The habitat of the cow. Hungry fossa in cows

The domestic cow as a species has been used for many millennia, but who was the ancestor of the cow, because all domesticated animal species once had wild ancestors and brothers?! What the ancestor of all cows looked like and where he lived is described in this article.

What species is a cow?

An ordinary domestic cow belongs to the artiodactyl family of ruminants, and the name comes from the ancient Greek "keraos", which means "horned". A cow is a female of an ordinary bull, which was tamed and domesticated by human ancestors many thousands of years ago. Interestingly, this type of animal in different ages has different names:

A cow is an adult female that has already had offspring.

A calf is a baby of a cow up to 8-10 months old.

A heifer or heifer is the name of a future cow that has reached puberty and is ready to mate, or an already inseminated individual.

The bull is an adult male who is also a heifer.

An ox is meant for meat.

When were cows domesticated?

Who were the ancestors of the domestic cow, anyone wondered? After all, initially all kinds of animals and birds were wild, and domestic species appeared thanks to the efforts of our ancestors. Cows, or rather her ancestors, already lived on the planet during the Neolithic period, from about the eighth century BC.

Ancient people domesticated this animal after goats and pigs, because in those days people began to gather in vast tribes and lead a sedentary lifestyle. Most likely, they were seduced by the power of the cow's ancestors: the first tamed animals were used as draft power, later the opportunity to always have food fresh milk became another significant factor for the domestication of cattle. Therefore, the gaze of a person fell on the then-dwelling tour, a wild bull from the family of bovids that lived on the territory of present-day Central Asia.

Wild ancestor of the domestic cow

The tour is a powerful artiodactyl, which reached a height of 180 cm (at the withers) and had a weight often reaching a ton, but at the same time the body was muscular, and not swollen with fat. This ancestor of the cow usually had a black color in bulls, and females were more often brownish or red, but there were also individuals of mixed color. The head of the tour was set high on a powerful neck, the horns were sharp and rather long: often more than a meter in length and weighing about 12 kg, they curved like a lyre and rushed forward at the enemy.

These animals fed mainly on leaves and young shoots of shrubs and trees, grass and fallen fruits. fruit trees, lived in small groups, but in winter they often gathered in larger herds, although most predators were not afraid of this animal: aggressive disposition, powerful muscles and large horns repulsed anyone. Only individuals weakened by disease or age could become the object of attack by wolves, lions and other wild animals.

Where did they live?

In ancient times, the ancestor of the cow was found throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and even in the Caucasus and North Africa, but by the third century BC. e. in Africa has already been exterminated by man. The meat and skin of the tour fell in love with the most dangerous predator on the planet, so by 600 BC there were no tours in Mesopotamia either.

Are there tours in nature now?

Intensive deforestation in the 9th-11th centuries AD in Europe led to the fact that the auroch as a species was significantly reduced and gradually disappeared, on the territory of modern Ukraine aurochs were still encountered until the 12th century, and by 1550 they remained only in Poland, and then thanks to the decree of Sigismund the Third, who wished to keep the aurochs as a species in his reserve. In 1564, only 30 individuals remained in this place, and in 1620 - only one female.

The wild ancestor of the cow as a species ceased to exist in 1627, when the last turkey died, in Yaktorovo (Ukraine) a monolithic boulder with an inscription was erected in her honor. The cause of death of an isolated herd is considered a banal degradation of genes when individuals that are close in kinship (father and daughter, mother and son, brother and sister) interbreed. It was obvious that the herd had no chance.

Historians believe that the reason for the mass extinction of tours all over the planet was the active and ruthless human activity: on the one hand, economic - deforestation, plowing land for fields, as well as hunting for this beast, because in the Middle Ages it was considered prestigious to get the head of this animal. Having survived the Ice Age and more than a million years of evolution, this majestic animal fell under the pressure of an individual several times smaller than it.

How did the tour become a pet?

In the process of domestication, the aurochs as a species gradually mutated into a smaller individual, but milk productivity increased, which was one of the decisive factors in the selection of producers. The height of the animals became less by a good half a meter, the weight also decreased by 300 -350 kg, and the horns gradually became shorter, as often a person filed their peaks too sharp. Wherein genetic research scientists proved that cows had more than one ancestor, and in different areas of the planet, domestication began in parallel from several groups.

