on "favorable" terms, which particularly meant no repatriation to the Soviet Union. Vlasov sent several secret delegations to the Allies to begin negotiating a surrender, hoping they would sympathise with the goals of ROA and potentially use it in an inevitable future war with the USSR.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: During the march south, the first division of the ROA came to the help of the Czech partisans in the Prague uprising against the German occupation, which started on 5 May 1945. Vlasov was initially reluctant to agree to that move, but ultimately did not resist General Bunyachenko's decision to fight against the Germans.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: The first division engaged in battle with "Waffen-SS" units that had been sent to level the city. The ROA units, armed with heavy weaponry, fended off the relentless SS assault, and together with the Czech insurgents succeeded in preserving most of Prague from destruction and liberate Prague.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: When the Red Army finally reached the Czech capital, the city was essentially free of German troops. "The Red Army appear in Prague only once the war had ended, de jure and de facto."


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Due to the predominance of communists in the new Czech "Rada" ("council"), the first division had to leave the city. They tried to surrender to US Third Army of General Patton. The Allies, however, gave in to the political pressures. Approximately 33,000 men were handed over between May and September 1945 to USSR forces. They were then executed or sent to the Gulag.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Thousands of soldiers were initially taken into Allied custody by the 44th Infantry Division and other U.S. troops. In a move that Allied command kept secret for many years, they were then forcibly handed over to the Soviets by the Allies, due to a previous agreement between Churchill and Stalin that all ROA soldiers would be returned to the USSR. Some Allied officers who were sympathetic to the ROA soldiers permitted them to escape in small groups into the American-controlled zones.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: The Soviet government labelled all ROA soldiers ("vlasovtsy", "vlasovites") as traitors, and those who were repatriated were tried and sentenced to detention in prison and forced labour camps in Russia as for instance in Mongolia.


title: Russian Liberation Army

text: Two ace pilots of the Soviet Air Force, Semyon Trofimovich Bychkov and , defected and became part of the ROA air force, which was commanded by Major General .


title: Alligator gar

text: The alligator gar ("Atractosteus spatula") is a ray-finned euryhaline fish related to the bowfin in the infraclass Holostei . It is the largest species in the gar family, and among the largest freshwater fish in North America. The fossil record traces its group's existence back to the Early Cretaceous over 100 million years ago. Gars are often referred to as "primitive fishes", or "living fossils" because they have retained some morphological characteristics of their early ancestors, such as a spiral valve intestine, which is also common to the digestive system of sharks, and the ability to breathe both air and water. Their common name was derived from their resemblance to the American alligator, particularly their broad snouts and long, sharp teeth. Anecdotal evidence suggests that an alligator gar can grow up to in length.


title: Alligator gar

text: The body of an alligator gar is torpedo-shaped, usually brown or olive, fading to a lighter gray or yellow ventral surface. In very rare occurrences, they can also be black, seen in gars that have a high level of melanin. Their scales are not like the scales of other fishes; rather, they are ganoid scales, which are bone-like, rhomboidal-shaped scales, often with serrated edges, and covered by an enamel-like substance. Ganoid scales are nearly impenetrable and are excellent protection against predation. Unlike other gar species, the upper jaw of an alligator gar has a dual row of large, sharp teeth that are used to impale and hold prey. Alligator gar are stalking, ambush predators, primarily piscivores, but they also ambush and eat waterfowl and small mammals they find floating on the water's surface.


title: Alligator gar

text: Populations of alligator gar have been extirpated from much of their historic range as a result of habitat destruction, indiscriminate culling, and unrestricted harvests. Populations are now located primarily in the southern portions of the United States extending into Mexico. They are considered euryhaline because they can adapt to varying salinities ranging from freshwater lakes and swamps to brackish marshes, estuaries, and bays along the Gulf of Mexico.


