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Giacomo da Lentini (Italian poet)
senior poet of the Sicilian school and notary at the court of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II. Celebrated during his life, he was acclaimed as a master by the poets of the following generation, including Dante, who memorialized him in the Purgatorio (XXIV, 55–57)....
Giacosa, Dante (Italian auto designer)
Italian auto designer for Fiat whose small, economical cars, particularly the popular Fiat 500, helped motorize Italy in the 1950s (b. Jan. 3, 1905--d. March 31, 1996)....
Giacosa, Giuseppe (Italian dramatist)
Italian dramatist who collaborated with Luigi Illica to write the libretti for three of Giacomo Puccini’s most famous operas....
Giaever, Ivar (American physicist)
Norwegian-born American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973 with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson for work in solid-state physics....
Giai Pham Mua Xuan (Vietnamese magazine)
...Phan Khoi chose to remain under the Communist government in the north, becoming North Vietnam’s most illustrious intellectual. He was the editor of Nhan Van (“Humanism”) and Giai Pham Mua Xuan (“Beautiful Flowers of the Spring”), two radical literary reviews that took advantage of the liberalizing proclamation of Mao Zedong, of China, to offer st...
Giai Truong-Son (mountain range, Asia)
principal mountain range of Indochina and the watershed between the Mekong River and the South China Sea. It extends parallel to the coast in a gentle curve generally northwest-southeast, forming t...
“Giall, An” (play by Behan)
play in three acts by Brendan Behan, produced in 1958 and published in 1962. The play, which is considered Behan’s masterwork, employs ballads, slapstick, and fantasies to satirize social conditions and warfare. In the play, an English soldier is held hostage in a brothel by members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), who hope thus to prevent the execut...
Giamame (Somalia)
town, southern Somalia, eastern Africa. Jamaame is situated on the eastern bank of the lower Jubba River, in the southeastern coastal lowlands near the Indian Ocean. The town is...
Giamatti, A. Bartlett (American baseball commissioner)
...remains the central national pastime and seems to attract mythmakers as Troy attracted poets. Some of the mythmaking has been naive or fatuous—onetime Major League Baseball commissioner Bartlett Giamatti wrote a book called Take Time for Paradise, finding in baseball a powerful metaphor for the time before the Fall. But the myths of baseball remain powerful......
Giamatti, Angelo Bartlett (American baseball commissioner)
...remains the central national pastime and seems to attract mythmakers as Troy attracted poets. Some of the mythmaking has been naive or fatuous—onetime Major League Baseball commissioner Bartlett Giamatti wrote a book called Take Time for Paradise, finding in baseball a powerful metaphor for the time before the Fall. But the myths of baseball remain powerful......
Giamatti, Paul (American actor)
American actor who excelled at portraying likable, idiosyncratic everyman characters before establishing himself as a versatile leading man....
Giamatti, Paul Edward Valentine (American actor)
American actor who excelled at portraying likable, idiosyncratic everyman characters before establishing himself as a versatile leading man....
Giambi ed epodi (work by Carducci)
...and Serious Poems”]). He showed both his great power as a poet and the strength of his republican, anticlerical feeling in his hymn to Satan, “Inno a Satana” (1863), and in his Giambi ed epodi (1867–69; “Iambics and Epodes”), inspired chiefly by contemporary politics. Its violent, bitter language reflects the virile, rebellious character of the p...
Giambologna (Italian artist)
preeminent Mannerist sculptor in Italy during the last quarter of the 16th century....
Giambono, Michele (Italian artist)
leading Venetian Late Gothic painter and mosaicist, the most distinguished member of a large family of artists working in Venice from 1396 to 1546....
Gian Gastone (duke of Tuscany)
the last Medicean grand duke of Tuscany (1723–37)....
Giancana, Salvatore (American gangster)
major American gangster, the top syndicate boss in Chicago from 1957 to 1966, who was noted for his friendships with show-business personalities and for his ruthlessness....
Giancana, Sam (American gangster)
major American gangster, the top syndicate boss in Chicago from 1957 to 1966, who was noted for his friendships with show-business personalities and for his ruthlessness....
Gianfrancesco II (duke of Mantua)
...first humanistic school (Venice, c. 1414). Vittorino taught in both Padua (where he was briefly a professor of rhetoric) and Venice during the early 1420s. In 1423 he accepted the invitation of Gianfrancesco Gonzaga, marquis of Mantua, to become tutor to the ruling family. At this post Vittorino spent the remaining 22 years of his life. His school, held in a delightful palace that he......