The memory of the ancestor of the cow - the tur still lives among the peoples of Ukraine, there is a proverb "He has a nature like a tur", reflecting the aggressive and restive disposition of a person who is not afraid of anything. Also, the word “turnut” reminds a person of this animal, that is, push hard, “pull out” - a push followed by a fall of the opponent. According to some versions, a round in chess is a piece named after a wild animal, famous for its power and strength. Large has become one of the symbols of wealth.

Who else is related to the tour?

Scientists consider the Lydian fighting bull closest in phenotype to the ancestor of the cow, which is used in bullfighting in Spain and Portugal, as well as the Heck bull, which was bred by breeders in the 1920s and 30s in Germany. The Heck bull is named after the Heck brothers: Heinz and Lutz, who, at the request of Hitler, were engaged in breeding a breed as similar as possible to the ancient tour. The project was closed during the war, and they tried to exterminate the "fascist cows". Fortunately, a few individuals survived in zoos, which again became the object of research after 1970.

Also close relatives of the tour are Ukrainian gray cattle, watussi - cattle of Africa, as well as zebu - now living in the territory of Hindustan and nearby lands.

It is a mistake to assume that the living and fairly common buffaloes are also descendants of the aurochs, in fact they are separate view. Tur belongs to the order of bovines, and buffaloes belong to the order of the same name, since their morphological differences do not allow the reproduction of offspring: bulls have 60 chromosomes per cell, and buffaloes have only 58.

Whether to be a clone of the tour?

In one of the caves of Derbyshire, in the central part of England, the remains of an ancestor of a cow were found, which are more than six thousand years old. Several leading institutes in Great Britain and Ireland conducted a thorough analysis of the genetic material and produced the first DNA strand of the tour. Polish scientists intend to use this data to clone the animal, a desire actively supported by the Polish Ministry of the Environment.

Whether this procedure is necessary for society and whether it will entail mass cloning of long-extinct animals and birds, scientists do not advertise, while there are suspicions that these experiments have long been carried out under the heading "secret" so as not to disturb the unstable minds of people.

A cow is a mammal animal from the placental infraclass, the artiodactyl order, the ruminant suborder, the bovid family, the subfamily of bulls, the genus of real bulls, and the species of wild bulls. A domesticated subspecies of the wild bull ( Bos taurus) is a domestic bull ( Bos taurus taurus), whose female is a cow. The male of this species is called a bull, young animals are called calves. Castrated males are called oxen. Young females that did not produce offspring are called heifers. Productively inseminated (pregnant) heifers are called heifers.

Origin and history of cow domestication

The first mention of a cow as a domestic animal dates back to the 8th century BC, as evidenced by the fossil remains of the animal found in the territories of modern Syria and Turkey.

The progenitor of a wild bull and a cow is considered to be an extinct tour in the 17th century - a primitive wild bull that lived in the steppe zone of Africa, Asia and Europe. Initially, the domestication of tours was carried out solely for the purpose of obtaining meat. As the Agriculture animals began to be used as labor force, and later to obtain milk and skins.

Cow - description, characteristics, structure of the animal

A cow is a large animal, reaching 120-150 cm at the withers. The average weight of a cow is 750 kg, with a minimum weight of 147 kg for small individuals. Some cows of large beef breeds can weigh up to 1300 kg.

Cows are distinguished by a massive, elongated body with a characteristically concave back. The pelvic bones protrude noticeably, massive hips have a flattened shape. In a small recess formed by the pelvic bones, there is an elastic, long tail of a cow, ending in a tassel.

The cervical interception of the animal is short and powerful, the head of the cow is large, with a wide, flat forehead, on which dense, curly hair usually grows.

On the head of most breeds there are hollow horns growing up or sideways, but there are also hornless (hornless) breeds of cows. The height of the horns of a cow depends on the breed.

The eyes of a cow are large, round, with a horizontal pupil, which provides a panoramic view. These animals are characterized by lateral monocular vision, and they perceive colors with central binocular vision, and cows are especially good at distinguishing red and its shades, distinguishing blue, gray and green colors worse.

Also, cows notice any movements very well.

The ears of a cow are short, shaped like a horn. Outside, the ears are covered with fine hairs, inside the hair is thick and long. The cow's hearing is well developed: mobile ears turn to the sound source, like locators, and pick up even high frequencies (up to 35 thousand Hz).

