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Economy of Madagascar

The economy of Madagascar is US$9.769 billion by gross domestic product as of 2020, being a market economy and is supported by an agricultural industry and emerging tourism, textile and mining industries. Malagasy agriculture produces tropical staple crops such as rice and cassava, as well as cash crops such as vanilla and coffee.

Malagasy exports from customs protocol in some areas, notably the United States and the European Union. These exemptions have supported the growth of the Malagasy textile industry. Despite natural resources and developing industries, the 2009 Malagasy political crisis—considered by the international community to be an illegal coup —deterred foreign investments in Madagascar and caused the Malagasy economy to decline. Foreign investments have resumed following the resumption of elections in early 2014. Madagascar is a least developed country according to United Nations.

History
Over the years, successive French colonial and independence-era governments have sought to modernize Madagascar's economy. The first modern land use projects were established by French settlers or Creole immigrants from the Mascarene Islands in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They introduced cash crops such as coffee, sugarcane, vanilla, cloves, and sisal for export. They also built small-scale mines to exploit the island's graphite, chromite, and uranium resources. To facilitate the processing and marketing of these commodities, the immigrants established a number of financial and commercial enterprises and built a small, modern railroad system. They then brought some Malagasy into this modern sector of the economy, either as wage laborers and sharecroppers on the foreign-owned plantations, or as low-level employees in the civil service or business enterprises. The foreign owners and managers, however, retained almost all of the benefits from these operations.

After independence the Tsiranana regime did little to change the French domination of the modern sector of the economy, despite increasing outrage at this continued economic dependence. This anger, together with growing concern over an unequal distribution of wealth that left the southern and western parts of the island in relative poverty, caused the ouster of Tsiranana in 1972 and a shift in economic policy. The new military regime led by Ramanantsoa cut most ties with France and began to Malagachize the economy. Slow progress toward this goal, however, helped to precipitate the end of the Ramanantsoa regime in mid-1975. Only with the rise of Ratsiraka to the presidency later that year did the takeover of formerly French-dominated enterprises begin in earnest.

Ratsiraka's policy of "revolution from above" went beyond confiscating or buying out foreign firms and turning them over to Malagasy ownership; he intended to socialize the economy by nationalizing major enterprises. The state acquired majority or minority ownership in nearly all large financial, transportation, marketing, mining, and manufacturing enterprises. Firms left under private control were required to buy and sell at statecontrolled prices, and the state closely monitored the repatriation of profits. In the rural sector, Ratsiraka aimed to establish local farming cooperatives. Almost as important as this institutional reform was the regime's intention, announced in an economic plan for the 1978-80 period, to increase dramatically the level of government capital investment in all sectors of the economy in order to improve the availability of goods and services to all.

By the start of the 1980s, however, Ratsiraka's attempt to fashion viable socialist institutions and to stimulate the economy through increased investment had failed to improve economic production and welfare. Economic growth throughout the 1970s had not kept pace with the expanding population. Despite the availability of significant agricultural and mineral resources, the economy was less productive than at the start of the decade when the average per capita income was already among the lowest in the world. The only apparent effect of the enhanced level of investment, which reached all-time highs in the 1978-80 period, was to put the country deeply in debt to foreign creditors and, therefore, pave the way for a series of structural adjustment agreements signed with the IMF and the World Bank during the 1980s and the early 1990s. Such agreements were necessary because as a 1993 World Bank study pointed out, between 1971 and 1991 the per capita income of Malagasy dropped 40 percent.

Eventually admitting that adoption of the socialist model of economic centralization and state control was a mistake, the Ratsiraka regime in 1980 initiated a return to a more classic liberal economic model that the Zafy regime wholeheartedly adopted following its inauguration in 1993. The post-1980 Ratsiraka and Zafy regimes have overseen the privatization of parastatals, the disbanding of agricultural marketing boards, the ratification of more liberal investment codes favoring foreign investment, the privatization of the banking industry, diversification of traditional, primary-product exports, and greater investment in food production. The Zafy regime has made reinvigoration of the Malagasy economy its number-one priority.

As of 1994, the majority of Malagasy continued to earn their livelihoods in ways fundamentally unchanged from those of their ancestors — small-scale farms supporting traditional irrigated rice cultivation, dryland farming of cassava and other foods, zebu cattle herding, or the raising of cash crops.

Agriculture
Madagascar produced, in 2018:

 * 4 million tons of rice;
 * 3.1 million tons of sugarcane;
 * 2.5 million tons of cassava;
 * 1 million tons of sweet potato;
 * 388 thousand tons of vegetable;
 * 383 thousand tons of banana;
 * 300 thousand tons of mango (including mangosteen and guava);
 * 257 thousand tons of potato;
 * 230 thousand tons of taro;
 * 215 thousand tons of maize;
 * 93 thousand tons of pineapple;
 * 86 thousand tons of beans;
 * 83 thousand tons of orange;
 * 73 thousand tons of coconut;

In addition to smaller productions of other agricultural products, like coffee (57 thousand tons), clove (23 thousand tons), cocoa (11 thousand tons), cashew (7 thousand tons) and vanilla (3 thousand tons).

Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, is Madagascar's largest industry and employs 82% of its labor force. Madagascar's varied climate, ranging from tropical along the coasts, moderate in the highlands and arid in the south, allows for the cultivation of tropical crops such as rice, cassava, beans and bananas. In 2011, agricultural products—especially cloves, vanilla, cacao, sugar, pepper, and coffee—accounted for Madagascar's top twelve exports by value. Madagascar produces the largest vanilla harvest in the world and Malagasy vanilla accounts for 80-85% of the global vanilla market.

Fishing
The fishing industry is present with 66 industrial fishing vessels. Fees & taxes for fishing licences are estimated at 3,6 billion Ariary (US$ 80 million) for 2023.

Textiles
Exports from Madagascar's Export Processing Zones, located around Antananarivo and Antsirabe, account for the majority of garment exports and are largely exempt from customs restrictions in the United States under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and in the European Union under the Everything but Arms (EBA) agreement.

Mining
A small but growing part of the economy is based on mining of ilmenite, with investments emerging in recent years, particularly near Tulear and Fort Dauphin. Mining corporation Rio Tinto Group started production at its Fort Dauphin Mandena mine in January 2009, following several years of preparation. The mining project is highly controversial, with Friends of the Earth and other environmental organizations filing reports to detail their concerns about the mine's effect on the environment and local communities. Gemstone mining is also an important part of Madagascar's economy.

Several major projects are underway in the mining and oil and gas sectors that, if successful, will give a significant boost. In the mining sector, these include the development of coal at Sakoa and nickel near Tamatave. The Ambatovy mine (nickel & cobalt - Sherrit International 40%, Sumitomo 27.5%, Korea Resources 27.5%, SNC-Lavalin 5%) is a huge operation and has cost US$4.76 million to date and is due to start production in 2011. In oil, Madagascar Oil is developing the massive onshore heavy oil field at Tsimiroro and ultra heavy oil field at Bemolanga.

Investment climate

Following the 2002 political crisis, the government attempted to set a new course and build confidence, in coordination with international financial institutions and donors. Madagascar developed a recovery plan in collaboration with the private sector and donors and presented it at a "Friends of Madagascar" conference organized by the World Bank in Paris in July 2002. Donor countries demonstrated their confidence in the new government by pledging $1 billion in assistance over five years. The Malagasy Government identified road infrastructure as its principal priority and underlined its commitment to public-private partnership by establishing a joint public-private sector steering committee.

The Madagascar-U.S. Business Council was formed as a collaboration between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Malagasian artisan producers in Madagascar in 2002. The U.S.-Madagascar Business Council was formed in the United States in May 2003, and the two organisations continue to explore ways to work for the benefit of both groups.

The government of former President Marc Ravalomanana was aggressively seeking foreign investment and had planned to tackle many of the obstacles to such investment, including combating corruption, reforming land-ownership laws, encouraging study of American and European business techniques, and active pursuit of foreign investors. President Ravalomanana rose to prominence through his agro-foods TIKO company, and is known for attempting to apply many of the lessons learned in the world of business to running the government. Prior to Ravalomanana's resignation, concerns had arisen about the conflict of interest between his policies and the activities of his firms. Most notable among them the preferential treatment for rice imports initiated by the government in late 2004 when responding to a production shortfall in the country.

