
##4021962 It is essential for graphic designers , especially high school technology education students , to understand why and how to effectively transform data into graphics to both engage the viewer and communicate information.Introduction Design is a hot area in communications technology , but can students effectively communicate the graphic design they create ? In particular , learning to communicate through graphic representations is essential for technology education students . Jacques Bertin ( 1983 ) argued the case that graphics , through scientific visualization and information design , can be a powerful communication tool . Graphic communication falls into its own area , separate from mathematics , musical , and verbal communications . Understanding the nature of graphic communication--a form of communication that is both atemporal and spatial--forms one of the key foundations for communicating scientific and technical information . It is essential for graphic designers , especially high school technology education students , to understand why and how to effectively transform data into graphics to both engage the viewer and communicate information . Communication technology is an important area in technology education when preparing students for twenty-first century @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world of communications means learners know how to create , print , and present graphics . A crucial part of this process is effectively encoding information in a graphic form . Understanding how cognitive and perceptual processes influence how we interpret graphics is a part of this literacy . Being aware of the cognitive principles underlying visual perception is beneficial to students when designing graphics ( Haber &; Wilkinson , 1982 ) . Visual perception has a close relation to human memory and establishment of association . The cognitive architectures and processes that determine levels of association of how information is managed by the brain are important . The mind is neither a camera nor a computer , and visual perceptual knowledge is a valuable source of information to strengthen design . One of the important findings from cognitive and perceptual research is how we process and understand color . Three color models are most commonly used in the production of graphics : red , green , blue ( RGB ) ; cyan , magenta , yellow , and black ( CMYK ) ; and hue , saturation , and value @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color model that comes closest to mimicking how humans perceive color . A ninth grade student comparing HSV to the other color systems is likely to say it 's easier to know what the end result of a color change will be when using this model . The VisTE project at North Carolina State University ( Clark &; Wiebe , 2005 ; Wiebe , et al. , 2006 , 2007 ) has focused on creating units for middle and high school students that use graphics to communicate concepts in math , science , and technology . This project used Standards for Technological Literacy ( STL ) ( ITEA , 2000/2002/2007 ) as a guide to develop activities that helped students learn how to effectively communicate with graphics . A number of the VisTE activities focus on understanding how to effectively use color models like hue , saturation , and value ( HSV ) . Comparing properties of color through various color models and how graphic communication problems can be solved through color helps teach students to look beneath the surface of a graphic and strengthen their skills in communications . These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- Standard 10 . Students will develop an understanding of the role of troubleshooting , research and development , invention and innovation , and experimentation in problem solving . -- Standard 17 . Students will develop an understanding of and be able to select and use information and communication technologies . That is , students will engage their knowledge of the cognitive and perceptual properties of color and the technology used to produce color graphics to problem-solve ways of communicating information graphically . The following example project extends these principles and looks at how color knowledge can be developed in the communications technology classroom.Project Overview A student once commented upon completion of a project that what was seen on the screen was not what he saw on the printed page : " Everything changed . " What happened ? Students often discuss how the colors on the screen are not always what appear on paper . What does this mean ? Are n't the colors on the screen the same as the colors from the printer ? What would cause a difference ? Color is a very important part of design @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ class is essential to communicate true images and products . Color is a powerful element that " can draw attention and produce a strong emotional and psychological impact , " ( Prust , 1999 ) . In this activity , students are going to learn how to generate a consistent image throughout the production process . Assessing the image from the monitor to the printer is key to learning how to effectively communicate the intended message . To accomplish this task , establishing a basic understanding of calibrating color through visual perception is needed . Part of this process is understanding " the difference between various color systems . " As Armstrong ( 2004 ) states , " Monitors , scanners , digital cameras , etc. deal in visible light , " RGB ( red , green , and blue ) , and should not to be confused with the standard primary colors : red , yellow , and blue . RGB color is called additive because it is created by adding varying intensities of red , green , and blue light to black ( on a computer screen this equals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vary from 255 ( full intensity ) to 0 . If each color channel has 256 variations of red , green , and blue , then over 16 million different colors are possible from these combinations . This range of possible colors comes close to describing all possible visible light colors . In fact , most RGB color-generating technologies ( e.g. , computer monitors ) can only display a subset of these colors , called a color gamut . Printing , on the other hand , deals in light reflected off of or through inks , which creates a narrower color gamut . CMYK colors are secondary , opposite colors of RGB . Cyan absorbs red light , magenta absorbs green light , yellow absorbs blue light , and black ( K ) controls the overall level of light absorption . The degree of absorption varies on the amount of CMYK colors that are visible . CMYK is known as subtractive because the colors displayed are the result of subtracting varying amounts of red , green , and blue light . The range for RGB is a bit different than CMYK @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visible light color gamut . In addition , the conversion from RGB color to CMYK color and vice versa is not exact . This is because neither color system is based directly on how humans perceive color . This information brings about the question , " How does one get the version of the image from the monitor and the one from the printer to match ? " The answer is plain and simple : iterative adjustment . Within the realm of colors is another system of color commonly seen in a graphics software color picker ( method for choosing image color using a tool that looks like an eye dropper ) : HSV . HSV ( hue , saturation , and value ) is the system that comes closest to how we " see " and compare colors . One freshman student alluded in a class conversation that it is an easier model to understand because one can compare and relate to it ; the colors are true to how he sees them . Hue is the rainbow aspect of color , explaining where a specific color lies on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a circle where the starting and ending color is red . Red is at 0 degrees , yellow is at 60 degrees clockwise with green , cyan , blue , magenta , and red again . Saturation describes how pure a color is . If a color seems to have no gray in it , then it is said to be highly saturated . The more gray present in a color , the less saturated it is . The value goes from 0 , neutral , straight gray color , to 100 , strong , pure color . Value is brightness , lightness , or intensity--in other words , how much light is coming from the color.Description of Lesson At our high school , students learn about visual perception and the changes between RGB , CMYK , and HSV color systems through a series of lessons leading up to a cumulative project . Students use the lessons to gain an understanding of color calibration ( refining colors to be true between monitor and printer ) and visual perception and to apply these lessons to a final project . Students are first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking at monitor and printer images . Students discuss the meaning of HSV and use it to describe the differences between colors on screen versus the printed versions . For the final project , students begin by scanning a headshot photograph . Once the image is scanned , students place the image into an illustration program and begin working . Using various tools in the program , students create a two-dimensional , vector-based image similar to the underlying photograph . Rather than having a bitmap image where every pixel is a different color , the vector-based illustration program creates regions of solid color . This process is often called posterization and requires students to visually interpret the color they are seeing in a region in the photograph and pick a single color that represents the collective perception of this region of pixels . Posterization is , in a way , a scaffolding technique that limits the number of colors and regions in the graphic that the student needs to analyze . Therefore , the student is able to focus on both the essential characteristics of a single color , comparisons of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collective impact of all of the colors in the image or region . When done , students print a first draft of their re-creation of the photo . The next step is to adjust colors with the HSV color model . Using the HSV scale to adjust color is an efficient way of managing colors for the projects in this class . The colors used in HSV can be clearly defined by human perception , which is not always the case with RGB or CMYK . Matching and sharing colors can easily be done in most medium to high-end graphics software packages . When working with the illustration software , the knowledge of color calibration is invaluable . The instructor needs to show students how to use bars of color , known as test strips , in the margins when experimenting with colors . These test strips represent systematic shifts in hue , saturation , value , or a combination of these scales . They provide benchmarks against which students can adjust their colors . A test strip allows the user to more easily see variations in hue , saturation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a range of colors quickly ( like a paint swatch or package of crayons ) without needing to continually print to achieve the perfect color . Test strips leverage perceptual and cognitive limitations of human vision by presenting groups of color simultaneously in the field of view . In this way one does n't have to hold a color in memory and compare it to a different color at some later point in time . It also does n't require an individual to mentally transform a color from a numeric value in a color model specification dialogue box into a visual image of the color . By systematically making single adjustments , like hue only , students can focus on the perceptual impact of small shifts in color and understand the differential effects of shifting each of the three different qualities of color : hue , saturation , and value . By and large , this process is the most direct way for students to be able to effectively communicate using the language of color.Assessment Assessments are done informally and formally throughout the entire lesson . Informal assessment through observation is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the material . Peer , self , and teacher observations are used in the lesson . Peer evaluation is done almost daily through casual conversation and questioning . Students are to casually ask each other questions , such as how to use a tool or opinions on the look of an object . Teacher observations are also used to evaluate student progression . Walking around the room and being easily accessible creates a comfortable learning environment . Deadlines are another informal type of assessment as students are asked to print what is currently on the screen . Deadlines allow student designers and instructors to see the status of a project . Formal assessments are more detailed and typically involve a grade . For this lesson , printing the portrait project created in the illustration software generates an artifact for formal assessment . When printed , it is easy to assess color calibration through the hair , eye , and skin color in the illustration . This evaluation is guided by the rubric provided at the beginning of the project ( see Figure 1 ) . The rubric outlines a structured checklist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Also , presentations are a type of assessment since they are graded as noted in the rubric . The presentation also provides the student designer time to explain how hue , saturation , and value calibration were achieved throughout the process of creating the illustration.Project Conclusion This lesson was designed to investigate color using HSV and better understand how we use graphic technologies guided by our perception of color to effectively communicate the intended message . Students build upon their cumulative knowledge and previous experience to develop their ability to describe , interpret , evaluate , respond , and produce . Learning the HSV color system along with the use of color strips is an effective and informative problem-solving method to make iterative adjustments to color when working on graphic communication projects . By the end of this lesson , students are expected to understand the relationship between the three components of the HSV color model in order to accurately calibrate color , produce test strips , and create a final product . PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Figure 1 . Rubric for final project.References 
##4022051 Dropsy is an old word for an older problem . Afflicted , you begin to swell--first your ankles , then your legs . Walking gets difficult , even sitting becomes painful . Then the swelling gets so bad your skin splits open . The commonest cause is heart failure . Think of the revolving door of an office building . As the door gets older it turns more slowly . Eventually people have to queue , spilling out onto the street . As your heart gets feebler , your blood queues up in the same way . Under that pressure , your veins leak fluid , which builds up between cells , pooling wherever gravity directs . Because we have a double circulation system , there 's a double problem . Unable to get into a weakly pumping right ventricle , ready to go to the lungs , deoxygenated blood backs up in your extremities , and fluid collects in your tissues . You swell from the feet upwards . And instead of being pumped out to the body from your left ventricle , oxygenated blood backs up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the spaces where air should be . You get breathless . Doctors used to try to relieve dropsy , which today we call edema , by making holes in people 's bloated legs to let the fluid out . That could help , a little . Anything that reduced the amount of fluid in your body , even leeches and bloodletting , could make you feel better . Welcome to the world of medicine that Dr. William Withering knew in the late eighteenth century , a scintillatingly brilliant time that crackled with new discoveries , political revolutions , and the excitement generated by the birth of the Enlightenment . Yet Withering lacked the charisma of his era . He was raised in a medical family in Shropshire , England , in 1741 , and after four years ' apprenticeship to a local physician , he went to Edinburgh to get his degree . There were the typical diversions : he golfed , published bad poetry , and learned to play the bagpipes . He loathed , in particular , the botany he was forced to study . Nevertheless , he completed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to hospitals around Europe . Unfortunately , Withering 's trip ended early . His traveling companion , a healthy young man of his own age , developed a skin infection in Paris . " An abscess grew upon his shoulder , a fever came on , the wound gangren 'd and yesterday he died , " wrote Withering , who lived in a time when death came suddenly and doctors were impotent . IN 1767 WITHERING began to practice . One of his first patients was seventeen-year-old Helena Cooke . She liked drawing flowers . While she lay sick in bed , Withering scoured the countryside to find her fresh subjects , apparently moved by her charms to overcome his antipathy toward botany . It turned out to be the start of two lifelong relationships : Withering married his patient and acquired a lasting fondness for plants . In 1775 worldly opportunity called on the young couple , arriving in the overwhelming shape of Erasmus Darwin , pockmarked , rotten-toothed , and enormous . He had as great an appetite for food and free love as for science and verse . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his poetry about the sex lives of plants , he is best known these days for his grandson Charles . ) Darwin recognized the young Withering 's intellect and helped him secure the position of town physician for Birmingham . Combined with Darwin 's friendship , the post brought membership in a remarkable club : the Lunar Society , named for its habit of meeting at full moons to make traveling home safer . The Lunaticks , as they called themselves , men like Matthew Boulton , Joseph Priestley , and Josiah Wedgwood , were the leading British scientists and entrepreneurs of the day . While his friends manufactured Britain 's industrial revolution , Withering lived conservatively . His son described him as methodical , known more for " steady sense and correct judgement than for the flights of fancy or the eccentricities of genius . " His letters are fabulously dreary . But for all his lack of glitter , Withering was sharply observant . When his opportunity for major discovery came , he jumped : Engraving of Dr. William Withering made in 1801 , two years after his death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerning a family receipt for the cure of the dropsy . I was told that it had long been kept a secret by an old woman in Shropshire , who had sometimes made cures after the more regular practitioners had failed . This medicine was composed of twenty or more different herbs ; but it was not very difficult for one conversant in these subjects to perceive that the active herb could be no other than the Foxglove . ANY OF SOME TWENTY PLANTS in the genus Digitalis , foxglove had been used as a medicine by hosts of people , from ancient Greeks to medieval Welsh . During the Middle Ages in Western Europe , it was believed to cure a whole range of diseases for which it is actually useless . In the mid-1600s , for example , the herbalist Nicholas Culpeper recommended foxglove for treating epilepsy . It does n't . Foxglove . also had obvious problems . In the sixteenth century , a botanically misguided Dutch chef fed his guests a foxglove omelette . Their consequent diarrhea and vomiting were a good demonstration of the plant 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you die . In the seventeenth century , forty years before Withering , a Frenchman investigated foxglove 's effects on a turkey . " He did not attempt to perch , " ran his poignant report on the poultry , " he uttered plaintive cries . " The bird stumbled drunkenly for a few days , refused to eat , and died . At medical school I was taught the blunt truth that only inactive drugs are without side effects . Taking a pill is like thumping the side of a misbehaving television : you might bang the right piece into place , but you might make things worse . Withering knew this ( minus the television analogy ) , worrying that " the lives of men " could be " hazarded " by his new drug . His understanding of medical science evoked the modernity of the Lunar Society . It was not enough , he realized , to compile only encouraging stories . It would have been an easy task to have given select cases , whose successful treatment would have spoken strongly in favour of the medicine , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Truth and Science would condemn the procedure . I have therefore mentioned every case in which I have prescribed the Foxglove , proper or improper , successful or otherwise . Altogether Withering wrote up 163 cases of dropsy in which he used the plant , and the majority of those patients ( no doubt the ones whose dropsy was caused by heart failure ) got better . Swollen legs reduced in size , breathing was eased . Noting that patients produced copious amounts of urine as they began to improve , Withering suspected that digitalis extract worked as a diuretic , causing excess fluid to be lost as urine and so reducing the amount of work the heart needed to do . " It charms the shape less monster into man , " Erasmus Darwin wrote in his poem about it . Praise even came from the other side of the world : a physician from New Hampshire wrote congratulating Withering and asking for help in seeding the flower in America . In 1790 , with the Revolution raging in France , Withering diagnosed himself with tuberculosis . Over the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ friend was struck by how weak he became : " The flower of English physicians is indeed withering . " ( Medicine has progressed over the centuries , but puns are as bad as ever . ) In October 1799 he died . His memorial tablet was carved with a plant of the genus Witheringia on one side and , separated by a terrifically bad poem , a foxglove on the other . Hand-colored illustration of a foxglove species , Digitalis purpurea , drawn by James Sowerby . It appeared in the six-volume collection Flora Londinensis , published in the/ate eighteenth century--around the time of Withering 's experiments with foxglove as a human drug . HEARTS ARE WELL EVOLVED , but not miraculous . That means compromise and ultimate failure . Let 's say that you hope to manufacture something with a lifetime guarantee , a watch , for example ; you would engineer it to last a hundred-odd years , not a thousand . Evolution is equally careful about not wasting resources . Therefore no body part outlasts the rest , or not by much . Even our solid skeleton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medicine follows a similar aim , hoping to keep any organ from failing too far ahead of the rest , thus extending our healthy lives and compressing our decay into the fewest possible days . The heart , however , often proves difficult to save , as muscle cells do n't divide--at least , not abundantly enough to regenerate healthy tissue . If you exercise them , heart muscle cells might get bigger , but few or no new ones will be made . So as you age , they can die off gradually--particularly under the stress of high blood pressure , diabetes , or coronary artery disease--or , in the case of a heart attack , die off suddenly and potentially catastrophically . Either way , the heart never grows back . Foxglove--or digitalis , as the pharmaceutical compounds derived from it are commonly called--works not by directly causing increased urination , as Withering thought , but by making the heart beat more strongly and efficiently . The trouble is , drugs that increase the strength of the heart 's beats do n't make it grow new muscle ; they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any coach will tell you that if you push any athlete too far , you risk collapse . When an aging heart fails and begins to pump less blood , our bodies make a mistake . They notice the reduced flow , but presume we 're bleeding or dehydrated . Evolutionarily , surviving blood loss and dehydration is more critical than extending old age . So , when the body detects a lack of blood flow , it assumes that a lack of blood is to blame . In response we get thirsty and our kidneys reduce urine output . By drinking more and peeing less , our bodies compensate for a loss of fluid that has not occurred--as a result , we end up with too much . Having to pump more fluid is exactly what a failing heart needs least . Withering correctly observed that digitalis made people feel better , yet could it have been killing them just the same ? Neither Withering nor anyone long after him took a systematic look . In 1997 , nearly two centuries after Withering 's death , a medical trial came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allocated to digitalis or a placebo for more than three years . The results : for every thirty-nine people taking digitalis for a year , one avoided a hospital admission . The effect on mortality ? Zero . Digitalis is neither the lifesaver people had imagined nor the killer some suspected . IT HAS TAKEN TWO CENTURIES TO go from hailing digitalis as a miracle cure to wondering if using it makes any sense at all . Some doctors feel that the harms are hardly worth the benefits . Others continue to prescribe it liberally , as though it really is a lifesaver . Yet for certain patients , digitalis remains modestly effective , making them feel and function better than any razzle-dazzle new synthetic drug . And that , even if they do n't live longer , is no small thing . Dropsy Courting Consumption is the title that artist Thomas Rowlandson gave to this illustration , published in 1810 . The corpulent man on bended knees could have been among the many who suffered from heart problems ; his body contrasts with the shapely statue of Hercules in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resident and a tutor at the University of Oxford . His first book , Digging Up the Dead ( 2007 ) , profiles the pioneering surgeon , body snatcher , and revolutionary democrat Astley Cooper , who incidentally trained John Keats as a surgeon . Burch lives in a village in the Cotswalds with eight ducks and 500 of his countrymen . 