title: Alligator gar

text: For nearly a half century, alligator gar were considered "trash fish", or a "nuisance species" detrimental to sport fisheries, and were targeted for elimination by state and federal authorities in the United States. The 1980s brought a better understanding of the ecological balance necessary to sustain an ecosystem, and eventually an awareness that the alligator gar is an important element of the ecosystems they inhabit. Over time, alligator gar were afforded some protection by state and federal resource agencies. They are also protected under the Lacey Act, which makes transporting certain species of fish in interstate commerce illegal when in violation of state law or regulation. Several state and federal resource agencies are monitoring populations in the wild, and have initiated outreach programs to educate the public. Alligator gar are being cultured in ponds, pools, raceways, and tanks by federal hatcheries for mitigation stocking, by universities for research purposes, and in Mexico for consumption.


title: Alligator gar

text: Alligator gar are the largest species in the gar family, and among the largest freshwater fishes found in North America. Mature alligator gar commonly measure in length, and weigh over 100 lb (45 kg). However, anecdotal reports suggest they can grow up to 10 ft (3 m) in length, and weigh as much as 350 lb (159 kg). The largest alligator gar officially recorded was inadvertently caught in the net of fisherman Kenny Williams of Vicksburg, Mississippi, while he was fishing the oxbow lakes of the Mississippi River on February 14, 2011. Williams was pulling up his net on Lake Chotard, expecting to find buffalo fish, but instead discovered a large alligator gar tangled in his net. The gar was long, weighed , and its girth was . According to wildlife officials, the fish was estimated to be between 50 and 70 years old; one report estimated the gar's age to be at least 95. Williams donated it to the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science in Jackson, where it will remain on display.


title: Alligator gar

text: All gars have torpedo-shaped bodies, but some distinguishing characteristics of adult alligator gar include their large size; heavy bodies; broad heads; short, broad snouts; large, sharp teeth; and double row of teeth on their upper jaws. They are usually brown or olive fading to a lighter gray or yellow ventral surface. The dorsal and anal fins are positioned toward the back of their bodies, and their caudal fins are abbreviate heterocercal, or nonsymmetrical.


title: Alligator gar

text: Alligator gar have gills, but unlike other species of fish, with few exceptions, they also have a highly vascularized swim bladder lung that supplements gill respiration. The bladder not only provides buoyancy, but also enables them to breathe in air, which is why they are able to inhabit bodies of water in which most other fishes would die of suffocation. The swim bladder is connected to their fore gut by a small pneumatic duct, which allows them to breathe or gulp air when they break the surface, an action seen quite frequently on lakes in the Southern United States during the hot summer.


title: Alligator gar

text: The scales of alligator gar are not like the scales of other fishes, which have flexible elasmoid scales; their bodies are protected by inflexible and articulated ganoid scales that are rhomboidal-shaped, often with serrated edges, and composed of a tough inner layer of bone and hard outer layer of ganoin, which is essentially homologous to tooth enamel, making them nearly impenetrable.


title: Alligator gar

text: Lacépède first described the alligator gar in 1803. The original name was "Lepisosteus spatula", but was later changed by E.O. Wiley in 1976 to "Atractosteus spatula" to recognize two distinct taxa of gars. Synonyms of "Atractosteus spatula" include "Lesisosteus" [sic] "ferox" (Rafinesque 1820), and "Lepisosteus spatula" (Lacepede 1803). Fossils from the order Lepisosteiformes have been collected in Europe from the Cretaceous to Oligocene periods, in Africa and India from the Cretaceous, and in North America from the Cretaceous to recent times. The Lepisosteidae are the only extant family of gars with seven species, all located in North and Central America. The fossil record traces the existence of gars like the Alligator gar back to the Early Cretaceous over 100 million years ago. Despite being a highly evolved species, alligator gar are often referred to as "primitive fishes" or "living fossils" because they have retained a few morphological characteristics of their earliest ancestors with seemingly few to no apparent changes, such as a spiral valve intestine, which is also common to the digestive system of sharks, an abbreviate heterocercal tail, and a swim bladder lung for breathing in both air and water.