Giani, Felice (Italian artist)
Rome was indeed the city where the principal Italian painters of this period were most active. One such was Felice Giani, whose many decorations include Napoleonic palaces there and elsewhere in Italy (especially Faenza) and in France....
Gianni, Lapo (Italian author)
...stil novo poets were Guido Guinizelli of Bologna, Guido Cavalcanti, Dante (particularly in the poems included in Vita nuova), and Cino da Pistoia, together with the lesser poets Lapo Gianni, Gianni Alfani, and Dino Frescobaldi....
Gianni Schicchi (opera by Puccini)
...melodramatic Il tabarro (The Cloak), the sentimental Suor Angelica, and the comic Gianni Schicchi. His last opera, based on the fable of Turandot as told in the play Turandot by the 18th-century Italian dramatist Carlo......
Gianni Versace SpA (Italian company)
...where he worked for several Italian ateliers, including Genny, Complice, Mario Valentino, and Callaghan. Backed by the Girombellis, an Italian fashion family, Versace established his own company, Gianni Versace SpA, in 1978 and staged his first ready-to-wear show under his own name that same year. His brother, Santo, served as CEO, and his sister, Donatella, was a designer and vice......
Giannini, A. P. (American financier)
American banker, founder of the California-based Bank of Italy—later the Bank of America—which, by the 1930s, was the world’s largest commercial bank. He was a major pioneer of branch banking....
Giannini, Amadeo Peter (American financier)
American banker, founder of the California-based Bank of Italy—later the Bank of America—which, by the 1930s, was the world’s largest commercial bank. He was a major pioneer of branch banking....
Giannini, Frida (Italian fashion designer)
Italian fashion designer who became creative director of the world-renowned Gucci fashion house in 2006....
Giannino (pretender to French throne)
His uncle, who succeeded him as Philip V, has been accused of having caused his death, or of having substituted a dead child in his place; but nothing has ever been proved. In 1358 a man called Giannino, in Florence, persuaded Clémence’s nephew, Louis I of Hungary, that he was John I; but otherwise he met with little success and died in jail in Naples (1363)....
Giannone, Pietro (Italian historian and jurist)
Italian historian whose works opposed papal interference in Naples....
Giano Della Bella (Italian leader)
wealthy and aristocratic Florentine citizen who was the leader of a “popular” movement in the 1290s and is known as the promulgator of the Ordinances of Justice (January 1293), the basis of the constitution of Florence....
Gianotti, Pio (Brazilian monk)
Italian-born Brazilian Roman Catholic monk. He became a Capuchin friar at age 16 and later studied in Rome. In 1931 he was sent to Brazil, where he spent the rest of his life traveling in the poverty-stricken northeastern region. Soon after he arrived he developed a reputation as a miracle worker whose touch or prayers could relieve pain and heal disease. Doctrinally conservativ...
giant (mythology)
in folklore, huge mythical being, usually humanlike in form. The term derives (through Latin) from the Giants (Gigantes) of Greek mythology, who were monstrous, savage creatures often depicted with men’s bodies terminating in serpentine legs. According to the Gre...
Giant (film by Stevens [1956])
American film saga, released in 1956, that tracks the lives of the family members of a ranching empire in Texas. It was James Dean’s last movie; he died in a car accident shortly after filming was completed....
Giant (symphony by Mahler)
...devoid of programs altogether, yet each clearly embodies a spiritual conflict that reaches a conclusive resolution. No. 5 (1902; popularly called Giant) and No. 7 (1905; popularly called Song of the Night) move from darkness to light, though the light seems not the illuminatio...
Giant African land snail (gastropod)
In the 20th century, misguided individuals on a number of the Pacific islands introduced an African land snail, Achatina fulica, for food. It became a pest. So, like the song about the old woman who swallowed a fly, and then a spider to catch it, and so forth, a predatory snail, Euglandina rosea, was released to control the Achatina. The predatory......
giant African millipede (arthropod)
...the 25-mm greenhouse millipede (Oxidus gracilis). One of the most common and conspicuous forms is the 100-mm (4-inch) black-and-red Narceus americanus of southeastern U.S. forests. The giant African millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas), which is native to subtropical Africa, is the largest extant species, achieving lengths up to 280 mm (11 inches). The extinct......