##4022179 The downfall of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago gave mammals an incredible opening , and they ran for it , rapidly becoming the dominant land vertebrates . Among those to emerge were the earliest carnivorans ( members of the order Carnivora ) , whose living representatives include the cats and closely allied families , such as hyenas and mongooses , as well as dogs and closely allied families , such as bears , weasels , and seals . As their name implies , most carnivorans eat meat , and even those that are n't carnivorous--such as the giant panda--can be recognized by the last upper premolar and first lower molar on each side of the mouth . Those teeth are specially adapted for shearing , and are known as carnassials . Only in some species , such as seals and sea lions , have the carnassials evolved into simpler forms . Back when mammals got their big break--during the Paleocene epoch , which lasted ten million years--conditions around the globe were warm and humid . And the epoch that followed , the Eocene , was marked by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were quite hospitable to life . Surging into prominence , flowering plants diversified and created lush forests all over the Earth . In North America , where tree canopies sheltered a growing number of primates and other forest-dwelling mammals , the earliest carnivorans arose . From there they spread to Eurasia , over land bridges that then existed to Europe or near the present-day Bering Strait . Mostly the size of small foxes , or smaller , the carnivorans were adapted to life in and around trees , probably preying on invertebrates and small vertebrates . They lived in the shadow of the generally much larger hyaenodonts , a group of mammalian predators that had come on the scene earlier but which later became extinct . When did the carnivorans split into their catlike and doglike divisions ? No one knows exactly ; it may have been 50 million years ago or even earlier . By 40 million years ago , however , the first clearly identifiable member of the dog family itself , the Canidae , had arisen in what is now southwestern Texas . Named Prohesperocyon wilsoni , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it as a canid . Fittingly enough , these include features of the teeth--including the loss of the upper third molars , part of a general trend toward a more shearing bite--along with a characteristically enlarged bony bulla , the rounded covering over the middle ear . Based on what we know about its descendants , Prohesperocyon likely had slightly more elongated limbs than its predecessors , along with toes that were parallel and closely touching , rather than splayed , as in bears . In an artist 's reconstruction of a savanna in western North America about 15 million years ago , a pack of Aelurodon ferox ( in the canid subfamily Borophaginae ) pursues a three-toed horse of the genus Neohipparion . In such an open landscape , both predator and prey were driven to evolve stamina and speed . The dog family thrived on such limb adaptations , which helped support a cursorial , or running , lifestyle in response to a changing environment . And none too soon , for the subsequent epoch , the Oligocene , between 34 million and 23 million years ago , started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the Antarctic continent for the first time , while in mid-latitude North America , conditions became progressively dryer and seasonal variations more pronounced . The lush , moist forests of the late Eocene gave way to dry woodlands and then to wooded grasslands , with large areas of open grassland developing by 30 million years ago . Mammalian herbivores began to evolve teeth adapted to eating grass ( so-called high-crowned teeth , which continue to erupt as the chewing surfaces are worn down ) . For both predators and prey , the ability to run and survive in an open , exposed landscape became crucial . To a large extent , the history of the dog family is a story of how a group of cursorial predators evolved , through speed and intelligence , to catch changing prey in a changing landscape . The canids are one of three modern families of carnivorans notable for including top predators , species capable of hunting down prey several times their own size . The other two are the cat family ( the felids ) and the hyena family ( the hyaenids ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be a body-size threshold of around forty-five pounds beyond which a mammalian predator must begin to tackle larger prey in order to get enough energy . Chris Carbone , a senior research fellow in biodiversity and macroecology , and colleagues at the Institute of Zoology , the research division of the Zoological Society of London , have suggested that small predators can sustain themselves on invertebrates and small vertebrates because of their low absolute energy requirements . Soon after its beginnings 40 million years ago , the dog family ( Canidae ) diverged into three main subfamilies , each of which dominated in turn . The figure illustrates major branching points , with the width of each lineage representing its species diversity through time . All three subfamilies coexisted for a long time . Two ( the Hesperocyoninae and the Borophaginae ) became extinct in turn , but the Caninae , with thirty-six species , is going strong . ( Portraits of the selected species shown above are not drawn to the same scale . ) In 1871 , pioneer vertebrate paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope formulated the principle that in animals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sizes . With the help of our colleagues Blaire Van Valkenburgh , a functional morphologist at the University of California at Los Angeles , and John Damuth , a biostatistician at the University of California , Santa Barbara , we have examined the canid fossil record with that idea in mind . We have concluded that , indeed , larger and larger species have repeatedly evolved in many lineages . Consequently , many species have independently passed the threshold where they needed to take down large prey . Features of their jaws and teeth show that the larger canid species have also tended to become hypercarnivorous , that is , more purely meat-eating . The cat family and the hyena family similarly evolved hypercarnivorous top predators . ( One might think the bear family , the ursids , should be added to this list , but only the polar bear is hypercarnivorous , and it is a rather atypical member of the family . Most bears are omnivores . ) It 's only a slight oversimplification to say that felids almost invariably approach their prey in stealth and try to pounce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contrast , have a decidedly different tactic , one suited to their ancestors ' lifestyle on the open plains . In that setting , surprise attack is seldom achieved ; it is less important to subdue the prey in the shortest possible time than to outrun and exhaust the quarry . Lacking retractable claws , a powerful weapon for most felids , canids rely more on social hunting when sheer numbers and coordinated hunting strategies rather than sophisticated weaponry to overwhelm them . Hyaenids are more closely related to cats , yet they more strongly resemble canids , both behaviorally and anatomically . They kill their prey by consuming them alive , rather than by delivering a killing bite on the neck as felids do . They too are persistent pursuers rather than stalkers that ambush prey , and they tend to be highly social hunters . The similarities are a good example of convergent evolution , an understandable outcome when one realizes that for much of their evolutionary history , the two groups were not direct competitors but were facing similarly open environments . Canids were at first confined to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did canids become so diverse ? From Hesperocyon , a descendant of Prohesperocyon , the family experienced its initial radiation in tile early Oligocene , about 34 million years ago , splitting into three major subfamilies : the Hesperocyoninae and the Borophaginae ( both extinct lineages known only from fossils ) , and the Caninae , whose descendants survive today . But it is at first only among the hesperocyonines that we see some really dominant dogs , capable of hunting prey larger than themselves . They were the size of small wolves and equipped with teeth specialized for ripping into raw meat , comparable to those of modern African hunting dogs . The early borophagines , on the other hand , were all smaller and tended toward less predatory lifestyles . And biding its time was the Caninae subfamily , comprising only a few inconspicuous species ( we 'll avoid calling them " canines , " a term that is usually used in a narrower sense ) . A young adult Eucyon davisi , about the size of a living coyote , approaches one of its parents in a submissive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the subfamily Caninae may have arisen when such youngsters remained in their parents ' territory and helped raise pups . The genus Eucyon lived in North America from about 9 million to 5 million years ago . Altogether , by about 30 million to 28 million years ago , twenty-five species of canids roamed western North America , a peak of diversity within a continent unequaled before or since by any single family of carnivoran . The dog family was making its mark . Meanwhile , the hyaenodonts and other archaic predators had begun to decline , and they were eventually overtaken by the successful carnivorans . North American herbivores , the potential prey for canids , steadily diversified during the first half of the following epoch , the Miocene , which lasted from 23 million to 5 million years ago . That was thanks not only to evolution but also to immigration of Eurasian native species via land bridges . The herbivores reached an all-time peak of diversity around 15 million years ago , and perhaps not coincidentally , canids experienced a second peak of diversity ( some twenty species @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ borophagines were the ones to flourish . The hesperocyonines were on the verge of extinction , while the Caninae continued to keep a low profile . Among the factors driving canid evolution was the increasing speed of the grazing herbivores , which in turn was a response to being preyed upon in open habitats . The well-known illustration of this process is