Madagascar's appeal to investors stems from its competitive, trainable work force. More than 200 investors, particularly garment manufacturers, were organized under the country's export processing zone (EPZ) system since it was established in 1989. The absence of quota limits on textile imports to the European market under the Lomé Convention helped stimulate this growth.

Growth in output in 1992–97 averaged less than the growth rate of the population. Growth has been taken away by a decline in world coffee demand, and the erratic commitment of the government to economic reform. During a period of solid growth from 1997 to 2001, poverty levels remained stubbornly high, especially in rural areas. A six-month political crisis triggered by a dispute over the outcome of the presidential elections held in December 2001 virtually halted economic activity in much of the country in the first half of 2002. Real GDP dropped 12.7% in 2002, inflows of foreign investment dropped sharply, and the crisis tarnished Madagascar's budding reputation as an AGOA standout and a promising place to invest. After the crisis, the economy rebounded with GDP growth of over 10% in 2003. Currency depreciation and rising inflation in 2004 hampered economic performance, but growth for the year reached 5.3%, with inflation reaching around 25% at the end of the year. In 2005 inflation was brought under control by tight monetary policy of raising the Taux Directeur (central bank rate) to 16% and tightening reserve requirements for banks. Thus growth was expected to reach around 6.5% in 2005.

During Ravalomanana's presidency, the government adopted a series of business laws and regulations, including the commercial companies law (2003), labor law (2003), regulations on the application of commercial companies law (2004), public procurement law (2004), competition law (2005), foreign exchange law (2006), investment law (2007), and free zones and free enterprises law (2007).

Food security, vulnerability and risk management

Despite a wealth of abundant and diverse natural resources, Madagascar is one of the world's poorest countries. Madagascar holds great potential for agricultural development, mainly due to the large variety of soil types and climatic diversity. Nevertheless, natural hazards (cyclones, drought, locust invasions) combined with old-fashioned farming practices limit production.

The standard of living of the Malagasy population has been declining dramatically over the past 25 years. The country has gone from being a net exporter of agricultural products in the 1960s to a net importer since 1971. Inappropriate traditional agricultural methods cause soil to erode and soil quality to decline, and the basis of survival for Madagascar's people is under serious threat.

Energy
As of 2018, only 15% of the population of Madagascar has access to electricity.

Poverty reduction
In 2000, Madagascar embarked on the preparation of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) under the Heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) Initiative. The boards of the IMF and of the World Bank concurred in December 2000 that the country was eligible under the HIPC Initiative, and Madagascar reached the decision point for debt relief. On March 1, 2001, the IMF Board granted the country $103 million for 2001–03 under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGR). Resources were intended for improving access to health, education, rural roads, water, and direct support to communities. In addition, on March 7, 2001, the Paris Club approved a debt cancellation of $161 million. On February 28, 2001, the African Development Bank (ADB) approved under the HIPC a debt cancellation of $71.46 million and granted in June 2001 an additional credit of $20 million to fight against AIDS and poverty.

Partly as a result of these credits but also as a result of previous reforms, average GDP growth exceeded the population growth rate of 2.8% in 1997 (3.5%), 1998 (3.9%), 1999 (4.7%) and 2000 (4.8%).

In October 2004, the boards of the IMF and the World Bank determined that Madagascar had reached the completion point under the enhanced HIPC Initiative.

Main indicators
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2023.

Other data
Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 2.3% highest 10%: 34.9% (1993)

Industrial production growth rate: 5% (1999 est.)

Electricity – production: 1.35 billion kWh (2009 est.)

Electricity – production by source: fossil fuel: 69.5% hydro: 30.5% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2009)

Electricity – consumption: 1.256 billion kWh (2009 est.)

Electricity – exports: 0 kWh (2010)

Electricity – imports: 0 kWh (2010)

Exchange rates: Malagasy ariary (MGA) per US dollar - 2,195 (2012 est.) 2,025.1 (2011 est.) 2,090 (2010 est.) 1,956.2 (2009) 1,654.78 (2008)

title: Economy of Madagascar


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Communications in Madagascar

Communications in Madagascar include newspapers, radio, television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.

Widespread poverty and illiteracy severely limit the penetration of television, print media, and the Internet, making radio by far the most important communications medium in the country.

Newspapers

 * L'Express de Madagascar, privately-owned daily.
 * Midi Madagasikara, privately-owned daily.
 * Madagascar Tribune, privately-owned daily.
 * La Gazette de la Grande Ile, privately-owned daily.
 * Lakroa (Cross), Catholic weekly.

Press freedom
While the constitution provides for freedom of the press, the ability of the press to criticize the regime is severely limited. In particular the absence of a communications code protecting press freedoms allows authorities to prosecute journalists under libel law and the criminal code whenever the content of their reporting offends the facto regime.

In November 2012 the de facto minister of communications stated that assertions harming the "general interest" were banned from public media. Gendarmes interrogated the editor-in-chief of Le Courrier de Madagascar for several hours in April 2012 after he ran a story entitled, "Governance--the Brothel Takes Hold at High Levels." Investigative journalists are often targets of threats and harassment from authorities. In May 2012 police stopped a journalist from La Verite, a pro-regime newspaper, on his way to cover an event in Antananarivo. Police reportedly beat him and broke his arm. All journalists released on bail remained subject to rearrest at any time.

Radio and television

 * Radio stations: State-owned Radio Nationale Malagasy (RNM) has an extensive national network reach; privately owned radio broadcasters in cities and major towns; state-run radio dominates in rural areas; relays of 2 international broadcasters are available in the capital, Antananarivo (2007).
 * Malagasy National Radio (RNM), state-owned.
 * Radio Don Bosco, Catholic.
 * Radio Lazan' Iarivo (RLI) (Glory of Iarivo), private.
 * Radio Antsiva, private.
 * Radios: 3.05 million (1997).
 * Television stations: Television Malagasy (TVM) has an extensive national network reach; privately owned TV broadcasters in cities and major towns; relays of 2 international broadcasters are available in Antananarivo (2007).
 * Television Malagasy (TVM), state-owned.
 * Radio-Television Analamanga (RTA), privately-owned.
 * Madagascar TV (MATV), privately-owned.
 * Television sets: 325,000 (1997).

Former president, Marc Ravalomanana, and current leader Andry Rajoelina own broadcasting outlets.

Media restrictions
Although the law provides for freedom of speech, authorities severely restrict freedom of speech by intimidating opponents and resorting to imprisonment or violence when threats fail to dissuade critics. The de facto minister of communications targeted those who expressed dissent, sending official warning letters to news outlets whose coverage displeased the regime. From 2010 through 2012 an estimated 80 radio and television station licenses withdrawn and the stations ordered suspend broadcasting immediately. By the end of 2012 they had not been authorized to reopen. In September 2012 the editor of the national television station was suspended, reportedly for having opposition politicians on the air. Authorities also suspend journalists who continue to broadcast despite government warnings. To maintain access to sources and remain safe, journalists widely practiced self-censorship.

On 2 May 2012, authorities imprisoned the editors of the private radio station Free FM, Lalatiana Rakotondrazafy and Fidel Razara Pierre, for a two-day investigation following a libel suit brought by Mamy Ravatomanga, a well-known backer of the de facto regime. Following a series of public rallies that same month marking the first anniversary of Free FM and calling for greater press freedom, the radio's editors were charged with provoking outrage against the regime, destruction of public goods, mounting opposition to security forces, and holding a public demonstration without authorization. On 22 July 2012, authorities closed the radio station, and the two journalists and another colleague went into hiding. By the end of 2012 Free FM remained closed. But after a deal consented with the two journalists and the regime, initiated by Mamy Ravatomanga, Lalatiana Rakotondrazafy is free and become the allied of the Rajoelina's regime.

Shortwave relay stations
In 2013, the government of Madagascar and Malagasy Global Business S.A. signed an agreement to operate the Madagascar relay station in Talata-Volonondry. Among its customers are Radio Netherlands Worldwide, NHK World-Japan, BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Vatican Radio, Adventist World Radio and Free Press Unlimited.