giant anaconda (reptile)
either of two species of constricting, water-loving snakes found in tropical South America. The green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), also called the giant anaconda, sucuri, or water kamudi, is an olive-coloured snake with alternating oval-shaped black spots. The yellow, or southern, anaconda (E. notaeus) is much smaller and has pairs of overlapping spots....
giant anteater (mammal)
The giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), sometimes called the ant bear, is the largest member of the anteater family and is best known in the tropical grasslands (Llanos) of Venezuela, where it is still common. It was once found in the lowland forests of Central America and still lives in the Amazon basin southward to the grasslands of Paraguay and Argentina. Gray with a......
giant arborvitae (plant)
an ornamental and timber evergreen conifer of the cypress family (Cupressaceae), native to the Pacific Coast of North America. Common lumber trade names for this species are western red cedar and British Columbia red cedar....
giant armadillo (mammal)
...inches) long, including the tail, the pink fairy armadillo, or lesser pichiciego (Chlamyphorus truncatus), of central Argentina, is only about 16 cm (6 inches). In contrast, the endangered giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) can be 1.5 metres (5 feet) long and weigh 30 kg (66 pounds). It lives in the Amazon basin and adjacent grasslands....
giant axon (anatomy)
...funnel respectively. In active squids the mantle is innervated by giant paired dorsal axons. Much of the present knowledge of mechanisms of nerve impulse conduction has come from the study of these giant axons. The sense organs of the cephalopods are eyes, rhinophores (olfactory organs), statocysts (organs of equilibrium), and tactile organs. In Nautilus the eyes are open pits without......
giant baby tears (plant)
One of several basket plants called Creeping Charlie, or Swedish Ivy, is P. nummulariifolia, with small, round, quilted leaves and a vigorous trailing habit. Giant baby tears (P. depressa), of similar habit, has small, smooth green leaves....
giant bellflower (plant)
There is but one species of Ostrowskia (O. magnifica), the giant bellflower, which is a fleshy-rooted perennial with whorled leaves and clusters of three or four long-stalked, pale-lilac bells, 10 to 12 cm wide, topping plants, 1 12 to 2 12 metres tall. It is native in Central Asia. Symphyandra, ring......
giant bottlenosed whale (mammal)
...dorsal fin located toward the rear of the body. Ranging in length from 3.7 metres (12.1 feet) for the dwarf, or pygmy, beaked whale (Mesoplodon peruvianus) to nearly 13 metres for the giant bottlenose whale (Berardius bairdii), these mammals weigh between 1,000 and 14,000 kg (2,200 and 31,000 pounds). Colour is variable but usually consists of some combination of.....
giant bottlenosed whale (mammal)
Arnoux’s beaked whale (Berardius arnuxii) and Baird’s beaked whale (B. bairdii) are commonly called giant bottlenose whales. These are the largest of all the beaked whales, measuring about 13 metres long. The two species are very closely related, differing only slightly in anatomy. Both have two pairs of large triangular teeth at the tip of the lower jaw...
giant cactus (plant)
(Carnegiea gigantea), cactus species of the family Cactaceae, native to Mexico and to Arizona and California in the United States....
giant Canada goose (bird)
...before taking flight. The various subspecies range in size from 2 kg (4.4 pounds) in the cackling goose (B. canadensis minima) to about 6.5 kg (14.3 pounds) in mature males of the giant Canada goose (B. canadensis maxima). The latter has a wingspread of up to 2 metres (6.6 feet), second in size only to that of the trumpeter swan among common waterfowl. Once a symbol of......
giant cane (plant)
Arundinaria gigantea—which is known as giant cane, southern cane, or canebrake bamboo—was once widely utilized as a forage plant in the southeastern United States, from eastern Texas and Oklahoma to the Atlantic coast and north to the Ohio River valley. It produces green leaves and stems throughout the year and is valued for winter forage along the coast of the Gulf of......
giant cell (pathology)
large cell characterized by an arc of nuclei toward the outer membrane. The cell is formed by the fusion of epithelioid cells, which are derived from immune cells called macrophages. Once fused, these cells share the same cytoplasm, and their nuclei become arranged in an arc near the outer edge of the cell. Langhans’ giant cells typic...
giant centipede (arthropod)
...alternately expanding and contracting the body, in the manner of earthworms. The order Scolopendrida, or Scolopendromorpha, of the tropics contains the largest centipedes, with Scolopendra gigantea of the American tropics reaching a length of 280 mm (11 inch). These forms are capable of inflicting severe bites. Scolopendrids, as well as the geophilids, have......