how members of the horse family essentially came to run on the tips of their toes , evolving longer toe bones and eventually losing their lateral digits . Even though canids were getting faster , they also had to adjust to competition from new carnivoran immigrants , including members of the cat family ; false saber-tooth cats ( which were catlike but not true felids ) ; large mustelids ; and giant bear dogs ( family Amphicyonidae ) . Bone-cracking became a specialty of the new borophagine species that arose at the time , suggesting that they regularly scavenged carcasses--a kind of resource that is easier to locate in a more open environment . The ability to consume bones may have arisen as a byproduct of group feeding among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as much food as quickly as possible , ate bone ( or swallowed meat plus bones indiscriminately ) . The Caninae lineage , present from the early Oligocene , finally made its big move during the late Miocene , as the open grasslands continued to expand . One distinctive feature of the subfamily , which had slender , elongated limbs , is that the front and hind big toes became progressively smaller , and ceased to be functional . This cursorial feature , not found in the other two canid subfamilies , became an advantage when the landscape opened up . By the late Miocene , early precursors of the modern " true " foxes ( tribe Vulpini ) had emerged , as well as a genus , Eucyon , that was ancestral to the tribe Canini . The latter group comprises the " canines " in the narrow sense of the term , and includes dogs , wolves , coyotes , jackals , certain foxes , and other species . An adult Hesperocyon gregarious , a canid species that could have been ancestral to all three major canid subfamilies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The scene is set in western North America between 40 million and 34 million years ago , when early canids , like most other members of the order Carnivora , were still evolving in a forested environment . A key development in Caninae history was the spread of the subfamily out of North America , beginning about 7 million years ago , when some groups crossed the Bering land bridge into Asia . With the exception of a single species in the middle Miocene of China , hesperocyonines never escaped the dog family cradle , nor did any borophagines . Records of the Caninae appeared in Europe first , and almost immediately thereafter in Asia and Africa . The first member of the genus Canis--to which the gray wolf , coyotes , jackals , and the domesticated dog belong--loped onto the scene about 6 million years ago . During the subsequent epoch , the Pliocene ( 5.3 million to 1.8 million years ago ) , a further opportunity opened up for the Caninae . About 3 million years ago , the Panamanian Isthmus formed , linking North and South America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ native predators , and the Caninae were part of that success story , radiating explosively out of a few lineages in Central America and southern North America . Members of the subfamily constitute the largest group of carnivoran predators in South America today . Indeed , with eleven species , South America is home to almost one-third of the entire canid diversity on the planet . Just as the intercontinental flux led to a new peak of diversity among the canids--one that continues through the Pleistocene epoch and down to the present time--so , too , did it influence the array of prey . Ancestral horse species , which had lost their two outer digits but retained three , were eclipsed in North America by single-digit horses . By Pliocene to early Pleistocene times , the modem horse genus , Equus , had spread to Eurasia and South America , along with members of the camel family ( mostly llamas and their extinct relatives ) , which , like canids , had been confined to North America during much of their existence . While the Caninae subfamily thrived , however , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bone-cracking dogs , which became extinct by the end of the Pliocene . The third canid expansion brought dogs into contact with hyaenids , which , with one brief exception during the Pliocene , had never expanded into North America . By the Pliocene , however , the competitive landscape had changed significantly for both families , and their members were n't fighting for the same fare . The foxes and jackal-like dogs that arrived in the Old World were much smaller than most hyaenids , which by now were all large , bone-cracking animals . A solitary Borophagus diversidens defends its prey from a pack of Canis lepophagus , Such a confrontation , whose outcome could go either way , may have been common a few million years ago . A bone-crushing species , B. diversidens was the last of the borophagines , whereas the would-be robbers were members of the ascendant genus Canis , whose living examples are the coyote , gray wolf ( including the domestic dog ) red wolf , Ethiopian wolf , black-backed jackal , golden jackal , and side-striped jackal . If we look around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ursids , mustelids , and others--we see that each has a balanced spectrum of small and large species , but not the hyaenids . Apart from the aardwolf , which is a highly specialized termite-eater , there are only three living species of hyenas , all large carnivores . In the major carnivoran families , if the large-size species become extinct in the future , smaller forms could evolve to replace them . But if the large hyenas one day become extinct , their great evolutionary lineage will end . Climate change kicked into high gear during the Pleistocene epoch , whose alternating cold , dry ice ages and warm , humid intervals was a tumultuous time for all animal and plant evolution . Many mammal species on the northern continents ( North America and Eurasia ) , particularly herbivores , attained giant sizes as an adaptation to extreme cold . Large body size helped not only to conserve heat , but also to store more fat to cope with winter weather . Woolly mammoths , giant deer , and woolly rhinos roamed Eurasia , and the woolly mammoth , mastodon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dire wolf reigned supreme in North America . Most such megafauna became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene , about 10,000 years ago . But the gray wolf , Canis lupus , is one of the few exceptions , and remains one of the most successful large canids in the world . From about the beginning of the Pleistocene the genus Canis has had a continuous presence in Eurasia , along with various species of fox and raccoon dog . Gray wolves are present beginning about 1 million years ago . Early humans--Homo erectus , H. neanderthalensis , and H. sapiens--must have competed with some larger species of canids , because they shared a broadly similar hunting ( and scavenging ) lifestyle . By the end of the Pleistocene , the inevitable close encounters between modern humans and wolves--in the Middle East or Europe , or possibly China--resulted in the first domestication of a canid . If one counts the domestic dog as a highly specialized adaptation for cohabiting with humans , then canids have achieved ultimate success in occupying nearly every corner of the world--in all sizes , shapes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) calls for its pack as a herd of mammoths ambles past . The scene is based on fossils found in the Rancho La Brea tar pits , which trapped animals between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago . Story by Xiaoming Wang and Richard H. Tedford ; Illustrations by Mauricio Anton Xiaoming Wang began researching the evolution of the canid family for his doctoral dissertation and then spent several years at the American Museum of Natural History in New York , studying canid fossils under the guidance of Richard H. Tedford . Wang produced a monograph on the canid subfamily Hesperocyoninae , and the two , along with paleontologist Beryl E. Taylor , produced another on the Borophaginae . The three will soon complete one on the Caninae . Wang is a curator in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County . Tedford , one of the foremost authorities on the evolution of the Carnivora , is now a curator emeritus in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum . 
