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Zoology: Glossary
A
- accommodate
- help or solve a need
- accommodation
- home
- algae
- simple plant - often grows near water
- aquatic
- living in or near water
B
- biodiversity
- variety of living things on earth including plants, animals, bacteria, and other living organisms
- buoyant
- ability to float
- burrow
- dig into the ground
C
- carnivores
- animals that eat other animals
- cartilage
- the stiff tissue found at the end of a human's nose, in the outer ear, and other locations
- chambers
- separate sections or containers
- characteristics
- traits
- chlorophyll
- a green chemical in plants that helps them create their own food
- circumstances
- situations
- classified
- (classify) grouping by similar traits
- claws
- long nail-like parts of paws - used for digging and hunting
- cold-blooded
- cannot regulate body temperature
- conserve
- protect
D
- digestion
- the process that converts food to energy
E
- environment
- surroundings
- established
- created
- exoskeleton
- outer protective layer
- extreme
- more than necessary - over the top
F
- food chain
- simple system that carries energy through living organisms
- food web
- complex system that carries energy through living organisms
G
- gas bladder
- fish organs that fill with gas to regulate buoyancy
- gelatinous
- jelly-like
- generate
- create
- gills
- parts of a fish that gathers oxygen from the water for breathing
H
- herbivores
- animals that eat only plants
- hibernation
- sleeping through winter
I
- invertebrates
- animals without backbones
L
- larvae stage
- infant stage of an animal that changes through metamorphosis
M
- metamorphosis
- to change - as in from caterpillar to butterfly, or tadpole to frog
- migrate
- to move seasonally from one area to another
- molars
- flat back teeth used for chewing
N
- nerves
- cells in the body that carry messages from and back to the brain
- nervous system
- brain and the nerves involved
- nutrition
- food energy
O
- omnivores
- animals that eat both plants and animals
P
- populations
- groups of living organisms
- prehensile
- body parts with the ability to grab or grasp
- prey
- animals that are hunted as food
- primary consumer
- plant eaters
R
- regulate
- control
- regurgitate
- throw-up
- restructure
- reorganize or rebuild
S
- scales
- fish and reptile skin is layered in smaller sections - strong protection
- scavenge
- eat food that is already dead or garbage
- secondary consumer
- eats primary consumers
- sensory
- related to the senses
- spine
- backbone - houses nerves
T
- talons
- sharp claws of a bird
V
- venomous
- poisonous
- vertebrates
- animals with a backbone
W
- warm-blooded
- controls its own body temperature
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