title: Alligator gar

text: Alligator gar are relatively passive, seemingly sluggish solitary fish, but voracious ambush predators. They are opportunistic night predators and are primarily piscivores, but they also ambush and eat water fowl, turtles, and small mammals that may be floating on the surface. Their method of ambush is to float a few feet below the surface, and wait for unsuspecting prey to swim within reach. They lunge forward, and with a sweeping motion, grab their prey, impaling it on their double rows of sharp teeth.


title: Alligator gar

text: Diet studies have shown alligator gar to be opportunistic piscivores, and even scavengers depending on the availability of their preferred food source. They occasionally ingest sport fish, but the majority of stomach content studies suggest they feed predominately on forage fishes such as gizzard shad as well as invertebrates and water fowl. However, brackish water populations of alligator gar are known to feed heavily on blue crabs in addition to fish such as the hardhead catfish ("Ariopsis felis"). Diet studies have also revealed fishing tackle and boat-engine parts in their stomachs.


title: Alligator gar

text: As with most ancestral species, alligator gar are long-lived, and sexually late maturing. Most females do not reach sexual maturity until after their first decade of life, while males reach sexual maturity in half that time. The conditions must be precise for a successful spawning to occur. Preparation for spawning begins in the spring with the extended photoperiod and rising water temperatures, but flooding is also necessary to trigger the event. When rivers rise and spread over the floodplain, they create oxbow lakes and sloughs, and inundate terrestrial vegetation, which in turn provides protection and a nutrient-rich habitat for larval fish and fry. Once the water temperature has reached , and all the other criteria are met, gar move into the grassy, weed-laden shallows to spawn.


title: Alligator gar

text: Actual spawning occurs when males gather around gravid females, and begin writhing, twisting, bumping into, and slithering over the tops of females, an activity which triggers the release of eggs. Males release clouds of milt to fertilize the eggs as they are released into the water column. The sticky eggs then attach to submerged vegetation, and development begins. Only a few days are needed for the eggs to hatch into larval fish, and another 10 days or so for the larval fish to detach from the vegetation and start moving about as young fry. Egg production is variable, and believed to be dependent on the size of the female. A common formula used for predicting the number of eggs a female can produce is 4.1 eggs/gram of body weight, which gives an average of about 150,000 eggs per spawn. The eggs of alligator gar are bright red and poisonous to humans if ingested.


title: Alligator gar

text: Alligator gar inhabit a wide variety of aquatic habitats, but most are found in the Southern United States in reservoirs and lakes, in the backwaters of lowland rivers, and in the brackish waters of estuaries, bayous, and bays. It occurs southward along the Gulf Coast of Texas, into Tamaulipas and northern Veracruz, Mexico, however, records from Nicaragua and Costa Rica are considered "suspect and refuted". They have occasionally been seen in the Gulf of Mexico. In Texas and Louisiana, large gars are commonly seen breaking the surface in reservoirs, bayous, and brackish marshes. They are found throughout the lower Mississippi River Valley and Gulf Coast states of the Southern United States and Mexico as far south as Veracruz, and encompassing the following states in the US: Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Florida, and Georgia. Reports suggest alligator gar were once numerous throughout much of their northern range, but valid sightings today are rare, and may occur once every few years. Records of historical distribution indicate alligator gar once inhabited regions as far north as central Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Iowa, and west-central Illinois, where they are now listed as extirpated. The most northerly verified catch was in Meredosia, Illinois, in 1922. In 2016, there were efforts to reintroduce alligator gar between Tennessee and Illinois as part of an effort to control invasive Asian carp.


title: Alligator gar

text: Alligator gar is an invasive species in China, where it can be purchased as an exotic pet. It has few natural predators there, and its poisonous eggs may pose a passive threat. The fish has been sighted in eight provinces, and authorities have worked to remove it.


