Biology Vocab #1
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Created by:
kendal_harris on January 5, 2012
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33 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 albumen | the white of an egg, composed primarily of the protein albumin. |
| allantois | a membranous sac that acts as an organ of respiration and nutrition for the embryo, in humans, its blood vessels become the blood vessels of the umbilical cord. |
| amnion | in mammals, birds, and reptiles, the membrane that contains a developing embryo and its surrounding fluid. |
| amniotic egg | a type of egg that is produced by reptiles, birds, and egg - laying mammals and that contains a large amount of yolk; usually surrounded by a leathery or hardshell within which the embryo and its embryonic membranes develop. |
| anthropoid primate | one of a subgroup of primates that includes monkeys, apes, and humans. |
| asteroid impact hypothesis | an explanation for the mass extinction of most dinosaurs; holds that a giant asteroid struck Earth and caused castastrophic climate change about 66 million years ago. |
| australopithecine | one of a subfamily of early hominids that lived between 4.2 million and 1 million years ago; includes the genus Australopithecus and possibly the genus Paranthropus. |
| bipedalism | in hominids, the conditions of being adapted to walk primarily upright on two legs. |
| cartilage | a flexible and strong connective tissue. |
| chorion | the outer membrane that surrounds an embryo. |
| cranium | the skeleton of the head, epecially the portion of the skull where the brain is enclosed. |
| dinosaur | one of a varied group of mostly extinct reptiles that lived from about 235 million years ago to about 66 million years ago. |
| endothermy | in animals, the characteristic of maintaining a high, constant body temperature through regulation of metabolism and heat loss. |
| feather | in birds, a modified scale that provides lift for flight and conserves body heat. |
| great ape | an ape whose face has little hair and whose hands have nails and complex fingerprints, such as an orangutan, gorilla, or chimpanzee. |
| hominid | a member of the family Hominidae of the order Primates; characterized by bipedalism, relatively long lower limbs, and lack of a tail; examples include humans and their ancestors. |
| human | a member of the genus Homo of the family Hominidae; includes modern humans and closely related extinct species. |
| keratin | a hard protein that forms hair, bird feathers, nails, and horns. |
| lobe-finned fish | a kind of fish that has fleshy fins that are supported by a series of bones; living species include lung-fishes and the coelocanth. |
| mammary gland | a gland that is located in the chest of a female mammal and that secretes milk. |
| marsupial | a mammal that lacks a true placenta and gives birth to relatively underveloped young, and then carries and nourishes the young in a pouch. |
| monotreme | a mammal that lays eggs |
| opposable thumb | in primates, a thumb that can touch and move in opposition to the other fingers of the hand. |
| placental mammal | a mammal that nourishes it unborn offspring through a placenta inside its uterus. |
| placoid scale | one of the hard scales that resemble vertebrate teeth and cover skin of sharks and rays. |
| preadaptation | an adaptation in an ancestral group that evolves through natural selection to allow |
| prehensile appendage | an appendage that can grasp objects, as in a primate's hand, foots, or tail. |
| ray-finned fish | a kind of fish whose fins are supported by long, segmented, and flexible bony elements called rays. |
| synapsid | a lineage of amniotes that gave rise to mammals; characterized by skulls that have a single opening in a bone behind the eye socket. |
| tadpole | the aquatic, fishlike larva of a frog or toad. |
| therapsid | a lineage of synapsids that were abundant during the late Permian period and gave rise to mammals; characterized by limbs positioned directly beneath the body; some may have been endothermic. |
| vertebra | one of the 33 bones in the spinal column (backbone). |
| yolk sac | the membrane that is attached to a vertebrate embryo and that encloses the yolk and thus stores energy reserves for the developing embryo. |
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