The cow has a well-developed sense of smell and taste. Animals perfectly feel various aromas and pheromones, and due to the presence of 25 thousand taste buds located on the tongue, they perfectly distinguish sweet from bitter and sour from salty.

The cow is a herbivore, so the anatomical structure of the teeth allows them to chew different kinds vegetation. Young individuals have 20 teeth (12 molars and 8 incisors), a mature cow has 32 teeth: 8 incisors designed for cutting grass, and 24 molars that perform the function of grinding food. Elongated and pointed incisors are located on the lower jaw, which makes characteristic circular movements during chewing.

In the groin of the cow is the mammary gland, the udder, which is represented by the left and right parts. These parts, in turn, form the anterior and posterior quarters.

On each segment there is a nipple 5-10 cm long and up to 3 cm thick.

The skin of a cow is covered with short dense hairs of various shades of black, white, brown or red. The suit, in accordance with the breed of the cow, can be one color, spotted or striped.

By nature, cows are herd animals, with a permanent dominant hierarchy established within the group. Cows communicate with each other through smells and pheromones, as well as nods and a special turn of the head, which can mean a wide variety of emotions: anxiety, threat, call or humility. The lowing of a cow also expresses a certain state of the animal: suffering if the cow was not milked on time, hunger, thirst. By mooing, a cow calls a calf or another member of the herd.

The average life expectancy of a cow is 20 years, but some individuals live up to 35 years. Domestic bulls live 15-20 years.

Cow chewing gum

The life of a cow consists of 3 main activities: eating food, chewing cud and resting.

Chewing gum, or rumination in a cow (from Latin ruminatio - chewing) is an important process, changes in the correct course of which can affect the health of the animal. The fact is that when eating food, the cow swallows it, almost without chewing, but only slightly moistening with saliva. Solid particles of food that have entered the rumen (one of the four chambers of the stomach) begin to irritate its walls, causing their periodic contractions. This leads to the natural regurgitation of food for its repeated, more thorough chewing. In the process of chewing the cow, the cow secretes almost twice as much saliva as during the initial chewing, and the composition of the saliva also changes: it increases the level of sodium phosphate, as well as bicarbonate, which are so necessary to support normal operation animal's digestive tract. Rumination occurs cyclically, usually each cycle (there can be from 6 to 12 per day) lasts 30-60 minutes. As soon as all the solid particles of feed in the rumen are processed, its walls stop shrinking, and the cow regains her appetite and the need for a new portion of food.

What to feed a cow?

Structural features digestive system cows allow her to eat a wide variety of feeds: coarse, high in fiber (hay, straw, twigs and twigs), succulent, which include a large amount of water (beets, grass, silage), as well as cereals (grain, meal and cake).

To increase productivity standards, cows need a complete diet rich in vitamins, minerals and salts, as well as feed of animal origin (bone and meat and bone meal).

V warm time years on pastures cows eat in large quantities perennial chaff, hedgehog, fescue, clover, alfalfa, foxtail and Arzhan. Onion, wormwood and colza, which are on the cow's menu, give the milk an unpleasant aftertaste and a suspicious aroma.

In winter, in the stalls, cows are fed various concentrated feeds with a predominance of silage rich in calcium and vitamin D, as well as steamed straw. A significant part of the winter diet is cereals (barley, oats,) - an important energy component. The source of sugars and starch is beets and, as proteins, sunflower and soybean meal, bran, as well as brewer's and bread yeast are added to the cow's diet. The main vitamin and mineral supplements are fish oil, wood ash, chalk, carbamide, needles, branches, food salt. Calves are additionally fed with curdled milk, oatmeal and linseed jelly are cooked.

Breeds of cows, names and photos

Today, there are about 1,100 cow breeds (genetically stable varieties) in the world, bred on the basis of artificial selection and hard work of breeders.

The modern economic classification of cow breeds includes 3 main areas:

• specialized dairy breeds;
• specialized meat breeds;
• combined breeds (meat and dairy).

Dairy breeds of cows

Dairy cows: Aishir, Angel (Angler), Brown Latvian, Brown Swiss, Guernese, Dutch, Holstein, Jersey, Istoben, Red Danish, Red Baltic cattle, Red steppe, Red-and-white, Tagil, Kholmogory, Black-and-white, Yaroslavl and other.