Telephones

 * Calling code: +261
 * International call prefix: 00
 * Main lines: 143,700 lines in use, 138th in the world (2012), provided by Telma (Telecom Malagasy)
 * Mobile cellular: 8.6 million lines, 89th in the world (2012).
 * Teledensity: 40 per 100 persons, combined fixed-line and mobile-cellular (2010).
 * Telephone system: system is above average for the region, Antananarivo's main telephone exchange modernized in the late 1990s, but the rest of the analogue-based telephone system is poorly developed; open-wire lines, coaxial cables, microwave radio relay, and tropospheric scatter links (2010).
 * Communications cables: two; Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION), connecting Madagascar, Réunion, and Mauritius; Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) connecting Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Comoros, Tanzania, Madagascar, Mozambique, and South Africa.
 * Satellite earth stations: 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean) and 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region) (2010).

Internet

 * Top-level domain: .mg
 * Internet users: 452,185 users, 133rd in the world; 2.1% of the population, 201st in the world (2012).
 * Fixed broadband: 9,242 subscriptions, 150th in the world; less than 0.05% of the population, 187th in the world (2012).
 * Wireless broadband: Unknown (2012).
 * Internet hosts: 38,392 hosts, 127th in the world (2012).
 * IPv4: 62,208 addresses allocated, less than 0.05% of the world total, 2.8 addresses per 1000 people (2012).
 * Internet Service Providers (ISPs):
 * As of 2006:
 * DTS, http://www.dts.mg/
 * Simicro, http://www.simicro.mg/
 * Blueline (Gulfsat), http://www.gulfsat.mg. In 2005 Blueline was the first operator in the Indian Ocean area to launch a Wimax based network for broadband Internet access.

Internet censorship and surveillance
There are generally no restrictions on access to the Internet, or reports that the de facto government monitors e-mail or Internet chat rooms. However, the de facto minister of communication made several statements throughout 2012 about restricting the Internet.

Political groups, parties, and activists use the Internet extensively to advance their agendas, share news, and criticize other parties. Although there have been allegations of technical sabotage of some Web sites, the Internet is considered among the more reliable sources of information, as many Internet servers were outside the country and cannot be regulated by the regime.

The constitution and law provide for freedom of speech and press, but the de facto regime and military actors actively and systematically impeded the exercise of freedoms of expression and of the press. The law prohibits arbitrary Interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence, but homes and workplaces of opposition groups are subject to arbitrary searches without warrants. Regime security personnel also punished family members for alleged offenses committed by individuals.

Predator Files
In October 2023, Mediapart newspaper revealed that the Malagasy presidency acquired the Predator spyware in 2021 illegally and used it to spy on several political opponents, including the opposition newspaper, Roland Rasoamaharo, who was subsequently imprisoned. According to two technical investigations, Predator was also used by the Malagasy government during the 2023 elections.

An investigation by the Central Office for the Fight against Crimes Against Humanity, Genocides and War Crimes (OCLCH) established that the leaders of Nexa and Intellexa exported equipment and software to hack phones to the Malagasy presidency, without any authorization.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Communications in Madagascar


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Transport in Madagascar

Paved and unpaved roadways, as well as railways, provide the main forms of transport in Madagascar. Madagascar has approximately 31640 km of paved roads and 836 km of rail lines. In 2010, Madagascar had 432 km of navigable waterways.

Railways

In 2018, Madagascar reported 836 km of rail lines. There are several rail lines and stations in Madagascar. Antananarivo is connected to Toamasina, Ambatondrazaka and Antsirabe by rail, and another rail line connects Fianarantsoa to Manakara. The northern railway (TCE) is concessioned to Madarail. The southern line, Fianarantsoa-Côte-Est railway (FCE), is a parastatal line.

Roads

Waterways
The relatively short rivers of Madagascar are typically of local importance only; isolated streams and small portions of Lakandranon' Ampangalana (Canal des Pangalanes) are navigated by pirogue. Coastal inter-city transport routes are found along the west coast.

Madagascar has 600 km of waterways, 432 km of which are navigable.

Ports and harbors
The most important seaport in Madagascar is located on the east coast at Toamasina. Ports at Toliara, Mahajanga, and Antsiranana are significantly less used because of their remoteness. The island's newest port at Port d'Ehola, constructed in 2008 and privately managed by Rio Tinto, will come under state control upon completion of the company's mining project near Tôlanaro around 2038. The country's principal cargo port is Toamasina Autonomous Port.

Airports

The main international airport in Madagascar is Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo. Air Madagascar services the island's many small regional airports, which offer the only practical means of access to many of the more remote regions during rainy season road washouts. There are 26 airports with paved runways and 57 airports with unpaved runways. In 2018, Madagascar carried 544,458 air passengers.

title: Transport in Madagascar


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Madagascar Armed Forces

The Madagascar Armed Forces (Forces armées de Madagascar, Tafika Malagasy) is the national military of Madagascar. The IISS detailed the armed forces in 2012 as including an Army of 12,500+, a Navy of 500, and a 500-strong Air Force.

The armed forces were involved in the 2009 Malagasy political crisis. During World War II, Malagasy troops fought in France, Morocco, and Syria.

History
The rise of centralized kingdoms among the Sakalava, Merina and other ethnic groups produced the island's first standing armies, first equipped with spears, but later with muskets, cannons and other firearms. King Ralambo (1575–1612) raised the first standing army in the highland Kingdom of Imerina with a handful of guns, although for at least two centuries the armies of the Sakalava were much larger and better equipped, possessing thousands of muskets obtained principally through trade with European partners. By the early 19th century, however, the army of the Kingdom of Imerina was able to bring much of the island under Merina control.

Merina Queen Ranavalona, like her predecessors, utilized the tradition of fanampoana (service due to the sovereign in lieu of taxes) to conscript a large portion of the population of Imerina into military service, enabling the queen to raise a standing army that was estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. By the late 19th century French plans to colonize Madagascar were gaining momentum, leading British mercenaries to provide training to the queen's army in an unsuccessful bid to repel the French troops. Madagascar was colonized in 1896, and during World War II over 46,000 Malagasy soldiers were drafted to fight with the Allies, over 2,000 of whom died fighting for France.

Madagascar gained political independence and sovereignty over its military in 1960. Since this time Madagascar has never engaged in an armed conflict, whether against another state or within its own borders. As such the armed forces of Madagascar have primarily served a peacekeeping role. However, the military has occasionally intervened to restore order during periods of political unrest. When President Philibert Tsiranana was forced to step down in 1972, a military directorate ensured an interim government before appointing one of its own, Admiral Didier Ratsiraka, to lead the country into its socialist Second Republic. He launched a strategy of obligatory national armed or civil service for all young citizens regardless of gender. The majority were channeled into civil service, including agriculture and education programs for rural development based on the socialist Soviet model. Ratsiraka would also mobilize elements of the military to pacify unarmed protesters, occasionally using violent means. His order to fire upon unarmed protesters in 1989 was the catalyst for transition to the democratic Third Republic in 1992. The military remained largely neutral during the protracted standoff between incumbent Ratsiraka and challenger Marc Ravalomanana in the disputed 2001 presidential elections. By contrast, in 2009 a segment of the army defected to the side of Andry Rajoelina, then-mayor of Antananarivo, in support of his attempt to force President Ravalomanana from power. It is widely believed that payoffs were involved in persuading these military personnel to change camps in support of the coup d'état.

As of 2010, the military of Madagascar is composed of the 8,100 paramilitary of the National Gendarmerie and the 13,500 members of the Armed Forces. According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies' Military Balance 2010, the latter includes an Army of 12,500, a Navy of 500 and a 500-strong Air Force, while the CIA Factbook describes the Armed Forces as consisting of the Intervention Force, Aeronaval Force (navy and air) and the Development Force. Military service is voluntary and limited to males aged 18 to 25; every citizen of either gender is required to have perform either military or civil service for a minimum of 18 months. However, because of a lack of up-to-date census data, this requirement is not currently enforced. The Gendarmerie recruits Malagasy citizens between the ages of 20 and 30 (or 35 if the recruit has prior military service). Military expenses constituted just over one percent of GDP. Under Ravalomanana, military expenditure doubled from 54 million USD in 2006 to 103 million USD in 2008.

