Quick Quiz
What does elephants, dugongs , manatees, and hyraxes have in common? That are all evolutionary cousins of each other and closely related. Elephants closest living relatives are Hyraxes and they are all under the clad Paenungulata. This has been confirmed not only by cladistics, but also genetic molecular studies.
The evolution of Elephants is a study in the power of evolutionary divergence and radial adaptivity. About.com has an excellent series of webpages on elephant evolution.
Elephant Evolutionary Family
There is also a wonderful gallery of of images of prehistoric and current elephants.
There are three or possibly four current species, two African and one Asian and possibly one more African species in West Africa. In addition to these, Mastodons and Mammoths but have lived into the historical period, to about 2,00 years ago, although largely gone at about 10,000 years ago and squeezed into isolated pockets. The Asian Elephant is more closely related to Woolly Mammoth than the African Elephant. The Scientific name for the African Elephant, or more specifically the African Savanna Elephant is Loxodonta Africana. As a side note, the two species of African Elephant, Bush and Forrest, as as closely related as the Asian Elephant the Mammoth.
Tanzania has release in 1986 the 100 Shilingi 0.925 Silver Proof coin celebrating the threatened African elephant. Home to Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania is a wonderful East African nation which shares Lake Victoria on in the North and just south of Kenya and East of the Congo. The coin is minted by the British Royal mint and weighs 19.44 grams and a diameter of 36.00mm.
s is a truly outstanding coin and unlike most world coins, the obverse is absolutely as wonderful and the reverse. The obverse is of the President Julius Nyerere and is one of the few coins to note depict a Caucasian or European face. Not only that, but the image beautifully depicts realistically an obviously man African Decent without stereotype and without the troubles that many artisits have in depicting Africans. it reminds me of Rembrandt’s "Two Moors" in The Mauritsuis, one of the great museums in the world but unfortunately closed until 2014.
Two Moors is a wonderful work by Rembrandt, sensitive and deep in humanity, especially considering that Rembrandt has probably never seen a Black African.
I have two images of the obverse, one head on and usual, and one from a slant so one can appreciate fully the depth and beauty of the devices.
Avoid Gijs Henzen, owner of Munthandel G. Henzen - Antisemetic Facists
Munthandel G. Henzen's (MA Shops) owner Gijs Henzen, is an AntiSemetic Fascist The company, Munthandel G Henzen is a prominent dealer of international and ancient coins on the internet, commonly known as MA Coins. It is owned by Gijs Henzen.
He is a passionate anti-Semite who supports Hamas and the virulent and genocidal Islamic organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hezbollah that wants Jews dead.
He perpetrates lies and classical antisemitic troupes. He has Jewish blood on his hands. Henzen identifies as a "human rights advocate" who views the world through a lens of anti-imperialism. In this framework, he views Israel not as a sovereign nation of a displaced people, but as a "colonial project."
It is a moral imperative to remain clear of him and to do no business with this Nazi. If you are Jewish, double down on that. The life you save might well be your own.
- He utilizes inversion rhetoric, where he compares Israeli actions to those of historical oppressors (including the Nazis).
- By claiming Zionism is the "greatest enemy of Judaism," he attempts to resolve the contradiction that Zionism is central to Jewish identity ,and has always been so, by essentially telling Jewish people what "true" Judaism should look like.
- His blog posts suggest he views himself as a lone voice of truth against a "corrupt" world. By grouping Netanyahu with Putin and Xi Jinping, he frames his hatred as a universal "opposition to tyranny."
- His specific focus on Israelis as "masters of torture" goes beyond political disagreement and taps into ancient blood libel tropes--the idea that a specific group has an inherent, unique cruelty or a "thirst for blood."
- He appears to be a proponent and influenced by radical political indoctrination. He has adopted a worldview where the "Zionist" is the ultimate villain, and in his mind, he is attacking an ideology, even though his language characterizes an entire ethnic and national group in ways that are indistinguishable from traditional antisemitism.
Coin Collecting at the Safir House
WWF 25th Anniversary: Tanzania and the African Elephant