Below is a description of several dairy breeds of cows:

• aishir cow

one of the most popular dairy breeds, which is bred in Russia, Finland, Scotland, the USA, Canada and Australia and is especially valued for the constancy of milk yield. In addition, this breed tolerates cold very well and does not like heat, therefore it is valued in the northern regions of Russia. Aishir cows are distinguished by their graceful physique, thin legs, straight, broad back, beautiful and light head crowned with thin horns. The average weight of an adult cow is 500-520 kg. Color - red-and-white. Milk yield is from 4000 to 5000 liters, milk fat content is 4% -4.3%.

an old, fat-milk (up to 6%) variety comes from England. It is actively bred in the USA, Canada, some European countries, Australia and New Zealand. In Russia, the farms of the Moscow and Voronezh regions are engaged in breeding the breed. Jersey cows are distinguished by a squat physique (up to 123 cm at the withers). The average body weight of an adult cow is 360-400 kg, a bull - 600-700 kg. The predominant color of the cow is red or light brown.

was bred in the Yaroslavl province in the 19th century. Cows are usually black (sometimes red) in color, with a white head and typical black "glasses" (spots) around the eyes. The belly, bottom of the legs and the tip of the tail are painted in White color. The mass of an adult bull varies from 700 to 1200 kg, a cow weighs less - from 450 to 550 kg with a height at the withers of 1.25-1.27 m. The main advantage of the breed is the excellent taste and nutritional value of milk. Today, the Yaroslavl breed of cows is most widely bred in the Tver and Vologda regions, as well as in the Ivanovo and Yaroslavl regions.

This is a breed of dairy cows, the first representatives of which were bred in Holland. Today, Holstein cows are bred in the USA, Israel, and Canada. On the territory of Russia, the breed is popular in the Volga and Far Eastern districts, in Siberia and the Central part of the Russian Federation, in the Urals, in the North-Western and Southern districts. Most Holstein cows have a variegated black and white color, since 1971 it has been customary to distinguish representatives with a red and white color as a separate breed. The weight of an adult cow is 650-750 kg with growth at the withers from 137 to 145 cm. The mass of bulls reaches 1200 kg.

Meat breeds of cows

Meat breeds of cows:

• British origin: Aberdeen Angus, Beefbild, Galloway, Hereford, Devon, Dexter, Lincoln, Longhorn, Sussex, Highland, Shorthorn;
• French origin: Limousin, Main-anjou, Salers, Light Aquitaine, Charolais;
• Italian origin: Kianskaya, Marchidzhanskaya, Piedmontskaya, Romagnolskaya;
• Russian origin: Kazakh white-headed, Kalmyk, Gray Ukrainian;
• hybrid origin: Afrikaner, Beefmaster, Boran, Barzon, Bosmara, Brahman, Brangus, Volyn meat, Katalo, Santa Gertrude.

Below is a description of several beef breeds of cows:

• highland cow breed

exotic meat breed of Scottish origin. The breeding stock is distributed throughout the world, but the breed is most actively bred in North America and Australia. Highlands can also be found in many zoos exhibiting this breed along with other exotic animals. Distinctive feature Highland breeds are large horns and a long, wavy coat of black, red, yellow and tan, as well as a long, wavy bang that protects the eyes from wind and precipitation.

• Aberdeen Angus breed

This is a Scottish beef variety of cows, bred in the county of Aberdeen. This popular cow breed is bred in Russia, England, USA, Argentina, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Massive, heavy and hardy animals have an impressive fat layer, due to which they can be kept outdoors even in the most severe frosts. The average height at the withers is 120-150 cm, and the weight of individual individuals exceeds 1000 kg. All representatives of the breed are polled (hornless), and the color of cows can be black or red.

meat breed, bred in the 18th century in England. The animal is squat, with a barrel-shaped, massive body. The height of a cow at the withers is on average 125-135 cm, weight - 600-700 kg, bulls reach a mass of 800-1000 kg. The color of Herefords is dominated by red, almost all cows are distinguished by a white muzzle, the same color neck and bottom legs. The Hereford breed of cows is massively distributed in England and the USA, bred in Australia and New Zealand, and popular in Canada and Russia.