giant clam (mollusk)
Two groups of bivalves have exploited other food sources. These are the shipworms (family Teredinidae) and giant clams (family Tridacnidae). Shipworms are wood borers and are both protected and nourished by the wood they inhabit. They possess ctenidia and are capable of filtering food from the sea. When elongating the burrow, they digest the wood as well. In the Tridacnidae, symbiotic......
giant cloud rat (rodent)
any of six species of slow-moving, nocturnal, tree-dwelling rodents found only in Philippine forests. Giant cloud rats belong to the genus Phloeomys (two species), whereas bushy-tailed cloud rats are classified in the genus Crateromys (four species)....
giant condensation nucleus (meteorology)
...air is highly supersaturated with water vapour. Nuclei that have diameters of several microns and are composed of a hygroscopic, or moisture-attracting, substance (e.g., sea salt) are called giant condensation nuclei....
giant crab (crustacean)
(Macrocheira kaempferi), species of spider crab native to Pacific waters near Japan. It occurs at depths of 50 to 300 m (150 to 1,000 feet). The largest specimens may be up to 3.7 m or more from the tip of one outstretched claw to another. The body is about 37 cm (15 inches) across, and the total w...
giant danio (fish)
...inches) long. Several are often kept in home aquariums. Among these are the zebra danio, or zebra fish (B. rerio), a popular species with lengthwise blue and yellow stripes, and the giant danio (D. malabaricus), a striped blue and yellow fish about 11 cm (4 inches) long....
giant deer (extinct mammal)
extinct species of deer, characterized by immense body size and wide antlers, commonly found as fossils in Pleistocene deposits in Europe and Asia (the Pleistocene Epoch began 2.6 million years ago and ended about 11,700 years ago). Despite its distribution throughout Eurasia, the species was most abundant in Ireland. Although several other ...
giant devil ray (fish)
The smallest of the manta rays, species Mobula diabolis of Australia, grows to no more than 60 cm (2 feet) across, but the Atlantic manta, or giant devil ray (Manta birostris), largest of the family, may grow to more than 7 m (23 feet) wide. The Atlantic manta is a well-known species, brown or black in colour and very powerful but inoffensive. It does not, old tales to the......
giant dioon (plant)
...of cycads (family Zamiaceae). It is the most primitive American genus in the family and includes about 10 species, all of which grow in Mexico and Central America. The spiny-leaved, slow-growing giant dioon (D. spinulosum) may attain a height of 15 metres (about 50 feet). It is a popular house plant and is grown outdoors as an ornamental in warmer climates. Starch like that of......
giant eland (mammal)
either of two very large, oxlike African antelopes of the spiral-horned antelope tribe (Tragelaphini, family Bovidae), which also includes the bushbuck and the kudus. The giant, or Derby, eland (Taurotragus derbianus) inhabits woodlands filled with the broad-leaved doka tree in the northern savanna from Senegal to the Nile River. The common, or Cape, eland (T. oryx)......
giant elephant shrew (mammal)
...tropical forests (including deciduous lowland and montane forests) with well-drained soils and carpets of leaf litter. Nests are made of dry leaves on the open forest floor. The largest species, the giant elephant shrew (R. udzungwensis), weighs about 0.7 kg (1.5 pounds) and inhabits two forested areas within the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania....
giant evergreen chinquapin (plant)
The evergreen chinquapins include the golden, or giant, evergreen chinquapin (Castanopsis chrysophylla), also known as wild chestnut, or Castanopsis nut, native to western North America. It may be 45 m tall and has lance-shaped leaves about 15 cm (6 inches) long, coated beneath with golden-yellow scales. The bush, or Sierra evergreen, chinquapin (Castanopsis sempervirens) is a......
giant fennel (herb)
Giant fennel is Ferula communis, a member of the same family, native to the Mediterranean region, where the stems, which grow to about 10 feet (3 m) high, are used for tinder. Hog’s fennel, or sulfurweed, Peucedanum officinale, is another member of the Apiaceae family, but the fennel flower, Nigella sativa, is a member of the family Ranunculaceae. ...
giant fern family (fern family)
the giant fern family, the only family of the fern order Marattiales. The family contains four genera and some 150 modern species of large tropical and subtropical ferns with stout, erect stems. The leaves (fronds) may be very large in some species, such as Angiopteris evecta, which may have a stem 60 to 180 cm (2 to ...