Patrol and coastal combatants

 * Coastal patrol boat:
 * 1 Trozona
 * Patrol boats:
 * 2 Tselatra (PRC 27m)
 * 7 (ex-US CG MLB)

title: Madagascar Armed Forces


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Talk:Measure word

Classifiers
The Classifier page redirects to "Measure word", but I'm not sure if this must be so. A measure word is a specific type of classifier, but are all classifiers used exclusively for counting? I know that that's the case with Japanese and Mandarin, but I'd like to see examples of classifiers that are not measure words, if there are any. -- Pablo D. Flores 11:40, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * You are right. Those Chinese words are not measure words but noun classifiers.  This article should be merged with noun classifier. - TAKASUGI Shinji 05:47, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

 * There are other classificatory systems. Classification of nouns (or events??) doesnt necessarily have to entail semantic number. Allan (1977) identifies 4 different language types:

 * numeral classifier langs (e.g. Thai)
 * concordial classifier langs (e.g. Bantu, many Australian langs, Oceanic langs)
 * predicate classifier langs (e.g. Athabaskan langs)
 * intra-locative classifier langs (e.g. Toba, Eskimo, Dyirbal)

 * (see Southern_Athabaskan_languages for examples of the predicate type). reading Allan is highly recommended. peace — ishwar  (S PEAK )  23:27, 2005 May 7 (UTC)

 * references:
 * Allan, Keith. (1977). Classifiers. Language, 53, 2, 285-311.

Chinese nouns, language comparison
2002.05.25:  Cleaned up and moved discussion from Talk to count noun article.  -- pgdudda

Well, I disagree with the description of the Chinese nouns as count nouns. Even though you can count something ( pieces of furniture ) doesn't mean that it is grammatically a count noun. Because the use of the measure word is mandatory, this is grammatically equivalent to saying that all the nouns are mass nouns. I'll bet linguists have strong opinions ( on both sides) of this one. I don't speak Mandarin, so I didn't change anything even though I was tempted.

Anyway, I reformatted so that the language comparison comes after the introduction and the examples. Contrasting languages may be the reason why we notice these grammatical points, but the contrast isn't necessary to define and explain, and I think ( in the English wikipedia anyway ) that beginning with examples in English is more straightforward. -- Olof

Comparison with grammatical gender?
In some respects, grammatical gendering and measure words are similar, but different, and my understanding is that there are few, if any, languages that use both. English is rare in that it uses neither, but most European languages are gendered, and most Asian languages are counted. Does anyone know enough linguistic theory to discuss the implications of this somewhere? Bigpeteb 16:11, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Number is more important than noun classes. I read somewhere that a language with noun classes always has number, and number and noun classifiers usually don't coexist.  English is not exceptional, because it has number and no noun classifier.  - TAKASUGI Shinji 06:14, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Sorry about all the edits on 2004-11-04 (17:51, 18:02, and 18:04). I realized I hadn't logged in after I saved the page, and the precess of attaching myself to the edit got kinda messy. --Vishahu 22:07, Nov 4, 2004 (UTC)

merge to classifier
i added the merger notice. although measure words are not the same as classifiers, most of the text in this article goes with "classifier". Benwing 04:03, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

Factual inaccuracies?
"In contrast to the above examples from English, Chinese measure words are obligatory with enumeration of all count nouns; 'yī rén' in modern Chinese is grammatically incorrect." Contrary to what is written, "yī rén" is an acceptable phrase in modern Chinese. eg. 他一人闯进了门. Though I admit this isn't really talking about "a person barged in the door" but "he barged in the door alone". Still, the claim that "yī rén" is grammatically incorrect is false. Maybe for measure words, but not in the whole language. Besides, in classical Chinese it is definitely acceptable, eg. 三人行必有我师. -- Миборовский U 06:13, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Quantifier
Is quantifier synonymous to measure word? --Abdull 14:37, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

 * No, European languages have quantifiers, but they don't really have measure words; or at least they don't use measure words in the systematic way in which Southeast Asian words do. FilipeS (talk) 18:47, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Russian
Why is the Russian in here, when it is basically the same as the English pattern? This article should be concerned with languages that are NOT like English, as English is not a true measure-word language. --SameerKhan 03:36, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

English: "A water"
I disagree that this is 'almost never heard.' It's used often enough in restaurants or food stands when someone is ordering a bottle or cup of water - "I'd like a water" or "we'll have three waters" for example. (In fact I was going to write "when someone is ordering a water" as my first instinct but realized that might not be clear enough.) --Dbutler1986 (talk) 16:29, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Chinese classifier
In case anyone is interested: the article Chinese classifier is currently up for FAC, at Featured article candidates/Chinese classifier/archive2. Any comments would be welcome. Thanks, r ʨ anaɢ talk/contribs 16:20, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Wrong article
This article is almost entirely about classifiers, not measure words. (For an in-depth but language-specific explanation of the difference, see Chinese classifier.) I am hoping to rewrite it when I have a chance, but for now just wanted to at least leave a message in case anyone is watching. r ʨ anaɢ talk/contribs 01:06, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

 * This article should be merged with classifier. Obviously what Wikipedia refers to as "measure words" and what it refers to as "classifiers" are different, and a merged article would be better prepared to elucidate the difference. Also, Wikipedia overstates the difference and consistency with which actual linguists use the two terms. The two English terms "measure word" and "classifier" can be used interchangeably, at least when talking about Chinese classifiers. I suspect it is only recently that specific author(s) have tried to delegate the two words; there is hardly a linguistic consensus--the issue is too trivial and semantic. In any case, it complicates the issue terribly to have two articles--merge! --gwc (talk) 00:34, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure I agree with all that. "Measure word" is used to refer to Chinese classifiers mostly in the pedagogical realm; in linguistic publications and conferences I have almost always seen 'classifier'. The differences between the two are more than just trivial semantic ones. r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 03:58, 24 March 2010 (UTC)
 * DeFrancis himself uses the word "measure word" (and not "classifier") in his 1984 publication. But for modern times, "'Measure word' is used to refer to Chinese classifiers mostly in the pedagogical realm; in linguistic publications and conferences [one] almost always [sees] 'classifier'" sounds spot on to me. I wish we could work that sentence into the article. --gwc (talk) 23:38, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Roughly this same sentence is used in Chinese classifier (near the top of the section), so we could always steal it, along with its footnote. It's referring specifically to Chinese ones, but it might be generalizable to others as well...I'm not sure though, since I personally don't have any experience with Japanese classrooms, and most other languages with classifiers don't seem to be common classroom languages in my part of the world... r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 02:42, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Measure words with count nouns
Am I right in thinking that measure words can in fact be used with both mass and count nouns? If pails in "three pails of mud" is a measure word, is it not equally so in "three pails of shells"? W. P. Uzer (talk) 16:26, 24 August 2013 (UTC)
 * If no-one object, then, I'm going to make this point. W. P. Uzer (talk) 09:16, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, that's correct. r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 12:42, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

“No equivalent of of” in East Asian languages
On the contrary, in Japanese, both 学生五人 gakusei go-nin (student five-) and 五人の学生 go-nin-no gakusei (five-- student) are valid noun phrases meaning ‘five students’, the only difference being the emphasis. The genitive particle の no in the latter phrase has literally the same function as the English of for uncountable nouns. I’d expect Korean to be the same, but I don’t know a thing about Chinese. Anybody? Ashpilkin (talk) 00:54, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

title: Talk:Measure word


text:
United Nations Commission on Human Rights

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and was also assisted in its work by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR). It was the UN's principal mechanism and international forum concerned with the promotion and protection of human rights.

On March 15, 2006, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to replace UNCHR with the UN Human Rights Council.

History

The UNHRC was established in 1946 by ECOSOC, and was one of the first two "Functional Commissions" set up within the early UN structure (the other being the Commission on the Status of Women). It was a body created under the terms of the United Nations Charter (specifically, under Article 68) to which all UN member states are signatories.

It met for the first time in January 1947 and established a drafting committee for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

The body went through two distinct phases. From 1947 to 1967, it concentrated on promoting human rights and helping states elaborate treaties, but not on investigating or condemning violators. It was a period of strict observance of the sovereignty principle.

In 1967, the Commission adopted interventionism as its policy. The context of the decade was of Decolonization of Africa and Asia, and many countries of the continent pressed for a more active UN policy on human rights issues, especially in light of massive violations in apartheid South Africa. The new policy meant that the Commission would also investigate and produce reports on violations.