Meat and dairy breeds of cows (combined)

Meat and dairy breeds of cows: Alatauskaya, Bestuzhevskaya, Brown Carpathian, Yorkshire, Caucasian brown, Kostroma, Red Gorbatovskaya, Red Tambovskaya, Lebedinskaya, Montbeliardskaya, Simmentalskaya, Blue cow, Suksunskaya, Sychevskaya, Shvitskaya, Yurinskaya.

• Bluecow (sea cow)

got its name due to the blue (or gray-blue) color of the coat. A cow gives 12-15 liters of milk per day. Representatives of the breed are distinguished by good survival in harsh climate zones and are bred in the Baltic States and Russia. The blue cow is one of the official symbols of Latvia.

bred in Switzerland, it has an optimal balance of meat and milk production, and has given birth to many other breeds. Nowadays, it is widely bred all over the world, including in 36 regions of Russia. Large animals grow up to 140 cm at the withers. The mass of an adult cow is 550-650 kg, bulls weigh up to 1300 kg. The color of the representatives of the breed can be either solid, red or fawn, or speckled. Often there are individuals of red color with a white head.

This is a combined, meat and dairy breed, whose birthplace is Switzerland. The animal has a brown color with different shades - from mouse-gray to brown tones of varying degrees of saturation. The weight of an adult cow is from 500 to 800 kg, bulls can weigh up to 1100 kg. Characteristic breeds - very fast weight gain and excellent milk production. Today, the Swiss breed is common in Austria, Italy, Germany, America and Russia.

The stomach of a cow is arranged in a special way - it has four sections or chambers, each of which performs its own function. Violation of work at least in one of the parts of the digestive system entails various pathologies of animal health.

Features of cow digestion

Cows have an interesting digestive system - this animal swallows food whole, almost without processing it with its teeth, and then, when resting, burps it in parts and chews thoroughly. This is why a cow can often be seen chewing. The mechanism for burping and chewing food from the stomach is called chewing gum. If this process stops in a cow, then something is wrong with her.

The digestive system of a cow has the following structure:

1. Oral cavity - lips, teeth and tongue. They serve to capture food, swallow and process.
2. Esophagus. His total length about half a meter, it connects the stomach to the pharynx.
3. The stomach consists of four chambers. We will consider its detailed structure below.
4. Small intestine. Consists of the duodenum, jejunum, ileum. Here, the processed food is enriched with bile and juices, as well as the absorption of useful substances into the blood.
5. Colon. From the small intestine, the food mass enters the large intestine, where additional fermentation of food and absorption of substances into the blood takes place.

The structure of the stomach of a cow and its departments

The structure of the stomach in a cow is also of interest - this organ consists of 4 chambers:

• scar;
• grids;
• books;
• abomasum.

The real stomach in the full sense of the word is the abomasum, the remaining chambers are used for pre-processing food, they are called pancreas. The scar, the book and the mesh do not have glands that produce gastric juice, only the abomasum is supplied with them. But in the proventriculus, fermentation, sorting and mechanical processing of feed takes place. Consider the sections of the cow's stomach in detail.

Scar

A scar is the first section of a cow's stomach. He has the most large volume compared to other chambers - about 200 liters! It is located in the abdominal cavity on the left side. Swallowed food enters this pancreas. The scar is filled with microorganisms that provide the primary processing of food.

Reference. The rumen contains a huge number of microorganisms, their total weight is about 3 kilograms. They contribute to the synthesis of B vitamins and protein in the animal's body.

The scar consists of a double muscle layer and is divided into 2 parts by a small groove. The mucous membrane of the proventriculus is supplied with ten-centimeter papillae. It is in the rumen that the breakdown of starchy compounds and cellulose to simple sugars occurs. Through this process, the animal receives the necessary energy.

Net

This section of the stomach is much smaller in volume than the previous one. Its capacity is not more than 10 liters. The mesh is located in the chest area, one of its sections is adjacent to the diaphragm. The main function of the net is to sort the feed. Small fractions of food from here move to the next section of the stomach, and larger ones burp and enter the cow's mouth, where they are chewed. The mesh, as it were, filters food, passing food that has already undergone primary processing further through the digestive system.

Book

Small pieces of food move into the book - the third section of the stomach. Here, the food is carefully crushed mechanically, due to the special structure of the mucous membrane. It consists of folds resembling leaflets. In the book there is a further processing of coarse fiber fibers and the absorption of water and acids.

