edgepedia

Life and health

72,234 articles

Gianluigi Veglia

Gianluigi Veglia is a biochemist and biophysicist, a professor at the University of Minnesota since 2000, known for NMR studies of membrane proteins and protein kinases.

Gianni Bonadonna

Gianni Bonadonna (1934–2015) was an Italian medical oncologist at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan who designed the CMF breast cancer and ABVD Hodgkin lymphoma regimens.

Gianni Cesareni

Gianni Cesareni (G. Cesareni) is an Italian molecular biologist, Full Professor of Genetics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, who founded the MINT protein interaction database.

Gianni Tognoni

Gianni Tognoni, born 1941, is an Italian clinical epidemiologist who led clinical-epidemiological research at the Mario Negri Institute in Milan for 40 years, known for the GISSI trials.

Giannino Del Sal

Giannino Del Sal is an Italian molecular biologist, full professor of Applied Biology at the University of Trieste, known for cloning the growth-arrest gene gas1.

Gianpietro Dotti

Gianpietro Dotti is an Italian-trained physician-scientist who directs the immunotherapy program at UNC Lineberger, where his research engineers CAR T cells to treat lymphoma and solid tumors.

Giant African land snails as pets

Giant African land snails as pets: Lissachatina fulica, Achatina achatina, Archachatina marginata in captivity; 20 cm adults, 5-10 year lifespan, 100-500 egg clutches; banned in the US and Canada, legal to keep but not release in the UK.

Giant anteater

Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), also called ant bear, the largest anteater species, a toothless Xenarthran of Central and South America feeding on ants and termites with a 2-foot tongue; IUCN Vulnerable, declining from habitat loss and road kills.

Giant armadillo

Giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus, tatú carreta, tatu canastra), the largest living armadillo of South America east of the Andes; up to 60 kg, termite-eating, burrow-building ecosystem engineer, IUCN Vulnerable with a 30% decline over three generations.

Giant axonal neuropathy

Giant axonal neuropathy (GAN), also called giant axonal neurodegeneration, is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by GAN gene mutations encoding gigaxonin, causing giant neurofilament-packed axons, kinky hair, childhood-onset progressive neuropathy, and death typically by the third decade.

Giant barrel sponge

The giant barrel sponge (Xestospongia muta) is a barrel-shaped demosponge found from Florida to Brazil that dominates Caribbean reefs, grows up to 2 meters, and can live over 2,000 years.

Giant cell arteritis

Giant cell arteritis (temporal arteritis, Horton's disease) is a granulomatous large-vessel vasculitis of people over 50 causing headache, jaw claudication, and vision loss; diagnosed by biopsy, ultrasound halo sign, and 2022 ACR/EULAR criteria, treated with glucocorticoids, tocilizumab, and upadacitinib.

Giant cell tumor of bone

Giant cell tumor of bone, also called osteoclastoma, is a rare, usually benign but locally aggressive bone tumor that typically arises near joints in young to middle-aged adults.

Giant clam

Giant clams (Tridacninae) are 12 species of large Indo-Pacific reef bivalves, including Tridacna gigas, the largest living bivalve at over 1 m and 225 kg, that farm symbiotic algae in iridocyte-lined mantles; all are CITES Appendix II listed since 1985, with six IUCN-threatened.

Giant cuttlefish

Giant cuttlefish (Sepia apama, giant Australian cuttlefish), the world's largest cuttlefish, endemic to southern Australia; famous for the unique annual winter breeding aggregation at Point Lowly near Whyalla, South Australia, now at historic low numbers amid an algal bloom.

Giant earthworms

Giant earthworms are unusually large species of terrestrial segmented worms, several ranking among the biggest known. The Giant Gippsland Earthworm of Australia averages about 750 mm and weighs up to 381 g.

Giant eland

Giant eland (Tragelaphus derbianus, formerly Taurotragus derbianus; Derby eland), the world's largest antelope of West and Central Africa, with two subspecies, horns to 123 cm, IUCN Vulnerable status, and a critically small western population in Senegal.

Giant Gippsland earthworm

Giant Gippsland earthworm (Megascolides australis), one of the world's largest earthworms, endemic to about 40,000 ha of South and West Gippsland, Victoria. Averages 80–100 cm and 200 g, lays single 4–7 cm egg cocoons, listed EPBC Vulnerable, lives in permanent burrows in moist blue-grey clay on private farmland.

Giant golden-crowned flying fox

Giant golden-crowned flying fox (Acerodon jubatus), or golden-capped fruit bat, a huge Philippine fruit bat with a wingspan over 5 feet, fig-eating, roosting with Pteropus vampyrus, and IUCN Endangered from hunting and deforestation.

Giant grouper

Giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus), also Queensland grouper or brindle bass: the largest reef fish of the Indo-Pacific, reaching about 2.7 m and over 400 kg; IUCN Data Deficient, protogynous hermaphrodite, and the parent species of Vietnam's profitable hybrid grouper aquaculture crop.

Giant house spider

Giant house spider (Eratigena atrica, formerly Tegenaria atrica), a large synanthropic Agelenidae funnel-weaver of Europe and the Pacific Northwest; body 12–18 mm, leg span up to 75 mm, harmless, part of a three-species complex with E. duellica and E. saeva.

Giant huntsman spider

Giant huntsman spider (Heteropoda maxima), a cave-dwelling huntsman from Laos described by Peter Jäger in 2001; largest known spider by leg span at up to 30 cm, though lighter than the Goliath birdeater.

Giant isopod

Giant isopods (Bathynomus, giant isopod, supergiant isopod) are deep-sea scavenging crustaceans related to pillbugs, with 23 known species; the largest, Bathynomus giganteus, reaches 50 cm and lives at 310–1,800 m in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.

Giant leopard moth

Giant leopard moth (Hypercompe scribonia, eyed tiger moth), a large white spotted eastern North American tiger moth (Erebidae: Arctiinae), wingspan 5.7–9.1 cm, with black woolly bear larvae that overwinter and tolerate freezing.

Giant oarfish

The giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne), also called king of herrings, is a deep-sea ribbon-shaped fish, the longest bony fish alive, documented to 8 m (26 ft) and found worldwide.

Giant oceanic manta ray

Giant oceanic manta ray (Mobula birostris), world's largest ray, up to 700 cm disc width, circumglobal; Endangered IUCN 2020; filter-feeds on zooplankton via cephalic lobes; one pup every 4-5 years; distinct from reef manta M. alfredi.

Giant otter

Giant otter (Pteronura brasiliensis), also ariranha or river wolf: the largest otter species, up to 170 cm, endemic to South America, Endangered on the IUCN Red List, living in monogamous family groups and eating almost exclusively fish.

Giant Pacific octopus

Giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini), the world's largest octopus, of the North Pacific from Korea and Japan to Mexico; 3-5 year lifespan, 2,240 suckers, up to 100,000 eggs, not IUCN-listed.

Giant Palouse earthworm

The giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus), also called the Palouse earthworm, is a rare, large pale earthworm native to the Palouse region of Washington and Idaho.

Giant panda (大熊猫)

The giant panda (大熊猫) is a black-and-white bear of south central China, eating 70–100 pounds of bamboo daily, with a wild population near 1,900 and IUCN status vulnerable.