title: Alligator gar

text: In November 2008, a broadhead gar, genus "Atractosteus", measuring was caught in the Caspian Sea north of Esenguly, Turkmenistan, by two officials of Turkmenistan Fishery Protection.


title: Alligator gar

text: On September 4, 2009, a alligator gar was found in Tak Wah Park in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong. Over the next two days, at least 16 other alligator gar, the largest measuring , were found in ponds in public parks in Hong Kong. Nearby residents reported the alligator gar had been released into the ponds by aquarium hobbyists, and had lived there for several years. However, after a complaint made by a citizen who falsely identified alligator gar as crocodiles, the use of terms like "horrible man-eating fish" had begun appearing in the headlines of some major local newspapers. Officials with Leisure and Cultural Services in Tak Wah Park removed all the alligator gar from the ponds because they were concerned the large, carnivorous fish might harm children. Not unusually, the large, sharp teeth and outward appearance of alligator gar can precipitate unreasonable fear in those unfamiliar with the species. Sensationalized reports have contributed to the misconception of predatory attacks by alligator gar on humans, though none of the reports have been confirmed.


title: Alligator gar

text: On January 21, 2011, an alligator gar measuring was caught in a canal in Pasir Ris, Singapore, by two recreational fishermen. The fish was taken to a nearby pond, where the owner confirmed it was an alligator gar rather than an arapaima, as the men had initially thought.


title: Alligator gar

text: Anecdotal reports have been made of alligator gar captured in various parts of India, but are believed to be the result of incidental releases by aquarium hobbyists and the like. In August 2015, an alligator gar was found entangled in cloth inside a well in Dadar, where it had been living for quite some time. It was rescued by animal activists and returned to the well unharmed. In June 2016, a 3.5-ft alligator gar was caught from Subhash Sarovar Lake in Kolkata. Other incidents over the years have been random, ranging from captures in coastal waters during environmental assessments to captures in private ponds.


title: Alligator gar

text: On June 27, 2020, an alligator gar measuring 112 cm (3 ft 8in) was reported dead on the shore of Gonyeli Baraji reservoir, North Cyprus. Specialists from Cyprus Wildlife Research Institute collected the fish and explained its species to be alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula). It is suspected that the fish had been released recently and could not cope with the environment and died, however, it could be that the fish was resident there for years. A necropsy will be applied to find out more.


title: Alligator gar

text: Native Americans in the South, and Caribbean peoples used the alligator gar's ganoid scales for arrow heads, breastplates and as shielding to cover plows. Early settlers tanned the skins to make a strong, durable leather to cover their wooden plows, and make purses and various other items. Gar oil was also used by the people of Arkansas as a repellent for buffalo gnats.


title: Alligator gar

text: For nearly half a century, alligator gar were considered "trash fish", or "nuisance species" by state and federal authorities who targeted them for elimination to protect gamefish populations, and to prevent alleged attacks on humans, a claim that remains unsubstantiated with the exception of occasional injuries sustained from captured alligator gar thrashing around on the decks of boats. Fishermen participated in the slaughter of thousands of alligator gar believing they were providing a great service. In 1992, PBS affiliate KUHT channel 8 became the presenting station for a public-outreach program that documented the life history cycle of alligator gar titled "The Alligator Gar: Predator or Prey?". It was the first documentary ever produced and televised nationally about alligator gar at a time when it was still being referred to as a trash fish. The half-hour program ran for three years as part of an educational series titled "Exotic and Unusual Fishes", produced by Earthwave Society. It first aired in primetime during the 1992 July sweeps, and drew a 2.8 rating/4 share, making it the number-one rated program of the evening for several PBS affiliates. A decade passed before any significant action was taken to protect and preserve the remaining populations of alligator gar in the United States. Among the first to enact restoration and management practices was the Missouri Department of Conservation in partnership with Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.