To allow better fulfillment of this new policy, other changes took place. In the 1970s, the possibility of geographically oriented workgroups was created. These groups would specialize in investigating violations in a particular region or even a single country, as was the case with Chile. With the 1980s came the creation of theme-oriented workgroups, which would specialize in specific types of abuses.

None of these measures, however, were able to make the Commission as effective as desired, mainly because of the presence of human rights violators and the politicization of the body. During the following years until its extinction, the UNCHR became increasingly discredited among activists and governments alike.

The Commission held its final meeting in Geneva on March 27, 2006, and was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in the same year.

Mandate
The Commission on Human Rights was intended to examine, monitor and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or territories (known as country mechanisms or mandates) as well as on major phenomena of human rights violations worldwide (known as thematic mechanisms or mandates). The Human Rights division of the U.N. is also expected to uphold and protect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Structure
At the time it was extinguished, the Commission consisted of representatives drawn from 53 member states, elected by the members of ECOSOC. There were no permanent members: each year (usually in May), approximately a third of its seats would come up for election and those chosen would be appointed for a three-year term.

Seats on the Commission were apportioned by region, using the mechanism of the United Nations Regional Groups. During its last year of service in 2005, the representation by region was as follows.
 * 15 from the African Group:
 * Burkina Faso, Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Mauritania, Nigeria, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Togo, Zimbabwe
 * 12 from the Asian Group:
 * Bhutan, People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka
 * 5 from the Eastern European Group:
 * Armenia, Hungary, Romania, Russian Federation, Ukraine
 * 11 from the Latin American and Caribbean Group:
 * Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru
 * 10 from the Western European and Others Group:
 * Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States

The Commission would meet each year in regular session for six weeks during March and April in Geneva, Switzerland. In January 2004, Australia was elected as chair of the 60th Session. In January 2005, Indonesia was elected chair of the 61st Session. Peru was elected chair of the 62nd Session in January 2006. The Commission held its final meeting in Geneva on March 27, 2006.

Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
In 1999 the Economic and Social Council changed its title from the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights".

The Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights was the main subsidiary body of the Commission on Human Rights. It was composed of twenty-six experts whose responsibility was to undertake studies, particularly in light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and make recommendations to the Commission concerning the prevention of discrimination of any kind relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms and the protection of racial, national, religious and linguistic minorities. Membership was selected with regard to equitable geographical distribution.

The Sub-Commission established seven Working Groups that investigate specific human rights concerns, including:
 * Minorities
 * Transnational Corporations
 * Administration of Justice
 * Anti-terrorism
 * Contemporary Forms of Slavery
 * Indigenous Populations
 * Communication
 * Social Forum

The United Nations Human Rights Council assumed responsibility for the Sub-Commission when it replaced the Commission on Human Rights in 2006.

Special procedures
The Commission on Human Rights established 30 special procedures, or mechanisms, to address specific country situations or thematic issues such as freedom of expression and opinion, torture, the right to food, and the right to education.

Individuals with expertise in particular areas of human rights were appointed by the chair of the Commission to serve as Special Rapporteurs for a maximum of six years. They are unpaid, independent experts who receive personnel and logistical support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for their work. Their main activities are to examine, monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or territories. They are able to write to governments about reported violations and conduct fact-finding visits to countries that invite them.

The special mechanisms are categorised according to thematic and country mandates.

Special procedures also include working groups made up of up to five experts who monitor and investigate specific human rights concerns. Three groups were established by the Commission:
 * Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
 * Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
 * Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination

The special procedures are now under the direction of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Criticism
The Commission was repeatedly criticized for the composition of its membership. In particular, several of its member countries themselves had dubious human rights records, including states whose representatives had been elected to chair the Commission. Countries with records of human rights abuses like torture, extrajudicial killings, political imprisonment, and disappearances likely sought election to the Commission to project a positive international image. Commission membership also provided some political shelter from criticism of these abuses.

Another criticism was that the Commission did not engage in constructive discussion of human rights issues, but was a forum for politically selective finger-pointing and criticism. The desire of states with problematic human rights records to be elected to the Commission was viewed largely as a way to defend themselves from such attacks.

Activist groups had long expressed concern over the memberships of the People's Republic of China, Zimbabwe, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, and the past memberships of Algeria, Syria, Libya, Uganda and Vietnam on the Commission. These countries had extensive records of human rights violations, and one concern was that, by working against resolutions on the Commission condemning human rights violations, they indirectly promoted despotism and domestic repression.

On May 4, 2004, United States ambassador Sichan Siv walked out of the Commission following the uncontested election of Sudan to the commission, calling it an "absurdity" in light of Sudan's ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region. One major consequence of the election of Sudan to the Commission was the lack of willingness for some countries to work through the Commission. For example, on July 30, 2004, it was the United Nations Security Council, not the Commission, that passed a resolution—by 13–0, with China and Pakistan abstaining—threatening Sudan with unspecified sanctions if the situation in the Darfur region did not improve within the following 30 days. The reasons given for the action were the attacks by the Janjaweed Arab militias of Sudan on the non-Arab African Muslim population of Darfur, a region in western Sudan.

The Commission had also come under repeated criticism from the United States for its unwillingness to address other human rights concerns. In 2001, the United States was voted off the Commission by the other member states, many of whom have been criticized for their human rights violations, and in 2003 Syria put forward a proposal to discuss US war crimes in Iraq. But journalist Anne Applebaum wrote, "the European Union and the United States aren't exempt from blame, either", citing their hesitance in voting to criticize Russia's actions in Chechnya.

Israel
The Commission was also criticized by advocates of Israel for bias against Israel. In 2002 Anne Bayefsky, a professor of international law at York University in Toronto, wrote that "commission members seek to avoid directly criticizing states with human rights problems, frequently by focusing on Israel, a state that, according to analysis of summary records, has for over 30 years occupied 15 percent of commission time and has been the subject of a third of country-specific resolutions". On April 15, 2002, the Commission approved a resolution affirming the "legitimate right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation in order to free its land and be able to exercise its right of self-determination". In so doing, the Palestinian people was declared "fulfilling its mission, one of the goals and purposes of the United Nations". Of the 53-member commission, 40 countries voted yes, five voted no, and seven abstained. Although widely reported that the resolution condoned resistance to Israel by "all available means, including armed struggle", the resolution itself does not contain those words. Alfred Moses, a former United States ambassador to the Commission and now chairman of the monitoring group UN Watch, said that "A vote in favour of this resolution is a vote for Palestinian terrorism." In a letter to the Commission on November 15, 2002, following an attack by Palestinians on Israelis in the town of Hebron, Nabil Ramlawi, the Permanent Observer for Palestine at the UN, appealed to the resolution as justification for the attack.

Human rights and mental health
In 1977, the Commission formed a "Sub-Commission to study, with a view to formulating guidelines, if possible, the question of the protection of those detained on the grounds of mental ill-health against treatment that might adversely affect the human personality and its physical and intellectual integrity". The sub-commission was charged with "determin[ing] whether adequate grounds existed for detaining persons on the grounds of mental ill-health". The guidelines that resulted, UN Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care, have been criticized for ignoring and failing to protect the rights of involuntary patients.

Genocide
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) passed a number of resolutions concerning genocide: UNCHR Decision 9 (XXXV); 1986/18; 1987/25; 1988/28; 1989/16; 1990/19; "Fiftieth Anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide", 1998/10; and "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide", 1999/67.

In 1978 the UNCHR endorsed the recommendation of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to distribute widely the Ruhashyankiko Report.

In August 1992, the UNCHR "condemn[ed] absolutely the concept and practice of 'ethnic cleansing'" in the former Yugoslavia but did not describe it as genocide. The Commission's resolution was endorsed by the UNCHR parent body, the United Nations Economic and Social Council. In November 1992, the UNCHR "call[ed] upon all States to consider the extent to which the acts committed in Bosnia ... and in Croatia constitute genocide in accordance with [the Genocide Convention]".

At the request of Canada in May 1994, an emergency meeting was convened to deal with the ongoing genocide in Rwanda. René Degni-Segui was appointed as a Special Rapporteur, immediately visited Rwanda and promptly issued a report on the scope of the genocide.