giant filbert (plant)
Choice nuts are produced by two Eurasian trees, the European filbert (Corylus avellana) and the giant filbert (C. maxima), and by hybrids of these species with two American shrubs, the American filbert (C. americana) and the beaked filbert (C. cornuta), popularly called hazelnuts. The large cobnut is a variety of the European filbert; Lambert’s filbert is a varie...
giant foxtail (plant)
...verticillata), whose barbed bristles stick to animals and clothing, is also found in those places; the flower clusters from different plants may stick together, forming dense tangles. The name giant foxtail is applied to two weedy annuals: S. faberi and S. magna....
giant fulmar (bird)
The giant fulmar, also known as the giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus), with a length of about 90 cm (3 feet) and a wingspread in excess of 200 cm (6.5 feet), is by far the largest member of the family. This species nests on islands around the Antarctic Circle and in sub-Antarctic waters. It feeds on live and dead animal matter of all kinds and is a heavy predator on the young of many......
giant gas planet (astronomy)
Of the eight currently recognized planets of the solar system, the inner four, from Mercury to Mars, are called terrestrial planets; those from Jupiter to Neptune are called giant planets or Jovian planets. Between these two main groups is a belt of numerous small bodies called asteroids. After Ceres and other larger asteroids were discovered in the early 19th century, the bodies in this class......
giant golden mole (mammal)
...inhabiting forests, savannas, grasslands, rocky hillsides, sandy riverbeds, and sand dunes. Some species reportedly live in cultivated fields and on the fairways of golf courses. The largest is the giant golden mole (Chrysospalax trevelyani) of South Africa, with a body 20 to 24 cm (7.9 to 9.4 inches) long; it is a forest dweller that dens in burrows but travels and forages along...
giant gourami (Colisa species)
...of the kissing gourami, sole member of the family Helostomatidae, they are of the family Belontiidae and are characterized by an elongated ray in each pelvic fin. Common species include the giant gourami (Osphronemus goramy), a blue-green and reddish brown fish 12 cm (4.75 inches) long; the dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia), 6 cm long, brightly striped in red and blue; the......
giant gourami (Osphronemus species)
any of several of the freshwater, tropical labyrinth fishes (order Perciformes), especially Osphronemus goramy, an East Indian fish that is caught or raised for food; it has been introduced elsewhere. This species is a compact, oval fish with a long, filamentous ray extending from each pelvic fin. It attains a weight of about 9 kg (20 pounds). As an adult, it is brown or gray with a......
giant granadilla (plant)
Some highly perfumed passion fruits are eaten as delicate dessert fruits, as the giant granadilla (P. quadrangularis). The purple granadilla (P. edulis) and the yellow granadilla (P. laurifolia), as well as the wild passion-flower, are widely grown in tropical America for their fruit. Passiflora maliformis is the sweet calabash of the West Indies. The size of these......
giant ground sloth (extinct mammal)
...ground sloths, once ranged into areas of the North American continent as far as Alaska and southern Canada. Different species of ground sloths varied greatly in size. Most were small, but one, the giant ground sloth (Megatherium americanum), was the size of an elephant; others were as tall as present-day giraffes. The period of the ground sloths’ extinctio...
giant grouper (fish)
...a few centimetres to a maximum of 2 metres (6 feet) and 225 kg (500 pounds) in such species as the goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara) and 2.7 metres (9 feet) and 400 kg (900 pounds) in the giant grouper (E. lanceolatus). Colour also varies, both among and within species. Some sea basses, for example, are able to change to any of several colour patterns. In other species the......
giant hogweed (plant)
...(eltrot, hogweed, or common cow parsnip [see photograph]), native to Eurasia, is now naturalized in eastern North America. H. mantegazzianum, the giant hogweed, is native to the Caucasus but is grown elsewhere as an ornamental. This striking plant can attain a height of 4 m (about 13 feet) and has a stout red-spotted stem and a white......
giant honeybee
...or the western honeybee. All other Apis species are confined to Asia. A. florea, the little honeybee, occurs in central Asia, where it builds its nests in trees. A. dorsata, the giant honeybee, occurs in India, Indonesia, and central China and sometimes builds combs nearly three metres (more than nine feet) in diameter. A. indica, the Eastern honeybee, is domesticate...
