There are three major families of shorebirds: 1  Waders, about 220 species, include sandpipers, lapwings, snipes, plovers, stilts and various other species. These birds inhabit coasts and shorelines, as well as other open habitats. 2  Gulls, terns, skuas, jaegers and skimmers form a group of a little over 100 species.
The compass was probably invented in the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) by Chinese fortune-tellers who used the lodestones to construct their fortune telling boards.
Paper. Paper was first invented in China about 105 A.C. Its use then spread to Chinese Turkestan in central Asia, the Arab world (c. 751 A.D.), Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Spain (c. 1150 A.D.), southern France, and the rest of Europe. back to top |. Compass. Historians believe that the Chinese invented the magnetic compass and used it for navigation c. 1100 A.D. Arab traders sailing to China probably learned of the Chinese method of sailing by compass and returned to the West with the invention.