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Chelicerata

The subphylum Chelicerata (from Neo-Latin,, ) constitutes one of the major subdivisions of the phylum Arthropoda. Chelicerates include the sea spiders, horseshoe crabs, and arachnids (including harvestmen, scorpions, spiders, solifuges, ticks, and mites, among many others), as well as a number of extinct lineages, such as the eurypterids (sea scorpions) and chasmataspidids.

Chelicerata split from Mandibulata by the mid-Cambrian, as evidenced by stem-group chelicerates like Habeliida and Mollisonia present by this time. The surviving marine species include the four species of xiphosurans (horseshoe crabs), and possibly the 1,300 species of pycnogonids (sea spiders), if the latter are indeed chelicerates. On the other hand, there are over 77,000 well-identified species of air-breathing chelicerates, and there may be about 500,000 unidentified species.

Like all arthropods, chelicerates have segmented bodies with jointed limbs, all covered in a cuticle made of chitin and proteins. The chelicerate body plan consists of two tagmata, the prosoma and the opisthosoma, except that mites have lost a visible division between these sections. The chelicerae, which give the group its name, are the only appendages that appear before the mouth. In most sub-groups, they are modest pincers used to feed. However, spiders' chelicerae form fangs that most species use to inject venom into prey. The group has the open circulatory system typical of arthropods, in which a tube-like heart pumps blood through the hemocoel, which is the major body cavity. Marine chelicerates have gills, while the air-breathing forms generally have both book lungs and tracheae. In general, the ganglia of living chelicerates' central nervous systems fuse into large masses in the cephalothorax, but there are wide variations and this fusion is very limited in the Mesothelae, which are regarded as the oldest and most basal group of spiders. Most chelicerates rely on modified bristles for touch and for information about vibrations, air currents, and chemical changes in their environment. The most active hunting spiders also have very acute eyesight.

Chelicerates were originally predators, but the group has diversified to use all the major feeding strategies: predation, parasitism, herbivory, scavenging and eating decaying organic matter. Although harvestmen can digest solid food, the guts of most modern chelicerates are too narrow for this, and they generally liquidize their food by grinding it with their chelicerae and pedipalps and flooding it with digestive enzymes. To conserve water, air-breathing chelicerates excrete waste as solids that are removed from their blood by Malpighian tubules, structures that also evolved independently in insects.

While the marine horseshoe crabs rely on external fertilization, air-breathing chelicerates use internal but usually indirect fertilization. Many species use elaborate courtship rituals to attract mates. Most lay eggs that hatch as what look like miniature adults, but all scorpions and a few species of mites keep the eggs inside their bodies until the young emerge. In most chelicerate species the young have to fend for themselves, but in scorpions and some species of spider the females protect and feed their young.

The evolutionary origins of chelicerates from the early arthropods have been debated for decades. Although there is considerable agreement about the relationships between most chelicerate sub-groups, the inclusion of the Pycnogonida in this taxon has recently been questioned (see below), and the exact position of scorpions is still controversial, though they were long considered the most basal of the arachnids.

Venom has evolved three times in the chelicerates; spiders, scorpions and pseudoscorpions, or four times if the hematophagous secretions produced by ticks are included. In addition there have been undocumented descriptions of venom glands in Solifugae. Chemical defense has been found in whip scorpions, shorttailed whipscorpions, harvestmen, beetle mites and sea spiders.

Although the venom of a few spider and scorpion species can be very dangerous to humans, medical researchers are investigating the use of these venoms for the treatment of disorders ranging from cancer to erectile dysfunction. The medical industry also uses the blood of horseshoe crabs as a test for the presence of contaminant bacteria. Mites can cause allergies in humans, transmit several diseases to humans and their livestock, and are serious agricultural pests.

Segmentation and cuticle
The Chelicerata are arthropods as they have: segmented bodies with jointed limbs, all covered in a cuticle made of chitin and proteins; heads that are composed of several segments that fuse during the development of the embryo; a much reduced coelom; a hemocoel through which the blood circulates, driven by a tube-like heart. Chelicerates' bodies consist of two tagmata, sets of segments that serve similar functions: the foremost one, called the prosoma or cephalothorax, and the rear tagma is called the opisthosoma or abdomen. However, in the Acari (mites and ticks) there is no visible division between these sections.

The prosoma is formed in the embryo by fusion of the ocular somite (referred as "acron" in previous literatures), which carries the eyes and labrum, with six post-ocular segments (somite 1 to 6), which all have paired appendages. It was previously thought that chelicerates had lost the antennae-bearing somite 1, but later investigations reveal that it is retained and corresponds to a pair of chelicerae or chelifores, small appendages that often form pincers. Somite 2 has a pair of pedipalps that in most sub-groups perform sensory functions, while the remaining four cephalothorax segments (somite 4 to 6) have pairs of legs. In basal forms the ocular somite has a pair of compound eyes on the sides and four pigment-cup ocelli ("little eyes") in the middle. The mouth is between somite 1 and 2 (chelicerae and pedipalps).

The opisthosoma consists of thirteen or fewer segments, may or may not end with a telson. In some taxa such as scorpion and eurypterid the opisthosoma divided into two groups, mesosoma and metasoma. The abdominal appendages of modern chelicerates are missing or heavily modified – for example in spiders the remaining appendages form spinnerets that extrude silk, while those of horseshoe crabs (Xiphosura) form gills.

Like all arthropods, chelicerates' bodies and appendages are covered with a tough cuticle made mainly of chitin and chemically hardened proteins. Since this cannot stretch, the animals must molt to grow. In other words, they grow new but still soft cuticles, then cast off the old one and wait for the new one to harden. Until the new cuticle hardens the animals are defenseless and almost immobilized.

Chelicerae and pedipalps
Chelicerae and pedipalps are the two pairs of appendages closest to the mouth; they vary widely in form and function and the consistent difference between them is their position in the embryo and corresponding neurons: chelicerae are deutocerebral and arise from somite 1, ahead of the mouth, while pedipalps are tritocerebral and arise from somite 2, behind the mouth.

The chelicerae ("claw horns") that give the sub-phylum its name normally consist of three sections, and the claw is formed by the third section and a rigid extension of the second. However, spiders' have only two sections, and the second forms a fang that folds away behind the first when not in use. The relative sizes of chelicerae vary widely: those of some fossil eurypterids and modern harvestmen form large claws that extended ahead of the body, while scorpions' are tiny pincers that are used in feeding and project only slightly in front of the head.

In basal chelicerates, the pedipalps are unspecialized and subequal to the posterior pairs of walking legs. However, in sea spider and arachnids, the pedipalps are more or less specialized for sensory or prey-catching function – for example scorpions have pincers and male spiders have bulbous tips that act as syringes to inject sperm into the females' reproductive openings when mating.

Body cavities and circulatory systems
As in all arthropods, the chelicerate body has a very small coelom restricted to small areas round the reproductive and excretory systems. The main body cavity is a hemocoel that runs most of the length of the body and through which blood flows, driven by a tubular heart that collects blood from the rear and pumps it forward. Although arteries direct the blood to specific parts of the body, they have open ends rather than joining directly to veins, and chelicerates therefore have open circulatory systems as is typical for arthropods.

Respiratory systems
These depend on individual sub-groups' environments. Modern terrestrial chelicerates generally have both book lungs, which deliver oxygen and remove waste gases via the blood, and tracheae, which do the same without using the blood as a transport system. The living horseshoe crabs are aquatic and have book gills that lie in a horizontal plane. For a long time it was assumed that the extinct eurypterids had gills, but the fossil evidence was ambiguous. However, a fossil of the 45 mm long eurypterid Onychopterella, from the Late Ordovician period, has what appear to be four pairs of vertically oriented book gills whose internal structure is very similar to that of scorpions' book lungs.

Feeding and digestion
The guts of most modern chelicerates are too narrow to take solid food. All scorpions and almost all spiders are predators that "pre-process" food in preoral cavities formed by the chelicerae and the bases of the pedipalps. However, one predominantly herbivore spider species is known, and many supplement their diets with nectar and pollen. Many of the Acari (ticks and mites) are blood-sucking parasites, but there are many predatory, herbivore and scavenger sub-groups. All the Acari have a retractable feeding assembly that consists of the chelicerae, pedipalps and parts of the exoskeleton, and which forms a preoral cavity for pre-processing food.