Abomasum

The abomasum is the only part of the cow's stomach that is supplied with glands for the secretion of gastric secretions. It is located in the area between the 9th and 12th ribs on the right side. Its volume in adults reaches 15 liters.

In calves, the abomasum is actively working, while the rest of the stomach remains unused until almost three weeks of age. Their scar is in a folded position, and the milk immediately enters the abomasum through the chute, bypassing the net and the book.

Common pathologies

Cows often suffer from pathologies of the digestive system. They pose a serious danger to the life of a ruminant animal. Common digestive problems in cows:

• bloating;
• stop;
• blockage;
• injury.

Bloating

Tympania or bloating is a very dangerous condition that occurs due to a sharp change in the cow's diet, the animal's consumption of large amounts of food that contributes to increased gas formation. Tympania can occur due to a blockage in the esophagus. Symptoms:

1. Refusal to eat.
2. Enlarged belly.
3. Lack of chewing gum.
4. Anxiety.
5. V severe cases- shortness of breath, pallor of mucous membranes.

Attention! This state dangerous for the life of the cow, since the scar that has increased in volume strongly compresses the diaphragm, preventing the animal from breathing normally. If help is not provided, the cow will die from lack of oxygen.

Treatments for bloating include:

1. Removal of a foreign body from the esophagus using a flexible probe.
2. Stimulation of the stomach to start it.
3. The use of medicines that prevent gas formation and fermentation - Tympanol, burnt magnesia, activated carbon, ichthyol.
4. In emergency cases, they resort to perforation of the scar with a trocar.

You can start the stomach with a massage. It is performed on the left side of the abdominal cavity, in the region of the hungry fossa with a fist. It often helps to pour over this area. cold water. A cow needs to run for her stomach to work.

Stop

The process of digestion often stops in cows due to improper feeding, for example, if concentrates predominate in the diet or the animal ate rotten hay. Also, gastric arrest occurs when the esophagus is blocked. Symptoms of pathology: loss of chewing gum and appetite, general depression. If a cow's stomach has stopped, this can be checked. You need to lean with your fist in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe hungry fossa and listen to whether contractions occur.

Treatment of this pathology begins immediately. The first thing to do is to keep the animal on a starvation diet for a day. In the future, digestible feed is gradually introduced - silage, a small amount of root crops, high-quality hay.

To start the stomach, apply:

1. Hellebore tincture.
2. Gastric lavage.
3. Inside, they give to drink saline, vodka or moonshine (can be diluted with vegetable oil).
4. Scar massage.

obstruction

Sometimes the stoppage of the stomach occurs due to blockage of the book. This happens when the animal's diet is dominated by dry food, bran or grain waste. The cause of the pathology may be sand or dirt in the stern. The symptoms of blockage of the book are similar to those observed when the stomach stops. It is quite difficult to identify the true cause of the cessation of digestion. For diagnosis, a puncture of the stomach with a needle is used. If it enters hard, then we are talking about blockage.

If the diagnosis is confirmed, it makes sense to wash the stomach. To do this, use a solution of sulfate or sodium chloride at a concentration of 10%. For the procedure, you will need about a liter of such a solution. To start the digestion process, use the same means as discussed above - vegetable oil, hellebore tincture, vodka.

Injury

Since the cow swallows food in an unprocessed form, dangerous objects often get inside with food - wire, nails, chips, sharp stones. Such foreign bodies can cause serious injury to an animal - pierce the stomach or pierce its walls. Mesh injuries are often through, sharp objects can touch nearby organs - the heart, spleen, lung.

Symptoms of traumatic reticulitis:

1. Anxiety, loss of appetite.
2. Stretching the neck forward.
3. The cow takes unnatural poses - hunches over.
4. Sometimes the temperature rises by 0.5-1 degrees.
5. The animal feels pain when pressing on the sternum.

Treatment is aimed at removing the foreign object from the stomach. Metal foreign bodies are removed with a magnetic probe. If it is not possible to pull out the object, they resort to surgical intervention or the animal is slaughtered.

All sections of the stomach of ruminants perform their function. If at least one of them stops working, the entire digestive system suffers. It is important to diagnose the development of pathology in time and start treatment.