giant horsetail (plant)
Giant horsetail (E. praealtum) of North America and Asia, which reaches 3.5 metres (11.5 feet), also is evergreen. Each shoot has as many as 48 ridges. The giant horsetail of Europe (E. telmateia) is about the same height as common scouring rush. The tallest of all horsetails is a slender South American species (E. giganteum), which sometimes grows to 10 metres (about 32......
giant hummingbird (bird)
All hummingbirds are small, and many are minute. Even the largest, the giant hummingbird (Patagona gigas) of western South America, is only about 20 cm (8 inches) long, with a body weight of about 20 g (0.7 ounce), less than that of most sparrows. The smallest species, the bee hummingbird (Mellisuga, sometimes Calypte, helenae) of Cuba and the Isle of Pines, measures......
giant kelp (seaweed)
...to rock in even a gentle ocean surge; as a result this plant is largely restricted to sheltered shores. The fastest-growing plant—adding as much as 1 metre per day to its length—is the giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, which is found on subtidal rocky reefs. These plants, which may exceed 30 metres in length, characterize benthic habitats on many temperate reefs. Large......
giant land tortoise (reptile)
...herbivorous habits. The family is widespread in South America and Africa, and representatives occur in warm regions of North America, Europe, and Asia. The best known members of the family are the giant tortoises of the Galápagos Islands and the gopher tortoises of the American south and west....
giant magnetoresistance
...of a physical effect that was soon used to reduce the size of computer hard-disk drives. Albert Fert of France and Peter Grünberg of Germany in 1988 independently discovered the effect, called giant magnetoresistance. (See Nobel Prizes.) Giant magnetoresistance made it possible to read fainter magnetic signals on a magnetic disk, which in turn made it possible to.....
Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (telescope, Pune, India)
Indian radio astronomers built the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), located near Pune, India. The GMRT contains 30 antennas extending some 25 km (16 miles) in diameter. Each antenna element is 45 metres (148 feet) in diameter and is constructed using a novel, inexpensive system of wire trusses to replace the conventional steel beam backup structure of the parabolic surface. The GMRT......
Giant Metrewave Wavelength Telescope (telescope, Pune, India)
Indian radio astronomers built the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), located near Pune, India. The GMRT contains 30 antennas extending some 25 km (16 miles) in diameter. Each antenna element is 45 metres (148 feet) in diameter and is constructed using a novel, inexpensive system of wire trusses to replace the conventional steel beam backup structure of the parabolic surface. The GMRT......
giant molecular cloud (astronomy)
The hydrogen of these opaque dark clouds exists in the form of H2 molecules. The largest nebulae of this type, the so-called giant molecular clouds, are a million times more massive than the Sun. They contain much of the mass of the interstellar medium, are some 150 light-years across, and have an average density of 100 to 300 molecules per cubic centimetre and an internal......
Giant Mountains (mountains, Europe)
mountains, major segment of the Sudeten in northeastern Bohemia and part of the western Czech-Polish frontier. The highest peak in both the mountains and Bohemia is Sněžka (5,256 feet [1,602 m]). The Elbe (Czech: Labe) River rises in Bohemia on the southern slope, and tributaries of the Oder (Odra) River flow northward from the Polish side....
giant muntjac (mammal)
In the 1990s two previously unknown species of muntjacs were discovered. One was found in the Vu Quang Nature Reserve of northern Vietnam in 1994. It was named the giant, or large-antlered, muntjac (M. vuquangensis) because it appears to be larger than other muntjacs, with an estimated weight of 40–50 kg (88–110 pounds). The second species, which has the distinction of being.....
giant nerve fibre (anatomy)
...funnel respectively. In active squids the mantle is innervated by giant paired dorsal axons. Much of the present knowledge of mechanisms of nerve impulse conduction has come from the study of these giant axons. The sense organs of the cephalopods are eyes, rhinophores (olfactory organs), statocysts (organs of equilibrium), and tactile organs. In Nautilus the eyes are open pits without......
giant oarfish (fish)
(species Regalecus glesne), large, long, sinuous fish of the family Regalecidae (order Lampridiformes), found throughout the tropics and subtropics in rather deep water. A ribbon-shaped fish, very thin from side to side, the oarfish may grow to a length of about ...