Harvestmen are among the minority of living chelicerates that can take solid food, and the group includes predators, herbivores and scavengers. Horseshoe crabs are also capable of processing solid food, and use a distinctive feeding system. Claws at the tips of their legs grab small invertebrates and pass them to a food groove that runs from between the rearmost legs to the mouth, which is on the underside of the head and faces slightly backwards. The bases of the legs form toothed gnathobases that both grind the food and push it towards the mouth. This is how the earliest arthropods are thought to have fed.

Excretion
Horseshoe crabs convert nitrogenous wastes to ammonia and dump it via their gills, and excrete other wastes as feces via the anus. They also have nephridia ("little kidneys"), which extract other wastes for excretion as urine. Ammonia is so toxic that it must be diluted rapidly with large quantities of water. Most terrestrial chelicerates cannot afford to use so much water and therefore convert nitrogenous wastes to other chemicals, which they excrete as dry matter. Extraction is by various combinations of nephridia and Malpighian tubules. The tubules filter wastes out of the blood and dump them into the hindgut as solids, a system that has evolved independently in insects and several groups of arachnids.

Nervous system
Chelicerate nervous systems are based on the standard arthropod model of a pair of nerve cords, each with a ganglion per segment, and a brain formed by fusion of the ganglia just behind the mouth with those ahead of it. If one assume that chelicerates lose the first segment, which bears antennae in other arthropods, chelicerate brains include only one pair of pre-oral ganglia instead of two. However, there is evidence that the first segment is indeed available and bears the cheliceres.

There is a notable but variable trend towards fusion of other ganglia into the brain. The brains of horseshoe crabs include all the ganglia of the prosoma plus those of the first two opisthosomal segments, while the other opisthosomal segments retain separate pairs of ganglia. In most living arachnids, except scorpions if they are true arachnids, all the ganglia, including those that would normally be in the opisthosoma, are fused into a single mass in the prosoma and there are no ganglia in the opisthosoma. However, in the Mesothelae, which are regarded as the most basal living spiders, the ganglia of the opisthosoma and the rear part of the prosoma remain unfused, and in scorpions the ganglia of the cephalothorax are fused but the abdomen retains separate pairs of ganglia.

Senses
As with other arthropods, chelicerates' cuticles would block out information about the outside world, except that they are penetrated by many sensors or connections from sensors to the nervous system. In fact, spiders and other arthropods have modified their cuticles into elaborate arrays of sensors. Various touch and vibration sensors, mostly bristles called setae, respond to different levels of force, from strong contact to very weak air currents. Chemical sensors provide equivalents of taste and smell, often by means of setae.

Living chelicerates have both compound eyes (only in horseshoe crabs, as the compound eye in the other clades has been reduced to a cluster of no more than five pairs of ocelli), mounted on the sides of the head, plus pigment-cup ocelli ("little eyes"), mounted in the middle. These median ocelli-type eyes in chelicerates are assumed to be homologous with the crustacean nauplius eyes and the insect ocelli. The eyes of horseshoe crabs can detect movement but not form images. At the other extreme, jumping spiders have a very wide field of vision, and their main eyes are ten times as acute as those of dragonflies, able to see in both colors and UV-light.

Reproduction
Horseshoe crabs use external fertilization; the sperm and ova meet outside the parents' bodies. Despite being aquatic, they spawn on land in the intertidal zone on the beach. The female digs a depression in the wet sand, where she will release her eggs. The male, usually more than one, then releases his sperm onto them. Their trilobite-like larvae look rather like miniature adults as they have full sets of appendages and eyes, but initially they have only two pairs of book-gills and gain three more pairs as they molt.

Also the sea spiders have external fertilization. The male and female release their sperm and eggs into the water where fertilization occurs. The male then collects the eggs and carries them around under his body.

Being air-breathing animals, although many mites have become secondary aquatic, the arachnids use internal fertilization. Except for opiliones and some mites, where the male have a penis used for direct fertilization, fertilization in arachnids is indirect. Indirect fertilization happens in two ways; the male deposit his spermatophore (package of sperm) on the ground, which is then picked up by the female. Or the male store his sperm in appendages modified into sperm transfer organs, such as the pedipalps in male spiders, which is inserted into the female genital openings during copulation. Courtship rituals are common, especially in species where the male risk being eaten before mating. Most arachnids lay eggs, but all scorpions and some mites are viviparous, giving birth to live young (even more mites are ovoviviparous, but most are oviparous). Female pseudoscorpions carry their eggs in a brood pouch on the belly, where the growing embryos feeds on a nutritive fluid provided by the mother during development, and are therefore matrotrophic.

Levels of parental care for the young range from zero to prolonged. Scorpions carry their young on their backs until the first molt, and in a few semi-social species the young remain with their mother. Some spiders care for their young, for example a wolf spider's brood cling to rough bristles on the mother's back, and females of some species respond to the "begging" behavior of their young by giving them their prey, provided it is no longer struggling, or even regurgitate food.

Fossil record
There are large gaps in the chelicerates' fossil record because, like all arthropods, their exoskeletons are organic and hence their fossils are rare except in a few lagerstätten where conditions were exceptionally suited to preserving fairly soft tissues. The Burgess shale animals like Sidneyia from about have been classified as chelicerates, the latter because its appendages resemble those of the Xiphosura (horseshoe crabs). However, cladistic analyses that consider wider ranges of characteristics place neither as chelicerates. There is debate about whether Fuxianhuia from earlier in the Cambrian period, about, was a chelicerate. Another Cambrian fossil, Kodymirus, was originally classified as an aglaspid but may have been a eurypterid and therefore a chelicerate. If any of these was closely related to chelicerates, there is a gap of at least 43 million years in the record between true chelicerates and their nearest not-quite chelicerate relatives. Sanctacaris, member of the family Sanctacarididae from the Burgess Shale of Canada, represents the oldest occurrence of a confirmed chelicerate, Middle Cambrian in age. Although its chelicerate nature has been doubted for its pattern of tagmosis (how the segments are grouped, especially in the head), a restudy in 2014 confirmed its phylogenetic position as the oldest chelicerate. Another fossil of the site, Mollisonia, is considered a basal chelicerate and it has the oldest known chelicerae and proto-book gills. The eurypterids have left few good fossils and one of the earliest confirmed eurypterid, Pentecopterus decorahensis, appears in the Middle Ordovician period, making it the oldest eurypterid. Until recently the earliest known xiphosuran fossil dated from the Late Llandovery stage of the Silurian, but in 2008 an older specimen described as Lunataspis aurora was reported from about in the Late Ordovician.

The oldest known arachnid is the trigonotarbid Palaeotarbus jerami, from about in the Silurian period, and had a triangular cephalothorax and segmented abdomen, as well as eight legs and a pair of pedipalps.

Attercopus fimbriunguis, from in the Devonian period, bears the earliest known silk-producing spigots, and was therefore hailed as a spider, but it lacked spinnerets and hence was not a true spider. Rather, it was likely sister group to the spiders, a clade which has been named Serikodiastida. Close relatives of the group survived through to the Cretaceous Period. Several Carboniferous spiders were members of the Mesothelae, a basal group now represented only by the Liphistiidae, and fossils suggest taxa closely related to the spiders, but which were not true members of the group were also present during this Period.

The Late Silurian Proscorpius has been classified as a scorpion, but differed significantly from modern scorpions: it appears wholly aquatic since it had gills rather than book lungs or tracheae; its mouth was completely under its head and almost between the first pair of legs, as in the extinct eurypterids and living horseshoe crabs. Fossils of terrestrial scorpions with book lungs have been found in Early Devonian rocks from about. The oldest species of scorpion found as of 2021 is Dolichophonus loudonensis, which lived during the Silurian, in present-day Scotland.

Relationships with other arthropods
A recent view of chelicerate phylogeny

A "traditional" view of chelicerate phylogeny The "traditional" view of the arthropod "family tree" shows chelicerates as less closely related to the other major living groups (crustaceans; hexapods, which includes insects; and myriapods, which includes centipedes and millipedes) than these other groups are to each other. Recent research since 2001, using both molecular phylogenetics (the application of cladistic analysis to biochemistry, especially to organisms' DNA and RNA) and detailed examination of how various arthropods' nervous systems develop in the embryos, suggests that chelicerates are most closely related to myriapods, while hexapods and crustaceans are each other's closest relatives. However, these results are derived from analyzing only living arthropods, and including extinct ones such as trilobites causes a swing back to the "traditional" view, placing trilobites as the sister-group of the Tracheata (hexapods plus myriapods) and chelicerates as least closely related to the other groups.