##4022275 Fin-de-sicle Vienna may have flowered and faded more than a century ago , but the era remains a ubiquitous presence in the city today . Even if you do not visit the Belvedere Palace to see Gustav Klimt 's The Kiss , simulacrums of that embrace will accost you from posters , notebook covers , and caf menus . Emerge from the subway , and in all likelihood the sign announcing your stop will be the handiwork of fin-de-sicle architect Otto Wagner . The Caf Landtmann menu will not just let you know the price of a black coffee , but also inform you that Sigmund Freud was once a regular patron . Karl Kraus , Austria 's H. L. Mencken during the early 1900s , declared that the streets of Vienna are " paved with culture . " His aphorism holds true today--and the culture is tattooed with the words and images Kraus dissected a century ago . The fin-de-sicle fixation is , to be sure , played up for tourists . But it is not just for foreign consumption . The Viennese apex of modernized thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lasted through World War I , is enshrined in the national consciousness . Gustav Mahler may have had a stormy tenure as the general director and conductor of Vienna 's Imperial Opera ( he was forced out in 1907 after a decade ) , but last summer the Wiener Staatsoper schedule was a virtual homage to the composer . The Museum Quarter , which holds the majority of the city 's Egon Schiele expressionist paintings , is a meeting point for the city 's hipsters ; during the warm months you can spot kids on skateboards beneath banners of the Viennese artist 's portraits . Tourists may dominate the weekend crowd in the Belvedere Palace galleries , but Vienna 's dozens of museums would n't stay afloat if locals did n't religiously attend special exhibits and revisit the collections . The fact that the Viennese--indeed , Austrian--identity is so interwoven with the fin-de-sicle epoch has more than aesthetic implications . When culture is largely defined as the appreciation of a body of art , literature , and music that flourished decades ago , the national patrimony becomes something not just to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feel like a living museum rather than a modern metropolis . And while some residents lament the relentless looking backward , many of Austria 's policies seem bent on maintaining a version of the country that does n't look so different from its glory days . The desire to freeze a society in time , rather than to allow it to change and innovate , has helped cultivate a xenophobic streak in the central European state . At least , it seemed that way to me last spring when I was living in the city , researching immigration practices . Austria makes it very difficult for a foreigner to settle within its borders ; its legal restrictions are some of the toughest in Europe . In conversations with the Viennese , I was struck by how often even young people defended this draconian approach . Aside from concerns about immigrants taking advantage of the country 's generous welfare benefits , the rationale for the keep-them-out policy centers around Austria 's small population ( just a little over eight million ) and the fragile national culture . " If we let people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one historical researcher said to me . " We would be overrun . " Austria is hardly the only country loath to accept foreigners . It is perplexing , however , that a country so enamored of its permissive fin de-sicle incarnation would cling to such an exclusionary view . Sipping coffee at Freud 's old haunt and admiring Klimt 's gold-flecked paintings , the Viennese may preserve a surface that looks a lot like the turn-of-the-century city . But the modern Viennese do not embrace the values that made the creative outpouring possible . The artistic pioneers of the late 1800s were n't hidebound by tradition ; instead , they were committed to embracing risk . And the city that created groundbreaking art , literature , and music was not homogeneous . Quite the opposite : it was a mix of outsiders--Jews , Czechs , and Hungarians--who created and financed advances in an extraordinary culture . " Diversity and immigration made that age possible , " Bernhard Perchinig , an analyst at the Institute for European Integration Research , told me . Glance over some of the names of those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theory holds up . The revolutionary thinkers Sigmund Freud and Ludwig Wittgenstein were both Jews , as were the writers Stefan Zweig and Arthur Schnitzler . Mahler was a Bohemian Jew . The expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka was Czech on his father 's side . And while the era 's two superstar painters--Klimt and Schiele--were Austrian-born and not Jewish , Vienna 's Jewish bourgeoisie underwrote their work . It is not an accident that Klimt 's most famous portraits were of Jewish women . His paintings often hung in the parlors of Jewish homes , at least until the onset of World War II . Why Austrians misconstrue the origin of their fin-de-sicle culture is murky , but the country 's role during World War II is certainly part of the explanation . Austria had a long history of anti-Semitism even before the Anschluss , the 1938 annexation by Nazi Germany . ( An Austrian by birth , Hider , for example , admired Viennese Mayor Karl Lueger 's verbal fusillades against Jewish residents when the future fhrer lived in Vienna in the early 1900s . ) It 's therefore not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racial purity and nationalism . After Austria joined the Third Reich , a number of Hitler 's countrymen vigorously participated in the Holocaust . High-ranking Nazis like Adolf Eichmann grew up in Austria ; under his supervision 170,000 Austrian Jews were stripped of their jobs and fleeced of their possessions . Before the outbreak of the war , some 65,000 Jews were able to flee ( after giving up almost everything they owned ) . For the most part , those who remained were slaughtered in concentration camps . Today , only an estimated 7,400 Jews reside in the country . Austrians never had to deliver a comprehensive public accounting and repentance for this stained past . For Cold War geopolitical purposes , the Allies pronounced the country " Nazism 's first victim " after the war . The former members of the Third Reich seized on that appellation with gusto , drawing grumbles from some of Nazism 's true victims . " The Austrians are brilliant people , " Jewish Viennese migr and Hollywood director Billy Wilder is often quoted as saying . " They 've made the world believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wilder did n't have to stop there . While Freud and Kokoschka are now among the innovators claimed as cultural royalty , they were forced to flee to England to save their lives on the eve of World War II . ( Kokoschka was deemed " degenerate . " ) The composer Arnold Schnberg decamped to Los Angeles , and **30;148;TOOLONG Stefan Zweig had already escaped from Austria to Great Britain . Jews , who had paid for and patronized so much of the city 's innovative art , were essentially expunged from Austrian soil . Given that so many of Vienna 's impressive creative citizens and their benefactors were ruthlessly persecuted , some historians have questioned whether modern-day Austria can legitimately claim Vienna 's fin-de-sicle movement as its own . The city 's fin-de-sicle strutting does have a shameless streak . But to be fair , Vienna 's institutions and ethos did play a role in nurturing one of the most extraordinary creative moments in modern history . Then , as today , appreciation for the arts was at the core of the city 's identity . Viennese coffeehouses did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to intermingle and stay culturally attuned . Perhaps more important , most of these men stood apart from Viennese society but were nonetheless eager to gain recognition , and that made for a potent alchemy . Alienation is often a spur to creative expression . When these artists found existing norms of painting , literature , and social thought too confining , they pushed the boundaries . Today , the Viennese continue to patronize the coffeehouses and avidly peruse the newspapers ' swollen arts sections . Many of the Austrians I met during my three-and-a-half-month stay in the city made a point of alerting me to a lecture on Freudian psychology or sharing their opinions about the current hot-ticket theater production . There 's no question that Vienna is still steeped in the arts . But so often participation in the prevailing cultural life entails revisiting some aspect of the Golden Age . Martin Prinzhorn , a professor at the University of Austria and an independent art critic , says that looking back has been a part of the country 's makeup since the end of the First World War . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it has produced interesting work , particularly in the last decade , " he explains . " But nostalgia can suck the air out of Vienna 's artistic space . The newer artists are oftentimes overshadowed by what was produced in the past . " Fin-de-sicle Vienna was infatuated with contemporary artists , not former generations of creative pioneers . In his memoir , The World of Yesterday , Stefan Zweig remembered how in pre-World War I Vienna esteem for artistic movers and shakers cut across social classes . The day the city 's most prominent theater actress died , even the Zweigs ' cook dissolved into tears . " This old , semi-illiterate cook had never once been to the fashionable Burgtheater , " Zweig recounted , " but a great national actress was the collective property of the entire city of Vienna , and even an outsider could feel that her death was a catastrophe . " When artists are treated as demigods , it is understandable that ambitious young men ache to join their ranks . Given that foreigners and Jews were never completely integrated into high @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sons and daughters were particularly eager to establish a toehold in creative realms . For one thing , some of the more formal career paths were essentially off-limits . Freud once aspired to a military career but opted against it partly because Jews could not serve as officers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . There were few formal barriers to becoming a novelist or artist , Achieving prominence in these spheres , moreover , offered entry to a ratified world . The World of Yesterday describes how every young writer dreamed of having a play produced in one of Vienna 's prestigious theaters because it guaranteed a " sort of lifelong nobility .. One virtually became a guest in the Imperial household . " In the Vienna of a hundred years ago , passersby did n't comment on spotting a minister-president , but the sight of an actor or opera director on the Ringstrasse would set people buzzing . Aside from providing an environment that exalted artistic accomplishment , Viennese institutions supplied creative young people with unusual opportunities to prepare for and hone their crafts . The city 's gymnasiums ( elite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ curricula produced graduates well versed in Western history , philosophy , and literature . Notably , Jews constituted a disproportionate portion of these schools ' enrollments . According to the historian Steven Beller , Jews accounted for 10 percent of Vienna 's population , but they made up about one-third of the gymnasiums ' student bodies . More important than the formal education system was Vienna 's informal university : the coffeehouse . As American cultural historian Carl Schorske describes in Fin-de-Sicle Vienna : Politics and Culture , the intelligentsia in Paris , London , and Berlin did n't mingle much . Vienna 's coffeehouse culture , in contrast , nurtured a cohesive creative class . Zweig recalled the long hours he spent in wood-paneled cafs as integral to his development as a writer . The witty aperu was highly prized in these settings ; relaxed chats , or even deep personal conversations , were not the purpose of these social circles . But if the occasional barb made the gatherings uncomfortable , it also prodded these men ( they were , almost without exception , men ) to become more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just in coffeehouses that these innovators crossed paths . Dip into the history of the era , and you may be convinced you 're reading about an extended , dysfunctional family . Consider this particular series of associations : Gustav Mahler and his wife , Alma , saw Freud for marriage counseling . After Gustav 's death , Alma became Kokoschka 's lover . The so-called wild painter of the fin de sicle was a protg of the architect Adolf Loos , who helped secure commissions for Kokoschka early in the painter 's career . The two men socialized with Arnold Schnberg , who had a separate , painful connection to another prominent Viennese painter : Schnberg 's wife , Mathilde , left him for the artist Richard Gerstl ( who committed suicide in 1908 after Mathilde returned to Arnold ) . These interactions and bed hoppings may seem trivial , but they left a mark on Vienna 's cultural patrimony . Schnberg 's compositions , for example , changed significantly during his personal crisis , which marked the period when he established himself as an atonal pioneer . It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proved formative . Schnberg regarded Karl Kraus as an inspiration--Kraus who , from the pages of his newspaper Die Fackel ( The Torch ) , launched a four-decade campaign against everything he considered hypocritical and artificial in Austrian society : " I have learned more from you , perhaps , than a man should learn , if he wants to remain independent , " the composer confided to his literary counterpart . Loos encouraged Kokoschka 's experimentation in a more concrete way : when sitters refused to buy the painter 's portraits , the architect purchased them . Unsurprisingly , Freud forged the broadest influence . His theories on the subconscious are , for example , glaringly present in Zweig 's novella Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman , which details an elderly woman 's unsettling encounter with a younger man . Freud himself discerned a kindred sensibility in Arthur Schnitzler , whose plays about bleak sexual exploitation and personal trauma convulsed Viennese society . " I have gained the impression , " Freud wrote his fellow doctor-turned-writer , " that you have learned through intuition . everything that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ persons . " By the time Hitler marched into Vienna in 1938 , Freud had become an international celebrity . In his 80s and suffering from cancer of the jaw , he did not heed early warnings to leave the city , confident that his advanced age and prominence would protect him . After the Gestapo arrested and interrogated his daughter Anna , however , the Freuds fled to London , vowing never to return to Austria or to Germany . " Like you , I have an indomitable affection for Vienna and Austria , " the doctor wrote to a friend . " But unlike you , I know her abyss . " It was at the Caf Landtmann that I read about Our Vienna , an expos two Austrian journalists had published on looted Jewish property . Even the brief summary of the book made for intriguing reading . The synopsis detailed how many of the cultural landmarks I 'd admired for weeks--like the Prater Ferris wheel , which is showcased in the 1949 film The Third Man--had been expropriated from Jewish families . Intrigued , my husband and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ copy in an English-language bookstore . While I knew the route , we made our way fitfully , because men in 18th-century dress interrupted us every few feet , flogging tickets to a classical music concert . They were n't the only relic of an earlier age patrolling the streets . Horse-drawn carriages , or fiacres , clopped by , carrying photo-snapping tourists . When loudspeakers beg-an blasting Mozart 's Don Giovanni , it felt like we had entered a " kitsch time machine . " Vienna : City of the Past " even had a soundtrack . The costumes , music halls , and carefully marketed museums all help to cultivate a thriving tourist industry . But as nay husband and I made our way to a less-trafficked part of the city , it occurred to me that the preserved-in-amber ethos came with a price tag . I had sampled many of Vienna 's creative offerings during my stay , visiting museums and the opera and attending the occasional lecture . But aside from a small gallery show featuring the work of sculptor Franz West , everything I had seen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past , and sometimes the distant past . The publicly applauded version of the city 's history is , of course , airbrushed . When I asked for a copy of Our Vienna at the bookshop , I glimpsed the antagonism a more honest appraisal can engender . The bookseller , who had just been friendly to patrons seeking the latest Lonely Planet guide to Vienna , met nay request with an icy stare . " We do not have that book , " she replied . " Could you order it ? " my husband pressed , with a smile . She shook her head : " Not possible . " I never did track down a copy . The book I ended up re-reading compulsively was Zweig 's remembrance of the city of his youth . In The World of Yesterday he morosely speculated on what the future held for Vienna : " Only the coming decades will show the crime that Hider perpetrated against Vienna when he sought to nationalize and provincialize this city . " Zweig never saw the postwar version of the metropolis ; he committed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year before . But if he had lived to see present-day Vienna , he may have been puzzled as well as disillusioned . Trappings of the culture Zweig was so immersed in are still present . The " spiritual supernationality " that he prized , however , is no longer in evidence . It could be that the city 's turn-of-the-century artistic productivity was the equivalent of a cultural comet : It is extraordinary for a movement like that to emerge once , and no one should expect a repeat appearance . Still , the Austrian preoccupation with its prior incarnation and fear of a more diverse society has lessened the odds of another cultural apocalypse . Vienna is still saturated in the arts , but the country 's most fearless , productive , and creative years almost certainly lie decades in the past . PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : In Vienna 's first district , a 1902 drugstore faade with angels by artist Oscar Laske PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Mozart selling candy in Vienna By Alexandra Starr Alexandra Starr was a Milena Jesensk fellow at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##4022362 Sabah , the second largest state in Malaysia , is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo and borders the larger state of Sarawak to the southwest . The western part of Sabah is generally mountainous and contains the three highest peaks in Malaysia . The jungles of Sab'ah are classified as rainforests , with a tropical climate that provides a vast array of animal and plant species : an environment that seems ideal for creating biodiversity , which in turn provides exotic photographic opportunities . Four