Giant, O’Brien, The (novel by Mantel)
...own straitened adolescence for the clear-eyed coming-of-age novel An Experiment in Love (1995). Three years later she returned to historical fiction with The Giant, O’Brien, which imaginatively explores and contrasts the lives of two real 18th-century figures—a freakishly tall sideshow performer steeped in the Irish oral tradition ...
giant order (architecture)
architectural order extending beyond one interior story, often extending through several stories. Though giant columns were used in antiquity, they were first applied to building facades in Renaissance Italy. Any of the orders (the major types being Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite) could be treated in this manner. The colossal order was revived in 18th-century Europe, notably in En...
giant otter (mammal)
rare South American species of otter....
giant otter shrew (mammal)
The giant otter shrew (Potamogale velox) has the body form, fur texture, and coloration of a river otter but is smaller. It weighs less than 400 grams (0.9 pound) and has a body 27 to 33 cm (11 to 13 inches) long and a slightly shorter tail. More shrewlike in appearance are the two dwarf species (genus Micropotamogale), the Ruwenzori......
giant panda (mammal)
bearlike mammal inhabiting bamboo forests in the mountains of central China. Its striking coat of black and white, combined with a bulky body and round face, gives it a captivating appearance that has endeared it to people worldwide. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, less than 2,500 mature pandas are thought to remain in the wild....
giant pangolin (mammal)
Some pangolins, such as the African black-bellied pangolin (Manis longicaudata) and the Chinese pangolin (M. pentadactyla), are almost entirely arboreal; others, such as the giant pangolin (M. gigantea) of Africa, are terrestrial. All are nocturnal and able to swim a little. Terrestrial forms live in burrows. Pangolins feed mainly on termites but also eat ants and other......
giant peacock moth (insect)
...of foul-smelling chemicals, the production of noises such as chirps, the generation of vibratory signals, and the sequestration in tissues of chemicals toxic to predators. Caterpillars of the giant peacock moth (Saturnia pyri) send out ultrasonic warning chirps to deter predators. In some cases, those chirps occur just prior to or in conjunction with the release of pungent......
giant petrel (bird)
The giant fulmar, also known as the giant petrel (Macronectes giganteus), with a length of about 90 cm (3 feet) and a wingspread in excess of 200 cm (6.5 feet), is by far the largest member of the family. This species nests on islands around the Antarctic Circle and in sub-Antarctic waters. It feeds on live and dead animal matter of all kinds and is a heavy predator on the young of many......
giant pitcher plant (botany)
Family Nepenthaceae includes the genus Nepenthes, a group of several dozen species of pitcher plants. This genus includes the giant pitcher plant (N. attenboroughii), one of the largest of all carnivorous plants. N. attenboroughii, found near the summit of Mount Victoria on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, is capable of capturing and digesting rodents as well as......
giant planet (astronomy)
Of the eight currently recognized planets of the solar system, the inner four, from Mercury to Mars, are called terrestrial planets; those from Jupiter to Neptune are called giant planets or Jovian planets. Between these two main groups is a belt of numerous small bodies called asteroids. After Ceres and other larger asteroids were discovered in the early 19th century, the bodies in this class......
giant pouched rat (mammal genus)
The two species of giant pouched rat (genus Cricetomys) are hunted in the wild and eaten by native peoples. Gentle animals, they are easily tamed and raised in captivity and thus have been studied to determine their marketability as a reliable source of food. Both species (C. gambianus and C. emini) are large, weighing nearly 3 kg (6.6 pounds) and having bodies up to 42 cm......
giant puffball (fungus)
...club-shaped structures (basidia). Basidiocarps are found among the members of the phylum Basidiomycota (q.v.), with the exception of the rust and smut fungi. The largest basidiocarps include giant puffballs (Calvatia gigantea), which can be 1.6 m (5.25 feet) long, 1.35 m broad, and 24 cm (9.5 inches) high, and those of bracket fungi (Polyporus squamosus)—2 m in......
giant purple urchin (echinoderm)
...takes place. Gametes of different species may fail to attract one another. For example, the sea urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and S. franciscanus can be induced to release their eggs and sperm simultaneously, but most of the fertilizations that result are between eggs and sperm of the same species. In animals with......
giant ragweed (plant)
...borne in small heads, the male in terminal spikes and the female in the upper axils of the leaves. The common ragweed (A. artemisiifolia), also called Roman wormwood, hogweed, hogbrake, and bitterweed, is found across the North American continent. It typically grows about 1 metre (3.5 feet) high and has thin, alternate or opposite, much-divided leaves. The great, or giant, ragweed......