Major sub-groups
Shultz (2007)'s evolutionary family tree of arachnids – † marks extinct groups.

It is generally agreed that the Chelicerata contain the classes Arachnida (spiders, scorpions, mites, etc.), Xiphosura (horseshoe crabs) and Eurypterida (sea scorpions, extinct). The extinct Chasmataspidida may be a sub-group within Eurypterida. The Pycnogonida (sea spiders) were traditionally classified as chelicerates, but some features suggest they may be representatives of the earliest arthropods from which the well-known groups such as chelicerates evolved.

However, the structure of "family tree" relationships within the Chelicerata has been controversial ever since the late 19th century. An attempt in 2002 to combine analysis of DNA features of modern chelicerates and anatomical features of modern and fossil ones produced credible results for many lower-level groups, but its results for the high-level relationships between major sub-groups of chelicerates were unstable, in other words minor changes in the inputs caused significant changes in the outputs of the computer program used (POY). An analysis in 2007 using only anatomical features produced the cladogram on the right, but also noted that many uncertainties remain. In recent analyses the clade Tetrapulmonata is reliably recovered, but other ordinal relationships remain in flux.

The position of scorpions is particularly controversial. Some early fossils such as the Late Silurian Proscorpius have been classified by paleontologists as scorpions, but described as wholly aquatic as they had gills rather than book lungs or tracheae. Their mouths are also completely under their heads and almost between the first pair of legs, as in the extinct eurypterids and living horseshoe crabs. This presents a difficult choice: classify Proscorpius and other aquatic fossils as something other than scorpions, despite the similarities; accept that "scorpions" are not monophyletic but consist of separate aquatic and terrestrial groups; or treat scorpions as more closely related to eurypterids and possibly horseshoe crabs than to spiders and other arachnids, so that either scorpions are not arachnids or "arachnids" are not monophyletic. Cladistic analyses have recovered Proscorpius within the scorpions, based on reinterpretation of the species' breathing apparatus. This is reflected also in the reinterpretation of Palaeoscorpius as a terrestrial animal.

A 2013 phylogenetic analysis (the results presented in a cladogram below) on the relationships within the Xiphosura and the relations to other closely related groups (including the eurypterids, which were represented in the analysis by genera Eurypterus, Parastylonurus, Rhenopterus and Stoermeropterus) concluded that the Xiphosura, as presently understood, was paraphyletic (a group sharing a last common ancestor but not including all descendants of this ancestor) and thus not a valid phylogenetic group. Eurypterids were recovered as closely related to arachnids instead of xiphosurans, forming the group Sclerophorata within the clade Dekatriata (composed of sclerophorates and chasmataspidids). This work suggested it is possible that Dekatriata is synonymous with Sclerophorata as the reproductive system, the primary defining feature of sclerophorates, has not been thoroughly studied in chasmataspidids. Dekatriata is in turn part of the Prosomapoda, a group including the Xiphosurida (the only monophyletic xiphosuran group) and other stem-genera. A recent phylogenetic analysis of the chelicerates places the Xiphosura within the Arachnida as the sister group of Ricinulei., but others still retrieve a monophyletic arachnida.

Diversity
Although well behind the insects, chelicerates are one of the most diverse groups of animals, with over 77,000 living species that have been described in scientific publications. Some estimates suggest that there may be 130,000 undescribed species of spider and nearly 500,000 undescribed species of mites and ticks. While the earliest chelicerates and the living Pycnogonida (if they are chelicerates ) and Xiphosura are marine animals that breathe dissolved oxygen, the vast majority of living species are air-breathers, although a few spider species build "diving bell" webs that enable them to live under water. Like their ancestors, most living chelicerates are carnivores, mainly on small invertebrates. However, many species feed as parasites, herbivores, scavengers and detritivores.

Interaction with humans
In the past, Native Americans ate the flesh of horseshoe crabs, and used the tail spines as spear tips and the shells to bail water out of their canoes. More recent attempts to use horseshoe crabs as food for livestock were abandoned when it was found that this gave the meat a bad taste. Horseshoe crab blood contains a clotting agent, limulus amebocyte lysate, which is used to test antibiotics and kidney machines to ensure that they are free of dangerous bacteria, and to detect spinal meningitis and some cancers.

Cooked tarantula spiders are considered a delicacy in Cambodia, and by the Piaroa Indians of southern Venezuela. Spider venoms may be a less polluting alternative to conventional pesticides as they are deadly to insects but the great majority are harmless to vertebrates. Possible medical uses for spider venoms are being investigated, for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia, Alzheimer's disease, strokes, and erectile dysfunction.

Because spider silk is both light and very strong, but large-scale harvesting from spiders is impractical, work is being done to produce it in other organisms by means of genetic engineering. Spider silk proteins have been successfully produced in transgenic goats' milk, tobacco leaves, silkworms, and bacteria, and recombinant spider silk is now available as a commercial product from some biotechnology companies.

In the 20th century, there were about 100 reliably reported deaths from spider bites, compared with 1,500 from jellyfish stings. Scorpion stings are thought to be a significant danger in less-developed countries; for example, they cause about 1,000 deaths per year in Mexico, but only one every few years in the USA. Most of these incidents are caused by accidental human "invasions" of scorpions' nests. On the other hand, medical uses of scorpion venom are being investigated for treatment of brain cancers and bone diseases.

Ticks are parasitic, and some transmit micro-organisms and parasites that can cause diseases in humans, while the saliva of a few species can directly cause tick paralysis if they are not removed within a day or two.

A few of the closely related mites also infest humans, some causing intense itching by their bites, and others by burrowing into the skin. Species that normally infest other animals such as rodents may infest humans if their normal hosts are eliminated. Three species of mite are a threat to honey bees and one of these, Varroa destructor, has become the largest single problem faced by beekeepers worldwide. Mites cause several forms of allergic diseases, including hay fever, asthma and eczema, and they aggravate atopic dermatitis. Mites are also significant crop pests, although predatory mites may be useful in controlling some of these.

title: Chelicerata


text:
Struthioniformes

Struthioniformes is an order of birds with only a single extant family, Struthionidae, containing the ostriches. Several other extinct families are known, spanning across the Northern Hemisphere, from the Early Eocene to the early Pliocene, including a variety of flightless forms like the Paleotididae, Geranoididae, Eogruidae and Ergilornithidae, the latter two thought to be closely related to Struthionidae.

Evolutionary history
According to Mayr and Zelenkov (2021), all Struthioniformes are united by the following characters: "a very long and narrow tarsometatarsus with short trochleae for the second and fourth toes, a tubercle next to the pons supratendineus on the distal end of the tibiotarsus, as well as a shortening of all non-ungual phalanges of the fourth toe except for the proximal one" All known members of the group are thought to have been flightless. Struthioniformes were widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere during the Eocene, including Paleotididae from Europe, and Geranoididae from North America, and Eogruidae and Ergilornithidae in Asia. Ergilornthids would persist in Asia into the Early Pliocene. Struthionidae, the sister group of Ergilornithidae, likely originated in Asia. Ostriches first appeared in Africa during the early Miocene, around 21 million years ago, before dispersing into Eurasia during the late Miocene, beginning around 12 million years ago.

Taxonomy
After Mayr, and Zelenkov (2021)

 * Palaeotididae (Early mid-Eocene, Europe)
 * Palaeotis
 * Galligeranoides
 * Geranoididae (Early-mid Eocene, North America)
 * Unnamed clade
 * Eogruidae (monotypic)
 * Eogrus (mid-Late Eocene, Asia)
 * Sonogrus (late Eocene, Asia)
 * Unnamed clade
 * Proergilornis (late Eocene, Mongolia)
 * Unnamed clade
 * Ergilornithidae (Late Eocene-Early Pliocene, Asia)
 * Struthionidae (Early Miocene-Recent, Afro-Eurasia)

title: Struthioniformes


text: Talk:Merostomata

title: Talk:Merostomata


text:
Talk:Porcupine

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jaybee625. Peer reviewers: K.Lip, Jessicabadcock, HayleyMercer.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 06:58, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Porcupine