separate trips were taken to Sabah , encompassing a total of six weeks . The first trip was based in Kota Kinabalu , and allowed the exploration of the foothills of Kinabalu National Park and Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary . The second trip was in the company of professional wildlife photographers and visited Sepilok , the Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary at Labuk Bay and Turtle Island , which are essentially tourist destinations . There are two ecosystems of Sabah that were explored : the heart of the tropical rainforest , exemplified by Danum Valley and the riverine system offered by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diverse species , and promise of unique images in a tropical rainforest , one has to get " down and dirty " or certainly hot and sticky . In May 2006 , several photographic colleagues from Singapore stayed at a guesthouse near Sukau on the Kinabatangan River . Twice daily , early morning and late afternoon , the group settled down in motorized boats with tripods set up and big lenses ready for the riverbank action . The participants glided up tributaries and into ox-bow lakes in search of that definitive shot . Bearded pigs swam across the river in front of the boat , river otters peered curiously from the mangrove mud , and colorful kingfishers plunged into the river ahead in a blur of iridescent blue and orange . Sharmas , babblers and pittas called from the forest floor while monkeys crashed noisily through the bush overhead One of the major targets in the late afternoon shoot was the Proboscis Monkeys Nasalis larvatus . Though easily seen during the day filling their potbellies with vegetation , these largish monkeys were skittish and moved away from the lenses . A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jungle during the day and emerge along the riverbank around half an hour before sunset . The monkeys seem to transit from tree to tree with a careful assessment of distance , and then risk a reckless leap into space hoping that there was foliage to grasp at the end of the void . Mother monkeys held closed-eyed youngsters close to chest , while making tree-to-tree leaps . The onset of the evening seemed to act like a multi-targeted tranquilizer , as the hyperactive troupe would slow down and select a perch where they could spend the night in the cooler conditions above the river . The Proboscis Monkey is an endangered reddish-brown Old World monkey that is only found in Borneo . There is much debate as to the function of the large protruding nose of the males . It appears to have a role in sexual selection , as females prefer big-nosed males . The proboscis monkey is endemic to coastal mangrove , swamps and riverine areas . It lives in small groups of 10 to 32 animals and is both a proficient climber and swimmer . There are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of these can be seen along the Kinabatangan River . Early morning or just before dusk is a good time to see the birds and get those typical flap-flap-glide flight shots as they cross the river in search of a fruiting tree or a roosting place . Fruiting trees on the rivers edge also attract wild orangutans . The first visit to the Kinabatangan River produced six sightings of solitary orangutans . What a buzz it was to see these great apes in the wild . The orangutans are two species of great apes known for intelligence , long arms , and reddish-brown hair . Native to Indonesia and Malaysia , the orangutans are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra , though fossils have been found in Java . Vietnam and China . The name derives from the Malay and Indonesian phrase orang hutan , meaning " person of the forest . " Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes , spending nearly all of the time in trees , and at night , fashion nests from branches and foliage on which to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ females generally come together only to mate , Mothers stay with the babies until the offspring reach an age of six or seven years . What is so emotional about seeing orangutans living free is that they appear to be on the brink of extinction . Sabah , once home to some of the world 's most biodiverse forests , was largely logged out during the 1980 's and 1990 's , but some parts of the state still support wild populations of endangered orangutans . World Wildlife Fund ( WWF ) estimates that there are some 30,000 to 40,000 orangutans left in the wild threatened by habitat loss , poached for bush-meat and the illegal wildlife trade . Presently Borneo 's remaining forests are giving way to oil palm plantations . Oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis ) is a financially attractive plantation crop because it is the least expensive vegetable oil and produces more oil per hectare than any other oilseed . In the current environment of high-energy prices , palm oil is seen as a good way to meet increasing demand for biofuel as an alternative energy source , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ green rash . On the second visit to the Kinabatangan River the Borneo Pygmy Elephants ( Elaphus maximus horneensis ) were spied . The Pygmy is a sub-specie of the Asian elephant found only in north Borneo ( east Sabah and extreme north Kalimantan ) . The Borneo elephant became isolated from other populations of Asian elephants 18,000 years ago when land bridges disappeared . Compared with other Asian elephants it is smaller , with larger ears , a longer tail and comparatively straighter tusks . It is relatively tame and passive . The group succeeded in mooring the boat in the midst of one small herd that was bathing and cavorting on the rivers edge . Sadly the Borneo elephant is also on the critically endangered list , suffering from habitat loss , disrupted migration routes and depleted food sources . Amongst the colorful birds encountered along the river 's edge were two species of Broadbill : the Black and Red Broadbill and Black and Yellow Broadbill . The former species build their pendulous nests overhanging the water and during the nesting season a number of these can be observed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yellow Broadbills are more secretive in locating nests but have a very distinctive call reminiscent of an electric generator starting up . A fruiting tree can be a magnet for many different species of bird as well as several mammals . In the quest for food scraps , bearded pigs have become adapted to human proximity . When the electricity generator is switched off late at night Sambar deer move under the cover of darkness onto the grassy areas to graze . Malay civets , clouded leopards , slow loris and the unique flying lemur may be seen in the beam of a spotlight at night . During the day a juvenile male orangutan moved noisily through trees quite close to the complex dining room . Long-tailed and Pigtailed macaques could also be seen foraging on the ground and clambering through the trees . Further down the road the tall roadside grasses had been flattened by a herd of Bornean elephants . There are a number of jungle tracks that require tougher trekking but provide visual rewards for the species that can be encountered : bearing in mind that leeches lurk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The male Great Argus pheasant described eloquently in the diary of Charles Darwin cavorts and calls for female attention in selected display grounds cleared on the jungle floor . The male bird has a call like an emergency siren and will cunningly usurp the trekking track , converting it into a bachelor 's pad . While observing the Great Argus another pheasant , the colorful Crested Fireback pheasant , made a brief appearance . Various members of the colorful pitta family can also be encountered on the more remote jungle tracks while small Barking Deer graze on the jungle floor or in small clearings . Consider Sabah for a photographic destination . Transport is reasonable and day-today living is relatively cheap . A good local guide with knowledge of what photographers require is recommended and be prepared to spend a suitable amount of time in an area to get good shots . Borneo , in spite of its problems , is unique in terms of flora and fauna . It is to be hoped that there will be a more judicious stewardship of the forest in future years to avoid the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ BLACK &; WHITE ) : Rehabilitated orangutan PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Crimson Sunbird ( male ) PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Blue-throated Bee-eater PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Long-tailed Macque feeding PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Orangutan mother and baby PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Lesser Green Leaf bird ( male ) PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Black and Red Broadbill pair PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Asian Darter PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Monitor lizard ( juvenile ) PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Bornean Pygmy elephant PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Red-eyed Bulbul By Graeme R. Guy , EPSA , Singapore 