MOC

MOC, MoC, or moc may refer to:

In government and politics

In religion

In science and technology

In computing

In spaceflight

Other uses in science and technology

José Mariano Mociño

José Mariano Mociño Suárez Lozano (1757 – 12 June 1820), or simply José Mariano Mociño, was a naturalist from New Spain.

After having studied philosophy and medicine, he conducted early research on the ecology (especially botany), geology, and anthropology of his country and other parts of North America.

Biography

He was born in Temascaltepec (modern-day Mexico State) in 1757. Being poor, he worked in many different jobs to study in the Seminario Tridentino de México, where he devoted himself especially to physics, mathematics, botany, and chemistry. In 1778 he graduated in philosophy. In 1791 he was called to join the scientific expedition of Martín de Sessé, the Royal Botanical Expedition, which had started in 1787. They traveled across New Spain, reaching the most inhospitable places of the Empire, being especially notable his trips to the Pacific Northwest (modern-day U.S. states of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, and the Canadian province of British Columbia), among others. Although the pay for his job was minimal, he created one of the most important natural history collections of his times.

Rock cavy

The rock cavy or mocó (Kerodon rupestris) is a cavy species endemic to eastern Brazil, from eastern Piauí state to Minas Gerais state. It has been introduced to the oceanic island of Fernando de Noronha.

Rock cavies are found in dry, rocky areas with low, scrubby vegetation, and close to stony mountains and hills, resembling another (only distantly related) creature, the rock hyrax. They usually shelter in crevices and the males are territorial, defending rock piles against other adult males.

The rock cavy is a fairly large rodent weighing up to 1 kg (2.2 lb) and, as in other cavies, the tail is vestigial or absent. The dorsum is grey and the venter light brown.

They feed on seed and leaves of the scrubby vegetation that grows in their territories. They live in groups and give birth to one or two young only, but several litters per year are common. The gestation period averages 75 days. They can sometimes display homosexual behavior, with males courting males. Some paedophilical behavior has also been displayed, with adult males courting juvenile males. Each group has an alpha or dominant male and several females.