Digital Atlas of Scientific Life
- Class Gastropoda (digitalatlasofancientlife.org)
Gastropods are the second largest class of animals (after the Insecta)—with 40,000–90,000 living species and at least 13,000 extant and fossil genera (Ponder and Lindberg, 2020)—and are also one of the most evolutionarily successful groups in the variety of ecosystems and habitats that they occupy.
- Bahamas, The - The World Factbook (cia.gov)
Lucayan Indians inhabited the Bahama islands when Christopher COLUMBUS first set foot in the New World in 1492. British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became a colony in 1783. Piracy thrived in the 17th and 18th centuries because of The Bahamas’ close proximity to shipping lanes. Since gaining independence from the UK in 1973, The Bahamas has prospered through tourism, international banking, and investment management, which comprise up to 85% of GDP.